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BONUS (13b): Going Deeper With Pastor Chuck Schlie image

BONUS (13b): Going Deeper With Pastor Chuck Schlie

S2 ยท Normal Goes A Long Way
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194 Plays4 years ago

In this bonus episode, Jill Devine asks Pastor Chuck Schlie the questions she had while listening to Episode 13.

Good Morning and Goodnight, Lord: Daily Prayers for Rise & Rest by Chuck Schlie

Normal Goes A Long Way Website: https://www.normalgoesalongway.com/

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Normal Goes A Long Way is brought to you by Messiah St. Charles: https://messiahstcharles.org/

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Transcript

Jill's Journey with Faith and Podcasting

00:00:00
Speaker
The following podcast is a Jill Devine Media production. Christianity has become known for judgy people, strange words, ancient stories, confusing rules, and a members-only mindset. This is why I stayed away from the church for so long, but it's not supposed to be that way. I'm Jill Devine, a former radio personality with three tattoos, a love for a good tequila, and who's never read the entire Bible.
00:00:24
Speaker
Yet here I am hosting a podcast about faith. The normal goes a long way podcast is your home for real conversations with real people using real language about how faith and real life intersect. Welcome to the conversation. All

Insights from a Prayer Book

00:00:41
Speaker
right. We're back with Chuck today and we're going deeper. Jill's been listening in. She's got some questions for Chuck on prayer and she's got her notes with her. She's going to be asking them today.
00:00:52
Speaker
Lots of notes. I feel like usually what I like to do is go in order from the past episode and then ask my questions that way. And I think I'm going to be kind of all over the place if that's okay with you. Okay. And Ryan, you can chime in too, if you would like, but I want to start with the book. The multiple things that I liked about this book, you did say it was normal.
00:01:18
Speaker
and you use normal language. And you also brought up that you were hoping this would trigger us to look at certain things differently. And I have my two favorites listed. This says, help me to smile throughout this day in deep appreciation for everything. I want to see the beauty in nature. I want to see the beauty in people. I want to look at all that you have made and be glad. That's just a portion of it. And there are sometimes I forget to just
00:01:46
Speaker
Look at the clouds and say thank you. Look at the trees and say thank you. And then this one is page 63. This is an evening one. You say be with me tonight and keep all danger from me. Forgive my sins and quiet me with your love. Keep all who are dear to me close to your heart. Cleanse my heart from all thoughts of anger or envy. Those are things that we just we need to think about. And sometimes we don't think about them.
00:02:12
Speaker
It would be great if all this stuff comes off the top of the head. And so that little prayer book makes me look smart, but it took me a couple of months to come up with this stuff. And so the words are intentional. And again, I think I said in the last episode that I was trying to come up with stuff that we don't normally or I don't normally think of because I want to be intentional.
00:02:36
Speaker
But now it goes into the formal prayer question that I have for you.

Debate Over the Lord's Prayer Variations

00:02:40
Speaker
So this can be considered formal, right? Sure, sure. But for someone like me, when I think of formal, I think of the Lord's Prayer or any of the blessing prayers. I don't even know if I'm saying that right for food.
00:02:55
Speaker
This book that I'm holding in my hands, even though we say it's formal, it's using language that I understand. So I will transition into the Lord's Prayer and something that happened not too long ago. We say it every night before bed. And one day, my oldest, she said, after we said it, she said, well, what does trespass mean? And I had to look it up. Sure. And I said, oh, it's sin.
00:03:22
Speaker
And then she's five and she asks a little bit more about sin. Then I kind of felt stupid that I didn't understand that I'm saying the Lord's Prayer every night. It's a formal thing that we do. But do we know what we're doing? Yeah, there's a couple of words that we haven't used in hundreds and hundreds of years, you know, Hollywood.
00:03:44
Speaker
Right. And I say hollow. So trespasses, that's, you know, we think of maybe trespassing. Yes. And that's, that's a great word. But you know, that also can be loaded. It's going somewhere where you shouldn't have went.
00:04:03
Speaker
doing something you shouldn't have done. Now Luke and Matthew in the Bible each record the Lord's Prayer. And I don't know who did which version, but I think it's Matthew says trespasses. And Luke writes debts, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And so that one can also trip us up. And debts implies something we didn't do.
00:04:31
Speaker
So it kind of covers both. Forgive us our trespasses, the stuff we did that was wrong. We went where we shouldn't have went. We did what we shouldn't have done. And debts implies we didn't do the stuff we should have done. So it kind of covers both.
00:04:48
Speaker
Now it's just kind of a ritual thing or? There's nothing wrong with teaching your kids rituals. Okay. So don't feel bad about that. Um, you want to have that get into the head and the heart. And so you could pray that prayer anywhere

Personalizing Prayer Practices

00:05:02
Speaker
you go. And then one of the fun things to do is you could pray that prayer, you know, using your own language. So I might pray something like, Hey dad in heaven,
00:05:15
Speaker
holy are you awesome are you great are you lord i pray for your will to be done not mine can you forgive me the sins i i committed today and can you will you forgive me all the stuff i should have done that i didn't do today and thanks for the daily bread thanks for you know the arby's that was awesome and you could start using your own language but using the lord's prayer kind of as a template
00:05:42
Speaker
and it covers really everything. And I like to always pray, you know, Lord, we, you know, in the Lord's Prayer, we pray, you know, keep us from temptation. And when I get to that part in the prayer, I say, keep me from myself, because I can come up with the dumbest stuff, Lord.
00:06:04
Speaker
Will you, will you keep me from my dumb ideas and my big fat mouth and you know, in my, the things that pop into my head, keep me from me, you know, and we can start using the language that we normally use. I like how you said it's like a template.
00:06:22
Speaker
Yeah. I don't even know if you know this, but I was just thinking about it because it's so confusing with the Lord's Prayer. And this goes to religion. I remember when my sister converted to Catholicism. Easy for you to say. I know. Did I even say it right? Yes.
00:06:46
Speaker
Sometimes I would go to church with her and they would say the Lord's Prayer and then one day I'm in their church and I'm saying the Lord's Prayer and I keep going at the end and they stopped and I felt like an idiot. I don't understand. What is that?
00:07:02
Speaker
There is a difference. You go to Protestant church and at the end they throw in the old for thine is the kingdom and the Paul. Okay. And the glory forever and ever. Amen. And you go to a Catholic church and they stop. And they say something. I left that out of last episode just to be a little more Catholic friendly. If you noticed when we went through Lord's prayer, I didn't include the line. It's confusing. It is confusing, but we're both right. There's no right or wrong.
00:07:31
Speaker
Catholic friends stop because if you look at the Bible in Matthew and Luke, Jesus stops there.
00:07:40
Speaker
Yeah, they're actually doing a little biblically. But everybody else throws in, it's just kind of a conclusion is what it is. And that's more of just a tradition. It's a nice tradition. It's biblical, but it's not written word for word in the Bible. If you read Jesus' prayer that he gave us, the Lord's Prayer. I liked what you said,
00:08:09
Speaker
pretty much in the beginning of the last episode, like this is an ongoing conversation that you have with God. It's like, when I think about this, we're just having a conversation. Why would we not want to have a conversation? And it helps put into perspective for me, how to pray.
00:08:27
Speaker
And I remember when my husband and I were first joining the church and we went through this new membership class and there was, I think, Sunday that we talked about the Lord's Prayer and I said, I don't know who I'm supposed to pray to. There's Lord, there's Jesus, there's Christ, there's Jesus Christ, and there's God. Like, how do I start my prayer? Do I say, dear Lord, do I say, dear Jesus, is that wrong if I say that? And the gentleman,
00:08:56
Speaker
said, I always just say father. And I said, but if I say, dear Lord, is that wrong? He's like, no, but I feel like this is stuff that we're not taught. And I don't know how you teach it, but to have that, why was that weight on my shoulders? Because I was thinking I'm getting it wrong. Right. Yeah. Self-imposed, um,
00:09:19
Speaker
you can't go wrong. And basically, when people are using different titles, there's different titles that people call on God. So you could pray, Dear Good Shepherd, you could pray, Dear Jesus, you could pray, O Holy Spirit, you could pray, Gracious God, you could pray, Almighty God, you could pray, Dear Father in Heaven, and you can't go wrong.

Analogies in Prayer and Relationships

00:09:43
Speaker
So when I pray, I'll use, I'll mix it up. And it's just because it's what's on my heart. I don't have to come in with, feel bad if I forget to, you know, drop one on the Holy Spirit because I forgot to mention his name, you know. But you know, like sometimes I'll pray, and I will, I think I did this last night.
00:10:06
Speaker
You know, I'm just in my bed. I think being in bed is the best place to pray. You know, when you put your head in the pillow and you want to drift off to sleep, there's nothing that, you know, can drift me off to sleep like praying. And a lot of people would say, hey, that's wrong. You should not fall asleep on God.
00:10:23
Speaker
Like, Oh, God loves me. He's my father in heaven. You know, when I, when my little kids were, you know, this little baby little two years, there was nothing better than they would crawl on my lap and whisper in my ear and talk to me. And they're telling me about their day and who hurt them and what's right and what's wrong and what they need. And did I, and they would fall asleep. Do you think I got mad at them? Say, Hey, we were having a conversation here.
00:10:49
Speaker
You fell asleep on me. How dare you? No! I was like, wow, that you would fall asleep talking to me. There's no better way to fall asleep than talking to God. And so I think last night I was like, hey, Father, Lord Jesus, Holy Spirit.
00:11:10
Speaker
Thanks for this bed. I love it so much. I do. There's nothing better than being in bed when it's cold outside and you're in bed. And then I think, and then I think there's so many people out there who don't have beds.
00:11:21
Speaker
And you gave me a bed. Why do I get a bed? They don't get a bed, you know, and stuff like that. And I just start blabbing. That's something else I want to clarify. In case you were wondering, Christ isn't Jesus's last name. And it took me a while to figure that out. Is it his middle name? Well, you know, I was, it took me a while.
00:11:40
Speaker
was older than I should have been before I figured this out. I thought Christ was their last name. So as a kid, Jesus Christ, God Christ, Mary Christ, Joseph Christ, I'm over here laughing about it. I never ever thought about that. But as a kid, it was like, okay, well, if his name is Jesus Christ, well, his parents' last name must be Christ and God's last name is Christ. So- Where does that come from? Christ is just a title. It means- Like Jesus the Christ. Yeah.
00:12:08
Speaker
So if you were, I don't know, want to be really formal with me, you'd say, Chuck the pastor. How's it going? You know, so that's what it is. Christ means anointed one. He's around the same age. Jesus, the holy one. It's just a title. He's around the same age that I figured out. Pastor Wagner first name wasn't pastor. That was a title. But figured it all out at the same time. So yeah, the pressure. Thanks for clarifying. The names. You don't got to worry about that.
00:12:39
Speaker
I love, though, and you yes, Ryan, you will experience this when you have kids, but I you have used kids as an analogy and as an example in both times that you've been on and it helps it like helps resonate with me.
00:12:55
Speaker
and any parent hopefully listening like, yes, there isn't anything better when they cuddle up on you and they put their head on your chest and yes. It's such a blessing. I've learned so much about my relationship with God because of my relationship with my kids. Well, this is gonna go into though that maybe you can help me with this. I wrote down, prayers can be quick. They could be like,
00:13:23
Speaker
I'm washing the dishes and the girls are doing something that they shouldn't do and I say, God, just help me, help me get through this.
00:13:35
Speaker
Great prayer. There's a lot of that happening in my life right now with a five and a three-year-old. And I try to take deep breaths and I try to remember to turn it to God. That's hard. On a funny note though, I remember my in-laws and I can't ever get this correct. They always say, be careful what you pray for. Because I would just say, God, give me patience to get through this day with these two.
00:14:00
Speaker
they are doing something to me today. And they would always say, don't pray for patience, because then he'll give you too much patience. I'm like, well, what does that mean? I need patience right now. Yeah. When people, I think they're trying to be nice or cute or funny, but. Does it work? Don't have to worry about what not to pray for and don't pray for that. Otherwise, you know, God's going to use this against you. It's like, what?
00:14:25
Speaker
What kind of a father is that? No, no, no, no, no. God's not gonna use prayers against you. He's in the saving, loving business. But Father, forgive them, they know not what they do. It's a great prayer when you're thinking about your kids. That's the prayer Jesus prayed for us on the cross. And so forgiveness is one of the big things we learn about our relationship with God because we've got these little buggers who don't listen to us.
00:14:54
Speaker
remind you of anyone you know. And don't do what they're told to remind you of anyone you

Parenthood's Impact on Prayer

00:15:00
Speaker
know. Yeah, a lot of times I look at my kid and I'm like, oh Lord, oh, you made them just like me. I'm sorry. Exactly. I'm like, oh, actually sometimes my son, he's 17. And I used to pray this one or say this one to him a lot, which is, oh, you are my child.
00:15:21
Speaker
You are my child because you're just like me. I get it. Yeah. Lord, please forgive me for yelling. Please forgive me. I mean, in all seriousness, I mean, and I've learned that is that like, that's a quick prayer and that's fine. And,
00:15:37
Speaker
I guess one thing I've also got in my head about with praying is going to bed, I'll start praying. And then what my mind does, I start thinking about, oh, tomorrow I need to do this. Oh, I'm so sorry, God. I was praying to you. And then I start thinking about the clothes I need to pick out for tomorrow. And these little things that someone that's not familiar with how prayer
00:16:03
Speaker
in air quotes should be, I get hung up on it again, like with the names, like, oh, because I didn't continuously continue my prayer and ended it with an amen, I messed up. Do you know what amen means? I agree, right? It means yeah. Yes.
00:16:22
Speaker
Absolutely. Yes, yes. Let it be. I think the more as you continue your walk and learning from Jesus, the more you'll discover his grace and his kindness, and you will drop the fear and am I doing it right mentality, just like
00:16:44
Speaker
you would want your children, your daughters, not to fear. Am I doing daughter right? Are you mad at me because I did X1?
00:16:56
Speaker
No, no, just be when I'm praying and I say something or I do something wrong and that I know is wrong. I'll be like, Oh, dang it. I did it again. Sorry. You know, that's a prayer to me anyway. Yeah. And I'll say, Oh, that was weird. Wasn't it? God, you know, it's weird. All right. Like you're talking to someone. You're talking to someone.
00:17:21
Speaker
just having those conversations. That's what it's about. I want to go to the thoughts and prayers situation that Ryan brought up. And I feel better about it the way you addressed it. I do. I feel like sometimes it's icky. I know I've said that to you, Ryan, like when people say,
00:17:41
Speaker
whether it's on Facebook, whether it's on TV, whether it's just in passing, like, oh, my thoughts and prayers are with you, and then they move on. Yes, I have thought, like, do something. What are you doing? What does that mean? And don't just make it, but you made it sound, even if someone says it, there's intention there. Yeah, they're trying to say, I really care about you, but we don't typically come out and say, I care about you because also we look weird.
00:18:11
Speaker
or that's too much. And so the thoughts and prayers thing kind of saying, I care about you, but I don't know how to say it without coming off like a weirdo because, you know, and so thoughts and prayers. So I think we can cut people a little slack. I don't know. Yes. Now I feel better about it. We hope that they do it. But one thing that I have started to do intentionally, if I say, I'm going to pray for you, I stop and I pray. Right. That's what I've been trying to be better about.
00:18:40
Speaker
That question did raise for me though, a thought about praying in the culture that we're in now. And it made me think about performative prayers, which Jesus actually didn't like. He said, if you're going out there praying to be seen by other people, you know, if you're going out there to pray as a performance, don't do that. And it annoys Americans today and annoyed Jesus 2000 years ago. And so,
00:19:07
Speaker
Yeah, you asked me, I think, is there such thing as a bad prayer? And I was like, I don't know. You know, I was talking about, hey, God, can you take that person out? That's a bad prayer. But Jesus actually talked about this. Yeah. You know, show off prayers or, you know, these big announcement, you know, flowy, look at me prayers. No, no, no, no. Yeah. Not into performance. We overestimate the power of
00:19:34
Speaker
praying in front of other people to show off. And we underestimate the power of two other types of prayer, praying as a community of united believers. I think when you look in the Bible, like they did that so much, where as a group, people would get together and be like, let's just pray powerfully over this. And we forget the power of praying intensely alone in the room by yourself, as Jesus said. And so I'm like,
00:20:01
Speaker
The performance

Intentionality and Authenticity in Prayer

00:20:02
Speaker
in front of a crowd, I don't like, but I like getting a group of people together that know the Lord and believe in the power of prayer. And I like going to the room by yourself. Both are great. I think when we kind of.
00:20:17
Speaker
maybe think that, well, if we get 10 people or 100 people, this is going to work better. Anytime we start trying to get in God's head, we're saying, we're trying to do the old, my will be done, my will be done. And if I can somehow
00:20:39
Speaker
figure out the right formula or the right magic trick or whatever. No, no, no, stop that. Just pray. And if you have a bunch of people around, a bunch of friends around, great. Pray with 10 people. If you're all by yourself, great. Pray all by yourself. I have to address this, and this is definitely not lighthearted. We know that prayers aren't always instant. That's
00:21:04
Speaker
That's fine and you have to be patient. But if God knows everything already and we still pray, why would we pray? But I am thinking about in particular a family that we all know. And I actually woke up this morning thinking about this family and they cannot get these answers to their son's medical condition.
00:21:33
Speaker
And as a mom, I'm like, I just don't know. I don't know how how many times would I be like, God, why are you not like we've done everything and you know, like, why are you not doing something? Why? And I am not joking this morning. I was getting ready and I was thinking about it, knowing that we were talking about this. And I thought as much as this sucks for them, maybe God is
00:22:03
Speaker
taking his time because there is a future doctor that's coming out that will have this cure that will end up helping future. I don't know. There has to be a reason.
00:22:18
Speaker
But then I go back to again, if I was the mom, how many times would I throw up my hands? And I haven't seen her do that. And I give her all the credit in the world. I've been praying for this situation as well. And I'll tell you, I throw up my hands. I'm like starting to go, come on. Come on. Just honest. We talked about the Psalms, you know, we throw up our hands and we say, what's taking so long? Aren't you getting tired of hearing this prayer? Cause I'm getting tired of praying it.
00:22:47
Speaker
I end up saying I will be done. I don't know how you are working this for the good But I trust you even though I can't see it. I'm anxious. I'm waiting. I'm tired, but I know you're good
00:23:02
Speaker
I can't wait to see how you are going to make this awesome. You're going to draw people to you somehow, some way. And I suppose if I could sit back and get a little creative, I'd say, well, how many people are praying now because of the situation? How many people are going to God who weren't going to God before because of the situation?
00:23:23
Speaker
Is he saving someone through this? Is he working? I don't know. Is this young man going to have a story to tell in the future that's going to bring other people to Jesus through this story? How is he going to work through it? And that's where we just keep walking by faith and we keep trusting, even though we can't see. And that's what faith is. It's it's trusting, even though we don't know where we're going.
00:23:49
Speaker
Even though we don't know how he's going to do it, we say, Lord, you will be done. Very hard, very hard to do. Because people can say, why, why do I pray? If he knows why, why? And maybe that's the misconception that people think prayers are always answered.
00:24:11
Speaker
God answers prayers with a no sometimes. And in this case, we're talking about this young man. The answer seems to be slow. And then sometimes the answer is go. And those are the ones we love. So it's no slow or go, but he does answer. Sometimes we just don't like the answer.
00:24:31
Speaker
such as slow. But the question, why do we pray if God already knows everything, it goes back to the relationship. He wants us to talk with Him and deepen our relationship with Him and talk it over and reveal your heart. Yeah, He does know. He knows
00:24:52
Speaker
But he just wants you, he wants you to spend time with him and talk to him. Again, sorry to keep going back to being a parent. But if your child has something going on, don't you want them to talk to you about it, even though you know, they broke the lamp. You want them to come to you and say, I broke the lamp so that they don't have a distance between you anymore.
00:25:19
Speaker
so they can come to you and receive a hug and not be afraid and not be afraid and move on. And so God wants that for us. He wants us to come to him and say, I broke the lamp. I did it again. You know, I shut my mouth off or whatever the thing is. He can restore us and wrap his arms around us and say, and he'll say, I know, I know. I love you.

Trust and Patience in Prayer

00:25:44
Speaker
Let's, let's move on. Let's go.
00:25:47
Speaker
I was thinking of those stories we shared in the last episode, how that powerful prayer that Chuck remembers answered that night. The powerful prayer that I remember took a year to see the results, you know? And I don't know why. Why did yours get answered immediately? And took a year for me to see what I wanted to see out of my prayer. Well, God had his timing in it. And that's, like I said, like you guys said, you throw up your hands and you just be patient and wait.
00:26:16
Speaker
I kind of find comfort in like Paul's story. If you look in the Bible, the dude prayed a lot and he saw a lot of miracles happen. And sometimes he prayed and God was like three times Paul prayed for something to be taken from him. And God's like, no, it's not your time for this to be taken away yet. And I'm like, okay, well,
00:26:36
Speaker
if one of the most powerful, awesome disciples sometimes got told to wait. Well, okay. The trick is the waiting.
00:26:48
Speaker
It either draws you closer to God because you're even more dependent or sometimes it pushes you away and you walk away. And don't do that. Don't do that. Wait, wait. Walk my faith. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. One last question before we wrap up. It's more of a technical question. I wouldn't want to leave without asking. And I guess again, it doesn't really matter because it's talking to God, but
00:27:17
Speaker
bowing your head, closing your eyes and folding your hands. I always get a chuckle out of that when I'm with adults and the leader will say, let's fold our hands and bow our heads. Really? We get it because that's the way we were kind of brought up or taught. And basically we're trying to help our kids.
00:27:42
Speaker
to concentrate be quiet keep your hands still and not fidgety you know and pinching your sister keep your eyes shut so you're not you know flitting around you know thinking about something else or it's basically helping our kids to dial in and you know think about what you're saying my favorite way to pray is i have this lazy boy in my bedroom and i just create a thing all the way back
00:28:06
Speaker
And I have my hands to my side and I close my eyes. Cause I kind of think of like God, like holding me like a, I wish you could see my hand now, but this is a podcast, but I've got my palm kind of out and it's kind of curved a little bit, kind of like the lazy boy itself in that little recliner mode. I think of like sometimes me just in God's hand, you know, and I'm just kinda got my eyes closed and I'm just relaxed. And sometimes my prayers are like, Oh, that's my prayer.
00:28:34
Speaker
It's just like, I'm just spending time with you. That's all it is, just spending time. I feel better about prayer. I won't say that I am ready to pray out loud yet, but I will get there. That's a whole nother episode, I'm sure. Boy, I'll tell you real quick.
00:28:51
Speaker
The first day I became a pastor, it's me and two other people that were having devotions. The staff was only the three of us. And we're at this round table and somebody gets done with the devotion. And then the one person starts praying. And then the next person starts praying. I'm like, oh my God.
00:29:14
Speaker
I'm gonna have to pray in front of these people. I'm so I did not I was not brought up that way Right. Keep it to yourself. Dude is right. I was brought up. I had to start pretty well. I'm like, uh Hey, it's me again. How's it going? You know
00:29:30
Speaker
Can't be too short or you don't look spiritual. Can't be too long or you're annoying. So I remember that. Self-imposed afflictions. How we do it to ourselves. Trying to look smart and spiritual. Yeah, it gives me the.
00:29:47
Speaker
Ooh, sweats and anxiety goes up. Don't you love it when somebody just prays normal? Like, it just talks. And it makes sense. Yeah, good prayer. I know, I'm like, how? How'd you pull that out? Yeah. Yeah, it's pretty amazing. At least when I'm praying.
00:30:04
Speaker
or I hear other people pray and I kind of evaluate it. Like that was a good one. I don't do it so much like that was a bad one or you stink. I don't do that. But when somebody prays like at a like a function or something like a banquet or something and somebody prays or a wedding, I always want to clap for him. I'm like, that was a good
00:30:23
Speaker
Nice job. Yeah, I do, but we never clap for prayers. That would be cool. But I think we should sometimes.

Closing Thoughts and Future Topics

00:30:29
Speaker
You did it. You did it. Yeah. Well, thank you both, Ryan, Chuck. I appreciate you both. And I appreciate what you're doing for the kiddos, not just my kiddos, for me as a better mom, but for the middle school kids for everything. And we will also bring up your book, Chuck. Good morning and good night, Lord.
00:30:53
Speaker
daily prayers for rising rest. Those will be on the show notes. Thank you. Thank you both. Good to be here.
00:31:01
Speaker
Thank you for your support of this podcast and for your support of my faith journey. Lots of questions that I have and I know that I'm not alone in that. So if you have some questions or there's a topic that you want to get involved in, or there's a question that you have, please reach out. You can follow us online, normalgozalongway.com. You can also follow us on Facebook and Instagram at normalgozalongway. I would love to be able to help you
00:31:31
Speaker
If you're struggling or maybe it's not a struggle, maybe it's something great that's happened to you and you want to share, please let me know. And I would be happy to address that on this podcast. Lots of good stuff happening in our next episode, including this.
00:31:50
Speaker
It began with going through a season of dark depression and anxiety where I really didn't get out of my bed much and literally began doing breath prayers. It was just so busy in there. Like I couldn't quiet my mind long enough to have a conversation with him. And as I would breathe in,
00:32:08
Speaker
I would just think about the fact that I was breathing in God's love and strength. And as I would breathe out, I would think about the fact that I was breathing out my stress and my worry.