Transcript
Speaker: actually inside of me is this lion's roar that wants to go out and conquer and meet every foe and take new land and pioneer new things and it's almost like actually if you think about it that is someone who's trying to conquer and build their own inheritance like their own kingdom yeah so that concept of they will inherit the earth is actually god just saying hold on a minute like The conquering belongs to me and the inheritance that you're chasing after is something that I give you. It's not something that you conquer in your own right. Like Jesus is the hero. Jesus is the conqueror. Jesus is the one that has won our inheritance as co-heirs with him. And so that's been a real thing.
Speaker: deep learning and it's been a struggle as well because like, well, God, why did you make me strong? This is the After Dinner Mint, a podcast of stories I tell you at dinner.
Speaker: Think of the mint as the stories you tell after you've been kicked out of the restaurant, holding your mint, standing in the street, telling more honest stories with your friends than you did at the table. It's not a sermon.
Speaker: It's not advice. It's not a self-help. We're processing what we're learning about faith and life, honestly, in community. encourage you to do that with our God.
Speaker: and our communities. Hi, I'm Bec and today I'm here with Anna Pretorius, an unexpected pastor's wife, a mother of four children, a diversity inclusion officer and an ex-wedding photographer.
Speaker: Welcome to the After Dinner Mint, Anna. Oh, thank you so much for having me, Bec. it ah So tell us what does a typical week look like for you? What kind of things make up your week? Okay. Well, I live in the hood e in the Mirabuka, which I just love with my husband, Josh, and ah my four kids. so I have two daughters and two sons. They are 15. They keep changing age, but they're 15, 13, 11 and 10 at the I think.
Speaker: eleven and ten at the moment i think We live there because it's the closest we could get to Asia without actually relocating.
Speaker: oh And what does the week look like? Well, obviously a bit of parenting stuff in there. My husband, Josh, um is the lead elder of King's Cross Church, which we meet on high gates in Highgate on Beaufort Street. Oh, lovely. He's from Sterling, so I'm familiar. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: So a little bit of wifing in there as well. And quite a lot of lately we've been doing a lot of that visioning and values and strategic planning and um planning to take our church community away together as a family. And so there's been quite a bit in that, a lot of seeing people. I'm the deacon of mission there as well. So yeah um finishing off Alpha courses, starting new ones, planning baptisms. and So that's that side of things. And then just in the city, I work in the city for a state government department, as you said, inclusion and diversity consultants. So that's my Monday to Friday sort of vibe. And then the rest of my time I spend trying to eat my body weight in protein and and get in my three strength
Speaker: trainings and my 10,000 steps as a perimenopause woman. was like, how do you know what I'm trying to do? That's why I'm trying to eat more protein and I lift weights.
Speaker: It's so fun. but So, yes, no time for the photography anymore. Just focusing on. Just the protein. On the protein.
Speaker: Everyone's going have a hobby. Yeah, everyone's going to have a hobby. It's an enforced hobby, but yes. Oh, man. who So that's my week, basically. Lots and lots of people, which I really, really love.
Speaker: That's awesome. Yeah. I ah don't do well in office by myself. yeah So tell me about being a diversity and inclusion officer. like What kind of stuff does that involve? Really, it's just so um government agencies have sort of targets on the diversity of their workforce composition. So I sit in our in the people and culture team and i guess my job is to ah create an environment where diverse people thrive because...
Speaker: Yeah, so it it looks like empowering um employee networks to advocate for shifts and changes to make recruitment inclusive or to make, you know, like buildings and workplace practice inclusive as well. Some of the diversity areas are culturally linguistically diverse, people with disability, young people, LGBTQIA community and several others. Women in leadership is another big one an average and Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander people. So just kind of working particularly with those groups of people to, yeah, creating a sense of inclusion of belonging, which is challenge sometimes.
Speaker: I think that's so cool. Like I just think it's really cool that you're in that area because I think often Christians tend to like perhaps shy away from or become argumentative yeah in a way? Like how, i don't know, what helps you navigate that? just better first Yeah, I think it's definitely been journey. So I've been in that role for nearly three years now and I would say i love that it's challenged me in a lot of those ways to really think about.
Speaker: i was telling my manager the other day like, you Jesus is the most, was the most attractive person to the people who were marginalised, right, just like they flocked to him and were so drawn to his love.
Speaker: But at the same time he was the most challenging challenging convicting person right so he managed to walk in this space where people felt in completely and entirely loved but also convicted that they wanted to be different or like i don't know Yeah, so it's kind of been a real journey of thinking, well, how do I walk like Jesus in a way that maintains this sense of I fear God and I fear his ways and I i want to honour the way that he's called us to live.
Speaker: um and so not not compromising on conviction while also making sure that each person in front of me feels completely loved and cherished because they're created by God. And so, yeah, it has been hard. Some days I do that.
Speaker: But it's involved some really brave conversations with people. I think I don't think you can do that if you're more afraid of people than you are respectful of God, you know, like and so it's required some bold, brave conversations where I've had to just be honest about.
Speaker: Yeah, some of my convictions. I love that. It's like, it's in Proverbs, like right? It's like in Proverbs, the first chapter of Proverbs, but it's like the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Yeah. Yeah, like yeah that's a good way of putting it Yeah, you're like, how can I be wise? Like if I'm going to be scared of people, yeah I won't be trusting in God first. But because you have God in the right place, then you can love people rightly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I think it's really good. And I also think when you bring it down to the person in front of you and don't put people, you know, I've just listed off a whole bunch of diverse areas. Mm-hmm.
Speaker: But if I don't put people in those boxes, if I just look at the person in front of me and think, like, how does that person need to be loved in this moment, it actually removes most of the confusion or angst or, yeah, it removes a lot of those things when you bring it down to a single person.
Speaker: yeah what Yeah. What does this person need? How do we provide that? But also, like, Yeah, it's interesting. Like I think culture will say ah half to 100% agree with you to be loving. Yeah.
Speaker: So I like that actually the way that you're navigating that is being, well, we can disagree because it's just you and me. yeah And I'm, you know, really doing my best to love you. sound like Yeah, and other people are really doing their best to love you as well, you know, and I think, yeah, that's a good thing.
Speaker: That's a good way of putting it. I love that idea. of i think I think true inclusion and diversity requires us to i feel secure enough and safe enough to disagree respectfully with each other and just be totally okay with that being the way that it is.
Speaker: Yeah. And I think it's possible. Yeah. I think a lot of people are afraid. lot of people. I said, you know, that they won't be that there won't be a safe place for them, that they won't be seen or valued. Because that's ultimately what's underneath a lot of it is like, do you so you know do you see me? Do I feel heard?
Speaker: Yeah, think so. But yeah. But the other thing, yeah, and you're totally right. Sorry, I don't know, we'll get right during this.
Speaker: it is really fascinating, yeah, that Jesus, yeah, you like marginalised people really flocked to him. And because of that, you think, yeah, like the way that the ancient world treated women and yet the way that he treated women was so countercultural. Mm-hmm.
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, because of that, you can look at Christian history and Christians have been like, we, you know, like, let's provide care for people with disabilities. Yeah. Like, when it's done well. Totally. Like, I've done terrible things, but.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. Even, yeah, like, he would be so, even like, you know, the Samaritan woman or, like, it's just like people who were outcasts or. unseen Yeah, it's true. And so much of the good things that we see in society are built on those principles, right? Like the things you take for granted.
Speaker: We were at that event with Glenn Scrivener a while back and he was saying, you know a lot of the things we assume are moral and right in our Western world.
Speaker: in the little bunny ears culture but like we we just assume that would be right to care for those who can't care for themselves and yet that comes from jesus doesn't it not from human nature actually yes absolutely have you read the secular creed by rebecca mclaughlin no oh you would love it it's very very short okay that's perfect because i am not a reader I love her. But what she does is she takes like three, five truth claims like from i yeah like those kind of woke culture.
Speaker: yeah But what I like about it she's like, look, a lot of these ideas come out of Christianity. Yeah. Like sometimes she's like, this is where, you know, Christians have failed to love. Yeah, exactly, where we fail to love our neighbour or be kind. Yeah.
Speaker: But It's a very like wince and book. She's like, look, I struggle with same sex attraction and this, you know, so I think it's, it's a very gentle, but also she's like, this is what the Bible actually says.
Speaker: So it's, yeah, really lovely. Yeah. Yeah. A little apologetics book. And so boundaries create such a sense of safety, actually, like God's good boundaries for how um he's created us to be.
Speaker: Like they create such a sense of identity and safety. And I think that's what so many people are looking for. Yeah. No, you're. I could totally go down 100% tangent. But, yeah, you're exactly right. Like, I think even you see that with little kids, like okay, this is where the boundaries are. we know where we are. We're safe.
Speaker: And the same with grown-ups. You're like, if I know what I can and can't do, yeah, this is there's that. Now, as a, like, completely unrelated segue,
Speaker: what are you doing? when you feel the most alive kind of like like this is what I was made to do this is my purpose oh my gosh yes I just love sucking the marrow out of every single day like I love being alive in fact I really hope we've got a lot to do in heaven because like I just always want to be doing stuff um but the things that make me fully alive I think probably just seeing life multiplied.
Speaker: Like I think, you know, I love having a big family. We love, we've built our home in a way that we have lots of people there and I love at work being able to see, put you plant a seed and water it in a particular way and that multiplies life and also bridging worlds I think is something I really, really thrive on. So um like church in business all like and faith and work and like I don't know just like all of those different kind of spaces and I love people that don't know Jesus like just give me a person that doesn't know Jesus and I just thrive in that space so doing Alpha recently like the we've really gotten back into that this last little while so about to kick off our third course and just watching the the people who've come through the first course then um
Speaker: I can tell a story. I should be totally fine with it. But like in the first course, my, I've been friends with my crazy Canadian hairdresser for years and years and we just love and enjoy each other a lot. And, you know, over time,
Speaker: I'll take photos for her. She does my hair. And over time we have like shared our lives. um And then she came to the Alpha course at the beginning of the year and it has just been such a transformative experience that then we've just been running.
Speaker: cocktails and desserts of course in her because she's got this amazing salon that's how i grew on and it's like got a bar and a velvet lounge and it's like just the girly girl like yes it's spot and so we've been running um yeah, Crop Tales and Desserts, Alpha with the Ladies, this round because she had so many people she wanted to then tell about it.
Speaker: And so I just love seeing how one seed becomes another, becomes another, and how it continues to roll. And, yeah, I think God's like that. God's such a fruitful God and he um he loves multiplying things.
Speaker: And I don't think what I love about that is it sounds like there's years of just relationally investing in your friend yeah over years where she's kind of gone, there's something there. There's, you know, there's ah the joy that I don't have or there's something there that like I don't have that's attractive.
Speaker: But then because of that, like it's that seed has multiplied, but it's not like you've chased down yeah few people to do an alpha course. yeah like it's that like the seed has been watered and then it kind of grows and then she's planting seeds yes yeah it's so cool and i think it's also because people know when you genuinely enjoy them or genuinely love them and they know when they're a project and i think yeah so like a huge difference and so i really ah don't ever want anyone to feel like a project and i think that's
Speaker: Yeah, I think that's really important as well, just over those years. Like I love my kids, but I know that when I enjoy them and I like them, that that is what makes them feel really loved, like when they tell a joke and I laugh my head off because, i don't know, there's like a difference between that faithful kind of loving but that like enjoying of a human being.
Speaker: and Yeah, like I i see you when i I just like the way that you are. Yeah. Yeah. And finding that, I think we naturally gel with some people, like there's just that natural gift of connection and bonding.
Speaker: But I do think there's something to enjoy and delight in in every single person and I think we can find that. Yeah, and I think the church is interesting because it is made up of like, mean, interesting, but like natural, you know, enemies or people that you wouldn't naturally yeah hang out with. And then, you know, you're in a Bible with study someone and you're like,
Speaker: you are the worst. You know what mean? You go like, I, and you think if we weren't in the same Bible study, we would not hang out. But if you, but then because you are in a way, i don't want to say forced to, but you continue to hang out after a while, you're like, Oh um yeah. Like, ah I can see how you see the world. And actually what you're doing is really brave or like the way that you're enduring is like really like winsome. And then you become to like really love this person. Yeah.
Speaker: But, drew you know, you wouldn't have done that had it not have been for the church, like had it not have been for the gospel, you're like, okay, I'm here. Yeah. And you've missed out on something because I think like the people that irritate us the most or the ones that grade on us the most are really just God's incredible people.
Speaker: opportunity to like have something shift and change in you, right? Yeah. Like it's it's easy to vacation when you don't hang out with anyone who annoys you. Yeah, right. And you're like, I annoy people. Like I would have things that people are like, oh, man, this dick again. Like I have to, well, maybe not you. You seem pretty nice. But sometimes people are being humble, but you know.
Speaker: like that person in the Bible study that's irritating you, sometimes I think, did they change or did I change? Yeah. It's kind of like, Did God just like get rid of yucky thing in me so that I could enjoy who they were and who he's made them to be? Or or did they just change? I don't know. But I think it's usually more us that changes than the other person.
Speaker: So I enjoy that. Yeah, I have, I think it's actually been a very good thing for me, like, yeah, coming into the church as an adult and being like, oh, yeah, like I thought I was a patient person. Yeah, and then I had kids and I was like, I thought I was a patient person. so I'm actually not, but it's been very good for me.
Speaker: Yeah. That's right. Yeah. Oh, that's cool. So, yeah, i mean, really the thread is like you kind of really like true extrovert, like love people, I would say.
Speaker: Like how? I don't know, does that thread kind of go into how you became a Christian or? Mine are pretty basic Christian origins. I love them. I love the simple ones. Yeah. my I was born in ah the jungle in New Guinea. What? You're like, it was super basic. I was born in the jungle. No, but like, you know, missionary kid in the jungle with my parents and came back to Australia and then soon after that we went to Japan to Nagoya.
Speaker: to do missions there. Oh, wow. But just before we left the Magoia, I was six, and we had the most incredible children's church at our church. I just am so grateful for those people that just invested their all in loving us and teaching us so well and dumb we can make out. And so I just...
Speaker: grew in my love of Jesus through my parents who were exceptional at not just teaching you about Jesus but really showing me what his love was like and what relationship was like and what ah a life sold out for him looked like.
Speaker: And then just through those children's church teachers. And so I became a Christian when I was five but I knew we were going to Japan. And I said I wanted to be baptised in new country with my new church family. So in the middle of winter in Mogoller, I got baptised in a little indoor pool tub thing.
Speaker: Yeah, that was me. I rededicated several times, you know, over the teenage years. You're like, I crawled off the altar. I'm back. I'm back. With a brand new raft.
Speaker: True. Yeah, so like teen and then after school i was like, because I grew up in, you know, a real Christian bubble, right? How long were you Japan for? Oh, just a few years. And then we came back and we were going to go to China after that. But my little sister was born with multiple disabilities. So we stayed in Oz, so there horsewomen.
Speaker: We stayed in Oz and kind of settled in Brisbane. So grew up in Brisbane. And then, yeah, I took at the end of year 12, because I'd been in a small Christian school, in church, and stuff, and was like, God, I'm just going to take a year off from you, so just I will revisit. We'll revisit in 12 months.
Speaker: I'm familiar. smell you later. I became Christian and I was like, maybe I could undo everything. It did not work well for me. but Tell me how you're doing. If only this had happened a few years later. Yeah.
Speaker: was like, yes, yes, I hear that you're the Lord of all my life, but I would also like a break. you know Well, I took a break and realised that, like, I don't regret it. I think some people really need to, like, really actually thrash it out for themselves. I'm not someone that leans from other people's mistakes. I'm not from memory, so unfortunately, not very wise. But, yeah.
Speaker: I think we were, I don't know, it was 6am, the other lights came on in the club somewhere on a Wednesday night or something. don't know, like so ridiculous. And I looked around i like, oh, yeah, it's pretty empty. I think I'm done. So came back and really like that would be, yeah, around 19 I sort of like settled into the long with Jesus, me and Jesus.
Speaker: I'm sorry, you said Jesus and I was like, my homie Jesus. Yeah, it's true. He is my homie. My homie. My ride or die.
Speaker: and we
Speaker: And it's just been a delightfully easy ride since that week. The end. The end. And that's where we were talking.
Speaker: All right, so tell me about hard season with your right old eye. can you yeah Can you describe hard season you've walked through and how you've experienced God's faithfulness in that season? Yes, would love to, Bec. Thank you for asking.
Speaker: So many to choose from. It's just spoilt for Joyce here. Um, but.
Speaker: Yeah, Cattling. Well, well
Speaker: I think because I'm a really quick learner, I would say God took me through.
Speaker: the almost exact same hard season twice five years apart that's how good i like just gonna learn the same lesson again we're done learning this and they're like nope yeah you're like right yeah gabriel michael let's do this again so together i a very strong person twenty so i am a really i am a very strong person And i love i love being strong and capable and doing a lot of things. So... um
Speaker: 2019 and 2024, both of those years, God, it was like the roadrunner in you know, the roadrunner. And he, like, his legs are going really, really fast. Yeah. And then, like, it's like God put his heavy dad hand on my head and wouldn't let me run anywhere or do anything and really, really humbled my capacity that.
Speaker: For everything. And um so I think for a strong person, those seasons are really, really hard. And he made me stop. And i think in those times,
Speaker: there's this, in Matthew 5, it talks about ah blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth. And that passage has always changed bothered me but I think over those seasons God has spoken to me through that passage because meekness is power under control and it's harm it's strength in submission and I think God has actually just really used those seasons to show me that he has made me strong, that that has to be submitted to his control and to his his authority.
Speaker: And the other part of that verse, for they will inherit the earth, actually inside of me is this lion's roar that wants to go out and conquer and meet every foe and take new land and pioneer new things and it's almost like actually if you think about it that is someone who's trying to conquer and build their own inheritance like their own kingdom yeah so that concept of they will inherit the earth is actually god just saying hold on a minute like the conquering belongs to me
Speaker: And the inheritance that you're chasing after is something that I give you. It's not something that you conquer in your own right. Like Jesus is the hero. Jesus is the conqueror. Jesus is the one that has won our inheritance as co-heirs with him. And so that's been a real thing.
Speaker: deep learning and it's been a struggle as well because I'm like well god why did you make me strong whygie why did you put why did you make me this why did you make me this way why did you put this fire in this like burning in me to like take take the kingdom but I think he's just god and so he's the boss and he's also the one that will meter out inheritance to all of us. So actually I just need to sit still sometimes and just let him be God and think relinquish control.
Speaker: So the other passage that has really spoken to me, I think a really deep, deep, deep down under all of that is just this fear that God's not, that I can't trust God. I think ultimately under a one of those things is I can't trust God to,
Speaker: care for me. i can't trust God to do the thing that's required or the thing that is necessary. So Psalm 91 is just such, and it has been a really deeply comforting passage for me, just that God will care for and protect me and pull me under his wing and crush the enemy under his feet and all of those things. And so I think as i've the only thing that seems to have helped is when I sit in those places of being comforted by his ability to care for me, my trust in him grows, my hold on control loosens, and then I can actually just enjoy the inheritance that he's, like, giving us.
Speaker: This is insane to me oh for multiple reasons. When I say insane, it's like, ah no, I literally was reading Psalm 91, like, yes, but over the last two days. Oh, wow. Yeah. And I had been like,
Speaker: Yeah. And mean exactly that where you're like, oh, I'm exhausted because, you know, I'm like, I want to be like going out and doing all these things. And it's exactly that where he's like,
Speaker: You have to sit and, like, I will give you those things, but they all come from him. And, like, I'm exhausted because I'm chasing, like, my own glory and my own kingdom, all the things that I want. But actually that's not, yeah, listening to you all, because, like, I'm hearing a lot of simulac. Oh, there you like, oh, letting go of control. You're, like, and letting God be God.
Speaker: And I think that's the thing underneath the busyness because you're like, well, I don't want to ask God because what if he doesn't come through? So let me just step into his role so that I don't have to bother him, that I don't have to rely or trust or depend.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. i hate having to do that. Yeah, I don't want to be weak. No, it's not. It's not. natural in my nature at least and probably a lot of people lot of women are strong and capable yeah yeah cool you mean we have the same god
Speaker: your god's been talking to you been saying the same things he's consistent
Speaker: oh me so ah Who is someone who's encouraged or inspired you in your Christian walk? Yeah. And why? Yeah, I think my mum is almost like in line of, in light of that, you know, like what God's been teaching me. If I actually just had watched and like modelled after my mother, I probably would have avoided a lot of these seasons. But my mum's incredible in her
Speaker: seeking after God's face. I just think i don't know many other women who seek after his face and just sit in intimacy with him in the ways that she does. And even, i mean, that's in the beautiful relational side of it, but even in the doing as well, because my mum's a really practical doer. Mm-hmm.
Speaker: But every year she goes away on retreat and she spends a few days just quiet and by herself and just lays all the things she's been doing in the previous year before God. And she just says, which ones do you want me to pick up and which ones do want me to leave? And I just think that's such an incredible practice.
Speaker: Um, not only just the enjoyment of his presence, but also allowing your priorities to be entirely yielded to him. And then she just does what he says. And so, and mum has had it.
Speaker: Mum's life has not, you know, been easy. my I mean, my sister is incredible. But, you know, mum is her carer. um And my dad spent 17 years dying and he oh um finished dying a few years ago and is in heaven now, which is wonderful. um But, you know, like hard seasons of that, like,
Speaker: isolation and loneliness in the jungle in new guinea yeah just like different periods of real difficulty and challenge um but she has just always got a joy um that comes from being with god and i really admire that and yeah i want to be like her that's beautiful it was she's beautiful i think that's One of the things that comes through just again and again and again is people, you see someone else walk through something that's so hard and you think how, there is no earthly sense to this in terms of how you have joy or dependence or trust and yet there they are. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: Yep, it's true. Deep wells. Jesus. That. Out of interest. I mean, again, because, like, I didn't grow up in a Christian family. So how, like, if you grew up in a missionary family, like, I'm intrigued.
Speaker: Because it seems like it would be a really hard line. Like, it would be easy for people to be stuck on we're doing the mission and the kids get left behind. Like what what is it that you reckon your parents did that they seem to have done that really well as a missionary?
Speaker: I think my parents were good at different things. So my dad was really, really good at seeing God at work always. Like he was just a man that had endless testimonies flowing from his lips. He was a storyteller. So he originally was an English teacher and a drama teacher. and Wow. um And so he would always see where God was at work. And so our home was and also just very um full of faith in his prayers. I think because those two go together, right, you see God at work.
Speaker: You have faith that God can be at work. So this incredibly vivid um faith life. So I think they did he did that really well and always brought us into that. So they just really invested time that.
Speaker: time with us and telling us those stories and praying with us and, and us being on faith journeys together as family and them not hiding some of the lack and us being able to join in faith to trust God for more. So think they did, he did that really well. And mum's, um, mum was just so faithful to give each of us, um,
Speaker: time and all like just practical support and help and you know she was a stay stay at home mum for um except when my sister went to preschool she started to do some care for other kids as well um so yeah she was just sort always was present and and worshipful. So mum is a worshipper. She would stay up late and i I'd go to bed listening to her writing songs of devotion to God. So I think those two together really made a big difference. I mean, they just loved Jesus and lived their lives loving Jesus and I think that's the most you can ever do for your kids. Like, you want them to love Jesus too.
Speaker: like They legit loved him more than anything. That's so cool. Like my husband says sim says similar, like his dad is a pastor. But he's like, you know, when I look back, to actually the thing, he's like they really, really loved Jesus.
Speaker: Like he's like they really believed in him. They really, like it took every part of their life. Yeah. Yeah. And I suppose it's that, like you were saying at the start of the interview, it's,
Speaker: You can't fake liking someone. Yeah. Like, hey, good. That's true. yeah. Like, you can be like, we think it's a good thing that you should do this. You know, you can give your kids legalism or moralism, but you can't fake, I'm going to stay up late and write a song for you because I just like being with you.
Speaker: Yeah, that is true. So what's what's a word of encouragement you could offer to a woman who's like walking through a similar season of kind of being like the roadrunner? Yeah, and just like off the cliff.
Speaker: yes Spinning wheels midair. Because women never do that. We never do that. We never do that. it's right Okay, my encouragement comes from a Jewel poem, actually.
Speaker: Good old Jewel. I don't know if people on this strange podcast. for someone. Even after you're gone. I know. Okay.
Speaker: Okay, so you know Jewel. I do. I do. i am familiar. Okay. I will look it up. Oh, my gosh, got 140 cabs. How is that possible? ah Okay. You just really like Jewel. or Yeah. You have 140 Jewel. poem.
Speaker: yeah it's at the home
Speaker: My interwebs. Here we go. So it's called So Just Kiss Me. So obviously this is spoken to a guy, but, like, just substitute Jesus into this.
Speaker: So just kiss me. Let my hair messy itself in your fingers. Tell me nothing needs to be done. No clock needs winding. There's no bell without a voice needing to borrow my own.
Speaker: Instead, let me steady myself in the arms of a man who won't ask me to be what he needs, but lets me exist as I am, a blonde fame, a hurricane, wrapped up in a tiny body that will come to his arms like the safest harbour for mending. Yeah, I just think we just need to be in his arms a bit more, I think.
Speaker: Just... Like here is a safe harbour and we can steady ourselves there and just be with him.
Speaker: And I think that changes everything if we live in those spaces. And I think we can be practical about that. I'm a big fan of a a weekly plan. Oh, magic.
Speaker: So I think it's like, I don't think those times happen by accident. I think they have to be, you know, actively carved out in our weeks because our weeks just happen to us every week. It's like,
Speaker: you know, the the wave of of of need and what needs to be done um is always present. So it's a really active carving out of a space where we can just be steadied in his arms and mended um in his love. And then from that place, I think incredibly beautiful life and flourishing and effectiveness comes from our lives starting in our own hearts um but overflowing into the lives around us so yeah i love that on the face of it you could just look at that and see the same you know you could see the same things happening like the busy yeah but actually it's completely different it's
Speaker: Yeah, there's that sense of giving up control and trusting that God is in control to number, like, your hours and your days and your weeks.
Speaker: And then so there's not that anxious striving, like the roadrunner's legs, which is ineffective, right? Yeah.
Speaker: But it does give you time to then do kind of what you've been describing, like what you saw your parents do. You're, like, giving Like I can sit here in this moment and enjoy my kit.
Speaker: I can sit here in this moment with someone who has a HR problem and give you my full attention because that's what Jesus is for me. He is that safe harbour and he doesn't, there's nothing I can do. There's nothing I can give.
Speaker: But because it's so beautiful, you're like, I want you to experience yeah just a little bit of that. Yeah, that's beautiful. Yeah, rather than i'm controlling and I want to fix and I want to.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, it's different. Fear and faith are internal things, aren't they, that the outside can look exactly the same but, like, the drive is either fear or faith.
Speaker: I think that shift is, that shift happens in God's presence. Yeah. marry your mother. Yeah. Like you're going one way. Yeah. You're going one way or the other. Yeah. You're like, I'm.
Speaker: ah think Look, it I think Mary should have gotten off her ass and done a little bit more. Like that's my internal Martha's like, just do something useful. I think that's it, isn't it? You're like, it's not like Christians are,
Speaker: It's not that they never do anything. it's true. Like there's Christians where like, you are a very busy person. Like Jesus, by any stage, was a very busy man. Yeah. Yeah. But sometimes he's just like, we're just going leave.
Speaker: Yeah. Like we're not, no, we're not doing that. That's not the plan. like Yeah. Yeah. And I think there's also like, I don't think a good Christian life necessarily means you're not tired because I think that any good and worthy endeavour is going to you're going to spend your life on that thing right so there's a spentness that does come but it's like a god-given god-ordained spentness like the other on the long weekend we did our yard our garden like we just did a lot of hauling stuff right and at the end of the day we were tired
Speaker: And then we sat by the fire and we just enjoyed sweet company and the fire. But it's like, so I think we need to also understand that Tired is not necessarily bad, but it's spending ourselves on the things that God's given us to do in the ways that is designed our bodies to do them so that they are still nourished and cared for somehow in that process. But, yes, Mary chose the better thing.
Speaker: Good on, Mary. She sat at Jesus' feet. Jesus wouldn't have had anything to eat without Martha. But Mary chose the better thing. So listeners, choose the best.
Speaker: Anyway. Well, yeah, it's that. It's, yeah, it's not that you will never, like you will work hard, but it's working on the things that God's given you to do.
Speaker: Like, and then you get the satisfaction of like a job well done. Yeah. Yeah. And you're like, and you will be exhausted because you did a good thing. and Yep. Yeah. You're like, it's not saying that if you're just following Jesus, yeah, and you'll just never be tired yeah things will never be hard. Like that's just not. No. But it will be renewed every day in him. Right.
Speaker: Yes. So it's kind of like he cares for us in that process. Well, I feel like this is the pep talk that I needed to have. Oh. Yeah, it's good. I'm like, it's great.
Speaker: Now you're like, oh, yeah, God knows what you need. Yeah, I was like, I genuinely needed this pep talk. And I'm like, i I think the things that I'm going to take away from this are I really enjoyed that sense of like that picture of seeing that renewing happening.
Speaker: And how when it's not like anxious striving or like creating your own kingdom or like the legs spinning midair, it's actually what it gives you back is deliberately inhabiting that time. yeah Like I can give you this gift of my full attention. I can give you this gift of like, you know, you can sit before God and write a song and not be anxiously striving about the 10 other practical things you couldn't be doing.
Speaker: Yeah, I think. Thanks, guys. You said that really well. I like that. I'll take that away from this too. I'm going to summarise the good things you said to me. Oh, man. Well, thank you so much. i Yeah, this is excellent. Thank you for coming. Thank you for your time.
Speaker: i appreciate it.
Speaker: That's it from us, friends. We hope you enjoyed today's episode. And if you did, you can sign up to our free weekly newsletter called Stories I'd Tell You at Dinner. So you get essays, poetry, podcast episodes, everything, photo essays straight to your inbox on Wednesdays from March to November from Christian women in Western Australia.
Speaker: If you'd like that, the link is in the show notes. Thanks for listening, guys.
