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Episode 29: When You Feel Like You Are Failing at Life with Ruth Chou Simons
115 Plays3 years ago
Ruth Chou Simons is a Wall Street Journal bestselling and award-winning author of several books, including GraceLaced, Beholding and Becoming, and Foundations. Her first Bible study curriculum, TruthFilled, released in 2020. She is an artist, entrepreneur, and speaker who uses each of these platforms to spiritually sow the Word of God into people’s hearts. Through her online shoppe at Gracelaced.com and her social media community, Simons shares her journey of God’s grace intersecting daily life with word and art. Ruth and her husband, Troy, are grateful parents to six boys--their greatest adventure.
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Root Like Faith' and Podcast Goals
00:00:00
Speaker
Hi, I'm Ruth Schwank and I'm so thrilled you're listening in with us at Root Like Faith. It is our deepest desire to encourage and equip men and women to be rooted in God's Word, transformed by the love of Jesus and moved by His mission in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Introduction to Ruth Chau Simons, Award-Winning Author
00:00:15
Speaker
Nothing is more important.
00:00:17
Speaker
Well you are in for a treat today because I am so so excited that Pat is going to be speaking with a friend of mine who is was actually one of my very very first contributors on TheBetterMom.com almost a decade ago and her name is Ruth Chau Simons and I just
00:00:37
Speaker
If you don't know Ruth Simons, you've got to know her. She is so amazing. And I just it's incredible to just see over the years how God has grown her ministry. And actually her husband and her both were contributors for the family. Yep, absolutely. Troy.
00:00:55
Speaker
Troy. Troy and Ruth were both contributors for the family years ago. But that seems like a lifetime ago. Boy, it sure does. But you're right.
Ruth Simons' New Book: 'When Striving Cease' and Its Message
00:01:02
Speaker
It's so neat to see, you know, their ministry and her ministry in particular with the new book that we're talking about today just continue to grow and expand.
00:01:10
Speaker
Um, such an incredible new book that she has coming out. And so just as I know, um, going to be a great conversation. I think one that our listeners will really appreciate. And the title of the book is when striving cease, replacing the gospel of self improvement with the gospel of life transforming grace. And if you know, Ruth, you know why this is such a great message to hear from her. I mean, she is the real deal and I have again known her for years. And I love when I can say like, I know her personally.
00:01:40
Speaker
because in the online world, there's so many people in the online world and to know somebody and to watch them over the years, just follow the Lord with all their heart and soul and just preach this message of hope year after year, she's just the real deal and I know you're gonna be blessed by her. So let me share a little bit more about Ruth before Pat gets started with her.
00:02:05
Speaker
Ruth Simons is a Wall Street Journal best-selling and award-winning author of several books, including Grace Laced, Beholding and Becoming, and Foundations. Her first Bible study curriculum, Truth Filled, released in 2020. She is an artist, entrepreneur, and speaker. By the way, if you haven't seen her art, it's incredible.
00:02:25
Speaker
using each of these platforms to spiritually sow the word of God into people's hearts. Through her online shop at gracelaced.com and her social media community, Simon shares her journey of God's grace intersecting daily life with word and art. Ruth and her husband Troy are grateful parents to Six Boys, their greatest adventure. I just know that you are going to love hearing from Ruth, so let's get going.
00:02:54
Speaker
Well, as we mentioned just a moment ago, our guest today is Ruth Simons. And so we're just really excited to have Ruth on the podcast today. She is the author of a brand new book called Wind Striving's Cease, replacing the gospel of self-improvement with the gospel of life-transforming grace. And so just excited to have her on and to hear more about the book. And so you're going to love hearing from her today.
Ruth's Immigration Story and Journey to Faith
00:03:17
Speaker
And so, Ruth, welcome to Ruth Like Faith. Thanks so much for having me, Pat. It's great to be here.
00:03:22
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Well, Ruth, we have known you and your husband for a number of years now, mainly from a distance. And so Ruth and I were talking about this last night that you were a contributor on The Better Mom. It feels like 100 years ago now. And for the family. And for the family. Yeah, both you and Troy. It's so special. I think of you all with such fondness because really, for those of us who started blogging so many years ago together, we really leaned on each other for those early days of learning how to
00:03:49
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how to practice that message in public and to stay faithful in writing.
00:03:53
Speaker
Absolutely. You use the word faithful and it's so funny Ruth and I talk about this all the time where we've been in online ministry now for 10 years and like you said, we've been kind of running and writing, blogging, doing all of those things and you begin to see people kind of come and go over the span of that time and there are lots of people who want to do certain things whether it's blogging or writing a book or speaking and they don't persevere in that.
00:04:22
Speaker
And you have certainly been one of those people that just have been faithful and persevered and continued writing and speaking. And so it's just really exciting to see all that God is doing through your ministry, through your writing and speaking, through your art. So we just, I know Ruth and I really appreciate you and your husband and just the way you guys have been faithful to run the race that God has for you. And so we feel the same about you and thank you for that encouragement.
00:04:46
Speaker
Absolutely. Thank you. Well, I'd love, I know most of our listeners are going to be very familiar with you, your writing, your speaking, but I'd love to just kind of hear more your personal story before we get in and talk about, you know, the brand new book When Striving Sees. I'd love to kind of hear your story, you know, just growing up and when you came to
Struggles with Cultural Pressures and Self-Worth Ideals
00:05:05
Speaker
faith in Jesus. And so look, maybe let's just start there. Yeah. Well, you know, it's just fun to finally, after all these years, really kind of dive into the backstory, the backstory of why grace
00:05:15
Speaker
is the cornerstone of my ministry and my life and why I named my organization Grace Laced. And it really starts at the beginning where I was born in Taiwan and I immigrated to the United States when I was four. And as you can imagine, as a four-year-old learning a new language, trying to live between the Eastern and the Western mindset between two worlds, I immediately started trying to measure my self-worth by
00:05:44
Speaker
just my cultural context, everything from my Asian background where a lot of value is placed on achievement and academics and being the best and doing your best and bringing honor to your family and not bringing any version of embarrassment or shame or disappointment to your parents. That kind of society, that kind of modeling of really, oh goodness, just the pressure that a lot of
00:06:14
Speaker
a lot of young people feel in the Asian American paradigms, but as well as really, you know, you don't have to be from an Asian background to really see that even in Western culture, we are so obsessed with measuring, right? I mean, all you have to do is get on Instagram and really kind of immediately know that we can be slaves to algorithms and constantly wonder how many downloads we have, how many followers we have, whether or not we've
00:06:42
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you know, reached the people that we're trying to reach with whatever product or message we have. It's not wrong to measure, but we feel this pressure constantly. And so, you know, growing up between trying to belong, like by bringing the right lunch and by wearing the right jeans and trying to understand how to be somebody in this new context. I really had a hard time, Pat, understanding the gospel when I was finally
00:07:09
Speaker
When someone finally shared the gospel with me, I think it was at VBS and then later on at a youth camp. And I had little opportunities to hear the gospel and it seemed really, really odd to me because my whole life seemed to be based on the idea that you get what you deserve and you earn the approval of others and you earn belonging, you earn favor.
Understanding Biblical Grace and Its Impact
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And so the idea that God would through his grace do something
00:07:37
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that doesn't depend on me, it took a while for me to understand that. So that's really is my story of how grace got a hold of my life and not just grace, like this pretty fun little idea of, you know, something that we stick on our coffee mugs and just kind of feel warmed up by this idea of grace, but know that the grace of God, the biblical definition of grace truly transformed my life and has really been,
00:08:05
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what sustains me day by day as it should. But I really am so blown away by it that I do think it's amazing grace and would love for others to experience it as well. Yeah. I mean, were your parents Christians at the time? My mom and dad had been exposed to the gospel, but they weren't walking with Christ until we were all like when I was in eighth grade, kind of towards my beginning of high school years was when they finally came to saving faith in
00:08:34
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really recognized that they had never understood who God was. Yeah. It's so interesting. You know, I grew up in a Christian home. My dad was a pastor and I remember I've shared before on our podcast that I remember as a young kid, just, you know, loving to read the Bible. Like it was just something I enjoyed to do. Just
00:08:51
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Again, God's grace, God was pursuing me, you know, far before I even understood what it meant to really have a relationship with Him, what it meant to trust in Jesus as my Savior, my Lord. And so I was really blessed to kind of grow up in that environment. And I felt like I understood grace, I understood the gospel, you know, the good news that God saves us, we don't save ourselves.
00:09:11
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I understood that theologically, biblically, as I got older, and yet the experience of that, that's a whole other thing, isn't it? I think sometimes our theology, I don't know who said it, but our theology needs to invade our reality. And I had good theology, even, I mean, my goodness, I'd been to Moody Bible Institute for my undergrad, and masters, and doctoral,
00:09:35
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program out of Biola. And not that I never experienced, you know, God's grace or his love, but there are those times, those moments where I feel like we just, they're light bulb moments, where we just begin to understand God's grace in a fuller, deeper way. And so were there moments that you experienced God's grace, understanding the gospel in a deeper way that really served as kind of a motivation for writing this particular book when striving cease?
00:10:05
Speaker
Well, you know, Pat, I love that you just shared your experience because that's so similar to even mine as I came to faith, you know, because I was surrounded by this new community called the church
College Experiences and Learning About Grace
00:10:18
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and immediately I got busy, right? So many of us kind of get busy and we immediately go, well, I'm going to serve. I'm going to help out with children's ministry. I'm going to read my Bible. And so many of us understand grace saved by grace. Oh, I am.
00:10:31
Speaker
I'm forgiven and that's the best news ever. But I think what we've missed sometimes is that it's so complicated. It seems so complicated, right? It seems so complicated to really walk with somebody through Romans or through the concepts of like, what is the lie? What is grace? And that really, I wasn't really discipled in that until like, by the time I got into college, I was like, wait,
00:10:58
Speaker
I don't think I really ever truly understood the purpose of the law. I don't think I truly understood, so I distinctly remember, and I wrote about this in the book, but I distinctly remember sitting in one of those luncheon meetings that college organizations, Christian organizations have for college students, and I'm sitting there and my college director, Dale, was teaching through the Sermon on the Mount, and it all sounded really familiar. You've heard all those things said before, but for the first time, it kind of clicked for me
00:11:27
Speaker
that he was basically saying, hey, Jesus was telling the Pharisees, you can never jump high enough. You'll never measure up. Like you think you're being religious and good and you're doing all these good things and you're kind of better than that person next to you. But really what I'm telling you is that there's no way you can be so amazing that you don't need the grace of God. You still need the rescue of Jesus Christ. Even if you think you're doing religiously good things or you're kind of keeping your life on the straight and narrow,
00:11:56
Speaker
And so I'd spent so much time trying to be the good Christian daughter, the good girl, the one who didn't smoke, drink, have sex, do any of the crazy things that people who are worldly do. But I never had been confronted with the idea that I was ruling my own life. And in that, I was sitting and I was
00:12:19
Speaker
far from God in a way that I thought only belonged to people who were outwardly sending, but truly in my heart, I was still trying to rule my own life, even though I had in my mind given some kind of declaration that, you know, Jesus is Lord of my life, but my life was living out in a way that would suggest that I wasn't sustained by grace. I was only saved by grace, but I kind of was still trying to sustain myself by my own means
Conflict: Self-Improvement Culture vs. the Gospel
00:12:47
Speaker
and good works.
00:12:47
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, it's so good. It's it's so funny how, you know, you just there's no formula for that, you know, and I think I think you even even talk about that, that it's not, you know, A, B and C and then you then you get it.
00:12:59
Speaker
And it's always a mystery to me, just how God does what He does and when He does it. But boy, when that light bulb goes on, when you understand the gospel, the love of God, it really is life changing. As you were sharing just a minute ago, I was thinking about Paul's prayer for the church in Ephesus, and he gets really kind of into the middle of the book of Ephesus there.
00:13:22
Speaker
obviously was originally a letter, and it's like he doesn't, and then he begins to pray, and he prays that they would know the depth of God's love, and it's like he's writing, and it's almost like you can hear him going, boy, there are no words for this, and so I'm just gonna put my pen down, and I'm just gonna pray for these people that they might know the depth of God's love, and so I just was thinking about that as you were sharing that, and yeah, how life-transforming it is when we fully understand
00:13:51
Speaker
the grace of God, the love of God, and just how it does, it changes everything. You talk a lot about the gospel of self-improvement. Explain what you mean by the gospel of self-improvement, and what does that teach us? How does that really conflict or contradict with the gospel you've been talking about? Yeah. Well, I clearly work in the same industry that you and your wife work in, and we
00:14:19
Speaker
And for women, I would say, especially Christian women, there are more opportunities than for my sisters in Christ. We have more opportunities than we've ever seen before. Like, you know, we have, we have a opportunity to share Christ. We can share our stories. We can write, we can, um, minister to people from an online platform. There are so many opportunities. And yet when I look around, I sometimes think, wow, we have more opportunities than we've ever had before. And yet if you were.
00:14:49
Speaker
to be honest and ask many women right now, they are more tired and more exhausted and more, um, I'm sure if they measure up because there's just this constant barrage of, um, formulas and ways in which to be better all the time. And what I mean by that is, you know, we have been made to receive the good news, the gospel of Jesus Christ. And yet if you look at the
00:15:17
Speaker
you know, the bookshelves or just what is the most popular in our culture. It's always what seems to be the good news of try a little harder, improve yourself a little more, own your life a little bit better and manipulate circumstances so that you can have the life you want. And so it's not that self-improvement or, I mean, in Christ, sanctification is a becoming more like Christ. We're not meant to be stagnant.
00:15:46
Speaker
So there's nothing wrong with becoming more holy and more disciplined and wiser and stronger. It's that we're doing it in our own means and subscribing to a formula that ultimately
00:15:59
Speaker
relies on our own efforts rather than aligning ourselves with the truth of God's word. That's why I say it's a false gospel because we're putting our hope and we're thinking that it might be good news to pick up the newest formula for how to overcome fear or be the best
Focus on God for Simplicity and Purpose
00:16:16
Speaker
version of ourselves. And the message that we're hearing over and over again is
00:16:20
Speaker
If you just turn the corner, if you just get a little more discipline, if you just implement these five tools, if you're just fatter, faster, smarter, better, if you hustle just a little bit harder, you will get everything you want. And the problem is at the end of the day, when we are anxiously striving to gain something for ourselves that we don't quite trust God for, then we put ourselves in the place of God in our lives and we start worshiping self.
00:16:48
Speaker
and not the creator who is meant to give us all those things. Yeah, it's so good. So good. You know, I think for listeners just understanding, I mean, really the New Testament talks about grace in a variety of ways, right? Grace is undeserved or unmerited favor, but grace is also this supernatural power.
00:17:05
Speaker
you know, if some of our Catholic brothers and sisters who might be listening, you know, grace is sharing in the life of God. It's, you know, the life of God imparted or infused in it, but it's that idea of, yeah, there's a different kind of motivation when you understand the Gospel, when you receive the grace of God. And like you said, it's not that the improvement
00:17:25
Speaker
is necessarily in and of itself a bad thing, but how we're trying to improve, what it is that we're really pursuing, is where we can really get in trouble. I love how you, I was gonna say real quickly too, when you were sharing that, I don't know who said it, but a number of years ago, I heard somebody say that one thing you notice about the saints, when you think about different men and women throughout church history who've lived lives of heroic virtue,
00:17:50
Speaker
One thing you notice about them is that the more full of God they became, the more simple their lives became. And I remember hearing that thought, why that is so good. Like when you think about, you know, whether it's St. Francis of Assisi or just different men and women who lived, you know, godly lives and they
00:18:06
Speaker
pursued God and the things of God, like the more full of God they became, the more like other stuff just didn't matter to them. And it wasn't that they weren't still ambitious, but the ambitions changed. And all of those other things that maybe mattered to them before just they kind of paled in comparison. And I just have always loved that phrase, that description. And do you think it's also because in some sense, when you are
00:18:34
Speaker
when everything is by God, through God and for God, your aim becomes singular. So maybe it's minimal and it's simplistic because your aim becomes so singular that you don't go chasing everything new and everything possible because really there are endless possibilities. And that's why I think we're so exhausted because there are endless things that we can pursue and it keeps us on the
00:19:00
Speaker
never in the hamster wheel of self-improvement and self-betterment and self-optimization. You know, that's like that, that trendy word right now is like optimize yourself and your giftings and everything. And to what end Pat, you know, ultimately if that end goal, if your aim is the greatest self-optimization so that you can be known and
00:19:25
Speaker
I mean, even legacy can be tricky, right? If it's about self-grandizement, if it's about optimizing yourself so that you can be at the core of all things and that your happiness can be the number one priority in your life, then you've missed the singular purpose of your life.
00:19:41
Speaker
which is to bring glory to God, which in the famous words of our friend, John Piper, he said, the closer we are to glorifying him, the more we are actually happy in the Lord. And we are brought to our joy that we were meant for. So that singularity I think is just really absent in our culture right now because we are constantly drawn here and there for every new way to satisfy ourselves.
Book Structure: Striving Behaviors and Grace
00:20:08
Speaker
Nope, that is so true, yes, so good. I love for our listeners, you divide, or the book is divided into two sections, and really that first half of the book, first section, you're really looking at the different ways that we strive, and I love that word strive. When I saw the book, it's like, oh, that's such an appropriate word. I feel like that will resonate so well with somebody. I'm curious, how long did you wrestle with the right word?
00:20:36
Speaker
Um, cause I feel like that word is, is spot on in terms of just what we're, what so many people in our culture are looking for. Right. You know, what I really was the title was a struggle because what I really want to say is, Hey, everybody study the doctrine of grace, because it's really important what we really feel and what we know. And what I wake up struggling with is I just want to go in like
00:21:02
Speaker
perfect my life so that I'll never feel discomfort or I won't suffer. So I won't feel bad about myself. And that's driving that the sense of anxiously trying to tweak my circumstances and tweak myself constantly so that I will gain what I want. That is when you say the word strive, you can just feel it. And so my, my desire was to have a title that would meet people in the place that they,
00:21:31
Speaker
where they might just say, okay, yeah, I'm ready to just lay it down. I'm so tired of carrying all this pressure and this weight I've tried to perform. Yeah, well, you nailed it with that word for sure. I love the title of that word. And so yeah, I mean, that first half of the book, that first section, you're really looking at the different ways that we strive. And then the second half is really looking at the ways that grace changes everything. And so, you know, you're talking about, you know, those strivings you mentioned,
00:21:58
Speaker
and cover some of these. You talk about just striving to please, striving for attention, striving to be good enough, striving for approval, striving to belong, striving to have it all, striving to outrun shame. I mean, you cover a lot of ground and it's so well
00:22:18
Speaker
written and and you just I think really hit on some key areas that people are really striving I'm curious which of those I'm looking at that list I'm like boy yeah I'm probably guilty of all those but but which of those just as you think about your own life and in writing the book which of those was I don't know which one of those was maybe the one you struggle with the most goodness well it was hard to choose a few because I
00:22:45
Speaker
This is probably my most vulnerable work, as all of those things really build upon one another. But I think honestly, for me, it probably is the approval. It's wanting to be seen and known. And here's the thing. I think I say this in the book, but when we talk about wanting approval,
00:23:08
Speaker
Is it really the approval we want or is it truly that we just want to be loved? Like at the end of the day, it's love that we're after. It's a welcome. It's the love. It's the saying you're, you're here. So like belonging and approval, they all go hand in hand. That's why all those chapters in the first section of the book really are inseparable in some ways because at the end of the day, what we're all wanting is the assurance that we matter.
00:23:36
Speaker
that our one little life counts for eternity, that something about our existence matters, and that the way we're made isn't a mistake, and that we are loved for who we are, and that we're not gonna be rejected because we struggle with things. Those are all real feelings. And we, instead of receiving what God has truly given us by the means of grace for that welcome to be found in him,
00:24:06
Speaker
we then go chasing after it in so many other ways. And of course, I detail some of those ways that I've struggled and wanted to find approval and belonging or just that sense of self-worth from another means other than God Himself. Yeah. Was there a point? I know we touched on this a little bit earlier, but was there a point where you
00:24:28
Speaker
I hate to, I hate to use the word fully understood God's grace. Cause I'm not sure we ever fully understand God's grace until we, until we get to heaven. But was there a particular experience or event where you feel like with a light bulb just kind of went, went on for you as it related, just got unconditional love for you? Yeah. You know, I, I wish there was a really, really clear moment at, but I would say my first, well, my three years in college really were,
00:24:57
Speaker
impactful there because I think there was the first time that I really walked through that with somebody who's discipling me but also walking through it with my peers and talking through it and thinking about it and wrestling with the things that college students wrestle with because, you know, I was dating, I was struggling within relationships, I was trying to figure out my life.
Recognizing Sin and Embracing Grace
00:25:17
Speaker
So, you know, even for the listener here who may not be in college but really going, I'm wrestling all these things that don't make sense in my life
00:25:26
Speaker
you can trace your way back and kind of go, okay, in what way am I wearing myself out trying to fix my life? And the light bulb finally went off that I am not meant to fix my life. I am meant to surrender my life. And the big difference there really had to come through, not just, you know, we would like to think that a pastor could just tell us, and we would say, yes, I trust you so much. You know, Pat, I'm sure as a pastor, you would love to just
00:25:52
Speaker
be like, I can say one thing and somebody will be like, yep, I trust you. I know you're right. But the truth is we were meant to receive that through the word of God and to ultimately understand his character. And so, you know, there's no receiving God's grace
00:26:08
Speaker
until I reckon with how pitiful I truly was. I mean, quite frankly, Pat, how unpopular can I be? That's such an unpopular opinion to be on a podcast and say, guess what guys, we're so pitiful. Because nobody wants to think that. We are enough society, right? You're the best, you're the strongest, you go prove it to the world, get what you want, society. But until, and I think, I quote this a lot, but I think it's Thomas Watson that said,
00:26:37
Speaker
till sin be bitter, Christ will not be sweet. I'd say the turning point in my life was when my sin really became bitter, and that's when the grace of God became sweet in my life. Yeah, but it's so good. I think it's such an important point to make. I always think of the Spurgeon quote, yeah, the same idea that when our sin is small, our Savior is small, but when our sin is great, our Savior is great.
00:27:02
Speaker
and how we need both of those, right? We need an awareness of really how sinful we are, but also how loved we are. And you just think about, you know, the life of Peter, you know, of course, is the classic example of that in the gospels who just as he's following Jesus is so confident and you know, all of those things that we know already about the life of Peter, but it's not until he has self-knowledge or greater self-knowledge when he sees this sin for what it really is that he's truly gripped by then, you know, the restoration of Jesus and, you know, the forgiveness to love. And that's what radically
00:27:32
Speaker
changes him. It's fun to read 1 Peter, you know, much later in his life and just what a different man he is. And so I think that's such an important point there. We need an awareness of our sin to truly appreciate what our Savior Jesus has done for us and really how amazing that that grace is.
Practical Steps to Embrace Grace
00:27:51
Speaker
So if Ruth were with me, if she was doing the... Ruth and our family will chuckle when they hear this. She's always getting to the point, okay, now let's get practical. That's sort of her line always. And so if she were here with me today, she'd be saying, okay, practically, how does that look? Like where does somebody who's struggling with some of the things you've been describing and that you cover in the book when striving cease, like where do they begin? What does it look like to very practically stop striving and to begin accepting God's grace?
00:28:21
Speaker
Yeah. So first of all, I would say the number one thing that I think helps us overcome our tendency to striving is to actually be well nourished. I think we're all striving on empty calories constantly. We don't really know the character of God. We don't really understand. I'm not saying all of us, but I think so many times we operate on empty and we haven't really thought through the love of God and what is truly ours in Christ.
00:28:50
Speaker
I don't think a lot of us wake up in the morning meditating and rehearsing our inheritance in Christ on what really is ours because of Jesus. And so then we run on empty and naturally resort to our own resources, right? And so the first most practical thing I would say is rather than simply just say, hey, friend, go read your Bible, I would say, okay, start by saying, like, just choose, just choose one of maybe one of the epistles that Paul has been really careful to say,
00:29:21
Speaker
This is the character of God. This is who you are in Christ. And then I love to say, wait on, just wait for a minute. Don't go straight to the section. That's the put on put off. And, um, don't go straight to the, what you can do for him now, but like spend some time in the first part of that letter.
00:29:38
Speaker
and think on, has that been amazing to you? Have you been thinking about the preeminence of Christ and Colossians? Have you been thinking about how He is first and preeminent and He holds all things together, Colossians 1.17, right? Like, have you been thinking on that? Because the truth is that will change your day. And practically speaking, I mean, it'd be so fun to give you 10 ways to stop striving and never have that issue. But that's not true. The truth is that the Christian life is a lot of dying to self.
00:30:08
Speaker
and recognizing where your temptation to like rely on yourself springs up and then to, you know, as John Owen would say, you know, kill sin by preaching the gospel back to yourself. So my encouragement to you, brother or sister, listening is to be amazed by grace once again, by going back to what God says about himself and rehearse that, spend some time meditating on it. If you need to listen to it while you read it so it's not,
00:30:37
Speaker
Um, wrote and stale and go on a walk, listen to us spoken over you. So that's one practical thing. And leading into that, my second practical tip would be, um, sometimes we strive because we think it all depends on us because we're like, Oh my goodness, my inbox is full. Um, because if I don't take care of this, then everything will fall apart.
00:30:57
Speaker
And it just feels like we're the masters of the universe, right? I mean, we just kind of think that we're so in charge. And so one of the practical things I do day by day truly is to turn off my phone, turn off my notifications, and get outside. It doesn't matter where you live. I happen to live in Colorado where it is beautiful outside. But even if you live deep in the heart of a city, get outside. There is something.
00:31:24
Speaker
that God has created that you had nothing to do with. And I'd love to say this ever since, you know, I even wrote about it beholding, becoming, but the truth is we all access a sunrise. We all have access to a sunrise or a sunset. And I don't know what you have, but for me, if I start my day in my day being in awe of God, then it puts me in my place and it helps me realize and remember that I can lay my strivings down because I'm not really as in charge of everything as I think I am.
00:31:52
Speaker
And that leads me to a better prayer life. It causes me to acknowledge him.
00:31:59
Speaker
and lean on him, you know, Proverbs 3, 5 and 6, you know, to acknowledge him in all my ways. And how do we do that? We do that by looking up and not looking down at our phones all day
Living an Interior Life Focused on Christ
00:32:12
Speaker
long. Yeah, it's so good. It just reminds me, I feel like we live such exterior lives. Like it's so easy to go through a day just reacting, you know, from one experience, one event, you know, one demand, one need.
00:32:24
Speaker
And just that need, you know, to live an interior life, to live, you know, out of the life of Christ that lives in us. And it's so, I love what you're talking about, just, you know, whether treating your Bible or getting out in particular, that discipline for me was so important, especially as I was recovering from, you know, my stem cell transplants back in 2018. I would go for walks and that was so transforming for me for the reason that you shared, like it just is good to feel small. And that's how I thought I would go out
00:32:54
Speaker
And I would walk and you just sort of look at creation. And Michigan's beautiful. It's not it's not as beautiful as Colorado. I hate to admit that. But I can't wait to visit. I've always I mean, Michigan's always fascinating. I'd love to. Oh, well, we don't have mountains. So I've always told Ruth that out of all the states I could live in, if I wasn't living in Michigan, I would either live in California or Colorado. So we love love Colorado. But
00:33:16
Speaker
But yeah, I think that discipline of just getting out and seeing God's greatness and His beauty, and that just has a way of humbling us, of reminding us of just how good and great God is.
Book Availability and Encouraging Community Engagement
00:33:29
Speaker
And boy, there's there's an awful lot there I know we could we could unpack. But I appreciate those those practical steps. You know, somebody can take I think those are so so important. You know, thank you again for taking the time. I know we were talking earlier before we started recording. It's a lot of work to write a book. And it's I think just as much work to release a book. And so I know you are are incredibly busy with with the writings done and now the work, the hard work of releasing it and getting the word out. And so it's already
00:33:58
Speaker
having great success and it hasn't even released yet. And so we're just excited for that. And just again, appreciate your ministry, your message. And real quick, one last really quick question, but where can folks go to either get a copy of the book or to follow you online? Well, thank you for that. I would be honored to walk with you day by day and encourage you through my Instagram account at Ruth Jo Simons. That's R-U-T-H-C-H-O-U-S-I-M-O-N-S.
00:34:35
Speaker
it's gonna be on shelves at targets nationwide on October 12th. So. Fantastic. Well, again, the book is Wind Striving Cease, Replacing the Gospel of Self Improvement with the Gospel of Life Transforming Grace. And again, we're gonna link to your full bio. We'll link to the book and a link to where folks can follow you online or social media. And so we'll be praying for you as you release this book. And so, Ruth, thank you again for your ministry over the years and just for taking the time to be on Ruth Like Faith today. Thanks so much.
00:34:53
Speaker
and you can find the book everywhere books are sold and we've got signed copies at Barnes and Noble as well as
00:35:05
Speaker
Well, friend, we are so grateful you have joined us, and I hope that you were blessed by that conversation with Ruth. I just absolutely adore Ruth Simons. If you don't follow her, make sure that you follow her on Instagram because you, I know, I know that you will just love her. And her Instagram handle is RuthChowSimons, R-U-T-H-C-H-O-U-S-I-M-O-N-S, and we'll be sure to put that in the show notes.
00:35:31
Speaker
Also, don't forget to check out her book, When Striving Cease, replacing the gospel of self-improvement with the gospel of life transforming grace. And again, we'll put everything that was in that conversation. We'll make sure that we put that in the show notes for you at rootlikefaith.com forward slash podcast.
00:35:50
Speaker
We welcome you again into our family here at Root Like Faith and we would absolutely love it if you would do us a big favor and leave us a review or rating. We love reading those. We love sharing those. It just takes a second and it's a tremendous help to us as we spread the word about Root Like Faith and be sure to tag us on social media so that we can share it as well. We're so grateful for your help in getting the word out. Okay friends, well we hope you have a great week and we will talk soon.