Make Room Series, Quieting Anxious Thoughts and Finding Unshakeable Faith W/Sarah Sorenson

Speaker 1: 0:00

I just feel like we miss in the Christian walk and I have completely missed, even growing up in a Christian home, that you can get into such a routine and such a one-sided conversation with God that I feel like I'm just now, in my early 30s, fully starting to realize how my entire approach to time with Jesus needs to be shifted, Helping you live brave, build community and pass on courageous faith to the girls around you.

Speaker 2: 0:26

This is Be the Brave Ones Podcast.

Speaker 3: 0:30

Hey everybody, we're back again for the final episode, episode four, in the Make Room series, and I'm here with Delaney.

Speaker 2: 0:37

Hi everybody. I'm very sad that it is the last one, because this series has been such a sweet way to start this year 2024. So thank you for being here. If you missed any episodes prior to this one, listen to this and then jump back into all the previous ones. You will be truly blessed by our guests and the scripture that we've chosen for the series.

Speaker 3: 0:58

Yes, our hope and our prayer is that you are making more room for Jesus and the girls in your life are making more room for Jesus. We are having these conversations on the podcast because we want you to go and have meaningful conversations of your own with the girls in your life, and that could be something as simple as asking them the question how are you making room for Jesus this year? You can go into a little, you can dig a little deeper by saying what did it look like for you to make room for Jesus last year? What is it going to look like for you to make room for Jesus this year? That can produce a lot of great conversation. Or you can use the tools that we've released, which you can find on our website Conversation Tools.

Speaker 3: 1:37

We just released a Bible study called Make Room. These podcast episodes follow along very well with that tool, and so we encourage you to check that out. Go to our website, download that. I'm actually hosting a Monday morning breakfast club at my daughter's school with seventh grade girls and we are walking through that study. If Rond and I are doing that, so I encourage you to do it.

Speaker 2: 2:00

It is well worth your time to do it and it is all free. You guys, it is such a gift to you. We just want to bless you and help you bless the girls in your life. So go download it. You will not regret it, I promise no, you won't.

Speaker 3: 2:13

And it is free. However, we are a nonprofit 501c3 company and if you are using our materials, all we ask is that you prayerfully consider giving a gift to our organization. You can go to the Give page of our website to do that. So today we're wrapping up this section of scripture that we've been examining and looking intently at Revelation 3, verses 20 through 22. Delaney, do you have those verses up?

Speaker 2: 2:38

I do, yeah, Do you want to read them? Yes. So, starting in verse 20, this is Jesus speaking to the church in Laodicea. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and eat with him, and he with me. The one who conquers I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches.

Speaker 3: 3:06

And so when I was taking a look at these verses, even fresh again every time I look at them I want to look at them fresh. And looking at them fresh again this morning, what was standing out to me is how, when we invite somebody into our lives, into our home, we're saying something about our relationship with that person. We're saying I'm ready to go deeper in this relationship with you, and that is in the study that we put together. But it makes me think about different people that I've invited into my home, the point where I was like, hey, you should come over for dinner or let's get together for this. It means you're taking your relationship to the next level and I feel like the last thing that we want with Jesus is a surface level relationship.

Speaker 3: 3:50

But if we're not careful, we can get caught up in that and not even realize it, as we talked about a couple of episodes before, about not even realizing the places where we haven't fully let Jesus in. And it also makes me think about trusting him. Sometimes we don't want to let him in because we're not fully ready to trust him or trust his ways, Trust that his ways are better, and we feel like, oh, if we let you in. You're going to rearrange the furniture, and I kind of like the furniture the way that it is right now, and so I just want to let you know listeners, if that's you, that the only way you're going to learn to trust him is by letting him in and his promises are true and he is good. And if he's going to rearrange your furniture, your living room is going to be ready for the Home and Garden magazine Like he's going to do a really he's going to do a really great job.

Speaker 2: 4:42

That's so good. I love that. I love that, yes, and his heart is to be with you, like that is clear in the scripture that the Father's heart and the heart of the Son is to be with us. That is what the gospel preaches. He is Lord over all, he is King over all and he desires his children to be with him and he will go to the end of the earth and he will knock on your door to be with you. And there's sweetness in there and it is. It can be intimidating to sit with someone, especially if you haven't spent time with them in a long time or you don't really know much about them. There is this like intimidation about that, just why it's so important to just take it step by step and see what other people are doing with their time with Jesus. You know and like, ok, you keep talking about this Jesus guy. I want to know what he's like, how can I sit with him? So, yes, he is so worth our time and he loves to be with us.

Speaker 3: 5:38

And I think that is something that holds us back. Delaney, you and I have talked about this, and that's why, in the Bible study, the whole last section has this part about creating space for Jesus, and there's three parts, which actually came from a woman at your church, inspired this piece, delaney. Choose a place, have a plan, set a time, like choose where am I going to meet with Jesus every day. Have a plan of what you're going to do. And that plan can be oh, I'm going to read through a certain book of the Bible, or I'm going to use the halo method on a certain section of scripture, or I'm going to copy and memorize some verses, like for this month, I'm going to copy and memorize different proverbs.

Speaker 3: 6:16

Or I'm going to copy a whole book of the Bible, like make a plan, and it's good to have accountability in that too, and having a friend like this is what I'm going to be doing with my time with Jesus this month, and so I just wanted to touch on that before we invite our guest on that. Having that plan, like knowing what you're going to do and there's more things on the Bible study how you can use that time, will help you get there. So you're not like, oh, I could go spend time with Jesus, but I have no idea what I'm going to do.

Speaker 2: 6:41

You've got to have a plan. Yes, don't wing it. Don't wing it. You would never like just have someone over last minute and be like, oh, I don't know what we're going to do, I don't know what we're going to talk about. I'm just going to sit here and like, naturally that person like if they love you, they're not going to care, but if it is someone that you love and care for and you want to seek to show them hospitality, like you are going to have a plan in your mind.

Speaker 2: 7:06

You know, like the house doesn't need to be perfectly clean whatsoever, but you're gonna expect them, you're gonna know that they're coming, you're going to set a time on your calendar and you are going to be intentional with that time. You're not gonna be all over the place, you're not gonna have your phone on you. You are gonna be intentional with that. So just, we want to encourage you guys. Don't wing it Like. Really try to invest in this making room for Jesus, because it's not about perfection, it's about perseverance and if you're striving to be perfect every time, you're not gonna keep showing up and you are gonna miss out on meeting with the king of the universe.

Speaker 3: 7:42

So, yeah, yes, he wants to come over for breakfast or lunch or dinner, so we're all have a meal, yeah, or all three, yeah.

Speaker 3: 7:50

So we have an awesome guest here with us today. Delaney and I are both so excited that she is going to be joining us. Her name is Sarah Sarensen and she is a Nashville based singer and songwriter and founder of Thrive Hive, an online community where people can be equipped to thrive through friendship, education, mentorship, community and prayer. Sarah has developed a large following on TikTok, where she sings. Her songs and her videos have touched millions of lives, and she has a heart for speaking about OCD and mental health topics, building community and advancing the kingdom of God. Welcome, sarah, we are so glad you're here.

Speaker 3: 8:32

Hi so excited to join you guys. So today we are talking about making Jesus feel welcome in every area of our lives and particularly, just in general, making room for Jesus. So we've been asking every guest the same question, the same first question, and that's what we want to ask you today what does making room for Jesus look like for you right now in your life?

Speaker 1: 8:54

Well, I actually want to start off with just saying that I had a lot of anxiety about this recording this morning as I was praying and doing my quiet time, because I just realized I felt so inadequate to even be talking into this subject, and me making space for Jesus even this morning was me sitting in silence and not running my mouth and allowing myself to feel those anxious feelings of inadequacy with him, and that's something that I'm really not good at. But I've been working on that and for me in 2024, I really just want to abide with the Lord, and this is something that I've heard about. I've heard people talk about.

Speaker 1: 9:35

My dad actually likes to talk about abiding with the Lord ad nauseam, which is a good thing to talk about a lot, but my husband and I have been going through a series on abiding and there's just so much to it that I just feel like we miss in the Christian walk and I have completely missed even growing up in a Christian home doing my.

Speaker 1: 9:55

You know, okay, go spend time with Jesus, you know, even from a little kid making that a practice, and you can get into such a routine and such a one sided conversation with God that I feel like I'm just now, in my early 30s, fully starting to realize how my entire approach to time with Jesus needs to be shifted. So right now that looks like leaning into listening prayer, and that is not something that I really practiced very much at all until just literally recent years. But that's what it looks like. It looks like me just shedding my mouth, being quiet and trying to listen to the Lord. It is so hard it really is because I think I'm just not used to it but also trying to reach for my Bible first before reaching for social media. That's been a big thing for me that I've been pushing hard to implement, even if it's like I can't have a full, long session with the Lord. I want that impulse for me to be prayer and reading the Bible before social media.

Speaker 3: 10:55

Thank you so much, sarah, for your transparency and being honest. I feel like that goes so much further than us just talking about our perfect time with God all the time, because we're struggling, we're all struggling and we need to hear that even the Nashville singer, singer-songwriter who's singing about Jesus is struggling. We're struggling and so we have to be honest about that. We are all about that. At Brave Girls Gather, we're like please don't bring me You're perfectly put together self. Please bring me your honest, raw self, because that's who.

Speaker 2: 11:27

Jesus wants.

Speaker 3: 11:27

That's who I want and that's how we're going to grow together, and so I so appreciate that. And also, as far as listening to God, I love that because I do think that that is something. For the first at least 10 years of my relationship with Jesus, it was a lot more me talking, and I actually it was probably this three to six month period, you guys, where my morning time with Jesus was just sitting in silence, like just sitting there and like feeling his kindness. It wasn't like I wasn't talking to him, but I was literally just sitting there and my heart was being stilled and my mind was being stilled by his presence, and that tuned me into the presence of God, which is the sweetest and kindest place that my heart can be, and so I love that you brought that to this conversation.

Speaker 2: 12:14

Sarah, thank you, yeah, that's so good. I have a really bad habit of when someone is talking to me, I'm still like rehearsing something in my mind, whether it's like something that I have to do, something that I've been doing. Just like there's something in my mind and like I'm not actively listening to that person and so, therefore, like my next response to their question or what they're sharing is not as profitable and not, and like I'm getting nothing out of this conversation and so it's the same thing with the Lord, like letting my mind just like wander and like fountain and decompress and like get all that I need to get out and then having it be blank and then like that's when I'm fully able to listen Once I've word vomited and then I'm like, okay, I am sorry, your turn.

Speaker 2: 13:01

Just we need, we need the help of the Holy Spirit to truly calm our minds as well. So, yes, thank you for starting out with just real transparency and sharing that.

Speaker 1: 13:10

Yeah, I'm very passionate about it because it's. It's wild to me how the number one thing that if, like I'm in Nashville, I've been here for a few months I used to live here but lived in Florida for a few years and now we're back and so I'm, we're literally building new community. So I'm taking a lot of girls out on coffees and we're getting to know people and my husband's getting to know people and this I don't know. I've learned something about myself. That the first thing. That really just rubs me the wrong way if I can tell like halfway through the coffee conversation this person doesn't really care about me because they've not asked me barely one question or asked me what I think about something and I don't have to dominate the conversation.

Speaker 1: 13:47

But nobody likes someone who runs their mouth, because what does it make us feel like, like they could care less about us, even if they do? And why then in church do we rarely hear about listening prayer in all of our women's bible studies and all that? No, it's like pour your heart out to the Lord, it's the power of a praying wife. Well, guess what? She goes in there and she runs her mouth with her sword in the spirit and it's like okay, but every passage in the bible where we hear God speaking to someone, it's like in the stillness, it's like Samuel.

Speaker 1: 14:19

You know God calling to Samuel. It's not them running their mouth, necessarily. Sometimes it is, you know, hannah pouring her heart out to the Lord and God speaks to her. But I just feel like we totally missed and I'm not taking the victim mindset here, because I haven't been taught that this is what I should do. I really have, and the word of God has taught me. I have just chosen over my life to prefer my own voice over the voice of God and think that I'm getting somewhere with God by just blabbering. So that's my rant about it.

Speaker 3: 14:48

Thank you for the rant and if you guys were listening, on episode one, delaney talked about this behold acronym that she uses to get into the presence of God and I started using it and I had this incredible, crazy prayer time and I've been going back to it during my days and whatnot since using that and we have put that into a document and we want to give it to you listeners. You can go to be the brave ones gift dot com. Again, it's be the brave ones, gift dot com. And you can get that sent to your inbox and start using that and practicing that and seeing how that brings you to just be with God, just to just be with him.

Speaker 3: 15:24

So good, I can't line up and hear from him and the first time I used it, delaney, I heard incredibly from God like he showed me his heart and I was so moved by it. So, listeners, we encourage you to get that. But we want to ask you, sarah, how did you come to love Jesus like?

Speaker 1: 15:39

tell us a little bit of your coming to Jesus story well, I actually struggle with my come to Jesus story because it's not as glamorous as, like you know, I was just running from the Lord and you know he yanked, he bets his crazy testimony or whatever.

Speaker 1: 15:53

But I will say that I was a little stinker at like five years old and my parents wonderful, godly parents had repeatedly shared the gospel with me in a non-pressuring way and there came a point where I don't remember this but apparently I told them I don't want to hear about it anymore. Wow, and that just speaks to the personality that I still struggle with today and they were like, okay, you know, we're not going to press the issue. And then there came a point where I just came to them and I was like I want to be saved. On my terms, you know that's my life, but so that just started a relationship with the Lord that has grown throughout the years. I really do feel like, despite, you know, seasons of not being as close to the Lord, I really have pursued him my whole life.

Speaker 3: 16:39

I love to hear how different people have come to experience Jesus, find Jesus whether it's running away and coming back or knowing him all of our lives, but truly coming to a moment where it's like hey, I believe that's true.

Speaker 3: 16:51

Now, like I want to live like it's true. I think there's definitely this defined moment where we can say I decided I wanted to live like it was true. And so, as a singer-songwriter, I'm just curious to know which I think means our listeners are probably curious to know too what does it look like for you as a singer-songwriter? How does that fit into your relationship with Jesus?

Speaker 1: 17:13

yeah, and I just want to circle back really quick to my answer of just saying it's interesting because while I reflect on oh, maybe I don't have the wildest story of, you know, living a life of debauchery and then being saved, I really feel like my biggest struggle has been going through the motions and God having to save me from that, and that has been equally hard or equally as a testimony of the Lord's grace, as someone yanked from black to white, you know, like the darkness to light very subtly, because I feel it's very sneaky, and that's been something that I'm just grateful for God in my life being so patient. You know, when I have just gone through the motions because I can be a really good pretend good Christian, you know singing on the worship team and doing all that and really just you know like, yeah, I gotta care about you, but not enough to really go after you with a burning heart anyway, but you were talking about singer-songwriter.

Speaker 3: 18:03

Can we sit there for a second, actually, can we?

Speaker 2: 18:05

not move on.

Speaker 3: 18:05

Yes, totally because you had shared something and it's in your bio information as well, and you and I had talked through Instagram, through messenger. So, even though some of us might not like run from God, but we go through something that's really hard and we learn dependency on God and so.

Speaker 3: 18:22

I was just wondering if this would be a good time for you to talk to our audience about what it looked like for you to struggle with OCD and how that impacted your relationship with Jesus yeah, how to wrap it into a, into a short version.

Speaker 1: 18:37

I, as a child, there were some things that manifested that I didn't know and my parents didn't know were obsessive compulsive disorder. We grew up in a for a couple years in a fundamentalist type church that was very, you know, holiness emphasis skirt down to the floor. Rock music is evil. We're actually part of the bill gothered like the dugger. The organization that the duggers were a part of actually had to have a meeting one on one with bill gothered ones and it was all of this pressure and intense scrutiny on your standing with god confessing sin. I mean I would have made a great catholic as far as confession and praying the the things in sequence, and all that because I realized that I really struggled with an anxiety that I wasn't right with the lord. And I remember going through long periods of confession with my parents, like writing down all the sins I could think of to when I was a little child, like I stole vanilla wafers out of the cabinet at three years old. My parents like, okay, we forgive you and you know they're trying to like. It's hard for them because they were looking at me just being so locked in on trying to have a clear conscience, that they thought, well, what parent doesn't want a kid that wants a clean conscience? And during this time I was also at times going through a lot of hand washing, which my mom would be like. You know your hands are cracking and I would. I did a lot of cooking for the family, handling raw meat and at the time didn't put two and two together that my fear of hurting someone with salmonella actually caused me to perform compulsions of washing my hands until they cracked. And you know again, these were all the ocd wasn't really talked about when I was a kid very much in our circles, and especially in a church, that mental health problems are maybe demonic or your problem actually a faith problem. So it was the perfect setup to really just crash and burn.

Speaker 1: 20:23

When I was 19 I went through just kind of an intense period of life with scheduling and I was so busy and I got sick, and it was the perfect setup for me to just literally spiral and intrusive thoughts just on a repeat track in my head, horrible things that I just thought I'm the worst person, I don't get it, what's happening to me? I feel like I might hurt somebody. Like what are these wild thoughts in my head. I don't want them, but they keep coming and the more I tried to get rid of the thoughts by performing compulsions like rebuking the thoughts, rebuking satan again, going into confessing everything I could ever think of, because if it's a sin that I'm holding on to, maybe if I confess that sin and get rid of it, then maybe these thoughts will go away. You know it, just everything I could ever think of. I had people in the church who were trying to, you know, cast out a demon from me and counsel me. And maybe I'm holding on to rebellion. It was.

Speaker 1: 21:11

It was an awful time. Finally my parents realized we think something health wise is going on here. You know, nothing's working. Nothing spiritual is working. And they could see that I was earnest, I was trying to work this out in a spiritual way and so I got on some medication. Things leveled off, but I didn't really address what was the root of that which.

Speaker 1: 21:30

It was ocd and during that time I actually felt at times like it really attacked my faith during that whole spiral period, because ocd is nicknamed the doubting disease. So I've always been kind of a questioner but obviously really committed my relationship with god. But the ocd really attached to um, theological questions, things that I was wrestling with, like how do I know god is real? How can I prove god is real? What's the evidence? And then I was stuck on these researching cycles of like talking to my dad about apologetics and, of course, again, what dad doesn't want to talk with their kid about proof that the lord is real? Um, but what they didn't realize is they were providing me reassurance, uh, where I was actually not wanting to rebel from god, I was just wanting reassurance that he was real. I wanted proof, cold hard proof.

Speaker 1: 22:14

But if you're in a spiral with ocd, you can't feel certainty about anything, so you keep seeking it and feeding that, and so, anyway, throughout the years I struggled with it, but it was really until I had gone to nashville, finished my music degree, came back home in a stressful season, that it was the worst spiral with ocd that I'd ever had, to the point where I was looking for ways to kill myself and my parents had me on suicide watch. They were about to check me into a mental like. I remember being in the car at this mental health facility and my dad was like we don't like this place, we can't leave her here, because he went and took a look inside and I'm so glad they didn't because I was able to again get on medication. But really one of the biggest things that helped me was connecting with jamie dal rimple, who was an ocd therapist in tampa. Highly recommend her and, uh, she really just started helping me to crawl out of that hole to deal with exposure, some exposure therapy, to write down all the or to talk through all the obsessions that I was struggling with and she was even helping me through.

Speaker 1: 23:14

As a christian you can't just sometimes turn some of these things like praying or reading your bible into compulsions and there might be a time where you need to chill on reading your bible, which is something a pastor will never tell you unless they are educated about ocd. So that whole time, each, each time, I would go through a spiral. It would severely affect my faith and my relationship with god. And even to this day, even when I have overcome ocd to such a large extent and really, and proud of a lot of work that I've done there, I know and I can recognize that my unique struggle, my cross that I bear, is I often doubt if god is real. I often doubt am I doing this just for show? Like, is this all just a big charade? Being a christian and following the lord is my prayer? Like, is god listening it just to me?

Speaker 1: 24:03

I've realized that, more than even just something to attack from a faith basis, that yes, that is important, but for me those can spin into ocd obsessions. That I have to treat my doubts about god as just a passing thought and not ascribe too much meaning to them. And honestly, even if people don't struggle with ocd, I think if we were to just treat intrusive thoughts like that, that we would be a way better off than feeling like we have to go after every intrusive thought, every doubt, doubtful thought about god with an attack. And it's been very hard.

Speaker 1: 24:34

I have had someone tell me to my face maybe you're not saved because you're struggling with these doubts someone very close to me and my family, and thankfully I was at a maturity point where I can receive that and not then spiral with that and be like, what if I'm not saved? Oh my gosh, I'm gonna pray the prayer of salvation five million times in a row, which again is another compulsion that many people struggle with and that I have struggled with myself. But for me, I've learned to hold ocd with grace and as it relates to my faith, instead of just causing me to completely deconstruct and say, forget this. I cannot handle the anxiety that having religious cd brings upon me. Instead, it's a great form of exposure, of continue to have faith, of continuing to go to church, of continuing to pray, even though I can be worshiping and thinking, get a thought that's like what if this is all for nothing? And really want to spiral on that thought in that moment, think of all the proofs of god in that moment that I can reassure myself.

Speaker 2: 25:29

I love that. Thank you for like Honing in on trust, the trust aspect that we talked about, that earlier to mandy. This passages scripture is calling us to like truly trust the lord. And there's so much, there's so much there, there's so much that it takes like, what does it take to trust jesus? And it is time with him.

Speaker 3: 25:48

Yes, I was thinking that too, delaney, that the trust and how we were just talking about trust at the beginning of the episode introducing this episode, and I'm so glad that you're talking about this and listeners, I wanted to talk about this because I believe that there are more girls struggling with cd than we know, and these girls are struggling worse because nobody knows, starting with their parents, and I'm literally getting tears in my eyes right now. I have a child who struggles with cd and we didn't find out until it was already controlling our lives. And it's not defiance, it's not oppositional defiance, order, it is obtrusive thoughts and it can be diagnosis, other things, and totally miss out on that. They are struggling in their minds and it's something that they cannot control right. And so I want to talk about this and I'm so glad you that you took the time to really talk about what it looks like, sara, because women, if you're listening to this, you're like, oh my gosh, like my girl does that, or you're like, I know a girl who does that and you have a close relationship with the mom.

Speaker 3: 26:53

You can share this episode like what do you think of this? You know, because I really want girls to get the help that they need, and the help that we needed. What that look like is we first saw medical intervention, and then we went the nature pathic route and hire to homeopath and then we also did therapy. We did ocd ocd therapy, yeah. So thank you, sara, for your vulnerability, your honesty and talking about this. I know that you recently started a community as well that people could join. Could you tell our audience about that real quick and how they can connect with that?

Speaker 1: 27:22

Yeah, and I'll just again affirm what you're saying. I don't know what's going on with this epidemic of girls With ocd, and it starts young, sometimes started young with me, not to the point of where it got in my twenties, but it's very scary. It's scary mostly for the person going through, but also for the parent who has no idea what to do and it's actually unintentionally feeding into it. So if you have any questions, please Reach out to me, don't hesitate. If I had figured out that this is what it was early on, I really think I would have spared my family so much grief and trouble trying to work, work me out of, literally trying to end it all. What did you ask me? I just totally forgot your question. We were talking community. Yeah, the community. What you see here we're talking about listening and running my mouth and other things.

Speaker 1: 28:14

Um, so the community came about because I had so many people I started sharing about ocd, on tiktok and all these mainly girls, guys to girls are Help me, help, like I'm going through this, what I do, and I'm like, oh my gosh, what I, how do I help people with? Well, I'm not a counselor therapist. I'm trying to point them to. Hey, here's how you can find a therapist in your area, whatever. But I want to place where people can feel like they weren't alone, like they were crazy, because that's that's probably the worst part of ocd is just feeling like you're this weirdo in the months of a bunch of normal people. And Isolation is one of the hardest parts, because anything we bring into light whether that's in, whether that's a struggle, if we can find community around it, that takes so much of the power out of it. And so I created this community called thrive hive. It has a couple different subgroups one for just christian girls who don't necessarily have ocd, but one encouragement on Dating or to find friendship and community with other christian girls. One is for guys and girls and the one with ocd.

Speaker 1: 29:15

So I just made a place where it's kind of built out like a facebook group. It's called, it's on the mighty networks platform and I'm sure we'll have the link available at some point. But that's a place where you can go, you can chat with me directly. I'm not a therapist but I do have a lot of insight and people coming to me saying hey, I'm staying up until Midnight or I can't get sleep because I'm praying, asking god if I'm going to help, like what if I'm not saved? Being able to just say, hey, what's going on? Okay, what are the compulsions that you're performing? Oh, you're praying about those thoughts. Okay, you're asking god to forgive you, you're praying for salvation five million times a day and just kind of say like, hey, you gotta stop Performing the compulsion. And just kind of start pointing in the right direction and make them feel not alone is what that whole community is all about.

Speaker 3: 29:58

I love that. I love that. I love that you started that community and will definitely included in the show notes. And so when we were considering inviting you onto the podcast which Just quick, funny backstory is I was at an event where you were singing and your worship was incredibly beautiful, move my heart in an area where my heart need to be moved, and I thought I want to buy her on the podcast.

Speaker 3: 30:20

Like I'm wondering if she's on social media and I go to social media instagram and I go. I already follow her. But anyway, yeah, I just didn't know that I was already following you. But anyway, I looked into your songs that you've released and I saw that you had a song called two of us and we had already worked out the design for our series. We've been talking about this hospitality element and the girl who does the design work for the different series that we do. I put a table for two as the imagery that we're going to use for this series and so, yeah, tell us about that song. Like, did something inspire it? Is there a story behind it?

Speaker 1: 30:55

Yes, it was a couple years ago and my memory is terrible so I'll try to try to remember as best I can. I do know for sure, from a stylistic standpoint and thematically, what inspired that song was been rector song, what was it called? He has this amazing song I'm looking up right now because it's such a good song, but he had one that was very similar. I would call duo. It's really cute and it's about a friendship with somebody and you can theorize who that person is. But I just love the vibe of the song.

Speaker 1: 31:25

It was about camaraderie, friendship, which is super fun, and I wanted to Write a song that was about friendship with God and that camaraderie instead of. I think we should hold the Lord in reverence but really hone in on just that friendship aspect. Just like you're listening to a friend, you know we need to listen to the Lord, and so that's part of inspiration behind that song. It's just let's make a fun song. It's about friendship with the Lord and if you listen to it you don't always you can't figure out that it's the Lord, until the chorus, I believe. Yeah, it's a little like who are talking about we're talking about, like their wife, their husband, they're buddy. So I like a little ambiguity here in there. It's cute, the reveal.

Speaker 3: 32:04

Yes it is such a fun song. It is a super cute, fun song. I love it. It's on our worship playlist. You guys, the make room Spotify worship playlist go check that out there.

Speaker 3: 32:13

Every time that we're on the podcast we'd like to have a get real moment, but, sarah, I feel like we've already had some get real moments. So we are going to jump into our scripture here, which is a section of scripture on the story of Zacchaeus, and a lot of listeners are probably like oh yeah, I know that story. But just as a quick refresher, I'm gonna read it really quick. It says, starting in Luke 19, verse 1, he entered Jericho and was passing through and behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was the chief tax collector and was rich, and he was seeking to see who Jesus was. But on account of the crowd he could not because he was so small and stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way.

Speaker 3: 32:56

And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today. So he hurried and came down and Received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all grumbled he has gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner. And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord Behold, lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold. And Jesus said to him today, salvation has come to this house, since he is a son of Abraham, for the son of man came to seek and save the lost. And so I'm curious to know, when you guys took a look at this scripture, what did you see?

Speaker 2: 33:40

I Again, I just I love seeing the heart of Christ to commune with us, and that's something that we've been talking about all throughout this series, but especially today, especially in your song. Two of us, just the heart of Jesus to sit with us, and Part of that is sitting with us in our sin and our struggles and our thoughts. He's not needing us to get it all together before we sit with him. That was clearly wasn't the case with Zacchaeus and it's not the case with us. God doesn't change. She's the same Jesus in Luke 19 Thousands years ago that he is today, like we don't have to get it all together To make room for him. If you take anything away, too, I want it to be like Jesus wants to be with you and like have that friendship and the you. That is truly you too, not this made-up version of you. But I'm curious, sarah, what did you take away?

Speaker 1: 34:30

well, I think it's undisputable that Zacchaeus is big love and life was money and I don't identify with that in a I mean in a normal sense. I love money but like time is my, time spent is my treasure and something that actually pastor Mike Ash Grace, family Dilley I know, you know him.

Speaker 1: 34:52

I do too, oh cool, yeah. He shared with me something once and I've never forgotten it. He said I was struggling with jealousy towards someone Another pastor I know he wouldn't mind me saying this and he said that the Bible verses says where your treasure is, there your heart will be. He said. I sent him a gift and and to show him, to show my heart, that I'm transitioning my treasure to you, to get over that resentment, and Something that I feel like I struggle with with the Lord is caring enough To spend time with him, and time is my treasure, and I spent a lot of time on social media, and so, for me, I think Zacchaeus went all in with the Lord and it was like, oh, I'll fit half of all he owned.

Speaker 1: 35:33

Well, that was him giving his treasure to Lord so that he could show that his heart was also with the Lord. So for me, I want my treasure and my heart to be with the Lord, whatever that looks like in my life, and anyone else might. They might have a Different treasure, but that's something that I see in that, and he did whatever it takes to give his treasure to the Lord.

Speaker 3: 35:49

I love that I love so good. I love that taking the step like listeners. What is your step? So pastor Mike sent a gift to the person that he was struggling with jealousy towards, to shift his heart. What is your step that's gonna shift your heart? What is it? Will you take it tomorrow? Will you do the step? I was astounded at how much this section of scripture lined up with the revelation scripture as well. Like he's a rich man, right, he's got life all wrong, and then he has a meal with Jesus and he's completely transformed. He starts by what Jesus is selling and he's a new man, and so that's what. What really stood out to me. So let's let him in. He's knocking. He's knocking at the door. He doesn't want to shame us, he wants to change us, so let's let him in. Sarah, thank you so much for joining us. This was a really special conversation and I appreciate you being here.

Speaker 1: 36:42

Of course you all are great. Thanks for having me on.

Speaker 2: 36:45

Thanks for listening, you guys. That is a wrap for the make room series. If you missed any of the four episodes, we encourage you to go back and take a listen. You won't want to miss anything. As Mandy shared, we just released a b1 study, a bible study, called make room. It walks you through revelation 3 verse, 5 verse, and this is a tool that you can use to have meaningful conversation With the girls in your life. You can find all that and more at bravegirlsgathercom, and we are just getting started. We have more conversations and more tools in store for you, you next, so subscribe to the podcast so that you don't miss out on anything. We love you guys. We'll see you soon.