elcome And Take A Breath

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Hi, and welcome to our podcast, Revelation Within on the Go. I'm Heidi Miles Mempherson, one of your hosts, and the owner and lead coach of the RevelationWithin.org Ministry.

SPEAKER_01 0:14

And I'm Christina Motley, your other host, also a Revelation Within coach, and Heidi's partner in all things Revelation Within. And we are so happy to invite you to join us for this episode of Revelation Within.

SPEAKER_00 0:36

I just can't scroll for the life of me. All right.

SPEAKER_01 0:42

Oh, we're so glad you're here. Come on in. Put your feet up. Come on in.

SPEAKER_00 0:46

Sit right down.

SPEAKER_01 0:46

Sit right down. Um, yeah. And before we even begin, let's just kind of take a breath.

SPEAKER_00 0:54

That's a great idea.

SPEAKER_01 0:55

You've probably been running around taking care of people, working, taking care of things, doing all kinds of things. We don't know. But we know that you probably need to just take a breath. Let's do that for a minute. Deep breath in. Deep breath out. One more. Deep breath in. Deep breath out. There's nothing that you need to do to prepare yourself for this. Is that refreshing? Yes, it is for me. It is. You don't need to brace. You don't need to fix. You don't even need to fully understand. Oh, I love that. Yeah, I love it too. It just kind of takes all that off. It pressure. It's like, oh, you can just arrive. How about that? Just arrive. Just be here with us.

hoosing To Sit With Discomfort

SPEAKER_00 1:56

Well, our intention today is to offer you something a little bit different. But I as I was thinking about it, all of our podcasts turn different. They are. Anyway, our intention today is not to rush any solutions. No. Not try to get somewhere or come up with all these answers.

SPEAKER_01 2:15

Right.

SPEAKER_00 2:15

We're gonna sit and we're actually gonna sit in something we usually try really hard not to sit in. Oh no.

SPEAKER_01 2:25

What is it, Heidi? What is it?

SPEAKER_00 2:28

It's it starts with dis and that tells us something. Discomfort. Discomfort. We try as hard as we can to avoid discomfort, to to stop it from speaking to us, to like moot it completely. Stuck us down.

SPEAKER_01 2:47

Run away from it.

SPEAKER_00 2:48

Pretend it's not there. Right. So today we're gonna sit in discomfort.

SPEAKER_01 2:56

Oh I'll be back in half an hour, Heidi. No, we won't.

cripture On God Near The Broken

SPEAKER_00 3:03

So let's begin with this. Psalm 145, verse 8. I love that we start with scripture today. I really do too. And get this. This is this is such wonderful truth. The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love.

SPEAKER_01 3:25

Oh, I have to read that again. Read it again. Read it again.

SPEAKER_00 3:29

The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love.

SPEAKER_01 3:37

Oh, I love it. Beautiful, beautiful. How about this one? Psalm 34, 18. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

SPEAKER_00 3:50

Crushed? I mean, I don't have to wait until I'm okay. I don't have to wait until I've figured it all out. That God is near to me even then. Near near to me in the when I'm brokenhearted. When you are crushed.

SPEAKER_01 4:06

When you are crushed, yes. Which means the places we feel most uncomfortable might actually be the places he is drawing the closest.

SPEAKER_00 4:18

Yeah, wow. To me, that's really good news because it's really good news. There's so many times when I feel like, God, you're calling me to do more than I'm able to. You're you're it's too much. God, it's too much. Um, and in those moments, I know I have a tendency, and maybe you do too. Many of us have a very practiced rhythm when discomfort shows up. It shows up, and I want to stop it. We don't usually pause and think, hmm, what is this feeling trying to do? Nope, not usually. No, instead, we normally, many of us, many, many of us, oftentimes move. Let's get out of this, let's do something to shake it off.

SPEAKER_01 5:05

Yeah, immediately, like right now. Let's go. I'm out of it. Yeah, like I'm I'm running away. I'm going. Or sometimes that means, you know, running away in our minds too. Discomfort comes. And what do we do? We reach for food, we grab our phone, we turn something on, we busy ourselves, we try to fix or escape.

SPEAKER_00 5:30

And you know, truthfully, none of those things inherently are wrong. Right. I mean, that's that's good. Somebody needs to hear that too.

SPEAKER_01 5:37

I think it's probably exactly yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:39

But the truth is, these things can become, and many other things too, of course, can become ways of leaving ourselves, just you know, vacating the premises. Her mind has left the building, her heart is gone too. Um, right when something inside of us is asking to be seen and heard and felt.

SPEAKER_01 6:04

Yes. You know, I think sometimes we assume that God's goal is to get us out of discomfort as quickly as possible. Isn't that what his goal is?

SPEAKER_00 6:15

What?

SPEAKER_01 6:16

But that's what we beg him for. Yeah, get me out of this, Lord, now, please, just fix this, take it away. Um, that's that's not his that's not his plan.

SPEAKER_00 6:27

No, and you know what else isn't what he's saying? He's not saying, I'll see you on the other side of this. You deal with this first, Heidi or Christina, and I'll see when you get through it. No, no, no, that's not him, that's not our God, and that is really good news. Scripture shows us something completely different. And Psalm 147, 3 tells us he heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds, which, if you've ever, you know, seen somebody be bound up because of wounds, it's time consuming, it's an involved, very personal, very intimate process. I wouldn't want somebody I don't trust to do that. No, and I wouldn't want somebody who was in a hurry to do that either.

SPEAKER_01 7:08

Right, that's a good point, really. So healing and binding up, that's that's not rushed, that's not rushed at all. It's attentive, it's present, and it's with it's with. It's you're not sitting there all by yourself, it's it's with.

SPEAKER_00 7:27

Yeah, you know, what if, what if instead of what we often think, God is not standing at the finish line of your discomfort and mine. What if he is kneeling down inside of it with you? Yeah, what if he's holding you close in the midst of your discomfort and saying, Let's investigate this?

SPEAKER_01 7:51

Yeah, let's let's look. Oh, that's beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 7:55

So let's slow down a real life moment. And I really fought with God about this.

SPEAKER_01 8:00

I don't want to talk about this because it's uncomfortable. It's it's is it uncomfortable?

SPEAKER_00 8:08

Yes, okay. Um, for me, those moments of discomfort, and I'm thinking of the ones that cause me to do that reaching, that reaching for scrolling or for a you know, a game I want to play, or food, or drink, or whatever it might be. For me, those moments usually happen an hour or maybe even two after dinner when life is no longer so busy that it's distracting me from my feelings. Right, right. Things quiet and I can't be distracted as easily. So before anything happens, before I head for the kitchen or pantry, though, there's usually a moment. A moment, it might be a snap moment, a flicker, and that's that discomfort. If I am willing to stop and recognize it, it's there.

SPEAKER_01 8:59

I can stop in that moment, and you know, I mean, I know what that moment feels like too, Heidi. It might feel like restlessness, it might feel like pressure, it might feel like sadness or loneliness, or what about irritation? And you know, yeah, it's subtle, but it's it's real.

SPEAKER_00 9:23

And here's the thing I mean, and maybe I'm the only one. Am I the only one? No, um, that is the moment often where we lose ourselves, not because we're weak, yeah, but because we've never been taught that it's even worthwhile to stay in that moment or how to stay in that moment, yeah, and do so in a way that doesn't rip our hearts out.

SPEAKER_01 9:49

This is bringing me back to this memory of my daughter and I a few years ago. We were sitting on the couch and she was just crying, crying, crying. And I was trying to fix it, I was trying to help. I had ideas, I had thoughts, I was trying to do what I could do, you know. I mean, I felt that so strongly. And she said to me, Mom, you don't have to fix this. It's okay for me to be sad. Yeah, I mean, I was like, oh my gosh. Like, what a moment. I will never forget that moment because it was such a lesson for me. It's okay to be sad and to cry and to experience feelings. I know. Um, and actually in the car yesterday, it happened again where she was really upset by something and she started to cry. And I thought of that years ago, that moment, and I did not try to fix it. And I was just there for her, and I was listening, and I was trying to be so present and not try to fix it. That was, and and just allow her to feel her feelings, which there were a lot of feelings at that moment. But wow, that was you're right, Heidi. We we are not taught to do that in our culture. Okay, now it's time for you to sit in your discomfort for five minutes. We don't do that. No, we say run the other way, grab your phone, here's something to eat, here's something to drink, here's something you can do.

SPEAKER_00 11:29

Think about it. When we get an Owie or go to the doctor as children, oftentimes go to the doctor, and and then that we're taken to the drive-thru.

hat If Discomfort Draws You Closer

SPEAKER_01 11:39

Well, and I'm gonna admit that I did that with my own kids. I did. You know, we'd have a doctor's appointment, everybody would go at the same time, all three. We had this whole trip. There was a pharmacy next to the doctor's building, and they had chips and they had juices and drinks and all fun things. And we always went there after, and everybody got something. I mean, it's like it's so a part of our culture here in, especially in the States. I don't know about everywhere else, but yeah, certainly here it is. Let's listen to an invitation from the Lord. Let's go back to scripture for a minute. Matthew 11, 28. Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

SPEAKER_00 12:30

Yeah, I like that he doesn't say, you know what, fix your weariness, talk to me later, and then come. Yeah. He says, Come with it, come with the weariness, with the sadness, with the discomfort, come with it.

SPEAKER_01 12:44

Yeah, I mean, he's talking about the discomfort itself, which means the discomfort itself is not a barrier to God, not at all. In fact, it's actually part of what draws us to him.

SPEAKER_00 12:58

Yay. So we have a mind renewal tool called what if. And I love this because it takes what we often say in kind of a negative way and flips it on its lid. Yes. Like, what if the surgery happens and Michael dies? You know, that's so morose, so negative and sad. Yeah. And but we can say, What if God is who he says he is? What if he can do what he says he can do? Yes, and and what if that moment, the one we usually rush right past, is actually a holy invitation from God Himself. It's not a test, it's not a failure, it's not something to fix, it's an invitation.

SPEAKER_01 13:42

Yes, yes, an invitation to notice, to become curious, and to turn toward God instead of away.

SPEAKER_00 13:53

Mmm, that'd be glorious.

SPEAKER_01 13:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:56

When we stay in that moment just a little bit longer than many of us are prone to, we often begin to sense what is underneath.

SPEAKER_01 14:05

Right.

SPEAKER_00 14:05

Maybe it's I feel alone. See, that's one reason why I like to avoid that. I don't want to know that. Right. But what is cool is when we do, God has a chance to meet us in it.

SPEAKER_01 14:18

He does.

SPEAKER_00 14:18

Um, so the thought may end up being a little lower when we beneath the surface of that moment of discomfort that we want to escape from, and maybe I'm feeling alone, I'm tired, maybe I really just need rest. Right. Or I wanted today to go differently. I'm disappointed. Or what if the thought beneath the thought of discomfort is I feel unseen or unheard or forgotten?

SPEAKER_01 14:45

Oh, well, and sometimes it's not even words, you know, it's just like an ache. You're just feeling that ache. Sometimes you even feel it physically. Um, let's go to Psalm 62:8. Pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.

SPEAKER_00 15:05

Well, doesn't that mean I can only pour out my heart if it's filtered or cleaned up?

SPEAKER_01 15:11

No, absolutely not. It's come as you are, come as you are.

SPEAKER_00 15:15

Yeah, pour it out to him. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 15:18

Which means even that uncomfortable, unclear feeling, even that ache that you don't even know what it is really, it belongs in his presence. He's inviting us close, and he's already close.

SPEAKER_00 15:33

Yeah. What if? Here's another what if, instead of asking, why am I struggling like this? I keep wandering into the kitchen or I keep grabbing this or I keep scrolling that. What if we asked instead, Jesus, would you be with me right here? Jesus, would you stay with me while I stay with you?

SPEAKER_01 15:57

Oh, and that's not fixing, not solving, just again, with, just with.

SPEAKER_00 16:06

Okay, so now if you're able, just pause for a moment and notice what's happening inside of you right now. Are you feeling agitated? Are your muscles tight? Are you worried? Are you what's what's going on inside of you? There's no pressure here to change that. Just notice it, just noticed it.

SPEAKER_01 16:30

And then gently ask, what might this feeling be pointing to? What might this feeling be pointing to?

SPEAKER_00 16:41

I know. Invite him in. Jesus, I don't fully understand this, but I invite you into it.

SPEAKER_01 16:52

Yeah, boy, that's powerful, isn't it? Powerful. So discomfort is not a sign that something is wrong with you.

SPEAKER_00 17:02

No, no, no.

SPEAKER_01 17:03

Not at all, not at all. It might be a sign that something within you is asking to be met. There's a need there, and that need is real and important.

SPEAKER_00 17:15

And the beautiful truth is, God is not standing at a distance from that place, not at all. No, He is already there. He is. Jesus, thank you that you are gentle with us, that you are not impatient with our discomfort, you're not frustrated by our feelings, you're not going, ah, well, she finally turned to me. You're not waiting for us to get our acts together, not at all.

SPEAKER_01 17:42

Lord, would you help us to learn to stay just a little bit longer, to notice, to be curious, and to meet you there. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 17:57

Amen.

SPEAKER_01 17:59

Amen. We're so glad that you've been here today.

SPEAKER_00 18:03

We hope something here is helpful for you.

SPEAKER_01 18:05

Yes, and we would love to invite you to our next podcast episode of Revelation Within. We'll see you next time. Bye for now. Bye bye.