May 19, 2025 • 25 mins
This episode of Aktivate delves into a myriad of themes, primarily focusing on the concepts of resilience, faith, and the pursuit of personal growth amidst life's complexities. KB, articulates her transformative journey from a skeptic of network marketing to a leading figure in the industry. This change is underscored by her dedication to health and wellness, as she shares insights into her fitness regime and the challenges that accompany her recovery from a significant health issue. The discussion further explores the role of faith in navigating life's storms, drawing parallels to the biblical narrative of Noah's Ark. Through this lens, KB emphasizes the importance of obedience to divine guidance, as well as the necessity of trusting in God's promises, even in the face of adversity. The episode serves as a beacon of hope, encouraging listeners to embrace their unique journeys, find strength in their trials, and remain steadfast in their faith.
KB shares her personal struggles with health, particularly her experiences with pain and recovery including her return to CrossFit after surgery.
The overarching message resonates with the notion that every individual's path is unique yet interconnected, urging listeners to support one another in their personal quests for well-being.
Reach out to KB on Instagram and share your thoughts.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Island Boy J Music hello friends.
Welcome to Activate, a podcastconsisting of purposeful conversations
aimed at encouraging listenersto embrace both the beauty and chaos
of life.
I'm KB and I can't wait toshare valuable insights on health,
(00:23):
fitness, nutrition, aging,faith, family, and everything in
between to help you level upand activate your life.
I'm a former network marketinghater turned top leader in my industry.
I'm a certified life andnutrition coach, helping women to
break the same chains thatonce kept me stuck.
I'm so happy you're here.
Let's do this.
(00:45):
Hello friends.
Happy Monday.
How are we?
I hope that you're great.
I am doing good despite sixdays of rain in the forecast.
Today is day three of rain andactually we had a beautiful day.
The rain is just starting.
It's about.
(01:05):
It's actually 6pm onWednesday, deadline day.
Here we are again, and therain is just starting to come down.
Yesterday was a full downpourall day long and I had myself kind
of in a tizzy anticipating allof this rain.
And by the grace of God, wegot a beautiful day in the middle
of it.
So I'm hoping the rest of thedays also include some midday sunshine
(01:29):
because that is just what mysoul needs.
So, first of all, I just wantto thank you for such kind feedback
after Asher was my guest onthe podcast last week and just so
vulnerably sharing about hisexperience with anxiety.
(01:50):
And he did such a great job.
He's so well spoken.
I was so proud of him.
He said things that I'd nevereven heard before and I hope that
it blessed all of you, but ifnot, it blessed me.
It was such a blessing to meto have that conversation with him
and just, you know, hear howhe's feeling and the things that
(02:11):
he's gone through and what,what helped and what didn't help.
And if you haven't listened,go back and listen.
And if you have and you knowsomebody who could benefit from hearing
it, please share.
That would be.
That would be a blessing so tothem and to me.
So I would sure appreciate that.
But again, the outpouring, Igot so many text messages and messages
(02:33):
on social media and I'm justso grateful for all of you that tune
in and listen and care aboutmy, my little family today.
So first of all, I just wantto say, well, I guess it's second
of all.
Second of all, somebody askedme, how are you really?
And the truth of the matter,the answer to that question is, I
(02:57):
am so good.
While I'm always, I'm alwaysover here struggling with something.
But as far as my health andhow I'm feeling, I'm really, really
good.
And I do, I struggle with alittle bit of pain.
I'm not sure exactly what'son, going, causing it.
It's like concentrated on theright side.
(03:20):
It's always the exact samespot it's been for months now.
I've had a CT scan.
They say everything looks fine.
So I'm just moving forward asif everything is healing the, the
way that it's supposed to.
I've been told by my surgeonthat I have no restrictions.
I'm free to do whatever feels good.
I still cannot do.
(03:42):
I can do a lot.
So I'll say that I'm able togo to CrossFit.
I, I do.
Currently I'm doing four daysof lifting.
So I do a shoulder day, a backday, a glutes and quads day, and
a glutes and hamstrings day.
Now, lucky me, I pulled myhamstring last week.
Jonathan had pulled ahamstring like two weeks before,
(04:05):
three weeks before playing baseball.
And my sheer lack of sympathyfor the pain that he was in is surely
to blame for why I now have myown pulled hamstring.
But so I do those four days oflifting and then I incorporate two
days of CrossFit.
So on, on the day that I doshoulders, that's not.
(04:25):
You can't lift a lot of weightwith shoulders, so typically that's
kind of my easiest lifting day.
So I'll do CrossFit as well onshoulder day.
So I actually did that today.
I did CrossFit this morning,then I, then this afternoon I hit
shoulders and then I do oneday of just CrossFit.
So I have two full rest daysevery week.
But I'm back to working out.
I'm working out five days a week.
It feels great.
(04:46):
CrossFit is infinitelyscalable, thank God.
So like I can always figureout what to do.
So there are several movements.
Anything with chest I can't do.
I am not comfortable in aplank position at all.
I can't do a push up, I can'tdo a pull up.
I can't do, I can't hang fromthe rig at all.
(05:06):
So I can't do like toes tobar, kipping, pull ups, anything
like that.
But I can do so much.
I can't do wall walks, I can'tdo handstand push ups.
There's, there's, there's ahandful of things that I'm not capable
of just Yet.
But like I said, you can scaleany movement, and I'm loving it.
(05:28):
I'm having so much fun gettingback into it.
Today I did.
They did deadlifts today.
Butcher girl with the hamstring.
I did a strict press, and thatwas great.
I'm getting strong.
I did one rep.
No, I did two reps at 90pounds, so that was pretty dang good,
I would say.
You know, I, I, I feel good.
(05:50):
The one kind of thing that Istruggle with a little is that I'm
never gonna know what caused it.
So I do get a little bit offear when I'm lifting.
And, um, and I know that 1 repmaxes are in my past.
Even though my doctor hascleared me to do everything, I'm
not comfortable with strainingthat much, if that makes sense.
(06:13):
Um, I'm not gonna be lifting£300 in a deadlift.
I'm just not gonna do that.
So I try to keep it to, like,higher reps, like five or more for
the most part.
Um, so I'm not straining sohard with heavy weight, but because
I'll never know what caused it.
Like, was it, was it the car accident?
(06:35):
It could have been.
Was it some fluke thing?
We know there was no geneticcomponent, at least of the things
that they tested for.
Could I have done it lifting?
It's possible.
The doctor did say after mysurgery, immediately after my surgery,
when he spoke to my husband,he said it was caused by trauma.
(06:55):
That was his feeling afterlooking at the aneurysm.
The way that it looked to him,it was caused by trauma.
And he said that because ofthe way it was facing.
So, you know, I, I've rackedmy brain.
When I was 20, I jumped from amoving vehicle.
(07:17):
I jumped out of a car that wasgoing 55 miles an hour.
And it's, it's possible, it'spossible that that's the only thing
I can think of when they saytrauma, aside from the car accident.
And so I'll just never know.
So it does.
I do have a little bit of fear sometimes.
Like, am I doing this to myself?
(07:38):
Could I make this happen again?
I couldn't imagine, you know,going for my scan and them saying,
oh, no, we see anotheraneurysm, or, you know, that feels
scary to me.
But I'm choosing to believethat will not happen.
And I'm trusting in God if itdoes, that he has a plan and I'll
get through it.
(07:58):
And I have to live my life.
And I'm doing that.
And so ultimately, I'm really,really good.
Aside from that, you know, I'mdoing the brand building thing that
I've been telling you about ad nauseam.
Probably at this point everyweek, I feel like I get another idea,
like another Holy Spirit,like, just idea that I want to pursue.
(08:20):
And then I'm like, okay, Lord,I'm ready.
Like, I'll do what you want meto do.
I trust you and I want to be obedient.
And so that kind of leads meto what I wanted to talk about today.
And that is, you know, theserainy days have inspired me a little.
And then just this idea oftrusting the Lord and being obedient
(08:42):
to his plan lands has made methink of the story of Noah's Ark.
And this is just a little aside.
So in, I guess in my faithjourney and in, you know, I just
knew so little.
Even though I grew up inchurch, I just knew so little.
(09:03):
And it made me insecure.
It made me insecure aboutsharing with you.
It made me insecure about, youknow, having conversations in real
life because I was alwayslike, oh, no, I don't know enough,
or I'm going to feel dumb ifthey asked me something.
Like, there are things thatmaybe baby Christians learn that
I don't know or that I haven'tlearned or that's new to me.
(09:24):
Like, I learn something newevery single day.
So of course I've heard thestory of Noah and his ark so many
times, but there's alwayssomething we can learn from a Bible
story.
And I also just love the ideaof sharing it with you because maybe
you don't know the story ofNoah's ark and maybe you feel the
same way I do.
(09:44):
Like, you just don't knowenough and you want to know more,
but you're not exactly surehow to learn.
And I will tell you, I thinkthat the thing I did that moved the
needle the most was Bible Recap.
I'm on my third time throughthe Bible using the Bible Recap.
I had read the Bible cover tocover one time.
Before that, it took me twoyears, and I learned barely anything.
(10:09):
Even though I was using aBible that had, like, descriptions.
Bible Recap was a game changerfor me.
And if I'm being reallyhonest, the year that it really changed
everything was the first timeI did it when I read the scripture.
I listened to the podcast, andthen I wrote notes while I listened,
and then I recorded it for you guys.
(10:31):
So I recorded on Instagramevery single day the Bible Recap
for a whole entire year.
And I retained so much.
But that doesn't mean I, byfar don't know everything there is
to know.
Like, I don't think I'll everknow everything there is to know.
And I love that because I getto just keep learning.
It gets to be something that Ido every morning for the rest of
(10:55):
my life.
I spend 90 minutes to two anda half, three hours every single
morning.
And I know everyone doesn'thave that luxury.
I fully understand that.
But that's just how I start myday every day.
And when I tell you I'm soexcited to get up and learn something
about God that I didn't knowbefore, it's just like I have such
(11:16):
a hunger for learning andsharing and I don't know, I just
think you got to dig in.
You can do devotions.
I mean, I've encouraged peopleto just start with a kid's Bible
and just read the Bible stories.
Wherever you need to start,just start.
So I want to talk about thestory of Noah and kind of what we
(11:41):
can learn from it.
Like, what can our takeaway befrom this story of Noah and his ark?
So Noah lived in this wicked,wicked generation.
The Bible says the earth wascorrupt before God and the earth
was filled with violence.
In Genesis 6:14, God tellsNoah directly, make yourself an ark.
(12:02):
Now, he wouldn't have evenknown what an ark was, right?
I'm guessing ark wasn't a wordthat was really used back then.
We know.
We know that sin entered theworld with Adam and Eve.
And maybe you don't know that,and maybe I'll share that story one
day, too, because that's anincredible story, and it's literally
where it all began.
It's why sin is in the worldand why the world is the way that
(12:25):
it is.
But Noah.
So Noah came from the lineageof Seth, Adam and Eve's third son.
So Adam and Eve's first twoboys, their first two sons were Cain
and Abel.
And Cain became jealous ofAbel and he killed him, committing
the world's first murder.
Okay, so Cain killed Abel.
(12:45):
Adam and Eve went on to havemore children, one of them being
Seth.
Noah came from the lineage of Seth.
So the faithful descendants ofSeth began procreating with the unfaithful
descendants of Cain.
Okay, so this polluted thefaithful generation by generation,
until Noah.
He faced every singletemptation, just like every other
(13:08):
person did, but he chose tofollow God.
Now, he was by no meansperfect or sinless, but Noah was
a man of integrity.
God became disgusted by theevil being done through.
Through the free will he gives us.
It all comes back to this freewill that God has given us.
(13:28):
He gave his creation free will.
And he was to the point thatin Genesis 6, 6 he tells us he was
sorry he had made man on earth.
And he was grieved in his heart.
So God tells Noah, at thatpoint, I will destroy them.
He declared that with a flood,everything on earth would die.
(13:50):
Only Noah's family found gracein God's eyes.
And he established a covenantwith Noah's family to protect them
from the judgment of the wholeentire world.
There were no good people lefton earth other than Noah.
So at this point, Noah was 500years old.
Okay?
People lived much longer back then.
(14:12):
So Noah's 500 year old man,God required Noah to make an ark
to save his family and go.
Because God is loving, hecommunicated clearly and he also
provided the resources so thatNoah could complete the task of building
this ark.
So he, he gave him all theresources that he needed and he told
him the exact measurements,how it should all be laid out, how
(14:35):
he should create divisions.
So this took Noah between 55and 75 years to build.
So there would be eight peopleon board the ark.
Noah and his wife and theirthree sons and their wives, and then
all of the animals, right?
And so one thing I didn'tknow, and I don't know why I didn't
(14:57):
know this, it's just a detailI hadn't noticed before.
But all of the animals came ontheir own at the right time.
So all of the animals from allover the entire Earth came on their
own and got on the ark.
Isn't that incredible?
So Noah, when the rain began,Noah was 600 years old.
(15:21):
And the other crazy thing isthat Noah had never even seen rain.
So imagine the trust Noah hadin the Lord and the obedience when
he had never even seen rain.
He didn't know what an ark was.
And God said, I'm going toflood the entire Earth and kill everyone.
(15:42):
At this point, God had onlylike watered the earth through a
mist coming up through the ground.
So there had never been rain.
Okay, so it rained for 40 days.
Every inch of the Earth wascovered in water.
Every living thing died.
And the earth stayed submergedin water for 150 days.
(16:04):
The Ark would come to rest ona mountaintop.
And just over one year afterthe floodwaters came, God spoke again
to Noah, saying, go out of the ark.
The first thing they did uponexiting was offer praise and thanksgiving
to God.
God then promised to neveragain destroy the earth by flood.
(16:25):
He offered a Rainbow in the clouds.
As a sign of this covenant,God commanded Noah's sons to be fruitful
and multiply the earth.
So his sons were Shem, Ham,and Japheth with.
So the rainbow.
If you didn't know, when youlook up after a rain and the sun
is shining and you see arainbow up in the sky, that is God's
(16:47):
promise that he will neverdestroy the earth again with a flood.
That is God's covenant withNoah that you get to see.
So did.
Okay, so this is anotherinteresting thing.
So did you know that?
So fallen angels.
You've heard of fallen angels, right?
(17:09):
So again in Genesis 6.
So fallen angels.
Okay, let me see.
I screenshotted this so that Icould share this correctly.
So these are angels that wereexpelled from heaven for rebelling
against God.
So even the angels in heavenwere given free will.
(17:30):
Okay?
But they rebelled against God,and as a consequence, they were cast
out of heaven and they werereduced to demons and fallen spirits.
So these fallen angels thenprocreated with humans.
(17:51):
Are you following me here?
So then that created the Nephilim.
And these are described asgiants or powerful beings, possibly
with distorted appearances.
So the way that God got rid ofthese Nephilim, these.
These fallen angels that hadprocreated with humans was the Flood.
(18:13):
So that's why our lineage, wedo not come from fallen angels, because
God destroyed all of them inthe Flood.
Isn't that crazy?
Demons were procreating with humans.
Did you, like.
Do you.
Did you know that?
I think there's so manyinteresting things that we just don't
know.
But then when you think aboutit, too, imagine how people would
(18:33):
have mocked and made fun ofNoah for spending 75 years building
this monstrosity of a boatwhen none of them had ever even heard
of rain, let alone seen it.
This.
The size of this boat was 11/2 football fields.
Imagine the trust Noah had inGod for him to be obedient to God's
(18:56):
calling on his life, to buildthis ark and to save his family and
to save all of the animals ofthe earth.
So what can we learn?
What can we learn from Noah's story?
So obedience to God, even whenit's hard.
Okay, So I find myself in thisspace even now, like this whole rebrand
of Activate that I'm doingthat I can't wait to tell you about
(19:18):
another, like, another, like,really excited thing, exciting thing
that I feel like the HolySpirit has put on my heart to do
also.
Coming up.
And it's very scary, and I'mterrified of failing.
But I'm also going to beobedient to this calling that I feel
like God has put on my life.
So Noah obeyed God's commandto build the ark, even though it
(19:38):
must have seemed strange and unreasonable.
His obedience, despitecriticism or misunderstanding from
others, teaches Christians totrust and follow God even when his
instructions don't make senseto the world.
Have you ever felt God callingyou to do something that just didn't
make sense?
Do you hear from God?
(19:59):
Do you have a relationshipwith God where you're able to hear
Him?
That's the first place you gotto get to.
Number two would be faith inGod's promises.
So Hebrews 11:7 commends Noahfor his faith.
He believed in God's warningof a coming flood and he acted on
it.
Christians are reminded tolive by faith, trusting in God's
(20:20):
word and promises, even ifthey haven't yet come to pass.
I mean, there's so muchprophecy in the Bible, so much of
the prophecy has come to pass,but there's still prophecy that hasn't
come.
And I think that's so coolbecause things were prophesied like
Jesus, that have come to pass.
(20:41):
So we know these propheciesare real.
We're just waiting on the restof them to happen.
But three, God's judgment is real.
The flood demonstrates thatGod is just and will judge sin.
Christians are reminded of theseriousness of sin sin and the reality
of God's coming judgment,encouraging a life of holiness and
reverence.
(21:02):
God provides a way of salvation.
The ark is a foreshadowing ofChrist, God's provision for salvation.
Just as the ark saved Noah andhis family, Jesus is the only way
of salvation for humanity.
Number five, Righteousnesssets you apart.
Noah was called a righteousman, blameless among the people of
(21:22):
his time.
His example shows that livinga righteous life, even in a corrupt
world, pleases God and canmake a difference.
Number six, God keeps his covenants.
After the flood, God made acovenant with Noah symbolized by
the rainbow.
This reminds Christians thatGod is faithful and always keeps
his promises.
This is also why the prideflag is is very disrespectful if
(21:47):
you're a Christian.
They stole the rainbow.
God's covenant with Noah tonever flood the earth again.
And then lastly, God can useone person to impact many.
Noah's faithfulness preserved humanity.
Christians are reminded thatGod can use a single obedient life
(22:10):
to accomplish great things.
Had Noah not built the ark,humanity would have been destroyed.
Every single human, oneperson, one obedient person can change
the course of history.
(22:31):
What if you're that person?
What if the thing God iscalling you to do is the thing that
changes everything?
Don't doubt that it could beyou one day, because it absolutely
could.
You have an absolute purposeand calling on this earth just like
(22:52):
Noah did.
Maybe you're not going to bebuilding an ark the size of one and
a half football fields, butGod is using you and the purpose
he has for you for the good ofthe whole story.
And that's the thing.
We only see such a littlepiece of the.
Of the picture.
And I just think, like, I havea smile on my face that won't go
(23:16):
away.
Like, I can't wait till oneday we get to see the big picture,
to see it all come togetherand to see what God was doing, how
he was using every singlething, whether it seems like the
best thing in the world or theworst thing in the world for the
good of those who love Him.
It's just incredible.
(23:37):
And I hope that you, if youhaven't already, will fall in love
with the Bible and the thingsthat God shares with us and the glimpses
into eternity that he lets us see.
And just your purpose.
I feel like I've been on thisquest to find my purpose.
And the truth of the matter isour purpose is all the same.
(23:59):
We just do it differently.
We have different avenues ofgetting to the same thing.
And the purpose is to love Godand to love others.
That's our entire purpose inthis world.
I.
I hope that that wasinteresting to you.
I hope that you heardsomething that you didn't know before.
And I hope that you can't hearall that thunder, but maybe at the
(24:20):
end of this, I'll see a rainbow.
I hope that you're great.
I love you.
I'm grateful for you.
I hope you have the bestMonday and I'll see you next week.
Later.
That's a wrap on anotherepisode of Activate.
Stay up to date by followingristonleighballard on Instagram.
And if this episode made youlaugh, offered value, or simply entertained
(24:42):
you, please, like, share andgive a five star review on itunes.
Thanks for being here.
Love y' all.
Later, Sam.
Island Boy J Music hello friends.
Welcome to Activate, a podcastconsisting of purposeful conversations
aimed at encouraging listenersto embrace both the beauty and chaos
of life.
I'm KB and I can't wait toshare valuable insights on health,
(00:23):
fitness, nutrition, aging,faith, family, and everything in
between to help you level upand activate your life.
I'm a former network marketinghater turned top leader in my industry.
I'm a certified life andnutrition coach, helping women to
break the same chains thatonce kept me stuck.
I'm so happy you're here.
Let's do this.
(00:45):
Hello friends.
Happy Monday.
How are we?
I hope that you're great.
I am doing good despite sixdays of rain in the forecast.
Today is day three of rain andactually we had a beautiful day.
The rain is just starting.
It's about.
(01:05):
It's actually 6pm onWednesday, deadline day.
Here we are again, and therain is just starting to come down.
Yesterday was a full downpourall day long and I had myself kind
of in a tizzy anticipating allof this rain.
And by the grace of God, wegot a beautiful day in the middle
of it.
So I'm hoping the rest of thedays also include some midday sunshine
(01:29):
because that is just what mysoul needs.
So, first of all, I just wantto thank you for such kind feedback
after Asher was my guest onthe podcast last week and just so
vulnerably sharing about hisexperience with anxiety.
(01:50):
And he did such a great job.
He's so well spoken.
I was so proud of him.
He said things that I'd nevereven heard before and I hope that
it blessed all of you, but ifnot, it blessed me.
It was such a blessing to meto have that conversation with him
and just, you know, hear howhe's feeling and the things that
(02:11):
he's gone through and what,what helped and what didn't help.
And if you haven't listened,go back and listen.
And if you have and you knowsomebody who could benefit from hearing
it, please share.
That would be.
That would be a blessing so tothem and to me.
So I would sure appreciate that.
But again, the outpouring, Igot so many text messages and messages
(02:33):
on social media and I'm justso grateful for all of you that tune
in and listen and care aboutmy, my little family today.
So first of all, I just wantto say, well, I guess it's second
of all.
Second of all, somebody askedme, how are you really?
And the truth of the matter,the answer to that question is, I
(02:57):
am so good.
While I'm always, I'm alwaysover here struggling with something.
But as far as my health andhow I'm feeling, I'm really, really
good.
And I do, I struggle with alittle bit of pain.
I'm not sure exactly what'son, going, causing it.
It's like concentrated on theright side.
(03:20):
It's always the exact samespot it's been for months now.
I've had a CT scan.
They say everything looks fine.
So I'm just moving forward asif everything is healing the, the
way that it's supposed to.
I've been told by my surgeonthat I have no restrictions.
I'm free to do whatever feels good.
I still cannot do.
(03:42):
I can do a lot.
So I'll say that I'm able togo to CrossFit.
I, I do.
Currently I'm doing four daysof lifting.
So I do a shoulder day, a backday, a glutes and quads day, and
a glutes and hamstrings day.
Now, lucky me, I pulled myhamstring last week.
Jonathan had pulled ahamstring like two weeks before,
(04:05):
three weeks before playing baseball.
And my sheer lack of sympathyfor the pain that he was in is surely
to blame for why I now have myown pulled hamstring.
But so I do those four days oflifting and then I incorporate two
days of CrossFit.
So on, on the day that I doshoulders, that's not.
(04:25):
You can't lift a lot of weightwith shoulders, so typically that's
kind of my easiest lifting day.
So I'll do CrossFit as well onshoulder day.
So I actually did that today.
I did CrossFit this morning,then I, then this afternoon I hit
shoulders and then I do oneday of just CrossFit.
So I have two full rest daysevery week.
But I'm back to working out.
I'm working out five days a week.
It feels great.
(04:46):
CrossFit is infinitelyscalable, thank God.
So like I can always figureout what to do.
So there are several movements.
Anything with chest I can't do.
I am not comfortable in aplank position at all.
I can't do a push up, I can'tdo a pull up.
I can't do, I can't hang fromthe rig at all.
(05:06):
So I can't do like toes tobar, kipping, pull ups, anything
like that.
But I can do so much.
I can't do wall walks, I can'tdo handstand push ups.
There's, there's, there's ahandful of things that I'm not capable
of just Yet.
But like I said, you can scaleany movement, and I'm loving it.
(05:28):
I'm having so much fun gettingback into it.
Today I did.
They did deadlifts today.
Butcher girl with the hamstring.
I did a strict press, and thatwas great.
I'm getting strong.
I did one rep.
No, I did two reps at 90pounds, so that was pretty dang good,
I would say.
You know, I, I, I feel good.
(05:50):
The one kind of thing that Istruggle with a little is that I'm
never gonna know what caused it.
So I do get a little bit offear when I'm lifting.
And, um, and I know that 1 repmaxes are in my past.
Even though my doctor hascleared me to do everything, I'm
not comfortable with strainingthat much, if that makes sense.
(06:13):
Um, I'm not gonna be lifting£300 in a deadlift.
I'm just not gonna do that.
So I try to keep it to, like,higher reps, like five or more for
the most part.
Um, so I'm not straining sohard with heavy weight, but because
I'll never know what caused it.
Like, was it, was it the car accident?
(06:35):
It could have been.
Was it some fluke thing?
We know there was no geneticcomponent, at least of the things
that they tested for.
Could I have done it lifting?
It's possible.
The doctor did say after mysurgery, immediately after my surgery,
when he spoke to my husband,he said it was caused by trauma.
(06:55):
That was his feeling afterlooking at the aneurysm.
The way that it looked to him,it was caused by trauma.
And he said that because ofthe way it was facing.
So, you know, I, I've rackedmy brain.
When I was 20, I jumped from amoving vehicle.
(07:17):
I jumped out of a car that wasgoing 55 miles an hour.
And it's, it's possible, it'spossible that that's the only thing
I can think of when they saytrauma, aside from the car accident.
And so I'll just never know.
So it does.
I do have a little bit of fear sometimes.
Like, am I doing this to myself?
(07:38):
Could I make this happen again?
I couldn't imagine, you know,going for my scan and them saying,
oh, no, we see anotheraneurysm, or, you know, that feels
scary to me.
But I'm choosing to believethat will not happen.
And I'm trusting in God if itdoes, that he has a plan and I'll
get through it.
(07:58):
And I have to live my life.
And I'm doing that.
And so ultimately, I'm really,really good.
Aside from that, you know, I'mdoing the brand building thing that
I've been telling you about ad nauseam.
Probably at this point everyweek, I feel like I get another idea,
like another Holy Spirit,like, just idea that I want to pursue.
(08:20):
And then I'm like, okay, Lord,I'm ready.
Like, I'll do what you want meto do.
I trust you and I want to be obedient.
And so that kind of leads meto what I wanted to talk about today.
And that is, you know, theserainy days have inspired me a little.
And then just this idea oftrusting the Lord and being obedient
(08:42):
to his plan lands has made methink of the story of Noah's Ark.
And this is just a little aside.
So in, I guess in my faithjourney and in, you know, I just
knew so little.
Even though I grew up inchurch, I just knew so little.
(09:03):
And it made me insecure.
It made me insecure aboutsharing with you.
It made me insecure about, youknow, having conversations in real
life because I was alwayslike, oh, no, I don't know enough,
or I'm going to feel dumb ifthey asked me something.
Like, there are things thatmaybe baby Christians learn that
I don't know or that I haven'tlearned or that's new to me.
(09:24):
Like, I learn something newevery single day.
So of course I've heard thestory of Noah and his ark so many
times, but there's alwayssomething we can learn from a Bible
story.
And I also just love the ideaof sharing it with you because maybe
you don't know the story ofNoah's ark and maybe you feel the
same way I do.
(09:44):
Like, you just don't knowenough and you want to know more,
but you're not exactly surehow to learn.
And I will tell you, I thinkthat the thing I did that moved the
needle the most was Bible Recap.
I'm on my third time throughthe Bible using the Bible Recap.
I had read the Bible cover tocover one time.
Before that, it took me twoyears, and I learned barely anything.
(10:09):
Even though I was using aBible that had, like, descriptions.
Bible Recap was a game changerfor me.
And if I'm being reallyhonest, the year that it really changed
everything was the first timeI did it when I read the scripture.
I listened to the podcast, andthen I wrote notes while I listened,
and then I recorded it for you guys.
(10:31):
So I recorded on Instagramevery single day the Bible Recap
for a whole entire year.
And I retained so much.
But that doesn't mean I, byfar don't know everything there is
to know.
Like, I don't think I'll everknow everything there is to know.
And I love that because I getto just keep learning.
It gets to be something that Ido every morning for the rest of
(10:55):
my life.
I spend 90 minutes to two anda half, three hours every single
morning.
And I know everyone doesn'thave that luxury.
I fully understand that.
But that's just how I start myday every day.
And when I tell you I'm soexcited to get up and learn something
about God that I didn't knowbefore, it's just like I have such
(11:16):
a hunger for learning andsharing and I don't know, I just
think you got to dig in.
You can do devotions.
I mean, I've encouraged peopleto just start with a kid's Bible
and just read the Bible stories.
Wherever you need to start,just start.
So I want to talk about thestory of Noah and kind of what we
(11:41):
can learn from it.
Like, what can our takeaway befrom this story of Noah and his ark?
So Noah lived in this wicked,wicked generation.
The Bible says the earth wascorrupt before God and the earth
was filled with violence.
In Genesis 6:14, God tellsNoah directly, make yourself an ark.
(12:02):
Now, he wouldn't have evenknown what an ark was, right?
I'm guessing ark wasn't a wordthat was really used back then.
We know.
We know that sin entered theworld with Adam and Eve.
And maybe you don't know that,and maybe I'll share that story one
day, too, because that's anincredible story, and it's literally
where it all began.
It's why sin is in the worldand why the world is the way that
(12:25):
it is.
But Noah.
So Noah came from the lineageof Seth, Adam and Eve's third son.
So Adam and Eve's first twoboys, their first two sons were Cain
and Abel.
And Cain became jealous ofAbel and he killed him, committing
the world's first murder.
Okay, so Cain killed Abel.
(12:45):
Adam and Eve went on to havemore children, one of them being
Seth.
Noah came from the lineage of Seth.
So the faithful descendants ofSeth began procreating with the unfaithful
descendants of Cain.
Okay, so this polluted thefaithful generation by generation,
until Noah.
He faced every singletemptation, just like every other
(13:08):
person did, but he chose tofollow God.
Now, he was by no meansperfect or sinless, but Noah was
a man of integrity.
God became disgusted by theevil being done through.
Through the free will he gives us.
It all comes back to this freewill that God has given us.
(13:28):
He gave his creation free will.
And he was to the point thatin Genesis 6, 6 he tells us he was
sorry he had made man on earth.
And he was grieved in his heart.
So God tells Noah, at thatpoint, I will destroy them.
He declared that with a flood,everything on earth would die.
(13:50):
Only Noah's family found gracein God's eyes.
And he established a covenantwith Noah's family to protect them
from the judgment of the wholeentire world.
There were no good people lefton earth other than Noah.
So at this point, Noah was 500years old.
Okay?
People lived much longer back then.
(14:12):
So Noah's 500 year old man,God required Noah to make an ark
to save his family and go.
Because God is loving, hecommunicated clearly and he also
provided the resources so thatNoah could complete the task of building
this ark.
So he, he gave him all theresources that he needed and he told
him the exact measurements,how it should all be laid out, how
(14:35):
he should create divisions.
So this took Noah between 55and 75 years to build.
So there would be eight peopleon board the ark.
Noah and his wife and theirthree sons and their wives, and then
all of the animals, right?
And so one thing I didn'tknow, and I don't know why I didn't
(14:57):
know this, it's just a detailI hadn't noticed before.
But all of the animals came ontheir own at the right time.
So all of the animals from allover the entire Earth came on their
own and got on the ark.
Isn't that incredible?
So Noah, when the rain began,Noah was 600 years old.
(15:21):
And the other crazy thing isthat Noah had never even seen rain.
So imagine the trust Noah hadin the Lord and the obedience when
he had never even seen rain.
He didn't know what an ark was.
And God said, I'm going toflood the entire Earth and kill everyone.
(15:42):
At this point, God had onlylike watered the earth through a
mist coming up through the ground.
So there had never been rain.
Okay, so it rained for 40 days.
Every inch of the Earth wascovered in water.
Every living thing died.
And the earth stayed submergedin water for 150 days.
(16:04):
The Ark would come to rest ona mountaintop.
And just over one year afterthe floodwaters came, God spoke again
to Noah, saying, go out of the ark.
The first thing they did uponexiting was offer praise and thanksgiving
to God.
God then promised to neveragain destroy the earth by flood.
(16:25):
He offered a Rainbow in the clouds.
As a sign of this covenant,God commanded Noah's sons to be fruitful
and multiply the earth.
So his sons were Shem, Ham,and Japheth with.
So the rainbow.
If you didn't know, when youlook up after a rain and the sun
is shining and you see arainbow up in the sky, that is God's
(16:47):
promise that he will neverdestroy the earth again with a flood.
That is God's covenant withNoah that you get to see.
So did.
Okay, so this is anotherinteresting thing.
So did you know that?
So fallen angels.
You've heard of fallen angels, right?
(17:09):
So again in Genesis 6.
So fallen angels.
Okay, let me see.
I screenshotted this so that Icould share this correctly.
So these are angels that wereexpelled from heaven for rebelling
against God.
So even the angels in heavenwere given free will.
(17:30):
Okay?
But they rebelled against God,and as a consequence, they were cast
out of heaven and they werereduced to demons and fallen spirits.
So these fallen angels thenprocreated with humans.
(17:51):
Are you following me here?
So then that created the Nephilim.
And these are described asgiants or powerful beings, possibly
with distorted appearances.
So the way that God got rid ofthese Nephilim, these.
These fallen angels that hadprocreated with humans was the Flood.
(18:13):
So that's why our lineage, wedo not come from fallen angels, because
God destroyed all of them inthe Flood.
Isn't that crazy?
Demons were procreating with humans.
Did you, like.
Do you.
Did you know that?
I think there's so manyinteresting things that we just don't
know.
But then when you think aboutit, too, imagine how people would
(18:33):
have mocked and made fun ofNoah for spending 75 years building
this monstrosity of a boatwhen none of them had ever even heard
of rain, let alone seen it.
This.
The size of this boat was 11/2 football fields.
Imagine the trust Noah had inGod for him to be obedient to God's
(18:56):
calling on his life, to buildthis ark and to save his family and
to save all of the animals ofthe earth.
So what can we learn?
What can we learn from Noah's story?
So obedience to God, even whenit's hard.
Okay, So I find myself in thisspace even now, like this whole rebrand
of Activate that I'm doingthat I can't wait to tell you about
(19:18):
another, like, another, like,really excited thing, exciting thing
that I feel like the HolySpirit has put on my heart to do
also.
Coming up.
And it's very scary, and I'mterrified of failing.
But I'm also going to beobedient to this calling that I feel
like God has put on my life.
So Noah obeyed God's commandto build the ark, even though it
(19:38):
must have seemed strange and unreasonable.
His obedience, despitecriticism or misunderstanding from
others, teaches Christians totrust and follow God even when his
instructions don't make senseto the world.
Have you ever felt God callingyou to do something that just didn't
make sense?
Do you hear from God?
(19:59):
Do you have a relationshipwith God where you're able to hear
Him?
That's the first place you gotto get to.
Number two would be faith inGod's promises.
So Hebrews 11:7 commends Noahfor his faith.
He believed in God's warningof a coming flood and he acted on
it.
Christians are reminded tolive by faith, trusting in God's
(20:20):
word and promises, even ifthey haven't yet come to pass.
I mean, there's so muchprophecy in the Bible, so much of
the prophecy has come to pass,but there's still prophecy that hasn't
come.
And I think that's so coolbecause things were prophesied like
Jesus, that have come to pass.
(20:41):
So we know these propheciesare real.
We're just waiting on the restof them to happen.
But three, God's judgment is real.
The flood demonstrates thatGod is just and will judge sin.
Christians are reminded of theseriousness of sin sin and the reality
of God's coming judgment,encouraging a life of holiness and
reverence.
(21:02):
God provides a way of salvation.
The ark is a foreshadowing ofChrist, God's provision for salvation.
Just as the ark saved Noah andhis family, Jesus is the only way
of salvation for humanity.
Number five, Righteousnesssets you apart.
Noah was called a righteousman, blameless among the people of
(21:22):
his time.
His example shows that livinga righteous life, even in a corrupt
world, pleases God and canmake a difference.
Number six, God keeps his covenants.
After the flood, God made acovenant with Noah symbolized by
the rainbow.
This reminds Christians thatGod is faithful and always keeps
his promises.
This is also why the prideflag is is very disrespectful if
(21:47):
you're a Christian.
They stole the rainbow.
God's covenant with Noah tonever flood the earth again.
And then lastly, God can useone person to impact many.
Noah's faithfulness preserved humanity.
Christians are reminded thatGod can use a single obedient life
(22:10):
to accomplish great things.
Had Noah not built the ark,humanity would have been destroyed.
Every single human, oneperson, one obedient person can change
the course of history.
(22:31):
What if you're that person?
What if the thing God iscalling you to do is the thing that
changes everything?
Don't doubt that it could beyou one day, because it absolutely
could.
You have an absolute purposeand calling on this earth just like
(22:52):
Noah did.
Maybe you're not going to bebuilding an ark the size of one and
a half football fields, butGod is using you and the purpose
he has for you for the good ofthe whole story.
And that's the thing.
We only see such a littlepiece of the.
Of the picture.
And I just think, like, I havea smile on my face that won't go
(23:16):
away.
Like, I can't wait till oneday we get to see the big picture,
to see it all come togetherand to see what God was doing, how
he was using every singlething, whether it seems like the
best thing in the world or theworst thing in the world for the
good of those who love Him.
It's just incredible.
(23:37):
And I hope that you, if youhaven't already, will fall in love
with the Bible and the thingsthat God shares with us and the glimpses
into eternity that he lets us see.
And just your purpose.
I feel like I've been on thisquest to find my purpose.
And the truth of the matter isour purpose is all the same.
(23:59):
We just do it differently.
We have different avenues ofgetting to the same thing.
And the purpose is to love Godand to love others.
That's our entire purpose inthis world.
I.
I hope that that wasinteresting to you.
I hope that you heardsomething that you didn't know before.
And I hope that you can't hearall that thunder, but maybe at the
(24:20):
end of this, I'll see a rainbow.
I hope that you're great.
I love you.
I'm grateful for you.
I hope you have the bestMonday and I'll see you next week.
Later.
That's a wrap on anotherepisode of Activate.
Stay up to date by followingristonleighballard on Instagram.
And if this episode made youlaugh, offered value, or simply entertained
(24:42):
you, please, like, share andgive a five star review on itunes.
Thanks for being here.
Love y' all.
Later, Sam.
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