[JESUS LISTENS MONTHLY SERIES] God Delights In Our Willingness to Try: Heather Thompson Day

“Passion is what we can't stop doing despite not having any accolades or open doors.” Get ready for a real and raw conversation on Jesus Listens: Stories of Prayer as Heather Thompson Day shares her journey with Susie McEntire-Eaton. Discover how to find God's delight in our attempts, even in failure.

 

Guest’s Links
Heather’s YouTube: @heatherthompsonday1

Heather’s Facebook: @HeatherThompsonDay

Heather’s Instagram: @heatherthompsonday

Watch this interview on our YouTube channel! https://bit.ly/480YXcq 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Life audio.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Find inspiration as close as your phone. Download the Jesus
Calling app and get started today for free.

Speaker 3 (00:17):
Look for the Jesus Calling app in both the Apple
and Google Play stores. Hi, Welcome to Jesus Listen Stories
of Prayer. I'm Susie McIntyre Eaton Today, I'm going to
talk to Heather Thompson Day, who is a best selling

(00:39):
writer and speaker. She's an awesome writer and a beautiful woman,
a child of God, a wife and mom. Very busy,
so sit back and relax. Let's go and listen to
Heather Day Thompson and her story. Heather, I am. I'm
so glad I get to talk to you again, actually

(01:01):
because I've started reading your book. But I totally recommend
this book because it just talks about where we all
are today and where we go through, what we go
through each day. And we think that first of all,
we're not going to go through any hard times, and

(01:25):
yet if we don't expect life to be hard, we're
going to have a hard time. We should expect hard
times and very much enjoy the easy or good times.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
Yes, and I still have to remind myself. Literally, I
just at an event last weekend I had to say,
His strength is made perfect in my weakness. This actually
allows God to bless me in a way with his
strength rather than my own, which should be even greater

(01:58):
than anything I could accomplish in my own strength. So
why am I resisting circumstances or situations in which I'm
not enough?

Speaker 3 (02:05):
Right?

Speaker 2 (02:06):
Those actually allow me to step into a God who
can fill those gaps. And so I'm still mentally having
these conversations with myself.

Speaker 3 (02:14):
Learning to work in your passion and know that there's
going to be pain in that passion. As you say
in your book, Explain that to me. How does that work?

Speaker 2 (02:28):
Yeah? So the word passion, And again this is I'm
a communication person, so I always say, define the term
what I think a lot of times we say words,
and we rarely stop to ask what does that word
even mean? Right? And so we will say, or at
least I have said, I'm doing this because I'm passionate

(02:49):
about it. But then the second the pain starts, or
the suffering starts, or the discomfort starts, or there's no
resources or accolades or open doors, I say, was I wrong?

Speaker 3 (03:01):
God?

Speaker 2 (03:02):
Was I not supposed to be doing this? Was I
not supposed to be here. The word passion means to suffer.
So passion is not what we do because of affirmation,
accolades and open doors. Passion is what we can't stop
doing despite not having any of those things. And so
for me, once that language was made correct in my

(03:23):
own mind, I was able to say, oh, like, this
doesn't mean I'm wrong because things are difficult. This is
just what it This is actually the.

Speaker 3 (03:33):
Work, all right. You learned this a lot from your dad,
didn't you.

Speaker 2 (03:37):
Yeah, so my dad was in Broadway and that's all
he wanted to do. But my dad is because of
and it maybe is like the show business background in
him that he then took with him into ministry, that
sense that rejection is just part of the deal. It
doesn't mean that anything's wrong. It's just sometimes you sink
and sometimes you swim. That's just part of being in

(04:00):
the water, right, And so I watched him live that way.
But then when I, I, you know, found myself sinking
or as I say in the book, drowning, I definitely
started to question, oh, my goodness, was am I supposed
to be here?

Speaker 3 (04:16):
You were in swimming lessons, and because you say navigating
the waves of fear and failure. You were in swimming lessons,
you failed when you teared up and you got in
that front seat. What did he say to you? Just
keep swimming, keep swimming, keep he new he knew what
a great mentor he was for you.

Speaker 2 (04:38):
Yeah, but I would also say God wants you to
know who you are too, and I did not. I
did not know who I was if my circumstances weren't
there to confirm it. I knew who I was when
there was When you know books are selling, yes, but
am I still a writer? If books aren't selling? Who

(05:00):
am I now? If there's not the people there clapping
to receive me. That was what I went on a
journey to figure out. What I came to in that
season of my life was our stories are not the circumstances.

(05:20):
But I have since come to believe that we are
the story how we respond. Heaven is watching us respond
to various challenging, difficult, heartbreaking circumstances and somehow remain faithful.
It wasn't until things were stripped away that I was
able to see most clearly.

Speaker 3 (05:41):
Your Daddy used to just go down to the basement.
You talked about how you watched his feet go past
and go to the basement and pray. And you said
hope had been slowly killing him. Can you tell me
what that means to you.

Speaker 2 (05:59):
I think when we really believe, sometimes it can become painful.

Speaker 3 (06:05):
To carry what.

Speaker 2 (06:07):
I know in my spirit or in my soul with
the reality of what I'm seeing, and that gap can
become a really dark and painful place. But I think
what helps us is to know other people who have
stood in that same gap m and hear their story. Yes,

(06:30):
and no, I'm not the only person.

Speaker 3 (06:32):
You talked about being numb. It's a lack of emotions.
I don't know about you, but I see people walking
around numb. They're empty.

Speaker 2 (06:42):
Yes, being numb feels better than feeling pain and so
and here's and this isn't me, this is Brene Brown.
She says, we can't selectively numb the human brain. You
can't just numb the bad stuff. You can't just say,
here's the affair, or here's the addiction, or here's the abuse.

(07:05):
I want to numb this part. All that happens in
your brain is the emotional control process around Your brain
just goes numb. It just shuts down. So Brene Brown says,
to numb pain is to numb joy. To numb criticism
is to numb compliments. We just don't feel anything, and

(07:27):
then we go through life and we're like, I don't
I just it's fine, Everything's just okay, you know. But
I would invite people. I think this is life like
to live and to fail and to win and to
fail ten more times. That's life to just I think God,

(07:47):
I just believe he delights in our attempts, even if
they end in failure. God is delighting in us trying
to just fully engage and live our lives. And I
think that actually is success, to just be fully engaged.
I lived a lot of my life feeling like God
had given me one talent, and I see people with

(08:08):
ten and with five, and I'm like, well, then I'm
not going to Maybe when you give me more, I'll
do something. And He's like, so you're just going to
bury it. Go do something with what God has given you.
You try right, and in doing so, you are engaged
in Kingdom work. You're engaged in your own life. And
I think he applauds that we.

Speaker 3 (08:29):
Always close our program with a Jesus listens and it's
January third. It's a prayer, So if you would pray
with me, I would really, really really appreciate it. Compassionate Lord,
you tell me in your word, I have loved you
with an everlasting love. I have drawn you with loving kindness.

(08:53):
This means that you knew me and loved me before
time began. Yet for years I swim around in a
sea of meaning lessness, learning and searching for love, hoping
for hope. All that time, you were pursuing me, ready
to embrace me in your compassionate arms. You infused meaning

(09:14):
into my mind and harmony into my heart. I want
to join you in singing your song. Please use my
voice in whatever way you will as you call people
out of darkness into your marvelous light in your brilliant
name Jesus. Amen, We're so glad you joined us today

(09:34):
for Jesus listening stories of prayer in our conversation with
Heather Thompson day, what a wonderful story. We'll be back
next time with another episode and at another time. But
until then, remember Jesus hears you, he loves you, and
He's for you all the way. God bless you. I'm

(09:57):
Susie McIntyre eaton and we'll see you next time.

Speaker 1 (10:08):
Be sure to follow us on social media and on
the Jesus Calling Podcast on Apple or wherever you get
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weekly audio episodes in special monthly series like this one.
And be sure to subscribe to the Jesus Calling channel
on YouTube, where you'll find the video version of this interview.
Thanks for listening.