April 6, 2025 • 45 mins
Faith and finances don't often mix in our conversations, but what happens when financial crisis forces you to completely redefine your relationship with money? Raychel's story will challenge everything you thought you knew about God's role in your financial life.
When a casual decision to take Financial Peace University collided with losing 85% of her family income through an unexpected layoff, Raychel faced a moment of truth. Should she hold tighter to her remaining resources or take the counterintuitive leap of faith to begin tithing? The answer changed everything.
Through Raychel's journey, we explore the transformation that happens when we shift from viewing tithing as a religious tax to seeing it as an act of worship and trust. Her story reveals how God often works outside the logic of spreadsheets and budgets – providing contract work that appeared seemingly out of nowhere, stretching time in impossible ways, and creating abundance that defies explanation.
Beyond the financial miracles, Raychel shares how learning to hear God's voice became central to her transformation. Those quiet nudges that seemed to come "out of left field" – guiding her to prioritize volunteering when work demands were overwhelming, prompting her to recognize her career as an unexpected stronghold – became the compass for navigating her new financial reality.
This conversation isn't just for those facing financial hardship. It's for anyone who's ever wondered if God cares about your bank account, your career decisions, or how you spend your time. Raychel's testimony reminds us that sometimes the most extraordinary provision comes when we finally surrender control of what we thought we couldn't afford to lose.
What area of your life is God asking you to release control over today? Your finances might just be the beginning.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Ordinary People Extraordinary Things.
I'm so glad that you found ushere.
We talk about faith and hope,real hope from stories of people
just like you, ordinary peopletelling their stories to inspire
, encourage and build your faith.
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(00:21):
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You will see a podcast tab andif you scroll down, it says join
our prayer team.
We would love to have you join.
By doing this, you will get anemail from us every two weeks to
share how you can pray forordinary people.
Extraordinary things.
(00:41):
Welcome to ordinary people,extraordinary things.
I'm here with Rachel.
Rachel, thanks for being on,thank you for having me.
And Rachel has the same name asmy daughter, but you spell it
differently.
Oh, that's fun.
Yeah, yeah, you spell yoursR-A-Y-C-H-E-L.
I have never seen that before.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
My granddad's name was Ray, so it was kind of like
to honor him that is so cool.
I really love that.
Yeah, when I was younger, Iused to wish that it was not
different.
I used to wish that I wish itwas regular Rachel Right, but
now I love it.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Yeah, that's so cool that it has a meaning behind it.
Yeah, what's your middle name?
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Is it Anne?
Speaker 1 (01:25):
No, I know a lot of middle.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Annes.
My mom's middle name is Anne.
Actually, it used to beCatherine, which was my
grandma's middle name, nice, andthen, when I changed my name
after getting married, I droppedmy middle name and took my
maiden name as my middle name ohcool, but then, when we had
(01:47):
Lily, I gave her Catherine asher middle name to kind of bring
Catherine back.
Because I felt bad, I droppedCatherine and then gave it to
Lily Awesome.
That was really personal, Ijust I was wondering, because my
daughter's name is Rachel Ann,so is your little baby Ann.
Okay, I don't know what my mom'sis.
(02:07):
There you go.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Well, three words or phrases to describe you if
there's someone who doesn't knowwho you are.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
It was really hard to come up with three, but I think
I landed on creative, curiousand growth oriented.
Creative, curious andgrowth-oriented Ooh, so I'm
always wanting to like what canbe better for me, for others,
and just really likegrowth-minded.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Hmm, those are good.
Can you give an example ofmaybe one of those Like for
example, creative maybe Sure.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
So I always have just , I love to create, but I also
really like to celebratecreation in a way.
I really appreciate aestheticsand beauty and that was
something growing up I was,whether intentionally or not.
I was sort of taught that bothcreativity and curiosity can be
dangerous, which was difficult,because then I was just always
(03:11):
like well, these things that Ifeel like are core to me, are
I'm supposed to sort of control?
Oh, ok, yeah now to where tofind those qualities in God.
If that makes sense, yeah,where I can actually be those
(03:34):
things and it's not actuallydangerous.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Yeah, how interesting .
Yeah, because God is a creator,right, right, yeah, so
interesting.
Thank you for sharing.
We get to talk about finances,yay, yippee.
Not very creative, that's true,this is a hard subject.
Yeah, it is.
(03:57):
I feel like it's a taboosubject.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Yeah, and I think there are a lot of firm opinions
on how to do finances right outthere and I have done finances
not very well my whole adulthood.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
And that's stressful, right, yeah, and that's why I
understand the taboo of financesI really do but also it can
wreak such havoc on our lifethat I think we can't be too
afraid to talk about it, becauseit can be so freeing when we
(04:40):
don't have these kind ofclutches or bags or something
just completely weighing us down.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Absolutely yeah, and I think, because it's such a
specific subject for me, it wasnot for a lack of resources or
information out there.
It's just that sometimes Ineeded to hear certain things
from the right people at theright time for stuff to start to
sink in.
That's a good point.
So I'm like, yes, let's talkabout it, everybody talk about
(05:09):
it, so that maybe somebody canhear what they need to hear.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
So good I like that that maybe you didn't hear it.
Maybe you had heard somethingbefore, but it wasn't the right
time or the right person.
So I just want to say thank youfor doing this, Thank you for
being brave and sharing thispart of your life.
Why did you take a FinancialPeace University class?
Speaker 2 (05:30):
The short answer to that is I saw an announcement,
an FPU announcement, in church.
I have never really felt incontrol over my finances, so I
saw it and said, why not?
Kind of.
I do think there's a little bitof a bigger answer to that too,
(05:52):
though I want to back up andsay I've spent the majority of
my life since I was saved at 14sort of being disconnected,
becoming disconnected from Godand unfortunately just not
really understanding orcommitting to building a
(06:16):
relationship with Jesus.
Never, I never didn't believe,but I was just sort of looking
the other way, didn't believebut I was just sort of looking
the other way.
So my daughter turned four and alot of things started happening
in like wild ways and lookingback, effectively it feels like
(06:39):
God sort of just like yanked meout of this like tunnel that I
was just like stubbornly diggingI wasn't taking the subtle
things so he just like yanked meout of there and it really what
it felt like was that I wasyanked.
It was uncomfortable,disorienting, but I always felt
sort of covered by his grace,his hands.
I always felt protected andsafe through the crazy things
(07:04):
that were happening.
And then he just sort of turnedme where he wanted me to be and
a lot of things happened.
It wasn't a moment, it happenedover the course of a few months
and I think, looking back, thatthat FPU class and that moment
of just sort of signing upbecause why not?
(07:25):
Because money was just sort ofone more thing that God was just
pushing me into, because that'swhere I needed to be he knew
that.
I didn't know that.
So it became a much biggerthing than simply a financial
class.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
So you had a lot going on and I like how you said
that.
I think we can all relate tothat as far as feeling
everything's turning upside down.
I don't know what's going.
I love that you said you didfeel some peace during it.
Do you mind just quickly givinga couple things that were
happening, or do you want tojust leave it as it was crazy?
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Yeah, no, I can.
I can give a couple examples.
It wasn't one moment I know alot of people have sort of one
moment like a pivotal.
For us it was.
It was a series and things weresort of changing and happening
over time.
So we, uh, we started going tochurch in 2022.
(08:26):
A friend invited us and we justsaid, why not?
We had had Lily in thepreschool at church for two
years already.
So when someone invited us togo to church, we were like, why
not?
She's already in the school, solet's go.
We went.
It was the first time that wehad been to church in a long
time and right away I didn'twant to go at first, but we went
(08:50):
and right away I was like, oh,this is different church than
what I knew as a kid and Icouldn't wait to go back.
And we kept going back.
And then we found out at theend of that year that Lily did
not get into the kindergartenafter we had been at the
(09:12):
preschool for three years.
So we were just ready.
We were going to put her intothe kindergarten, k through
eight.
That was.
That was our plan.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
We loved the school.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
We loved the church, we loved being there.
It was just set.
So when she didn't get into thekindergarten it felt really big
because now what do we do?
I felt very fearful about theidea of public school,
particularly as she would getolder.
So I realized, as that washappening, my instinct was to
(09:46):
say fine, they don't want ushere.
I thought this was our place,it's obviously not our place and
that grace from God that.
No, what if we were now part ofthe church?
(10:08):
Because we needed to not be atthe school anymore and because
it is our place and we needed tobe there.
So through that, there was alsomy music.
Listening changed a lot, which,again, I listened to my music
(10:29):
for 20 years and when I juststarted to introduce more
Jesus-centered music, I justkept wanting to go back to it
for some reason, even though 20years I was, was like I don't
need that, like it's not a bigdeal.
And then I suddenly just didneed it.
(10:49):
I started the FPU course,probably the second class, I
found out.
So, like two weeks in, I foundout I was getting laid off from
my job.
Wow, which has never happenedto me in my career.
20 years into my career.
I've just never experiencedanything like that, and my
(11:10):
salary was 85% of our income, soI had just sort of what felt
like a whim, joined thisfinancial class and then, almost
immediately after found out, wewere losing class, and then,
almost immediately after foundout, we were losing.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
We were about to lose most of our income.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
So it changed from how do we, you know, handle debt
and be more responsible withour money to where's our money
even going to come from?
Wow, I could probably go onforever.
Right, right, yeah All theselittle things started happening,
things where we would see beingpretty new.
Back to church, I didn't know alot about Galatians and it's
(11:51):
just a book that I had neverreally studied.
So all of a sudden we'retalking about Galatians and then
I started to see Galatians onthe internet and like on
somebody's t-shirt on theinternet and like on somebody's
t-shirt, and just started seeingGalatians everywhere.
Things just started happeningwhere I would pick something up
and it was like literallyspeaking to me.
(12:13):
I started to come back to thatidea of my creativity is not a
problem, it's something that ispart of me and it's part of God
and I can use it for God.
So all of these things juststarted happening while the
bigger stuff was upending and itjust made it so that while
(12:38):
things were sort of turningaround and upside down the thing
, they were almost being framedfor me.
So instead of me having to bestressed and like how can I,
what can I make out of this,those things were just coming to
me like we were at the churchbefore she didn't get into the
(13:00):
school so that we could still bethere.
Maybe she didn't get into theschool because our finances
couldn't handle the tuition.
So things, just it feels likethey were happening the way they
were supposed to happen, eventhough at the time it felt like
it felt like I was in a washingmachine, just like out of
(13:20):
control.
But really I think it's becauseGod was in control, because he
was finally like you're not,you're not paying attention.
So I'm gonna just do it for you, for for a little bit, Rachel.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
That was.
That was amazing.
There was so much in in thatpart already.
There's many things that stuckout to me.
One thing was I like how yousaid someone invited us to
church and we said why not?
And I I've seen this statistic,I don't know it off the top of
my head that it's a hugestatistic that if you ask
(13:54):
someone to church, I want to say80% or more they'll say yes
Because why not?
Yeah, so don't quote me on thatstatistic, but it was a huge
number of.
If you just personally asksomeone to church, there's a
high chance that they will sayyes.
So that's interesting that yousaid just kind of needed someone
(14:16):
to ask me.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Right, I don't think we would have chosen to, it just
wasn't on our minds.
Let's try to go to church.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
Yeah, yeah, it's interesting.
So in FPU they talk about a lotof things.
One thing they talk about istithing.
Is that correct?
And if anyone doesn't know thisword, it just means a tenth,
10%, one-tenth.
That's what it means.
This is something that peoplemight get all up in arms about,
but we're just telling our storyand I'm going to tell my story
(14:48):
about tithing and finances alittle bit with you.
Some people say it's notapplicable now.
It's just the Old Testament.
We're not here to really debatetheology.
Our thing right now is just totell our story about how God has
worked when we started tithing.
When we started tithing.
(15:14):
So if anyone's interested, ourtithe is 10% and we get to share
about how God has used doingthat to really impact our lives.
Have you heard about thatbefore?
Fpu?
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Yes.
So I had heard plenty abouttithing.
I don't know that it was everagain presented in the right way
at the right time to me.
I had this.
I had this understanding thattithing was me giving my hard
earned money to an organizationat the request of a leader of
(15:48):
said organization, in order tofund that organization in
exchange for personal blessingsfrom God to me, so I'm going to
give you my money so that youcan do your thing, and then God
is going to rain on me.
That was not resonant for me.
(16:09):
I just didn't.
I couldn't connect with that.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
You were like no, no.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
So it wasn't until I started hearing from other
people closer to me in the FPUroom what tithing really means.
There's that idea that it's aform of worship almost so for me
when I started to look at it,not as well.
(16:35):
I'm working really hard and Idon't know where my next
paycheck is going to come from.
Why would I choose to give 10%of what I have like?
How could I even responsiblychoose that?
It does not.
It doesn't make sense.
When you look at it logicallylike that.
The FPU framing of tithing wasyour, always your first 10th, so
(17:02):
it was almost like you tithebefore you even look at what you
have.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
Right, so for me which again is uh no, that's
crazy talk.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
It doesn't make sense on paper, right?
Especially when you have debt,especially when you have
questions, when your monthlyexpenses are already more than
what you're bringing in.
It just wasn't making sense.
So I needed to start hearing itfrom these people who it was
almost fascinating to me becausethey felt so, not just willing
(17:39):
but almost like happy to betithing, and when I started to
see it as that idea of giving10% and I and I even started to
just dot dot dot there becauseit's 10% of my money, it's also
10% of my time, 10% of my energy, like that first, 10% of what I
(18:03):
have, giving that to God is aform of worship.
So we're not actually talkingabout financial responsibility
anymore, we're talking aboutworship.
Does that make sense?
Speaker 1 (18:17):
Yes, yes, I love that .
Speaker 2 (18:21):
So then it had to become a leap of faith because
it doesn't make sense on paper.
Right and hearing, inparticular, from one woman who
was in the FPU class and sittingat my table, a single mom with
ongoing medical bills who hadjust paid off her debt.
(18:41):
The class leader had asked thequestion what was the number one
thing she did that allowed herto pay off her debt?
The class leader had asked thequestion what did she, what was
the number one thing she didthat allowed her to pay off her
debt?
And I expected her to say whatI knew she was gonna say, like
snowball method, right.
And she said well, there wastwo things, and the first one
was tithing.
And I was like how does tithinghelp you pay off your debt?
(19:04):
But it intrigued me in a waythat hearing somebody stand up
on stage and say here's why youneed to tithe wasn't connecting
with me, something about hearingthat connected.
And then I couldn't get it outof my head and then I started to
just get this really clearfeeling that that leap of faith
(19:26):
was almost the last sort ofbarrier, the last thing that God
was asking me to do, to justgive up that control and like
let him finish what he hadstarted for me, if that makes
sense.
So I wrestled with that andthat clarity just didn't go away
(19:47):
.
It just became clear he wantsme to do that.
And then, when you get to acertain point, what more do I
have to lose?
I already know I'm losing myjob.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
What is?
What is?
Speaker 2 (19:59):
10% of income that I don't even know where it's going
to come from, right?
So I made the decision that,whatever happens, 10% of
whatever going forward is goingto be given back to God.
As soon as I made that decision, I started getting contract
(20:23):
work opportunities, just leftand right.
They were just coming to me andI was like, okay, so maybe this
is actually okay.
I actually never ended up witha gap in income, wow yes.
So the first 10% that Iactually gave it was after I had
made the decision, and then thenext time I got paid I was like
(20:45):
, okay, what's 10%?
I was all excited.
I sent the tithe.
In that afternoon I got asix-month contract offer and I
was like, okay, I see whatpeople are talking about when
they say you know, god says giveme your tithe and I'll reward
(21:06):
you for that.
It that idea of I'm going to dosomething to get my reward
wasn't ever resonating with mebefore.
But now I'm doing it because Iwanted to do it and it's almost
like you're rewarding me anyway.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
Right.
I think that.
I think that is something thatpeople play on.
They say, well, you're tryingto get something from God and if
that's what you're doing, your,your heart's not in the right
place.
But it is clear in somescripture that he says like test
me, test me in this.
And so it is really interestinghow, how God does that.
(21:48):
It does not make sense, itreally doesn't.
And I, whenever I talk aboutfinances or this sort of thing,
I want to, I want to have itmake sense.
I want to say, oh, it's becauseof this and this that, okay, I
can make it, I can make thenumbers work.
But sometimes I honestly can't.
I can't, I can't logicallystill figure out.
(22:11):
I might interject here, and myhusband and I were married.
We had quite a bit of debt.
We had paid for our wedding andhe was making a lot of money
I'm not great with numbers, butabout $100,000.
And then we made the decisionto move back to Iowa and start a
little bowling alley.
Our income went down to about$30,000.
(22:35):
And we still had this massivedebt to figure out.
And around that time I had heardwhat I think is my first sermon
about tithing.
Maybe it really wasn't, I justI don't remember hearing
anything about it before.
We had always given.
Even when I was young I wasalways giving to the church, but
it was never.
(22:56):
It was always just like oh, Ijust feel like it kind of thing
and this amount and nothingconsistent.
And then this came on about thetithing is actually a tenth and
I was like what this is really?
This is really interesting.
You know, I thought it was justabout your heart and maybe some
people will say it is, andagain, I don't want to get into
(23:17):
theology on this, but when Iheard that I was like oh wow,
and it intrigued me.
So I was talking to my husbandand we decided to start tithing
around the time when we weremassively losing an income.
Yeah, while you're going throughthat huge change Right, and
somehow this is a part I don'tunderstand we got rid of all of
(23:41):
our debt and we never got backup to that amount for years.
Of all of our debt and we nevergot back up to that amount for
years.
I mean, we stayed at thatamount for at least three years.
So we didn't get huge payraises because of God's
faithfulness during that time,but we paid off debt that we
should not have been able to payoff and I can say we didn't
(24:03):
have cable, we didn't have.
You know, I can show placesthat we cut back on, but I think
that was God saying cut back.
You don't need this here.
I really wish I could put it ina nice bow of how did this
happen?
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
Yeah, and while you were tithing the whole time.
Yes, that's amazing.
Yeah, so after we started,we've always tithed and you were
while you were tithing thewhole time.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Yes, that's amazing.
Yeah, so after we started,we've always tithed and actually
now we this is you know, thisis all so personal, but we give
more than the 10th and I thinkthat as I kind of learn more
about God, I can see that as faras if people say it's not a
number, I feel like God almostalways in the New Testament
(24:49):
brings it up right.
He says you say don't murder.
I say don't even hate.
Yeah, but yeah, we've just seenso many blessings from God in
doing that and things that don't.
They don't make sense.
It really doesn't make senseand it's so freeing to not have
that massive debt over you isfreeing for your family, for
(25:15):
your marriage, for just yourlife, absolutely.
So you saw God just working inyour life.
When was that?
2022?
I can't remember.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
That was one year ago .
Oh, okay that I learned I wasgetting laid off.
I had a short amount of cushionof cash and by the time we were
going to be at the end of ourcushion we had new income coming
in and 10% going back out.
(25:47):
So that was a year ago we mademore money than we ever have in
the past just through contractwork and it just kept coming.
It's still, it keeps coming andI just keep working and tithing
.
I will probably always rememberis in the beginning of that
period where I had decided totrust God and I was seeing that
(26:14):
I felt that that was right andso I started to get all these
contracts and I was like, well,now my question is not where is
money going to come from, buthow am I going to get it all
done?
Speaker 1 (26:25):
And so I remember one day.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Time, right Time.
But how am I going to get itall done?
And so I remember one day, time, right Time, where am I going
to get time?
And I remember standing on myback, little step, just looking
outside because I needed toprocess and I just said, god,
like, I see you, thank you forthis, but I need to know where
(26:48):
to prioritize, like, where do Iput my time?
How do I prioritize all of this?
And the answer that I just gotvery clearly standing out there
was with my church.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
You're like no, and I was like, wait, that's not what
I'm talking about.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
That's not what I'm asking you.
I have stuff to do.
Yeah, what?
What do you want me to spendtime on, like right now?
What should I do now?
What should I, you know, bedoing over the next month?
And it was just again.
It was like once I feel thatclarity it was unwavering and it
it was just that was all I wasgoing to get was church.
If I'm asking, where should Iprioritize my time, the answer
(27:30):
was church, and so I said okay,same with the money.
I don't know how I can't makeit make sense if I've got, you
know, 60 hours of work to do anda 5-year-old and all these
things going on and a husband,uh-huh, and you want me to
prioritize time at church.
I don't see how it's going towork.
(27:51):
I just kept being shown thatthis way was better than the
past 20 years of trying to dothings my way.
So I said okay.
So I continued to prioritizevolunteering more over time,
getting more involved, notsaying no, which is interesting
(28:13):
for me because I say yes a lotand I've had to train myself to
almost protect my time, myenergy, and I just felt that
sort of break, break away, andif the church needs more time,
I'm here.
So and I feel like that was italmost worked.
(28:38):
The same way that the moneyworked.
It just led to things that werebigger and better and almost
pulling me out of that focus ona daily life, a calendar, a
budget spreadsheet, all of thosethings.
It just sort of broke life opena little bit.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
It's really good, and this is contrary to what FPU.
Yeah, well, and it's.
It's different than what theworld says to do.
Yeah, right, yeah, protect yourtime, you know right.
Say, no, it's about you, youneed me time, and I mean we all
need time to ourselves.
I'm not saying that, but Ithink that sometimes, when we
(29:21):
give that up to God, god saysyeah, I know that, I know how
you were made and I will youknow, I will give you that, but
give me this first, give me this, and I will show you this.
Abundant.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
Yes, and I think what we find in experience and
living that out is that Goddoesn't that out, is that God
doesn't respond to us in thesame way that we respond to each
other.
So when I give my energy to God, I don't actually feel my
energy go away, if that makessense.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
I give my energy to people, and even the people I
love.
I wouldn't trade them foranything, but I have to find
ways to fuel myself up, to keepgiving that energy out, and it
just doesn't work that way withGod right it almost feels like
the more I give, the more I'mfilling up oh, it's so good, so
(30:21):
good, yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
And again, I, I'm the kind of brain that wants to,
okay, well, let's figure thisout.
How does this work?
But uh, that's just, that'sjust God and his faithfulness
and his loving, and he's like Imade you, yeah, I made you, and
oh, that's so good.
I've.
I've seen that before when I'vesaid I felt like God was saying
(30:43):
go bring a meal to somebody.
Okay, I don't have the timetoday, though God and he's like
do it, you know.
And then, all of a sudden, Istill had the same amount to do,
but it got done, and at the endof the day, I thought that
doesn't make sense.
I shouldn't have been able toget that stuff done because I
(31:06):
took an hour or more to you know, make more food and go bring it
, and I didn't have that timeRight.
And God's like well, I madetime, yeah, so what a fun.
This has been great.
I want to point out something,if you don't mind.
You said that you've heard fromGod, and I think that that is
(31:31):
scares a lot of people, orthat's terminology of.
So did you hear audibly?
Most people don't, but I thinkthat they can.
But could you maybe explainwhat?
How do you know?
This is a question people ask.
Right Is how do I hear God'svoice?
How do, how do you?
Speaker 2 (31:53):
Yeah, I that almost.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
That almost feels more taboo to me than finances
and I'm asking, I'm like hey.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
Rachel, let's just dive in.
It's a yeah, it's kind of itkind of it sounds kind of like a
scary thing.
Yeah, you don't want to becrazy, right?
I will say, for me it is almostaudible.
It's kind of how you can hearyour thoughts.
You're not actually hearingthem, but you can have sort of
an amorphous feeling or you canhave a clear thought in your
(32:25):
head, and so I definitely canhear some clear thought.
But it sounds like me.
It's not like I'm hearing God'svoice in my head, it sounds
like one of my own thoughts.
The difference is how it feels,and I think it's that clarity
(32:47):
thing.
My mind races a lot, I have alot of thoughts and I feel like
those moments where I'm like, oh, okay.
God, it feels like it's a littlebit out of left field.
It's not like when I'm likewhat should I spend my time on?
And then I think church.
And I was like, wait, that'snot what we were talking about.
(33:07):
That's really not one of thethat's not one of the options.
God, but thanks for playing.
I had a moment where we were inchurch we were prompted to pray
about what strongholds do wehave Ooh, this actually ties
back to finances whatstrongholds do we have in our
hearts that we need to let go ofand give up to God and pray for
(33:30):
strength to do so?
So I, you know, I put my headdown and I go to go into prayer,
expecting the all of the normalstrongholds that you might need
to let go of anxiety, stress,control.
I'm ready to pray over all ofthose things.
And as soon as I just shut myeyes and I'm ready to pray, I
(33:52):
think, so clearly in my head, mycareer.
And it almost like surprised me.
I was like, wait, that's notlike, that's not what I was
thinking about.
I was getting ready to, youknow, anxiety and fear over
what's next.
And so clearly in my head it wasjust like my career.
And I was like, oh so it'susually those.
(34:33):
They're like thoughts that whatI was wanting to hear.
It never feels aggressive orscary in any way.
Even the thought or the answeris not what I'm expecting or
even what I want, but it feelsjust like love, like it's never
(34:54):
contrary to love or kindness,like when I think about when I
will say something to Lily, likeit's not kind to say that to
somebody.
She's not going to want to hearthat in the moment, but it's
coming from love and so I thinkthat's probably as clearly as I
(35:18):
can explain it.
It has a clarity to it andalways feels like love and it's
my own thoughts.
They just come out of leftfield and I didn't know that.
That's how I can listen to God.
I didn't know that's what itwas like until I knew it if that
makes sense.
Speaker 1 (35:37):
Yeah, that's so good.
Wow, we've covered a lot Some.
It's funny because I talk topeople and we get some really
hard things and for some reason,some really hard things and for
some reason, why does talkingabout finances seem so?
(35:58):
You know, this wasn't a storyabout, you know, drug addiction
or homelessness or trafficking,and this is almost just as hard
and vulnerable, so thank you.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
Well, and it's when I talk about how things started
to like get crazy for us andturn upside down.
I feel like the things thatwe're talking about are like
choice of school and like jobsecurity.
It's not some of these reallydifficult things that people go
(36:30):
through felt like I have no ideawhat to do with this.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
Right, but I think that that's powerful and that's
what this podcast is about.
Is ordinary people Like I thinka lot of people can relate to
job security, fears of yourkid's education, I mean a myriad
of things and so for you tojust say this is my story and
I'm willing to share it only inthe hopes of it freeing somebody
(37:02):
else, maybe I'll just share oneother thing real quick, and it
has to do a little bit with God,hearing God's voice and a
finance thing.
I feel like we're afraid toshare some stories because we
don't want to feel like we'retooting our own horn or we're
not being humble.
But this is what I'm askingpeople to do on my podcast.
Several years ago, chris foundout that someone he knew had a
(37:27):
vehicle in the shop and it waskind of between doing your
mortgage, paying your mortgageor paying for the car, and we're
not crazy well off.
But you know, god has blessedus and I understand that, even
if we live in America, like allof these things, but not to say
that we just don't havethousands of dollars of like hey
(37:48):
, yeah, whatever.
But he just felt really stronglyabout I feel like we should
call this auto shop and just payfor this to be done.
And so we did.
And this is just God's.
I think he just reminds me ofit sometimes when I wonder am I
(38:08):
hearing you?
Do I really trust you with myfinances right?
And I come back to this story.
And my grandma passed away notvery long after that.
She should not have been ableto give us any money at all,
like I did not know that wewould get anything at all.
Speaker 2 (38:26):
Right.
Speaker 1 (38:27):
Well, we got to the penny, no, what we paid for that
man's car to get out of theshop.
So just a couple thousanddollars, you know, like she
wasn't leaving us a crazyinheritance.
But I just felt like God wassaying, and he didn't have to.
And I'm not saying, do this andthis will happen.
That's not what I'm saying, butI think that God is so loving
(38:49):
sometimes and I feel like hegives us this.
So he says do you remember thattime that I did that?
Because you listened to me,yeah, and you stepped out and
you did something and I justshowed you.
I see you.
Speaker 2 (39:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
Here it is, to the exact penny what you gave,
that's amazing and it's back.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
And if it was not?
To the penny Right, it can soeasily be written off as
coincidence.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
Right.
Speaker 2 (39:19):
I think that's what I was doing for a long time.
He would show me little thingsand I would just look the other
way, and then got to this pointwhere I had a period of like two
weeks where it was like all day, every day, was just series of
him saying look, look, look,look, look, until I was like,
okay, okay, I will stop lookingthe other way.
Speaker 1 (39:42):
Yeah, well, I'm praying over this podcast for
just whoever's listening.
Maybe you've heard somethingand it's just kind of impacted
you and that's our prayer today.
So, as we finish up, what isyour favorite Bible verse or
story?
Speaker 2 (39:58):
I would love to share my favorite Bible verse, with
the disclaimer that I am stillin a Bible discovery journey.
Yeah, it's pretty new to me.
I grew up knowing the gospeland, essentially, genesis Exodus
, so I am now learning thingsthat I had never, never known my
(40:23):
whole life.
But this verse, it stuck out tome and I just can't get away
from it.
I think it's so beautiful.
It's Ecclesiastes 3.11.
I don't know if you're familiarwith that.
I find the whole book ofEcclesiastes just amazing,
fascinating.
(40:43):
But verse 3.11 specifically,I'll read it.
He has made everythingbeautiful in its time.
He has also set eternity in thehuman heart.
Yet no one can fathom what Godhas done from beginning to end.
So much In like 12 words.
Speaker 1 (41:04):
Wow, that's good.
That's not one that you pullfrom very often, ecclesiastes.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
I think it was given to me.
It was one of those things.
I found my way to it randomlyand was like oh okay, yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:21):
That's good.
What are you grateful for?
Speaker 2 (41:25):
Oh, I don't want to sound cheesy, but kind of
everything.
Yeah, If that makes sense.
I have found I'm almost feelinglike gratefulness is sort of a
state of mind, like how we startto talk about joy or happiness
being not necessarily a fleetingemotion but a sort of state,
(41:49):
and I feel like that's becometrue with gratefulness too.
I just it's like once you startto feel that I can't get away
from it.
I'm grateful for everything.
I'm grateful for you, for whatyou're doing with your podcast.
Thank, you for the work God isdoing through you.
Thank you.
I'm grateful for everythingthat I went through over the
(42:12):
last year, so grateful for theFPU class and the people that
were in the room.
I really think it was as muchabout the people in that room
than the program itself I couldhave got the program but I
needed to be with those people.
So, yeah, I'm grateful that thesun's out today.
Speaker 1 (42:35):
Beautiful day.
That's good, thank you.
Speaker 2 (42:44):
What kindness have you received or what kindness
have you shown?
That's a good one, okay.
So two nights ago I went to afriend invited me which I'm
grateful for to it's called 100Women who Care, I believe, in
(43:04):
Douglas County.
Oh, and it's basically ameeting of you.
Become a member, you go to themeeting and then everybody votes
on a local nonprofit and theneverybody donates $100 during
the meeting and then everybodyvotes on a local nonprofit and
then everybody donates a hundreddollars during the meeting, so
that nonprofit receivesbasically a large donation from
(43:28):
this group of women who kind ofcollectively decide what to do
with it.
That felt good.
It felt really good to do that.
But then last night I wasinvited to a happy hour with
some women that I share.
I rent an office in an officebuilding and the office building
(43:49):
.
Ladies invited me to come tohappy hour and so I went, not
necessarily really wanting to.
I was a little nervous.
I don't know any of them.
What am I going to talk about?
at happy hour people, I don'tknow, but it was so good to be
around them and they were justsuch kind people that you asking
that question made me think ofthat.
(44:10):
So sort of two nights in a row,tangible we're going to come
together and be kind.
But then the very next night,just being with seven women who
were had extended thatinvitation, and then we were
able to just sort of fellowship,and it made me feel like I'm
(44:31):
just surrounded by so much morekindness than I realize.
If you just look and see it.
You know there's just so manygood hearts wanting to do good
things.
It's good.
Speaker 1 (44:47):
Yeah, and what we look for is what we find.
Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 2 (44:52):
Thank you for being on.
Speaker 1 (44:54):
Yeah, thank you.
Thank you for being on.
This was amazing.
Yeah, thank you for sharingyour story and praying that our
words will just impact someoneand maybe they'll hear something
for the first time.
So we're excited to see whatGod's going to do through it.
Yes, and on Ordinary People,extraordinary Things, your story
is His glory.
I pray that this podcast hasimpacted you, that it has made
(45:19):
you think that it has impactedyour life.
I pray that it has grown yourfaith and that you will share
this podcast with someone youknow.
And if you would like to joinour prayer team, don't forget,
just go togenerations2generationscom and
you'll find the Join Our PrayerTeam under the podcast tab.
Welcome to Ordinary People Extraordinary Things.
I'm so glad that you found ushere.
We talk about faith and hope,real hope from stories of people
just like you, ordinary peopletelling their stories to inspire
, encourage and build your faith.
Did you know that we have aprayer team?
If you would like to join,please go to
(00:21):
generations2generationscom.
Generations is plural and twois to there.
You will see a podcast tab andif you scroll down, it says join
our prayer team.
We would love to have you join.
By doing this, you will get anemail from us every two weeks to
share how you can pray forordinary people.
Extraordinary things.
(00:41):
Welcome to ordinary people,extraordinary things.
I'm here with Rachel.
Rachel, thanks for being on,thank you for having me.
And Rachel has the same name asmy daughter, but you spell it
differently.
Oh, that's fun.
Yeah, yeah, you spell yoursR-A-Y-C-H-E-L.
I have never seen that before.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
My granddad's name was Ray, so it was kind of like
to honor him that is so cool.
I really love that.
Yeah, when I was younger, Iused to wish that it was not
different.
I used to wish that I wish itwas regular Rachel Right, but
now I love it.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Yeah, that's so cool that it has a meaning behind it.
Yeah, what's your middle name?
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Is it Anne?
Speaker 1 (01:25):
No, I know a lot of middle.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Annes.
My mom's middle name is Anne.
Actually, it used to beCatherine, which was my
grandma's middle name, nice, andthen, when I changed my name
after getting married, I droppedmy middle name and took my
maiden name as my middle name ohcool, but then, when we had
(01:47):
Lily, I gave her Catherine asher middle name to kind of bring
Catherine back.
Because I felt bad, I droppedCatherine and then gave it to
Lily Awesome.
That was really personal, Ijust I was wondering, because my
daughter's name is Rachel Ann,so is your little baby Ann.
Okay, I don't know what my mom'sis.
(02:07):
There you go.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Well, three words or phrases to describe you if
there's someone who doesn't knowwho you are.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
It was really hard to come up with three, but I think
I landed on creative, curiousand growth oriented.
Creative, curious andgrowth-oriented Ooh, so I'm
always wanting to like what canbe better for me, for others,
and just really likegrowth-minded.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Hmm, those are good.
Can you give an example ofmaybe one of those Like for
example, creative maybe Sure.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
So I always have just , I love to create, but I also
really like to celebratecreation in a way.
I really appreciate aestheticsand beauty and that was
something growing up I was,whether intentionally or not.
I was sort of taught that bothcreativity and curiosity can be
dangerous, which was difficult,because then I was just always
(03:11):
like well, these things that Ifeel like are core to me, are
I'm supposed to sort of control?
Oh, ok, yeah now to where tofind those qualities in God.
If that makes sense, yeah,where I can actually be those
(03:34):
things and it's not actuallydangerous.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Yeah, how interesting .
Yeah, because God is a creator,right, right, yeah, so
interesting.
Thank you for sharing.
We get to talk about finances,yay, yippee.
Not very creative, that's true,this is a hard subject.
Yeah, it is.
(03:57):
I feel like it's a taboosubject.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Yeah, and I think there are a lot of firm opinions
on how to do finances right outthere and I have done finances
not very well my whole adulthood.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
And that's stressful, right, yeah, and that's why I
understand the taboo of financesI really do but also it can
wreak such havoc on our lifethat I think we can't be too
afraid to talk about it, becauseit can be so freeing when we
(04:40):
don't have these kind ofclutches or bags or something
just completely weighing us down.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Absolutely yeah, and I think, because it's such a
specific subject for me, it wasnot for a lack of resources or
information out there.
It's just that sometimes Ineeded to hear certain things
from the right people at theright time for stuff to start to
sink in.
That's a good point.
So I'm like, yes, let's talkabout it, everybody talk about
(05:09):
it, so that maybe somebody canhear what they need to hear.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
So good I like that that maybe you didn't hear it.
Maybe you had heard somethingbefore, but it wasn't the right
time or the right person.
So I just want to say thank youfor doing this, Thank you for
being brave and sharing thispart of your life.
Why did you take a FinancialPeace University class?
Speaker 2 (05:30):
The short answer to that is I saw an announcement,
an FPU announcement, in church.
I have never really felt incontrol over my finances, so I
saw it and said, why not?
Kind of.
I do think there's a little bitof a bigger answer to that too,
(05:52):
though I want to back up andsay I've spent the majority of
my life since I was saved at 14sort of being disconnected,
becoming disconnected from Godand unfortunately just not
really understanding orcommitting to building a
(06:16):
relationship with Jesus.
Never, I never didn't believe,but I was just sort of looking
the other way, didn't believebut I was just sort of looking
the other way.
So my daughter turned four and alot of things started happening
in like wild ways and lookingback, effectively it feels like
(06:39):
God sort of just like yanked meout of this like tunnel that I
was just like stubbornly diggingI wasn't taking the subtle
things so he just like yanked meout of there and it really what
it felt like was that I wasyanked.
It was uncomfortable,disorienting, but I always felt
sort of covered by his grace,his hands.
I always felt protected andsafe through the crazy things
(07:04):
that were happening.
And then he just sort of turnedme where he wanted me to be and
a lot of things happened.
It wasn't a moment, it happenedover the course of a few months
and I think, looking back, thatthat FPU class and that moment
of just sort of signing upbecause why not?
(07:25):
Because money was just sort ofone more thing that God was just
pushing me into, because that'swhere I needed to be he knew
that.
I didn't know that.
So it became a much biggerthing than simply a financial
class.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
So you had a lot going on and I like how you said
that.
I think we can all relate tothat as far as feeling
everything's turning upside down.
I don't know what's going.
I love that you said you didfeel some peace during it.
Do you mind just quickly givinga couple things that were
happening, or do you want tojust leave it as it was crazy?
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Yeah, no, I can.
I can give a couple examples.
It wasn't one moment I know alot of people have sort of one
moment like a pivotal.
For us it was.
It was a series and things weresort of changing and happening
over time.
So we, uh, we started going tochurch in 2022.
(08:26):
A friend invited us and we justsaid, why not?
We had had Lily in thepreschool at church for two
years already.
So when someone invited us togo to church, we were like, why
not?
She's already in the school, solet's go.
We went.
It was the first time that wehad been to church in a long
time and right away I didn'twant to go at first, but we went
(08:50):
and right away I was like, oh,this is different church than
what I knew as a kid and Icouldn't wait to go back.
And we kept going back.
And then we found out at theend of that year that Lily did
not get into the kindergartenafter we had been at the
(09:12):
preschool for three years.
So we were just ready.
We were going to put her intothe kindergarten, k through
eight.
That was.
That was our plan.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
We loved the school.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
We loved the church, we loved being there.
It was just set.
So when she didn't get into thekindergarten it felt really big
because now what do we do?
I felt very fearful about theidea of public school,
particularly as she would getolder.
So I realized, as that washappening, my instinct was to
(09:46):
say fine, they don't want ushere.
I thought this was our place,it's obviously not our place and
that grace from God that.
No, what if we were now part ofthe church?
(10:08):
Because we needed to not be atthe school anymore and because
it is our place and we needed tobe there.
So through that, there was alsomy music.
Listening changed a lot, which,again, I listened to my music
(10:29):
for 20 years and when I juststarted to introduce more
Jesus-centered music, I justkept wanting to go back to it
for some reason, even though 20years I was, was like I don't
need that, like it's not a bigdeal.
And then I suddenly just didneed it.
(10:49):
I started the FPU course,probably the second class, I
found out.
So, like two weeks in, I foundout I was getting laid off from
my job.
Wow, which has never happenedto me in my career.
20 years into my career.
I've just never experiencedanything like that, and my
(11:10):
salary was 85% of our income, soI had just sort of what felt
like a whim, joined thisfinancial class and then, almost
immediately after found out, wewere losing class, and then,
almost immediately after foundout, we were losing.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
We were about to lose most of our income.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
So it changed from how do we, you know, handle debt
and be more responsible withour money to where's our money
even going to come from?
Wow, I could probably go onforever.
Right, right, yeah All theselittle things started happening,
things where we would see beingpretty new.
Back to church, I didn't know alot about Galatians and it's
(11:51):
just a book that I had neverreally studied.
So all of a sudden we'retalking about Galatians and then
I started to see Galatians onthe internet and like on
somebody's t-shirt on theinternet and like on somebody's
t-shirt, and just started seeingGalatians everywhere.
Things just started happeningwhere I would pick something up
and it was like literallyspeaking to me.
(12:13):
I started to come back to thatidea of my creativity is not a
problem, it's something that ispart of me and it's part of God
and I can use it for God.
So all of these things juststarted happening while the
bigger stuff was upending and itjust made it so that while
(12:38):
things were sort of turningaround and upside down the thing
, they were almost being framedfor me.
So instead of me having to bestressed and like how can I,
what can I make out of this,those things were just coming to
me like we were at the churchbefore she didn't get into the
(13:00):
school so that we could still bethere.
Maybe she didn't get into theschool because our finances
couldn't handle the tuition.
So things, just it feels likethey were happening the way they
were supposed to happen, eventhough at the time it felt like
it felt like I was in a washingmachine, just like out of
(13:20):
control.
But really I think it's becauseGod was in control, because he
was finally like you're not,you're not paying attention.
So I'm gonna just do it for you, for for a little bit, Rachel.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
That was.
That was amazing.
There was so much in in thatpart already.
There's many things that stuckout to me.
One thing was I like how yousaid someone invited us to
church and we said why not?
And I I've seen this statistic,I don't know it off the top of
my head that it's a hugestatistic that if you ask
(13:54):
someone to church, I want to say80% or more they'll say yes
Because why not?
Yeah, so don't quote me on thatstatistic, but it was a huge
number of.
If you just personally asksomeone to church, there's a
high chance that they will sayyes.
So that's interesting that yousaid just kind of needed someone
(14:16):
to ask me.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Right, I don't think we would have chosen to, it just
wasn't on our minds.
Let's try to go to church.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
Yeah, yeah, it's interesting.
So in FPU they talk about a lotof things.
One thing they talk about istithing.
Is that correct?
And if anyone doesn't know thisword, it just means a tenth,
10%, one-tenth.
That's what it means.
This is something that peoplemight get all up in arms about,
but we're just telling our storyand I'm going to tell my story
(14:48):
about tithing and finances alittle bit with you.
Some people say it's notapplicable now.
It's just the Old Testament.
We're not here to really debatetheology.
Our thing right now is just totell our story about how God has
worked when we started tithing.
When we started tithing.
(15:14):
So if anyone's interested, ourtithe is 10% and we get to share
about how God has used doingthat to really impact our lives.
Have you heard about thatbefore?
Fpu?
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Yes.
So I had heard plenty abouttithing.
I don't know that it was everagain presented in the right way
at the right time to me.
I had this.
I had this understanding thattithing was me giving my hard
earned money to an organizationat the request of a leader of
(15:48):
said organization, in order tofund that organization in
exchange for personal blessingsfrom God to me, so I'm going to
give you my money so that youcan do your thing, and then God
is going to rain on me.
That was not resonant for me.
(16:09):
I just didn't.
I couldn't connect with that.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
You were like no, no.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
So it wasn't until I started hearing from other
people closer to me in the FPUroom what tithing really means.
There's that idea that it's aform of worship almost so for me
when I started to look at it,not as well.
(16:35):
I'm working really hard and Idon't know where my next
paycheck is going to come from.
Why would I choose to give 10%of what I have like?
How could I even responsiblychoose that?
It does not.
It doesn't make sense.
When you look at it logicallylike that.
The FPU framing of tithing wasyour, always your first 10th, so
(17:02):
it was almost like you tithebefore you even look at what you
have.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
Right, so for me which again is uh no, that's
crazy talk.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
It doesn't make sense on paper, right?
Especially when you have debt,especially when you have
questions, when your monthlyexpenses are already more than
what you're bringing in.
It just wasn't making sense.
So I needed to start hearing itfrom these people who it was
almost fascinating to me becausethey felt so, not just willing
(17:39):
but almost like happy to betithing, and when I started to
see it as that idea of giving10% and I and I even started to
just dot dot dot there becauseit's 10% of my money, it's also
10% of my time, 10% of my energy, like that first, 10% of what I
(18:03):
have, giving that to God is aform of worship.
So we're not actually talkingabout financial responsibility
anymore, we're talking aboutworship.
Does that make sense?
Speaker 1 (18:17):
Yes, yes, I love that .
Speaker 2 (18:21):
So then it had to become a leap of faith because
it doesn't make sense on paper.
Right and hearing, inparticular, from one woman who
was in the FPU class and sittingat my table, a single mom with
ongoing medical bills who hadjust paid off her debt.
(18:41):
The class leader had asked thequestion what was the number one
thing she did that allowed herto pay off her debt?
The class leader had asked thequestion what did she, what was
the number one thing she didthat allowed her to pay off her
debt?
And I expected her to say whatI knew she was gonna say, like
snowball method, right.
And she said well, there wastwo things, and the first one
was tithing.
And I was like how does tithinghelp you pay off your debt?
(19:04):
But it intrigued me in a waythat hearing somebody stand up
on stage and say here's why youneed to tithe wasn't connecting
with me, something about hearingthat connected.
And then I couldn't get it outof my head and then I started to
just get this really clearfeeling that that leap of faith
(19:26):
was almost the last sort ofbarrier, the last thing that God
was asking me to do, to justgive up that control and like
let him finish what he hadstarted for me, if that makes
sense.
So I wrestled with that andthat clarity just didn't go away
(19:47):
.
It just became clear he wantsme to do that.
And then, when you get to acertain point, what more do I
have to lose?
I already know I'm losing myjob.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
What is?
What is?
Speaker 2 (19:59):
10% of income that I don't even know where it's going
to come from, right?
So I made the decision that,whatever happens, 10% of
whatever going forward is goingto be given back to God.
As soon as I made that decision, I started getting contract
(20:23):
work opportunities, just leftand right.
They were just coming to me andI was like, okay, so maybe this
is actually okay.
I actually never ended up witha gap in income, wow yes.
So the first 10% that Iactually gave it was after I had
made the decision, and then thenext time I got paid I was like
(20:45):
, okay, what's 10%?
I was all excited.
I sent the tithe.
In that afternoon I got asix-month contract offer and I
was like, okay, I see whatpeople are talking about when
they say you know, god says giveme your tithe and I'll reward
(21:06):
you for that.
It that idea of I'm going to dosomething to get my reward
wasn't ever resonating with mebefore.
But now I'm doing it because Iwanted to do it and it's almost
like you're rewarding me anyway.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
Right.
I think that.
I think that is something thatpeople play on.
They say, well, you're tryingto get something from God and if
that's what you're doing, your,your heart's not in the right
place.
But it is clear in somescripture that he says like test
me, test me in this.
And so it is really interestinghow, how God does that.
(21:48):
It does not make sense, itreally doesn't.
And I, whenever I talk aboutfinances or this sort of thing,
I want to, I want to have itmake sense.
I want to say, oh, it's becauseof this and this that, okay, I
can make it, I can make thenumbers work.
But sometimes I honestly can't.
I can't, I can't logicallystill figure out.
(22:11):
I might interject here, and myhusband and I were married.
We had quite a bit of debt.
We had paid for our wedding andhe was making a lot of money
I'm not great with numbers, butabout $100,000.
And then we made the decisionto move back to Iowa and start a
little bowling alley.
Our income went down to about$30,000.
(22:35):
And we still had this massivedebt to figure out.
And around that time I had heardwhat I think is my first sermon
about tithing.
Maybe it really wasn't, I justI don't remember hearing
anything about it before.
We had always given.
Even when I was young I wasalways giving to the church, but
it was never.
(22:56):
It was always just like oh, Ijust feel like it kind of thing
and this amount and nothingconsistent.
And then this came on about thetithing is actually a tenth and
I was like what this is really?
This is really interesting.
You know, I thought it was justabout your heart and maybe some
people will say it is, andagain, I don't want to get into
(23:17):
theology on this, but when Iheard that I was like oh wow,
and it intrigued me.
So I was talking to my husbandand we decided to start tithing
around the time when we weremassively losing an income.
Yeah, while you're going throughthat huge change Right, and
somehow this is a part I don'tunderstand we got rid of all of
(23:41):
our debt and we never got backup to that amount for years.
Of all of our debt and we nevergot back up to that amount for
years.
I mean, we stayed at thatamount for at least three years.
So we didn't get huge payraises because of God's
faithfulness during that time,but we paid off debt that we
should not have been able to payoff and I can say we didn't
(24:03):
have cable, we didn't have.
You know, I can show placesthat we cut back on, but I think
that was God saying cut back.
You don't need this here.
I really wish I could put it ina nice bow of how did this
happen?
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
Yeah, and while you were tithing the whole time.
Yes, that's amazing.
Yeah, so after we started,we've always tithed and you were
while you were tithing thewhole time.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Yes, that's amazing.
Yeah, so after we started,we've always tithed and actually
now we this is you know, thisis all so personal, but we give
more than the 10th and I thinkthat as I kind of learn more
about God, I can see that as faras if people say it's not a
number, I feel like God almostalways in the New Testament
(24:49):
brings it up right.
He says you say don't murder.
I say don't even hate.
Yeah, but yeah, we've just seenso many blessings from God in
doing that and things that don't.
They don't make sense.
It really doesn't make senseand it's so freeing to not have
that massive debt over you isfreeing for your family, for
(25:15):
your marriage, for just yourlife, absolutely.
So you saw God just working inyour life.
When was that?
2022?
I can't remember.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
That was one year ago .
Oh, okay that I learned I wasgetting laid off.
I had a short amount of cushionof cash and by the time we were
going to be at the end of ourcushion we had new income coming
in and 10% going back out.
(25:47):
So that was a year ago we mademore money than we ever have in
the past just through contractwork and it just kept coming.
It's still, it keeps coming andI just keep working and tithing
.
I will probably always rememberis in the beginning of that
period where I had decided totrust God and I was seeing that
(26:14):
I felt that that was right andso I started to get all these
contracts and I was like, well,now my question is not where is
money going to come from, buthow am I going to get it all
done?
Speaker 1 (26:25):
And so I remember one day.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Time, right Time.
But how am I going to get itall done?
And so I remember one day, time, right Time, where am I going
to get time?
And I remember standing on myback, little step, just looking
outside because I needed toprocess and I just said, god,
like, I see you, thank you forthis, but I need to know where
(26:48):
to prioritize, like, where do Iput my time?
How do I prioritize all of this?
And the answer that I just gotvery clearly standing out there
was with my church.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
You're like no, and I was like, wait, that's not what
I'm talking about.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
That's not what I'm asking you.
I have stuff to do.
Yeah, what?
What do you want me to spendtime on, like right now?
What should I do now?
What should I, you know, bedoing over the next month?
And it was just again.
It was like once I feel thatclarity it was unwavering and it
it was just that was all I wasgoing to get was church.
If I'm asking, where should Iprioritize my time, the answer
(27:30):
was church, and so I said okay,same with the money.
I don't know how I can't makeit make sense if I've got, you
know, 60 hours of work to do anda 5-year-old and all these
things going on and a husband,uh-huh, and you want me to
prioritize time at church.
I don't see how it's going towork.
(27:51):
I just kept being shown thatthis way was better than the
past 20 years of trying to dothings my way.
So I said okay.
So I continued to prioritizevolunteering more over time,
getting more involved, notsaying no, which is interesting
(28:13):
for me because I say yes a lotand I've had to train myself to
almost protect my time, myenergy, and I just felt that
sort of break, break away, andif the church needs more time,
I'm here.
So and I feel like that was italmost worked.
(28:38):
The same way that the moneyworked.
It just led to things that werebigger and better and almost
pulling me out of that focus ona daily life, a calendar, a
budget spreadsheet, all of thosethings.
It just sort of broke life opena little bit.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
It's really good, and this is contrary to what FPU.
Yeah, well, and it's.
It's different than what theworld says to do.
Yeah, right, yeah, protect yourtime, you know right.
Say, no, it's about you, youneed me time, and I mean we all
need time to ourselves.
I'm not saying that, but Ithink that sometimes, when we
(29:21):
give that up to God, god saysyeah, I know that, I know how
you were made and I will youknow, I will give you that, but
give me this first, give me this, and I will show you this.
Abundant.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
Yes, and I think what we find in experience and
living that out is that Goddoesn't that out, is that God
doesn't respond to us in thesame way that we respond to each
other.
So when I give my energy to God, I don't actually feel my
energy go away, if that makessense.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
I give my energy to people, and even the people I
love.
I wouldn't trade them foranything, but I have to find
ways to fuel myself up, to keepgiving that energy out, and it
just doesn't work that way withGod right it almost feels like
the more I give, the more I'mfilling up oh, it's so good, so
(30:21):
good, yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
And again, I, I'm the kind of brain that wants to,
okay, well, let's figure thisout.
How does this work?
But uh, that's just, that'sjust God and his faithfulness
and his loving, and he's like Imade you, yeah, I made you, and
oh, that's so good.
I've.
I've seen that before when I'vesaid I felt like God was saying
(30:43):
go bring a meal to somebody.
Okay, I don't have the timetoday, though God and he's like
do it, you know.
And then, all of a sudden, Istill had the same amount to do,
but it got done, and at the endof the day, I thought that
doesn't make sense.
I shouldn't have been able toget that stuff done because I
(31:06):
took an hour or more to you know, make more food and go bring it
, and I didn't have that timeRight.
And God's like well, I madetime, yeah, so what a fun.
This has been great.
I want to point out something,if you don't mind.
You said that you've heard fromGod, and I think that that is
(31:31):
scares a lot of people, orthat's terminology of.
So did you hear audibly?
Most people don't, but I thinkthat they can.
But could you maybe explainwhat?
How do you know?
This is a question people ask.
Right Is how do I hear God'svoice?
How do, how do you?
Speaker 2 (31:53):
Yeah, I that almost.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
That almost feels more taboo to me than finances
and I'm asking, I'm like hey.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
Rachel, let's just dive in.
It's a yeah, it's kind of itkind of it sounds kind of like a
scary thing.
Yeah, you don't want to becrazy, right?
I will say, for me it is almostaudible.
It's kind of how you can hearyour thoughts.
You're not actually hearingthem, but you can have sort of
an amorphous feeling or you canhave a clear thought in your
(32:25):
head, and so I definitely canhear some clear thought.
But it sounds like me.
It's not like I'm hearing God'svoice in my head, it sounds
like one of my own thoughts.
The difference is how it feels,and I think it's that clarity
(32:47):
thing.
My mind races a lot, I have alot of thoughts and I feel like
those moments where I'm like, oh, okay.
God, it feels like it's a littlebit out of left field.
It's not like when I'm likewhat should I spend my time on?
And then I think church.
And I was like, wait, that'snot what we were talking about.
(33:07):
That's really not one of thethat's not one of the options.
God, but thanks for playing.
I had a moment where we were inchurch we were prompted to pray
about what strongholds do wehave Ooh, this actually ties
back to finances whatstrongholds do we have in our
hearts that we need to let go ofand give up to God and pray for
(33:30):
strength to do so?
So I, you know, I put my headdown and I go to go into prayer,
expecting the all of the normalstrongholds that you might need
to let go of anxiety, stress,control.
I'm ready to pray over all ofthose things.
And as soon as I just shut myeyes and I'm ready to pray, I
(33:52):
think, so clearly in my head, mycareer.
And it almost like surprised me.
I was like, wait, that's notlike, that's not what I was
thinking about.
I was getting ready to, youknow, anxiety and fear over
what's next.
And so clearly in my head it wasjust like my career.
And I was like, oh so it'susually those.
(34:33):
They're like thoughts that whatI was wanting to hear.
It never feels aggressive orscary in any way.
Even the thought or the answeris not what I'm expecting or
even what I want, but it feelsjust like love, like it's never
(34:54):
contrary to love or kindness,like when I think about when I
will say something to Lily, likeit's not kind to say that to
somebody.
She's not going to want to hearthat in the moment, but it's
coming from love and so I thinkthat's probably as clearly as I
(35:18):
can explain it.
It has a clarity to it andalways feels like love and it's
my own thoughts.
They just come out of leftfield and I didn't know that.
That's how I can listen to God.
I didn't know that's what itwas like until I knew it if that
makes sense.
Speaker 1 (35:37):
Yeah, that's so good.
Wow, we've covered a lot Some.
It's funny because I talk topeople and we get some really
hard things and for some reason,some really hard things and for
some reason, why does talkingabout finances seem so?
(35:58):
You know, this wasn't a storyabout, you know, drug addiction
or homelessness or trafficking,and this is almost just as hard
and vulnerable, so thank you.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
Well, and it's when I talk about how things started
to like get crazy for us andturn upside down.
I feel like the things thatwe're talking about are like
choice of school and like jobsecurity.
It's not some of these reallydifficult things that people go
(36:30):
through felt like I have no ideawhat to do with this.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
Right, but I think that that's powerful and that's
what this podcast is about.
Is ordinary people Like I thinka lot of people can relate to
job security, fears of yourkid's education, I mean a myriad
of things and so for you tojust say this is my story and
I'm willing to share it only inthe hopes of it freeing somebody
(37:02):
else, maybe I'll just share oneother thing real quick, and it
has to do a little bit with God,hearing God's voice and a
finance thing.
I feel like we're afraid toshare some stories because we
don't want to feel like we'retooting our own horn or we're
not being humble.
But this is what I'm askingpeople to do on my podcast.
Several years ago, chris foundout that someone he knew had a
(37:27):
vehicle in the shop and it waskind of between doing your
mortgage, paying your mortgageor paying for the car, and we're
not crazy well off.
But you know, god has blessedus and I understand that, even
if we live in America, like allof these things, but not to say
that we just don't havethousands of dollars of like hey
(37:48):
, yeah, whatever.
But he just felt really stronglyabout I feel like we should
call this auto shop and just payfor this to be done.
And so we did.
And this is just God's.
I think he just reminds me ofit sometimes when I wonder am I
(38:08):
hearing you?
Do I really trust you with myfinances right?
And I come back to this story.
And my grandma passed away notvery long after that.
She should not have been ableto give us any money at all,
like I did not know that wewould get anything at all.
Speaker 2 (38:26):
Right.
Speaker 1 (38:27):
Well, we got to the penny, no, what we paid for that
man's car to get out of theshop.
So just a couple thousanddollars, you know, like she
wasn't leaving us a crazyinheritance.
But I just felt like God wassaying, and he didn't have to.
And I'm not saying, do this andthis will happen.
That's not what I'm saying, butI think that God is so loving
(38:49):
sometimes and I feel like hegives us this.
So he says do you remember thattime that I did that?
Because you listened to me,yeah, and you stepped out and
you did something and I justshowed you.
I see you.
Speaker 2 (39:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
Here it is, to the exact penny what you gave,
that's amazing and it's back.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
And if it was not?
To the penny Right, it can soeasily be written off as
coincidence.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
Right.
Speaker 2 (39:19):
I think that's what I was doing for a long time.
He would show me little thingsand I would just look the other
way, and then got to this pointwhere I had a period of like two
weeks where it was like all day, every day, was just series of
him saying look, look, look,look, look, until I was like,
okay, okay, I will stop lookingthe other way.
Speaker 1 (39:42):
Yeah, well, I'm praying over this podcast for
just whoever's listening.
Maybe you've heard somethingand it's just kind of impacted
you and that's our prayer today.
So, as we finish up, what isyour favorite Bible verse or
story?
Speaker 2 (39:58):
I would love to share my favorite Bible verse, with
the disclaimer that I am stillin a Bible discovery journey.
Yeah, it's pretty new to me.
I grew up knowing the gospeland, essentially, genesis Exodus
, so I am now learning thingsthat I had never, never known my
(40:23):
whole life.
But this verse, it stuck out tome and I just can't get away
from it.
I think it's so beautiful.
It's Ecclesiastes 3.11.
I don't know if you're familiarwith that.
I find the whole book ofEcclesiastes just amazing,
fascinating.
(40:43):
But verse 3.11 specifically,I'll read it.
He has made everythingbeautiful in its time.
He has also set eternity in thehuman heart.
Yet no one can fathom what Godhas done from beginning to end.
So much In like 12 words.
Speaker 1 (41:04):
Wow, that's good.
That's not one that you pullfrom very often, ecclesiastes.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
I think it was given to me.
It was one of those things.
I found my way to it randomlyand was like oh okay, yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:21):
That's good.
What are you grateful for?
Speaker 2 (41:25):
Oh, I don't want to sound cheesy, but kind of
everything.
Yeah, If that makes sense.
I have found I'm almost feelinglike gratefulness is sort of a
state of mind, like how we startto talk about joy or happiness
being not necessarily a fleetingemotion but a sort of state,
(41:49):
and I feel like that's becometrue with gratefulness too.
I just it's like once you startto feel that I can't get away
from it.
I'm grateful for everything.
I'm grateful for you, for whatyou're doing with your podcast.
Thank, you for the work God isdoing through you.
Thank you.
I'm grateful for everythingthat I went through over the
(42:12):
last year, so grateful for theFPU class and the people that
were in the room.
I really think it was as muchabout the people in that room
than the program itself I couldhave got the program but I
needed to be with those people.
So, yeah, I'm grateful that thesun's out today.
Speaker 1 (42:35):
Beautiful day.
That's good, thank you.
Speaker 2 (42:44):
What kindness have you received or what kindness
have you shown?
That's a good one, okay.
So two nights ago I went to afriend invited me which I'm
grateful for to it's called 100Women who Care, I believe, in
(43:04):
Douglas County.
Oh, and it's basically ameeting of you.
Become a member, you go to themeeting and then everybody votes
on a local nonprofit and theneverybody donates $100 during
the meeting and then everybodyvotes on a local nonprofit and
then everybody donates a hundreddollars during the meeting, so
that nonprofit receivesbasically a large donation from
(43:28):
this group of women who kind ofcollectively decide what to do
with it.
That felt good.
It felt really good to do that.
But then last night I wasinvited to a happy hour with
some women that I share.
I rent an office in an officebuilding and the office building
(43:49):
.
Ladies invited me to come tohappy hour and so I went, not
necessarily really wanting to.
I was a little nervous.
I don't know any of them.
What am I going to talk about?
at happy hour people, I don'tknow, but it was so good to be
around them and they were justsuch kind people that you asking
that question made me think ofthat.
(44:10):
So sort of two nights in a row,tangible we're going to come
together and be kind.
But then the very next night,just being with seven women who
were had extended thatinvitation, and then we were
able to just sort of fellowship,and it made me feel like I'm
(44:31):
just surrounded by so much morekindness than I realize.
If you just look and see it.
You know there's just so manygood hearts wanting to do good
things.
It's good.
Speaker 1 (44:47):
Yeah, and what we look for is what we find.
Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 2 (44:52):
Thank you for being on.
Speaker 1 (44:54):
Yeah, thank you.
Thank you for being on.
This was amazing.
Yeah, thank you for sharingyour story and praying that our
words will just impact someoneand maybe they'll hear something
for the first time.
So we're excited to see whatGod's going to do through it.
Yes, and on Ordinary People,extraordinary Things, your story
is His glory.
I pray that this podcast hasimpacted you, that it has made
(45:19):
you think that it has impactedyour life.
I pray that it has grown yourfaith and that you will share
this podcast with someone youknow.
And if you would like to joinour prayer team, don't forget,
just go togenerations2generationscom and
you'll find the Join Our PrayerTeam under the podcast tab.
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