June 11, 2025 • 27 mins
In this episode, we talk about what it really means to trust the unfolding of life when things don’t go according to plan. We’ve both longed for the blueprint—the full picture—but God often asks us to take just the next step without knowing what’s around the corner. Releasing control is tough, but we’ve learned that peace doesn’t come from having all the answers. Heidi shares how something as inconvenient as a flat tire turned into a sacred moment with her mom—reminding us that what feels like an interruption may actually be part of God’s gentle redirection.
We lean into scriptures like Psalm 37:5 and Proverbs 16:9 and explore how to practice trusting the unfolding through simple breath prayers, journaling, and asking God to help us loosen our grip on control. For us, trusting the unfolding means choosing to believe that God is present and active, even when the path feels uncertain. If you're in a season of waiting, change, or unknowns, we invite you to join us and remember: your life is not random, and the One writing your story is trustworthy.
Learn more about our Revelation Within Community: https://www.revelationwithin.org
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi and welcome to our podcast Revelation Within On
the Go.
I'm Heidi Biles-Maefferson, oneof your hosts and the owner and
lead coach of theRevelationWithinorg ministry.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
And I'm Christina Motley, your other host, also a
Revelation Within coach andHeidi's partner in all things
Revelation Within.
We're so happy to invite you tojoin us for this episode of
Revelation Within.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
And arms up in the air once again.
Oh well, hey, today's episodeis kind of a launching pad off
of what we've been looking at inour online membership, and it's
the theme that we've beencalling in this very moment, and
each week this month and eachweek every month, we focus on a
(00:58):
theme with our RevWithinteammembers.
Yes, so we've been looking atwhat it means to abide with God,
not in some far off, distantfuture land, not when things are
calm or perfect or healthy, orwhatever, but right now you know
(01:21):
what's funny, heidi, is thatevery month I think this is my
favorite theme This- is it?
Speaker 2 (01:27):
This is the theme that is going to be my favorite.
None of the rest are going tocompare, because this theme is
exactly what I need and it's sogood.
And then the next one comes,and I think that, again and
again, the themes we've hadgoing have been so good, and
I've heard that from a lot ofpeople.
(01:48):
Today we're going to exploresomething that might really
touch your heart.
We're hoping that it will.
It certainly has for Heidi andI, and that is what does it
really mean?
To trust the unfolding.
I love this.
I love this idea.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Well, and it would be helpful, probably, to say well,
what is the unfolding?
It sounds so like secretlanguage.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Are you talking about sheets, blankets?
What are you talking?
Speaker 1 (02:20):
about.
Or like a bunch of sheep thatare the fold and then they're
scattered.
Oh, I didn't even think aboutthe sheep.
Or like a bunch of sheep thatare the fold and then they're
scattered.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Oh, I didn't even think about the sheep.
All I was thinking about washow I can't fold a fitted sheet.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Oh, I know and I've tried numerous times and people
have taught me.
Yeah, and I've had threedifferent people teach me.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
I think I've just I've let that one go.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
That's not the folding or unfolding we're
talking about.
Let's just start here.
The unfolding, or what we'recalling the unfolding anyway, is
life as it happens.
It's that daily unfolding ofGod's plans in our lives, and
sometimes it's slow A day is athousand years with the Lord and
(03:07):
sometimes it's surprising itdoesn't happen the way we
anticipated or thought we knewit was going to happen.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Right.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Right Rarely, according to our timeline.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Oh my gosh, that is so true, heidi.
That is so true.
You know, we usually what wereally want, what I really want
is the blueprint.
Give me the blueprint, let mejust see the big picture.
But what we get instead is aninvitation.
So we get an invitation fromthe Lord to take the next step,
(03:42):
to release control and I know, Iknow that's oh man and to
believe that, even when we don'tsee it, god is present and
active.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
It's that divine whisper, really, of the Lord
saying to us will you trust mewith what you can't predict?
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Oh, that's so hard, that's so so hard.
And that's where trust getsreal.
That's where it gets real right, Not in those mountaintop
moments, but in the middle ofthe unfolding, in the middle of
life.
I love this idea.
This is exactly what I needtoday.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Let's look at some scripture together.
Let's go first to Psalm 37,verse 5.
And that says commit your wayto the Lord, trust in him and he
will act.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Oh wow.
It really lays it out for usthere, doesn't it?
That word commit in Hebrewmeans to roll your path onto the
Lord.
It's such a physical visualimage, isn't it?
I mean not a polite handoff no.
A real weight being rolled fromyour shoulders to his.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Can you just picture that I?
Like the idea of okay, I'mrolling this off and laying it
on the Lord's shoulders.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Yeah Well, and we've probably all done that
physically before, where it'slike we're carrying something,
we've got something, you knowwe're moving, you know where you
hand something off that'sreally heavy to someone else and
it's like oh, thank God.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
That feels so much better.
And then you know, referringback to our verse 37.5, which
says commit your way to the Lord, trust in him and he will act.
That's the promise.
He will act.
The word for act means he willbring forth, he will move, he
will intervene.
It's a reminder that God isn'tpassive in your story.
(05:49):
No, he's not watching, hangingout saying let's see what she's
going to do next.
He's working.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
That is so reassuring .
Another favorite of ours isProverbs 16, 9.
In their hearts, humans plantheir course, but the Lord
establishes their steps.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Well, god gives us the freedom to plan, of course,
but the real security comes inknowing that it's not up to me
to figure out how it's supposedto go.
He's the one establishing theground beneath our feet, and
this makes me think.
This very verse makes me thinkof a season in my life.
It was in 2012, the summer of2012.
(06:30):
And I had been having my quiettime and this verse was part of
what I was studying, and I waskind of busy getting ready to
take my two dogs across town tosomebody who they were going to
meet for the first time, who wasgoing to pet sit them.
So, I had everything all figuredout and was going to get into
(06:54):
my big Suburban, put the dogs inthe back and drive across town.
I get out to the Suburban andthere is a flat tire Like we're
talking as flat as a pancake.
Oh man, yes.
And so I had planned my course,but I couldn't take my car
anywhere for a while.
(07:14):
So I thought, ok, I'm going toget some of that, fix a flat
stuff, stick it in there andtake the car to the tire place.
Now, the tire place was quite adistance away to the tire place
.
Now, the tire place was quite adistance away.
But I thought, okay, I will govisit my mom, who was nearing
the end of her life at that time, and I knew that.
So the place was close to mom's.
(07:35):
So I went and got my tire fixed.
As I was waiting, I wrote aletter that I planned to read to
my mom.
It was in and out ofconsciousness at that time and I
hadn't seen her for a few days,so I wasn't sure where she was
at.
She might have rallied Anyway.
So after my car was all readyto go the tire was all repaired
(07:59):
and all of that I had my iPadwith my letter that I had just
written to my mom and drove toher assisted living place where
she lived, and she was indeed ina very challenging place.
She was clearly near to the endof her life.
There was no rallying from this.
But, I chose to read the letterto her.
(08:21):
Anyway, she had kind of beenlanguishing for quite a while as
though she couldn't let go oflife, and I remember just how
heartbreaking it was to see her.
Just let go, mom, just let go.
And so my letter, I read it outloud to her and a lot of it was
let go language.
It was.
You know, things are going wellin this aspect of my life.
(08:43):
If that is why you're concernedand don't want to let go, then
you're good to go.
Things are fine.
The kids are all settled andgoing off to colleges in August.
So there we're using the moneythat you have given us for that,
you know.
Just told her all that, andthen I told her happy things
that I remembered from mychildhood, things that I, you
know, and I had a roughchildhood, but there were good
(09:05):
things.
And so after that I kissed her,not knowing if I was going to
see her again or not, this sideof heaven.
And by the time I had gottenall the way home I had a call
waiting for me on my at thattime answering machine and it
was yeah, your mom passed awayright after you left oh my gosh.
(09:26):
And so what's so awesome is thisverse, proverbs 16, 9, which
you just quoted for us.
You know, in their hearts,humans plan their course, but
the Lord established their steps.
God knew that if I didn't havea flat tire, I was going to be
off gallivanting all over thetown and I needed to be with my
mom that day.
(09:46):
I don't know if she was able toactually let go and pass
peacefully, because she heardthose words that I had to say.
I don't know if that was why,but I know it happened, the
timing of it, and would she havepassed?
All I know is I felt like I waswhere I needed to be and I
wouldn't have been had the Lordnot given me a nice big old flat
(10:08):
tire.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
You know, I'll bet those kinds of things happen all
the time.
Yeah, and we just don't know,we don't realize, we don't see
the end result, we're not sure.
And then it's like, well, I wasinterrupted, or this happened
and it bothered me and I'mfrustrated.
But what if God is in thosemoments?
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Right right.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
I mean, that's just an amazing thought.
I had this image, this visualpop into my mind of taking my
little like notebook plannercalendar thing to the Lord early
in the morning and saying, okay, lord, here's the plan.
And then he's checking it.
You know, he's going down eachone and he's going no, this one
(10:56):
only half.
Yeah, you might know at allthis one, let's switch this to
the afternoon.
No, this is.
I can't even explain it.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
And the trick with this, like when I got out to my
car that morning and saw theflat tire, I was mad.
Yes, of course I was mad.
And when we have planned ourday or planned our lives or
whatever, planned our children'slives or whatever, and
something doesn't happen the waywe planned it, it's really easy
(11:26):
to get mad or get disappointedand trust feels really hard in
those moments, you know, for meto say, okay, well, the Lord is
establishing my steps.
In that moment I wasn't going tosay that, you know.
I mean it took me a few momentsto connect.
This was a verse that I had inmy face this morning.
You know that God was touchingmy heart with actually, and so
(11:49):
at that point I could choose istrust going to happen here?
I'm so glad that he didredirect my steps in that time.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
That is such a beautiful, beautiful story,
heidi, and you know I mean thisis kind of silly in a way, but
this is why I started writing mylist at the end of the day
instead of in the middle of theday or the beginning of the day,
because I realized there's allthese things that God wants to
do today.
I don't even know what they areto do today.
(12:22):
I don't even know what they are.
I want to be open, I want to beready, I want to be flexible
enough to do what he's callingme to.
And that's tricky, that's hard.
So maybe right now someonelistening might be saying but I
am trying to trust, I am tryingto trust, but everything feels
out of control.
What do we do with that?
We've all felt that way.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Oh friend, we get that for sure.
Trusting the unfolding doesn'tmean you feel peace every second
.
No it means that we keep turningtoward God, turning toward God,
turning toward God, even whenwe can't see what's next.
Because I have to view it thisway, god, even when we can't see
what's next, because I have toview it this way, you know, god
(13:04):
is unchanging.
Life all around me is totallychangeable and it's going to
change and I won't understand itor see it coming.
But if I'm clinging to him,there's a security that comes
because he, his character, whohe is to me, what he says about
me, is unchanging.
That is where I get this senseof trust from.
Is that he is the rock, andreally I lived on Catalina
(13:27):
Island and there was a rockjetty and I think of that solid
rock jetty.
In any weather, any storm, youcould cling to that and it was
not going to budge.
That's what the Lord is for usas well.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Yeah, that's so true.
And really, heidi, you wouldn'thave even a thought to say that
if your mind wasn't renewed allthe time about that very thing,
you wouldn't have even thoughtof that, it wouldn't have even
come to your mind.
But because you renew your mindregularly about who God is and
what he does, you renew yourmind regularly about who God is
(14:03):
and what he does, it's on yourmind, it's right there, it's at
the tip of your tongue and wow,does that make a difference?
When my mind is renewed andthere's a surprise or an
interruption or somethingunexpected and I have no idea
what God is doing.
But if my mind is renewed, I'mgoing to view it in a whole
different way.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Yeah, I'm going to think God's thoughts about it,
because I know he's sovereignand he's good.
If he was sovereign and notgood, that'd be scary, or if he
was good and not sovereign,that'd be impotent, and so I'm
really glad that God is both.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
I just got back from a mammogram.
Okay, so you walk in and youhave this appointment and it is
for the detection and preventionof something really bad right
Of cancer.
And so you walk in and that'sthe first thing you think of is
that's why I'm here.
It's different than going tothe doctor for a different
(15:00):
reason, like to check my bloodpressure or something.
And I was keenly aware of thatright away and I thought, lord,
I already have a chronic illness.
I can't do something else ontop of that.
And I'm thinking about this asthey're doing the procedure.
Oh, and I'm thinking, lord, youknow, this is why I've put it
(15:22):
off for so long.
But I felt so clearly.
I felt and heard his words inmy mind trust me, I've got you.
And I don't know what thatmeans exactly, except that he's
my rock.
You know they could call menext week and say oh, you know,
there's something here we needto look at.
I don't know, and that's veryscary, of course.
(15:47):
God is the same, though, and sowhen he says trust me, I have a
choice, I can be miserable overhere on the one side and be full
of fear and anxious thoughts,that's not fine.
No, and I've been there plentyof times.
Or I can say, yeah, I'm goingto be with you over here, lord,
(16:08):
it's still hard, but I can trustyou because, like you said that
rock jetty and I've been therefive times.
I was there with that rockjetty and it was really solid.
Remember that time those hugewaves came, nothing moved the
rock jetty, nothing moved it andI thought, wow, you know what?
(16:29):
That's where I want to be.
I want to be hanging on to therock not consumed in fear.
So Isaiah 43, 19,.
I love this verse.
See, I'm doing a new thing.
Now it springs up.
Do you not perceive it?
And the answer is no.
Most of the time I don'tperceive it.
(16:50):
Lord, Give me eyes to see it.
Give me eyes to see it.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
And even when we don't perceive it, that's just
it.
God is still doing a new thing,because Jesus said that he is
always at work and his father isalways at work.
So we know God is always atwork and just like a spring
breaking through frozen ground,he's at work and just like a
spring breaking through frozenground, it's happening even when
(17:16):
it's not seen at first.
And here's the thing If I feellike I'm not seeing what God's
doing, it doesn't mean he's notdoing it.
My feelings, my perceptions donot define what is true.
They are real, they are validand I want to recognize them and
honor them.
But when push comes to shove,what is the great reality?
It's that God is doing a newthing and we may not perceive it
(17:41):
.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Well, and I like to think about it this way too this
helps me.
It's part of God's character tobe active all the time.
It's part of his character tobe at work, to be working things
out for good All those you know.
We have lists and lists of whoGod is.
That's what we call the Godlist.
But we have all theseattributes.
(18:02):
It's part of who he is.
It's like he can't not do it.
You know what I mean.
Like he is the healer, he isthe redeemer.
We can't understand that.
We can't fathom being activeall the time like that.
But he's not human, he's God.
So that just helps me.
It's like, okay, wait a minute.
God is God, no matter what.
(18:24):
He is that solid rock that wecan cling to.
I'd rather be in any situationwith him than in any situation
without him.
So that helps me too.
I don't want to be, I want tobe as close to him as possible.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
So I mean honestly, wow, sometimes control feels
safer, especially in the moment.
Control feels safer, especiallyin the moment, than trust.
You know we get fearful andit's like okay, let me make a
list, let me put this together,let me rearrange the pieces of
the puzzle.
You know this helps.
This makes me feel better.
But we all know this Control isan illusion.
(19:06):
Anything can happen in the nextmoment.
So it's really an illusion.
We are really not in controland trusting God, like we were
just talking about hanging on tothat rock jetty, hanging on to
that solid, solid rock.
That's where peace is.
(19:28):
what we really want is peace but, we get so frantic I know I do
I get frantic and impatient andI go for a counterfeit comfort
or I go for I'll fix it, I'llcontrol it.
But what I'm really longing foris peace and that's.
That's only in one place,trusting God only in one place
(19:48):
trusting God.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Yeah, and it's for the very reason that Romans 8,
28 says there's a truth therethat does bring us peace.
It says we know that in allthings, all things God works for
the good of those who love himand when we trust him, it's hard
(20:14):
, it's hard, nobody's going totell you it's not Right.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
I mean, how has trusting myself worked out for
me it?
Speaker 1 (20:20):
hasn't.
No, it hasn't worked out for meeither, no, and I bet it hasn't
worked out for the listenerseither.
And so, knowing that God haspromised we know he's sovereign,
we know he's good, we know he'sloving, and all of these other
things that his word disclosesabout his character, that he is
at work putting things togetherin such a way that it brings
(20:42):
about good for those that lovehim, and that's just awesome.
So another translation of thatverse Romans 8, 28, is that God
works all things together forthe good of those who love him.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
Okay, so the all things together.
That phrase is a word, synergeoin Greek, which means to work
together with kind of likeweaving, which I love.
This picture God's not justcleaning up our messes, he's
weaving them into somethingredemptive.
(21:18):
I think of embroidery, I thinkof crochet, I think of knitting.
Yeah, I mean, that's abeautiful image.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Yeah, even what feels wasted, he's not wasting it.
No, it's all part of thewonderful, lovely tapestry.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
Yes, yes.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
Or you know what?
I'm married to somebody who wasa baker for 30 years and
Michael he he said you take theflour, you take the chocolate,
the baker's chocolate, whateverthat is and you take the butter,
you take the eggs, you take thebaking soda.
Each one of them are going tomake you miserable if you eat it
by itself, right, yes, but whathappens when you put it all
(21:58):
together and you're a masterchef in the kitchen or a baker?
or something it's going to belovely.
Now, that kind of is nowherenear what we're talking about,
because God does even so muchmore above and beyond that, but
that's kind of a cool way ofthinking of it.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
I like that.
Yeah, one of those things byitself.
Eggs, raw eggs, yeah, or bakingsoda, but put them all together
in just the right way, just theright amounts, a perfect recipe
.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
And the right amount of heat too.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
Yes, right, and you're going to have this
beautiful thing.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Chocolate.
Whatever it is, it's chocolate,yeah, so we're good.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
So we want to offer you and ourselves a few ways to
carry what we've been talkingabout with you, something that's
kind of tangible.
You can jump in and do itactually right now with us, or
even later if you're driving orwhatever.
I think we have a lot of peoplethat listen while they're
driving.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Okay, so the first one is a breath prayer, and
we've done breath prayers in ourpodcast several times.
It's so simple.
It's really just breathingdeeply and speaking the truth as
you breathe.
That's all it is.
That's all it is.
So it calms your body down andit kind of just gives you a
place of physical and spiritualpeace as you breathe and say
(23:26):
God's words, his truth, out loud.
It's really so fabulous.
One of my favorite ways to renewmy mind.
So here's an idea.
There are a million differentphrases you could use as a
breath prayer for this topic,but here's an idea.
We're going to inhale and say Itrust you with the unknown.
(23:48):
And then we're going to exhaleand say you are unfolding
something good.
Oh, should we do it togetherright now?
Yes, I love this.
This sounds so good.
So we're going to breathe inthrough our nose, nice and deep,
through our nose, nice and deep, and we're going to say I trust
(24:22):
you with the unknown.
Exhale, you are unfoldingsomething good, beautiful.
Should we do one more?
I already am.
Oh, she's already doing it.
Inhale, I trust you with theunknown Exhale, you are
(24:42):
unfolding something good.
Oh, I love that.
That's a beautiful truthstraight from the word of God,
beautiful.
The second one is a little bitof journaling, a little bit of a
journaling prompt here.
Where am I being invited torelease control?
(25:02):
And of course, the invitationis coming from the Lord,
although probably people aroundyou will thank you as well when
am I being invited to releasecontrol?
And then, what would it looklike to trust God with this
moment?
What would it look like totrust God with this moment?
(25:24):
You might want to just sit downfor a few minutes with the Lord
, maybe have a conversation,maybe do some journaling about
that.
And the last one is a visualpractice.
Imagine a blooming flower andhere in Colorado Springs we are
all flowers right now we'rehaving spring, spring, spring.
(25:44):
Imagine the flower bloomingslowly, petal by petal.
That's you, that's this season.
God is unfolding something new.
Oh, I love having a visual.
I love that you could do thevisual with the breath prayer
even I love it.
(26:06):
Wonderful.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
Well, we don't always see the big picture but, we can
surrender this moment, thisbreath, maybe this choice.
And we know that God holds itall, he cherishes it all, he
loves us so very much.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
Yes.
So we want to invite you andwe're inviting ourselves as well
whatever it is that you'refacing and we're all facing into
something right now.
We want to invite you to trustthe unfolding, lay down the
burden, pick up peace andremember your life is not random
(26:44):
.
It is not random, it is beingwritten by love.
You are not alone and you arealready loved yes, already loved
in this very, very moment, andthat's how we want to end.
We are so glad that you've beenhere today.
Please come back and join usfor our next podcast of
(27:04):
revelation within.
Thanks for being here.
Bye.
Hi and welcome to our podcast Revelation Within On
the Go.
I'm Heidi Biles-Maefferson, oneof your hosts and the owner and
lead coach of theRevelationWithinorg ministry.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
And I'm Christina Motley, your other host, also a
Revelation Within coach andHeidi's partner in all things
Revelation Within.
We're so happy to invite you tojoin us for this episode of
Revelation Within.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
And arms up in the air once again.
Oh well, hey, today's episodeis kind of a launching pad off
of what we've been looking at inour online membership, and it's
the theme that we've beencalling in this very moment, and
each week this month and eachweek every month, we focus on a
(00:58):
theme with our RevWithinteammembers.
Yes, so we've been looking atwhat it means to abide with God,
not in some far off, distantfuture land, not when things are
calm or perfect or healthy, orwhatever, but right now you know
(01:21):
what's funny, heidi, is thatevery month I think this is my
favorite theme This- is it?
Speaker 2 (01:27):
This is the theme that is going to be my favorite.
None of the rest are going tocompare, because this theme is
exactly what I need and it's sogood.
And then the next one comes,and I think that, again and
again, the themes we've hadgoing have been so good, and
I've heard that from a lot ofpeople.
(01:48):
Today we're going to exploresomething that might really
touch your heart.
We're hoping that it will.
It certainly has for Heidi andI, and that is what does it
really mean?
To trust the unfolding.
I love this.
I love this idea.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Well, and it would be helpful, probably, to say well,
what is the unfolding?
It sounds so like secretlanguage.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Are you talking about sheets, blankets?
What are you talking?
Speaker 1 (02:20):
about.
Or like a bunch of sheep thatare the fold and then they're
scattered.
Oh, I didn't even think aboutthe sheep.
Or like a bunch of sheep thatare the fold and then they're
scattered.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Oh, I didn't even think about the sheep.
All I was thinking about washow I can't fold a fitted sheet.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Oh, I know and I've tried numerous times and people
have taught me.
Yeah, and I've had threedifferent people teach me.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
I think I've just I've let that one go.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
That's not the folding or unfolding we're
talking about.
Let's just start here.
The unfolding, or what we'recalling the unfolding anyway, is
life as it happens.
It's that daily unfolding ofGod's plans in our lives, and
sometimes it's slow A day is athousand years with the Lord and
(03:07):
sometimes it's surprising itdoesn't happen the way we
anticipated or thought we knewit was going to happen.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Right.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Right Rarely, according to our timeline.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Oh my gosh, that is so true, heidi.
That is so true.
You know, we usually what wereally want, what I really want
is the blueprint.
Give me the blueprint, let mejust see the big picture.
But what we get instead is aninvitation.
So we get an invitation fromthe Lord to take the next step,
(03:42):
to release control and I know, Iknow that's oh man and to
believe that, even when we don'tsee it, god is present and
active.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
It's that divine whisper, really, of the Lord
saying to us will you trust mewith what you can't predict?
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Oh, that's so hard, that's so so hard.
And that's where trust getsreal.
That's where it gets real right, Not in those mountaintop
moments, but in the middle ofthe unfolding, in the middle of
life.
I love this idea.
This is exactly what I needtoday.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Let's look at some scripture together.
Let's go first to Psalm 37,verse 5.
And that says commit your wayto the Lord, trust in him and he
will act.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Oh wow.
It really lays it out for usthere, doesn't it?
That word commit in Hebrewmeans to roll your path onto the
Lord.
It's such a physical visualimage, isn't it?
I mean not a polite handoff no.
A real weight being rolled fromyour shoulders to his.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Can you just picture that I?
Like the idea of okay, I'mrolling this off and laying it
on the Lord's shoulders.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Yeah Well, and we've probably all done that
physically before, where it'slike we're carrying something,
we've got something, you knowwe're moving, you know where you
hand something off that'sreally heavy to someone else and
it's like oh, thank God.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
That feels so much better.
And then you know, referringback to our verse 37.5, which
says commit your way to the Lord, trust in him and he will act.
That's the promise.
He will act.
The word for act means he willbring forth, he will move, he
will intervene.
It's a reminder that God isn'tpassive in your story.
(05:49):
No, he's not watching, hangingout saying let's see what she's
going to do next.
He's working.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
That is so reassuring .
Another favorite of ours isProverbs 16, 9.
In their hearts, humans plantheir course, but the Lord
establishes their steps.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Well, god gives us the freedom to plan, of course,
but the real security comes inknowing that it's not up to me
to figure out how it's supposedto go.
He's the one establishing theground beneath our feet, and
this makes me think.
This very verse makes me thinkof a season in my life.
It was in 2012, the summer of2012.
(06:30):
And I had been having my quiettime and this verse was part of
what I was studying, and I waskind of busy getting ready to
take my two dogs across town tosomebody who they were going to
meet for the first time, who wasgoing to pet sit them.
So, I had everything all figuredout and was going to get into
(06:54):
my big Suburban, put the dogs inthe back and drive across town.
I get out to the Suburban andthere is a flat tire Like we're
talking as flat as a pancake.
Oh man, yes.
And so I had planned my course,but I couldn't take my car
anywhere for a while.
(07:14):
So I thought, ok, I'm going toget some of that, fix a flat
stuff, stick it in there andtake the car to the tire place.
Now, the tire place was quite adistance away to the tire place
.
Now, the tire place was quite adistance away.
But I thought, okay, I will govisit my mom, who was nearing
the end of her life at that time, and I knew that.
So the place was close to mom's.
(07:35):
So I went and got my tire fixed.
As I was waiting, I wrote aletter that I planned to read to
my mom.
It was in and out ofconsciousness at that time and I
hadn't seen her for a few days,so I wasn't sure where she was
at.
She might have rallied Anyway.
So after my car was all readyto go the tire was all repaired
(07:59):
and all of that I had my iPadwith my letter that I had just
written to my mom and drove toher assisted living place where
she lived, and she was indeed ina very challenging place.
She was clearly near to the endof her life.
There was no rallying from this.
But, I chose to read the letterto her.
(08:21):
Anyway, she had kind of beenlanguishing for quite a while as
though she couldn't let go oflife, and I remember just how
heartbreaking it was to see her.
Just let go, mom, just let go.
And so my letter, I read it outloud to her and a lot of it was
let go language.
It was.
You know, things are going wellin this aspect of my life.
(08:43):
If that is why you're concernedand don't want to let go, then
you're good to go.
Things are fine.
The kids are all settled andgoing off to colleges in August.
So there we're using the moneythat you have given us for that,
you know.
Just told her all that, andthen I told her happy things
that I remembered from mychildhood, things that I, you
know, and I had a roughchildhood, but there were good
(09:05):
things.
And so after that I kissed her,not knowing if I was going to
see her again or not, this sideof heaven.
And by the time I had gottenall the way home I had a call
waiting for me on my at thattime answering machine and it
was yeah, your mom passed awayright after you left oh my gosh.
(09:26):
And so what's so awesome is thisverse, proverbs 16, 9, which
you just quoted for us.
You know, in their hearts,humans plan their course, but
the Lord established their steps.
God knew that if I didn't havea flat tire, I was going to be
off gallivanting all over thetown and I needed to be with my
mom that day.
(09:46):
I don't know if she was able toactually let go and pass
peacefully, because she heardthose words that I had to say.
I don't know if that was why,but I know it happened, the
timing of it, and would she havepassed?
All I know is I felt like I waswhere I needed to be and I
wouldn't have been had the Lordnot given me a nice big old flat
(10:08):
tire.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
You know, I'll bet those kinds of things happen all
the time.
Yeah, and we just don't know,we don't realize, we don't see
the end result, we're not sure.
And then it's like, well, I wasinterrupted, or this happened
and it bothered me and I'mfrustrated.
But what if God is in thosemoments?
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Right right.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
I mean, that's just an amazing thought.
I had this image, this visualpop into my mind of taking my
little like notebook plannercalendar thing to the Lord early
in the morning and saying, okay, lord, here's the plan.
And then he's checking it.
You know, he's going down eachone and he's going no, this one
(10:56):
only half.
Yeah, you might know at allthis one, let's switch this to
the afternoon.
No, this is.
I can't even explain it.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
And the trick with this, like when I got out to my
car that morning and saw theflat tire, I was mad.
Yes, of course I was mad.
And when we have planned ourday or planned our lives or
whatever, planned our children'slives or whatever, and
something doesn't happen the waywe planned it, it's really easy
(11:26):
to get mad or get disappointedand trust feels really hard in
those moments, you know, for meto say, okay, well, the Lord is
establishing my steps.
In that moment I wasn't going tosay that, you know.
I mean it took me a few momentsto connect.
This was a verse that I had inmy face this morning.
You know that God was touchingmy heart with actually, and so
(11:49):
at that point I could choose istrust going to happen here?
I'm so glad that he didredirect my steps in that time.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
That is such a beautiful, beautiful story,
heidi, and you know I mean thisis kind of silly in a way, but
this is why I started writing mylist at the end of the day
instead of in the middle of theday or the beginning of the day,
because I realized there's allthese things that God wants to
do today.
I don't even know what they areto do today.
(12:22):
I don't even know what they are.
I want to be open, I want to beready, I want to be flexible
enough to do what he's callingme to.
And that's tricky, that's hard.
So maybe right now someonelistening might be saying but I
am trying to trust, I am tryingto trust, but everything feels
out of control.
What do we do with that?
We've all felt that way.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Oh friend, we get that for sure.
Trusting the unfolding doesn'tmean you feel peace every second
.
No it means that we keep turningtoward God, turning toward God,
turning toward God, even whenwe can't see what's next.
Because I have to view it thisway, god, even when we can't see
what's next, because I have toview it this way, you know, god
(13:04):
is unchanging.
Life all around me is totallychangeable and it's going to
change and I won't understand itor see it coming.
But if I'm clinging to him,there's a security that comes
because he, his character, whohe is to me, what he says about
me, is unchanging.
That is where I get this senseof trust from.
Is that he is the rock, andreally I lived on Catalina
(13:27):
Island and there was a rockjetty and I think of that solid
rock jetty.
In any weather, any storm, youcould cling to that and it was
not going to budge.
That's what the Lord is for usas well.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Yeah, that's so true.
And really, heidi, you wouldn'thave even a thought to say that
if your mind wasn't renewed allthe time about that very thing,
you wouldn't have even thoughtof that, it wouldn't have even
come to your mind.
But because you renew your mindregularly about who God is and
what he does, you renew yourmind regularly about who God is
(14:03):
and what he does, it's on yourmind, it's right there, it's at
the tip of your tongue and wow,does that make a difference?
When my mind is renewed andthere's a surprise or an
interruption or somethingunexpected and I have no idea
what God is doing.
But if my mind is renewed, I'mgoing to view it in a whole
different way.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Yeah, I'm going to think God's thoughts about it,
because I know he's sovereignand he's good.
If he was sovereign and notgood, that'd be scary, or if he
was good and not sovereign,that'd be impotent, and so I'm
really glad that God is both.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
I just got back from a mammogram.
Okay, so you walk in and youhave this appointment and it is
for the detection and preventionof something really bad right
Of cancer.
And so you walk in and that'sthe first thing you think of is
that's why I'm here.
It's different than going tothe doctor for a different
(15:00):
reason, like to check my bloodpressure or something.
And I was keenly aware of thatright away and I thought, lord,
I already have a chronic illness.
I can't do something else ontop of that.
And I'm thinking about this asthey're doing the procedure.
Oh, and I'm thinking, lord, youknow, this is why I've put it
(15:22):
off for so long.
But I felt so clearly.
I felt and heard his words inmy mind trust me, I've got you.
And I don't know what thatmeans exactly, except that he's
my rock.
You know they could call menext week and say oh, you know,
there's something here we needto look at.
I don't know, and that's veryscary, of course.
(15:47):
God is the same, though, and sowhen he says trust me, I have a
choice, I can be miserable overhere on the one side and be full
of fear and anxious thoughts,that's not fine.
No, and I've been there plentyof times.
Or I can say, yeah, I'm goingto be with you over here, lord,
(16:08):
it's still hard, but I can trustyou because, like you said that
rock jetty and I've been therefive times.
I was there with that rockjetty and it was really solid.
Remember that time those hugewaves came, nothing moved the
rock jetty, nothing moved it andI thought, wow, you know what?
(16:29):
That's where I want to be.
I want to be hanging on to therock not consumed in fear.
So Isaiah 43, 19,.
I love this verse.
See, I'm doing a new thing.
Now it springs up.
Do you not perceive it?
And the answer is no.
Most of the time I don'tperceive it.
(16:50):
Lord, Give me eyes to see it.
Give me eyes to see it.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
And even when we don't perceive it, that's just
it.
God is still doing a new thing,because Jesus said that he is
always at work and his father isalways at work.
So we know God is always atwork and just like a spring
breaking through frozen ground,he's at work and just like a
spring breaking through frozenground, it's happening even when
(17:16):
it's not seen at first.
And here's the thing If I feellike I'm not seeing what God's
doing, it doesn't mean he's notdoing it.
My feelings, my perceptions donot define what is true.
They are real, they are validand I want to recognize them and
honor them.
But when push comes to shove,what is the great reality?
It's that God is doing a newthing and we may not perceive it
(17:41):
.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Well, and I like to think about it this way too this
helps me.
It's part of God's character tobe active all the time.
It's part of his character tobe at work, to be working things
out for good All those you know.
We have lists and lists of whoGod is.
That's what we call the Godlist.
But we have all theseattributes.
(18:02):
It's part of who he is.
It's like he can't not do it.
You know what I mean.
Like he is the healer, he isthe redeemer.
We can't understand that.
We can't fathom being activeall the time like that.
But he's not human, he's God.
So that just helps me.
It's like, okay, wait a minute.
God is God, no matter what.
(18:24):
He is that solid rock that wecan cling to.
I'd rather be in any situationwith him than in any situation
without him.
So that helps me too.
I don't want to be, I want tobe as close to him as possible.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
So I mean honestly, wow, sometimes control feels
safer, especially in the moment.
Control feels safer, especiallyin the moment, than trust.
You know we get fearful andit's like okay, let me make a
list, let me put this together,let me rearrange the pieces of
the puzzle.
You know this helps.
This makes me feel better.
But we all know this Control isan illusion.
(19:06):
Anything can happen in the nextmoment.
So it's really an illusion.
We are really not in controland trusting God, like we were
just talking about hanging on tothat rock jetty, hanging on to
that solid, solid rock.
That's where peace is.
(19:28):
what we really want is peace but, we get so frantic I know I do
I get frantic and impatient andI go for a counterfeit comfort
or I go for I'll fix it, I'llcontrol it.
But what I'm really longing foris peace and that's.
That's only in one place,trusting God only in one place
(19:48):
trusting God.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Yeah, and it's for the very reason that Romans 8,
28 says there's a truth therethat does bring us peace.
It says we know that in allthings, all things God works for
the good of those who love himand when we trust him, it's hard
(20:14):
, it's hard, nobody's going totell you it's not Right.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
I mean, how has trusting myself worked out for
me it?
Speaker 1 (20:20):
hasn't.
No, it hasn't worked out for meeither, no, and I bet it hasn't
worked out for the listenerseither.
And so, knowing that God haspromised we know he's sovereign,
we know he's good, we know he'sloving, and all of these other
things that his word disclosesabout his character, that he is
at work putting things togetherin such a way that it brings
(20:42):
about good for those that lovehim, and that's just awesome.
So another translation of thatverse Romans 8, 28, is that God
works all things together forthe good of those who love him.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
Okay, so the all things together.
That phrase is a word, synergeoin Greek, which means to work
together with kind of likeweaving, which I love.
This picture God's not justcleaning up our messes, he's
weaving them into somethingredemptive.
(21:18):
I think of embroidery, I thinkof crochet, I think of knitting.
Yeah, I mean, that's abeautiful image.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Yeah, even what feels wasted, he's not wasting it.
No, it's all part of thewonderful, lovely tapestry.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
Yes, yes.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
Or you know what?
I'm married to somebody who wasa baker for 30 years and
Michael he he said you take theflour, you take the chocolate,
the baker's chocolate, whateverthat is and you take the butter,
you take the eggs, you take thebaking soda.
Each one of them are going tomake you miserable if you eat it
by itself, right, yes, but whathappens when you put it all
(21:58):
together and you're a masterchef in the kitchen or a baker?
or something it's going to belovely.
Now, that kind of is nowherenear what we're talking about,
because God does even so muchmore above and beyond that, but
that's kind of a cool way ofthinking of it.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
I like that.
Yeah, one of those things byitself.
Eggs, raw eggs, yeah, or bakingsoda, but put them all together
in just the right way, just theright amounts, a perfect recipe
.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
And the right amount of heat too.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
Yes, right, and you're going to have this
beautiful thing.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Chocolate.
Whatever it is, it's chocolate,yeah, so we're good.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
So we want to offer you and ourselves a few ways to
carry what we've been talkingabout with you, something that's
kind of tangible.
You can jump in and do itactually right now with us, or
even later if you're driving orwhatever.
I think we have a lot of peoplethat listen while they're
driving.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Okay, so the first one is a breath prayer, and
we've done breath prayers in ourpodcast several times.
It's so simple.
It's really just breathingdeeply and speaking the truth as
you breathe.
That's all it is.
That's all it is.
So it calms your body down andit kind of just gives you a
place of physical and spiritualpeace as you breathe and say
(23:26):
God's words, his truth, out loud.
It's really so fabulous.
One of my favorite ways to renewmy mind.
So here's an idea.
There are a million differentphrases you could use as a
breath prayer for this topic,but here's an idea.
We're going to inhale and say Itrust you with the unknown.
(23:48):
And then we're going to exhaleand say you are unfolding
something good.
Oh, should we do it togetherright now?
Yes, I love this.
This sounds so good.
So we're going to breathe inthrough our nose, nice and deep,
through our nose, nice and deep, and we're going to say I trust
(24:22):
you with the unknown.
Exhale, you are unfoldingsomething good, beautiful.
Should we do one more?
I already am.
Oh, she's already doing it.
Inhale, I trust you with theunknown Exhale, you are
(24:42):
unfolding something good.
Oh, I love that.
That's a beautiful truthstraight from the word of God,
beautiful.
The second one is a little bitof journaling, a little bit of a
journaling prompt here.
Where am I being invited torelease control?
(25:02):
And of course, the invitationis coming from the Lord,
although probably people aroundyou will thank you as well when
am I being invited to releasecontrol?
And then, what would it looklike to trust God with this
moment?
What would it look like totrust God with this moment?
(25:24):
You might want to just sit downfor a few minutes with the Lord
, maybe have a conversation,maybe do some journaling about
that.
And the last one is a visualpractice.
Imagine a blooming flower andhere in Colorado Springs we are
all flowers right now we'rehaving spring, spring, spring.
(25:44):
Imagine the flower bloomingslowly, petal by petal.
That's you, that's this season.
God is unfolding something new.
Oh, I love having a visual.
I love that you could do thevisual with the breath prayer
even I love it.
(26:06):
Wonderful.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
Well, we don't always see the big picture but, we can
surrender this moment, thisbreath, maybe this choice.
And we know that God holds itall, he cherishes it all, he
loves us so very much.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
Yes.
So we want to invite you andwe're inviting ourselves as well
whatever it is that you'refacing and we're all facing into
something right now.
We want to invite you to trustthe unfolding, lay down the
burden, pick up peace andremember your life is not random
(26:44):
.
It is not random, it is beingwritten by love.
You are not alone and you arealready loved yes, already loved
in this very, very moment, andthat's how we want to end.
We are so glad that you've beenhere today.
Please come back and join usfor our next podcast of
(27:04):
revelation within.
Thanks for being here.
Bye.
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