Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 233

00:00:00.040 Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. How's it going? Happy Friday. Is it Friday? Is it

00:00:06.160 Saturday? Is it Monday? Is it 2025? Who the heck knows? We're still in this weird

00:00:12.760 dystopian alternate universe that all of us are really eager to get out of. But I

00:00:18.000 hope that you are looking for those silver linings. I hope that you are

00:00:21.540 enjoying this time with your family. Maybe you are making an effort to call

00:00:27.180 those friends that you haven't talked to in a long time. Maybe you're writing

00:00:30.680 thank you notes that you never got around to. That's something that I need to do,

00:00:34.700 by the way. Maybe you are looking for ways to be productive and to busy yourself

00:00:39.080 during this time. Of course, a lot of you might be going through a really

00:00:42.240 difficult time and that is normal too. I hope and pray that you get some relief

00:00:46.720 from these government checks soon. We know that government doesn't do anything

00:00:50.560 effectively or efficiently, but I do hope that you get some kind of relief and

00:00:55.500 that you are able to even apply for a job. Maybe Amazon, CVS, Walgreens, Walmart,

00:01:01.240 one of these places that's hiring millions and millions of people right now

00:01:04.540 because they are in such high demand. Hopefully you're able to find employment

00:01:09.140 that way. I say this every day, we're living in crazy times. It's not very

00:01:13.060 insightful, doesn't really offer any help or benefit to you whatsoever, but that's

00:01:18.180 really the main reaction that I have throughout the day. We are living in

00:01:21.380 crazy times. One of the things that I am trying to do to make this a more normal

00:01:29.720 and productive time for all of us is to encourage you guys to memorize a chapter

00:01:35.600 of the Bible and we have chosen Romans 8. So I talked about this on Monday's

00:01:40.860 episode where I gave 10 tips to making this a productive quarantine time so that

00:01:45.820 by the end of this, whenever it is, because there will be an end of this, we can just

00:01:50.380 remember and hold on to that. There will be an end of this at some point. We will

00:01:55.120 be able to look back and say, okay, I learned something during that time. I

00:01:58.480 invested in something that was actually good and beneficial during that time. I

00:02:03.560 exercised my mind. I studied the word more. I maybe exercised my body more,

00:02:10.180 whatever it is, we should be able to look back at this and say, okay, there was

00:02:13.700 something actually gained from that time and not just lost. I didn't just waste all

00:02:18.460 of that time. I actually tried to be a good steward of the time that I have. We

00:02:23.260 know the Bible tells us to do that, that we have to make the best use, the most use

00:02:28.020 of our time because the days are evil. And just because so much of our life has

00:02:32.520 stopped, God's plan of redemption hasn't stopped. God's eternal plan hasn't stopped.

00:02:38.880 And as I said repeatedly on the last episode, that is the most real timeline that

00:02:43.720 we're on. That's the most pressing and most urgent timeline that we're on. That's

00:02:47.460 the most real reality that we live in is God's reality. And none of this is a

00:02:52.260 surprise to him. None of his roles, none of God's roles or responsibilities have

00:02:56.960 been suspended during this time. While our roles and responsibilities have been

00:03:01.080 changed in this time. And we kind of feel like we're on in time out in a lot of

00:03:04.820 ways. God is not in time out. Like he is not sitting back and saying, when are

00:03:08.920 things going to go back to normal? Because he not only foresaw all of this, he

00:03:13.120 predestined all of it. He is completely sovereign over it. And so he has never

00:03:17.840 stopped working, even though a lot of us have stopped working. He's never stopped

00:03:21.800 working. And while a lot of leaders find themselves in quandaries right now, God is

00:03:26.500 not finding himself in a quandary. And while a lot of world health officials and

00:03:32.440 different officials around the world and different sections of society find

00:03:36.080 themselves confused in the midst of this, not knowing where to go and what is

00:03:42.400 going to happen next. God is not confused. He is not wondering what's going to

00:03:48.120 happen next. And none of this is an interruption to him. None of this is a

00:03:52.080 surprise to him. As I've said many times, God is not waiting around to see if we're

00:03:57.000 going to figure it out so he can come in and clean up the mess. That is not true.

00:04:02.460 He foresaw, he predestined, he is in control right now of every single detail and

00:04:07.540 every single second of all of this. Now, does that mean that he is happy about the

00:04:13.200 suffering and about the job loss and about the deaths and about the sickness,

00:04:17.260 about the chaos, about the anxiety? No. But as we also talked about on Monday's

00:04:23.820 podcast, and I think it was last Monday's podcast as well, is that we don't always

00:04:31.360 know what God is doing. Very often, most of the time, we don't know what God is

00:04:36.660 doing and we never know what all God is doing. Even if we can see one thing that

00:04:40.600 he is doing, we don't know everything that God is doing. And as God told Habakkuk, if

00:04:45.840 I told you what I was up to, you wouldn't believe me. God has the same message in

00:04:49.860 many ways to us today. If I told you what I was doing through this suffering, if I

00:04:53.900 told you what I was doing through this pain, if I told you what I was doing

00:04:57.260 through this chaos and this seeming pandemonium, you wouldn't believe me. And

00:05:02.820 so his message to us is clear in the word. It's be watchful, be sober-minded, be

00:05:08.740 obedient, pay attention to me. Something we talked about on Wednesday as well is

00:05:13.360 that God is cutting out the background noise. Like that's not some extra

00:05:16.860 biblical word I've gotten or some vision or some prophecy that I am trying to

00:05:21.340 tell you in some special way. I'm reading his word and knowing his character,

00:05:26.940 knowing that he's sovereign. And if one thing that's happening right now is that

00:05:30.260 we have a lot of the background noise of our life cut out in popular culture, in

00:05:34.780 sports, in the different things that usually fill our minds and fill the

00:05:39.220 background during this time of the year, he has cut all of that out. And I think

00:05:44.320 it's very, um, it's very likely that he is cutting things out in order that we

00:05:52.440 could pay even better attention to what he's doing than we were before. Maybe, uh,

00:05:58.960 this cutting out of the noise that typically typifies our life is an act of

00:06:04.360 mercy, not an act of punishment per se. Now, a lot of this could definitely, um, be

00:06:12.420 judgment related. I think there's a very good chance of that as well. It's certainly an

00:06:18.340 opportunity for us to take a step back and to, instead of filling our minds and

00:06:23.620 our lives with other things to make up for the noise that's been lost, to pay

00:06:28.620 attention to what God's doing, to pray more, to listen more, to be quiet more, to

00:06:33.900 wait more. Um, I certainly think that that is a blessing that God is giving us in the

00:06:41.040 midst of that. And so I am, even though we all feel like we are waiting for things to

00:06:49.320 open back up, maybe, maybe we shouldn't be waiting for that. Maybe we should realize

00:06:56.240 that things are happening right now that weren't happening before and that God

00:07:00.720 doesn't have to wait for the economy to start back up to do the things that he wants

00:07:04.200 to accomplish. So we can be excited for what's going on today in this moment, rather

00:07:09.260 than anticipating what's going to happen in a month or two, because like I've said,

00:07:14.480 God is not limited or prohibited or inhibited or determined by what our world

00:07:20.000 leaders decide to do. He is actually over all of it. So how did I get off on that

00:07:25.460 tangent? That wasn't planned. Uh, did I, so I talked about the fact that we're

00:07:30.280 memorizing Romans eight. I guess that was my explanation for why we're memorizing

00:07:34.320 Romans eight, but we're memorizing Romans eight. I've posted about it on social

00:07:38.020 media. I really want you guys to join me at this point. Yes, you're a few days

00:07:42.680 behind, but it won't be too hard for you to catch up. We're memorizing basically a

00:07:47.360 verse a day. There are 39 verses in Romans eight. And, um, so that means that we're

00:07:54.300 going to have to double up on a few days there towards the middle and towards the

00:07:58.840 end, but it's basically one verse a day. Some of you out there were like, Oh, I can

00:08:02.720 totally do that. And some of you were like, Oh my gosh, an entire chapter in one

00:08:07.260 month. And I know it sounds like a lot, but it is doable. It is totally doable. There

00:08:12.120 are, uh, a variety of different memorization methods out there. Some people make up

00:08:16.940 songs. Some people make up hand motions. Heck you can do an interpretive dance. You can

00:08:21.120 write it in Sharpie on your forehead. I don't really care how I do it is that I read a verse

00:08:26.100 several times. And then I try to look away and say it several times. I might have to look

00:08:31.640 back and I do that over and over again. And often I will write it to really seal the deal

00:08:36.980 today on Friday, uh, April 3rd, you should have three verses down. If you've got a friend

00:08:44.320 that will do this with you, that really helps. When I memorized the book of Ephesians, I certainly

00:08:49.040 don't say that to be braggadocious at all. I say that as someone who had never memorized

00:08:53.220 a book before and didn't think I could do it, but I did it with a friend and I was able

00:08:57.000 to by the grace of God, which means that you can do it as well. Um, I, we would hold

00:09:02.660 each other accountable. So I highly recommend that you get a friend to memorize this with

00:09:07.760 you, hold each other accountable, text each other, send each other voice memos, send each

00:09:12.160 other a video of you saying it, uh, come up with methods together, however you can do it.

00:09:17.680 I mean, it reminds me of when I ran in, this also seems like a humble brag, but again, this

00:09:22.800 is not when I ran a half marathon in college. And the reason why that's not a humble brag

00:09:26.980 is because I was not someone who took fitness seriously at all, like could not run. When

00:09:34.580 I started training for a half marathon in college, I'm getting off on another tangent

00:09:37.820 now, but that's okay. You guys are tired of coronavirus news. So maybe this is coming

00:09:41.660 as a, as a, as a reprieve, a desirable reprieve for you guys. When I was in college and I started

00:09:48.260 training for the half marathon, which I'm still so glad that I did. I could not run a five

00:09:53.660 minutes. I did an app called couch to 5k. And when I started that, I couldn't run for

00:10:00.140 three minutes, I think nonstop. And so I literally had to work up and it took me several, several

00:10:06.340 months to be able to run. I remember the first time I ran five miles took me an hour. And

00:10:11.420 it was at that point when I could run five miles that I was like, I think I'm going to

00:10:14.640 try for a half marathon. And I did it. And my only goal was to not walk or stop. And I accomplished

00:10:19.560 that goal. But one of the reasons why I was able to do that after not having been a fit

00:10:24.400 person, not certainly not being a runner, I still hate running. But one of the ways that I

00:10:29.540 was able to accomplish that is that for all of my long runs, I did it with a friend and we would

00:10:34.220 talk the entire time. And that even probably helped our cardiovascular ability as well. But we talked

00:10:41.320 the entire time and those long runs that often took an hour would go by really quickly or an hour

00:10:47.780 and a half, however long it took us would go by really quickly. And that was really the only way

00:10:53.740 that I was able to do it. So in the same way, we are doing an endurance race here. And while it's

00:10:59.600 kind of a fast endurance race, because we're trying to memorize a verse a day, but we're doing an

00:11:03.860 entire chapter, have someone proverbially run along with you and keep you accountable and talk you

00:11:10.780 through it, come up with the best message or methods and the route that you want to take to be able to

00:11:15.400 memorize it. And if you don't have that friend, like if you're someone who's like, I don't have

00:11:19.340 a whole lot of Christian friends in my life, or I just don't feel like I have a lot of close people

00:11:23.540 in my life either. A, this is an opportunity for you to reach out to someone that you aren't

00:11:29.380 especially close to, but you would like to form a friendship with. And this maybe could be the first

00:11:34.000 way that you become friends with them. Maybe this is a way that you can evangelize to someone that you

00:11:39.380 work with or someone that you know that you would like to bring to Christ, you know, through the

00:11:45.560 power of the Holy Spirit, of course, that you would like them to know Christ better. You would like to

00:11:51.040 introduce them to the gospel. Just challenge them to do this along with you. Something that will keep

00:11:56.160 them busy. Something that will exercise their mind. You can pitch it like that. And maybe they'll do this

00:12:02.040 along with you. So good for forming relationships. Good for forming friendships. Good for sharing the

00:12:06.900 gospel with people. You can do it with a family member. And if you don't have any of those people,

00:12:11.680 if you are someone who happens to be really struggling right now because you are in total

00:12:15.620 isolation, like I will be that person with you and we can do this together. So know that I am also

00:12:21.820 memorizing this every day and that you've got an entire community of people now that listen to

00:12:26.860 Relatable, that follow me on social media, that are all doing this together. They're writing it out.

00:12:31.660 They're saying it. They're posting it on Instagram and tagging me. And you can go to my story and see

00:12:36.080 all of those people that are reciting it. That's also a good way to be able to memorize this.

00:12:41.860 And you can realize that there are tons of people, thousands of people across the country

00:12:46.420 that are embarking on the same endeavor that you are. And then it's time where it's so easy to feel

00:12:52.420 alone. It's so easy to feel like nothing matters. Like there's nothing bigger than you going on.

00:13:00.400 And you feel very small and you feel very lonely. You feel maybe very purposeless.

00:13:05.860 I pray that the word of God would give you the encouragement and the purpose and the reminder

00:13:12.420 of hope that you need. And also the community that so many of us need during this time. So

00:13:17.060 Romans 8, 1 through 3. Let's see if I can say it. Now, if I might have to look down because I'm a

00:13:24.740 little bit nervous. And those of you who are listening to this, you're just going to have to trust me.

00:13:28.940 I'll tell you if I looked down. Okay. Okay. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are

00:13:37.820 in Christ Jesus for the spirit, for the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus

00:13:48.320 from the law of sin and death. I haven't looked down yet. For God has done what the law weakened by

00:13:58.580 the flesh could not do. Now I'm going to have to look down by sending his own son in the likeness of

00:14:05.480 sinful flesh. And for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh. So I had to look down twice on that one. I'm

00:14:12.680 not setting a very good example, but I just memorized that and I wanted to be able to recite it to you

00:14:18.420 guys. And if you are watching on YouTube, you saw the two times that I looked down, just wanted to be

00:14:22.580 honest. But that is showing that, Hey, I'm working on this with you guys. And I'm excited for us to

00:14:29.660 be able to recite it. I will try to recite the whole thing on this podcast at the end of the month,

00:14:34.720 but by April 30th, all of us should have Romans eight completed. This is a way by the way to, I mean,

00:14:42.740 there are so many bad parts of social media. I mean, so much outrage, so much anxiety, so much

00:14:47.940 misinformation. We've seen that now more than ever, but this is a great way just by sharing you

00:14:53.660 memorizing this on social media is a great way to share the gospel with the people who follow you

00:14:59.740 without you even directly sharing the gospel. People are going to be hearing you reciting Romans

00:15:07.400 eight on your story or see you write it out. However you decide to share that. And they are going to be

00:15:13.520 reading the word of God and you can pray that God would use these messages that you're posting on

00:15:18.300 your story or Instagram or whatever to speak to the right person that he would use the word of God to

00:15:23.980 plant the seed. Of course, we know that he is sovereign over the entire process of salvation,

00:15:28.360 but he can choose to use you and use you reciting his word to reach people in a time when people are

00:15:35.420 grasping for hope. Like that's the message of Romans eight. Romans seven is awesome. Romans nine is

00:15:40.660 awesome. We can talk about obviously the entire context. I got the idea of reciting or memorizing

00:15:46.380 Romans eight from John Piper and in his podcast. I thought it was a great idea because the entire

00:15:51.300 message of Romans eight is that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. It's a message of hope

00:15:58.120 that pestilence, that famine, that joblessness, that misinformation, that propaganda, that

00:16:05.640 incompetent leadership cannot separate us from the love of Christ, cannot thwart God's plan. And so

00:16:14.020 I hope that it continues every day to give us the hope that only the gospel can give. And I also

00:16:20.320 encourage you, I actually haven't been doing this for the past three days and I should, we should be

00:16:24.360 reading all of Romans eight every day, even as we are memorizing verse by verse, just a reminder to

00:16:30.660 also build upon each verse. Don't just memorize the verses in isolation, actually build upon each

00:16:37.360 verse. Um, so I haven't done a very good job at the beginning of this podcast, which we're already 17

00:16:41.980 minutes in that tends to happen. Um, I haven't done a very good job of telling you what this podcast

00:16:47.880 episode is going to be about, but since we're already more than halfway, I guess I'm just not going

00:16:52.700 to do that. Uh, one more way that you can be a part of community during this time is you can join the

00:16:58.700 book club. It's women's book club with Allie. I think it's women's book club with Allie on Instagram,

00:17:04.680 women's book club with Allie Stuckey on Facebook. You can join either place. You can add, if you want

00:17:11.060 to, you can add the people that are a part of that group, become friends with them. You can strike up a

00:17:14.620 friendship with them outside of the group, if that's something that you want to do. And I really

00:17:19.500 hope that it offers again, some kind of community is we are striving to think more critically about the

00:17:25.120 world around us. We're reading nothing to envy, which is about life in North Korea. And it is

00:17:30.920 teaching us a lot. And this is kind of a segue into what I'm about to talk about. But the reason why

00:17:36.040 it's so timely that we're reading it right now is because we, uh, are reading about what the

00:17:42.100 suspension of, or really just the obliteration of human rights looks like and civil rights looks like

00:17:49.440 when people are entirely dependent on the government, when they are brainwashed endlessly by

00:17:54.980 their government, by their media, by their entertainment industry, if you can even call

00:17:59.760 it that in North Korea into believing that they have quote, nothing to envy that their lives are

00:18:05.620 perfect in this socialist utopia that is in North Korea, even as they're starving, even as they are

00:18:11.760 afraid to even go on dates with people, even as they are afraid to even think something that

00:18:16.660 is against the Kim dynasty and the regime that, uh, that rules North Korea. Still, they are being

00:18:24.520 convinced on a daily basis that their lives are wonderful. That capitalism is an enemy that

00:18:29.820 America is an enemy that capitalist, uh, Japan and South Korea are enemies. And really the place

00:18:35.980 that everyone wants to live is North Korea. That's what these people are, are being told

00:18:42.220 and being fed. Um, and it mirrors in some ways, and I'll explain how it mirrors a lot of the things

00:18:49.560 that we see today with the misinformation that we hear from our media. Now, our media is not telling

00:18:54.540 us that America is the greatest place on earth. The way that the media is telling North Koreans that

00:18:59.660 North Korea is the greatest place on earth. Even as people are dying of, uh, starvation on a daily

00:19:05.540 basis there, we are hearing the opposite, but it's actually the same message from many in the media.

00:19:12.620 Uh, we're hearing the opposite that we shouldn't want to live in the United States, but we are hearing

00:19:17.660 that socialism creates some kind of perfection and utopia and prosperity that we are missing. That

00:19:25.380 if the government just controlled more, if it just nationalized more industries, if we could rely on the

00:19:31.380 government more, if, uh, we had more bureaucracy, then people would be happier. They would be, uh, more

00:19:38.620 equal. They would have more prosperity. We wouldn't be running into the problems that we're running

00:19:43.660 into, uh, for many in the American media, they look to every other country as a better model of

00:19:51.940 success than the United States, particularly socialist countries. And in North Korea, that's how socialism

00:19:58.060 and communism, which by the way, they really use interchangeably. I'm just saying that's how they

00:20:04.060 propagandize socialism and communism too, that the government has done an excellent job of taking

00:20:08.940 care of them and capitalism is the worst thing that could ever happen to a nation. And of course,

00:20:14.860 unfortunately in North Korea, most people, uh, don't, don't know any better. And also a parallel,

00:20:20.780 the scary thing about North Korea is that North Korea actually, and I just learned this from the book

00:20:24.860 that we're reading a few decades ago, used to be a Christian nation. They were a Protestant nation

00:20:30.860 where that really existed. Like Pyongyang existed as somewhat of an epicenter of Christianity in the

00:20:38.060 East. And now they're completely atheist where really became dynasty is worshiped. They are seen

00:20:45.020 as some kind of gods, although they, the people know that there is, that they have mortality, that

00:20:50.780 they're going to die, but they are, are worshiped and there is no freedom of religion. There is no

00:20:57.580 Christianity there. There are no, uh, missionaries that are allowed there. There is no conversion

00:21:04.140 that is allowed there. So in just a generation, it went from a Christian nation to Kim Il-sung

00:21:10.860 taking over to it being a completely pagan, not even pagan, just a completely, um, uh, atheistic

00:21:18.860 country. And with that came the complete obliteration of their freedom, of prosperity, of civil rights,

00:21:26.060 of human rights. Now, a lot of that also came with, uh, the USSR being taken down and them not having

00:21:32.380 any other communist allies. And so they relied completely on the insulation and the isolation

00:21:38.540 of their people in order to convince them a, that there is no God be that government is the God and

00:21:44.700 see that the government can take care of all of your needs. And very quickly, as we read in this book,

00:21:51.020 people started to realize that their needs were not being met, that their children were dying,

00:21:54.940 that they didn't have electricity anymore. This is not a third world country. North Korea is not

00:22:00.140 a third world country. They are a country that has chosen isolation because of communism, because of

00:22:05.500 socialism. And here, still here on a daily basis, we hear about how wonderful it would be if our

00:22:11.820 government was bigger. If we had more bureaucracy, if we had more socialism, that the problem that we are

00:22:18.700 having right now is because we don't have socialized healthcare or we don't have higher taxes on the

00:22:24.540 rich, uh, because we don't, there was a stupid article the other day saying that we need to

00:22:30.140 nationalize Amazon. We need to nationalize all of our industries and basically go into socialism. So

00:22:36.540 things can be happier and healthier. And yet there are no examples, no examples throughout the world,

00:22:44.060 where that kind of, uh, success has been exemplified, has been demonstrated at all. And yet we hear

00:22:53.420 politicians like Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, we hear Chuck Schumer, we hear a variety

00:23:00.380 of Democrats saying, this is the moment, this crisis, this pandemic is, uh, the moment to push our

00:23:06.460 progressive agenda to make sure that the government gets bigger, that there are more programs, that more

00:23:11.740 tax dollars are being sent to things that ultimately don't matter and don't help us in this pandemic.

00:23:19.020 And we have a media that is covering for them. They're covering for things like pastors getting

00:23:24.940 imprisoned or continuing to, for, for, uh, continuing to congregate. There was a New York Times op-ed

00:23:31.820 that blamed evangelicals for the coronavirus. They have raked the MyPillow guy over the coals

00:23:40.460 for simply saying something about God and the Bible. And so we see so many parallels between

00:23:50.220 every communist regime that's out there, um, every socialist regime that's out there and the

00:23:55.500 propaganda that's been peddled by these socialist and communist regimes to some, not all, some of the

00:24:02.220 media in the United States still trying to push that kind of message. I mean, you have AOC who got on

00:24:08.940 her Instagram live and was talking about how important it is, you know, to push the progressive

00:24:14.780 agenda and all of that. We have a lot of catching up to do. She said, and she actually demonized

00:24:20.380 landlords by saying we live in a capitalist country where people are able to make money by just owning

00:24:26.140 property. Okay. This is some crazy Marxist socialist idea that someone who just because they are on a

00:24:33.660 higher rung on the ladder that they are evil and wrong and shouldn't be making a profit. Of course,

00:24:38.300 she's forgetting about the fact that many tenants in these properties, in these apartment complexes that

00:24:44.220 are owned by a landlord, they very often make more money than the landlord themselves. Like very often,

00:24:51.020 those landlords are poor compared to some of the tenants that they have. And so for her to say that

00:24:56.540 you should go on a rent strike, which is what she is saying, and you shouldn't pay your rent even if you

00:25:00.540 can pay your rent. Well, that's hurting some of the people that she says that she fights for,

00:25:04.860 which are the poor, the marginalized. You don't know what kind of landlords are out there, but this

00:25:09.900 is this Marxist Leninist, this socialist idea that hierarchies are bad and not communism and utopia or

00:25:18.940 communism and socialism. It creates an equity that these people say is enviable that these people on the

00:25:26.540 left say that we need here in order to survive our next pandemic. And we have a media who just like

00:25:34.140 every other media in every other communist regime is covering for these ideas, which has so often

00:25:40.300 ended in failure so often, actually not so often, but unconditionally ended in failure and suffering.

00:25:47.500 And I also think one interesting thing that we read in this book, nothing to envy. And in every account of

00:25:54.940 any kind of socialist country is that Christianity is always the first to go. And conversely, where

00:26:01.820 Christianity thrives, so it is freedom. That's probably why that's why Christianity is always the

00:26:08.060 first to go when it comes to totalitarianism. But the problem with that is, is that there is no

00:26:14.620 concept of individual human dignity based on the fact that someone is just a human made in the image

00:26:21.340 of God without the God of the Bible. There is no concept of that. Evolution doesn't account for

00:26:26.860 that. Materialism doesn't account for that. Survival of the fittest doesn't account for that. Why

00:26:32.780 everyone, no matter their capacity, no matter their ability, no matter what they look like, where they're

00:26:37.740 from, what their skin color is, has the same human dignity and therefore is deserving of the same kind

00:26:44.460 of inherent human rights that the government cannot give or take away. That is why Christianity and

00:26:51.820 freedom and human rights coincide the more that history has progressed. Of course, you can say,

00:26:59.820 well, America was a Christian nation and allowed all kinds of atrocities. Yes, that is absolutely true.

00:27:05.740 Obviously slavery, Jim Crow, we had Japanese internment camps, we had Chinese railroads, all of these

00:27:10.860 terrible things, abortion that has happened in this country, but all of these examples are us stepping

00:27:17.020 away from Christianity and God's good law rather than stepping closer into them. The fact of the matter

00:27:24.540 is there is no concept of human dignity, no concept of inherent human rights outside of the Bible. Whether

00:27:30.940 you're a Christian or not, that is just true. Like go look at the, go look at the progression from the

00:27:37.500 Magna Carta to the United States Constitution and you will see the through line is the biblical principle

00:27:43.740 of inherent human dignity and people being made in the image of God. People always worship something,

00:27:51.020 they're always going to worship something. If you don't worship God, you will typically work,

00:27:55.900 worship the government, you will worship yourself, you'll worship your success, you'll worship your fitness,

00:28:00.780 you'll worship your money, you might worship multiple things outside of the God of the universe.

00:28:08.460 And that is why we see godlessness, the increase in godlessness and the increase in a lack of religious

00:28:15.020 faith and leftism coincide. The increase of leftism coincide as people continue to disbelieve in God

00:28:24.700 more and more. We will see them latching on to the government more and more. And people who have that

00:28:31.100 mentality are latching on to a crisis like this to try to push that kind of leftist and anti-religious

00:28:37.900 agenda. That's just what's happening. And we know that's going to happen. We know we're going to get

00:28:43.340 persecuted more and more. And I do think it's important for us to speak up. I do think it's important

00:28:48.220 for us to be bold, but more than anything, it's important for us to trust God. It's important for us to

00:28:52.300 meditate on scripture, to memorize scripture, and to be bold about sharing the gospel and to

00:28:58.860 talking about the hope that we have. Because yes, there are bad actors that are trying to push

00:29:05.100 whatever kind of dystopian vision right now, but there are even more people that are just looking

00:29:10.540 for hope. They're looking for some kind of purpose. They are looking for something to grab onto. They're

00:29:16.220 looking for something to anchor their soul. And that's where Christians come in. Like that is where

00:29:22.220 we stand up and say, oh, you're looking for unconditional joy even in this trial. Yeah,

00:29:29.180 we've got that. We've got that over here. Oh, you're looking for hope when everything seems

00:29:34.380 desperate. Oh, okay. Yes, I have exactly what you're looking for. You are looking for love.

00:29:40.220 You're looking for purpose. You're looking for fulfillment. You're looking for satisfaction. Oh,

00:29:44.940 let me show you the well that never runs dry. Let me show you where to get a drink so that you

00:29:50.060 never thirst again. Let me show you the bread of life that you can take up and never hunger again.

00:29:55.980 Let me show you the hope of the universe. Let me show you this King of Kings who can rule in your

00:30:01.980 heart and keep you in perfect peace and keep your mind steadfast until eternity. Let me show you that

00:30:09.740 thing that you are longing for and looking for. That's where we come in. I had something else to

00:30:16.380 say. Maybe I'll leave it for Monday. No, it kind of goes with what I'm saying. Okay. I'll just say,

00:30:24.460 so I was thinking about, I was thinking about all of that, that in God, we have all of the things that we

00:30:33.340 are longing for the most right now. We're longing for stability. We're longing for an anchor. We're longing

00:30:38.720 for something sure for something to hold on to. And Christ, his gospel offers us that. And I was

00:30:45.760 thinking about how all of us are, for those of you who are parents, you know, how vulnerable your

00:30:50.880 children are, how helpless they are until they're a certain age, how much they need you and just how

00:30:55.680 much they unconditionally trust you. And that's been just a beautiful thing for me to watch having my

00:31:01.680 daughter and becoming a mom for the first time is that she knows that if she sees, uh, if she sees

00:31:07.840 me or her dad, that everything's okay. It doesn't matter if we are in a place where she's never been

00:31:13.200 before. If we are getting in the car and she doesn't know where we're going, if she's getting

00:31:16.880 in her stroller and we're walking around the neighborhood and she has, you know, she's never

00:31:21.440 been to this part of the neighborhood before. If I am feeding her a new food, she's never had before.

00:31:26.400 If we're doing something that she's never seen, if I'm putting her down for a nap. Now she might get

00:31:30.400 upset about some of these things, but if I am there, if her dad is there, she's okay. She doesn't

00:31:37.280 question our motives. She doesn't wonder whether we are going to take care of her or not. She doesn't

00:31:42.880 wonder or not whether we love her. She knows these things by now. We have built, um, her trust and she

00:31:50.720 really has no choice but to trust us. And she knows us and she clings to us. And when she sees us and we

00:31:57.360 tell her that we are there, that things are going to be okay, she doesn't doubt that as she really

00:32:03.600 has no choice. Like I said, uh, to do anything but completely trust us and depend on that and depend

00:32:11.760 on us. And we take joy in that responsibility to be able to care for her and steward this gift of

00:32:18.320 parenthood well. And what a reflection that is of how we relate to God and how God relates to us.

00:32:26.240 And if we, during this time, as the Bible says, can humble ourselves and repent and go to God and ask

00:32:32.960 for mercy and direction and guidance and trust him and have this childlike faith that our kids, uh,

00:32:39.280 emulate, uh, in their own small way to us. If we can take on that faith and trust him during this time,

00:32:46.800 we will be a lot better off than if we try to control our own situation and try to control

00:32:52.960 all these variables and wrestle with anxiety and fear and go down the conspiracy theory rabbit holes.

00:32:58.720 Instead, we can look to God and look to his word and remember that that is what tells us that things

00:33:04.160 are going to be okay. That his presence, that his here-ness, his closeness is what tells us that,

00:33:11.120 okay, I can be okay. I don't have to freak out. I don't know where I'm going right now. I've never,

00:33:15.440 never been here before. I don't know what the circumstance looks like, but God is here. He

00:33:20.880 has not changed. He is still on his throne. He loves me. He's with me. I can trust him. He's

00:33:25.440 never failed me before. He's never lied to me before. And I can completely depend on him in

00:33:30.240 the same way that our kids completely depend on us, even though they're upset. And there's also

00:33:35.520 more to this metaphor that when our kids are upset, when they don't understand what we're doing or why

00:33:40.800 we're doing something for them, but we know that it's for their own good. For example,

00:33:44.000 putting them down for a nap or making them eat vegetables, they might kick and scream. They

00:33:47.840 might be, they might, you know, cry because of those things, but we don't try to explain everything

00:33:54.960 that's happening. We don't say, Hey, eight month old baby, like I got to give you this mashed up

00:34:00.640 spinach because it's good for you. You got to go down for a nap at 3 PM or else you're going to be

00:34:05.120 completely exhausted. And that's not good for you because they don't understand. They don't

00:34:10.000 understand what, uh, why we're doing the things that we're doing. We don't, they don't understand

00:34:15.840 what it means for something that they don't like to be good for them. And so we can remember that

00:34:20.320 analogy when we're looking around and things don't seem to be good for us. We don't want to be going

00:34:24.400 through this right now. Well, if God tried to explain to us what's going on and why in the same way that

00:34:30.640 if we tried to explain to our babies, why they have to go down for a nap, it wouldn't work. It

00:34:36.160 wouldn't work if God explained all these things to us because we don't have the capacity to understand

00:34:40.640 in the same way that our babies don't have the capacity to understand every parenting decision

00:34:45.120 that we make for their good. And so in the same way that they simply trust us, even when they're

00:34:50.640 upset, we have to trust God. Even when we are upset, because if there is a gap in understanding

00:34:56.240 between two finite beings and a parent and a child, think about the gap and

00:35:00.240 understanding between an infinite being, being the God of the universe and us, these finite,

00:35:05.200 transient people, at least, well, transient in some ways, we're eternal in other ways.

00:35:10.960 Think about the gap of understanding between an infinite being and finite human beings like us.

00:35:17.200 It's a big gap in understanding. So in the same way that kids really without a thought,

00:35:22.400 without any hindrance, trust their parents, may we trust God in the same way. Also knowing that in

00:35:27.440 the same way that we as parents delight in our kids, God is delighting in us and is delighting

00:35:33.840 and taking care of us and doesn't want us to be afraid. We don't want our kids to be afraid. We

00:35:39.120 don't want them to worry. We want them to look back on this time and not even know anything was

00:35:43.840 happening besides the fact that mom and dad were there more and they got to do more crafts and go

00:35:48.560 outside and they didn't have to go to school. In the same way, I think God wants us, yes, to pay

00:35:53.120 attention to him and to follow him, but also to not be afraid and to not be anxious. We don't want

00:35:57.840 our kids to be afraid and anxious and God doesn't want his kids to be afraid and anxious either. So

00:36:02.000 that was just an analogy that I was thinking about. I'm going to try to share more analogies with you

00:36:06.320 guys. Share the noisemaker analogy on Wednesday. Share the parenting analogy, which I'm sure you've heard

00:36:12.080 before today. And I hope that it's at least just food for thought as you have a lot of time to

00:36:17.440 yourself to think of your own analogies and lessons and things like that. Okay. Love you guys. I'll be

00:36:22.960 back here on Monday. Monday, I've got to give an update on some of the things that are going on,

00:36:29.280 um, but I won't spend the whole episode on that, but there's just, there's just some stuff that we

00:36:34.640 got to discuss. Okay. I will see you back here on Monday. Don't forget to keep memorizing Romans 8. Okay. Bye.

00:36:42.080 Bye.

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - April 03, 2020

Ep 233 ｜ Something Bigger

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