Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 809 ｜ The 'Trad' Movement Isn’t Biblical

00:00:00.000 The red pill movement, the trad movement, and the patriarchist movement are all trends 0.95

00:00:08.820 happening on the secular and the Christian right that I think that we should be really

00:00:13.460 concerned about.

00:00:14.280 And I've got a response to it today, particularly those who seem to be very concerned about

00:00:21.000 me and how I spend my time and the things that I say.

00:00:25.700 And then we will be paying tribute to pastor, evangelist, apologist, theologian, author

00:00:34.340 Tim Keller, and look at some of the most poignant things that he has written over the years.

00:00:39.380 This episode is brought to you by our friends at Good Ranchers.

00:00:42.480 Go to GoodRanchers.com.

00:00:44.040 Use code Allie at checkout. 1.00

00:00:45.220 That's GoodRanchers.com, code Allie.

00:00:55.700 Hey guys, welcome to Relatable.

00:00:58.340 Happy Monday.

00:00:59.600 Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.

00:01:02.320 So I spent a lot of time over the past couple of days thinking about what I really want to

00:01:08.280 discuss today, how I want to approach this topic.

00:01:11.540 We are going to talk about Tim Keller, the pastor, the author who died late last week.

00:01:20.800 And I'm going to talk a little bit about his legacy and the impact that he had on me and

00:01:25.600 my growth in the faith.

00:01:29.280 But first, I did want to address something that's going on online.

00:01:33.560 And if you're not really online very much, particularly if you're not on Twitter, you

00:01:37.100 might have no idea about what I'm about to discuss, this trend, this movement that I'm

00:01:42.860 about to talk about, or how any of it has to do with me in this podcast.

00:01:46.960 I don't want to make it about me.

00:01:48.620 I don't want to make it about me.

00:01:49.680 I want to make it about encouraging you, encouraging Christians, particularly Christian

00:01:54.560 women. 0.81

00:01:56.260 I've seen a movement both within the secular and the Christian right.

00:02:01.700 I consider myself on the Christian right.

00:02:04.380 I am a conservative.

00:02:06.540 I'm on the right side of the political cultural spectrum.

00:02:10.300 I am a Christian.

00:02:11.460 I consider myself a conservative Christian because I believe that what is referred to as a conservative

00:02:18.200 view of the Bible is actually just a biblical view of the Bible and faith.

00:02:22.940 But the movement that I'm talking about within a segment of the Christian right could maybe

00:02:29.460 be called like the trad movement or in some cases, the red pill movement.

00:02:34.420 These things aren't necessarily the same.

00:02:36.440 It's kind of hard to parse out.

00:02:38.680 And again, you might not right now recognize where this trend is or where it's going.

00:02:45.080 And that's OK.

00:02:46.360 And I'll give you some examples.

00:02:48.400 I don't want to give too many specific examples because there are so many different caveats

00:02:52.420 that I have to put.

00:02:53.260 Like this person is kind of part of this movement.

00:02:55.000 This is not.

00:02:55.880 This is a tweet that kind of represents it, but it doesn't.

00:02:58.520 But those of you who are in conservatism, certainly conservative media or who just consume

00:03:02.860 it, you've probably seen the direction that all of this is going.

00:03:08.060 And particularly if you're not on Twitter, you may not have seen it.

00:03:12.340 But I'm going to try to explain it the best I can.

00:03:14.440 And there are good chances that you at least have a feeling about what I'm talking about.

00:03:19.960 So you'd think that the red pill movement, as I called it, would just be kind of becoming

00:03:25.020 a conservative.

00:03:26.220 And maybe it was at one point realizing that the mainstream narratives about everything,

00:03:30.860 race, gender, economics is just wrong. 0.50

00:03:33.780 But it's actually now kind of morphed into a strange collection of perpetually online men

00:03:41.820 who complain about women and equate masculinity to physical fitness and ultra self-sufficiency.

00:03:48.420 And what I mean by that is like in some of these circles, it's looked down upon to be

00:03:52.460 a monogamous in a monogamous relationship or in a marriage at all.

00:03:55.860 In some, they emphasize the importance of getting a trad, service-oriented, submissive

00:04:03.900 wife.

00:04:05.120 And these are often represented by Twitter accounts, constantly posting TikTok videos of 0.99

00:04:11.660 girls saying stupid things or stories of girls betraying their boyfriends or girls at the 0.97

00:04:16.840 gym wearing scandalous clothing, angry that guys are looking at them. 1.00

00:04:22.320 And basically, this group, both of those who are like, no, I'm non-monogamous and I think

00:04:27.780 being a strong man is really just kind of sowing my wild oats everywhere and the side that's

00:04:33.540 like, oh, no, we need to get married to the most submissive trad wife out there. 1.00

00:04:38.900 Both of these groups, it seems, from kind of what they're saying, they view girls or depict 0.99

00:04:44.280 girls, women, as dumb, as promiscuous, all as radical feminists. 1.00

00:04:49.500 They believe that feminism is the cause of all of our problems. 1.00

00:04:52.820 They're really not that different than incels, involuntary celibates who think the same thing,

00:04:58.000 girls, women, that's the, they're the core of all of our problems as a country. 1.00

00:05:02.800 And speaking as someone who knows and has talked about the modern female propensity to be overly 0.99

00:05:10.520 self-focused and to be duped by any political narrative that plays upon our feelings to the

00:05:16.900 detriment of our country. The first one was the basis of my first book, the trendy narcissism that

00:05:25.100 I talk about a lot. The latter, the overemphasis on feelings when it comes to political and cultural

00:05:30.060 decisions, is the focus of my second book coming out next year. So I'm no coddler of women. I'm no

00:05:36.440 feminist. And yet I see and I'm concerned by the different flavors of woman hatred. I see an online 1.00

00:05:43.700 discourse today. Yes, of course, from the left in the form of elevating men who pretend they're women,

00:05:51.340 excoriating every discontent white woman as a Karen. Yeah, we know that progressives hate God's

00:05:57.500 design. They hate true femininity and true masculinity. And so I am used to and expect a kind of

00:06:03.980 a form of woman hatred from a lot of people on the left, but also from the right. Some of whom, 1.00

00:06:11.020 some people on the right, love to play the women are dumb and have caused most of the societal 1.00

00:06:16.520 problems that we have today trope. They love to play on that trope. And there is crossover between 1.00

00:06:21.980 this and the that's the red pill and then the trad movement, which is also just a weird part of

00:06:29.340 conservatism, which claims to be a push for traditional ways of life, traditional marriage.

00:06:34.280 And of course, I am a huge advocate, the biggest advocate of traditional marriage and think we should

00:06:39.340 elevate it. But this online sect that I'm talking about that you've probably seen before isn't

00:06:44.860 necessarily talking about biblical marriage or biblical gender roles. There is a strange overemphasis

00:06:51.480 in this community, if you will, movement, trend, whatever. I think it's a grift, but a strange

00:06:58.100 overemphasis on the need to subdue women and on creating this almost like 19th century aesthetic in

00:07:04.860 your home and way of life. There's a lot of criticism from this crowd of women who, a criticism 1.00

00:07:11.500 of women who work in any way that is not strictly domestic. And here's what I mean when I say that

00:07:19.340 this group is not necessarily Christian, even though they're quote unquote trad. There was a

00:07:24.020 young woman the other day who tagged me in her Instagram story. She was very angry about something 0.86

00:07:27.580 that I said. I don't even remember what. She's an influencer, I guess. She's got a small following.

00:07:32.200 I didn't respond to anything that she said, but she claims proudly, publicly, to be a trad wife,

00:07:38.540 pregnant with her first child so she can be a trad mother. Great. I'm glad that she's married and 1.00

00:07:42.600 having a kid. I think those things are beautiful. She claims to be a Christian. And yet her page is

00:07:48.240 filled with half-naked pregnant pictures of herself. She's cussing in her story about me, calling me 0.99

00:07:55.420 annoyed, etc. Like there's nothing Christian that I saw, at least in this snippet that I saw of this 0.99

00:08:01.620 person. Of course, I know many women who work who are much meeker, more modest, and godlier than 1.00

00:08:07.020 she seems to be, even though she calls herself this trad woman, trad wife. Judging by her words and

00:08:11.960 attitude, I would venture to say that she doesn't know Christ at all. She doesn't represent the gospel 0.60

00:08:15.720 in anything that she is saying or doing on her account. And so just because someone is trad and

00:08:21.360 trying to bring back tradition doesn't actually mean that they are talking about biblical marriage,

00:08:27.120 where the husband loves the wife as Christ loved the church and that the wife submits to the husband 0.77

00:08:35.760 as to the Lord. This beautiful relationship that represents the love and the submission of Christ

00:08:43.440 and the church. That's really not what's going on here. It's really more about—it's really a reaction

00:08:51.200 to modernity, a reaction to feminism, which I understand to some degree, but that doesn't

00:08:56.800 necessarily mean that it's Christian. Same with some of the other trad accounts I see on social media,

00:09:02.820 complaining about feminism constantly, claiming to be the antidote to that as a trad wife or a trad

00:09:08.240 family, but while representing really some of the worst forms of feminism themselves, being loudmouthed, 0.98

00:09:15.060 using foul language, showing off their bodies in a way that I guess, I don't know, is supposed to be

00:09:20.120 traditional. It's very strange. It's a very strange world online. And again, if you don't know what

00:09:26.360 I'm talking about, that's okay. Now that you've heard me describe it, you'll probably see it, but

00:09:30.740 it's actually very secular in nature. These people may say they're Christian or they're Catholic because

00:09:38.000 they see that really as a part of tradition. But a lot of these people don't know their Bibles. They

00:09:44.000 likely have spent no time getting to know the person of Jesus at all. Again, it's just a reaction. And

00:09:48.620 as I said, it's really a grift. You can kind of get a following by saying the most ridiculous things 0.99

00:09:56.500 like just ridiculous things about how terrible women are and all of this stuff. Again, that strange 0.99

00:10:03.860 overemphasis on the submissiveness of women. It's very creepy and very porn-like. Then we have actual 0.94

00:10:11.780 Christians who I believe do know their Bibles, who take on a form of this. They don't realize that 0.99

00:10:17.780 they've actually been influenced by the secular red pill culture. They may or may not know that

00:10:22.780 they're joining in on this kind of grift, but they are Christians. They take on a form of all of this 1.00

00:10:30.020 in a way that I believe is equally misguided and cringe. And these are the ones you'll recognize.

00:10:37.260 And these are the ones who have taken special interest in criticizing me and using my name over the

00:10:45.580 past few weeks to try to get as many clicks as possible. These are Christian men who care a lot

00:10:53.140 about masculinity or they talk a lot about masculinity, but their focal point when talking

00:10:58.580 about biblical masculinity isn't typically strong manhood, but actually submissive womanhood.

00:11:04.360 Like they too seem to believe that feminism is the cause of all of our problems, whereas I would say

00:11:09.320 it is a symptom of our society's underlying sin and rejection of God. And their biggest concern is

00:11:15.240 what women are wearing, how women are acting, the tone of voice women have, whether women are

00:11:21.080 stepping outside the bounds of what we're supposed to be talking about, how we're spending our time

00:11:25.560 working versus being with our families. Like there's a lot of micromanaging of women that they don't 0.99

00:11:31.320 know or even ideas of women online rather than actually talking about what masculinity is. They spend a lot 0.84

00:11:38.160 of time micromanaging women online and speculating about their lives and if they really should be working

00:11:43.840 and if they're really being obedient to the Lord by talking about some things publicly. There have been a

00:11:48.920 series of voices of these men and some women over the past few weeks claiming that I should not be talking

00:11:54.140 about the things that I do because that should be left up to the men. Women, they claim, are only to 1.00

00:12:00.380 teach about homecoming and childbearing and we should be leaving the politics and the culture

00:12:07.160 warring and the biblical exegesis up to the men, period. I did an episode on this a couple weeks ago.

00:12:13.680 I'll link it. I don't want to rehash everything I already said about what scripture tells us about

00:12:20.500 women's roles in the family and in church, but as most of you already know, if you have been listening to

00:12:27.220 for any amount of time, I am extremely conservative when it comes to gender roles. I do not believe

00:12:34.080 women can be pastors. I don't believe they should preach on Sundays. I don't believe they should be 1.00

00:12:38.880 exegeting scripture to a crowd of men and women. I've done several episodes on why biblically. Go back

00:12:45.740 and listen to those before snapping at me. By the way, if you're more on the egalitarian side of that,

00:12:51.320 go back and listen to that episode. I say this as someone who has the capability of preaching. I have

00:12:59.700 the capability of preaching. I could deliver a more biblically sound, persuasive, and dynamic sermon

00:13:05.040 than most men in the pulpit today, and so could many, many other women. But just because we are

00:13:10.600 capable of something does not mean that we are called to it. Women are not called to pastor. We are not 1.00

00:13:15.500 called to preach in church over men. I happily submit to that standard that God has set for us in this.

00:13:21.080 Even if my sinful pride wanted to argue with it. He roots these roles as we discussed, as we cited a

00:13:27.340 couple weeks ago. Maybe it was last week. I don't even remember. Not in current culture, but actually

00:13:32.340 in creation. Therefore, I trust that God who loves me, who made me, who gave me these communication

00:13:38.060 gifts knows best. Yet scripture does not tell us that women can't talk about the Bible, study or teach 0.97

00:13:46.280 theology at all. It does not say that outside of the church that women should be quiet. It does not say

00:13:52.180 that discussing politics and culture exclusively is a man's realm. This effort by some people to limit

00:13:59.740 a woman's role and capacity beyond what scripture actually teaches is unbiblical. Now, should a wife 1.00

00:14:07.640 and mom prioritize her marriage and family? Are marriage and motherhood my primary calling as I

00:14:13.560 seek to glorify God? Yes. Now, as we said also last week, this was last week after Mother's Day.

00:14:21.100 I don't believe, because I don't want to say, as I've seen a lot of people say, that motherhood is

00:14:27.020 woman's highest calling. Because a woman's highest calling is a man's highest calling, which is to 1.00

00:14:34.640 glorify God. And that means in every stage of your life, no matter how old you are, no matter what

00:14:40.700 phase you're in, you can fully live the abundant life that Christ has secured for you as a Christian.

00:14:46.980 You can use the spiritual gifts that he has given you no matter what stage of life that you're in.

00:14:52.860 Because if we say that motherhood is the highest and most Christian and most Christ-like calling

00:14:58.180 that a woman can has, then that means that the single woman is in this forever waiting period. 0.71

00:15:05.300 That the woman who has never been blessed with marriage, who has never been blessed 1.00

00:15:08.900 with motherhood, who will never enter into those things, that she's less than a Christian 0.70

00:15:14.340 than other women who are married or have kids. And that's just not true. We just don't see biblical

00:15:19.260 support for that. We see biblical support for the beauty of marriage. Absolutely. I mean,

00:15:24.380 there's eternal and spiritual significance to that. We see that so clearly, both in Revelation

00:15:29.660 and Ephesians 5, really throughout Scripture. And there's beauty and sacredness to motherhood too.

00:15:36.440 But a woman's highest calling is to glorify God. Women who never marry can glorify God just as much as 0.92

00:15:44.760 the married mother can. Now, Titus 2, 3-5 is also clear. Other women likewise are to be reverent in

00:15:54.700 behavior, not slanders or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good. And so train the young

00:15:59.660 women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind. It's 0.96

00:16:04.620 submissive to their own husbands that the word of God may not be reviled. There's so much good stuff.

00:16:11.240 I think we read that passage again a couple weeks ago. There's so much good stuff in there.

00:16:15.640 And we should read that for what it is. We shouldn't try to bend it. We shouldn't try to

00:16:19.280 caveat it. We shouldn't try to get away from it. But we also shouldn't go beyond it. To say that

00:16:25.440 that verse means that women shouldn't be talking about complex theological things, that women shouldn't 1.00

00:16:30.360 be talking about the Bible, that we shouldn't be talking about these culture war subjects or these

00:16:35.560 political subjects. That's not what that passage says. That's not what that passage means.

00:16:41.240 And particularly to the like very weirdo critics out there who have found time in their busy

00:17:02.040 schedules to personally try to pick apart what my daily schedule must be like because I am a mom

00:17:09.540 and because I have this podcast. I will say what I said on Twitter is that to the Christian men and

00:17:18.380 women who think basically that it's simple for me to have a podcast because it is outside of the realm 1.00

00:17:26.300 of what women are supposed to do. There's a lot of I think strange fixation here. There's a few things 1.00

00:17:34.100 going on just to be perfectly honest. Like I think there's like a hyper fixation on someone. I think

00:17:40.240 two that there is hypocrisy and three I'll say again I think it's a grift. So one I think that

00:17:47.520 there's a hyper fixation on me because I am the only one with a podcast like this. I am. I am the only

00:17:54.060 woman with a podcast like this because we unapologetically interweave theology with politics 1.00

00:18:00.880 and culture. There are plenty of conservative commentators who might bring up faith from time

00:18:06.240 to time. There are plenty of Christian commentators and podcasters who may bring up politics from time

00:18:12.280 to time. But we are the only or certainly the biggest I will say by far the biggest female

00:18:18.420 podcast with a large majority of female listeners that talks about the things that we do in the way

00:18:27.000 that we do. And so I think that's probably why I'm held up as an example of this. And two there's

00:18:33.760 hypocrisy going on here especially from the women who are concerned that I talk about politics and I 0.92

00:18:40.660 talk about theology and I don't just talk about you know sourdough starter which there's nothing wrong 0.82

00:18:45.580 with that. I love following those kinds of accounts. That's just not me. And who think that I should

00:18:50.080 only if I'm going to talk about things publicly that I should only talk about homemaking. Look ladies and 0.99

00:18:55.880 I'm thinking about a few of you who have been kind of relentless online and criticizing me. You spend

00:19:00.680 way more time on social media than I do. You spend it looks like your whole day sharing on Instagram

00:19:08.440 sharing on Twitter going back and forth with people gossiping about other people that you don't think are

00:19:14.740 living up to your standards speculating about what working women's schedules must be like. If you're so 0.85

00:19:21.040 concerned about homemaking go make your home. Get off Instagram. Get off Twitter. And by the way I also

00:19:27.360 see you talking about culture war stuff. Don't act like you don't talk about President Biden or you don't

00:19:31.760 talk about the state of affairs. You don't talk about politics. You don't talk about culture at all. Like

00:19:36.080 you've never talked about abortion or you've never talked about gender. You talk about those things

00:19:41.180 too. Just because you don't get paid to spend time on social media. Just because you do not earn

00:19:47.220 money by creating content doesn't mean that you are not working in a way that distracts you from what

00:19:53.720 you are saying should be the woman's exclusive responsibility and that is working at home. If 1.00

00:19:58.960 you're really so concerned about women ensuring that they are focused at home stop talking about

00:20:03.960 it. Stop posting pictures about it. Stop tweeting about it and just do it. Now look I have no problem

00:20:10.040 with homemaking influencers. I don't. I don't have any problem with people sharing about how they

00:20:15.220 homeschool and how to keep a home and women using their platforms to teach younger women

00:20:20.180 how to love our husbands and how to raise our kids. I have no problem with that. But do not do that and

00:20:26.680 then tell other women not to also spend their time talking and doing things because you are too.

00:20:34.980 You are too. Let's just all be really real here. All right. Is that a lot of the women out there 0.99

00:20:42.320 who criticize me for working? You probably spend more time yip yapping all day on social media than I

00:20:51.680 do. Okay. So let's just check our own heart. Okay. Let's just make sure that our own lives are in

00:20:57.180 order. And as for the men who are publicly opining feigning godly concern over what my schedule and what

00:21:07.380 the demands must be like for me to do what I do and also be a mother. You have no idea. I don't have

00:21:16.980 any idea what your life is like. You have no idea what my life is like. I saw someone say well I'm a

00:21:22.280 media professional too and so I know how long it takes to do a podcast. Look I've been where you are

00:21:30.220 where I have recorded set up my own camera edited my own podcast before I had kids. That's what I was

00:21:36.260 doing. I was setting up my own podcast. I was editing. I was doing all the research. I was doing

00:21:41.000 all the writing. So there's no shame in that and what I'm about to say. I am not shaming that. I'm

00:21:45.400 not belittling that every single podcaster has been there. I have been there too before I had kids but

00:21:50.760 that's not where I am now. You don't know what it's like to have a whole team of people. When you get to

00:21:56.560 the point of having a producer and a director and an editor and a researcher and a social media person

00:22:02.700 and an assistant then you can speculate about how much time I might spend working versus home. You

00:22:08.880 have no idea. You don't know. And so I would just take a chill pill and again make sure your own family

00:22:16.080 and your own church and your own life is in order. And maybe consider how much time you spend

00:22:24.380 talking about things that do not matter. Getting into meaningless kerfuffles online about things that

00:22:32.180 are not ultimately consequential or eternal. Now am I saying that everyone who criticizes me

00:22:40.440 or everyone who disagrees with me having a podcast, everyone who doesn't like me or like how I talk

00:22:46.260 about things or questions the biblical nature of what I do that you're all evil, that you're all

00:22:53.860 like wrong. No, I'm not saying that. Like there are people who can respectfully disagree who have

00:22:59.500 respectfully disagreed. And look, when it comes from a fellow believer, I take that seriously.

00:23:04.080 It's one thing to be criticized by the progressives, even those who call themselves

00:23:07.780 progressive Christians. Yeah, that happens every day. I really don't take those criticisms seriously

00:23:12.560 because they don't know God. And I remember what it's like to not know God. That's a really

00:23:16.400 miserable feeling. It's a really miserable way to be, whether you realize it or not. And so you're

00:23:21.400 constantly taking out your misery on other people. You're projecting your own insecurities onto other

00:23:26.520 people. And so I actually have a lot of sympathy for these progressives who are criticizing me. And I

00:23:32.720 just don't take their criticism seriously because it's not coming from a place of truth. But fellow

00:23:37.160 believers who disagree with me, who give me constructive criticism and who push back on me,

00:23:42.380 like I care about that to a degree. I mean, I can't care about every criticism out there, but I care

00:23:49.580 about those things. So I'm not dismissing every person who has ever criticized me or questioned me or

00:23:54.720 anything like that as just being hypocritical. That's not true. I am saying that this movement

00:24:01.260 that I'm talking about that is actually very influenced by the secular right, whether they

00:24:06.280 know it or not, who is so concerned about the quietness of women, I do think that there's a 0.98

00:24:11.400 lot of hypocrisy. And it's not just that. It's not just the hyper fixation. It's not just the hypocrisy.

00:24:15.800 But if I can say this, I also think there's a sin of covetousness there. There is.

00:24:20.260 It's not just that I talk about the things that they want to talk about. I have the platform that

00:24:28.740 they want. And so the reason also, I think, why I'm mentioned is because they want me to mention

00:24:36.580 them by name. They want me to say, so-and-so said in his podcast, so-and-so said in this article,

00:24:42.660 so people will go click on it. Well, I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to do that. One,

00:24:47.200 because I am not going to give the attention that some of these people, again, not all,

00:24:52.120 some of these people are seeking. And also there is a huge disparity of influence here. Okay. We're

00:24:57.700 talking about like a few hundred people listening to some people versus the number of people that

00:25:03.240 listen to me. And that feels like punching down, which is not fun. But because I actually think that

00:25:08.460 this is like a growing movement and I see this hypocrisy, I see this covetousness, I see this

00:25:16.400 hyper fixation on making sure women are as limited as possible beyond the biblical scope, 0.58

00:25:23.740 beyond the biblical limitations that we see, I think it's important to talk about it. And look,

00:25:29.660 I am going to be here behind this microphone as long as God calls me to it. Thankfully, like by the

00:25:37.180 grace of God, I worked so much less than I did before I had kids. I have to, I have to go back

00:25:45.120 and look at the content that I produced in like 2018, 29, probably like 2017 to 2019 was when I was

00:25:52.440 doing like the most stuff. Look at like the videos that I did, the satire videos that I did, the posts

00:25:57.620 that I was making, the blog posts that I was writing and all that stuff. And like how much I was traveling,

00:26:02.560 how many times I was on Fox News and all of this stuff. I was doing so much now, not that I feel

00:26:09.820 like I have to justify myself, but the ratio of me sitting behind this mic, which yes, of course takes

00:26:15.880 work. Everything that I say is written by me. It's come up with by me, but I do have a lot of support.

00:26:21.540 I get to come in for a couple hours each day, talk about the things that matter, educate and empower

00:26:26.680 a Christian audience, primarily a Christian female audience to think through as critically and as

00:26:33.020 biblically as possible, the chaos and the craziness of this world. And then I get to go home and I'm

00:26:38.680 with my kids. And yes, there are sacrifices that are made in that. That doesn't mean that everything

00:26:43.840 that I need to do in a day is done in those two hours. That's not true. Yes, I'm writing a book. Yes.

00:26:49.540 Sometimes I go speak. Yes, I prepare for this podcast. What you don't see is me working from

00:26:56.240 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. on a Friday night because I want to make sure that I'm there with my family

00:27:02.960 and there with my kids and still able to do the other things that God has called me to do.

00:27:10.320 That's what my life looks like. It looks like sacrificing sleep. It looks like sacrificing some

00:27:15.120 other things so I don't have to sacrifice my family and I don't have to sacrifice motherhood.

00:27:19.900 I spend more time at home than some so-called stay-at-home moms do. Just because I get paid to 1.00

00:27:27.020 talk, just because I get paid to do these things doesn't mean that I am less dedicated to my family

00:27:32.400 than the person who maybe spends time just posting things on Instagram or like out with her friends in

00:27:39.160 the middle of the day or running errands or something like that. Just because I'm spending my time doing

00:27:43.260 one thing and not other things doesn't mean that I am not as dedicated to my family as the mom who

00:27:49.480 might be absent for different reasons but technically does not work. And it's also strange, I think,

00:27:55.480 like the criticism of my particular work when there are a lot of women who do have side jobs,

00:28:01.100 who do have e-commerce jobs, who are in multi-level marketing or who make money in different ways and

00:28:06.460 yet they're never criticized for being working women. It's like there are certain jobs within this 0.95

00:28:11.540 trad, Christian, patriarchist world that are okay for a woman to do. It's okay for a woman to make 1.00

00:28:18.100 money in certain ways, to write certain kinds of books and things like that. But it's not okay if

00:28:23.220 it, I don't know, looks like this, which is where I think covetousness in some of these cases

00:28:28.860 does come in. I saw someone say, I did not like that my wife was listening. This is like a pastor,

00:28:35.100 I guess. I did not like that my wife was listening to Allie Stuckey. It's not because of what she said. 0.99

00:28:40.240 All these people say the same thing. What she says is right. What she says is true. But I don't

00:28:47.160 like how she says it. Boo hoo. That's what I hear. You sound just like the little high school

00:28:56.820 progressive girls with their pronouns in their profile who say, you have a mean tone when you 1.00

00:29:04.740 say true things. That's exactly what you sound like. I didn't like that it sounded like this,

00:29:10.900 even though everything that she was saying is true. Okay, look, I hope that by God's grace that

00:29:16.900 he increases your influence and platform if you are saying things that are edifying and true.

00:29:22.700 I hope that he does. And there may be a day where God totally diminishes my platform,

00:29:27.440 where he takes me away from this, where I am no longer talking behind a mic. I no longer have

00:29:32.340 influence. And maybe all of you guys out there who I think largely are grifters, maybe, maybe you will

00:29:40.500 be very successful in building your influence and building your career and building your platform and

00:29:46.820 all of that. And I will just go quietly into the night. That is a total, total possibility. Like I'm

00:29:53.200 not looking to claim any kind of victory here. All I'm saying is that as long as God calls me to

00:29:59.920 what I'm doing now, I'm going to continue to do it.

00:30:03.820 And look, by God's grace, like he has used this podcast. He has used this podcast. Okay. Like

00:30:23.640 I'm not saying that I have done it. He has used this podcast to bring people to himself.

00:30:29.600 I mean, I could read you. Thankfully, I mean, people are so sweet. The body of Christ is so sweet

00:30:34.640 and so encouraging. And I got so many, I guess a lot of you kind of saw this criticism that was

00:30:40.580 circulating. And a lot of you took the time to send me such encouraging messages, just reminding

00:30:47.360 me or telling me kind of what God has done through this podcast for you or through my book. And I do

00:30:52.620 want to, I just want to read a couple of them because this is why I do what I do. Yes, I'm called to it

00:30:58.100 literally since I could talk. I knew that I would be doing something like this. God placed a fire in

00:31:03.460 me. He placed the ability to do this. I knew that I was going to be doing something like this again,

00:31:08.360 as long as he calls me to it, that could change. I could change very quickly. But he has also by his

00:31:15.260 grace used it in a way that has changed people's hearts and minds. And I just pray that he continues

00:31:21.680 to do so as long as I'm called to do it. So this sweet person, I love this message,

00:31:27.820 said, I have to tell you this right now, because my twin sister was just messaging with you.

00:31:32.660 I have to tell you that you were her gateway drug. Three years ago, we were barely speaking because

00:31:38.760 she was swallowed up by the BLM movement. My husband and I wouldn't budge on our convictions 1.00

00:31:42.340 or change our worldview. It was devastating to have lost my best friend. She thought that I was crazy

00:31:48.460 and racist and brainwashed. Two years later, she saw you by accident at a conference in Atlanta 0.93

00:31:53.680 where we live and the rest is history. You gave me my twin sister back. You opened her mind and heart

00:31:59.600 and our loving God used you to speak truth to her when she wouldn't listen to me or anyone else that

00:32:07.100 didn't subscribe to woke ideologies. There was a similar story, and I won't say the name, but a lot of

00:32:12.680 you guys know this pastor who basically was estranged from part of his family, was estranged

00:32:18.440 from his sisters because of very deep theological differences. And then they ended up reaching out

00:32:25.160 to their brother one day, which he thought was random. They got together, they started talking,

00:32:29.400 and he was wondering, you know, how did this reconciliation happen? Why are you guys not mad at me?

00:32:34.260 Why do you guys not hold this resentment and bitterness that I know that you guys have had

00:32:37.860 had against me because of our theological differences? And I cried when he told me this

00:32:43.280 story. And he said, and they said, oh, it's because we listen to Relatable. We listen to Relatable,

00:32:50.420 and we understand that about a lot of these things that you were actually right. And there are story

00:32:55.920 after story of this. And I'm continually humbled by the stories that I receive of people who say,

00:33:02.500 especially after 2020, I think that was like the moment that a lot of people's eyes

00:33:06.480 opened and that they came to this podcast. People who say that they thought about killing themselves,

00:33:11.240 but then they heard the gospel for the first time on this podcast. People who said that they just

00:33:16.200 wanted to pursue a career or travel and not have kids. And now they're on baby number two. I am

00:33:21.940 like so often the first person who receives these pregnancy announcements because of how many of you

00:33:28.640 told me you decided or you knew that it was actually sinful of you to prevent yourself from having kids

00:33:35.720 when really it was just for self-serving reasons and you want to let me know that. There are many of you

00:33:42.020 who have gone back to church, who have started reading your Bible, whose eyes have been opened about the

00:33:46.620 evils of abortion or gender ideology, who have started to take seriously your child's discipleship and your

00:33:52.140 child's education, not just because of the things that you've heard me say, but most of all, probably, the

00:33:58.800 things that you've heard my guests say. I have like the most brilliant and godliest people in the world on this

00:34:04.420 podcast and a lot of you have been inspired by the things that they've said. And so God, by his grace,

00:34:10.600 has used this podcast to make a lasting and eternal and spiritual impact on people and their lives.

00:34:17.480 I mean, when you're talking about someone changing how they raise kids or changing their decision about

00:34:21.980 having kids, I mean, this is a multi-generational thing going on. And I could go on and on about the

00:34:28.300 different reviews and the different feedback and messages that I've received. But look, like a few

00:34:34.680 naysayers who are not even really like pretending to be worried about my obedience to the Lord or how

00:34:44.120 I'm spending my time when I am like, I am so thankful for the balance that God has given us for how much

00:34:53.840 time, how much I have stepped back from working as hard as I used to before kids, for the

00:34:59.400 opportunities that God has given me, and for how he has used this podcast to help other people. Like, I'm not

00:35:05.800 going to let some naysayers, some people in the Theobro community online, get me down or change what I

00:35:16.300 talk about or how I talk about it or how passionately or consistently I talk about it. Now, again, if you're out

00:35:22.280 there and you're thinking, I've criticized you, but don't let me in with these people because I'm not

00:35:25.980 then. Okay, well, I'm not then. If it's not you, then it's not you. If what I described isn't you,

00:35:30.620 then it's not you. Don't worry about it. I really just wanted to take this opportunity to, one, I want

00:35:36.000 to thank all of you out there who do pray for me. You pray for me so often. I had someone come up to me

00:35:40.180 yesterday and say, I've just been praying for you because I can see these kinds of, you know, struggles and

00:35:45.800 attacks and division and all that stuff that is happening. And so many of you tell me that you're praying for

00:35:49.860 me. And I just want to thank you for that. Like, I'm so, so grateful. Relatable truly is a community

00:35:55.760 of related gals. And there is a percentage of you who are related bros and you've gotten your wife

00:36:01.340 hooked on to this podcast. And I just really appreciate that so much. But really, even more

00:36:06.460 than that, like, I just want to encourage you women. I want to encourage you women. Okay. I want to say a

00:36:12.700 few things that, one, like, you have, if anyone has ever made you doubt that you have the capacity

00:36:20.320 to read and understand your Bible, I just want you to push that out of your head right now.

00:36:28.000 You have the ability, you have the calling, you have the capacity to understand the Bible,

00:36:33.860 to understand very theologically complex issues. And if what you talk about and if what you do every

00:36:42.140 minute of every day is homemaking and diaper changing and housecleaning, that's amazing. That is

00:36:50.160 an incredibly high calling. And you are using the beautiful gifts, spiritual, intellectual gifts that

00:36:58.600 God has given you to disciple your kids and to love your husband and to make your home. If he has also

00:37:03.960 called you to be an artist, if he has also called you to teach theological concepts to other women,

00:37:11.800 then that's also wonderful. That's also biblical. That's also really good. Do I think that there

00:37:20.420 are forms of working that are not as good for the family when a woman does them? Yeah. I also think 1.00

00:37:28.140 that about men too. Like, do I think that there are hours spent away from home that are too much?

00:37:34.660 Have I done that? Have I managed it perfectly? No, I have not managed it perfectly. There are times when

00:37:41.200 it's been too much where I've had to say, that was too much. I traveled too much. That was too much time

00:37:46.860 spent away or whatever it is. There are sometimes I've made too many of the wrong sacrifices. That

00:37:51.480 all happens. But all of us, all of us have to assess that. No matter what we are called to,

00:37:57.700 no matter what realm we are in, we all have to assess whether we are truly dedicating our time and our

00:38:03.580 energy to the things of the Lord and ordering our lives and ordering our priorities in a way that

00:38:12.640 honors him. But yes, women, you can understand theology. You can teach other women theology.

00:38:23.180 You can care about and talk about politics and culture because like, what do we say on this podcast

00:38:29.720 is that these things that we talk about so much, abortion, gender, marriage, these culture wars,

00:38:34.100 for us, they're not primarily culture wars. They're not primarily political. For us, they're primarily

00:38:38.520 biblical. They're primarily Genesis 1 issues. They're the first chapter of the first book of the

00:38:46.980 Bible. These are biblical issues. And if you are a woman, if you are a mom in particular, that affects 0.99

00:38:52.960 how you mother. That affects how you make your home. That affects what kind of wife you are. That 1.00

00:38:59.660 affects what kind of neighbor you are. That affects what kind of community member you are. The things

00:39:05.140 that we talk about are all really technically within the realm of motherhood. Like you need to understand

00:39:16.260 what's going on in the world when it comes to gender ideology. You need to understand the bills that 1.00

00:39:21.540 are going before a governor in your state that have to do with abortion. Like the history of the

00:39:26.520 Christian church has been protecting children, protecting the vulnerable from going to the

00:39:32.760 slaughter. The history of the Christian church has been advocating for those who are truly on the

00:39:38.020 margin of society who can't speak up for themselves. The history of the Christian church has been

00:39:42.580 showing women and children and men, but in particular women and children, the honor, the dignity that is due to

00:39:48.660 them as image bearers of God. And that means that we need to care about, know about, and talk about

00:39:54.940 the assault on the Imago Dei, especially when it comes to women and children. That's not just a man's role.

00:40:02.300 That's a woman's role too. That's a Christian's role. To continue to build the church and the body of Christ 0.83

00:40:08.480 to be a refuge of courage and clarity in an age of cowardice and chaos. And that's what I always want to do

00:40:16.620 on this podcast. And yes, I'm a woman doing it. And I love being a woman. Never want to be anything

00:40:22.900 else. I never want to step outside of that realm. I love being a wife. My husband and I are always

00:40:29.380 trying to live out Ephesians 5 in a godly way. And I love my church. I love not ever being a pastor.

00:40:37.400 I love not preaching in, you know, a pulpit to men. I love all of these things. And I also love this

00:40:43.420 podcast. I love having the platform that I do for the time that God has given it to me. And I hope

00:40:48.900 that I steward it in a way that is glorifying to him. And I'm going to continue to do that.

00:40:53.940 One thing I do want to mention, I probably should have mentioned it a couple minutes ago,

00:40:58.120 but it works here. I've seen people say men should be fighting our battles. Men are equipped

00:41:04.960 to fight the battles. Women are not equipped to fight the battles. What I think is funny about that 1.00

00:41:11.900 is that you've changed what battle means. Like you've changed what battle has meant historically.

00:41:21.880 Like, yeah, men should be battling physically. When we're talking about war, I do think men should

00:41:29.020 be in roles of combat. Men should be on the front lines. Like men are given a particular physical

00:41:36.160 capability to be on the front lines when you are actually talking about war. But now you've changed

00:41:42.960 the definition of war to be talking. You've changed the definition of war to just be like

00:41:50.120 debating ideas. And now you're saying that's only a man's job. So the war is not a war of physical

00:41:57.940 altercation, but now it's a war of words that apparently women are not to engage in. 1.00

00:42:03.380 Like, what's the, what's the biblical basis for that? And so like, it's just, it's almost like

00:42:11.480 the feminization of, ironically, it's like the feminization of the battle, the feminization of

00:42:18.360 war, the feminization of masculinity that a lot of these manhood grifters have taken on to say,

00:42:25.700 no, we're supposed to be on the front lines. No, you're supposed to be on the physical front lines.

00:42:29.220 Most of you though, wouldn't even go into the military and now your war is podcasting

00:42:34.760 and only men are supposed to do it. That's not true. Ladies, the spiritual war that we are called 0.97

00:42:41.200 to, the war that is against the spiritual forces in the heavenly places as we read about in Ephesians

00:42:49.260 6, that's for the Christian. Not just the Christian man is supposed to take up the whole armor of God.

00:42:55.280 The Christian woman is to take up the whole armor of God too, including, including the sword of the 0.98

00:43:00.520 spirit, including the belt of truth, including the breath plate of righteousness, including the shoes

00:43:05.040 of readiness, all of that. We are supposed to also wear the armor of God. And I hope by God's grace

00:43:11.400 in this podcast, I'm helping us do that. I hope that I'm being helped to do that on a daily basis.

00:43:16.640 And I don't claim to have authority over you. I'm a podcaster. I don't have claim, I don't claim to

00:43:24.840 have authority over you men or over you women. I hope that you are in a local church. I hope that

00:43:30.440 your pastor is a theological authority in your life. I hope that you don't look to me as the arbiter

00:43:36.620 of truth. I hope you simply look to me for clarity and courage. I hope to change the minds of people

00:43:42.500 who disagree with me. I hope to further embolden and empower the people who already do.

00:43:50.240 So that's that. I guess that's all I'm going to say about that. There's more that I could say,

00:43:54.660 but I hope that it's an encouragement to you women. I hope that it is. God has given you the

00:43:59.580 capacity and the calling to understand and talk about all of these big things that really matter.

00:44:05.660 Yes, in certain contexts. Yes, in certain ways, hopefully in ways that are God-glorifying. And

00:44:11.280 I would just be wary. I would really watch out for this whole trad, red pill, blah, blah, blah, blah,

00:44:18.880 blah movement. I think it's going in a really ugly direction. Look to Christ. Christ is better. 1.00

00:44:27.300 Scripture is better. The gospel is better. The world, even those who claim to be Christian, 1.00

00:44:32.200 are going to continue to get it wrong. Human-made movements are going to continue to get it wrong.

00:44:38.240 But Christ is never wrong. Hebrews 13, 8 says Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

00:44:46.100 The same Jesus who met the woman at the well. The same Jesus who paid attention to the unclean woman 1.00

00:44:52.620 who was bleeding. The same Jesus who paid attention to the woman who was caught in adultery. The same

00:44:58.960 Jesus who attended to and befriended Mary and Martha who cared for the woman of the night who was

00:45:06.320 washing his feet with her hair. All of these women he called to repentance and all of these women he 0.99

00:45:13.600 loved. All of these women he had compassion for. All of these women he called to a life of boldness

00:45:18.780 and godliness. And he's calling you to a life of boldness and godliness too. What do we always say?

00:45:24.100 Do the next right thing with excellence in faith and for the glory of God. I think it's actually

00:45:31.260 in faith with excellence and for the glory of God. That could be changing a diaper with joy. That

00:45:37.820 could be sending an email enthusiastically and grammatically correctly. It could mean some big

00:45:44.520 major decision that God has been pressing on your heart. It could be private. It could be public.

00:45:49.560 Do the next right thing in faith with excellence and for the glory of God.

00:45:54.100 I just wanted to pay a short tribute to Tim Keller. Tim Keller died last week and as you guys probably

00:46:17.160 know he was a best-selling author. He was a theologian. He was a longtime New York City pastor

00:46:22.100 of Redeemer Church and he died on Friday from his battle with pancreatic cancer. He announced

00:46:28.640 several years ago or a few years ago now that he was diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer.

00:46:36.040 Sometimes that goes really quickly. So he has been able to continue to work and produce some things

00:46:40.520 over the past couple years. But I think a lot of people knew that this was probably going to be a

00:46:45.160 death sentence. So this was his final memorializing tweet from his son, Michael Keller.

00:46:51.460 Timothy J. Keller, husband, father, grandfather, mentor, friend, pastor, and scholar died this

00:46:56.400 morning at home. Dad waited until he was alone with mom. She kissed him on the forehead and he

00:47:02.180 breathed his last breath. We take comfort in some of his last words. There is no downside to me leaving,

00:47:09.800 not in the slightest. See you soon, dad. It's hard for me to keep a dry eye and not have a lump in my

00:47:17.260 throat when I'm reading that. There is no downside for Tim Keller for leaving. Now he is with Christ.

00:47:26.460 As we read in Philippians, to live is Christ and to die is gain. And he has gained that which he has

00:47:32.460 sought for most of his life. And I am very thankful for that. We cannot even comprehend the glory and

00:47:40.720 the joy and just the relief that he feels. I've often thought about like this is such like a finite

00:47:47.440 and earthly depiction of what it must be like to die and to go to heaven and to hear well done good

00:47:53.540 and faithful servant from the Christ who redeemed you. But you know after you've been gone for a long

00:47:59.360 trip, after a long trip and there's been a ton of travel delays. And you, there are some times when

00:48:06.080 you're like, I don't know if I will ever make it home. Maybe you've had three kids with you. Maybe

00:48:10.620 you have a stomach bug and it has literally been, it's felt like hell on earth and you are so stressed

00:48:17.320 out. You are so tense. And then you get home and you lay in your bed at night and just the relief

00:48:25.380 that washes over you. And the thought of, yes, this is how it was always supposed to be. And the tension

00:48:32.180 and the stress just melts away. I imagine that that is what it's like on a much grander, much bigger,

00:48:39.940 more eternal scale when we get to heaven that just all the, all the weight, all the stress, all the sin

00:48:47.980 that we have been carrying for so long. It's just gone. I don't even, none of us even know what that

00:48:54.660 feels like. We don't even realize like how much weight and how much tension we are carrying because

00:49:00.180 we live in this fallen sinful world on a day-to-day basis. Even if you have a wonderful life or you're

00:49:05.280 in a lovely stage and you're having a great day. I don't even think we realize that we're still

00:49:09.940 carrying this just huge burden of fallenness on our backs that will not be relieved until we get

00:49:17.400 to heaven. And the lightness that we will feel, the welcome, the acceptance, the joy, the feeling of,

00:49:23.040 yes, this is how it was always supposed to be. I can't believe that I ever existed apart from Christ.

00:49:28.120 I can't believe I ever lived outside of this presence. This is how it was always supposed to be.

00:49:34.160 And that's where Tim Keller is right now. That's how he feels. And that's what we all have to look

00:49:38.600 forward to as a believer. Isn't God so good that he forgave us of our sins? Like, isn't he so good

00:49:44.360 that we were his enemies and that we scoffed at him and that he still, because of love, provided a

00:49:49.880 way for us to be reconciled to him, for us to be completely forgiven, for our slates to be wiped clean 1.00

00:49:56.500 so we could be made holy and new and spend forever with him? He didn't have to do that, but he did.

00:50:01.960 Isn't God so good? And I'm very thankful that Tim Keller spent his adult life

00:50:08.240 in trying to get people to understand God. Now, I don't always know if this is the right thing to

00:50:14.060 say, because I don't want to take away from just the objective sadness of him dying

00:50:22.340 or the humanity of the situation. But I also think it's important to show that you can do this.

00:50:29.980 I want to honor him and honor the things that he contributed to the faith and to the church,

00:50:36.240 while also saying, just acknowledging that, like, I disagreed with him on some things, especially

00:50:42.060 politically over the past few years, his approach to politics, what I thought was like a very strange

00:50:47.720 middle-of-the-road approach to things like abortion and what is typically demeaned as culture war issues

00:50:54.420 and his view on social justice as a form of generous justice. I really disagreed with those

00:51:01.240 things. I think those ideas are damaging. And even so, I have gleaned so much from his work

00:51:09.220 and from his wisdom over the years. It's okay to say, yeah, I disagreed with him on these things,

00:51:14.800 but wow, none of those, I mean, none of those things matter to him in the presence of Jesus right now.

00:51:22.260 And in light of everything that he has positively contributed, I can just be very thankful.

00:51:28.460 Some of his, I have a lot to say. I don't have time to get into all of it, but some of

00:51:32.280 the best books I think that he's written, I've written, or I've read a lot of books by Tim Keller,

00:51:38.980 Reason for God, Prodigal God, Every Good Endeavor, Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness,

00:51:44.240 The Meaning of Marriage, all of these are some of my favorite books ever, actually. The Reason for

00:51:50.020 God, when I was a senior in high school, we were assigned it. It's a perk of having a Christian 1.00

00:51:55.120 education, which I'm so thankful for. We were assigned it in high school. And even though I,

00:52:00.500 you know, considered myself a Christian and all of these things, like God really used that book

00:52:04.500 to change my life in a lot of ways, to stir up in me a love for apologetics, a love for theology and

00:52:12.820 awakening to just the intellectual depth of Christianity. He used that and mere Christianity 0.98

00:52:19.380 and screw tape letters to all do that really at the same time. And so I really encourage you to

00:52:25.040 read The Reason for God, Belief in an Age of Skepticism. Here's a quote from that. Oh, I love

00:52:31.600 this. It is not the strength of your faith, but the object of your faith that actually saves you.

00:52:38.520 Strong faith in a weak branch is fatally inferior to weak faith in a strong branch. So even if

00:52:45.420 your, even if your faith seems weak, even if you have doubts, even if you are wavering,

00:52:52.760 Christ does not waver. Even if you feel like you change and you feel like your faith is waxed and

00:52:58.680 waned, Christ does not. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. And then prodigal God recovering

00:53:04.680 the heart of the Christian faith. Jesus does not divide the world into the moral good guys and the

00:53:11.240 immoral bad guys. He shows us that everyone is dedicated to a project of self-salvation,

00:53:15.840 to using God and others in order to get power and control for themselves. We are just going about it 0.75

00:53:22.700 in different ways. The real split is not between those who we see as good or bad, according to

00:53:29.920 worldly standards. The real split, he is saying, is between those who are dead in sin and are trying

00:53:35.960 to save themselves completely futilely and those who are alive in Christ who realize they can never

00:53:41.140 save themselves and can only be saved by Jesus. Every good endeavor, also pretty life-changing for

00:53:48.260 me, connecting your work to God's work. I say this all the time. I didn't even remember that I got it

00:53:54.340 from this, but in the beginning, then God worked. His book says, work was not a necessary evil that

00:54:00.360 came into the picture later or something human beings were created to do, but that was beneath the

00:54:06.120 great God himself. No, God worked for the sheer joy of it. The book of Genesis leaves us with a

00:54:15.480 striking truth. Work was part of paradise. We were always meant to work, even before the fall. It's

00:54:22.420 not a product of sin. It's not a product of evil. It's fruitless toil that came with the curse and

00:54:27.100 after sin, but work will be with us. I think in the new heavens and the new earth, there will be

00:54:31.660 work. We will have vocations or we will at least have things that we are doing. We will actually be

00:54:37.140 productive, that God worked to create the heavens and the earth. And then he rested from that work

00:54:42.760 and we be made in his image. We're also made to work. So that means there's a divine calling for all

00:54:48.060 of us to be productive and to work. And then let's see the freedom of self-forgetfulness. And I would

00:54:55.440 say that this was like a big inspiration for my book, You're Not Enough and That's Okay, because I

00:55:00.740 think we sometimes think that the only options for people are self-love and self-hate when actually we

00:55:07.640 see in scripture that in the end days, people will be lovers of self. So we're not really called to

00:55:14.240 self-love and we're not called to self-hate. As I've said, those are two sides of the same

00:55:19.780 self-obsession coin. But in his book, Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness, he says that that's what

00:55:25.860 the Christian is actually called to, is self-forgetfulness. He uses mere Christianity in 0.99

00:55:31.940 this book. He cited C.S. Lewis a lot, which is like speaking my language. He says, C.S. Lewis in

00:55:37.220 Mere Christianity makes a brilliant observation about gospel humility at the very end of his chapter on

00:55:41.860 pride. If we were to truly meet a humble person, Lewis says, we would never come away from meeting

00:55:47.040 them thinking they were humble. They would not be always telling us they were a nobody. The thing we

00:55:52.320 would remember from meeting a truly gospel humble person is how much they seem to be totally interested

00:55:56.920 in us. Because the essence of gospel humility is not thinking more of myself or less of myself.

00:56:02.840 It is thinking of myself less. Gospel humility is not needing to think about myself, not needing to

00:56:10.980 connect things with myself. It is an end to the thoughts such as, I'm in this room with these

00:56:16.420 people. Does it make me look good? Do I want to be here? True gospel humility means I stop connecting

00:56:22.720 every experience, every conversation with myself. In fact, I stop thinking about myself, the freedom

00:56:28.960 of self-forgetfulness, the blessed rest that only self-forgetfulness brings. And then here's a book,

00:56:36.020 the last book that I'll talk about, The Meaning of Marriage, that I think every person should read

00:56:40.300 if you have not read it. Single, engaged, dating, married. I read it. My husband and I read it when

00:56:47.040 we were engaged. The best book on marriage I think that I've ever read. One of the quotes from it,

00:56:53.540 there are lots and lots of good quotes. To be loved but not known is comforting but superficial.

00:56:57.960 To be known and not loved is our greatest fear. But to be fully known and truly loved is, well,

00:57:05.160 a lot like being loved by God. It is what we need more than anything. It liberates us from pretense,

00:57:11.180 humbles us out of our self-righteousness, and fortifies us for any difficulty life can throw

00:57:17.280 at us. And then, of course, it is the basis for a healthy marriage. And so really encourage that.

00:57:24.900 Really encourage that for you to read that. There were a lot of tributes. A lot of ministry

00:57:31.860 leaders paid tribute. John Piper posted a video on Instagram where he encouraged young people,

00:57:38.220 in particular young pastors, where he said, be more thrilled that you are saved than that you

00:57:43.360 are successful. Take more delight in the Savior than in his service, which I think is very sweet

00:57:50.600 and very true. Tim Keller was Reformed, and he sought to bring Reformed theology to the academy,

00:57:58.420 to the church, to the world. I think he did it in a very magnanimous way, a very persuasive way.

00:58:06.900 And again, that doesn't mean that we all agreed on everything that Tim Keller ever had to say.

00:58:12.020 And we can also acknowledge the incredible contributions that he made to the church,

00:58:16.400 his life and legacy of faith. And I'm just so thankful for that. And I think that our prayer

00:58:20.760 should just be that many, many, many more people come to know Christ, come to know the gospel

00:58:26.360 through his work, through the seeds that he has faithfully sown. All right. That's all I got time

00:58:33.520 for today. Make sure that you check out our merch if you haven't recently. We've got a Memorial Day

00:58:41.200 code. What's the discount? 20% off. 20% off. So if you go to AllieMerch.com, right? AllieMerch.com,

00:58:53.620 promo code REMEMBER. That's 20% off. AllieMerch.com, promo code REMEMBER. We've got lots of cute 1.00

00:58:59.880 merch, y'all. Lots of cute merch. We've even got a couple things coming out that might be worn by the 0.99

00:59:08.560 related bros out there. You never know. You'll just have to stay tuned and see.

00:59:14.300 All right. We will see you guys back here tomorrow.

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - May 22, 2023

Ep 809 ｜ The 'Trad' Movement Isn’t Biblical

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