THE GROW PODCAST | S1E4 | The Pace of Rest | Summer Lee | Purpose Driven Coaching & Consulting
Beth 0:00
Welcome back to the Grow Podcast. I'm Beth, and I'm so excited that you're here today. We're talking about rest. It's so deeply transformative when you truly understand it. Now this whole season is stepping us through the Grow framework. Now summer is the creator of the Grow framework, and so today's episode, you're gonna get to hear the heart beat of the R, which stands for rest. Now this isn't just about rest for your body, but rest for your mind, your emotions and your spirit. Summer shares what it looked like when God redefined rest in her own life, and how stepping into that kind of rest became the turning point for healing, clarity and provision. Whether you're feeling stretched, afraid to slow down, maybe even unsure what rest even looks like in this season for you, this conversation will meet you right where you are and offer you a whole new perspective on what it means to live in rhythm with God, I invite you to lean in as we jump into the conversation. Here we go.
Summer 1:07
Let's first tell everybody that R we debated was, is it rest, or is it rhythm? Right? Because the whole thing was really about rest, and I'll explain that in a minute. The whole thing was about rest. But then we decided, no, the whole thing is a rhythm, but it really could be either, right?
Beth 1:29
It's interchangeable, and it depends on the perspective. Yeah, I can ask. I definitely still see that. I forgot about that.
Summer 1:37
So in my story, and in, you know, the manuscript we've talked about that I had written my stories, my view of rest was confined to physical rest, and what God taught me when I physically rested was how to rest beyond that In Him, How to rest emotionally, how to restspiritually, basically how to how to let go of my control and to rest knowing that he is working even when I may not be. And so each of the elements in grow really the rest the obedience, the waiting they they were all ways that God taught me how to rest in him.
Beth 2:32
Oh, wow, yeah.
Summer 2:33
He taught me to rest by learning how to wait. He taught me to rest by learning to obey, instead of always having to do it in my own strength, right? Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. He taught me how to rest by learning to receive His grace. And so the whole story, really, it's about rest, but it's that redefinition of rest and learning like that redefinition or redefining rest to not view it in the way that I think we view it culturally. You know, when we think about rest, we think of stopping all of our activities, right, doing nothing. And sometimes that that is rest. Sometimes we do need that, that physical rest, but there is such a deeper spiritual place that God wants to take us with, resting in Him. And so that's why it's my favorite topic, because
Beth 3:30
so when you were just saying that, it's like the whole thing puts you into a rhythm. Yes, back to that Genesis rhythm. But resting is the area that God takes you so much deeper, and then it's almost like the obedience is just a natural fruit of the grace and and the resting in Him. Like I'm just now kind of putting that together in that light. So tell me, like, before GROW, what did, what did rest look like for you?
Summer 4:00
You know, I was always good at physical rest. I've never been the person that just always had to be busy or is always doing things or didn't know how to slow down or overwork. I wouldn't say that's my story. I was very intentional with physically resting, but it was easy for me because I was single, I did not have all the responsibilities that then came along after I got married, when I was 40, I got out of rhythm. I won't blame it on marriage, okay, marriage gave me the opportunity to find a different rhythm. Let me just stop and say this marriage for me has been like God putting a mirror in front of me and reflecting back to me the things inside of me that he wanted to to prune and change and grow, and so a lot of the things. As it started to unravel, that spiraled, you know, with my health, really started from losing some balance after going through the transition of getting married and all the responsibilities that that came with that that were different from just taking care of myself until I was 40 years old, me and you know, my dog, life was a lot simpler, and so I found myself not having the evenings and the weekends to just havedowntime for my brain and to just read books, you know, and to just take baths and quiet and to go for hikes that just wasn't happening anymore. And so I don't, I won't say that life was that much busier, but I wasn't getting the recovery time that I needed at the end of my day or on the weekend to recharge. And so, you know, you'll, we'll probably talk about this later, but you know, I firmly believe that youknow, rest is, is more of fuel to recharge us than it is something that slows us down. It may slow us down temporarily, but it's for the ultimate purpose of
Beth 6:26
like speeding us up.
Summer 6:27
Speeding us up. Yeah, yes, because I can accomplish so much more when I'm working from a place of rest. So that's not just physical rest, that's also working from a place of knowing that God is in control, knowing that I can depend on Him, knowing that I can receive his his grace, and knowing that the things that he asked me To do like perfectly align with what I would choose if I could see the future, so I don't have to figure all these things out on my own. Right.
Beth 7:09
Can you recall a moment where God, like, forced you to rest like where, in hindsight, you're you probably should have rested
Summer 7:17
Many times. And I'm sure anybody you know listening, probably would agree with that, that there, there even times, I mean, think about times when you get sick and you'll, you'll probably say, Well, I guess this is God's way of forcing me to rest, you know, because I gotsick and I have to stop and I have to slow down. But you know the most well, I would say the example that stands out the most. It's the story we've already talked about, but we can talk about it from a different perspective. But, you know, selling my business, while there was a call from God on my life to move into what we are doing now,there was also a breaking point, you know, God provided a way out of that, into a season of rest, but I was at a place that I I could not continue doing what I was doing. And that doesn't mean I was overworking, it just means I couldn't do all the things that life was demanding, and take care of my health and well being, because I had let it get so far gone, because I had not been living in alignment,right? So when we don't live in alignment, and we end up in that downward spiral, you know, the farther we get down in that hole, thelonger it takes to get back out of that hole. And so I felt like selling my business was also kind of a forced rest, and it wasn't the first time I had experienced that. You know, pain is a great catalyst for change. And the previous career change that I had made 10 years prior in 2013 it was also as a result of the pain of losing my dad and Itook some time off and took a season of rest. So now in my my career has kind of been marked by, you know, almost exactly 10 years apart. You know, actually they were 2013 and 2023 these, these, these painful things that I went through in life that kind of brought me to a place of a forced like, something's got to stop, something's got to change, and we have to move forward differently. And each time, you know, it's like God has just increased in my life, you know, like significance, you know, and alignment. And I would imagine that 10 years from now, there might be another shift, you know, if it doesn't happen sooner, but. There will be another shift. You know, there may be several other shifts in life where God kind of moves you from this place of, moves me from this place of, maybe comfort, a comfort zone, and even if it's in your misery sometimes, you know, just like that, that comfort of at least I know this pain, right?
Beth 10:26
Like, yeah, I can, I can relate, yeah.
Summer 10:28
Like, I, at least, I know this pain, but moving out of that into a more enjoyable pain of the unknown, you know, in a more purposeful just step.
Beth 10:44
It's not that you don't want to step into that new season, or you don't want to step out of the pain, whatever it is, it's just that you've learned to manage it. Yeah, you know, you've learned to manage it. You've learned the responsibility that it holds. You learn. You've learned that your capacity limits. You have all of these imaginary, invisible barriers that keep you from falling off the cliff or hitting the brick wall, and it's all just illusion. It's like, as soon as you just, just, like you said it so beautifully, it like resting is really like an act of letting go.
Summer 11:20
Hey, friend. If you've been feeling overwhelmed, out of sync, or just plain tired, I want to invite you into something that could change everything. It's called the Genesis rhythm, a balanced, restorative path back to God's design. It's built around four biblical truths, Grace, rest, obedience and waiting. This isn't a checklist. It's a return to God's intended rhythm. And I'd love to walk this journey with you. You can learn more about the Grow course and discounts for podcast listeners in the show notes below. Now let's get back to the show.
Summer 12:00
Think along the journey, there's been spiritual maturity that helped me to let go of of some of that because the the transition from my corporate job to my financial planning business, I believe with all myheart that it was God's way of forcing me to dependenceon him. Because, prior to that, my security was found in a paycheck, right? And then when I moved into this, this place of of unknown, in this place that, I mean, I was like 100% commission. From day one, I realized how little I controlled and how desperately I needed God to show up if my business was going to flourish and I was going to be able to pay my bills, you know, and I would tell you now, 12 years later, it was the best thing that ever happened to be forced, like out of the comfort zone, into this place. I mean, forced out. I chose to leave. I was kind of forced, I would say, by by grief, you know, and by kind of this feeling of life is too short to stay here, and just kind of exhausted in a lot of ways as well. So being forced out of that God used that to give me a dependence on him that enabled that next move into something greater. So just the journey of learning to depend on God, from the small things all the way to the really big things, has been a huge element of rest for me to go I don't have to do it all. God just provides when I obey. And I think that that's the biggest thing about rest that people struggle with. And I could be wrong. This is just my personal opinion, but we fear making a change, or we fear taking time off, or we fear resting, because we assume that our provision comes from our own production. Right now, I'm not saying it that we don't have to do anything, but I continue to be amazed at how God supernaturally blesses and provides for us, even when I'm not always doing and for us that has. Been through clients and opportunities just placed in my path, or myhusband's path, you know, for for income producing opportunities that we didn't seek out, you know, like we didn't have to try in our own power to attain, you know, business now, does that mean we didn't have to do anything? No. I mean, God gives us the opportunity we have to take action, right? But I see so many people afraid to rest, take time off, make a change, take a sabbatical, do whatever that they need to do for their well being, because they're not positioned financially to be able to do so, and I think there's two really important elements to that. One is we have to be a good steward of what God's given us, and we have to completely re shape our perspective on everything we have in the first place belongs to God. Yes, everything belongs to God, right? And so our stewardship is just our obedience, back to him, and then our tithing and our gift, you know, back to him. When we walk in that obedience, He will bless the fire out of us, if we will just let go and trust him. But we hang on, and we hang on, we think that our security is in our doing, and it's just something that I feel like I want to say to everybody out there that might be afraid to leave their secure job, which you think it's secure. It's not secure. They could fire you at any minute, right, right? It's really not. I think we have such a backwards thought process on that you know you could lose your job at any minute, but you're afraid to walk away from what you think is security, even though maybe God's been telling you he wants you to do something else, or he's calling you to something else, you're afraid to walk away because you don't know if you can financially, like weather that in my my advice to you would be you first have to be a good steward and do your due diligence and prepare yourself for that transition. Right? You can't just jump off the cliff if you haven't done your due diligence and been a good steward. But if you step in obedience to what God's asking you to do, like I have no doubt, no doubt, that he will provide a way. You don't know what that looks like. You don't know where it's going to come from, which is how you learn to rest inHim, how you learn how to trust him, how you learn how to depend on him, and that, I mean, that's what rest is, right. Rest is when I can say, I trust you God to provide sustain. You're my peace. You're my joy. You know you're here with me. You knew everything that I didn't know, you know. And God's just like, this is the way walk in it, you know? And when we can, when we can really embrace that, and we can take those steps, resting, knowing that it's in alignment with what he's asked us to do, like miracles happen. And I always think about the story, and I'm probably gonna get it wrong. I should have looked this up. But the story of the fields, they planted crops for so many years, and then they weren't allowed to plant those fields on the seventh year the land had to rest, so they would depend on God for provision. So they were only allowed to work the field so many years, and then it had to rest. And, you know, God just opens the floodgates of heaven. When, when we, when we align with those principles?
Beth 18:53
Yeah, yeah, that's so true. It's so so true.
Summer 18:57
So people ask me all the time, like, how, how did you do it? People come to me for career change advice, like, because I made a couple career changes. And, like, what does that look like? You know, how do you how do you just let go? And I always tell people, like, I wish, I wish I could give you, like, 123, steps, you know, here, here's the practical ways to do that. But it's faith, you know, it's, you can't see it. I can't necessarily explain it all to you and tell you what you have to do, but you have to believe that God's word is true, that God's promises to us are true, and that if you take those steps in obedience, that in faith, that he will provide and then when he does, you won't need me to tell you how to do it, because you will have experienced it. And once you experience what God can do, it becomes so easy. It just becomes so easy to trust him. I mean, here I am, the ex financial planner. I don't worry about money. It's just, I just don't. So God will take care of us because we're good stewards and because we we obey.
Beth 20:07
Yeah, there is, there's definitely a certain ease that comes. A little while ago, you said, probably need to rewind, but you said something about your production and your provision being connected, like you've got to separate those two things, or, you know, just, you've got to rest and understand that, like, yes, there's a tension between, like, you have to go produce to have the income, right? As a business owner, you it's not just going to, like, miraculously show up in your checking account. However, however, if you rest, it's it makes no sense. Like, I mean, when you when you're running a kingdom business, and you're following these principles, money just shows up in your checking account, it multiplies somehow.
Summer 20:50
Did you read that? I wrote that somewhere. Okay. I mean, if I may have, you might have so that's the story I was about to tell. You know, in in some of the early years of my financial planning business,I was working my butt off. I mean, it was really, really, you know, challenging, and I had one assistant, and I felt like I was working to pay for her and all the other overhead expenses, you know, like, I literally couldn't figure out, how does the accounting here work? An so I didn't attempt to try to figure it out. I was just like, God is puttin money in my bank account. There is no way as much money is goin out, that there's coming in, that I should be able to have any income But I did, and so I intentionally, like, did not want to go in and try to have to account, because I just felt like I was living in the supernatural.
Summer 21:43
I so get that, and it's, it's the principles like you, when you put yourself under the principles, you're activating the promises. And it just, it just works. And so with that mindset, I know what connected us was divine connection. But the kidney stone, like your kidney stone, the fact that you went through this horrific health journey with this kidney stone, is what connected us. I mean, your need for our services connected us initially, but what connected us after we met was the Oh, me too. I mean that whole empathy tell us a little bit about the kidney stone story or the piece that you feel like is relevant here, because I feel like that that has a huge piece in the rest
Summer 22:41
It has a huge piece across all of grow, probably, but I 2024 let's just start with 2024 was a pretty tough year. It started out with my my my baby dog, who was not doing well the first part of the year and ended up passing away. We had to put her to sleep in May, and then about a month later, Jason and I had gone out of town because we just needed to get away trip, like we just ready to recover and relax and we're gonna go kayaking. And a kidney stone popped out of my left kidney. And I've had kidney stones in the past.I had two before. I wasn't immediately certain of what it was, but it became pretty clear quickly it was a kidney stone. And once we get back home, had a really bad day, went to the doctor and they verified it with a CT scan, and it was still pretty high up, so it had no moved very far in several days, but I was certain that it would. I was just certain that it would. And so I was like, I've been through this before. I'm not going back to the ER, that's a miserable experience. I'm gonna tough this out. It'll pass. Well, about a month later, it still hadn't passed, and I was having a lot of pain, went back to the doctor and had another CT scan, and I got a call, I think she left me a voicemail. The doctor said on the voicemail that since it hadn't passed, it had been a month and it hadn't moved very far at all, she said it was time to have surgery, and that created a fear in me, like it was terrible. And it's because I had so many bladder problems for several years that the last thing I could even imagine was somebody going up into and through my bladder to my ureter to get a kidney stone out. It just it, it. The fear in me was off the charts. And I remember just like falling onto my knees in the living room, just crying. And if you want to know the really crazy part of the story, the next morning, I woke up and all the pain that had been on the left side. Of my body moved to the right side of my body. Well, thankfully, I at least, had begun to understand some things about how our emotions can manifest in our physical body, and I understood that what had happened was a reaction to fear. It was fear manifesting in my body, but because I recognized it, you know, I got my mind right, and we battled Satan and said, you know, this is going to get better by the end of the day, you know, this is going to get better. And throughout the course of that day, let's first it did move back to the left side of my body. There was nothing wrong on the right side of my body, but I knew that day that what I was contending with was God needing me to trust Him, whether that kidney stone passed naturally or I had to have surgery, as bad as I did not want to have surgery, I knew that he needed me to trust Him, even if that was the outcome. But I was not there. I was so not there. So for two and a half more months, so three and a half months, really, I dealt with trying to pass a kidney stone through the ureter. But for two and a half months after this, I continued to live with that pain, and eventually it got to a point where it was unrelenting. It had moved down just above the bladder, and I had nochoice but to do it God's way instead of my way. And I wanted to do it my way, right? I thought my way was passing it naturally. I did not want to have surgery, just I was certain that God was going to pass it from my body without any other intervention. And what I had to come to realize was that God was going to heal me, it just wasn't going to look the way I thought it was going to look, but I decided that I had peace with that, and we moved forward with the surgery. It was awful. It was awful after it was awful, but the stones gone. There's still some residual things in there that concern me, that there, the stone is gone. But the lesson of the story is really the lesson that I feel like I've been trying to learn over and over and over again in my life, and maybe many of you are as well. It's I wasn't trusting God to do it his way. I was allowing fear to control my decision making, and I was trying to just do it my way until it brought me to my knees, which it did. It brought me to like, weeks of the most excruciating pain that caused pain anxiety too. I mean, it got to where my nervous system was so dysregulated, I was not functioning very well. I've never felt that bad in my life, and it was a very dark, deep, difficult place, but it was a product of me not trusting God with my bladder, which belongs to him anyway, and and I know we're talking about the physical body, but you know, I have examples, and I'm sure everybody probably has an example of something that they're hanging on to, where they're trying to do it their way. And God might have even brought much, brought you to your knees, but when you're at your knees, you have a choice. And I just want to encourage anybody that's listening to choose God and choose his way, because it will always be better, and if I had chosen his way sooner and not given into the fear and let the fear control my decision making. You know, I wouldn't have had to continue to suffer for so long. So how has that changed me now? You know, I'm facing a hip replacement now, and for six years, I've tried to do everything in my power to avoid that surgery, but because of what I went through with the kidney stone, I'm at a place now that my posture is God, I only want the healing that you have for me so you show me. What that is, if it's surgery, I accept it, you know, if it's something else, if it's, you know, this blood plasma injection, you know, I I accept it, however pretty or ugly it is, the only healing that I want is the healing that comes from you. And so I think you can take that and you can apply it to anything else, right? Anything that you're you're believing God for His way is the only way that will ever produce fruit. My way is going to produce like, rotten stuff. You know, God's way produces like, ripe, juicy, sweet fruit.
Beth 30:39
The Genesis rhythm, your subtitle, a balanced restorative path back to God's design. That's what grow is within that story. What I saw was a picture of physical healing God's design is for our bodies to work the way that he designed them. I can honestly say that I have not looked at this and thought, Oh, this is the pathway to physical healing. This is the path because physical healing is the very definition of God's design, because His character, His nature, his word, it all points to healing and wholeness. And you know, in all the time that we have worked on your framework together, have not thought about grow that Genesis rhythm, a balanced restorative path back to God's design, literally meaning that you're working out the healing process physically
Summer 31:35
Well and otherwise, you know, I mean, yes, God physically healed me, but look what else was healed in me, in that growth process and in that journey, you know, like the surrender that came from it that is so healing in and of itself, to be able to surrender the things that I didn't even know I was still holding on to, you know. And so it's so obvious how the things in my life that have been fully surrendered flourish, but the things that I'm still holding on to their struggle. I think I told you this the other day, I've probably been spending half my prayer time like in detail, surrendering. It's just like my posture forthe day starts with praise and surrender, and even if I get to nothing else, I get in my praise and I get in my surrender, and I notice how that surrender is allowing the Spirit to fill me back up with what he wants inside of me, not me.
Beth 32:39
yeah, so let's recap. You know, we talked about grace in the last episode. It's it all starts with receiving and walking in God's grace that brings us to our which is rest. This is all about we rest and move at the pace of grace. Very few people think about rest being a movement. In your framework, what you teach is rest aligns, allows and refuels. And so by its nature, alone, like part of rest is that refueling so you can get up and move at the pace of grace, yeah, and that pace of grace, the grace is what empowers you in your gifting and your purpose and all of the things and it now we're seeing that, yes, they work in order, but they need each other like you can't have grace and then just run full speed ahead without checking in with God and that surrender piece of it, and you can't rest without God's Grace.
Beth 33:38
When we operate from a place of rest. It really is amazing. What can happen if you think about our culture and what is normal, right? Rest or being rested, you know is, is not what people say. In fact, I was speaking to a group recently, and I asked them, I asked all the ladies in the room, like, how would you describe your pace? And nobody had a really pleasant word. You know, it's like, chaotic, disorganized, frantic. You know, everybody had a word that was not a restful sounding word. And so, you know, choosing rest, it's an it's intentional. You know, we have to be very intentional to to change our pace and to trust that God will honor, that that rest the pace of grace means that I'm going to choose to rest in God and he will thendirect, empower, allow me to move forward in a rhythm that. Is mor in alignment with what he wants our lives to look like. He doesn't want our lives to look like so much frantic, crazy, busyness and notifications that we don't have time for him, you know? And I've found that when I when I can get to a place that it's quiet, I'm still, I remove the distractions. That's when I experience Him. That's when I can hear His voice, and I've become desperate for that, right, especially if it's your heart's desire to obey the Lord. Well, I can't obey if I can't hear His voice, or if I can't sense or know you know his his his leading, and that just doesn't happen when I'm distracted. So to me, rest is crucial to my ability to like, move forward into purpose, right into alignment with what he's called me to do, because I've got to know not just once, but like on a daily basis. I've got to know, God, what are you saying to me? I want to hear it, because I need to know where you're telling me to go. And I can't get to that place if I'm not operating from a place of rest and stillness.
Beth 36:21
And you know, we can't talk about any one of these pieces without considering the other pieces. And so I think what's going to happen is as we talk about obedience in the next episode, and then we're going to talk about waiting and the episode after that, and we're going to be able to come back around to the very start of this whole entire series and listen to it as if we're listening to it for the first time. Because you have to go through each one of these pieces. You have to see how they're connected, and then you have to, like, rise above them and look at them as a whole. It's beautiful. And so I think the words that you just spoke were so anointed that it's going to take someone listening through and then revisiting that section and having this aha moment of how all of this works together. And you have to experience it. We can teach it all day long, but until you start stepping into it. And that's what is so cool about this whole process, because you're coaching people, you're you're speaking to groups, you're coaching people, and you're helping people one on one. And so you get to help them, like, cut and paste this onto their lives in very practical ways. You measure it by the fruit. And so practically, this starts looking like, oh, wait a minute, there's, there's more money left over at the end of the month than there ever has been. And all of a sudden, like, there's less friction in some of the relationships at home, and oh my gosh, like all of a sudden, I'm not wanting to just run away from my problems. And so there's tangible things that you can begin to see. My question to you now would be like, what would you say to someone like a single mom or someone that just got married, because that's part of your story, where you're like, I don't have time to rest. There's too much to do. If I rest, someone's going to go undone. And if something goes undone, tomorrow is harder for me.
Summer 38:16
I've had to learn to let go of a lot. And I'm sure anyone would say that, you know that that is in that situation, that there are just some things that they're just not that big of a deal, you know, and we haveto learn to let go, that it everything doesn't have to be back to perfectionism, right? We talked about that, yeah, you know, everything doesn't have to be the way that you think it has to be. Everything doesn't have to be done when you think it needs to be done. And there are some things that maybe would be better off if we just sit on it and not do it, because God may show us a different way.
Beth 38:52
or maybe just a different perspective, a different like, something completely unrelated happens in this and while you're quote, waiting, and therefore, when you show up on the scene to do that, whatever that thing was, you're like, Oh, wow. That delay really helped me feel more prepared, which is a form of provision.
Summer 39:11
I also think that is a culture. We have a little bit of a problem with the fear of missing out. Yes, and I mean, I'm not a mom, so I don't really, you speak with, you know, authority on this at all, but I know how I was raised, and I know that we we turned out pretty okay, not doing all the things, right? You know? I mean, I had a thing, my sister had a thing, but we didn't have to do all the things. And I find myself sometimes listening to my friends with kids going, I feel so sorry for the kids, because I feel like they're kind of getting raised in. This culture of never slowing down and never stopping. They're so busy with school and activities and everything that they're doing that they they kind of are being raised with that, that mentality of of no rest and but you asked me, you know, what do you what do you tell the single mom or the somebody that just got married? You know, I would say that we all, it doesn't matter where you are in life, we all need to stop and, like, take a look at our priorities. And I think it was John. It was, it was John Maxwell. He says, you know, there's no such thing as time management. It's priority management. So you may say there's just not enough time in the day at all to do all these things. Well, let's take a look at all these things. What are we doing? And are we really focusing on? What is priority? And so if priority needs to be and hey, by the way, I'm like, I'm convicted on this, so just understand when I say this. This is something I'm working through myself. You know, I desperately want God to show up in my life. And when I'm around people like you and I have another friend, y'all just amaze me. And kind of the things that God has gifted you with and done in your life, God said to me, if you want what they have, you have to do what they do, which means I need to make more priority time with Him and in His word, because I know you do. I know how much time that you spend I do doing that? Yes, my favorite, and journaling. And you know, that's I can give you every excuse in the world why I don't prioritize that, but it's not okay. You know, it's time for other things to have to be cut out so that I can prioritize him and time with him, because I desperately need him. I need God to show up every day in my life and lead me and guide me and speak to me. And you know, it's a it's a desperation and a dependence if I don't prioritize, right?
Beth 42:21
Yeah, there's time. Yeah, I totally get that, because there was a season in my life, like my before grow experience, you know, I used to think, Okay, I would tell my kids, it's God, family, work, then everything else, you know, like, that was my mentality. Like, really, that sums it up. And then, like, through this whole maturity process, for myself, it's been like, no, no. There is no such thing as order, like I just said it, it's more like you've got to bring God and let Him be the center of every single thing that you're doing, because you're never going to achieve this illusion of balance unless you're living in grace and you're resting under his wing and you are totally obeying sooner rather than later. And the whole waiting thing is not waiting if you're doing the other things, it's just part of.
Summer 43:16
It's part of to grow the process.
Beth 43:19
And so we all have our our story and our perspectives, but our perspectives at best are limited, even even in the areas of expertise that we all have in the physical realm. Our our perspectives are limited. And so until you are willing to just get in, in there and see, hey, look, I can put God in the center of everything and spend time with him always. And on top of that, everything's just going to be better because of it. You know, that's a paradigm shift for a lot of people. Even a Christian woman, that is a paradigm shift.
Summer 44:00
It's a decision in love. You know, in if I'm in love with God and I am, he gets my priority over all the other things. And it's not a have to, it's a it's a want to. You know, I know that doesn't take away the fact that there are things that need to be done. There are things that need to be done, but I do think that God gives grace for that and provision for that when we posture ourselves to prioritize him.
Beth 44:35
I don't know about you, but listening to summer talk about rest, especially through the lens of surrender and provision. It really, really hit me the idea that rest isn't just something that we need physically, it's something that God invites us into because he knows what's best for us, that like that really changes the way that you see all other things. One thing I keep coming back to is how summer said rest. Rest isn't about slowing down for the sake of slowing down. It's about fueling up. It's about trusting God so deeply that we can stop striving, we can let go, and we can still believe in the process of all of that that he will provide. In the next episode, we're going to talk about obedience and how living from a place of grace and rest makes obedience not just possible, but very, very powerful. I hope you'll join us for that, and in the meantime, maybe ask yourself, What would change if I truly believed that rest is not a luxury, it's not a vacation, but it's a form of trust. Until then, I cannot wait to see you on the next episode.
