Summer Talkback Series - Elizabeth Woodson on The Gospel as a Better Story
Download MP3Hey, everyone. You hear that music go down and you're like, well, something's about to happen. Welcome to our 4th and final Talk Back for the summer. I just told my friend Elizabeth, he's gonna come share with us. It's like, we're going out with a bang, and I'm really excited to have her here.
Krystal Brummitt:If I don't know you, my name is Krystal. I serve here as the women's discipleship and care director and, get to kind of facilitate our time together tonight. I am really excited to introduce to you my friend Elizabeth and there are a lot of things I could say about her and her accomplishments and fun facts. I know Elizabeth because she used to work on staff at the village church in Flower Mound, Texas, and I was Elizabeth's intern for a little over a year and her impact on my life has left a lot of marks. And even part of me being a redeemer is because of all that I've learned through spending time with Elizabeth and so, it's been really exciting to get to bring her here to my church and to my people, and for you all to get to sit under her teaching.
Krystal Brummitt:A little bit about her, she is an author, she's a a phenomenal Bible teacher, she is a fashionista. She can help you understand your Bible, and ladies, she can tell you where to find the best lipstick that's gonna last all day. That's the truth. Just catch her afterwards, she'll be sure to let you know. She runs the Woodson Institute up close view of getting to see Elizabeth do, in my time with gotten an up close view of getting to see Elizabeth do, in my time with her and then just getting to watch her from afar as she is traveling and speaking and really equipping us, the church, to know and to love God through His Word.
Krystal Brummitt:She has 2 books that have been published. One of them is called Embrace Your Life: How to Find Joy When the Life You Have is Not the Life You Longed For. Some of us read that book together last summer. Mary brought her copy with her and so if you want to see what it looks like, she can help you out. Highly recommend.
Krystal Brummitt:And then, she has a bible study called From Beginning to Forever, I have this here, and it is a study of the grand narrative of scripture. So helping us understand the whole story of the bible from Genesis to Revelation. And I've gotten to hear Elizabeth teach this and it's really incredible. And so I'm actually gonna give this one away, but I haven't decided how I'm gonna do it yet, so you can wait with anticipation for that. And I know that she has some books and studies that are coming on the horizon as well.
Krystal Brummitt:Last thing I will commend to you from Elizabeth is she is the host of a podcast called Starting Place with Elizabeth Woodson, where she interviews different guests, helping us understand how to live out our Christian faith and why what we believe matters and how it impacts how we live every day and we're gonna get to see a little bit of a snippet of that tonight as well. So, without further ado, Elizabeth, if you will come up. You need to turn on your mic.
Elizabeth Woodson:Yes.
Krystal Brummitt:Oh, no. You're on.
Elizabeth Woodson:I'm on. Okay. I'm on.
Krystal Brummitt:I'm gonna I'm gonna pray for her and then have a seat. So let's pray. God, thank you so much for opportunities to gather as your children on nights like tonight, around your word. I thank you, God, with so much gratitude and joy for my friend Elizabeth and the privilege that it is to get to hear her tonight. I pray that we would have, eyes to see and ears to hear the word that you have for us as we continue to walk with you, God, in growing in what it means to live in the true story of the world and the gospel.
Krystal Brummitt:We pray all these things in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.
Elizabeth Woodson:Hey, y'all. Yes.
Krystal Brummitt:I am sorry. I am sorry y'all. I'm not the best host. Reminder, if you've been here before, you know this. If not, we're going to have a time of Q and A following Elizabeth's teaching.
Krystal Brummitt:And so if you go to there it is slido.com and enter the code talkback, you can ask questions. And so as Elizabeth's talking, if you have questions, please submit those because that will make our time of q and a better if we have the queue the questions.
Elizabeth Woodson:I mean, we don't have to ask any questions.
Krystal Brummitt:We'll just let you talk.
Elizabeth Woodson:We'll just let me talk. No. Hey y'all, I am really excited to be here, Really honored that Crystal invited me. I come from Dallas, Texas and so if you thought it was hot here, it is about 10 degrees hotter in Dallas. And so, yeah.
Elizabeth Woodson:When I think about that, I think about, my good old car. I had a Honda 2010 CR V, 200,000 miles that told me this past spring, I want to die. The heat, was a little bit too much for it and so I had to find myself getting a new car. And when I think about my car kind of dying on me, I think about the warning signals it tried to give me beforehand. My car has been paid off for a really long time and so I would always find reasons to spend money elsewhere because who wants a car payment?
Elizabeth Woodson:Nobody wants a car payment. And so maybe my air was a little funky in Dallas summers, but you know, I'm a tough it out because I don't want a car payment. Maybe my car, maybe every so often might stall out, but I'll turn it on real quick and it will be okay. Maybe there's this check engine light on and I don't really pay attention to it. And then one day my car was like, you don't want to pay attention to anything so we're just not gonna work anymore.
Elizabeth Woodson:Risk gonna die. You're gonna have to get a new one. But when I think about kind of the reason I tell the story is because my car let me know something was going on long before it kind of imploded. And when I think about the conversation that we're gonna have tonight, because we're gonna talk about stories and false stories, I love the intersection of faith and culture. Part of my own journey as a believer is growing up in a Christian household, but Jesus is just what we did when I came to faith, and so I had to figure out why does the gospel really matter.
Elizabeth Woodson:I learned by the concrete method, which means I fall on the concrete and bust my head and realize that that's just not the best option for me, but over the years, seeing how the truth of scripture connects with everything that we're dealing with. And when I look at Christians in our current moment, I think that there are some signs that we ought to pay attention to about our spiritual health and vitality. Studies show that spiritual vitality, this health that we have in Jesus is connected to a couple of certain habits and practices. Church attendance, regular bible reading, being engaged and formed by scripture, but studies also show us that biblical illiteracy rates are dropping, that after COVID, church attendance is declining, and if we're honest, we are being informed more by our devices than our bible or our Christian community. Studies show that we spend about maybe 1 or 2 hours per week in a Christian community.
Elizabeth Woodson:When I talk about Christians, I'm talking about general evangelical Christians. 1 or 2 weeks, in a service on a Sunday morning, maybe we'll add an extra hour or 2 if we have a community group meeting that we're having that week. Well studies also show that we spend about 1 to 2 hours on the low end every day on our devices, that we are being formed more by what's in front of us and scrolling than we are by the bible and the people of God. And here's what I know to be true. Discipleship isn't neutral.
Elizabeth Woodson:We are being formed. And so the question is always, who are we being formed into? And how are the habits and practices that we have shaping us into the image of God or shaping us into someone else's image? And so if I wanna think about evidence or faint hints that we are being formed by culture, again, things that we have really good questions we are trying to answer. I think questions that show that are innate to our humanity, we desire belonging and meaning and identity, those are everywhere in our culture, but maybe we aren't picking up the right answers.
Elizabeth Woodson:And so I think some of us that we ask this question really deep down, we want life to mean something. We want to know that we matter. And so maybe some of the answers that we pick up from culture tells us that we matter the more stuff that we have. That they're subtle, not so subtle messages. The fact that I can order something right now while I'm talking to you and it show up on my doorstep when I get home is wild.
Elizabeth Woodson:The ease and speed of production has increased with demand, and we always see these well curated pictures of homes and outfits and and things that we need. TikTok made me buy it. These messages that the more stuff we have, the better life will be. Maybe if it's not more stuff, that life finds meaning the more that I do, it is this pro productivity and hustle culture. Achievement, meritocracy, the more we do, the better we are.
Elizabeth Woodson:Lots of people claim to be productivity experts who who for a low nominal fee can tell you how to be most efficient with your workload and get the most done. Or maybe it's just affirmation. More likes that we have a desire for significance. We want to be seen, we want to be unique and special, and so we attach our value to achieve this special level of significance, specifically this dynamic of social media to likes and follows. But maybe if it's not meaning, we want to be happy.
Elizabeth Woodson:Right? That we want to find fulfillment and satisfaction. We want authenticity, and so what the message is our culture will give us is that we elevate our emotions to the seat of truth or reality. We do what feels good to us, because as long as it feels good and it doesn't harm anybody else, then it's okay. Right?
Elizabeth Woodson:Or we just want to be free. We want to be free to run, to chase dreams, to choose our own adventure, to pursue the life that makes us happy, But then our commitment to certain responsibilities gets a little fluid because when stuff gets in the way of the freedom that we desire, maybe we don't kinda wiggle around it. We we push it aside. Life or relationship responsibilities, hardship, suffering, and pain, and maybe even the dissenting ideas of the whip of the opinions of people who don't agree with us. Here's the thing about these questions of meaning and happiness and identity and purpose, they're all good questions, But if we're not careful, we're gonna pick up answers that lead us to nowhere.
Elizabeth Woodson:Because if we want meaning, what we need to realize is stuff never satisfies. We always need more. That achievement is a brutal taskmaster, makes us climb an ever increasing ladder that keeps going higher and higher with no cushion if you fall off. We all want happiness, but our emotions aren't always the most trustworthy guides. In the words of my friend, Mason King, I should give him a dollar for every time I quote his words.
Elizabeth Woodson:Our emotions are real, but they're not always reliable. They will lead us in directions that don't get us to this destination of happiness, and we all want to be free, but the options the world gives us will make us selfish, dependent on created things to help us cope through the things that get in the way of our freedom. What I believe is that we want to flourish. The word I like to use is shalom. I think it points to what scripture points us to.
Elizabeth Woodson:We're gonna talk about that tonight, but what the world offers us is a flourishing that has its end on us. That it's self sufficiency, it's human flourishing, that we are choosing our own goodness over everyone else's. But these answers, these stories that were given, they come in small doses. We don't get a deposit all at once. The reality is we are storied people.
Elizabeth Woodson:Stories make sense to us. That's why everybody loves Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter or Star Wars, like we resonate
Krystal Brummitt:with the deep truths that are in
Elizabeth Woodson:there, and so if what we want is flourishing, like if what we want deep down inside is we want life to be full of goodness and joy, then what other option do we have? And what I want us to walk through tonight is what I think is not just a different story, but a better one, and that's the gospel. That the gospel offers us the only true way to flourishing in our world, And that if we think about it critically, we can see the ways in which the stories of the world pale in comparison to the stories that we are given every day, because we are always looking for salvation. That if we are not careful, we won't find it through Jesus. We will become our own functional saviors.
Elizabeth Woodson:It's present and available for us every day. I grew up in a Christian home, like I said. I was saved at 9. I grew up in the eighties nineties, and so I came to faith through a felt board puppet show. It worked.
Elizabeth Woodson:I came to know Jesus. But the gospel presentation I got as a kid, I think is a little different than the one we have to think through in our culture. Right? This is what I remember those very talented volunteers showing me with the puppets, that it was this this gospel that says the meaning of life is to be good. So the bad news, there's always bad news and good news.
Elizabeth Woodson:The bad news is that you can't be good. There's nothing you can do. You are a sinful person. The good news is that Jesus has taken the punishment for your sin so that you can be permanently forgiven and redeemed. In our culture, from an honest, I don't think people want to be good.
Elizabeth Woodson:I think they wanna be free. They wanna flourish. And so if we look at it through that lens, the meaning of life is to be free, The bad news is you want to be free, but you're not. You will live for something. That's why I think the subtle lies we see of secularism is this idea that Christians are the only people who worship things.
Elizabeth Woodson:We're the only people who have these habits of ascribing glory to something, and that is not true. You will worship something or someone. You will be shaped by something or someone. The bad news is the identity we seek is fragile, and the deep satisfaction you seek is elusive and cannot be found in this world. What's the good news?
Elizabeth Woodson:That Jesus, giving up his life that we might find it through him, took the penalty for our sin of rejecting God. He gives us an identity that provides unconditional love, and it's not based upon the ups and downs of what we do and do not do. It is not controlled by anything in this world, and it lasts beyond this world, and the deep satisfaction that we yearn for can be found in him. What we desire only comes through Jesus because shalom only happens when we are connected to the one through whom it comes, and that is God. And so the solution for our misplaced answers is the gospel, what does it mean for us to answer some of these questions to the lens of the truth we see in scripture?
Elizabeth Woodson:I will bear you all the, privilege of hearing me walk through the entirety of scripture for the rest of our time. I wrote a whole study on it. I love the story of scripture. Like if I think about one thing that has changed my relationship with the Lord and allowed me to see with so much clarity what God is doing and what he calls me to, it is knowing the truth of scripture from Genesis to Revelation. It's This idea that scripture has 66 small stories, but they all work together to form one story that's progressing, and And when I think about the gospel, that's what I think about.
Elizabeth Woodson:Right? The gospel, we read it in Matthew. We see Jesus proclaimed that that the kingdom of God is here. That's the good news. But the question that we should ask as we're reading the text is what is the good news?
Elizabeth Woodson:It's a good news that the king has come. Well, why does it matter that the king is there? We read in the old testament, and the king was supposed to come to deal with Israel's sin problem, that they were separate from God. And with the king would come this idea of redemption and permanent shalom. And so when we go wanting to take all the way back that we see is that in Genesis, we start in shalom.
Elizabeth Woodson:Like the way our Bible starts matters, And we start with goodness, we start with wholeness, we start with all the things that in our humanity we desire and then we see else and messes that up. And we see how Jesus comes and redeems us and then we get to Revelation, everybody's favorite, not favorite book of the bible and we see how what God began in Genesis that he does even better for eternity. And what does he create? Shalom. Wholeness.
Elizabeth Woodson:Emotional, physical, spiritual, wholeness. And so I what I want to do this idea of flourishing and shalom that we see, that the gospel points us to, this lens in which we can see the world that I wanna take some of the most popular kind of narratives that the world is gonna give us, and let's just line it up to the gospel. This creation, fall, redemption, and restoration format, and just see what does the gospel have to tell us about the things that the world says are so valuable. And so we start with creation. This idea that God created us.
Elizabeth Woodson:Genesis 1 and 2 creation narrative. I already said that God created us in shalom, but he also created us as image bearers. Genesis 1 tells us that God created humanity with a specific identity. That image points its paints its picture of these huge statues that would be left by rulers of the time of the writing of Genesis to point towards that ruler's glory and majesty, that you and I are made in God's image, and so it is our divine task to show people what God is like and to care for his world so that everything flourishes and thrives. So what that points to me is this idea of identity.
Elizabeth Woodson:Right? This question we ask that we all have this innate desire for significance and belonging, and so what the culture tells us is that we determine who we are, we determine our worth by what we do, how much we have and what we look like. But that's really overwhelming and really fragile. I think about the inner dialogues we have in our own mind. If we were just to tape what you say to yourself every day, and then just play it for all of us, what will we hear?
Elizabeth Woodson:And will we hear encouraging words? Will we hear insecurity? Will we hear criticism? Will we hear all these things about what you're not? The reality is trying to measure up to these standards is really, really hard, especially when life changes.
Elizabeth Woodson:Life changes really quickly. Your health can change, your finances can change, your home can change, your relationships can change. So trying to find identity in the things that we achieve for ourselves is fragile. But it doesn't just affect how we treat ourselves, It affects how we treat other people. In a small way that we will withhold honor, dignity and respect from people we think don't deserve it.
Elizabeth Woodson:Tailgating is like my worst, worst frustration when people are driving. Like, you chose to come that close to my car. You chose to just get like right up on the edge of my car. Maybe I'm not thinking the best thoughts about you as a person when you're tailgating me. Like it's small, seemingly inconsequential, but that person is an image bearer and made with the same dignity, honor and respect that I am and so that that matters in how I treat them.
Elizabeth Woodson:Like it's small, but it's also really big. You've all had other talk backs. They're talking about issues in our culture, our race and politics. It's really clear to see that we live in a country that treats people differently based upon how much we value them. Them.
Elizabeth Woodson:I'm reading a book called poverty by America, and it talks about America's poverty problem, one of the most developed countries in the world but yet we have so much poverty here, and the author comes to this really interesting, and and it was hard to hear him say it, Conclusion. He says America has a poverty problem because we like it that way, because poverty benefits some of us and the reality that we tell ourselves stories about certain people based upon their stature in life. That's what happens all around us. But the gospel tells us something different. I wear, a lot of Nike sneakers.
Elizabeth Woodson:I'm wearing some tonight, and I think I'll wear them because partially when we were when I was a kid, we couldn't afford them. And so I remember being in 6th grade. I'm 6 feet tall, if you haven't noticed. And so middle school tall, high water pants, and imitation sneakers were not the best look for anybody. And so I remember I was sitting next to this girl and she she came and sat down next to me and she was wearing the exact same shoes I was, except hers were the real thing to my fake shoes.
Elizabeth Woodson:And in her wonderful 6th grade embracing spirit, she looks down at my feet and is like, oh, that's interesting. If I could have disappeared at that moment, I would have disappeared. But the truth is they're probably made in the same factory, made with the same materials. The only thing that made her shoes more valuable was that Nike check mark on the side, was who made them. We think about value in how we treat ourselves and how we treat other to show the world what he is like.
Elizabeth Woodson:That's powerful. That in moments of insecurity and comparison, you're enough because of who you belong to. Not because of who you are, because of who he is. That we would show up like that. That you don't have to earn the identity.
Elizabeth Woodson:When life is going well, you're an image bearer. When life is not going well, you're an image bearer. When you feel like you're in a great place of loving the Lord, you're an image bearer. When you feel like you've walked away from God, you're an image bearer. You always have value in God's kingdom because you belong to God.
Elizabeth Woodson:He is the one that holds that. And how would we show up differently if we believe that but also if we treated other people like that? That I show up. And I don't just receive shalom from being in connection to God, I cultivate it for other people simply because they're made in the image of God, not because they're deserving, not because they earned it, not because I feel like they should have it, but because I give them the same thing I've received out of appreciation of the God who has saved me. So you have identity, but you also have freedom.
Elizabeth Woodson:The culture tells us that we should be able to do whatever we want as long as it doesn't harm anybody else. In reality, freedom is a beautiful thing. We have all these opportunities. We see people just change their lives overnight seemingly. It's the allure of a life that is free and encumbered.
Elizabeth Woodson:What the culture doesn't tell us is that when we do whatever we want, as long as it doesn't harm anyone else, we are elevating the individual over the community because there's some shared responsibility that we have to have to function as a society. It doesn't work if everybody does what they want to do. It also assumes that we all have the same definition of harm, and we don't. Everybody has lots of different opinions about that. But most of all, I think for us as Christians who want to walk in the way of Jesus is that the life without restriction won't always get us to what we really want.
Elizabeth Woodson:If I eat Krispy Kreme Donuts every day, I'm not gonna be in the best health. They're good, enjoyable, but they're not gonna get me to this place of energy and vitality and health. They're not just gonna do that. Right? So on a simple side, we all kind of know that you have to limit yourself but you find the right restrictions to reach the goal you really want to have.
Elizabeth Woodson:But on a more heavier side, that life without restriction will lead us to a place of using people for our own happiness. I think about marriage. I think about committed relationships, that no one wants to be in a relationship with someone who doesn't want to change, who doesn't want to sacrifice, who doesn't want to give anything, but our desire to love and to be loved will have us do all those things, but what we want really isn't unencumbered life. We want freedom with the right limitations, and that's what the Lord gives us, that what we get is the goodness of the freedom given to us by the one who created us. God is creator.
Elizabeth Woodson:We are created, and a lot of times, we try to switch places. We try to be everywhere and to know all the things, and only God is the one who can do that, and what we see in the creation narrative is God not only created us, but he is sovereign. That he is the one that's in control. So here's a hard truth for us as Christians, the only way to get the kingdom is by following the king. That sometimes we want the benefits of the gospel.
Elizabeth Woodson:We want the benefits of being in relation with the Lord. We don't want to really obey him. We want to do what we want to do and it doesn't work like that. And one of the things that we have to come under is a realization that to be in the way of Jesus is to follow him as Lord and king. Why?
Elizabeth Woodson:Because God is sovereign and creator, and we are not. So freedom and identity, good things for us to desire but ultimately find their fullness, So That Adam and Eve make a decision to follow their way over God's way. Sin for us is not just immorality, it's idolatry. You will hear scripture talk about it over and over and over again. And there are some wild stories that happen in scripture.
Elizabeth Woodson:Like number 17 is a story about people getting sucked up in the ground. It's in there, read it, it's wild. It's a story of what humanity happens to humanity when they just choose to go their own way. It's like page after page after page we read of what happens when people choose their own way, not the way of the one who created them. And we hear about what happens to themselves but also what happens to the people that they're around.
Elizabeth Woodson:The sin points to 2 things. One, this idea of morality and truth. Truth in our culture is relative. Truth is we desire authenticity. Truth is what you want it to be.
Elizabeth Woodson:And I think for the Christians, for my friends who are struggling with Christianity, I can get it. Like folks don't know who to trust. They see, pastors that they knew and loved, that they believed in, aren't the people they thought they were. There's a lot of church hurt as I interact with folks across the country, and so I see people wanting to find a place to trust and ultimately, they land in themselves. But when I think about the inner compass that we're told should guide us, I think about a time I was talking at a conference, in the woods of east Texas.
Elizabeth Woodson:I am from the city, and that means I love street lights. Street lights are great, street lights give direction, it could be midnight but there's always light outside. And so I'm speaking at this conference and I end up leaving and it's pitch black. And I consider myself to have a pretty good sense of direction. And so I'm leaving and I was like, oh, I can see the landmarks, I'll be able to go the same way I did when I got out and as soon as I started driving, I hit some, dead end and was like, if you don't turn around, you're gonna end up on an episode of Dateline and it's gonna be very unfortunate for you.
Elizabeth Woodson:Right? It's the idea. It's it's I thought I could just follow this inner compass and it would get me to where I need to go. And as silly as I felt in that moment, it is really as silly for us to think that we can guide ourselves to a world that we did not create. But what sin tells us is that our idea of truth and our idea of what's good and right is a little messed up.
Elizabeth Woodson:That some, scholars, they have this image, they talk about sentence that were actually curved in on ourselves. I saw a magazine had a picture on the front and literally was this person and their face was real close to the belly button. Like that's what sin looks like. All we care about is ultimately ourselves in our own way that our loves are disordered. We love the wrong stuff.
Elizabeth Woodson:That we don't love God innately. So as much as a culture will tell us that to find truth within yourself to pursue authenticity, The gospel tells us something better. The gospel tells us that God determines what is true. That he establishes what is right and wrong. He knows what's best because he's the one who created it created us.
Elizabeth Woodson:Not only does he know it, he chose to share it with us, that he's the one that holds all wisdom. There's a difference between knowledge and wisdom. We have access to a lot of knowledge in our culture. You can Google anything at any time, But just because we have knowledge, doesn't mean we know what to do with it. You just read your news and see really wonderful intelligent people who are making decisions that are not going well for our country or our world.
Elizabeth Woodson:That wisdom comes from the Lord and how do we get wisdom? The bible tells us it starts with the fear of the one who gives it to us And this fear is a reverence that God and his graciousness would give us not only wisdom but help of the power of the holy spirit to walk through the world. This idea that truth is relative is shaky, that a lot of times it's built on emotions, and, again, our emotions are helpful passengers in our cars of our life, but horrible drivers. I have a friend who talks about this flight illustration that we need to take it our emotions need to take a direct flight to God and a connecting flight to other people. Let me start with the Lord first because he is the one that's given us that kind of signal that there is something that's going on that we need more information about.
Elizabeth Woodson:But the only way we can know how to navigate the world is through the Lord. So you have creation, you have fall, then we have redemption. Redemption is the gospel narratives that tells us, you read again stories and stories and stories about a world of people who go their own way and choose their own own, make their own choices and you see the destruction that it causes but you see God's faithfulness in his love. You see God the father, send God the son, Jesus into the world to save us and that Jesus shows us what it means to be truly human. That I like to think about that the way that he offers us is the way home, that we're really lost, that we're longing for all these things, and by following him, we get to where we need to be.
Elizabeth Woodson:We see that he preaches a message of self sacrificial service and love and that the shalom that we desire, this wholeness and flourishing that comes through life with God comes to those who die to self and live anew through him. And through his death and resurrection, he overcomes the power of sin and death which is what separates us from the one who through flourishing is found. Through Jesus, we are given a new identity. We get unconditional love, an identity that never changes and lasts into eternity. We're going to talk about why that's significant.
Elizabeth Woodson:And the new testament authors show us over and over again that this love we received from Jesus, what it looks like. What it looks like for us to walk in that and what it looks like for us to share that with others. So when I think about the redemption that we received from God, I think about this idea of love. Love in our culture, I think, is transactional. I watch relationship shows.
Elizabeth Woodson:I know y'all don't. You don't watch The Bachelor. You don't watch The Bachelorette. You don't. I do it so I can know what people are watching, but it's cool.
Elizabeth Woodson:Y'all don't do it here, and there was one show that was taped in Dallas, and it's called Love is Blind. Love is not blind in case you wondered, and the premise of the show if you are a good person, if you've never watched it is that 2 people kinda sit in pods and they get to know each other without seeing each other. And if they choose each other, they can see each other. So I remember this episode, a guy and a girl and the the girl, she shares some really vulnerable information about her past, like information, that she didn't know how this guy was gonna respond to her, and he responds with a lot of love and and a lot of acceptance. Then he proceeds to share, but while he's talking, he can hear her in the next room doing jumping jacks.
Elizabeth Woodson:Like he is pouring out his heart and the camera angles, because you know they're good. They zoom in on his eyes that are getting red with a little tears because he's sharing the most vulnerable pieces of himself and she's exercising. She's not listening. She's not showing up for him. And so in the next episode, you see him, they they meet again and the way he responds to her isn't to say, man, hey, you hurt my feelings and this is hard.
Elizabeth Woodson:He takes what she told him and the most physical way possible shames her on national television because that's how people respond when they don't receive the love that they think that they're deserving of. That what stood out to me so much about it is because I think it's a microcosm of our culture. The word told is love is ultimately for our own personal fulfillment. That if the highest goal is to if That we love people until they stop being who we need for them to be, and then we kind of disappear. Maybe ghost that we don't do well when relationships get hard or messy.
Elizabeth Woodson:The commitment can be a little shaky that even for us our Christian beliefs become optional rather than obligations because we only engage them when they are convenient for us. The flip side is we just have a hard time receiving love because we feel like we always have to earn it, And if I'm not who this person needs to be, they're going to leave me. And so I can jeopardize so many things in my personal integrity because I just wanna be accepted and loved because in my reality, I think I have to earn it. What the gospel tells us is something better, That love is not self fulfilling, but it's self giving. That love we see displayed through Jesus seeks the good of another.
Elizabeth Woodson:It is not earned, but freely given. We see this through Christ. I'm always marveled that Jesus came to fix our mess, that he put on flesh, that he lived a human life, that he dealt with all the mess of what it means to walk this earth, that he died and was resurrected that we might live eternity with him. But I also see Jesus' giving of love simply in his interactions with others. The miracles that he would do, the conversations he would have with people who were on the fringes of society, even the hard words he gave to the religious leaders because I still think that was love.
Elizabeth Woodson:Because love is truth. That love is not always warm and fuzzy. We say what's true because we want that person to come back to the place that is good for them. And so instead of being transactional, instead of being conditional, instead of being on the condition that you just have to accept me as I am and I never have to change, love is service. Love is laying down one's life for a friend.
Elizabeth Woodson:Love is not self seeking. Love seeks the good of another. It seeks the flourishing and why can we do that? Because we are loved and the love we have received from God is unconditional. And so we're not unable, we are able to love freely because we ourselves have been loved freely by God.
Elizabeth Woodson:Creation, full, redemption, restoration. The end of our Bibles, like I said, it ends in a similar way that it begins. It tells us that we dwell with God forever. You have revelation. It's apocalyptic literature, a lot of symbols and imagery.
Elizabeth Woodson:It's real complicated, but what John is seeking to do We see descriptions of God's glory and the sinfulness of humanity. We see descriptions of the cosmic war that is going on. All that we see is not all there is to be seen. And so the suffering and persecution that these people are experiencing, there's evil that's beyond that. What he also tells them is no matter how hard it gets that suffering and persecution have an end date because Jesus returns.
Elizabeth Woodson:Death and the forces of evil and in this world will be no longer. And how do we have the story end? With the glory of God dwelling with humanity. I think it's Revelation 21. It says the sun and moon will no longer light the sky because the glory of God will.
Elizabeth Woodson:This is what we have. So I think about this last stop in the gospel story, I think of what it teaches us about hope in suffering. What does the world offer us? What does a culture offer us? It says escape it and avoid it.
Elizabeth Woodson:Numb it. But we are given countless opportunities to numb the things in life that are really hard. I love bluebell ice cream, rocky road. I think it's Texas's gift to the world. I'm not a native Texan, so I say that very carefully, but bluebell ice cream is not gonna solve my problems.
Elizabeth Woodson:It's not gonna make life better. There are a lot of simple things that we can do that we can do to excess. It's okay to watch a show, but when I'm binging seasons, maybe I need to check-in about what I don't want to deal with. See, it's hard to deal with suffering when this world is all that there is. There are some things that are so hard that there aren't answers for that, and the hope we hold to as Christians is that the suffering has an end date, but my life in Christ does not.
Elizabeth Woodson:That I have hope because Jesus got up from the grave. I have hope through grief. I have hope through sickness. I have hope through hardship. The answers that I search for that the world cannot give.
Elizabeth Woodson:We have there's something beyond this world. Through Jesus, we have the power to survive, and we have the power of the Holy Spirit to help heal our wounds. That because we have Jesus in the midst of the hardest moments that we always have shalom. We don't have to earn it. We don't have to go out and buy it.
Elizabeth Woodson:It is present for us because when we are in presence of our God, we get the fullness of who he is in our lives. We see a lot of people who have a lot of stuff in our culture. Live in a celebrity culture, people who have millions of followers, people who have so much money they don't know what to do with it, and we see constant reminders that the people that we think have it all are really miserable because it doesn't satisfy. Their families are broken, relationships are broken, they're going through really hard things and we see them pick up some some really difficult coping mechanisms to deal with their stuff and it never satisfies. Why?
Elizabeth Woodson:Because created things were never designed to satisfy. Only the creator can. But the culture points us to is created things, and what the gospel points us to is a creator. Creation, identity and freedom, fall, a story about truth, redemption, a story about love, and restoration, a story about hope. These stories, these narratives, identity, truth, freedom, love, hope, we don't get them all at once.
Elizabeth Woodson:Right. Again, I said at the beginning, they don't kind of deposit on us in one big fell swoop. They're just a little bit at a time because that's how discipleship works. It's a little bit at a time, and the little bit that we consume, the little bit that we engage ourselves in, the little bit that we start to believe and become formed by, And so in order to combat the stories, I'm not encouraging to you to run from culture. I grew up in that season of Christianity where Christians ran away, and they formed their own places in isolation.
Elizabeth Woodson:That's not what we do. We engage as a culture. We interrogate the culture. We ask good questions. Deconstructing what we're reading, seeing, hearing through through the lens of the gospel.
Elizabeth Woodson:So what are good questions? There are 3. You can ask, what is this telling me about God? What is this telling me about myself? Where is this telling me that salvation or the good life can be found?
Elizabeth Woodson:Again, what is this telling me about God? What is this telling me about myself? And where is this telling me that salvation or the good life can be found? But not only do we need to ask good questions we need to do something that Christians have done since Christians were a thing and embed their life in a story. As I wanna close reading this quote for you, contrasting the Christian story with these rival narratives sobers us to the way we are actually living despite what we confess.
Elizabeth Woodson:To counter these stories, we must embed our lives in the true story Through the reading of scripture, the fellowship of the saints, the partaking of the sacraments, daily prayers, and the preaching of the word, God reorients the way we see to the world. Constantly comparing the rival stories to God's story is essential to not being lulled to sleep in a secular age. That is a danger we face. It's slowly being lulled to sleep so that we are ineffective Christians who are not living in the fullness of what's been given to us and chasing things that will never satisfy and walking down roads that are dead ends. We give ourselves to what is good, to what is beautiful, and to what is right, and we only find that through the gospel.
Elizabeth Woodson:Let's pray. Father, I thank you. I thank you for the opportunity you give us to experience that which which we desire. We want wholeness. We want freedom.
Elizabeth Woodson:We want meaning. We want purpose. We want to belong somewhere. Those are things that are innate within our humanity. What is beautiful is that you give us the answers to that, that you created us that way so that those questions only get answered in you, and you made a way to deal with the sin problem that stands between us and you, the gospel, the good news that we are able to live the life you designed for us to live, just not now, but also for eternity.
Elizabeth Woodson:And so help us see clearly. Help us ask good questions. Help us be believers who live up to the faith that we say we claim. And to know that the gospel isn't just a different story, but it is the better story, and it shows us where shalom can be found. In your son's holy name we pray.
Elizabeth Woodson:Amen.
Krystal Brummitt:Okay. So we're gonna go into a time of q and a. I'll do my best to ask, as many of these questions as we can and I'll go ahead and apologize that we probably won't be able to get to all of them. But I I will start with this with what is probably the burning question in the room and that is who is the best intern you've ever had?
Elizabeth Woodson:I remember a really bad intern I had. Her name started with, like, Kaikei and it was a. No. Crystal, you were the best. You kept me you kept me very sane.
Krystal Brummitt:But it's just the people wanted to know.
Elizabeth Woodson:They wanted to know. They just wanted to know. Yeah.
Krystal Brummitt:Okay. Well, we'll jump into these. Feel free to keep asking as we go. I'll try to keep an eye on it as best I can. And if you see a question you like, you can vote for it and it'll send it up to the top.
Krystal Brummitt:Okay. More seriously. How do you help people discern or see through blind spots so that they can see what they're actually being discipled by? And I want to add to this question because I want to ask like, how do we help others, but also how do we see that ourselves and ourselves as well?
Elizabeth Woodson:Yeah. I think a simple place, a place where I will start with myself, is what am I who am I listening to, right? So a lot of times I ask the question, where do I get that from? Did I get it for some quote somebody put on social media? Did I get it from a book I read?
Elizabeth Woodson:A podcast I listened to? A friend? And I try to be able to kind of take assessment of what are the voices that are shaping me and are they people that are pointing me to the things of the gospel or are they people that are saying things contrary to that? And so I think that that's really helpful in terms of kind of assessing but also having a wide, like, like, people who look like us, people that we're comfortable with, the things they say, and so kind of stepping out of those things, and finding new voices, and one way that I do that, I love books, is I'll just read the footnotes, and it's like this person's gonna lead me to a new person. And so the one for me is being able to say who who, and 2, are there ways for me to, discover a new voice that's still within, the Christian world, but maybe it's gonna show me something different, that I haven't heard before.
Elizabeth Woodson:Yeah.
Krystal Brummitt:That's good. I'll give Elizabeth a plug because on her Instagram, she will put out resources. And so, kind of to her point, like, she's a she's a trustworthy person who will recommend commentaries, different books written by people who might not naturally fall in like, our circles are the people that we're typically reading or listening to there. How okay. How can we help others see that?
Elizabeth Woodson:Yeah. Those conversations are usually tricky ones. I think just on a general level, the the the constructive criticism we offer people goes better when we have relationship with them, and so being able to engage someone in a conversation about those same things. So instead of being like, there there's some things we just say, hey, sis. Don't say that anymore.
Elizabeth Woodson:That's a boldface lie. Like, where'd you get that from? But engaging people in more questions than accusations. So it's like, hey, man, where did you pick that up from? Kind of what do you think about that?
Elizabeth Woodson:Like how do you help them walk through kind of thinking about the information instead of just kind of outright shutting them down, and again wisdom teaches us when we need to do that, but I think the way of grace is helpful in helping point out blind spots, and usually I've learned that it's not a one shot. Like, it takes time for the Lord to bring clarity to somebody's eyes about something.
Krystal Brummitt:That's really good. That's really helpful. Thank you, Elizabeth. Okay. What are practical ways we can engage with culture without being more formed by the culture over the gospel?
Elizabeth Woodson:Yeah. I think one really good way is to learn, before we start to comment. Right? And so the one one of the bigger ideas that I kind of, like, swam around in tonight is this idea of, like, secularism. Right?
Elizabeth Woodson:And so how do I really understand what people, believe from their perspective and their point of view? And so I think that we're curious. Well, we have a curiosity that makes sure that we come that comes back home, and so even in my own study, I know there's another question that talks about resources and books, I try to listen to people who are able to explain, those ideas in a way that honors, I think, what the culture believes but is also able to help me see kind of where it falls down, and so to me, I come from the perspective of a learner to engage, but then to be able to do the other stuff that we talked about tonight.
Krystal Brummitt:Thank you. Okay. A lot of people wanna know, why do Texans lie about Whataburger being good?
Elizabeth Woodson:I don't know if it's a lie. Yeah. I don't love. I don't love. I'm also, again, not native Texan so Texans are, like, mad at me right now.
Krystal Brummitt:Yeah. Texas just love them.
Elizabeth Woodson:They love they love watercolor.
Krystal Brummitt:Let's see. Okay. If scripture tells us that love is not self seeking and desires to serve others, how do we balance filling ourselves up in order to serve others
Elizabeth Woodson:Yeah.
Krystal Brummitt:In order to pour out into others?
Elizabeth Woodson:I think sometimes that we can it's love is seeking the good of another, and sometimes if we are boundaries, I believe, are a good and godly thing, and so sometimes we can be pouring out and pouring out to other people. And the reasons we're pouring out really have more to do with us than to do with the other person, and then so we are not going to be who we need to be to really love and care for other people if we ourselves are not being refreshed in the Lord, and so that that's whatever the Lord tells you that that care needs to look like, but constantly pouring out to you are burnout and have nothing to give, I do not believe honors the Lord. It doesn't use our gifts to the best. Even Jesus got away to be by himself, and so that we can see that Jesus didn't engage everybody. He didn't heal everybody.
Elizabeth Woodson:Like, he had boundaries, in wisdom of the care he gave to other people, and so I think that we would have healthy boundaries and acknowledge why can't I say no to this? Why do I feel like I always have to show up to this? And sometimes, I think those reasons will tell us things that it's more about us than it actually is about giving to the other person.
Krystal Brummitt:Thank you. Okay. You said you started out talking tonight about, the things that are forming us and there is no shortage of ways that we're being formed by what's on our phones or what's on our TVs or the music that we're listening to. And so, I think this is a good Oh, I lost it. Okay.
Krystal Brummitt:A helpful question of how do you deal with the problem of spending so much time or being tempted to spend so much time on social media, pop music, Netflix, and be influenced unintentionally.
Joel Brooks:Yeah.
Krystal Brummitt:How do we avoid that?
Elizabeth Woodson:Yeah. I'm a person. I love art, music, culture, all the things. So, you know, I think that technology and even social media and music, all these things can provide good to our lives, but it's when we use them in excess, and so for me, it is what are good limitations that allow me to enjoy the good, but not be consumed by it. Right?
Elizabeth Woodson:So I have people who I I'll just tell you what I do myself. I don't have social media on my phone. I make it a little hard. Like, I have to go to my computer and log on because it's a lot easier for me to wake up in the morning and spend an hour or so in reels and waste time than it is for me to sit at my computer. Right?
Elizabeth Woodson:And so how do I create maybe boundaries that help me enjoy the good but not be consumed I pay attention to how things make me, like, how am I feeling after I I I have consumed something? And it's like, am I feeling insecure? Am I feeling unhappy? Like, I was joyful when I got on. I'm not joyful afterwards.
Elizabeth Woodson:It's like, oh, Elizabeth, you consume too much, and so there needs to be some sort of limitation, and how do we create boundaries? So it's a little harder for us to get lost in it, because what we have to acknowledge is that all the media we use is designed to make us, like, get lost in it. Like, it's designed to consume our attention, and so how do we push back against that? We make it a little harder to get our attention. There's lots of different ways that people do that, but I think we have to be to be honest about what we can handle and then back into it from that way.
Krystal Brummitt:How do we do that? I so I, I was just telling someone, some people at dinner last night, I've been listening to this podcast. It's not anything that is instructive. Yeah. It's just like pretty mindless.
Krystal Brummitt:But I found myself talking like these women on the podcast and I was like, wow. I've been listening to And maybe in not a helpful way. So I was like, maybe this should not be the podcast that I'm consuming all the time. And so there's that natural like, okay. I'm going to stop listening to this.
Krystal Brummitt:But when we see those yellow and red flags popping up of how is this making me feel or am I allocating so much time to this? What do we do? Just even practically, because it's hard.
Elizabeth Woodson:It's hard.
Krystal Brummitt:I want to wake up tomorrow and I want to scroll or I want to listen to this podcast again.
Elizabeth Woodson:I think practically don't sleep with your phone. You know, I have people who put it in the other room, people who will, like, put it across the room, get a real alarm clock, with all the reasons that we have to have the technology close to us. I still remember the day when it was like a rotary phone or I had to call my mom from the school phone, and I was fine, like
Krystal Brummitt:We can survive.
Elizabeth Woodson:We can survive. So there's like what practical boundaries can have placed between me and just having easy access to it? Again, maybe you don't I have pastors who's like they don't have email on their phone, they don't have social media on their phone, so you create those boundaries, giving yourselves time limitations and so the app is gonna time out. You give yourself 30 minutes, like, you got 30 minutes and after that, you got to enter a password to get it have a friend have your password, like, depending upon your level of, self control, make it harder for yourself to allow your attention to be consumed. I think also sometimes I've done it where I've just taken an allotment of what did I do with my time today, and so I start to see, oh, I'm that's not what I want to that's not who I want to become, and it's just an honesty check for me, but I think there are things of distance, app controls, all that kind of things that we can do to help ourselves.
Krystal Brummitt:That's good. I can overestimate my self control and so I I literally, my friend Chase changed my password on social media for a couple of months because I'm like, I it's just too easy for me to get back in even if it's on my computer. And so that was she was going to know if I logged back in. Okay. Let's see.
Krystal Brummitt:Okay. This one is a little gonna be a little bit of a maybe tougher question. How would you respond to the common defense of many that love is love in regard to the sexual revolution?
Elizabeth Woodson:Yeah. Love has I think people, for me, it's ask I'm a person that asks a lot of questions, and so the question is for someone to be able to define what love is for them, and again, love has boundaries and love has limitations. Love can't be anything for anybody because that's not love, and so to me, 1, it is being able to get better clarity about what that person believes about love and also to provide clarity about what I believe about love and where I believe love comes from. I think in conversations that I've had, it doesn't always end with me convincing the person that what I'm saying is the right way, but can I provide clarity and grace of what I believe about the truth of love and why the boundaries and the sacrifice and ultimately having a standard that doesn't change in Christ versus always changing to what I want it to be is more beautiful than what the option that they're providing? And again, that's a conversation and that happens over time, but it's clarity in what they mean and clarity in what I believe through Jesus.
Krystal Brummitt:I appreciate that. And there's a similar question on here that I probably won't get word for word, but I think is a good follow-up to that is, you know, we we love talking about and experiencing Jesus as our savior. And, like, the mercy and the compassion and the kindness that is in Christ and then we can wrestle or we can have conversations with maybe in a conversation with someone who's saying love is love and is a follower of Jesus, that not wanting to submit to Jesus as king. Yeah. How do we engage I think we can ask that on our own hearts of where am I not living as a part of the kingdom of God with his reign and his rules.
Krystal Brummitt:And then how do we engage others who maybe are not as as much Jesus is also my Lord and my King.
Elizabeth Woodson:Yeah. Yeah. I think I like to acknowledge that sometimes we struggle with Jesus as Lord, and we struggle with what he calls us to do because of the experience we've experiences we've had with his people. And so a lot of people have grown up in really legalistic environments, where they're meeting a certain standard or following a rule and they don't have they don't do that, there are really severe consequences. And so usually when someone like again I ask questions, I try to learn people, I try to learn more about people because Mason King, our friend, he'd always say there's a question behind the question, right?
Elizabeth Woodson:So how can I learn more about this person in a really gracious way to be not to help them with what might really be, a motivation, but I try to to validate honor, man? There are ways in which God's people have made it really hard to see God, as king as something that's really beautiful for us to follow. Right? So there's that reality. There's also another reality that we don't obey to earn anything.
Elizabeth Woodson:God doesn't view me any better because I read my bible this morning. He doesn't view me any worse because I haven't read it all this week. Right? I might not feel in deep fellowship with him. I might not be able to, resist temptation.
Elizabeth Woodson:There might be some real evidence of my life impacted by me not engaging in these spiritual habits, but God's love for me and his ability to show up for me doesn't change. And so that we know that our obedience to God as king comes out of gratitude, not fear, like, oh, I don't do this, then the Lord's not gonna talk to me at all. He's not gonna answer my prayers. He's not gonna bless me. No.
Elizabeth Woodson:We obey because we're grateful that God has given his life for us, but then there's a hard truth that you gotta come to is they go together. Right? So to say that we love the Lord means we also the image that you see in scripture with this idea of kingdom, Jesus is king, it's allegiance. Right, that I'm loyal to the king. And so, like, what does it say I believe about God and who he is and what he's done for me, then I just want all the good stuff, but I also wanna take all the other stuff he saved me from.
Elizabeth Woodson:And so there does come a moment where we have all the nice warm conversations about God's grace and his goodness is that you if you say you don't wanna follow him as king, then you don't really love him because love God's love language is obedience, that when we do what he says he we should do, that's how we say we love him. And so if we say we love him, but we're not doing it, we don't really love him, and that, to me, I think, is a hard conversation that's not always easy for us to sit in, but it's good because what we're missing out on is what really is better for us.
Krystal Brummitt:That's good. What we're missing out on is really what's better for us. Thank you. Okay. So this question is asking, how do we find our true personal authenticity, not as the culture would define it, and not by the whims of our emotions, but by who God has made us to be.
Elizabeth Woodson:Yeah. I think one of the best ways for me that I've seen that is being in community with other people because community is able to see the things in you that maybe you don't see in yourself. Right, or you can process this thing that, hey, I have this idea or there's something I really want to do or I think I'm really good at this and I'm able to be around other people who can can say, hey, Elizabeth, that's just not really your thing, and so because God has given us a uniqueness that's important, and that we have an opportunity to do some really fun and beautiful things with that, but when I'm with other believers, they help me reign that in versus me kind of allowing that to drive me.
Krystal Brummitt:I love that answer, and I I mean, I think so much of all of, like, the practicality of how we live out what you have taught us tonight is in community with one another. We can't can't do it on 1. Okay. So in a predominantly young church, we can often struggle to see beyond our immediate situation. So how do we shift our perspective, in the midst of God's larger story and not just seeing what's right in front of us?
Elizabeth Woodson:Yeah. I think my answer is not gonna be the different one. I just gave you, but it's community, you know. I've had seasons where what I'm going through is really difficult and I just can't get past it, but then I go hang out with somebody else, and I see their story and what they're dealing with, and so my perspective widens and shifts and changes from me to them, but also I think there's this aspect of rehearsing the story that I found myself sitting in all the time. And so there are pieces of our spiritual formation that we had to be intentional about, and I think one is reminding ourselves of the bigger story.
Elizabeth Woodson:So I think it I think it's Isaac Adams who like tweets it might not be him it might be somebody else but they tweet every day Christian we are one day closer to heaven, Like, we are one day closer. And every time I see it, it, like, snaps me into this reality of, oh, it's not just what's happening here. It's what's bigger. And so intentional reminders, living in community, and then seeking to familiarize myself with the story. So sometimes it's hard to connect with it if we don't know it well Yeah.
Elizabeth Woodson:And, that we would do that. It helps a lot.
Krystal Brummitt:I can offer a plug of ways that you can connect with and rehearse the story and one being Elizabeth's Bible state that I mentioned from beginning to forever. And then our own shameless plug is coming up this fall, one of our core classes starting in October is gonna be the story of the Bible. So, if you want to, go deeper in this story and understanding the full story the whole story of God's word and the gospel from Genesis to Revelation, you can join us and support Elizabeth as well because we have to know it in order to rehearse it and live in it. I had it hold on. I had a question.
Krystal Brummitt:This is harder than you think it is, y'all, because I wanna listen and be prepared for the next question. Okay. The the this is a different way of asking maybe something that we've hit on a little bit, but, it says, do you think it's worth it for Christians to try to engage in the culture or we just wasting our time?
Elizabeth Woodson:You never know who's listening. And so there there is a lot of opportunity for us to get people, who are really, like they're, like, yearning for truth. They're, like, looking for it. And so sometimes, like, we have the people who are really cynical, they're really negative, they can be really, like that's
Krystal Brummitt:why we all were happy when threads came on
Elizabeth Woodson:because somehow we believe it's not gonna be because, you know, people can threads, and then it's the same place, because, you know, people can be really mean, but I want to believe, and maybe this is the optimist in me, that there's not as many people as we think it is, and there are more people who may not be posting but are watching, and so you have an opportunity just to speak what is true. And by the power of the Holy Spirit, he uses that algorithm to get to who it never who needs to get to, but that as long as we have breath in our body that we choose to engage, because that's just the call of the Christian is to speak truth until Christ returns. Yeah. So don't give up. It feels it feels really negative, but I think there's a lot of opportunity for people you don't realize are out there listening to.
Krystal Brummitt:So you talked about our emotions. What was the quote from Mason?
Elizabeth Woodson:Our emotions are real. They're not always reliable.
Krystal Brummitt:Not always reliable. Okay. So and then I love the illustration of our emotions taking a direct flight to God and a connecting flight to other people because that is not often the flight that my emotions are taking. So when we when we're fee when we're these emotions and these feelings of, like, sadness or loneliness or fear or our insecurities, Like, how do we engage that with the truth in a way where we can walk forward without still being ruled by how we're feeling?
Elizabeth Woodson:Yeah. One, I think, is to feel the things. So I I think the the the air that I don't want to sit in is is demonizing emotions. They are good and right and beautiful and part of our original design, and what we see in scripture is lots of examples, especially in the Psalms, of people acknowledging their emotions, however big they are, before the Lord. Right?
Elizabeth Woodson:So I think there's this place of acknowledging that, and taking them to the Lord, but it's a simple question for me. This is what I do. What happened? Right? Like, why do I feel angry?
Elizabeth Woodson:Why do I feel sad? Why do I feel insecure? And me being able to walk into what happened, then am I believing something that is not true either about God or myself? Right? I feel insecure did my mic just no, it didn't.
Elizabeth Woodson:I feel insecure, but really what's true is that person's probably not thinking about me as much as I'm thinking about me, or I feel angry, and I have a right to feel angry because that person wronged me in a way, and I need to figure out with the Lord how to work through forgiveness or reconciliation or bringing it into that person. But being able to acknowledge it, being able to just take time with the Holy Spirit to say what happened, and then, Lord, how do I deal with this in a way that honors you? And I have found that in a way so I don't get stuck in the stuff. I think sometimes we get stuck in it or we don't deal with it. And I have learned when we don't deal with our stuff, it just pops back up in other places.
Elizabeth Woodson:And so we learn good healthy coping mechanisms, and sometimes the best thing we can do is call a friend or call a counselor and have have them help us walk through our stuff.
Krystal Brummitt:I love those last 2. Yeah. I'm a big fan of both, friends and counseling. Okay. 2 I have 2 more questions.
Krystal Brummitt:I was trying to find 1. So you talked about false stories and these false narratives that we're living in. And you mentioned a few and there are a lot. How can we like, some of us might know we're sitting there and I know that I'm living in this world. Like, if I have all of these things, if I have the house and the family and the clothes, then, like, that's the good life.
Krystal Brummitt:But maybe for some of us, we're not really sure what that is for us, like where we're seeking the good life. Is there are there questions that we can ask or resources where we can go to figure out what those are, so that we can cast those away with the truth of the true story.
Elizabeth Woodson:I think I think it's James K. Smith, You Are What You Love. It's just a really great book, but it really is again, I mean, I was like, what do I love? Like, what is my what is your time and your money will show you a lot about what you love and a lot about what's important to you, and so sometimes your behavior will tell a story about what's really in your heart. And, again, what am I consuming?
Elizabeth Woodson:Who do I follow? Who, like yeah. Who do I follow? Who am I listening to? And, what lifestyle are they promoting to me?
Elizabeth Woodson:Are they leading me to find my, validation in who God is and not in what I look like or what I have? And so to me, trying to figure out, okay, Elizabeth, where are the the resources that you've been given? Where are you using them? Because that's telling you a story about what you really love. And then the things, people that I'm drawn to the most.
Elizabeth Woodson:Right? Like, I go here. I love them. I I will eat up everything I have to say, listen to all their stuff. Can I just sit back and just think a little bit about and that's what it is?
Elizabeth Woodson:It's that we're critically thinking about the things before we consume them, and that's a process that makes us slow down, but books like thing authors like Tim Teller, James K. Smith, Rebecca McLaughlin has a lot on culture in terms of some of the hard conversations about sexuality and gender and, race and justice. And so some of those are three voices to me that have helped form my mind because sometimes we need to have someone help make the picture plain for us, and then we take that back to our own life and are able to see a little bit clearer. Yeah.
Krystal Brummitt:So if my Instagram algorithm is all Taylor Swift videos right now, is that telling me about a false story that I'm living in?
Elizabeth Woodson:I mean, you might want to take it out with the Lord.
Krystal Brummitt:Asking for a friend. Are there any other so you just you kind of answered the second question, but I'll give you the opportunity. If there are any other places we can go, voices that we can listen to, even just daily rhythms Yeah. Of this, and we'll close with this question.
Elizabeth Woodson:James, live no lies, he's the guy out of, Portland. Thank you. Great book. And I think he also has a podcast too, or old podcast. That's been really helpful for me.
Elizabeth Woodson:Daily Rhythms for me is, is how can I have, unhindered and unhurried time with the Lord? Because, really, it's like we live reactive to how can I not do all these things? I am a believer that you ask the Holy Spirit to guide you in your journey with him, he gonna make it real clear what you need to cut loose and that we would spend our time with the lord, that we would be people of prayer, that in in, like, whole chapters, whole books. It is in entirety and that we're just eating it all up, and I believe because it also is when we're being formed by the things of God, our eyes get clearer, So sometimes the best option for us isn't that we need some really sophisticated plan, is I just need to spend more time with the Lord and let him do the work that he always does, and so that our lives would have time for margin and Sabbath, so that there's rest in there and so that we turn off the devices and we spend time with the people that matter the most to us in community, that we spend time in in our community, so like in Birmingham, that that we're just not coming in a church building and then going back to our houses, that we're coming here for the huddle and going out to the city of Birmingham to live out the life of the Christian.
Elizabeth Woodson:But to me, it's rhythms that allow me to slow down, to have unhurried and unhindered time with the word, and then live in a response to God in the rest of my life, whatever he tells me in that time. It's like you will be transformed in much of what we talked about tonight if we simply are people who do those things.
Krystal Brummitt:Thank you so much, Elizabeth. I love getting to talk about these things with you because I've seen it in your life because I got to live life closely with you for a season. And, Elizabeth is someone with a lot of a lot of wisdom and a person that I know that I can trust because I know that you walk closely with the Lord. And so I'm glad that we got to experience that with you tonight. Thank you all for your great questions.
Krystal Brummitt:Elizabeth, would you mind just praying for us? Praying these truths for us as we go from this place to now? Yeah. Thank you.
Elizabeth Woodson:Well, I thank you for the opportunity to gather to have a good conversation, answer some good questions, Lord. As I pray, you know everyone in this room, you know what they've put before you, you know what their hearts desire is. Lord, I pray that you meet them there. Give them clarity where they need clarity, convict their hearts when they need to be convicted, and allow them to have a deep and abiding love for you. In your sensibly name we pray.
Elizabeth Woodson:Amen.
Krystal Brummitt:You are dismissed.
