Facebook Fundraiser for Counseling Scholarships
Contact Amy
Cue the confetti and the cheers - we've reached a monumental milestone with our 100th episode of Wednesdays with Watson! To mark the occasion, I am joined by the ever-inspiring Chrissy Loughridge, my memory keeper, as we journey through the powerful verses of Psalm 100. We embark on this exploration to shed light on faith, gratitude, and the bond of community and shed light on the value of church, counseling, and a steadfast focus on Jesus, the star of the story.
Taking refuge in worship, Crissy and I find solace in the rich imagery of Psalm 100, unfurling the potent message behind serving the Lord with gladness. We discuss the comforting notion of the Lord as a nurturing shepherd, caring for us, his sheep, and a vigilant eagle safeguarding its eaglets. This analogy becomes a beacon of comfort and security to those grappling with hurt, heartache, and hardship. It prompts us to reflect on how we can honor the Lord through our worship, harmonious songs, and joyous cries.
As we raise a toast to gratitude and celebration, we reminisce about our journey, encapsulated with moments of humility and profound transformations. This journey has revealed that gratitude can thrive even amidst adversity, leading to a deep-seated sense of joy and fulfillment. Together, we recount stories of trials and triumphs, underlining the pivotal role of faith and gratitude in our lives. So, join us as we celebrate this journey, our supportive community, and the wisdom we've gleaned from scripture. As we set our sights on the next hundred episodes, let's remember the comforting words of Jesus: We are known, we are loved, and we are so valued. Tune in to share in the celebration and to find comfort, hope, and strength from the messages in Psalm 100.
You ARE:
SEEN KNOWN HEARD LOVED VALUED
Facebook Fundraiser for Counseling Scholarships
Contact Amy
Cue the confetti and the cheers - we've reached a monumental milestone with our 100th episode of Wednesdays with Watson! To mark the occasion, I am joined by the ever-inspiring Chrissy Loughridge, my memory keeper, as we journey through the powerful verses of Psalm 100. We embark on this exploration to shed light on faith, gratitude, and the bond of community and shed light on the value of church, counseling, and a steadfast focus on Jesus, the star of the story.
Taking refuge in worship, Crissy and I find solace in the rich imagery of Psalm 100, unfurling the potent message behind serving the Lord with gladness. We discuss the comforting notion of the Lord as a nurturing shepherd, caring for us, his sheep, and a vigilant eagle safeguarding its eaglets. This analogy becomes a beacon of comfort and security to those grappling with hurt, heartache, and hardship. It prompts us to reflect on how we can honor the Lord through our worship, harmonious songs, and joyous cries.
As we raise a toast to gratitude and celebration, we reminisce about our journey, encapsulated with moments of humility and profound transformations. This journey has revealed that gratitude can thrive even amidst adversity, leading to a deep-seated sense of joy and fulfillment. Together, we recount stories of trials and triumphs, underlining the pivotal role of faith and gratitude in our lives. So, join us as we celebrate this journey, our supportive community, and the wisdom we've gleaned from scripture. As we set our sights on the next hundred episodes, let's remember the comforting words of Jesus: We are known, we are loved, and we are so valued. Tune in to share in the celebration and to find comfort, hope, and strength from the messages in Psalm 100.
You ARE:
SEEN KNOWN HEARD LOVED VALUED
Shelf for joy to the Lord all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness, come before Him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us and we are His. We are His people, the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him and praise His name, for the Lord is good and His love endures forever. His faithfulness continues through all generations.
Speaker 1:Hey everybody and welcome. Welcome to the 100th episode of the Wednesdays with Watson podcast. I can hardly believe this little passion project of mine. We have 100 episodes in the can. Today. I'm so excited to bring to you the second in our series in season five, in our summer in Psalms, and we are going to, in an ode to the 100th episode, talk about Psalm 100. I do have a surprise for you. As I promised, today I am here with Chrissy Lothridge, my memory keeper. If you've not heard those episodes, I will link it in the show notes, but Chrissy is here today to help me discuss and let's dive deep into Psalm 100. So welcome, chrissy, back to the Wednesdays with Watson podcast.
Speaker 1:I am so happy to be here. Well, you know, everybody loves your soothing voice, as we always say, and so so, yeah, so you know you've had a little bit of a front row seat to these 100 episodes and kind of my journey through this. And and I just wonder, since it is 100 episodes, and I would love to hear from your perspective, what have you seen in the Lord do, not only in my life, but in other people's lives? Or I mean, what has this been like for you to watch? I guess 100 episodes, it's just a big deal.
Speaker 3:On podcasting, yeah it's been really cool to see you come into your own and really get a feel for what you wanted this to be and really stay true to what the Lord has called you to. And and I just it's been really really cool to watch, watch you really shine in this arena. It's been really really awesome.
Speaker 1:Thank you.
Speaker 1:It's been neat to have you here by my side, whether it's just being prayer or and that would be true about all of my friends, but but, yeah, I'm so grateful that that the Lord put this in my heart in April and 2020, right after the or not, I was gonna say after the pandemic, in the middle of the pandemic and it's been a really cool ride. Well, chrissy, the thing that we focus most on this podcast, of course, is the star of the story, who is Jesus, along with church, community counseling, and I have really, really struggled over the course of 100 episodes to give people hope without scripture, and so I decided that we were going to go through Psalms for our summer episodes, and so some 100 came to bear. But before I do that, I will tell you, chrissy, that I tried to find some really cool information about the number 100. And, unless you're just like a math person, 100 is just kind of a number. Except, I have a quiz question for you Did you know that if you live to be 100, you are called a centurion?
Speaker 3:Hey, I did not know that. I did know that 80 is an octogenarian, but that's that's the extent of my knowledge. Oxygenarian, well, octogenarian, like an octopus.
Speaker 1:Right, right, yeah, so, okay, so, so this must be our centurion episode. Centurion sounds very, very noble, all right, so let's, let's just hit it, chris, let's just hit it. That first verse, let's start with that first shout to the Lord all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness, come before him with joyful songs. Now, chris, this is a. This is a podcast, mostly listened to by people who are trauma survivors of those who love them, and most of us skip this song because, like, how?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it starts off with this. This feels a lot impossible. But what I loved is when you looked up the root word for the very beginning, the shout for. So I'm in the New American Standard version. So mine says shout joyfully to the Lord all the earth. That first joyful was a battle cry.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And that resonates right. I can get there. I can get to the point where I will say okay, Lord, we're in a battle and I am going to put everything I have into it to try to get to the place where I am. Mine says serve the Lord with gladness, come before him with joyful singing. Okay, well, I'm going to start that as a battle cry, because it's the cry of my heart. I'm not waking up in the morning with the joyful singing.
Speaker 3:I'm just not there right, but I can do battle, and so perhaps that resonates better with our audience.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because I think a lot of times if you're not waking up. You know Pollyanna or Disney so that just came to my mind.
Speaker 1:But yeah, if you're not waking up with this joyful singing and you read this and you've been through some stuff, yeah, it's a little bit of a, you know. You don't continue to read. To verse two right, and it's interesting that you said that your version says serve the Lord with gladness, mine says worship.
Speaker 1:But when I looked up the root word of that word, worship, it meant serve, right, and so in some ways, the message I think that I have to those of us who are hurting, which is everybody at some point, is that we really are serving the Lord with our sadness, in that battle cry. Right, like we are, we are going to him, like, again, we're at Disney. So I've been watching lots of little kids grab their parents and you know when they're lost or when they're scared or whatever, and a parent likes nothing more than to pick up a crying child and if they can soothe them. And so I do think that we do serve the Lord with our battle cry because we trust him with that battle cry. And then that does lead us into the second verse Read your version of that, excuse me at the third verse.
Speaker 3:Well, and I think it's interesting that. So for mine, the serve the Lord with gladness. Okay, so I'm serving him. So the verse three is how he's serving us, how he's so, it's, it's, it's a whole circle here. Know that he is God and it's he who has made us, and not we ourselves. We are his people in the sheep of his pasture. So he's caring for us. We're serving him.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And so that's it's it. To me it's a full circle effect there.
Speaker 1:Well, and because we know that the Lord is God, because he has served us in that way, right, and we all can. If we all stop, even in our darkest days, we can look back in a way that God showed up like he shows up every day, but you know what I mean like like big stuff, and those of you who are on the other side of the microphone who have been through traumas and stuff, you understand this. And so, yeah, for him to to follow, for the psalmist, which we believe is David here to come say all right, shout with your battle cry, serve him with gladness, come before him with joyful songs, and and the root word of that joyful songs is the joyful like we know it, because the reason why we can do that is because, like you mentioned, chrissy, he served us, he serves us. Know that the Lord of God, god, we are his people. How comforting is that to you in this moment, right now? Right?
Speaker 3:We are his sheep. And what a beautiful thing. Sheep are really, really needy.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 3:And so, knowing that we have a God who cares for us as as we are his sheep, there's a lot of care involved there and protection and all the things I mean. Sheep need help with being fed, with being cared for, with being sheared. They really can't do a whole lot for themselves.
Speaker 1:Right At all. Yeah, they're dumb. I love them bad.
Speaker 3:But they are really needy. They fall over, they can't get up. Yeah, this is. This is a needy creature. And what a beautiful presentation of who. We are Right, we need God and and comforting, similar to the verses I believe it's in Psalm 91 that we're under his wings. That that protection of. If you've ever seen like an eagle protect its eaglets, oh man, I mean they will absolutely hunker down and that's so interesting, you never thought about that, so it's it's amazing.
Speaker 3:It's amazing. I love that scripture brings practical images for us, things that we can readily see in nature, yeah, instead of things that would be very hard to.
Speaker 1:And I love again. You know we are. We're talking to people who are hurting, broken, bruise, or love people who they are. And so I just love this, like when I close my eyes and envision this good shepherd and, and he's watching me all the time and we, and even in that, in that parable in the New Testament where he leaves in 99 to find the one, that's how much he cares for us, right, and that's why we can serve him with our worship, with our song and with our joyful cries and our battle cries. That's why we can do that, because we know that the Lord is God. We talk a lot and I just, I think and I can just hear you saying this to me my sheep hear my voice.
Speaker 3:Yes, yeah, yeah, and that is that is everything it really is. If we know our Savior, then we rest in his care because we trust his character. Right, we know his voice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and if we, if we're not near him enough, and, and, and scripture says draw near to God and he'll draw near to you, if we're not near him enough, then we're not going to understand or even recognize his voice. Because this, the world, is loud, trauma is loud, and so you know, if we don't come before him, and so that that that brings the next verse. Now, of course, I believe that this is referring to the temple, of course, and, and and you and I kind of talked about like we could have a whole podcast about the difference train gates and courts. But what is the secret sauce then? Right, like people are probably saying that's great, amen, chrissy, I, I kind of know that, that he is God, but that doesn't really help me right now.
Speaker 1:I, I understand that you've given me a free pass and that in verse one where my joyfulness can be a battle cry, okay, I'm, I'm with y'all, I still I believe that God is God. And then I'm the sheep, one of his sheep, and I need to hear his voice, but but I still can't get there. How do I get there? How do I? How do I, how do I get this joyfulness that we see later in this chapter, and this is how I believe this to be true in my own life and I've seen it true with so many people. We enter his gates with Thanksgiving and his courts with praise, give thanks to him and praise his name. I'd like to park here for just a second and talk about the power, chrissy, of gratitude, and Is it possible to even be grateful for the hard?
Speaker 3:It, you know it. We need to be grateful for all of it, and that is the hard news is, on the hard days it doesn't say here hey, interskates with Thanksgiving if it's been a good day, right, interest courts with praise if you feel like it, it. There is a transformative power in believing his word and Obeying yeah, even when it doesn't feel and I don't think that you have to to say God isn't calling us to be fake. I mean, it's okay to pray and say Lord, I'm trying to be thankful, but this is a really hard day.
Speaker 3:I'm having a hard time finding things to be thankful for, but I'm breathing, so I'm thankful for that. It could be as simple as that, and I praise you for that right. It start somewhere. Yeah it will change you, because the poison on the inside of you is the opposite of these things. The lack of Thanksgiving, the lack of praise Right at those things are eating you up. You you might think that holding on to that grudge and that anger is is Keeping you alive. It's not killing you. You're. You're the one eating the poison.
Speaker 1:It's that that drink in the way. Yeah, you're the one and expecting somebody else to die yes yeah, I, I Can't say enough.
Speaker 1:And this is, you know, as, as we're Celebrating 100 episodes and I remember the, the first, that first season, when I got behind the microphone and told my story, and so oftentimes, chrissy, people ask me how, how can you still love Jesus? No one, no one's, no one has come to me and say, how can you be so joyful? So maybe I need to work on that, but but people do say, how can you still love Jesus? And it's that's a difficult question to answer, except for I will tell you that, as I've examined how, I Will say that most the time it is, it comes from a heart of gratitude and that doesn't make me a good person.
Speaker 1:It just means that somebody taught me, in this case at the children's home, to be grateful. I was when, when dad McGowan passed away and I spoke at his funeral, I talked about this funny story like because at Christmastime we got presents out the wazoo and so they would call our name like a Santa would call our name at the Coast Guard, for example. We had a party there and when they gave us a gift, if they, if, if the Chaperones or whoever were with us, didn't hear us say thank you from like the back of the room we had to give her presents.
Speaker 3:I, but it does teach something. Yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so so for me, the posture of my heart. I hope I try to make the posture of my heart and I know that when I'm really struggling like when, when, when I'm Got this internal conflict going on that I need to land back here. I heard somebody the other day said Say that somebody asked them about a hard time in their life and he said the person was quoted as saying I wouldn't choose it but I wouldn't change it. And if we, as People who have survived trauma and survived difficult times, if we can look back and be grateful For what it did for us, like Romans 12, 12. That verse it says be patient and inflection, joyful, joyful and sorrow. That means it's in this Bible, which I believe is the authority. It means it can happen for you guys out there. You can posture your heart to be grateful and believe it or not. You might even get to a point where you can say thank you, lord, for that time in my life.
Speaker 3:Because I gained you, yeah, yeah, and we have to recognize that the greatest gain is his Himself and his glory. Yeah, and that this is yeah and that is there. There are no words for how hard that seems as a human right, but God, yeah yeah, it's so true.
Speaker 1:And so the gratitude, I think, is just so important, as we, as we try to posture our hearts to be joyful and the true sense of the word. So that first, for the first time, this is Mentioned here. It talks about joy as a battle cry, but and and talk about difficult situations. We were talking a few minutes ago about Nehemiah and after the wall was built and Ezra came in the late, literally lay down the law. If People that had come back after the destruction of the temple could not be found and the biblical Genealogical records, they were not allowed to even eat. And then Nehemiah comes in and verse 10 and says hey, don't worry about any of that stuff, this is the day the Lord has made. That's a different verse, but or a song, maybe I'm remembering, but but where he's basically saying this day is sacred for the joy of the Lord is your strength.
Speaker 1:And Again, you can imagine a bunch of people that had just come back to when the ten, you know, to the temple, the rebuilt temple or the wall. I should say they that Nehemiah was saying don't worry about Ezra laying down the law, don't worry about the fact that your life is very difficult right now, because the joy of the Lord is your strength, and I think if trauma survivors of people that have been through anything Chrissy need Strength, right, we need this ability to say Thank you for the hard, and then that verse ends up and I and I and I love this, and this is another one that's hard for the, for people that have been through some stuff, but it's in the Bible, so we have to address it and look at it, for the Lord is good and His love endures for forever. His faithfulness continues through all the generations. Now, does your translation say you have any other words there on that?
Speaker 3:one for the Lord is good. His loving kindness is everlasting, his faithfulness to all generations his loving kindness is everlasting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so it's difficult to look at God and say You're good. You're good, you're kind.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but we are, we are Establishing who he is right and again going back to the character of God and trusting that His character is such that he cannot sin right he cannot fail, he cannot be surprised by something that's happened, and so, by by definition, he has to be good.
Speaker 3:And there is evil in this world and there are things that there are atrocities that I can't even imagine, but God is still good. I've been listening to that firm foundation song so much, and one of the lines is he's faithful through generations. Why would he fail now? He won't right. And so, in those moments where we are all just feeling shaken by life and everything else, if he's our firm foundation and we know that he is good and he's faithful through all the generations, why would he fail now?
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 3:Right, he won't. And so find that thing for you, that that rings true. And so, for right now, that is for me. Why would he fail now? Oh, he won't right. And so I've been standing firm there To get to the point where I can shout joyfully Because I'm trusting in the character of God. He won't fail, he's not failing. Life is chaotic. Circumstances can get really bad. He won't fail, and so I have reason to shout for joy.
Speaker 1:And you have reason, and as do I, to have gratitude in my heart because he won't fail like I can hear the lyric in my in my head. He won't that song.
Speaker 1:It's like normal, normal voice for the singer, a normal voice for the singer, and then it's like he won't fail me now, why would he? And then he goes. They almost, they almost shout he won't. You know he won't. And so If we look back on our lives, you can look back and think of a time that you think God failed you, but we know that he did not fail you because of what you just Mentioned. There's evil in this world. Things happen.
Speaker 1:The song that I'm kind of on to right now, and it's so interesting that your translation said his love, his loving kindness, will stay with us through all generations as Corey Asbury. It has a song out called kind and and it's so raw and so so deep and it and it talks about how he's yelled and kicked and screamed and all the things, but at the end of the, at the end of the day, all he's ever found God to be is kind. And the last, the last lyric of that song is and I look up at that cross in the darkest day in history, and I think that Must be the cost of kindness. And so, as we are wrapping up here, we want you to know, as I have mentioned on at least 85% of these episodes. We want you to know the star of the story, who we believe is Jesus, and we realize you're. There are two people behind these microphones that have been through some things right. We realize that it's difficult to trust in a God that Allowed you to go through suffering, but know that he is God, as we see, know that he has got it as he who made us. It's like it's like when your car breaks who do you go to? You go to the manufacturer, because the manufacturer made the car. And so if you're feeling broken, if you're feeling bruised, if you're, if you're dealing with some grief Because of the completed work of Jesus on the cross, because of that kindness that he gave us, you can Live a life of joy. You can come before his presence was seen and into his gates with praise and we haven't even talked about praise, but you can praise him with your gratitude. And so I hope that those of you out there that are clinging to how Can I do this? How can I get through what's going on in my life? I'm telling you, guys, if you just start with being grateful that God is God and you're not, then you can make your way to at least some broken hallelujahs in front of an Almighty God and the battle cry that he hears, that he promises he hears, he never relieves you, never versakes you.
Speaker 1:If you do not know the star of the story, please click that contact amy button in the show notes. I would love to introduce you to him. Where, chrissy, you will be back one more time this summer with your actual favorite song we did, we did, we did song 100 as an ode to the podcast. And he has been faithful through not only the podcast but through our lives. I, I love that song by, I think, jennifer snuth wrote it by CC Wine and the things that all my life he has been faithful, all of my life he has been so, so good and I am so grateful. So if any of you are listening to my voice and you know my story you've listened to that first season you wonder how I can be, how and and the and the, how I can love Jesus as I do. It is because he has done so much for me. He has created me, I am his, he is mine.
Speaker 3:Chrissy, any last words for our listeners, thanks so much for having me and it's exciting to see you make it to the hundredth episode and to be part of it, and I'm looking forward to our next venture on the podcast yes, and I believe that will be some 42 and that episode coming to you later this summer.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you for being here.
Speaker 1:A sincere, heartfelt thank you to those of you who have been with me from the beginning, who subscribed to the podcast, who support the podcast.
Speaker 1:We have given out thousands and thousands of dollars over the over the course of a hundred episodes, for counseling, scholarships and and, as a matter of fact, I'm running a fundraiser on Facebook right now I'll provide that link in the show notes as well for Baylight counseling to help people who cannot afford counseling. But I am so grateful to the Lord that he has given me this medium that that he put this in my heart. I am also thankful for my producer, amy Highland, who has produced all 100 episodes so expertly and deals with all of my creative things that drive her crazy, like getting her the episode the day before it drops and all the things. I'm also thankful to Phil Baker, whose song you hear playing as L of the podcast marked by you. We were back here and two weeks with another guest and another song, and until then, you know what I'm going to say you are sane, you are known, you are heard, you're loved and you're so, so valued.
Speaker 2:See you guys will be more like you, so let my life be one more. Time is fading and when we're used to you have saved me from certain death. You have shown yourself faithful to me over and over Jesus. So let my life glorify you and teach me to walk beside you Over and over Jesus. So let my life glorify you and teach me to walk beside you. I want to be more like you, so let my life be one, more by you, more by you, more by you.