.jpg)
The Father's Business Podcast
The Father's Business Podcast
Standing Firm with Spiritual Resilience
What does it take to find calm in the middle of chaos? As we kick off 2025 amidst an unsettling blend of natural disasters and personal loss, Kimberly Roddy and I, Elizabeth Gunter Powell, lean into these challenges by embarking on a heartfelt exploration of resilience—how to nurture it, sustain it, and let it guide us through life's unpredictable storms. This episode isn't just about surviving chaos but learning how to thrive within it, embracing acceptance, courage, and wisdom along the way.
We take a closer look at spiritual resilience. We discover how resilience resembles an ever-flowing reservoir or a balloon's elasticity—both powerful metaphors for how we can maintain our capacity, even when life's demands threaten to deplete it. Through personal reflections and spiritual practices, we examine how connecting with God can replenish and sustain our resilience, preparing us to bounce back from adversity with renewed faith and vigor.
The Father's Business was founded by Sylvia Gunter to encourage people to a deeper relationship with God. I'm Elizabeth Gunter.
Speaker 2:Powell, and I am Kimberly Roddy. Welcome to the Father's Business Podcast. We are so glad that you've joined us.
Speaker 1:Welcome everybody back to the Father's Business Podcast. This is our first podcast of 2025. We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas time and New Year's and we're only two weeks into it and wow, what a couple of weeks it's been. I was kind of looking forward to 2025, kind of easing into the new year, and that does not seem to be how we're going into the new year. From national stories from New Orleans to wildfires in Los Angeles, to people in North Carolina in the North Carolina area still struggling to find shelter from all the hurricanes and things of the fall and down even to more personal things where we had a loss of a dear uncle in my family.
Speaker 1:This year hasn't quite started off the way that I thought it was going to. We've been receiving a lot of emails from people about what do you think all of this means, and so Kimberly and I just want to hop on here and just have a little bit of a conversation about okay, ready or not, here we come, 2025. So how are we going to choose to live into this new year? So I mean, on top of everything else, alabama had snow over the weekend, and so I found myself walking through the snow to get to my mom to make sure that she was okay. Nothing feels like we thought it was going to be.
Speaker 1:I guess is kind of the feeling that I'm having, kimberly, and I'm finding myself struggling with my own emotions of I thought 2025 was going to be better. I don't know why, but somehow I always feel like when you turn the page on a new year, it's a fresh start. It's a clean slate. Fresh start, it's a clean slate. Nothing's happened in 2025 yet and yet we began, you know that first morning hearing about the attack in New Orleans, and it just kind of feels like, partially because news is 24-7 now and we hear everything as it's happening, this year already feels overwhelming to me and I'm finding myself struggling with some emotion of but I was hoping this year was going to be kinder. I was hoping this year was going to be more peaceful. And having to really ask myself some questions about how do I judge where my contentment and peace are going to come from, does that make sense, kimberly?
Speaker 2:It does make sense. And I was thinking also, as we turn the page into 2025, I was thinking about last year. You know, reflect back on. Well, how did I enter 2024? Not just how did I do 2024, but how did I enter 2024?.
Speaker 2:One of the things that I was thinking back to, elizabeth, was our conversation that we had last year on the podcast, and one of the things that I mentioned I believe it was on that podcast or another one was reflecting upon the serenity prayer. Oh, yeah, you did, yeah, yeah. And so this year I also happened to be listening to another podcast where they were talking about the serenity prayer and I truly thought, you know, I talked about this last year. I think I've been better about letting go of control and trying to live a serene, calm life. And then, as I thought about it, I was like, no, I don't feel that way internally. I would really like to enter 2025 with that thought again of releasing control.
Speaker 2:The serenity prayer says God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to accept the things I cannot change.
Speaker 2:Courage to change the things I can.
Speaker 2:And wisdom to know the difference Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time, accepting hardships as the pathway to peace, taking, as he did, the sinful world as it is, not as I would have it, trusting that he will make all things right if I surrender to His will so that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him forever and ever in the next Amen.
Speaker 2:And I listened to that again, I read it again and I thought I even shared it with you and I said I really want to be intentional about sitting on December 31st 2024, january 1st 2025, of thinking through how can I be intentional about that? And we're several days into January 2025. And I'm like, yeah, that was a nice thought that I had and I wish I could be more intentional sometimes. But I think the reality is the world just keeps spinning and we have things on our plate and the world has a lot of things, like you said, going on. And it doesn't mean that I'm not intentional, it doesn't mean that I'm not trying to be kind and less controlling and more serene and peaceful, but it does mean that life, I think, sometimes just feels really chaotic.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I think that's what I think about when you share what you were just sharing is it just feels like there's a lot of chaos?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I don't know that that's new.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:So I think you threw out a word to me last week that I think we should really unpack, and that's how do we live with resilience when life is chaotic? You were talking about that word. Why don't you unpack? That thought a little bit.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, the context of me unpacking that word with you is I'm not being resilient. I find myself kind of waiting every day to hear what's next, like, okay, we've already had this, this, this, this and this happen, you know, also mixed in there. You know, we've had a presidential funeral already this year and we're about to have an inauguration. Like there's from people's personal lives to our nation's policies and politics, to everything in between. You just keep waiting for the next shoe to drop and I find myself maybe it's low level anxiety, I don't know, but I find myself trying to figure out, okay, what's going to happen next. And if I'm constantly allowing the circumstances I'm in or I am have this mentality which I find myself struggling with, once one, two and three happen in my life, struggling with once one, two and three happen in my life, then I can breathe deeper or I can be more at peace or I can feel like I have enough energy to keep going on some days, and it's that it kind of goes back to broken cisterns in some way. If I am dependent on my circumstances to dictate how am I going to feel and how am I going to move through this, I am always going to be a prisoner to that. That is that victim mindset that is drawing on broken cisterns to try to make me feel a certain way or believe a certain thing. And so the word that God just kept bringing back to me is resilient. And I was talking to you about that word because I said I don't think I ever should have helped to go write a book last year called Strength to Equal your Days, because what happens when you do that is God makes you live it. He's like, oh, okay, you want to tell everyone else that I am their strength that will equal your days. Well, here we go, here's your own little laboratory to start living in, because I just I found myself at the end of 24, almost dreading 2025 coming, because I kind of I was like can we have a pause button? Can we have like a week or two that don't count, where everyone can just collectively catch their breath and be ready to keep going, because it is the treadmill that never stops. It is like, and it's not just my life, it's everyone's life Everyone you talk to feels like they can't quite get caught up and they can never feel like, oh, I feel rested today, but not only physically, but emotionally, spiritually, mentally, I feel like I'm on top of things rather than I'm trying to run to keep up with the pace of how things are going, and so the word that kept coming to me is how are we going to be resilient? Because I don't think, sadly, people, I don't think 2025 is going to get better. I think these are the times that we are in. I don't think it's new.
Speaker 1:Jesus told us that we were going to have trouble in this world and, kimberly, you and I, in another conversation, we're reflecting on the verses in 2 Timothy 3, where it was describing in the last days there'll be perilous times and men will become lovers of themselves and proud and blasphemers and disobedient and unthankful and unholy, and people were like, oh my gosh. Well, that certainly describes the culture we're living in now, but it also described the culture that Paul was living in when he wrote it. I mean, if you want to go study Roman culture a bit and see what they were up to, oh my goodness, it looks. Some of the stuff going on in our culture today seemed tame. There's never been a time in history where life was easy.
Speaker 1:So how are we going to learn to be resilient, and by that my definition of that is regardless of what my circumstances are, I can find that inner, deeper core of trusting who God is and who I am in Him. That's not that I deny that this is hard and I'm tired and I wish it was different, but it doesn't take me out, it doesn't make me feel dread or hopelessness or discouragement, because when I'm feeling those things, that is my kind of traffic signal going your soul's stewing. You are trying to figure this out and feeling the weight of carrying this on your own. You're not allowing your spirit to be connected to God's spirit, you're not allowing your spirit to take the lead over your soul and your body. Because there are some very hard, dark days that I have been able to walk through with that feeling of resilience and knowing that God is with me, but those are days when I'm intentional about engaging my spirit with Father, son and Holy Spirit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, elizabeth, when you were talking about the word resilience, I kind of looked up the definition and some synonyms and one of the words that stood out to me was elasticity, and I was just thinking about that when you were talking about bouncing back, and I was just thinking about that when you were talking about bouncing back, being able to withstand.
Speaker 2:It also said the capacity to withstand, and I think we talk about that at Ruach and when we talk about aligning ourselves with Father, son and Spirit, we talk about a capacity. There is a capacity within us, because of the spirit and us living alongside his spirit, to be resilient, to withstand, to recover quickly. And one of the words they used was toughness, and I don't think that in a tough like let me put my dukes up here and kind of take you out you know, I can be tough and I can be like things can bounce off of me because I have a stubborn spirit I don't like, not with that attitude. I think it's more of that word elasticity, right, like the ability to spring back into shape, yeah. So I think it's important just to think about what that really means.
Speaker 1:Kimberly, you know you did the one thing I didn't think to do, which was look up the word resilient and see what the sentiment I really like, that elasticity word, and then the other word, you know, capacity you were talking about, because the other phrase that I've been kind of dialoguing with God about is I don't feel like my reservoir is very deep right now and like there have been many years, and that and that was part of God's gentle conversation with me is because I was kind of, of course, in true prophet fashion, beating myself up that I wasn't doing it all with excellence and I was just like there's just not enough of a reservoir. It feels like at times to do do it all, and God was just very kind to me and going. You know, sweetie, you've been draining from your reservoir since about 2016. And when you first noticed that your dad was having symptoms of Alzheimer's, like this has been a long road. You've been doing this for a long time. Now he is the ever flowing, always over abundant living water. But, yeah, your reservoir probably doesn't feel because I was comparing me now to me 10 years ago. He's like, well, you were in a different set of circumstances 10 years ago than you are now. So, of course, in some ways, it feels like your reservoir was a whole lot deeper back then, that whole idea of capacity. And there are times our circumstances can cause us to lose track of disciplines or lose track of just spending time with him in the tyranny of the urgent, and so our capacity does go back down.
Speaker 1:We use the example of a balloon a lot in Ruach Journey stuff that we do, and that's both of those elasticity and capacity right there. Where. How do you make a balloon bigger? You blow into it and that's great and the capacity grows, but also, over time, the air can leak back out, which is the importance of blessing our spirit, of nurturing our spirit, of spending time with God on a more intentional basis so that that balloon is as big as possible, Because you never know when you're going to wake up to the next crisis.
Speaker 1:I've said before, if you wait until the crisis hits to get yourself ready, it's going to be too late, and I think about that even people who have survived hurricanes, wildfires, whatever it's like. If you wait till the last minute to get yourself prepared, there's no time. And so what, Kimberly, can we be doing? And I think it's going to be different for all of us, but I find myself asking okay, what are the rhythms that I have potentially gotten out of, especially with the holidays, and schedules are just often different and weird but what are those practices that we could be doing so that we could be more elastic, where we could have more capacity?
Speaker 2:I think the number one thing that we have to do is take care of ourselves, and by that I mean holistically right.
Speaker 2:Physically, spiritually, mentally, emotionally we talk several times about the mental health crisis that we see going on around us. There's also a spiritual crisis going on around us. I mean, there's always a physical crisis going on around us, and so I think, if we can take care of ourselves in each of those areas, which includes discipline, and to whatever degree you're able to exercise discipline, I think there's also a measure to which some of those things take more discipline than others, and some of them are going to come more naturally as we practice them. You know, one of the things that we're gearing up for is our Ruach Journey Conference.
Speaker 2:That's coming in March, and we're offering two tracks for people, so you can anyone can come and be a part of the beginner track or the advanced track, and in both of those places we're going to talk about how do you care for your spirit, soul and body, how do we continue to set aside the things that cause our soul to stew? How do we step into aligning our spirit, soul and body with Father, son and Holy Spirit? I mean, honestly, a practical way that you can be resilient is to gather with others, as an example, by coming to the conference and being with people who are like-minded and continuing to gather with other people and fellowshipping with other people, who will hold you accountable and love you and walk with you through the journey of living by your spirit and by his spirit and, like you said, with the balloon, enlarging your capacity so that when you wake up each day, it's not this drudgery of how in the heck do I get back in alignment? I've come out, we snap out and we snap back in because we've got that resilience, we've got that elasticity, We've practiced it.
Speaker 1:You know, kimberly, there's kind of a funny image that's coming to my mind as I'm listening to you talk about all this and the elasticity and the resilience. I know because we talked about it. You and I both watched the presidential funeral services for Jimmy Carter that happened here in the US a couple of days ago and as they were arriving at the National Cathedral and I know it's like the video has been released on Instagram and other places You're giggling because I think you know what I'm going to talk about they're trying to get the casket out and him inside the building. And there are two men the casket out and him inside the building. And there are two men one is holding a flag with a presidential seal on it and the other one is holding the American flag.
Speaker 1:And I don't know how fast that wind was blowing, but it was brutal out there and like, while everyone else is focused on them carrying the casket up, a lot of people were focused on these two guys on them carrying the casket up.
Speaker 1:A lot of people were focused on these two guys because they were you could see. They were using everything within them to hold on to those flagpoles and not let those flags fall. And as you were talking about discipline and all the things that we need to do to be resilient, I'm just thinking of those two men and it's like if they had not been in the military shape that they were in, if they had not been doing daily PT, if they had not been as strong as they were, there's no way they could have, just like me, woken up that morning and said I'll hold the flag and be up there and hold on to those things. But those men were strong and I just kept willing them to get President Carter into the church so these two men could get out of the wind. That's all I wanted for them. They were not going to move from their post and they were not going to let those flags fall.
Speaker 2:No, and it's that same thing. When you were watching the men carry the casket step by step Into the National Cathedral was one thing, Into the Capitol was another. I'm like take the elevator.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they made my shoulders hurt.
Speaker 2:Right, but it is. It is a stamina, it is a resilience and it is practice. Somebody didn't just say hey, kimberly, you want to sign up for this job and we'll do it tomorrow. Right, like those guys have been training those men and women, they have to be prepared. And so how are we going to be prepared when things happen? Because that's the other thing is, like there are enduring factors, like we've talked about from the beginning of time.
Speaker 2:Yes, success does not come easily to us, so we're always striving. There is always been global instability and uncertainty, and we can talk about what we live in, but Paul can also talk about what he lived in. Right, absolutely, the knocks of life, like life knocks us down, right? So all of those things cause us to need to be resilient, and so we have to recognize what. What do we have in our tool bag that's readily available to us?
Speaker 2:And if you listen to this podcast, you're aware of what we talk about spiritually, that you have access to, and that's our mission. Our mission there's lots of ways that you can develop resilience. We could spend an hour talking and interviewing people about all the different ways you develop resilience. I think our number one message is we want you to know who God is and who you are in Him. Because that foundational belief, I can tell you what it was like in my teens and 20s to not really grasp that and thank God he put people in my life. Grasp that and thank God he put people in my life and I think I was able, at a younger age than many, to get that and to be able to wrestle with that throughout my life so that we can sit here and have this conversation.
Speaker 2:But it is that foundational understanding of being able to truly get, and that doesn't mean you don't question it, it doesn't mean that you don't get tossed about but, being able to readily and over and over again, through all of those different circumstances, come back to okay, I don't know what you're up to, I don't always like it, but I know you're God and I know who I am in you. I know I'm your daughter, and so how do I align myself with you, get in step with you, like those men carrying that casket had to be in step together.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I mean absolutely. There is a strengthening that's needed of our spirit. Then there's also the understanding, the cooperation of spirit, soul and body together, and then our spirit and soul and body with Father, son and Holy Spirit, and all of these are elements of things that we talk about at Ruach Journey, and we don't push Ruach Journey as a conference just because we're like, hey, we want you to come to our conference. We push it because it's been life-changing for us. We had a meeting with all of our leaders back in the fall and every one of them talked to us about the reason why they serve on this team is because it was so life-changing for them when they learned it. And then every time they come back and serve as a leader, they hear something else, they learn something more. God speaks to them in a different way, and so we are living in the midst of a war, and we've talked about that a lot in our podcast in the past, because not only do we have all the cultural stuff that we can see on the horizontal level, as we've talked about in other podcasts, we're living in the middle of a spiritual war, and so, on top of everything else that we feel like we're having.
Speaker 1:You've got an enemy who is determined to make you feel alone, to make you feel overwhelmed, to make you feel like you can't do it, to make you feel like it's not worth trying. So imagine you. Finally I mean for me, because I don't love to exercise I finally go to the gym and I have a personal trainer following me around. That's going well. You know you're not going to be able to lift that. Well, you know you're not going to make it through this. Well, yes, yeah, well, you might as not. Well, try, you know how. How motivating would that be for me to try to lift and do hard things? So, as much as we have Father, son and Holy Spirit cheering us on and saying you've got this, I am with you, everything that I am is at your disposal and you are an overcomer and you are victorious and we are going to make it.
Speaker 1:You also have another voice who's trying to scream as loud as he can God doesn't care about you. If he cared about you, you wouldn't be in these kinds of circumstances. If God cared about all these people, they wouldn't be suffering this much. And so there's a much bigger battle going on, and so, just like those men and women in the military that we saw at Jimmy Carter's funeral. We've got to be prepared, we've got to be ready to. And what I loved also about as I watched those men with those flags, I was reminded of all the scriptures that we talked about on our spiritual work episode, where our job is just to stand and we're like sometimes standing is not that easy, and I'm thinking of that day with those two guys with those flags. It definitely was not easy just to stand when you've got the wind trying to pull you and the flag off to the right. But what are we going to do to be resilient and stand in 2025?
Speaker 2:It reminds me, elizabeth, of the passage in Ephesians where Paul has actually talked about the armor of God and how to put on the armor of God, and then, in verse 14, it says stand firm. Then, like it's that, okay, I've told you all of this, I've said be strong in the Lord, put on the full armor. Now stand firm. Right, and so it is that there's that understanding in scripture of standing firm isn't easy, right, and the idea of we are called to stand firm because things will come at us, yes, will be going on around us. And it's like you said, elizabeth, we're not here to plug the Ruach Conference.
Speaker 2:There's lots of ways that people are in community.
Speaker 2:One of the things that we know, we teach, that we don't hear taught a lot, is that standing firm with Father, son and Holy Spirit, with our spirit, soul and body. Right, and so one of the things that I remember one of our leaders saying was when I asked her, I said why would you encourage someone to come to a Ruach Journey conference? And she said two words spiritual warfare. And those are not two words that anyone else would probably say, because why would? Is they had a lot of hard things go on in their life. Recently, in the last year or two, three, four years and she said she was seeing this wonderful counselor who had been a gift to her. And she said that counselor looked at her things like Ruach, where my spirit is able to be resilient among the incredibly difficult things that are going on in our life. Yeah, know, and I know you know this because we've been friends for over 20 years we know how hard it is to stand and to align ourselves and to walk in step with the Spirit.
Speaker 2:But we also know that it's worth the fight. It's worth continuing down the journey of pushing ourselves, encouraging ourselves, calling out to others to help us when we can't do it. We know how important it is to continue this walk and that's why we take the time to record this podcast. That's why we take the time to do the conferences, because the heart of it is we know what it's like in the battle. We know you know what it's like, and we long for you to sit with us on that other side and then to hold on to those memories and to hold on to those truths and to be able to bounce back to those things when we get thrown off and to stand firm.
Speaker 1:And so maybe you're feeling a little like me, where it feels like your reservoir might be running a little low right now, because rock journey is not about information. I mean, we do teach a lot of scripture and the biblical basis for a lot of the things that we do there, but it's really about an environment where you can get away for two and a half three days in an environment that is saturated by prayer, where you are surrounded by people who want to bless your spirit, nurture your spirit, help you have your own connection with God, help you hear what God wants to say to you. Personally, it's like a little cocoon, and even as leaders, we feel it when we go. I can't wait to get there in March, simply because of the environment. My own spirit, soul and body is going to be able to enjoy while we're there, and so maybe the best thing you can do to invest in yourself in 2025 is say you know what I'm going to make the sacrifice of time and finances and other things to allow my spirit, soul and body to be nurtured and rejuvenated and ministered to by people who are passionate about doing that for other people. And so if you are listening to this and you're like I don't even fully understand what spirit and soul and body mean, but there's something in me that just wants to be a part of that.
Speaker 1:We want to invite you to join us.
Speaker 1:If, for some reason, finances are a problem for you or a struggle for you, we do have a scholarship fund where you can email us and and help us understand kind of your situation and we could see how we could help you out, because our passion is for all people to understand the resilience that does come, the strength that comes, the ability to stand firm that comes as you learn how your spirit, soul and body are in relationship with Father, son and Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1:So we're super excited about it. If you've been to a Ruck Journey event before or done our study online, there's always something you are different at every conference that we do. And so why do we do these conferences? Not because we think it's fun to host a conference. It's a lot of work. We do it because we are so passionate about all of God's children being able to live from a spirit that is fully alive and large and in charge, and leading the soul and the body in this beautiful dance as you enjoy your relationship with Father, son and Holy Spirit. So we would love to have you come.
Speaker 2:We do hope to see you. We hope you will join us. In the meantime, we pray that you will be resilient as we continue into 2025. And we bless your spirit, soul and body to be aligned with Father, son and Holy Spirit. And we bless you to be resilient, father, son and Holy Spirit, and we bless you to be resilient, to be able to bounce back and to be elastic as things around you are chaotic. May the voice of your Father be louder than the other voices around you that try to steer you away from being grounded and standing firm. So we stand firm with you and we look forward to being with you again next time. I want to thank you for listening to the Father's Business Podcast.
Speaker 1:This podcast is made possible through donations by people like you. To donate, go to wwwthefathersbusinesscom. Be sure to follow us at the Father's Biz on Instagram and Facebook.
Speaker 2:We're excited to tell you about our Ruach Journey conference that's coming soon. It will be March 5th through 7th at Sandy Cove Conference Center in Maryland in 2025.
Speaker 1:And for the first time, we're going to be offering two tracks at the same time. You can either come and be a part of the beginner track, which is for people that are new to the idea of Ruach Journey, or be a part of the advanced track for those of you that have either attended a conference before or have done the Ruach Journey study. That's available on our website.
Speaker 2:So if you want to come be a part of that beginner track, we're going to give you the foundation for the teachings of the Ruach Journey. We'll be talking about the biblical foundation for blessing your spirit, how to live from your position and identity in Christ, understanding your unique design. This will give you a rich introduction to this framework. If you want to go deeper in this advanced track, then we will dive even deeper into these topics. We will explore new connections between the spirit, soul and body. We will learn about blessing the land and the impact that land can have on us. We will also talk about how to heal the wounded spirit. This advanced track will be an opportunity to focus on building what you've already learned. So we hope that you will join us for one of these tracks.
Speaker 1:And if you're looking for that perfect Christmas gift to give to someone, now's your time, because between now and the end of the year, we are offering this conference at an early bird discount rate of $2.99, which will be a huge discount off of the full price of the conference. So go to our website, thefathersbusinesscom, click on events to learn more and register today.
