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The Father's Business Podcast
The Father's Business Podcast
Summer Series: Safe in the Father's Heart-The Moon is Round
Have you ever felt like God was distant or hidden from view? We've all experienced those dark nights of the soul when faith feels fragile and God's presence seems like a distant memory. In this deeply personal episode, Elizabeth and Kimberly share how a simple yet profound truth—"the moon is round"—became our lifeline during seasons of devastating loss.
What makes this truth so powerful is that it creates space for honest wrestling with God. It doesn't demand perfect faith or understanding. Like Job, David, and even Jesus in Gethsemane, we can bring our raw questions and doubts to God while still remaining in relationship with Him. The paradox of faith is that we believe in God's power to intervene—He could have healed our fathers—and yet He often doesn't act in the ways we desperately want.
If you're walking through your own season of grief, questioning, or darkness, know that you're not alone. Your questions are valid. Your pain matters. And even when you can't see the full picture, the moon is still round. God is still faithful. He is still holding you, even when it doesn't feel like it.
The Father's Business was founded by Sylvia Gunter to encourage people to a deeper relationship with God. I'm Elizabeth Gunter Powell.
Speaker 2:And I am Kimberly Roddy. Welcome to the Father's Business Podcast. We are so glad that you've joined us. Hey friends, this is Kimberly. I want to personally invite you to join me and my dear friend Elizabeth for the Rooted and Resilient Conference, october 3rd and 4th in Charlotte, north Carolina. This weekend is going to be all about helping you get refreshed, realigned and rooted in who you are in Christ. It's going to be a mixture of practical teaching and space to hear from God so you can exchange, striving for rest, fear for sonship and depletion for a spirit-led life. It's $95 to register or if you bring a friend, it's just $80 each. I would love for you to come together, grow together and leave stronger in your faith by being with us this weekend, october 3rd and 4th. Spots are limited. Grab your seat now at thefathersbusinesscom. Go to our events page. It's Rooted and Resilient in Charlotte, october 3rd and 4th. I can't wait to see you there. Well hi everyone. Thank you for joining us for our summer release of the Safe at the Father's Heart series.
Speaker 2:Today is episode 10 in this series, and episode 10 is called the Moon is Round.
Speaker 2:This phrase has been an anchor for Elizabeth and I in some of the hardest seasons of our lives. And it's not a slogan, it's not a quick fix. Sometimes we joke about it because we're just like okay, the moon is round. Because what that means to us is that even when the moon appears hidden or when we just see a sliver of it or barely anything, we know that the moon is still round. It hasn't changed. It's just our view of the moon that has changed and that has become a picture for us of how God's character never changes. Even when we can't see him, even when we can't sense his presence, we know that he is still there. So in this episode we talk about what that really looked like in real time in our lives, when everything felt so fragile, like losing loved ones, facing uncertainty, waking up so many days just unsure of how to take the next step. Elizabeth and I share with you in this podcast. How did we cling to God's character never changing and the moon being round?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it all started at a concert. Kimberly, you and I were both bone tired after we had led a full week of a youth conference and I was in the process of moving overseas, you were in the process of going to seminary. I mean, our lives were about to completely change from being roommates who do ministry together in Atlanta and we decided to go to the concert anyway, and that is where we first heard the song the Moon is Round. And that is exactly what you and I both needed to hear in that moment, because we didn't know, like we had no idea what was coming over the next weeks and months, with your father getting sick and dying of cancer. And then I'm overseas and I can't be with you as you're going through this hard time.
Speaker 1:But I remember so many nights you it would be nighttime, my time, daytime, your time we would get on the phone and you would just pour your heart out to me and I don't. What can I say in that moment? Like, what do you say to someone as they're grieving? And all I could keep saying to you is the moon is round. And so it's just the thing that, through your struggles and mine as well, when I don't get it and you don't get it. We can trust that God is faithful, even if we don't understand it, in the big things of life and also in the small, aching moments of life, that the moon is round.
Speaker 2:And it's also about us giving each other and ourselves the permission for everything to not be okay, and giving ourselves permission to say out loud God, I don't trust you right now. I don't trust that you're good right now. I want to believe and know that you're good. I don't trust you right now. I don't trust that you're good right now. I want to believe and know that you're good, but I don't feel it, and that in itself is an honest trust. It's an honest cry. It's that wrestling trust that we talked about a few weeks ago, the kind that we saw in Job and in David and the Psalms, and it's the kind that Jesus himself expressed in the Garden of Gethsemane. And so in this episode, you'll hear that. You'll hear that wrestling of trusting God and trying to truly believe that the moon is round and that God is present.
Speaker 1:And so for those of you that find yourself in maybe some really difficult circumstances and you might be walking through your own why season, where the answers don't come and the pain is still there, we want to say to you that we are so sorry for what you have been going through.
Speaker 1:This episode isn't meant to explain away your pain or to tell you to get over it. It's just to remind you that you're not alone and that, even when you can't see the full picture, the moon is still round. God is still present, he is still faithful, he is still holding you, even if it doesn't feel like it. So, whether you're grieving or questioning, or simply trying to stay afloat in your circumstances, all of us right now, if we think not only in our own lives, but what's going on in our country and the world, I think we all need to be reminded that the moon is still round, and so we pray this episode is a lifeline for your spirit and your soul and your body and that you might hear the whisper of God's love that meets you right where you are. So let's listen in on episode 10 of Safe in the Father's Heart. The Moon is Round.
Speaker 2:Well hi everyone, welcome back to the Father's Heart. The moon is round. Well hi everyone, welcome back to the Father's Business Podcast, and today we are picking back up in chapter 11 of Safe in the Father's Heart. This is the chapter on trust as a weapon. We heard a lot from Sylvia last week and we were focusing on the idea that we can trust God and trust Jesus in these difficult moments. We looked at the verse in Job 13, 15. It says, though he slay me, yet will I trust him? There's another part of this chapter, that's more of part of our story, elizabeth, where we went to a concert and heard a song that really had an impact and continues to have an impact on us.
Speaker 1:You know me, I'm the tape recorder. I've got random dates stuck in my head. It was July 13th 2001. And we had just finished our church that the youth group that we were both on staff with hosted a summer conference every year in July called Gold Rush, where like 700 teenagers from all over the Southeast would come and we were kind of the host. And so we, we work like dogs and we're exhausted and it is just like we woke up Friday morning and everybody went home. So we're, we're still trying to undo everything that you have to undo after a conference is over.
Speaker 1:And I had already had it kind of saved on my calendar because I really loved Alan Levi's music and I knew he was going to be at a church near us that night. We almost didn't go because we were both just worn out, but I was like let's go. So I can almost feel the exhaustion coming back. As we kind of dragged our bodies to this concert. We sat up in the balcony like I remember everything about this night and it was great and it was relaxing and it was nice.
Speaker 1:And towards the end of the evening he started telling the story of a friend of his who had had cancer, really battled through it and in the end she died of cancer. And by that we mean it doesn't matter from our perspective. We think the moon changes. It goes from quarter to half to full and it's, you know, waxing and waning and all these these terms they use about the moon, but the moon never changes. That's just how much light is reflecting off the moon from our perspective. And so we both kind of held on to that one because, kim, if you'll remember, we were done with the camp, we had a few days, and then you were leading a mission trip to Russia, I was leading one to Romania, you were going off staff at the church because you're about to move to Texas and start seminary. Your grandmother wasn't doing well, she had cancer, and so there was just a lot going on that night that we needed to be able to hear. The moon is round.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we thought that that was a hard. Well, we did. I don't you know you never.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we were kind of struggling, but we had no idea what was coming.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't think you always know what's coming out of. God's graciousness maybe, yeah, but yeah, life got a lot harder in the near future. I mean even for you. You were wondering about moving back overseas, and then 9-11 happened shortly after that, which changed a lot of things, everything. I mean today we talk about 2020, right, and we all know what that means COVID but back then, everything centered around 9-11. I mean it still does, to a certain degree, a lot of the changes. It's just not as front and center.
Speaker 1:So I mean Kimberly, you're right, there was a lot going on Came back from Romania, really felt God calling me and saying this is your time to go back, which is something I really didn't think ever was going to happen after I moved home from Romania the first time. So I was excited and scared and what does all this mean? And how do I raise the money? And in the midst of that, then your grandmother died in August and you really loved her a lot and that was a huge blow and I remember being there with you for all of that. And then 9-11 happened. So all of my ideas of God what's this? You opened this part of my heart again to move back overseas.
Speaker 1:And now 9-11 is happening and we don't know what's going on in the world. And at the same time, you're gearing up to leave and go to Texas and you and I were dear, dear friends and roommates, and so there was the anticipation of loss there and all the questions you had about starting seminary. And then you get out to seminary and within a couple of months, you hear that your dad has been diagnosed with cancer. It just kind of felt like wave after wave after wave kept coming at both of us after we kind of held onto this new truth that the moon is round. And there was a lot of days, as those waves came, that I didn't even know what to pray, I didn't know how to pray, I didn't know how to respond, I didn't know what to think and all I could eke out is the moon is round.
Speaker 2:It's hard to remember what it felt like in the moment and in a lot of those places of grief, your mind forgets things. I can remember the big events and the overarching scheme and timeline. Remember the big events and the overarching scheme and timeline, but a lot of the details are blurry. Yeah, I do remember you often just saying the moon is round.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because I didn't want to say right, that's right, that's what I was gonna say, you didn't know what else. To there was nothing else to say no. And those are the moments where you know, you and I both know that when people are hurting and they're in struggling situations, we don't necessarily have to come in and give them answers because we don't have them. Yeah, and I think it was this season that really showed us that. Yeah, in the song he says it's full, it's quarter, it's fingernailed and it's gone. At times, the clouds will hide it from my sight. The only thing that changes is my partial point of view, but I know the moon is up there every night. When the light cannot be seen, when the circle can't be found, the moon is round, the moon is round.
Speaker 2:And for me, when my dad was sick and that's all that you knew to say, and that was honestly what probably gave me the most comfort that was also a season for me where the body of Christ became very real to me, because I was in Texas, where I only had a few people that I knew and only one or two people that knew me before moving to Texas. Right, I had to lean on other people to support me to carry me and my family through that season. What I remember clearly is in November of 2002, when my dad passed away, it was after midnight and it was bright outside because it was like a day or two after the full moon. It was practically a full moon. You know, to the naked eye it was a full moon and I remember crying. That's all I needed to see. And those are the moments, elizabeth, where this chapter deals with this. I didn't. It didn't feel good.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:I could take a whole nother podcast and share how I thought that God was going to answer our prayers differently. Yeah, that night our family was there together and that was not. I didn't think we were going there. I mean, I didn't think that's where we were headed. I didn't think that was the end of the story. So to speak for my dad's earthly life. And so, in the midst of it, not feeling good or right or fair or loving, I trusted in that still small moment that God was still real, that he was still there that he was still present.
Speaker 2:I didn't trust that he was good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, why would you? Because nothing about it in your emotions felt good. Losing your dad in your 20s when he's only in his 50s? That's not the definition of good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would love to be able to fully embody all of trust To be able to fully say with every fiber of my being I trust in all aspects and all ways and all areas. I don't think it looks like that. I think it's the phrase all in right, Like I want to be all in, but in those moments I still trusted Didn't mean there wasn't a fight, Didn't mean there wasn't doubt, Didn't mean there wasn't a struggle. But I knew that. I knew that night in November that God was present, that he was real, that he could be trusted to love me and to love my family and to carry us through that season. And he did. And I think that came because I had a relationship with him.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think you'd seen in the past in your life where things looked grim and yet through time you began to see, just even at some of the fingerprints of what God was up to, and never fully understanding why in the world did that happen? I mean, you know, but you do get to see little glimpses of. Okay, this is something that came out of that and this came out of that, and here's what God was doing in my own heart during those times. But as I'm listening to you talk, I have two thoughts bubbling up in me.
Speaker 1:One is I think a lot of times I'll speak to myself, but I think a lot of us do this we put this pressure on ourselves to be super Christians and like, if I am a true believer, I am never going to waver, I'm never going to not, as you're saying, be all in trust who God is and all those things. And at the same time, scripture talks about us. We're frail, we're human, we're going to struggle, and it's just what do you do with the struggle? And my other reason why I think I struggle to be all in is because I do believe God could do whatever he wanted to do.
Speaker 1:God could have physically healed your dad on this earth if that was his choice, and so sometimes it's hard to be all in on. I trust you because I believe so much in the power of what God could do. God could have healed my dad from Alzheimer's if that was his choice. He didn't choose to do so. So I, you know, much like you, I clung to, the moon is round, and, as my mom would look to me and say, why is this happening, why are we going through this and I had no answers for her either.
Speaker 1:You know why is a very hard question to answer. All I could look at her and do is say, mom, the moon's round. And especially this past year of my dad's life, it got to a point where we had to put him into a memory care facility because it got to a level where we we we are not professionally trained enough to help this. And in that process, you know, he fell and broke his hip and then he went to rehab and then he went to memory care and then he got moved to another memory care and then eventually ended up in skilled nursing care. So I moved my dad five times in the past year of his life and every time that I moved him it was another just barrage against my heart of, seriously, god like this is your idea, this is your good idea, knowing that he's with us, knowing that he was with me every step of the way, but still having this question of couldn't you just make it where he could go to one facility and everything is fine and we just stay there? Why all of this turmoil? Over and over and over again. And, kimberly, every time I had to move him I would wake up in the morning, tears in my eyes saying I don't want to do this today.
Speaker 1:And as I drove to help get him moved, there's the moon in the sky. And so I know for you the day of your dad's funeral. We share it in the book. As you're driving to the funeral, you see the moon in the sky. And so there's so many sweet times that God puts that moon up in the sky because I don't have the, I don't even have the faith in that moment to believe it, and so he puts it up in the sky to remind me I'm still here, I've got you.
Speaker 1:And the same thing happened when, when my dad passed away, march 1st was another full moon. And as I'm driving to the funeral, it's like, well, of course, there it is and the moon is round, and okay, that's going to give me enough assurance to make it through this very hard day. And so you see the compassion of God and all of that. But again, to me, I struggle with that because I was like, okay, you organize the planets and allow the moon to be in the sky when I need to be in the sky, but you also could have saved my dad, you also could have saved Kimberly's dad. You also could have intervened in this situation, and you didn't in the way that I wanted you to. You did intervene. Both your dad and my dad are now completely whole and healed and more of themselves than they've ever been.
Speaker 2:But that doesn't mean we don't want them here. Right, and not everybody has that story. I mean, there's so many people that question God because of these hard, difficult things and knowing the power that he holds, but not understanding the why. And we've alluded to that in several conversations throughout this series what if you didn't have a good father? What if God didn't show up? How we trust, how we continue to trust, and how it's a come and keep coming, the choice that's in that because of getting to know the character of God. But then you get to know the character of God and you see that he's capable and powerful. But then you get to know the character of God and you see that he's capable and powerful, and then he doesn't do certain things that you're wanting to do and he's not a puppet master. But then there's things that he doesn't do that feel unjust or unkind or unloving and there's no easy answers for any of this.
Speaker 2:I mean, I questioned a lot of things after my dad died and it was painful and it was difficult and it was hard and still those questions come up and you wonder things and at the end of the day, for me I go back to Isaiah where he says my ways are higher than your ways and I have to trust he sees a bigger picture, a different picture, and, elizabeth, I think us sharing in particular.
Speaker 2:For us, especially where you are now and the journey you've walked this year that you were just talking about, the title of this book is Safe in the Father's Heart and the whole thing is about how we want love from our Father and God offers that as our Father. And sometimes our earthly fathers fail us, sometimes they don't intend to, sometimes they do intend to, but in that, in this moment, in this particular conversation, our stories right now are about our earthly fathers and how, even in the story of our earthly fathers, we needed God to show up and say the moon is round, I'm a good father, I'm a loving father, I am a safe father.
Speaker 1:I kind of wonder why we called it safe in the father's heart, because I'm thinking about that CS Lewis quote where the children are asking them about Aslan, who represents God in that story, and they're like, is he safe? And they're like, oh, no, child, he's not safe, but he's good. There's times where I question the goodness of God and there's times I trust the safety of God, like, do you? I mean, thank you for trusting me to walk out my faith in this situation, but are you sure I'm really up to this? And I mean, I'm even just sitting here thinking, yeah, we're talking about losing our earthly fathers and the struggles that we've been through, but what about Christian martyrs?
Speaker 1:Like there are people in countries being murdered for their faith today and God's not rescuing them either, you know, and so you can get yourself into a very big space of asking why? And do you care? And are you there? And all those types of things. But that's where you just got to come back to the truth of God's word. Yeah, that we're not going to understand it, but we've got to trust it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you what you just said there about? There's even men and women who are dying because of their faith and we look at that and we say that's unjust, that's unfair. But it's kind of like we look at them and we don't put blame on them, whereas in other situations what did I do wrong to cause that? And this is not my question, but like what? Did I do wrong to cause this? What did I do wrong to cause this, this pain, this hurt? God, why didn't you rescue me?
Speaker 2:Why didn't you not allow this to?
Speaker 1:happen. It is the struggle, it is a wrestling process to live in the trust of God, because there are those tough situations where you look at and, from a human perspective, I see no good thing coming out of this. And so why did this have to happen? Good thing coming out of?
Speaker 3:this, and so why did?
Speaker 1:this have to happen and you know, even you know, think of wars and and I mean you can think globally and you can think personally someone was injured not because they did anything to deserve it or ask for it, but they have been harmed and I don't see any good coming out of that. And that is just part of the wrestling with God. I just think about, you know, jacob wrestling all night with the angel of the Lord and even Job crying out to God. You know where were you? And God never answers the question.
Speaker 1:And that's really hard to say and I wish God would just come down and go okay, here's what I'm up to. But I think, even if God came into my life and said to me here's exactly why I did what I did, I don't think my mind could understand it fully and comprehend it and go oh, okay, yeah, that makes sense. And that's just a hard place to get to of having to put some of these things on the altar of God and just say you are so other than me that I'm never going to understand it, but I'm going to choose to trust you anyway. And that's hard, it's real hard.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think I just would love to take this moment to say to if anyone's feeling and sensing and believing those things as we're talking, I just want to. I want you to hear we're sorry for what you've walked through. It must be incredibly painful. I think I just want to offer people in this moment some empathy, some compassion, some care, like the words, I'm sorry, fall, fall flat a little bit too, but I'm sorry that that's been part of your story and your journey. Yeah, I want to have compassion for you and your story and I pray that you have people in your life that can hold that space for you as you wrestle and walk through these difficult, difficult things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because that hope deferred, that pain that runs so deep, there's just a deep ache. There are times I've been in those places in my own life and the only thing I could hold on to in that moment is there's the verse that talks about how the Holy Spirit groans and intercedes. And I just I just thought about that word, groan, I just even, as for some reason, these things have been allowed to happen. I just think the heart of God also breaks and groans to have to watch the children that he loves walk through these things. And the itty bit of comfort that I was able to find in the midst of those deep places where I was like I don't even know how to pray right now All I know how to do is groan is that he watched his own. Like Jesus experienced it.
Speaker 1:I mean, we can't imagine the depth of the sorrow and the pain and all the feeling of what he went through. And so, as much as it's hard to turn to God to try to find comfort or understanding, because you kind of feel like, well, you're the one who could have done something about it, it honestly is the only place I know where to go, and I'm grateful that Jesus knows what it's like. I mean, he experienced every emotion and thing that we experienced while he was here on earth and so in some ways we have a very compassionate friend in Jesus, because I remember there's times I've just felt like I've kind of curled up in his lap and I'm just sitting there going Jesus. But it hurt so bad when this happened and I'm telling him the story and I just kind of sensed again didn't hear an audible voice, but just kind of sensed him going.
Speaker 1:I know, I know I'm so sorry, I know that was hard and then that's why Kimberly, I just keep going back to the moon is round, not to throw it out as a trite thing, but just to go hang on. Just hang on. If you can't see the moon right now, maybe a few days from now you'll be able to see it. Maybe you can't see the goodness of God right now, maybe you can't understand why he allowed things to happen to you, but just hang on and open up your heart and hope that at some point there will be an answer.
Speaker 2:And if you're able to dig back or dig in somewhere and find places where you can trust or where you have trusted, then you can cling to those places. And sometimes you don't have that, but you choose to trust anyway, yeah.
Speaker 1:So we hope our conversation today has been an encouragement to all of you, if you find yourself in hard places, to just hold on and if you can see the moon, or if you can't see the moon, that the moon is still round. So we want to close our podcast today by sharing Alan Levi's song with you.
Speaker 3:It is full in its quarter, its fingernail, then gone water it's fingernail then gone. At times the clouds will hide it from my sight. The only thing that changes is my partial point of view, but I know. The moon is up there every night when the light cannot be seen, when the circle can't be found. The moon is round. The moon is round. The moon is round, the moon is round. One day it's just a shadow, dark and gray. On another it's a halo shining bright. It wraps itself in swaddling clothes.
Speaker 3:Some day, and the next, it's in a gown of silver light, just a tiny string of thread and a bright and golden crown. The moon is round. The moon is round. The moon is round. The moon is round. The moon is round, like the ocean floor and the air I breathe. I will trust in things that I cannot see. I believe there is love watching over me. The moon is round. There's a light that is sweet and pure. There's a love that's strong and sure. The moon is round, the moon is round. The moon is round. The moon is round. The moon is round. The moon is round. The moon is round. It is the moon is round, all through the day and every night. The moon is round. The moon is round. The moon is round. The moon is round. The moon is round, the moon is round.
Speaker 1:Forever and always. The moon is round. I want to thank you for listening to the Father's Business Podcast. This podcast is made possible through donations by people like you. To donate, go to wwwTheFathersBusinesscom. Be sure to follow us at the Fathers Biz on Instagram and Facebook.
