Episode 1 - Why Are We Here?

In this episode, Jani Burke introduces herself and her journey to this podcast. 

Citing the story of Jonah, and his avoidance of what God has called him to do, Jani reflects on your own avoidance of what she knows to be a 'calling' from the Lord, which is very different that an idea. 

In a humorous way, Jani laughs at herself, while at the same time, challenging listeners to take a look at where they may also be dodging God's perfect direction for their own lives. 

Transcript

Speaker: Jani Burke 
Welcome to Christians Living in the Real World Podcast, Episode One! 

I am so excited and quite frankly just honored to be here today. If you would indulge me just for a minute to introduce myself and kind of explain why I decided to do this. I'm Jani Burke. I'm a mother, a daughter, sister, friend, business owner, former corporate executive. Beyond that, I am Mimi to three of the most beautiful children on the planet, personal bias acknowledged of course. But first and foremost, I'm really just a follower of Jesus Christ, one who's just failing forward, every day, in the grips of His grace and mercy. 

This podcast is really created to be a refuge, a place of information, humor, and encouragement for Christ followers just like me... a place where we can look inward, examine our hearts, and our minds, laugh at ourselves and lean into God's perfect plan for our lives. His plans ARE perfect, even sometimes when they seem a little scary. This is a place for everyone who has to fight those well worn tapes that in our minds that tell you you don't measure up or  you're just not good enough, or perhaps, maybe even God is just weary of you, or I'm saying this on my behalf too, because of my own spiritual journey. 

I'm just gonna tell you upfront, I absolutely do not have the formal training to speak on the Scriptures the way so many do, so I defer to their expertise, but rather my, 'air quotes' education has really come from a place of walking with the Lord through a roller coaster life. Oh.... no .... walking, that's probably a little too passive... think about roller coasters.. it's not like I felt securely buckled in. Many times, I felt like I was on the outside hanging on those bars, you know, as the roller coaster just whips around those fierce, unseen corners. 

Of all the people that I relate to most in Scripture, I would say it's Joseph. And when you look at Joseph's life, he had HIGH highs and LOW lows. You know, the well.... the cell.... I mean those are pretty low, lows. And yet God always had a plan. And each time He redeemed him, and he did over and over, he just redeemed him....and because of Joseph's faithfulness, which is of course what we all strive toward, God continued to trust him with more and more. 

So today, is really about why we're here. Not why we're here on this earth.... That would be probably a very short podcast, I would simply say to know God, and to make Him known. So.... 30 second podcast... all done!!  No, I'm referring why we're here together today. I honestly don't know why you're here. Thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate it. But I'm here because God told me to be here. 

I'm gonna guess that most of you are familiar with the story of Jonah and the whale. And we're actually going to drill down on that in a few minutes. But that is why I'm here. Bottom line..... I mean, God said, "Go to Nineveh'"... not exactly. He said, "I want you to start this for people who feel like they're just getting by in life, for people who need to know and be reminded of my strength in their weakness, and just how much I love them no matter what!" Well,  promptly being the obedient child of God that I am, I have, quite frankly found anything, everything else to do.... places to go.... projects to work on, and have not consciously, but unconsciously avoided doing the very thing that I know He has called me to do. 

I'm a certified life and business coach. There's a term for that kind of behavior. We call it buffering. And again, that is doing anything else... I mean, whether it's laundry, Netflixing, shopping, whatever we can find ways to fill our time can't we, and avoid those things. There's also a biblical term for this. Hhhmmm... That's called disobedience. And again, not because I wanted to deliberately be disobedient, but rather, just stepping into something so unfamiliar and uncomfortable.... It's just new territory! And so I've subtly or not so subtly just avoided His direction. And yet I hear Him whisper, "Do you trust Me?" And, and He has patiently, patiently waited. 

So let's begin with some very real world circumstances that I know we all face.... that which I liken to what my daughter's school used to call 'Opposite Day'. Opposite Day was a day when the kids would go wear, say, do the opposite of what was considered normal. You can actually find it in the urban dictionary. I looked it up and it says: Opposite Day - A contrived holiday in which everything you do or say means exactly the opposite. A day in which everything is done backwards as in, 'yes means no', 'no means yes'. A contrived holiday. Did you catch that... 'contrived', as in haha, made up, satirical, it's a joke.... It's a JOKE!. And yet, man, doesn't that feel like the world we're living in sometimes? It's like opposite day has become life...reality...  like good is evil and evil is good. Every time you turn on the TV, and I don't even mean the news, of course, but even just regular shows where the behavior... everything that is opposite of what God's Word teaches us, THAT is what the world is doing. So how do we navigate that? I mean, how do we how do we influence the next generation, in God's Word when so much of what they experience on a daily basis, it might seem like opposite day to us, but to them, this is just normal. And it's yet again, in direct contrast to God's Word. 

We're going to be exploring that in future episodes as well. And, quite frankly, we'll be really drilling down on some TOPICS! So if you'd like me today, just enjoy the moment, because you might not like me in the future. And that's okay. I understand. 

With that said, please know that this is absolutely a 'no spiritual or emotional judgment' zone, especially from me. Oh, friends, trust me. I mean, there are some things that have come into my life that I truly had no control over, that were disastrous. There have been other things that have crept in, like the thief in the night and I honestly wasn't standing guard at the door. And before you know it, you find yourself saying, 'how did I end up here?' And then sadly, there have been other times when I willingly walked headlong into situations that I knew would disappoint God and I made that choice anyway. Those are the hardest ones, are they? 

So trust me, there is no one, especially me, flying around in some spiritual Wonder Woman costume. I mean, let's be honest, no one ever looked good in that outfit other than Linda Carter Carter anyways?
 Okay, funny side story. About 20 years ago, when live drama was was a big thing in churches. I was part of the drama team. Well, one weekend we did a superhero sketch, which really was funny and poignant... It was it was a great sketch! But I was cast as Wonder Woman, when I showed up for reheasal on a Friday night, and found that aside from the Cape, that was hanging neatly on a hanger, the rest of my costume was in a baggie! So just word of the wise, be careful what you sign up for! 

I will say I am passionate about God's Word. But I need to be clear that this new journey is not not a result of my passion, but rather I'm confident, convinced....CONVICTED is really the best word, that God has called me to do this. And like I said, it's taken me a while to get here. I don't know how your brain works, but mine just never seems to take a nap. And minds are fascinatingly complicated. It's truly a miracle of God's design. But I also know that my mind can come up with some pretty crazy ideas. And, it has! And since I tend to be a little bit of a risk taker, I'm here to report a few of them have turned out okay. Lots of them did not. But my point is, ideas are totally different than the calling. So often we look through Scripture at those who are called to do something, and pretty much responded the way I was feeling.... 'Oh Lord, I'm sorry, you've got the wrong girl! I don't want to imply that You make mistakes. I'm just saying... WRONG GIRL!! Wrong number..... what else You got?" 

I lost my job during COVID. I've never been let go from any job. I'm a super hard worker, I pour myself into my work. And for months, I just kept hearing those last words from my co workers  before we all signed off... "How is that even possible? No one fires Jani Burke!" Oh, how I wanted to believe that. And to this day, I don't know from the company's perspective, why, I mean, restructure is what I understood. But I one thing I do know for sure, indeed, I DID get let go! I'm not going to sugarcoat it. It messed with my mind. It came on the heels of a phase of life that had already caused some major, major mind drama, which we'll talk about in the future as well. We do have control over that! This is what I've learned! But but here's the thing. I had planned to resign at some point anyway, because I knew God was calling me out of that position into this journey. But I mean, when that decision is made for you, your brain takes you in all kinds of directions that span from ego to just sheer anxiety. 

There were lots lots of days when my brain felt like that spinning wheel on your computer where it's looking like it's doing something.... it's busy.... lots of windows open, but nothing's happening just spinning! The Lord had to show me that really happened because He was directing me to do this new thing. But here's the thing... left to myself, I honestly, may have never left that position! I was very comfortable. I loved the people that I worked with! After all, our human brain reasons, who leaves a great salary, great benefits, CERTAINTY.... clearly, it wasn't..... for the unknown? Well, since then, I have spent a lot of time at the foot of the cross. And a place that I've always said is, the best and the worst place to be all at the same time. That's actually not true. It's always the best place to be. But when do we find ourselves there? It's when we feel our life is unraveling. So that was the place where I finally found peace. In the circumstance, which, by the way, that's all it is..... It's just a circumstance.... It's just a human circumstance of which we know our God is so much greater than any circumstance, just like Joseph when he was in the cell. I mean, that was just a circumstance in the well.... just a circumstance. But each time, you know, when I oh, so dramatically cried out to God for direction, He first gently directed me to the story of Jonah. And then I started to feel a little more heat, like maybe he was lining up the boat, maybe he was planning the storm, maybe even, finding the fish. And because He had told me enough times, and I just was not moving forward, He might have to do something drastic in order to set me in motion. Well, okay, so here we are!!  I wanted to avoid that! 

So let's look at the story of Jonah. In Jonah 1:2, Scripture says 'a Word of the Lord came to Jonah, son of a Amittai, "Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because it's wickedness has come up before Me."

 Okay, have you ever had this experience, where you just know that you know that God is directing you to do something or go somewhere or say something that is completely out of your comfort zone? Well, when you and I look at Jonah's story, it looks pretty clear. I mean, God was very clear. It wasn't even a question. It was it was a command:  "Go to Nineveh!" Okay, so sometimes I feel empathetic. And when I read these stories, because I know again, how I think, and I want to give him a pass. I mean, maybe maybe he was thinking, 'Am I sure that was God?' Maybe he was thinking, 'I must have gotten my wires crossed. That doesn't even make sense that could not have been God. Just another one of my harebrained ideas.' Do you ever do that? I think we've all done that, right? God tells us to do something. And we rationalize our way out of it, trying to convince ourselves it wasn't really God at all. 

That was NOT what was going on here. Because when you and I have those thoughts, right or wrong, what do we tend to do? Nothing. We tend to do nothing. We just tend to go on with our day like it never happened. That is not what Jonah did! He was he was crystal clear that this had come from God Himself. He just didn't want to go, and can you blame him? Nineveh was a wicked, wicked city! It was a culmination of what the Jewish people hated about the Gentile world. In fact, its name was a synonym for 'godless tyranny'. So what did Jonah do? He ran. He ran from God, running.... hiding from God, like that's ever worked! (Adam and Eve) He boarded a ship that was headed for Tarshish, which we now know as Spain. Once he was on the ship, verse four tells us that the Lord sent a great wind and such a violent storm rose up that the ship threatened to break up. 

Okay, I'm a light sleeper.... I don't even know how this is possible... But especially in that environment, Jonah had gone down to the depths of the boat and had fallen asleep! The sailors were all running around on deck, offloading materials trying to lighten the load, while while they prayed to their own gods... Spoiler alert: That did not help either. 
In the meantime, the captain went below to wake up Jonah and I'm assuming, yelled at Jonah, "How can you sleep? Get up and call on..... YOUR God!!  Maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not perish!"  So Jonah apparently wipes asleep out of his eyes goes up where the rest of the men are on the surface, and while this makes so little sense to us, the men decide to cast lots to figure out who was to blame. I have to admit, I've read this passage many times, I just have never really paused to understand why they did that. So I looked it up and I found this explanation. There's actually a name for this activity when it when it's applied to this type of circumstance. The word is cleromancy. I don't know if I'm pronouncing that right.  Did you know that you can actually look up audio (pronunciations) I looked it up and found three different versions. I'm going with CLERomancy. We're going to own it! Cleromancy is a form of sorting, casting of lots in which an outcomes determined by means that normally be considered random, such as the rolling of the dice, but most significantly, are sometimes believed to be the Will of God. So they believed that they could determine who was to blame for this very, very sticky situation they found themselves in by casting lots. Apparently, it worked. It was not used to determine the guilty party. What it was used for, was to create the order in which each person would have to confess their wrongdoings. Oh, yeah, let's sign up for that!! Let me get first in line on that one! I mean, who's gonna sign up for that? So I'm not sure if they use dice, or one of those old bottles that they used to send notes across the ocean. I don't know what they used. But whatever it was, it landed squarely on Jonah. Jonah was like, "Hey, guys, I already told you that I was running from the Lord!" "Whoa, dude.... Yeah, but what did you do? And more importantly, what are we supposed to do?" 

Now on the surface? I gotta give them props for trying to handle situation, as best they could. Jonah had told them, "You need to throw me overboard!" And they actually tried not to. They tried rowing back to shore, to no avail. You have to ask yourself, were they really worried about Jonah's fate? What was their real motivation? I don't think they wanted Jonah's death on their hands, especially in light of what was pretty apparent in terms of Jonah's God and what he was capable of in terms of discipline!

Well, long story short, they prayed for forgiveness in advance, and they 'eliminated the problem'. They tossed Jonah overboard. Now, if you were ever in Sunday school as a child, or taught it to kids as an adult, you know where Jonah ended up. And it's a super cute little story to demonstrate on a child's felt board. But can you actually imagine being in the belly of a real fish? We assume it was a whale, given the size. But even with the size upgrade, I'm still saying 'not luxury accommodations', right? 

Okay, so I have to hit the pause button here. Because this is just a great story.... There was a little girl and she's in science class, maybe second or third grade. She'd already had a couple run ins based on her teacher understanding that she believed in God and creation. And so teacher that day, had them all draw their favorite animal and they were going to discuss the different types of animals. Well,as the teacher is walking around, checking everyone's work, And she stops at this little girl's desk, and she says, "I see that's a whale, but what's inside of it?" And she said, "That's Jonah!" Well, the teacher just went into this long explanation of how that's physically impossible. "Scientifically, you know, the swallowing mechanism isn't isn't large enough for a human being! That's just a fish tail! There's no way that ever happened!!" They went back and forth as the little girl tried to convince her and she tried to convince a little girl. Finally, the little girl just said, "you know, I'll just ask Jonah when I get to Heaven". Well, at this point, the teacher had had enough and she said, "Well, what if Jonah didn't go to heaven?" The little girl said, "I don't know. I mean, I guess maybe then you can ask him!" 

Sorry, I could not resist. So anyway.....Jonah, he spends three days and three nights in the belly of this giant fish. Talking about a serious timeout! At the end of three days, the fish commanded by God, who actually did obey....  for lack of better terms, vomited Jonah up on dry land. Well, at this point,  Jonah is just so happy to be alive. He's just like, "Lord, what do you want me to do? Thank you, thank you!! I just need to hear from you God!" And what did God say? God said, "Jonah. Go to Nineveh!!"  I mean, that's the punchline of the whole story! When God gives us an assignment, He doesn't change his mind, no matter what kind of hissy fit we throw. I mean, no matter if we run and hide, He does not change, nor do His plans for us. I have to think He must just sit back, roll His glorious eyes, and cross His arms....  "Okay, here we go again, just let me know when you're done with all this foolishness so we can get back to work!" How much heartache and angst could Jonah have saved himself if he would have just listened the first time? Can you relate? Have you... Have there been times when God gave you your 'Nineveh' and after all of your detours, you found yourself sheepishly, just admitting the chaos that ensued by not listening the first time, and finally packed your bags for what he called you to do the first time? That is why I'm here. That is why I'm so glad you're here. We will embark on this journey together. And as I close, I will just leave you with with this.... Is there something is there something right now.... is there something today... that God is calling you to do that you're reluctant to take the next step? In our next episode, we're going to be looking at our brains and how we approach those kinds of things. We'll be 'thinking about our thinking' for lack of better words, but most importantly, what God's Word has to say about that. 

So until then, peace and grace to you, my friends, may you find joy in the journey.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai