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CTP (S3EDecSpecia7) Choosing Optimism In A Fearful World

• Joseph M. Lenard | Christian Activist & Author in Politics • Season 3

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CTP (S3EDecSpecia7) Choosing Optimism In A Fearful World
Exploring more of the fascinating intersection of Activism, Community Engagement, Faith / Religion, Human Nature, Politics, Social Issues, and beyond 
We explore how faith, free will, and clear thinking shape mental health in a world that often pulls us toward fear. Constance Hastings shares personal stories, practical tools, and the heart behind The Trouble with Jesus.
• holiday drop schedule and backlog update
• Constance’s background and early faith roots
• optimism versus shallow positive thinking
• culture moments and their mood impact
• navigating illness, aging and uncertainty
• managing anxiety through present focus
• doubt as a path to deeper faith
• fear as the real opposite of faith
• thought checks that steady emotions
• free will and choosing your response
• how the book engages skeptics with prompts
• where to find Constance online 
https://tinyurl.com/SubscribeToCTP  
CTP Audios: https://tinyurl.com/CTPonBuzzsprout 
CTP Videos: https://tinyurl.com/JLDonBITCHUTE 
https://tinyurl.com/CTPgear  


A Short Story: A Lasting Legacy? book Trailer

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SPEAKER_01:

Hello, welcome to another episode of Constitutionalist Podcast. I am your host, Joseph M. Leonard, that's L-E-N-A-R-D at OF French. It's not a splendid without an O. Thank you for tuning in. As Bram Norton used to say on his show, let's get on with the show. Hello, everyone. A special introductory segment before getting into the episode. The remainder of December. Merry Christmas to all. And since I'll be using this opening through the rest of December, they will be Tuesday and Thursday drops here on out for December to help me get caught up with some interviews that I've got in the pile that have been recorded, waiting to be released to help with a backlog. I'm going to do two a week now, Tuesdays and Thursdays, the rest of December, as well as January and February. Anyway, let's get on with an interview. Joining me is Constance Hastings, and her profile says former faith-based mental health counselor. Why former?

SPEAKER_00:

Former is because I retired.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, okay. Okay. All right. All right. So we'll back up. Right? Put the garbage truck.

unknown:

Beep, beep, beep.

SPEAKER_01:

Let's back up. The usual Christian show. So wink, wink, nad, na, lame pun. The proverbial. First question. Who is Constance Hastings? Where were you born? Where were you raised? Where are you now? How much time did you spend in prison and for what? You know, all that nitty-gritty stuff.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, the best answer to that is, as I usually say, is I should not be here right now. Um, I was born in a family in Wilmington, Delaware. And as it was, my parents were not very religious, but it was during the time of civil rights and desegregation. And they preferred to put me in a school that they felt would be safe. Down the street was a small independent Christian school. And uh that's where they sent me, and that's where I met God. And God took me from there and brought me all the way here. And yes, it's it's been a storied life in some ways, but um one in which God has directed and held me through.

SPEAKER_01:

Mental health is something I like to uh discuss on this show uh on occasion. My latest book, The Book of Kennedy. I'm wearing a shirt, although that's not the book cover, that's the Kindle. That's the hardcover, and the soft cover don't show too good because of my green screen, because it's a green color. At any rate, uh in there, I the mental health, the psychology of everyday living. Right? Trying to stay upbeat in a fallen world. Your reaction to that?

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, it it's uh it's an effort, yes. If you let yourself get sucked in, as you say, by that fallen world, uh, you will go down and you and you will go down pretty quickly. It's important, as um the apostle Paul says, we are to keep our thoughts captive and um you know have the mind of Christ. And in doing so, then I'm not talking about just mere positive thinking, I'm talking about centering on uh what God is doing and watching for that rather than accepting and um swallowing a lot of what the culture, the world may give you.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm glad you said that, right? Positive thinking, right? Uh as I say, Kennedy, my female lead, is you know, I I coined the term mass holes. Apologies, G-rated show normally. My apologies, but indeed, there are a lot of mass holes out there, as I call them. They, you know, negative, negative, negative Nellies, always, you know, they're miserable, and the only way they feel good about their misery is trying to make everybody else miserable, right? So, yeah, positive thinking, trying at least to be optimistic while reality is such, you know, bad things happen to good people at times, right? That that's life on this planet, and uh so yeah, try to be optimistic, but uh for the benefit of behind the scenes and people understanding, we're recording. I'm looking at the calendar to remind myself, Wednesday, August 27th, because this will air at a future time, but the Kelsey Swift Engagement was just announced yesterday. And right, I'm human, I'm frail, I'm flawed, and despite writing a book about trying to find optimism and good in things, my first reaction, which isn't good for my own mental health, was uh, yeah, so what? Right? A billionaire is marrying a millionaire, it has no bearing on most people's lives. And then I reminded myself, hey, right, we can't let our heart and emotions rule our head. We have to think, right? You had said positive. What positive might come from that, right? Others seeing that, and while it doesn't directly affect or impact their life, I wrote at before it's news.com uh this morning, a piece, Kelsey Swift engagement. What potential societal impact, right? And people's mental health and psyche. Your thoughts on that.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh, when I think about that, when I think about things like uh uh the team that wins the Super Bowl, uh when I think about all these cultural um victories, we'll just I'll just call it for that. That might not be the best word for today. You do see throughout um the culture sort of uh a sense of wow, something's happening just like it should. Um yeah, I mentioned the Super Bowl because living in Delaware, I saw what it was like when the Eagles won the Super Bowl. And for two weeks, the news was all good, amazing. It was just wonderful. And um, yeah, the news reporters down to you know, everybody that you would meet, it was like, hey, wasn't this great, you know, and went on like that. And even in our family, uh, you know, we were all so very excited about it. It was it was something good that happened. When you think of uh, you know, I'm hate to think of myself as a commentator on the um um uh Swift and and Kelsey, uh, you know, it's it I see, and I'm not in any way, you know, big fans of all that, but I see in there sort of like, wow, something good has happened, you know, two people they met, they fell in love, um, you know, they're they're moving forward in their relationship, and the world is celebrating it for the most part. So that that's what I see in things like that. Because, like you said, within our world, bad things do happen to good people. And, you know, every day we can look um, if not in our own lives, those around us, and we can see trials and stresses and things that you know really are part of life, but very scary. Yes, today is August 27th, and as we speak, a dear uncle of mine is in surgery, having a mass removed from his body.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh oh.

SPEAKER_00:

He's 90 years old, it's risky, and you know, I've been praying all morning for him and for his daughter who cares for him. So, yeah, that that's the other side. This is a very real thing that's happening, and it doesn't, you know, it's happening in my life, but it's happening in everybody's life. It's going to happen. So, how do you come to a place where you can be strong enough mentally, emotionally, spiritually, that you're able to stand in these stresses and in these trials and and face it? Uh, anxiety is a is uh you know very prevalent in our society, and uh fear is just always just seems to be lurking around the corner. How do we combat that as well? For for me, it means you know certainly having realistic thinking. Um, yes, my uncle is in surgery right now, but I don't have to go off in tangents about what that means or what's going to happen.

SPEAKER_01:

It doesn't do it doesn't do you any good, it doesn't do him any good if yeah, we worry, but worrying to the point of a stress breakdown doesn't help anybody.

SPEAKER_00:

Precisely, and it you know, I need to stay in the moment, and I'm when I stay in the moment, I remember then that um I can give this to God, I can allow God to have that control, I can refer to the promises of God that He will never leave us or forsake us and live in that. Not that it doesn't mean that I don't have concerns and I don't uh you know have um feelings of you know yeah you call it worry, we'll just call it concerns, uh, right now, but it's it's very true. And and you know, it's it's a tension that we live in. Uh I in my book The Trouble with Jesus considerations before you walk over.

SPEAKER_01:

For those viewing behind the scenes video, you will see she held up the book for the benefit of Audio 25 Plus platforms and the transcript. Hold that back up again. The book is titled Trouble with Jesus by Constance Hastings. Can find it everywhere, I take it, right?

SPEAKER_00:

Just ask for it, right? But my my point is that you know I write in the book about how we live in this tension between uh faith and doubt. And doubt is doubt is not to be ignored, but it is when we have our doubts, when we have our questions as to what is happening and what it means. It means we're also in a place of potential growth and that faith becoming stronger there. Someone once told me though, the opposite of faith is not doubt, but fear. And when you buy into fear, you you basically are letting go of what could be happening in your life, again, spiritually, mentally, emotionally, in such a way that you can not only live uh with it, but you can live through it in whatever life brings to you.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I'm glad you said I made myself a couple of notes, and you can see me reaching behind me under the green screen on my ugly couch. I'm trying to scramble for something that I'm not finding, so oh well, I'm just not finding it. But back to my initial reaction about the uh the Kelsey uh the Travis, yeah, the Kelsey Smith thing, right? Being having a negative response to it doesn't help karma, right? You put out good thoughts and good feelings and good vibes, generally those then come back to you. If you dwell on the negative, then that negativity will come back to you. So it wasn't good for my mental health, and thankfully I stopped and said, Well, wait a minute. Never mind my feelings, right? The Swifties love it, and there are what I call anti-Swifties, right? Oh, that that hate on her. I don't have Swift Derangement syndrome, right? I'm happy for them, right? It it doesn't cost me anything, it doesn't hurt me at all. In fact, it helps my mental well-being to say, I'm happy for them. Like, like you said, uh, you said fear, right? The opposite of faith can be fear. My terror strikes me. Coming soon to a city near you book, I like to say, is not about death or destruction, but life and living. Also, a very non-traditional Christian book. It's not fluffy, right? It's not your traditional Christian book, but it is one nonetheless. And I was reaching for my paper because I don't have it memorized, or I hope over fear, faith over despair, those sorts of things that you're kind of alluding to here.

SPEAKER_00:

And and that's pretty that's exactly right. However, I do have to caution you there. Um, you need to pay attention to your feelings, but your feelings are mere indicators of what you've been thinking. And if you are in a place of fear, of depression, of anger, it's important to examine what you've been thinking and see if those thoughts, what you've been telling yourself, are accurate and uh rational, because a lot of times we we make up things and then we find ourselves in emotional distress. So that so that's um per you know the best way to do it. But here's the the thing: as a mental health therapist, I am so amazed that our brain is wired to take this on. And that's not by mistake, that's by our our very creation. And if we um live into what we were uh, as I say, wired, what we were made to uh uh use within us, our behaviors are going to follow that as well. So, you know, you look at Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey and you go, oh, isn't that wonderful? And you, you know, you might have some warm, fuzzy feelings. Yeah, you look at what's happening within your family, uh, the aging process, you know, the inevitable inevitability of death. And you've got to there start coming to uh you know your own understanding of where we live in God and Jesus Christ, and bring that to a place of um being able to accept what God has given to us in his design and through his son.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah. I I apologize, I got distracted. Uh lower right hand corner of the screen, a a pop-up ad, I take it. Oh, yeah, now PC Matic, they want to sell me something else. It's like, where's the where where's the X button? Where do I get rid of that? Why won't that go away? Go away. You're annoying me right now. You know, uh the behind the scenes frustrations of a podcaster my my macro suck winslow eleven. Thankfully, it isn't freezing up on me today. I I hope I didn't just jinx the rest of this interview. And um I try not to go too long because the longer an episode, the fewer the people will listen. I call it today's Twitter attention span, right? Every everybody wants the cliff notes, right? Give me the headline, even though the headline could be deceptive, details matter. So I can see, and people viewing behind the scenes on video can see constancehastings.com. So please obviously check you out there to wrap things up. What what haven't I asked that I should have that you want to answer? Ask your own question and then answer it.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. People often uh will ask me, well, what do you mean by the trouble with Jesus? And I tell people, it's not that I have a problem with it. Good question. Yeah, yeah. I don't have a problem with God, at least no more than most people do. Um, but on the other hand, uh it is a book that is written uh for the doubter, for the skeptic. There is a voice in the book which articulates that. I refer to it as like a Greek chorus that stands on the side and is engages with the narration as it tells the story of Jesus. Jesus was born into trouble, he brought a lot of trouble, he had trouble brought to him, and a lot of that converged for his ultimate trouble in his crucifixion, but he overcame that trouble through his resurrection, and the promise is that he will overcome the trouble of the world. People have to remember though that Jesus did not come necessarily to fix our problems, he came to change hearts, not necessarily change change the world.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, he came to save souls, but bottom line is God gave us free will. So I'm glad you went there. That's where I wanted to go next to wrap things up. Like I are meant to tie it free will and mental health, right? Uh we can't choose how others act towards us, but it is up to us how we react to others. And again, human, frail, flawed, imperfect. I have bad days too, and I can have a naked. Reaction, but I try to remind if someone's being nasty and negative, maybe they're having a bad day, right? Our first impression isn't always the right impression. We have to remember that for our mental health, theirs. Uh whatnot. I had on Curtis Harris the other day, and I brought up there's a Christian group called King's X, and they've got a song called Black Flag, and that's all about right. There was a the concept goes back to the Spanish flu days, the black flag, right? Everything, people dying, therefore draped in black. There was a black flag on my morning, there was a black flag on my day, but later he goes on to say that point about how we choose, it's our free will, our choice how we react to others.

SPEAKER_00:

And I like the way you say that.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, he if I say you know he sings it was up to me how I wanted it to be.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, and in the book, that's the the whole point of the book, from page one to the end, is that people are given a choice. And Jesus said, uh, when uh I am the resurrection and the life. Do you believe this? And that question is a question that everybody has the opportunity to answer as long as their soul has life. Do you believe this? And you can accept or reject that. Uh, you yeah, you talk about it as free will. That's the ultimate of that in that story. Um, this the book also has at the end of each chapter, I call it um further um further provocations for your consideration. These are uh open-ended questions dealing with the theme of each chapter. You can read them, think about them, journal them, get together in a group and talk about them. It's it's a book that can continues to go on as you go deeper into it.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, thank you. Constant Hastings, Constance, not constant, like are you a consonant or a vowel? Oh, just the way my weird OCD A D H D rattle boy works, right? It goes off in tangents. Constance Hastings, ConstanceHastings.com. Uh short time together, but I think we covered a lot of food for people's thoughts. Thank you for stopping by, Pick here. God bless. If I could talk, I can't I can't talk. This always happens. I hit record, and the brain and the mouth don't want to work together. Thank you, Constance. Thank you. All right, yeah, that was fun.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah, that was fun.

SPEAKER_01:

All right, I don't know when it will air as it gets near. I'll let you know.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, yeah. Uh, you're gonna let me know through Podmatch?

SPEAKER_01:

Yes. Okay, that'll be perfect. Take care, have a good day.

SPEAKER_00:

You too. God bless. Bye-bye.

SPEAKER_01:

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Joseph M Lenard

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