066 - Sabbath is a Gift from God with Eryn Lynum

In this episode, Eryn Lynum shares her journey from a theology-focused education to becoming a master naturalist, intertwining her love for nature with her faith. She discusses her new book, 'The Nature of Rest,' which explores the biblical principles of Sabbath living and how nature can enhance our understanding of God's creation. Through personal stories and practical advice, Erin emphasizes the importance of connecting with nature to deepen one's spiritual life, regardless of where one lives. In this conversation, Eryn Lynum shares her experiences with nature, grief, and the importance of rest. She discusses how guiding hikes for families helps children connect with nature and learn about wildflowers. Eryn opens up about her personal journey through miscarriage and how nature's cycles helped her find faith and healing. She emphasizes the significance of Sabbath and rest in our busy lives, encouraging listeners to seek God's goodness in every moment and to embrace the gift of rest as a means of rejuvenation and connection with the Creator.

The Nature of Rest: What the Bible and Creation Teach Us About Sabbath Living

The Nat Theo: Nature Lessons Rooted in the Bible Podcast

Eryn's website

Instagram @erynlynumauthor

Transcript

McKenzie Smith (00:01)
On today's episode of My Valley, His Victory, we have Eryn Lynum. She is a certified master naturalist, educator, and national speaker. Eryn hosts the popular podcast for kids Nat Theo. Nature lessons rooted in the Bible.
She is author of The Nature Rest, What the Bible and Creation Teaches Us About Sabbath Living, Rooted in Wonder, Nurturing Your Family's Faith Through God's Creation, and 936 Pennies, Discovering the Joy of Intentional Parenting. She lives in Northern Colorado with her husband Grayson and their four children, whom they homeschool. Eryn has been featured on broadcasts including Focus on the Family, Family Life, Today, Christian Parenting, and Raising Christian Kids.
Every opportunity she gets, she is out exploring God's creation with her family and sharing the adventures at ErynLynam.com. Thanks so much for being with us today, Eryn.

Eryn Lynum (01:18)
Thank you for having me. I'm excited for our conversation.

McKenzie Smith (01:21)
Yeah, absolutely. So I know I just read your bio, but why don't you go ahead and just share a little bit about yourself and who you are.

Eryn Lynum (01:27)
Yeah, so my husband Grayson and I have been married for almost 16 years. It'll be 16 years this summer. And we have four kids. Our boys are 13, 11, and nine, and our daughter is seven. And we live in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. We've been out here for nine years. And we came out here because we really wanted to raise our kids against a backdrop of wonder and to give them these experiences in creation where they could just constantly

be coming into contact with everything God has made. And of course, I believe you can do that anywhere, but we had the opportunity to come out here. And so, yeah, that's why we decided to make a big move like that. And so I work as a master naturalist, which is basically a fancy term for a nature teacher. So I took intensive training to learn about our local flora and fauna and ecosystems and really how to take that knowledge and turn it into curriculum. So I taught with our natural areas for five years.

and then started creating my own programming and leading my own hiking group. And then I really took that work into my podcasting. So my podcast is teaching nature and science lessons for children while bringing in biblical truth and then bringing that into my books and my writing as well.

McKenzie Smith (02:42)
Yeah, absolutely. I'm glad you clarified what a master naturalist is because I was going to ask that question. So obviously you have a huge love for the outdoors and for nature and for it even at, you know, like a scientific level more than I could probably ever wrap my mind around. Where did that come from? Is science kind of something you've always been super interested in? Nature, the way things grow or, you know, kind of where did this stem from?

Eryn Lynum (02:49)
Yeah.

Yeah, not at all. Science was my probably least favorite subject when I was in school. But really where it came in was that my passion is theology and understanding God and scripture. And that's what I went to college for. That's what my degree is in. And when my husband and I met at Bible college, we learned that there are two main ways that God reveals himself to us. And so the first is special revelation. And that's his living and active word, the scriptures.

And the second is natural revelation. And that's what we learn of God through creation coming from Romans 1.20, that his invisible attributes, his divine qualities are clearly perceived through everything that he has made. And so when we moved to Colorado and our family was growing and we were spending more time in the outdoors and in the wilderness, I started to see all these connections and how, we better understand what we're seeing out in nature, we can really better grasp God's truths.

in his words. And so that's where that interest came in and then just grew like wildfire from there.

McKenzie Smith (04:17)
Yeah. So when you originally went to Bible college, where were you thinking that would take you?

Eryn Lynum (04:24)
The small college we went to was focused on missions. And so we married and thought that we were going to the mission field. We were actually preparing to move to Rome, Italy for five years and going through training. And God just had a very different plan for us as he often does. And now we are very involved in ministry, but it just looks very different than what we originally anticipated.

McKenzie Smith (04:48)
Yeah, yeah, and what does he do in ministry?

Eryn Lynum (04:52)
So my husband owns a contracting company and it's really neat to see how he's making an impact in our community through that. A lot of the people on his team are believers and so it creates this really neat overlap in our community and with their clients and team members. And then we're both involved in our church and ministry, but really he is an incredible support in all the work I do. And so the podcast is reaching thousands of families every week and my husband makes that possible by

supporting me in every way and helping with the kids, of course, but really just telling me like, you can do this when I'm like, I don't know if I can do this.

McKenzie Smith (05:30)
Hey, we all need that person. We need that cheerleader in our corner. So being someone that is so intrigued by, you know, the I'll say the little things in nature, you know, being a master naturalist and studying plants and ecosystems and things like that. What does getting outdoors look like for you? Is it bird watching? Is it going for a walk in the park? Like, you know, what does that look like for you?

Eryn Lynum (05:33)
Yeah. Yeah, for sure.

Hiking is really my jam. I love to just go out and spend an entire day hiking. And I love rigorous hikes. Now I'm not a big fan of high elevation. I will do it. I have done it. But I enjoy being in the trees and going for a long hard hike and seeing a lot of different ecosystems. And so I do love bird watching. That's actually a huge hobby of our families. We go bird watching together.

A few years ago, I took my son, he was 11 at the time, and we did a three day intensive birding workshop in the Rocky Mountains. And it's my favorite thing I've ever done with him. And so I love bird watching. I love wildflower walks, but really hiking is where I can bring all of that together.

McKenzie Smith (06:40)
Yeah, absolutely. Find a trail that's got some good birds and some good wildflowers and you're set. I love it. So being in, you know, the Rocky Mountains, you know, on the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, do you find that that's the ecosystem or, the area that you really like to explore or is there somewhere else that you find yourself venturing off to often?

Eryn Lynum (06:43)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, totally.

that's such a good question. We do love the ecosystems here. I never thought I would live in the desert. We're technically like high desert, but we love the Ponderosa pines and the Aspen groves. We love mountain lakes. I do miss, we both grew up in the Midwest. I definitely miss water. We don't have a whole lot of that here. Our rivers are beautiful, but kind of laughable.

Our lakes, we actually live on a lake, but they're all reservoirs. And so like they hire the water and lower the water for agriculture reasons. And it's just so strange to me because where I grew up in the Midwest, you can basically trip and fall into a natural lake. Like there's so much water. And so we love the ecosystems here. This is home. This is where we want our kids roots to be. But as much as we can, we go to the ocean.

And so we head to the West coast and we love the Puget Sound area and exploring tidal pools. Like that's our family's just favorite thing to do when we're not here.

McKenzie Smith (08:08)
Yeah, yeah, very cool. I love that you said that you could pretty much trip and fall into a lake because it is, that is true. It's like the land of lakes up there. You know, where you said you're from. I think you said Wisconsin. Wisconsin, yeah. And so that's funny that you say that. And it's, it is interesting because the mountains have a lot of like alpine lakes, but you know, there's not a lot of, you know, when I think of being in the outdoors in the Midwest, I think of like

Eryn Lynum (08:13)
Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Mm-hmm.

McKenzie Smith (08:35)
boating and you know just all the lakes and so you're you're so right about that. There's not not as much of that here out in the west. So I know that this episode is going to come out on April 28th, but you have a book coming out on May 13th. And so I would love for you to share just a little bit about what listeners can expect with that book. Maybe get us a little excited, give us some teasers and just share with us maybe, you know, where that book came from.

Inspiration wise.

Eryn Lynum (09:39)
Thank you. So The Nature of Rest comes out on May 13th and it is what the Bible and creation teach us about Sabbath living. So the book is really a deep dive. It's a six week study into God's gift of rest and his invitation to rest as we see it all throughout scripture and in creation. So I was working as a master naturalist and guiding hikes and writing my second book and doing the podcast.

So I'm in this realm of studying creation and studying scripture. And three years ago, my family, we were so exhausted. Like we're doing all the things that my husband's running his business. He's depleted. We're raising and homeschooling four kids and God laid it on our hearts that it was time to rest. And so we started Sabbath-ing as a family once a week. And it wasn't only Sabbath.

we started to see how God has really designed rest to be a lifestyle, not a once a week thing, but a true lifestyle. Now for us it includes that once a week rest, but really how we can bring rest into our daily lives. And so I'm in these two realms of nature study and along with scripture and then studying rest. And I began to see how God designed all of creation to thrive through rest. So I began studying

specific examples and finding all these connection points of how God designed plants and birds and ocean animals and insects and everything to thrive through rest. And so that includes us. So that's really where the premise of the book came from. So it goes through all these different analogies that we see in creation and how these plants and creatures rest and then brings that right back to scripture.

and all of these different concepts that God gives us around rest, including Sabbath and Selah or daily pauses, regular pauses to rest and how we find rest in seasons of waiting and how we find rest abiding with Christ. But it all brings in nature and scripture.

McKenzie Smith (11:50)
Yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you so much for for taking us on that little journey and sharing with us what that's about. And I know that my listeners will love that because I feel like we talk about a lot of things on this on this podcast about being out in nature and being, you know, that that's kind of our place where we get get some rest. And also, I've had multiple people on here, you know, talk about burnout. And I know that Sabbath is just it's honestly kind of one of those like

Eryn Lynum (12:12)
you

McKenzie Smith (12:18)
obscure things in church and I'm not really sure why because it's very script like it's there in scripture all over the place and so you know I feel like not a lot of churches talk about it anymore and I find most of the time it's because the pastors aren't doing it so they're like you know and so it's you know it's not part of their practice and so I think that it's I think it's such a cool thing and I'm

Eryn Lynum (12:20)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Sure, totally.

McKenzie Smith (12:47)
everyone go pre-order it. It'll come out on May 13th, but this is April 28th. So pre-order it. And I know that I'm going to get a lot out of it because I personally feel like this is something that the Lord has laid on my heart like time and time again of just like, but, but every time I've asked someone about it, they like kind of don't really know what to say. You know, it's like,

Eryn Lynum (13:10)
Hmm,

sure.

McKenzie Smith (13:12)
it's like, well, should you do this? Can you do this? You know, like, what does this actually look like? You know, like, let's take the take the weird veil off of it and like someone like lay it out there for me and tell me what it looks like. And so I'm super excited about this topic for sure.

Eryn Lynum (13:25)
Yeah, yeah, and definitely. Yeah,

no, I totally agree. And one of the things I always tell people is Sabbath can and should look different from person to person, family to family, because God has created all of us unique and given us unique opportunities and lifestyles. And so finding a way to really accept his gift of rest and honor that day and use it to stop and delight. That word Sabbath comes from Shabbat, which can mean to stop and delight.

McKenzie Smith (13:51)
Mm.

Eryn Lynum (13:54)
And what better way to do that than to be out in his creation? So a lot of our Sabbath is spent out in creation, stopping and delighting in what God has made.

McKenzie Smith (14:04)
Yeah, yeah, that's good. All right, guys, 2025 is going to be the year that I'm going to implement Sabbath into my life. This is encouraged me. I'm going to get the book and I'm going to take the lesson, do the Bible study and figure it out once and for all. So kind of on that note, I know you've touched on it a little bit in a roundabout way, but talk to us about how being in the outdoors and seeing God's creation, you know, plays a role in your relationship with him specifically.

Eryn Lynum (14:10)
I love it. I love it.

Awesome.

I love it.

Well, as I explained, I started to see all these connection points as I learned about details of nature and scripture. And so I think the best way to explain it is to give a few examples. When I was learning about milkweed plants, so milkweed plants are widespread and it's what monarch butterflies depend on. They're absolutely dependent on milkweed. So we plant it in our yard. We have big patches of it around where we live and

My kids and I were hiking one day and we came across these milkweed plants that their leaves were bent over. That's called flagging. And I had recently been studying this. So it was so neat to see. And what I learned about it is that monarch butterflies lay their eggs on milkweed plants, but milkweed is actually toxic. So when an insect bites into it, it has this really sticky sap that kind of glues their mouths shut. And so why would the mama

monarch butterfly lay her eggs on this dangerous plant. But her babies, the caterpillars, what they do is when they sense that toxicity, they go to the vein of the leaf and they sever it and cut it off so that the sap is no longer flowing. And then they can go back up to the leaf and eat it safely. That's why they flag because they sever the vein of that leaf. And so I use this to teach my kids, know, when we sense something that is toxic in our life, whether that's a toxic relationship or

a thought pattern or a habit, we need to go down and cut it off at its source to cut off that toxic sap so that it's no longer dangerous to us. So that's just one example. But even, you know, all these different connections that I start to see, I think of another that it's an analogy that I used in the book. We were hiking one day up close to Rocky Mountain National Park, this beautiful area called Gem Lake.

And we actually did not make it far on the trail because there's all these massive boulders and the kids and I just wanted to explore all these boulders. So we're hiking up on top of them and it was in the summer and there were all these depressions in the rocks that were full of rainwater. And my kids did what kids do and they get down and lay down on their stomachs and they're just staring into these tiny pools of water. And before long, they're like, mom, come here. There's stuff alive in here.

So I go over and we always carry with us these little magnifiers and we put it to the water and we counted five different living creatures in these small depressions. They're called vernal pools. These depressions that fill like seasonal pockets of water. And we did some research later and we're like looking at the videos that we had shot and we identified them as these type of shrimp that are in this water.

They're kind of similar to sea monkeys. different, but they're like, what are they called? Fairy shrimp, I believe it is. And the cool thing about them. Yeah. Crazy, right? They're, freshwater crustaceans. Isn't that insane? But what I learned about them later on, right? Is that they're eggs because again, they live in these seasonal ponds. Sometimes it's completely dry. And here in Colorado, you never know when you're going to get water. You can go through, I mean, we've had years of drought here.

McKenzie Smith (17:32)
Shrimp in Colorado.

Who would have thought?

Eryn Lynum (17:53)
And so the eggs of the fairy shrimp, when they lay their eggs, they can remain dormant for years, regularly up to 15 years. Some scientists think up to a hundred years. And then when the water comes, those eggs hatch and it's a new generation of fairy shrimp. And so it's so cool that we see this beautiful view of sometimes God calls us to these seasons of waiting that feel endless, like a little egg.

waiting for water for a hundred years. And yet there's this hope that life is coming, that rain is coming. Like in Isaiah, when we read that the water and the snow come and water the earth and bring forth life. Like that is coming because God is consistent and he is faithful. And so there's so many examples. Like the more you study nature and scripture, God just brings them together and they compliment one another. So that's really how I

This is how the outdoors has impacted my relationship with Christ is I just see him everywhere.

McKenzie Smith (18:58)
Yeah, yeah, wow. I'm blown away just one by the fact that there's shrimp in Colorado. I can't get past that point in my brain. yeah, I mean, man, that's such a good analogy. And I'm, I just love, I love all these connections that you make.

Eryn Lynum (19:04)
Right?

Yeah

McKenzie Smith (19:19)
in the outdoors because I think, know, I, for a very short period of time, had a blog where I was, you know, making connections of the outdoors and my relationship with God. And it's just, it's just, it's there if you look and you just have to look and you, it's, there's so many things and you know, I was definitely not looking on this level, you know, it was more like grand grand scheme kind of things. But, but man, that's just so cool that you even take that to a

a season of waiting and that your mind even goes there from you know this crustacean that stays dormant for 15 years like man just also a testament that like god reveals himself differently to all of us and you just have to look and you have to pay attention sidebar cut cut screen was that your story about god how god has revealed himself to you in the outdoors or would you like me to ask that question okay

Eryn Lynum (19:59)
Yeah, totally. That's a good point. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

No, you can ask that question. I've got lots

of stories.

McKenzie Smith (20:17)
Okay, cool,

cool. Well, Eryn, I would love for you to share a story with us about a way in which maybe God has revealed himself to you or spoken to you through the outdoors.

Eryn Lynum (20:27)
A couple of years ago, we were a few hours west, so still in Colorado, but we were exploring the Steamboat Springs area and we were just on a little vacation and I wanted to go on a hike as a family and I wanted it to be a little bit challenging for the kids. And so my husband found this trail that it said round trip. It was about four miles with a bit, I think it was a little bit over a thousand feet of elevation gain. So I'm like, good, that'll be a good challenge for them. Cause I think our youngest was about five at that time.

And so the trail was about 40 minutes away. We get the kids in the car, we packed just like a little bit of snacks and we're driving and we finally round this bend and see the trail that we're going to go up. And it is this massive, steep mountain covered in snow. And we just look at each other and we're like, okay, we are not prepared for this. We didn't have snow shoes, we're in like jeans and t-shirts and hoodies.

And so we told the kids, know, we're here, we're going to make the best of it. Let's just see how far we get. We did the entire hike and all of our kids did the entire hike and we kind of coax them. gave them like half of a cookie every half mile because we really had not packed that much and we were safe. We knew we were safe the whole time, but it was so neat because we got near the top and we had been hiking up steep snow covered slopes. And one of my sons began getting nervous.

McKenzie Smith (21:38)
You

Eryn Lynum (21:53)
And where we were, the trees had kind of ended and so we were more exposed. And I mentioned earlier that I don't enjoy hiking above tree line and high elevations and it's because I suffer from vertigo at those heights. And I could tell that my son was kind of having some of that same response that I do. And so I began helping him cope in ways that I cope with that. And so I stood on the side of him to kind of buffer him from the slope.

And then I said, hey, hold my hand. And then with your other hand, hold my backpack so he feels anchored. And it was so cool to see him go much farther than he thought he could. And me to be able to help him through something that I had experienced in the past in a very real fear. And as we were going down the mountain afterwards, he's holding my hand and he says, mom, someday I want to bring my kids back here to show them that they can go farther than they think they can.

And it was such a beautiful vision of what the Lord does for me so often that he is there holding my hand and saying, hey, we can go a little further. Let me show you how, let me help you. And just trusting him with that, because my son had to trust my voice. He had to trust my step, my footing, my hand and his, and that God is just constantly asking us to do the same thing.

McKenzie Smith (23:10)
Yeah, that's good. That's good. It's so true. So often we need him and we can't do it in our own strength and we have fear and we have stress and we have uncertainty and it's like just follow. That's your only command. Just follow. Follow my lead. Thank you so much for sharing that.

Eryn Lynum (23:28)
Yeah, one step at a time.

McKenzie Smith (23:35)
So I know that you're probably gonna have a really good, or I hope that you, I just am assuming that you're gonna have really good answer for this next question, but, because you're someone who pays attention to the details. for someone, you you live in Colorado, debatably, you know, beautiful, beautiful backdrop, mountains and all the things. What are some practical ways that people can, what are some ways that people can start connecting with God on a,

everyday basis through creation even if they live in a more urban environment.

Eryn Lynum (24:07)
That's a really great question. You know, I say most of my appreciation for nature started here in Colorado, and that's true, but really God was planting a seed of that when we lived in Kansas City for a couple of years. And we were in the city, surrounded by city, and there was not much access to natural areas. But we had a few places that we found. One was this sweet little nature trail. It was like a three mile loop with a little waterfall.

we got to know every inch of that trail. And we went there at least once a week. And so I would say like, find those pockets of nature around where you live and get to know them in every season. Go study the wildflowers throughout the spring and summer. Go study the trees as they're going dormant for the winter. Go there in the winter. I used to abhor going outside in the winter and

I made a change a few years ago because I realized that my bad attitude was keeping me from a lot of delight in God's creation. And I just bought really good winter gear, including great snow pants, and it changed everything. Now I love going outside in the winter. So I would just say, find those pockets of nature and go get to know them the best that you can. And also, if you're hesitant, join a group, find a hiking group, or there's probably natural area programs where you live. Most cities have them.

natural resource programs that lead guided hikes that show you where to go that make it super easy. And then finally, take up bird watching is actually a really fun activity. It feels like you're playing like this scavenger hunt and you have such a sense of delight and joy as you learn to identify birds. A great app for that is the Merlin Bird ID app. It's free and

One of my favorite things about it is you can press a button and record with your phone and it tells you what birds are singing. So then you take that and your binoculars, you have it record and it'll actually highlight which bird is singing when. So you can say, okay, that's a goldfinch and it's singing right there. Use your binoculars and you learn what a goldfinch looks like and you're connecting their song to what they look like. And that's how I really got into bird watching. And then our kids love doing that as well because again, it's like a

It's like a scavenger hunt.

McKenzie Smith (26:27)
Yeah, yeah, thank you for sharing that and sharing the app and just that practical tip. think that's really helpful and I love that you said it's like a scavenger hunt because even as adults who doesn't love a good scavenger hunt, like come on, come on.

Eryn Lynum (26:41)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. One of the

hikes that I guide every, I got a hiking group here for mostly homeschool families, but just a lot of families. And one of the favorite hikes we do every year is a wildflower scavenger hunt. So I scope out the area before, because it's funny how different things can be from year to year. And so I'll go to the natural area, see what flowers are there, identify them, take pictures, and then I make a sheet of paper for everyone and we go a few days later and all the kids are running around.

finding the flowers, marking them off. And it's so fun to see how excited the adults are as well. Like everyone is just totally into this game of find and identify flowers. And the kids that have been on that hike for a couple of years now, they know the flowers. As they start to come up, they're like, yeah, we found that flower last year. And I remember this one. It's so cool to see they're actually making those connections.

McKenzie Smith (27:32)
Yeah, yeah, that's fun. That reminds me of we were at the park, gosh, I guess it had to have been sometime in the spring or summer, and somebody had left some egg curtains there. And on the top of the egg curtain, they had taped or glued like 12 different things that you would find in the park. And then it was like their kid had to go and find a matching thing and put it in the egg curtain, you know, and in the family that I was with there.

Eryn Lynum (27:52)
fine.

McKenzie Smith (27:58)
little kids found them and they started to find fun in that and playing like a little matching game and it was really cute. It was like if they're not old enough to like be able to go find things that, you know, maybe they can match, they can find a match. So that's cool. Well, Eryn, switching gears into the title of this podcast, My Valley, His Victory, would love for you to share.

Eryn Lynum (28:05)
That is really fun. Wow, that's a fun idea.

Yeah. Yeah.

McKenzie Smith (28:24)
a valley or a season of wilderness that you experienced and what God maybe taught you or prepared you for in that season.

Eryn Lynum (28:32)
Right after we moved to Colorado, so we moved to this new state. We know almost no one here. We have not found a church family yet. And I become pregnant and two days later lose the baby, two days after finding out. And so it was our first miscarriage, our only miscarriage that we know of. And I was just devastated. I had no idea how to cope with it, but I was running a lot at the time. And...

And that season after losing our child, I was training for a half marathon. And so there was this trail that I kept going back to just because it was, it was close to our house and it was the distance I needed. And so I would run it about three times a week and I would show up. I had to get the run in before my husband had to leave for work. So I had to be back with the kids. And so I would show up before the sun was even up. So I got to see the sunrise over this beautiful valley every morning.

and I would do my training runs in that same area. It was over a course of several months because what really struck me was as I showed up several times a week, the wildflowers kept changing. And some of them, I was so excited to see the first ones of the season and then quickly they bowed down, they were done. And then this other species would come. And I remember specifically when the blue flax flowers showed up.

because they're just this beautiful, tall, super delicate light blue flower. They're one of my favorites. And it made it look like a carpet of light blue across the valley. And so I'm trying to recover just mentally, spiritually from the loss of our child. And I'm training for this race and doing this hard work. And I remember just seeing the flowers and the seasons change and remembering God's consistency and his faithfulness.

And that just as he calls forth the flowers in the perfect timing, he has perfect timing for our lives. And he never changes, like the changing seasons. He commands the changes of them. And so it was just this beautiful season of connecting with him while out in creation and him using that experience to really help me heal.

McKenzie Smith (30:49)
Yeah.

Give me one second.

I had a thought and then it went...

flew away with the wind.

yeah, thank you so much for sharing that. I would love to hear just a little bit more about the...

Why can I not think of the word that I'm looking for? Sorry. I don't know what's wrong with me today, my brain, just...

Eryn Lynum (31:37)
It's okay.

McKenzie Smith (31:45)
literally can't think of the word and this is the word that I need to ask this question.

I would love to hear how, you know, being out on these runs and seeing things, you know, pop up and grow and change and, you know, seeing God's consistency through that, through nature.

helped with your own personal life. Because I think so often we can think like, well, God does it for this, but why can't he do it for me? You know, kind of thing. And so, maybe like reconciling that piece of it.

Eryn Lynum (32:32)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. I think it always makes me think of Isaiah 40 verse eight, and that the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever. And it was such a poignant view of that because again, I was just watching these flowers come up and then fade into time. And that was honestly hard to see because I'm thinking about how like this child, life that I had in my womb for such a short time.

And that almost like that resembled the flowers. And yet the word of our God endures forever. And what is his word? It is that he is faithful, that he is good, that he has good plans for me and my family. And so it was this beautiful reminder of, me, like thinking back to the hike with my son and his hand in mine, trust me, just take another step, just take another step. And that's literally what I was doing, running this loop around this little lake and the valley.

McKenzie Smith (33:05)
Mm.

Eryn Lynum (33:30)
just take another step, just take another step. And it was him just guiding me in that and reminding me day after day, step after step, mile after mile that he is faithful.

McKenzie Smith (33:41)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And you said this was your first child?

Eryn Lynum (33:47)
No, this was our only miscarriage. was after our three boys and before our daughter.

McKenzie Smith (33:52)
Okay, okay. So kind of a, kind of a little bit of a unique question and it may be, may be too personal. So you can tell me to buzz off if you want. But how in that season, you know, I'm thinking of, I have, you know, have some friends that have gone through a similar season of miscarriage and infertility and things of that. Like, how do you get

Eryn Lynum (34:04)
It's okay, go for it.

Mm-hmm.

McKenzie Smith (34:21)
the strength or maybe the courage to try again and to not maybe see the next positive pregnancy test as joy instead of like, you know, having fear that something's gonna happen.

Eryn Lynum (34:26)
Hmm.

That's such a good question. I, I mean, every story is unique and ours was unique because after our three boys, we didn't even know if we wanted more children. We thought maybe we were done. And so I was very shocked to even find out I was pregnant and then even more shocked a couple of days later to find out that we had lost the pregnancy. And that actually created this big question in my mind because

Before our miscarriage, we were really leaning toward, OK, we're done. I think this is our family. It's great. But there was that little hint of hesitancy. And then losing our fourth child opened my heart to the possibility of another and showed me we weren't done. And then that's really how our daughter came to be. And so, yes, there was a lot of fear when I found out I was pregnant with our daughter.

And there's that fear of loss again. But again, as we were going out and I was seeing the flowers coming back and in the spring, the birds returning. And I'm just reminded God is faithful. God is good. He is consistent. I can depend on him like the rising sun. He commands the sun to rise every morning. And so I would say, yes, there's going to be fear. Take that fear to the wilderness.

where you can connect with your creator. Study the wildflowers. Like if you need something to distract you from the fear, take, I took an intensive wildflower identification class a couple of years ago in the Rocky Mountains. Do something like that. Just pour your mind and heart into learning about God's creation and you will see his faithfulness. I'll give you another example from nature. We have house sparrows all around. So house sparrows are one of the most common birds.

They're probably in your yard right now. They're these little tiny brown sparrows. The males have like these black bibs on their chest. So you can identify them pretty easily. And one of my favorite facts about the house sparrow is the oldest fossil of one ever found was in a cave outside Bethlehem where Jesus lived. So they were common in that region as well. And I love thinking about Jesus teaching and there were probably house sparrows like at his feet.

You know, like with the loaves and the fish, there were probably house sparrows around picking up crumbs from the loaves. And something to understand about house sparrows is it takes a whole lot to raise their chicks from hatching to fledging when they're ready to leave the nest. It requires around three to 4,000 insects. So the parents are traveling to and from the nest over 200 times a day just to raise these babies. And so when we think about Jesus teaching,

McKenzie Smith (37:04)
haha

Eryn Lynum (37:28)
in the Bible about birds, and he even uses sparrows in one specific instance, but he talks about the birds and says, look at the birds of the air. Your father feeds them. He takes care of them. How much more will he take care of you? And then I think about how God was preparing to care for these baby sparrow chicks that would need thousands of insects. The back of creation, he was planning all these ecosystems with the insects and the berries and everything that they would need. How much more does God care for our provision?

that he was planning from before time began to take care of us in every circumstance. And so go learn about the birds, go learn about the flowers, and you will see undeniably that he cares for his creation, first and foremost, for you.

McKenzie Smith (38:16)
Yeah, yeah, that's good. If we can see how much he cares for creation, how much more does he care for us? I think that's good, really good. So, Aaron, for somebody listening who maybe has gone through a similar experience, know, had a miscarriage and is just going, they're in the thick of it, you know, and they can't see God's goodness, they can't see his faithfulness, they can't see his consistency, you know, everything feels...

inconsistent and that God is not good. What piece of advice or word of encouragement would you give to that person?

Eryn Lynum (38:51)
to remember that God carries us through and that he brings beauty in every season, whether or not we can see it right now. And we talked about earlier bird watching being like this scavenger hunt. I would say go on a scavenger hunt for God's goodness. Look in every little nook and cranny of your day, look in every crevice of creation, make it your mission to see his goodness and his faithfulness.

McKenzie Smith (39:09)
Mm.

Eryn Lynum (39:19)
to you, to those around you, to creation, and it's gonna rewire your brain. God has created our brains in such a way, it's called neuroplasticity, that we can reform our brain. And it's actually being outdoors, hiking, climbing, biking, whatever, all of these activities are incredibly good for that. It strengthens the synapse connections between our brain cells. It is literally renewing our minds as we read about in Romans.

I love this beautiful connection that the way science sees now that our brains work matches completely with scripture saying, take captive every thought, renew your mind, focus on everything good, beautiful, true. So go into creation and allow God's designs in nature to rewire your brain away from fear and toward his faithfulness.

McKenzie Smith (40:13)
Yeah, yeah, that's good. I love that you mentioned that, you know, science is backing up what what the Bible has said because I think so often we can think, it has to be science or it has to be this. And it's like, man, they they go together real well. The more you dive, the more you dive into it. And I'm sure you have so many more examples than I than I can even think of just of that. But but I appreciate that. And and I like the

Eryn Lynum (40:25)
together.

Yeah, they do.

completely.

McKenzie Smith (40:39)
practicality of, you know, go on a scavenger hunt for good in your life. Like, chance is art's there, and what you feed is going to grow. And so if you're focusing on the bad, it's going to continue to seem like a never ending, you know, that doom, that dark cloud. And so go search for some, some goodness. I like that. So I know that you are, you know, you're, launching this book about rest. I would love to ask you.

You know, since you kind of seem to be an expert on the topic of rest and Sabbath, would love for you to just give us a couple, you know, practical practical ways or pieces of advice that we can incorporate. You know, Sabbath arrests into our lives. And, you know, I think I said earlier, we we think in modern world that like this is this is not possible and that that's just that's just an old, you know, thing that.

was in the Bible and it doesn't apply to us today. So maybe talk to us about how it applies to us today and also some practical tips on how to find rest in our everyday lives.

Eryn Lynum (41:44)
I think we really need to debunk the idea that rest is irrelevant or that it's lazy or that it's idle and really begin to see that it is one of the most impactful and productive things that we can do. And so an analogy I normally use for this is a hummingbird because a hummingbird is incredibly busy. It will visit between 1,000 and 2,000 flowers every single day. Its heart beats.

70 times a second, that's 4,200 times a minute. Yeah, sorry, that's its wings. I said heart, that's its wings. Its wings are beating 70 times a second, 4,200 times a minute. So its tiny, tiny heart has to beat 1,200 times a minute. That's a ton of numbers, but basically the hummingbird's heart rate is 1,400 % higher than ours. They go, go, go, go, go, go. But what sustains them in this is a strategy called torpor.

deep, deep rest. So they lower their body temperature up to 50 degrees and become completely unresponsive. And it's this regular rest that fuels their activity. And so I use this to teach that God calls us to productivity and work, but he also calls us to this beautiful harmony of work and rest and our rest as we rest in him, whether it's through Sabbath, whether it's through daily practices of rest, whether it is through abiding in God's restful presence, that all fuels our work.

And so like I would hope and pray for all of your listeners that they can practice Sabbath, whether it's a full day or start with a four hour chunk on a Wednesday afternoon. If that's what you have, then go with that. Start there. Sabbath was made for us, not us for Sabbath. It is a gift and however we can start celebrating it, that's how we need to do it. And so first start with identifying what steals your rest. What makes you anxious and stressful?

Is it notifications on your phone? Is it emails? Is it text messages? Then that's what you need to cut out of that time. And then ask yourself, what fills me up? What restores me? What refreshes me? Because again, Sabbath comes from Shabbat to stop and delight. What gives you delight? Probably for your listeners, that's going to be something to do with getting outdoors. So for our first year of Sabbath, we needed a really hard reset and most

Saturdays is when we Sabbath. We didn't even get in the car. We stayed home. Now we were outside. like we live on a lake. So we were on the lake or walk in the neighborhood. We were out in creation, but then we really started to miss our hiking. So now hiking is a big part of our Sabbath. And so we will have a slow morning, enjoy brunch together. And then we head up to the Hills and we go explore creation. And one thing I try to do is to lose sense of time. I'm not looking at my phone.

There's nowhere else to be. And I'm just losing sense of time as I enjoy God's creation.

McKenzie Smith (44:44)
Yeah, yeah, that's good. I love that you said what steals your rest and that's, you know, what you what you need to cut out because I think that's going to look different for everybody. And so this really is a personal thing and it's not going to be like, oh, you need to not do X, Y and Z. You know, it's not that it's not that cut and dry, you know. And I like that you keep bringing in the the word of Shabbat and that it means to stop and delight because I think about how often in our lives do we do that.

Eryn Lynum (44:53)
Mm-hmm.

Right. Yeah, yeah.

McKenzie Smith (45:14)
No, we don't, you know, not very often. And it's going to look different for all of us. And, you know, I love that even when I originally emailed you about this, this is how I know that this is like a practice of your life is like literally I got an email response that was like, I do not respond to my email Friday through Monday. Like, and it's just I think we've gotten so used to being so reachable.

Eryn Lynum (45:32)
Yeah.

Yes.

McKenzie Smith (45:40)
that we

feel like we owe it to people to respond right away. And it's like, no, we don't. No, for most things. so I just know personally, even from the very first time I ever emailed you, I think it was probably on a Saturday. And so, yeah, I just.

Eryn Lynum (45:44)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's good to hear.

That has been really empowering. Like it's powerful for me because I do Friday afternoon, I wrap up work and I set my way message. Hey, thanks for your email. My family and I are celebrating Sabbath. I give a little blurb about it. I'll get back to you next week. And what that does is it makes it so I can truly put work away.

No one is expecting a response from me. And it's also empowering to others. I get really cool responses to that message because it shows people exactly to the point you just made. We do not need to be always accessible in a way that allows us to rest if your listeners are thinking like, I don't think this is achievable whatsoever. Like this is not realistic. Trust me, it is. We've been doing it three years now. And

McKenzie Smith (46:22)
Yep.

Yeah.

You

Eryn Lynum (46:49)
One thing we have to do is just realize we do not need to always be accessible. And that's a gift and it's empowering when you start doing it and making yourself a little less accessible, it is truly freeing.

McKenzie Smith (47:02)
Yeah, absolutely. And I think, too, like, you you said one, you're setting the expectation. So now people know whenever they reach out, like, hey, I'm not going to get a response till at least Monday. And so they have that expectation. So they're not then checking their, you know, refreshing their email. And two, I think that it like you said, it's empowering to others to do the same. And

Eryn Lynum (47:11)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

McKenzie Smith (47:29)
You know, you said once you do it, you kind of set that set that expectation and things start to shift. And I think back to when I worked in in, you know, corporate corporate world, I was on call 24 or seven and I would answer my phone at 10 o'clock at night. And it's like. I don't know why. Why am I doing that? Like, there's there's really nothing that can't wait. You know, it's like it may seem like an emergency, but.

Eryn Lynum (47:51)
Yeah. Yeah.

McKenzie Smith (47:56)
They'll figure it out. If it's truly an emergency, they'll figure it out. I am preaching this now because I'm not in it anymore. it's like, if you let them figure it out, they'll figure it out. Yeah, I don't know where I read it, but there's one CEO, he was like, I send five emails a day and I don't respond to anything else because he's like,

Eryn Lynum (47:59)
Yeah.

Yeah, and that's good for them too.

McKenzie Smith (48:23)
I'm solving problems for people. Like, they'll figure it out. And I was like, that's pretty good.

Eryn Lynum (48:27)
Yeah, that's good. That's really good. Just be really selective about

it for sure.

McKenzie Smith (48:33)
Yeah. Well, thank you so much, Eryn, for just sharing and for talking to us a little bit about your book and about Sabbath and just about this topic. Because, like I said, I know that I'm excited about it. This is something I've had a lot of questions on, a lot of like, what does this look like practically? How do I not just like sit at home bored? Like that doesn't feel like I'm delighting, you know, because we hear all these different things about Sabbath. And so I know I'm really excited. I know I've taken some gems away from this.

Eryn Lynum (48:56)
No.

McKenzie Smith (49:03)
I would love for you to share with our listeners just like where they can find the book when it comes out on May 13th, where they can find more about you, your podcast. Give us all the thanks.

Eryn Lynum (49:15)
Thank you. So yes, the nature of rest, what the Bible and creation teach us about Sabbath living releases on May 13th, but you can pre-order now and we would encourage you to do that. That really helps with visibility of the book is pre-orders. So you can pre-order on Amazon. You can also get it on my website. My website is my name, which is spelled funny. It's E-R-Y-N-L-Y-N-U-M.com or wherever you buy books. So all three of my books are available there.

And my podcast Nat Theo, Nature Lessons Rooted in the Bible is a podcast for kids and families where like the analogies that I shared today, we take something to nature, a creature or a plant, or I just finished an episode on rocks and we dive into the real science behind it and all those wonderful details and then connect it all back to scripture and what it teaches us about God. So Nat Theo is available wherever you enjoy podcasts or you can listen straight on my website.

McKenzie Smith (50:10)
Cool. And is the podcast, is it made to listen for like a parent and a child, or is it just the parent and then they go and do something with their kid with what they learned, or how does that work?

Eryn Lynum (50:20)
Yeah. So it's, I direct it toward children really ages like four to 14, although we have a lot of younger listeners and really though we've received so much feedback that parents love listening with their kids. And so it is something you could just press play and let your child listen. And we even have a full curriculum available with it too, where you can dive in deeper with bonus videos and activity sheets and all the fun stuff, or you can listen together as a family and it creates some really rich discussion.

McKenzie Smith (50:50)
Okay, very cool. Well, y'all go check it out. Go preorder the book. Go listen to the podcast. Go check it all out. And just again, Eryn, thank you so much for being here and for sharing all that you have with us.

Eryn Lynum (51:02)
Thank you so much for having me.