How to Live Unhurried with Samantha Decker (Mark 2:1-11)

In this episode, I'm inviting my first guest ever onto the podcast! Wife, mom, Bible teacher, and author, Samantha Decker joins us on the show to discuss: 

• The miracle of Jesus healing the paralytic and what it teaches us about God's character
• How to live unhurried when we're doing all the things, and
• Practical ways to incorporate studying the Bible into our busy lives.

You don't want to miss this conversation with Samantha! 

Links:

Find Samantha's book on Amazon: Unhurried 

Samantha's Instagram: @samanthadeckerwrites

Sign up for her newsletter on Samantha's website: www.samanthadeckerwrites.com

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For more resources visit www.whitneyakin.com
Find my book, Overlooked, on Amazon, B&N, and Christianbook.com
Find me on Instagram @whitneyakin

**Sign up for my newsletter + get a free resource HERE!

***Join the Hanging On Every Word Bible Study Group on Facebook HERE!

Transcript

 welcome back to Hanging on Every Word. And as promised, I'm switching it up this season by bringing back some special guests onto the show. And our very first guest ever on the podcast is the lovely Samantha Decker. Samantha, I'm so excited to have you with us. Welcome to the show.

Samantha Decker (00:24.596)
Thank you so much for having me. It's fun to be here.

Whitney Akin (00:27.604)
Yeah, so Samantha is a wife, mom, Bible teacher, and she's the author of Unhurried, coming out April 1st. Above all, she's a follower of Jesus. She's passionate about encouraging believers to deepen their walk with Jesus through discipleship relationships and an unrelenting love for the word of God. She and her husband, Dustin, live in Oklahoma, and they enjoy serving in their local church, trying out new restaurants, and she loves Tex-Mex, y'all.

and having adventures with their three rambunctious boys and their baby girl. And Samantha and I have a personal connection because Samantha's book was chosen to be published through Compel, which if you're not familiar, Compel is a writer's training service under Proverbs 31 Ministries. And they used to have these challenges where you could submit a book proposal for publishers to look at. And so both my book and Samantha's book were chosen by publishers through that at different times and by different publishers.

But we sort of had that similar publishing experience, which is really neat to share. And so I have to ask you just to describe to the listeners, how did it feel when you got the call that your book was chosen?

Samantha Decker (01:35.186)
Yeah, I mean, as you know, getting that call is so surreal because if you don't know, breaking into the publishing world is not easy. And so through compel this opportunity, it meant there was no platform needed. were no connections. It wasn't about who I was. It was truly about what God did. So that call, I mean, took me to my knees. I sat in my bathroom. I was hiding from my kids and just

really was overwhelmed by what the Lord had done and was going to do. And it was just a moment of true celebration.

Whitney Akin (02:14.348)
Yeah, I remember having Tracy, the lady who called me repeat herself a couple of times. I was like, what's the catch? What are you talking about? That's so great. I love that. Yes, it's a testament to God doing it and us not being able to take credit for it, right? Yes. So I have invited Samantha on the show today to share how God's working in our life, to tell us more about her book. But first, this is a Bible study podcast.

Samantha Decker (02:21.77)
Yes, yes.

Samantha Decker (02:28.106)
Amen. Yes.

Whitney Akin (02:41.974)
And so I have invited Samantha to discuss one of the miracles in Mark with us to kind of get that idea that Bible studies better in community. so Samantha has graciously agreed to talk about our fourth miracle in the book of Mark. In my Bible is called Jesus heals a paralytic and it's found in Mark two verses one through 11. And so like we do on the podcast, I'm just going to go ahead and read those verses to you guys.

It says, a few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door. And he preached the word to them. Some men came bringing to him a paralyzed man carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it. And then they lowered the mat the man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, son, your sins are forgiven.

Now, some of the teachers of the law were sitting there thinking to themselves, why does this fellow talk like that? He's blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God alone? Immediately, Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts. And he said to them, why are you thinking these things? Which is easier to say to this paralyzed man, your sins are forgiven or to say, get up, take your mat and walk. But I want you to know that the son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins. So he said to the man, I tell you, get up, take your mat and go.

All right, Samantha, so we'll just get into it. This is, I think, a pretty familiar story to a lot of people. I think it's one we learn about in Sunday school if we grew up in church. And I can remember pictures of a guy on a mat being lowered through a thatched roof in my Sunday school lessons. So just starting out, can you kind of help us identify what the miracle is in Mark 2, 1 through 11? And maybe there's more than one going.

Samantha Decker (04:28.394)
Yeah, I'm seeing that same image of a Sunday school picture in my head right now. So yeah, when you think about the miracles here, I think there's the obvious one, right? Of a man couldn't walk and now he can. I mean, you can't get more miraculous than that, right? But then if you dig a little bit deeper, I think we actually see there are a couple more miracles in this passage. First of all, when Jesus,

when we hear that he heard the thoughts of the scribes who are questioning in their hearts. I mean, we see that Jesus doesn't just hear our voices, he hears our thoughts. And in his humanity there, he heard what they were thinking. He heard the grumbling, the hardness of their hearts. So I think that's another miracle. And then I think there's one more, which is obviously that he forgives sins. I who alone?

but God has the power to forgive sins. Only Him. And so those are the three I found. I was curious, Whitney, if you had any others I'm missing, but.

Whitney Akin (05:36.0)
No, think those would be the three I'd identify too. Just the, reading their minds or hearing their thoughts, obviously healing the man, which is what I think we always go to. Like he couldn't walk in and he could, but I think the biggest miracle, maybe obviously, is that he's cleansed from his sins. And that's where Jesus starts too. And so I think it's interesting to notice where certain miracles take place. A lot of times that's significant. And in this miracle,

It takes place about 20 miles outside of Nazareth, which we know is Jesus's hometown. He was born in Bethlehem, but then he grew up in Nazareth. so his reputation is kind of getting around because in the text it says that there's all these people gathered around and he's preaching to them. And so it seems like this is maybe like a pinnacle curiosity moment. Like who is this guy? What is he doing from our hometown even? And so I wonder what you think the purpose of the crowd is. Like what is it?

play as a backdrop to this mirror.

Samantha Decker (06:34.314)
I love that question. I think that one, we see that this miracle didn't happen in secret, right? There are witnesses, numerous witnesses. We saw that they were even, you know, pushing in the doorway to be able to see Jesus. And so there was going to be no denying that this man was healed. And I think you hit on it too of talking about his growing ministry. Another

thing we see with the crowd is his fame was spreading at this point. And so I was as studying, as I was studying this passage, I was reminded that this wasn't the first time that he was actually at Peter's house. The first time he was there, he healed Peter's mother-in-law and he had cast out demons and healed others. And so I think this time, as he came back, the crowd is like, what's he gonna do next?

We've seen what he can do, what's he going to do next? And so everyone was excited, I think, to kind of get in and peek and anxiously awaiting to see what God would do.

Whitney Akin (07:41.782)
Yeah, and I love, you know, as we go through these miracles, just one thing I've just noticed probably more as I've studied them is the idea that some are so public and then some he pulls them away and it's super private and just done between them. And so I think every location is very intentional. And this one, you're right, Jesus is letting that curiosity, he knows it, he knows it's there and he's giving them some answers to that as they're watching in on it. And I think all of that's very intentional.

So let's talk about the friends because I don't know about you, but when I've heard of this story, I think that often the takeaway is like, yes, the guy walked, also like surround yourself with great friends because the faith of your friends can help you, which is so true. And so these guys are really determined. There's this big crowd and they they have to remove part of the roof to put the friend down on a mat right apparently in front of Jesus. And Jesus notes their faith in verse five, which

also is always amazing when Jesus acknowledges someone's faith, which he does all throughout these miracles. But there's this whole crowd there, right? They're listening to Jesus, they're pushing in on him. So like, what makes the faith of these men notable? Why is Jesus acknowledging it?

Samantha Decker (08:56.626)
Yeah, initially as I was thinking about this question, I thought of their desperate love for their friend drew them to do extreme things. They were both having the faith that Jesus could heal them and they were willing to take action to make it happen or to at least ask him to make it happen. So I think we see that. We see their deep concern for their friend.

we see that they work together. I love that point. Scripture tells us there were four of them. And so it took some teamwork, you know, to get a man who couldn't walk down through the roof. And then lastly, they believed Jesus could and would heal them. And so I think it's that working faith we see there that's such a picture of what it is to have faith in Jesus, right? The assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things unseen, as it says in Hebrews.

But more than that, it's acting on what we know to be true.

Whitney Akin (10:00.822)
Yeah, it strikes me that so many of the people needing miracles are very alone in Scripture. Like, they're beggars outside of town or, you know, they're unclean and so they can't be in community. And this is a unique moment where there's a person who needs something from Jesus, but he's not even the one calling out to Jesus. It's his friends believing along with him and then taking action. like you said, it's this faith.

in community and it's strengthened because they're sharing it together. And I think that that is such an important idea for us as we think about just church, just our local church, our local families of Christians around us and the idea that faith together is strengthened. God can do so much when we're isolated as well, but there's this beautiful picture of this community of faith going on in this miracle that's just kind of unique to this one.

And like you said, it notes specifically there's four guys. So very cool. We also see that detail that the scribes are there and we've talked about, you know, that Jesus can read their minds. He perceives what they're thinking in their hearts and what they're thinking is who can forgive sins, but God alone, what is he even talking about? This is blasphemy. And I want to talk about this scene because Jesus calls out their private thoughts and answers them publicly.

I don't know if Jesus can always read minds or it does say that he perceived in his spirit. Maybe this was a specific moment. But why do you think it mattered in this moment that Jesus called out the scribes publicly? And remember, there's this big crowd here. Why do think that mattered?

Samantha Decker (11:42.046)
Yeah, so in that day, the scribes would have been seen as authorities. Their influence and their knowledge of the scripture and the law would have been taken really kind of as truth. And so what we see here by Jesus calling them out is, I think, a deeper call to look at the heart.

Right? We see that over and over in scripture, especially the gospels of Jesus saying, you know, you have practiced this way, but I care about your heart. And so this call out publicly of the scribes was that exact thing. was picture. It was the picture of Jesus caring more about what our heart is doing instead of what it appears like we're doing to others.

I just saw that the scribes really, instead of being joyful about what Jesus was doing, him healing a person, they were judgmental. They were so worried about upholding what they thought needed to happen that they weren't on board with what Jesus was actually doing.

Whitney Akin (12:50.894)
I love that. love that. I think it reminds me of just the idea that we can actually do the same thing with scripture and Bible study and church attendance and all the things. And yet our hearts can be far from the Lord or even we can know God, but in our hearts we can have a lot of misunderstandings and misconceptions about him. And I love that you talking about calling out their hearts.

Whitney Akin (13:44.654)
Okay, so we've been talking about how the miracles in Mark aren't just about somebody being healed, but they point us to some primary things. They point us to Jesus' identity, his authority, and his kingdom. So what do you think this miracle here in Mark 2 tells us about Jesus?

Samantha Decker (14:03.572)
I love this question because I think that's what we should always ask, right? What does scripture teach me about God, Jesus, Holy Spirit? And in this, I think we see a few things. We see that he's omniscient. He knows everything, even our thoughts, even the condition of our hearts. There's nothing hidden from him. He's omnipotent. He's all powerful. I mean, he healed a man who couldn't walk.

incredible and it was by his word, you know, get up, stand. I also see where he's compassionate. He cares about those who come to him. He sees our needs and he meets them. And then lastly, I loved that he called himself the son of man. And that's a title we

you know, sometimes just read over, but it's really a fulfillment of prophecy in Daniel 7, and that shows us his willingness to identify with us as fallen mankind. And so we see that he was fully man here. Yes, fully God, but also fully man.

Whitney Akin (15:17.038)
I love that. Look at you Samantha bringing some Old Testament. I love it. That's beautiful. Absolutely. It's amazing how sometimes we can miss the beauty of what is actually teaching us about God and these and because we're so focused on the action, which is also important, but we miss the beauty and there's so much it's telling us. So thank you for sharing that.

Samantha Decker (15:22.545)
doing what I can here.

Whitney Akin (15:41.806)
I want to kind of switch gears a little bit and move away from our Bible City portion and let Samantha just talk to us a little bit about becoming a confident and consistent Bible readers, because that's my goal for our listeners on this podcast is to really equip the listeners toward that and to do it in community. can in your bio, you describe yourself as having an unrelenting love for the word of God, which I love that description. Can you kind of tell us how that developed in your life?

Samantha Decker (16:10.974)
Yeah, so I grew up in a Christian home with parents who loved the Lord and who instilled a love for the Word in me. That as anyone who knows, who has been a believer for any time and is pursuing maturity, the Word of God, the love of the Word of God grows the more that you grow in Him. And so I think I like to describe myself that way because through the years of pursuing Jesus,

It becomes more and more of a craving, right? To know him, to need to know him more. We, I'm teaching Hebrews and I know Whitney, you just walked through Hebrews here on the podcast and there's a verse that talks about holding fast to the confession of our hope without wavering. And it's that idea of like, we hold fast to the truth of God's word so that we don't waver. So the word to me has become.

assure and steady anchor for my soul through the trials of life.

Whitney Akin (17:14.702)
I love that. Yes, absolutely. If you could give listeners just like a really practical tip, I mean, I think sometimes as we journey and what you're talking about sort of growing in our depth for the Lord and seeking him, there are, I don't know about you, I don't want to speak for you, for me, there's sort of ups and downs and there can be seasons of dry times where I'm doing the discipline of walking with the Lord and reading my Bible, but I don't want to say.

feel like it or feel a lot of effect from it. And I think a lot of times it's in those moments that people sort of fall off the bandwagon or lose some steam, which is understandable. So if you could give people just like a really practical tip for just reading their Bible and staying engaged in their time with Jesus, what would that be?

Samantha Decker (18:04.552)
Yeah, I think you're not alone in that, Whitney. It's easy to either look at it as something to check off the to-do list or, you know, we just kind of put it to the side if we're not careful. But one thing that has really helped me, and I'll say I'm in a season of raising little ones. I have four kids ages eight and under. So the idea of quiet time is hard to come by in my house. There is no quiet. But one thing that

Whitney Akin (18:28.206)
Bye.

Samantha Decker (18:33.546)
learned is to use times of transition to get in the Word. And what I mean by that is that's any time the time when you wake up, the time you transition to a meal, the time you're getting in your car to head to some other place or some other thing, any time you're moving from one thing to the next, let that be a reminder to meditate on God's Word. So it might not be

I have 30 minutes to really dig in deep here, but it might be, I'm in my car for 10 minutes. I'm going to just put in my air pod, you know, the scripture and just let it fill me for the next thing to come. Or remembering the verse I read in the morning and meditating on that as I'm moving to the next thing in my day. So that's one way that I've kind of throughout my day been able to practice feeding and chewing and hanging on the word of God.

Whitney Akin (19:30.584)
Yeah, I love that. I don't think I've ever actually heard that tip before. And that inspires me because that's kind of easy to remember, like you're transitioning throughout the day. And I agree sometimes, I just hang onto one little, one little passage, like one little chunk of scripture all day long, but those are great moments to just go back to it. Thank you. That's wonderful. I hope that encourages somebody out there to listening. Okay. So your love of God's word.

And your experiences with the Lord led you to write a book, we talked about releases April 1st. Can you just talk to us about the book? Tell us more about it and the story behind it.

Samantha Decker (20:07.772)
Yeah, so the book is called Unhurried, an invitation to slow down, create margin and surrender control to God. And it's been a long process. When I started writing this, I didn't even know it was a book. And it happened almost six years ago now that I was busy doing all the things. was, you know, mom life and church life and working and...

being a wife and trying to juggle everything. And there was this moment when my neighbor actually just said, I don't know how you do it all. I kind of in that moment, I mean, my heart, my pride like soared a little bit. I was like, yeah, I'm doing it all. And the Lord that night, I was actually reading Old Testament, the book of Haggai. And there's a verse in chapter one that says, consider your ways.

Whitney Akin (20:50.84)
Yeah.

Samantha Decker (21:03.498)
And the people were doing all of these things, building their own houses, storing their own money, planning their own fields when they had been called to rebuild the temple. And instead of doing what God had called them to do, they were busy with their own plans. And that night I really felt the Lord just tell me, you have to slow down, consider your ways. And so I kind of started this journey of asking God, like, what is that? What does that look like? How do I do that? And it turned into this book.

It turned into words that God had taught me of what it looks like to keep my eyes on eternity and to create margin to seek him. So that's what the book is. It's about what he taught me, but more importantly, it's about who he is. He's a God who rests, who's in control, who's sovereign over all things and worthy of every part of our day. We can lay our plans aside because his purposes are so much greater.

Whitney Akin (22:03.054)
I love that. love that. I love that you brought up Haggai too, because that if you have been listening for a little while, that's season one was on is the Book of Haggai. So we talked about consider your ways and I'm teaching on Haggai at my church right now. I love the Book of Haggai. Love that. It's so funny you said that because tonight I'm teaching on consider your ways. yes, yes. So that's such a simple, but sort of stop you in your tracks a moment. So

Samantha Decker (22:22.666)
love it.

Whitney Akin (22:33.58)
I think listeners can relate, I know I can relate to doing all the things and that statement, how do you do it all? I don't know how you have time for all this. so what can you, without giving all of your book away, what can you tell our listeners practical things? What does it look like and what does it look like in your life to sort of transition from that place of doing it all to this unhurried place with margins for seeking the Lord?

Samantha Decker (23:02.282)
Yeah, so I think one thing about living unhurried is that it doesn't just happen. don't all of a sudden decide, I'm gonna slow down and set aside all these things. And I think I kind of joke in the book that unless you move to a monastery, which I don't necessarily recommend, that's just not gonna happen in your life. So what I share and what God has taught me more importantly is that it's about finding

time to be intentionally seeking Him. And more than that, it's shifting our perspective. So it's taking what's in front of us and saying, why is this important in light of eternity? And so there are practical things throughout, but it's little things like instead of, you know, going to the grocery store and saying, how can I get out as fast as possible? It's maybe even intentionally choosing the longest line.

and instead saying, God, I'm gonna pray for every person in front of me right here and be open if I need to have a conversation or serve somebody in some way. Or it's little things like I have a mile long to do list and a friend calls, am I gonna choose to answer the phone or am I gonna stick to my plans? And it's maybe saying, I'm gonna answer the phone and I'm gonna say, what are you doing? How can I serve you? What do you need?

How can I love you better? And it's little things like that that I think help us to start to slow our pace and keep our eyes on Jesus. So I don't have a like fix it all solution for you, but I do offer practical tips, just small things to help us follow Jesus.

Whitney Akin (24:48.738)
Yeah, I'm going off script here. So sorry about that. Just as mom to mom, my children are a little bit older than yours, but I know that especially for women in motherhood who want to, who listen to this podcast and want to become consistent Bible readers and grow in the Lord. mean, that's usually the number one thing is like, I'm just so busy. I just don't have the time. It's noisy. It's crazy. And so I wonder if you could speak to like how this has, I don't know if it has.

Samantha Decker (24:51.274)
Do it. Let's do it.

Whitney Akin (25:18.424)
how it has applied in motherhood for you. Like what has it changed or shifted as you've lived out this message of unhurried.

Samantha Decker (25:27.252)
Yeah, I love this question because I actually dedicate the book to my husband and my kids. And I say that the Lord is the one who called me to slow down, but in many ways, they are the ones who showed me how. Because if you've been around kids and as a mom, like, you know, they're on their own timeline. I mean, you can tell your toddler, you know, hurry, let's get in the car. We got to go, we got to go. And they're gonna...

need to pick up their sword and find their shoe and play with the thing first. And it's just slow. And so through that, the Lord has taught me one, I think, to stop and say, how can I meet you in these moments of the pace of motherhood? How can I, instead of getting angry, being quick to anger, how can I instead be slow to speak?

to my toddler, how can I be quick to show your love in this situation? I think the other piece of it is they have taught me, motherhood has taught me to bring them along in it. So reading the word, if your children, if you're trying to do it away from your children always, they're not seeing you study the scriptures. And so,

Like I said, it might not be quiet and it might not be the depth that you want as you study, but maybe just bring out your Bible and read it in front of them. There can be, you know, kids screaming, baby crying, like all the things, but it's still the word of God. Like it still has the power to meet you in those moments. So it's not necessarily that life around you will slow. It's more of an internal, like your heart.

pace, your mind's pace, instead of the rushing thoughts and the beating heart, it's going to be a peace and a joy and a calmness that can only come from God and His word.

Whitney Akin (27:35.118)
That's so beautiful. I love that. It's not the world around you slowing down. It's not you controlling your circumstances because you probably can't. It's heart and a mind slowing. That's really beautiful. Well, I know that just hearing you talk about your book, people are going to want to know how to find it. So can you share with us just more about how we can find you, how we can find your book, how people can connect with you?

Samantha Decker (27:59.516)
Yeah, I would love to connect and I'm so grateful for everyone who engages and wants to know more. But yeah, my books are sold pretty much anywhere online, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, through my publisher Moody Publishers, you can go there. And then I'm on Instagram at Samantha Decker Wrights. I'd love to connect with you there. Or I have a newsletter that...

I really share more of what God's teaching me and I love to write there. So you can find my newsletter on my website at samanthadeckertwrites.com.

Whitney Akin (28:34.37)
Awesome, and I'll put links for all of that in the show notes so people can find that easily. Samantha, thank you so much. This has been a lovely conversation. I've learned, I'm inspired now to like go make some unhurried space for my children and in my heart and mind. And I hope listeners are as well. So thank you so much for talking through a miracle with us, sharing your story and sharing about your book. We really appreciate it.

Samantha Decker (28:58.676)
Thanks for having me, it was so fun to be here.