Trading the Wonder Woman Cape: Trisha Nix on Rest, Community, and Trusting God's Timing

Recorded live on a retreat on the Oregon coast, host Jan Johnson talks with new friend Trisha Nix about wilderness seasons — the ones we sometimes walk into ourselves. 

Trisha shares the quiet, undramatic moment she gave her life to Jesus as a child because of a teacher who cared enough to bring her to church, the season she calls her own wilderness after an impulsive move to Costa Rica left her with nothing, and what she's learning now about community, rest, and letting go of the pressure to be everything to everyone. 

Honest, warm, and full of practical wisdom for anyone waiting on God in an in-between season.

Isaiah 43:19 (NIV) — "See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland." 

Jeremiah 33:3 (NIV) — "Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know." 

Matthew 11:29-30 (NIV) — "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me... For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." 

https://uppbeat.io/t/braden-deal/a-movement

License code: JF75OPN6HGFTNGNG

00:00 — Welcome from the Oregon Coast Retreat 

00:37 — This Retreat's Theme: The Wilderness 

00:59 — "My Testimony Isn't a Dramatic Story" 

01:22 — The Third-Grade Teacher Who Changed Everything 

02:15 — Growing Up Without Faith at Home 

03:07 — Saved at a Small Baptist Church in Louisiana 

04:22 — A Real Relationship With God From the Start 

04:57 — Writing Poems to God as a Creative Child 

05:23 — "Any But God Moments?" — A Loaded Question 

05:54 — The Decision to Move to Costa Rica 

06:23 — Selling Everything and Leaving Bend, Oregon 

07:39 — Coming Back With Nothing But a Suitcase 

07:48 — Sitting in the Wilderness at Her Mom's House 

08:26 — "I'm Doing a New Thing": How God Kept Speaking 

09:05 — Redemption: A Car, a Home, and Meeting Her Husband 

09:54 — The Desire Underneath the Desire 11:36 — Where God Has Her Now: Southern California 

12:26 — Blended Family and Losing Herself in Caretaking 

13:35 — Why Every Woman Needs a Circle 

14:41 — "Nobody Has Your Voice" 

15:53 — The Book That Spoke to Her: I'm Not Wonder Woman, But God Made Me Wonderful 16:51 — Striving vs. Rest: "His Yoke Is Easy" 

17:09 — The I Love Lucy Chocolate Factory Illustration 

18:53 — Waiting on God's Timing Instead of Rushing Ahead 

20:22 — The Enemy's Lies in the Wilderness 

20:54 — Trading the Cape, Boots, and Headband 

22:01 — "Feelings Are Not Facts" 

24:18 — Embracing the Wilderness Instead of Rushing Through It 

24:49 — The Power of Journaling 

25:08 — The Prayer Written One Month Before Meeting Her Husband 

26:06 — Three Closing Words: Community, Slow Down, Ask Him to Use You

Welcome to Just Talkin' About Jesus.

I'm Jan Johnson, a seasoned believer who loves relationships and, you know, just talkin' about Jesus.

Here you will find testimonies of those who God has changed through his grace.

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Transcript

[00:00] Jan: Welcome, everybody, to this episode of Just Talking About Jesus. And we are on retreat. And I have a new friend, Tricia Nix. Welcome.

[00:11] Trisha: Thank you.

[00:12] Jan: Happy to be here. Yeah, we just got to be on the Oregon coast and got the ocean behind us, and I just thought that, you know, we'd add that into here just to make it a little bit fun.

[00:24] So I hope you enjoyed this episode and welcome. I'm so glad you're here.

[00:29] Trisha: Oh, my gosh. So good to be here. And here and the gloominess and the trees and the ocean and the birds. It's lovely.

[00:37] Jan: Our topic for this retreat was wilderness,

[00:42] Being in the wilderness and,

[00:44] you know, a little section that seems like we all go through at some point or another.

[00:49] And I know I just did an episode, a couple back on the wilderness as well, too. But at any rate, Patricia, share us a little bit of your testimony. A little bit of.

[00:59] Trisha: Yeah, so as I was telling you before,

[01:02] my testimony is not like, it's not this great story of how I came to Jesus. I didn't have a traumatic event or anything like that.

[01:10] My third grade teacher was my neighbor also, so she would come and pick me up and bring me to church. She brought me to Sunday school. She brought me to vbs.

[01:22] She brought me and paid for,

[01:24] because we were five kids,

[01:26] not, not a ton of money for extra activities and to go to church camp. And my third grade teacher sponsored me and said that somebody else in the church sponsored me, sponsored me.

[01:37] And so it was like, I think $50 to go to church camp then.

[01:41] Jan: And so back in the day.

[01:43] Trisha: Yeah. And so she really played a very special, pivotal part of my life.

[01:49] And I thank God for her because my family wasn't, you know, my, my, my mom believed, but we didn't go to church on a regular basis. And we definitely didn't hear the gospel in my home.

[02:02] And it, you know, I,

[02:04] yeah, definitely. I didn't feel like God was in our home. We had a lot of, A lot of anger and.

[02:11] Yeah, so it was a kind of a hostile environment that I grew up in.

[02:15] And so I just thank God for my third grade teacher.

[02:18] And I went to vbs,

[02:20] it was in the evening.

[02:22] And I remember,

[02:23] I don't know how old I was, but I was somewhere about 9, 10,

[02:28] somewhere around that age.

[02:30] And the pastor, a little small church in Louisiana, and the pastor, you know, he's like, you know, God is. God is calling you.

[02:39] Jan: Even then.

[02:40] Trisha: Got it. He said, he, he gave an invitation, little Baptist church.

[02:45] And he said, God is calling you. And, you know, exactly who you are. And I felt like my heart was going to beat out of my chest because I knew he was calling me and it was very real.

[02:55] You know, you think a 9, 10 year old that,

[02:58] that maybe you're just being persuaded, but I wasn't. I knew God was calling me and, and I accepted Christ that day.

[03:07] And,

[03:08] and I've never,

[03:10] I've never. He's always been with me since then and I'm 47 years old,

[03:14] so he's been so sweet and he's been so faithful in my life and I'm just so grateful.

[03:21] Jan: I just think. And just a word to you people who are out there working with kids. I mean, you know, don't think that what you're saying is not important.

[03:30] You know, even the experiences they're having there and the feeling, the love that you got for them, you know, whatever. It's just, I hear this story over and over again how people just.

[03:39] That's where they got saved.

[03:41] Trisha: Yeah.

[03:41] Jan: You know, and, and maybe throughout the years they have kind of not thought about it or things happened, but when later on it comes back and it's like,

[03:52] okay, you know, and that's their foundation. So don't stop. Don't stop.

[03:58] Trisha: Yeah,

[03:59] and bring people, invite people to church, your neighbors,

[04:02] your students,

[04:04] whatever. Because, you know, if they're in close proximity to you, those are the people God has given you to love on and to, to be encouragers. And so like your circle of people, where God's placed you, go get them.

[04:17] Jan: How was that for you then? So did you feel like. Because you're not finding that at home.

[04:22] Trisha: Right.

[04:23] Jan: So where did you kind of just hold on to that? Or was it just like throughout later in life that you came to really having a,

[04:34] a real relationship with God?

[04:37] Trisha: No, I mean, I think I had a real relationship with him from that moment.

[04:41] Jan: From the beginning. From that moment.

[04:42] Trisha: Because what I would do is I've always been a creative person.

[04:46] And so I would go hide away in my room and I would do creative things.

[04:53] And I felt God in those moments.

[04:56] Jan: Because he's a creator.

[04:57] Trisha: Exactly. Good morning.

[04:59] And so,

[05:00] yeah, I mean, I would go color, I would write,

[05:04] I would write poems to him about him.

[05:09] And at that time I didn't know I was a creative person, you know, but yeah, he. I always felt him very near to me.

[05:18] Since that moment,

[05:20] where had there been

[05:23] Jan: any but God moments in your life?

[05:27] Trisha: Loaded question. There have been so many. And,

[05:30] and I think, you know, the most important thing to understand about the walk with God is It's not easy.

[05:38] It's not always easy. Like you said, it's not a yellow brick road.

[05:41] But,

[05:42] but God, you know, he, he's with us and we have hope of what's to come.

[05:48] And I think in, in those moments,

[05:52] I'll give you one example.

[05:54] A couple years ago I decided to move to Costa Rica and I, I was living in Bend, Oregon.

[06:01] I decided to move to Costa Rica. I honestly did not seek God about that. It's what I wanted.

[06:07] Jan: Seemed like a good idea at the

[06:08] Trisha: time, like, ooh, Costa Rica, I'm gonna just go live there.

[06:12] Jan: And how was your Spanish? And,

[06:17] Trisha: and so I, I, I, I just took it upon myself and did not consult God.

[06:23] And it just, that's,

[06:25] you know, I got over there, I was teaching at a Christian school and I just thought it was going to be butterflies and rainbows and it ended up not being that the school was a little shady and the weather was hot, hot.

[06:40] And I am going through perimenopause and I just like, I not dealing with this.

[06:47] And so I was there a couple of months and I was like praying God, I have to go now. Granted, this is my book. God,

[06:55] I sold everything I owned or gave it away, clothes.

[07:00] Living in Bend, Oregon. I had all the warm things I had. I sold my car because I planned

[07:06] Jan: my, because I was going to go.

[07:09] Trisha: I, I was going to go and be there for a long time, if not forever.

[07:13] And it didn't work out.

[07:16] I had nothing to my name, but I had a suitcase and a carry on and I got back a few months later. I went to my mom's because that's what you do, you know,

[07:26] when you, when you don't have a place to go and you don't have transportation. I was without, I mean I had nothing and I had very little money because the Christian school I was teaching at was more of a ministry.

[07:39] And, and so I had nothing.

[07:42] And I, I was in the wilderness in that time of my life.

[07:48] So I would just sit in the backyard at my mom's and I would just sit in the chair all day in the sunshine. It was April,

[07:55] so it was nice weather. I could do that,

[07:57] sit in the chair, read my Bible, pray. And I felt like I was hopeless

[08:04] Jan: because, but any good story, that's where the, that's where the change comes, right? I mean any good fiction, story, movie, whatever it, like when it gets helpless, you go, oh, helpless.

[08:13] Now we know things.

[08:15] Trisha: Yeah,

[08:16] I beat myself up for not praying and, and saying God, okay, like seeking his will and so that's the importance of that. But to make long story short,

[08:26] I just. I felt like just scum of the earth because,

[08:30] you know, we find our value in things and money, and I had none of that.

[08:35] And God's like, trust me,

[08:37] trust me.

[08:38] And the verse at that time he kept giving me was, I'm doing a new thing at you.

[08:42] It was repeated. So that's how a lot of times you know that God's speaking to you.

[08:46] He will repeat things. If you don't get it the first time,

[08:50] he repeats, repeats, repeats in so many different ways. And like we said last night,

[08:55] we know his voice because his sheep know his voice. And so, you know, when God's speaking to you.

[09:01] He ended up turning that situation around.

[09:05] I was able to get a car. I bought a car online.

[09:10] And at that time, I hadn't paid off my debt, so my credit was not that great.

[09:14] But God allowed that. He gave me the ability to get a car.

[09:19] I eventually got a place to stay back in Bend. I moved back to Bend.

[09:23] And he totally,

[09:25] you know,

[09:26] I asked for forgiveness. I totally redeemed that situation. But that's just a small, but good moment.

[09:31] And he restored and ended up meeting my husband. The following month, I moved back to Bend on Instagram by accident.

[09:40] That's a whole nother podcast. But.

[09:43] But just all that to say that, you know, God's faithful and he hasn't forgotten about you or your story,

[09:51] and he redeems even small things.

[09:54] Jan: You know, I think. I think God knows what the desire of our hearts is,

[10:00] you know, and.

[10:01] And we think it might be a certain direction to get there,

[10:06] you know, and yet.

[10:08] So we might just plunge out to.

[10:11] On our way, you know, toward whatever that desire is. And yet,

[10:16] he's. Okay, I'm gonna wait for you. Cause I know.

[10:20] I know what the desire of your heart is, what your real, true desire is,

[10:24] even though you think it looks like something else,

[10:27] you know, and then he takes you through it,

[10:30] right? And he gets you ready to have that actual,

[10:34] you know,

[10:35] desire.

[10:39] Trisha: I understand the volume. Yeah.

[10:42] Jan: It's going to be what it is anyway.

[10:45] Trisha: But, yeah,

[10:46] And I think just no matter the situation,

[10:50] no, he's with you and he's, like, welcoming you with open arms. And like, nothing. Nothing is unforgivable,

[10:58] you know, other than blasphemy. Bible.

[11:00] Jan: Right.

[11:00] Trisha: Can redeem. And so, yeah, it's beautiful.

[11:04] Jan: Yeah.

[11:05] Yeah. That's just amazing how he does that. And over and over, it just. There's really. There's nothing.

[11:13] You know, you look at People in the Bible, they're just like, how many people are.

[11:17] Even David. I mean, he redeemed David.

[11:21] You'd think that murdering somebody and covering things up was not going to be okay,

[11:26] which it wasn't, you know, but he's still all kinds of people that he redeemed through there that are there for our example for,

[11:33] you know. Right.

[11:34] Yeah.

[11:36] So where's God have you now?

[11:38] Trisha: So now I'm living in a place I never thought I would live.

[11:42] Southern California.

[11:44] It's never been on my radar. It's never been a place like, oh, I want to move to California. But that's where he has me. I met my husband, like I said, online by accident,

[11:55] total.

[11:57] And so he has two kids. So I moved to California to support him in that way. And it's been, it's been a very hard transition because he pulled me from the, from here, from Oregon, the place that I absolutely like,

[12:11] my heart beats, you know,

[12:13] for this place.

[12:14] And so I'm. I've had to transition away from friends and that community that I've built there into now trying to build a community here.

[12:26] And the Lord just opened up a door at church to lead the women's events at my church. And so I'm getting into that. And, and that's, you know, one of the things that he's teaching me now is no matter where we are, we need a circle of close people,

[12:43] of other believers and also non believers because we, we need to edify and encourage people who don't believe too. We need to have that influence and to share the good news.

[12:53] Jan: Yeah.

[12:54] Trisha: And so all people.

[12:56] Jan: Yeah.

[12:57] Trisha: And so like, yeah, let's like, what he's really been teaching me because the last year and a half is I have really concentrated on my new marriage and new step kids, family,

[13:10] and I've given them everything and I've lost myself in that.

[13:15] Jan: Yeah.

[13:15] Trisha: And how easy is that to do as women?

[13:18] And so God's like, Tricia,

[13:20] no,

[13:21] like your home is your foundation. Yes. It needs to be good. You need to start there. But you also need to feel a small circle of women that you can encourage and they can encourage you and like, that how important that is.

[13:35] And because,

[13:37] because like people, people need you and we are not that. We're all that like, oh, they need me.

[13:44] Jan: But like, no, no, no, no. But, but everybody has their own story to add to the whole, you know,

[13:53] it's all. They're all different, but they're all the same in a way too, you know? And I think God places You in a certain place at a certain time for that message, you know, and.

[14:05] And I think the coming too, but leaving everything. That's a ruse story.

[14:10] Trisha: Yeah.

[14:10] Jan: You know, I mean,

[14:12] forsake everything. And where you go, I'll go. I did the same thing,

[14:16] you know, left all my family, all my,

[14:18] My church, my people, my, you know,

[14:22] whatever, to do something else.

[14:23] Trisha: And yeah, and it's, you know, like, no one has your voice.

[14:30] Nobody can impact another person the way you can. Nobody has your story, nobody has your mannerism. And people need that. Other women need that from us.

[14:41] And so like, we're vessels.

[14:43] And so if we can all get to a place where we can just say, like, thumbs up word, like I'm your excuse me.

[14:52] And so,

[14:53] yeah, so that's where God has me now. He's. He's teaching me about expanding my circle.

[14:57] And not like, yes,

[14:59] foundation home is there,

[15:01] but we need other women.

[15:04] Jan: And all of that, I think, goes back to a couple of things. One is our identity.

[15:09] You know, are we hidden? Is. Is just our family, our identity and what we're wrapped in.

[15:15] But that also comes with one of those voices that we're hearing and thinking we need to act on, like, oh, well, a good wife is going to do this. A good mom is going to do this.

[15:26] A good.

[15:27] A good whatever it is to fit into somebody else's norm or idea or expectation and things. And that forms to where we need to step back and just say,

[15:40] God, is this. What. What do you want me to be? Right? You know, what do you want me to be? And. And who do you want me to.

[15:46] How do. How do you want me to serve you? And what does that really look like, you know?

[15:50] Trisha: Yeah. Yeah, I'm reading this book. I just. Actually, I bought it at a thrift store for like a buck.

[15:55] And the COVID spoke to me because my. My handle on Instagram is like Wonder Woman with an A.

[16:01] Jan: And.

[16:02] Trisha: And the name of the book was I'm not Wonder Woman, but God Made Me Wonderful is by Sheila Wash.

[16:10] And so I've been reading that and man,

[16:14] you know, she talks about taking off our cape and our boots and our Wonder Woman headband and taking all the. Which. Which represent like all the tasks that we do.

[16:25] Jan: We.

[16:26] Trisha: All the. The things that we feel like we have to do as women,

[16:30] like keeping a house clean.

[16:33] It could be the cape of shame, it could be guilt,

[16:37] could be whatever it is, take all that off and exchange it for redemption, forgiveness, for peace, for,

[16:46] you know, those things that are of God, not from the Pressures of the world.

[16:51] Jan: And, you know, you end up striving. You know, I mean, God doesn't want us to be striving. He wants us to be at rest.

[16:57] Trisha: His yoke is easy. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[16:59] Jan: It doesn't want. He wants us to be at rest. To be.

[17:02] And. And if you were truly where he wants you to be, you are. You're going to know that because you're at risk.

[17:07] You're going to feel at risk.

[17:09] Trisha: Yeah. It reminds me of the, I don't know, I Love Lucy fans.

[17:14] Jan: I love.

[17:15] Trisha: I love that show. But there's a scene where they are in a chocolate factory and there's like, have an assembly line.

[17:23] And it starts out, Lucy and Ethel are like, oh, this is nothing. I got this.

[17:28] And. And so they're wrapping the chocolates and they're on a conveyor belt. And then it gets faster.

[17:33] Jan: It gets faster.

[17:33] Trisha: And they're just like. Before you know it, they're stuffing them in their mouth and pockets and they're just like. And. And that reminded me of,

[17:40] you know, like, this Wonder Woman mentality that we think we have to do it all and that we can.

[17:46] And the world just keeps. Keeps on pushing it on us like the conveyor belt.

[17:50] And. And it gets harder and it gets faster. And we're not called to that.

[17:55] God did. And she says this in the book. God did not call us to be Wonder Women.

[17:59] He called us just to be with him and to be used by him.

[18:05] And it's really simple.

[18:07] Jan: Yeah,

[18:08] yeah,

[18:09] yeah. And I think sometimes it's.

[18:12] You feel a call from God sometimes to do a certain thing and you don't know.

[18:19] You kind of want to make it happen. It's like, okay, is this what it's supposed to look like? I'm going to jump ahead instead of just sitting back and going, okay, you should show me.

[18:27] If that's what you want me to do.

[18:28] Yeah, show me what it's going to be like. One step at a time. So that.

[18:32] So to do it your way and not mine, because I made two steps forwards in about three back.

[18:38] Trisha: Like I was with Costa Rica. Yeah.

[18:40] Jan: Huh?

[18:41] Trisha: It's not where God wanted me. And God's like, okay, Trisha, I'm going to let you go because that's what you want and I love you.

[18:47] And he is gracious.

[18:48] Jan: Right?

[18:49] Trisha: He's a gentleman.

[18:50] Jan: Yeah.

[18:51] Trisha: But.

[18:53] Jan: But maybe he needed to strip you from all of those things too, you know?

[18:56] Trisha: And also. Yeah, strip me from the pride and the worldly things,

[19:03] you know, and you have nothing and Then God gives it all back and then some. And.

[19:09] Yeah.

[19:10] And then you're just like. You know, that's the thing, is he is faithful. He is with us.

[19:17] He hears our cry.

[19:20] Jan: Yeah. Unfailing love.

[19:22] Trisha: Yeah.

[19:23] Jan: And I'm gonna guess the way he gives things back to you were not the same.

[19:30] Trisha: No, they were better. Because.

[19:32] Jan: Because he changed, you know, I'm guessing changed your heart as to who you were before.

[19:37] And so the things that you had, maybe those weren't important anymore.

[19:40] Maybe those were not the things.

[19:42] You know,

[19:43] things.

[19:44] Trisha: They're just things.

[19:45] Jan: Yeah. But he restored your soul, and that's of all things. It doesn't. It's not the things that he needed to restore.

[19:52] Trisha: Yeah.

[19:53] Jan: It's who he wanted you to be and to. To realize. I gotcha. Right.

[19:59] Trisha: And to. When you have nothing and you only have God,

[20:05] and you honestly feel like you're empty. I mean, you know, you have God, but, like,

[20:10] I was sitting in the chair at my mom's and just feeling like, oh, my gosh, like I'm gonna be homeless and I'm not gonna have a car. The devil really preyed on me in that moment in that wilderness.

[20:22] I'm not gonna. I'm gonna be nothing. And that's what he was saying. You're never gonna be anything because you just go on a whim and you do what you wanna do.

[20:31] And. And. And you're. You're worthless. And that's why he was saying you're not gonna be able to find a job. You're not gonna be able to get a car. You're gonna be living here at your parent, at your mom's.

[20:40] And it's like,

[20:42] no,

[20:43] you know, thank God. I had a woman speaking to me. She was an author,

[20:47] and she's spoken to me. And. And it gave me hope.

[20:50] And so that's the importance of the community of women. Yeah.

[20:54] And so now, like, you know, I. I've traded my. I. I traded my cape, my boots, my Wonder Woman headband.

[21:02] Jan: Pick it up.

[21:03] Trisha: And now I'm in that season of life where I'm like, okay, Lord,

[21:07] strip. You've stripped me. You continue to strip me of everything that I want to be or that I thought it would be.

[21:14] Jan: And.

[21:15] Trisha: And now,

[21:17] like, God, please, like, give me gifts and talents you want me to have so I can help build your kingdom,

[21:25] you know, So I, like, give me the gifts you want me to have.

[21:29] Let me. Let me. Just lead me and show me. And I think that's a good prayer. Like, if you're watching and you feel like,

[21:36] no,

[21:37] you. You have no purpose or no sense of worth or no value. Or maybe you feel like.

[21:43] Like I did.

[21:44] You're sitting there with nothing. Like,

[21:46] I'm never going to be anything. The devil's telling you that. But you do have God,

[21:52] and he is in those trenches and he's in the valley with you,

[21:56] even though it doesn't feel that way. Feelings are not facts and feelings are fickle.

[22:01] But the word of God stands forever and it never changes. And he is. He's with you. And so ask him. Instead of wallowing,

[22:11] just ask him. Okay, God, like,

[22:13] show me the gifts and talents that you would have me to carry out today. Just start with today.

[22:18] And the people that you place around me, the community, the neighbors that you put around me today,

[22:24] how can I impact them for your kingdom?

[22:27] And. And he will. Because, you know,

[22:30] what is Jeremiah 30, 33 or Jeremiah 30? The plans.

[22:35] Oh, no, I'm thinking of. Call to me and I'll answer you and I'll show you great and mighty. Or some versions say hidden mystery, mysterious things that you don't know.

[22:46] And so God will answer when you call. It may not be right away, it may not be when you want it, but he does answer if he. If you're still long enough, which is what this retreat is about.

[22:58] And you listen.

[22:59] Jan: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think that is. I think that's key. And it just,

[23:05] it. Yeah, it's not like.

[23:07] Like he is going to necessarily answer you just right away on things too. And so you just be patient. You just like.

[23:14] Like if you're in a wilderness part or something, and you just, maybe you need to just sit in that.

[23:20] Maybe that's a time to just stay in it. Okay.

[23:23] I know that you're going to be here and I'm going to trust that. And I'm just going to wait. I'm going to wait on you, Lord, until you show me exactly what to do.

[23:32] And when he does, you're going to know for sure what it is.

[23:35] And meanwhile, you just keep going day by day and looking for those opportunities that God's going to put in your. Like, because sometimes maybe in your imagination it's going to be Costa Rica,

[23:46] you know,

[23:47] but it's. It's maybe just that little encounter that you have throughout the day or some kind of thing, you know, or maybe just somebody you're praying for or whatever. I mean,

[23:56] those things that seem little aren't little.

[23:59] Trisha: Yeah. And when you're in that wilderness to like, embrace it,

[24:05] because you can look back you can look back a year from now and be like,

[24:10] okay, God, I see your hand now. You can't see it now,

[24:13] but you can see it later. And you know, this too shall pass.

[24:18] This too shall pass. So embrace it and, like, feel all the feelings and crying,

[24:23] you know, because it's going to pass.

[24:26] Nothing.

[24:26] Jan: It's going through the valley. Because on the other side,

[24:30] there is another side. You know,

[24:33] it may be a long.

[24:35] Maybe a long valley, a long, hard thing, whatever. I think that's the beauty of journaling, because then you can look back and see what your milestones are, where God has taken you, and for sure, you know,

[24:46] from a different perspective later on to look back and.

[24:49] Trisha: Yeah,

[24:50] yeah. Just the other day, I was at the hotel in Eugene and I was looking through my journal, or, no, my Bible. And,

[24:58] you know, I had a note in my Bible and the date,

[25:03] and it was one month before I met my husband.

[25:08] It was during that wilderness season I have wrote.

[25:11] It was.

[25:12] Gosh, what scripture was that?

[25:14] Anyway, I wrote, lord, don't let me settle for less than a man like this.

[25:21] It was when, oh, Boaz, when he kept pursuing Ruth and he pursued her. And I always said, I am not going to go after a man. I'm not a flirty type of person.

[25:31] I'm not gonna chase anybody, like.

[25:34] And I wrote, lord, don't let me settle for less. And I put the date, and one month later is when I met my husband. And, you know, I didn't pursue him.

[25:41] It was accident that we met. And then he pursued, pursued, pursued, you know,

[25:46] and so, yeah, power of journaling and writing those things down that God does for you and you can go back and, like, he was faithful then.

[25:54] Jan: Yeah.

[25:55] Trisha: He's going to be faithful again.

[25:57] Jan: Yeah. So, yeah. Yeah. It's beautiful. Any last things you want to leave with our audience?

[26:06] Trisha: I think, you know, those. Those three things.

[26:10] Build your community, feel your circle. I'll get close to somebody in your church or wherever, whoever God's placed you, around,

[26:17] around you. And then.

[26:19] Yeah, slow down,

[26:21] slow down. Put away your trade, your cape boots and your Wonder Woman mask for the things of God.

[26:29] And then, you know, just ask God to use you.

[26:32] Jan: Yeah, yeah.

[26:33] Trisha: Because that's why we're here, to love God and to love people.

[26:37] Jan: So.

[26:38] Trisha: Absolutely.

[26:38] Jan: Bottom line, right?

[26:39] Trisha: Yep. Love God, love people.

[26:41] Jan: Trisha, thank you so much.

[26:42] Trisha: Thank you. It was such a joy. I'm so happy I've met you now. I'm your friend.

[26:46] Jan: I know, I know. Thank you.