Good Girl Complex Part 6 (When You Have Nothing Left But Faith)

She had spent everything. She had tried everything. Then she did the one thing no “good girl” would do: she pushed through the crowd, reached low, and touched the hem of Jesus’ garment.

We sit down with Tessah and Courtney to walk through the bleeding woman’s story in Mark 5:25–34, Luke 8:43–48, and Matthew 9:20–22, pulling out the details that change how you read it. We talk about what it meant to be ceremonially unclean, cut off from worship and community, and why her healing is bigger than a physical miracle. When Jesus stops and calls her “Daughter,” we see a Savior who restores identity, reputation, and belonging without a hint of disgust or distance.

From there, we connect the passage to the Good Girl Complex and the quiet ways women learn to cope: hiding pain, trying to fix ourselves first, and making Jesus our last resort because surrender feels like losing control. 

We ask the hard questions: Are you crawling to Him, or managing your life around Him? What are you willing to risk to bring your real need into the light?

If this conversation gives you hope, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a review so more women can find a seat at the table.

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Transcript

Welcome And Table Talk

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Welcome to the Table of Grace podcast, where every woman has a seat, every story matters, and Jesus is always at the center. We're here to create space for real conversations and faith-filled stories that help you grow in your walk with Jesus. So grab your favorite cup of coffee and pull up a chair, because at his table, there's always a seat for you.

SPEAKER_03 0:29

And we're live.

Tessah 0:31

Welcome back to the Table of Grace podcast. I'm Tessa Lovkey and I'm here with my co-host Courtney Newberry. Hello. And as Tessa says, we're live. We're live.

unknown 0:42

We're live.

Tessah 0:43

Actually, I'm very thankful we're actually literally not live because that would be something. People would never listen. Yeah, that we would if you were in doubt, you definitely would turn your face in your head. Oh. Anyways, we've just been we've just been uh literally Tessa and Courtney. Yeah, we're just being ourselves. And if you know us, you just know. Um and if not, you've been listening to the podcast, you should know us pretty well by now. Um today, before we get jumping into the next part of the Good Girl Complex, let's do a little bit of table talk. Um, I was telling Courtney earlier before we started recording, I think it's actually insanity that anyone whoever decided that Mother's Day needs to be in May.

Courtney 1:27

It was in charge. It must have been a man.

Tessah 1:28

It was definitely a man. Um his name was definitely John. Uh no offense to any John's around here, but it had to be like John or Bill or like George or I don't know. Um, somebody that was like, oh yeah, just put it in May, it'll be fun. Yeah. And they were not thinking. It's pretty outside. It's pretty outside. The flowers have bloomed. Um, yeah, no, uh, May is the craziest month ever. I was running around today with Jackson, and if you don't know, he's 16 months old, so like it's so cute. Just a he is very cute, but it's also so much. Like anybody who has any children at all, like you know, going to the store with them is like running errands, period is not peaceful. It is like it's total chaos. Yes, it is such a workout. So I was doing running around, getting Mother's Day gifts, getting graduation gifts, because you know, all that's going on too. It's a true story. Anyways, so it's been my week has been nuts.

Courtney 2:19

Um, I feel that. And um, I messaged actually schedule sent that message that you got this morning from me.

Tessah 2:25

Yeah.

Courtney 2:26

Last night. It might have been this morning. It was this morning, like 5 30.

Tessah 2:30

To be able to schedule messages. Yeah, absolutely. It's a great feature.

Courtney 2:33

Yeah, because when I sent it to come to you at nine, I knew that I wasn't gonna be thinking about it. Right.

Tessah 2:37

Right.

Courtney 2:38

And I said, Hey, I sound really terrible and I have coughed my head off today, but I'm going to work, so I'm gonna talk there. I might as well still record. Yeah, and she's like, I'll get you. What'd you call this?

Tessah 2:50

It's called like a medicine ball tea, but it's technically a honey citrus tea from Starbucks.

Courtney 2:55

Okay, well, I've never had one before. 10 out of 10 recommend, so thank you for that.

Tessah 2:58

Yeah, it's really good.

Courtney 2:59

I am really not a cool person because you know Tessa and I couldn't be more different and then like Tessa like lives social media, like she does it like for a living, and I'm like, I can't because I can't moderate in my life. Right.

Tessah 3:16

But I feel like that's the type of content people love. Anyways, I'll say mine.

Courtney 3:20

Cool is what I'm saying.

Tessah 3:21

Like you're very cool, but like you're real life cool.

Courtney 3:23

You don't have to be someone cool. When I like say the word sus, sometimes I'm like, look at me. Look at me.

Tessah 3:31

Or like earlier in the day when you were like, I totally crashed out, and I was like, I know what that means. The only reason I know any words is my because of my sister, and I'm gonna be really messed up when she uh like really ages out of that, um, which I feel like she is slowly. But we also hang out with um college kids throughout the year because we do a college life group, and so they keep us up to date on all the you know the new terms, you know.

Courtney 3:56

I just lean into my ignorance.

Tessah 3:58

Yeah, that's probably better actually.

Courtney 4:00

Well, I mean, I just look dumber if I try to pretend like I know what they're talking about.

Tessah 4:04

Um when I hear something, I'm always like googling, like, okay, what was that? What does that mean? What does that mean?

Courtney 4:08

What does that mean?

Tessah 4:09

And it's bad when even Google doesn't know you're like, oh no, it's way too new.

Courtney 4:12

It's not good. Doing um a staffing with one of the therapists that I work with. And she was like telling a story, and I said, What's that mean? And like I told her I can't talk about it because it's not really appropriate.

SPEAKER_03 4:23

Yeah.

Courtney 4:24

And I asked her like what it meant, and she told me, and I was like, Oh, that is not what I thought that meant.

Tessah 4:30

Well, I've only been out there saying that because you made that. Yes, that's the worst, especially when or when you think something is something and then it's not, and then you're saying it, and you're like, Oh, that

Why May Feels Like Chaos

Tessah 4:40

I shouldn't have said that in that context.

Courtney 4:43

Um, but yes, I speaking of cultural context.

Tessah 4:48

Speaking of that was a toss-up. That was that's good. Softball pitch. Yeah, there it is. A good good thing I'm terrible at softball. Um uh that's a whole nother podcast episode. But um, today we're gonna be talking about um the woman. I don't know exactly like what the She's the bleeding woman. Yes, the bleeding woman.

Courtney 5:07

The the unwell woman.

Tessah 5:08

Unwell woman. So we had the woman at the well. Now we have the unwell woman. But uh I feel like I think she's called the bleeding woman. I think she is too. Yeah. Um if you've never heard her story, we're gonna be talking out of Matthew 9, 20 through 22, Luke 8, 43 through 48, and then Mark 5, 25 through 34. And I don't know about you, Courtney, but I love when the gospels have the same story. Same because you get the different leaders. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's so good. And so, like, we see the actually her story in multiple different um gospels. So there's a lot of cool different details in each one that we can kind of piece together.

Courtney 5:43

But also how powerful it was, and it ended up in three of the four.

Tessah 5:46

Yeah.

Courtney 5:47

And then also I want to be like, who's it not in? John? Maybe John. John, why where were you? Were you at the bathroom? Like, how did you're like the feelings gospel, you know?

Tessah 5:58

Like, how did you miss that?

Courtney 5:59

Yeah, I don't think I didn't see it in John, but that doesn't mean this is why Tessa and I have never claimed to be Bible scholars.

Tessah 6:05

Yeah, right.

Courtney 6:06

Um, we are, you know, just girls who love Jesus and they're trying to figure it out and want to have conversations with other people who are trying to figure it out.

Tessah 6:15

Exactly, exactly. Um, but you know me, I love to put things into perspective, into context. So let's kind of put this story into context. So if you've never read this, I'm gonna read. I think I'm gonna read um, I'm trying to think which one. Maybe Mark, because I really didn't like Mark's take on it. I liked Mark's take on it. I'm gonna read Mark real quick so you can kind of hear the story because I feel like sometimes we look over this in scripture, or maybe you haven't actually even heard anyone talk about this before, so I think it's good to read it. Um And a great crowd followed him, Jesus, and thronged about him. And there was a woman who had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and who had suffered under m under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better better, but rather grew worse. She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him into the crowd and touched his garment, for she said, If I touch even his garments, I will be made well. And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. And Jesus, perceiving himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned into the crowd and said, Who touched my garments? And his disciples said to him, You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, Who touched me? And he looked around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. And he said to her, Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed of your disease.

Courtney 7:43

That's such a good sword. And there's so much meat in it. I know. Yeah, it's so good. So, like, I was thinking about this and reading through the story, big picture, you know, like we've talked about, the good girl complex and all the different facets that we can see, all the things. And would you say that maybe this experience what would level do you think that you would say this experience for her changed her life?

Tessah 8:12

Oh my gosh, like a 180. I mean, I think in putting it into context culturally, she was such an outcast because of Levitical law, um Ceremonially. Yeah, she was ceremonially uh ceremonially ceremonially unclean. I can't I'm not gonna butcher that I'm not gonna try to say it again. Yeah, ceremonially, that's a big word. That is a lot, that's a ten dollar word.

Courtney 8:35

That is a ten dollar word, yeah. She would not be able to worship in the tabernacle. Correct. I mean the temple.

Tessah 8:41

Right. And she couldn't get that in the new testament. Which one is it? Yeah. We jumped to Leviticus and you got stuck there. I did. Um, anyways, but she there's a lot of social issues from this. So like it would be so different than someone today, like in in America specifically. Like this would obviously she already was suffering in so many different ways, probably physically, um, but also this was a lot of suffering spiritually, socially.

Courtney 9:07

And I don't know if any of you guys have watched um chosen in this in this episode. Oh my gosh, it's a good thing. When they're depicting her, I think that they do such a great because she's like living outside from everyone else and like she's alone and she like lives by the creek, and like she, if she was married, she didn't get to stay married.

Tessah 9:25

Yeah.

Courtney 9:26

Um, if she had family and friends, then she could not be around them.

Tessah 9:30

Because she couldn't even touch people exactly.

Courtney 9:32

Because that would make them unclean. It was it was essentially like she had leprosy.

Tessah 9:36

Yeah.

Courtney 9:37

But didn't.

Tessah 9:38

Yeah.

Courtney 9:40

And then all the medical piece that comes with it. So like essentially she's

The Bleeding Woman Story Read

Courtney 9:45

hemorrhaging. And when you have a hemorrhage or you're bleeding regularly, it slowly is withdrawing from your body, yeah, what it needs. Yeah, you can have blood pressure issues. Yeah, you can be dizzy. Yeah, um, you can have like extreme exhaustion, fatigue, like she would probably have low iron. Yeah, um, she's malnourished because her body doesn't get a chance to rest, it's not getting the things that it needs. So, like this woman didn't like walk up to Jesus and sneak in and grab his cloak. Like, she crawled on her hands and her face and her feet. Yeah. She crawled to Jesus. And I think that in reading this, when I process through how desperate she was for him, um, it was just a sense of humility and like accordingly, or do you get that desperate for him?

SPEAKER_03 10:39

Yeah.

Courtney 10:40

You know, I think that we live in a world where we have a lot of control over a lot of the things that we do in our day-to-day life.

SPEAKER_03 10:47

Right.

Courtney 10:48

And when I feel like I'm losing a sense of control, or when I feel hopeless about something, am I crawling to him?

SPEAKER_03 10:56

Yeah.

Courtney 10:57

And I think that her faith in this is, you know, like we read that she touched the tassel because Jewish men were like they had a tassel.

Tessah 11:07

Jewish rabbis. Yes, that's what I'm saying.

Courtney 11:09

Yeah, I didn't take my ADHD meds today.

Tessah 11:12

I probably need ADHD meds. People listen to this podcast are like, yeah, you need ADHDs.

Courtney 11:19

I didn't take them today. Um, Jewish rabbis had the tassel, and it wasn't that she worshipped or had faith in the tassel, she had so much faith in who he was. Yeah, because he she could if she could just get to him. Yeah, it wasn't the robe, it wasn't the tassel. Could it be interpreted that way? Yeah, but that wasn't it. Yeah, she was crawling, and other people were walking, so she's crawling in the dirt.

Tessah 11:45

You know, like a crowd. Yeah, a crowd. Probably a heavy crowd, you know, to get to him. Yeah. Yeah. Man, it's so good. And as you were talking about that, all I could think too is like she had no one to take care of her. No, she was like nobody. I I think too, like, even when we are sick and we're in community, like even now, like we are able to kind of like can care for each other if you have family or friends, like even if you're like sick or something, like you have usually can have people come over, but like because of her sickness and the culture that she was in, no one could take care of her.

Courtney 12:15

Well, and Inscriptor tells us that she had spent every money, every bit of monies that she had, yeah, um, to try to heal herself and had been hopeless and bankrupt and and none of the traditional doctors of the time worked. You know, and like I think about like today, you know, because like that's the important part of one of one of our good girl episodes is yeah, where does that where does that reflect in us today? And I think about women who have had those life changing experiences, like the ones where you know, like the experience happens to you and the person you were the day before is never the same as the person you are the day after.

Tessah 12:58

Yeah, for sure.

Courtney 12:59

And it changes you forever, you know? Um and it can be anything, you know, like it can maybe someone took advantage of your body and you didn't and you didn't say yes to that. Right, you know, or you didn't realize because you were young until you got older, you know. Like there are thousands of women every day who people take advantage of them. And when they get old enough to understand, they're like, wow, that happened to me. You know? Um, or like you may have like a major complex medical issue. Um my mother-in-law is diabetic.

Tessah 13:32

And my mother-in-law is also diabetic.

Courtney 13:34

Okay, okay. Well, and more things we have in common. The life that they every decision that they make is filtered through that condition.

Tessah 13:42

Yeah, oh, for sure. Yeah.

Courtney 13:43

You know? Um, we were talking earlier, like I I I don't really sunburn that often.

SPEAKER_03 13:49

Yeah.

Courtney 13:50

But if I did, I would have to think about that. If I like that, that is something I would have to think about.

SPEAKER_03 13:55

Yeah.

Courtney 13:56

Or like maybe you've had like a major accident or like you have a disability.

SPEAKER_03 14:00

Right.

Courtney 14:00

Or you have a child who has a disability. Yeah. Every decision and every interaction in your life is based off of the thing that you're carrying and walking through.

SPEAKER_03 14:11

For sure.

Courtney 14:11

Um, and this is how she was.

SPEAKER_03 14:13

Yeah.

Courtney 14:13

And I think that we have we can't do this passage justice if we don't consider the level of hopelessness and desperation that she had on a spectrum with the amount of faith that she also had. Like her desperation left her with nothing but faith. It was like Jesus or bust.

Tessah 14:31

Yeah. And I think that's really the invitation that we have that Jesus invites us into is that like we can not only is he the only way out, I think he is also he wants to walk with us before we even get there and like walk with us in the suffering. Yep. Um, and not be obviously he's he's there for us, regardless if we realize that we he's there as a last resort. Like I think a lot of a lot of us do that. Yeah. Yeah.

Courtney 15:00

A lot of us I think why do I keep making Jesus my last resort? Why did I spend years doing that?

Tessah 15:04

Yeah. Yeah. I think why do you think that? Why do you think so many women fall into that?

Courtney 15:09

It's a I think it's just easy to r I think sometimes to realize that he's always there, but well, and sometimes coming to terms with, and I'm air quoting the idea of last resort, is you have to let your will die. And I think that a lot of times as women and men, if you happen to be listening to the Good Girl Complex, um, I think my husband's a listener. Appreciate you, honey. Shout out. Um I I think that when you have an idea of what you want for your life, and like women, like we're like romantic thinkers, like we're dreamers, right? And I think that we have ideas of what we want our lives to be, and then we don't like to be uncomfortable. And I've said this before, and I'm gonna keep saying it. I mean, I said it all day today at work, like life is uncomfortable, yeah. But we have to be willing to surrender that to him, and oftentimes that puts him in the position of last resort, not because he's all we've got left,

Unclean And Alone In Her World

Courtney 16:05

but because we chose for him to be the last piece.

Tessah 16:08

Yep, yeah, we position him in that absolutely. Um, I was listening to an episode with uh the with the parries podcast. If y'all know me, you know I love them. Um and they were uh recording an episode with Matt Chandler, who's also so good. You should definitely listen to it, Courtney.

Courtney 16:24

I saw the I saw it on the podcast.

Tessah 16:25

Oh my gosh, yes, you've got to do it. It's so good. Um, anyways, they were just talking about like how um being like the position of being like he his he wrote a book about like all the beatitudes and like being poor in spirit and mourning these things. And I think like we kind of see these even the beatitudes in her story a lot of like you know, blessed blessed are the meat, blessed are you know those who mourn. Yeah, those who mourn, blessed are those that are poor in spirit. It's like we can kind of see some of those in her story, um, because again, like that she was positioned to be like that's all she had. Like she could only be these things and only uh in order to for you to be the Jesus. Yeah, right. And I think too, like, when we look at um even the things that are on life, when we're trying to control things or when we're trying to like orchestrate things, and obviously, like I'm obviously a firm believer in modern medicine, but I think sometimes like there are situations where only God can intervene. And also there are situations where God's sovereign over the care that's you're getting as a human, you know. Like, I think at the end of the day, all good things are from God, you know, like and I think sometimes we can skew on what we think is good and like truly good and holy, um, that are in line with his character and who he is. But I think um we I love that you mentioned that though, like her story is both end. It's full of hopelessness, but it's full of this amount of faith that ultimately Jesus says, Oh, because of this you're healed.

Courtney 17:55

Not only just because of this, you're healed, but I'm gonna heal you emotionally, I'm gonna heal your reputation, I'm gonna heal you in this culture because everybody's gonna see me do it.

Tessah 18:05

Yeah, yeah, so good. It's so good. And I love the fact we can't miss out on we can't I keep hitting this thing. Sorry, I have way too many chords around this uh podcast studio. But um I love the fact that he calls her daughter. He she only time in the Bible it happens, yeah. That's it. Isn't that crazy? Yeah, yeah. And the lowliest of the low, you know, like she's on her face in the dirt. Yeah. And I just think while like I'm always looking at God's character in scripture, like trying to see the lens of like, okay, how does he show up? How does he act? How is he responding? And I just think this is such a beautiful picture. Like when people say, What is God like, I want to just like read them this story. Yeah. But you know, like what is like you you want to ask, okay, well, you see God through this, whatever lens you see him through. Um, and it's like, no, he just wants to heal his daughter, you know, like he just wants to make her well and he wants to restore her, and I think that's what God wants to do for all of us.

Courtney 19:04

Exactly. And I and there's also another like layer to this, and we didn't talk about this before, so you can totally edit this out if you so like when this happens, he is on his way to take care of another daughter, right? Right, Jaris's daughter, yeah, who is about to die.

Tessah 19:21

Yep.

Courtney 19:22

And I mean, if I'm Jaris, I'm thinking to myself, what what are we doing here? This woman who's sneaking in on my blessing. Oh, yeah. This woman who is sneaking in and my daughter needs him, right? Because I'm gonna see this through like this human lens, right? Yeah, and Jesus wholeheartedly puts on a billboard and says, You're not too much.

Tessah 19:42

Yeah.

Courtney 19:43

I think sometimes we think that we can't ask of God because he's done this for us, or someone else needs something more. Yeah, just like we compare our trauma. I think that sometimes we compare our prayers and our needs. Yeah. And Jesus doesn't, he he holds no room for that. And he stuck and he feels the power leave him.

SPEAKER_03 20:03

Yeah.

Courtney 20:03

He feels it. He could have just walked on. Yeah. He could have just moved on. He didn't he sounded crazy. Who touched me?

Tessah 20:09

Yeah.

Courtney 20:09

Everybody's touching you. I love you. There's a ton of people who are being touched by everybody.

Tessah 20:13

I think it's maybe in Luke or Matthew or somewhere. And it it's always Peter. Like I love Peter, you know. I want to hang out with him when we get to heaven. Um, but like Peter's like, what do you mean? Who touched Lord? You everyone touched it? Everybody's touching you. Like, oh man. But I think that's that's so true though. It's like he is I think you see so much of his uh godness in it, you know. Yeah.

Courtney 20:39

And he approaches her this way and he handles her this way. We're no different.

Tessah 20:44

Yeah.

Courtney 20:45

We're no different. Can I physically crawl on my face to him in person? No. Can I crawl on my face in prayer?

SPEAKER_03 20:55

Yeah.

Courtney 20:55

Absolutely. Right. And he meets me there every single time.

SPEAKER_03 20:58

Yeah.

Courtney 20:59

And he's almost been there waiting. But I'm worried about taking care of the things I need to take care of and investing in things that aren't him. And I think that we see so much play out in this story of how Jesus sees us now as his daughters.

SPEAKER_03 21:17

Yeah.

Courtney 21:18

And he's looking to us. The question is, are you crawling to him? What is keeping you from crawling to his feet? What is crow what is keeping you from crawling to touch that tassel? And in and I can't remember which scripture it says, but she is literally like if I knew if I could just touch the hem of his garment.

Tessah 21:37

Yeah.

Courtney 21:37

It wasn't the garment. It was the hem. It was a hand.

Tessah 21:40

I think that was in uh Matthew. That's like the first one I read. Um yeah. The hem. Just the just a s I'm like a string. If I could just touch the string.

Courtney 21:51

Yeah. And the power leaves him immediately.

Tessah 21:54

Yeah.

Courtney 21:55

And he stops. And he doesn't call her out to embarrass her. His call out is is an unashamedness.

Tessah 22:04

Yeah.

Courtney 22:04

Like, hey

Jesus As Last Resort

Courtney 22:05

girl, you there is no need here. And everybody that's here watching can know that she is healed. She doesn't have to be ostracized anymore. She doesn't have to be alone anymore. She can be married. Like all the things are taken care of in that. And the physical symptoms as well.

Tessah 22:22

Yeah. That's so good. I love that. Um, I think too, like, I never really thought about it, but because it is his prayer tassels, I imagine how much prayer had been wrapped around our savior. Yeah. And the just the power of prayer that he embodied, you know. Yes. That's just kind of cool. Yeah.

Courtney 22:42

When was the last time you were on your face before him? Yeah. When was the last time? Yeah. Most of us aren't getting on our face every day.

Tessah 22:50

Right.

Courtney 22:51

I hope you I hope you are. I'm not.

Tessah 22:53

Yeah.

Courtney 22:53

I mean, my prayer with God a lot of times is a conversation because my brain is a space cadet.

SPEAKER_03 22:59

Yeah.

Courtney 22:59

And he hangs with me in it, you know? Um, but in moments of desperation, I promise you I'm gonna be on my face.

Tessah 23:08

Yeah.

Courtney 23:09

Crawling to him. Yeah. Because he's there waiting for me. And he is you too.

Tessah 23:15

Yeah. So true. I think that's such a good reminder that even in our and I think that we can even consider, okay, why does why does God allow suffering? Why does God allow us to get to these breaking points or these um, you know, rock bottom positions or things not happened in the time and that we expect them to, you know, whatever that seems like, or maybe you're in a season and you're like, I just want to get out of here. I think sometimes he is so jealous for us and jealous for our attention that he just wants us to run to him and be completely dependent on who he is. Um, I know for me I have to learn that lesson like every m every day. I've got it, you know, like I feel like I'm constantly like, you know, you get through a season, you're like, oh, I really learned that lesson. And then something happens, you're like, I need to relearn that lesson. Yeah.

Courtney 24:06

So I think I read a book not long ago um by I cannot shonda linguist, I think is what her name is. And she it's called, I guess I haven't learned that yet. Um I'm like, same.

SPEAKER_03 24:16

Yeah.

Courtney 24:17

And I think that, you know, this woman had like a medical thorn condition. 100%, yeah. Right.

SPEAKER_03 24:23

Yeah.

Courtney 24:25

I may have a different one. But Paul had a thorn.

SPEAKER_03 24:29

Yeah.

Courtney 24:30

We all have one. Yeah. And he may heal it and he may not.

unknown 24:35

Yeah.

Courtney 24:35

But it doesn't mean he's not good. And it doesn't mean he's not with us in it. Right. And he just wants us to come to him. Yeah. And having the faith of this woman who had every reason not to believe, but still did.

Tessah 24:47

Yeah.

Courtney 24:47

Had every reason to have shame and doubt.

Tessah 24:50

Yeah.

Courtney 24:50

But still had faith.

Tessah 24:51

Yeah.

Courtney 24:52

And she's the like the riser good girl.

Tessah 24:55

Yeah. I know. I wanted to kind of talk about like what does this look like and how can this kind of show up in the good girl complex. And then we talked a little bit about like how we can how that shows up in our lives today, but like how, you know, I feel like some of the things I wrote down was, you know, the good girl complex and like looking at her story can easily sound like if I could just fix myself, then I'd be worthy.

SPEAKER_03 25:22

Yeah.

Tessah 25:22

Or if people really knew what I was struggling with, they'd reject me, which obviously this woman was literally rejected by everyone. Um I'm gonna be rejected by everyone.

Courtney 25:32

Right. And that's not the case because Jesus doesn't reject us, we reject him.

Tessah 25:35

Correct, yeah. And then I have to earn love, belonging, and acceptance, or my value is based on how put together I appear.

Courtney 25:42

Yeah, and I think that another question we can ask ourselves is what is the thing when you have something that you need dealt with, do you sit quietly and wait for it to happen? Because she doesn't like schedule an appointment. Right, yeah, you know, like wait till the purpose she's like, I'm I'm gonna take care of this. She does have this like take care of it myself. She's tenacious, yeah, you know, and God's not mad about that. Yeah, she snuck she snuck in on that prayer tassel. Yeah, but she still came in faith, and that was the part that mattered.

Tessah 26:10

Yep.

Courtney 26:11

It wasn't about how she presented herself, she didn't have to clean up before she got there. Yeah, she didn't have to get permission to come. She risked, it was a huge risk. It was a huge risk. Also, like, what are we willing to risk to crawl to the feet of Jesus? Yeah. What are we willing to risk? Yeah. She risked everything because she broke every tradition, cultural tradition, to get to him.

Tessah 26:31

Yep.

Courtney 26:32

And the people in town knew who she was.

Tessah 26:34

Yep.

Courtney 26:35

And she risked it and went out anyway.

Tessah 26:37

Yeah. Yeah. That's so good. That's faith. That is faith. And I think we kind of have to, like you mentioned, asking what we should risk. That looks like to me, is you risk being vulnerable. You risk being, you know, in a position where you could get hurt, or you could, you know, risk, you know, being publicly ridiculed or persecuted or, you know, whatever. Like you could risk you like following Jesus is risky. Like I think I think a lot of times we see, um, especially in like our culture today, like on the social media side of things, it feels like Christianity is just like this, like, oh fun, like it's so much fun. Like this, and like, yes, there's so much joy attached to the freedom that you find in Jesus, but also there is so much like to be like Christ is to know suffering. Like, and to be able to mourn and to be like what I was mentioning about that podcast, it just reminded me so much how we're supposed to mourn our sin. Like, and we we can you can be you can mourn like have space for mourning. I mean, like Courtney probably loves this as a therapist, like, yes, please make space for that.

Courtney 27:40

Um nobody wants to do that, right?

Tessah 27:43

Nobody wants to do it. But I think there is something so profound that God can do with us when we have a posture of being porn spirit and being and mourning and being meek and like you know, and all these different things, um, versus like all when I feel like when you're always like when you feel like you have to always be on like well, Jesus saying, Man, I need to be like up here, up here, up here, and like so joyous and real bright, like that's just not every day, all day. You know, like you can have those moments and you can still have joy, but also have deep sorrow.

Courtney 28:15

Well, and then and I think that if we're gonna genuinely make disciples like we're called to, we gotta tell them all of it.

Tessah 28:22

Yeah, this is not just the bright, shiny, yeah, nice little pamphlet you get at the doctor's office. You know, like I'm just like, this is not the You've been driving a car off the showroom floor, man. Those commercials

Daughter Called Out Without Shame

Tessah 28:36

laughing at myself. Uh I think of those commercials that are like these people like running in a field with their grandkids, and it's like this, I don't even know, some kind of shot, you know, or something. And they're like, and side effects may include death and like diarrhea. Yeah, you're not gonna be like, yeah, yeah, it's like all these terribleness. Yeah. Like obviously, I'm not tech close, that's the gospel. But I'm just saying, like, there are there is suffering with Christianity.

Courtney 29:06

Like, we are we're gonna suffer in this world regardless, right? You might as well not do it alone, right? Yeah, why not do it with the person who created you?

Tessah 29:14

Yeah, exactly.

Courtney 29:15

He probably knows what he's doing with what he created.

Tessah 29:17

Yeah, that's so true. Suffering with or without Jesus, you know, it's like you're gonna suffer with there is just yeah. Pick your hard. Yeah, pick it for real, pick your hard. Because it's gonna be hard. This world is trash sometimes. So like it's can you can you come pick us up, Jesus? I'm ready to gone. Um, like the kid that's like last in the car line, you're like, all right, it's time to go. Yeah, we need to go. I'm calling your mom. Oh god, please come pick me up. Um, what else do you feel like as we're rounding out this episode, that if someone's listening to this and they're maybe even feeling like, wow, I feel like I can relate so much to this woman that had this bleeding issue, and I'm even maybe walking through something that's medical, or I'm walking through a season where I feel like I am at my bare bottom. I'm crawling, like I don't know if I can like it's hard to get up. Like, where what would you say to them an encouragement of you know it's not it's not the end.

Courtney 30:24

We serve a God who understands suffering, yeah, and they're suffering doesn't last forever, whether it is healed or resolved this side of heaven or in heaven. Yeah, um and that may not sound super encouraging to some people who are really sitting in the suffering, and I hear you and I see you one day at a time, yeah, and given yourself the grace to crawl back to him time and time again and have a conversation with someone about it. Even if it's in your prayer journal, yeah, um, God created us as beings looking for connection.

SPEAKER_03 31:11

Yeah.

Courtney 31:11

Not beans, but beans looking for connection. And when we keep things all to ourselves or we hoard our feelings or we hoard our shame, yeah, because we think it's like uh some sort of currency. And I gotta hold on to it because that's how I keep myself safe. Yeah, that's a lie from Satan. Yeah, lay it at his feet. Yeah, have a conversation, have a trusted friend, go see a therapist. Yeah, find you a Christian one. There's lots of us out there, yeah. Um and start a prayer journal.

Tessah 31:42

Yeah, that's good.

Courtney 31:43

That is not meant in a minimize your life is hard, get a prayer journal. That's not what I mean by that. Yeah, and if you hear it that way, uh please hear me when I say the prayer journal is really just the physical, tangible piece of pouring it out before the Lord. Yeah, and uh giving him a space to meet you where you are.

Tessah 32:04

Yeah, that's good.

Courtney 32:05

Meet you where you are, not where you want to be. Yeah, let him meet you where you are and let him walk him to where he has you to be. Yeah, because there's a difference.

Tessah 32:13

That's good. Yeah, I love that.

Courtney 32:14

What about you?

Tessah 32:15

What would you I know I had a thought and sorry, I know. You're good. No, you weren't interrupting. Um I think mostly like thinking about the women that might be listening to this, just holding on to the fact that this is not our home. Like, if you're in Christ, this is temporary. Like, I I find so much peace in that. I don't know about you guys, I find so much peace in knowing that I will one day, and I get so excited about this because I don't know if you have any, I'm sure you probably do, but like family and friends that are believers that live far away, you don't get to see them all the time, like you don't get to hang out all the time. I get so hyped up about heaven, like I don't think y'all understand. I'm like, I'm gonna be able to hang out with my friends. I don't get to like, I just think it's gonna be this like glorious like family reunion. Um, and I just have so much hope in knowing that also our bodies are rentals,

Encouragement And Practical Next Steps

Tessah 33:10

they are they are our flesh is actually working against us, you know. Like we are constantly playing as we speak, yeah. Right. I mean, constantly working against us, and so like we our only hope is Jesus. Like we our only hope is him, and like we have to be anchored in that. Um, and that takes faith, you know, that takes the crawling on your knees, desperation kind of faith.

Courtney 33:31

And the suffering can't define you, right? It can be part of your experience, it can be part of how God mowed you and shaped you to be who he calls you to be. Yeah, but if it is part of your identity, then I think that that that's worth a conversation too, because anytime we put something else in the place of who our identity is and it's not Christ, then we've really complicated our lives.

Tessah 33:58

Yeah, for sure. It's so good. Well, we are we only have one more episode of the Good Girl Complex. If you guys have been listening with us, um, let us know how you've liked this series. I've really enjoyed it. I think I said last week, it just feels like Bible study every week, and it's so good um to recap these women and also recap how God meets them, where they're at, and it's just so cool to see. Um, but next week I'm pretty sure we are hitting on Mary and Martha. So if you know their story, they're s they're sisters.

SPEAKER_03 34:29

Yeah.

Tessah 34:29

Um way different than Leah and Rachel. Um, so don't worry, it's not gonna be like that. Um, they're they have different struggles in different ways. So I'm super excited to talk about them. And if you enjoyed this episode, leave us a review, share it with a friend, share with friends. Um, and if you have any questions, feel free to send us a message at Table of Grace on Instagram and the Table of Grace podcast on Facebook. And we will see you guys next week.