Beloved Discipleship: Moving From Striving To Overflow With Dr. Jodi Hook

We explore how intimacy with God moves us from striving to overflow with Dr. Jodi Hook, former NorthStar teacher and author of Beloved Discipleship. Her stories, research, and practices help students hear God’s voice, quiet perfectionism, and trust the future to Jesus.

• turning a doctoral project into a practical guide for intimacy with God
• hearing God through Scripture, silence, and playful attention
• shifting from duty to delight in spiritual disciplines
• perfectionism, shame, and the “beloved” identity in Christ
• the “friend or foe” thought filter and spiritual armor
• trusting God with decisions by walking step by step
• the value of mentors, community, and remembrance

Transcript

Welcome And Guest Introduction

Stephanie Shafer 0:02

Hi, this is Stephanie Shafer, and you're listening to the NorthStar Narrative, a podcast from NorthStar Academy. I want to thank you for joining us. I hope you're encouraged, challenged, and motivated by what you learned today. Enjoy the story. Hey everybody, thanks for joining us for this episode. It's going to be another really exciting one because we have a former NorthStar teacher here with us, Dr. Jodi Hook. And I'm so excited to get to hear what has been happening in her life for the past few years. She has received her doctorate in spiritual formation and with an emphasis in soul care. She is also now an adjunct professor at Denver Seminary, teaching in their doctoral program, and is now an author of a new book called Beloved Discipleship: A Journey of Overflowing Intimacy with God. It's available in English and Spanish. And so this is going to be a really good conversation that I'm excited for because we're just going to talk about being known by Jesus and what that means to be able to experience it maybe in new ways. So no matter where you are in your walk right now, what you think about God, how known you feel by him, um, tune in and really check in. And um yeah, let's just hear from the Holy Spirit, from Dr. Hook, and um all the goodness that you've been doing in her life. So thank you so much for coming on today and joining me. And um, I can't wait to hear how your doctorate and the experience and what you did, how it's just flowing out into this book and how so many people are gonna be transformed.

Speaker 1:43

Well, thank you so much for inviting me, Stephanie. What a privilege to sit here with you and to be with all of NorthStar. I remember NorthStar with as much fondness, and so it's lovely to be here with you and talk with you about yeah, about how loved we are by God.

Jodi’s Journey To A Doctorate

Stephanie Shafer 2:00

Yeah. So loved. Um, tell us a little bit about your family. Um, and then I want to know, like you said, ever since you were five, you wanted to get your doctorate. So how did you finally jump into that? And um, yeah, just hear your story.

Speaker 2:16

Yeah. Well, I start when I started at NorthStar, I actually had a junior high junior high kids. Um, and I worked there until they were all through college. And so now they're all married. We'll have our first grandbaby this month. We're so excited. And then um, so when our youngest graduated from college, I sat down. I was so excited. I jumped up when he walked across the stage, and I sat down and I thought, okay, now I want to go to college. So I did when I was five. That was my dream to have a doctorate. I there was a lady in our church who took us to um teacher college at Grove City, and she would have us just sit and play because my brothers and sisters and I were like two, three, four, three, four, five. And I remember it was so that teachers could see little kids, but what I was watching was her thinking that she had the best job in the world. And so I thought, oh, one day I would like to have a doctorate and I would like to teach in a college. So I'm so thrilled that in my 50s I started a doctorate and finished it, and yeah, now have that dream fulfilled. I'm so thankful to God.

From Dissertation To Beloved Discipleship

Stephanie Shafer 3:24

Oh, so good, so inspiring that you can chase your dream no matter what age, how long you had to wait um to do it. Yeah, I did my master's in my 40s, and so that was yeah, amazing that we can still accomplish that when our brains don't maybe take stuff in as fast as uh they used to when we were young. So, yeah. Well, um, how did you from your doctorate during that time, how did God develop this book?

Speaker 3:55

The book, Beloved Discipleship, really flowed out of my doctoral project. Um, my doctoral project was all around is it possible to increase intimacy with God in a felt way that a person could feel that they were really growing in intimacy with God? And what I discovered was that yes, it is it is possible. And so people started asking me for the project, and one of my professors said, I think it would be a really lovely book to get it into the hands of more people. And so basically I rewrote the project in a in a uh friendlier form than a dissertation so that it could be shared. So that's kind of it flowed out of really my experience as I was studying my doctorate. I came across so many things that I was like, oh, why aren't we hearing this in the church anymore? Why aren't we talking about living a Mary and Martha life, be living an active and contemplative life? Like what would that look like? And I started to have lots of different questions about how do we really live out of an overflow of our life with God and serve him out of that versus just chugging along.

Stephanie Shafer 5:05

Yeah, that's so good. I love uh that professor. I don't know his name, but that's what professors should be doing, you know, teachers. And so, since that's my daily life here, just encouraging you, seeing something in you, watching you, knowing you, and then encouraging you um to reach your potential and to do more.

Speaker 5:23

So yes, I'm very thankful for the professors I had.

Stephanie Shafer 5:27

Yeah, that's incredible. And I know as a teacher at NorthStar, you loved your students, and I remember you saying even after they graduated, you would send them birthday cards. And um, yeah, just really care for them. And and you met my girls when they took a little Spanish during the summer, and then we got to meet in person, and yeah, just really that caring spirit to make students feel known and seen and reach their potential. And so you taught languages here and helped um write some courses, and so just super thankful for your time at Northstar. I know it was um a big investment, and who knows? We don't know how God is using all that you invested to reach the ends of the earth with our students going out. So I just look forward to the day we're in heaven and we can see maybe, you know, because we can't even begin to fathom what the reaches of Northstar has been in 27 years. So when you think of your time here, um what resonates the most with you?

Teaching At NorthStar And Student Care

Speaker 6:30

I think I really did love interacting with the students, even though it was I never met, I didn't have the opportunity to meet a few of them, uh, just very few, but the ones I met that was so special. But the ones that I didn't meet, I still loved the opportunity to pray for them, to get to know them, um, to hear their stories. I would always ask them to send me their prayer request, and and I just loved interacting with them, seeing them, even though I couldn't see them, um and and really caring for them as they were studying. Because I do think it's so important to learn material, but I think that we need to be in a healthy place really to grasp concepts. And so if I could let them know that they were safe in my classroom, that we were, that I I saw them, I knew them, then I felt like I was helping them learn as well.

Stephanie Shafer 7:26

That's so good. Yeah. So I want to spend a little time today um asking some questions that our students have. Um, and I've found out while talking with them, and then you use what God has given you, the overflow and your book to kind of share um some questions, some answers, and your thoughts. And then I want to get it to them and use it for even more, you know, at NorthStar plus the world. Who knows who's gonna be listening? Um and so interestingly, I did a NSA Connect. So did did we have NSA Connects when you were here? I can't remember. Remember, I think I don't think so. But we started NSA Connects, which are 30-minute live sessions with high schoolers. Um, and it's for NCAA credit uh for our courses, is why we started doing that, but now they're turning into more um just a flourishing time of all different topics, and we want to come. So they used to come for assignments, but now we're trying to, hey, let's have a place to hang out, let's talk about messy life. And I did one recently on prayer and listening. And it was it's so good to see their faces all over. You know, anytime you're in a meeting with NorthStar with several students, it's different continents, different time zones, all this represented, but they had such deep questions. Um, and I had started off with some of my favorite verses about abiding in Jesus from John 15. And I'm like, what is um abiding? And so they gave me some great answers, and I told them mine, I said, It's an invitation. This is before I looked at your book. Um, and I had said, It's to me, it's an invitation. And then I asked them a question, have you ever been invited to a party? And then I saw it's your beginning. I mean, I was just like, this is such a connection. And then so later on, when I'd asked them another question, um, one of them remembered that, and they said, to a party, like beginning to put that party thinking with Jesus that Jesus is fun and real and alive, and that it is such joy. So, anyway, and then reading your book, I'm like, invitation, party. It was so cool. So I just think this is really a divine um connection and want to hear you, you know, just really speak to our students um about being known, being loved. And so some of the questions um they had were how can we discern God's voice? Can we hear his voice during big decisions? And how do we know his voice versus our own thoughts?

Speaker 10:14

Wow. See, NorthStar students are really smart because those are really good questions.

Stephanie Shafer 10:20

Yeah, so the longing to hear God, I just love for to hear you to speak, speak to them because they're asking, they want to know.

Hearing God’s Voice In Daily Life

Speaker 10:27

Yeah, I think even greater than our longing to hear God is God's longing to hear us, for us to uh be with him much as we would be with our best friend, or much as we would be your NorthStar married students aren't married, but I think of that as our spouse or our our dad or our mom that or our grandparents, somebody that we just know unconditionally, no matter the good, the bad, the ugly, that they just love us and want to be with us. And I think when we have those relationships, that's really what God is like. He he uses those relationships to show us he there's a word in I hear a lot called contemplation. I love how JN Johnson defines contemplation. She's saying you're with God in the temple. It comes from Latin. And so when God so longs to speak to us, I think he does speak to us. Sometimes those little thoughts that we have that are nice in our head isn't really our thoughts. That is God speaking to us. It's just we don't often take the time to listen and to sit with God in the temple. It doesn't have to be sitting, it could be while you're riding your bike or taking a walk. But being aware that I am with God and that He does desire to communicate with me so much more even than I desire to communicate with Him. Um I think if there's one thing, we'll find out when we get to heaven, but there's one thing that I think that God wouldn't be very good at, and it's uh playing hide and seek. Because if you ever play hide and seek with a little child, you say, I'm gonna count to 10, and you go hide, and you start one, two, three, and you say, Okay, here I come. And the little two-year-old or three-year-old will jump out and say, Here I am. And I kind of think that God's like that. He says, if you seek me, you're you'll find me when you seek me with your whole heart. I think that God so longs to be found by us, and it's about making time not only to sit with him, with his word, but know that when I pray, it's a two-way conversation. It's not just supposed to be me talking to God like I would tell Santa Claus my Christmas list. It's about me listening to him as well and asking him to speak into those areas of my life. Reading scripture, even in the ancient world, for centuries, this practice of scripture wasn't just read the passage and answer the questions, it was read the passage, meditate on the passage, pray about the passage, contemplate the passage. There were four different readings. And so, how can we read a small section of of scripture and even ask God to speak to us through that? And I've just found that God is so can use uh passages in scripture that I'm just reading on a daily basis to speak into some of my deepest questions that I'm going through at the present day.

Stephanie Shafer 13:28

Yeah, that's so good. Um hide and seek. Jesus is playful, and that's one of the things I said. Hey, there's so much written about Jesus in the New Testament, but there's so much not, like there's not enough time to write down all of the things that he would have done with the disciples and hung out with them.

Speaker 13:47

And yeah, yeah, there's so much more. They got to see him's face, you know. They they not only wrote the scripture, they wrote the words, but they got to see his face when he said those words. Yeah, they got to see his smile, or they got to see his his um sadness maybe over somebody's um uh desire to follow him, but not. And they saw his face because they were with him in relationship. And I think that's the same thing we're invited to today, to be in relationship with him. He's not God the Father, Son, Spirit isn't just the words on the foot pages of the Bible, God speaks through those. We get to be in a relationship with him. Yeah, yeah. I love it.

Stephanie Shafer 14:31

And one of the students pointed out um it's a one-way relationship a lot of times. And so they were asking, you know, how how do you make it a two-way? And you know, you've just answered that. Um some of the students named many everyday obstacles, stress, distractions, perfectionism, social media. Some even said, I do not feel good enough to speak to the Lord. Um, so how does God how does being God's beloved speak to these struggles? How does intimacy with God free us from striving and remind us we are wanted, welcomed, and loved?

Speaker 15:13

Yeah. I think when we think that we're doing a quiet time or doing a relationship with God depends on me, then that can become very striving and very like I have to do this, I'm not good enough, I have to try harder, oh I missed yesterday, I don't want to read today. It becomes very much depending on on me. And that's not what that's not what the abundant, intimate, lovely relationship with God is. We are his beloved. And so if when my grandchild's gonna be born in a few days, I'm gonna love that. I already love that little one. I'm not hoping that that little one is going to do great things so that I can love him. I already love him. I'm not gonna be um when he's five, if he scratches my coffee table. I'm still gonna love him. And because I want that relationship with him. I think that's a very God-given um picture of how he just wants us. It's okay. It's he he has an ability to forgive us when we're when we've sinned. And he has the ability to make um our relationship right, and it's never wrong from his side. He's always got the door open, waiting to just embrace us in those moments. That when we are lonely, when we do feel that we've messed up, when we're saying we're not good enough, I think there's such a uh we do have an enemy and we need to remember that. And that enemy will tell us all of those things. You're not good enough. And God says, but you're my child. I love you. You don't have to be good. I'm already good enough for both of us. And so I just love that God just invites us to relationship and we can rest in that.

Stephanie Shafer 17:15

That's so good. What are practical ways as students? How can they abide in Christ in their busy life? Because our students are busy, you know, with a lot of things. So what are practical ways? Because I think that's what they were really seeking.

Abiding As Delight Not Duty

Speaker 17:31

Well, I think there are many practical ways that we can abide in Christ. I think that so much of our Christian life that we hear today is about what you need to do in order to in order to be closer to God, which in reality we are already close to God. We're in Christ, and Christ is seated at the right hand of God. So we're already close. Having a quiet time every day isn't going to make me closer to God. I am already close. And so because I am already close, then I do those things. So spiritual disciplines aren't really what something that we do to earn something. We do those because we already are. We already are God's beloved. We already are close to God. And so I do those things just because they're delights for me. I I don't have to have, I don't have to read my Bible every day. I get the chance to read my Bible every day. I don't have to pray. Wow, but I get to pray. And I can really delight in that it's a relationship. Um, and it doesn't have to be the same every day either. In any relationship, if you have a best friend, sometimes it's fun to do the thing that you always do. You always go to the same coffee shop for coffee, but sometimes it's fun to do something different. And so I think that God has made us so multifaceted. You know, maybe I it would be fun today to read a verse and then to paint it. Or maybe it would be fun today to take a verse on a walk with me, or maybe I'd just like to go and listen to music and spend some time with God that way. So just like in any relationship, it's about spending time together. I think that's how we can see our relationship with God too. What am I gonna do today that would be really fun for me and God to go and do together? And I like that thought a lot more than oh my gosh, it's 11 o'clock and I haven't read my Bible yet. It's a different way to start my day. God, what are we gonna do today that you have for us to do? I love that we can enjoy.

Stephanie Shafer 19:34

We.

The Yoke Story And Easy Burden

Speaker 19:35

Yeah, we it is a we, it's a relationship, it's not something I have to do, I have to be my Bible, I have to memorize scripture. No, it's what are we gonna do? What verse would be really good, God, for for me to work on so that your spirit just has that ready and for to use however you want to use it. Um, I like to see that that my relationship with God isn't dependent on me. It's our relationship. And of course, he carries the brunt of it. I just get to be the the little um ox. Can I share a story? Yes. One time we were in Costa Rica and we saw an ox and ox cart. And we were kind of looking at it and laughing because there was this great big ox and then there was this little baby ox. And they were yoked together. But the great big ox obviously was the really one carrying the brunt of the ox cart. And the little ox had hardly had the yoke on him. He was yoked there, but he really, I didn't think he was really pulling his weight very much. And Bruce went and talked to the ox cart driver and asked him, Why'd you put these two oxen together? And he said, This is the way we always do it. We always put the big ox and yoke him with the young ox. And all that that young ox is really learning to do is to walk in the yoke, um, in the steps of the big ox, so that then when that big ox dies, then we yoke a little one to it, and that young one is now the big ox and he's pulling the cart. It was the first time that I understood Matthew 11, 28 through 20, where it says, Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, take my yoke on me and learn from me. I just loved that. I don't, it's not about you're tired here. Take this yoke and pull your weight, Jody. You can keep, you know, you've got to do all of these things in your spiritual life. No, come and be yoked to me and just learn to walk in my steps, and I'm gonna do the work. And so that's kind of how I see the spiritual life. It's not something else I have to do to pull the weight, it's about learning to walk with Jesus through the power of the spirit and God's ways.

Stephanie Shafer 21:48

Yeah, but that big ox is never gonna die.

Speaker 21:51

He's not, isn't that the beauty of it? I love it. Yeah, I'm just learning my whole life. It doesn't matter if I'm 12, 18, or 60 something. I'm just learning my whole life in that as that baby ox to walk in the steps of Jesus, walking with him.

Stephanie Shafer 22:13

I love that. But we do grow, we grow because I think about Paul saying, You don't need this milk anymore, like get off the milk, the food, you know, the spiritual food. So God is raising us up and growing, but we're always in him.

Speaker 22:27

We are, and there is spiritual formation and spiritual transformation where God is forming us more and more into the image of Christ. So there is there is spiritual growth, but even a baby doesn't cause his own growth.

Stephanie Shafer 22:43

Yeah, true.

Speaker 22:44

Yeah, it's the word of God, it's the it's God working in us by his spirit that causes us to grow.

Stephanie Shafer 22:53

I know you have such a heart um for soul care. And as I think about our students and their questions, um, one of the things they talked about was perfectionism. You know, that seems to be a theme, probably in all students, but especially, you know, at Northstar. And so what type of care do they need to be taking? What does Jesus want them to know that they don't have to strive and strive in this perfectionism? And then I think as they are, you know, so much schoolwork, so many things they have to do, they're involved in activities, that their time with the Lord can just easily become another thing on a calendar.

Speaker 23:29

Yeah.

Stephanie Shafer 23:29

Um, and so how does it not become a thing on just a thing on the calendar?

Speaker 23:35

Yeah. I think it becomes a thing in the calendar when we see it's something I must do rather than something I get to enjoy today with God. Um so perfectionism, I think it can be a real trip for us, for many of us. I think even adults. I think some of the things that the NorthStar students are asking you, I'm like, oh yeah, adults ask that too. I could sit with a group of women and hear the same things. Um yeah, if I come from a place that I know I'm already loved. If I come from a place that I know I'm already accepted. If I come from a place that I know that I can rest, then I can do the things without it being a burden. If I'm doing them so that I can achieve something, then it's gonna be a burden my whole life. And so it I think there is a settledness that comes when we we really sit with that little song that many of us learned as little children, Jesus loves me, this I know. And you know that interest, it's so interesting. I spent a lot, I kind of geeked out in my dissertation on that word no a little bit, because no is in the Bible so many times, and even our famous are the most common verses that we would say, that word no in the Greek isn't to know a fact. There's two there's a it's a knowing, an experiential knowing. So that's what God's telling us when He says, uh, when He says to know, if I think it's an intellectual, cognitive, something academic pursuit to know God, then I'm gonna go about it a lot differently than if I see it's a relational, experiential knowing God, that I get to know Him and be with Him. So I think that there's that that is a real difference coming from the point of living my spiritual life from my deep relationship with God, or the burdensome thing of living my spiritual life, so I have a relationship with God. That's backwards. And I think that a lot of times we have it backwards.

Perfectionism, Identity, And Grace

Stephanie Shafer 25:54

Yeah, and I think about all the voices they are hearing. Yeah, all of us are hearing, but especially students, so many voices that our age, me and you don't even understand. We didn't have that. I think back to the 80s so much, I'm like, oh just to go back, I think I can see myself playing and having fun, and you know, and now yeah, the things they face and hear. So when you've got all of these voices at you, which are a lot of times comparison, um, you know, things that are screaming, you're not loved, or you have to do this to be loved. I mean, how do you quiet those voices?

Speaker 26:37

Boy, one of the interesting things I for my doctorate, I had to read books from what centuries long, long, long, long, long ago. And one of the books, it was from the 14th century, I said, I think, he said, you have to put, and I don't remember the word, and so I'm not gonna say it, but it was a a different word. You have to put this on the forefront of your mind. And I was like, what is that? And so I had to look it up in the in the dictionary, and it said that that that word were the guards that stood outside of a palace or outside of a city with their swords crossed, who would crawl call out to each person who came near, friend or foe. So funny. I don't think anybody would have ever said, I'm a foe. But, anyways, they would call out friend or foe. And then if it was friend, then they would uncross their swords and let the person through. And if not, they would keep their swords crossed. And that's what he was saying that you need to put this on the forefront of your mind so that every thought that comes in, you think, wait, is this friend or full? So when I'm hearing you're not good enough, wait, is that friend or full? That that's so full. Or um boy, you would be so much better if only blah blah blah. Is that friend or full? I've found myself thinking about that. There's two things that Bruce and I, my husband, we say a lot to each other. One is friend or full. Like when we're going down a bad path, a bad path in our mind, it's it's so much easier. I never understood before how to that verse on take captive every thought. I thought, how do you do that? But that little trick of friend or foe has been revolutionary to me. And the other thing that we say to each other is was in another book, and it's by Henry Nowen, and he said that that we need to listen to the thoughts in our mind. Is that does this sound like the voice that calls you the beloved? And that is a really good way to figure out wait, this voice that's telling me I'm not good enough, does that sound like the voice that tells calls me the beloved? Those two thoughts have really um helped me in that. Is this the voice that calls me the beloved? Is this thought friend or foe? Because we do have an enemy. And a lot of times we're kind of like uh we're out there fighting a battle and we don't even have any spiritual armor on. It's kind of like that scene in Troy. I don't know of how many people have seen that movie, but there's one scene where they go to war and they're just getting slaughtered because they're they're not even putting up their shields. And it's kind of like that in the spiritual battle, too. Sometimes we go out to battle these horrible thoughts, and and we don't use our whole armor of God that God's given us, that shield of faith and that sword of the spirit, and we don't have the helmet of salvation and the breastplate of righteousness and the belt of truth and our shoes on, ready to run towards the gospel of peace. So it is gonna be a strong battle, and I think especially probably for this younger generation going up to put on that whole armor of God every day and to ask those two questions. Is this thought friend or foe? Um is this the voice that calls me the beloved? And if it's not, then just not go down that rabbit trail anymore. It stops me. I know it stops me from going down bad rabbit trails.

Guarding Thoughts: Friend Or Foe

Stephanie Shafer 30:19

I love it, so practical and easy to remember, friend or foe. Love it. Not a modern thought from centuries ago. It's simple to remember, but yeah, so powerful and yeah, it makes you stop. I love the middle picture of the two swords.

unknown 30:43

Okay.

Speaker 30:43

I loved it too.

Stephanie Shafer 30:45

I love it. All right, some of them seem to be wrestling with um how do we trust God with our future? How do we strive for excellence without anxiety? So, how does knowing we are beloved give us confidence to trust Jesus with tomorrow?

Speaker 31:06

Yeah, these are such good questions, and they're deep questions. That's what I really love. They're really thinking, and it's not just the simple answers, these are deep, deep questions. I do think that if we can grasp that Jesus loves me, this I know. I'm not even not just knowing it cognitively, I'm knowing it experientially. I'm I'm sitting with him, I'm enjoying him, I know that he's enjoying me. I love that verse in Zephaniah 3.17 that says he he delights over us with singing, that he's singing over me. It's not easy to trust someone that you know loves you. It's very easy, it would be very hard to entrust my future to someone that I don't think has the best out for me. The verse in Jeremiah is one of my favorites. I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. Plans for good and not for evil, plans to give you a hope and a future. He he desires the best for us. That doesn't mean that hard times won't come, but that means that even if the hard times and when the hard times come, he's right there with us. We are never alone, we're never forsaken. He lives within inside of us. And so I think that as we know God, as we experiencing him more, it's becomes a little bit easier maybe to trust him with those bigger questions that of the future, because I'm walking with him today. There's an old navigator, his name was Leroy Imes, and I heard him say one time, probably 40 years ago or more, maybe 50, he's somebody said, How do you know that you're gonna walk with God 10 years from now? And he said, Because I'm walking with him today, because I walked with him yesterday, because I'm gonna walk with him tomorrow. The future comes just as we walk step by step. And so as we walk step by step, we can trust God that he'll be leading that way as we walk with him.

unknown 33:11

Yeah.

Stephanie Shafer 33:13

That's good. And as we continue to walk and see him move, and then we remember, I'm always like, write it down, make a remembrance, make a stone, like he said in the old testament, because we will forget.

Speaker 33:25

Yes.

Stephanie Shafer 33:26

If we don't, yes, yes.

Speaker 33:27

Yeah, and talk to old, okay, talk to the old people, you know, people our age, because they'll be able to tell you stories of when they were afraid. I think of many times in my life when I was maybe younger, much younger like them, and I was afraid of the future. And what if this and what if that? And as they talk to get a mentor, an older spiritual mentor in your life where you can really talk with an older person and say, tell me stories of how God led you. Tell me stories of how God carried you through hard times. Tell me stories of how God led you. Like, were there great big lightning bolts, or was it more just a step-by-step? Oh, so there were times that there were great big lightning bolts. Oh, and there were other times that was just step by step, and it kind of all came to be. So I just think um, yeah, I remember even as a young person, will I ever get married? Will I ever have children? All those kind of questions. And yet looking back, it's easier to see the answers. So I think the value of having a spiritual mentor, somebody older than you, is just in invaluable in our walks with God. We still have mentors, only ours are in our their 80s and 90s now. And we love them.

Stephanie Shafer 34:45

Yes. Yeah. Because God calls us to community with Him and with each other, and we we can't make it without community. We can't.

Speaker 34:55

Yeah.

Trusting God With An Unknown Future

Stephanie Shafer 34:56

We do need the body in Christ. A much more abundant, joyful life when we have community around us. Yeah, that's why I enjoy getting on those calls with students, seeing their faces, and yeah, hearing their hearts. And um the spiritual emphasis event that we had recently, it was completely student-led. The students picked the speakers, so you had days of the main sessions, and then the next day you would have reflection times on each session. One of the reflection times I was in, just listening to the students. Um, I said, What do you want teachers to know? And they said, To remind us not to be fearful of failure, that it's not failure, to remind us that we don't have to make the best grades all the time, that grades aren't the most important, and to understand that we, the students, have fears that they don't know anything about. For instance, they gave an example we fear driving a car.

Speaker 35:52

Oh, yes.

Stephanie Shafer 35:54

Real fears. So what they were saying to me was we want to be known. And because we want to be known, I'm telling you the things. You know, if they didn't want to be known, they wouldn't have answered, but I think they shared. They want to be known. But it takes older people that have stories to bring their questions out, to sit and ask them questions and then be able to tell our stories that will encourage them around their fears and their their questions. So if you're listening to this, it doesn't matter how old you are. Like, God is not done with you. No, if you are here living and breathing, then he wants to use you in people's lives. So look around. And and just like we started the podcast with Jody saying, What do you want? What are we gonna do today, Jesus? Like, who are we gonna get to see today? Who are we gonna get to share with? And being excited about that. That should put a smile on your face that Jesus wants you with him walking this earth, you know, and how we get to encourage. So when we change our minds from, oh, how am I gonna make it today? to Jesus, what are we gonna get to do today? Like it changes your face, it changes, you know, everything inside of you. So I love you, Sharon. And um yeah, just being able to be reconnected. Um so so good. So as we wrap up, is there anything that I'm sure you're just seeing faces of students as we talk, like some you've had, and then God just bring into our minds. So if you could sit right now on a Zoom with those students, what else would you want them to know?

Mentors, Community, And Remembering

Speaker 37:32

Wow. Well, I would want them to know what a blessing that they were to me. Yeah, I think NorthStar isn't just a school of academic learning, it is that, and yet it's so much more. Um, I was so blessed by being their teacher. I learned from them, and so I would want to thank them for that. And then I would also love to hear how they have grown and changed and where God has them now. I I just love that I always thought in in heaven it would be fun to have like a NorthStar reunion where we all get together and we get to see, oh, I had you in ninth grade or whatever. Um, so yeah, I think that would be the one. And then the other thing I would want to say to them is wow, there is so much richness to your life with God, and he's never done with you, and you're never done growing. It doesn't matter how old you are, he is the source of abundant life, he's a spring. If that you've ever seen a spring, it come out of the earth. It's just an amazing thing, it just never stops, it just keeps bubbling. You're like, where is all of this water coming from? That's the kind of life that he invites us to as a spring of overflow, a reservoir. There's all kinds of beautiful images of river of delights in the in scripture of um of water and of refreshingness. And I think that's what he invites us to live. Not a stagnant pond, not a a canal, not a I'll just read perhaps my favorite quote, but there is so much more life with God, and he's trustworthy, and he loves us. I just share a quote. It's my favorite quote in all of my years of study. It was by Bernardo Clairvaux, who lived back in 1090 to 1153. Uh, he said, If then you are wise, you will show yourself rather as a reservoir than as a canal. A canal spreads abroad water as it receives it, and a reservoir waits until it's filled before overflowing, and thus without loss to itself, communicates its superabundant water. In the church of the present day, we have many canals but few reservoirs. Well, when I read that, I was it stopped me because he lived in 1090. To 1153, and he said in the church at the present day, I thought, oh, we could probably say that too that we have many canals but few reservoirs. But the other thing that really gripped me was I can live as a canal. I can just go from my one activity to my next activity to my next activity, trying to serve God. But what would it look like to live as a reservoir? To have my relationship with him be so deep and so rich that my service to him just flows and overflows out of that relationship. And I think that that has totally changed my perspective on um my relationship with God. It's a relationship. I get to sit with him as his beloved, more than maybe just potter clay, more than sheep shepherd. Yes, those are all lovely, wonderful metaphors, but there's also deeper metaphors like friend or or um father-son, father-daughter, but also this thought that we're the beloved, we we're called the bride of Christ. And that has just totally changed to think what does how does God see me? And we can live out of that. So no matter where they are, my NorthStar alumni, I would hope that they're still great walking with God and just experiencing more and more fullness from Him because that's what He invites us to. So much abundance. We're never done. And I love that.

Stephanie Shafer 41:31

Yeah. I'm going to be sharing this with the alumni. We're starting a new alumni association, um, really being intentional about connecting people to mentors, helping them as they transition from being a senior, we've got a new senior group and getting them involved in things in community, wherever God leads them to a university or wherever is their next step. And then calling on alumni to come back and pour into. Um, and so I'll be sharing this podcast. But how how can people buy your book and how can your alumni get in touch with you if they listen and they want to uh reach out?

Speaker 42:09

That's fun. I do have a website, it's called www.beloved discipleship.com. Um, I think my contact information is there, but they could write to me at bdjodihook at gmail.com. Um, and my book is available in English and Spanish on Amazon. It's called Beloved Discipleship, a journey of overflowing intimacy with God in English. And in Spanish it's called Amor Desbordante, prácticas para caminar en intimidad con Dios. And so it just came out last Friday, I think. So I'm excited to have it available in Spanish, uh, the translation for our Spanish-speaking friends. So yeah, I'm excited to share it with with others and see. I it's not my story, it's actually a uh way that you can do some of these ancient techniques, and I guide you through it. Um practices, I shouldn't call them techniques, ancient practices, uh godly uh uh ways of interacting with God every day to enjoy this relationship, an intimate relationship with Him. So it's kind of a devotional, but you do it and I guide you through different um practices along the way.

Stephanie Shafer 43:24

That's wonderful. It has been such a delight just to get to hear your heart more, reconnect, and thank you for sharing with our community and then the whole world on our podcast.

Speaker 43:35

Well, thank you so much for inviting me. So nice of you. Thank you.

Stephanie Shafer 43:39

Thank you. Thank you so much for listening today. If you have any questions for our guest or like information about NorthStar, please email us at podcast at nsa.school. We love having guests on our show and getting to hear their stories. If you have anyone in mind that you think would be a great guest to feature, please email us and let us know. And don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss out on upcoming stories.