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Paige C. Clark

  • What I am doing to grow this Lenten season

    I chose the words of this intro very careful. We need to grow. Most people identify this season as a discipline in giving something up. It is a spiritual mandate to sacrifice something so we are without.

    And while those things may be true, it is also a deep reminder, a daily reminder, of God and Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. Our sacrifice isn’t meant to emulate Jesus’ sacrifice, but rather a daily reminder of how desperate we need God in our lives. How our human habit has to be actively fought back against in order for us to turn our eyes to God. 

    This fast during lent is a reminder to break us from the rituals and habits that we mindlessly partake in during our lives, and do without a second thought. When really our daily ritual should be wholehearted sacrifice to God and all that he has done. We don’t want to ritualistically praying just because that’s how we’re told to. But instead adopt the words that have been put on our hearts to commune with God. 

    So instead of taking a look at this as a sacrifice, I see this as an ability to grow and commune with God and what he has blessed me with. 

    My husband and I always try to do our lent discipline together so that I’m not downing a slice of chocolate cake when he gave up sweets and he’s not watching Fox News when I gave up TV. 

    This year, we decided to do something that we’ve tried and failed at many times before. No technology in the bedroom. No phones, no iPads, no computers, no TV, no e-readers, and no other smart or dumb devices. 

    Why? Why did we choose this for 2023?

    A few reasons. First, we’ve been wanting and both working on doing what I preach about, being completely present. So instead of being sucked into my computer or my phone, I get to be snuggling with my puppies and laughing so hard my sides hurt. I don’t think at the end of my life I will remember that viral video that one time, but I’ll remember all the raspberries and tickle fights that we had where I laughed until I peed. 

    Then second reason is two-fold. First, there are MANY studies that show that technology in the bedroom can, not only hinder your sex life, but it can also hurt marriages. Those who didn’t have technology in the bedroom had much higher marriage satisfaction than those who did. 

    Secondly, there’s something sacred, in my opinion about the marital bed. We spend over half our lives sleeping or in our bedroom. We spend thousands of dollars on mattresses and bedding to make sure it is just right. So why do we treat it with such flippant neutrality? Our bedroom has the ability to be our sanctuary, married or not. 

    Let me know what you’re growing in this Lenten season?

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  • 9 to 5 Faith Podcast: Episode 3

    This is a transcript from episode 3 of the 9 to 5 Faith Podcast with Paige C. Clark

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    Start of podcast episode

    Paige C. Clark 0:36
    Paige C. Clark and you’re listening to the nine to five faith podcast. All right, welcome, everyone. I am Paige C. Clark, and I’m here with my friend Rose. Rose, how are you doing today?

    Rose Jordan 0:49
    I’m good. How are you?

    Paige C. Clark 0:50
    Good. Now, tell us a little bit about you what you do what your nine to five is.

    Rose Jordan 0:58
    Alright, so a little about me, I, I live in Texas, I have a husband been married almost 29 years, and we have a 28 year old. What I do? Well, I show people around my amazing town. And I help them to see why they would want to visit Mineral Wells, Texas. So technically, my job title is Director of Tourism.

    But my pattern of that job is to help people fall in love with Mineral Wells.

    Paige C. Clark 1:26
    What’s your sales pitch? They’re like, why should I visit Mineral Wells after this? Well,

    Rose Jordan 1:32
    I’ll tell you, we are. We’re straight up in outdoor destination. So if you love the outdoors, we have three state parks in our county, which is rare? Well, no, I think it’s much less than rare. I don’t think it’s ever happened before. We’ve got 30 plus miles of hiking and biking trails, and we’ve got the brass at big brass has river running through the state of Texas. So we just have all the outdoor things that you could want to do. And we are shifting back to our roots as a wellness destination. So we were known in the 20s as the place to go for all the famous people. If you wanted to come feel better because of our water interested.

    Paige C. Clark 2:06
    Okay, I was gonna say like, are there like hot springs

    Rose Jordan 2:09
    or something? We do. So you can do baths here back in those days. They were bath houses everywhere,

    Paige C. Clark 2:14
    right? Yeah. Yeah, fine. And how long have you been working in that job?

    Rose Jordan 2:20
    But four and a half years. And then before that I was on the Tourism Council for like three years and then got hired on to staff.

    Paige C. Clark 2:25
    So you’ve been doing it for a while? Absolutely loving it? I do. Yeah. Yeah. So um, I always like to start off like with what your week looks like. Because I realize like, everyone’s week looks a little bit different in like, how they practice their faith and then like fit work into it, or the other way around? How do you fit your faith into your work.

    Rose Jordan 2:52
    So on a normal week, on Sunday, the week will start out as on a normal week, my job time is 830 to five, Monday through Friday. That’s in theory, when you’re the Director of Tourism, a lot of it is after hours building relationship with tourism partners and go into an events. And on top of that I’m also the film liaison. So if you come to our community to film a project, I’m your point of contact. So that might mean I end up spending eight hours with you driving you around my county to help you find locations. So if if it stays true till 830 to five, typically, it’s I’m getting up early, most days, you know, at around 630. And so I spent a little time just kind of doing a brain dump to make room for hearing God. And then I’ll just spend time you reading scripture journaling, you know, kind of whatever that looks like in the morning. I typically so you’re seeing me here in my studio, which is a couple of blocks from my office. And so this is generally where I come on my lunch break, to paint to write to just spend time with God. Right now I’m researching Christian meditation. And so I have notes. And so for me, that’s part of, you know, my spending time with God. For the last few weeks, I have actually been fasting and Kevin communion in the mornings. A lot of times if I feel like Holy Spirit’s trying to teach me something specific or transform something in me specifically, I’ll use that as the focus. So like in the morning, I’ll start out with communion. I’m reading through some scripture, and then I’ll fast until usually around one o’clock and the reason I do that is because I can use those hunger pangs. As a reminder, almost like an alarm clock. I’m hungry. Oh, this is my reminder to pray for whatever it is holy spirit is trying to shift in me. So sometimes I have to use hunger to remind me to think about God and what Holy Spirit is doing in my life. So Right. So yeah, that’s kind of a general. You know, in addition to that, so my husband and I, we sold our house So we bought an RV just so we can be part coasts that are one of our state parks. So we have duties there. And you know, that’s a lot of fun and we love that. But yeah, there’s, it’s it’s a lot I technically my job is 830 to five but right, it’s very rarely so.

    Paige C. Clark 5:14
    Yeah, yeah. And I mean, you you said something there that was like, Oh, that’s a good idea of like, just brain dumping everything to make room for the Holy Spirit. Yeah, that’s really powerful i think i opinion of like, a really easy way because like I always like to say like my love languages is lists. Yeah, me too. Like, I love lists. If you if you want to make me happy, give me a beautiful list. And so like as as a way to kind of start off the day of just like dumping everything out to make room for the Holy Spirit. So you work in office is out, like in an office with others? Yeah, in general,

    Rose Jordan 5:55
    like a lot of my job requires me to be out meeting with mentors and partners, whether it’s restaurants or hotels or whatever, so I’m out doing things with them or building relationship with them or, you know, stalking my information racks around the county. But But generally, you know, a lot of minus sitting at a desk. So yeah, yeah. Working with my visitor center.

    Paige C. Clark 6:14
    Yeah, with other people. Because it is a little bit different. I asked, because like working from home is like way different than like working in person with other people even like meeting like doing meetings. Yeah. Because like, you don’t get to you don’t get that interface a whole lot.

    Rose Jordan 6:31
    Yeah. And I prior to come into this job. I had been work at home entrepreneur. So yeah, like, I know that life too. And it is a totally, it’s harder, I think in that life to shut down work and shift over to home because work is at home. So yeah,

    Paige C. Clark 6:47
    yeah, for sure. And I found like one thing that before COVID, my husband, he was always he always worked from home because he works for himself. And then like after COVID Now I’m just like, full time at home too. But one thing that like he and I have had to kind of get in the habit of is like letting our office space be our office space. Yeah. And then everything else, like when we leave our offices for the day, we’re leaving our offices, and we’re leaving our work behind. Yeah. And kind of transitioning to a family like this

    Rose Jordan 7:24
    makes that really hard because you’re going to carry it from the office over to your life. And it’s Yeah,

    Paige C. Clark 7:29
    yeah, yeah. And especially for you too, with with working outside of regular hours to my first job was a little bit above and beyond your regular clock in clock out hours. So how do you navigate that and like, you know, kind of, kind of go with the flow and trying to like, stay in some kind of rhythm with God.

    Rose Jordan 7:55
    Yeah, you know, I’ll tell you, I am a type A. So like, I’m a planner, and I’m very task oriented. So I’m like thinking things through and like you, I want my list. In fact, I can show you on Sundays, I sit down with God and I just kind of ask Holy Spirit, you know, what am I focusing on for the week? And then then I kind of plan out the areas of my life. So I’m gonna I was it helpful for those on a podcast, but like, this is my, this is my week. So I’ve got Monday. And then on Monday, what are my goals for my health and wellness? What are my goals for creativity and spirituality? What are my goals for my ministry that I have? So I that’s a big piece of it. But I also include on this list, the thing that I’m supposed to be whatever it is that the Holy Spirit wants to be focusing on, it’s on there. So every time I’m looking at my to do list, I take a glance down at the thing that that I feel like Holy Spirit has, is wanting me to focus on for the week. So that’s a part of it. But in general, honestly, it’s just the key is being an intentional, you’re intentional with the parts of your life that you can plan and that are predictable. But you’re also intentional in preparing for if you know you’re gonna have random crack times or random, you know, waiting times or just random bits of time that you never know what they’re gonna happen, then you’re preparing ahead of time. How can I fill that time with God? If I plan for it now so that when it comes how can I you know, that’s a big piece. So for me, it’s all about it’s just being intentional.

    Paige C. Clark 9:25
    Yeah. Yeah, that’s awesome. And like planning, planning for the unplanned bubble, I guess. That’s exactly expecting the unexpected but like also like planning for that implantable or like, I think it can be something as simple as like, having podcasts queued up in case your commute gets longer having you know, nine to five faith queued up or other podcasts that you listen to, that are life giving or my husband every morning when he’s on a he walks our dogs every morning. He just listens to sermons every morning or just kind of how I mean those things in your back pocket. So like, when Yeah, plans do change. Yeah,

    Rose Jordan 10:05
    I actually teach something called the Virtual Bible caddy. So to have Okay, here, here’s my, well, again, we’re on a podcast, but that’s okay. The video is getting posted too. Okay, good. So this is my actual Bible caddy. It has a couple of different versions of a Bible. It has journals, it has, you know, my colored highlighters. It has, you know, notepads, it has all the different things so that when I’m sitting down for some time with God, like all my stuff, and if we’re going to travel, I just grab the whole thing and go, Yeah, but I, one of the things I teach is creating, and this is a really great way to prepare for those unexpected gaps of time is that you create, you can create folders on your cell phone, right, so I have a folder, I don’t know how easy it will be to show. But I have a folder on my cell phone. That’s called Bible caddy. And so I have a couple of Bible apps, I have some of my favorite podcasts. I have some devotional apps in here. And then I have like some Bible study app. So anything that I might could use to just help me point my heart toward God for a few minutes, is in this little folder called Bible caddy. And so then if I’m suddenly in a long wait line at the grocery store, I can either get frustrated with the line or I can decide that that’s a really great time to pull up my Bible caddy. So that’s, that’s that for me that’s preparing for the stuff I can’t prepare for.

    Paige C. Clark 11:24
    Right? Oh, yeah, it’s such a fun idea. I might start that. I love that idea. It’s really, it’s really cute, especially like the physical caddy like yeah, I’m gonna, I’m probably gonna do that after this podcast, or is, um, so in talking through, like, how do you let me say this? How do you like interact with like, your faith community? Whether it be like your church or like a Bible study group? Or what? How do you interact with them? Or like, how do you sustain that with such like, an unpredictable schedule?

    Rose Jordan 12:02
    Yeah. Well, very seldom do I have to miss church, you know, Sunday or Wednesday. On the rare occasion, it’s because if I do, it’s because I’m working with a film crew. And when they’re here, it’s like, all hands on deck, right. But usually, I’m able, even if they’re filming on a Sunday, usually I can go to church. So I’ll tell you, I absolutely love my church, family, our community, our church, our, our community, at church, we’re really just kind of gonna go into the presence of God, but not just for ourselves, but for our whole community, for all the churches in our community, like, we love all the churches in our community, and they’re a part of us. And so I love that I am, I’m on the worship team, and on one wednesday MONTH actually lead the team. So that keeps me focused, you know, on, especially that week, and really focusing in on hearing, okay, what are we doing, you know, Holy Spirit, what are we gonna do Wednesday. So, so, Sundays and Wednesdays are pretty much non negotiable. Like, it has to be really important for me to miss that, aside that, aside from that, you know, I have, I have kind of a tribe of women, you know, that are my, they’re my kind of my prayer team. Like when things are crazy, right. They’re the ones that I touch base with. Now, none of them live in my town. So we all do it by text, or by Facebook Messenger or whatever. So I do have that group. And then I have a core group of, you know, women here that I’m really close to, most of them are at my church. And then I just kind of tried to, I’ll be honest, if I didn’t have to, if I didn’t have to do like Facebook for my job, I don’t think I would have have Facebook at all, except that I do have my fixed community there. And so that’s kind of my online community of women where we’re just kind of learning this devotional life thing together. So again, it’s really the same thing. It’s deciding, like, what’s most important, and what’s not negotiable, and then figuring out you know, just being intentional with the rest of it, like, if you can’t do the rest of it every day, like, how can you build that into your time, even if it means adding it to your list? Because like, I don’t believe God wants to be an item on our to do list. But He knows our hearts if we’re doing it, just to check it off and say we did it right. That’s not pleasing to Him. But if we’re doing it because we just need the reminder because we’re reading hard and fast doing life right now. And there’s a million things to do and he knows the reason we’re putting on the list is just to remind ourselves to point our heart back to him. I you know, I do believe that pleases Him. So it’s whatever. Yeah, knowing yourself well enough to know and be honest, like, what do I really need? You know how what’s going to remind me to point my heart back towards God. So

    Paige C. Clark 14:57
    yeah, that there’s so much there that I Want to go on but I think like, I think adding it to the list, like, if you I was texting a friend the other day, and I sent her just like a picture of one of my lists, and I was like, please don’t judge me that I have washed my hair on my list. Okay, doesn’t mean I’m gross and I don’t shower. But also sometimes I need just like a little like light bulb to remind me Hey, set aside enough time to go watch your hair.

    Rose Jordan 15:29
    Yeah. Because probably tomorrow you’re not going to be able to so if you don’t do this today, you gotta get good.

    Paige C. Clark 15:34
    Right? And yeah, I think I think that’s also like, how how adding adding God to your list if you’re a type A like us. And I also think like, God created our personalities. Like he created some of the some of us to have the gifting of organization and structure and I can’t there’s there’s a, there’s a spiritual term for that, that I

    Rose Jordan 15:58
    not able to place right in the street of Yes, but yeah, that’s

    Paige C. Clark 16:02
    what it is. Like to be more administrative. And so I don’t think that God has a problem being on our list, because I say like, if I don’t see it, it’s not in my brain. Like if I don’t hold things in my brain for the sole purpose that it’s written down. Yeah, on a piece of paper somewhere.

    Rose Jordan 16:23
    Exactly. Yeah. You know, another thing too, for me is, oh, anchor habits. So let me think of an example. I think it actually had some that I was going to share. Okay, so anchoring habits. So one of those would be like using a hunger pain to remind me to pray, or, I do have, I have two alarm set on my phone one is 1221, that’s my husband’s birthday, every day at 1221, my phone goes off, and it just reminds me take a second to pray for whatever’s on your heart, then I have the other one that set for 148. And that’s for John 148. And that’s where my, the the community like that’s where that comes from. At 140. A, my alarm goes off, it’s just a quick reminder for me to pray for, you know, for my the community, the FIE community and how I’m serving them. And then, you know, like Sunday check ins, you know, I mentioned I’ve got, I’ve got so this is me setting up, I’m gonna get a little bit closer and voted. And so like one color is health and wellness. One color is my spiritual personal life. One color is building relationships, whatever I want to do this week to be intentional about sowing into my relationships. And then yeah, yeah, the colors for fig. Well, part of anchoring is that on Sunday night, when I’m doing this, I’m not just making a to do list person, I’m asking Holy Spirit, like what is what is my focus for the week? And then, you know, what is ahead of me? You know, all the things that I don’t know, that are coming, you know, there’s a film crew coming on such and such day that I’m not ready for, right, so you help me plan my week? Well, just because I’m not actively reading my Bible. When I do. That doesn’t mean I’m not spending time with God, I’m actively spending time with God in the act of planning out my week. And so the more that I can anchor habits, to, you know, anchor those, those sort of practices or movements, like remembering to pray, because I feel a hunger pain, the more that I can anchor those habits, then throughout the day, I’ve got habits I’m doing all day long. So if I’ve got different practices of planning my heart towards God, anchored to a practice, you know, all the times, but with God, it’s just really, with the Bible in my hand. So

    Paige C. Clark 18:34
    right, right, yeah, for sure. And I think too, like finding anchor habits that you wouldn’t regularly dismiss. So like, yes, phone alarms work for you thought alarms wouldn’t work for me, I dismiss those so fast. But also, like I always wear my Apple watch. So like, if I set my watch to go off, that would probably do it more than an alarm because alarms are associated in my brain with waking up and I don’t want to wake up and yeah, I want to turn it off. So some of

    Rose Jordan 19:09
    the other things would be like, if you, you could do you know how we used to do those little note cards and we put a verse on it. We’ll put that with your toothbrush and toothpaste. So while you’re brushing your teeth, you’re reading scripture, right, that’s anchoring a practice of pointing your heart toward God with something that you’re already going to be doing anyway. Yeah. Anywhere that you can do that and anchor to your habits that you’re already doing. Yeah. Use that as something to point you back towards God. Like, that’s how we, Scripture says that we’re in prayer all day, like it’s all that we’re all that. That’s how it’s not that we’re on our knees all day, right? That we’re constantly throughout the day, pointing our heart back towards God in some way. So the more of those kinds of things that you can do. I’m not sure it does. Siri wants to talk, she doesn’t understand. But the more of those different things that you can do to just tie your regular habits into a reminder to turn towards God, eventually it becomes natural. Yeah. But when you’re trying to build that relationship with him and build that consistency and constancy, and always, you know, being aware of him, then that’s when you start finding the habits that you can tie to a practice. So

    Paige C. Clark 20:28
    I love that. The other thing that you said earlier that I wanted to dig deeper on was the non negotiables. And making things non negotiable. Because I do feel like, I mean, you can blame my generation of the millennials, but we have millennials and Gen Z’s have have a kind of some notoriety for being rather flaky, and for backing out, and I think just the era of technology has made that a lot easier to back out on, on tasks, on commitments on whatever it is. So what are some ways that like, you make the things non negotiable? Like is that? Do you have accountability in that? Do you set that up with your husband? You know, did it look different when you’re a kid was at home? Like you dig more into that?

    Rose Jordan 21:19
    So yeah, it really depends on a couple of things like, what is the thing that you’re trying to make non negotiable. So for example, something that I really am trying to be more consistent about, and if not yet, have not yet felt? The urge. Or perhaps I’m resisting the urge to make it non negotiable. But I want to be better about honoring the Sabbath about keeping the Sabbath. Yeah. Because I know as this type a person that is going, going going, and I have a dozen different hats that I’m wearing. And they’re all you know, and I don’t do anything halfway, I do try to do everything with excellence. And I try not to, I’m not about perfection and people pleasing, but I am about completing what I say I’ll do, and there’s a lot. So, you know, try not to over commit would be one. But because of that, I know that if I don’t take if I don’t keep the Sabbath, that it’s a gift to us. Because he knows people like me, need to be told take the day off. And so if if I came to the point where we’re going to call it non negotiable, but we’ll just say just take a step back from non negotiable and say, I really am trying to be more consistent about that. Then if I say it’s non negotiable, I am not going to work on Sundays. Well, first off, what does that mean work? Does it just mean I’m not going to go into office? Or does it mean, I’m not going to do regular household things? I’ve recently heard who? Oh, Emily P. Freeman, interviewed. I can’t remember. Did you hear the one about the Sabbath? And she talks about it’s a really good one I sort of didn’t even think about that. But the the woman that wrote the book about Sabbath, she talks about, actually in Scripture, Sabbath is communal, it’s meant to be together with your people. So it’s not that it’s not the intention that you go into your hidey hole. And you do nothing but read Scripture all day, right? But but if I’m trying to make that my non negotiable, or at least I’m trying to make it more consistent. Like, what does that mean for me first, and write it down so that you can hold yourself to it? Yeah, because at least if you’ve got it written down, even if you’ve not told anybody else, you have something to hold yourself accountable to it’s not as great because you’ve already dealt with it. So I mean, first off, is decide what does that actually mean to you? What are your actual parameters there? And then, you know, we’re calling it non negotiable, obviously, on a Saturday, you know, things happen. But what are my boundaries? What is Holy Spirit saying, this is for your good, this isn’t? Because I’m trying to want you to check it off a list. This isn’t about keeping a wall. It’s none of that it is Holy Spirit. What do you what do my boundaries need to be for my own good?

    Paige C. Clark 24:12
    And what can you control in that? Exactly? If there’s a lot of things that fall outside of our control, like might pop up, there might be emergencies or, or what have you. Like, I work in social media and not so much in this position that I’m in now. But when I was in positions before, I would be getting texts in the middle of the night saying like, hey, you need to go deal with this. And so like, I’m like, Okay, that is outside of my control, but like what is inside of my control? And like part of that for me, is because I work in social media. I volunteer for social media at my church, which includes moderating their live stream. Yeah, has that I don’t care if I’m on a Sunday, or if I’m on a Saturday, but please don’t put me on both because I need aid A day where I am not working in social media. Yeah. And that’s kind of like the boundary that I’ve put up for myself of like, just give me a day. I’m happy to serve otherwise, but I need a day where I’m not working.

    Rose Jordan 25:16
    Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, I mean, it really is just I think it’s, obviously you don’t want to try to have a whole bunch of non negotiables. Because it’s not realistic, and you’re just gonna set yourself up for failure. Right. But when you feel the urging of the Holy Spirit like this, is this important? Like it really is this important? This is my non negotiable, like, right? Then you can actually ask him, Okay, but what is this mean? And how do I set that up? And if it needs outside accountability, then he’ll directly and that to like, I don’t have anything right now that I feel like, necessarily needs that for me, but, but I think if it is something that is in that, like, he’ll lead you?

    Paige C. Clark 25:57
    Yeah. Yeah, for sure. So drawing back a little bit to like your job and what you do, what ways does your faith show up or not show up with like, what you do on your day to day? Whether it be like interactions with your co workers? Or like, how how you act? Or how you, you know, how do you, like, minister to the people around you? If you do, yeah, you say more about that.

    Rose Jordan 26:27
    So what when I first hired onto the job, it was very clear to me because no one they should know, hi. I was not even remotely qualified. It was very clear. In fact, when I went to, you know, had given him a resume, and they said, Okay, come in and want to meet with you. There’s that one for Taylor.

    Paige C. Clark 26:49
    Do you want to do you want to go and pray? I will respect that.

    Rose Jordan 26:53
    Oh, good. Oh, good. And your blessing? Actually, yes.

    Paige C. Clark 26:58
    And so anyway, we sign off, I’ll remind you.

    Rose Jordan 27:04
    That’s funny. So when I first heard on it, so I gave the resume. And then he said, Okay, I want to meet with you. And I printed off the job description. And when I went in and sat at his desk, and I knew them because I was on the Tourism Council, so I worked with the chamber, in that capacity, and I knew the person that was interviewing me, and I said, Okay, now before we start talking, you have these qualifications. And I don’t have that one. That one, that one or that one. It was just like, so when he told me that, you know, after, after I was hired, and that newspaper came to do a feature that he was like, he tried to talk me out of it. I did, because I wasn’t qualified. But be warned. Yeah. I tried to tell you. So honestly, they hired me for my passion. So because I just I love our community, we’ve always been one of those. We’re a small town. And so we’re kind of a stepping stone for most usually, it’s a kid Kevin out of college gets their feet wet here, and it goes on somewhere else. I’m here. This is my, this is the first time I’ve ever looked. So God’s got me here. But I knew it was very clear that this was an assignment from God, this wasn’t about a job. And so a lot of times, that will mean, especially in the early days, it still happened some but especially in the early days, I had a 30 minute commute now it’s it’s only 15 minutes, but that commute was me praying about whatever it was in the city that he you know, whatever I felt was on God’s heart. I was praying Yes, and or whatever I thought he was, you know, it was on his heart for mineral oils. And so there’s that I’ve actually had some really cool opportunities, like with the film crews that have come through and, you know, just kind of some of the different people that I work with and events, I’ve developed some amazing relationships with some of the people that serve in our community, which it helps it’s a small town but it really is a great community of people and so in the people in the tourism industry here are absolutely amazing. And so I’m able to connect and work with them and pray for them. And you know, if somebody comes to mind, whether it’s somebody that community or not, you know, as somebody pops into my head, if at all possible, I take a moment and just text them, hey, I’m thinking about you. How can I pray for you? Or hey, you know, you popped in my head, is there something going on? Or, or I felt like God said this about you. So like, that’s one is just, if you hear it, you know, try to do if you can, if somebody comes into mind, try to do something with that right then same thing on Facebook, like if you’re scrolling Facebook, and somebody says, hey, I need prayer. And most people are doing prayer or sending prayers up or I’ll be praying. I actually if at all possible, if I have the time will stop and just pray right there in the comments. Like yeah, whatever’s on my heart for that, because I don’t, I don’t want to have said that I prayed and get busy and forget. I want to actually just go ahead and do that. I did. But I’ve also, you know, built some great relationships with people Outside our committee like the production crews are, one time we had an actor come through that. I have no idea how it happened. But we just kind of started communicating. And he has spent, he doesn’t live here, he spent many hours on the phone, my husband and I, we’ve just been able to minister to him and pray for him. And when he’s transitioning, and he’s moved to another state are doing things, like he’ll call and check in with us and just ask for prayer. And, you know, I have a location scout that that I’ve been working with for the last year and a half on like the Yellowstone Bass Reeves 1883 those films. And I’ve gotten to know her. And so we just check in every now and then hey, just checking in, how’s it going? And so, I got has just given me lots of opportunities to minister to people, even if it’s not speaking God, to them, it’s just speaking life into them. You know, because like, like, my new some of them, it’s clear, they’re not Christian. And that doesn’t, that’s not my problem. My, my, my job is just to speak life into them and to speak love into them. So God is He just gives me lots of opportunities to do that, you know, with people that are passing through, it seems especially with the the film, you know, the production companies, which is, which is a lot of fun. But yeah, you know, and at work, I’ll be honest, there are many days at work that I’m so I’m a one person tourism department, in a town that is busting loose with tourism right now. And it’s amazing, and it’s exhausting, right. And so I have to get real intentional about not letting myself get bogged down in the heaviness of it because it gets overwhelming. I mean, just real honest, it gets overwhelming, but a lot of times, so people will send either a text or they’ll Facebook message or they’ll send an email, and they’ll just kind of be cheering me on or praying for me or whatever. I’ve learned to actually print those out. And my best friend who now lives in Missouri, she does paper crafting, okay, something of hers around. But she one time she paper crafted a really pretty envelope. And it lays open and it has a sticker, something went on. It’s always funny, she’s just funny. I kept that envelope, and I haven’t mounted to my computer monitor at work. And every time somebody sends a text or prayer or something, or says hey, you’re doing a great job, and I will print those off, and I’ll stick them in my that envelope. And so on the days that get really heavy, I can just pull those out as reminders of you know, there are people that are praying for me, there are people that I’m impacting and serving and they see it even if right now I don’t feel it. So sometimes it’s just pulling, you know, kind of pulling some of those things out. But, and I don’t even for a second want it to sound like I’ve got it all like I’m perfect at remembering to point my heart towards God all day long, right? Seriously, I don’t like please, if you’re listening and watching, please don’t think that there’s anybody in the world that actually is doing all the things that we’re sharing with you perfectly, right their ideas. And if you can grab on to one or two of the ideas that from each podcast, you hear like, that’s great, but don’t look at us thinking that we’re doing all the things perfectly. Not even.

    Paige C. Clark 33:16
    Not even close. Yeah. And so I think like, I’m just processing for myself, like the things because one of my next questions would you kind of answer but I’ll give you the chance to like add anything of like, how do you have the energy for God? At the end of the day, like that’s something that I struggle with a lot, because yeah, I got health issues. And now with the job I’m at, currently, it’s a little bit better, but like previously, and other jobs, it was like an energy suck. And at the end of the day, I’m like, I go from my car to bed. And there’s nothing in between there. Yeah. And so like you said, like have your non negotiables you know, have those things that trigger being intentional. Is there anything else you’d want to add on to

    Rose Jordan 34:06
    that? Yeah, you know, I’m too I have some health things. And I actually have this kind of weird thing that was starting to happen to me the other day I haven’t had in a long time. But when I go and go and go for too long, my adrenal system shuts down and I am just like, sick, sick, sick. The last time it happened. I was down for 12 weeks. So I have learned to watch that but but I have learned over the last probably year that I do far better. I have far more energy and I’m able to wake up in the morning if I go to bed early. So if at all possible. I can go to bed between 830 and nine, then it’s easy for me to wake up at six o’clock in the morning without an alarm. I can get up and I’m awake and I could spend time with God. The thing is, it’s kind of a cycle. So if you can just get yourself in this figure out what that time Yeah, and I’m not saying you need to go to bed at 830, right, you get what that is for you. Yeah, that gives your body the rest it needs. So that then you can wake up, you can spend the time with God because it’s the, it’s the start of a cycle, then you start to find your day goes better, you have more energy, you feel better, because you spent time with God doesn’t mean you’re not going to be tired. But it also changes your attitude. You’re rested, and you have had time with God. And so I have learned that if I’m starting to get a bad attitude about things, I need to really pay attention to my thoughts, and I really need to pay attention to am I getting sleep? And am I eating properly? Like, right? It’s just, it’s getting real. And I think, you know, on 40 It’s just, I didn’t even realize I snoozed it, just turn it off.

    Paige C. Clark 35:56
    Okay, Siri, Siri clearly has something to say.

    Rose Jordan 35:59
    Yeah. Don’t forget the figs, Mando fried things. So yeah, it just, sometimes we just have to make some hard choices to get ourselves started. And then once we can kind of get into a good rhythm, it gets better, but but then we also life hits and things get overwhelming. And you know, I have a late event and I can’t go to bed at 830. And I don’t even make it to bed till midnight. Right? Then I’ve got to really pay attention the next day to Okay, first off, I’m going to have grace with myself, I’m going to be tired, I’m not going to wake up at six. And just to be real honest. And on that day, I probably won’t spend time with God in the morning. But the other habits that I’ve created throughout the day, just helped me to point my heart back toward him throughout the day. Right. So it’s having grace for the times when you don’t get to control. But yeah,

    Paige C. Clark 36:51
    yeah, that’s awesome. And yeah, I totally agree of dislike. My best times I know there’s like morning, morning birds and night owls. And I definitely am a person who wakes up early and like feels early. And I’m like, yeah, like, I’m really like, my best writing happens in the morning. I clean the house the best in the morning. Yeah, like, yeah, I am. And so just like getting into that routine, where you wake up early, or well, where I wake myself up early and like, get going in a way that’s you know, gonna be glorifying to God, that’s, that’s really important as well.

    Rose Jordan 37:31
    Well, and I think part of it too, is knowing, you know, the season you’re in. If you’ve got kiddos, it might be the you may be at night owl. But if if in the evenings, you can’t get time alone, instead of constantly trying to go against the grain of your life. By insisting that at night, I’m gonna have time alone and then being angry and frustrated every time the kiddos just disrupt like you’ve set yourself up for failure. Yeah, so you’re gonna have to get real honest about the season wife and I don’t have kiddos at home. I have a 20 year old he’s gone. Gone. He’s not home with me. Right. And so. But, you know, I said earlier that we bought an RV to go be Park hosts. Well, if you’ve ever been in an RV, there’s nowhere to get away from the other person in your house. Right? Yeah. So I have to get up early. Because my husband is great. I love him. But he he keeps forgetting that I’m trying to read I’m trying to just chatter away. So I mean, you sometimes it’s just a matter of knowing like this, this is the season of your life. These are the people in your world, you can either stay constantly frustrated with them because you’re trying to go against the grain, or you find a way that works.

    Paige C. Clark 38:47
    Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Man, you wear so many hats. It’s impressive. So, kind of going off like Okay, so we talked about, you know, adding in just these kind of like, you know, anchors throughout your day. What are some of the spiritual disciplines or discipline that you have a hard time kind of implementing because of your work and your many hats?

    Rose Jordan 39:13
    Yeah. Honestly, the hardest one for me is time dedicated to just praying, like, set apart from everything else and just praying. I I don’t I don’t beat myself up for it. But I also know that throughout the day, I’m talking to God anyway. But that deep intercession like that travailing and I don’t think that necessarily we’re supposed to travail every day. I think travailing is when there’s something heavy. But But real time focused on just intercession. I really, honestly it doesn’t happen unless you know, I’m with a group and that’s our, you know, we’re intentionally praying for something Yeah, I’m not great at that just dedicated intercessory time.

    Paige C. Clark 40:04
    Yeah, yeah. And for me, it’s also like, especially with like my writing and, and if I want any kind of focus time, I can’t be at home, I have to get out of the house. Studios. That’s what your studios for because I like I’m sitting at my office right now and I go doing my office is so messy. What’s that pile of clothes over there? like, Yo, I need to take out the trash like, I don’t know if it’s like backwards, but all my whiteboard, it says clean office right there. Because I have a little bit of shiny object syndrome, and I will get distracted. And so like, for me when I really want that time with God, I have to get out of the house, whether it be in nature, or a coffee shop. Like it doesn’t matter where I’m at. I just need to be away from my life. Yeah, I’m in normalcy, but also working from home. There are some days where I don’t go outside. Like, I hate to admit that. But like, I like how I didn’t step foot outside today like, Yeah, that could be a problem. So yeah, definitely setting aside that time that can be that can be a struggle. And yeah. Well, thank you for sharing that with us. Because I think that I think that sometimes people think like, everyone’s kind of got it down. And you’re the only one who struggles and that’s like, Yeah, true. Yeah, no, no, no one has it all together. So, in wrapping up for our listeners out there, what is one thing that they can do this week, this month, as a takeaway from our conversation, to help build their discipline or their faith practice into their life?

    Rose Jordan 41:51
    Yeah. So before I give a tip, I’m going to say first off, you know, know that not know that not know that God knows the season that you’re in, and he knows the challenges that you have, he knows the people around you live, in fact, he put them there. So rather than try to work against them and fight against that grain, he knows Holy Spirit can help you find a rhythm and a practice to work with your life the way that it is right now. Give yourself grace. Don’t try to compare to what others are doing, or what others say you should be doing. That’s that’s like my first like, no, that first like, Let’s get your mindset right first. Yeah, but practical tips. You know, one would be I shared the virtual Bible caddy. And then another one would be, you know, setting the alarms. And I actually, you know, when I was kind of thinking about this interview, I realized those are both parts of a 10 day do something challenge. So I’m giving you the link, there’s extra 10 things there. 10. Super easy, super quick, a lot of times fun. Well, you know, if you just pick one of those 10 things to do for the next two weeks, like you will have already invested in your relationship with God. So, so like I said, You gave me the link. Yeah. And it’ll be in the show video. It’s got it’s got a YouTube video to walk you through it, or you can read it. So

    Paige C. Clark 43:18
    yeah, awesome. Awesome. And those will be in the show notes too. And I think too, like, I am a very, like, action oriented person. And so it’s like, Give me something to do. Don’t just tell, don’t just tell me that. Like, you can have faith in a full time job too. Because like, we all know that there’s people do that every day. Let’s like give people like, practical takeaways. And so yeah, I’m really excited to share that resource with our listeners. Rose, thank you so much for joining. Yeah. Where can people find you on the interwebs?

    Rose Jordan 43:51
    Okay, so I’m, I’m most active in the Facebook group called beneath the fig tree fix community, or YouTube, and it’s just beneath the fig tree. I’ve got the website beneath victory.org or Instagram, Facebook or beneath victory. Honestly, I’m not super active on the Facebook page or the Instagram page. It’s just

    Paige C. Clark 44:14
    not there. So that’s alright, so the Facebook group or the YouTube channel? Yeah.

    Rose Jordan 44:18
    Those are the places that are most active. Yeah.

    Paige C. Clark 44:20
    Awesome. Awesome. Rose. Well, thank you so much for joining us, and we’ll catch you next time. Please. Great. Thanks for joining us. If you liked what you were listening to make sure you subscribe and hit those five stars and we’ll catch you on the next episode.

     

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  • The strength of roots

    There was a study done with the biodome in Tucson, Arizona and how the environment was effected. The biodome is an enclosed space that has a variety environments so researchers can see the effects of variables in a highly controlled environment. 

    One thing that they had noticed was that the trees kept falling down. They couldn’t figure out why except for the fact that their root systems weren’t what they were in the wild. 

    What did the biodome have that the real world didn’t? Well, then real world has wind. but in the biodome there’s no wind. It’s an enclosed space. What these researchers soon discovered was that the wind actually strengthened the trees. When the trees we’re exposed to the elements, to adversity, their root systems dug deeper. The root systems grew stronger. Holding up the tree to face any adversity that comes their way. 

    Our roots getting stronger are a result of adversity. How beautiful is that sentiment? Our roots get deeper and grow stronger when the winds try to knock us over. 

    Without the wind our roots may grow but they don’t gain strength. When our roots dig deep and hold on that’s when we know growth can happen. 

    If adversity didn’t happen for us, we would be a lot like those trees in the biodome and fall over. It is in adversity that we find our grounding, our strength and our roots.

    10 grounding techniques here.

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  • 9 to 5 Faith Podcast: Episode 2

    This is a transcript from episode 2 of the 9 to 5 Faith Podcast with Paige C. Clark

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    Start of podcast episode

    Paige C. Clark 00:28

    Well, I am here with my friend Lorien. And we’re going to be talking about just the church and what it looks like to have a relationship with God kind of outside of our regular nine to five and inside our nine to five. And I like to say we’re just the normal people, because I think just the average normal person probably has a nine to five job. So Loriann, can you introduce yourself a little bit?

    Lorien Hershberger 00:56

    Sure. I’m a 39 year old mother of one work remotely from home. But when I started my journey with God, which was intense, I would say because I was very convicted about all it’s time to go all in. At the time, I was working in a bank. So I was working in a physical location. They knew me as one type of personality. And now I’m the new creation. What does that look like? So I’ve been walking that out for about three and a half years now. I love to bake. I am an aspiring author myself, I’m working on a memoir. And that pretty much takes up all my time, you know, in between trying to be a blessing every day. But that’s that’s a little bit about me in a nutshell. Also learning to garden in the last year or so really been trying to do that.

    Paige C. Clark 01:51

    So what are you growing right now?

    Lorien Hershberger 01:54

    Right now? We’re in Florida. So we’re looking at you know, starting tomatoes and peppers. You know, they’re like you have such a long growing season and not really because the rain starts in June and it doesn’t stop until September. So everything you want out of the ground you need to harvest by June.

    Paige C. Clark 02:12

    Yeah, for sure. And a little bit of the same here. We don’t have the rain, but we have the long growing season. But it is cut in summer. So summer, you’re kind of you know, little out of luck. If you if you don’t pull I just I have a bunch of tomatoes in my garden and a ton of broccoli right now. So I haven’t harvested the broccoli. So it flowered these beautiful flowers and the bees are just absolutely loving it.

    Lorien Hershberger 02:38

    Yes. Like they love those brassica flowers.

    Paige C. Clark 02:41

    Yes. I’m impressed. You know, like the names. I’m not even. I’m like they have yellow flowers and green stubs. Yeah. And that’s about as far as I get. So what are you doing right now full time for your job.

    Lorien Hershberger 02:55

    I’m actually it’s really funny story. I was working in finance. And I didn’t really have a course charted for myself, I’ve always had to kind of take what was available. So but as circumstances, you as God began to shift my path as I began to say, putting your kingdom first and all these things will be added unto me, you know, I really began to want practice that and trust God for that. And, and I didn’t have discernment developed yet. So it’s a miracle I ended up in the right place. But I shifted gears it was right before the pandemic hit. And I was moved out of my loan officer position that I was in into human resources, which was the most isolated office in the entire building, and then the pandemic hit. So it was a total move of what I get, I attribute that to God’s hand. And then it wasn’t long after that, I was in that position for about a year and I was offered a position to go home and be a writer, because I really felt like that’s what the Lord was calling me to do. Yeah, but it’s not like the writing that I am passionate about. But it does sharpen my skills daily. So I summarize medical information for veterans that are trying to obtain benefits from the VA. So I edit their Doc, I edit documents all day long and, and I just kind of do that I push that and though I get to interact with my coworkers through chat, so it is a different environment, you know, trying to manage how can you be a blessing through chat, and I’m very isolated in that. But it’s allowed me I feel like time to heal. You know, when you get out there and you’re bust in it nine to 540 hours a week. It is very it’s very hard to manage. So that’s what I do now.

    Paige C. Clark 04:51

    Yeah, I feel like that could be it’s even its own spin off of like working from home and like working from home face versus like in the office. because I feel like that actually looks very different as well.

    Lorien Hershberger 05:04

    It does add, I would add, I have been blessed with some great opportunities to speak the word, I know that I have to be careful and execute with some wisdom, because I don’t want to be in people’s faces when I’m trying to present Christ or the word or, because we can easily become obnoxious with it and turn people off. And sometimes, you know, I’ve even heard that from some mature Christians where they’re kind of loud and proud with it, like you’re going to receive my ability to exercise my faith. And it just is really it turns them so away, but that’s, that’s really, it could be there is the thing that you I found, I thought I was going to have more freedom working from home. But when everything is monitored on your computer, they want you in that seat, eight hours out of the day, as my I have worked more from home than I ever did in office setting.

    Paige C. Clark 06:03

    Right? Yeah, that that’s another good point too. Like, I mean, I can go off on a tangent, but like, out, when I was in the office, I would get up, I would go talk to coworkers, I would go visit people by their desk, I would check it on a project and then just kind of hanging out there, see how life is going. Whereas like here, I know I’m hearing a lot of rumblings in the business world that like work from home is actually more productive, because you don’t have those distractions, but at the same time, it can feel a little bit isolating and that

    Lorien Hershberger 06:36

    it is isolating. I do like the ability to be at home when my son comes home, I think that was the biggest struggle for me, I didn’t, you know, I would have liked to do that whole section of life over again, where I could have had the choice, made the decisions to be at home and be a mother at the same time. But that’s not what life looked like for me. And I didn’t have make sure everybody’s got a choice. I could have trusted God, I didn’t. And so I missed out on all those years. And as as it would, as it would turn out. Not only did I need to sharpen my skill as a writer, that was a financial blessing to take the remote position. But more than that, I feel like we all get to that place where we’re like, I wasted so much time with my son or my daughter that I can’t get back. And in this season, the Lord has allowed me to recoup a little bit of that he’s and it was it was it was the it was the finish line of that time. You’re he’s now my son is. So I’ve only got like one year or two years to savor. But the Lord was like, if that’s all I can give you back, I’m gonna give that back to you. Yes, so he’s an admin. So it was like we I have got to learn about the Lord. He does so many things at once, that I could not have anticipated. And I only had like a week to decide when when that came. Yeah, so I didn’t have very much time to say, well, let me pray about it and get back to write. Because I had been paying attention and in prayer. And I felt like I knew the path that the Lord was leading me into, when I got that surprise invitation. I didn’t even look for the job. My friend said, I know you’re not looking. I was head of HR at the time. And she said, but I have a team, I have an opening on my team for a writer, which was a complete year shift of the track, right, right,

    Paige C. Clark 08:34

    From loan officer to HR personnel to writer and editor. Yeah, that’s, that’s quite the hop, skip, and a jump over there. It is. And

    Lorien Hershberger 08:44

    I like to say this about God, if you are ready when you say God, I’m gonna hand you the wheel, and I’m gonna finally sit in the passenger seat. It’s like he did this, you turn your ad into oncoming traffic and they want to panic about but it’s like I’m trying to get you off the nearest exit. I’ve been waiting on you to make this decision for nearly three decades. I am not going to waste another second trying to get you’re on the path that I designed for it. So I was like, okay, as much as I can emotionally handle he was like change, change change. So within you know, within like a three or four year time period, I changed jobs twice to get to this place that he was a place of blessing if I had been fearful at all. I would have lost the blessing.

    Paige C. Clark 09:33

    Yeah, it’s a story for another time. But I had a situation where, you know, I just had this like a stupid peace about a job change, where I’m like, it doesn’t make sense. It’s like, there’s no rational reason why I should be feeling the things that I’m feeling besides God. And I think for the first time that was like, where I had like peace beyond understanding, and I think it’s really cool. Well that God can even move through our lives in our career. And you pointed it out of not just how we minister at work, but also ensuring like, spiritual and familial growth and fulfillment at home, like a change in career might not be for your career or for that environment. It might be for other reasons that are fulfilling. And I don’t think that’s talked about, like, if ever,

    Lorien Hershberger 10:33

    yes, and to me, I have to say that if I had not received any of the other blessings, if I had not received the alignment with what I feel like is my purpose, if I had not received a financial blessing, the peace that I have about trying to recoup some of the things that I feel like I lost as a mother would have been enough for me to say, I’m all in God. So everything else was a bonus.

    Paige C. Clark 11:01

    Yeah, because, because I do feel like, especially I run into it a lot. Because I work in a, I’ve worked in very corporate environments. And I feel like a lot of the conversation is always about, what’s your next career move? What’s your next step? When, when really, it’s cool to recognize that your next step that God may be leading you in is not for your career?

    Lorien Hershberger 11:30

    That’s right. Yes. Because it’s all about, you know, Soul ambition versus worldly ambition, like, purity you want to be and, and that is how fast do you want to move through these cosmic lessons? How fast? Are you willing? How much of the world are you willing to let go of, and for me, it was a Toronto moment, for sure.

    Paige C. Clark 11:53

    Gosh, that that’s just that’s a beautiful, like, I just had like the aha moment of like, I’ve always just kind of treated my job on the side. I know, for some people, they hold their jobs, really close to their, their identity, and put a lot of their identity in, in their jobs. And it’s easy to do that. And I think that like, if God wanted me, I don’t know, on on the phones all day doing sales, so that so I may have other blessings in other areas of my life. That’s an opportunity that is really cool to think about.

    Lorien Hershberger 12:31

    While and I found to even before I was following the Lord, you know, as far in the job, because it gets even wackier. Before I was a loan officer, I was 911, Administrator for the county, and supervisor over emergency dispatch. So that was even a wilder jump. And I found that looking back, it was it was kind of like a hostile push out of that position. It was you know, it’s under the termination of an elected official. So if he has somebody different in mind for a position that you currently hold, you’re in danger almost every four years. And it kind of came to that place where I was, it was a negative, it was a negative Firestorm, I was pushed out. It was very public, it was humiliating. And I look back on that. And it was because it was so public, I had a friend that worked at the bank. And they said, hey, you know, I’ve got a position here. And there was an open door already there for me. And I really thank the Lord for that. Because I came to this piece of this jewel that I feel like brought comfort to my heart was rejection is sometimes deliverance. And to get me on the path that he wanted to get me on where I could even receive the word I had to get out of that chaotic environment, I was never going to receive the routes, we’re never going to grow in my heart. That was very hard because of the stress and the pressure of that job. But being it he allowed it, you know, it was not a good experience. But I thank God for it every day because you know, he pushed me right out and I wasn’t even following him, then that’s the thing that I look back on. And I’m like, You are so amazing that you are not going to fail, even when I am ridiculous. Brings me such a comfort.

    Paige C. Clark 14:27

    Right? Gosh, yeah, absolutely. And, and I think to just knowing and like, especially, I mean, hindsight is 2020 Looking back, you see all of the seeds that were planted kind of along the way. Yeah, I could

    Lorien Hershberger 14:42

    have, I could have very well let my pride get in the way I could have dug in my heels in that position and said, I’m going to fight to keep it this is mine. I could have fought for the pride of my name, but I said I’m gonna choose peace and I’m gonna go through this open door. That’s been the but here just for me, I felt like it was almost right. And he blessed that.

    Paige C. Clark 15:04

    I love that. So let’s talk a little bit about your day-to-day. Like, let’s talk about what a week in Lorien’s life looks like. And where we’re like, yes, you have your family in your home to build. But what does also like your work and your faith and how those two intersect, and maybe family and home kind of work in there. But I don’t have kids. So I can’t really speak to that.

    Lorien Hershberger 15:36

    Okay, well, I’ll be happy to share that with you. Because I am a person that does better I draw a sense of comfort from systems and schedules and things like that not so rigid anymore, that it impedes what I feel like it’s the spirit, but I get up. Every morning, I try to make sure it’s between 530 and six that don’t always succeed at that. But I get up and I have one of two things that I’m going to gravitate towards some mornings, I don’t feel like getting in the Word. And I’m not going to force myself to do that. I do you feel like I have another priority in the writing, which is an expression of how I feel like the Lord uses his gifts in me. The words are very important. So whatever I feel like I’m gravitating towards, I will sit down and open up my word and my prayer journal, which I swear by Ben prayer journaling for over three years now. And I can go through one in about six months. But I began to pray about those things. And I’ll wrap them in a time them. And just because I love to go back and read and reflect on the things that God has done. And also know that those are not always my words, if he’s coming through me, and he’s expressing himself through me in that way. Then I asked him all the time, I say, Lord, help me to pray about those things that you want to see done in my life. I don’t want to continue to lift up, so and so salvation, you know, if you’re, if that’s not the time for them, yet, I’ve prayed that I trust that in your hand, what do you want to do now, because I need to see your work in my life, it’s a little bit selfish, where I was like, I need to win here, I need to see the hand of God, drop through this fabric here. So I pray, I try to make sure that I My prayers are. And the way that I would say that spiritually is that I want my prayers to be in line with the will of God. Yeah. And so I’ll spend about an hour and a half doing a drink my coffee, I get in my prayers, but in that journal is also my reading that I’m in and I have a default that I kind of lean back on, which is a three six, you know, read the Bible in a year. Right? But I’m not I’m not one of these that I’m never going to be like, Okay, well, I didn’t accomplish that. Because I do get what I call chasing rabbits in the word, which means I’m out started in Genesis, but they’re going to I’m going to read the commentary to that. And they’re going to drop a reference over here to maybe the book of Daniel, and I’m gonna go over there and read and reinforce it, because I’m so curious. I mean, I think that’s really what motivates me is my curiosity about God. And because he’s shown me so much of the Word is true. So I’m going to do that in the morning time, or I’m going to write which is working on the memoir, which I should do more of, I don’t know why all of a sudden it becomes a chore when it’s a project now I could have written really before but now it’s something I feel like I have to do so

    Paige C. Clark 18:42

    I feel that way a lot when I like look back at like school and stuff where I’m like, I wish I could do that now it’d be like a lot more enjoyable. It was in high school or in college like I wish I could take these classes now versus I had to back

    Lorien Hershberger 18:59

    Right well and you know, I have had the opportunity to go and do that but that’s another topic to take in a Spanish class and I wish I would have paid attention in high school but that’s that’s what I do I kind of go into one of those two lanes I do discipline and say these are the choices where your morning reflections and sometimes I don’t you know I give myself grace in that sometimes I’m just not very I’ll barely get up in time to make it to my computer which is ridiculous to log in. But when I get in that groove and and I have to make sure I don’t forget to pray, Lord, help me get up and meet me in that place. And because if I ever forget that it I do start filling the drain on end and I need the Lord to refresh me in that so I’ll sit down at my computer which I love. I love love love working from home. My husband puts some birdfeeders right Outside my winter, because he’s an ace. And so I’ll watch the birds. And then I kind of, you know, our boss will will say, these are the claims that we would need to make a priority today. And we’ll get that. But there’s bit, it was interesting to watch, because I really don’t have any background in medical. And this is we’re compiling medical evidence and putting in summarizing it. So that is really a miracle that I even got the job. But then I get put into the mental health lane. And I don’t have any experience in that. But there was one other lady that I was working with, it was only me and her. So I’ve watched God kind of and that’s, that’s what I put to it is I’ve been put in this position, why? Who am I supposed to be connecting with. And so I do the job, but at the same time, make sure that I’m flexible enough to say, if I get interrupted, whose is this person on my mind not to ignore those subtle prompts of reach out and chat this person. And, and I look to it was just, it’s just amazing the way that that that that has that had that has worked. One instance, if if if I may, one instance, typical, typical situation, she had dropped in the chat that she was having a rough time, this was in our group chat. It’s very casual. And she was in the middle of a divorce. And her daughter was a wall and I really gravitated towards her. And I got to know her better because we got stuck in the same mental health lane. And she was a, you know, an anchor for me, and she’s very knowledgeable and experienced. So I just kind of appropriately chatted her. And I said, you know, is there anything I can pray about with you? And they know that I love the Lord. I mean, I think that anytime I got the opportunity to establish that idea. Yeah, just so they, I just feel like it was important to say, you know, if they, if they would speak something in the chat, and I’ll say, Oh, well, that’s a scripture. And there’s a scripture for that. So it was important to let them know, Hey, if you need you write a beacon, just wanting to establish myself as that beacon, right. And so I chatted her and she said, Oh, bless your heart, you know, she so it’s one of those things where she acknowledges God, but maybe he doesn’t claim to him, right, maybe he doesn’t walk with him, maybe doesn’t acknowledge his name and all things. So I just had an opportunity to tell her a testimony which was involved when my when my mother passed away and how the Lord was faithful. And I wasn’t, I was actually kind of mad at God, I think at that moment. And my mom ordered some books in the mail, not knowing she wasn’t going to receive them. And I received them in the days that I was trying to bury her. And I had a body I didn’t know how I was gonna, how I was gonna bury her because I was very young, I was only 23 Not financially solvent. Right. And the book’s title was the buzzards are circling, but God’s not done with me yet. So she has a little bit of an edgy personality, and I knew she wouldn’t be offended by that. And I just kind of told her, I was like, you know, he’s never late. He’s never like my friend. And this is a testimony to that effect. So I got an opportunity to kind of slide that in. But, you know, I just kind of go through my day like that. Looking for opportunities. If I get them, they’re very rare. Yeah, I am not, I would say I’m probably one of the only ones in that environment that is strong in faith. So, but it gives me an opportunity to, you know, as I see the things that they post in jest, and here are the kind of comments that they make, and I know that they may be living without hope, then they go into my prayer journal, before I even start the day, if they’re on my mind, you know, them out, then I’ll begin I work a lot from the beginning of Square One is to pray. That’s why when when I’m going to try and affect change in a situation or in, in an environment. Step one is to pray. And then I say to the Lord, help me build relationships with with the persons that’s whose hearts are ready. And that’s the important thing like I, we can go out there and I think I’ve heard this kind of preached before, which was, you know, the, the sower doesn’t care. They just sowed the seed liberally and they it just lands all over the place. Right? If you want to be good at what you do, you don’t want to sow seeds out of season. I mean, as I’m learning and developing my skills in the garden, you’re wasting you’re wasting your seeds if Yeah, it takes very little effort to kind of scan you know in read the back of the packet, which is the same as people, you know, get to know them a little bit, see what they need, they might not need I can do all things through grassroots strengthens my right, they might need something different. They might need to know that God makes everything beautiful and has time they might need what is what is the remedy? Nothing. Yeah.

    Paige C. Clark 25:19

    Yeah, yeah, for sure. And I think to you, you touched on something like the people you have close proximity to, like, you can kind of get a sense of like, okay, do they have a relationship with Jesus? But you got me thinking, as you were saying that I was like, You know what, like, I feel like, I’m the only one in kind of my department that might know, Jesus. But then also, I’m like, okay, but like, how often do I talk about him? And like, What if everyone else is acting like, I’m acting in terms of like, not talking about Jesus? And like, what, you know, like, what if there’s, like hidden Christians in the room room that I just don’t know about? Because they’re acting like I’m acting, and they’re acting like, I’m acting in the sense that like, I don’t really talk about Jesus a whole lot, you know, or my relationship with him or anything like that. And so, as you were saying that those were that thoughts, like running through my mind of like, Hmm, maybe, maybe, maybe I should, you know, be a little bit more forward with that. And I think there’s, I think there’s fear in that. But also, I think that, that you can, I don’t know, God can work through it and find community, and, you know, be a hope to others.

    Lorien Hershberger 26:42

    Yeah, and if you’ll allow me to kind of take a little dog into that is two things that really motivated me to, to get truly out of the boat. You know, you hear that all the time, when you say, get out of the box, get out of the boat. And one of the guys in the church that I was at at the time, and this was just when God was kind of cracking me open on my shell. He said, but don’t make it weird. You don’t even know what you’re saying. Like, in retrospect, I was like, you can’t tell me that. Because, you know, here’s the thing weird is subjective. And so some really comical things transpired when I was like, I’m coming after you, God, I don’t know what’s right or wrong, but we’re gonna go through this rough process of trial and error here. And it was, you know, so in the, in the workplace. So like, you’re talking about these, these hidden, hidden Christians, that I’ll give two examples of that, and how it is very relevant to what has produced this zeal in me. And God has honored that he’s, he’s definitely blessed it with food. But there was one lady in the office in my previous job where this all began. And she was probably the most despised person in the office, she was, you know, she was she was the one that was kind of subject to gossip all the time. And I never I didn’t step out and defend her at all, I didn’t have that close relationship with her. I was like, I was kind of like, it’s not my business. You know, I’m not, I’m just gonna, even though and so but that was me before I committed myself to the Lord. When I committed myself to the Lord. Some, my perspective began to change. And so all these other women, though, that were there, they were openly Christian, and they were not behaving in a very cross like way. And when I came out of when I really came into what I could say, come into the lab, when I came into the understanding, and I committed myself to the Lord. There’s one thing that really bugged me was that I was surrounded by Christians in my office professing Christians, but nobody was wondering about my soul. Nobody wants that nobody was looking for me as the way that I like to say it. So I don’t remember any edifying conversations, or anybody trying to figure out, you know, where my soul was. And I was like, that’s a shame to be surrounded by, you know, Christians. And the Lord even speaks about that in the Bible. Now he’s talking to if I’m not mistaken, he’s talking to the pastors of the church. He says, You have not gone out to look for my lost sheep. They are lean, and they’re hungry. And he’s like in awe. And you’re, you’re over here eating good. You’re over here taking care of yourself, but you’re not going out to look for my lost sheep. He’s like, you will be priests no more, and I’m going to go out and I’m going to get my sheep myself. Praise God for that. But after after that come about, I really felt compelled to defend this woman. And she ended up now she knew like everybody else in the office was really scared of my train for transformation. Because I was really kind of dark and reserved. I was a tough person. You said good morning to you might get a good grunt, but I’m going to

    Paige C. Clark 30:00

    And you were with the same team. Right? Like, before Christ and after Christ.

    Lorien Hershberger 30:06

    Yes. Okay. Yes, at that time, it was very uncomfortable because I’m, I’m got a new identity, I’ll get out of the way blonde, right? A lot right now. But she ended up she knew what had happened because she really had had a very similar experience where she was just you know, the Word says that the love of God has poured into us, you know, and so you can’t help but just, it’s transformative, really, truly when you get that way, right. She had experienced that before this woman that was despised. And so she’s just kind of celebrating her heart, not openly, she comes to me lighter. And she says, you know, because everybody kind of turned on me all of a sudden, I’m crazy. I’m a lunatic. So but this woman came to me. And I was, first of all, I was very ashamed of the fact that I never stood up for her. I should have that was an injustice. And I did apologize to her. But she told me the story about how she came to know the Lord and it was in a workplace setting. And she was in the break room with this other girl. And this other girl asked her just simply said, Are you saved? And she was kind of smart, smarty pants about it. She’s like, What, am I drowned in? I’m not drowned in. And the woman the Christian said, Oh, but you are. And she, she invited her to church, the woman went to church with her and she was transformed. Wow. And so it was one of those things I didn’t know she had that kind of walk with the Lord. Yeah. And the other women were very, you know, they were kind of open about their Christianity, but they might not they might not be a good example. It just it everything flipped every half upside down. So yes, that from that moment, I have been determined to make sure it is known. And the second thing is, is that because I don’t want if there’s somebody in my vicinity, and I have the ability to either number one, introduce them to the Lord, or strengthen them in Christ. I feel like that’s a daily daily mission.

    Paige C. Clark 32:14

    Yeah, yeah. I’m like writing notes over here, as you’re saying that I was like, Oh, wow. Like that’s like gossip in the workplace. Like, that’s a problem. But that’s a whole thing of itself. And I have participated in it shamefully in the past. And, you know, I’m being reconvicted all over again, as as you’re talking, because it does happen. And I think too, like, the other part of it is which, which leads me into my next question is like, the fear of making a mistake, right? Like, we’re, we’re all human, we’re all sinners, we Wilson, we will make mistakes. But being amongst people for the majority of our life, right, like we’re with, we’re with our co workers more than we’re with our family sometimes. So we’re bound to make mistakes, and then have that. I think for me, there’s that fear that it’s going to tarnish their view of a person who follows Jesus or a Christian because it’s like, oh, look, she’s doing X, Y, or Z. And she, you know, calls herself a person of faith and and I think there’s that fear there. And I think that’s really real. A really real trap that we can fall or fall into ourselves. And so that that was gonna lead me to the question of, when you go to work, or when you leave work, do you feel like I don’t know, like, You’re a different person. Like you wrote something. When we were talking before of like, like, your workspace and what you do for a living it can be your mission field, right? And so like, you have like your home and you have kind of your core. And then you have your mission field, right, like Jesus had his 12 people and then he went, it would go out and work in the field. And so I feel like not that they’re different personalities or masks, but I think like the headspace and the intention that you go into the situation with is different.

    Lorien Hershberger 34:26

    Yeah, it definitely. I think the the more we really first I think it’s great that we recognize that there’s a difference. And our next goal is to shorten that gap. I think for me, it has been because I don’t have the energy to kind of maintain two different modes. Yeah, so I I’ve been really trying to and I guess I could I’m gonna use the full armor of God on this on this one. You know, we get in this mentality. Like when we go to work, we’re gonna go to hit suit up. We’re gonna put on the full armor of God, we’re going, we’re ready to go out into the world and share, you know, be be that person because you know, it is you you do become more accountable when you advertise and you say, I’m a child of God, like you say, I think that recognize that there’s truth in that, well, you’re apprehensive of putting yourself out there because then you’re gonna have this scrutiny. Right? And that, and that, to me, I would speak to that what I have learned in that is, is that, yeah, there is there’s going to be some discomfort, there’s going to be some failure, but it’s the Lord that gives us the grace to achieve success in that, and I can’t ever forget that. And, and it would, and I would use the word trying to manufacture the fruits of the Spirit rather than allowing the Lord to grow them in you. And I think that myself included, you know, we fall into that this is what I think Jesus looks like. So this is how I’m going to act, instead of saying, Lord, because there’s some really, there’s some faulty characteristics in me that I thought, as I see that a gentle and quiet spirit is pleasing to You, Lord, in Your word, but I really wish he would have given me that.

    Paige C. Clark 36:20

    Yes, I guess.

    Lorien Hershberger 36:22

    like, how do I suppress this, these parts of me that I feel like are not pleasing in your sight, and they’re gonna bring shame to your name. And so I really felt like this was the response. He’s like, you know, yes, I know, you get too big for your britches, it’s adorable, I’m able to humble you when you get, you know, out of border. So I know that you’re very vocal, give me your mouth, and you have permission to be bold with my message, but don’t get crazy. So and I could tell you some really humorous things that I did in the newness of trying to be that change factor in the workplace. But I learned that he’s gonna take everything that in is in me that I thought was bad. And he’s going to transform it if I give him enough time, and I’m persistent and following him. And I’m persistent in prayer. And I found to that if I do these little things that I feel like he’s calling me to do to be obedient, he opens big doors. And those two things are tied together often. So I would say, you know, I would, I would say to that, that’s the goal is to shorten that gap in between those two personalities. And sometimes we get home and we say, I want to, I want to take off the armor of God now, because I’m home and I want to relax, when home is absolutely the time that you need to make sure that you have it on. You know, first and foremost that that really is the workplace is the mission field. But if the enemy can tear up your home life, you can’t produce anything good outside of it. Yeah, my husband could testify on that. But I have, I have said that I was like, and I’ve actually heard those words said by other Christians, where they’re like, I have to be so careful about everything I do outside the home, I don’t want to have to execute that kind of discipline inside the home, I want to be able to relax, I don’t want to have to worry about the things so much that come out of my mouth. And my response to that is when God answers your prayer, when you lift this prayer up, and you say Create in me a clean heart, O God and renew a right spirit within me. The more pure your heart becomes the less work it is to Yeah, the less work it is to present a you know, a good image of cross because your mind and your heart. He does. He gives you those new things. I didn’t think it was possible. I really didn’t. And that was one of the things that kept me from submission was I was like, I, I’m tired. I’ve been tired of that. And my inner demons, you know, whoever your person is with these hostile thoughts? Yeah, I have no hope that this person that I can’t fight this, I just want to honestly succumb to the dark. Yes. Because I’m tired of fighting it. Yeah. But the Lord has definitely shown me that he can transform all of the things that we feel like and I hope that’s not off base like this, that no, you

    Paige C. Clark 39:21

    Actually like took what I was thinking and kind of flipped it around. Because I was thinking like, when I’m at work, I may be more reserved and what I say just because of it being taken out of context, being able to explain myself all the way legal reasons and I’m hoping in a future episode, I can talk to an employment law lawyer who talks about like, what, what can and should Christians be able to do in the workplace legally, you know, so I was talking about like, rather than like, suiting up, I’m like, okay, like, I have to be honest Art in the workplace a little bit more than like, I would be like, at church or hanging out with my friends or hanging out with my family. You’re, it’s funny though, you kind of took it and went the opposite way with it of like, No, you need to be on guard at home and with your family, against the devil and, and like, I’m like that’s so true. Because I absolutely believe you know, like, when we let our guard down at home, like we’re safe, we think we’re safe. But, but that’s kind of when our when our walls are down, that’s when we’re most vulnerable. But I do think that going into your workplace, and being able to allow Jesus to shine and the way that he ministered to the people. I think like, that’s always my best bet when it comes to like ministering to people is just like, do it how Jesus did it. And that’s in relationship and who are we around more than our co workers? Like? I’m sure there’s a stat out there, but we work more than we spend a week time with our, with our people. And, and so I think that’s why one, I think that’s why a lot of people either feel the pressure to enter into some kind of formal ministry role, whether it’s a pastor, or you know, it’s some kind of mission work, like they feel pressure because, you know, it’s, it’s a very obvious equation where it’s like, I’m supposed to be, you know, showing the light of Jesus, always. And it’s not saying that being a pastor, and like, being a missionary is the easy way. But it’s kind of obvious, it’s, it’s obvious, right? Like, you should obviously be talking about Jesus. Whereas like, you’re sitting as a copywriter, and an editor behind a computer. That’s not so easy to be obvious with your faith. And, you know, I work on, I work in social media, and it’s not always the easiest thing to lead and be obvious with my faith in that way, either. So both in the work that I produce, and with the, behind the scenes with my co workers that that exists.

    Lorien Hershberger 42:37

    Yeah, and, and, and has to say, on that, that’s 100%, like, when you have all of your interests combined into one outlet, it does bring some measure of peace, like, I do find myself as apt because I have a heart that I want to go into ministry one day, I just don’t I’m in transition, where I’m trying to do both of those things, right. But the interesting thing was, I did have a situation in my newness at work, where I had an office right next to my bosses, and I had people coming in and out of my office all day long. So I was like, Oh, great, this is gonna be an awesome opportunity to, you know, kind of minister to people as they come in. And it was one of those things where I said something to this person, and my boss heard it. And it was really kind of misinterpreted what I said, and it really caused a big problem, I actually got called into the president’s office, and he said, you know, we really have to be careful about, you know, the things that we say. And it was really, you know, in a polite way, asking me to leave religion at home. And so the, the, and he was actually a believer, he actually has scripture on his window sale, but he put the interests of the bank and the members, or the he put them, put them first. And the thing that I would say, I feel like I’ve learned, you know, in reverse looking things, looking at things in front in another way, in some growth is one good way to minister or to shine or to show Jesus is just to do your job well. And because if you have any desire to work for the Lord one day, I think sometimes we see people gonna go into ministry like that, and I don’t want to discount you know, everybody that works in ministry, but they kind of get in there because it’s maybe a more grace filled environment or, you know, for whatever reason, they kind of gravitate toward that thinking it’s going to be an easier path. But you’re working for the Lord at that point. And I so in my current job, it really kind of compels me to say am I really given my best? Am I m r is my work Excellent. I think that’s step one. When is too, and I think that the Lord will give you a favor in that as well. So and as you become lifted up, your influence becomes more and more, and then your words carry more weight with people. So I think step one to me would be, do do your job with excellence as if until the Lord here to really grab on to that scripture and prove it true. So that means that no more slacking on these documents, like if I want to just I want to get this off my plate, or I’m supposed to call this person back promptly. But two or three days later, I still haven’t called them. You know, however, that looks like in your job. That there there are ways that you can kind of tighten up. And as you do that, I just really believe the Lord will lift you up and as you lift are lifted up. So is his name.

    Paige C. Clark 45:55

    Yeah, man, you just kind of jumped forward there of like, what, what I was gonna ask you, which was like, What is like one takeaway that people who are listening can implement in their lives? So maybe like, Do you have another one? Like, number one is excellence be excellent in what you do as a first step to showing Jesus in the workplace? Do you have another one another takeaway?

    Lorien Hershberger 46:21

    My second one is to love. Well, you know, because I think a lot of the times we try to win people to Christ without loving them, and then it becomes a burden, and it becomes a chore and it becomes a task. And I heard this recently said, you know, well, I want to protect my peace. And in Scripture, you know, Jesus says, I give you my peace, and not as the world gives, but I give it and in the book of Isaiah, and I’m sorry, I can’t tell you where exactly it is. I know that y’all know, we’re Google. But in the book of Isaiah, he says, He will keep him in perfect peace, whose faith is firm. So when we’re dealing with people, sometimes we can say, I’m going to put this wall up. And because I want to protect my peace, and then the Lord says, in the Scripture, I don’t know how many times but this one, I’m going to use an example, he tells Abraham on your shield, your exceedingly great reward. So I would say, you know, don’t be so careful about protecting yourself from people this is, this is what I feel like I had had to make the shift in my mind, which is the job come second, people come first. So I can work anywhere. And I know that, you know, because we get in that mode, where we have somebody come to our office, and we’re really busy. And we don’t have time to listen to what they’re saying. But they’re saying that they have a fractured relationship with their mother. That might not be what they say, they might come in your office venting. But what they’re really saying, if you’re listening with your spiritual areas, I have a fractured relationship with my mother. They need prayer. So make time for that. If you have some good counsel, one of the things that, you know, I think that you said, really kind of caught me just to kind of, you know, hit back on that for me, I know you’re wanting to close up, but you’re good when this when these people kind of look and they say Oh, well isn’t she supposed to be, you know, a follower of Christ. And she there was this one person in the workplace, she was the only unbeliever in the place. And not only did she not believe that she was hostile to the Lord, and I didn’t know the word then I would have loved to express to her, you know, when you attack the Lord, and you might, you might not understand it, but anybody that’s a follower of Christ receives the God as their Father, Jesus Christ as their older brother. This is so you’re you’re literally attacking their family member. It’s insulting, and it’s hurtful and to be able to explain that into a way where they might be able to have greater compassion toward Christians in the workplace, and God as a whole, like you really being hostile toward him. When they open the conversation up, I wasn’t prepared. I didn’t know the word I didn’t know God. So I just had to kind of sit there with my mouth shut. But that’s what motivates me to go to the word in the morning is when the opportunities arise. I want to pre be prepared. And I love when it says that in the Scripture, be prepared to give an answer. You know why you have this hope? So, you know, be excellent in your job, love people, well make time for them genuinely, you know, try to, you know, pray those things in there, pray change into their life, and have a good be be hopeful because that’s gonna be that magnet that draws people in and say, you know, what’s different, you know about, or we hear that in the church all the time, you know, to be a lot, but you know, it It’s gonna draw them in for conversation. And all you have to do is like a beta trap. I feel like the Lord sets in the workplace, you load yourself up with the word, and wait until God brings them to your table.

    Paige C. Clark 50:12

    I love that Lorien. And I at my church, we call them throat punches, which is like, where it’s kind of like a gut punch, like, check yourself kind of thing. You just hit me so many throw punches you don’t even know of putting, like, you can have a new job that that hits hits me hard of like, what I was saying at the beginning of so many of us make our job our identity. Yes. And like, when you say like, you can always get another job put people first it’s like, Whoa, I always say like, well if like, man, that that it’s true, is true. And to have someone says very throat punchy, have you so

    Lorien Hershberger 50:56

    The best way I get I really feel like that’s part of my charm. And, you know, the one thing I would say is, and this is probably for totally now the segment, but it will if you if you do that, it will align you into the purpose for which you were born. God says I had designed good works for you in advance. And so my, I don’t make decisions anymore. I made one decision to follow Christ. And now the rest of my time is spent trying to figure out what he wants me to do.

    Paige C. Clark 51:30

    That’s beautiful. Lorien, thank you so much for joining us. Where can people find you? I want people to go and hear your words of wisdom and hopefully one day read that memoir of yours. So where can they find you? I’m

    Lorien Hershberger 51:44

    I’m most active on Facebook, so you can find me Lorien Hershberger it’s it’s definitely a unique name. And, and I’m also on Instagram as cash noise. So those are my two places and I am working on a website but I don’t have that built yet. That makes

    Paige C. Clark 52:06

    all the good things. Well, thank you so much for joining us and we’ll catch you guys next time. Bye

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  • Spring Cleaning and the Lenten season

    Lent, a season to prepare our hearts and our space for Christ’s death and resurrection. Spring cleaning is a time to wipe away the old and bring in the new. 

    When I think through these pivotal moments in the Bible, I think about the instruction (or lack thereof) around the preparation of what is about to happen. When the final plague went through Egypt, each household was to make unleavened bread and spread lambs blood over the doorway as a sign for the Spirit to pass over that home. 

    I think about the home where Jesus had his last meal with his disciples. How he would wash the feet of those who betrayed and denied him. 

    Of course, you have Mary and  Martha preparing for Jesus to come to eat with them. 

    And on the flip side, you have Jesus with little preparation of the fish and the loaves of bread feeding the 5000. 

    I think the beauty in all of this is the sovereign ability of God to use or not to use preparation in way of his coming. Doesn’t make for a very pretty package to wrap this up with, but I think that’s the beauty of God and how He works. It may come with instructions, or rather request divine obedience. Either way, when we cling near to the Spirit and listen to his leading, we are able to experience the glory and goodness of God. 

    Check out my list of recommended lenten reading

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  • The consequences of not remaining in the moment

    four young adults around a table at an outside barbecue

    We tell ourselves different stories in our heads every single day. Our internal critical voice keeps us consumed with thoughts that throw us off-kilter and into a state of anxiety. A thought about jeans not fitting us right that day can spiral into obsessive thoughts about what we’re going to eat that day, regret about what we’ve consumed the previous days, and how terribly I can punish myself at the gym. Can I push myself to exhaustion? Can I obsess myself to exhaustion?

    Maybe shelf esteem isn’t your battle. Maybe it’s feelings of discomfort around germs. The dog licked your hand and you used it to eat your lunch without washing your hands. Maybe you’ll get a mouth fungus that was passed from the dog. Or what if the dog had a parasite and you’ll need to take them to the vet and how are you going to pay for that?

    if you’re anything like me, you’re reading those words and think “yep! That’s me to a T.”

    Welcome to the anxiety community. Where your frustrations and fears can be understood. 

    While I do understand these and feel the depth and pain that it can cause your life, I also invite you to know that there is a world that is out there that is begging for your love, your attention, and your spirit. 

    When we get stuck inside our heads we go into autopilot mode. Think of it as setting the cruise control on your car and letting your speed stay continuous without you having to touch it. That’s what my brain goes to when I am stuck in an anxious state. I disconnect from the world and go on cruise control. I let my body do its thing while my brain takes a wild ride. 

    I’ve noticed that when I get stuck in cruise control, that I miss out on a lot of life. I become forgetful about significant memories I should be able to recall. I zone out of conversations. I am a robot on cruise control. The lights might be on but nobody is home. 

    I miss a lot of life instead of living it. While my brain is stuck and spinning with the rainbow wheel, life is busy passing me by. Why does this matter? It sounds cliche, but we only have one life to live. We only get one shot at it. We get to live every day with the fullness and richness that God blesses us with. 

    Check out my how-to guide for remaining present in every moment.

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  • WHY GROUNDING IS IMPORTANT TO WELLBEING

    dark green meadow with sun rays

    Anxiety whether chronic or situational has a tendency to plague us all. Anxieties can cause our minds to run and our bodies to respond. Grounding is the ability to bring our awareness to the present. 

    Anxieties keep us in our heads, grounding brings us to our bodies. Where we can’t think ourselves to healing or logic ourselves to a stable ground again. 

    Our anxieties are a place where we can’t think straight. Where it feels like we’re in a tornado and we don’t know where it’s going to dump us out. 

    Grounding is an unparalleled technique. For me, something as simple as walking outside barefoot and having the sunshine on my face brings me to the present moment. 

    This is what I tell myself when I need to bring myself presently: 

     

    “mmmm the warm sun on my face feels good. How does it feel different from the part that isn’t in the sun? Does my face feel different than the skin under my shirt? It does! How so? What words would you give the different sensations you’re experiencing?

    Now bring your attention to your feet. The rocks feel pokey. There’s one rock that feels a little bit sharper than the other. While the feeling on the rest of my feet feels uncomfortable, it’s not painful. How would I describe the discomfort? Bumpy? No. Uneven? Definitely. Inconsistent is another good one.”

    Instead of having my brain ask myself in the circles of my anxieties and frustrations, I bring my racing brain to the present moment. Inquiring about what is happening in the here and now. I take my brain from anxiety, to present, to please.

    When I work to ground myself in the present moment, I am able to really connect with my body. While I’m still thinking and processing various questions,  my thoughts aren’t stuck in my head. They are applied to my body. 

    Have you tried any type of grounding before? Maybe for you it’s something that I mentioned above. Or maybe standing outside in the dirt doesn’t sound as enjoyable to me as it does to you. I put together a quick guide to review my top 10 grounding techniques to help bring you into the present moment.

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  • Spring cleaning gives us a time to renew and organize

    Clean your house and get a deep breath

    Have you ever stood in a room and found it easier to breathe? It’s not that the air was a different quality or that there was a disturbing smell. But something about the space made it easier to breathe.

    I discovered that clean and clear spaces make it easier to breathe. You might be like me where you find that to be true. Or it could be that you’ve never realized that your physical space and environment has a direct impact on your body and how the life giving air incorporates into your lungs.

    There’s tons of evidence out there that shows us that our environment directly impacts our bodies and how we move through life in them. When we moved, I realized that when things were in peace and chaos was in order, I was able to breathe. This encouraged me to make my spaces in order so that I can better breathe.

    Whether you do a deep spring cleaning or just a general organizational effort, focus your efforts on things that make it easier to breathe. Here are 10 things you can do under 10 minutes to help you breathe better.

    • Unsubscribe from emails you don’t open
    • Clean out the purse you use most often
    • Go through your car and throw away any trash
    • Throw out or donate clothes you haven’t worn in 2 years
    • Organize your sock and underwear drawer
    • Clean out your junk drawer
    • Break down the amazon boxes that are sitting in the corner
    • Meal prep the veggies that are 48 hours away from going bad
    • Put away the clutter that is on any surfaces (kitchen island, tables, etc.)
    • Change out the batteries in your smoke detectors

    Happy breathing!

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