Music. Welcome to the uproot project, podcast, where we dig deep to uncover and dismantle toxic beliefs about God, ourselves and each other. Our goal is to replant new insights in the fertile soil of wisdom and love, fostering personal growth and transformation. Join us as we explore new ways of thinking and living in a world of complexity and diversity. Hello and welcome to the first episode of the uproot project. To him, I am Christian. She her, I am Chris, he him, and I'm
Whitney. Also, she her, um, so we're excited to have you all join us, and as a norm setting for this podcast, we want to start always with a mindfulness moment, just to welcome everybody in the space. And to be fully honest, we also need it to ground ourselves in this space. So if everyone could just take a second, if you are driving, do this with your eyes open. Please be safe. If you are not and you are in some place that is safe, close your eyes with me for just a few seconds,
and I want you to inhale. We're going to do a quick box breath, and then we'll get started. So inhale to the count of 41234, we'll hold for 4321, release. 12341, more time, inhale. 1234, hold for 1234, release. 1234, so quick tool, I hope you all are in this space. More importantly, I hope you all are in your bodies and feeling into your body. Our body is incredibly intelligent and lets
us know a lot of things. So if you're there and you feel yourself in that breath you are holding or tensing, just try to release whatever might be tensing your body and come chill on the couch with us. All right, we're gonna get started. You. All right, so today's thing, well, the thing for this season, rather, is going to be talking about the sin of certainty.
If you are listening to this podcast, you may have heard of an author by the name of Peter ends, and he has a very enlightening book about the subject, especially about when we talk about when things are being uprooted from our lives, how we can hang on the things that appear to be normal, but they're slipping through our fingers, and we need to find a new way to reorient ourselves, to go on to this
journey. And sometimes our obsession with certainty can cause us to do very harmful things, to both to ourselves and to the people we love and the people we don't love. So So Here's an excerpt that I have from his book. And so we'll start there, and we'll just launch out from there our beliefs about God, which is to say, our thoughts about God are precious to us because they give us a sense of who we are and our place in this chaotic world, and we often can't imagine any other way of being
us. And so when our beliefs are threatened, the instinct, understandably, is to guard them fiercely, to resist any move as long as possible, to make the stress go away and to stay in the comfort of our familiar spiritual homes. But in resisting, we may actually be missing an invitation to take a sacred journey where we let go of needing to be right and trust God, regardless of what we feel we know or don't know.
Let's just sit in that for a moment, yeah, and speak to any thoughts that may arise from that? Yeah, I think the first thing that comes up for me and y'all know this. So for context, we are all close folks in this room, or am I going to get into our relationship to one another? Yeah, so me and the other Chris are married. Yes, so Christian and Christopher, the Christians are married, and I Whitney, am Christian's best friend of like forever, like before, we have memories. And so that makes her
my sister, period. The end, fight your mama, and that makes Christopher my brother. So also fight your daddy. I don't care, family, yeah, you can fight everybody. We are family, and we know each other really well, and so we will try our best not to have inside thingies, but we can explain them, if possible, that
part, right? We will so in thinking about uncertainty, there is so I'm in a very specific it feels like season of my life where earlier this year, at the top of the year in the spring, well, I guess not the top on top of the winter. Yes, thank you. I had this moment. And this actually, I think, was my second moment with this. So I was working in a leadership position at a place, and it was one of those moments where I it was time to go, and I knew it was time to
go. And so in our like, transition as an organization, I was like, Oh, this is actually a perfect time to leave. And the plan was for me to like, off board sometime closer to now, or like, a month from now. And oddly enough, last year, around this time, I actually was like, I'm out. Yeah, I'm ready to go. I hate this place. And instead of leaving, because I was so uncertain, right? I was like, babes, yes, keep the pop in. It's important,
yeah. And so I was just like, not only that, but like, can you swing it, and what's going to happen to you, and all these things. And so I was like, oh, things have changed. Things are changing because there was a little bit a change in our top leadership, right? And so I was like, Oh, let me give it a try. And, babe, we didn't even make it six months before. I was like, actually, right, right? And so I thought it was going to be good. It did not go
so well. And so what ended up happening is I was in a moment where a very specific series of events happened to the point that it was a blatant disregard of my boundaries. It was also a blatant like I could not avoid it. So I'm one of those people, one of the things I don't like, and I'm, y'all, I don't like to lie like, that's just not my favorite thing at all. And I can't stand to be lied on so I try not to lie on people. Um, I don't lie on
people. Um, but, but, yeah. So that, like, dishonesty is a thing for me. And there was a situation where dishonesty was abound, and so like, all of my values were challenged, because I was like, I can't trust you enough to believe what you say, baby. How we gonna do work, especially at a leadership level, and everything in my life, right? Like, God was supportive. Family was supportive. Friends were like, Girl, it's time, right? But this feeling of, I don't know what's going to
happen. Had me shaken in my boots. I was shaking in my boots, but I but I had to jump. It was one of those, like I felt the call on my spirit to say, girl, I know you are unsure. We are sure do it. So I did it, and I've been fun employed, because that's what I've been calling it ever since. But I've been good in ways that I didn't think I was good. And what actually opened for me is I've been on a crazy personal and spiritual
journey. This summer. I was like, would this journey have happened if I was still working there, and if it was trying to happen, would I be able to process it and experience it, for it right the way that it's because the answer is no, like, I didn't have the space for this, because it's been a lot of shadow work, inner child work, like, you know, primary wound
work. And it's been hard, it's been hard, but it's been beautiful, and so and I've been saying to people, I'm like, yeah, if you knew me in 2023 you don't know me now. And if you knew me in like, March, and you haven't updated your software, then you don't know this version of me that's sitting in front of you because it's been firmware update you did not. Okay, firmware I'm sorry. Y'all know you. Chris is our tech person. So this is everything. He is the everyday
person. Minister. He's literally the everything person. We'll have to do a bonus episode so I can tell you all the things that my husband does, because he won't tell y'all. Let me tell y'all. It's so expansive. I literally misheard Christian on the phone last night, and thought she said this man played the flute, because he doesn't play the flute, but that's not outside of the realm of possibility.
He does everything, but, but yeah, and so basically, like I needed, I needed to walk in the season of uncertainty, yeah, because what is here for me? What has. Been here for me has been life transforming, um, and just in how I see myself, how I love myself, how I show up in love, in relationship with other people, how I even see other people, it has been and like, if you know me, I was already kind of, it was looking good on paper,
but it's man, we done. We done dug in the deep down and, I mean, there's always more digging to do, so who knows what's coming next, but, like, it's been wild, and I wouldn't have experienced it this way if I hadn't trusted but that trust, y'all trust, is it? Yeah, it builds, and it's a slow process, and it's like, it's like, God pretty much knows how each one of us needs to go along that journey to virtual trust.
And so he's just, you know, I'm trying to use gender neutral pronouns when it comes to God, it hasn't always come off, but they are. They're patient, they're understanding, and they go with you at the pace of what they know you're possible, yeah. And it's like, yeah, we could go further faster, but you choosing this track, all right? Well, I know how to navigate this with you, yeah.
And so, yeah, like, it's even for me, you know, I had this thought, these ideas, back in 2017 before the pandemic, of how I wanted to do faith community, what I wanted to do church. But I think, similar to you, I think for for a lot of I was like, oh, I need to get these things done. I need to go down this path. I need to get legitimacy. You know, I need to be connected to another church. I don't want
to do nothing. I didn't want to go to non denominational route and be unsupported and be looking like we're just a Christian doing my whole thing. And it's like all of those barriers of, again, holding on to certainty, the established way of doing things, you know, that began back then to strip away and and then when I actually went down the path of
doing the work. And I was like, Okay, God, all right, I don't know a lot, but okay, if you think I'm supposed to do it, then okay, go down and to find out going down the path that I still had shit I needed to unload, yeah, and in terms of certainty, and it was not until, like, last week, that I had finally, like, closed a door that was open because of my need for certainty, yeah, and my need for okay, you know, you've built this church and this institution
for a reason. Now you actually I should try to be a part of it, and that door closed. Until now we're on this path, and this podcast is a part of this path of going down to see what happens. Yeah, and pursuing truth and like what Peter Anne says in being invited onto the sacred journey. And I feel at peace. I feel resolved. I mean, there's a lot of shit I don't know. There's gonna be sometimes I'm a cuss, yeah, that's just where I am.
And there's a lot of stuff I don't know, and it's not going to, you know, go the way I think it's going to go, you know, especially when you invite more people into the joint, you know. But I always keep in mind that, you know, God, you're talking to other people. You're speaking to them as well, and
you love them too. And so it's going to be a it's going to be right, it's going to be a journey, and I'm looking forward to what comes of it, and not try to have my thumb on the pulse and try to control it because of it doesn't look like what I think it should, or what I'm used to it looking like in the past. Yeah, I think while you were speaking, the thing that resonates in both of our stories is that sense of peace. And for me, the word I use here
is alignment, right? So, like, even though I have no clue what's coming, y'all, y'all, and there's been other moments of testing in this, I didn't tell y'all. They about to find out live on the air, I received a job offer from a place I turned it down, did you? I wrestled with it because I went back and forth. It was people that had recruited me, and the conversation was good things I
can do. And I woke up the day I was supposed to give them the answer, and I felt so unenthused, and I was like, What is going on? And so I was just like, I heard it very clear in my spirit. You? Can slow down. They said, take the time you need. This offer doesn't expire until two weeks from now, slow down. And so I did. And I was like, Okay, this is actually going to be very similar to walking into walk what I walked out of, yeah, and
I decided not to, right? And so you want to talk about the the shaking response that happened after. I was like, this is not i i actually did a big, bold pitch, and I was like, I think you could actually benefit me in other ways. And they were like, Yeah, we ain't got the budget for that, but we love you, so we'll keep you in mind for other things. Me. Okay, great. But it, it was alignment. It was the I don't have peace with
this, yes, right? Or I don't have peace with how this is going, like there is something unsettled that doesn't feel like it's clicking. And even though the no is scary, the no clicks, right? Or the release clicks it, it went into alignment, and it was like, oh, so we going deep up off in this trust thing.
Okay, right? And so, and that reminded me of your story, Chris, and just thinking about, like this whole process and like the things you have been, the things that we build like into our identity, around certainty, or like our process around it, right? Like these are the things that need to be in place, and this will make meaning for me. Yeah, right, right. And what does it look like to shed those things and then your left ass out
right? It's very much giving naked mole rat, you know, but you're still here, and now you you have the space because you've released all the shit you were carrying. Yeah, you now have the space for the things that are for you to, like, attach. You can hold it, yeah, if I'm, if I'm back lady and in the hand, how am I hold it? Right? You can't, can't receive anything. If your hands already fooling you, clutching onto it for dear life, right?
That one of the things, and I have not read this book, so for for reference, if you didn't listen to any of our prequels, where you got to know us individually, I'm the regular. Both of these people are very intelligent. I mean, we're all intelligent. Stop that these people have a passion for their learning to the point where they actually wanted more education. I am not that person. I understand most of what they say unless they start using words
with like 18 syllables. That's mostly my husband, maybe occasionally, but that's mostly Chris. So if you hear something, they sounds like Greek is probably literally Greek. That's true. That's an aside. They certainly know the joke. So being Whitney bust out when he says some kind of weird word we want, like 18 vows in it. We will ask him to define it for you and us. We won't know, because what are you
saying? But yeah, no. Like, you know, the way that I grew up in my faith practice, and honestly, we all, we all grew up in similar faith practices. Whitney and I grew up in church together, so we had, like, it still didn't match, because we're individuals, but we don't get the same under the same teachings. Yeah, we had different takeaways from those teachings. We'll just leave it at that, and y'all will find out what those mean later. But we take away we had, we came to different conclusions
a lot of the time. Fair, fair. I was, I have always been and working on the fact that I am very much alike. That's what you said. Okay, and Whitney's like, wait what? Make it. Man, yes, Whitney, want you to make it. I need more information. So it took me a while for to get to the point where I needed what I was like, asking more of those
questions. And so for me, like, the journey of faith that I've been on has been a very like roller coaster kind of situation, and so I clung to a lot of those ideas, much like he mentioned in that book that he that he read from earlier. I clung to a lot of those ideas because, like, anything that didn't fit the narrative that I had been taught felt like an attack, you know, whatever I believed, and I didn't think about it at the time, but it was like, Oh,
why are you so angry? Why are you so aggressive with people who disagree with you? And I think that that energy, right it, it kept me in a position where I was not growing, and I didn't realize that the thing that was keeping me from growing was me, yeah, right. Like, and I think this happens to a lot of people who are like, in evangelical spaces, is the idea that, like, Oh, I'm not growing at this church, I'm not growing with this pastor, I'm not growing in this class, right?
And it's like, yeah, but they are not the ones impeding growth. You are, yeah, it's hard to see that come through. And so, like, for both of y'all, like, it's like, I had to decide to release the job. I had to decide to release the pre planned program. I had to myself, I had to decide to release a lot of the theology that I clung to, like it was a life raft, realized like, and at that point, then you can actually start to grow. You get to.
Move forward, you get to experience what was there all along, kind of waiting for you. But that fear, that desire to control everything. Oh Lord, I'm going back to therapy for that one y'all, but that desire to control everything, including you. But like you can barely control you, you show can't control nobody else. Oh, man, that's really the one that all of that stuff. It really like it, I think, like when, when Chris first pitched this episode, and he was like, the sin of certain.
He was like, Oh, me, and this word sin, we got beef. However, like, if you think about sin as like a thing that is separating the desire to have certainty and to be in control of everything. It separates you from a ton. And one of those things is the experience of what happens when you just let stuff happen, like when you let it go, when you tap into like, that spirit, like when you're looking for peace. Instead of, it's like, do I feel
peace about it? Instead of, does this look like the right thing that everybody else does is this following the path that everybody else followed. But do I feel peace about this for me right now? And if the answer is no, then you don't do it, then the answer is no, and it's a hard No, hard No, final No, like, yeah, and don't fight it, because, you know, just to try to make yourself fit in a box, you are not a box. You are a very oddly shaped thing, physically and spiritually,
right? Don't try to put yourself in the back. Yeah. So funny to mention it because I had a dream this, and I very rarely remember my dreams, but I had a dream on Sunday or Saturday night, on Sunday, and I woke up that Sunday morning. Not gonna go into the details dream, because it's weird and wonky, but normally are. But how I came out supposed to be the fucking music.
But I went through it, and one thing that it seemed to come through for me, when I started processing the dream is that divorce came and said, All power is my power. And for me, when he said that all power is my power, and I was just like, it's like, so you really don't need to walk in fear when somebody is exhibiting power against you, because that's
yours too, period. And if I align my and if I align myself with you, whatever's coming my way, Psalm 91 talks about that 10,000 followed your side and 1000 side, but it won't come near you. And it is this idea that that certainty, when you are things have been stripped away from you. It puts you out of alignment, because you're not
moving where God is moving. And so when there's an when there's powers coming against you, you become a victim of that, because you're not moving with the principle of life, yeah? Stepping into that is that change as a constant. That's right. Oh, that's good. Chris, so Tokyo was smart, yeah, my face was over here, fighting the whole time, screech, maybe one day, you don't care what. So y'all can see some of the faces she'd be making, but there, I'm sorry. No, and that's really it,
like, No. Say more if you go, No, I'm gonna breathe. Oh, yeah, that was so you can go, I need to breathe. I like, can we just call into the room? That control is an illusion. It is, but it is such an enticing one. Oh, absolutely. Oh, my god. It's so like, the fact that it's not real doesn't make you not want it. That's real, right? You know, it definitely intoxicating. It's very enticing. It's how people build narratives that build nations. That's it.
It's how people that build narratives, that build entire lives and worlds on one idea, some people go out for the sunset and die and they sleep with it, and then other people that shit comes, coming calming down midlife, and that's why that's when you have midlife crisis. That's where I'm at. Because the story of crisis, oh, my God, it's crazy that we're in midlife. We're like in our 30s, late 30s, we're all in our late 30s. I'm the oldest by what, one year a year,
11 months of change. No, I am older than you Christian by like, a year and two weeks. I am Wow. You. It's crazy how you just told these people my business. Y'all can leave it in, I guess. But that was Tia. I said, my year. So, oh, nobody, right. I. 87 period you are, no, I think, like it is an enticing thing.
But one of the things, and we've talked about this before, one of the things that I think people find so enticing is that the illusion that you can control, like external things to yourself, like the only thing you actually have control over is you, right, the the narratives you create, the responses that you have to situation, to stimuli, but like you cannot control what other person says, Does, thinks, any of that, how they show up, where they show up, if they show up,
if the stars will align and give you your highest wish. You cannot control, that what you
can control is you. And so oftentimes, so I'm assuming we're gonna say this in the intro, but I'm a therapist, so oftentimes I have clients that I will and I have self I just won't be clear that, like we're coming in, we're having these conversations, and it's like, oh, but I'm responding like this because this person, because this person, no, no, you're responding like this because you're trying to control them, because if they don't have that behavior, then now you don't
have that response. But if your regulation of any kind is contingent upon how someone else behaves, you are codependent. Love will tell you. That's how road rage starts. Road rage, yeah, this is how it this is raising a child that is raising a child that's co regulation. So we have a toddler, Chris and I, and oh, my God. There are so many times where they're doing something and, you know, I have a response, and they'll ask me, why did you do that? And in my response, I will say, because
you did such and such. And my brain goes, No, you chose to act like that. Yeah, you that was, that was a response. You chose your your response is not their fault. And I try to catch myself before I say that, because I don't want that in their head. That's right. This is, this is my I made mommy mad. No, mommy got mad. Mommy was already frustrated. Mommy was on 10, and that's why Mommy's going back to therapy. Mommy was on 10. Period, you were being a toddler, right? That's it? No,
that's real. And I think owning that, right? It's important, like, think about it. Y'all we grew up in 80s, right? When we were born in 80s, kids of the 90s, yeah? But it's like, Yo, y'all know the parent generation we had. Our parents are boomers, seen and not heard my parents, my parent was a boomer, yeah? Well, no, I could be seen and heard, however, but like, it was very cause and effect in the house, right? Always, right.
It's just like, and I now, people say I grew there are some ways in which I had a liberal childhood, because I got to ask questions and make my preference known, and got to negotiate questions. Um, I don't, but I it never occurred to me to negotiate. But that's just the personality thing. Keep going. That's fair. No, it's also a personality thing that I'm gonna negotiate. But like, even still, it is, like, a if you wouldn't act this way, you wouldn't get you, you wouldn't get your ass
beat. Just act right, right, like you wouldn't get this go to school, to my I mean, I was a great kid. I was a great student, but so it wasn't school issues. Like, you stopped talking back. We wouldn't have to do this. It was very much just projected. And like, if we could all Millennials take a moment, and probably some of y'all exes, uh, Gen X's to, like, take this moment and say, like, Yo, a little moment for healing. They response was never your
fault. Their response was the same way I am saying to you now that anyone else your response is not their fault. Those people's responses were not your fault. And so, like, we have this onus to, like, right, own our own experience. Right? And I was going to even think about Sonya Massey in that situation, where can we just take a breath? Let's let's see. Let's say her name. Silence for Sonya Massey. I'm so weary. Geez, so weary.
But the idea that you could be threatened by a pot of boiling water to the extreme when you have a gun, to the extent that you feel like you need to shoot to kill somebody, at the very least, Al Green survived ball and stuff, you read my mind, which so like, like, you are okay, yeah, if ball and water gets on it did not warrant you feel like you need to shoot somebody to death, to death, to death. And this is what I'm talking about, in terms of regulating your your emotions and.
And and don't get me wrong, I appreciate what this police people have to do, or any first responder, multiple responder, but if fear rules your disposition in this job, you don't need to be in that position. Word that's it. Because, part of the reason why you have the gun and why you have the badge or why you have to fire holes or whatever. It's because you have been trained. We expect you to have been trained to regulate and de escalate situations when people are themselves, are out of
control. You need to be the adult in a row. Yeah, and so. But I mean, I'm thinking about that even with my toddler like that to that point, yeah, we don't get taught that. Like, that's a, that's a, I'm using my air quotes. That's a new thing. It's like, oh, gentle parenting. And, you know, responsive parenting and all this. There's other there's other bird words for it. I think the simplest way to say it is, I try to treat my toddler like I treat other human
beings hard, stop. Yeah, and for some reason, I don't know why it happened, but we try to, we're trying to adjust our, our our awareness of how we interact with our toddler. They are a person, period. I would not treat any other person like that, I try to, like, ascertain, I'm not saying that there are times that I make them do things they don't want to do. Of course they do. You don't want to brush your teeth. That's too bad. That's the thing we
need to do. But instead of me like, shoving a toothbrush in their mouth while they gag, because that's, that's that's not a good that's violent. That sounds like a thing that's going to put you in therapy Yeah, it's throwing up in my seat. Or have you with dental issues because you don't want to brush your own teeth because now you got tooth trauma, trauma, right, creating all sorts of like mental garbage in the back of your head, just trying to keep your teeth clean.
But why? Right? It is on me, if I dealt with any other person who I was trying to get to do something, either I decide I don't care, which sometimes we do not lie. Sometimes, when Tyler is like, I'm not feeling it today. I'm like, You know what? I'm like, You know what? That's fine. You don't have to feel it today. You don't want to take a shower. I'm not in the mood to fight you. To take a shower. Go get in bed. Yeah, and we do that with adults. It's like, Oh, you want to be an
idiot. I'm gonna let you do that over there. You got it. Sometimes I need you to do a thing now. I need to regulate and go, use my big brain. Use the front part of my brain, the big part, not the survival part. Okay. What can I do that will make you think less about the thing. How can I distract you? How can I encourage you? How can I make this fun? How can I make this a
game? Right? There's all these ways that we have to, that we have access to, that can turn something that could end up being traumatic into something that's best case benign, worst case benign and best case like fun, yeah, um, but that's, that's a skill set, right? That's a skill set that we have to build, and I don't think a
lot of us built it. A lot of us have this idea that certain people are less important and less valuable than other people, yeah, whether that's because of the color of their skin, who they choose to love, or the fact that they're three, right? So it's like, all this stuff is connected, and I don't think we always think of it that way. It's like, oh, they have a problem. It's like, No, our society has a problem. Period, valuing certain groups of
people. It's just a matter of which group of people is it? Yeah, and what kind of effort are you going to put into making like, into shifting that right? And those like you saying, and I think it's based on a narrative that we have in our society, in civilization, that you know, that they can only be one at the top, and they're gonna be one of the top. Individualism is gonna kick
our ass. Y'all, I'm special process everyone you know, and so I'm significant, therefore you must not be, because only one of us can be significant this idea that's built on and yeah, and I'm just, I'm just trying to decide where I am on the political spectrum. But yet, capitalism, in itself, is, is just, I can see all of its flaws, especially when it comes to how we value and structure our society, evaluate ourselves as individuals in light of what we're trying to build in terms
of the society. Because, again, narratives build nations, yeah, and depending on the kind of nation you want to build, depends on the narrative you want to start and put in motion. And once you set that thing in motion, it's hard to undo it. It's hard, yeah, you talking about 50 years, 100 years, 200 years down the line, this nation's what, 230 something years old. Don't. Make, okay? 76 to 250, some odd years old. We trust you. Chris, yeah, 77 cents. But I don't do the math,
you know, right? But we all do it. We could do the math. Do any of y'all care, right? 48 years, 48 years old. Chris, I like your I like your round math. It was very effective, yes, yeah, but it's, it's this idea that this narrative is baked into our society, that there must be an underclass for this society to thrive, yeah. And so we begin to structure power and values in service to that narrative, because we cannot envision it
any other way, yeah. And whereas there's other societies that are egalitarian, that are, you know, that had that their moment of collective repentance, yeah? And also keep that remembrance, think of Germany. Yeah. You think of Germany, how they went off the deep end in 1940s and 50s, yeah, of course, with the obvious moment in history. And they just did it about face, and goes, Okay, what does it take for us as a people, never to be in this spot again? And and they literally did that.
Now I'm not saying that Germany is perfect or this is heaven on earth. I'm pretty sure they got their own structural problems, issues based on other narratives they got going on absolutely but on this issue, they have repented and restructured and thought differently about what it takes to, yeah, to not do that.
We have yet to do that over here as a nation, with the offended parties, as it were, because, because, be honest, we're still doing it absolutely, and we're also a mentality which is infuriating, yeah, that those are who, who are in control are the offended parties that the people who have their thumb on everybody else's neck or foot on everybody else's neck, that's how they that's how, um, they're the ones. It's like, How dare you, you. They. Nobody wants to work for nothing. No, not like this.
Nobody wants to work for nothing. This is also not working. It only works for you if this is and this is why, this is what happens when you stop teaching actual history and history class. But that's a that's a conversation by the end of the day, the the idea, like you said, that we and we're speaking from an American context, because that's where we live. We are aware that there are other contexts that are similar to this and very
dissimilar. Just to put that out there, however, in the American context, and we live in the south, do with that what you will mostly praise and vibes, and I don't know, generations, life raft, please. I hope we don't need no rafts and a life straw. I've taken up camping, and I need supplies. Oh, I've heard of them. Yeah, I used to have one. I got some stuff. Anyway, your things? Okay, I'm sorry.
Anyway, like, there's a there's a very there's this idea that parties that are the aggressors are the aggrieved, and it's that they are the aggrieved. Well, yes, unchallenged, they're fine. But once it's once the status quo is challenged, and we're trying to shake shit up so that it works for everybody, you know, lower more than just them. Yeah. Yeah, you know, written this out if you didn't mean it, all men are created equal. No, they did what. They didn't mean that.
They didn't mean it. Well, no, pause, they did mean it by their definition. Because, who is men, right? They literally. They were specific about men, not all people men. There was men, and men at the time was defined by white men, yeah, and they met men, not like and I think oftentimes it can still be defined as white men. Frequently we had a discussion Chris. Chris is the kind of person who watches tiktoks And then wants to show them to me, even though they're about topics that I
don't enjoy. But he usually tries to find the ones that he thinks I think is funny. Um, mainly politics. So if I talk about politics, it's because Chris showed me something that's fair. So he was watching something on the new channel that I'm not going to give any press to, but you probably know
which one it is. And we're watching a clip, and this, this guy is talking to, you know, one of one of the news anchors, and he calls one of the presidential candidates a name, and was lamenting about her giggling and how it was unpresidential. And. I called her a ding dong. Let's not forget that. Y'all joy. And that's wild to me.
So this is, this is what. And then in, in the clip goes on to say that, um, what's her name, she was in, she was like, the prime minister of Britain, um, Thatcher, who's like, Margaret Thatcher didn't giggle, and I was like, but he did also British. So there's so many issues, but this is what I said. After the British they freed ourselves from, well, you know what? Apparently, we stole their national anthem. We just decided to redo the words and make some reason, apparently we
do that. That's what we do. But however, the thing that I really noticed was they were like, Oh, would you be saying this if she wasn't a woman? And his response was, I don't care if she that she's a woman. I don't care that she's black. I just think she's incompetent. And I said to Chris, you know what he might actually be telling the truth, because he could like he he referenced Margaret Thatcher.
And so basically what he was saying is, as long as you think what I think, and behave how I behave, I eat like a man, and particularly, preferably like a white man, then I don't care what you actually look like. And according to him, men don't giggle. And I was just like, they sound so sad. Okay, the way that you need first of all, because she knew y'all niggas was out there. That part made her life hell. I was about to say, she's probably miserable, stressed. That was,
honestly my first thought. Is Margaret was probably miserable. Yeah, if I had to deal with every day, yes, only men every day, I too, would not giggle, because I'd be like, this is something. There's nothing funny about this. Ain't nothing funny. No shade to me. We're not man hating. Here we do. I happen to love this one, yeah, and a few others, man hating. But like, Y'all have watched the crown, no, y'all seen them. Room full of them.
There is a there is, I mean, I hate on the patriarchy all day. And that's what that is well, because patriarchy doesn't benefit anybody like it, ultimately, in a box. Ultimately a box of certainty, sorry, a box of certainty that don't fit. Doesn't fit. It don't fit. And you know what? Everybody needs to get a little bit more sensitive about the fact that stuff don't fit, like my toddler when their shoes don't fit. You know they're not wearing them.
But what will we do, we will shove ourselves in a box, be uncomfortable as hell, end up with hammer toes trying to keep your feet in the damn you are literally cramped up. You have permanently damaged stuff, and now you need surgery, and this analogy is going off the rails. But Come with me. No, I like to go. You will contort yourself, yes, until you barely recognize yourself at the first opportunity to stretch at all. You're like, Oh, it's scary. And then you're like, oh, but it
feels good. That's it. And that right there. That is why certainty it, it is just like the patriarchy. It does come on. Patriarchy, him too, the pancreas, the pancreatic pancrear, pancreatic cancer. Once you get that, you probably gone, just like Sheila, makes you rest in peace. So patriarchy is just like it. Podcast is done real quick. We're digging into the roots. Y'all, it's dark down there.
You get your hands dirty. It's grimy, yeah, but once you get to stretch out them roots a little bit, you get a little more space. You got to get repotted, and you can stretch out. That's really it. Then you can move up, right? Because you listen, you won't grow unless you're grounded. All right, come on. All right, y'all are gonna get all of the brainstorming we did. Y'all are gonna get all the things because we had some good thoughts, and they go keep
popping up. It's actually an ariletic song I was referencing. Oh, see, I stopped listening to new music after like, 2009 so, yeah, now it's a good song. You should listen to it. I will. It's a good thing. I have to send it. I'd sing it, but I can't sing like Ari so and we don't thing to, like, get, get, not demonetized. What's the word copyrighted? Do you get podcasts and change the melody? You just gotta sing it poorly. Like, grow, once you are Graco, turn
it into a show too. I hope that didn't deem I hope it didn't bad. Bat, no, good, okay, yeah, you got the vision. No. Oh, I try to remember, wow, not you call the vision in part, but that okay, but That'll preach, because that, I think that is what happens, right? Like certainty is having, sometimes none of the vision, but sometimes it's having the vision in part, right? Like we may know, we may feel good about this is where I want to end. Yeah, right. Maybe you don't know the journey. You don't
know. And what I've learned is people don't like the journey. People, sometimes it's me. I'm people, but like we like to arrive. Yes, we like to show up. The whole resolution. If you get to the end of the book and that shit don't make sense, it's because you didn't read all 27 chapters in the middle, right? In order to truly get there and have what you need for there to make sense, you gotta go on. You
gotta go on the journey. And I think that's what's what has kept me and y'all, it's like 17 transitions happening in my life. Let's not, let's not minimize but like, the thing that keeps me is that like I am always where I need to be. So whatever moment I'm in, no matter how uncomfortable it is, I am always where I need to be. And there's something here for me. So in this room right now, there's something here for me if something amazing happens, okay, great, that's something here for
me. If something less than desirable happens, then that there's something there for me that I'm going to need when I get to the place I'm going right. Like, yeah, yeah. And I think in this particular season of my life where I need it to shift, like I needed to be uprooted, well, like there are so many things I have gathered in this part of the journey that I'm like, yo, I don't know where. I don't know exactly where the next, like stop is on this thing, but what I know is, baby, I think I'm
equipped. You picking up stuff. I think I'm equipped. And I hope, Jesus, I hope I'm equipped. But what I know is, I got more equipment than I had right, right at the start, yeah, and like, internal equipment that I had at the start. And so, like, we can't, you cannot bypass. There is no shortcut, right? Like, what did Jennifer Lewis used to say, there's no shortcut to success. You got to take that. There's no elevator to success. You have to take the stairs. Life is the stairs,
right? The problem is we want the elevator because we know the elevator is going up, and we know we can press the button and it'll go and it'll go to that floor. Sometimes life will present us with opportunities, just to show that principle, yeah, that life does not come with it. They will actually give somebody an elevator. Yeah, to success, and we see how they crumble, yeah, because they they took the show,
and we'll see it. And like in their life becomes a story about this eternal principle of going through the process. That's right. And I don't want to be one of them, people that that have to be a story to somebody else about this is what happens when you don't go to the process. Bypass, yeah, it's like, bypass, Okay, y'all know Okay, y'all don't know this. I they've been doing the analogies. I've been letting them have it. I'm the analogy queen in this life.
I think I want to say it's in my Instagram description, Queen of analogies, or something like that. Author of analogy, because I love alliteration, yeah, but it's literally like building a house, right? Like, if you see yourself, is this the analogy? No, it's similar to the one I used at photosynthesis, but it's, it's like, what happens if you bypass fundamental steps, right?
Digging a big ass hole is not fun, no, but it is necessary to get if you're gonna build a slab foundation, it's necessary to get that thing in the ground right. It's not fire. You gotta have space for all your plumbing and that part, yeah, if you don't do that right, my guy, yo, shit is gonna be like the house built on the sand, and it's going to crumble. You're going
to see cracks. You're going to have an unstable structure getting knocked the fuck down, because we live in the worst place ever for their stupid storms. That part, that's that's the reason why there's a lot of there was a lot of trees that got uprooted because they were planted in spaces where they didn't have space, the space to go down, that's correct. And because of that, storm comes to roots for shallow and it got toppled over. Now my my house, our house, has four
trees. It does, one on the right, one on the left, behind the fence, and then two big ass mcnogger trees in the front yard. They're my favorite. That's like mine too, the whole and they've been there for 3040, years now. Yeah, I know they planted them after they moved in. They moved in in 83 so I'm sorry, my house, your grand your dad grew up in. No, he live in. My grandparents old house. My grandparents. Passed away, and we bought their
old home for for reference. And so this is, this is why this discussion is being had, right? So, yes, they built this house, and they planted these trees, and they're gorgeous, and they're gorgeous, and they're all around you got like, Oh, two oak trees, two oaks and two
Magnolia two magnolias. And the storms come hurricane bear, only thing that fell off with the branches, but because them joints have space grow and develop roots like I don't have a decent lawn because the magnolia trees roots like I want to repack it with dirt and put some side. The point is they're healthy. They had the space to get down deep and spread out, yeah, yeah. And our foundation into our house is not even affected, yeah, because there's space, because there's space. Imagine
having land. I'm I've recently finished a book, the title is all black girls are activists. There's a very long subtitle that I can't remember. It's also upstairs, should I go grab it? You don't have to go grab it. However, it's by ebony janiece. Both names don't take
one off, period. And the things that she talks about, one of them is definitely like the idea that particularly as black people and black women, but black people, this is a thing for black people in general, probably bipoc as well, but like that, we are taught to take up as little space as possible to be. And like I said, this is
specifically for women. Men don't get quite the same indoctrination, but for women like to take up as little space as possible, to not be obtrusive, to not be loud, to not like, feel your feelings. You. I was trained in the art of emotional suppression. I am quite good at it. It is incredibly detrimental. To say my roots are bound, is an understatement. Also, hashtag therapy on my way,
on my way. Hopefully, by the next season of this, I can say a little bit more about that, because I've actually been through some however, the the the way that we as a people, black, FEM so on and so forth, are taught to become small, to not rock the boat, to to assimilate, to degrees that people probably don't even recognize in themselves, not just like code switching. I mean, Code
switching is a big one. Yeah, right, changing our names or using our initials on, you know, things, so that our parents even our appearances, you know, the whole thing about hair and all of that. How do we stay safe? How do we I move my hands in such a way that doesn't make me a threat? How do I never put my hands in my pocket in the store so people don't think I'm stealing right? How do I modulate my voice when somebody
has aggressed me? Yeah, and they're like, they're literally being aggressive, but I can't be the angry black women, right? Or how do I moderate my voice to sound more feminine? Because black and feminine are not
inherent in people's minds. The list is so long, the way that you walk the Can you turn flips until you're 12 because you have too big of a butt, like the list of things that we are told we don't get to do because we are black, because we are FEM, because we are queer, whatever it is, the list of things you don't get to do, sometimes just to be safe and sometimes just to not make other people air quotes uncomfortable is ridiculous, and you get bound up, and you carry a lot of that
a lot of times, and we spend a lot of time unpacking that, trying to uproot those ideas that made us think we had to be less of ourselves than we actually are. And once you start to do that work, yeah, it's hard, it's dark, it's uncomfortable and it's scary, but when you start coming out on the other side, it's like, oh, oh, my God, I've broken through the dirt. I can see the sun. Look. There is air
out here, you know. But it takes it takes work, and it's scary, but as long as you're clinging to like, I know I'm safe over here. I know this. I know that you know nothing, because you can literally get a pot of water and ask somebody not to shoot you, and they'll do it anyway. Yep, you might as well be
yourself. Well, and that's it, like it's so I remember, uh, so for context, I don't know, around the age of 30, I went through a divorce, and that year, my biggest takeaway y'all, 30 was one of my favorite ages. It was a tough year, but it was one of my favorite ages, because what I learned that year is, I don't know shit. I don't know anything, even the things I thought I knew about myself to be true, like proven to not be
true. And I was just like, well, girl, if you don't know things that, what do you know? So I was. Like, well, what happens when you don't know anything, then I have the freedom to learn everything, right? And so then, like that started me down, like my whole, like, spiritual
journey, yeah, right? Of being like that, I will say, of all the things to let go, the way I conceived of my spiritual identity was the hardest, because, well, when a hell exists to put you in, yeah, eternal damnation is fucking terrifying, right? Motivated. So, like, there are journal
entries. I'm also a lifelong journaler, and so I have journal entries like, way back to, like, third grade, I think because somebody threw away my Lisa Frank, and I don't know who, but we need to fight anyhow, but, but, like, I remember reading journal entries from that era, and it was like, I'm literally writing to God, like, God, here's what I'm letting go. Please don't let me go to hell. God, I would like to try this. Please don't let me go to hell.
Like, if I'm wrong, just steer me back and like at this point, I will trust you to do so. But what I do know is I can no longer function under this set of rules, because this set of rules is against who I am in so many ways. And like, if you made me and I actually don't, got no beef with me. And I got, like at the time, I had so many other beefs with myself, but not the in these particular ways, like
help guide. And what happened was, when I let go, it wasn't God putting the rules on me, it was me holding on to the rules that everybody else had put on me. And so when I let that go, it was And y'all, when I say terrifying, like I it was really scary, because we're talking about the fate of my soul, right, right? Like, who gives a shit about this other stuff that's material when the fate of your soul is at risk?
But what I learned is, it turns out, it was not that at risk, that as I thought it was right, and like, God can hold my questioning, God can hold my doubt, God can hold my uncertainty right. And honestly thrives there. Man, that does the best work in that, in that realm, okay? That registered, that resonated, right? We still give references like we we just talked. It's a flexible word, yeah? It's a flexible word. It's a flexible so, but everybody can't use it. Girl, I was about to say, let me
be clear. I'm about, I was about to say it. So the idea that you mentioned about God writing to God and saying, Hey, I gotta let these go. These are let me go. And so that I went down a similar line of thinking that, like early years of my marriage, I told Christian. I was like, Look, I can't be in relationship with a God that in the back of my head wants to kill me, you know, yep, it's like, I don't, yeah, I can't reconcile the two. I understand. This is my fucking theology. I've been preaching
since I was 16. I'm church boy. Yeah, all the way I get it. But I started to think about this shit that sounds very Stockholm Syndrome is, yes, it sounds very traumatic, and I get it. I don't care how you legalize. A lawyer would talk about you. I don't see hell. You see yourself in hell. Why is it there? Why is who maintains it? Who keeps it? Who powers hell? Who powers him, who pays his light bills, who keeps this shit on, who? And so
you want to say, Satan. Okay, then Satan is an equal power to God. Like, what are we doing? This is the conversation. So, so again, the narrative started unraveling. Then, like, you know, start thinking through. And again, it's and it's like, and I haven't gone to the to the lens of, like to be an atheist, yeah, but it's definitely put me in a more necessary, no, it's not God. God exists. He's done enough. The stories about him can be questioned. But him,
right? Them in particular, for me, that's not, not on the table. Yeah, big, higher power, energy, not on the table, if you like. Again, if you're atheist in here, we would love you and we respect you. You're welcome. I don't have no beef with you. No. Everybody has to do their own journey. Everybody has to do their own study. And if you have reason to the point that there, that God does not have that the
idea of God has no relevance. Or resident, you know, whatever, President, God's cool, but you do. I would also like invite you to be opening your certainty as well, right? We all can be open, not to, like, change your mind, but to answer questions, baby. Why is it dark? It just shifted for free. It was like, turned off the light. He's about to run. Who turned I don't need no more rain. Jesus, no, that's real. I mean, don't say that, though, because normally we in a
drought in the summer. So yeah, we ain't in no dryer. I know we got so much water. Who else needs some water? We got extra. I will trade you water for stable electric grid. Atheists. Y'all also, sorry, atheism, also neurodivergence. It's a lot of it in this room, and so you know, just we're gonna do our best to stay on track. But just know, yeah, so we were talking about like, we want to invite everybody in the space to release the certainties that they have around God, whether he
exists, doesn't exist. What kind of faith practice is the right one? Air quotes again, yeah, um, that's what we want this space to be. Is a place where we can have these conversations, and it doesn't turn into people yelling, you know, because right My way is the best way. Like, I'm not coming at you with that energy. I'm just going to speak
from like. So we, all of us, are speaking from our experiences and our stories, and hopefully you'll be at some parts of that will resonate with you in ways that help you. And again, being in America, we get this tendency to want to think that that some one way, that one way has to be the best way, right? And and it has to be the best way for everybody, unilateral that don't even make sense. It doesn't make like, I want y'all to listen to that back. That don't make sense. It don't make no sense.
You can have a sibling and what's best for your sibling and what's best for you. And y'all grow up in the same house. There are twins who can't tolerate doing the same thing. Hello. Like I put in the same reverent and all of that, in the same clothes, in the same clothes, got the same parents, yeah, they came into the world at the same time, relatively, right, compared to the rest of us for app, absolutely right. So same, general roommates for real,
yeah? And they got, they're not the same, um, so, you know, so why we gotta all we don't need to one size fits all anything here. Yeah, Chris, you was talking about the atheist, yeah, I gave them an invitation to be open, right, right, just right. You said to be open. And again,
that's the point of it. Is that for me, when I was in my journey, that's what we're talking about, questioning my relationship to God and what is acceptable and what is not acceptable for us as a unit to thrive, me and me and God in particular, hell was just like, you know, I don't need to be scared there. Yeah, I don't. I know I've done some things or whatever, and when I say I've I've been human, I'm gonna say that I've committed no crimes but the law. It was nothing but of the soul, of the
soul. Sometimes she literally, I say this all the time. She married her best friend in more than wasted one. I did. They're they're like, eerily similar, yeah, sometimes and I'm like, Good god, I really. I was like, I need a male Whitney. Found him. Found him. Yeah. So hold her on the things, feel free to not feel free to explore that, especially when the story that you've been told is not working for you in your life, that part you need to be
able to tweak that. Your your story is still being told, your pen is still to the paper. You can write a new chapter on everything, including God. All of us have ideas about God that we need to shape and shift. And part of being in this experience, and part of being here is to explore and experience God in new ways, and not to have arrived to the point to where I found a true way, and there's no deviation from this script, yeah, nobody. No, not
even in Hollywood, do they? Are they committed to a script like that, that they that they feel like they can't change it? Yeah, they're writing off in a minute. Absolutely. Rewrites are happening all the time. People go in real time. So you know? So you know, nothing is for certain, yeah, and that's good that. That should be good news. It should be good news. Nothing is for certain, because you don't always feel that. I think it actually induces a lot of anxiety for people, right?
Because if nothing's for certain, what can I stand on? And I think this is stand on business period, stand on the Word. But I think there are things this is why it's so important to become grounded in self, and not just self, but like whatever your higher power, you can call it God. You can call it creator. You can call it universe. You could call it big. I don't care.
But you know, like staying grounded in knowing that, like you are here on purpose, all will be well, all things are working towards your good, and that you've got you right. And I think that's important. This is why it's important to do our inner work so that you can. Be in a place where you're like, oh, no, no one else has to save me. I don't need a sky daddy and a cape because that that is not the form of God in which I believe, right? Like, that's not how God necessarily functions
for me. Yeah, it's not a sky daddy and a cape or, like, you know, on a white horse. Yeah. God is not some outside entity, right? It's not connected to me, right? And so, like, if God is in you, which, if you traditional Christian, I'm just gonna say that's the holy Sprite, okay? It's on the inside at work. Yes, you know. And so, like it is in you. And so trust, it's a matter of, like, this is Faith, this is Faith, this is trust. And it is even though,
what is it? Faith is the subject of things hoped for, the evidence of things. And so like, Yeah, you can't see it, but it's that. It's a deep, settled inner knowing that, like, all this shit could crumble and I'm gonna be good. There's this imagery that I liked in the Marvel movie with the X Men. And there's this scene where Magneto is trying to get from one part to Magneto is one of the villains. Magneto is one of the villains. And so magnetos power, mutant superpower, is to like, he can
attract metal. Oh, because he's magnetic, because he's making, that's what our names are, big, very important. And this is who, who plays Magneto. It doesn't matter. Keep going. I'm sorry, going on. Going on. Anyway, Magneto, yes, Magneto. And so he's, he's going, he finally breaking out of, broken out of prison because someone handed him a key, whatever, so he can manipulate a small piece of metal. I think. Okay, breaks out of prison. Wait, they handed it to him. He couldn't just draw it
to himself. No, no. So they, they basically enclosed him in plastic so there was nothing that he could use. It's, it makes sense, if you watch the movies, can't believe it's superhero and suspend disbelief. But you can't suspend it in your own life, you know? Sorry, somebody digs through the plastic somehow hands him this tiny metal key that he that he couldn't attract because he was in plastic hurt because it was far away. He gets out of prison. Okay? Magnets fail.
Magnetic fields. There's still science on that. Yeah, no, that makes sense. And so, of course, there's a steep space between him and where he needs to be. And so he's walking, and as he's walking, he's the platform is building as he's walking, because he's drawing, he's drawing metal from the wall. That's it. That's attraction, yeah. And so him trying to build the entire like expanse while he's at one end, as he takes a step, it shows us as he arrives. It
appears as he arrives. And so that's my life shouting is on a Marvel movie. Anyway. Magneto the villain, Professor X, represent two opposing ideologies. So repeat that, because I didn't hear that over my own thoughts. He and Professor X, the other mutant, represent two opposing ideologies. Stan Lee, the One who created comic thought, not to be confused with Stan Smith, who is who I'm always confusing him, right? So Professor X is kind of representing this is going into comic Lord, but I'm
not necessarily too far. Babe represents Martin Luther King. Professor X, that's the idea behind black character. Of course, they're not, no, they're not black in the comic. They're not black in the comic. So that's why I said, y'all stay still. That's, well, that's why I said we don't need to go that far, because it's a that's, that's, that's complicated. The reason Stanley did what he did, that's a whole separate conversation. However, the point is, as it comes, right? What did you
say? What was the phrase we said that? Y'all both said it and I forgot it. Attract, attraction, as you arrive, as you arrive. There we go. It comes as you it will come when you arrive. Yes, Lord Jesus, it comes when you when it's time, it's time. And I think that is alignment right? Is that you get what you need when you need to get it right. And you have that power. You do. Everyone has that power to walk. You don't. Bible talks about is without faith. It is.
Possible to please God. And what that means by that is that you don't get to exist on this plane without exerting a level of faith on any level. Okay, I can, I don't, you know, like said, it took me, it didn't take any faith or whatever. I believed that this chair would hold me. I didn't know that it would, yeah, but I sat in it believing that it would. You know, there's trust that happens with evil. With babies exerting trust. They trust that when they cry, they
will get food. And so they do, yeah, and that cry becomes the substance of things that are hoped for. That cry becomes the evidence of things that are not seen. I don't see food, but I believe that if I do this, food will come, yep. And so there are things that we do that are that we do by faith but, and that's the coupling of faith and work. Faith without works is dead, yeah, if you believe it, then go
do something about it. That part, if you believe that, like you said, If you believe that there's greater for you at the at the end of a job, okay, go, yeah. And again, the path will become clear as you go. But yeah, that's why I just wanna say, but our faith is impossible to please God, right? But you know what that and I know we gotta wrap but I think the challenge here is that oftentimes we in in making God
in our image. We often like, I think about how we were taught about God, Christian like Father God, right, right? So we tend to make God into a parent. That is really complicated. When your parents are people that are easily displeased, or your parents are people, right? And they come with their own things, like we talked about earlier, right? And so you're constantly feeling like, oh, shit, can't do this, can't do that, gotta, like, tuck clip, all these things to
please this person. The difference between your parent and God is that God is a God, right? And God can meet your needs. And so I think in order for a lot of us, in order to learn to have faith in God and learn to trust that if we cry, then the need will be met. We're gonna have to unpack the feeling and fear that it won't, and
where that stems from. And for a lot of us, that might be parental relationships, and maybe not, like, Oh, my parents like Blackpool, they didn't feed me, but oftentimes we didn't get, like, emotional things that we needed. Some people absolutely physical, right? Sometimes you didn't have physical safety or physical provision, but are being provided for. But you know, it that emotional safety can it scars you. And then, if you relate God to a
parent, Father, God, right? Now, it's like, Oh, what if he doesn't, and what if, what if he punishes me, right? Right? Because that is what your parents do. But you're God and your parents are not the same, yeah. And here's the thing again, without faith is impossible to please God, but it's impossible to live here without faith. That's it. So that means to God, in God's eyes, you God is perpetually
pleased, yeah? That's because you're, you're walking, you could walk a little bit more faith and all that, he's giving every man of measure of faith. That's, that's Romans, yep. So if he's giving you a measure of faith, without faith is a positive pleasing, then he's perpetually Please, yeah, yeah. So connect those connected and rest in that, and even in the uncertain moments. Again, all power is his power. And what space can you take with a God
that is perpetually pleased? How can you show up if you know you're not going to disappoint God, how does that change how you show up? What space does that create in your life and in your body, right? If I can't be wrong and not, like, wrong, obviously, don't murder, right? You're not talking about the, like, basic moralism. Like, don't go murdering people, yeah. But like, if, if, my if I cannot make a wrong decision because I'm acting out of faith, regardless. Um, well, how does that alleviate
that pressure? How does that alleviate that anxiety that you're going to get it wrong and somehow be punished for it right? And also, I'm just going to speak from my experience, God, ain't never punished me that has given me opportunity to grow. And I'm not saying it like, Oh, it's a euphemism like, oh, you know where you didn't do that bad. It's an opportunity to it's a growth opportunity. No, no, I'm not saying that. What I am saying is, Have I been through some hard shit? Yo, yo,
yo. This shit is, I have experienced, sometimes, the consequences of my own decisions. I have often, often also experienced the consequences of other people's decisions. Especially, like as a kid, right, right? But everything is usable, and at no point was God punishing me. And so if you take off that lens, release the lens of like, punishment, because hell is also a punishment, right? Like, yes, and punishment is just a mechanism for control. Can we talk about it? Let's not.
We don't got time, but yeah, we go home with that. Yeah, punishment is just a mechanism for control. So if you take out this, this mechanism, how do you move? How do you move when you know that God is not looking for you to fuck up and waiting for an opportunity to then bash you in or put you in timeout, or take something you love or someone you love, right? How does that change? Right your life? And some people don't want to deal with that at all. Um, deal with
that question at all. Y'all don't have to deal with it. Well, why do I follow God if I ain't going to go to hell? What? That's a good question. That is a it's a great question to ask. It's a good question to ask, and we're going to keep asking those
questions. Yeah, um, over the next few weeks, we're going to be diving more into some of the more, yeah, the nitty gritty on some of the aspects of certainty and what it produces and what we can do instead, what we can do instead, what we can do instead. Because we're all about the like, how do I move forward in a different way, in a way that actually serves me well. So hopefully you took something
away from today. I want to thank you so much for joining us in this time, in this first episode of the podcast. It's up from here, y'all, it can only go up better. It's going to improve. Thank you for you being patient with us and hanging out with us, and we will see you next week. Please be sure to like and subscribe and follow us on social media, also on wherever you listen to podcasts, so you can get updated
when we release a new one. And feel free to to like and share and leave comments and tell us what you like and what you want to see. Yeah, sensational, no, no, although, if you're listening, sir, you're really big, yeah, and all mentee, he makes me look like me. That's a fine specimen there. I just want to say I'm married and all that. Yeah. I mean he's also same, I also love women, and that man is the man says, Mr. Sensational. He big, fine man. Won't you thank them?
I will show him to you in the end. Okay? I was like, that's that who sings that song. All right, y'all take care. Much Love all around thanks for joining us on this episode of The uproot project podcast. We hope you found fresh perspective and continue to make space for real growth. If you enjoyed today's conversation, be sure to subscribe, share and leave a review wherever you
listen to your podcast. You can follow us on social media at the uproot project podcast, on Instagram and Facebook, or visit us at the uproot podcast.com. For more content until next time, keep living fully, learning openly and loving deeply. We'll see you soon. You