Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Oh, my gosh. I've been waiting to say this for, I don't know, three months.
[00:00:07] And you know what? Happy Fall, y'. All. Yes. Happy Fall.
[00:00:13] I'm so excited because here in east Texas, it's October 16th, and today is like the first day, and I don't know how long we're actually having kind of like legitimate fall weather. I think the high today is like, I don't know, 68 or something. And the wind's blowing. And I'm so excited about this. So I even posted on my Facebook page that I was gonna have a fall party and light candles and drink pumpkin spice latte, but I wasn't gonna invite anybody.
[00:00:43] So just because, you know, I'm an introvert. But I'm just kidding. No. So welcome back. This is the Grace and Grit Mindset podcast. And this is Shannon Williams. Think I'm a little bit behind, as usual. You guys are probably sick of me saying that. It's like a broken record. But life does get in the way. And my husband and I went on a retreat for veterans and their spouses. So that kind of took up some almost a week of my time.
[00:01:09] But I am back and we have been in a series about this steadfast one.
[00:01:14] And this week I want to talk about that God is my restorer, which is honestly not an episode I thought I was going to include. But here lately, because I always talk about from where I live from, I will never come to you with some stale message that is not like alive in my heart right now. So what I'm feeling is just this really kind of restoration process that the Lord seems to be taking me through and I suspect affect many people.
[00:01:47] You know, sometimes life just beats the ever living daylights out of you.
[00:01:55] If. If you have been going through a lot the last six or seven years, you are not alone. I think since COVID everybody's life has been just kind of overturned. And it's been so difficult financially for so many of us, but also I think, the strain in the relationships in our lives.
[00:02:14] For instance, I remember in 2021 when. Well, 2020. I'm sorry, before COVID hit, I had an uneasiness in my heart and I heard the Lord say that he was about to bring alignment to marriages in the kingdom.
[00:02:30] And I thought that was a good thing. And I suspect it is. But what ended up happening was I ended up getting a divorce.
[00:02:39] My ex husband filed later that year, and I knew about three or four other couples that were in ministry to some capacity, and they all got Divorced?
[00:02:49] Am I saying God wanted divorces? No. But I do believe that God handled situations because there were some unequally yoked things going on, going on in those situations. And, you know, the unbelieving partner or just what, whatever, the hardened heart, whatever caused it, those were the people that filed. And the believers were just sitting there, like, what? I mean, like, the ones that were still in the fight for their marriage were like, did this person literally just file? Like, I mean, so for me, it was out of my hands. I tried to. I tried to save my marriage, but I couldn't.
[00:03:29] So I had to just accept the fact that that was something that happened and was allowed in my life. And I know Romans 8:28, and I know that God brings good.
[00:03:43] He works everything for the good. So I just accepted that. And that was so hard. But ever since then, it has been one thing after another. And I've told my mom, I think the devil's trying to take me out, like, legitimately take me out. And I know he's trying to take all this out, but for me, because I had a platform for so many years of speaking and prophetically releasing things through music or writing or speaking, I really think he tries to silence people who have that gift to, you know, to put things out there to the body of Christ in a prophetic way. And I don't mean like, thus saith the Lord. It might come out that way, but sometimes it's just creators, people who create things that are actually operating in that prophetic gift as well. And the enemy knows how powerful that is. So I think he tries to shut those kind of people down. So I was one of those people. So my life has been.
[00:04:41] It feels like one destructive thing after another. As many, you know, like, it wasn't just that I went from that into another marriage that I thought was going to be my fairy tale ending. And we were so in love, and I was head over heels, and it just happened so fast.
[00:05:00] And, you know, we got married quickly and everything seemed okay, even though. Even though there were struggles.
[00:05:07] But as many of you know, three years into our marriage, I found out that my husband was living a double life, basically. And that led because of the shame of that, that led him into a spiral of trying to commit suicide.
[00:05:26] So out of that, God has, of course, redeemed our marriage and his life, and he has completely surrendered to the Lord, and he's a completely different person now.
[00:05:36] But that doesn't mean that there wasn't a lot of damage done to me. So from the trauma of that situation and the trauma before that with my other marriage, it's like I never got a minute to just break, breathe and. And I had to go into survival mode just to make it. I did not have time to, in my mind to rest or to grieve because I was the sole.
[00:06:07] I was solely responsible for the finances in both situations. You know, when my ex husband left me, I had to like, I wasn't even working and I had to find employment that would pay for my wonderful house I was living in, in my car and build a career that I had not ever had to really build before. So there was that stress. But then I moved into this marriage and I thought it was going to get better. And it actually became more difficult in the last couple years because of Mike. My husband's, you know, he's working on rebuilding his life, our marriage, but he's had to go through tremendous amounts of therapy with the VA and you know, just all kinds of personal stuff. And it's been, you know, advised even by his doctors for him to not go back into the previous career he was in.
[00:07:05] So he has not been able to work is what I'm trying to say. And if you know anything about people with ptsd, depending on the severity of. And I mean complex ptsd, which is different than just witnessing one thing, which that's terrible too. But when it's ongoing trauma that lasts decades in someone's life, they are never the same.
[00:07:25] And later on in their life they will start to fall apart. And so the last two years, because Mike was in a rebuilding phase, the Lord just would not really.
[00:07:38] It seemed like every. Every time he tried to find work that it was blocked. So he did some side stuff, you know, some construction. And we had our little bought the carry business and he was helping with that and he tried to do some life insurance. Every. Everything kind of just would fall apart in those moments. So I'm just saying all that to say there was a tremendous load on me that it felt like now I'm probably carrying that. And the Lord is saying, I'm not asking you to carry that. I'm providing for you guys. You know, I'm sending you work or whatever it might be, but I felt the weight of it. I took that responsibility and I still to this day struggle with that. It's very hard for me. I feel it coming on all the time. I'll feel this weight of.
[00:08:22] Okay, I have bills coming in two weeks and I have no idea how I'm going to pay them. And these are not small. These are huge. So I'm just being super honest with you right now.
[00:08:31] But in the last two years, God has never failed us. That doesn't mean we haven't.
[00:08:37] Unfortunately, I accumulated some debt that I did not want to accumulate. But I know that God will help us pay that off when the time is right.
[00:08:44] I had to do some things I didn't want to do, you know, So I can't say that we've always had it easier, more than enough, or hand. That's not really what happened. It's been very difficult. And so I'm saying all that to say this last chunk of my life has really taken a toll on me and my health and my mental stability, spiritually, emotionally, every way you can imagine. I'm sure some of you can relate to that.
[00:09:14] And I hated that you can. But it is the way it is, right?
[00:09:19] But what I've found is that God, even in the middle of those times, he still wants to restore my soul. And he still wants to restore your soul. He still wants to be the good shepherd in your life, which there was a whole episode that I talked about him being our shepherd. And, you know, in that Psalm 23 scripture, it says he restores my soul.
[00:09:43] That's part of what he does as a shepherd. But today I want to focus on how. How does God restore our soul? And there's probably a myriad of ways that he does this.
[00:09:52] But one of the things I've been noticing lately that I had just really been so grateful for is some of the things that he's using to restore me are art forms. Now I'm an artist, and I believe everybody has some touch of being an artist in their life. They just don't realize it. You haven't found what it is that you can create. You could probably. I mean, some people, yeah, they're more creative than others.
[00:10:17] And they may jump around in different mediums to whatever art form they feel called to.
[00:10:24] I'm so sorry, guys. My voice is just not cooperating today.
[00:10:28] So for me, you know, because I've always been a musician, I finally decided.
[00:10:34] I don't know, I've been going through a season. There's so much pain attached to music for me because of what I've been through with it. So I wanted to find a different way to express things, but I didn't realize was that God was going to bring restoration to me through these activities of recreation.
[00:10:55] Of recreation. And it's interesting, this word recreation, if you really look at the word break it down, it means it's just to recreate. It's the process of recreating. Right, recreating.
[00:11:08] So how do you recreate life again, renewal again in your life? Well, God does that. Jesus does that when we come to him.
[00:11:17] And I Love what Matthew 11:28 says. This is like the famous. You know, this. You hear it all the time. And I think of this scripture all the time when I get overwhelmed.
[00:11:29] I remember what Jesus says.
[00:11:32] He says in Matthew 11:28, Come to me, all who are weary and heavily burdened by religious rituals that provide no peace. This is the amplified. So it gives you that little nugget right there, tucked away, that he's actually alluding to religious rituals because he had been talking to his disciples and everything, and he had been touching on, you know, how.
[00:11:59] How the religious people of the day were Pharisees, Sadducees, were just loading down the people with these religious rituals that provided no peace. And this was not what he wanted. So he says in this passage, so come to me, all you who are weary and heavy burdened, heavily burdened by religious rituals that provide no peace. And I will give you rest, which is refreshing your souls with salvation. So now he's. He's kind of talking about how I'm going to provide you rest. Is this refreshing your soul with my salvation? Then in 29, take my yoke upon you and learn from me, following me as my disciple, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest.
[00:12:43] And this rest means renewal, blessed, quiet for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear and my burden is light.
[00:12:51] Now, you may read that and go, or hear that and say, yeah, I've heard that a bazillion times.
[00:12:56] But what I want to do is tell you that these words that he uses for rest are a little bit different.
[00:13:04] Each. Each one. Like the first time he uses rest, he is actually using a specific word. So I'm going to just talk to you about this. So the first time you see this word, Matthew 11:28, in the beginning of that scripture, it's anapua puao, to give rest, relief, or refreshment.
[00:13:27] But then when you see it again in 1129, it's an.
[00:13:31] Which means rest, repose or cessation from labor. And. And also it can include recreation as a possible means to this. It's like an implication of this rest that leads or recreation leading to the rest.
[00:13:52] And I thought that was so interesting.
[00:13:54] So Jesus desires to give us relief, refreshing, rest, ceasing from our labors, which is so Pointed towards what he did, his finished work. Finished work on the cross was, hey, you'll never have to try again to get to God or to try to appease him. I did that. That's what he's alluding to here. But also he's saying something interesting, that if you read past this really fast, you'll think these are just the same words, but you're realizing that there are.
[00:14:28] There are ways that we can actually be refreshed and enter into rest with Him.
[00:14:36] You know, because for years I thought, rest, maybe this is. You meant stopping everything and just, like, taking a nap, right? But what I've been discovering is that sometimes the most refreshing thing I can do is pick up a paintbrush or pick up a guitar or. Or actually, I've been exploring dancing because I love it.
[00:14:57] And in that, creating something with God.
[00:15:00] So here's the thing that I'm doing, though. I'm not really trying to accomplish anything. I'm just enjoying being with Him. And that is recreation, because in that he recreates me just by me being with Him. And so many of us think, oh, okay, so if I'm with God, that just means I need to need to read my Bible and pray. And those are. Those are absolutely true. You need to go to church and be with the, you know, fellowship with other believers. All those things are true. But also a personal thing that you can do is to explore these art forms that are such a gift to us because they will bring refreshing to you. Now, they might bring a little bit of frustration if you. At first, if you don't know what you're doing, and that takes time. But entering into this as a way to connect to Him. Okay? And it's not just art. Think also about. For some people, it's whatever it is that when you do this thing, you feel so connected to God. So I think a lot of people feel that way outdoors. My husband is one of those people. He's like, outside, outdoors. That's my church. That's where I feel God. And so I knew that. And so he and I, when we went to this retreat that I signed us up for, he. He did not want to go. It was a veterans retreat for the veteran, their spouses, for wounded, basically combat veterans who had been in some way, you know, probably wounded from war.
[00:16:33] Like, they carry the marks of war. It could be first responders as well. So anyone exposed to these traumatic events. So it was open to veterans and first responders. And one of the reasons I picked the retreat was because so much of it was also recreation based in that you would go outside and do these activities with your family or your spouse. But it was also in groups, so the whole group of people that were. I think there were six couples we all engaged in, and it was optional most of the time. And they also had workshops that you'd go to to learn about mental health and how to communicate with your spouse better and all those things. And those were good, too. But do you know what I really enjoyed was the recreation outside. And I'm going to tell you something. I am not a real good outdoor kind of girl. I love the outdoors. I think it's beautiful. But I'm scared of it because I've been hurt so many times. I've fallen down. I've been stung by things.
[00:17:32] All the things, you know, you live in Texas. You know what I'm talking about. Everything's always trying to kill you outside.
[00:17:40] But I was scared of, like, Mike's been asking me forever to go kayaking. And I've been scared to do it because I'm like, what if I flip it over and I can't get back up? You know? So there was that. And then they had a zip line there, and I would. I was not gonna do it. And then I. As it got closer, I was like, no, I'm gonna do this.
[00:17:59] I am going to face my fear and I'm gonna get on the zip line.
[00:18:03] And for some people, they might be like, that's not even scary, but for me, it's scary.
[00:18:08] And then we had other games like archery and axe throwing and just playing group activity games outside. And I did every single one of them. And do you know, I actually had a really good time.
[00:18:21] And it brought a refreshing to me.
[00:18:24] It brought a rest to me that it was weird because it was physical.
[00:18:29] It made me physically tired, but it brought renewal and refreshing to my soul.
[00:18:34] And that's what I'm trying to say to you. Maybe you don't need to take a nap. Maybe you do. Maybe you do need some rest. But maybe what you need is actually a spiritual renewal, an emotional renewal for your soul to be refreshed.
[00:18:51] And I think sometimes we look at. We try to apply a physical thing like, oh, I just need to get more sleep.
[00:19:00] And that may be true, but sometimes the need is so much greater than that, especially if you've been carrying loads and loads of stress. If you have been the glue that holds your family together, or you have been the primary breadwinner, or you're a single mom and you carry Everything. I get it, man. I get it. That's a lot to carry for anyone, you know, Especially in this economy right now, that's so hard. People are having to work two and three jobs just to pay their bills, just to make it.
[00:19:36] It's so difficult to get trapped into, okay, I'm in survival mode.
[00:19:43] Therefore, I cannot afford to rest. I cannot afford to stop. I must keep going, keep working.
[00:19:51] But Jesus is saying the exact opposite.
[00:19:55] He's actually saying, I want you to come to me.
[00:19:59] I want you to yoke yourself with me, because my burden is easy.
[00:20:08] My burden is light. My yoke. My burden is easy. My yoke is light. Is that right? Something like that. Sometimes I get my words mixed up.
[00:20:17] But why? Because when we are yoked with him, he does the heavy lifting, and when we're not, then we do all of the lifting.
[00:20:27] And what has happened for so many of us is we're not allowing these moments of time where we are, you know, spending time with him in such a way that it's bringing refreshing and renewal. Now, what does that mean for you? Because that might look different for you. For me, it is. It is engaging in these different art forms, but also, like, trying something I had never tried, and it brought me a refreshing that I needed so desperately. Going on the outdoor stuff. I mean, what is it that God is drawing you to as a way for you to connect to Him?
[00:21:11] Do that thing. That's what I'm trying to say. Do that thing.
[00:21:15] Find him in a different way than you ever have. Because it can get so mundane.
[00:21:20] You know, just the, okay, I wake up every day. I drink my coffee, I read a scripture, I do a meditation, I pray, I say these things. And those things are. They're not bad. Continue doing that. But sometimes it can get a little stale, right? This is a living, breathing relationship that we have with Him.
[00:21:39] In a real relationship. For example, like with my husband, if. If we do the same thing every day for the rest of our lives, I'm probably going to lose my mind. I got to have some variety, right? I got to make some things interesting, some things. Sometimes I want to do something fun. Sometimes I want to laugh. Sometimes I want to do something that challenges me a little bit physically. Sometimes I just want to have conversations and drink coffee with them. But sometimes I want to do things.
[00:22:04] And in the doing with him, it somehow reconnects us. And for that moment, it brings a renewal, and it brings this recreation of my heart, and it brings an intermission to the.
[00:22:20] I love that word because that's part of an apano that also means an intermission.
[00:22:30] So that's. That's really. When you think about that, that's interesting because, like, you're. You're getting this intermission to the work. I almost think, when I hear that word, I think of when you're at a.
[00:22:41] A ballet or something like that, some kind of theater, and you'll have, like, Act One, and you'll have an intermission. So there's a rest, right? There's a break in between it. So the actors are working, you're engaged, you're watching, you're taking in all this in. And then you're like, okay, I need a break. Because this is like too much.
[00:23:01] This is like too much going on. And my nervous system. See, God knows that we are physical beings as well as spiritual, and he understands that we need these moments of rest and intermission while we're going through things. Not hold yourself all together and then get to the end, and then you're going to take a break. You know, that whole saying, that's like, well, I'll sleep when I'm dead, or I'll rest when I'm dead. Well, no, what happened is you'll die early because you didn't rest, right? So this is a very, what I would say, intentional way to live. Because it's almost connected to Sabbath in some ways, I think.
[00:23:41] And I do talk about Sabbath quite a bit, and some of the things I write and some of the things I say. But when I just. I'm wanting to help you because I'm seeing it this way, and it's bringing me such joy. I want you to see that you can rest and be refreshed and be renewed in. In the middle of the storms of your life.
[00:24:04] Not after, but in the middle.
[00:24:09] So that's great news, because that means you don't have to live completely on, you know, your last straw, so to speak, or you're hanging on by a thread all the time. And every time somebody sees you, they're like, dang, you look older. You look worried, like you're getting more. Your wrinkles are bad, your hair is more gray, you look tired.
[00:24:30] You know, like, that's not God's best for us.
[00:24:35] There's a way to live where we are connected to Him.
[00:24:40] And it's that getting unyoked from the striving of life, the striving to try to do it all on your own, or even religion being yoked to religion like Jesus was talking about, but unyoking ourselves from those Kinds of worldviews or our Christian views that are not right, they're not accurate, they're not the best way to see things. And then yoking ourselves to Jesus and realizing that what he said was, I've already done it all.
[00:25:13] There. There remains a Sabbath rest in me. My yoke is easy. My burden is like, you don't have to fix every problem. You don't have to keep working until you solve this problem. You can actually, like, tap into my rest and my renewal and my refreshing in the middle of these awful moments of your life. And that's going to be what keeps you going.
[00:25:34] Because if you don't do this, you will burn out and you will become so overwhelmed that you, you know, you just have a breakdown sometimes.
[00:25:44] And I get it. I get it so much. But when you. When you feel that coming on, jump back into your word. Go to Matthew 11:28, remember this episode. Go back and come back and listen to it and seek him in a new way.
[00:26:01] Realize that this invitation is open all the time. This is not like, hey, get saved. Now you can rest a little bit and go back to work. Now you have to go back to work.
[00:26:14] You can never come back to this place of renewal. That's not what he's saying. This is a continual invitation that he gives us. And that is, come to me.
[00:26:23] Come to me if you are weary, heavy laden with burdens, and I will give you rest, because he is the restorer of our souls. So I hope that this message is encouraging to you and that you can listen to this and just maybe, you know, think, like, what is one thing I could do this week that I can connect with God, that I feel so refreshed when I do this thing?
[00:26:53] Do it.
[00:26:55] Be intentional about it. Do it. It may very well help save your sanity.
[00:27:00] And that's a great thing, right, to not lose your mind because you're going through so much. Friends.
[00:27:08] I just want to encourage you to do that and to really grab a hold of him in that way that he wants to give you rest.
[00:27:16] Hey, if you are enjoying these episodes, just know I am writing a book about the steadfast one. So it's going to go into even more details, in depth. And what I love about it is it's going to give you practical ways to meditate on these truths. Every chapter is going to have that at the end where you can meditate on the truths and build a kind of meditation into your life. Because meditation is one of the things that's really helped me regain my.
[00:27:45] I guess my emotional stability and my mental health, to be honest with you.
[00:27:51] Because the devil likes to play games with your mind, right? But meditating on the word of God, meditating on who he is and learning to refocus your mind when it tries to wonder could be the very thing that keeps you sane, keeps you at peace, keeps you living in some level of joy and gets you to the other side of where God wants to take you. Or right? So the way that you could know that I'm releasing that if you don't want to miss it is you want to go to shannawilliams.com and sign up for my email list. That way you are always plugged into what I'm doing. I'm also on all kinds of social media channels. You can find me there of course, and follow me. Love to interact with you. Love to know what God's doing in your life right now and if this episode touched you. So that's all I have for today and I will be back next week. See you later.
