Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] When the world is closing in on me and it gets so heavy.
[00:00:09] Hey, there. Welcome to Grace and Grit podcast, and I'm your host, Shanna Williams. So, what is this all about?
[00:00:19] Grace and Grit is a faith filled journey designed to empower you with spiritual strength and resilience. Each episode, we're going to delve into biblical topics, offering insights and teachings to help you overcome life's mental and emotional challenges. We're going to use scripture. I'm going to tell you stories. It's going to be a blast. I can't wait to see you today.
[00:00:50] All right. Yay. Today is a new day, and I'm so excited. I think I say that every time I start the podcast. I'm so excited, but I really am. And I hope that you are having a good week. If you're not, I hope by the end of this session, you will be. At the end of this episode, you will be having a good day.
[00:01:16] I am so glad that you are here, and I just want to thank you for that, because that means the world to me that people actually listen to what I have to say. Because there are times when you're like, I don't know if I made this up and I'm not supposed to do this, or did God really put this on my heart? And I would say, you know, just a little advice is, if it keeps coming up and you keep thinking about doing it, it's probably God.
[00:01:42] That's how this podcast happened. It just kind of kept coming up, and the enemy kept fighting me and telling me, you have nothing to say. No one's gonna listen. No one cares. There's so many other people out there that are so much more qualified and better than you, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And, you know, you listen to that for a while, but then you're just kind of like, you know what? I gotta. I gotta move on, right? Like, this is not God. This is not what he wants for me, but he wants more for me. And I am worthy because of Jesus. So, yeah. So today I want to talk about your next great adventure.
[00:02:19] Your next great adventure. And I want to read you a poem that I wrote back in December of 2019. It's been, like five years almost since I wrote this, and it's one of my favorites because it really captures the heart of me. I'm an adventurer at heart.
[00:02:38] Now, let me qualify this, because here's what's interesting about it.
[00:02:45] I love the idea of traveling. I love the idea of being in nature and hiking. But when I get there, I'm scared.
[00:02:53] So in my mind, I'm like, oh, yes, I want to go there. So. But I'm growing. I'm getting better at not being so scared of things like traveling and being alone in different, and I've traveled by myself to different states and been in airplanes by myself. And it's a little nerve wracking for me, but it's also kind of neat, you know? And so once I get past the fear, I'm good, because let's, let's be honest, going on an adventure, a little bit risky. I'm going to talk about that in a minute.
[00:03:21] But I do enjoy it now. Where I really am an adventurer is in my mind, in my heart. Let me explain that a little bit. So I grew up loving to read. I was a little nerd with my little nerdy glasses, and I tried to cover that up later and be, like, this cool person and be a cheerleader, but that's just not who I am. I'm a nerd. And so even as a six year old, seven year old, I was, I was reading books that most kids were probably watching tv or playing outside, which, I mean, I did that, too. But I, my favorite thing to do was to read Alice in Wonderland. And my most favorite gift that my mom ever gave me, my mom and dad for Christmas gave me these little read along Disney books. And so it was like a tape recorder, and you had to play it in tape recorder and then had the follow along book. And mine, my favorite was Alice in Wonderland. Wonderland. And I would literally just read it and listen to it over and over and over. And my imagination would just go to that place of just this imaginary world. And what's crazy is, over the years, I go to this place in my imagination with God where I created, and I love it. And I didn't tell a lot of people about that because I felt weird and I felt like they would make fun of me. Right.
[00:04:49] But I knew in my heart I was in Alice in Wonderland. And so I have had the privilege of being with people who have a prophetic gift and anointing on their life and counselors and praying for me. And literally, I had, like, I just said, I had never told anyone about this Alice in Wonderlands thing. And one of the women that I was, it was praying with me, and I was just going through a session with her, kind of a prophetic prayer session. And she just, like, said, I see you, like, in this beautiful garden, and there are flowers, and they're, they're so vibrant, and they sing and they're different colors, and there's so much here, she said, but it's almost like Alice in Wonderland, and no one could have known that but the Lord. And so that's like our inside secret that I love to create with him. I love to go on adventures, even if it's just in my mind or in my spirit. Where we are in this place that is amazing. And that's where I write songs from, that's where I write books, from blogs. That's where I create things, is in this place with him. And so it's an adventure for sure. And so back to this poem that I wrote in 2019 that I want to read to you to kind of set the stage for today. So it's let's go on an adventure.
[00:06:17] And this is the Lord speaking. I see you standing there by the door with your bags packed, but so unsure where to go, what to do. Made for so much more, but your head is confused, your heart is so sure. Staring through the stained glass window, you see the beauty unfolding, but you can't leave the sanctuary. You must serve me here only, and you hear this stern warning. But I'm calling you out to a fresh adventure where it's spacious, spacious, and you can venture into the unknown with just me and a sling. To slay giants, to conquer kingdoms and dream big dreams. Let's go on an adventure, just you and I. Leave what's comfortable behind. Together we will scale great heights, accomplish the impossible. There's nothing we can't do, you and I. Me and you. It's a risky adventure.
[00:07:07] And so I love it. And so let me just read you a little bit about what adventure means.
[00:07:15] An unusual and exciting, typically hazardous experience or activity. An unusual and exciting, typically hazardous experience. It could mean to engage in hazardous and exciting activity, especially the exploration of unknown territory.
[00:07:34] And so sometimes adventuring with God is not exactly what we thought it would be. It can be. It can be unusual. So this, this can mean it's not exactly what we expected. It's not the norm or something we could have thought of on our own.
[00:07:51] It can be exciting, it's new, so it's different and interesting, maybe even fun to us, when God first calls us out. It can be a bit like a roller coaster ride to us.
[00:08:03] It can be hazardous. It can be downright dangerous to follow God sometimes. Think of all the places that God led David into in the battles. It's risky. It's risky, but it's how our faith is developed. So adventures are risky and there's a chance we can get hurt.
[00:08:22] But why should we prize our comfort and safety over what God is calling us to do?
[00:08:29] The experience will be worth it even if bad things happen. Let me say that again. The experience will be worth it even if bad things happen. So let me. Let me just. This reminds me as I'm sitting here reading this about me and my clumsiness. So I told you I like to travel. However, I have some phobias and fears that I have anxiety when I travel, and it's because I'm in an unknown place, and sometimes I'm not with the people that I want to be with or, like, my family and maybe people I don't know very well, or maybe I'm completely alone. And so it is very hard for me to relax. I take a lot of magnesium.
[00:09:15] I got it. I got a chill. I got to just really remind myself, hey, God is with me. I mean, it is. It is. It takes a lot of effort. And so because I'm in that kind of frantic state, I I'm not paying attention to my body the way I should. And a lot of times, I will hurt myself.
[00:09:35] I will fall down. I did that in the middle of New York, I don't know, probably seven or eight years ago. Literally nothing was. I'm walking in the middle of Manhattan with my daughter, and there she's in front of me, actually. And there's nothing. There's nothing for me to trip over, nothing at all.
[00:09:57] But I found myself rolling around on the ground, and, I mean, I'm, like, in so much pain. I'm thinking, I'm gonna have to go to the ER. I think I literally just dislocated my hip, and there was nothing to trip over. And then there was a lady that. That walked by. Oh, my gosh, are you okay? And she reached down to help me up. I'm so embarrassed. And my daughter's like, oh, my gosh. There she goes again. This is, like, this is the norm for me. It has been. Anyway, I've always been, you know, accident prone, and I suspect that's from my lack of paying attention to my surroundings or being so caught up in what I'm seeing or doing and just. Just not focusing on just the basics of, like, walking and paying attention. And so I used to let the enemy beat me down with that and say, hey, because you're so accident prone, you shouldn't. You shouldn't go. And let me give you another story of what happened to me.
[00:10:53] Went on a canoe kayak type thing to go down the river. This is. Gosh, this has been like 30 years ago or not even quite that long. Maybe maybe 28 or something like that. I went with the church group and everybody had their own little inner tube, and we were just going down the grueling river, I think, here in Texas. Well, that year, it just happened to be that we had had kind of a drought, and so that causes issues because the water is lower in the river and so more rocks are sticking up, so you have more chance of hitting a rock and flipping over or just hitting the rock and it being a bad situation. Right, whatever. And so everybody else, I was kind of in the back and everybody else in front of me on their tube went down this little. It looked like a small, little rapid. It wasn't a big deal. I mean, it didn't look that big to me. Well, it. It flipped me over. After I went down, I flipped over, which would have been fine, but I plunged kind of all the way to the bottom of the river, and my foot got stuck in between these two rocks and I started panicking because I couldn't get my foot out. And I just remember, like, you know, you're underwater, you're. It's terrifying, by the way, if you've ever felt like you're going to drown, it's a horrible feeling. And so this went on, I don't know, maybe 10 seconds. And then out of nowhere, I suspect it was an angel, loosened my foot, and I came up out of the water and all I could do was just crawl up onto a rock. And I'm just shuddering. I'm in so much fear and panic and I can't control my body. I mean, I literally almost died. And I had huge bruises on my foot, like stone bruises where my foot was. Had been wedged in between those two rocks. And let me tell you something, I said, I will never go down a river again.
[00:13:00] And I actually have gone down another one. And it was nothing. It was so simple and easy and it was beautiful. And I was in like, a canoe and there were no huge, you know, rapids. And so I had to decide, you know, am I gonna let that experience completely keep me from doing anything else, the next adventure that God may have for me? Or am I going to choose to say, you know what? There were some bad things that happened in that spot, but there were some good things. I mean, there were moments where it was fun. And if I focus on the things that were bad, then in my mind, I'm always going to remember that as a bad experience, which is not the way we need to look at things, right?
[00:13:45] We need to flip that and we need to say, hey, a couple of bad things happened. But, man, what I learned in that experience, who I became, the things I saw. I mean, think about it. You know, it's put it this way. Like, if you are going to climb a mountain, which I have been in some of the most beautiful mountains in Colorado, California, the Rockies are amazing. I've also been up to Washington state and been in that mountain range.
[00:14:16] So, I mean, of course, a lot of these mountains, these parks, these national parks have trails, you know? And, I mean, you might think, oh, that's easy. It's a trail. Well, let me tell you something. If you're from Texas and you don't live in the altitude and you live at sea level almost, you get out of breath and it's not as easy as you think. And so there's a little bit of a struggle, you know, of, hey, I don't know if I can make it up this mountain type thing, you know, and. But I decided a long time ago that I wasn't gonna let that stop me. And I have depth perception issues. So I think that's another reason that I trip and fall sometimes is because I can't tell how far something is. And that has to do with me having a lazy eye.
[00:15:03] So because my right eye is weak, it doesn't always.
[00:15:06] I can't gauge things well, and I'll have panic attacks in Dallas or driving somewhere. I flew out to Lake Tahoe a few years ago, rented a car by myself, and stayed for ten days, and it was amazing.
[00:15:24] It was actually easier to drive out in Tahoe than it. Than it is to drive in Dallas. But I've had panic attacks when I drive like that by myself because. Especially at night, because I can't. I can't tell where.
[00:15:38] How close I am to something, you know? And that's. That can be terrifying. Can't see in your driving. Right. And I'm probably making it a bigger deal than it is because I really think I can. I think I'm just. Just. There's just a lot of fear surrounding that because I've told myself, you can't do this. Right. I didn't grow up in a environment where we drove a lot in big cities, so it kind of just terrified me when I finally started doing that, you know, because where I live now, it's like 10,000 people in the city I live in, the Tyler has about 100 and something, so. And I drive in Tyler all the time, but it was definitely an experience. And, but I can't let that stop me because what would I be missing out on if I always made an excuse about why I can't do the next thing God is asking me to do or inviting me, let's say it that way, inviting you into.
[00:16:33] So you've got to think as these things that God brings to you as an adventure and not an obligation, something he wants to partner with you to do. So that means if he's partnering with you, he's doing it with you. You are not doing it alone. He is with you the whole time. And so that changes the dynamic, right when you are setting out to do something new, risky, dangerous, whatever it might be. And so you can feel like, okay, I'm all alone in this, I'm terrified. But if God's telling you to do it, you're not alone. He's with you. And you have to, you have to constantly remind yourself of that so that you don't become overwhelmed and decide to give up. I was going to read proverbs three, five and six real quick.
[00:17:29] Trust in the Lord completely and do not rely on your own opinions. Your own opinion might be, I'm terrified and this is too hard and I can't do it. And this is, I don't want to do this adventure. I don't want to go to the river and ride the rapids. I don't want to go to a new city by myself. I don't want to start this new business that God's telling me to do. I don't want to because I can't do it, or I don't want to go back to college. If the Lord's been telling you to go back to school, I don't want to start this ministry. God's telling me, sorry, I could go on and on and on.
[00:18:01] Whatever this thing is, stop seeing it as some kind of thing he's forcing you to do and see it as an adventure. He wants to go on with you. You've got to change your opinion and not rely on your opinion of it's going to be bad and always expect the worst thing to happen. So let's. Let me start this again. Trust in the Lord completely. And do not rely on your own opinions with all your heart. Rely on him to guide you, and he will lead you in every decision you make. Become intimate with him in whatever you do, and he will lead you wherever you go. And I love this because as you're reading it, it says, he will lead you in every decision you will make, and he will lead you wherever you go. So he's leading you. I love that this scripture says that twice. That he's not only just leading you in decision, but he's leading you where to go as well as you become intimate with him. And whatever you do, he's invited into it. And I want to challenge you. I always say that. I feel like I'm always saying I'm going to challenge you to a duel or something. You know, that's what it sounds like. But I want to encourage you to say, lord, what is your next big adventure for me? Because you may be in a place where you don't think God has any more adventures for you. Like, you know, you're settled, you're comfortable. You're in your beautiful, comfortable home. You've got your normal eight to five job, or maybe you're retired, or maybe you're a stay at home, stay at home mom, or maybe you are a business owner, or maybe, maybe you're in school right now, in college.
[00:19:43] You're doing the thing, the normal life. There's been no. There's been no pursuit on your part of asking God, like, what is the next adventure you have for me? Because you think maybe he just doesn't have anymore. And, you know, I am sitting out here at my friend's cabin. She owns about four cabins out here behind her beautiful log cabin out in Hallsville, kind of outside of Longview and in Texas. And she has a fantastic ministry. She writes books, she writes blogs. She is also a gifted songwriter, worship leader, minister. She travels all over the world doing amazing things, things that I would love to be able to do. But you know what? She had to take the risk, right? And so if you feel like there are things you want to do, then you're going to have to take the risk. And so I came out here because relaunching this podcast, relaunching kind of my ministry after going through the trauma that I talked about in my first episode. If you haven't listened to that, go back and listen. It'll make more sense. Been through a lot in the last few years, so took some time off, and now it started stirring within me again that God wanted to go on another adventure with me. And I had thought, you know what? Before that, I thought, all my adventures are done. I'll just work in eight to five the rest of my life because all the other doors had shut for me concerning music. And even, you know, I tried to get published as an author. I tried to grow in that way, too, that that didn't pan out. I mean, it just seemed like every time I tried to do something, there was another shut door. And I'm just like, okay, I'm done with trying to go on adventures because I can't keep damaging my heart, you know, over and over and over. And so I had just settled into, okay, you're just gonna do your regular mortgage lending job, which I'm grateful for. And I love to help people in that way, too. But I still had these other dreams in my heart of wanting to create music, wanting to create this podcast, wanting to create resources for people and studies and online classes that you can take. I mean, I have so many ideas that I've been sitting on and just thought, you know what? God doesn't want to go on an adventure with me anymore.
[00:22:09] And then I started feeling it starting again, which, of course, those are lies, and I want to tell you those are lies. If you've been believing that, that you settle into normal and you're done with adventures, I am praying that God shakes your world up and invites you onto another adventure and lead you into some new decisions and some new places.
[00:22:33] As a matter of fact, I tattooed my wrist back in 2021. It was the first tattoo I'd ever gotten. I haven't gotten any more since then, but this one, I wanted it in a place where I could see it. So I put it on my left wrist on the inside, and it says, spirit, lead me. Because in that season of my life, I needed the Lord to lead me in every decision and to lead me wherever I was supposed to go, because we were definitely on an adventure. Remember, I said, you know, when you read the definition of adventure, sometimes it says, it can be dangerous. It can be risky. And so I'm in that season, you know, I was in that season of my life where it was dangerous. It was risky. I was having to start my life completely over from scratch after getting a divorce and never having had to support myself financially, having to figure out how I was going to do that.
[00:23:33] And it was one of those seasons where I felt the Lord so strongly, but it was also scary, and it was an adventure, because I think an adventure is both exciting but scary at the same time. Right? And that's what keeps us alive. I think it's that balance between something being exciting but also being a little dangerous. You know, it really reminds us that we are alive for a reason.
[00:24:06] And so that is how I ended up here. This weekend at my friend's cabin was me seeking the Lord and saying, okay, what adventure do you have next? And over this, the last couple days, he's definitely been pouring into me. I've only been here less than 24 hours, but in that, in the last 24 hours, I definitely have felt him whispering things to me and inviting me into new adventures for specific songs and books that I want to to start writing and partnering, co laboring with him on to release to you and anyone else that needs to hear it.
[00:24:47] And it's coming from what we've been through the last couple of years, me and him together, the things I've been through with him. And I feel that he wants me to share what came of that and my relationship with him and the hope that comes from that coming, you know, the grief that you walk through, but the hope that comes out of it once you get on the other side of it.
[00:25:08] So I just want to. I just want to encourage you again, you know, go on that next adventure. What is that next adventure for you? Pray about it. Seek God. Go on a retreat, go on a sabbatical, spend a couple days.
[00:25:23] I promise you, it might feel at first that you are like not getting anywhere. But if you will continue to seek the Lord, you will hear from him. He will answer you.
[00:25:35] And I hope that you do that soon. If you do, drop me an email or something. My email is shanna strange.net with one n. So Shana strange.net or Shanna strange.net dot drop me an email. I would love to hear from you. I'd love to know what came out of your retreat and what God showed you.
[00:25:57] As always, please subscribe to my podcast, like share, whatever. Give me some great ratings. If this is helping you also go to my website shannonstrange.net. you're going to find resources there. I think I even have a blog post about this. I will try to find that and bring that back up to the top, maybe republish it or something.
[00:26:20] Find that there's other resources there. I have books, I have a couple of different books there that you can buy. I've got songs you can listen to and you can also listen to my old podcast. So that's it for today. Be blessed guys. I will see you next time.
