There For
A Throwback Episode Blog by Julia Sifers
Julia wrote this blog back in 2010, when COVID hit hard. She was living in Germany at the time, right where and when it was all beginning. She listened to our podcast faithfully and truly is the “fan girl” that she calls herself, as you will see in this blog. And this specific episode, released on April 10th, after listening she had something worth writing about. Here’s some things she learned:
"the word 'therefore' is there for(e) a reason." -P. Allen
I was just on one of my semi-daily runs and decided to catch up on a podcast instead of my usual run playlist (happy upbeat music that keep my runs energetic and peppy.) Podcast runs distract my brain from thinking about the work of the run and just enjoy the company of my modern day radio show.
One of my favorite podcasts is She Speaks Stories. It was started by Susan Wanderer and Katie Hawkins (who was one of my mama's bffs and someone who is easy to look up to and feel like you belong in her company at the same time.) She has friendly humble wisdom. So her, coupled with Susan (who I haven't met yet) but from what I've gathered from the podcast, is a passionate and exciting soul. She is literally powered up with gospel truth and turns this fuel into action; the going and doing kind. They have added Portia Allen to their team (another gal I don't know personally) but her calm sense of listening and ability to take the stories and add the application to it is equal parts incredible and soothing. It brings the story from "wow that's cool." to truth you can apply to your life. The three personalities combined are dynamic.
Anyway. "Stories change lives" is their motto and I'm 100% on board with this. The have had many guest on their podcast. Some are known and some not-as-known, but they all come and speak their stories of hard times or empowering times or stories from their lives. Each episode has one thing in common: Jesus is the hero of the story.
Many times I've been running and listening and I'm hustling, so I'm drenched in sweat but also covered in goosebumps from the power of the words spoken. This podcast is life changing.
Today, on this specific episode, Chesed Dent is their returning guest, and talks about how God has prepared her for the chaos surrounding her personal story of COVID-19. She explains that years prior to this time, God has grounded her feet in scripture (two very specific passages) and with these two footholds she has been able to measure and gauge her attitude and approach to the days, especially the hard ones.
(Listen in: episode #91)
One of the verses Chesed mentions is 1 Corinthians 15: 58, which is:
Therefore, my dear brothers and sister, be stead fast, immovable, always excelling in the Lord's work, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
Chesed explains that this verse starts with the word "therefore" because it's referring to the previous 57 verses in that chapter, ALL of which are talking about the resurrection of Christ. Because He defeated death we can always excel in the Lord's work.
Her story is exciting and inspiring. It challenged me to find my own verses of grounding (more on that later) but my heart got distracted with the word "therefore" and as if she heard me go "ooo but that word, therefore..." moments later on the episode she mentioned that THEREFORE is on a wooden sign in her office, because it's a red flag, a word of importance. It's begging the reader to really go back and reread that part before it and really see that it matters.
