What is happiness? // S06E04

Happy lies, what are they? And what is the difference between worldly happiness and what happiness is with God? Being a Christian isn’t freedom from pain, worry, or sadness but it is freedom knowing that God has the final say and it will all work out for good. Freedom that walking with Him will lead you to eternal joy, everlasting and never fleeting. In this episode, we discuss happy lies, lies that make you feel like you’re on top of the world, but really lead to destruction and disappointment.

More About Our Guests

Micaela Deegan

Instagram | Facebook Group | The Fearless Mujer Podcast | Coffee, Jeans and Jesus Podcast

Shawn Quintero

Instagram | Facebook | The Heck Yes Podcast

Nick Ruffin

Instagram | YouTube | Vantage Point Podcast

VERSES FROM HAPPY LIES:

Proverbs 3:13, Jeremiah 17:9, 1 Thessalonians 5:16, Ephesians 4 22, Psalms 13, and Ephesians 6:12.

QUESTIONS FROM HAPPY LIES:

• What is happiness?
• What is joy?
• How to live happily?

QUOTES FROM HAPPY LIES:

“So like putting the pursuit of happiness, above all things, it’s a lie rooted in fluffy language, like think of a toddler, right? Think of them, leaving them alone to do whatever makes them happy for like an hour and just see what happens. Will they even still be alive? Will they be okay? It’s probably all up in the air because what we do just for happiness does not reflect what happens in the long term.”

Michelle Watson, The Pantry Podcast, Happy Lies S06E04.

“He recognizes the weariness. He said it. Come to me those who are weary. So it’s an expectation. He weeps with us. He has emotion to that emotion. That heavenly emotion is okay. You know, are you letting the emotion drive your train? Or are you, the train is the word of God?”

Shea Watson, The Pantry Podcast, Happy Lies S06E04.

“For anybody listening, just know, there’s always hope that passes understanding there’s hope there, strength and there’s access that God is waiting there with open arms, ready to embrace you, daughter, son, loved one.”

Shawn Quintero, The Pantry Podcast, Happy Lies S06E04.

“And if you’re not spending time with him, how, how can that bring into your minds? You know? And so that’s the problem with the culture that we live in, that everything is at your fingertips. It’s like a microwave society. People are living in a culture where I want that. So when things get too hard with Jesus, you don’t want them anymore.”

Micaela Deegan, The Pantry Podcast, Happy Lies S06E04.

“When I have peace from God, nothing can shake my peace. Nothing can shake my joy, I can lose all the money. I can lose all the fame. I can lose all fortune. I can be all that. But when I have joy, happiness is secondary to them because it supersedes happiness, joy supersedes it because we’re finding these things that just come and go like fleet and disbelief.”

Nick Ruffin, The Pantry Podcast, Happy Lies S06E04.

Annotated Transcript:

Michelle: What lies do you cling to? Because they offer up some happiness. What lies about happiness or holding you down? God puts happiness in his place and offers up something better. This week. We brought a whole crew to help you heal from happy lies.

Shea: Hey, I’m Shea.

Michelle: And I’m Michelle.

Shea: There’s a battle being waged. It’s not flesh, it’s not blood, it’s spiritual, and we need to be prepared. The last thing a warrior wants on the battlefield is spiritual anemia. When the enemy attacks we need to be prepared

Michelle: We don’t always realize where the attacks are coming from or that we’re being attacked at all. This is the pantry podcast, and we’re here to remind you of who we answer to what we’re capable of, and how we are called to do it in every aspect of our lives.

Shea: This is season six, rewired when you’re saved, you’re saved for good, we all experienced sanctification differently. The more we grow in our relationship with the Lord, the more he transforms and renews our minds. The more we cut the cords of this world, the more we’re charged up in him this season, we’re arming you with the sermon of some of the culture’s most toxic snares

Michelle: Support our ministry, reaching the lost and found in over 50 countries with spiritual and literal nutrition. Every one-time and recurring donation makes a lasting impact, donate through Patreon or pantrypodcast.com. And now let’s dig into the meal.

Shea: Hey, Pantry fam. This is going to be an episode full of fruits. Bear with us. We had to pull the audio off a live stream because of some technical difficulties, man, enjoy the show.

Shea: Yo, this is exciting

Michelle: Tonight. I agree with you times 10,

Shea: Come on, we have a group. And we’re going to be talking about happy lies. Look at the world, people lie. The enemy lies, man. We get a false sense of security, false happiness, where do these, where do these lies come from? You know, these happy lies, these lies that make us want to feel like you’re on top of the world, really it’s destruction. And you know, the first it took me to is Proverbs 3:13, bless it is the one who finds wisdom. And the one who gets understanding, we have to know the truth. We have to know the difference between joy and happy life.

Michelle: We decided not to do this alone at the very last minute. So we’re coming to you. We’re recording this life from the National-Religious broadcasting Christian media convention by way of the spark Christian podcast conference. Now that’s a mouthful to say twice, we have teamed up with some of our friends that we were so pumped to finally meet in person and hug. So I’m going to let them introduce themselves and then we’re going to run with it.

Micaela Deegan: I am the host of the fearless mujer podcast. I’m originally the host of the coffee jeans and Jesus podcast. And my mission is to empower women to know that God created them with a purpose and that he loves them.

Natalie Deegan: I’m Natalie and I don’t have a podcast, I’m here. I’m also 12.

Micaela Deegan: She’s my daughter.

Shawn Quintero: Hey Sean I’m the host of the heck yes. Podcast. And I am a business coach and so glad to be here.

Nick Ruffin: Hey, this is Nick Ruffin, Vantage Point Podcast, where we bring keys perspective and insight today, living through the lens of God. I’m so glad to be here with friends all the way in Grapevine, Texas, as you can

Michelle: See, we have an amazing powerhouse here and I want to just start us off with Jeremiah 17:9 the human heart is the most deceitful of all things and desperately wicked, who really knows how bad it is. And then 9:6, they pile lie upon lie and utterly refused to acknowledge me, says the Lord. So like putting the pursuit of happiness, above all things, it’s literally a lie rooted in elevating happiness. And it’s a serious issue, even though it’s coded in a fluffy language, like think of a toddler, right? Think of them, leaving them alone to do whatever makes them happy for like an hour and just see what happens. Will they even still be alive? Will they be okay? It’s probably all up in the air because what we do just for happiness does not reflect what happens in the long term.

Micaela Deegan: You know, the enemy has a way of making. It’s almost like an illusion and you’re not really seeing the reality of what’s really happening. You know, I got divorced from my husband or we got divorced from each other and we got remarried. Throughout that period, I was convinced that even God didn’t want him to be happy. So the enemy has a way of lying and that, oh yeah. You know, because I love God, this is the right. In actuality, you’re deceiving yourself because, in your heart, that really goes against God. At the end of the verse, it says that we have to take to make every thought captive.

Nick Ruffin: Above all things don’t lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own life is a lie. All these things lie to us and the church to a degree. And then we get to the point where we lie to ourselves. Now I’m lying to myself based on my lies. What is true or what is, what is God? What is not? So for me, it’s like understanding what is happy for me. And then what is the line? Like I hear this lie, then I get happy. That’s a lot how that real happiness or joy, like we talked about earlier. So that’s kind of where my head is starting off in this, all of the lies that we’ve been told over time. I mean, I’m 38 and I can go back and forth on lies from family, friends, church culture, right? The private sector, public, everything, military, you know, all those things. A lot of up until that put me in this relation to figure out, okay, who am I? And what’s going on? What am I supposed to do? And so it’s just to be talking about it this is so timely because just because we’re Christian doesn’t mean we don’t get lied to

Shea: The more lies we’ve been exposed to, the more sometimes we have to unpack these lines. oftentimes based on the circumstances around us or what is happening around us, which means that our happiness, is a fleeting experience with emotion as a human experience. And yet it’s something we cannot put our trust in. So oftentimes we find that we try to find our freedom, our peace of mind from something that is always fleeting and the only way, the only source of our happiness or our freedom and our peace has to come from God. I’m reminded of 1 Thessalonians 5:16 which is joy. Your continual feast. And we know joy is a fruit of the spirit in the fruit of the spirit is always, uh, obtained simply by spending time with God. When you spend time with God, when you are rooted in what God is doing, the fruit begins to appear. It’s literally an effect. The side effect of spending time. with God. The more time you spend with God, the more you are aware of who he is and what he has planned when you are more capable of understanding the solid things, not your circumstantial things, the solid things that God has called us to. The more joyful you can be and you no longer have to rely on happiness for freedom and for peace of mind.

Micaela Deegan: I think also our culture teaches us that we have to chase money, chase success. If you really think about it, we don’t always have happy days just because we’re Christians. Some of us are struggling with mental illness. Some of us are just going through a lot of what we really have to seek is peace and the joy that God gives us. I wanted to just share really quick, Ephesians 4:22, it, you were taught with regard to the former way of life to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires to be made new in the attitude of your minds. And to put on the new self-created to be like God, in true righteousness and holiness. When we understand that we are truly a new creation, we don’t have to go back to really believe it was lives because that’s what they are, is their lives. And you’ve adopted them. You’ve embraced them. You’ve literally put these lies on like clothing, the real freedom is, and knowing that I don’t have to think the way I used to. If that, if that brought you out of being a drunk, right? I was a party girl. I was suicidal. I jumped from relationship to relationship. I don’t have to do that because I belong to Jesus. And I think that when Christians are playing with the world, like today, I want to be a Christian, tomorrow I want to sleep with my boyfriend. This problem. You’re lying to yourself. When you peak that you have to be like a world and we’re not supposed to look like the world. And in today’s culture, people aren’t going to like us. So it’s like, you really have to decide, do you want to be a Christian? That you’re going to go through the hard things with Jesus because the Bible says that we’re going to suffer. It’s not like rainbows and butterflies. You know, like everybody thinks it is, either just decide what I’m saying is stop being lukewarm. Like, I’m just going to say, right. Let’s decide if you want to play with the world, go play with the world. If you’re going to be with Jesus, you got to die to yourself. Yeah.

Nick Ruffin: And I think if something you said, and I think thinking about happiness versus Jordan, and what I’ve found is just like, you talked about like searching. It’s like searching for a feeling I’m searching for happiness in everything I do. My job will bring me happiness. This relationship we’ve been having all the money in the world to bring the happiness, all the notoriety in the world where we meet at being missed, which is a feeling. But they enjoy though. That’s something like, I put it with peace. It’s like, when I have peace from God, nothing can shake my peace. Nothing can shake my joy, I can lose all the money. I can lose all the fame. I can lose all fortune. I can be all that. When I have joy, happiness is secondary to them because it supersedes happiness, joy supersedes it because we’re finding these things that just come and go like fleet and disbelief. It’s common gold. And I can think as you said, it’s up one day down the next. And then I talked to people who are Christians who read the word one day. I’m happy. I’m just shopping.

Speaker 3 00:11:37 I’m like, man, if people out here to say that seem happy all the time, they got joy and they don’t even have joy, you got something. When you come in Christian, it’s like, oh my gosh, like I have to gel. Now it’s a, do you understand who you serve? You understand in these moments, he still there, even though he’s looking at you like, oh man, I wonder, I wonder sometimes. So like, okay, this is a whole nother podcast because no, I think that sometimes, okay, I’m not Christians, right? Yeah. We get off on the struggle. We get off on a struggle. It’s like, it’s like a struggle, wait, how come? Why can’t we just leave? Yeah. I always try to live in that victory. Like it’s like, yeah, I hear it too. It’s like, oh, I got Jesus. And it’s like, now you’ve achieved something.

Shea: It comes up in the morning. I’m not saying that we’re perfect. That’s not what I’m saying. I feel like there’s an algorithm in that says struggling, then overcoming. And how many times we’ve overcome, hasn’t established or we do. We just stop in that faith. Does that make sense? False face. There are people, you can share these with those people in cash. You don’t want to go to church and share things with everybody. Now you find those people that are strong with you. They’re with you. When you’re going through a struggle, you bring them into it. We don’t just run out in the world, I was drunk, but not, I don’t wanna look like I don’t want to look like the rest of the world is chasing and chasing and chasing and chasing, chasing. I chased, I chase this amazing once price to solidify.

Shea Watson: I started getting nothing because I don’t need anything. I don’t need that new, you know, those new Jordans or I don’t need that next car. You know, I think about race cars, evil 10, you know, fast car that kept building it up fast and fast. And you get up to 300/400, about five, 600 mpg. And like at 300, you’re not satisfied anymore. 500. You don’t need that anymore. And it was like nothing satisfied. This is the one thing the rock is salvation is the one satisfied me for I’m like, let me just start getting rid of things because I don’t need them anymore

Shawn Quintero: That’s something that’s missing from the conversation as well. And Believer’s talking about happiness is the importance of giving yourself space and not shame yourself for not always being taught here. Things are going to be different. For example, I was, I remember I had had an aunt who lost her husband 50 years during the Memorial. She was crying obviously, and somebody who is a believer. And when I turned and said, Hey, stop crying. You’re being a bad witness. You’re supposed to be happy and joyful. And we don’t give each other permission to grieve. And the Bible is very clear. Celebrate with those who celebrate and grieve and weep with those who are grieving, experience a wide range of emotions, and give yourself permission. Because if you push it down, then oftentimes what’s going to happen is it’s going to explode and reveal itself in ways that are unhealthy. There’s, there’s a healthy way to feel the emotions has given us. And what I find is in those moments where we’re not happy, where we find truth and wisdom that we never would have for consistently happy all the time. And there is a comfort that you could never experience unless you were overwhelmed. There’s a piece that couldn’t come unless you were, you were feeling anxious. And so there’s an opportunity for you to give yourself that space and just go to that and say, this is what I’m feeling today. Who do you want to be to me today?

Shea Watson: How do you want to comfort me? What insight do you want to give three? This emotion that I’m experiencing, we’ve gotta have that compassion broken down, throw the Bible and be like, thinking that like fourth-dimensional thinking is a beautiful place to reside in your personal walk. I want to apply integrates. I want to be, you know, apply instead of joy. Those are the things you work on yourself. Like in reality, we are still here. I love that you brought that up.

Michelle Watson: I’m glad you brought up the fourth dimension because there’s a difference between living in the fourth dimension, which is like, okay, I’m in this like a perpetual place where emotion has like, it’s pretty much nothing. And then there’s having an eternal mindset and he rewires us for an eternal mindset. When you have the eternal mindset, things that are temporal lose value, and things that are eternal gain value, joy has eternal value. Things like happiness sadness. They have temporal value. So it’s not that they no longer matter, it’s that your emotions take the proper rank. Like in the world, in the temporal, we don’t know how to experience or navigate eternity. So we just kind of brush it off, ignore it, hopes it goes away. And instead, we’re like, okay, this is how I feel right now. It adds nuance, it’s not the thing that guides everything.

Michelle Watson: It’s like a smoke detector. And you’re like, this is how I tell if something’s healthy, not healthy in me and someone else, whatever.

Shawn: Reading Psalms 13. And it says, I’m hurting. Lord, will you forget me forever? How much longer Lord will you look the other way when I’m in need, how much longer must they claim to this constant grief? I’ve injured the shaking of my soul. So how much longer will the enemy have the upper hand? And it’s, it’s such a great reminder that we can go to God with all of the emotion, not just, oh, I’m a Christian. I have to be happy a hundred percent of the time, we can literally go to God with our hurt.

Shea And what’s really amazing about the songs are at the very end of almost every single song it ends with this. This is Psalms 13. I will sing my song of joy to you. Y’all wait for in all of this, all of this emotion, you have strengthened me. My enemies say that I have no savior, I know that I have one in you. So we always go to God with our emotions, we don’t leave with it. We always leave with joy and strength and freedom. God, just put a question on my heart. And there are so many people that when something happens, you want to call somebody and tell them what’s happening, you’re not running to your father to tell him what’s happening. As someone who has battled depression, suicidal thoughts, the whole rewiring life. It’s, it’s really like something. It’s a scientific thing too, that something literally happens to your brain, to your neurons, everything up there, right?

Micaela Deegan: And if you’re not spending time with him, how, how can that bring into your minds? Do you know? And so that’s the problem with the culture that we live in, that everything is at your fingertips. It’s like a microwave society. People are living in a culture where I want that. So when things get too hard with Jesus, you don’t want them anymore. You know, for me, I wasn’t going to church. When I got saved, I was sitting on my couch. Jesus freed me from suicide, from partying, from going to the strip clubs. You know, it’s, you got to spend time with him because if you’re running to your aunt and your cousin and your sister, and you’re always running to your pastor, we have our father.

Micaela Deegan: We don’t have to go to a person. We can literally be on our bed and tell Jesus, I’m struggling. I need your help. If you’re not running to him, you know, and the problem is like, what you were saying earlier, I’m struggling, I’m struggling. We give so much glory to the enemy. What will the enemy do this week? The enemy did this week. That’s why I can overcome my loss. That’s why I can overcome this. Um, are you even going to God? Are you even talking to them about it? God knows. You’re struggling with loss. Obviously, someone needs to hear, because I keep saying the word loss, sorry,
Ephesians 6:12 for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, against the rulers, against the authorities against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. There are so many Christians living life. We’re not in spiritual warfare, so it’s okay to jump on, you know, all this transgender stuff. It’s okay because that’s what culture is doing. What if that tells you that it’s not okay? Are you okay with that? Do you know? And so I think that’s the problem. We’re not running to that. And so we’re looking, we’re believing the happy lies that I’m a Christian, I still want people to like me. If you’re really here to be alive on this earth, people aren’t going to like you a lot of times. It’s because you don’t realize that when you do realize it and you try to ignore it, you can’t just ignore it. It’s like having shackles on your feet all the time. And as you progress in life to get heavier, because you’re just ignoring it and you’re not giving it to God.

Natalie Deegan: A lot of times there are people above you who like your leaders because they’re always correct and they’re always going to be smarter than you. And they’re just shoving things down your throat.

Shea Watson: And it’s like, it’s like, they’re going to their father. They’re going, you know, to the mother. I’m saying, why are we like daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy. And you know, some people forgot that he got like, geez, my crush. I’m cool. Jesus is my friend. I want to call on daddy because I call him a world too many times. You know, we all have a story. I know everybody sitting here has a story. Everybody has something that they’ve gone through. Our testimonies become a central point or a focal point where people could see Christ working. You know, we’re not sitting here on this house saying we’re not broken. We’re not sitting on these couches and sitting in a circle saying that we have no problems. That like, we’re just good. God promised me with it. But if we don’t, when we sit in that and we don’t allow him to do work, I like what you’re saying, do we call him? Are we chasing him? You know, it says, all you who are weary. Right.

Shea Watson: He says, and it’s like, what? Okay, washes. He recognizes the weariness. He said it. He said, oh, you who are weary. Come to me. And you’ll find, so it’s an expectation. He weeps with us. He has emotion to that emotion. That heavenly emotion is okay. You know, are you letting the emotion drive your train? Or are you, the train is like the word of God. Right. And everything in between it, his work. And that, there’s where my emotion sits is in the caboose. Because once I go through truth through wisdom, now I’m in the caboose of my emotion. Now my emotion is aligned with God’s emotion. And he’s like, okay, here we are. Now I can do a mighty work. I really liked what you said about putting too much into the authorities. Because we think when we read that verse about the armor of God, it’s the authorities that were against evil doors.

Michelle Watson: But when you put too much into clout, when you put too much into, oh, they have this many followers. So I listen, you can so quickly because no, one’s perfect. And so it says, test all things against the word of God, right? So if you’re sitting there, even with believers and one, they’re not all wolves in sheep’s clothing, if they get it wrong sometimes, but that’s why God says everyone will get it wrong. And then there’s some that are always wrong. It’s your job to go test it on time. Like the influence was the people that we listen to because they’ve got the cloud, they got the followers, they got the fame, they got the book. It’s like, okay, well that person’s okay with this, whatever it is, everyone has the thing. They’ve kind of compromised to some degree. They’re okay with this. So I’m going to use that as justification. And then I’m the one that has to live in that decision. When we focus on going to God, I mean, with Shea, I didn’t tell anyone. We were even considering dating until we were dating and kind of sure that we were going to stay through and get engaged, get married because I did not want anyone else to take the decision because I had asked God to give me the information. And then I released it. Right. I launched, I launched an item or marketing skills,

Michelle Watson: But when I did it right, I was like, I am so certain of what gods that if a friend that I love and care about is like, don’t like, well, that’s, that’s unfortunate. Maybe you will. Maybe you won’t. You’re like your happiness with my choice is not dictate. The choice I have and the obedience I have and the commitment I have.

Micaela Deegan: That just reminded me of what I teach women. God has put something on your heart. And so many times people are like, well, I don’t know if it was God or if it was me, well, if you’re not spending time with God, you’re not going to know that it caused we know the voice of God. When we spend time with God, your daughter knows your voice over somebody else’s because she’s with you. If you’re going to chase something and God’s not in it because you’re following someone, you think it’s cool. Look, I’m going to tell you to do that. You’re not spending time with him. How do you even know what God told you or what you’re supposed to do? And that’s a lot of what’s happening today. I feel this way. And tomorrow I feel this way, you’re never solid. You never have that solid foundation. And those are happy lies. I think something you said, just stuck out to me. Like, why don’t we go to that? Right? Why does that our first response really? Because we’re creatures of habit. Think about it. Like however long you’ve been doing the way you do it, right. Going to the past or going to your friend and going to yourself in your own head. Right. And then you become, get one with God and you get a relationship.

Nick: And people think as soon as I do that, it’s all good now it’s all. I don’t want to have to go to anybody else anymore. I don’t goddess. Like I didn’t. I mean, I know for me, um, I like to say I got saved at 16. I got saved at 23 and I got real serious at 30. But what I found out was I had to learn how to go to him first. I had to build muscle memory to do that. I had to undo the happy lies I had to get in a relationship with them. And I think that’s the biggest thing. Just had this conversation. We talked about it, um, for both of my daughter, um, about people who I’m good at salvation, I’m good. I gave my life to Christ. I got my ticket. And I said it to her just like that. There are people walking around and just got a ticket and you know what? That’s cool. You want to have it congratulations. If that’s all God wanted you to do, none of us would be sitting here. Podcasting people listening would not be listening to this. And it wouldn’t be a word to be given to people because he wants a relationship with us. And the deeper you get into the relationship with him, he’ll show you how to come. And so cast your cares becomes a real thing. And I’ve told people, look, if you’re feeling how you’re feeling, whatever that emotion is, sad, happy, angry, whatever it is, go to God, cast that thing to him in prayer. And if you say amen, and you still feel anxious, don’t turn back around, get back down there and talk to him again. Because when I say amen, that is it. I am giving it to him. He’s exchanged that anxiety for peace.

Nick Ruffin: He’s exchanged that anger for joy. Cause that’s not how that works. He didn’t say, oh, I’m sorry. Well, no, you can still leave angry after you gave it to me. That’s not how that works. We have to build that muscle memory. We have to build the discipline to go because that first time because I’m proud. I would love to know like if there’s even a statistic like that, how long after you get saved that you get mad. Like here you go on yours. And then the next day somebody cut you off or the next hour somebody says, and you just gave your life and what are you doing? Right. And people be like, oh my God, I just did that. I did it too. Probably. And I’ve been rolling with him for a minute and I still get mad. I still want to put somebody out. Right. Does that mean I’m going to hell no, that means I’m human? I need to have emotion. It’s just, how do I react to the actions of the world? And when I learned that, oh, I can go to you. I don’t have to go to the pastor. I don’t have. Cause if you might go to a church, you can’t access your pastor like that. Right. So you got to talk to three people in his armor, bearer her armor-bearer, and five other people in an email, triple kit. And then you might get to sit with him. And by that time trying to figure something out, I need to talk to us.

Nick Ruffin: No, got some sense. He telling, you know, you should’ve talked to God because that’s all I’m gonna tell you. What did God tell you? He told me to talk to you. No, he didn’t tell you to talk to me. He told you to talk to me. So why can’t you because you supposed to be in a relationship with him? So when I get a relationship with you, oh, I don’t really know anger. That’s a pivot to God, right? That’s a pivot to God’s sadness. That’s a pivot to God. I ain’t going to my mom and talking about that. Because again, that could have been some of the happy lines you’re going to get. You don’t need to be with them anyway. Why? Every time I come to you, you tell me I don’t need to be with them, I’m hearing reconciliation. Right? You keep telling me because that’s what you went through because of your conviction, not mine. You can only give people can only give you advice to the extent of their relationship. They can’t go beyond that. So a be at level five with God, you know, then how can they, you, you want love team with, I’m just saying level day level

Nick Ruffin: But if they on this level with the Yuki going to them, they can only give you a revelation to this point. But if you appeal it, God, why are you lowering your expectation of what God can do based on who you need to go to, go to the one who made go to the one who created you go to the one that you just reaffirmed and created through salvation. But again, it takes a relationship.

Natalie Deegan: I was thinking like a lot of people that put on a mask in church, they go into church doing all these things but then they leave the church and are a whole different person. They think it’s a little thing but sin is sin.

Shea Watson: Wisdom in children is amazing, sin is sin. These are truth pills.

Shawn Quintero: So I want to go back to a happy life. And oftentimes we grow up believing what other people tell us because they are authority figures in our kids. What they say is true. And so we grow up believing people who are hurt and are trying to hurt others who have our best interest at heart, but having limited perspectives and say things to us that we then accept as true. And then we grow up believing these things to be true without really having gone back to reevaluate is what they said, what God has called us to live, or was that them speaking. And oftentimes there’s a wide range of people who are walking around, filled with truth. They believe it to be true. And it’s lies. And oftentimes it’s also shamed because shame says if you knew who I really was if you knew when it really felt you wouldn’t like me, you wouldn’t accept me.

Shawn Quintero: You wouldn’t feel compassion for me. And so everyone feels like they have to put this mask on. I have to put what you think I should be, as opposed to who God has called me to be. And that mask, then we believe that putting on that mask will make us happy. If we’re just accepted by people. If everyone likes us, then we’ll be happy. And so I have to be what everyone else wants me to be, as opposed to what God has called me to be. And yet the Bible is very clear. We are a new creation when we become a new creation, this transformation that takes place. But oftentimes that transformation is a process. You’re not like some people instantaneously and I’ll use it as my health journey. Sometimes people go on two weeks and they’ve lost 30 pounds. And I don’t know, how’d you do that?
Shawn Quintero: Cause like two weeks in, I gained two pounds. And so it’s a different process for every single person. And so we have to give people grace to go through the process of transformation at the same time. It’s also a question of perspective because when I focus on myself, I can become very anxious. I can become very nerve-wracking, but then when I focused on who he is, all of that gets released. And so the question I remember having grown up, being fully going through the process of, you know, having scars on my wrist, still to prove how little value I gave my life. There was a prayer that I used to pray, which has got, why me? Why, why did I have to deal with this? Why did why this pain? And I remember not shifting that. And he said, why not you? Why can’t you be a shining light? The testimony, a story of my goodness and my love for you, and the transformation I have available, not just to you, but for everyone else. And that shifted my perspective to a victim mentality from a victim mentality to a soldier, a battle that I’m waging that I don’t have to participate in. I just, I just have to like, Hey God, what are you going to do today? And how are you going to show up? How are you going to transform? And so when you change that perspective, the lens by which you’ve used situations, the lens by which you view the pain and the challenges, shifts, and changes. And now you can see the world in a much more like Michelle mentioned. Uh, yeah, like as we’re getting ready to wrap, right? We’re getting that mask. As you’re talking that mask hides your outward because you’re putting on a front, it doesn’t hide the emotion and the strain that’s going on inside of you.

Shea: It’s like, you’re just putting a covering. You could talk to the man who looked for fixes a whole life was a fixed. And it goes back like you’re talking shame when we had a conversation earlier about this and I told you not to be Adam or Eve know the garden, but like that was my shame of thinking. God would never receive me and hiding thinking that I wasn’t worth thinking that I wasn’t good enough thinking that, you know, but he says, no, no, no, you are worthy. He says, no, no, no. You are a Royal priesthood, a holy nation. You’re my child. And see, these are the things in our, in our battle. See when that flipped and I came out of the garden, I came out to face him and I was like, wait, wait, I didn’t understand God. I didn’t understand the love God has for his people, for his creation.

Shea Watson: I didn’t understand how he’s not easy if you will judge. But as of this moment, right now, he is coming out and just saying, no, no, no, no, no. There are some things that you can have to make this happiness that you’re chasing be more balanced. A fool is a joy that I can give you our truth and our joy and where we’ll find satisfaction comes from a heavenly father. The one who created us through the son who died for us through the holy spirit that resides in us. I’m not saying that your friends and your church, friends or somebody that close to you, can’t be a witness, a person to lead you there. As long as it’s council when you start to learn now, you know, you go to heaven, and then that’s when it’s done.

Micaela Deegan: I specifically aim to reach women, you know, but there are so many women that have shame. A lot of girls have been sexually abused, physically abused. And so you’re covered in shame. And for anybody who’s listening out there because you’re talking about mass. I went to a very legalistic church. I got hurt in the church. When you get here in a church, you do not see the church the same anymore. But the word of God says that it is God’s kindness. That leads us to repentance. And so there’s so much happening in our culture where girls are already ashamed because they’re having abortions. And when Christians are shoving down their throats, like she was shoving things down, people’s throats. It doesn’t make people want to love the God that we know. We know that God’s goodness keeps us right there. It keeps us safe. It keeps us wanting to live for him. It keeps us wanting to be the salt of the earth. But it’s God’s kindness that leads us to that repentance to know him and to come to him. But what the enemy does is makes you think that, well, you’re already messing up. So cause even as Christians, we mess up, you know, and that’s even harder to like, come back to that after you sent and the enemies literally tormenting you, but the shame doesn’t have to be there because Jesus takes that shame away. And that is another happy life. I should just stay in my sin because I don’t want me like this. Do you know? And so I just, I just feel like someone needs to hear that out there that, you know, if you’re feeling shame because of what you’re doing behind closed doors, you can come to that because he knows, right.
God keeps showing me what a masterpiece is, the fondant. And he gave me this picture of a statue of a torso. Uh, and the statute was put together, but it’s cracked. You can see the cracks and the happy lives will tell you. That’s not hard. That’s not, there’s a broken statute. It’s no good. But yet looking at the statue, this picture, that’s the beauty in God and being his masterpiece because the statue, I got a picture of myself in that and all the laws I’ve been told and all the lies I believed and all the lines I lived and all the lines I said and all the laws I have woven into my, but yet he takes all of that and will rebuild it, rewires it back into him. And he literally is holding us together. But we still see the cracks because the lie, the biggest happy lie is being a Christian means you don’t have practice. And that’s the biggest lie we can all believe. Right? Because being a Christian means I still have cracks, but someone is holding me together. That’s bigger than so.

Shawn Quintero: Yeah. For anybody listening, just know, there’s always hope that passes understanding there’s hope there, strength and there’s access that God is waiting there with open arms, ready to embrace you, daughter, son, loved one.

Michelle Watson: Question of the week is what is a happy lie that you’ve already thrown aside to give people hope if that’s their lie, that they haven’t tossed side yet. So share that with us@thepantrypodcast.com or on our social networks, you know where to find us y’all thank you for being here. This has been so rich and we knew that these people are amazing y’all and so we’re going to be linked to all of them, tagging all of them. So until next time, bye.

KEYWORDS: HAPPINESS. WHAT IS HAPPINESS. WHAT IS JOY. ETERNAL HAPPINESS. BEING A CHRISTIAN. HAVE FAITH. FAITH FILLED. HOW TO BE HAPPY.