“Unpredictable” is definitely one word you could use to describe the last nine months, but there are many others to choose from. As we close out Season 2, we’re talking about how God has used this season in our own lives.
QUESTIONS WE TOUCH ON IN THIS EPISODE:
- How to seek God?
- How to make lemons into lemonade?
- Putting God first?
VERSES FROM REFLECTION
Matthew 6:33, John 12:24.
QUOTES FROM REFLECTION
“Any little thing that keeps you more anchored to something other than Christ has the potential to grow into something that locks you away from accessing a part of Christ, because you don’t want to hear it. You don’t have time to hear it because you’re so focused on that thing.”
Michelle Watson, The Pantry Podcast, S02E14, Reflection.
“But man walking with Jesus is so much better. It’s just so much better to walk with Jesus.”
Shea Watson, The Pantry Podcast, S02E14, Reflection.
Transcript
Shea: Hey, what a season?
Michelle: Yeah, no, I thought you were about to say something. No, it was definitely,
Shea: But what’s really cool about that is it kind of fits with our season. Like we are second right. Taking the time to listen to others. But most importantly, listen to God making sure that he’s first, I came to that Matthew 6:33, where it says, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you. It’s kind of cool that when we put God first things fall into place, it doesn’t always feel like it at the time. Sometimes it feels chaotic. Sometimes it feels like it’s out of control. I don’t know where we’re at and this season of COVID, but we’ve been in COVID, for a good portion.
Michelle: Our podcast has lasted only three weeks, less than we’ve been dealing with.
Shea: Right. And I know in my own experience my own life, like trying to be spiritual leader of a house, trying to continue ministry is trying to continue and work. I’ve relied a lot on God. Oh yeah. And I’ve had to really dial in putting him first thinking about being a servant to others. This season was really cool. We had some really awesome people. Jessica Long, Georgy Roy, Canden Webb, Amanda Davis, James Bryson, all people who through, I’m going to say, they’re awesome. This put God first they came to a point where it was like, I can’t do this. I can’t do it myself. It has to be sourced elsewhere. And God became that beautiful foundation that carried them through the finish lines and continuing in their races.
Michelle: Yeah. This season is also the first time we had guests. Our first season, it’s funny. We were racing to drop it. There was this sense of urgency that I misinterpreted to think and mean that the whole quarantine and everything shutting down and people being home was going to be short lived. And that the reason God wanted us to drop the podcast at the time that he wanted us to drop the podcast was mostly because this was going to be a very concentrated portion of the year that had everybody in struggle. And he had some thing for us to say to that struggle in those few weeks, and really it’s revealed itself when you just rely on God and trust in him, despite everything you can look back and almost always makes sense of a good portion of what happened and why it happened. And I look back and I see it wasn’t because it was a short lived, concentrated season because we’re still in it.
Michelle: But because it afforded us the time to grow, it afforded us something to focus on that was going to challenge us in imperative ways for the season that we’re in, make us question things that we might not have questioned otherwise made us refine our thoughts on things that we might not have, have felt that same pressure to refine. We might’ve more easily fall into, well, what do I think rather than, well, what does God say about this? And the podcast has really helped us stay on course. I don’t know what would have happened otherwise, but the podcast is really been this additional grounding. I’ll say it’s an additional soil for our roots in this really tumultuous season because it’s not just, COVID, it’s political unrest, it’s societal unrest. It’s so many things. It seems I was telling Shea the other day. It seems like everything that can cause a divide between people, the things that they always joke and say, don’t bring that up at Thanksgiving. All of that is now dug up and raw and just stinking on top of the earth for us to all deal with at once, which tells you that there’s a battle that we can’t see with our eyes, but you can feel in your spirit because it seems like everything’s getting thrown at us all at once. So I’m really excited that we’re wrapping up season two and there was so much to be gained from all of the conversations and topics that we covered over the last couple of weeks.
Shea: I really liked that, you know, when we commit our works in the world, so I’m thinking of provers, I’ve fallen on board. If y’all, haven’t been listening to, uh, the season, uh, my wife has got ahold of property. Right, right. I mean like, I mean, she is on property, but I love it because he says, commit your work to the Lord and your plan will be established. Works of God, establish us. It’s been a season. I will self admittedly say it’s been difficult right now. Do I always reflect that outwardly? Do I always in my, am I walking around like this, this, this person? That’s just like, ha no. I mean, I, I keep it close. Those that are close to me would, know that I am going through things, but what’s cool about it is everyone is probably going through something right now
.
Shea: There is no one out there that is not untouched by this and I’m talking globally, but there’s one way, one way to establish our path, our steps, our lives. And that’s by putting God first, our works are for God. Everything that we do is for God, when we go forward, it’s for God. If we start to take it in on ourselves, we collapse into ourselves. If we take it on with him, then we can collapse into his arms. And when I think of that, and when I think of the power that it’s given me in the season, when I think of the energy that it’s given me, when I wake up in the morning, I’m like, ah, I don’t want to go to work. Right. You know? Cause you get in these moods and it’s like that prayer Lord strengthened my walk, strengthened my mind, strengthened my path, show me what you want me to do today.
Shea:And it’s almost like an ignition goes off and it’s like, okay, let’s go. And I don’t know. I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t have that to call on. If I didn’t have God to call on, if I didn’t have the Holy spirit to sit there and be in communication with and say, okay, how can I serve people today? Because when you serve people, you serve yourself. You’re serving up word, you’re serving up truth. You’re serving up knowledge and it’s not your knowledge. And so what is it doing? It’s coming to you and it’s processing in you. Every single one of these podcasts that we’ve done has been lifting because you sit there and you study and you, and you meditate and you think, and so through this whole covert season, one thing has stayed true. Our study time with the Lord, our alone time with the Lord, our prayers with the Lord. And man, it has made this season so far better when it ends. I don’t know. Honestly, I don’t care because I’m going to walk in God’s path and he will establish myself. He’ll establish my heart. He’ll establish my mind. Amen.
Michelle: Yeah. There’s another verse that it’s funny because you chose one in Proverbs and of all days I chose one in John. So, but I know it’s it’s yeah. That lines right up. And I was like, is he going to say this one? No, but in John 12:24, it says truly, truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies. It remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. And that one reiterate the importance of dying to self in that sense of let your own priorities go. I cannot, I cannot emphasize that enough in this season. The things that I’ve had to just let go that I didn’t even think, I didn’t realize how strong of a pull or a driving factor in my day they were until they were denied to me. And that’s something that God has shown many people during the season.
Michelle: That’s a blessing. Yeah. It’s not fun to feel it, but it’s a blessing because any little thing that keeps you more anchored to something other than Christ has the potential to grow into something that locks you away from accessing a part of Christ, because you don’t want to hear it. You don’t have time to hear it because you’re so focused on that thing. That’s keeping you away. Canceling plans, not celebrating her first birthday, the way all these little things where yeah. Okay. First world problems. I get it. But you know, the blessing is divorcing myself from the love of those first world things. That’s what happened. Most people would have to mourn it or make lemonade out of lemons. Right? Me, I just looked at it and said, okay, God, that wasn’t even in your plan, you’ve laid out my entire life before anything happened, doing this, doing that, doing the other, that wasn’t even in the plan, this has interrupted your plan.
Michelle: Not at all. It’s interrupted my imperfect incomplete plan a whole lot, you know, launching my store when everyone’s losing their jobs. Oops. You know, I was sitting there like, this is all a big mess for everybody. I mean, how is anything supposed to bear any fruit, but I’ve seen and heard over and over again, how much fruit it’s bearing for those that trust in him. Because we are going through some have said a fast, right? Others finally realizing and waking up to problems outside of themselves. Because as much of a curse that social media is, and that you’ve see all these terrible things that you can have no control over. You also become more aware and more empathetic to others. So if you had very little empathy before, probably right now, you have a lot more and there’s a lot more fervent prayer going on a lot more learning of the word and focusing on God’s word going on.
Michelle: And although there are those who are struggling to stay plugged in because church community may be lacking in certain ways, depending on how you plug in specifically, this is a time where your relationship with God grows each little moment where you let something go or you decide to trust in him instead of whatever plan. Because day to day, you don’t know, is this going to be open? Is this gonna be closed? Will I be able to do this? Is this city going to get shut down? Is it good? Is this town going to survive? Is our country going to have enough food? These questions start coming up. They’re all so insurmountable for the individual. And for the first time, our area, we live in one of the wealthiest areas in the country. We ain’t wealthy. Y’all it’s by God’s Providence that we’re here, but we live in one of the wealthiest areas of the country. So you can be insulated from a lot of that. You end up with a lot of security that you might not credit Todd. And yet here you sit and you feel it isn’t secure. And you realize a lot of this is not God’s armor. It’s the world’s armor. And you were just wearing it because Hey, it wasn’t making you feel too crowded. And yet now it’s starting to slip away and you feel lighter for it. But more guarded.
Shea: I want to add a word to providence, obedience because I would have flown the coop a long time ago.
Michelle: Oh right. That’s a good point. That is a good point. And you would have never met me. Never met you, but God has always kept me here.
Shea: So that that’s beautiful. But I was thinking like, when you were sitting there saying, you know, that I love that phrase when the world gives you lemons, make lemonade and you know, the world can live in that. The world can think of that. But when you’re in the kitchen and you’re cooking, you’re baking or, you know, you’re making sweets, um, even on watermelon, believe it or not. When you add salt, it intensifies the sweetness. Right. So as a believer, as believers. Yeah. The world, right? Yeah. Okay. It gives me, yeah. They gave me limits. I can make lemonade and you know, we can add sugar to sweeten it. Right. But what intensifies that sweetness salt and you know, we’ve been called to be the salt of the earth, you know? And, and so when I think of that, God provides a more intense sweetness to our everyday life.
Shea: You know, I was just thinking of that. It’s like, it’s like, wow, we, we talk about the pantry. You know, what’s in our pantry. How you know, and I always use staples, staples, but it’s just beautiful. It’s beautiful to know that we’re carrying on, we’re carrying on his message, his word. And honestly, y’all, this is a reflection for us. Yeah. We put it out to the airways. We put it out to other people. We put it out so that maybe someone gets edified by something that they hear. But I’m going to be real as I sit here and I talked to my wife and we sit here with microphones and headphones and you know, little iPads in front of us is that a find me, I’m hearing these words. These words are starting to just impact my existence and carry me forward and sweetness. Yeah. Things suck.
Shea: Things suck sometimes. But man walking with Jesus is so much better. It’s just so much better to walk with Jesus. And as we wrap up season two, I just want to say, we’re thankful to all of you. I’m thankful to my wife who does all of the editing, all of the website changes, designs, all of the graphic designs, all those little staples that come out with the, with the voice. I don’t what you call those snippets. Yeah. The little snippets. She does all of these things and I’m so thankful, but more importantly, I’m thankful for God.
Michelle: I’ll just, co-sign on the thank you’s for everyone. Who’s listening, supporting and thankful for the people who took a chance and let us interview them. Let us chat. Bro came into the pantry with us and dropped amazing wisdom for people to bite off and chew. And then, you know, to keep the cheese going. I’m thankful for my husband because I do a lot of the technical things. God’s given me those wonderful gifts, but he gave me a husband that would sit on a couch and love and delight in talking about God that made it normal in our house to talk about God all throughout the week, about every topic under the sun, we nerd out about it. And yeah, now we do a lot more research while we’re nerding out. But there’s something about that when you change your life from, yeah, God talk is for Sundays Bible study. If I do that and when I’m in trouble too, God is always on my tongue. Jesus is always on my tongue. The Spirit’s always on my tongue. I’m thinking about God, I’m talking about God. He’s in every conversation. I bring him up in every struggle in every celebration doing that, changes your life so much more rapidly. And so I’m thankful that I have a husband that that’s the atmosphere in our house. And so it’s awesome that our daughter gets to grow up in that same vibe. So thank you everybody for listening.
Shea: And then of course I love verses, so I’m going to close out with two. I’ve been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me and the life. I now live in the flesh. I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. He must increase, but I must decrease. Listen to that. He loves us. He gave himself for us. And as we close out the season, always remember that and put him above everything else.
Michelle: Amen guys, as always, we would love and appreciate if you guys share comments, subscribe all those fun things to help us get out to more people around the world. And you can always support us with awesome merge. We have some exciting, exciting merge coming for season three because as you know, we don’t take breaks. Season three is next week. And as always, you can send us prayer requests and comments and all that good stuff to the pantry podcast.com as well as the pantry podcast on Facebook and Instagram
Shea: Check me out at, theycallmeShea on Instagram
Michelle: Until next time. Bye. Bye.
