Episode 2 Season 4: Dealing with Uncertainty

[00:00:00] Hello, beloveds, and welcome to Christian Emotional Recovery, a podcast for those who are survivors

[00:00:11] of childhood trauma, emotional neglect, and narcissistic abuse.

[00:00:17] This podcast is hosted by Rachel Leroy, a college professor and trauma survivor.

[00:00:24] Many of us spend years trying to heal and don't get anywhere.

[00:00:29] We don't always target the trauma itself, which is so often what keeps us stuck.

[00:00:35] This podcast is where faith meets science.

[00:00:38] Rachel is an emotional healing expert with 20 years of experience applying healing modalities

[00:00:45] that helped her start making progress after nothing else worked.

[00:00:49] She'll show you how to do the same.

[00:00:52] Each week we'll cover a topic that will show you how to heal trauma for good.

[00:00:58] Please check out our website and show notes at ChristianEmotionalRecovery.com and join

[00:01:04] the Facebook community, Trauma Survivors Unite Christian Emotional Recovery.

[00:01:09] Hello everyone and welcome to the next episode of Christian Emotional Recovery.

[00:01:22] I'm your host, Rachel Leroy.

[00:01:24] Thank you so much for listening.

[00:01:26] Thank you so much for tuning in and learning more about how you can help yourself heal

[00:01:32] from trauma, heal from different types of abuse and neglect, and how you can help those

[00:01:37] you love who may have experienced similar things in the past or even in the present

[00:01:42] as well.

[00:01:43] Today's episode will be dealing with uncertainty, and this is season four, episode two.

[00:01:49] And so I wanted to, before we jump in, remind you that there are other resources

[00:01:55] on the podcast and on the platform.

[00:01:58] Check out, if you haven't, the Christian Emotional Recovery Facebook group.

[00:02:02] You can type it into Facebook and it should show up.

[00:02:05] Christian Emotional Recovery, it'll say Trauma Survivors Unite in the title.

[00:02:09] And we have Monday Memes where you get weekly encouragement.

[00:02:13] People post other forms of encouragement to one another.

[00:02:17] People ask questions and get their questions answered.

[00:02:20] What the group does is that we provide emotional support, community and connection,

[00:02:25] empowerment and education, and you can get updates on the podcast and on the platform.

[00:02:30] But what we don't do is we cannot be a crisis intervention.

[00:02:34] And I don't say that to be without compassion.

[00:02:36] Everybody needs help during those times.

[00:02:38] But that's when you need to reach out to a professional, a therapist, a psychologist,

[00:02:43] a licensed pastoral counselor, a doctor, or for example in the United States

[00:02:51] you can call 988.

[00:02:52] It's not that we don't want to help people in those situations,

[00:02:55] but we're not trained and equipped to deal with that.

[00:02:58] So if you're having a crisis, a mental health crisis,

[00:03:01] please reach out to a professional or to the proper authorities

[00:03:06] and proper people who can give you the help that you need

[00:03:09] based on their expertise.

[00:03:11] So we are there to provide emotional support, advice, feedback, community,

[00:03:16] connection, empowerment, education,

[00:03:19] but we cannot be a crisis intervention program, unfortunately.

[00:03:23] So thank you for understanding that.

[00:03:25] I just wanted to put that out there because I have had that happen a couple of times.

[00:03:29] And other places that you can go to get help,

[00:03:32] you can go to ChristianEmotionalRecovery.com

[00:03:35] where you can see all the episodes of the podcast.

[00:03:37] You can get free resources and you can find out more about the platform at large.

[00:03:43] Also, you can go to RachelLeroy.com, R-A-C-H-E-L-L-E-R-O-Y.com

[00:03:50] that's two L's in the middle.

[00:03:52] RachelLeroy.com, you can find more resources there.

[00:03:55] Just click on the part for trauma survivors or emotional help.

[00:04:00] And then there's also the YouTube channel.

[00:04:03] I'm not sure when more YouTube videos will be up,

[00:04:05] but they will be up in the near future.

[00:04:08] There are meditations on the YouTube channel as well

[00:04:10] and I'm working on putting out more that you can purchase

[00:04:13] and hopefully some more free prayers and meditations as well in the near future for season four.

[00:04:17] So check out the store.

[00:04:19] And if you want to support the podcast and the platform

[00:04:23] and help other trauma survivors like yourself,

[00:04:26] you can give two ways.

[00:04:27] Kofi.com, that's K-O-F-I in the show notes.

[00:04:31] All of these are linked in the show notes.

[00:04:33] You can give one time any amount

[00:04:35] or you can give monthly $5, $10 or $25

[00:04:38] and I may create some more options in the near future on Patreon.

[00:04:42] You can give monthly on Patreon.

[00:04:45] And so you can check out that in the show notes as well.

[00:04:47] So let's go ahead and jump right into this week's episode.

[00:04:51] And this week's episode is dealing with uncertainty

[00:04:53] or dealing with times of uncertainty.

[00:04:56] This is a difficult topic because uncertainty can vary all the way from

[00:05:00] are am I going to get this job and you have a decent job already

[00:05:04] but you could get this better job to, you know, having a loved one

[00:05:09] or yourself not sure what your kind of diagnosis you're going to get

[00:05:13] or getting a diagnosis that might be scary and or, you know, losing a job

[00:05:19] or having health conditions, having mental health issues.

[00:05:24] There's a lot of things that can cause uncertainty,

[00:05:26] especially in the world today with COVID and all of that.

[00:05:30] After, I think after everybody isolated, it was really difficult for a lot of people to,

[00:05:37] you know, a lot of people had health problems because of COVID

[00:05:40] and because of COVID vaccines and because of complications from those conditions.

[00:05:46] And I also think that there's a lot of people that had dealt with the uncertainty

[00:05:50] of when is the world going to open back up?

[00:05:52] What's going to happen to the world with this everything that's changed,

[00:05:56] you know, the geopolitical situations, you know, the environment.

[00:05:59] There's so many uncertainties in the world and so, you know,

[00:06:04] knowing how to deal with uncertainty, uncertainty is part of life.

[00:06:09] You've all heard the saying that the only change to the certain is change itself

[00:06:13] and with change comes uncertainty.

[00:06:14] Some of it's exciting and wonderful and joyful and beautiful

[00:06:18] and then some of it is scary and difficult

[00:06:21] and so it's important to have specific strategies that we can use

[00:06:27] during times of uncertainty to help us get through those times.

[00:06:30] To have faith that everything can turn out well

[00:06:32] and that no matter what happens, we're okay

[00:06:35] because there's this still core of okayness.

[00:06:38] It's a strange way of putting it but that resonates for me.

[00:06:41] A still core of okayness that we can have inside of ourselves is called stability really

[00:06:47] and you know when we suffer from the effects of trauma,

[00:06:50] of narcissistic abuse, of emotional neglect,

[00:06:53] of other forms of abuse, sexual, physical abuse,

[00:06:56] a high ACE score which is adverse childhood experiences

[00:06:59] if we've experienced a lot of trauma even in our adult life.

[00:07:02] That can sort of put us in a tailspin and put this whole concept

[00:07:07] that everything is good in a tailspin

[00:07:11] and start make us wondering, you know, like,

[00:07:14] you put something under your feet and it's firm

[00:07:16] and suddenly the shifting sands under your feet

[00:07:20] are just not the same as they were

[00:07:23] and in those situations that can be scary

[00:07:26] and so I wanted us to talk about two seemingly contradictory

[00:07:30] and paradoxical concepts of dealing with uncertainty

[00:07:33] and how to deal with that

[00:07:35] and how those two can come together

[00:07:37] in a way that helps you to deal with uncertainty.

[00:07:40] Of course, acceptance is one of the most important parts of uncertainty.

[00:07:44] Uncertainty is going to happen.

[00:07:46] Things are going to come up.

[00:07:47] Complications and difficulties and challenges

[00:07:49] and scary moments are going to come up

[00:07:51] and accepting that that's part of life

[00:07:53] and accepting that those are going to come at times,

[00:07:56] that's inevitable.

[00:07:58] That's part of what allows us to have peace.

[00:08:00] Resistance and fighting things actually makes them worse.

[00:08:05] I'm going to talk about this from a Christian perspective

[00:08:08] but there's also a lot of good wisdom

[00:08:11] in the Buddhist tradition about this

[00:08:12] if you'll humor me a little bit.

[00:08:15] Now, this is a Christian podcast

[00:08:17] but I do learn from other traditions

[00:08:19] and occasionally I'll bring a bit of wisdom in

[00:08:22] in those traditions that can help supplement Christianity

[00:08:26] and supplement what you're learning.

[00:08:28] And so I hope that you will bear with me

[00:08:32] if I do that a little bit

[00:08:33] because there's a lot of wisdom

[00:08:35] that I've learned from some of these other practices.

[00:08:38] While I am a practicing Christian,

[00:08:40] I think it's that we can learn wisdom

[00:08:42] from different people in diverse groups.

[00:08:45] So let's jump into what we do dear in times of uncertainty.

[00:08:50] First of all, in uncertainty, acceptance is vital.

[00:08:53] There is a podcast on acceptance

[00:08:55] and I don't know if there's one on surrender

[00:08:57] but I may do one on surrender in the future

[00:09:00] because I think that's a good thing as well.

[00:09:02] Surrender and acceptance are similar

[00:09:04] but they're not exactly the same thing.

[00:09:06] I would say that acceptance is not resisting a situation

[00:09:10] and it's being in the flow with what is.

[00:09:16] And I would say that surrender is also that

[00:09:18] but also a sense of letting go, a sense of peace

[00:09:23] and a sense of maybe even submitting ourselves

[00:09:26] to a higher power, submitting ourselves to God

[00:09:29] and to his mercy and his grace and his love

[00:09:32] and his comfort and his peace

[00:09:34] and allowing him to give us those things

[00:09:36] during those times in spite

[00:09:38] of the difficult circumstances.

[00:09:44] So I think that the, like I said, surrender

[00:09:46] and acceptance are similar but not exactly the same thing.

[00:09:50] So what do we do during times of uncertainty and difficulty?

[00:09:55] What do we do during those times?

[00:09:57] Well, I found an article on K-Love.

[00:09:59] K-Love is a Christian radio station.

[00:10:04] I think it may be a national one.

[00:10:06] My husband and I have listened to that

[00:10:07] on and off when we listened to FM radio.

[00:10:09] We listened to XM, we'll also listen

[00:10:11] to the Christian station there.

[00:10:15] So this one gives you four steps to dealing

[00:10:18] with uncertainty and this person,

[00:10:20] the person that wrote this article,

[00:10:21] four steps to dealing with uncertainty by K-Love.

[00:10:25] Well, it just says it was posted

[00:10:26] by the pastoral care team

[00:10:28] and then it talks about this person says

[00:10:31] that her husband stared at her

[00:10:34] and said he just lost his job

[00:10:35] and that it was a scary, uncertain future

[00:10:37] where would our provision, our protection,

[00:10:40] how will we pay our bills?

[00:10:45] Those are realities in a situation like that.

[00:10:47] And so it was just giving an example

[00:10:49] to kind of open the article and it says,

[00:10:51] we too experienced times when we can't see evidence

[00:10:54] of God's presence with us,

[00:10:56] when the future seems shrouded in smoke

[00:10:58] and confusion chokes our faith.

[00:11:00] We too have seen God's promises of provision.

[00:11:03] Yet we stand at the foot of the unknown future.

[00:11:06] We feel panic and fear.

[00:11:07] Aren't we tempted to doubt God

[00:11:09] just like the Israelites of the past?

[00:11:11] The Israelites remember when they were leaving Egypt,

[00:11:14] they faced an uncertain future.

[00:11:16] They were leaving everything they'd ever known.

[00:11:18] There's security, their certainty,

[00:11:21] even if it wasn't a good certainty,

[00:11:23] there was certainty where they were at

[00:11:25] and they left for promise of a better future

[00:11:28] not knowing what lie ahead, what lay ahead.

[00:11:30] And so for them, it was absolute uncertainty

[00:11:34] and I think a lot in a lot of ways,

[00:11:37] the journey of the Israelites out of Egypt

[00:11:39] and into the desert and in the wilderness

[00:11:41] is a metaphor of our relationship with God

[00:11:43] and with Christ and in our faith

[00:11:44] and how those different iterations

[00:11:46] and experiences of that happen over time.

[00:11:51] And so it's good to find wisdom there

[00:11:53] and I think that that's exactly what you find

[00:11:56] in the journey of the Israelites out of Egypt.

[00:11:58] It says though, yet when we stand at the foot

[00:12:00] of an unknown future, we feel panic and fear.

[00:12:03] Aren't we tempted to doubt God

[00:12:04] just like the Israelites of the past?

[00:12:06] Some things never change but then neither does God.

[00:12:10] When we don't know what the future holds,

[00:12:12] here are four steps to overcome uncertainty.

[00:12:15] You might hear my cat jingling in the background.

[00:12:17] I generally just let her go.

[00:12:19] So bear with me.

[00:12:21] But number one it says anchor

[00:12:24] in God's unchanging character.

[00:12:25] This is gonna sound kind of contradictory

[00:12:27] to something I'm gonna go over in just a little bit

[00:12:29] but you'll start to see that those two

[00:12:30] are not completely incompatible.

[00:12:33] Anchor in God's unchanging character.

[00:12:35] James 117 says,

[00:12:37] God never changes or casts a shifting shadow.

[00:12:40] God is steady and reliable.

[00:12:42] Anchoring our faith in his unchanging character

[00:12:44] enables us to hold firm

[00:12:46] in the high seas of uncertainty.

[00:12:48] Number two, cling to God's word.

[00:12:50] Psalms 119-105 says,

[00:12:52] your word is a lamp to guide my feet

[00:12:54] and a light for my path.

[00:12:56] Psalm 119-147.

[00:12:58] And it continues, I cry out for help

[00:13:00] and put my hope in your words.

[00:13:02] Feeding our faith with scripture

[00:13:03] cultivates hope in hard times.

[00:13:05] Especially those comforting scriptures

[00:13:07] about relying on God, about his steadfastness,

[00:13:10] about his faithfulness, about his comfort,

[00:13:12] about overcoming fear, about healing,

[00:13:15] about his help, about his presence

[00:13:18] and about his protection, right?

[00:13:20] So number three, claim God's promises.

[00:13:23] Claim God's promises.

[00:13:25] Psalm 119-140 reminds us,

[00:13:28] your promises have been thoroughly tested.

[00:13:31] That is why I love them so much.

[00:13:33] Psalm 119-148 adds,

[00:13:36] I stay awake through the night

[00:13:37] thinking about your promise.

[00:13:38] Holding the handrail of God's promises

[00:13:40] leads us safely through life's storms.

[00:13:43] If you want a really good Psalm

[00:13:45] that will help you when you're going through uncertain times,

[00:13:48] especially about God's comfort,

[00:13:50] presence, protection and healing,

[00:13:52] Psalm 91 is so powerful.

[00:13:54] I memorized it and I would say it over and over again.

[00:13:57] So that's a great one

[00:13:58] and that's also full of God's promises.

[00:14:00] Psalm 91.

[00:14:01] There's a lot of great YouTube videos,

[00:14:04] meditations, songs and so forth

[00:14:06] that have Psalm 91 in different formats

[00:14:08] where you can sort of reiterate

[00:14:10] and soak in that scripture.

[00:14:12] So number four from this article

[00:14:14] is remember God's faithfulness.

[00:14:16] So it says Psalm 143-5

[00:14:18] and I love Psalms.

[00:14:19] It says, I remember the days of old.

[00:14:21] I ponder all your great works

[00:14:23] and I think about what you have done.

[00:14:25] So not just these scriptures themselves

[00:14:27] but doing the things in these scriptures

[00:14:29] can help you in times of uncertainty.

[00:14:31] Remember what God has done for us

[00:14:32] in the past builds confidence in the future it says.

[00:14:35] So, you know, God knows our situation.

[00:14:37] He's a step ahead of us.

[00:14:39] He's there with us in any kind of situation.

[00:14:42] So the four things that you can do to help you

[00:14:45] in times of uncertainty

[00:14:46] are to anchor in God's unchanging character,

[00:14:49] cling to God's word,

[00:14:50] claim God's promises

[00:14:52] and remember God's faithfulness.

[00:14:54] So those are the four things you can do

[00:14:56] in terms as a Christian,

[00:14:58] in terms of your fear and your relationship with God

[00:15:01] in times of uncertainty.

[00:15:03] And there is a bunch of scriptures

[00:15:06] that are really good

[00:15:08] to help you in times of uncertainty as well.

[00:15:11] And I could go on and on with these

[00:15:14] but I will read a few

[00:15:16] just because this is, like I said,

[00:15:19] getting that comfort and getting that reassurance.

[00:15:21] I think sometimes, you know,

[00:15:23] I talk so much about healing trauma

[00:15:25] and trauma can create more fear and more anxiety

[00:15:29] and more uncertainty in the mind and the body

[00:15:31] for a Christian, for anybody really.

[00:15:34] And so, you know, I have said before

[00:15:38] that simply reading scriptures

[00:15:39] will not completely heal your trauma

[00:15:41] but that doesn't mean it doesn't help you

[00:15:43] and it doesn't mean that it can't heal you.

[00:15:45] I just believe that trauma itself

[00:15:47] has to be healed at the source in the body

[00:15:49] with therapies, with specific therapies

[00:15:51] to target that trauma.

[00:15:53] But addressing the fear

[00:15:54] that doesn't mean you don't address those fears

[00:15:57] that come out of the trauma

[00:15:59] and that doesn't mean that reading scripture

[00:16:01] and doing those things can't help heal the trauma.

[00:16:03] I just think it needs to have that balance

[00:16:06] of both strategies, right?

[00:16:08] And so there is a website,

[00:16:11] Lin Dove, Lin Dove

[00:16:13] and I think this is a blog

[00:16:15] but it's written,

[00:16:17] it was written back during the pandemic.

[00:16:19] And like I said,

[00:16:20] there was a lot of people writing about isolation,

[00:16:23] loneliness, uncertainty and fear during the pandemic.

[00:16:27] And one of the things this article talk

[00:16:30] is 25 Encouraging Bible Verses for Times of Uncertainty.

[00:16:34] So there's a whole list here.

[00:16:35] I'll include this article

[00:16:38] so you can reference these scriptures

[00:16:40] that Lin Dove has curated.

[00:16:43] And you can also just Google scriptures of comfort,

[00:16:46] scriptures of comfort for times of uncertainty,

[00:16:48] scriptures of comfort for uncertain times,

[00:16:51] whatever, similar words to that.

[00:16:53] But her blog talks about the pandemic

[00:16:57] and how uncertain everything is

[00:16:59] and when will we ever go back to normal

[00:17:00] and what is normal?

[00:17:02] Like I said, the pandemic

[00:17:05] is a great frame of reference

[00:17:07] because everybody understands it.

[00:17:09] Nobody's escaped it.

[00:17:11] Some people have lived charmed lives compared to others

[00:17:14] and other people live more difficult lives.

[00:17:15] And I can't say why,

[00:17:17] cosmically, why that happens.

[00:17:20] I have no answers for that.

[00:17:22] I wish I did.

[00:17:23] But what I do know is that COVID

[00:17:27] is something that we can all understand

[00:17:29] and we've all been impacted by in some way.

[00:17:31] Almost all of us knows somebody who passed from COVID

[00:17:35] or knows somebody who knows somebody who passed from COVID.

[00:17:37] Most of us have had COVID

[00:17:39] and most of us have known

[00:17:40] and been very close to someone

[00:17:41] who's been very sick with COVID.

[00:17:42] And we were all impacted by the shutdown

[00:17:45] regardless of what part of the world we lived in.

[00:17:47] We were all impacted when that was going around

[00:17:49] and when that was happening.

[00:17:50] And it's still happening.

[00:17:51] And you know, a lot of people,

[00:17:52] their health has been altered by it too.

[00:17:55] And so there are scriptures here

[00:17:58] and a lot of them, like I said,

[00:18:01] cover issues of what do you do to deal with uncertainty?

[00:18:05] One is Zephaniah 317

[00:18:07] and it says the Lord God is with you,

[00:18:09] the mighty warrior who saves.

[00:18:11] He will take great delight in you,

[00:18:13] in his love he will no longer rebuke you

[00:18:16] but rejoice over you with singing.

[00:18:18] So that's talking about your relationship with God

[00:18:22] and how to stay in relationship with God

[00:18:25] even in difficult times.

[00:18:27] Another one is Psalm 56, 3 and 4.

[00:18:30] I'm just reading a few of these, there's several here.

[00:18:32] When I am afraid I put my trust in you,

[00:18:35] in God whose word I praise,

[00:18:37] in God I trust and I am not afraid.

[00:18:41] What can mere mortals do to me?

[00:18:43] Let me repeat that one, that's Psalm 56, 3 through 4.

[00:18:46] When I am afraid I put my trust in you,

[00:18:49] in God whose word I praise,

[00:18:51] in God I trust and am not afraid.

[00:18:54] What can mere mortals do to me?

[00:18:56] First Peter 5, 7, cast all your anxiety on him

[00:18:59] because he cares for you.

[00:19:02] Joshua 1, 9, have I not commanded you,

[00:19:04] be strong and courageous, do not be afraid,

[00:19:07] do not be discouraged for the Lord your God

[00:19:09] will be with you wherever you go.

[00:19:11] I'll say that one again too, Joshua 1, 9,

[00:19:14] have I not commanded you, be strong and courageous,

[00:19:17] do not be afraid, do not be discouraged

[00:19:20] for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.

[00:19:25] 1 Corinthians 14, 33,

[00:19:28] for God is not a God of disorder but of peace

[00:19:31] as in all the congregations of the Lord's people.

[00:19:35] As much as we can live in peace we should.

[00:19:38] 1 Corinthians 14, 33,

[00:19:40] for God is not a God of disorder but of peace

[00:19:43] as in all the congregations of the Lord's people.

[00:19:47] And there are some more,

[00:19:49] I'm just kind of thumbing through these.

[00:19:52] But Romans 8, 38 through 39 is another one

[00:19:55] for I am convinced that neither death nor life,

[00:19:58] neither angels nor demons,

[00:19:59] neither present nor future nor any powers

[00:20:02] neither height nor depth nor anything else

[00:20:04] in all creation will be able to separate us

[00:20:07] from the love that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

[00:20:11] That one is so powerful, I'll say it again.

[00:20:14] For I am convinced that neither death nor life,

[00:20:16] neither angels nor demons,

[00:20:18] neither the present nor the future,

[00:20:19] nor any powers nor any height nor depth

[00:20:22] nor anything else in all creation

[00:20:24] will be able to separate us from the love of God

[00:20:26] that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

[00:20:29] Isaiah 41, 10,

[00:20:31] so do not fear for I am with you,

[00:20:33] do not be dismayed for I am your God.

[00:20:36] I will strengthen you and help you.

[00:20:38] I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

[00:20:41] 2 Timothy 1, 7 through 10,

[00:20:43] for the spirit of God does not make us timid

[00:20:45] but gives us power and love and self-discipline.

[00:20:48] There's another version that says,

[00:20:49] for God has not given us a spirit of fear,

[00:20:52] but of power, of love, and of a sound mind.

[00:20:55] And it says, so do not be ashamed of the testimony

[00:20:57] of our Lord or of my God.

[00:21:00] I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

[00:21:02] 2 Timothy 1, 7 through 10,

[00:21:05] for the spirit of God does not make us timid

[00:21:07] but gives us power and love and self-discipline.

[00:21:10] I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

[00:21:12] So, if you are not afraid of the Lord

[00:21:14] or of me his prisoner,

[00:21:16] I think this is maybe Paul talking,

[00:21:18] but rather join with me in suffering for the gospel

[00:21:21] by the power of God.

[00:21:22] He has saved us and called us to a holy life.

[00:21:25] Not because anything we have done

[00:21:26] but because of his own purpose and grace.

[00:21:29] This grace has given us in Christ Jesus

[00:21:32] before the beginning of time

[00:21:34] but it has now been revealed

[00:21:35] through the appearing of our savior Christ Jesus

[00:21:38] through the gospel.

[00:21:40] And so it continues, I won't keep reading these

[00:21:43] but those are a bunch of them that talk about

[00:21:49] how to deal with fear, how to deal with uncertainty,

[00:21:51] how God can comfort you,

[00:21:52] how his presence is always there for you.

[00:21:54] Another one, Philippians 4, 6 through 7.

[00:21:57] Do not be anxious for anything

[00:21:59] but in everything by prayer and petition

[00:22:01] with thanksgiving present your request to God

[00:22:04] and the peace of God which transcends all understanding

[00:22:07] will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

[00:22:10] And one more, Matthew 28, 18 through 20.

[00:22:15] Then Jesus came to them and said,

[00:22:16] all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

[00:22:19] Therefore go and make disciples of all nations,

[00:22:22] baptizing them in the name of the Father,

[00:22:23] the Son and the Holy Spirit

[00:22:25] and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you

[00:22:28] and I am surely with you always

[00:22:30] to the very end of the age.

[00:22:32] So it's all about God's ever lasting presence

[00:22:36] and comfort and friendship in our life.

[00:22:40] I think we forget sometimes that God is our friend,

[00:22:43] that Jesus is our friend.

[00:22:44] It's not just this disembodied thing

[00:22:48] but God is a real true relationship

[00:22:51] and Jesus is a real true friend in our lives

[00:22:55] when we accept him.

[00:22:56] And so those are some things,

[00:22:58] just some scriptures and some concepts.

[00:23:00] I'm sure a lot of this is familiar

[00:23:02] but sometimes like I said,

[00:23:03] it can be good to reinforce basics.

[00:23:06] So how do we deal with uncertainty

[00:23:07] and grandlessness in our own lives?

[00:23:10] I don't know if you've heard the word grandlessness

[00:23:11] but it's a similar work to uncertainty

[00:23:14] and that's where I wanted to talk a little bit

[00:23:17] about other traditions

[00:23:20] and how those actually can give wisdom

[00:23:22] to help you to deal with times of uncertainty as well.

[00:23:26] Relying on God and resting in God

[00:23:28] is different than gripping and grasping.

[00:23:32] You know what I mean?

[00:23:33] So there's two different concepts there.

[00:23:35] One is surrender and the other is grasping

[00:23:41] and grasping and striving and fighting

[00:23:44] and resisting is not healthy.

[00:23:46] Surrender, non-resistance and acceptance is healthy.

[00:23:51] So embracing grandlessness,

[00:23:54] there's an article here by Leo Bbalta,

[00:23:57] B-A-B-A-U-T-A in,

[00:24:00] it's called embrace grandlessness

[00:24:02] when everything seems out of control

[00:24:04] and this is at a website called Zen Habits,

[00:24:07] Zen Habits.

[00:24:09] And I have told you before

[00:24:11] that I have studied a teacher a bit called Pima Chodron.

[00:24:14] Her talks and classes and meditations

[00:24:18] have gotten me through a lot of difficult times.

[00:24:20] They've supplemented my faith in meaningful ways

[00:24:23] and they've given me practices

[00:24:25] that have helped me to deal with the realities of life

[00:24:28] in a very practical way.

[00:24:31] And Pima Chodron, she is a Buddhist nun

[00:24:34] and she talks about this.

[00:24:35] She has a quote in this article by Leo Bbalta,

[00:24:39] but it says to be fully alive, fully human

[00:24:42] and completely awake is to be continually

[00:24:44] thrown out of the nest.

[00:24:46] To live fully is to be always in no man's land,

[00:24:49] to experience each moment as completely new and fresh.

[00:24:52] To live is to be willing to die over and over again.

[00:24:55] That's obviously a metaphor

[00:24:57] and it kind of reminds me of the Israelites

[00:25:00] in the desert, you know, in the wilderness.

[00:25:03] That whole wilderness experience is a great metaphor

[00:25:07] for this concept of uncertainty.

[00:25:10] And I used to think that, oh, there's a certain time

[00:25:12] in my life I'll be in the wilderness

[00:25:14] and there are times in our lives

[00:25:16] where we're more in the wilderness.

[00:25:18] But now I'm beginning to think

[00:25:19] that our whole lives are the wilderness in some ways.

[00:25:22] That doesn't mean we never arrive anywhere.

[00:25:24] It doesn't mean our dreams never come true.

[00:25:26] It doesn't mean God never is faithful in his promises.

[00:25:29] But I'm just talking about the metaphor itself.

[00:25:31] I think that there's,

[00:25:33] part of the nature of life is that

[00:25:34] we are always in the wilderness

[00:25:36] even though another part might be that we have arrived.

[00:25:39] Yeah, I hope that makes sense

[00:25:40] because I'm talking metaphorically.

[00:25:42] But Leo, I'm just gonna call him Leo.

[00:25:47] Leo talks about this concept

[00:25:50] of it being fundamental that we

[00:25:55] want our lives under control.

[00:25:57] We develop plans, goals, routine systems,

[00:25:59] tools, schedules, structures.

[00:26:01] So, and he says while developing some structure

[00:26:04] is very helpful thing for most of us.

[00:26:06] The truth is that there's so much we don't control.

[00:26:10] Life is chaotic, out of control, shaky.

[00:26:13] It's what Pima Chodron calls groundlessness.

[00:26:15] That's what groundlessness is.

[00:26:17] The feeling of no solid ground under our feet.

[00:26:20] Other Buddhists might call it impermanence

[00:26:23] which is a basic fact of life

[00:26:25] that we very often don't want to accept.

[00:26:28] I struggle with this myself.

[00:26:30] So when I talk about acceptance and surrender,

[00:26:32] I'm still working on those majorly.

[00:26:35] And I'm not gonna say I've even come close to mastering them.

[00:26:38] I will say that a lot of the practices I've done

[00:26:40] have helped me some.

[00:26:41] But I'm continually learning, relearning

[00:26:43] and adding to what I'm learning.

[00:26:44] And it's a lifetime process.

[00:26:46] I know people that have been practicing this stuff

[00:26:49] for their whole lives and they're amazing

[00:26:52] but they are still learning like anybody else.

[00:26:54] But it says we don't like groundlessness.

[00:26:56] We want solid ground.

[00:26:58] Can I get an amen?

[00:26:59] Right?

[00:27:00] We all want certainty.

[00:27:01] We wanna know where our next paycheck's coming from.

[00:27:03] We wanna know we're gonna be healthy.

[00:27:05] We wanna know we're gonna live a happy long life.

[00:27:07] We all want good relationships.

[00:27:09] We all want to have a fairly pleasant existence.

[00:27:13] And so there's a lot of things in life

[00:27:15] that can be uncertain.

[00:27:16] So it says, so what do we do

[00:27:18] when life feels out of control?

[00:27:20] Groundless.

[00:27:21] It says we open up to groundlessness.

[00:27:23] Normally we seek ground,

[00:27:25] some kind of control or permanence.

[00:27:27] The routines and systems,

[00:27:29] the hardened opinions about how life should be

[00:27:31] and how others should act.

[00:27:33] The comfort foods and distractions.

[00:27:35] Any kind of semblance of certainty and comfort.

[00:27:37] It's why we procrastinate,

[00:27:39] put off healthy habits,

[00:27:40] get angry at others' behavior

[00:27:42] and feel so much anxiety.

[00:27:43] What if instead we could embrace groundlessness?

[00:27:46] He says.

[00:27:47] What if we didn't have to run

[00:27:49] but instead learned that it is a beautiful thing?

[00:27:51] Okay, that one's a little hard to accept, right?

[00:27:54] And when I first heard that

[00:27:55] I thought that was insane.

[00:27:57] It took working with this concept

[00:27:58] and practicing it through meditation

[00:28:00] and other practices

[00:28:02] and reading and listening to talks

[00:28:03] to help me to begin to even understand what that means.

[00:28:08] And so it says,

[00:28:09] but what if we opened up to its spaciousness,

[00:28:12] to its deliciousness?

[00:28:13] I don't know about the deliciousness

[00:28:15] but he gives you some strategies here

[00:28:20] in terms of dealing with uncertainty

[00:28:23] and dealing with groundlessness.

[00:28:26] It says, for example,

[00:28:29] the fresh open experience of groundlessness.

[00:28:32] We normally think of the world around us as solid things

[00:28:35] but in fact we think of solid things

[00:28:38] that are just ideas of them.

[00:28:40] So even everything in nature is in flux

[00:28:44] and always changing

[00:28:45] and even the majority,

[00:28:47] this is mind boggling

[00:28:48] but the majority of our physical being is space.

[00:28:53] It's not atoms and neutrons and protons,

[00:28:57] it's space, right?

[00:29:00] Because every object is an electron

[00:29:03] or a neutron or a proton

[00:29:06] and then they come together

[00:29:08] but there's space between them.

[00:29:10] And there's this concept of you drink water

[00:29:14] and eat food from the earth

[00:29:15] and in a sense we came from the earth,

[00:29:18] God created us, right?

[00:29:19] And then we go back to the earth

[00:29:22] and so there's this whole concept

[00:29:23] and it goes with this natural cycle of life.

[00:29:26] And so also the concept of surrender and acceptance

[00:29:29] is very biblical because the Bible talks about,

[00:29:33] you know, there's Job

[00:29:35] and then there's the book of Ecclesiastes

[00:29:37] about the natural processes of life,

[00:29:38] about acceptance

[00:29:40] and about the fact that there's impermanence.

[00:29:43] The Bible talks about impermanence all over the place

[00:29:46] and so, you know,

[00:29:48] it takes some doing to really begin

[00:29:50] to understand what this means

[00:29:52] and why am I talking about all this abstract stuff?

[00:29:54] Because it affects you emotionally

[00:29:57] when you don't know how to deal with uncertainty

[00:30:00] and having some kind of something to think about

[00:30:04] to get you to think about it in a different way

[00:30:06] can be comforting

[00:30:07] and it can even give you concrete strategies

[00:30:09] to deal with uncertainty, ironically, right?

[00:30:13] One thing that you can do

[00:30:15] is learn to find beauty and grandlessness.

[00:30:19] So it says, so think, seem out of control,

[00:30:21] uncertain, grandless

[00:30:22] and it brings up anxiety in you.

[00:30:25] How can we work with this?

[00:30:26] First, we can allow ourselves

[00:30:28] to feel the sensations of uncertainty in our body

[00:30:31] as physical sensations.

[00:30:32] You know, we've done a lot of talk about meditations

[00:30:35] and body work

[00:30:36] about dealing with difficult emotions

[00:30:38] about very gently letting those come up

[00:30:40] a little bit at a time,

[00:30:41] feeling those but not letting them completely take you over

[00:30:45] but just witnessing them with a neutral observation

[00:30:48] and compassion with God's help.

[00:30:51] And then it says, how does your fear, anxiety,

[00:30:53] frustration feeling your body

[00:30:55] dropping the narrative or story about it?

[00:30:58] Just feeling the feeling

[00:30:59] and that's where meditations come in.

[00:31:01] Being present with this

[00:31:03] is a wonderfully courageous first step, it says.

[00:31:05] Then it says, Leo says,

[00:31:07] next we can experience the groundlessness

[00:31:09] of the situation.

[00:31:10] Your life is up in the air.

[00:31:12] Feel the openness of this,

[00:31:13] the freshness of the moment,

[00:31:15] the freedom that nothing is being fixed.

[00:31:17] It's beautiful, delicious groundlessness.

[00:31:19] I don't like that word delicious,

[00:31:21] but beautiful maybe.

[00:31:23] Yes, you can have some things to do.

[00:31:25] That's the practical aspect

[00:31:26] of needing to get things done in your life.

[00:31:28] We'll do that, get to that in a second,

[00:31:31] but for now just experience

[00:31:32] the beautiful freshness, freedom, vastness

[00:31:34] and openness of this groundless moment.

[00:31:38] Relax into it.

[00:31:39] That's where acceptance and surrender come in.

[00:31:42] And that's where God's power

[00:31:43] and having God's presence

[00:31:45] can help us relax into his peace and comfort.

[00:31:48] I don't think grasping

[00:31:49] and holding onto things is biblical either.

[00:31:52] The whole concept of letting go

[00:31:54] about do not be afraid,

[00:31:56] sometimes I'm like, but how do I not be afraid?

[00:31:58] And I think that this concept

[00:32:00] of groundlessness and the meditation

[00:32:02] and the body work helps us to actually practice that

[00:32:05] and not just say, do it.

[00:32:07] Well, how?

[00:32:08] This is how.

[00:32:10] Okay, this is one way how.

[00:32:11] I'm not saying it's the only way.

[00:32:13] Appreciate its openness,

[00:32:15] see and feel it with fresh eyes

[00:32:17] as if you've never experienced this particular open moment.

[00:32:20] You have it, no one has.

[00:32:21] Let yourself melt into open groundlessness.

[00:32:23] Let yourself fall in love with it.

[00:32:25] And then from this place of openness and love,

[00:32:27] ask yourself what's the most important thing

[00:32:30] I can do right now?

[00:32:31] What's the most loving thing

[00:32:33] I can do for myself and others?

[00:32:35] Take that next step,

[00:32:36] not out of anxiety or fear, but out of love.

[00:32:38] Do it while experiencing the openness

[00:32:40] of the moment and your actions.

[00:32:42] Easier said than done, right?

[00:32:43] This takes years of practice, but you do get better.

[00:32:46] It's harder at first,

[00:32:48] but if you stick with it, you do get better at it.

[00:32:50] And it says,

[00:32:51] savor the freshness and freedom as you act.

[00:32:54] This is the way of embracing groundlessness.

[00:32:56] And this was embracing groundlessness in Zen habits

[00:33:00] by Leo Bbalta, B-A-B-A-U-T-A.

[00:33:03] And there's one more article

[00:33:06] and there's one more article I wanted to share with you

[00:33:08] and this is at a source called the do-drop

[00:33:12] and it's D-E-W-D-R-O-P, the do-drop.

[00:33:17] And this is an actual article by Pima Chodron.

[00:33:20] I wanted to find something that she wrote

[00:33:22] because I really respect her work

[00:33:23] and I love Pima Chodron.

[00:33:25] She is one of the most amazing teachers of our time

[00:33:28] in my opinion.

[00:33:29] But she talks about when things start to fall apart

[00:33:33] in your life, you feel as if your whole world

[00:33:34] is crumbling, but actually it's your fixed identity

[00:33:38] that's crumbling and that's cause for celebration.

[00:33:41] And you're probably like, what?

[00:33:42] You know, but our identity needs to be something more eternal.

[00:33:46] Our identity needs to be in Christ

[00:33:49] and I'm not even necessarily talking about the afterlife

[00:33:51] even though that's part of it,

[00:33:53] but it's about who we are when everything falls apart.

[00:33:58] What is left?

[00:33:59] And I'm not saying everything's gonna fall apart.

[00:34:02] Not likely, but I am saying,

[00:34:05] you see what I'm saying, I'm making a point here.

[00:34:07] I'm not sure who wrote this as an introduction,

[00:34:11] but it quotes Pima Chodron.

[00:34:14] It says, the ground is always shifting,

[00:34:15] writes Buddhist nun Pima Chodron in her book,

[00:34:18] Living Beautifully with Uncertainty and Change,

[00:34:21] whether we like it or not.

[00:34:22] The acceptance of the fundamental changing,

[00:34:25] impermanent nature of the world

[00:34:27] is at the heart of Buddhist philosophy

[00:34:29] and is a constant thing through children's teachings.

[00:34:33] When things fall apart,

[00:34:34] when the ground is pulled out from under us,

[00:34:36] it is not a cause for panic,

[00:34:38] but rather a cause for celebration.

[00:34:39] Again, you're probably like, what?

[00:34:42] Suffering, she writes, is not the fact

[00:34:45] of an unfortunate event, but our resistance to it.

[00:34:49] I'll say that again,

[00:34:50] suffering, she writes, is not the fact

[00:34:52] of an unfortunate event, but our resistance to it.

[00:34:56] We feel pain in the face of denial

[00:34:58] and in trying to fix the world

[00:34:59] into some kind of stable and predictable schema, she says.

[00:35:03] Rather, she suggests we can find relief

[00:35:06] in facing the truth of the flux in our lives

[00:35:08] and embracing the dynamic quality.

[00:35:11] So that's the nature of doing groundlessness work

[00:35:16] and that's not the same thing as grounding.

[00:35:18] Keep in mind that grounding in the body

[00:35:21] is something where you're anchoring yourself in your body

[00:35:24] and if you're anchored in your body,

[00:35:25] your meditations are actually gonna be more fruitful.

[00:35:27] So if you do meditations on groundlessness

[00:35:30] while your body is grounded,

[00:35:31] I just wanted to clarify those terms

[00:35:33] so nobody mixes those up.

[00:35:35] Those are two different things.

[00:35:36] But she talks about our discomfort arises

[00:35:41] from all our efforts to put ground under our feet,

[00:35:44] to realize our dream of constant okayness.

[00:35:47] I love that word okayness and it's not

[00:35:51] that we shouldn't seek to have a stable life.

[00:35:54] It's not that we shouldn't do something

[00:35:55] about difficult and uncertain situations.

[00:35:58] It's not that we shouldn't even grasp

[00:36:00] for something or find comfort,

[00:36:01] but we can grasp at that so much we become,

[00:36:04] it becomes a trauma response.

[00:36:06] It becomes a trauma response and we are unconscious.

[00:36:09] The key is to find consciousness

[00:36:11] and to find some surrender

[00:36:13] and it might not even be 100%,

[00:36:14] it might be letting go 5% or 10%.

[00:36:18] It isn't an all or none thing is what I'm saying

[00:36:22] and my cat's moving around a lot today,

[00:36:24] but the article continues to say,

[00:36:28] so what does it feel like to be human

[00:36:30] in this ambiguous groundless state?

[00:36:31] For one thing she says,

[00:36:33] we grab at pleasure and try to avoid pain,

[00:36:36] but despite our efforts,

[00:36:37] we're always alternating between the two.

[00:36:39] We've talked about those trauma responses

[00:36:43] and how we cope with things.

[00:36:46] Under the illusion that experiencing constant security

[00:36:48] and wellbeing is the ideal state,

[00:36:50] we do all sorts of things to achieve it.

[00:36:52] Eat, drink, drugs, work hard,

[00:36:55] spend hours online or watching TV.

[00:36:57] Not that those things are always bad,

[00:37:00] but it's how we do them, how much we do them,

[00:37:02] the reasons we do them.

[00:37:03] And if it's getting to a point

[00:37:06] where we're avoiding sitting in our bodies,

[00:37:09] dealing with things, confronting them gently,

[00:37:11] praying, meditating, feeling what's going on

[00:37:14] with us very carefully.

[00:37:16] It says,

[00:37:17] but somehow we never quite achieve

[00:37:18] the state of unwavering satisfaction we're seeking.

[00:37:21] At times we feel good, physically nothing hurts

[00:37:24] and mentally all as well.

[00:37:25] Then it changes and we're hit

[00:37:26] with physical pain or mental anguish.

[00:37:29] I imagine it would be possible to chart

[00:37:31] how pleasure and pain alternate in our lives

[00:37:33] hour by hour, day by day, year by year out,

[00:37:36] first one and then the other predominating.

[00:37:38] Our discomfort arises, she says,

[00:37:40] from all our efforts to put ground under our feet

[00:37:42] to realize our dream of constant oakeness.

[00:37:46] So she's talking about the concept

[00:37:49] of the fact that we all have these difficult times

[00:37:52] in our lives.

[00:37:52] We all have ebbs and flows and fluxes in our lives

[00:37:55] where things are difficult, things are easier,

[00:37:57] things are better, things are worse

[00:37:59] and there's sort of a cycle there.

[00:38:01] So, but she says it's not impermanence per se

[00:38:04] or even knowing we're gonna die.

[00:38:05] She's talking about death here,

[00:38:07] but there's other forms of uncertainty obviously.

[00:38:09] That is the cause of suffering, the Buddha taught.

[00:38:12] Rather it's our resistance

[00:38:13] to fundamental uncertainty of our situation.

[00:38:16] Our discomfort arises from all our efforts

[00:38:18] to put ground under our feet

[00:38:20] to realize our dream of constant oakeness.

[00:38:22] When we resist change it's called suffering

[00:38:25] but when we can completely let go

[00:38:27] and not struggle against it.

[00:38:28] And I would argue here that even if you can do that partly

[00:38:31] it gives you relief.

[00:38:32] She says when we can embrace groundlessness

[00:38:34] of our situation and relax into its dynamic quality

[00:38:38] that's called enlightenment

[00:38:39] or awakening to our true nature,

[00:38:41] to our fundamental goodness.

[00:38:43] Another word for this is freedom.

[00:38:45] Freedom from struggling

[00:38:46] against the fundamental ambiguity of being human.

[00:38:49] And she says, bear with me,

[00:38:52] I know this is long but I think this is really good stuff.

[00:38:55] What the fundamental ambiguity of being human points out

[00:38:58] is that as much as we want to,

[00:39:00] we can never say this is the only true way,

[00:39:02] this is how it is end of discussion.

[00:39:05] And it just goes on and on talking about fixed identities

[00:39:08] and people that grasp at things too much.

[00:39:11] And you know, we can even hold onto our faith

[00:39:14] to the point that we can't question anything

[00:39:17] or we can't explore or we can't experiment

[00:39:19] or we can't have open conversations

[00:39:22] and when we get to that point,

[00:39:23] that's a sign that there's a trauma response involved.

[00:39:26] I argue that extreme fundamentalism,

[00:39:29] extreme fundamentalism is actually comes from fear,

[00:39:33] comes from fear and the need to have

[00:39:35] absolute certainty about everything

[00:39:37] but the Bible talks about humility

[00:39:39] and it talks about questioning

[00:39:42] and it talks about the uncertain nature of life

[00:39:44] and so having those questions

[00:39:46] and asking those questions

[00:39:47] and exploring those areas of uncertainty

[00:39:50] not only is it good for us

[00:39:52] but it's healthy, it's healthy.

[00:39:55] Pima talks about an experience she had

[00:39:57] when she was working at one of her abbeys

[00:39:59] and how she had a difficult personality in certain ways

[00:40:03] and that it took an intervention for people to wake her up

[00:40:07] and help her realize that even though she thought

[00:40:08] she was this great person, which she is,

[00:40:10] but she still had flaws,

[00:40:11] she needed to work on herself in certain ways

[00:40:13] where she interacted with other people.

[00:40:15] But the close, so she shares that experience

[00:40:18] and then the closing paragraph talks about,

[00:40:21] in Buddhism we call the notion

[00:40:22] of a fixed identity ego clinging.

[00:40:25] It's how we try to put solid ground under our feet

[00:40:27] in an ever shifting world.

[00:40:29] So not only is this concept backed by a lot

[00:40:32] of the general principles of Christianity

[00:40:33] but it's also backed by psychology.

[00:40:36] This concept of the ego, where we need control,

[00:40:39] where we've got to be right about everything,

[00:40:42] it's letting go of that and softening that

[00:40:45] that helps us to find peace.

[00:40:48] So it says meditation practice in prayer, I would say,

[00:40:52] starts to erode that fixed identity.

[00:40:54] As you sit, you begin to see yourself with more clarity

[00:40:57] and you notice how attached you are

[00:40:59] to your opinions about yourself and about life, I would say.

[00:41:03] Often the first blow to the fixed identity

[00:41:05] is precipitated by a crisis.

[00:41:07] When things start to fall apart in your life,

[00:41:09] as they did in mine when I came to Gumpo Alley,

[00:41:13] Abbey, sorry, you feel as if your whole world

[00:41:15] is crumbling but actually it's your fixed identity

[00:41:18] that's crumbling.

[00:41:19] As Chunga Trumpa used to tell us,

[00:41:21] that's cause for celebration.

[00:41:23] I think the reason she says it's cause for celebration

[00:41:25] is that that's where the real work can begin,

[00:41:28] the real healing can begin.

[00:41:29] Grasping in its extreme form is a trauma response.

[00:41:33] Grasping in its regular form, I would argue,

[00:41:35] is a regular human experience that we all have.

[00:41:38] Everything is not trauma but there's a lot

[00:41:41] of these responses that are trauma responses.

[00:41:44] And I just wanted you to see the connections

[00:41:47] between giving things to God is about surrendering,

[00:41:52] not about grasping.

[00:41:53] I know that there's metaphors like he's my anchor,

[00:41:56] my anchor holds and grips the solid rock,

[00:41:58] this rock is Jesus, yes he's the one.

[00:42:00] I love that song.

[00:42:01] So there's sort of a paradox here

[00:42:03] but you start to see how these work together in tandem

[00:42:06] so that you can find peace.

[00:42:08] You have a grounding in God

[00:42:11] but you can ground so much

[00:42:13] that it's a clinging that's unhealthy

[00:42:16] if you're not willing to be open and experiment,

[00:42:21] like I said, and ask questions and do the healing work

[00:42:23] and learn and be humble and accept that part

[00:42:27] of the nature of life is change in grandlessness.

[00:42:29] Like I said, even when I'm saying this,

[00:42:32] I'm like, ugh, you know,

[00:42:33] because there are certain things happening

[00:42:35] in my life right now that are scary and uncertain.

[00:42:37] Things are there happening with certain people

[00:42:39] in my family and that's one reason

[00:42:41] that I decided to do this particular podcast.

[00:42:46] I just kind of came upon it spontaneously.

[00:42:48] I found a couple of articles

[00:42:49] and then I just hit record

[00:42:51] and I let it go where it would.

[00:42:53] But I hope that this episode has been helpful.

[00:42:56] This episode has talked about four ways of dealing

[00:42:59] with uncertainty as a Christian,

[00:43:02] some scriptures on that encourage you

[00:43:04] during times of uncertainty and fear

[00:43:06] and then the concept of groundlessness

[00:43:08] and surrender and acceptance

[00:43:10] that allows us to find more peace

[00:43:12] in how those are compatible with what we're already doing.

[00:43:15] So some practices that you can do, meditation,

[00:43:19] if you can find groundlessness meditations

[00:43:22] or just meditations for times of uncertainty,

[00:43:24] meditating on scriptures about God's presence,

[00:43:28] comfort, healing and presence in our lives

[00:43:34] and also body work to help us

[00:43:37] to connect more with our bodies and ground in our bodies

[00:43:40] so that when we do this work,

[00:43:41] we're more prepared to deal with those uncertainties

[00:43:44] in life on a daily basis.

[00:43:46] But I hope that this has been helpful.

[00:43:47] This has been dealing with times of uncertainty,

[00:43:50] dealing with uncertainty

[00:43:52] and this is episode two, season four

[00:43:56] of Christian emotional recovery.

[00:43:58] If you haven't, please consider supporting the podcast

[00:44:01] at Patreon or Ko-Fi.

[00:44:04] You can find those in the show notes.

[00:44:06] Check out the YouTube channel,

[00:44:07] check out the websites, rachaellearoy.com

[00:44:10] and christianemotionalrecovery.com

[00:44:12] and check out the Facebook group

[00:44:14] and that's Christian emotional recovery on Facebook.

[00:44:17] And also check out the free resources

[00:44:20] that you can get at rachaellearoy.com

[00:44:23] and you can also sign up for the email newsletter.

[00:44:25] I don't know when more of those will be out

[00:44:27] but I will try to put them out as often as I can.

[00:44:29] Thank you so much for listening.

[00:44:30] I hope this has been helpful.

[00:44:31] God bless you.

[00:44:32] Remember beloveds,

[00:44:33] you're fearfully and wonderfully made

[00:44:34] and God loves you.

[00:44:38] Thank you so much for tuning in to this week's episode

[00:44:41] of Christian emotional recovery,

[00:44:44] hosted by Rachel Leroy.

[00:44:46] For links to this week's resources

[00:44:48] and to join the discussion,

[00:44:50] check out this episode's show notes

[00:44:52] at christianemotionalrecovery.com

[00:44:55] where you can also find links

[00:44:57] to our YouTube channel and Facebook group.

[00:44:59] Join our email list

[00:45:01] and get other episodes and resources.

[00:45:04] If you enjoyed the podcast,

[00:45:06] please rate and review the podcast

[00:45:08] and tell a friend who may benefit from this message.

[00:45:11] See you next time.

[00:45:12] And remember, beloveds,

[00:45:14] God loves you

[00:45:15] and you are fearfully and wonderfully made.