A Divine Detour: From Task Oriented Faith to Experiential Spirituality | Ep 8

Our spiritual journey isn't about ticking off boxes or meeting quotas; it's about experiencing a genuine connection with God.  In this episode, Tiffany talks about moving away from a checklist approach and embracing a more organic relationship with the divine. We share our struggles, our moments of clarity, and how we've learned to trust in God's plan. We celebrate the realization that spirituality is not a set of tasks to complete, but a series of moments in which we feel God's presence.

Also in this episode, Mary shares how an unexpected detour led to a divine realization. An amusing anecdote about finding herself in the Disneyland parking lot, and the brightly colored 'Exit' sign she received, gave way to a poignant discussion about divine guidance and the permission to leave situations that no longer serve us. 

 So, do look for your sign, and remember, we're all in His hands. Tune in for an enlightening conversation that might just change your perspective on spirituality.

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Transcript

Announcer: 0:00

Welcome to In His Hands podcast from women for women. We're here to help you find peace in knowing you are in God's hands. Our goal is sharing the Word of God in simple conversations. We're here to help you thrive every day. And now, here are your hosts.

Tiffany: 0:18

Good morning. I'm Tiffany Windsor and I'm Mary. I have another message to share with you, mary.

Tiffany: 0:24

When I was in church taking notes, I was making side notes and, as I've been working on the Perry Winkle pomegranate in His Hands website, I had posted on the home page about we check all the boxes.

Tiffany: 0:39

We have creativity, wellness and God. And today the message was so clear no, we don't want to check all the boxes because then that becomes way too routine. So I came back and it became very clear to me what I wanted to write, which should be the website home page that everybody sees. Now I am so grateful for that message because I knew the message wasn't complete. I knew God was trying to tell me something else to write and I hadn't listened. So I'm very grateful that I took my journal with me and I was able to hear that message and know that this whole journey is not about checking the boxes. It's not about how many days am I going to church this month. This is not about I'm going to set certain amount of time to pray every day. This is about how God speaks to you in your life and what action that you take.

Mary: 1:32

And that resonates with me quite a bit because my prayer time is very consistent, but it's been very dry and a lot of me talking to God and talking at God, not accessing. His power and His presence.

Mary: 1:52

Not wat all. It's really not working, and so in my mind it's a checklist. I checked it off. I did that. A powerful thing for me is to look back at all my journals and how close God was to me during dark times and to remember that he is still there with me now only I'm so busy in my head telling him all the things and describing to him how he should do things, and doesn't he need my help in answering my prayers and how come he's not doing it my way? I need to return to that faith of a child, which is I don't know how to do this, I don't know what it's going to look like and I don't know what's happening in the next five minutes, but I trust you, god Trust.

Tiffany: 2:29

Trust. That is a big one, because we think we want to try and work everything out in our head and in our minds and in our fretting and in our fears and in our anxieties. I've used both of those words a lot lately, and that's not what it's about. This is not about us scripting how things are going to be. This is about us praying and listening for the guidance. And that's what was so clear to me when I am in church and I am listening and I am focused and listening for the guidance, and it's like, oh my gosh, that was so simple. I didn't need to spend hours fretting about that yesterday. Look at the clear answer I got today when I just sat quietly with God.

Mary: 3:14

Well, tiffany, I think you're a very good listener, so it encourages me to know that you sometimes struggle with that too, but I am not a good listener to the Lord. I'm a good talker at or at the Lord, and it's not working for me. There's no peace in it. I'm wondering why, and so the answer that just occurred to me was I don't think I'm going to like the answer that he's going to give me. It might be too hard or it might be something I really don't want to do Really when I'm faced with. What are my options here? Whatever he has in mind has got to be better than what this feels like. You know this talking at him and no peace, and so I think I should give that a try. The listening I see a sign sitting on the table.

Tiffany: 3:56

Is that something you want to talk about today? I would love to talk about that.

Mary: 4:00

It's a bright pink exit sign and it's a little piece of paper. And the story behind that is I was going to a convention at Anaheim Convention Center and maps led me right into the Disneyland parking lot and I'm pulling up going. Oh no, it was stressful enough to try and go to this convention. You know, I much rather go to Disneyland anyway. So I pull up to the kiosk and I said you're going to laugh. And he's like, would you like to leave? And I'm like yes, I'd like to leave. So he gave me this bright pink exit sign under my windshield wiper and they just waved me through the line so I was able to exit.

Mary: 4:35

Now I call it my sign of shame because I couldn't reach your request. I couldn't reach around from the inside to take the sign off from the outside. I had to drive to where I was going until I could get the exit sign off. But now to me it's not my sign of shame, it's my sign of God is making a way, he's making a way, and it might not be parking at Disneyland, maybe it has to be some helpers waving me through to the exit and then driving around with a big pink sign on my car until I can get where I need to go.

Tiffany: 5:05

There was blessing in that, and when I saw this sitting here before just listening to you, I thought it's a permission to exit. It's a permission slip, and so you can exit places you don't want to be. So we need to make permission to exit signs. I like that even better. Because I love the story that you have and how you're using that, but we have permission to exit, and to me, permission to exit thoughts and circumstances that we don't want to be in where we want to invite God in. So it's a directional sign.

Mary: 5:43

I've kept the sign. I took it off the windshield wiper and I put it in the back of the car and I was going to throw it away and I'm like, no, you know, that's a testament to me, maybe listening more I'm, I'm proud of myself and so I kept the sign and I thought about what the sign meant to me and I love the permission. I need to hear that more. As a rule follower, I need permission to not follow the rules all the time and to exit when I need to, and especially if the loudest voice has been about work related things and job and paycheck kind of things. And the Lord isn't limited by that, but me and my limited site I am. And so permission to exit what isn't a blessing, what isn't using my gifts, what isn't serving God how he maybe wants me to serve. I need that permission. I need to remember that.

Tiffany: 6:30

So a reminder to everyone to look for their sign. And now we're going to exit today's chat. Thanks, Mary.

Announcer: 6:38

Be blessed. Thank you for joining us for today's podcast. For more information, go to inhishandscommunitycom. Sign up for our newsletter and social media. We love your feedback. Please leave reviews, comments and subscribe to this podcast to help us get the word out about in his hands, Thank you. Thank you and dear friends, have a blessed day.