Episode transcript
Finding Identity and Healing Through Faith and Christian Community
Well, hey, friends, welcome to the Life Renovation Podcast.
We're your hosts, Glendie Loranger and Elizabeth Morrison, and together we're breaking down the walls that divide us through meaningful conversations around faith, family, and sexuality.
Morning, Elizabeth.
Good morning.
We had quite the weekend, didn't we?
We did, yes.
Monday came quickly.
For those of you who don't know Elizabeth and I well, we were up at a women's retreat.
First women's retreat I've been at over a decade.
Yeah, I had never been to one.
We were up at Clearwater Lodge on Davis Lake, also known as Camp Spalding, and it was phenomenal.
The time away.
I don't know, what were the highlights for you, Elizabeth?
Yeah, I mean, like I said, I'd never been to a women's retreat.
And so for me to be with a bunch of women, I just kind of needed that.
I shared a bit about my divorce story a couple of podcasts ago.
And I'm kind of like still healing from men in my life.
And so I really needed to be able to be vulnerable with God and know that it was a safe space for me.
So that was really nice.
Just women, I think we had women from like 20s to 70s.
The age range was beautiful.
Yeah, the generations.
And there was like 30 churches there?
17.
17.
Are you sure?
Well, there could have been more.
There were a lot of churches represented.
Yeah.
And I loved just the opportunity to just be, that was really the theme, just being with Jesus.
And so one of the things that I noticed though, our whole Life Renovation Podcast is all around faith, family and sexuality.
And I noticed that the theme of the retreat was being with Jesus.
And yet in the vulnerable moments when people would share their testimonies or what they were struggling with, those three areas kept popping up.
Like there were some wounds from the church or hurts that they had and they'd walked away, or there were big broken relationship pieces with family, or there was some twisted part of their sexuality.
Yeah, like without searching for it, they just kind of came up, you know, and Glinda and I would like look at each other and be like, oh, podcast.
Give each other the eyes, like, oh, oh.
Well, and then we kept saying, we need to have her on.
Yeah, we need to have her on.
So you're going to have some of our friends.
Yeah, there's about five of you that went to that that might be on our podcast at some point.
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Why Faith, Family, and Identity Matter More Than We Think
Well, if you are just joining us for the first time, this is, of course, the Life Renovation Podcast.
And we talk about real things.
We talk about things in your life.
So this is not the DIY home renovation.
At the same time, it kind of works like that, because I don't know if you've ever had a problem in your house, like the water heater, and you don't notice that something's wrong with the water heater until it goes out.
Yeah, you might like push it down, like, oh, deal with it later.
You know, oh, no, maybe not this weekend.
And then you don't have hot water.
You're dealing with it right now.
Yeah.
And so the things in our life, especially around these three areas, faith, family and sexuality, can often be like almost a DIY project, because we just we ignore it.
We push it away until there's an emergency or something kind of explodes in our life.
So we just want to give you opportunity to hear from us, hear from our listeners.
We come at these topics from a Christian worldview and just with a lens of, gosh, is there something I'm not paying attention to?
Is there something I'm ignoring or shoving down?
And so we're going to try to provide tools and perspective that we hope can help you lead healthier, happier life.
Yeah.
And we're going to be introducing, like we said, some of the people that we met at the camp, but also experts in the field, pastors, other people that work in these areas.
And one of those people is Dee, our producer.
And so she's actually here with us today.
So, so happy to be here with you guys today.
Thank you so much.
Oh, this is just, yeah, Dee, we have loved getting to know you better and just having you help us navigate how to how the heck to do a podcast.
Yeah.
Well, and it has been a joy for me.
I am just I'm thrilled to be on staff and helping you with this podcast.
And I can't wait to see how God is going to use this.
Yeah, right.
It's going to be amazing.
We're excited to.
It's fun.
It's really fun to just be able to sit down.
And how do I say this?
Talk things out, right?
You know, I think we all have a need to do that.
We've got so much going on in our lives and yet so many questions and things going on personally, work, faith, all of these different areas.
But just to be able to come together and get it out on the table and see it for what it is and look at it, like you say, through the lens of scripture, truth, right?
Yeah.
Dee’s Story of Searching for Identity and Discovering Jesus
Dee, you have quite a family history, and we were just wondering if you would kind of share some of it with us.
Happy to do that.
I appreciate hearing both of your stories and mine.
You know, it's not a crazy, crazy kind of a story.
You know, when you hear about testimonies and you think, Wow, I wish mine was a little bit more exciting.
Yeah.
Just to give you a little bit of background about me.
I grew up in a large family, so there were nine kids all together in our family, six boys, three girls.
And it was a crazy, fun upbringing.
I mean, as I look back on my childhood, I think, wow, how blessed I was to have the parents that I did.
In fact, they were married for 68 long years.
And my dad passed first.
But I still remember my mom talking about she they had such a wonderful love relationship.
And when he passed, the one thing that she said was it was a wild ride.
What a compliment, because he was kind of a crazy guy.
My dad was and mom was, we always say she was kind of the glue that held our family together.
But yeah, mom had nine kids.
I can't get over nine.
She was amazing.
She had such a strength about her dad was, you know, he was hardworking and very good provider, always there for us.
But there were oftentimes we didn't see a lot of dad.
So mom kind of had to hold down the home for it, if you will.
And that was interesting with six boys, I'll tell you.
I could tell you some stories of what happened there, but we might need another podcast for that.
So grew up in a in terms of faith.
It was a traditional faith background.
You know, my parents always felt that it was so important that they raise us up in the church and in the faith.
And we had that foundation.
So we went to church.
I wouldn't say we were at the church every time the doors were open.
But we had a wonderful faith foundation that was laid for us.
I like that word.
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
So yeah, as a kid, my growing up years were pretty typical of a lot of kids around me in the early 70s.
But you know, it was kind of interesting as I grew older and got into middle school and high school.
That's when things began to change for me.
And I began to just really go through a lot of difficulties.
Yeah, a lot of struggles, a lot of insecurities, probably not unlike a lot of my peers.
But still, it was a very difficult time in my life.
And I think that was one of the things that caused me to begin to ask myself some questions, especially as I got into high school.
Okay, you know, it's like that that whole feeling of not knowing where I fit in or not feeling like I was enough with friends and desiring to know where to fit in.
All of that kind of thing just it kind of followed me into high school.
And so I've heard you use the word turbulent.
Yeah, yeah, it was an interesting time in my life.
I think it was one of the things that God used for me personally to begin to get me to question some things, you know, like, am I enough?
What is my purpose?
Where do I fit in here?
You know, I always felt like I don't know about you guys, but in high school, there was like the popular crowd, the kids who always seemed like, you know, they had it together.
They were on the cheer team or sports teams or, you know, I don't know any high schooler who hasn't experienced that.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
So it was it was just that kind of stuff.
And not like I didn't have any friends, but it was just kind of this.
It sounds kind of like an identity crisis, like you just didn't know who you were.
I guess it was.
I don't know.
Do most kids ask those questions?
Well, they're they're pretty deep.
And the neat thing is that you've described this foundation that your parents laid for you.
Right.
And in the church, which obviously is a foundation with God.
So those those are deep questions.
They're deep and they're big questions.
Yeah.
Like how do you begin to answer those?
Well, yeah.
And as most kids do at that age in high school, you know, you're looking for a group to fit in with.
And I found myself getting in with the Friday night football going party going crowd, you know, ninth and 10th grade and, you know, doing all of those things that kids were doing, but just really feeling like, gosh, there's got to be more than this.
That was the thing.
There's got to be.
This is so unfulfilling.
I felt it was so empty.
Yeah, it's just not satisfied.
Like you're looking for something, but you're not finding it.
Right.
Those were the things that God was doing in my life.
What he was using to draw me to himself.
Those questions.
Yeah.
And I remember there were some kids in my high school that just really seemed to have something going for them, something different.
There's one girl in particular, I was really drawn to her.
So I ended up striking up a friendship with her and later come to find out, I think it was the Jesus that I saw in her that I was drawn to.
So she invited me to her youth group.
And then that eventually led to us going to, you guys probably remember Campus Crusade for Christ.
It's called CRU now.
Started going to some of those meetings and met some kids that were just so different from what I had experienced in high school and that crowd that I was hanging out with.
Dee, you and I have been on the radio in so many different contexts.
We both now work for Life Services and I have heard you share so many beautiful stories.
I've heard you share your story.
So I just want to kind of remind all of us and those of you listening, both Elizabeth and I have shared our stories in the past two podcasts and we experienced something very similar.
Number one, there's an enemy fight when we give testimony to what God has done in our lives personally.
But number two, we also know that it's a bit vulnerable.
And so just for those of you listening, know that these areas that we're sharing in our lives can be vulnerable.
They're so personal.
But Dee, you were at a point where you were talking about your involvement with crew at high school and then something pretty significant happened with that.
Yeah, when I look back on it, I think about the questions that I was asking myself and all these struggles that I was having about fitting in and where I belong.
And, you know, you guys probably understand that too.
I'm sure you went through it where you just feel like, am I enough?
These were things that were just dragging me down and were just nagging.
Because I think I was just searching so much for something of worth and value in my life.
As I mentioned, I met some really good friends that were a part of Campus Crusade for Christ.
And so, through those meetings, met one friend who at one point sat me down and point blank said, are you a Christian?
No, that's a big question.
Yeah, I know.
Well, we were talking about different things and he was excited about his faith and wanted to know where I was in my faith.
So it threw me a little bit.
And I thought, well, yeah, I'm a Christian.
I believe in God.
You know, the whole thing.
I'm a good person.
I was raised with a faith foundation.
Of course, I'm a Christian.
Yes, I'm a Christian.
Well, he just shot back.
Well, just because you've had this experience or that, you know, with God or you've been in church, it doesn't necessarily mean that you're a Christian, which offended me a little bit at the time.
I was like, well, who are you?
Yeah, excuse me.
This conversation is over.
I mean, here he was my age and my friend.
And I'm like, I'm thinking, well, what gives you the authority?
But what was wonderful about that is God was really using that to kind of get me to a place where I was starting to really think through what he was saying.
We kind of argued a little bit.
The conversation didn't really go extremely well, but I do remember that he managed to give me the Bible track.
He said, I want you to have this.
Look through this and let me know what you think.
I really didn't end up picking it up for quite some time after that.
But I do remember specifically one night, I picked that Four Spiritual Laws Bible track up one night because I couldn't sleep and I started going through it.
I was immediately drawn into it.
And it says, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.
And I was just like, really?
He does?
You know, seriously, I mean, it just drew me in to where I wanted to know more.
I wanted to know more of what this wonderful plan was and what God had for my life.
From there, it's kind of a good news, bad news scenario when you think about it.
Next in line, humanity is tainted by sin and is therefore separated from God.
So God loves you, has a wonderful plan for your life.
But here's the thing, humanity is tainted by sin and separated by God.
So what do we do about that?
Well, what really, really impacted me, 1 Timothy 2, there is one God and one mediator who can reconcile God and humanity, the man Christ Jesus.
Amen, and amen to that.
He gave his life to purchase freedom for everyone.
This is the message that God gave to the world at just the right time.
And so as I was flipping through this Bible track and seeing all of this, and even the picture of Jesus Christ laid out as that mediator, the only one that can bridge the gap between man and God.
How did that affect you?
It was beautiful.
It was beautiful.
It was like the Holy Spirit just led me into that and was giving me so much understanding about what it meant to be in relationship with Jesus.
Here was this man, Jesus, that came to this earth, lived amongst us, suffered, died on a cross and was buried and rose again for the sins of all mankind.
And that includes you.
I was totally blown away.
And so it was that night that I gave my life to the Lord.
And you guys, I just, I can't, I don't feel like I can adequately describe what happened when Christ came into my heart.
I felt as though there was just a warmth and a presence and a glow in the room.
I know that sounds crazy.
It's not crazy.
But it was God showing up.
He made himself real to me.
I received him as my Lord and Savior.
And I knew what my young friend was talking about.
Just because you have a religious upbringing or you go to church doesn't necessarily mean you're a Christian, a Christ follower.
What I hear you describing is the difference between religion and relationship.
Yes.
Absolutely.
And that was the moment that my life changed for the good forever.
Can you tell us some of those changes?
Absolutely.
At the start, I just realized that I had to pull away from influences that weren't good for me in high school.
So, you know, I began making new friends.
God brought wonderful opportunities into my life to do some new things that I had not ever done before, you know, and I just I knew it was God just blessing me and letting me know that he had my life on a whole new trajectory.
Yeah.
Yeah, you use that that word new.
It's 2 Corinthians 5 17 that says, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new he she Dee is a new creation.
The old has passed away.
Behold, the new has come.
What your story is such a picture of that happening in people's lives.
Thanks for sharing that Dee.
I'm thrilled to just be able to share how God got a hold of my life and completely changed me and give me that purpose.
Like it says in this word, he says he has a plan and a purpose for each of our lives in that sense that I am enough.
And so at the beginning, you kind of shared that like you didn't know what your identity was.
And then, you know, after you met Jesus, it felt like all that kind of fell into place.
You know, I wouldn't say it all fell into place.
There's quite a process involved of learning who you are in Christ.
That's one of the reasons why I love that we're sitting down and talking about this.
The questions that I was asking of myself at such a young age, one, where do I fit in?
Am I enough?
What's my purpose?
Those are those universal questions that everybody asks and wants to know.
And the real answers to those can only be found in Christ.
And so it's just been this process of growing in my identity in Christ and learning more of who I am.
In Him, learning to walk in truth, learning to walk confidently in that identity.
Being a young Christian, it takes time to figure things out.
I mean, and there's still so many things that, you know, we don't understand or still trying to figure out.
It's been an interesting process of learning that lots of ups and downs, lots of difficulties along the way.
But, you know, God is he's firmly in control.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I think we all know that when you put your identity in anything but God in your kids or your career or your, you know, possessions or whatever it is, those can all be taken away from you.
But Christ can't be.
Once you are in relationship with him, you're there and you have him in you.
And so that's the only thing that is secure that you can put your identity into.
That's right.
Yeah.
Identity is such a buzzword nowadays.
And so we're going to be unpacking identity in Christ and even our identity from a cultural perspective in future podcasts.
But, Dee, I'm just so thankful that you would point us back to the true Jesus, Jesus Christ, and just through your story and that that's really where our security lies as we discover that relationship with him and our true identity as Christ's followers.
Thank you for letting me share and just being able to again express that everything that we could ever want or need or desire is found in Jesus.
That forgiveness of sin, when he comes into our lives and completely cleanses us and washes away our sin and makes us a new creation in Christ.
But then it's like, but wait, there's more.
God has so much more for our lives and growing in that, that identity.
And I see a lot of people around me, particularly younger people who struggle with that.
And I think part of the struggle that we'll get into in the future podcasts are just that our identity is in God, who is absolutely divine and Jesus, who was absolutely human.
But the humans that we interact with every day are not divine or flawed.
They're flawed.
We're broken humans and oftentimes people that we interact with around the church are broken.
So we'll unpack that on a later day.
But Dee, we just want to thank you again for sharing your story as we wrap this one up.
Yeah.
And we'll have that for Spiritual Laws track in our show notes.
But really quickly for the millennials, can you tell me what a track is?
T-R-A-C-T, right?
It's not a CD.
You know, this was a big thing back in the day.
This was like when I came to Christ in 1981, it was just kind of on the peripheral of the Jesus People movement.
Remember that?
And the Bible tracks were a big, big deal.
So that was still very much kind of kind of still going around.
And I think I got kind of the tail end.
But the tracks were actually little pieces, like almost little booklets.
Yes.
Like little newspaper type booklets that people would hand out.
I remember some of them that I remember, they were almost about the size of a business card.
So you had to have really good eyes to read.
And then there were some others that I know that were cartoon Bible tracks.
So just like a little pamphlet form, probably about the size of your hand.
You could open it up and read through.
Definitely wasn't on a phone because none of us carried phones then.
No, no, no phones.
Got it.
Well, hey, friends, we are going to wrap this one up and we will be back in a future podcast, podcast number five, and we'll be diving back into meaningful conversations around faith, family and sexuality.
We hope that you'll join us.
We also hope that you'll share this podcast with friends, family on all your social media accounts.
And we will see you next time.
See you.
Thanks for joining us today.
Life Renovation is sponsored by Life Services Spokane in Spokane, Washington, the Christ-centered organization offering professional medical care, truth and support to anyone impacted by unplanned pregnancy, helping them to choose life and a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
Life Services Spokane has been bringing hope to life since 1991.
Find out more at lifeservices.org.
That's lifeservices.org.
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