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Ordinary People Extraordinary Things
98. Beyond Logic: Where Faith Meets Finances with Raychel Lepkowski
Faith and finances don't often mix in our conversations, but what happens when financial crisis forces you to completely redefine your relationship with money? Raychel's story will challenge everything you thought you knew about God's role in your financial life.
When a casual decision to take Financial Peace University collided with losing 85% of her family income through an unexpected layoff, Raychel faced a moment of truth. Should she hold tighter to her remaining resources or take the counterintuitive leap of faith to begin tithing? The answer changed everything.
Through Raychel's journey, we explore the transformation that happens when we shift from viewing tithing as a religious tax to seeing it as an act of worship and trust. Her story reveals how God often works outside the logic of spreadsheets and budgets – providing contract work that appeared seemingly out of nowhere, stretching time in impossible ways, and creating abundance that defies explanation.
Beyond the financial miracles, Raychel shares how learning to hear God's voice became central to her transformation. Those quiet nudges that seemed to come "out of left field" – guiding her to prioritize volunteering when work demands were overwhelming, prompting her to recognize her career as an unexpected stronghold – became the compass for navigating her new financial reality.
This conversation isn't just for those facing financial hardship. It's for anyone who's ever wondered if God cares about your bank account, your career decisions, or how you spend your time. Raychel's testimony reminds us that sometimes the most extraordinary provision comes when we finally surrender control of what we thought we couldn't afford to lose.
What area of your life is God asking you to release control over today? Your finances might just be the beginning.
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Welcome to Ordinary People Extraordinary Things. I'm so glad that you found us here. We talk about faith and hope, real hope from stories of people just like you, ordinary people telling their stories to inspire, encourage and build your faith. Did you know that we have a prayer team? If you would like to join, please go to generations2generationscom. Generations is plural and two is to there. You will see a podcast tab and if you scroll down, it says join our prayer team. We would love to have you join. By doing this, you will get an email from us every two weeks to share how you can pray for ordinary people. Extraordinary things. Welcome to ordinary people, extraordinary things. I'm here with Rachel. Rachel, thanks for being on, thank you for having me. And Rachel has the same name as my daughter, but you spell it differently. Oh, that's fun. Yeah, yeah, you spell yours R-A-Y-C-H-E-L. I have never seen that before.
Speaker 2:My granddad's name was Ray, so it was kind of like to honor him that is so cool. I really love that. Yeah, when I was younger, I used to wish that it was not different. I used to wish that I wish it was regular Rachel Right, but now I love it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's so cool that it has a meaning behind it. Yeah, what's your middle name?
Speaker 2:Is it Anne?
Speaker 1:No, I know a lot of middle.
Speaker 2:Annes. My mom's middle name is Anne. Actually, it used to be Catherine, which was my grandma's middle name, nice, and then, when I changed my name after getting married, I dropped my middle name and took my maiden name as my middle name oh cool, but then, when we had Lily, I gave her Catherine as her middle name to kind of bring Catherine back. Because I felt bad, I dropped Catherine and then gave it to Lily Awesome. That was really personal, I just I was wondering, because my daughter's name is Rachel Ann, so is your little baby Ann.
Speaker 2:Okay, I don't know what my mom's is. There you go.
Speaker 1:Well, three words or phrases to describe you if there's someone who doesn't know who you are.
Speaker 2:It was really hard to come up with three, but I think I landed on creative, curious and growth oriented. Creative, curious and growth-oriented Ooh, so I'm always wanting to like what can be better for me, for others, and just really like growth-minded.
Speaker 1:Hmm, those are good. Can you give an example of maybe one of those Like for example, creative maybe Sure.
Speaker 2:So I always have just, I love to create, but I also really like to celebrate creation in a way. I really appreciate aesthetics and beauty and that was something growing up I was, whether intentionally or not. I was sort of taught that both creativity and curiosity can be dangerous, which was difficult, because then I was just always like well, these things that I feel like are core to me, are I'm supposed to sort of control?
Speaker 2:Oh, ok, yeah now to where to find those qualities in God. If that makes sense, yeah, where I can actually be those things and it's not actually dangerous.
Speaker 1:Yeah, how interesting. Yeah, because God is a creator, right, right, yeah, so interesting. Thank you for sharing. We get to talk about finances, yay, yippee. Not very creative, that's true, this is a hard subject. Yeah, it is. I feel like it's a taboo subject.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think there are a lot of firm opinions on how to do finances right out there and I have done finances not very well my whole adulthood.
Speaker 1:And that's stressful, right, yeah, and that's why I understand the taboo of finances I really do but also it can wreak such havoc on our life that I think we can't be too afraid to talk about it, because it can be so freeing when we don't have these kind of clutches or bags or something just completely weighing us down.
Speaker 2:Absolutely yeah, and I think, because it's such a specific subject for me, it was not for a lack of resources or information out there. It's just that sometimes I needed to hear certain things from the right people at the right time for stuff to start to sink in. That's a good point. So I'm like, yes, let's talk about it, everybody talk about it, so that maybe somebody can hear what they need to hear.
Speaker 1:So good I like that that maybe you didn't hear it. Maybe you had heard something before, but it wasn't the right time or the right person. So I just want to say thank you for doing this, Thank you for being brave and sharing this part of your life. Why did you take a Financial Peace University class?
Speaker 2:The short answer to that is I saw an announcement, an FPU announcement, in church. I have never really felt in control over my finances, so I saw it and said, why not? Kind of. I do think there's a little bit of a bigger answer to that too, though I want to back up and say I've spent the majority of my life since I was saved at 14 sort of being disconnected, becoming disconnected from God and unfortunately just not really understanding or committing to building a relationship with Jesus. Never, I never didn't believe, but I was just sort of looking the other way, didn't believe but I was just sort of looking the other way.
Speaker 2:So my daughter turned four and a lot of things started happening in like wild ways and looking back, effectively it feels like God sort of just like yanked me out of this like tunnel that I was just like stubbornly digging I wasn't taking the subtle things so he just like yanked me out of there and it really what it felt like was that I was yanked.
Speaker 2:It was uncomfortable, disorienting, but I always felt sort of covered by his grace, his hands. I always felt protected and safe through the crazy things that were happening. And then he just sort of turned me where he wanted me to be and a lot of things happened. It wasn't a moment, it happened over the course of a few months and I think, looking back, that that FPU class and that moment of just sort of signing up because why not? Because money was just sort of one more thing that God was just pushing me into, because that's where I needed to be he knew that. I didn't know that. So it became a much bigger thing than simply a financial class.
Speaker 1:So you had a lot going on and I like how you said that. I think we can all relate to that as far as feeling everything's turning upside down. I don't know what's going. I love that you said you did feel some peace during it. Do you mind just quickly giving a couple things that were happening, or do you want to just leave it as it was crazy?
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I can. I can give a couple examples. It wasn't one moment I know a lot of people have sort of one moment like a pivotal. For us it was. It was a series and things were sort of changing and happening over time. So we, uh, we started going to church in 2022.
Speaker 2:A friend invited us and we just said, why not? We had had Lily in the preschool at church for two years already. So when someone invited us to go to church, we were like, why not? She's already in the school, so let's go. We went. It was the first time that we had been to church in a long time and right away I didn't want to go at first, but we went and right away I was like, oh, this is different church than what I knew as a kid and I couldn't wait to go back. And we kept going back. And then we found out at the end of that year that Lily did not get into the kindergarten after we had been at the preschool for three years. So we were just ready. We were going to put her into the kindergarten, k through eight. That was. That was our plan.
Speaker 1:We loved the school.
Speaker 2:We loved the church, we loved being there. It was just set. So when she didn't get into the kindergarten it felt really big because now what do we do? I felt very fearful about the idea of public school, particularly as she would get older. So I realized, as that was happening, my instinct was to say fine, they don't want us here. I thought this was our place, it's obviously not our place and that grace from God that. No, what if we were now part of the church? Because we needed to not be at the school anymore and because it is our place and we needed to be there.
Speaker 2:So through that, there was also my music. Listening changed a lot, which, again, I listened to my music for 20 years and when I just started to introduce more Jesus-centered music, I just kept wanting to go back to it for some reason, even though 20 years I was, was like I don't need that, like it's not a big deal. And then I suddenly just did need it. I started the FPU course, probably the second class, I found out. So, like two weeks in, I found out I was getting laid off from my job. Wow, which has never happened to me in my career. 20 years into my career. I've just never experienced anything like that, and my salary was 85% of our income, so I had just sort of what felt like a whim, joined this financial class and then, almost immediately after found out, we were losing class, and then, almost immediately after found out, we were losing.
Speaker 1:We were about to lose most of our income.
Speaker 2:So it changed from how do we, you know, handle debt and be more responsible with our money to where's our money even going to come from? Wow, I could probably go on forever.
Speaker 2:Right, right, yeah All these little things started happening, things where we would see being pretty new. Back to church, I didn't know a lot about Galatians and it's just a book that I had never really studied. So all of a sudden we're talking about Galatians and then I started to see Galatians on the internet and like on somebody's t-shirt on the internet and like on somebody's t-shirt, and just started seeing Galatians everywhere. Things just started happening where I would pick something up and it was like literally speaking to me. I started to come back to that idea of my creativity is not a problem, it's something that is part of me and it's part of God and I can use it for God.
Speaker 2:So all of these things just started happening while the bigger stuff was upending and it just made it so that while things were sort of turning around and upside down the thing, they were almost being framed for me. So instead of me having to be stressed and like how can I, what can I make out of this, those things were just coming to me like we were at the church before she didn't get into the school so that we could still be there. Maybe she didn't get into the school because our finances couldn't handle the tuition. So things, just it feels like they were happening the way they were supposed to happen, even though at the time it felt like it felt like I was in a washing machine, just like out of control. But really I think it's because God was in control, because he was finally like you're not, you're not paying attention. So I'm gonna just do it for you, for for a little bit, Rachel.
Speaker 1:That was. That was amazing. There was so much in in that part already. There's many things that stuck out to me. One thing was I like how you said someone invited us to church and we said why not? And I I've seen this statistic, I don't know it off the top of my head that it's a huge statistic that if you ask someone to church, I want to say 80% or more they'll say yes Because why not? Yeah, so don't quote me on that statistic, but it was a huge number of. If you just personally ask someone to church, there's a high chance that they will say yes. So that's interesting that you said just kind of needed someone to ask me.
Speaker 2:Right, I don't think we would have chosen to, it just wasn't on our minds. Let's try to go to church.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it's interesting. So in FPU they talk about a lot of things. One thing they talk about is tithing. Is that correct? And if anyone doesn't know this word, it just means a tenth, 10%, one-tenth. That's what it means. This is something that people might get all up in arms about, but we're just telling our story and I'm going to tell my story about tithing and finances a little bit with you. Some people say it's not applicable now. It's just the Old Testament. We're not here to really debate theology. Our thing right now is just to tell our story about how God has worked when we started tithing. When we started tithing. So if anyone's interested, our tithe is 10% and we get to share about how God has used doing that to really impact our lives. Have you heard about that before? Fpu?
Speaker 2:Yes. So I had heard plenty about tithing. I don't know that it was ever again presented in the right way at the right time to me. I had this. I had this understanding that tithing was me giving my hard earned money to an organization at the request of a leader of said organization, in order to fund that organization in exchange for personal blessings from God to me, so I'm going to give you my money so that you can do your thing, and then God is going to rain on me.
Speaker 2:That was not resonant for me. I just didn't. I couldn't connect with that.
Speaker 1:You were like no, no.
Speaker 2:So it wasn't until I started hearing from other people closer to me in the FPU room what tithing really means. There's that idea that it's a form of worship almost so for me when I started to look at it, not as well. I'm working really hard and I don't know where my next paycheck is going to come from. Why would I choose to give 10% of what I have like? How could I even responsibly choose that? It does not. It doesn't make sense. When you look at it logically like that. The FPU framing of tithing was your, always your first 10th, so it was almost like you tithe before you even look at what you have.
Speaker 1:Right, so for me which again is uh no, that's crazy talk.
Speaker 2:It doesn't make sense on paper, right? Especially when you have debt, especially when you have questions, when your monthly expenses are already more than what you're bringing in. It just wasn't making sense. So I needed to start hearing it from these people who it was almost fascinating to me because they felt so, not just willing but almost like happy to be tithing, and when I started to see it as that idea of giving 10% and I and I even started to just dot dot dot there because it's 10% of my money, it's also 10% of my time, 10% of my energy, like that first, 10% of what I have, giving that to God is a form of worship. So we're not actually talking about financial responsibility anymore, we're talking about worship. Does that make sense?
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, I love that.
Speaker 2:So then it had to become a leap of faith because it doesn't make sense on paper. Right and hearing, in particular, from one woman who was in the FPU class and sitting at my table, a single mom with ongoing medical bills who had just paid off her debt. The class leader had asked the question what was the number one thing she did that allowed her to pay off her debt? The class leader had asked the question what did she, what was the number one thing she did that allowed her to pay off her debt? And I expected her to say what I knew she was gonna say, like snowball method, right. And she said well, there was two things, and the first one was tithing. And I was like how does tithing help you pay off your debt?
Speaker 2:But it intrigued me in a way that hearing somebody stand up on stage and say here's why you need to tithe wasn't connecting with me, something about hearing that connected. And then I couldn't get it out of my head and then I started to just get this really clear feeling that that leap of faith was almost the last sort of barrier, the last thing that God was asking me to do, to just give up that control and like let him finish what he had started for me, if that makes sense. So I wrestled with that and that clarity just didn't go away. It just became clear he wants me to do that. And then, when you get to a certain point, what more do I have to lose? I already know I'm losing my job.
Speaker 1:What is? What is?
Speaker 2:10% of income that I don't even know where it's going to come from, right? So I made the decision that, whatever happens, 10% of whatever going forward is going to be given back to God. As soon as I made that decision, I started getting contract work opportunities, just left and right. They were just coming to me and I was like, okay, so maybe this is actually okay. I actually never ended up with a gap in income, wow yes. So the first 10% that I actually gave it was after I had made the decision, and then the next time I got paid I was like, okay, what's 10%? I was all excited. I sent the tithe. In that afternoon I got a six-month contract offer and I was like, okay, I see what people are talking about when they say you know, god says give me your tithe and I'll reward you for that. It that idea of I'm going to do something to get my reward wasn't ever resonating with me before. But now I'm doing it because I wanted to do it and it's almost like you're rewarding me anyway.
Speaker 1:Right. I think that. I think that is something that people play on. They say, well, you're trying to get something from God and if that's what you're doing, your, your heart's not in the right place. But it is clear in some scripture that he says like test me, test me in this. And so it is really interesting how, how God does that.
Speaker 1:It does not make sense, it really doesn't. And I, whenever I talk about finances or this sort of thing, I want to, I want to have it make sense. I want to say, oh, it's because of this and this that, okay, I can make it, I can make the numbers work. But sometimes I honestly can't. I can't, I can't logically still figure out. I might interject here, and my husband and I were married. We had quite a bit of debt. We had paid for our wedding and he was making a lot of money I'm not great with numbers, but about $100,000. And then we made the decision to move back to Iowa and start a little bowling alley. Our income went down to about $30,000. And we still had this massive debt to figure out.
Speaker 1:And around that time I had heard what I think is my first sermon about tithing. Maybe it really wasn't, I just I don't remember hearing anything about it before. We had always given. Even when I was young I was always giving to the church, but it was never. It was always just like oh, I just feel like it kind of thing and this amount and nothing consistent. And then this came on about the tithing is actually a tenth and I was like what this is really? This is really interesting. You know, I thought it was just about your heart and maybe some people will say it is, and again, I don't want to get into theology on this, but when I heard that I was like oh wow, and it intrigued me. So I was talking to my husband and we decided to start tithing around the time when we were massively losing an income.
Speaker 1:Yeah, while you're going through that huge change Right, and somehow this is a part I don't understand we got rid of all of our debt and we never got back up to that amount for years. Of all of our debt and we never got back up to that amount for years. I mean, we stayed at that amount for at least three years. So we didn't get huge pay raises because of God's faithfulness during that time, but we paid off debt that we should not have been able to pay off and I can say we didn't have cable, we didn't have. You know, I can show places that we cut back on, but I think that was God saying cut back. You don't need this here. I really wish I could put it in a nice bow of how did this happen? I don't know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and while you were tithing the whole time. Yes, that's amazing. Yeah, so after we started, we've always tithed and you were while you were tithing the whole time.
Speaker 1:Yes, that's amazing. Yeah, so after we started, we've always tithed and actually now we this is you know, this is all so personal, but we give more than the 10th and I think that as I kind of learn more about God, I can see that as far as if people say it's not a number, I feel like God almost always in the New Testament brings it up right. He says you say don't murder. I say don't even hate. Yeah, but yeah, we've just seen so many blessings from God in doing that and things that don't. They don't make sense. It really doesn't make sense and it's so freeing to not have that massive debt over you is freeing for your family, for your marriage, for just your life, absolutely. So you saw God just working in your life. When was that? 2022? I can't remember.
Speaker 2:That was one year ago. Oh, okay that I learned I was getting laid off. I had a short amount of cushion of cash and by the time we were going to be at the end of our cushion we had new income coming in and 10% going back out.
Speaker 2:So that was a year ago we made more money than we ever have in the past just through contract work and it just kept coming. It's still, it keeps coming and I just keep working and tithing. I will probably always remember is in the beginning of that period where I had decided to trust God and I was seeing that I felt that that was right and so I started to get all these contracts and I was like, well, now my question is not where is money going to come from, but how am I going to get it all done?
Speaker 1:And so I remember one day.
Speaker 2:Time, right Time. But how am I going to get it all done? And so I remember one day, time, right Time, where am I going to get time? And I remember standing on my back, little step, just looking outside because I needed to process and I just said, god, like, I see you, thank you for this, but I need to know where to prioritize, like, where do I put my time? How do I prioritize all of this? And the answer that I just got very clearly standing out there was with my church.
Speaker 1:You're like no, and I was like, wait, that's not what I'm talking about.
Speaker 2:That's not what I'm asking you.
Speaker 2:I have stuff to do. Yeah, what? What do you want me to spend time on, like right now? What should I do now? What should I, you know, be doing over the next month? And it was just again. It was like once I feel that clarity it was unwavering and it it was just that was all I was going to get was church. If I'm asking, where should I prioritize my time, the answer was church, and so I said okay, same with the money. I don't know how I can't make it make sense if I've got, you know, 60 hours of work to do and a 5-year-old and all these things going on and a husband, uh-huh, and you want me to prioritize time at church. I don't see how it's going to work. I just kept being shown that this way was better than the past 20 years of trying to do things my way. So I said okay.
Speaker 2:So I continued to prioritize volunteering more over time, getting more involved, not saying no, which is interesting for me because I say yes a lot and I've had to train myself to almost protect my time, my energy, and I just felt that sort of break, break away, and if the church needs more time, I'm here. So and I feel like that was it almost worked. The same way that the money worked. It just led to things that were bigger and better and almost pulling me out of that focus on a daily life, a calendar, a budget spreadsheet, all of those things. It just sort of broke life open a little bit.
Speaker 1:It's really good, and this is contrary to what FPU.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, and it's. It's different than what the world says to do. Yeah, right, yeah, protect your time, you know right. Say, no, it's about you, you need me time, and I mean we all need time to ourselves. I'm not saying that, but I think that sometimes, when we give that up to God, god says yeah, I know that, I know how you were made and I will you know, I will give you that, but give me this first, give me this, and I will show you this. Abundant.
Speaker 2:Yes, and I think what we find in experience and living that out is that God doesn't that out, is that God doesn't respond to us in the same way that we respond to each other. So when I give my energy to God, I don't actually feel my energy go away, if that makes sense.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:I give my energy to people, and even the people I love. I wouldn't trade them for anything, but I have to find ways to fuel myself up, to keep giving that energy out, and it just doesn't work that way with God right it almost feels like the more I give, the more I'm filling up oh, it's so good, so good, yeah.
Speaker 1:And again, I, I'm the kind of brain that wants to, okay, well, let's figure this out. How does this work? But uh, that's just, that's just God and his faithfulness and his loving, and he's like I made you, yeah, I made you, and oh, that's so good. I've. I've seen that before when I've said I felt like God was saying go bring a meal to somebody. Okay, I don't have the time today, though God and he's like do it, you know. And then, all of a sudden, I still had the same amount to do, but it got done, and at the end of the day, I thought that doesn't make sense. I shouldn't have been able to get that stuff done because I took an hour or more to you know, make more food and go bring it, and I didn't have that time Right. And God's like well, I made time, yeah, so what a fun. This has been great.
Speaker 1:I want to point out something, if you don't mind. You said that you've heard from God, and I think that that is scares a lot of people, or that's terminology of. So did you hear audibly? Most people don't, but I think that they can. But could you maybe explain what? How do you know? This is a question people ask. Right Is how do I hear God's voice? How do, how do you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I that almost.
Speaker 1:That almost feels more taboo to me than finances and I'm asking, I'm like hey.
Speaker 2:Rachel, let's just dive in. It's a yeah, it's kind of it kind of it sounds kind of like a scary thing. Yeah, you don't want to be crazy, right? I will say, for me it is almost audible. It's kind of how you can hear your thoughts. You're not actually hearing them, but you can have sort of an amorphous feeling or you can have a clear thought in your head, and so I definitely can hear some clear thought.
Speaker 2:But it sounds like me. It's not like I'm hearing God's voice in my head, it sounds like one of my own thoughts. The difference is how it feels, and I think it's that clarity thing. My mind races a lot, I have a lot of thoughts and I feel like those moments where I'm like, oh, okay.
Speaker 2:God, it feels like it's a little bit out of left field. It's not like when I'm like what should I spend my time on? And then I think church. And I was like, wait, that's not what we were talking about. That's really not one of the that's not one of the options.
Speaker 2:God, but thanks for playing. I had a moment where we were in church we were prompted to pray about what strongholds do we have Ooh, this actually ties back to finances what strongholds do we have in our hearts that we need to let go of and give up to God and pray for strength to do so? So I, you know, I put my head down and I go to go into prayer, expecting the all of the normal strongholds that you might need to let go of anxiety, stress, control. I'm ready to pray over all of those things. And as soon as I just shut my eyes and I'm ready to pray, I think, so clearly in my head, my career. And it almost like surprised me. I was like, wait, that's not like, that's not what I was thinking about. I was getting ready to, you know, anxiety and fear over what's next.
Speaker 2:And so clearly in my head it was just like my career. And I was like, oh so it's usually those. They're like thoughts that what I was wanting to hear. It never feels aggressive or scary in any way. Even the thought or the answer is not what I'm expecting or even what I want, but it feels just like love, like it's never contrary to love or kindness, like when I think about when I will say something to Lily, like it's not kind to say that to somebody. She's not going to want to hear that in the moment, but it's coming from love and so I think that's probably as clearly as I can explain it. It has a clarity to it and always feels like love and it's my own thoughts. They just come out of left field and I didn't know that. That's how I can listen to God. I didn't know that's what it was like until I knew it if that makes sense.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's so good. Wow, we've covered a lot Some. It's funny because I talk to people and we get some really hard things and for some reason, some really hard things and for some reason, why does talking about finances seem so? You know, this wasn't a story about, you know, drug addiction or homelessness or trafficking, and this is almost just as hard and vulnerable, so thank you.
Speaker 2:Well, and it's when I talk about how things started to like get crazy for us and turn upside down. I feel like the things that we're talking about are like choice of school and like job security. It's not some of these really difficult things that people go through felt like I have no idea what to do with this.
Speaker 1:Right, but I think that that's powerful and that's what this podcast is about.
Speaker 1:Is ordinary people Like I think a lot of people can relate to job security, fears of your kid's education, I mean a myriad of things and so for you to just say this is my story and I'm willing to share it only in the hopes of it freeing somebody else, maybe I'll just share one other thing real quick, and it has to do a little bit with God, hearing God's voice and a finance thing. I feel like we're afraid to share some stories because we don't want to feel like we're tooting our own horn or we're not being humble. But this is what I'm asking people to do on my podcast. Several years ago, chris found out that someone he knew had a vehicle in the shop and it was kind of between doing your mortgage, paying your mortgage or paying for the car, and we're not crazy well off. But you know, god has blessed us and I understand that, even if we live in America, like all of these things, but not to say that we just don't have thousands of dollars of like hey, yeah, whatever.
Speaker 1:But he just felt really strongly about I feel like we should call this auto shop and just pay for this to be done. And so we did. And this is just God's. I think he just reminds me of it sometimes when I wonder am I hearing you? Do I really trust you with my finances right? And I come back to this story. And my grandma passed away not very long after that. She should not have been able to give us any money at all, like I did not know that we would get anything at all.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Well, we got to the penny, no, what we paid for that man's car to get out of the shop. So just a couple thousand dollars, you know, like she wasn't leaving us a crazy inheritance. But I just felt like God was saying, and he didn't have to. And I'm not saying, do this and this will happen. That's not what I'm saying, but I think that God is so loving sometimes and I feel like he gives us this. So he says do you remember that time that I did that? Because you listened to me, yeah, and you stepped out and you did something and I just showed you. I see you.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Here it is, to the exact penny what you gave, that's amazing and it's back.
Speaker 2:And if it was not? To the penny Right, it can so easily be written off as coincidence.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:I think that's what I was doing for a long time. He would show me little things and I would just look the other way, and then got to this point where I had a period of like two weeks where it was like all day, every day, was just series of him saying look, look, look, look, look, until I was like, okay, okay, I will stop looking the other way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, I'm praying over this podcast for just whoever's listening. Maybe you've heard something and it's just kind of impacted you and that's our prayer today. So, as we finish up, what is your favorite Bible verse or story?
Speaker 2:I would love to share my favorite Bible verse, with the disclaimer that I am still in a Bible discovery journey. Yeah, it's pretty new to me. I grew up knowing the gospel and, essentially, genesis Exodus, so I am now learning things that I had never, never known my whole life. But this verse, it stuck out to me and I just can't get away from it. I think it's so beautiful. It's Ecclesiastes 3.11. I don't know if you're familiar with that. I find the whole book of Ecclesiastes just amazing, fascinating. But verse 3.11 specifically, I'll read it. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart. Yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. So much In like 12 words.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's good. That's not one that you pull from very often, ecclesiastes.
Speaker 2:I think it was given to me. It was one of those things. I found my way to it randomly and was like oh okay, yeah.
Speaker 1:That's good. What are you grateful for?
Speaker 2:Oh, I don't want to sound cheesy, but kind of everything. Yeah, If that makes sense. I have found I'm almost feeling like gratefulness is sort of a state of mind, like how we start to talk about joy or happiness being not necessarily a fleeting emotion but a sort of state, and I feel like that's become true with gratefulness too. I just it's like once you start to feel that I can't get away from it. I'm grateful for everything. I'm grateful for you, for what you're doing with your podcast.
Speaker 2:Thank, you for the work God is doing through you. Thank you. I'm grateful for everything that I went through over the last year, so grateful for the FPU class and the people that were in the room. I really think it was as much about the people in that room than the program itself I could have got the program but I needed to be with those people. So, yeah, I'm grateful that the sun's out today.
Speaker 1:Beautiful day. That's good, thank you.
Speaker 2:What kindness have you received or what kindness have you shown? That's a good one, okay. So two nights ago I went to a friend invited me which I'm grateful for to it's called 100 Women who Care, I believe, in Douglas County. Oh, and it's basically a meeting of you. Become a member, you go to the meeting and then everybody votes on a local nonprofit and then everybody donates $100 during the meeting and then everybody votes on a local nonprofit and then everybody donates a hundred dollars during the meeting, so that nonprofit receives basically a large donation from this group of women who kind of collectively decide what to do with it.
Speaker 2:That felt good. It felt really good to do that. But then last night I was invited to a happy hour with some women that I share. I rent an office in an office building and the office building. Ladies invited me to come to happy hour and so I went, not necessarily really wanting to. I was a little nervous. I don't know any of them. What am I going to talk about?
Speaker 2:at happy hour people, I don't know, but it was so good to be around them and they were just such kind people that you asking that question made me think of that. So sort of two nights in a row, tangible we're going to come together and be kind. But then the very next night, just being with seven women who were had extended that invitation, and then we were able to just sort of fellowship, and it made me feel like I'm just surrounded by so much more kindness than I realize.
Speaker 2:If you just look and see it. You know there's just so many good hearts wanting to do good things. It's good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and what we look for is what we find. Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 2:Thank you for being on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thank you. Thank you for being on. This was amazing. Yeah, thank you for sharing your story and praying that our words will just impact someone and maybe they'll hear something for the first time. So we're excited to see what God's going to do through it. Yes, and on Ordinary People, extraordinary Things, your story is His glory. I pray that this podcast has impacted you, that it has made you think that it has impacted your life. I pray that it has grown your faith and that you will share this podcast with someone you know. And if you would like to join our prayer team, don't forget, just go to generations2generationscom and you'll find the Join Our Prayer Team under the podcast tab.