Have a question for Mista Yu? Text the show and he’ll answer it personally.
What happens when we strip away the façade of perfection and embrace authentic faith? Heather Day, Author and Director of Marketing for the Barnabas Foundation, joins us for a refreshingly honest conversation about finding purpose, peace, and financial freedom through surrender.
Growing up as a pastor's kid who always knew Jesus' love, Heather shares how her early financial struggles with her husband led to a transformative moment of surrender: "God, we've made a royal mess of things, help us." Rather than receiving an instant solution, they discovered the daily discipline of contentment and trusting God for "daily bread" rather than feasts.
Heather challenges the prosperity gospel head-on, asserting that our worth has nothing to do with our bank accounts. "If wealth equated to joy, all of Wall Street and Hollywood would be super happy right now," she observes. Instead, she's witnessed profound joy in communities with minimal material possessions but rich faith.
The conversation explores how authentic ministry happens when we break down walls between people of different backgrounds, approaching relationships with genuine care rather than a savior complex. Heather's work in underserved communities taught her that true connection happens when we recognize our shared humanity rather than focusing on differences.
Her book "Money and Spirit" stands apart from typical financial advice by addressing the heart issues behind our financial decisions. Until we confront misplaced trust and priorities, tactical knowledge alone won't free us from destructive patterns.
Throughout our discussion, Heather returns to a powerful truth: God doesn't call us to positions but to obedience. Finding your purpose isn't about discovering a perfect career path but asking daily, "What do you want me to do today, God?" This perspective liberates us from anxiety about our future and grounds us in present faithfulness.
One on One with Mista Yu
#theycallmemistayu #podcast #financialfreedom #faith #womensupport #money #spirit #barnabas #foundation #author #chicago #roseland #preacher #kids #purpose #youtube #facebook #instagram #trust #counseling #coaching #buzzsprout #streamyard #family
We love hearing from all of you about how you're enjoying our content! A really cool way you can do that is Fan Mail. Check out the promo and starting sending messages right away! It's easy and it's fun too! Trust me! Thank you for reaching out and allowing us the privilege of hearing from our faithful listeners and viewers! I can't wait to get your next message!
Hope you enjoyed today's episode! You can find and subscribe to our show on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Theycallmemistayu
Follow us Monday-Thursday on our Youtube, Facebook, IG, Linked In, and X platforms @theycallmemistayu. For audio listeners, TCMMY is everywhere you enjoy your podcasts.
Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched!
Start for FREE
Thank you for listening to the They Call Me Mista Yu brand of podcasts! We love hearing from you!
Apple Podcasts: Https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/they-call-me-mista-yu/id1535535535
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Theycallmemistayu
Here’s how you can help us financially if you’d like---> www.buzzsprout.com/1222796/supporters/new
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
welcome back to one-on-one with mr you.
Of course, I'm your host, mryou, in studio with us today.
Author.
Minister.
Director of marketing for theBarnabas Foundation.
Heather Day is in the houseHeather.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Good morning.
It's so good to be here.
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Absolutely Pleasure's mine too, to have you here.
We had an awesome pre-interviewchat and there's so much to
talk about, so I definitely wantto try to jump into it.
Let's start off with you.
Let me always just put thebackground first.
Where'd you come from?
Your family dynamic?
Tell us about Heather.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Yeah, so I am a PK.
I have grown up in the churchall my life.
Yeah, we can go one of two ways.
We tend to go off the rails orgo deeper into the church, and I
went the second route.
But I have grown up in thechurch.
I've never known a time where.
(01:10):
I didn't know that Jesus lovedme, and so that's where I come
from.
I have my husband, robert.
We've been married almost 24years this June.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Congratulations.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Thank you, and we have an 18-year-old daughter,
emma, and a 13-year-old son,jackson.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
All right, that's awesome, awesome.
And what area of the countrydid you grow up?
Speaker 2 (01:34):
in Well.
I've grown up all over theplace with my dad as a pastor,
but I've lived most of my lifein Illinois.
Currently I reside inBourbonnet, illinois, about uh
about an hour South of Chicago.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Okay, all right, I love that you had a little.
You had a little funny quipabout your name and what it
meant.
Talk to us about that.
That's weird.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Yeah, I.
You know, like everybody likesto have some deep meaning behind
their name, what their namemeans.
And you know, looking, looking,Looking my name up as a kid, it
was like Heather, a floweringweed.
Nobody wants to be a weed.
There's other times where youcan look it up and it says a
(02:19):
blossoming flower.
I tend to go with that one.
Why not?
Speaker 1 (02:25):
I tend to go with that one, why not?
Why not?
We did have a little talk aboutChicago.
I want to get into this alittle bit because I got
questions about the infatuationwith this whole Chicago dog
(02:45):
thing.
I'm sorry, tomato and cucumberon a hot dog.
I'm not catching what theinfatuation is.
Help me out with that and thenshare a little about Chicago and
the Roseland community.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Yeah, so Chicago dogs are so good it's like a gourmet
feast in a bun.
But I'll tell you, I'm not apurist.
So I like a Chicago dog withthe pickles, the relish, the
ketchup.
Oh, that's where I'm not apurist, because Chicagoans would
immediately dismiss me by justsaying that I put ketchup on my
(03:17):
hot dogs or, you know, mustardonly, but otherwise I really
love it.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Fair, fair, I don't get it.
That's why I'm Okay, I don'tget it.
That's why I'm asking.
I don't get the infatuation.
I mean I'm from New York, sofor me it's like mustard
sauerkraut.
You know, I get some onions andstuff.
I don't get the whole picklespear answer it's so good, I'm
not getting it.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
So good You're making me hungry at this time in the
morning.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
That wasn't my goal.
That wasn't my goal at all.
But tell us about Chicago alittle bit.
I want to ask you aboutsomething else Chicago related,
but let's talk about that.
You mentioned the Rosemancommunity.
Yeah, why is that placesignificant for you?
Speaker 2 (03:57):
So I've actually lived in the South suburbs for
my entirety of time here.
But we get up to the city quitea bit and for special events we
go up there to see thebeautiful parts of Chicago
Magnificent Mile.
We see a lot of plays, we saw alot of musicals.
But also the ministry I workwith, barnabas Foundation.
(04:17):
We have a connection withRoseland Christian Ministries
and they are a ministry thatspecifically works with the
impoverished area of Roselandcommunity.
So I had, so we've worked withthem as a ministry for quite a
bit, but I had an opportunitylast year to take a group of
teenagers up there and servebreakfast to the homeless and to
(04:40):
visit their shelter and to bepart of their worship service
and I was just blown away bythis beautiful rose, you know,
in the middle of a neighborhoodthat has really struggled.
They haven't always struggled,but they've just been dealt a
bad hand.
There's been a lot of thingsthat have happened in their
(05:01):
history hand.
There's been a lot of thingsthat have happened in their
history and I was just amazed athow God is at work in Roseland
community there in Chicago.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
I love that.
I love that.
Now, we always hear and Ialways ask about people in their
geographical evidence.
We always hear things throughthe media about what it's like.
Right For those pieces ofinformation.
So bust a myth for us aboutChicago.
Yeah, Tell us something that wehear about from Chicago that's
(05:33):
actually not true, and then youcan kind of confirm some of the
things that are challenges inthe area.
If you'd like to Go ahead, yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
So anytime I tell somebody I live near Chicago,
they immediately say are youafraid of getting shot?
You know, yeah, there's just alot of there has been.
It's not completely untrue thatthere are some.
You know, there are some realstruggles in the city of Chicago
, but mostly I feel I feel safewhen I go there.
I love the people of Chicago.
(06:02):
I have had a good experiencewhen I go there.
I love the people of Chicago.
I have had a good experience.
Now, that being said, there aresome neighborhoods that struggle
with poverty and gang violenceand drugs and all these
different things.
But again, my experience hasbeen that when I have visited
those communities whether I'vejust been part of different
(06:23):
things where we visited the citymy experience has been that the
people there are really deep inthe midst of struggle.
Again, they've been handed anunfair hand, they've been given
difficult circumstances to fightthrough, and yet I have seen
over and over again that God'speople are also there
(06:44):
ministering to those people whoare in the midst of the struggle
.
So there is beauty there.
We're all people.
We're all people who are justtrying to do our best and the
more that we can shine a lightinto those communities and be
part of it, the better off weall are.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
I wish that was something that I hope everybody
that's listening and watchinghears that, because, wow, I mean
that's a big challenge, becausewe look at these things like we
hear about, we talk about thatare in other areas and we just
kind of assume you know what,that's their thing.
(07:22):
No, it can't happen here.
It's somebody else's fault.
This is happening, but you saidlike you said, doing the bad
hand, and people have thatacross this country.
So it's good to hear the beautyin that.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
And that's in the city of Chicago, which, again,
I've visited and been part of.
But even in my community, inthe South suburbs, there there
are pockets where, uh, wherethere are just people that have,
um, generational poverty orgenerational struggle, um and um
, and that, uh, uh, they justhave all kinds of struggles from
(08:00):
different things that havehappened.
They've not, they've notbenefited from the same things
that have been handed down to me.
They've not had the sameschooling that I've had, they've
not had the same lovingparenting that I've had, they've
not had the same opportunitythat I have.
And so, the more that we canget to know the why behind the
communities, that's not anexcuse for those communities,
but we can come in with a betterunderstanding to be able to
(08:22):
serve them better and help thoseof us have been given much.
There's a lot of responsibilityto help those out who have not
been given as much.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
That's beautiful, that perspective right there.
I want to.
I want to spend a little timeon that, because there are a lot
of people who are probablywatching and listening to this
interview right now and theydidn't have somebody.
They have struggles out andthey didn't have somebody.
They have struggles I meaneverybody has those, that's
germane to all of us but theydidn't have the struggles like
(08:52):
what you're talking about.
How are you able to go intothat?
Tell us how, as succinct as youcan, how are you able to go
into those communities, knowingthat they know and you know that
you guys didn't have the samestruggle, but you could still be
able to serve them and helpthem in a way that's significant
for them?
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Yeah, absolutely.
Well, I'll tell you one of myfirst, one of my first jobs out
of college was for St AnnCommunity High School and we
worked one of the feedercommunities into that high
school.
Uh was Hopkins park in Pembroketownship, which is, uh remains
even today.
Uh, the demographics havechanged Um, but the but it
(09:32):
remains today one of the mostimpoverished uh uh communities
in, definitely the state, butalso in the country.
And and so um, but I had anincredible experience working
there because I got to knowthese kids and I got to know
their families and they were soreal and so full of joy and so
(09:53):
just authentic that I couldn'thelp but be the same with them.
And that's where these wallscome down, when we don't look at
people as less or more than we,just look at us as all in the
same boat and our true selves.
When I was just able to bemyself and not pretend that I
understood everything they wentto, but that I just but that I
(10:15):
deeply cared about them and theycared about me.
It was reciprocal.
When, when those walls camedown, reciprocal, uh, when, when
those walls came down, that'swhere true ministry happens,
because it wasn't a um, I'mgoing to come in and rescue, and
they weren't looking at me assomebody high and mighty, it's
just we're in this together.
How can we, how can we serveand love one another?
Speaker 1 (10:35):
that's beautiful.
I love this.
Now.
We talked a lot aboutresilience in our pre-interview
chat.
Talk to me about this wholesituation with the White Sox and
the Cubs, because I don'treally understand that part
either.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
You know I.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
That's a story of resilience, if ever there was
one.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Yeah, we just keep coming back to remember that one
time when we won a worldchampionship there's, you know,
we're just, we're just alwaysone season away from that world
championship.
So, um, but yeah, my, I, I am awhite socks fan, mostly by
marriage.
I can't pretend, I can't evenpretend yeah, robert, I don't
(11:17):
know what, what.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
What is he?
What's he hanging his hat on us?
This, this is.
I'm a huge baseball fan After.
My first sports love wasbaseball being in the inner city
.
That was weird because therewas not many fields and they
were poorly kept.
I thought that was my way outof the community.
But the White Sox name it nevercomes up Every year.
(11:43):
There's nothing said about them.
There's no highly toutedprospects.
What does he hang his hat on asa White Sox fan?
What is he holding on to?
Speaker 2 (11:55):
Well, they've got a beautiful park, they've got a
great experience.
We have fun there.
But I will tell you A beautifulpark.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Is that where we are in life, Robert?
Oh, poor fella.
No, here's the thing.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
I should also tell you that he's also a
Jacksonville Jaguars fan, so Ijust think he likes to dive into
misery.
I think like he could shoot.
I think he, yeah, I think heevery year on these teams.
I think he's got high hopesthat about halfway through the
season they completely fallapart and, yeah, I spend the
(12:28):
rest of the season calling him.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
I truly don't know how to even encourage him.
Jacksonville Jaguars, really,robert?
Okay, let's stay on Heather.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
That's a rabbit hole.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Yeah, we can't go down that rabbit hole.
It's not possible.
But you notice some things insome of your work regarding
authentic faith.
Define that because and keep inmind the listeners and the
viewers today because we hearabout faith, I mean we have a
faith to sit down in a chair andthink it's not going to break.
We do that all the time.
We don't think about it asfaith, it's just instinctual.
(13:04):
But talk to us about what youthink authentic faith actually
means and how it makes sense tothose that could be listening
today.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Yeah, so I think of authentic faith as just being
absolutely real about what Ibelieve, but also my struggles.
I think sometimes in myexperience, one of the biggest
lies that the enemy will tell usis that we're all alone and
we're the only one strugglingwith what fell in the blank.
(13:32):
You know, I, when I, when I hadmy daughter, I uh, 18 years ago
, I struggled with postpartumdepression and in the midst of
that depression I felt likenobody would understand.
I felt like nobody gets me, I'mall by myself, and that was a
lie.
The moment I was started totalk about that and to open it
(13:52):
up and that other people thenwere open about it with me, it
gave me hope and it gave me alight.
Um, so I think that asChristians, we tend to like,
like to present our best selvesand we like to put a pretty bow
on things and say it's all good,life is perfect, and and that's
not helpful for anyone, it'snot helpful for us to be able to
(14:12):
be ministered to, and it's nothelpful for others to feel like
they're working with someone who, who they can identify with,
with someone who they canidentify with.
So, the more that we can bestraight about like I, I, you
know.
There's a story in the Biblewhere he's like I do believe,
help me in my unbelief.
That's that's where.
That's where I am in my faith,like I truly hold hang on to God
(14:32):
for dear life.
But there's also strugglesalong the way and I want to be
real about that so that we canjourney together.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
I love that.
I love that During ourpre-interview chat, I challenged
you on one thing that you weresaying.
You were saying that you wereordinary, there was nothing
special about you, and hopefullyI didn't jump on you too hard,
but I challenged that because ofwhat you're talking about right
now.
There's just so much in us, youknow and this is 2 Corinthians
(15:01):
4, I believe it is talks abouthow we have a treasure in each
earthen vessel.
There's something, there'ssomething special about us,
something special in our DNA wehave.
We have creative ability in us.
So there's something specialabout you and me and all of us
that are listening.
How would you encourage somebodyin in that, in that truth,
because a lot of folks feel likeyou, what they haven't been,
(15:21):
they haven't.
Maybe they haven't beenfathered, maybe they haven't
even been mothered.
In some areas where they were,they were nurtured in their
gifts and abilities and realizedthat they had something to
offer to this big, huge, massiveworld.
How would you encouragesomebody who may have been
through that?
And because they are ordinaryand they feel there's nothing
special about them, how wouldyou encourage them?
Speaker 2 (15:41):
well, first of all, if you're ordinary, you are just
like all the people we readabout in the Bible, all the
faith leaders that literallychanged history, that Jesus used
.
When I talk about beingordinary, I talk about I am that
earthly vessel that there'snothing spectacular about me,
(16:02):
but not yet.
Not I, but Christ in me.
So Moses Moses is like he spentway too much time arguing with
God about how could you use me?
I stutter, I'm not ordinary orI'm not special.
And yet when he opened himselfup to allowing God to work
through him, he literally ledpeople into the promised land.
We see that over and over again.
We look at the disciples theywere kind of a hot mess and yet
(16:31):
God worked through them toliterally change the world.
And so if you're feeling likethere's nothing special about me
, first of all God has given youunique gifts and unique skill
sets that he wants to use.
But it's not because of thosethat he's using those.
He wants to use you, in spiteof your weaknesses, and use the
things that he's given you towork in the lives of others and
(16:54):
really make a difference.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
I love that.
I love that.
One thing that we shared incommon when we were having our
chat is about the the emphasisof purpose in our lives and, uh,
most folks watch me I've donesome stuff in my background
where I have to speak to peopleabout purpose and and they kind
of help them locate that to somesmall degree, to kind of help
(17:17):
them, you know, understand theirpart in this, in this picture.
Why do you feel like it's yourresponsibility to help people
find purpose?
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Yeah, um, I think part of that big jobs it is a
big job, um, and it's, quitehonestly, something that I spent
way too much of my teen yearsand my twenties trying to like.
I felt like I was walking onthis tight rope of I have to
find God's will and walk alongthat rope and make sure I don't
fall off it and make sure I findthe exact spot, the exact
(17:45):
footing and what was freeing tome and I referenced this in the
book my dad gave me really good.
My dad's very wise and he gaveme really great advice of that.
God doesn't call people topositions.
He calls them to obedience,meaning that he may ask you to a
specific occupation he may not,but what he asks you to do is
(18:07):
that every day, I just live incomplete surrender and obedience
to what do you want me to dotoday, god?
And as long as we're stayingfaithful and following his word
and in prayer and seeking hiswill, then you are achieving
your purpose.
We have that like inner, theHoly Spirit guiding us.
If we, if we allow the HolySpirit to that will, that will.
(18:29):
If we get too far off path andwe're wandering down a path of
destruction, the Holy Spiritwill guide us back, you know,
and say hey, you need to.
There's some correction thatneeds to happen here.
But as long as we're listeningto that voice and being obedient
to what God has to do today,then you are in the center of
his will and you are living outyour God given purpose.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
I love it.
Love it If all our viewers andlisteners.
If you have any questions forHeather or myself regarding what
we're discussing, whether it'sChicago Dogs or if it's about
finding your purpose, drop yourcomments in the comment section.
We'll answer those as soon aswe can get to them during the
course of this episode.
Now, one thing that youmentioned in regards to trying
to help people find theiruncommon purpose.
What we talked about also washow cheerleading can morph into
a full-time job Constantlyaffirming people and I do that
(19:23):
in my life, I believe you do aswell when we talked about but
how do you support people inyour opinion?
How do you support peoplewithout becoming a crutch for
people?
That's really important that wedon't do that, but how do you?
How are you handling that part?
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Oh, that's a good question and that's something
sometimes I can struggle withbecause I want to, you know,
with my kids.
I want to step in and and fixtheir problems and lift them up
out of it.
But but the truth is that, likea lot of my spiritual formation
(19:55):
and who I am is because of thestruggle and and them learning
to do it for themselves andlearning to know I can tell them
till I'm blue in the facethat's not gonna work.
But they have to experiencethat's not gonna work and I use
that example with my kids, butthat's true of other people as
well.
We want to encourage them, wewant to be a support system, but
(20:16):
also we have to avoid.
We can sometimes I know I'vestruggled with this whole like
savior complex that I have tofix it and that's not my job.
I am not the, I am not thesavior Jesus is.
So I can walk alongside them, Ican be encouraging, I can help
affirm their gifts, butultimately they have to walk
(20:36):
that path for themselves.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
I loved it.
I love that.
You know history is teaching usthat you know people.
Sometimes people don't wantrelatability and leadership.
They want somebody who'sexpected to be almost superhuman
.
You know you can't be like me,like what you're talking about
in scripture.
You can't be like me because Iknow how I am.
So if you're like me, we'reboth screwed.
So they kind of want somethingthat's above that superhuman.
They kind of want somethingthat's above that superhuman.
(21:00):
How do you balance betweenbeing relatable and still
honoring that unique purposethat you have to do to do what
you're doing?
Speaker 2 (21:11):
If that makes sense.
Yeah, I think I think Iunderstand the question.
So I I definitely want to beauthentic and not put up a air
of I've got it all together andyet there are some things that I
have.
I'm in accountability withthose just closest to me, so I'm
not going to broadcast all mydirty laundry to no, that's OK.
No, it drives me like as a as aas a leader like I want to be
(21:31):
careful about, like like havingpeople in my life that I can be
really real with and that I canshare my real struggles with and
making sure that I have them inplace to encourage me and to
help correct me and help guideme.
But that's not necessarily outfor the whole world, but the
whole world.
I do want to know that.
Look, we all have struggles andI have struggles too.
(21:53):
And, yeah, just be authentic inthat way.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
I love that.
I love that you also talkedabout you know way.
I love that.
I love that you also talkedabout you know the the growth
process that you've gone through.
You know I know people thatpeople are kind of programmed to
avoid painful and hard things.
You know, don't touch thatbecause it hurts.
You know, and what did youlearn about yourself through the
growth process?
Do you think it would bevaluable to our listeners and
(22:18):
viewers?
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Yeah, so, um, I've had growth in a lot of different
areas and a lot of struggles InMoney and Spirit.
I talk specifically about ourfinancial lives and how early on
in you know, I came out ofcollege with a lot of debt and
in our early 20s and earlymarriage we made a lot of
mistakes.
You know that we had tonavigate and part of the
(22:42):
struggle was admitting first ofall, admitting that there was a
problem and my husband and I,you know, there was a moment
where we literally prayed thisprayer of God we've made a royal
mess of things, help us andthat we had to have that prayer
of surrender, we had to havethat prayer of confession.
(23:03):
But that didn't immediately fixit.
It's not like we were like weprayed that prayer and then got
a check in the mail.
That fixed it all.
We had to learn the struggle andthe discipline of walking in
daily contentment and dailypeace and trusting that if we
followed God's ways and what heasked us to do on a daily basis,
trusting that if we followedGod's ways and what he asked us
to do on a daily basis, that hewould be the provider of our
(23:24):
daily bread to walk with us.
He wasn't going to give us afeast every day.
He was going to give us ourdaily bread of what we needed,
and we had to trust in hisprovision and his peace and his
comfort and his guidance andknow that he's our source of
love, joy, peace, patience,kindness, goodness, faithfulness
(23:44):
, gentleness and self-control.
Those weren't things that camefrom us.
He was the source of things.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
I love that I got so many questions.
I hope we have time to get intothem.
I'm so excited about thisconversation.
I want to ask you also I wantto get into your book also.
I want to get into what you'redoing at the Barnabas Foundation
.
I want to make sure we havetime to hopefully get into all
this stuff.
But we got a comment to thisthat jumped over the comment.
(24:11):
We'll go ahead and share thatwith you.
I'd love for you to speak intothat.
Thank you, courtney, for firstoff listening and watching the
show.
Courtney says I went forward atchurches today because I have a
disability.
And Courtney says I wentforward at churches today
because I have a disability andsometimes I feel like a burden.
So we want to say they assuredme I have abilities others don't
have.
I think that's pretty profoundbecause what we're talking about
so far.
But go ahead and speak to that.
Speak to Courtney in regards tothat, and then we'll move on to
(24:34):
our next question.
Go ahead.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
Yeah, courtney.
So a few different things.
One, I want to confess that asa church my local church and the
global church that we have notdone a great offer, a unique
gifts.
Because you have understandingof the challenges of others that
(25:07):
are going through those samestruggles that you can minister
to in a way that I never can,because you get it and you
understand.
So you have a unique ability toserve them in that way.
But beyond that, you are notdefined by your disabilities,
whatever they might be you have.
You have a mind, you haveinsight, you have personality.
(25:28):
That is that God has given youand wants to use in a special
way.
So don't let those, don't letyour, your disabilities quote
unquote be your defining factor.
I can't, I can't hit a threepoint shot, I can't run without
getting winded, but I don'tdefine myself by those.
I have other abilities that Godwants to use.
(25:50):
It's not going to be on thebasketball court.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
I love that.
Thank you, courtney, for your,for your, for your comment, for
being transparent about yoursituation.
Excuse me, we're so proud ofyou for doing that.
Our hair will.
All you people are watching, sowe're just thanking you.
Thank you, heather, for yourresponse to Courtney.
We talked about so much.
We talked about the impact ofanxiety and imposter syndrome
(26:14):
and I've been dealing with thatbecause a lot of our listeners
are either in the contentcreator media, podcasting space
and you know it's, I think youmentioned earlier.
It's really easy for us to hidethe imperfections and try to
look like all is well.
Talk to me about yourchallenges with anxiety and
imposter syndrome.
For those that are listening tome.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Yeah, I have often felt like this.
I heard somebody refer to it asthe sense of ought, like I
needed, I ought to do this, Ineed to write this, or I need.
Felt like this I heard somebodyrefer to it as the sense of
ought, like I needed, I ought todo this, I need to write this,
or I need to say this.
And a lot of times thatimposter syndrome creeps in
where I think what in the world?
Why?
You know what I?
What does that difference?
(26:55):
Does it make that stupid orthat's whatever?
Speaker 1 (26:58):
that's not as good as whatever this person can offer.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
And I found that when I, when I'm true to what I know
, that God is asking me to do,that he uses it in ways that are
amazing and beyond me.
It's those things that I putout that I think I don't even
know why I'm writing this, butI'm putting it out there because
I just feel like this strongpurpose that I have to do this.
(27:23):
It's those times where I've hadpeople come to me and say you,
you, that you provided the wordsI needed to hear at just the
right moment.
And again and that's not me,that's because that's because of
obedience and God speaking tothose.
He speaks through broken,cracked vessels, that that don't
have it all together, but hewants to work through us.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
I love that.
That's really good.
So what inspired you to writeMoney in Spirit?
Speaker 2 (27:51):
So it was a few different things.
Again, I work for BarnabasFoundation.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
You're blushing already guys, you know it's
going to be good.
She's blushing.
It's going to be great.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
That's just extra makeup.
So we got a grant at BarnabasFoundation to be honest with you
, we got a grant to produce aresource for the church.
And we had my boss and I hadthis meeting and there was one
other person in there and I knowyou've had these meetings where
you're just in a conversationthat's going nowhere and you're
(28:21):
like you want to bang your headagainst the wall because they're
like this is not productive.
We were going in circles andjust no good ideas we got.
We got lots of bad ideas out ofthe way and my boss is a very
spiritual um, he's very, he'sguided by, he lives out the the
uh, lives the, walk, uh, he.
So he stopped the meeting andhe prayed God, this is your
(28:44):
project, this is your ministry,we want to do what we want to do
, what you want us to do.
So he prayed like help us find,give us the ideas.
That's your idea.
And literally he prayed amen.
And I had this idea for a Biblestudy that it started out as a
video Bible study of what we'regoing to do, but it morphed over
(29:04):
time and became this book.
But it was all born out of thatprayer of help us get out of
the way, how can we help peoplein the church, and it began to
form over time of there are alot of people in the church and
outside the church that areunder the bondage of money,
whether it's some of its debt,but sometimes it's greed,
sometimes it's mismanagedpriorities that money has a hold
(29:26):
on people, and we felt likethis is something that we can
speak into and that I couldspeak into specifically because
of the struggle that my husbandand I had been through.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
I love this.
I love this For my nextquestion.
Let me ask you this part haveyou ever noticed a warped or
kind of an inconsistent view ofwho God is?
That's tied to the financialproblems of your clients,
because, beth and Mark I thefinancial problems of your
clients, because we know thingsand we know what we know and we
(29:56):
don't know what we don't know.
A lot of times we look at thesethings, and especially in the
charismatic churches, we seeemphasis on finances and giving
and we don't realize how thatmakes us view God.
Have you ever seen a view likethat?
It's inconsistent, it's tied tofinancial problems and how do
(30:16):
you help people get past that?
Speaker 2 (30:19):
Yeah.
So one of the big ones thatcomes to mind is this idea that
once I, if I follow and I do allthe right things, that the
whole health and wealth gospel,I do not buy into that, you know
.
I think that, uh, I think thatGod can and does some bless some
(30:39):
people with, with finances, um,and and asks them to use those
in ways to fund ministry.
But I think he has also calledand ministered to people that do
not did not receive that formof blessing, who are not going
to ever be rich, who are notgoing to be wealthy, who may
always be wondering where thenext paycheck is coming from,
and God loves them equally andthat is not a sign of their
(31:01):
faithfulness, that's not a signof God's blessing.
I believe that God gives usdifferent gifts, traits,
characteristics, skills, butalso in the financial realm,
some he blesses in that way,some he doesn't.
And our worth has nothing to dowith our bank account or our
faithfulness.
That's not a measure of God'sgoodness.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
Oh, that's a mic drop right there.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
Thank, you, that's really good.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
So with so many books on management finances out
there and trust me, there areplenty of them what makes money
and spirit stand out in yourhumble opinion?
Speaker 2 (31:37):
Yeah.
So in my humble opinion, money,money and spirit.
There are a ton of books outthere about tactics and how you
need to save more, work harder.
Here's your investment strategythose those different things.
You can find a number of thoseresources.
So and that's not my expertise,nor did I want to try to gain
that expertise, but what?
what's different about money andspirit is it comes from the,
(32:00):
the, the paradigm of.
We can have all the tactics andthe tips in the world, but
until we address the underlyingproblem of misplaced trust and
priorities, we will keepslipping back into those old
patterns.
We have to get our hearts right.
We have to follow the lead ofthe Holy Spirit.
Until then, we'll just bespinning our wheels.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
That's powerful stuff .
You mentioned about a publicbattle of will with your
preschooler.
If you remember what that'sabout, please share that.
That's an incredible story.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
Well, yeah, just a side note.
My son is now 13, and he hadn'tread the book, but he knew he
was in it and so he was braggingto his sister.
He's like I'm in the book andyou're not.
And she's like what?
Oh, wow, oh wow.
He's like spoiler alert, youdon't come out looking good.
But.
But at the time, um jackson wasabout three years old and we
(33:00):
were at disney world and he washot, he was tired and his
stubbornness was on full displayfor everyone.
You know, within a mile radiusprobably, like it was.
Just, he was very set on whathe wanted to do and he kept
fighting, fighting me on it andreally just stubbornness and
battle of wills.
(33:20):
And I kept picking him up hislittle body and putting him in
his timeout chair and saying,like this makeshift timeout
chair, we're going to sit hereuntil you can calm down and we
can have a peaceful conversation.
He'd get mad and he'd storm offthere and then keep picking him
up and putting him back in thetime chair.
This went on a ridiculouslylong time, um, so the the funny
(33:42):
thing was like he was.
I don't even remember whatstarted the fight.
I don't remember if you wanteda cookie, I don't remember, but
whatever it was, I just said,jackson, if you wanted a cookie,
I don't remember, but whateverit was I just said, jackson, if
you will just stop fighting meand listen and calm down and
just do what I ask, we can moveon with our day.
I want to have a good time, youwant to have a good time, but
until you stop fighting, we'regoing to just stay here in this
(34:04):
misery.
Um, and so I in the book, Iliken that to our fight against,
our battle of wills and ourbattle against the spirit.
You know, we, we want to dothings our way and we keep
coming back to this is mine andthis is what I want to do.
And God is meanwhile saying ifyou would just listen, I want to
take you down a path of joy, Iwant to take you to peace, I
(34:26):
want to take you, to bless youin so many ways.
But you have to give up thatfight and you have to be willing
to walk hand in hand with meand listen to me, and then we
can get on with our day and dosomething good.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
Yeah, that's children of Israel stuff right there.
An 11 day journey took 40 years.
Think about that You're planningto go on an 11 day trip and you
end up taking 40 years to getthere.
That sounds awful, but it was.
It was.
It was necessitous because weweren't willing to embrace that,
like you said.
That's a great segue to my nextquestion what does it look like
(34:58):
to have peace and joy,regardless of your circumstances
?
Speak to our listeners andviewers about that, because I
think people think in my stuff.
That's why I find peace, inpeople in my life.
That's why I find joy.
And man, why haven't we learnedafter all these years, decades,
that that's just so, not true?
No, people are not bringing usjoy.
No, things don't bring us peace.
(35:20):
Speak to that.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
Right.
So I truly believe in my heartof hearts that God is the only
source of true joy and truepeace, and that's not connected
to how much or how little wehave.
If it was all about how much wehad, then all of Wall Street
and all of Hollywood would besuper happy right now and super
full of joy and super full ofpeace.
(35:41):
And we know that they are not,by and large and meanwhile, on
the opposite end of the spectrum.
I've been, whether it's inRoseland or I did like a trip
years ago to India, where theywere literally, you know, living
with nothing, nothing, and theyhad more joy in their hearts
because they were just relianton God and who he, who he was,
(36:05):
and how blessed they were tohave in their lives and they
literally like had, didn't havetwo rupees to rub together and
they found great joy.
And so I know, and I've seen itin my own life, that when I'm at
peace and when I have thegreatest joy, it's because I've
chosen to rest in God'sprovision and rest in his
(36:28):
comfort.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
I love that.
One more question, heather,about money and spirit.
Did you experience any?
I wrote my first book in 2016.
There's plenty of revelationsto come out of that.
Do you find any personal, Iguess, or unexpected revelation,
any personal surprises thatcame out of writing the book
that you can share?
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:49):
One thing that came to me is just again um, you know
, we think about, we sometimesuse this language as Christians
as are you saved or are you youknow?
Like as if this is a one-timething.
And um, what I found is it's anongoing daily surrender that we
keep having to come back to.
And what was surprising to me?
I don't know why it wassurprising, except that, like
(37:11):
was how much the strugglecontinued as I'm writing this
book and that, yes, we'd hadthis transformational moment,
but it, but those old habitscontinue to creep back in, and
those old struggles continue tocreep back in.
I write about in the book like atemptation to, because our, our
refrigerator went out and itbecame.
By the end of the weekend,we're like, well, let's redo our
(37:31):
whole kitchen.
That doesn't make any sense,but but you get you.
I was reminded how like we are.
Just, we are just beings thatwe want to go down our own path
Again.
We're like those grownup Toddtoddlers we keep wanting to go
down our own own path and wejust had to keep coming-up
toddlers.
We keep wanting to go down ourown path and we just have to
keep coming back to surrenderand asking over and over again
(37:53):
God, what do you want me to dotoday and how can I be more like
you?
Speaker 1 (37:59):
I love that.
I love that.
So tell me quickly about whatyou're doing with the Barnabas
Foundation, what's thefoundation doing and how you
would be part of it.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
Yeah, so Barnabas Foundation.
We help generous Christiansgive to their church and other
favorite ministries in ways thathonor God and provide for their
families.
So that might look like givinga gift in your will, or it might
look like giving gifts ofnon-cash assets that help reduce
your taxes.
So we help give in those ways.
In my work, I'm very privilegedbecause I get to work with
(38:32):
about 200 Christian ministrieswho are doing God's work all
around the world and in theirlocal communities, and so we
help them to connect them.
We connect the people that loveand support them to give in the
most efficient way.
Speaker 1 (38:46):
I love that.
Love that You're doing so muchstuff out there.
I mean not just an author, butdoing your marketing director
work with our Barnabas.
And you got an awesome blogblog at Heather day net.
I mean you guys need to checkthat out.
She talks about faith andleadership and family and
motherhood, marriage.
Heather day dotnet.
Please check it out.
It's really awesome.
You're gonna get something outof it for sure.
(39:07):
This is is really awesome.
One of the things that I see inmyself as it pertains to being
in any kind of ministry is youexperience challenges in trying
to lead people and helping tohelp aspiring leaders.
What's your top two challengesthat you face in your work in
trying to help aspiring leadersgrow?
Speaker 2 (39:30):
in your work in trying to help aspiring leaders
grow?
That's a good question.
So one of the things I do in mypersonal life is I work with, I
help with the teens in our youthgroup and I work with a
leadership council of teensspecifically, and one of the
challenges that they face isjust our youth are facing
struggles that we didn't have todeal with in our you know,
(39:51):
maybe we dealt with a little bit, but the level of anxiety and
mental health struggles and thepressures that they face on a
daily basis are reallychallenging.
So I've been just reallyconvicted to pray and encourage
and mentor and walk alongside.
Pray and encourage and mentorand walk alongside our that's
(40:12):
all right, to walk alongsidethese youth because they need
godly men and women who are justpouring into them and
reassuring them that God's gotthem and you need to be a
positive force in their life.
Speaker 1 (40:24):
You do so much.
I probably did a hard work jobof telling everybody all the
stuff you've done.
I'm talking about in themarketing world and fundraising
over 200 nonprofit organizationsyou've been helping with your
writing and Christian LeadershipAlliance and all different
Generosity Today, all thesemagazines.
I'm like I didn't get a chanceto get into all that stuff.
I'm so sorry.
Speaker 2 (40:42):
No no.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
But one thing I want to ask you, though, because you
do so much and it's good, I'msure you have the capacity to do
so, but in in doing, obviouslyit has to be a time for rest and
relaxation.
If you can go any place in theworld that elicits, elicits the
best memories and gives youpeace, where would you be going?
And don't say your closet,that's.
Speaker 2 (41:03):
That's everybody's answer no, no, not my closet, my
closet's mess stresses me out.
No, that's an easy answer forme.
I would go to the beach and Iwould lay on the beach and I
would.
I would just hear the warm sunand the crashing waves.
And I have a.
I have a portrait on my wall ofa beach that reminds me of my
(41:24):
husband and I.
He has family down in nearJacksonville, florida.
That's the.
Yeah, we're not going to gothere, but anyway I just.
When I am, he has family downin um near jacksonville florida.
Speaker 1 (41:31):
That's thus.
Speaker 2 (41:31):
That explains yeah, yeah, yeah, we're not gonna go
there but anyway, I just when Iam, when I sit on the beach and
I see those crashing waves, a isjust very peaceful, but I'm
reminded of how small I am incomparison to god's, god's
creation.
Speaker 1 (41:43):
Um yeah I love this.
I love this, and please letyour answer not be the thing
that we talked about earlier inthe show.
But if you had to eat anything,one thing, eat one thing every
day for the rest of your lifeyeah what would it be?
Speaker 2 (41:58):
and please do not say chicago dogs oh, I won't say
chicago dogs, they'll saychicago.
See, I know that this is abattle between New York and
Chicago, but we do have the bestpizza.
Speaker 1 (42:10):
I'm just going to say that's debatable.
Here's my question.
I've tried them all.
That's how I can speak to this.
This is very recent.
I tried Chicago pizza.
I tried the deep dish.
How long is forever if you'reeating that stuff every day and
that's all you're eating?
How long do you think foreveris going to be Because all that?
Speaker 2 (42:32):
cheese.
It's only a matter of timebefore.
Yeah, if you're eating thatevery day, all day, forever,
it's a very short time.
Yeah, why do you pick that?
But you got your vegetables.
You got your dairy.
Speaker 1 (42:45):
What vegetables?
Speaker 2 (42:46):
What.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
Where Tomatoes are supposed to be fruits.
Speaker 2 (42:53):
They got seeds in there, right, they're fruits.
What?
Speaker 1 (42:55):
vegetables.
Throw some mushrooms in there,then you'll live a little longer
.
Oh my, maybe this is really fun.
Thank you for taking the timeto do this.
I got one more question for you.
Yeah, with all the I've justnamed that that you've been
doing authoringing books, doingfundraising, writing your blog,
your heatherdaynet all you'retalking about with life and
motherhood and marriage.
If you weren't doing any ofthese things, they were all off
(43:18):
of the table.
What would Heather be doingright now?
Speaker 2 (43:22):
I would just to boil it down to what like, and I
could get almost emotional here.
But if I could boil it down toone thing, if I could only do
one thing, it would be my family.
I was reminded a few years agoabout my number one ministry is
as a wife and a mother.
If I can't reach and love thepeople in my own household, then
(43:43):
what good am I doing?
So when it comes to findingrest, I am often reminded that
anything I'm saying yes to, I'msaying no to something else.
I have to prioritize beingpresent and being authentic in
my own home.
Speaker 1 (43:58):
So you'd be a stay-at-home mom then.
Speaker 2 (44:03):
Yeah, it wouldn't take long, though, before I'd
start picking up projects,because I just got to keep busy.
Speaker 1 (44:10):
What kind of projects would you be doing though?
Speaker 2 (44:12):
Oh, um, I would love to do more writing and speaking.
I love, I love doing that kindof stuff.
Speaker 1 (44:18):
You're already doing that.
Speaker 2 (44:19):
Yeah, yeah, I'm doing .
I'm doing a little bit, but I'dlike to do more of that.
Speaker 1 (44:23):
Okay, well, that's awesome.
This is a fantasticconversation.
I'm sure it's not going to bethe last we hear from each other
.
I know you'll be writing morebooks.
It's difficult to have you backon again.
Tell everybody where they canfind your work.
You've got a lot of thingsgoing on.
I already mentioned itHeadToDaynet.
You can mention it again.
And where to find yourfundraising work with Barnabas.
I mean, go ahead and share thatand, if you don't mind, section
(44:45):
on the YouTube channel so youcan be able to find the links
and everything and tap into whatyou're doing.
But go ahead.
Speaker 2 (44:51):
Sure, so you could follow me, follow Barnabas
Foundation atbarnabasfoundationorg.
You can find out all about ourministry there.
So that's a great way to stayconnected.
Also, on the social media world, I tend to be old school.
I'm on Facebook, so if you lookfor Heather M Day, yeah, yeah,
I, yes, and we're not going togo into that, but I I post there
(45:14):
regularly.
I would love to connect withyou on there.
If you write me on Instagram, Imay not, may or may not respond
because my daughter's stillworking on me to understand it
and embrace it fully.
But but, yeah, that's a goodway to take it.
Speaker 1 (45:31):
You are a delight.
Thank you for jumping on hereand having this time with us
today for all of our viewers andlisteners.
Thank you for listening.
Heather is going to drop all ofher information in the comments
section on the YouTube channel.
Under this episode you can findher and all of her work her
blogs, all her writing and allof our fundraising work.
Thank you again for jumping on,heather.
This is fantastic.
(45:51):
Any closing thoughts for ourlisteners and viewers before we
go?
Speaker 2 (45:55):
No, well, I would just remind you, god loves you,
he wants you to walk alongsidethis with you, and yeah, just
lean into him and that's whereyou'll find your joy and peace.
Speaker 1 (46:06):
That's beautiful Heather Day, mr you.
We're out.
Have a great day.
welcome back to one-on-one with mr you.
Of course, I'm your host, mryou, in studio with us today.
Author.
Minister.
Director of marketing for theBarnabas Foundation.
Heather Day is in the houseHeather.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Good morning.
It's so good to be here.
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Absolutely Pleasure's mine too, to have you here.
We had an awesome pre-interviewchat and there's so much to
talk about, so I definitely wantto try to jump into it.
Let's start off with you.
Let me always just put thebackground first.
Where'd you come from?
Your family dynamic?
Tell us about Heather.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Yeah, so I am a PK.
I have grown up in the churchall my life.
Yeah, we can go one of two ways.
We tend to go off the rails orgo deeper into the church, and I
went the second route.
But I have grown up in thechurch.
I've never known a time where.
(01:10):
I didn't know that Jesus lovedme, and so that's where I come
from.
I have my husband, robert.
We've been married almost 24years this June.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Congratulations.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Thank you, and we have an 18-year-old daughter,
emma, and a 13-year-old son,jackson.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
All right, that's awesome, awesome.
And what area of the countrydid you grow up?
Speaker 2 (01:34):
in Well.
I've grown up all over theplace with my dad as a pastor,
but I've lived most of my lifein Illinois.
Currently I reside inBourbonnet, illinois, about uh
about an hour South of Chicago.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Okay, all right, I love that you had a little.
You had a little funny quipabout your name and what it
meant.
Talk to us about that.
That's weird.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Yeah, I.
You know, like everybody likesto have some deep meaning behind
their name, what their namemeans.
And you know, looking, looking,Looking my name up as a kid, it
was like Heather, a floweringweed.
Nobody wants to be a weed.
There's other times where youcan look it up and it says a
(02:19):
blossoming flower.
I tend to go with that one.
Why not?
Speaker 1 (02:25):
I tend to go with that one, why not?
Why not?
We did have a little talk aboutChicago.
I want to get into this alittle bit because I got
questions about the infatuationwith this whole Chicago dog
(02:45):
thing.
I'm sorry, tomato and cucumberon a hot dog.
I'm not catching what theinfatuation is.
Help me out with that and thenshare a little about Chicago and
the Roseland community.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Yeah, so Chicago dogs are so good it's like a gourmet
feast in a bun.
But I'll tell you, I'm not apurist.
So I like a Chicago dog withthe pickles, the relish, the
ketchup.
Oh, that's where I'm not apurist, because Chicagoans would
immediately dismiss me by justsaying that I put ketchup on my
(03:17):
hot dogs or, you know, mustardonly, but otherwise I really
love it.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Fair, fair, I don't get it.
That's why I'm Okay, I don'tget it.
That's why I'm asking.
I don't get the infatuation.
I mean I'm from New York, sofor me it's like mustard
sauerkraut.
You know, I get some onions andstuff.
I don't get the whole picklespear answer it's so good, I'm
not getting it.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
So good You're making me hungry at this time in the
morning.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
That wasn't my goal.
That wasn't my goal at all.
But tell us about Chicago alittle bit.
I want to ask you aboutsomething else Chicago related,
but let's talk about that.
You mentioned the Rosemancommunity.
Yeah, why is that placesignificant for you?
Speaker 2 (03:57):
So I've actually lived in the South suburbs for
my entirety of time here.
But we get up to the city quitea bit and for special events we
go up there to see thebeautiful parts of Chicago
Magnificent Mile.
We see a lot of plays, we saw alot of musicals.
But also the ministry I workwith, barnabas Foundation.
(04:17):
We have a connection withRoseland Christian Ministries
and they are a ministry thatspecifically works with the
impoverished area of Roselandcommunity.
So I had, so we've worked withthem as a ministry for quite a
bit, but I had an opportunitylast year to take a group of
teenagers up there and servebreakfast to the homeless and to
(04:40):
visit their shelter and to bepart of their worship service
and I was just blown away bythis beautiful rose, you know,
in the middle of a neighborhoodthat has really struggled.
They haven't always struggled,but they've just been dealt a
bad hand.
There's been a lot of thingsthat have happened in their
(05:01):
history hand.
There's been a lot of thingsthat have happened in their
history and I was just amazed athow God is at work in Roseland
community there in Chicago.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
I love that.
I love that.
Now, we always hear and Ialways ask about people in their
geographical evidence.
We always hear things throughthe media about what it's like.
Right For those pieces ofinformation.
So bust a myth for us aboutChicago.
Yeah, Tell us something that wehear about from Chicago that's
(05:33):
actually not true, and then youcan kind of confirm some of the
things that are challenges inthe area.
If you'd like to Go ahead, yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
So anytime I tell somebody I live near Chicago,
they immediately say are youafraid of getting shot?
You know, yeah, there's just alot of there has been.
It's not completely untrue thatthere are some.
You know, there are some realstruggles in the city of Chicago
, but mostly I feel I feel safewhen I go there.
I love the people of Chicago.
(06:02):
I have had a good experiencewhen I go there.
I love the people of Chicago.
I have had a good experience.
Now, that being said, there aresome neighborhoods that struggle
with poverty and gang violenceand drugs and all these
different things.
But again, my experience hasbeen that when I have visited
those communities whether I'vejust been part of different
(06:23):
things where we visited the citymy experience has been that the
people there are really deep inthe midst of struggle.
Again, they've been handed anunfair hand, they've been given
difficult circumstances to fightthrough, and yet I have seen
over and over again that God'speople are also there
(06:44):
ministering to those people whoare in the midst of the struggle
.
So there is beauty there.
We're all people.
We're all people who are justtrying to do our best and the
more that we can shine a lightinto those communities and be
part of it, the better off weall are.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
I wish that was something that I hope everybody
that's listening and watchinghears that, because, wow, I mean
that's a big challenge, becausewe look at these things like we
hear about, we talk about thatare in other areas and we just
kind of assume you know what,that's their thing.
(07:22):
No, it can't happen here.
It's somebody else's fault.
This is happening, but you saidlike you said, doing the bad
hand, and people have thatacross this country.
So it's good to hear the beautyin that.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
And that's in the city of Chicago, which, again,
I've visited and been part of.
But even in my community, inthe South suburbs, there there
are pockets where, uh, wherethere are just people that have,
um, generational poverty orgenerational struggle, um and um
, and that, uh, uh, they justhave all kinds of struggles from
(08:00):
different things that havehappened.
They've not, they've notbenefited from the same things
that have been handed down to me.
They've not had the sameschooling that I've had, they've
not had the same lovingparenting that I've had, they've
not had the same opportunitythat I have.
And so, the more that we canget to know the why behind the
communities, that's not anexcuse for those communities,
but we can come in with a betterunderstanding to be able to
(08:22):
serve them better and help thoseof us have been given much.
There's a lot of responsibilityto help those out who have not
been given as much.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
That's beautiful, that perspective right there.
I want to.
I want to spend a little timeon that, because there are a lot
of people who are probablywatching and listening to this
interview right now and theydidn't have somebody.
They have struggles out andthey didn't have somebody.
They have struggles I meaneverybody has those, that's
germane to all of us but theydidn't have the struggles like
(08:52):
what you're talking about.
How are you able to go intothat?
Tell us how, as succinct as youcan, how are you able to go
into those communities, knowingthat they know and you know that
you guys didn't have the samestruggle, but you could still be
able to serve them and helpthem in a way that's significant
for them?
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Yeah, absolutely.
Well, I'll tell you one of myfirst, one of my first jobs out
of college was for St AnnCommunity High School and we
worked one of the feedercommunities into that high
school.
Uh was Hopkins park in Pembroketownship, which is, uh remains
even today.
Uh, the demographics havechanged Um, but the but it
(09:32):
remains today one of the mostimpoverished uh uh communities
in, definitely the state, butalso in the country.
And and so um, but I had anincredible experience working
there because I got to knowthese kids and I got to know
their families and they were soreal and so full of joy and so
(09:53):
just authentic that I couldn'thelp but be the same with them.
And that's where these wallscome down, when we don't look at
people as less or more than we,just look at us as all in the
same boat and our true selves.
When I was just able to bemyself and not pretend that I
understood everything they wentto, but that I just but that I
(10:15):
deeply cared about them and theycared about me.
It was reciprocal.
When, when those walls camedown, reciprocal, uh, when, when
those walls came down, that'swhere true ministry happens,
because it wasn't a um, I'mgoing to come in and rescue, and
they weren't looking at me assomebody high and mighty, it's
just we're in this together.
How can we, how can we serveand love one another?
Speaker 1 (10:35):
that's beautiful.
I love this.
Now.
We talked a lot aboutresilience in our pre-interview
chat.
Talk to me about this wholesituation with the White Sox and
the Cubs, because I don'treally understand that part
either.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
You know I.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
That's a story of resilience, if ever there was
one.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Yeah, we just keep coming back to remember that one
time when we won a worldchampionship there's, you know,
we're just, we're just alwaysone season away from that world
championship.
So, um, but yeah, my, I, I am awhite socks fan, mostly by
marriage.
I can't pretend, I can't evenpretend yeah, robert, I don't
(11:17):
know what, what.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
What is he?
What's he hanging his hat on us?
This, this is.
I'm a huge baseball fan After.
My first sports love wasbaseball being in the inner city
.
That was weird because therewas not many fields and they
were poorly kept.
I thought that was my way outof the community.
But the White Sox name it nevercomes up Every year.
(11:43):
There's nothing said about them.
There's no highly toutedprospects.
What does he hang his hat on asa White Sox fan?
What is he holding on to?
Speaker 2 (11:55):
Well, they've got a beautiful park, they've got a
great experience.
We have fun there.
But I will tell you A beautifulpark.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Is that where we are in life, Robert?
Oh, poor fella.
No, here's the thing.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
I should also tell you that he's also a
Jacksonville Jaguars fan, so Ijust think he likes to dive into
misery.
I think like he could shoot.
I think he, yeah, I think heevery year on these teams.
I think he's got high hopesthat about halfway through the
season they completely fallapart and, yeah, I spend the
(12:28):
rest of the season calling him.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
I truly don't know how to even encourage him.
Jacksonville Jaguars, really,robert?
Okay, let's stay on Heather.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
That's a rabbit hole.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Yeah, we can't go down that rabbit hole.
It's not possible.
But you notice some things insome of your work regarding
authentic faith.
Define that because and keep inmind the listeners and the
viewers today because we hearabout faith, I mean we have a
faith to sit down in a chair andthink it's not going to break.
We do that all the time.
We don't think about it asfaith, it's just instinctual.
(13:04):
But talk to us about what youthink authentic faith actually
means and how it makes sense tothose that could be listening
today.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Yeah, so I think of authentic faith as just being
absolutely real about what Ibelieve, but also my struggles.
I think sometimes in myexperience, one of the biggest
lies that the enemy will tell usis that we're all alone and
we're the only one strugglingwith what fell in the blank.
(13:32):
You know, I, when I, when I hadmy daughter, I uh, 18 years ago
, I struggled with postpartumdepression and in the midst of
that depression I felt likenobody would understand.
I felt like nobody gets me, I'mall by myself, and that was a
lie.
The moment I was started totalk about that and to open it
(13:52):
up and that other people thenwere open about it with me, it
gave me hope and it gave me alight.
Um, so I think that asChristians, we tend to like,
like to present our best selvesand we like to put a pretty bow
on things and say it's all good,life is perfect, and and that's
not helpful for anyone, it'snot helpful for us to be able to
(14:12):
be ministered to, and it's nothelpful for others to feel like
they're working with someone who, who they can identify with,
with someone who they canidentify with.
So, the more that we can bestraight about like I, I, you
know.
There's a story in the Biblewhere he's like I do believe,
help me in my unbelief.
That's that's where.
That's where I am in my faith,like I truly hold hang on to God
(14:32):
for dear life.
But there's also strugglesalong the way and I want to be
real about that so that we canjourney together.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
I love that.
I love that During ourpre-interview chat, I challenged
you on one thing that you weresaying.
You were saying that you wereordinary, there was nothing
special about you, and hopefullyI didn't jump on you too hard,
but I challenged that because ofwhat you're talking about right
now.
There's just so much in us, youknow and this is 2 Corinthians
(15:01):
4, I believe it is talks abouthow we have a treasure in each
earthen vessel.
There's something, there'ssomething special about us,
something special in our DNA wehave.
We have creative ability in us.
So there's something specialabout you and me and all of us
that are listening.
How would you encourage somebodyin in that, in that truth,
because a lot of folks feel likeyou, what they haven't been,
(15:21):
they haven't.
Maybe they haven't beenfathered, maybe they haven't
even been mothered.
In some areas where they were,they were nurtured in their
gifts and abilities and realizedthat they had something to
offer to this big, huge, massiveworld.
How would you encouragesomebody who may have been
through that?
And because they are ordinaryand they feel there's nothing
special about them, how wouldyou encourage them?
Speaker 2 (15:41):
well, first of all, if you're ordinary, you are just
like all the people we readabout in the Bible, all the
faith leaders that literallychanged history, that Jesus used
.
When I talk about beingordinary, I talk about I am that
earthly vessel that there'snothing spectacular about me,
(16:02):
but not yet.
Not I, but Christ in me.
So Moses Moses is like he spentway too much time arguing with
God about how could you use me?
I stutter, I'm not ordinary orI'm not special.
And yet when he opened himselfup to allowing God to work
through him, he literally ledpeople into the promised land.
We see that over and over again.
We look at the disciples theywere kind of a hot mess and yet
(16:31):
God worked through them toliterally change the world.
And so if you're feeling likethere's nothing special about me
, first of all God has given youunique gifts and unique skill
sets that he wants to use.
But it's not because of thosethat he's using those.
He wants to use you, in spiteof your weaknesses, and use the
things that he's given you towork in the lives of others and
(16:54):
really make a difference.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
I love that.
I love that.
One thing that we shared incommon when we were having our
chat is about the the emphasisof purpose in our lives and, uh,
most folks watch me I've donesome stuff in my background
where I have to speak to peopleabout purpose and and they kind
of help them locate that to somesmall degree, to kind of help
(17:17):
them, you know, understand theirpart in this, in this picture.
Why do you feel like it's yourresponsibility to help people
find purpose?
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Yeah, um, I think part of that big jobs it is a
big job, um, and it's, quitehonestly, something that I spent
way too much of my teen yearsand my twenties trying to like.
I felt like I was walking onthis tight rope of I have to
find God's will and walk alongthat rope and make sure I don't
fall off it and make sure I findthe exact spot, the exact
(17:45):
footing and what was freeing tome and I referenced this in the
book my dad gave me really good.
My dad's very wise and he gaveme really great advice of that.
God doesn't call people topositions.
He calls them to obedience,meaning that he may ask you to a
specific occupation he may not,but what he asks you to do is
(18:07):
that every day, I just live incomplete surrender and obedience
to what do you want me to dotoday, god?
And as long as we're stayingfaithful and following his word
and in prayer and seeking hiswill, then you are achieving
your purpose.
We have that like inner, theHoly Spirit guiding us.
If we, if we allow the HolySpirit to that will, that will.
(18:29):
If we get too far off path andwe're wandering down a path of
destruction, the Holy Spiritwill guide us back, you know,
and say hey, you need to.
There's some correction thatneeds to happen here.
But as long as we're listeningto that voice and being obedient
to what God has to do today,then you are in the center of
his will and you are living outyour God given purpose.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
I love it.
Love it If all our viewers andlisteners.
If you have any questions forHeather or myself regarding what
we're discussing, whether it'sChicago Dogs or if it's about
finding your purpose, drop yourcomments in the comment section.
We'll answer those as soon aswe can get to them during the
course of this episode.
Now, one thing that youmentioned in regards to trying
to help people find theiruncommon purpose.
What we talked about also washow cheerleading can morph into
a full-time job Constantlyaffirming people and I do that
(19:23):
in my life, I believe you do aswell when we talked about but
how do you support people inyour opinion?
How do you support peoplewithout becoming a crutch for
people?
That's really important that wedon't do that, but how do you?
How are you handling that part?
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Oh, that's a good question and that's something
sometimes I can struggle withbecause I want to, you know,
with my kids.
I want to step in and and fixtheir problems and lift them up
out of it.
But but the truth is that, likea lot of my spiritual formation
(19:55):
and who I am is because of thestruggle and and them learning
to do it for themselves andlearning to know I can tell them
till I'm blue in the facethat's not gonna work.
But they have to experiencethat's not gonna work and I use
that example with my kids, butthat's true of other people as
well.
We want to encourage them, wewant to be a support system, but
(20:16):
also we have to avoid.
We can sometimes I know I'vestruggled with this whole like
savior complex that I have tofix it and that's not my job.
I am not the, I am not thesavior Jesus is.
So I can walk alongside them, Ican be encouraging, I can help
affirm their gifts, butultimately they have to walk
(20:36):
that path for themselves.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
I loved it.
I love that.
You know history is teaching usthat you know people.
Sometimes people don't wantrelatability and leadership.
They want somebody who'sexpected to be almost superhuman
.
You know you can't be like me,like what you're talking about
in scripture.
You can't be like me because Iknow how I am.
So if you're like me, we'reboth screwed.
So they kind of want somethingthat's above that superhuman.
They kind of want somethingthat's above that superhuman.
(21:00):
How do you balance betweenbeing relatable and still
honoring that unique purposethat you have to do to do what
you're doing?
Speaker 2 (21:11):
If that makes sense.
Yeah, I think I think Iunderstand the question.
So I I definitely want to beauthentic and not put up a air
of I've got it all together andyet there are some things that I
have.
I'm in accountability withthose just closest to me, so I'm
not going to broadcast all mydirty laundry to no, that's OK.
No, it drives me like as a as aas a leader like I want to be
(21:31):
careful about, like like havingpeople in my life that I can be
really real with and that I canshare my real struggles with and
making sure that I have them inplace to encourage me and to
help correct me and help guideme.
But that's not necessarily outfor the whole world, but the
whole world.
I do want to know that.
Look, we all have struggles andI have struggles too.
(21:53):
And, yeah, just be authentic inthat way.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
I love that.
I love that you also talkedabout you know way.
I love that.
I love that you also talkedabout you know the the growth
process that you've gone through.
You know I know people thatpeople are kind of programmed to
avoid painful and hard things.
You know, don't touch thatbecause it hurts.
You know, and what did youlearn about yourself through the
growth process?
Do you think it would bevaluable to our listeners and
(22:18):
viewers?
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Yeah, so, um, I've had growth in a lot of different
areas and a lot of struggles InMoney and Spirit.
I talk specifically about ourfinancial lives and how early on
in you know, I came out ofcollege with a lot of debt and
in our early 20s and earlymarriage we made a lot of
mistakes.
You know that we had tonavigate and part of the
(22:42):
struggle was admitting first ofall, admitting that there was a
problem and my husband and I,you know, there was a moment
where we literally prayed thisprayer of God we've made a royal
mess of things, help us andthat we had to have that prayer
of surrender, we had to havethat prayer of confession.
(23:03):
But that didn't immediately fixit.
It's not like we were like weprayed that prayer and then got
a check in the mail.
That fixed it all.
We had to learn the struggle andthe discipline of walking in
daily contentment and dailypeace and trusting that if we
followed God's ways and what heasked us to do on a daily basis,
trusting that if we followedGod's ways and what he asked us
to do on a daily basis, that hewould be the provider of our
(23:24):
daily bread to walk with us.
He wasn't going to give us afeast every day.
He was going to give us ourdaily bread of what we needed,
and we had to trust in hisprovision and his peace and his
comfort and his guidance andknow that he's our source of
love, joy, peace, patience,kindness, goodness, faithfulness
(23:44):
, gentleness and self-control.
Those weren't things that camefrom us.
He was the source of things.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
I love that I got so many questions.
I hope we have time to get intothem.
I'm so excited about thisconversation.
I want to ask you also I wantto get into your book also.
I want to get into what you'redoing at the Barnabas Foundation
.
I want to make sure we havetime to hopefully get into all
this stuff.
But we got a comment to thisthat jumped over the comment.
(24:11):
We'll go ahead and share thatwith you.
I'd love for you to speak intothat.
Thank you, courtney, for firstoff listening and watching the
show.
Courtney says I went forward atchurches today because I have a
disability.
And Courtney says I wentforward at churches today
because I have a disability andsometimes I feel like a burden.
So we want to say they assuredme I have abilities others don't
have.
I think that's pretty profoundbecause what we're talking about
so far.
But go ahead and speak to that.
Speak to Courtney in regards tothat, and then we'll move on to
(24:34):
our next question.
Go ahead.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
Yeah, courtney.
So a few different things.
One, I want to confess that asa church my local church and the
global church that we have notdone a great offer, a unique
gifts.
Because you have understandingof the challenges of others that
(25:07):
are going through those samestruggles that you can minister
to in a way that I never can,because you get it and you
understand.
So you have a unique ability toserve them in that way.
But beyond that, you are notdefined by your disabilities,
whatever they might be you have.
You have a mind, you haveinsight, you have personality.
(25:28):
That is that God has given youand wants to use in a special
way.
So don't let those, don't letyour, your disabilities quote
unquote be your defining factor.
I can't, I can't hit a threepoint shot, I can't run without
getting winded, but I don'tdefine myself by those.
I have other abilities that Godwants to use.
(25:50):
It's not going to be on thebasketball court.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
I love that.
Thank you, courtney, for your,for your, for your comment, for
being transparent about yoursituation.
Excuse me, we're so proud ofyou for doing that.
Our hair will.
All you people are watching, sowe're just thanking you.
Thank you, heather, for yourresponse to Courtney.
We talked about so much.
We talked about the impact ofanxiety and imposter syndrome
(26:14):
and I've been dealing with thatbecause a lot of our listeners
are either in the contentcreator media, podcasting space
and you know it's, I think youmentioned earlier.
It's really easy for us to hidethe imperfections and try to
look like all is well.
Talk to me about yourchallenges with anxiety and
imposter syndrome.
For those that are listening tome.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Yeah, I have often felt like this.
I heard somebody refer to it asthe sense of ought, like I
needed, I ought to do this, Ineed to write this, or I need.
Felt like this I heard somebodyrefer to it as the sense of
ought, like I needed, I ought todo this, I need to write this,
or I need to say this.
And a lot of times thatimposter syndrome creeps in
where I think what in the world?
Why?
You know what I?
What does that difference?
(26:55):
Does it make that stupid orthat's whatever?
Speaker 1 (26:58):
that's not as good as whatever this person can offer.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
And I found that when I, when I'm true to what I know
, that God is asking me to do,that he uses it in ways that are
amazing and beyond me.
It's those things that I putout that I think I don't even
know why I'm writing this, butI'm putting it out there because
I just feel like this strongpurpose that I have to do this.
(27:23):
It's those times where I've hadpeople come to me and say you,
you, that you provided the wordsI needed to hear at just the
right moment.
And again and that's not me,that's because that's because of
obedience and God speaking tothose.
He speaks through broken,cracked vessels, that that don't
have it all together, but hewants to work through us.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
I love that.
That's really good.
So what inspired you to writeMoney in Spirit?
Speaker 2 (27:51):
So it was a few different things.
Again, I work for BarnabasFoundation.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
You're blushing already guys, you know it's
going to be good.
She's blushing.
It's going to be great.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
That's just extra makeup.
So we got a grant at BarnabasFoundation to be honest with you
, we got a grant to produce aresource for the church.
And we had my boss and I hadthis meeting and there was one
other person in there and I knowyou've had these meetings where
you're just in a conversationthat's going nowhere and you're
(28:21):
like you want to bang your headagainst the wall because they're
like this is not productive.
We were going in circles andjust no good ideas we got.
We got lots of bad ideas out ofthe way and my boss is a very
spiritual um, he's very, he'sguided by, he lives out the the
uh, lives the, walk, uh, he.
So he stopped the meeting andhe prayed God, this is your
(28:44):
project, this is your ministry,we want to do what we want to do
, what you want us to do.
So he prayed like help us find,give us the ideas.
That's your idea.
And literally he prayed amen.
And I had this idea for a Biblestudy that it started out as a
video Bible study of what we'regoing to do, but it morphed over
(29:04):
time and became this book.
But it was all born out of thatprayer of help us get out of
the way, how can we help peoplein the church, and it began to
form over time of there are alot of people in the church and
outside the church that areunder the bondage of money,
whether it's some of its debt,but sometimes it's greed,
sometimes it's mismanagedpriorities that money has a hold
(29:26):
on people, and we felt likethis is something that we can
speak into and that I couldspeak into specifically because
of the struggle that my husbandand I had been through.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
I love this.
I love this For my nextquestion.
Let me ask you this part haveyou ever noticed a warped or
kind of an inconsistent view ofwho God is?
That's tied to the financialproblems of your clients,
because, beth and Mark I thefinancial problems of your
clients, because we know thingsand we know what we know and we
(29:56):
don't know what we don't know.
A lot of times we look at thesethings, and especially in the
charismatic churches, we seeemphasis on finances and giving
and we don't realize how thatmakes us view God.
Have you ever seen a view likethat?
It's inconsistent, it's tied tofinancial problems and how do
(30:16):
you help people get past that?
Speaker 2 (30:19):
Yeah.
So one of the big ones thatcomes to mind is this idea that
once I, if I follow and I do allthe right things, that the
whole health and wealth gospel,I do not buy into that, you know
.
I think that, uh, I think thatGod can and does some bless some
(30:39):
people with, with finances, um,and and asks them to use those
in ways to fund ministry.
But I think he has also calledand ministered to people that do
not did not receive that formof blessing, who are not going
to ever be rich, who are notgoing to be wealthy, who may
always be wondering where thenext paycheck is coming from,
and God loves them equally andthat is not a sign of their
(31:01):
faithfulness, that's not a signof God's blessing.
I believe that God gives usdifferent gifts, traits,
characteristics, skills, butalso in the financial realm,
some he blesses in that way,some he doesn't.
And our worth has nothing to dowith our bank account or our
faithfulness.
That's not a measure of God'sgoodness.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
Oh, that's a mic drop right there.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
Thank, you, that's really good.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
So with so many books on management finances out
there and trust me, there areplenty of them what makes money
and spirit stand out in yourhumble opinion?
Speaker 2 (31:37):
Yeah.
So in my humble opinion, money,money and spirit.
There are a ton of books outthere about tactics and how you
need to save more, work harder.
Here's your investment strategythose those different things.
You can find a number of thoseresources.
So and that's not my expertise,nor did I want to try to gain
that expertise, but what?
what's different about money andspirit is it comes from the,
(32:00):
the, the paradigm of.
We can have all the tactics andthe tips in the world, but
until we address the underlyingproblem of misplaced trust and
priorities, we will keepslipping back into those old
patterns.
We have to get our hearts right.
We have to follow the lead ofthe Holy Spirit.
Until then, we'll just bespinning our wheels.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
That's powerful stuff .
You mentioned about a publicbattle of will with your
preschooler.
If you remember what that'sabout, please share that.
That's an incredible story.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
Well, yeah, just a side note.
My son is now 13, and he hadn'tread the book, but he knew he
was in it and so he was braggingto his sister.
He's like I'm in the book andyou're not.
And she's like what?
Oh, wow, oh wow.
He's like spoiler alert, youdon't come out looking good.
But.
But at the time, um jackson wasabout three years old and we
(33:00):
were at disney world and he washot, he was tired and his
stubbornness was on full displayfor everyone.
You know, within a mile radiusprobably, like it was.
Just, he was very set on whathe wanted to do and he kept
fighting, fighting me on it andreally just stubbornness and
battle of wills.
(33:20):
And I kept picking him up hislittle body and putting him in
his timeout chair and saying,like this makeshift timeout
chair, we're going to sit hereuntil you can calm down and we
can have a peaceful conversation.
He'd get mad and he'd storm offthere and then keep picking him
up and putting him back in thetime chair.
This went on a ridiculouslylong time, um, so the the funny
(33:42):
thing was like he was.
I don't even remember whatstarted the fight.
I don't remember if you wanteda cookie, I don't remember, but
whatever it was, I just said,jackson, if you wanted a cookie,
I don't remember, but whateverit was I just said, jackson, if
you will just stop fighting meand listen and calm down and
just do what I ask, we can moveon with our day.
I want to have a good time, youwant to have a good time, but
until you stop fighting, we'regoing to just stay here in this
(34:04):
misery.
Um, and so I in the book, Iliken that to our fight against,
our battle of wills and ourbattle against the spirit.
You know, we, we want to dothings our way and we keep
coming back to this is mine andthis is what I want to do.
And God is meanwhile saying ifyou would just listen, I want to
take you down a path of joy, Iwant to take you to peace, I
(34:26):
want to take you, to bless youin so many ways.
But you have to give up thatfight and you have to be willing
to walk hand in hand with meand listen to me, and then we
can get on with our day and dosomething good.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
Yeah, that's children of Israel stuff right there.
An 11 day journey took 40 years.
Think about that You're planningto go on an 11 day trip and you
end up taking 40 years to getthere.
That sounds awful, but it was.
It was.
It was necessitous because weweren't willing to embrace that,
like you said.
That's a great segue to my nextquestion what does it look like
(34:58):
to have peace and joy,regardless of your circumstances
?
Speak to our listeners andviewers about that, because I
think people think in my stuff.
That's why I find peace, inpeople in my life.
That's why I find joy.
And man, why haven't we learnedafter all these years, decades,
that that's just so, not true?
No, people are not bringing usjoy.
No, things don't bring us peace.
(35:20):
Speak to that.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
Right.
So I truly believe in my heartof hearts that God is the only
source of true joy and truepeace, and that's not connected
to how much or how little wehave.
If it was all about how much wehad, then all of Wall Street
and all of Hollywood would besuper happy right now and super
full of joy and super full ofpeace.
(35:41):
And we know that they are not,by and large and meanwhile, on
the opposite end of the spectrum.
I've been, whether it's inRoseland or I did like a trip
years ago to India, where theywere literally, you know, living
with nothing, nothing, and theyhad more joy in their hearts
because they were just relianton God and who he, who he was,
(36:05):
and how blessed they were tohave in their lives and they
literally like had, didn't havetwo rupees to rub together and
they found great joy.
And so I know, and I've seen itin my own life, that when I'm at
peace and when I have thegreatest joy, it's because I've
chosen to rest in God'sprovision and rest in his
(36:28):
comfort.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
I love that.
One more question, heather,about money and spirit.
Did you experience any?
I wrote my first book in 2016.
There's plenty of revelationsto come out of that.
Do you find any personal, Iguess, or unexpected revelation,
any personal surprises thatcame out of writing the book
that you can share?
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:49):
One thing that came to me is just again um, you know
, we think about, we sometimesuse this language as Christians
as are you saved or are you youknow?
Like as if this is a one-timething.
And um, what I found is it's anongoing daily surrender that we
keep having to come back to.
And what was surprising to me?
I don't know why it wassurprising, except that, like
(37:11):
was how much the strugglecontinued as I'm writing this
book and that, yes, we'd hadthis transformational moment,
but it, but those old habitscontinue to creep back in, and
those old struggles continue tocreep back in.
I write about in the book like atemptation to, because our, our
refrigerator went out and itbecame.
By the end of the weekend,we're like, well, let's redo our
(37:31):
whole kitchen.
That doesn't make any sense,but but you get you.
I was reminded how like we are.
Just, we are just beings thatwe want to go down our own path
Again.
We're like those grownup Toddtoddlers we keep wanting to go
down our own own path and wejust had to keep coming-up
toddlers.
We keep wanting to go down ourown path and we just have to
keep coming back to surrenderand asking over and over again
(37:53):
God, what do you want me to dotoday and how can I be more like
you?
Speaker 1 (37:59):
I love that.
I love that.
So tell me quickly about whatyou're doing with the Barnabas
Foundation, what's thefoundation doing and how you
would be part of it.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
Yeah, so Barnabas Foundation.
We help generous Christiansgive to their church and other
favorite ministries in ways thathonor God and provide for their
families.
So that might look like givinga gift in your will, or it might
look like giving gifts ofnon-cash assets that help reduce
your taxes.
So we help give in those ways.
In my work, I'm very privilegedbecause I get to work with
(38:32):
about 200 Christian ministrieswho are doing God's work all
around the world and in theirlocal communities, and so we
help them to connect them.
We connect the people that loveand support them to give in the
most efficient way.
Speaker 1 (38:46):
I love that.
Love that You're doing so muchstuff out there.
I mean not just an author, butdoing your marketing director
work with our Barnabas.
And you got an awesome blogblog at Heather day net.
I mean you guys need to checkthat out.
She talks about faith andleadership and family and
motherhood, marriage.
Heather day dotnet.
Please check it out.
It's really awesome.
You're gonna get something outof it for sure.
(39:07):
This is is really awesome.
One of the things that I see inmyself as it pertains to being
in any kind of ministry is youexperience challenges in trying
to lead people and helping tohelp aspiring leaders.
What's your top two challengesthat you face in your work in
trying to help aspiring leadersgrow?
Speaker 2 (39:30):
in your work in trying to help aspiring leaders
grow?
That's a good question.
So one of the things I do in mypersonal life is I work with, I
help with the teens in our youthgroup and I work with a
leadership council of teensspecifically, and one of the
challenges that they face isjust our youth are facing
struggles that we didn't have todeal with in our you know,
(39:51):
maybe we dealt with a little bit, but the level of anxiety and
mental health struggles and thepressures that they face on a
daily basis are reallychallenging.
So I've been just reallyconvicted to pray and encourage
and mentor and walk alongside.
Pray and encourage and mentorand walk alongside our that's
(40:12):
all right, to walk alongsidethese youth because they need
godly men and women who are justpouring into them and
reassuring them that God's gotthem and you need to be a
positive force in their life.
Speaker 1 (40:24):
You do so much.
I probably did a hard work jobof telling everybody all the
stuff you've done.
I'm talking about in themarketing world and fundraising
over 200 nonprofit organizationsyou've been helping with your
writing and Christian LeadershipAlliance and all different
Generosity Today, all thesemagazines.
I'm like I didn't get a chanceto get into all that stuff.
I'm so sorry.
Speaker 2 (40:42):
No no.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
But one thing I want to ask you, though, because you
do so much and it's good, I'msure you have the capacity to do
so, but in in doing, obviouslyit has to be a time for rest and
relaxation.
If you can go any place in theworld that elicits, elicits the
best memories and gives youpeace, where would you be going?
And don't say your closet,that's.
Speaker 2 (41:03):
That's everybody's answer no, no, not my closet, my
closet's mess stresses me out.
No, that's an easy answer forme.
I would go to the beach and Iwould lay on the beach and I
would.
I would just hear the warm sunand the crashing waves.
And I have a.
I have a portrait on my wall ofa beach that reminds me of my
(41:24):
husband and I.
He has family down in nearJacksonville, florida.
That's the.
Yeah, we're not going to gothere, but anyway I just.
When I am, he has family downin um near jacksonville florida.
Speaker 1 (41:31):
That's thus.
Speaker 2 (41:31):
That explains yeah, yeah, yeah, we're not gonna go
there but anyway, I just when Iam, when I sit on the beach and
I see those crashing waves, a isjust very peaceful, but I'm
reminded of how small I am incomparison to god's, god's
creation.
Speaker 1 (41:43):
Um yeah I love this.
I love this, and please letyour answer not be the thing
that we talked about earlier inthe show.
But if you had to eat anything,one thing, eat one thing every
day for the rest of your lifeyeah what would it be?
Speaker 2 (41:58):
and please do not say chicago dogs oh, I won't say
chicago dogs, they'll saychicago.
See, I know that this is abattle between New York and
Chicago, but we do have the bestpizza.
Speaker 1 (42:10):
I'm just going to say that's debatable.
Here's my question.
I've tried them all.
That's how I can speak to this.
This is very recent.
I tried Chicago pizza.
I tried the deep dish.
How long is forever if you'reeating that stuff every day and
that's all you're eating?
How long do you think foreveris going to be Because all that?
Speaker 2 (42:32):
cheese.
It's only a matter of timebefore.
Yeah, if you're eating thatevery day, all day, forever,
it's a very short time.
Yeah, why do you pick that?
But you got your vegetables.
You got your dairy.
Speaker 1 (42:45):
What vegetables?
Speaker 2 (42:46):
What.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
Where Tomatoes are supposed to be fruits.
Speaker 2 (42:53):
They got seeds in there, right, they're fruits.
What?
Speaker 1 (42:55):
vegetables.
Throw some mushrooms in there,then you'll live a little longer
.
Oh my, maybe this is really fun.
Thank you for taking the timeto do this.
I got one more question for you.
Yeah, with all the I've justnamed that that you've been
doing authoringing books, doingfundraising, writing your blog,
your heatherdaynet all you'retalking about with life and
motherhood and marriage.
If you weren't doing any ofthese things, they were all off
(43:18):
of the table.
What would Heather be doingright now?
Speaker 2 (43:22):
I would just to boil it down to what like, and I
could get almost emotional here.
But if I could boil it down toone thing, if I could only do
one thing, it would be my family.
I was reminded a few years agoabout my number one ministry is
as a wife and a mother.
If I can't reach and love thepeople in my own household, then
(43:43):
what good am I doing?
So when it comes to findingrest, I am often reminded that
anything I'm saying yes to, I'msaying no to something else.
I have to prioritize beingpresent and being authentic in
my own home.
Speaker 1 (43:58):
So you'd be a stay-at-home mom then.
Speaker 2 (44:03):
Yeah, it wouldn't take long, though, before I'd
start picking up projects,because I just got to keep busy.
Speaker 1 (44:10):
What kind of projects would you be doing though?
Speaker 2 (44:12):
Oh, um, I would love to do more writing and speaking.
I love, I love doing that kindof stuff.
Speaker 1 (44:18):
You're already doing that.
Speaker 2 (44:19):
Yeah, yeah, I'm doing .
I'm doing a little bit, but I'dlike to do more of that.
Speaker 1 (44:23):
Okay, well, that's awesome.
This is a fantasticconversation.
I'm sure it's not going to bethe last we hear from each other
.
I know you'll be writing morebooks.
It's difficult to have you backon again.
Tell everybody where they canfind your work.
You've got a lot of thingsgoing on.
I already mentioned itHeadToDaynet.
You can mention it again.
And where to find yourfundraising work with Barnabas.
I mean, go ahead and share thatand, if you don't mind, section
(44:45):
on the YouTube channel so youcan be able to find the links
and everything and tap into whatyou're doing.
But go ahead.
Speaker 2 (44:51):
Sure, so you could follow me, follow Barnabas
Foundation atbarnabasfoundationorg.
You can find out all about ourministry there.
So that's a great way to stayconnected.
Also, on the social media world, I tend to be old school.
I'm on Facebook, so if you lookfor Heather M Day, yeah, yeah,
I, yes, and we're not going togo into that, but I I post there
(45:14):
regularly.
I would love to connect withyou on there.
If you write me on Instagram, Imay not, may or may not respond
because my daughter's stillworking on me to understand it
and embrace it fully.
But but, yeah, that's a goodway to take it.
Speaker 1 (45:31):
You are a delight.
Thank you for jumping on hereand having this time with us
today for all of our viewers andlisteners.
Thank you for listening.
Heather is going to drop all ofher information in the comments
section on the YouTube channel.
Under this episode you can findher and all of her work her
blogs, all her writing and allof our fundraising work.
Thank you again for jumping on,heather.
This is fantastic.
(45:51):
Any closing thoughts for ourlisteners and viewers before we
go?
Speaker 2 (45:55):
No, well, I would just remind you, god loves you,
he wants you to walk alongsidethis with you, and yeah, just
lean into him and that's whereyou'll find your joy and peace.
Speaker 1 (46:06):
That's beautiful Heather Day, mr you.
We're out.
Have a great day.
Popular Podcasts
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy And Charlamagne Tha God!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Decisions, Decisions
Welcome to "Decisions, Decisions," the podcast where boundaries are pushed, and conversations get candid! Join your favorite hosts, Mandii B and WeezyWTF, as they dive deep into the world of non-traditional relationships and explore the often-taboo topics surrounding dating, sex, and love. Every Monday, Mandii and Weezy invite you to unlearn the outdated narratives dictated by traditional patriarchal norms. With a blend of humor, vulnerability, and authenticity, they share their personal journeys navigating their 30s, tackling the complexities of modern relationships, and engaging in thought-provoking discussions that challenge societal expectations. From groundbreaking interviews with diverse guests to relatable stories that resonate with your experiences, "Decisions, Decisions" is your go-to source for open dialogue about what it truly means to love and connect in today's world. Get ready to reshape your understanding of relationships and embrace the freedom of authentic connections—tune in and join the conversation!