Purpose in Waiting

God Hears Her Podcast

Episode 74 – Purpose in Waiting

Elisa Morgan & Eryn Eddy with Heather Thompson Day

Heather: So a phrase I used to say to myself all the time was, okay it’s just not your turn. It’s not your turn. Clap for this person, cause it’s their turn. And then I started saying, no it’s always your turn. It is always your turn to show up.

Elisa: That’s good.

Voice: You’re listening to God Hears Her, a podcast for women where we explore the stunning truth that God hears you, He sees you, and He loves you because you are His. Find out how these realities free you today on God Hears Her.

Eryn: Welcome to God Hears Her. I’m Eryn Eddy.

Elisa: And I’m Elisa Morgan. Waiting is hard. And for many of us, it feels like we’re always waiting on something. Sometimes we even feel ignored by God when someone else gets what we wanted, even though we’ve been praying for that.

Eryn: Today we are talking to Heather Thompson Day about how to wait well and why waiting doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Heather is the author of seven books including It’s Not Your Turn. She’s also an interdenominational speaker, a host for the podcast Viral Jesus, an associate professor at Andrews University. And she runs an online community called “I’m That Wife.” She is married with three kids and currently lives in Michigan. We are so excited to chat with Heather on this episode of God Hears Her.

Elisa: So Eryn, what are you waiting for?

Eryn: I have a very long list.

Elisa: Do you? Do you?

Eryn: Yes.

Elisa: Give me like one or two that…

Eryn: Okay.

Elisa: …can be shared. Yeah.

Eryn: Okay, okay, okay, okay. I’m waiting for clarity with my career.

Elisa: Okay.

Eryn: I’m waiting for financial support and provision, I guess. I say provision, but I prayed for that. And the Lord supplied it in a completely different way than what I was thinking.

Elisa: Yeah, so maybe you’re waiting for financial predictability.

Eryn: Yes.

Elisa: And under your control. Yeah, I get it.

Eryn: Yes, yes.

Elisa: I get that, yeah, totally.

Eryn: That is absolutely. I feel like I’ve been in that season for a very long time.

Elisa: You have, yeah.

Eryn: You start to think in waiting that you’re like, What am I doing wrong? Versus what’s going right.

Elisa: So many images come to mind like doldrums, if you’re a sailor where there’s no wind, and you’re just stuck in a spot at sea or…or red lights or doctors’ waiting rooms, you know. It…basically it’s a time when you’re out of control. And you know as I am in these more mature years in life, you know, a lot of the big stuff that I was waiting for like to find a career, to find my man, to like have children, you know a lot of those things have been resolved. And…and now I’m like [sound effect] you know screech the brakes on, you know. Slow down life. You know, and the Lord’s wooed me into understanding that the wait is the deal. You know it’s not like the giving of the thing is the deal. The wait is the deal.

Eryn: Yeah.

Elisa: So I would have a weird answer. I just did…a weird answer to that question myself. But anyway, today we’re going to be chatting with Heather. And I’m so excited…Heather Thompson Day. And you wrote a book on this topic. But whenever we write a book on such a topic, it’s because we’ve lived on such a topic. So I’m excited to invite you into a conversation where we talk about the reality of waiting—how we do it well, how we experience breakthrough in it, you know, how we survive it. So hey, glad you’re here.

Eryn: Oh Heather, I can’t wait to dig into so many of the things that you are just leading. And kind of I feel like, I mean I know we’ve discussed right before we hit record that you’re a three on the enneagram and so is Elisa. And so there are some things that maybe you throw yourself into that you already know what you’re getting yourself into. But I think there are some other things that the Lord has just…when I was reading more about you and your work, like He is working things through you, in you, as you are writing about it currently.

Elisa: Yeah, that’s so good. And…and if you can, you know, before we dive all the way into it, you know, tell us a little bit. Who are you? Where’d you grow up? What do you like? How did God lead you to Himself? How’d you end up where you are today? And what are you doing? You know just kind of give us your story.

Heather: I grew up in a really small town with two stoplights. And my dad…he had originally worked in Broadway and ended up…somebody left a religious writing in a taxicab; and he gave his life to Christ and…

Elisa: Wow.

Heather: …started doing evangelism and would take some of the things that he had learned. He was in like Jesus Christ Superstar and Hair. And then took some of the things that he learned…

Eryn: That’s awesome.

Heather: …and created. So it was like a traveling show where…but it was biblical. And so that’s how I grew up. I grew up in the back of my parents’ van traveling from city to city to city and watching my dad share…

Elisa: Yeah.

Heather: …use his gifts to share who God had been to him. And so I grew up in just this really, I would say, emotional environment where I always emotionally experienced God. And in the last few years, and especially I think in my academic training, I started trying to connect my brain to my heart and doing some research to make sure that there was knowledge that went with my faith. And so I am now a professor. I…and especially when we talk about who I am, I think that is really core of who I am as a teacher. It is the most important thing I think I’ll ever do. I will always teach in a college classroom. I absolutely love young people. I am intoxicated by them. I love…there’s this energy on a college campus where you get to be surrounded by people who genuinely believe they can change the world.

Elisa: I love that. I had about three years in that kind of an environment when I was very young. And I know what you’re talking about.

Heather: Yes.

Elisa: It’s very invigorating and…and hopeful. You know we can turn on the news and go “oh my gosh.”

Heather: Yeah.

Elisa: And there is so much heaviness. But when you surround yourself with the, I guess it’s still idealism of the youth of…of our world, it’s so encouraging; isn’t it?

Heather: It’s super encouraging. And I lo…I think I’m able to then take that to stepping in with like a women’s seminar, right? And I’m able to see things a little bit differently cause I’m constantly surrounded by people who say “why can’t we?”

Eryn: And you want to answer those questions [so] that’s causing you to have to do more research.

Heather: Yeah, but also like now I believe, why can’t we?

Eryn: Yeah.

Heather: Like I…I want to strengthen the hands of women to realize that they can and that God has a calling on their lives and a purpose for their lives and that their anointing begins the day they believe they have one, right? So how do we…

Elisa: Yeah.

Heather: …show up to life?

Elisa: Talk more about that. Could you just…more about what do you see?

Heather: You know what I see right now is a lot of people, and I think this is connected to Covid, but a lot of people who are struggling to see what they’re passionate about anymore. You know somebody just said to me in a meeting the other day. He said, “We used to work for the weekend, and now we work for vacation. Because even on our weekends, we’re doing our side hustle.” Right?

Elisa: That’s true.

Heather: And I think we’ve lost. We were talking about this a little bit before we started recording. But I think we’ve lost the beauty of resting in our purpose. Cause we’re constantly being told that we have to grind it out if you want to be somebody. And I hope a lot of the conversations that I’ve been having lately are coming from this place of me knowing exactly what that feels like to feel like I have to make a way for myself instead of just trusting in Christ, if I just show up for that one student who comes in my office.

Eryn: Yeah.

Heather: Let God decide whatever happens from there on out. But if the biggest thing I ever do with my life is show up and teach a class to 30 people, then I’ve been faithful; and that’s what matters.

Elisa: You used a phrase. When I was asking, you know, why are you here and what…what are you passionate about? You talked about teaching. But you used a phrase as you led up to that, and you talked about integrating your head and your heart, you know, your thinking and your feeling. And I thought that was what you were going to say, and you kind of have rounded back to that. And I think that’s very insightful and courageous. And you know even as an old person, I am still struggling to get there, Heather. You know, how do I integrate my thinking and my feeling? Because I, you know, all of our personalities are different. But I’ll tend to slip over into my thinking and there go, like you’re saying, into the grind again. Whereas then I’ll leave the rest of myself behind, and I might miss out on life.

Heather: Yeah.

Eryn: I was just going to say, was there a pivotal point in your life that made this pressing on your heart to want to listen and be present and be around women and empower them and their voices?

Heather: Yeah, it’s when I was sitting on my college campus. And I was at lunch with a friend. I had just gotten I think my fifteenth book proposal rejection. And I went to lunch with her. And…and this one I had really thought was going to go through. And…and so I was just so defeated, and I was just telling her how crushed I was. And she said to me, “You know you have to stop thinking, Heather, that your life starts at some metaphorical there.” She was like your life starts right here. And she…we were eat lunch, and she said, God is in this lunch. You’re not waiting for God to find you. Like He’s here. And she said, “Your anointing begins the day you believe you have one.” And I took that and I walked across my campus. And I had goosebumps when she said…I knew the Holy Spirit had just spoken directly to me through her. And I walked across my campus, and I had about five students in a class. And it was after lunch, so all their heads were down on their desks. And I said, “You know what? I’m going to teach this class as if it’s the most important thing I will do with my entire life.”

Eryn: Oh.

Heather: Usually, you might walk into a situation like that where you can tell people don’t really want to be there. And you’re like, I’m just going to mail it in. I’m just going to get the bare minimum and let them go, cause they don’t want to be here anyway. I said, no. I believe I was anointed to be here. And so if I’m anointed to be here, what would this class look like? So I taught as if it was the most important thing I’d ever do. After that class, a student came to my office who had never come to my office before. And she said, I just want to thank you; because something I had said in the lecture she said was the answer to a prayer I’ve been praying for the last few months about what I’m supposed to do after graduation. And so I just want to thank you. So I walked away from that one class. And I said, what if I had just mailed it in? This girl who had been praying to see the hand of God got to see it through me. And if I had not shown up and done what I was supposed to do, I would have failed, right? And then she would have said well where…God didn’t hear my anyway. But it wasn’t on God, it was on me.

Eryn: Yeah.

Heather: Right? And so that one day, that was I think about three years ago, changed my life. And I just started entering every space with that mentality. If you’re going to do it…a podcast interview. If a student’s going to sit in my office, if somebody’s going to call me on the phone…and sometimes I’ll have students do that at 7 am before class. I’m going to treat you as if you’re the most important person I will ever talk to that day. And the fruit that has been born out of this conscious choice that I have made has just convicted my heart, and I will never go back. Because I realized that we are to co-labor with Christ and that so much of our answered prayers where we say, oh God did it. But it’s actually God working through people. And so then when people say, I don’t see God, that’s an indictment on us. Because we are not being the hands and feet of Christ as we are supposed to do. Because when somebody…and I…I know we’ve all had this experience. I’m thinking of one that just is happening to me right now where I will for the rest of my life say, God showed up for me. And it was actually in this 78-year-old man named Ronald who I’m talking to right now. But had Ronald not answered the stirring of God, then I would then decide whether or not God had shown up. You see what I’m saying? So we are the answer to other people’s prayers. And how can I miss that opportunity?

Elisa: There is a real…

Eryn: So good.

Elisa: …shift in perspective and pace in what you’re describing that, you know, most of us get up. And it’s like you with the book proposal. You know I have this goal, I want to publish a book, and I’m waiting for my whatever to…to be accepted. Or I have this goal, you know. I want to meet my man, and I’m waiting for that. And…and like you said. You said it beautifully. We think our lives start when that thing starts. But you’re flipping this into a different perspective and pace that our life has begun long ago. And it’s more about, when will we enter the flow of it’s already existing?

Eryn: Yeah.

Elisa: When we come back, Heather Thompson Day will talk about how our faith builds from both the little things as well as the big things that God allows for us. She’ll also explain the importance of being intentional with God and what it looks like to be faithful.

Eryn: If you’re a fan of this podcast, sign up for our God Hears Her email newsletter and find even more inspiration and encouragement from women just like you. These weekly emails are filled with stories you can relate to and other fun goodies that will brighten up your walk with Jesus. Go to godhearsher.org and sign up today. That’s godhearsher.org. Let’s return to our conversation with Heather Thompson Day on this episode of God Hears Her.

Elisa: So how do we see breakthrough? How have you learned to experience waiting for your turn, for your choices, for your dreams? How do you see that now? And maybe…maybe help us understand how we can make that adjustment.

Heather: So a phrase I used to say to myself all the time was okay, it’s just not your turn. It’s not your turn. Clap for this person, cause it’s their turn. And then I started saying, no. It’s always your turn. It is always your turn to show up.

Eryn: Yeah.

Elisa: That’s good.

Heather: And once I lived that way, the breakthrough came. And…and like I said, the fruit that was being born and the testimonies that now I have. I’ll give you one short example. My husband…we had just moved to Denver. He took a job as a pastor of a church out there. I was teaching at a university. I hadn’t been paid in like two months going into it. Then we moved. We were still paying on our mortgage. We blah, blah, blah, blah…Denver housing market’s much different than Michigan housing market. We were so poor. And my husband’s truck wasn’t working…all these things. But here I’m standing in front of my students and pretending I have it all together. And inside like I am just struggling to even get my kids food.

Eryn: I get that, yeah.

Heather: We see somebody at church. My husband sees somebody. He…everybody’s new to us, cause we had just gotten there. And so he thought it was a member. And he went up to her. He felt the Holy Spirit tell him to go talk to this lady. He’s talking to her. He finds out that she’s not a member. She was just visiting because her brother had just died. And she was cleaning out his house.

Elisa: Oh wow.

Heather: And so my husband said how…let me help you. Let me help clean out your house. So he spent the next two weeks driving down…

Elisa: So dear.

Heather: …and helping clean out this lady’s house. Long story short, after he had helped, she was going to be selling her brother’s Jeep for like $3,000 dollars. My husband’s a/c wasn’t working in his…the Denver summer heat which is very hot. And so she had said, “Would you like to buy his Jeep?” And he said, I don’t really  have $3,000 dollars right now. And she said, well why don’t you fill out the checks; and whenever you’re ready to cash them, I’ll cash them. And so he was like totally moved by that. He filled out $3,000 dollars’ worth of checks. He was going to give her I think $500 dollars a month until it would pay…pay it off. And then probably a week later, she mailed him this letter with all of the checks canceled.

Eryn: Oh.

Heather: And she said, “God told me just to give you the Jeep, and thank you so much for what you’ve done.” So…

Eryn: Oh.

Heather: …we have this testimony now. And I’m telling you every day that I literally drove in this car, I said the goodness of God is with me and goes before me. And I know it because I’m sitting in it. I’m sitting with some air conditioning when we had none, right? And I realized, had he not gone and just said, how can I help you? Had he not shown up to a very small moment, we wouldn’t have this huge testimony. And so I think we miss, because we’re waiting for some big sign. And sometimes it…I think almost all the time; it’s these little stirrings of the Holy Spirit saying, Go talk to them. Go sit down. Go see how you can be helpful.

Eryn: And we’re waiting for it to look like how we think it should look like.

Heather: Yes.

Eryn: And it always is different and creative and way…way more fun to tell the story if we…

Heather: Yes.

Eryn: …turn our eyes to it.

Heather: Yes.

Eryn: It’s like a wi…it’s a wild story which is what we would want…

Elisa: Yes, it is.

Eryn: …in order to share it. I just…that’s such a beautiful story.

Elisa: I love that. I think the principle you are sharing is that we need to really have our eyes open and watch while we think we’re waiting. It’s really living with our eyes open to what God might want to do in us for others and in others for us. And how can we participate in that? I mean He didn’t have to do this. He could just go poof, you know, and meet everybody’s needs. But He uses us, as you said, His hands and feet. I’m thinking about for us in our family, we’ve had a lot of health challenges. And my husband has needed to go to another city for treatment. And you know we were just trying to figure out what to do and how to make ends meet and everything. And…and I was at this gathering for 10 minutes seriously, one hour of one day. And a woman walks up to me and said, “You know what? I saw that your husband’s going through some stuff in this other city. And I have a friend there who bought a townhome and a car and makes it available for people who are going through treatment. What are your dates? I’ll contact her.” And I’m like shazam.

Eryn: Oh.

Elisa: You know. I happened to be there in that moment. She happened to see me in that mo…and you know it’s not always huge like that, you know. But it is God showing up if we open our eyes.

Heather: Yes.

Eryn: Yeah. The eyes to see and the ears to hear…that’s my prayer consistently. I went through, Heather, just like a really jaded season of life where I just was just kind of like God doesn’t care about me. He doesn’t hear me. He doesn’t see me. He doesn’t know me. He’s off on another [lane]. My stuff doesn’t matter. I decided to just kind of defy my…honestly my relationship with Him. And out of a space of desperation of wanting to see Him after I’d got to that point of desperation, I would pray that prayer. Lord, just give me the eyes to see. And it’d be so tiny, but I would cling to those little tiny moments that would just…gave me a little bit of relief and maybe even remedy some of this like hurt and ache that was going on inside of me. I’d just hold onto it. And then that little thing built on top of another little thing. And then that little thing built on another and then another and then another. And then it was like it built this like reservoir of deep faith that I didn’t know I was building by seeing those small things that happen. Can you recall a time like this one? This one specifically was like that was like a…that was a big one I guess. That’s a big rock of…of a…of a circumstance that built your faith. Are there any little small moments in your life leading up to that point that you can recall that was just part…part of building your faith in the waiting?

Heather: Yeah, I think…I mean just constantly, right? When you show up like I said. And the student comes back and says, “Thank you for saying that.” That matters.

Eryn: Yeah.

Heather: And I’m somebody who often…I don’t know what it is. When people say nice things to me or compliment me, I really struggle to receive it. So I am practicing receiving when somebody says, “Hey that mattered to me.” Really stopping literally with the Lord and saying Oh, thank you for allowing me to show up to that moment. And I want to say this about faith, cause it’s something I pray a lot which is I think I thought faith was something I build. But it’s really…it’s really something God gives us, right?

Eryn: Yeah.

Heather: Cause our faith is actually us acknowledging the answers to the prayer and the experiences that He gives us. And so I say all the time, God, build my faith. If You want me to be a woman of great faith, I need to see You…

Eryn: Yeah.

Elisa: That’s so good.

Heather: …and take me step by step on this journey. And I…

Eryn: That’s good.

Heather: …just want everybody to take this to the bank. I started praying that about two years ago. God build my faith. I cannot even…we don’t have time to get into…it’s going to make me cry. Cause I’m like in a season right now where He’s doing it again. It’s just like all the incredible testimonies that He’s given me. And I’m…I’m saying like I started with what felt like nothing, right? And that’s the beauty of it. It’s like our relationship…when you feel like you have nothing, that’s actually the perfect place to start…the first sermon He ever preaches in the Sermon on the Mount. It takes Him 30 years to preach one sermon. And He says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” And when we look at the Greek words for that, He’s really saying, “Blessed are those who are spiritually bankrupt.” Blessed are those who enter into this relationship saying exactly what you said, Eryn. I have nothing to give. I’ve got nothing. God says that’s the way to the kingdom of heaven is to realize that this relationship was never about what you will give Me. It has always been about what I will give you. And I’ve…I have seen that. And then when we give it back, I just want to add this. So when we left Denver, my husband gave that Jeep to somebody else. Because we knew what it felt like to have somebody. So now I want somebody else. Like what an honor to have somebody else say, oh I experienced God through Heather or through Seth or through Elisa or through Eryn. Why would we not want to multiply the very things He gives us?

Eryn: Yeah.

Elisa: That’s very full circle. I love the way you describe faith as something that God gives us, and we give it back to Him.

Eryn: Yeah.

Heather: Yes.

Elisa: Because we, you know, dig around in the depths of our soul and come up [pfft] empty, dry, got nothing, you know. And that’s very humbling and depressing to think that we have to bubble it up ourselves.

Eryn: Yes.

Elisa: And I have this image as you’re talking of the…we’re like a mirror, you know. And God reflects His character of faithfulness down onto the flat surface of the mirror of our heart. And we then reflect that perfect faithfulness back to Him. It’s His faithfulness that…

Heather: Yes.

Elisa: …refracts off of the mirror of who we are back to Him. Now in that process, you know, might we notice the reflection as well of who He is in the mirror of our lives. Might we notice as we reflect it back. Because then we get to participate and receive it. It’s so effortless that way instead of us trying to drum it up, you know.

Heather: Yes.

Eryn: Yeah.

Heather: Yes.

Eryn: So good.

Heather: I totally agree.

Elisa: Can you describe maybe a time when you have felt seen and heard by God in the waiting? Maybe it surprised you. Maybe it’s a daily, tiny little moment. But you go oh yeah, yeah, yep, yep. There He is. And oh yep, yep. And I’ve learned to watch for Him here. C…can you give us any kind of a [inaudible] there?

Heather: Yeah, yeah. For me, I will say I just read yesterday, and this was so good for me, at the end of Matthew after the crucifixion, Jesus says, “And now” when He turns to the disciples and He’s commissioning them. He says “And now all authority has been given to Me on heaven and on earth.” And that was enough for me that day where every prayer I prayed, I said, I am praying to the Person upon whom all authority has been given. My prayers are too small. And I walked around my campus, and I said If I want to see a revival on this campus, I am going to the right Person; because all authority has been given to Him on both on heaven and on earth. If I want to see it, I can see it, right? I’ve got to go to the Person, and I have to start believing the words that I’m saying. And so it’s just ways for me to experience God every single day is in His Word, in Scripture. It’s the bedrock of my life and something that I’m really strict about is not getting on social media until I’ve spent time with God. And that’s…

Elisa: That’s a great principle too, yeah.

Heather: …yeah, that’s how I finish the Bible. You better believe I’m going to check Twitter.

Eryn: Yeah.

Heather: So when I made the rule that said…cause I was always saying like I just don’t have time to read the Bible. It’s not that I don’t want to. But I have time to get on Twitter, right? I have time to get on…

Eryn: Right, yeah, yeah.

Heather: …Instagram.

Eryn: Yeah, yeah.

Heather: And so once I said, okay, you are not allowed, Heather, to check Twitter or Instagram until you’ve spent time in Your Word, I never missed again.

Eryn: Yeah.

Elisa: That’s awesome. What a great boundary. What a great parameter.

Heather: Yeah.

Elisa: It…it takes effort to be intentional about watching for God in our daily waiting lives.

Heather: Yeah.

Elisa: You know. It’s really the other concept that comes to me as you’re talking is the concept of abiding. You know that…that we stay attached to Him, that we remain in relationship with Him rather than running off here and doing our thing and then coming back to God. You know He invites us into an ongoing dependent relationship. And when we live in that, yeah, we…we experience it differently than treating Him like some kind of vending machine, you know.

Heather: Can I…can I tell you, Elisa, you just saying that. I had a moment about a month ago where I felt all of my old feelings of jealousy come back. Something wonderful had happened for somebody. And it was like the same prayer I’ve been praying and not seeing it, but then I saw it happen for them.

Eryn: Oh yes.

Heather: And I felt…

Elisa: It’s not your turn. It’s not your turn.

Heather: Yes, exactly. And I felt jealous.

[crosstalk]

Heather: I felt jealous. And then…and I…and then I felt shame. And I said, oh, I thought I was better than this. Like I thought I had gotten past this. And I literally felt like the Holy Spirit had said, Heather, I…I have never asked you to stop being human. I have just asked you to be in relationship with Me.

Eryn: Oh.

Heather: And the freedom I felt in that. And I realized oh, like I don’t have to graduate from…I’m going to have moments of jealousy. I am still going to experience disappointment no matter what I know and what my heart feels. I’m going to be discouraged by the reality of the sinful, broken world and the sinful broken people that I’m in relationship with. And I don’t…

Elisa: As we are sinful, broken, yeah.

Heather: Right.

Eryn: Yes.

Heather: And I don’t have to be like I don’t have to fix that. But I have to trust in Christ.

Elisa: So good.

Heather: …and just stay next to Him. Stay in the relationship. That’s just a lot of freedom for me.

Eryn: Yeah, what are some of the things that you remind yourself? Or maybe what are some of the things you just kind of touched on that, that the Holy Spirit reminds you when you do feel this comparison bone? Cause I think as women, we do that all the time. We can just find ourselves in this comparison trap. We pray these prayers, and then we see somebody else experience answered prayer to what we’ve been praying for.

Elisa: Like they get it, and we don’t.

Eryn: Like they get it, and we don’t. How…what…what are some words, what are some prayers, what are some things that you’ve heard experienced to combat that?

Heather: Yeah.

Eryn: Cause that’s a daily consistent thing that we’re [inaudible].

Heather: It’s absolutely daily.

Eryn: Yeah.

Heather: And I just want to say, whenever you feel comforted in that shame, it’s the Holy Spirit. the Holy Spirit literally…the name actually means Comforter. And so I think it’s really important to realize, oh God is communing with me. Whenever you’re sitting in your own shame and somebody says, no, I think you’re worth it; you can rest assured the Holy Spirit is communing with you.

Eryn: Yeah.

Heather: And that’s super important to me. So I ran track. I was a collegiate athlete for track. I ran all throughout high school. I had a college scholarship. And the number one rule in track every athlete knows, you never look in the lane next to you. If you take even, you know, the 3/10ths of a second to look and see how they’re doing, you’ve just lost your race. And so I say to myself when I’m in these, Heather, it’s not your…well A) I say it’s not your turn; cause that’s really helpful for me to just know. Just because it’s not my turn right now doesn’t mean it won’t ever be.

Eryn: Yeah.

Heather: But then I also say, I’m running my own race. And what if more than God is trying to give me this success moment, maybe He’s trying to give me a story. And a story will long outlive whatever singular moment I’m sitting in. And so God, I’m going to walk towards whatever story You’ve called me to. And how do I…that doesn’t mean I can’t be upset and broken and angry and again, Scripture’s so powerful. One of the best things I’ve learned in Scripture is God answers bitter people’s prayers.

Eryn: Yes, He does. He does. That’s so good. Say that again.

Heather: Yeah, Hannah is in the temple, and it says she is crying in the bitterness of her spirit. And God answers a bitter woman’s prayer. Naomi…she literally says, don’t call me Naomi. Call me Mara. Mara means bitter. For I am bitter. She says, God sent me. I left here full, and God brought me back empty.

Elisa: That’s so good.

Heather: And God answers a bitter woman’s prayer. You can show up however it is you feel. My mom used to say, “fix your face.” We don’t have to fix our face, right?

Elisa: Right, right, right.

Heather: We can just show up, because He didn’t ask us to stop being human. He asked us to be humans in relationship with Him. And there’s freedom, like I said, in that.

[music]

Elisa: All of us have experienced long seasons of waiting. And we may be waiting for things even right now.

Eryn: We are so thankful for the wisdom Heather shared with us from her own experiences with waiting. And her honesty about how hard it was to see other people get what she wanted.

Elisa: Yes, Heather’s experiences are definitely relatable for all of us. Well before we close out today’s episode of God Hears Her, we want to remind you that the show notes are available in the podcast description. In today’s show notes, we’re also including a link for more about Heather Thompson Day as well as links to order her books. You can also find links to connect with Eryn and me on social. Visit our website at godhearsher.org. That’s godhearsher.org.

Eryn: Thank you for joining us. And don’t forget. God hears you. He sees you, and He loves you because you are His.

Elisa: Today’s episode was engineered by Anne Stevens and produced by Mary Jo Clark, Daniel Ryan Day, and Jade Gustafson. Today, we also want to recognize and thank Peggy and Luanne. You both rock.

Eryn: God Hears Her is a production of Our Daily Bread Ministries.