Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:09 Welcome to the life refresh podcast. I'm your host, Brian Robinson. And I'm so glad that you decided to tune in to the podcast today. This podcast is designed for those who are looking to refresh and renew all aspects of their life and receive a life that only God can get. My hope is that through this podcast, you will receive exactly what you've been looking at.
Speaker 1 00:01:09 This is the life refresh podcast, and I am your host. Ryan Robinson just want to thank you for joining and listening into this podcast. Um, if has been a little while since we have posted, uh, or since I've posted a podcast, but the last two to three weeks have been quite eventful, uh, COVID-19 has grown quite a bit. And, uh, you may be listening to me, uh, via a, a statewide or highly suggested home quarantine, uh, at this moment in time. Um, which again is some, uh, an effort to, um, mitigate the spread of COVID-19. And, uh, during this time, so many small businesses, churches, um, you name it have been impacted by this, not just, uh, and ultimately lives have been lost because of, of this, uh, horrible, horrible disease, um, or virus. Um, so I wanted to one just, um, keep those, if you know, anyone who has been impacted by this, um, this, uh, this virus, both, uh, tangibly actually been tested positive, or have family members that may be, uh, around, are still out there as first responders.
Speaker 1 00:02:41 Um, I ask you to keep, please keep them in prayer. Um, this is a really, really tough time, uh, to really experience these kinds of things, especially with all of the events closing, uh, there's never been anything like this that has closed and shut down, literally everything beyond, uh, the centrals, uh, in this time period. So I wanted to get on the podcast to one, give everyone a, some level of encouragement, uh, during this time. Um, but also give us a chance to refocus. Uh, the, my last podcast was entitled a trust issues, and I'm a part of that. Uh, I discussed how much trust is valuable to growth in relationships. Um, but more than anything, it's where you place your trust in that will bring you through times that are stressful, particularly times like this. And when I don't have an answer or I'm trying to seek some level of guidance and direction, I go to the word of God.
Speaker 1 00:04:01 The word of God for me is, uh, invaluable because there are things in my life that I absolutely have no control over. Um, I can't regulate my own body. I can determine what I eat, but I can't do anything to keep my own heart from beating. There's nothing that I can do to, uh, continue to keep my mind regulated. Uh, you know, all of these things, that things that are outside of my control, I have to have faith enough to know that God is maintaining and keeping me, uh, during these times. So, um, the is to say, this is a stormy time for some of us. Uh, so the scripture I want to open up to, and, um, if you happen to have a Bible around or Google, um, Matthew chapter seven, verse 24 through 27 is what I typically, uh, lean on. And I felt that God had given me a bound upon for my listeners today.
Speaker 1 00:05:03 Uh, and it says everyone who then hears these words, and this is Jesus. These words of mine, and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock and the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock and everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand and the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat against that house and it fell and great was the fall of it. And one of the things about this particular scripture that, uh, I want to expound upon is that the only difference between the wise man situation and the foolish man situation was the foundation.
Speaker 1 00:05:59 They all ran through the same storm, the same kind of circumstances beat upon the house, but when it came down to it, the foundation is what kept the structure, what was built standing. And I think during this time, a lot of our foundation has been rocked, um, whether it has been our job, um, now that we're working from home, um, whether it's been a business that has been impacted, whether it has been, um, whatever you can name, uh, whatever you've been leaning on has been disrupted at some point. And the thing is, is hard to find hope when, what you have been leaning on for so long and has been giving you that level of stability has now been impacted. And it's things that we've probably have never even even thought of during this time. And I want to really set some encouragement because I think now this is an opportunity for us to review re-establish from foundation in our lives.
Speaker 1 00:07:13 Uh, for me personally, it's the word of God to really keep me grounded when things like that in a spirit of fear can manifest and be all over the place, because we literally live in a time where misinformation is prevalent. It is a bad game of telephone in the world, depending on what resource or depending on what, uh, outlet you are listening to, you can get a completely different worldview of what's going on and really miss out on what people are doing to help each other during this very, very stressful and unpredictable time. Um, as we were going through those reviews, I want people to think of a couple different things, probably actually three things. Um, one for me is, is faith. Um, I think faith needs to be reviewed in times. What do you ultimately believe and trust in when things get crazy? A sure sign of us losing control and not knowing what to do is a high level of anxiety.
Speaker 1 00:08:29 Not saying that people of faith don't having anxiety because some days, you know, our faith is at a hundred percent, some days it could be at 50%, some days it could be at 49% depends on the day sometimes. Right? But the thing is, what do you trust in that can keep you and sustain you when everything around you is going haywire. I would suggest to you to really look at Jesus as being that foundation for you, because at the end of the day, and this is a quote that I've heard, um, at the end of the day, if you lose money, they're making more money. So don't worry about it. They haven't stopped making money. They haven't stopped making food. They haven't stopped the electricity from running and they haven't stopped the water from getting to your home. But at the end of the day, the thing you do not control is time.
Speaker 1 00:09:30 And when your time is ultimately up. So let's do the best that we can to trust God with the things that we cannot control. I think that is a most important foundational thing that we all need to realize and get ourselves anchored in to God during times like this, to look at your family. Now, probably more than ever, families are together with home quarantine. And depending on the size of your home, you have probably seen a lot more of your loved ones with us being indoors. Now we have to really sit down and one faith, what our families are going through. Perhaps we might've been too busy to meet the needs of some loved ones or converse about some serious topics, because guess what, we can just get in the car and go somewhere. Uh, but at this time we don't have the luxury to get up and go, but instead we have to be here.
Speaker 1 00:10:40 We have to stay and be present, which probably many of us haven't done in a long time. So I would encourage you if you have loved ones or you have, uh, you know, parents or anyone that, uh, you can contact via phone or FaceTime or whatever communication, uh, vehicle you want to use. And thank God we still have those, but we still have the internet available to us, but take the time to really go through and develop and explore those relationships. Again, these are times that are scary for us and maybe sitting down and talking is what you need from someone you may not have checked in on your brother or your sister checked in on your husband or your wife. And, you know, got an understanding as to where they are currently, because let's be Frank about it. Everyone's a little scared about what's going on, but let's take some of this time to get back to home base.
Speaker 1 00:11:47 And, uh, you know, spend some time with our families. There was a, um, a show that I was watching, uh, the day before and in that there were, there was a, uh, a moment, a woman who was telling the audience, I think it was on a phone call that, uh, she played some music by a particular artist. And, um, it was the first time that her and her daughter had actually spent time together, um, and cooked something since Christmas. Everyone's supposed to do it during the holidays, right. Get together and spend some time, but they hadn't done anything in between that time. And they had a blast together and it's simply just because they had nothing to do there. They had nowhere to go nowhere to escape, to nothing, to distract them. It was just them. And guess what? They had to do something together to find a way to have fun.
Speaker 1 00:12:52 They didn't need a whole lot, but they could break bread. They can make something and do something together and deepen their relationship. Because guess what? We have nowhere to go. We can't spend money going to Macy's because they're closed. We can't buy any gadgets because apple is closed. Best buy is still open, but, uh, they couldn't do some of the normal things that they would typically have would have done, but now they had no choice, but to build relationship and try to do something together, there might've been people who have been playing, who haven't played a board game in years together, but now they had to go in the closet, blow the dust off a Yahtzee, blow the dust off of a monopoly and play a game together and build memories. Because guess what? Now we have to slow down. And I'm telling that's one of the most powerful things that I took away during, um, some of the, the governor in Ohio, um, Mike Duane's press conferences around the Corona virus.
Speaker 1 00:14:09 They said that the thing is we have to flatten the curve, but it means there's going to be a longer period of time that we may have to stay in doors, which means we have to spend more time together and have to slow down our progress for a moment so that we can be able to one, keep the virus under control, but to be able to, um, connect at this point. I mean, it, it's not ideal, but it's, it's almost necessary at this point. Um, you know, he in the press conference, they knocked, you know, he, he mentioned you can still go outside, you can go for a walk with your family. You can still watch Netflix. You can still read a book. You can catch up on reading books. And again, you got to get creative now, which brings me to the next point.
Speaker 1 00:15:20 My last point, besides we have faith, we have family. And then we have, um, our purposes. And a lot of times our purpose has kind of go to the wayside because we have other priorities. Um, we have dreams that we haven't, um, worked in. We have other items that we've probably just put on the back burner because we've decided we've been too busy and we haven't had time, enough time to do them. But right now, this is probably the best time, because guess what a lot of people are bored. And many people in studies have shown that during times of boredom, creativity is at its most high. Um, and there are situations because now because of limited resources and limited timing, you got me see, that's my daughter Emery. And she's found fun ways to play games with me because we've been playing hide and go seek in our place.
Speaker 1 00:16:30 And she counts to maybe three. And, um, we find other creative ways to enjoy life together. But these are times when we can develop. We can write, we can draw on a weekend dream. We can aspire to get things back on track. Once things are in our world is kind of getting back into the swing of what was happening. I, I, I really believe that during this time, we're going to have some innovative ways to create, to connect, to develop, to relate to one another. And I really believe that this time, if we steward it correctly, even though it is one of the most unfortunate things because of lives are being lost for those that are fortunate to be in good health right now, it's a great time for us to steward this time. Let's intentionally grow so we can be better for one another, be better for our families, be better for our communities, be better for ourselves.
Speaker 1 00:17:41 Um, as a result of this, if we really take the time, now we now have capacity. We now have the space to create something. When was the last time you had a moment to sit and do nothing. A famous designer once said, uh, a designer knows he has achieved perfection, not when there's nothing left to add, but when there is nothing to take away. So are you going to choose to design your life at this moment in time? What's important for us is that we have to be able to take these situations. This less is more concept now that we really have to embrace as a country, as a nation, as a world, and, um, learn to, um, be available for great opportunities for great ideas and create the capacity for us to receive them. Creativity thrive in the climate of space. So if you have a hard time doing this, reach out to somebody, you it's okay to get in the closet, close the door, flip the light, right.
Speaker 1 00:18:53 And I did down, but it's important for us during this time to give yourself space, to think, to meditate, to slow down by one, identifying one where your faith is, who your faith is in to where your family, where are you in your family? Where are you? Where's your family connected at? Or if they're not finding ways to get creative and building re-establishing those, and then three reviewing your purpose, reviewing where you're standing to that, reviewing where those passions may be line that you've, might've ignored over a period of time and create something. I really am thankful that you listened to the podcast. I really believe that during this time specifically, during this time, we have a great, great opportunity to build community and build stronger communities, have innovative and creative ideas because we don't have everything that we typically would need, but also be able to build and strengthen our families once a day. I hope this was encouraging to you. Make sure that you share this and leave a comment on any of the podcast platforms that you use. Take the time to refresh your life, refresh the life of others around you tune in next week. We'll have a brand new podcast and you don't want to miss what we have in store.
