Inviting God into Your Mess (with Joy Coach Robin Shear)

Discover how to sprinkle joy into the chaos of real life with our latest guest, certified joy coach, speaker, and author, Robin Shear. During a heartwarming conversation filled with life-tested wisdom, Robin shares her passion for finding happiness in the midst of life's inescapable messes and even trauma. Her personal story includes PTSD, chronic pain, and suffering a serious head injury…but God!  

Join us and deepen your understanding of God's role in life's journey and discover serenity in the acceptance of His will, even when it mystifies you. We think you’ll find Robin to be both authentic and vulnerable, giving us encouragement without sugar-coating what we go through when facing tough circumstances. 

🌟 Episode Highlights:

- Robin Shear unveils the concept of "messy joy" and the power of embracing joy in life's imperfections.

- Learn how everyday challenges can be opportunities to practice joy for when larger hardships hit.

- Engage with the idea of inviting God into your struggles and finding divine guidance toward a joy-filled life.

Find our more about Robin and her book "Messy Joy: How Joy Can Begin Before Your Difficulties End"

Download the Messy Joy Questions

The app we talked about THROUGH THE WORD

For more info on IMAGINE YOURSELF with Lanée Blaise and Sandy Kovach or to contact us, visit imagineyourselfpodcast.com

Join the conversation on our FACEBOOK, TWITTER or INSTAGRAM pages. Email at imagineyourselfpodcast@gmail.com

Thanks for being part of the Imagine Yourself Family! Follow or subscribe so you don't miss an episode!

Transcript

Sandy Kovach  [00:00:01]:
It's easy to have joy when things are going well, but what about those times that are difficult? What about the really hard times or maybe just the mundane times or times when everything is clouded with uncertainty? Our guest says there can be joy in all of that. And although that sounds very challenging to say the least, she has been through so much and has come out on the other side, not only with joy now, but talks about how she found joy through it all. This is imagine yourself podcast where we help you imagine your next chapter of life with grace, gratitude, courage, and faith.

Sandy Kovach  [00:00:39]:
Thanks for joining us at Imagine Yourself. I'm Lanee here with Sandy. It's the beginning of our 6th season, and we thank every single person who listens to our podcast. We ask you to please subscribe. Please give a review, even interact with us on imagine yourself podcast dot com. But let's really get to it. What are we imagining today? We are imagining ourselves living a life full of joy, even if it's messy joy. And if you are wondering how do you claim this life full of joy when you're staring at some very frustrating circumstances, then get ready to listen to what certified joy coach, speaker and author Robin Shear has to say to us today.

Sandy Kovach  [00:01:31]:
Now we picked her because she's legitimate. She has been interviewed by Time Magazine and Psychology Today and The Wall Street Journal. And because she's speaking from experience, Robin used to have no problem sharing joy until she faced several health issues. Within 4 years. She had to deal with an unrelenting head injury, night terrors, incurable chronic pain, PTSD, and more. But God, God helped Robin find joy in the mess. Her resulting book, messy joy, how joy can begin before your difficulties end, helps us all find joy in our imperfect lives despite the circumstances. So Sandy and I would like to welcome Robin Scheer to Imagine Yourself podcast.

Robin Shear [00:02:27]:
Thank you so much. And can I just make the request that the rest of this episode is just listening to your voice, read anything you want? That's so peaceful.

Sandy Kovach  [00:02:38]:
You know, Sandy and I both come from, from the voice over background. So

Robin Shear [00:02:44]:
Here. There's a reason why. Thank you, girls.

Sandy Kovach  [00:02:48]:
Well, thank you for being with us. And I think I might have even read this on the back of your book and it really got me intrigued. We hear people say choose joy. I mean, Pinterest posts and all the things, and nobody tells us how to choose joy. Right?

Robin Shear [00:03:05]:
That's one of my biggest pet peeves and why I'm on the mission that God has me on. It's trendy to just drop catch phrases as it's different to learn the steps and unpack some of the mystery and then apply that stuff and take it for a test run. So I am on a mission to reach as many people with the how part of that message as possible.

Sandy Kovach  [00:03:29]:
And that's where the whole Messy Joy book comes in. Correct?

Robin Shear [00:03:32]:
Exactly. It's it's a step by step. If you wanna know how, it's in the book.

Sandy Kovach  [00:03:38]:
James 1 is Yes. You signed I always tell Lanee, I hate that scripture because joy in our trials. I'm not one that wants to love messy joy, but how did you make that not only something you embraced, but something that you really elevated?

Robin Shear [00:03:56]:
I think that, you know, God takes us through experiences that we can learn from and use to bless others with. And while none of us sign up for difficulties, it's a matter of, are we clinging to him in our messiest moments, and how willing are we to walk beside others who feel alone who are dealing with similar circumstances? And so life is going along pretty well. And like you said, in a short period of time, all of this stuff was happening, and it was more than messy. To be honest, it was a nightmare. And, you know, I had to really stop and consider whether the same advice that I had been giving to the world at large was solid enough to apply in my own life when my own circumstances, I didn't even know if they were gonna get better. And I think that's really where that James one verse comes in. You know, that it's James 1, verses 2 through 4. It's about allowing our circumstances no matter what they are to have joy because, you know, we learn about perseverance.

Robin Shear [00:05:09]:
We learn about clinging to God and letting him be himself and not interrupting the process until he brings good from a situation that didn't seem like it had a good beginning point. You know, so often we hear that joy comes in the morning, and it does because he brings it, but we wanna be the ones who define morning. Right? Like, we're like, oh, we woke up. We're ready for the joy. You know? And we're not god. We have no right to say what morning is. We can't define those things. And so the scripture from James is much the same.

Robin Shear [00:05:44]:
You know, this idea of how do we find joy when we find out that there's been an affair in our marriage? How can we call it joy when a child dies or, you know, hope is lost when we're fired from a job that we love. You know, the list is really long, and those are some really significant examples, of course. But even in the day to day, when we're stuck behind crazy drivers who cut people off and, you know, get in the left lane and drive really slow when we're on our way someplace, like, where's the joy? It's there. It's just a matter of rerouting our thinking to seek it and to trust that it is there even when it isn't always obvious at first.

Lanée Blaise [00:06:30]:
I love that you're saying to seek it and to trust that it's there. So all of us are wired a little bit differently. Some of us are more optimistic. Some of us are more pessimistic, whether we're going through particular circumstances or not. For anyone who's listening right now, and either they really feel that they've been beaten down by life too much to trust, or if they feel like, hey. I was just born this way. I always see the glass half empty. What do you recommend? Like you said, it is step by step in the book.

Lanée Blaise [00:07:07]:
But just for us right now to take a bite of something helpful? What do you recommend that they do or think or say to themselves to switch that?

Robin Shear [00:07:21]:
Lanee, that is such a good question because you're right. We are wired differently. And so that's why just blanket casting statements out to the world at large and saying choose joy and expecting that to be enough isn't gonna be enough. You know? We're individuals, and some of us have either been through horrible things, and that shapes our perspective of future events, future circumstances, the everyday, or like you say, we're just not born jumping out of bed and, you know, embracing every trial in life we struggle. And so I think the first thing is just to recognize it's okay. You know? We are made the way that we are with intention. It doesn't mean that we have to change completely. It doesn't mean that there's something wrong with us.

Robin Shear [00:08:13]:
It might just mean that we need to stop and take a look at our own views of joy as a starting point. Do we even believe that it's possible? What are our views of it? The book has a bunch of journal questions. Throughout the book, I think over 200. You know, God just kept downloading these questions, and I'm just typing like a crazy woman. And this is where the rubber meets the road because it's one thing to read somebody's stories. It's another to do the work and find yourself in those stories and your own beliefs. So, you know, I would encourage people to stop and process why you feel the way that you feel. If you cannot see the positive in a situation, it's okay, but ask yourself why.

Robin Shear [00:09:03]:
What makes you the way that you are? Are you okay with that? Are you ready to try? What would your loved ones suggest? You know? What might the optimists in your life see in that same situation? How can you tap into those people's viewpoints and start to question whether, yeah, maybe they're right or nope. I still don't see it, but at least you're asking the question. It's about kinda starting somewhere, asking some questions, digging into how you feel about it, and then continuing that process. I'm not gonna say that you'll automatically be jumping for joy, but I can say that your perspective can change over time.

Sandy Kovach  [00:09:46]:
And how we see things, it affects not only literally how we see things, our worldview, but our circumstances as well. Outwardly correct.

Robin Shear [00:09:54]:
You're right. Because, you know, the cancer isn't necessarily gonna go anywhere. You may get a diagnosis that is incurable, and yet joy awaits. And when you begin to see the other things within your story and appreciate the good that's there, the blessings that are there, the experiences, the learning moments, the relationships. There are so many things available despite the fact that the diagnosis isn't gonna change. The situation might not improve, but perspective on all of that is enough.

Lanée Blaise [00:10:35]:
That makes me realize, yeah, no matter how many days we have left on this earth and what they look like. We're still here for a reason. We're still having moments that we can appreciate, having people that we can appreciate, having things that we come to realize, divinely or secularly, that can still be things that we can check as a I'm grateful for. I had a I don't You know, we were able to get a service person out and get everything. We had to get a new furnace, which was also not a happy thing and something I was not expecting to have to deal with and pay for. But at the end of the day, I was able to find gratitude in the fact that the repairman who came was so nice, so efficient, did a great job. We did get heat. I now appreciate heaters and furnaces more than I did, you know, talk to me about a week ago.

Lanée Blaise [00:11:47]:
And it's just, it is a way of being. There is an art to thinking and questioning. And I wonder if many of us forget about that. I don't know how often we sit and think about what we're thinking about. And that seems like what you're you're stirring me to do. Like, think about why I don't see joy in certain things. Think about why other people do. I love that.

Lanée Blaise [00:12:13]:
I never thought of it that way. And and questioning too. In the bible, Jesus questioned a lot of things too. He didn't always just say, hey, you're doing the wrong thing. You know, said, where's your husband or God in the Garden of Eden? You know, it's these questions. -Who

Robin Shear [00:12:27]:
told you were naked?

Lanée Blaise [00:12:28]:
-Who told you? Yes. Who told As opposed to just, you're doing it wrong. You're you're not happy enough. But asking those questions is a great way to be.

Robin Shear [00:12:40]:
Especially when we ask them without judgment, you you know, when we're just curious and just wondering. You know, sometimes the best experiences in life are born from curiosity. And, you know, I wonder what would happen if right? Like, that begat all kinds of fun chaos and joy in life. But when we dial it down a little bit and just ask ourselves questions that begin with, I wonder why, we give ourselves space just to be real. I think that, you know, we're so quick to to feel like something's wrong with us. We need to change. We should be like everybody else. And, wow, we get those messages from everyone.

Robin Shear [00:13:21]:
We don't need that inner dialogue. If our perspective is one of curiosity inside and our narrative on the inside is, gosh, I never really stopped to think about why I see things this way, and you just allow a space for thoughts to come up without judging, wow, you can learn a lot about yourself. It can be a great time of self discovery, and those are things that can guide your direction. Right? They can change your course completely, but we often just plow through, and we don't really allow time to just stop and be and think.

Lanée Blaise [00:13:55]:
Except for kids.

Robin Shear [00:13:56]:
Oh, yeah.

Lanée Blaise [00:13:56]:
Right. Kids do it. I wonder what would happen if I do if I take this purple paint and pour it all over.

Robin Shear [00:14:05]:
One of my most popular talks with audiences is based on that question because I find a ton of joy in being spontaneous. Not everyone does. Right? We're wired differently, but that is something I could speak on for days. And I have found that it is just a burnout buster. You know? When I'm spontaneous in the middle of a whole lot of stuff that's scheduled, if I just give myself 5 minutes to just answer the question. I wonder what would happen if I picked up my dog and swung her around in circles. You know, whatever. That little the little burst is all it takes.

Robin Shear [00:14:40]:
And so you have a full, like, 60 minute keynote around that because a lot of us need to just stop and ask the question and have a little bit more fun.

Sandy Kovach  [00:14:48]:
Absolutely. And another way I think is when we solve problems, we learn a little bit about ourselves, and we learn new ways of doing things. If everything worked out smoothly, people would wouldn't discover new ways to, well, not split the atom, but kinda, you know, what I'm getting.

Robin Shear [00:15:05]:
I sure do. Right. If we just succeeded the first time, every time, would we remember the struggle and the lesson? It would just be in and out.

Sandy Kovach  [00:15:14]:
And that's kind of what you're getting at too with, you know, the whole struggle learning through trials is what God is teaching us through all of this. So messy joy, you know, I kind of have an idea of what messy joy is, but it's such an interesting concept. I'm picturing this lady sweeping up and I don't know. How do you describe? When someone says, what is messy joy? What would you say?

Robin Shear [00:15:37]:
Well, Sandy, I wanted to hear the rest of the sweeping story. I wonder if Yeah.

Sandy Kovach  [00:15:44]:
What was she sweeping up? She spilled her coffee and, you know

Robin Shear [00:15:48]:
Yeah. Where was

Lanée Blaise [00:15:49]:
the going? Hot mess. Yeah.

Robin Shear [00:15:52]:
Right. Yeah. I mean, when you read the book and you kinda get into it ways, you'll see somewhere maybe around chapter 13, I think, that my original title was going to be why my head injury was the best thing that ever happened to me. But I was advised to keep the title 5 words or less, and messy joy kinda summarized the entire book. So, yeah, it's it's, you know, how do people with imperfect lives have joy anyway? No. Without having to wait until the the mess is cleaned up first. Let's just mix it in and see what happens. So, you know, in the examples that you gave earlier, you know, when your furnace was out, probably your first response wasn't, oh, I wonder where I'll see joy in this.

Robin Shear [00:16:41]:
I'm sure you jumped into action mode, maybe a little bit of frustration, but, you know, hopefully, what happens eventually, as you look back on situations, it's a lot easier to see the joy after the trial has ended. And doing that can train us to start then to expect that joy will show up. It's just a matter of when and where. You know, be mindful of it. Be waiting for it. Seek it. You will find it. And it's just amazing, the stories that I've received from readers of situations where it didn't make sense that they were thankful.

Robin Shear [00:17:17]:
But, you know, a person gets a flat tire, and it's late at night, and they're tired, and they're hungry, and dinner is late. Isn't a time when a person is like, wow. I'm really thankful for this. Like, this fills my joy bucket. And yet right? When they're rescued, when their tire is good, when they get home and actually have food, all of the above just was so much richer, so much more meaningful. Those things that are mundane suddenly become significant, and that's where the joy is found. So, yeah, messy joy helps people to learn to just look for it right from the start rather than wait until later.

Sandy Kovach  [00:17:57]:
So just the anticipation of the joy is enough to develop the joy. Now is there ever a time when and someone who's been through everything that you've been through can have a situation where the furnace breaks and they're automatically happy. How long does it take to process? I I guess alright. You're saying I'm going to imagine the end. Yeah. And that's is that the best, or can we back that up even more and just learn to be joyful, like, right when the mess happens?

Robin Shear [00:18:26]:
I think that's, that's a great question, Sandy. I think that the individual will know. And I think because we're so different, it's gonna be a different answer for each of us. I mean, let me throw it back to you. I mean, let's use your popping story. Right? That's you. You've like, you've opened up the refrigerator. You're struggling to open up the jar of pickles.

Robin Shear [00:18:47]:
You're, like, really working at it. And all of a sudden, the lid lets go and pickle juice goes flying all over your kitchen. And you've got a choice to make. Like, what are you gonna do in that moment to find joy?

Sandy Kovach  [00:19:00]:
I probably say, really? Or just something like that? Like, yeah, this this looks about right. Or I try to have a sense of humor about it. But me spilling pickle juice is like a minor thing. It's probably a little harder when something is actually hurting or, affecting other people.

Robin Shear [00:19:18]:
Yeah. And I think that that's that's a good point. And when we have the practice rounds of the minor things, the pickle juice, the flat tire, now that's training ground because the fact is the time is gonna come many times in our lives that the circumstances are grave. They're much more serious, and joy is gonna be the furthest thing from our minds. And so how will those little experiences, seeking the joy, expecting it, train us to look for it when things really stink. Like, as an example, recently, one of my relatives had a very unexpected heart attack. I mean, he's he's a very healthy man, young, no medications, no bad numbers, and then bam, right before Christmas, he had a heart attack. He had a triple bypass operation.

Robin Shear [00:20:09]:
His whole life changed on a dime. You can imagine that, you know, the little things were suddenly not little at all. You know, the significance of being able to go for a 5 minute walk unassisted became worthy of celebration. And, again, like, because, you know, joy was possible in the mess. What if he had said, oh, man. I hate this. You know, I'm I'm just miserable in my circumstances, and I will have joy after cardiac rehab, which is a 2 month process. And he spends 2 miserable months focusing on how awful his life is.

Robin Shear [00:20:49]:
It's a much different story than the guy who is, like, celebrating the fact that he got to get in the car and go for a ride to a a dumpster. I'm not even exaggerating. That actually We got a group text about it. Wow. Yeah. It was a big deal to get to ride in my car to a dumpster. So the training grounds, when things are simple, can help us to shape our perspective for when things are complicated.

Lanée Blaise [00:21:15]:
I love that. I watch you in videos on LinkedIn and Instagram as well. And I do see how you take times when you're at conferences, when you're with friends, when you're with family, and you do savor those good times and you do spontaneous things and and things with the with the childlike wonder. Is that something that you had to practice also?

Robin Shear [00:21:43]:
No.

Lanée Blaise [00:21:45]:
Oh, did you came here like that?

Robin Shear [00:21:47]:
I kind of did. Let me just say that 6th grade was a really good year for me, and I am mentally still kinda trapped at 12. I love it. I can be a responsible adult when I need to be, but when I was 30, my husband did this really cool thing for my birthday where he secretly asked all of the people in our family to write a little letter, and it was like, 30 things we love about Robin. So then he printed these, put them in this big book, and handed me this thing. I mean, the greatest gift ever. And so I was reading all these wonderful things, but one thing my mom said stuck with me forever, and she'll listen to this. So hi, mom.

Robin Shear [00:22:27]:
said, here I am, 30, kinda feeling like I needed to act like an adult. Right? And feeling bad that I didn't want to. And my mom's letter said, may she never grow up. And I got permission at that point to embrace that side. I realized, man, if this is how I'm wired and my mom thinks it's okay, I'll guess I'll embrace and have some fun. So, yes, that's who I am, but there are days that I don't wake up feeling that way. You've seen me jumping for joy on hotel beds when I get to sleep. I I know what.

Robin Shear [00:23:01]:
Right? But there are days I don't wanna do it. There are days I don't feel like it. And, you know, I have to apply my same strategies to my own life because there are days when we have to choose joy. It has to be a choice.

Sandy Kovach  [00:23:16]:
And speaking of strategies, I wanna go into your book and how people get it a little bit in your offer for folks to get some free journal entry downloads because getting started on this, it seems like let's rush

Robin Shear [00:23:31]:
into it. Right? I wanna make it easy. I think, you know, we've seen all these choose joy things, and let's just get into it. So even if people never get messy joy, I want them to have at least a month of self reflecting messy joy questions. Let's dig in a little bit and see what your beliefs are. Let's see where joy might be hiding in your life. Maybe areas that used to bring you joy that you haven't even thought about in a long time. Things that have disappeared from life without your awareness.

Robin Shear [00:24:02]:
You know? Just where are you in your joy journey? I put together, a list of 30 journal questions, and so people can go to this link and download these pages, print these off, and just learn about their own story. So anybody who wants to know more about joy can just go to joy to the world coaching.com/messyjoyquestions.

Sandy Kovach  [00:24:28]:
I love it. And we'll put a link to that in the show notes and on our website, imagine yourself podcast.com as well. And, I'm heading over there in a minute. Actually, I have the book. Right? So I can I can get it out of out of the book, which is available where?

Robin Shear [00:24:42]:
Everywhere. You can get it from me. If you want a signed copy, just reach out. Any of my social media. I am joy coach Robin everywhere. Make it easy. Joy coach Robin on socials. You can get it anywhere books are sold online.

Robin Shear [00:24:54]:
I, I know it's at Amazon Barnes and Noble. Even Walmart is carrying it on their website. So Lanee one of those days I'll walk into a store and I'll actually see it in the store. You can bet I'll be posting jumping for joy videos that day. Yeah.

Lanée Blaise [00:25:08]:
Because you it's even number one new release on Amazon just weeks after it was released. So congratulations on that too. Yeah.

Robin Shear [00:25:17]:
Thank you. That makes no sense. Cause I didn't even have my launch plan ready. It released 6 weeks before I was ready. And the community that I have known that is just so loving and wonderful, Heard about it, shared it, and here we are. I have so many people to thank.

Lanée Blaise [00:25:31]:
That's Joy Bites, right? Joy Bites community. Yes.

Robin Shear [00:25:34]:
You know it, girl.

Lanée Blaise [00:25:35]:
Yes. But now you're bringing me to another component that we sometimes miss when we think about attaining joy, holding on to joy, finding joy, the God component. God does so many unexpected things in this world, in our lives. Many times we may read it and interpret it as bad, like the bad category or not what we wanted, not what I asked for. Do not recommend

Sandy Kovach  [00:26:09]:
One star.

Lanée Blaise [00:26:11]:
But but many times, God is actually doing a good work within us and we won't see it. That's, you know, sometimes we never see it or we don't see it until it takes a little while for, you know, we'll see it in hindsight. And so in the Bible, we are meant to be comforted by God so that we can comfort others. Your book even reminds us in Philippians to make sure that we are really focusing on, things that are pure and true and noble and lovely and praiseworthy and admirable and excellent. All these beautiful, beautiful things. We have fruits of the spirit to to focus on. What do you say to people who are having a difficult time understanding that God is love and he's he's doing these loving things for us, but they're not seeing it.

Robin Shear [00:27:05]:
Wow. I mean, that could be a month of shows in and of itself. The Lord is the author and creator of joy itself. And, you know, to try to embrace that without appreciating his role in it, good luck. He wants us to have it. He wants us to have all of the fruits of the spirit that you just listed, and yet we can't have those when we're not connected closely to him. It's very difficult to have fruits of the spirit when we're not even allowing the spirit to have a presence in our lives. Why would he give us the fruits? It's really a matter of how long has it been since I have seen evidence of God's work in my life or in the lives of others? Is my view of whether god is real or whether god is Lanee good and wants me to have joy.

Robin Shear [00:28:02]:
Is that shaped by something that needs to be addressed? Probably. You know? It might be a therapy direction that needs to take place. Christian counseling. Pastors are always happy to have these conversations with people. But, you know, it's a matter of unpacking where that might come from. But then also, separate from that, we have to remember out of humility, God is who he says he is, and we are way down on the scale. We like to think because we're doing all these things in life, we're pretty dog on cool. We must be kinda close to god level.

Robin Shear [00:28:40]:
And yet misunderstanding that and expecting things to just happen, you know, because we're so close to god, it doesn't make sense at all. I guess what I'm trying to say is whether or not we see God at work, he still is working. Whether or not we feel God bringing blessings into our life, he is still doing these things. We don't have to feel or see any of this stuff for it to be taken place. God says that it is. He says that he is, and he is. We're just people who have to, you know, recognize our place and, and in humility, accept that we're we don't understand all things. We just don't.

Robin Shear [00:29:24]:
We like to think that we do, and that's not at all how it works. It has to be okay that we don't know all of the things of God. Yeah.

Lanée Blaise [00:29:32]:
And I think we manage our expectations accordingly. Just like you're saying that too, if we want to find that joy, we have to have an acceptance of the fact and the concept that God isn't going to do things the way we would do them or the very most direct straightforward point a to point b way, or the easiest way, or the most pleasure seeking way, When we go ahead and accept that, but still trust God and still love the fact that God is gonna do it mysterious ways and ways other than we do it, I think that'll help unlock something as well.

Robin Shear [00:30:12]:
Me too. And I really think there's joy in the mystery. I wonder what would happen if

Robin Shear [00:30:18]:
You know, what if we just let go of trying to understand all things and just let him be god and let him surprise and delight us when he wants to? How fun would that be?

Sandy Kovach  [00:30:27]:
Trusting his timing.

Robin Shear [00:30:30]:
Yeah. One way to think.

Sandy Kovach  [00:30:31]:
But it's so hard sometimes because, like you said, we wanna play God, and we wanna think we have control over everything and maybe even other people and Mhmm. It just doesn't work like that.

Robin Shear [00:30:42]:
It doesn't. And I think that spending time in the word, reading the bible, listening to it, you know, helps us to remember who God is, who we are, and how all that works together. And we do need those reminders, Sandy. We do forget. And that's okay. That's we we just go back and and hear it again.

Sandy Kovach  [00:31:00]:
Yeah. And just recently, and I was telling Lanee, I started reading, the gospels again just because I wanted to think about Jesus. And there are 4 gospels. And in the Bible, when God repeats things, obviously, they are more important and not that any other

Sandy Kovach  [00:31:21]:
books in the Bible are not important,

Sandy Kovach  [00:31:21]:
but the fact that there are 4 gospels, I think, really speaks to the fact that we need to understand what's in there. So and a lot of breakthroughs have come from that.

Robin Shear [00:31:28]:
Mhmm.

Sandy Kovach  [00:31:28]:
Just by me committing myself to it's just in the morning. I I used to have a thing about, well, if I go on my phone, I'm gonna get distracted, but then I don't wanna go up and get a paper Bible. It just it's it never happened. So I said, you know what? I'm just gonna open my phone for as long as I can and start doing it. And, yeah, just soaking myself in it and just, like, thinking about the stories, thinking about what's happening to him and his disciples, and there's the miracles. And, yeah, it's really helped me.

Robin Shear [00:31:56]:
I am so glad to hear that. And something that I've just recently discovered, maybe this will help your listeners. So I just discovered an app called through the word, which I heard about over in the YouVersion Bible app, which a lot of people use every day. And that might be the one that you read. Yeah. Mhmm. And I do too. And so it works in conjunction with or separate from, but through the word is, an app or a website that you can listen to the entire bible if you choose to do that or just pick a topic or there are lots of different reading Lanee, but what I love about it is you hear this guy with a real peaceful voice, probably like a British accent reading the scripture.

Robin Shear [00:32:37]:
And then a pastor comes on for about 10 minutes and just unpacks the reading and gets the questions flowing. You know, I'm a fan of questions, and I have seen these stories in new new ways, stories that I've heard since I was a little kid. And so this is how I'm reading the Bible. I listen to it while I'm getting ready in the morning. No more excuses. It's waiting. It's just a matter of finding a format that works so that, again, like, we can dig into who God is, how he created us for relationship and goodness and joy and all these things. And what are we gonna do with it? This gets our our hearts and minds.

Sandy Kovach  [00:33:16]:
I love that. Now is this if you go on the YouVersion app, is it linked there?

Robin Shear [00:33:20]:
I it's a separate app. It probably is linked there. I can't quite figure that out, but I've gone to just my my Play Store and found through the word there.

Sandy Kovach  [00:33:27]:
Alright. And we'll we'll link that up in our show notes and website too. Thank you. I can't wait.

Robin Shear [00:33:32]:
You're welcome. Enjoy.

Lanée Blaise [00:33:34]:
Well, I think we have come to that point where we, you know, we're gonna definitely encourage people to go ahead and get their own copy of Messy Joy. I just want to We always have like a takeaway time at the end. You put so many juicy things in our brain as far as questioning and deciding where you are in your joy journey, expecting that joy will show up, being spontaneous, asking things like, I wonder what would happen if all these things are just beautiful. But I wonder if a listener was gonna have one thing that they need to take away from this episode and put in their heart and in their life, in their mind, in their world, what would that profound statement or concept or thought or advice be?

Robin Shear [00:34:30]:
In all the podcasts I've been privileged to be a part of, I haven't been asked a question quite like that before, so thank you. The only answer that makes any sense is dig into scripture. Find all you need to find about joy there.

Lanée Blaise [00:34:47]:
And then follow that up with the messy joy journal questions that you have. And people can just go on your website again, joy to the world coaching to get those as well.

Sandy Kovach  [00:34:59]:
Yep. Joytotheworldcoaching.com/messyjoyquestions.

Lanée Blaise [00:35:03]:
Yeah. And dig into scripture. Dig into your relationship with God, dig into your relationship with yourself, I guess, too is is is a component of all that.

Robin Shear [00:35:15]:
Let's bring the wonder right back in. There is joy in

Lanée Blaise [00:35:19]:
it. Wow. On that note, we want to thank you, Sandy and I profoundly thank you for coming and sharing with us today all the things. We really have a lot to ponder on. Anyone who's driving right now or drifting off to sleep or starting their day. Lots to think about. Lots of new ways. And again, to those people who feel like I tend to see things more direct or I don't want to say negative, but you mentioned too that that doesn't mean that there's anything wrong.

Lanée Blaise [00:35:49]:
We are all wired differently. There's a purpose for each of us. Not everybody is supposed to be happy, happy, joy, joy. Some people are. Others are supposed to be our practical ones. There's peacemakers in the world. There's engineer minded people who make sure that structurally things are in place and not playing around. You know? Yeah.

Lanée Blaise [00:36:11]:
There's discipline that needs to be done in some areas, but we don't want to overlook the power of joy.

Robin Shear [00:36:18]:
We sure don't. Beautifully said. Thank you.

Lanée Blaise [00:36:21]:
So, Sandy, you got anything for us before we?

Sandy Kovach  [00:36:23]:
No. I think, like you said, there's so much of us. There's so much of us. There is so much of us. There's so much to ponder in this episode, and I just wanna say thank you. This has been one of my favorite episodes that, I can remember. This is terrific. I have I feel like I learned about a new app.

Sandy Kovach  [00:36:40]:
I've got a new book to do exercises with. I've got a question to ask myself every day. What would happen if I'm new? I'm fresh.

Robin Shear [00:36:49]:
Yay. Honestly, I just I'm very grateful to know that, yeah, we had this time together. I really hope it's a blessing to your listening community. You've got quite a listening community. You do wonderful things here.

Lanée Blaise [00:37:01]:
Thank you. Thanks for being here. And everyone out there, sit really still, really quiet with yourself, and really, like, use the word imagine. Imagine yourself in a life where you wake up and you look for joy. You expect joy and you receive joy from the author of joy, God Thanks for listening.

Sandy Kovach  [00:37:29]:
Hope this episode was a blessing for you. Tell us what you thought about it. Leave us a review. Leave us a rating right here in the app. You can also go to imagine yourself podcast.com and send us an email and read more about Messy Joy and Robin Shear. We also have a link to our social media pages there as well. So if you're not with us on Facebook or Instagram, do that because either on 1 or both, we're gonna be giving you the opportunity to win a copy of Robin Shear's book, messy joy, and you're gonna wanna get that one. Until next time, when we have something new to imagine, may you be filled with joy.