How Faith is Quieting Fear (w/Guest, Chrystal Krajnovich)

Who’s ready for more faith and less fear? If not now, when? Faith is on the rise lately, and we want to highlight ways to grab hold of it on a deeper level to help make it through these difficult times. Our guest, Chrystal Krajnovich weighs in on how the media, the church, and our own relationships all play a part in how we choose to maneuver through life’s unexpected challenges. We get very personal about how we are learning to build and flex our faith muscles.

For more inspiration, go to  ImagineYourselfPodcast.com

Join the conversation  on our  FACEBOOK, TWITTER or INSTAGRAM pages

For more info on IMAGINE YOURSELF, visit imagineyourselfpodcast.com. You'll find blogs, inspirational quotes and of course our podcasts!

Join the conversation on our FACEBOOK, 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!

Imagine Yourself is hosted by Lanée Blaise and Sandy Kovach. Lanée is a TV writer and producer, motivational speaker and podcaster. Sandy is a radio personality, voiceover artist and podcaster. They come to you from the Detroit Metro area and invite guests from all over the world to help encourage you in your health, career, faith journey and more!

Transcript

Welcome to the "Imagine Yourself Podcast," where we explore themes of faith, hope, and coping tools during challenging times. In this episode, hosts Sandy Kovach and Lanée Blaise are joined by guest Chrystal Krajnovich to discuss the renewed sense of faith emerging in response to the current global crisis. They delve into the unity and togetherness being witnessed, as well as the increased openness to faith amidst fears and uncertainties. The conversation touches on the role of faith in media, self-care tips like the power of a 'reset,' and the importance of seeking comfort and strength in challenging times. Join us as we explore how faith can quiet fear and bring hope in unexpected ways.

Sandy Kovach  [00:00:00]:
Through hard times and happy times, we at Imagine Yourself want to be here for you. During this challenging time, we are going to try to bring you hope and coping tools. So once again, we ask you to join us at Imagine Yourself.

Lanée Blaise [00:00:16]:
Hello, and thank you for joining us at Imagine Yourself. I'm Lanee.

Sandy Kovach  [00:00:21]:
And this is Sandy. And, Lanae, we're gonna get deep in this Imagine Yourself episode. What are we imagining?

Lanée Blaise [00:00:28]:
Today, we are talking about something beautiful that we have noticed lately, and we wonder if you all have noticed it as well. We just feel there's been a renewed sense of faith as people everywhere are realizing that there are so many things that we cannot control. And many times, we realize we have to look up in order to lift up and get through some of these terrible challenges. And, also, you know, we love to imagine yourself in better ways in all things. We have some tips later on that we're going to share, things that we can do at home with or without our family members, some tips that I promise you have not heard before. But, really, at the end of the day, we're coming to you as 3 women of faith because Sandy and I have invited Chrystal Krajnovich as our guest today to get her perspective on all of this. Hello? Yeah. Hello there, Crystal.

Lanée Blaise [00:01:28]:
Hi, Crystal. You're Hi.

Chrystal Krajnovich [00:01:31]:
How are you, ladies?

Lanée Blaise [00:01:33]:
We are wonderful. We're grateful to have you because, Crystal, we have relied as a country, we've been relying on the media to stay informed, and we understand that you are a former anchor and reporter for a major network, and we wanted to get your input on how have you seen some of the beautiful things and the faith filled things occurring throughout this crisis?

Chrystal Krajnovich [00:01:56]:
Well, one of the things that I think is wonderful as a believer in particular is the unity. Everyone seems to be working together. I think we're all fighting a common enemy, and we realize that. And there's just this sense of togetherness that's refreshing to me.

Sandy Kovach  [00:02:14]:
That's beautiful. I wanna go a little bit further and talk about just the faith awakening of our population in general. And I think everybody's online with their church services and Yeah. People are more open because they are scared. And I think as you brought up earlier, we have more time to sit down and contemplate what the heck is going on here.

Chrystal Krajnovich [00:02:36]:
Yeah. I think so too. And to me, this is a classic Romans 828. All things work together for the good of those who love the Lord and are the called according to his purpose. And I do believe that there's something spiritual, supernatural that happens when you come into the congregation together with people. The physical connection, I do believe that there is. However, by us going online, by all of the churches now going online, there are people who are unchurched, if you will, who might be seeking that all they have to do in the comfort of their own home now is just make a little click on their computer and boom, they're there. They're hearing the word.

Chrystal Krajnovich [00:03:14]:
And, you know, all over because every church is doing this now or most of them are. So I think that that's a really, really good thing that's coming out of this.

Sandy Kovach  [00:03:22]:
And people seem to be more receptive to it. Right?

Chrystal Krajnovich [00:03:25]:
And they're exactly. Because they're afraid. We've heard that expression over and over that there are no atheists in foxholes. And so when people get afraid and you're faced with, you know what? According to what I'm hearing on the news, I could die. I'm hearing about people that I know that have lost someone or maybe you know somebody personally that has passed away. It really is sobering. But, again, I think it's a wonderful opportunity for people of faith to seize the moment and minister to people. I think they would be more receptive now because they are faced with the reality that, wow, this thing could take me out of here.

Lanée Blaise [00:04:02]:
I feel that most people now are having big changes. We're examining our lives in a whole new way. We're having conversations, whether it be our own inner dialogue or even with other people that just we wouldn't have had time for in any other circumstance. Or like you said, some people who are a little shy about asking about some of the things with church or showing up physically, and they're just not ready to take that step. This is really just opening it up because people have time to talk to you about it except for, of course, our health care workers. I just really, really ask for prayers over them because Sure. They don't have time really to do much of anything.

Sandy Kovach  [00:04:44]:
Or any of the essential workers. Yeah.

Lanée Blaise [00:04:46]:
That's true. Any of the essential workers out there now. But many of us who are nonessential, like myself, we do have more time to reach out to people and to really talk through some of the issues, and you start thinking, how am I living? What have I been doing? What do I really value? Who do I wanna spend my time with once I finally can get out of my house and spend time with people? And when do I wanna make these changes? It is a powerful time going on right now.

Chrystal Krajnovich [00:05:17]:
I think so too. Again, this is not to play down in any way those who are suffering directly from this Because I understand for them, they might be thinking, what is so wonderful about this? But even with that, I mean, if you are in a hospital and you have been diagnosed with this or if you're in a position where maybe you are at home with someone you don't wanna be at home with, it still serves to be a good time for reflection. Anytime you're quiet and you can't run around like you usually do, that is a time to be still. And as the Lord says, be still and know that I am God. So I really think that we're gonna see a a very I don't wanna call it a revival. That sounds cliche ish, but I think there are gonna be a large number of people who are gonna come into the faith as a result of this.

Lanée Blaise [00:06:05]:
And how about to opening it up where it's not something to be ashamed of? Because I've been receiving messages on the Nextdoor app and through emails and things like that from people that I would have never received, like, they're passing along a prayer. And I just feel like they would not have been doing that Mhmm. Any other time that I've known them or strangers that I don't know are leaving little messages of hope and faith filled messages as well or, like, you know, bible scriptures, different things that I just would have never noticed before, that may have been shooed away before all of this happened.

Chrystal Krajnovich [00:06:45]:
Yes. You know, everybody's talking about when is it going to end, and and I saw a Facebook post that was really interesting. It said, can't wait for things to get back to normal, and then someone else replied and said, oh, I'm so hoping it won't go back to normal. I didn't like normal. Interesting. You know? So there's some people are looking forward to the changes that might come as a result of this, and some people are not. So it just depends on and, of course, there are some things that could come from this that may not be a good thing, and I am anticipating that there will be some things that will be wonderful in the midst of it.

Sandy Kovach  [00:07:19]:
Now, Crystal, Lanee kinda touched on this a little bit, just having people be more receptive and coming out and talking about it. And we mentioned at the front of the podcast that you've worked in radio and television. When you were in television, you were part of a group called was it faith in media or what? Or do you did a podcast about that?

Chrystal Krajnovich [00:07:38]:
Yes. We did a podcast with all of the women at the station. We talked very candidly about different topics, and one of those topics was how do you handle your faith in secular media? How do you do it when you're in a newsroom, which sometimes anybody that's worked in a newsroom knows can get a little bit raunchy. That's gonna

Chrystal Krajnovich [00:08:01]:
And so how do you handle that? What do you do when you're going on stories constantly and you're telling you're a mouthpiece for the bad news when really what you'd prefer to spread is the good news. So how do you handle that? And so it got very candid and it was just interesting because each one of us were in a different part of media all working for the same station, but one person was a host for our lifestyle show. I, of course, was the news person, and then the other person actually had a Christian broadcast that aired on our station. So she kept saying, well, I don't really have that problem because I can talk openly about my faith because people expect me to kind of thing. Yeah. And then, of course, my boss participated, and she came from the whole thing of managing and handling people who have different backgrounds and beliefs within a newsroom. So it's just very interesting.

Sandy Kovach  [00:08:48]:
You don't wanna cross that line because you do wanna be respectful of other people's beliefs. How do you walk that line?

Chrystal Krajnovich [00:08:55]:
That is the question of the hour, and and it's even so much so that the lord gave us a very good scripture for it. He said, you have to be as wise as a serpent, but innocent as a dove. So I thought about that over and over, and and I know when I go into a situation and or when I was in a situation in the newsroom, I could kind of gauge just by initial conversation where that person was, and then I would go from there. And I guess being a parent, you would know that they have what you call age appropriate information that you give to your children. Well, it's kind of the same exact thing. You would give spiritually appropriate information, meaning, how much can I give this person? Do I spoon feed, or do I just not say anything at all? Do I just live my life in front of them? When I think that's really the best thing so that they can see what a Christian does in certain circumstances. Because there are always things that God brings up situations and circumstances where you have an opportunity to show that, no, I'm not gonna respond like everybody else in this situation. I want you to see that there is a different way to handle this, and it may not be the way mainstream looks at it.

Chrystal Krajnovich [00:10:00]:
So there's so many different things, but I think to answer that in short, you have to gauge and be disearning about the person you're talking to, the circumstance, the setting, all of that has to be considered.

Sandy Kovach  [00:10:13]:
And people too that are in media that I'm just observing, just the way the whole all of this is being presented, I feel like it's less I don't wanna make it sound like people are against faith. You know, maybe there are certain people that are, but I'm just seeing a lot more stuff from mainstream news organizations that are about faith and people's faith and how it's getting them through this crisis.

Chrystal Krajnovich [00:10:36]:
Interesting. Now I you know what? I haven't noticed that, but it would not surprise me one bit.

Lanée Blaise [00:10:41]:
I feel too that people are becoming so desperate for some kind of an answer and some feeling of comfort. And that when you take something kinda like you said, you you do have to understand your audience. There is a scripture that I love that is very simple at its core. It just says praise to God who comforts us in all our trouble so that we can comfort those in trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from god. And it's just all one big circle where, you know, we are receiving comfort from God and then we're passing it along. And who wouldn't want that at a time like this?

Chrystal Krajnovich [00:11:28]:
Yeah.

Lanée Blaise [00:11:28]:
No matter what industry you're in.

Chrystal Krajnovich [00:11:30]:
Yes. I agree. And I love that scripture, by the way. That's where is that? That's in Corinthians?

Lanée Blaise [00:11:34]:
That's in second Corinthians 14. Okay. And it just it's not a very super popular one, but it is very appropriate for what we're going through right now because that's what people everywhere are seeking, answers, hope, peace, and comfort.

Chrystal Krajnovich [00:11:53]:
God is going to use this. I know he is, and he is using these prices in a tremendous way to draw people. This is a crisis, a worldwide crisis. It's unprecedented. At the

Lanée Blaise [00:12:06]:
end of the day, all of this, no matter what, no matter how far someone wants to stretch their faith and their thoughts on specifics Mhmm. You cannot deny that this is teaching us all not to take our lives for granted, not to take our loved ones for granted, not to take our spiritual soul for granted.

Chrystal Krajnovich [00:12:36]:
That's right.

Lanée Blaise [00:12:37]:
Yeah. Regardless of where on the spectrum you feel with any of the things that Crystal has mentioned, that is still undeniable because part of it is, like you said, you have time to sit and think on these things. Part of it is you do see loved ones. My sister is at a drive through testing site right now. I have 5 sisters, but one of them has a temperature of a 104. Mhmm. And she has body aches. And all of my other sisters and my brother, we are praying for her.

Lanée Blaise [00:13:07]:
Mhmm. But I love my sister. I talk to my sister. But you better believe I love her more right now than I did 2 months ago. You know? Yeah. I'm sick. I appreciate her more. I don't take her life for granted anymore.

Lanée Blaise [00:13:22]:
And my own and like you said, our soul that's within us, I definitely don't take any of that for granted right now either. And I wanna make sure I'm spending more time with my children, not just with their schoolwork, but we are spending and some of my girlfriends are also. We are spending a whole lot more time now on their faith lives, on their ability to we're going through right now reading the Bible for ourselves and asking for wisdom as we read it, which is talking about all kinds of things that my kids and I did talk about before, but I'm putting special emphasis on it now. God and how he weighs in on all of this. And I just think I see this with just a lot more people than I did before. That is why Sandy said, Lanee, Sandy's the one who said, have you noticed that, you know, this state is just coming around more and that people are trying to use faith to conquer the fear more? And I'm like, yes, Sandy. I have.

Chrystal Krajnovich [00:14:23]:
Yeah. Well, definitely, Lanee. You know, my prayers for your sister's recovery. We just pray that the Lord will touch her and that she'll be doing much better when you talk to her again.

Sandy Kovach  [00:14:34]:
I didn't know this, when did this happen?

Lanée Blaise [00:14:35]:
This is must have happened so right before we got on this podcast, remember, Sandy, I said this is before everybody could hear, but I told you to hold on, And it was to click over, and I told you, no. I won't be getting any more calls. But that was one of my other 5 sisters who's like, wait. What happened? I said, I gotta call you back and tell her. But but Oh. Because, yeah, our parents told us just this morning, and then she blushed a little heart, sent a little picture of her with her mask bumbled up to go out and go through the drive through testing because she just said that her when she spoke to her doctor on tele conference, and she was asking she's my youngest. She said, have I ever had a temperature of a 104? I said, well, when you were a little buddy toddler and you had the chicken pox, that's it.

Lanée Blaise [00:15:18]:
And she that's why she's super concerned. So I don't know.

Sandy Kovach  [00:15:21]:
But so she is, young and no preexisting conditions. Right?

Lanée Blaise [00:15:25]:
Is she? Correct. She could yeah. I'm the I'm the oldest sister. So she yes. She's in her thirties, and I do have confidence. We're not feeling like it's all in despair. Part of that is because she's younger. Mhmm.

Lanée Blaise [00:15:37]:
But like I said, I still don't take a thing for granted. Yeah. But thank you for the prayers. Thank you for the prayers.

Chrystal Krajnovich [00:15:44]:
Absolutely. You see, but you just touched on what I'm saying, and that is is that and and it's amazing now because when they first started talking about this, I didn't know anyone, anyone that had it or knew someone that had it. And now it's like they're popping up every day.

Lanée Blaise [00:15:59]:
Yes. Every day. That's what Sandy said. When did this happen? It just happened. You know? It's just like, wow. Again, we're all seeking for something that makes sense that can help us overcome our fears through all of this.

Chrystal Krajnovich [00:16:15]:
Well, I think about this too. And I know if the Lord didn't expect us to be afraid, he wouldn't have put this in here. He said, but he didn't give us a spirit of fear, but power, love, and a sound mind. And I've been quoting that over and over again. But I do have a peace. I have a a strange peace, and I guess strange may not be a good word. A peace that passes all understanding Yes. Is is a better phrase for it because I just know the world can go bonkers all it wants.

Chrystal Krajnovich [00:16:40]:
God is still in control. And how

Lanée Blaise [00:16:42]:
about we need to say that to ourselves out loud at least 3 times a day?

Chrystal Krajnovich [00:16:47]:
Exactly. Exact it's the truth.

Lanée Blaise [00:16:49]:
Forget. We can start to think that we humans are the ones in control, but it really does I feel that it's comforting to know that God is in control because that means that no matter what happens, there is a victory at the end of it. That's my

Chrystal Krajnovich [00:17:06]:
Yeah. Personal perspective. Oh, yes. Then you're absolutely right. We win. Go to the end of the book. Yeah. That's

Lanée Blaise [00:17:13]:
right. Yes.

Chrystal Krajnovich [00:17:15]:
Yes. This is one story. Like, I'll tell my friends, don't give me the ending of a movie. Don't tell me what happened. I wanna watch it. But this is one where I don't mind. Let me know, Lord, how this ends.

Lanée Blaise [00:17:26]:
Yes. Yes. Yes.

Sandy Kovach  [00:17:28]:
Mhmm. So no matter how it ends for us personally or what happens in the middle, this is the end of the story for ending. Isn't that wonderful?

Lanée Blaise [00:17:36]:
Yeah. Yeah.

Chrystal Krajnovich [00:17:37]:
It's a wonderful thing.

Sandy Kovach  [00:17:38]:
, so speaking of the end, we're winding down here. And I know you promised us some little tips, and maybe we could have Crystal, if you want to, weigh in on these as well. Sure.

Lanée Blaise [00:17:48]:
Okay. So yeah. So, again, at Imagine Yourself, we love to try to do things that will and say things that will help strengthen. Of course, we also love to hear back from everybody at imagine yourself podcast dot com. But some of the tips that I've just been thinking about and these are more tips kind of self care tips. And then like Sandy said, Crystal, I'd love to hear your perspective too. But tip number 1, I had to borrow this from a very good friend of mine. Her name is Shavona.

Lanée Blaise [00:18:17]:
And she said, Lanee, the word reset had been coming to her over and over again at the beginning of this crisis. And then just yesterday, my daughter mentioned to me that she has seen this whole COVID crisis as a hard and fast reset for her life. And so I encourage everyone out there to think about the word reset and really use take advantage of this time to reset your life and reset your mind and reset your faith. Because my friend Shavona also said that she had been a love run marathon runner. And they were taught that during your marathon or half marathon, sometime in the middle of the race, you need to reset because you have your droopy shoulders and your posture's all crazy, and you need to reset good form so that you could have a good healthy finish for your race. And I wanna give us a good healthy finish as we get through this. A reset on the way you eat, the way you sleep, the way you think, the way you live, the way you pray. Reset.

Chrystal Krajnovich [00:19:27]:
Yeah.

Lanée Blaise [00:19:27]:
What do you think of that?

Chrystal Krajnovich [00:19:29]:
I think I can't add anything to that except amen, sister. Alright.

Lanée Blaise [00:19:35]:
You like that one, Sandy too?

Sandy Kovach  [00:19:36]:
I do. I'm I can think of a million things that Lanee to be reset for myself personally and just in the world in general. Absolutely.

Lanée Blaise [00:19:44]:
Yeah. Because, yeah, the mog is lifting in certain places. It's getting a reset as well. You know? Mhmm. So my last little takeaway tip, because I did promise hopefully, you've never heard of these before. But have you ever thought about how you need to go into the auto shop every 3 months and give your vehicle a 15 or so minute tune up and oil change. Mhmm. You need to drain out all the old yucky gooky oil and replace it with fresh new clean oil.

Lanée Blaise [00:20:16]:
And I just want everyone to consider taking that 15 minutes if you can do it in your day or in your week or in your month. Or even if you only do it once every 3 months like your car, go within and get still and meditate and find out what yucky, okey, gookey oil you need to drain out of your life and thinking and patterns and how you can replace it with fresh, clean, new thoughts, patterns, faith, goodness.

Sandy Kovach  [00:20:47]:
I like that.

Lanée Blaise [00:20:48]:
Is there anything else you have for us, Crystal, to take away from this day?

Chrystal Krajnovich [00:20:53]:
But you know what? I think you summed it up, Lanee, beautifully because that is exactly what I would say. I think that for most people, this is a very sobering time, and everybody's not gonna get it. And I don't want people to get discouraged if you're talking to someone and they don't receive it. I learned a long time ago that you can't save the world, but you can make a difference in your little corner. And I also will leave you with this verse. It says that one man may plant, another man may water, but it's God who gives the increase.

Lanée Blaise [00:21:24]:
That's perfect. Well, first, I want to thank Crystal. I wanna thank you for reflecting with us today. I wanna thank Sandy for thinking up this perfect topic and for even just noticing and recognizing what was happening in this world in a good way. Wanna thank our listeners for hanging in there with us while you're cooped up. And, overall, just take your own quiet moment and imagine yourself finding faith in the most amazing and unexpected times and spaces and places.

Sandy Kovach  [00:21:59]:
Thanks for listening. We'd love your feedback. Go to imagine yourself podcast.com to send us an email or connect with us on social media. Take care of yourself and join us again next time when we'll have something new to imagine.