Finding God in the Middle of Busy

What if growing closer to God doesn't require more time...just a different perspective?

In this episode of Imagine Yourself, Lanée Blaise and Sandy Kovach talk about finding God in the middle of everyday life—the busy schedules, endless distractions, unexpected challenges, and ordinary moments we often rush right past. Together, they explore what it means to stay connected to God when life feels overwhelming, how to recognize His presence in ways we might be missing, and why some of the smallest shifts in our thinking can have the biggest impact on our faith.

If you've ever wondered whether God is speaking, struggled to make room for Him in a crowded life, or found yourself longing for a deeper connection, this podcast offers encouragement, hope, and a fresh perspective.

Join us for a conversation that just might change the way you look for God and discover that He may have been closer than you realized all along.

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 "Imagine Yourself" is hosted by Lanée Blaise and Sandy Kovach—two dynamic voices with a passion for inspiring and uplifting others. Lanée, a TV writer, producer, motivational speaker, and podcaster, brings powerful storytelling and insight. Sandy, a radio personality, voiceover artist, and podcaster, delivers warmth and wisdom with every conversation. Broadcasting from the Detroit Metro area, they welcome guests from around the world to share valuable perspectives on health, career growth, faith, and personal transformation. Tune in and imagine the possibilities for your life!

Transcript

Sandy Kovach [00:00:02]:
Do you ever feel like you want a deeper connection with God, but life just keeps getting in the way? In this episode of Imagine Yourself, we're talking about how to find God in the middle of everyday life. Not just during quiet time or on Sunday morning, but right in the middle of the distractions, responsibilities and challenges we all face. We'll explore how small shifts in perspective can help you become more aware of God's presence, recognize the ways he may already be speaking, speaking to you, and small, easy things you can do to strengthen your faith in the middle of a busy life. If you've ever wondered God, where are you? Or wished you felt closer to him, this conversation is for you. Welcome to Imagine Yourself podcast, Faith, purpose and possibilities in midlife and beyond.

Lanée Blaise [00:00:52]:
We are continuing our series on making small changes in our lives, in our minds, in our bodies, that end up leading to great new discoveries, great new results, all under the umbrella of new seasons. Because again, we're so proud that we're in season eight now. We have Sandy Kovach and Lanee Blaise have been doing Imagine Yourself podcast for eight years. It's such a blessing, and we pray that this episode is such a blessing to everyone who listens. Because what we're trying to get at today, small changes in the way that we see God, in the ways that we interact with and relate with our Creator, can make such impactful ways. We are not asking you to go and get your doctorate degree in theology. You know, we are not requiring that you do all these different things like serve at church or things like that. We are asking instead that you consider doing the small, tiny new things that will reinvigorate your relationship with God and actually even with yourself, there's that connection.

Lanée Blaise [00:02:12]:
When we understand and we remember and believe that God and the Holy Spirit reside within us, we can do all things. Just like the Bible says in Philippians, we can do all things through Christ. So we had an episodes on relationships on our body, on nutrition. We're going to have one coming up on menopause. But we wanted to take time to just focus on God.

Sandy Kovach [00:02:40]:
One of the things that I found that keeps me away from focusing on God or, you know, keeping God as the main thing in my life is distraction. Distraction in this day and age is with a capital D. And unlike any other times. I mean, if you grew up back in the day, in the 70s, the 80s, you know, 90s, whatever, 60s, 50s, life was completely different. It started to change a little in the 90s, but social media wasn't in the 90s, so these phones, the social media, can lead you down to all kind of rabbit trails. And we've talked about that before, so I'm not gonna go into that necessarily. But what I will say, if you can think about God, even when you pick up your phone, it's an awesome thing I have on my phone. And you know, if you're listening, of course you can't see it, but I have the scripture.

Sandy Kovach [00:03:32]:
Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you for Matthew, Matthew 6:33. And that's the screensaver. Screensaver. I always say that like we're in the 90s again. That is the wallpaper on my iPhone. The first thing I see when I pick up. Or, you know, how now your iPhone kind of lights up even when you walk by, you know?

Lanée Blaise [00:03:53]:
Exactly. Which is a little annoying.

Sandy Kovach [00:03:56]:
It is annoying.

Lanée Blaise [00:03:56]:
I turn that off, it pops. And sometimes, maybe God maybe didn't even walk by it, and God pops it

Sandy Kovach [00:04:03]:
up like, hey, come on now. I got this verse for you that is just. I'm not saying everybody has to do that, but some little trick, whether it's putting a verse of the day on your mirror, a scripture a week, or even emails that you subscribe to, just things that can pop up on the Bible app, you know, they have their scripture of the day in your daily life. Work that in so that you don't forget. Yeah.

Lanée Blaise [00:04:29]:
And maybe even start your day that way, too. Like, some of us do have to hop out of bed because the dog is ready to go to the bathroom or the kid is crying or you heard some noise or you're late or whatever. But if you happen to have an extra 20 seconds in your morning before you put your foot onto the floor to just take that 20 seconds. And just as simple as saying, dear God, I love you, I thank you. I ask you to please take over this day. Infuse yourself within me and within my day. And I dedicate this day to you and help us. Please help us all.

Lanée Blaise [00:05:15]:
Amen. It's just something to get that day started. I'm not trying to make it be like a formula or like a doing an abracadabra. Let's have a great day. But I want it to be more like. Like the relationship that you have with some. Like. Like, hey, good morning.

Lanée Blaise [00:05:31]:
Let's have a lovely, robust, smooth, peaceful, healthy, happy day. And if whatever parts are going to be challenging, I know that you'll hold my hand through it. I know that we'll get through it. That kind of thing. I don't want people to get into the habit of praying for a genie or like, let's just say, like casting a spell or something like that. I want people to pray from a position of gratitude and friendliness and love and genuineness.

Sandy Kovach [00:06:04]:
Yeah, Because God is not your cosmic Santa Claus.

Lanée Blaise [00:06:07]:
Exactly.

Sandy Kovach [00:06:08]:
My pastor used to say that. I like that one.

Lanée Blaise [00:06:11]:
Yeah, I like that. And how about this? My stepmother used to say, I don't know, we could be at the grocery store, we could be at the mall. And I would be wanting this and wanting that. And then I'd say, I needed this and I needed that. And so she would sing this little song, I want, I want, I want, I need, I need, I need, I want, I want, I want. And she would just sing it until I stopped asking for stuff. Stuff, you know, because basically she's like, we are here for a purpose and you are just going off track. I don't think God will sing that song and annoy us like she used to do me.

Lanée Blaise [00:06:41]:
But it is kind of like you're here for a purpose. I know you think that you need all these things and want all these things, but chill. Start with the soul, start with the center, and then work your way out.

Sandy Kovach [00:06:54]:
Yeah, I love that. So much of praying. And there's nothing wrong with praying for things. We have our list. Bless me with this, bless me with that. But if it's not thanking God for what he's already given you, if it's not thinking of God and what he's done for you. Yeah, you are approaching it like he's Santa Claus or something like that. But what you were referring to, I think, is just having like a more natural conversation with God as opposed to a formula where you're trying to get something.

Sandy Kovach [00:07:25]:
But just have that conversation. Take five seconds, take 10 seconds. Like Linnae said, thank you. Help me through the day if that's all you can do. One of the things that when my son was little, that we always did is we prayed in the car on the way to school. And it just was our habit. Usually it was me, but sometimes he would do it. And, you know, the older he got, the more often that he would be the one to pray.

Sandy Kovach [00:07:49]:
And I just think if you can start little habits like that, it can be with someone or maybe it's even on your way to work or. I was thinking about this earlier today when I was doing radio full time. There would be opportunities to go and emcee something or go to an appearance whenever it was something out of the box for me, whenever it was something that challenged me or stretched me, and even when it wasn't, if it was just not my daily job, I would always like, dear God, help me to represent the radio station well. Help me to represent myself well. Help me mostly to represent you well. In Jesus name, amen. And, you know, pretty much that was it. And, man, it made such a huge difference.

Sandy Kovach [00:08:33]:
And I'm like, why don't I do that when I'm just going to my regular job or going to the store? I mean, it doesn't matter.

Lanée Blaise [00:08:41]:
Anything. Anytime you get in your car, anytime you step foot into or out of your house, there's so many opportunities that we have to thank God or speak to God that we forget to take. Yeah.

Sandy Kovach [00:08:53]:
Who was it that we had on our podcast before that was saying every time she would push open the door to. She was like a doctor. Or maybe we told the story of the patient's room, she'd take five seconds to pray because, you know, that was

Lanée Blaise [00:09:09]:
her chance, that purpose again. She's already been put in a position of being a doctor and catching people at sometimes their worst or giving them good news or whatever. But to pray before going in and seeing them is giving the doctor a gift and giving the patient a gift that they don't even. That patient may not even ever know that that prayer was done. But it is such a blessing. It's just something we don't want to stop doing. We don't want to forget to doing. Because, like, even when you said the part about in your car, even though you're not driving your son to school anymore.

Lanée Blaise [00:09:42]:
No, but like, you know, when you're in the car, before you turn on the music or after you listen to whatever song you listen or something, just at some point before you get back out of that car to take that time out to pray long or short or whatever, prayers of thankfulness, prayers for help on things, prayers for other people. It just, you know, a lot of people talk about affirmations and saying words of affirmation to yourself, which is good. Also praising God, which is good. But I do want to, like, take it in another direction, too. We had a guest, she's my aunt, Adara Walton. And. And she also kind of wanted to make sure that we saw ourselves the way God sees us also because many times we aren't loving ourselves enough. We aren't giving ourself enough nurturing.

Lanée Blaise [00:10:37]:
And I may have mentioned this in other episodes, but it just hit me so hard. And I did do it the other Day I was kind of down or overwhelmed or just pressured, stressed. And I walked past the. The bathroom mirror. I think I was, like, putting extra paper towel in the paper towel holder, but I was setting it in there. And I looked up and I saw myself in the mirror. And I really was like, I want to see myself the way God sees myself. And I want to tell Linnae, my Aunt Adara, she said, look yourself in the mirror eye to eye.

Lanée Blaise [00:11:08]:
Like, really stare at yourself in your eyes in that mirror and say, I love you. And even say your name like, I love you, Sandira. I love you, Linnae. I am grateful for this body that I have that gets me around. I'm grateful for this mind that I have that helps me think and create and imagine. I am so grateful that the Holy Spirit resides within me. I'm so grateful to God. But one more time.

Lanée Blaise [00:11:36]:
I love you and mean it. I don't know. And mean it.

Sandy Kovach [00:11:39]:
So what happened when you did that?

Lanée Blaise [00:11:42]:
The rest of my day did uplift. The overwhelm still lingered, but I tell you, I believe God stretched time that day. I got all my things done that were overwhelming me. Like, I've got to do this. I've got to do this. I stopped thinking, like, oh, my gosh, I've got to do that. I'm not going to have time. I just started thinking, I love you, Linnae.

Lanée Blaise [00:12:04]:
And, like, some of the things even took themselves off my plate. My writing partner was like, hey, I went ahead and. Just went ahead and revised the such and such. You can take a look at it. One thing I don't have to do, I can take a look at what you revised. And it was perfect. Easy, you know, just smoothness. Smoothness is.

Lanée Blaise [00:12:21]:
Is my word of the year. But everything went smoother once I went ahead and acknowledged that I love myself, you know, and that God loves me. Yeah, God loves us.

Sandy Kovach [00:12:32]:
Yeah, he does. He loves you. And you brought up the way God sees you. And God sees you as his child. He's not surprised when you don't do things right. And he has grace and mercy and forgives you. He's excited for you when you do great things. He is excited for you when you're taking care of his other children, when you are reaching out, especially when you are being kind to people.

Sandy Kovach [00:13:01]:
And, you know, we're put on this earth. And I think we've talked about this before. Maybe it was Pope Francis who said that our purpose in life is not for ourselves. It's really to be for other people. But we can't be there for other people unless we love ourselves and love God with all your heart, mind and soul. Love your neighbor as yourself and you

Lanée Blaise [00:13:22]:
gotta that says it all those two most important commandments. You know this also though too I want to be sympathetic. Life has been very challenging for lots of folks. For especially recently, lots of unexpected things have been happening. Lots of things being thrown at us all as humans, let alone the fact that just life was always kind of unexpected. People do unexpected things. Even God allows certain things to unfold in a way that is. I sometimes think like I would not have done it that way, you know, and I, and I feel relationship enough to say like God, I don't understand why you did it that way, why you let that happen.

Lanée Blaise [00:14:07]:
And yet I still have trust in God. I was listening to a sermon the other day and at the end of the sermon they said this and it really felt beautiful to me. They asked each person to repeat this out loud. Something great is happening right now. I repeated it and I started thinking in the midst of all the uncertainties, all the frustrations, all the good and bad things in life, I do trust God. And I'm going to try my best to consider that maybe God has something wonderful in mind at the culmination of this dilemma that I have or this challenge that I have and just keep focusing on something great is happening right now. These can be changes and things happening within my body, within my mind, within my spirit, within my world, within my family, within my neighborhood, within our community, within the human population. Something great is happening right now and it is because of God's influence on us.

Lanée Blaise [00:15:18]:
I want to put that out there. I also want to put out. We talked a lot about praying, but Sandy and I have talked about this before as far as praying and then getting some kind of response or nudge back from God is so amazing. That's been my whole goal since I was a little seven year old girl. Not just a one way relationship where I just say all the different things that I'm just praying and saying and talking about, talking about, talking about. And I never stop to listen to what God might be saying back to me. And for those who are like, I just don't hear from God, it doesn't happen. I, I understand that too, but don't give up.

Lanée Blaise [00:15:58]:
I think I've mentioned on this podcast before my mother went for 60 years of her life waiting to hear some nudge, some communion back from God and she finally got it at like age 60 something and she'd been yearning for it for years. But she never gave up. She did kind of start thinking, well, maybe God just doesn't speak to me, but. And Sandy, yours has been through dreams. It just give up.

Sandy Kovach [00:16:26]:
Yeah. I have these weird, incredible dreams, and sometimes they directly involve seeing. I had a dream where I saw Jesus in my dream and talked to him. Last night I had a dream that I was in. It was a megachurch, which I have used to go to both. We used to both go to a megachurch. That's where we met. And then I was.

Sandy Kovach [00:16:49]:
But it was a mega church that was a Lutheran church, so. Because that's where. How I grew up. Right. And usually you think of those as just very traditional churches.

Lanée Blaise [00:16:57]:
Smaller. Yeah.

Sandy Kovach [00:16:58]:
And the pastor was really young and his wife was there, and he looked like Torrin Wells, who was. I don't know if you. He's. He's an artist. He's a Christian artist. Sigmund Freud, you care to interpret that?

Lanée Blaise [00:17:08]:
I definitely believe that. Do you think that God was just, in a way, even, like, showing. I'm here in this, I'm here in that. When people have different denominations and things like that, like, I'm in all of them. I'm in all of it. Not to be like Chaka Khan, but, like, I'm every human. It's all in me, you know, I'm in all of y'. All.

Lanée Blaise [00:17:30]:
I'm everywhere. I'm omnipresent. Even going through. Like you said, you used to go to church this way, you used to go to church that way. It's all still blessing you culminating. That's my take.

Sandy Kovach [00:17:42]:
I'm glad I brought it up because I had no idea. Yeah. It had the. The two different kinds of churches. It had the Christian contemporary music, which. I'm on a Christian contemporary stage so now. So. Yeah.

Lanée Blaise [00:17:53]:
So to just see me and all of it like God, you know, almost like God's being like, see me in all of these areas. Don't limit where you can see me, how you can see me, how you can feel my presence in your life.

Sandy Kovach [00:18:07]:
Yeah. I mean, God is in so many things.

Lanée Blaise [00:18:11]:
That's actually the answer, too. For those people who are thinking God doesn't talk to me the way he talked to Moses and the way he, you know, talked to other. Please look for the little things. Please have a. An ear and an eye for seeing God in ways that you hadn't thought of before. Like you said, see God in the dream. See God in your own past, in your own journey that you've had in past, present, future. God is probably like, just screaming, see me.

Lanée Blaise [00:18:45]:
See me. We're thinking that we want God to see us and notice us and talk to us, and God is probably like, it's the opposite. See me doing, you know, see me, what I'm doing. See what I'm trying to prepare for you. To me, that's just a big one. That's another big one of a small change in a new season that can drastically and beautifully enhance your whole life.

Sandy Kovach [00:19:09]:
Yeah. Don't think that God talking to you has to be linear. Even people who say God spoke to me, quote unquote, they don't mean. Morgan Freeman's booming voice comes, that would be really cool.

Lanée Blaise [00:19:19]:
But, I mean, I would like that. But I don't know anyone who has. Has heard that. But I definitely have heard. I'll even say I have a friend back from. Gosh, we were back friends when we were like 12 years old. And she told me back in 2010 that her father was. Was ill and it was back in the summertime.

Lanée Blaise [00:19:42]:
Her father happened to be a pastor, though, too. But she said, lenae, I'm trying to, like, make sure that I spend as much time with my dad as possible through this summer and through fall. Because he explained that God told him directly, you know, within him that he was going to pass away on the first Monday of November.

Sandy Kovach [00:20:03]:
Wow, that's specific.

Lanée Blaise [00:20:05]:
And, girl, he did. No, he absolutely did. Of natural causes. You know, his heart just kaput. It was, honey, whoa.

Sandy Kovach [00:20:17]:
God took him home.

Lanée Blaise [00:20:18]:
Yeah. And told him the date. And to the point where she was like, linnae, I'm trying to tell my brother because, you know, we talked a lot. So by the time we got to, like, October, she was like, I'm trying to tell my brother to come over, you know, fly in and visit dad, because I believe him when he says this. And he did get there, but he, like, he should have come earlier because he got there kind of like when it was the last little bit. But do you understand, to me, that proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that, you know, she told me this in, like, June, and then it was exactly on the day day that he passed away.

Sandy Kovach [00:20:58]:
Oh, my goodness. Oh, my goodness.

Lanée Blaise [00:21:00]:
So. And God does speak to me and nudge me in ways, but not quite that specific usually. But that's the problem. Say, never give up. Who's to say that you and I are on this podcast like a year from now, and you and I are both saying, God gave me a very specific message to this degree or gave you a dream that laid out something so specifically and so perfectly that you couldn't miss it. And you. It was undeniable. Even though we're supposed to have faith and we shouldn't need evidence.

Lanée Blaise [00:21:31]:
I just want people to understand God is real. God has these individual, customized ways of reaching out to us, getting our attention, and sometimes we miss it. It goes right over our head when God really wanted us to catch it. This is my message from Linnae and Sandy. Like, let's be intentional. Let's, you know, let's really look for. For it. Let's really change our lives and change how we see the ways that God is communicating with us in his own customized way.

Sandy Kovach [00:22:01]:
That's beautiful. And that. And the part you said about trusting God through hard circumstances, which is the hardest thing of all, that scripture in James tells us to be joyful in our trials. I used to laugh at that. It's like, come on, really?

Lanée Blaise [00:22:15]:
That's a tough one.

Sandy Kovach [00:22:16]:
Yeah. When I first. Yeah. Started getting into the Bible, but boy, when we can. And sometimes I succeed, but most. Sometimes I still don't. But I'm trying. And it's a process.

Sandy Kovach [00:22:27]:
Like we were saying, don't try to be perfect.

Lanée Blaise [00:22:29]:
That is, God is not requiring that of us. In fact, there are so many things that we run around here doing that God never asked us to do. God never intended for us to try to do. I believe, again, all God really wanted us to do was love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength and love our neighbor as ourself, which also means loving ourself. That's it.

Sandy Kovach [00:22:55]:
Can you imagine how the world would change if we started acting like Jesus?

Lanée Blaise [00:23:00]:
Yeah. Lately I feel like we're failing miserably.

Sandy Kovach [00:23:05]:
That's all the time. But sometimes it's got an exclamation point.

Lanée Blaise [00:23:09]:
Yeah. And God, I'm sure, has a plan even in all this. That's why I say from that sermon again, something great is happening right now. And it's because God is still in control. God is still influencing. God still has a plan. So we trust God and we roll with that.

Sandy Kovach [00:23:26]:
Trust God and roll with it.

Lanée Blaise [00:23:28]:
Roll with that. Yes. That's my very, very professional way of saying it. So overall, imagine yourself taking the time, even if it's just a little drop of time, to reset your life, reset your day, reset your soul with God, the creator of all, and just beginning to notice all around you all the wonderful things that God is doing even in the midst of the mess. Thanks for joining us.

Sandy Kovach [00:24:02]:
Really appreciate you spending time with us today. If you want to connect, maybe share a story story of your own, hit us up on our social media. We're on Facebook and Instagram or on our website. All those are ways to contact us. And our website is imagine yourself podcast.com we will have links in the show notes and there's also an easy way to text us through this app if you're listening on Apple. Anyway, whatever platform you're listening on, there's an easy way to share. If you know somebody that you feel like could really benefit from this episode. We hope you'll pass it along.

Sandy Kovach [00:24:40]:
Also, subscribe and review and all the things. We just appreciate you hanging out with us here on Imagine Yourself podcast. And until the next time we have something new to imagine, God bless you.