Leslie Johnston [00:00:00]:
Hey, everybody. Welcome back to Am I Doing this Right? On this fine Monday morning, if that's when this airs. I don't know what to do with this microphone.
Morgan May Treuil [00:00:09]:
It's a lot, baby. This microphone is tough.
Leslie Johnston [00:00:14]:
It's literally in your lap.
Morgan May Treuil [00:00:15]:
It's like.
Leslie Johnston [00:00:15]:
I think it's. It's the twisty. It's this thing.
Morgan May Treuil [00:00:18]:
No, no, no, that one's tight.
Leslie Johnston [00:00:20]:
Oh, oh, yeah, yeah, tighten that. That should help.
Morgan May Treuil [00:00:25]:
Yeah, it's good.
Leslie Johnston [00:00:25]:
Okay, we're all good now. The last podcast we shot, I look over and Morgan, I'm literally holding it, like, legit in her lap, and I'm
Morgan May Treuil [00:00:33]:
like, even here, you know? And honestly, that's fine. The last podcast recorded is so good. I can't wait for them to. Well, they already heard it, actually, at this point, so I hope you enjoyed the last podcast.
Leslie Johnston [00:00:43]:
Yes. If you're listening to this one, go back to one and listen to that one first and then come back to this one.
Morgan May Treuil [00:00:48]:
What's your unpopular opinion?
Leslie Johnston [00:00:49]:
I know Morgan and I literally sat in. Not silence, but in. Like. We don't have a single unpopular opinion,
Morgan May Treuil [00:00:56]:
so we're gonna change this segment because we were fresh out of opinion.
Leslie Johnston [00:00:59]:
Yeah. But we came up with some. My unpopular opinion is that I truly believe everybody actually would rather have a Shirley Temple than any other drink, but they're just too embarrassed to get it.
Morgan May Treuil [00:01:14]:
I'm having deja vu.
Leslie Johnston [00:01:16]:
What do you mean?
Morgan May Treuil [00:01:17]:
Have we said this before on this podcast?
Leslie Johnston [00:01:20]:
I don't know.
Morgan May Treuil [00:01:21]:
I don't think we have. But I had a dream that you said this on this podcast. I don't think. Now that I'm. Now that I'm so prophetic thinking about it. That is crazy. Okay. You think everybody would.
Morgan May Treuil [00:01:33]:
See, I can't give my honest opinion about this because I. I can't say why I disagree with you. You're saying everyone would rather have a Shirley Temple than. Than an actual alcoholic beverage?
Leslie Johnston [00:01:47]:
Yeah, or any other beverage. But I think they're either concerned about calories or they're concerned about their. Their, like, you know, embarrassment factor.
Morgan May Treuil [00:01:57]:
Would you rather have a Shirley Temple than a cocktail?
Leslie Johnston [00:01:59]:
Yes.
Morgan May Treuil [00:02:00]:
What if your Shirley Temple was made into a cocktail? Do they do that? Is that called something?
Leslie Johnston [00:02:04]:
They do? But then it's like. It's kind of like how growing up, I. My dad loves a virgin pina colada, like, all growing up, and you know him so well. That does not surprise you. So. So growing up, when we would go on vacation, he would get them all the time, and so we would. We would drink Them too, since we were little, because we just loved them. And then when I became an adult, I was like, I'm gonna be cool and get a real pina colada.
Leslie Johnston [00:02:29]:
And I was like, this is disgusting.
Morgan May Treuil [00:02:30]:
Really?
Leslie Johnston [00:02:31]:
I was like, the virgin pina colada is so much better.
Morgan May Treuil [00:02:34]:
Alcohol they put in pina coladas.
Leslie Johnston [00:02:36]:
I think it's rum.
Morgan May Treuil [00:02:37]:
Right. Which has a very.
Leslie Johnston [00:02:38]:
But like, you know when you really love the flavor of something and then they change it? That's what it felt like.
Morgan May Treuil [00:02:44]:
Yes.
Leslie Johnston [00:02:44]:
It was like, probably I could have just. If I first time having a pina colada, I would have been like, oh, this is good. I'm like, no, no, no. The non alcoholic version is better. So that's my fear about a Shirley Temple. Cuz they have like a dirty Shirley. But to me, I'm like, the real thing is just so much better.
Morgan May Treuil [00:02:58]:
Yeah.
Leslie Johnston [00:02:58]:
And every time I'm with somebody and they take a like a sip of it. Especially guys.
Morgan May Treuil [00:03:02]:
Yes.
Leslie Johnston [00:03:02]:
They're always like, that is so good.
Morgan May Treuil [00:03:04]:
But I feel like y converted our group of friends because now I feel like at first it was just you and Christy who got. Who ordered Shirley Temples, and now I feel like everybody is starting to order Shirley Temples.
Leslie Johnston [00:03:13]:
Shirley's friend.
Morgan May Treuil [00:03:15]:
Yes, Shirley. Shirley's for the girls.
Leslie Johnston [00:03:18]:
They're so good. So everyone should just be free to what you want to order, you know?
Morgan May Treuil [00:03:21]:
What's this?
Leslie Johnston [00:03:21]:
I feel the same way.
Morgan May Treuil [00:03:22]:
Is it grenadine?
Leslie Johnston [00:03:23]:
Grenadine, which is actually pomegranate. I thought it was cherry.
Morgan May Treuil [00:03:27]:
Is it pomegranate syrup?
Leslie Johnston [00:03:28]:
Yeah, with sprite and little cherries. Marino cherries.
Morgan May Treuil [00:03:32]:
Syrup really freaks me out for some reason.
Leslie Johnston [00:03:34]:
Really?
Morgan May Treuil [00:03:35]:
Maple syrup. I love flavored syrups. Make me really feel icky. I'm not sure what not like feel the key.
Leslie Johnston [00:03:41]:
Like, it breaks the. Like it just grosses you out. It's like too thick.
Morgan May Treuil [00:03:44]:
That and like the color's weird and.
Leslie Johnston [00:03:46]:
Yeah, I get that.
Morgan May Treuil [00:03:47]:
I don't know, it feels like fake.
Leslie Johnston [00:03:48]:
Yeah. I feel the same way about my stance as I do. Like, everybody would probably rather get a hot chocolate if it had energy in it.
Morgan May Treuil [00:03:57]:
Yes, 100%. The taste of hot chocolate is way better than coffee.
Leslie Johnston [00:04:01]:
So good.
Morgan May Treuil [00:04:02]:
But the zing that coffee gives you.
Leslie Johnston [00:04:05]:
Addicting.
Morgan May Treuil [00:04:06]:
You need that. It's addicting. Do you ever crave coffee?
Leslie Johnston [00:04:10]:
If I'm with people and they're having it, yes. I don't drink coffee anymore because it used to make me feel gross and kind of anxious. And I. I didn't like that. So I was like, no more. Yeah, cold Turkey.
Morgan May Treuil [00:04:23]:
Cold turkey.
Leslie Johnston [00:04:23]:
But I do miss it. Like, when I see someone with, like, a really good color of coffee, I'm like. It was like. I'm like, that's the perfect amount of milk in that. Yep. Not too much, not too little.
Morgan May Treuil [00:04:35]:
Yep.
Leslie Johnston [00:04:35]:
I do miss it.
Morgan May Treuil [00:04:36]:
Y.
Leslie Johnston [00:04:36]:
But I wish they would come out with a coffee. And I know you're going to say there's decaf. No, decaf still makes me feel mushroom coffee. I've never had mushroom coffee.
Morgan May Treuil [00:04:45]:
I haven't either, but that feels like
Leslie Johnston [00:04:47]:
it might do something else.
Morgan May Treuil [00:04:48]:
I know it sends you on like a little trip around the sun. It's really good. Funny.
Leslie Johnston [00:04:52]:
Okay, wait, Artemis, Like, Artemis Prime? Is that like.
Morgan May Treuil [00:04:57]:
No, no. Isn't that. Isn't Artemis the. The spaceship thing?
Leslie Johnston [00:05:02]:
Oh, we have not talked about that.
Morgan May Treuil [00:05:03]:
Is that what it's called, Artemis? Is that this mission or is it the ship? It's called Artemis.
Leslie Johnston [00:05:07]:
Don't know. All I know is I've seen little TikTok videos of them.
Morgan May Treuil [00:05:10]:
And the thing is, is that they're going around.
Leslie Johnston [00:05:14]:
Around the moon.
Morgan May Treuil [00:05:15]:
The moon. But then the next expedition that's going out is going to land on the moon.
Leslie Johnston [00:05:19]:
Yes.
Morgan May Treuil [00:05:20]:
And what are we gathering by going around the moon?
Leslie Johnston [00:05:23]:
They're going the farthest that anybody has ever gone before. Nobody's been that far. So they are going to, like. And I think they're, like, trying to go around the moon to see things they haven't seen before or something. So. Because I know everyone was like, see, this is why we've never been to the moon.
Morgan May Treuil [00:05:40]:
Yes.
Leslie Johnston [00:05:40]:
Because they're not going. And it's like, well, that's not their mission. Their mission is to go around it and to go the farthest they've ever been and come back.
Morgan May Treuil [00:05:46]:
How long does it take them total to go around and come back? Do you know?
Leslie Johnston [00:05:50]:
No.
Morgan May Treuil [00:05:50]:
Okay. Well, I'm just curious. I am fascinated by outer space because.
Leslie Johnston [00:05:54]:
Yeah.
Morgan May Treuil [00:05:55]:
I don't understand why anybody would ever choose to go.
Leslie Johnston [00:05:57]:
Would you rather go to outer space or the bottom of the ocean?
Morgan May Treuil [00:06:00]:
The bottom of the ocean.
Leslie Johnston [00:06:01]:
What you'd rather be.
Morgan May Treuil [00:06:03]:
Okay, the bottom of the ocean. Because I know how to get back up.
Leslie Johnston [00:06:08]:
Swim.
Morgan May Treuil [00:06:08]:
But go slow.
Leslie Johnston [00:06:09]:
Yeah.
Morgan May Treuil [00:06:10]:
So you don't get the bends. Yes, but I don't like outer space. To me, feels like it.
Leslie Johnston [00:06:16]:
It.
Morgan May Treuil [00:06:16]:
It's not like a plane trip that it takes you a set amount of time to get there and come back. You're, like, out there and getting back is a whole process. And you're like, outside The. The hard part for me and I guess this is similar with the ocean too, but it's like you're going to a place where nothing about the environment is conducive to how you're supposed to live. Like, there's no oxygen, there's no gravity. Like everything about the way our bodies are supposed to function. We're choosing to go to a place where like, none of that exists.
Leslie Johnston [00:06:46]:
Yeah.
Morgan May Treuil [00:06:47]:
So I don't understand why anybody wants to go or why we care to know what's on the moon. I don't know why we care about that. I mean, minds that are much different than mine are saying, let's go find out what's on the moon. And I'm like, we live on Earth right there. We're on Earth. Why do we care what's on the moon? Leave the moon to its own things. Let me google how long it's going to take. How long? Love.
Leslie Johnston [00:07:10]:
I hope a tv, not TV show. I hope like a documentary comes out about them, which I sure, I'm sure it will because I love watching all of their videos of like the camaraderie they have of the four of. There's the four or five astronauts. And on Easter, one of the guys is like, basically preaching the gospel. Like, wow, he's being. He was like, you know what? Those of you on Earth, you think that we're doing such a crazy thing by being here, but you're there doing your thing and he talks about Jesus.
Morgan May Treuil [00:07:40]:
Wow.
Leslie Johnston [00:07:40]:
You don't see that? No, it was really good. And then the one that literally almost made me cry was they had discovered like a new crater on the moon. And when you discover something like that and you're the one who discovers it, you get to name it. So they named it after one of the. One of the guys who's a part of the mission, he lost his wife to cancer and he has two daughters. And one of the other guys was like, I think we should name it. And then whatever his wife's name was. And they're all like crying and they do like a great group non gravity hug.
Leslie Johnston [00:08:13]:
It was very sweet.
Morgan May Treuil [00:08:14]:
That's really sweet.
Leslie Johnston [00:08:15]:
It's very Sweet.
Morgan May Treuil [00:08:16]:
It lasts 10 days, 9 days, 1 hour and 31 minutes.
Leslie Johnston [00:08:21]:
That's crazy.
Morgan May Treuil [00:08:22]:
And they will splash down in the Pacific Ocean on April 10th. Why in this. Why do you have to land in the ocean?
Leslie Johnston [00:08:31]:
Probably because maybe like you'd land really hard on, Right.
Morgan May Treuil [00:08:34]:
I guess the ocean is like a soft, cushiony little lip. Imagine you come back from space, you land in the ocean and then you get swallowed By a shark. What a crazy. Like, you just survived. You survived that yet you get.
Leslie Johnston [00:08:46]:
Oh, yeah. Or you're driving on your way home and you get a car accident. Died. That would be so annoying.
Morgan May Treuil [00:08:52]:
That's insane. Approximately. They've traveled 694, 481 miles. That is insane.
Leslie Johnston [00:09:00]:
Have you seen Project Hail Mary yet?
Morgan May Treuil [00:09:02]:
No. I just told Benji that we need
Leslie Johnston [00:09:04]:
to go, which I guess Whalen does cause, like, a little bit of a hardship of going to.
Morgan May Treuil [00:09:08]:
It really has put a huge damper on our social movies. No, we want to go see it. I don't know how you do in a theater, and I just feel like I need to, like, drop them off somewhere. But we haven't seen it yet. We haven't had time yet.
Leslie Johnston [00:09:19]:
Oh, my God.
Morgan May Treuil [00:09:19]:
I really want to.
Leslie Johnston [00:09:20]:
So good. It's so funny.
Morgan May Treuil [00:09:22]:
I can't wait. I love Ryan Gosling.
Leslie Johnston [00:09:24]:
Yeah, me too. So it's great.
Morgan May Treuil [00:09:27]:
Okay, so today you guys are gonna help me out because I'm. I'm teaching at this thing on Friday. Friday. It will have been a few days ago when you listen to this, but I'm teaching at this women's event, and I kind of want to. We're going to flush out the content a little bit and kind of turn it into a conversation, but it is something that we've talked about, I feel like a few times on the podcast, the idea of waiting on God's promises or waiting on the things that you desire.
Leslie Johnston [00:09:55]:
Yeah.
Morgan May Treuil [00:09:56]:
And we're going to look at it today from the perspective of Abraham and Sarah. And. And so just to give kind of a little context into the Abraham and Sarah storyline, in case you have not read this part of your Bible or maybe you didn't grow up in, you know, father Abraham had many sons. Many sons had father Abraham culture, Abraham and Sarah. Their thing is that in Genesis 12, God tells Abraham his name was Abram at the time his name became Abraham. Later, he tells Abram tell to leave his hometown, to leave his family, and to go to the land that God is going to take him to and show him. And he makes Abraham kind of a threefold promise that he's going to bless him and that all the nations will be blessed because of him, that he was going to give him land and that he was going to be the father of many nations. So kind of a threefold promise of land, generations and a legacy.
Morgan May Treuil [00:10:52]:
And then also the. The reality of being a blessing, which ultimately, if you know the end of the story, through Abraham's lineage would come the person of Jesus, who would die on the cross and rise again for the sins of all of mankind. And that's the blessing aspect. So Abraham would be a blessing because through his line, the ultimate blessing to the world would come.
Leslie Johnston [00:11:13]:
Wow.
Morgan May Treuil [00:11:13]:
That's the promise that's made. It's an interesting promise because we don't really know how much of that promise Abraham understood. He wasn't on the, like the full circle moment of the promise where he could look back and see how God accomplished those things he said he was going to do. So we don't know what Abraham expects. We just know that, that God spoke to Abraham and Abraham took a step of obedience and he did leave his hometown and he did begin to follow God. But one of the hiccups in the promise that God made to Abraham and in Abraham's response to God is that Abraham felt like, well, the only way that I can fulfill these things, he's spoken over my life, and the only way that I can matter to society is if I have a child. And me and my wife have been barren. We're unable to have children.
Morgan May Treuil [00:11:58]:
My wife is old in age. She's got like a, you know, a uterus that's almost out of commission. We'll have to look up and see how old Sarah actually was. But however old she was, it was very unlikely that she was going to be able to have a child. So God speaks this promise over them. But after he speaks the promise and a little bit of time passes, Abraham and Sarah become doubtful. And the message that I'm going to teach is kind of like a three movement message about what God does in our hearts when we wait and why waiting is so crucial.
Leslie Johnston [00:12:31]:
Yeah.
Morgan May Treuil [00:12:32]:
That there's actually a rhyme and a reason to God not giving us everything that we're waiting for right after we want it or right after he speaks, speaks about it and promises it. That there's some faith building, some character building, some perspective shifting that happens during waiting.
Leslie Johnston [00:12:47]:
Yeah.
Morgan May Treuil [00:12:48]:
And so that's kind of the conversation we wanted to talk about. Before we get there though, it's kind of a vulnerable question. So you can answer it however deep you want to go. But do you feel like there's one thing in your life where you remember the waiting season for that thing being pretty difficult or emotional, Something that you really wanted that I think from, for me, mine was marriage. Because it, it just didn't happen at all in the timing that I thought it was going to. And the weight for that just felt really kind of hopeless.
Leslie Johnston [00:13:25]:
Yeah.
Morgan May Treuil [00:13:25]:
And I'm not really sure. Why? But it just did.
Leslie Johnston [00:13:28]:
No, that's good. I think one that I had, like kind of a different one from yours because I think obviously that would be similar to me. But another one is in college, actually. I. I loved my experience. Like, I loved the people I met at college. I loved so many things about it. But I felt like it was four years of obedience because once I got down there, pretty quickly I realized I was like, oh, I don't actually love it here.
Leslie Johnston [00:13:59]:
Like, I don't love. First of all, I didn't like, love school, first of all. But then second of all, I didn't love the area I was in. I felt like I was so homesick. I was like, homesick for my friends, for my family, for all the people back at home. I was dating somebody who was still back at home. And I felt like the easy way out right now would be to just pick up and go home to quit what I was doing. I don't like this.
Leslie Johnston [00:14:25]:
I can leave. And I remember talking to my dad and me being like, this is so hard. Like, I cried so much. I think I've said this on this podcast. At one point I had scabs under my eyes because I cried. I probably had dry skin too, but I cried so much and I was so homesick. And the only person I knew was Christy.
Morgan May Treuil [00:14:45]:
Right?
Leslie Johnston [00:14:46]:
And I think it was like so hard for me. And I remember having a conversation with my dad and he's like, you could do whatever you want, but just so you know, like, the only. He's like, the only way that somebody is actually like, ready for marriage someday is when they've demonstrated a high level of commitment to something that's hard. Right? So this can be your season maybe, of like, you are committing and sticking to something that you don't want to do. And he's like, cuz someday you're going to be married and you're going to be like, this isn't fun anymore. I don't want to be married anymore. And. And he's like, and you're gonna stick it out because you know that it's worth it.
Leslie Johnston [00:15:22]:
And so those four years I remember, and it was not all bad, honestly. I came out of that season, freshman year of like, okay, this isn't that bad. I can make this work. But it was always this. A little bit of longing to be back up here because I knew I loved it up here. And there was something, honestly I think that God had in my heart back then that I totally didn't realize. Yeah, that was up here for me, like, the life I'm living now in the ministry that I'm doing and the people that I love and getting to be around family was something that I think I had almost foreseen in my mind and what I really wanted and was longing for. But I felt like I was stuck down there, and I was in this season of waiting and being obedient, and I remember that being really hard, but I'm really glad that I did it.
Leslie Johnston [00:16:08]:
That's great.
Morgan May Treuil [00:16:09]:
That's really cool. Did you feel like in that. In that waiting season, did you feel like staying was the thing you were supposed to do, even though it was hard, or were you kind of like, how did you. I mean, obviously you wanted to finish your degree, and that's kind of the way of college, so I get that part of it. But I'm just thinking for the people that find themselves in a similar situation where they're like, I'm really ready for the next season. Like, I want to go to what's next, but I'm stuck in what's right now. Yeah. Do you feel like there was, like, there was a piece in waiting, but it was really hard, or do you feel like you were just like, no, no, I'm, like, just ready to go, and, like, I'm.
Morgan May Treuil [00:16:43]:
I'm getting out of here.
Leslie Johnston [00:16:45]:
I think there was. I felt like God was like, you have to prove to yourself that you can stay.
Morgan May Treuil [00:16:51]:
Yeah.
Leslie Johnston [00:16:51]:
And like, you. I think I was, like, pretty big on commitment, too, where it was like, no, I need to. I need to stick this out and actually do it. And I think, yeah. So I felt like it was. I felt like God was like, you have to stay. But it was. I don't think I was given reasons for, like, oh, no, you're staying here because there's so much for you to do right here.
Leslie Johnston [00:17:13]:
It almost. It felt like such a waiting season, which maybe was somewhat on me. It was like, maybe I didn't fully. Now I. Like, we really did, like, live it up in college. We had so much fun. We did all these things, but there was still this. Like, I don't want to be in this spot.
Leslie Johnston [00:17:29]:
Like, I want to be on to the next phase.
Morgan May Treuil [00:17:32]:
Kind of like a. Like a lack of fulfillment.
Leslie Johnston [00:17:34]:
Yeah.
Morgan May Treuil [00:17:34]:
I'll add one more example to it, and if you have another one, you can add this, too, because I think there's so many different kinds of seasons. But I remember coming to Bayside in 2020, and I felt so confident that this is where I was supposed to be. Without a shadow of a doubt. And I was really excited about working at Bayside as a church. I was excited about all of the things that Bayside took seriously. The commitment to the word of God, the commitment to compassion. There were so many things about the church that felt like were in alignment with what I, like, personally felt like I was excited to do. And then I.
Morgan May Treuil [00:18:08]:
When I got connected with Bayside, the job opening that I got connected through was small groups, and that's a great job. And then I came here, started doing it, and pretty quickly realized that it was not my favorite job that I had ever had. Yeah, it was my favorite job location I had ever been at and still is actually, like, my. The most healthy team dynamic. And I love the vision, totally on board. But for the first three years of me working here, I'm getting close to six years now. For the first three years of me working here, I remember coming to work and being like, I feel very fulfilled in where I am, but I feel very unfulfilled in what I'm doing. Like, I feel like.
Morgan May Treuil [00:18:50]:
And it wasn't that the job was bad, because for another person, that job would be a dream. But for whatever reason, it just, like, wasn't my thing. But there were no opportunities to do something else. And I felt very confident that this was something that God wanted me to do and to learn something from. And so even from, like, a purpose perspective, especially when you're young, you're not married, you know, you. You kind of have your work as your thing that you're doing, and you tie a lot of your purpose to that to that because it's in front of you. And I remember feeling like my purpose was just kind of, like, put on pause because I was doing something that just didn't feel like me. But I was in that for, like, three years.
Morgan May Treuil [00:19:29]:
And three years felt like a very long time to sit in a job that. That didn't feel like it was, like, connecting well with me. And I remember having to kind of sit in that, and it. It felt a lot like a pause, like a press pause. And I don't know that I waited very well in that. Now that I'm thinking back to that, I didn't, like, try to make the best or, like, learn things from it. I kind of just like, pressed pause and then started thinking about other things and then tried to, like, skip through it.
Leslie Johnston [00:19:57]:
Yeah. Do you think that, like, there's. Do you think it's like, a mindset thing somehow? Like, sometimes when we think about waiting seasons or do you think that, like, we have, like. Or there's no control of it. Because sometimes I think, like, I. I'm, like, listening to both of us and going, okay, if I had somehow convinced myself that, like, oh, no, college is the best, like, I'm gonna have the most fun here, whatever would I have? Can you almost, like, can you trick yourself into not thinking it's a waiting season or by, like, being grateful enough or by focusing on positive things? Or does sometimes it just feel like a waiting season? Because that was a waiting season for you. I remember, and it was a waiting season for me. But I'm like, yeah, I kind of wonder because I'm thinking now.
Leslie Johnston [00:20:50]:
I'm like, okay, my life is very different from when I was in college to now. But, like, I mean, people are people. Like, I had great friends down there. I have great friends up here. I didn't have family down. I had some family down there. My sister. But then I have more family up here.
Leslie Johnston [00:21:07]:
But it's like, the reality is very similar, actually, of what I was living in, but for some reason, that one felt so. Not enough. Yeah, but then it's like, was I just in the right mindset of, like, oh, I was ready for this? So then, therefore, I'm making the best of it in my mind. Like, I don't feel like I'm in a waiting season in that same sense, you know?
Morgan May Treuil [00:21:28]:
Well, I feel like when you look at Abraham and Sarah's story, it might be, like, a mix of both. I think that we're very outcomes focused because we want the picture of life that we imagined would make us happy. So whatever picture of life you had when you were a little girl or a little boy that you felt like was this. If I get this, then I will have made it. I think that we're outcomes driven. So a lot of times our waiting is not done well because we're focused. We're fixated more on outcomes than. Than we are on, like, the actual journey of waiting.
Morgan May Treuil [00:22:01]:
That has a lot of value. But I also think sometimes God places desires and things and speaks things over your life. Like, with Abraham and Sarah, he told them that they were designed for something larger than the place that they currently sat. Yeah, that's not to say that the place they currently sat was small, but in the. In the grand scheme of what. What God wanted to do through them, they had to think bigger than where they currently were. And so then for. For them, part of.
Morgan May Treuil [00:22:30]:
I think why they were feeling not content in their current circumstance was because there was a A promise that was spoken over them.
Leslie Johnston [00:22:38]:
Yeah.
Morgan May Treuil [00:22:38]:
And they were ready to live into it. And I think that that can be true for us, too. That there's something that you want, a desire that's been put in your heart and your mind for something that you will have or someone that you want to be. And not being there creates a tension in your soul. And I don't know that that's necessarily a bad thing. The tension of having to wait on who you want to be or what you want to do is not a bad thing. But it has to be, like, tended to and stewarded. Because I think the.
Morgan May Treuil [00:23:07]:
The hiccup in all of this. This was true for Abraham and Sarah. This is true for us, is you can get so focused and fixated on an outcome that your trust becomes more in an outcome than it becomes in the person of God. And part of the waiting. I believe God gives waiting to us in order for us to grow in our relationship with him while we're waiting on something.
Leslie Johnston [00:23:31]:
Yeah.
Morgan May Treuil [00:23:32]:
And we have to come to terms with the fact that if we never get another good thing from God, is the person of God enough to sustain and to satisfy us? Yeah. There's the gifts and there's the gift giver.
Leslie Johnston [00:23:43]:
Yeah.
Morgan May Treuil [00:23:43]:
And I think a lot of times we go through life and we are very obsessed with the gift because we think those things will bring us satisfaction. Actually, it's the gift giver who gives those gifts. His intention's always been to give you the gifts, but the healthier thing for you is to know him rather than to just, like, get the gifts. That's really good.
Leslie Johnston [00:24:03]:
Yeah.
Morgan May Treuil [00:24:04]:
So is your belief when you're waiting. This is like a litmus test question. Is your belief more in or your trust more in? I'm going to get the outcome I want or that I'm going to trust the person of God and grow in relationship with him. And are you comfortable with him if he is all that you ever get? If you never get another good thing, are you comfortable with that?
Leslie Johnston [00:24:25]:
It's such a hard tension because God talks about how he's like the giver of good gifts. So he obviously knows that gifts matter to us. They mean a lot to us. They bring a lot of fulfillment. But then we're supposed to die to ourselves. We're supposed to find our satisfaction in God. So it is this hard, like, I don't know, like, tension between the two of, like, okay, I want to actually love the gifts and look forward to the things that I feel like God has promised to me. But then at the same time, it's this, like, tension of, oh, I don't.
Leslie Johnston [00:25:00]:
I don't want to, like, not be okay in my current scenario, though, because if I'm not okay with just God, then that doesn't seem like the right way to live or the way that God wants me to look at this thing. But then I don't wanna. But I want to be excited about the things that he's excited to give me. Like, it's like when you give a gift to someone and it wouldn't be very fun if they were like, well, I don't care about this at all. Like, I just. Like, I just care about you. Like, you want them to enjoy the gift. You're like, I'm giving this to you because I love you.
Morgan May Treuil [00:25:31]:
Yeah.
Leslie Johnston [00:25:31]:
And I think God's like, I'm giving this to you because I love you. I want you to cherish it, be excited about it, but not replace that gift with him, you know? Like, I think it is really easy when we, you know, want whatever it is. It's like, we want that relationship or we want that baby, or we want that thing that feels like, okay, I want that. That's a good gift. That's a good gift from God. But it shouldn't re. It shouldn't replace God. Like, it shouldn't be like, oh, good, we're good now.
Leslie Johnston [00:26:00]:
God, thank you. Like, I got this thing that I wanted.
Morgan May Treuil [00:26:03]:
Yeah.
Leslie Johnston [00:26:03]:
But if anything, it's like, you're right. That waiting season, I think it helps strengthen our relationship with God.
Morgan May Treuil [00:26:09]:
Yes.
Leslie Johnston [00:26:09]:
So I guess my question for you is, like, how in waiting seasons have you, like, active? Like, I know people say in waiting seasons, obviously, like, your relationship with God grows, but what does that actually look like when you are just discouraged or you are feeling like, this is not fun, like, this is not the way I want to be living? I'm just curious, like, in your experience.
Morgan May Treuil [00:26:34]:
Yeah. Well. So Genesis 15, 1:3. After this, the word of the Lord came to Abraham in a vision. So Genesis 15, this is three chapters. 12, 13, 14, 15. This is three chapters after the original promise in Genesis 12. So God has spoken over Abraham's life, what he would do.
Morgan May Treuil [00:26:54]:
And then after this, Abraham responds. Response. The word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision. Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward. So I think that this is instruction that's given a lot in the Bible. The instruction to not be afraid. And it's coupled oftentimes with an obedience decision.
Morgan May Treuil [00:27:14]:
So God says, what he would like for him to do and then coupled with that is don't be afraid.
Leslie Johnston [00:27:19]:
Yeah.
Morgan May Treuil [00:27:20]:
Which goes to show that when God asks you, you to make moves, fear is a very natural response to God asking you to make moves. And in Abraham's experience, he was being, he was, he was told what his life would become. Not, not in completely certain terms, but he was told what his life would be for. And then he was left in the waiting room of, okay, that's, that's coming, but it's not yet. So I have to live into that like it's coming, but it's not my right now.
Leslie Johnston [00:27:51]:
Yeah.
Morgan May Treuil [00:27:52]:
And I think the instruction that God gives him not to be afraid feels very natural. Because when we experience a waiting room of some kind, our natural response is also a little bit of fear. We're like, oh shoot. Well, if I have to wait for it, then that means that there is a chance that I might not get it in the way that I thought that I would. So I think treating fear as a symptom to unhealthy waiting, let's say, is a very, very important step that needs to be taken. And I believe that most of my sin issues, whether it was in college or young adulthood, a lot of my sin issues that took place with people that I dated or obsessions or thoughts that I would have, a lot of those things came from a fear based mindset of, okay, well what if I don't get that? Then I need to cling to these other things because at least they give me just like a little bit of what I was hoping for. Yeah. So I think fear has to be dealt with.
Morgan May Treuil [00:28:54]:
Verse 2. But Abraham said, sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Elar of Damascus? And Abram said, you have given me no children, so a servant of my household will be my heir. So Abram's response to God saying, don't be afraid is to come back around and saying, but you didn't give me a child. You haven't given me a child yet. And for Abraham, the only way that he saw in his limited understanding of God fulfilling his promise to him was for him to have a child.
Leslie Johnston [00:29:26]:
Yeah.
Morgan May Treuil [00:29:27]:
And he would have a child. In fact, he would have many children. It was going to become a like a God. Sigh. Abraham's dream of having a child when given into the hands of God was going to become a God sized dream that was going to expand far beyond Abraham's imagination. But there's this point here that's being made in the text that God promises. Time passes, and then Abraham's doubt begins to grow. Yeah.
Morgan May Treuil [00:29:53]:
And so when I look back to those seasons in my life of when I was waiting on something that I. I wasn't sure if God was going to give them, give it to me or not. I wasn't sure if God was gonna give me a husband. I wasn't sure if God was going to give me a job that fulfilled me. I wasn't sure if any of those things were. Were going to happen. But those two things need to be dealt with. It's the fear thought, and it's the doubt thought.
Morgan May Treuil [00:30:16]:
Fear that God won't give me what I want and doubt that God is good if he won't give me the things that I want. And I think those were the two things that I had to wrestle with. And I'm not really sure that I did a good job with that practically. But the one thing I can think of that led me to a place of greater freedom is to fall more in love with the person of Jesus rather than the thing that I was after. So the more that I read my Bible, the more that I came to church, the more that I spent time in my small group, the more that I worshiped, the more that I did those things, my heart began to grow softer and more interested in relationship with God, and that felt better than the out. And I say that carefully because I had never stopped wanting the things that I wanted.
Leslie Johnston [00:31:12]:
Yeah.
Morgan May Treuil [00:31:12]:
But I did start loving God more than I loved those things. And I started to become a little bit more okay with the fact that I might just have God and none of the other practical stuff. I also think there's, like, you know, the practice of gratitude that we talk a lot about helps us to see that there's other good things, but besides. Besides that. And. And then I think, like, we have to remember, too, that doubt and fear in the waiting room sometimes causes you to want to seek out shortcuts.
Leslie Johnston [00:31:45]:
Yeah.
Morgan May Treuil [00:31:46]:
Rather than to stay the course.
Leslie Johnston [00:31:48]:
Yes.
Morgan May Treuil [00:31:48]:
And the Enemy loves to put a shortcut in front of you when you're in a very long. It's like Golden One, which is the big arena here in Sacramento. Whenever I've gone to a concert at Golden One, there's like, many entrances and many lines that you can take to get in. If the line that you're in is too long, all I'm doing is searching for a shorter line. Right.
Leslie Johnston [00:32:12]:
Like that one, though.
Morgan May Treuil [00:32:14]:
And by the time that you get to the other line that Was shorter. It's already longer.
Leslie Johnston [00:32:18]:
And your line's already through and your
Morgan May Treuil [00:32:20]:
line's done, you're like, crap. Or like, when you're. It's same thing in the grocery store. It's like you think that the. There's shorter lines over there. So you leave your spot, you come back. We're always looking for a shortcut because waiting is so miserable for us that we're like, how do I make this stop to get where I want to go? The problem for us and the problem for Abraham and Sarah is that when they found a shortcut to expedite their waiting, the shortcut was not God's best for them. And oftentimes, and in their case this is true, it wasn't just not God's best, it was disobedience against God.
Morgan May Treuil [00:32:53]:
And it created lots of problems.
Leslie Johnston [00:32:55]:
Yeah.
Morgan May Treuil [00:32:55]:
So when Abraham and Sarah. You said this earlier, when Abraham and Sarah realized that the timing of them having a child wasn't going to go on their terms, Sarah was like, well, go sleep with a servant and then she'll give us a child. And what did you say earlier? It was profound.
Leslie Johnston [00:33:11]:
Oh, well, thank you.
Morgan May Treuil [00:33:13]:
No, it actually was. I hadn't heard that.
Leslie Johnston [00:33:15]:
We were talking about that. I was like, it's first of all interesting that it's Sarah that says that and not Abraham.
Morgan May Treuil [00:33:21]:
Right.
Leslie Johnston [00:33:21]:
The story is kind of told a lot from Abraham's perspective and what God told Abraham. And the funny part is, is that it's Sarah being like, hey, I want this baby, so go sleep with this other person and then we can have a baby. And what we see in that story is that, like, her inability to wait on God's timing.
Morgan May Treuil [00:33:43]:
Yeah.
Leslie Johnston [00:33:44]:
Not only hurt her, but hurt other people.
Morgan May Treuil [00:33:48]:
Yeah.
Leslie Johnston [00:33:48]:
Like, it was just. It was like, I've never heard that in the story before, but I was like, whoa. Sometimes in our waiting, if we choose not to wait on God and we wanna take matters into our own hands, a lot of times we think, well, it's just gonna hurt me. Like, okay, if I make the wrong decision, whatever.
Morgan May Treuil [00:34:04]:
Yes.
Leslie Johnston [00:34:05]:
But no, I think our. I think God's very intentional, especially when he speaks and is like, I want you to wait for this thing, and we wanna take a shortcut. It can hurt other people.
Morgan May Treuil [00:34:15]:
It's so damaging to other people because usually you not waiting involves you sinning. You not waiting. Well, waiting healthily involves you making a sin decision that then affects other people. No, go ahead.
Leslie Johnston [00:34:29]:
I was gonna say it kind of reminds me. This is, like, so nerdy to say, but it Kind of reminds me of, like, those movies about time travel.
Morgan May Treuil [00:34:35]:
Yes.
Leslie Johnston [00:34:35]:
And when they go back in time and they're like, don't change anything. Don't, like, mess with anything. Don't talk to yourself back in time and. Because it's going to mess with the whole system.
Morgan May Treuil [00:34:44]:
Yeah.
Leslie Johnston [00:34:44]:
Like, it kind of knocks everything off its course.
Morgan May Treuil [00:34:46]:
Right.
Leslie Johnston [00:34:46]:
And it kind of makes me think of the story of, like, God's, like, no, I actually have a better way for you. But when you take it into your own hands, it almost like, messes. And obviously God's sovereign over everything. But, like, it does feel like you're taking it and, like, knocking it off its course.
Morgan May Treuil [00:35:02]:
100.
Leslie Johnston [00:35:03]:
Yeah.
Morgan May Treuil [00:35:04]:
In this setting or in this scenario, Sarah was like, I'm done waiting. Give me a child through her. Then Abraham goes and sleeps with somebody else. He gets pregnant. Or Hagar is the girl he sleeps with. She gets pregnant with Ishmael, which kind of messes things up because that wasn't God's. That wasn't God's plan for who would become the heir to Abraham. God still took care of Hagar and Ishmael, but that wasn't the plan.
Morgan May Treuil [00:35:33]:
Then it creates this jealousy between Sarah and Hagar. It creates jealousy between the two boys. It creates this whole messy dynamic that shouldn't have existed in the first place. If they had just waited on God the way that he said that he would show up. I think waiting reveals what you trust. That's sort of the first movement of this. Abraham is called, he's already been promised by God, but he's waiting. The question that Abraham has is, God, are you going to come through? When there was silence, then Abraham was like, well, I guess I'll just fill in the answer to my own question.
Morgan May Treuil [00:36:07]:
And by filling in the answer to my own question, I'm going to go like, white knuckle the thing and get the baby. However, I see a way to do that, even if it hurts people, even if it hurts me, even if it's not God's, you know, God's best or God's design for me.
Leslie Johnston [00:36:21]:
Yeah.
Morgan May Treuil [00:36:22]:
And so I think God speaks that he. This happens to us in promises that God makes to us. God does not come down and promise all of us that we're going to be the father of many nation or the mother of many nations. Abraham got a very specific promise. We don't always get specific promises, but there are promises that we do get in God's word. He speaks that he makes all things work together for the good of those he loves. In Romans. So we think, okay, well, God's going to make life work together for my good because I love him and he loves me.
Morgan May Treuil [00:36:51]:
In Psalm 37, it says that he gives us the desires of our heart. We've talked about this a lot.
Leslie Johnston [00:36:55]:
Yeah.
Morgan May Treuil [00:36:55]:
So if he gives me the desires of my heart, that means he's going to give me the things I desire. Proverbs 3, 5, 6. He says that if we submit our ways to him, then he makes our paths straight, which means that he's gonna make our paths straight. He's gonna clear out obstacles for me to move forward. So we believe that God has said those things, that they're true for our lives. But then when we encounter a weight in any of those categories, then our doubt begins to grow. And that. That goes to show that waiting reveals if we trust God and what he has said, or if we trust what we see in our visible reality.
Morgan May Treuil [00:37:35]:
Do we trust God's promise or do we trust our own plan? And then what do we do with the test of trust after that? Do we wait or do we take a shortcut? And I think a shortcut can look like a million different things. And you might be thinking of yours right now as you're listening to it, but I think this can involve settling for the wrong person. I think this can involve sexual sin. I think this can involve. I don't know. This might be a little bit of a stretch, but it's like, I think that unhealthy waiting can sometimes involve, like, substance abuse because you try to numb the feeling, the discomfort of waiting by trying to just, like, engage in stuff that makes you feel something.
Leslie Johnston [00:38:18]:
Yeah.
Morgan May Treuil [00:38:19]:
I've seen a lot of people abandon their callings. Like, there's one person I'm thinking of in particular right now, a young adult that we're working with that, like, has a calling towards ministry, but he's uncomfortable with the weight of. The weight. As in, like, W A I T. The weight of, like, if God's gonna give him a job or not. So then he's, like, just kind of, like, throwing the call of ministry away. And he's just going and taking whatever jobs work right now. Yeah.
Morgan May Treuil [00:38:46]:
So I think it can.
Leslie Johnston [00:38:47]:
Yeah. Or even, like, many short fees, like, totally. I think, like, at least for me, I feel like in my waiting season of whatever it would be in the last, like, 10 years is like, okay, am I waiting in a good way? Like, or am I waiting in, like, a doubtful. Like, I'm doubting God or I'm just. I'm apathetic or negative or whatever it is. Like, I think we can so easily fall into. Oh, no, Now I'm kind of in this, like, unhealthy spot emotionally.
Morgan May Treuil [00:39:18]:
Yeah.
Leslie Johnston [00:39:18]:
Where I don't think it has to be that way.
Morgan May Treuil [00:39:20]:
No.
Leslie Johnston [00:39:21]:
But I think we need God's help for it to not be that way.
Morgan May Treuil [00:39:24]:
Yeah, No, I. I think that's how. How do you feel like you've gotten God's help? So, like, go back to the time when you were in college. What was the thing that you did with God to help you stay even though it was really uncomfortable.
Leslie Johnston [00:39:38]:
Yeah. You know what's funny that I realized in college, and this may be, like, so random and specific, but I remember, I think it was the first time in my life I felt uncomfortable. Like, I think I had just grown up. We didn't. Like, we moved around a little bit, but in one area. So, like, we always knew people. I always had friends. Like, I always felt very supported and genuinely, like, really content.
Leslie Johnston [00:40:03]:
Like, not that my life was perfect, but I did. I never felt like, oh, I'm in the wrong spot. And when I went to college, it was the first time I felt like, wait, I'm, like, not happy here. Like, and I've never felt that way. And I remember there being specific things like that I thought would make me feel better. So to me, I'd be like, oh, my gosh, I'm gonna go to this event thing that all these other people are going to, and I'm gonna love that. It's gonna be so fun. I'm looking forward to it because I just want it to be so good.
Leslie Johnston [00:40:32]:
And I would go, and it was horrible. Like, I hated it. Like, I didn't like being there. And I would leave being like, wow, I was so excited about that. And I didn't have any fun at all. And then I would begrudgingly go to something else that I was like, this is not going to be fun. And I would go and have the best time. And I felt like God was teaching me through college in, like, funny little ways that, like, I don't know what I want.
Leslie Johnston [00:40:57]:
Like, I think I know what I want, but when I actually get there, God truly knows, like, what fulfills me. And there were things that I was trying to test out to be like, wait, maybe I love this. Maybe I like doing this. And that's such a small example. But it was funny that I remember feeling like, okay, God, like, just send me where you want me to go and do things that you want me to do, because I am so unfulfilled by trying to do it the way that I want to do it. And I'm believing I'm feeling emptier after I do those things.
Morgan May Treuil [00:41:28]:
Yes.
Leslie Johnston [00:41:29]:
I feel like in some ways it was this, like, letting go of what I think fulfills me.
Morgan May Treuil [00:41:36]:
Yeah.
Leslie Johnston [00:41:36]:
And I forget what your original question was.
Morgan May Treuil [00:41:39]:
No, this is. This is actually a really cool train of thought, though. It reminds me of times where I've gone to the mall or I've been shopping for furniture or whatever it is. And more specifically, there were these two chairs at this boutique by my house that were antique chairs. And we're looking for chairs to go in our front room.
Leslie Johnston [00:41:58]:
And.
Morgan May Treuil [00:41:58]:
And they were. They were. They were antiques. They're really, really cute. They've got, like, a really, like, beautiful floral pattern to them. I'll show you a picture after this.
Leslie Johnston [00:42:07]:
Yeah.
Morgan May Treuil [00:42:07]:
And they're kind of expensive, but I remember thinking, wow, these are, like, really nice chairs. And I feel like they are a deal for what we would be getting.
Leslie Johnston [00:42:13]:
Yeah.
Morgan May Treuil [00:42:14]:
And how old they are, but how well taken care of they were. And I texted Benjamin, was like, can I get them? And he's like, no, let's wait and see if anything else comes up that we might like. So, like, I pressed pause in my brain. I'm like, okay, we're not going to impulse buy these right now. Let's wait and then come back to him. And like, five days later, I walked back in the same store and looked at the chairs, and I was like, these are kind of ugly. Like, I thought they at first were so interesting and cool and antique, and they're just different. They're kind of retro.
Morgan May Treuil [00:42:46]:
And then five days later, I was like, I don't like these at all. Like, what was I. I went back to the original picture I sent Benji, and I'm like, how did I ever think this would go in our house? And I think that you're onto something where you're like, man, there's a reason why God doesn't immediately grant you whatever the thing is that you want in that moment, because what if you want them in a different headspace than maybe you usually sit in? And that's not actually who you are, what you want. And it's really good that God didn't give it to you, because if you were to wait, it would have refined a little bit. Yes. Of what you're actually looking for.
Leslie Johnston [00:43:17]:
Yeah.
Morgan May Treuil [00:43:18]:
Maybe we don't know ourselves that well.
Leslie Johnston [00:43:20]:
No, that's so good.
Morgan May Treuil [00:43:21]:
Maybe God knows us better. Yes.
Leslie Johnston [00:43:23]:
I also think we're like, I thought of this too from your question earlier is like, sometimes we're like allergic to not constantly being happy. Like I think. And not that I'm like probing sad, but I, I do think and like even today it's like raining outside.
Morgan May Treuil [00:43:40]:
Yes.
Leslie Johnston [00:43:41]:
And it's so depressing. And this morning I was like, I just have no will to like do any. It's been sunny and sunny and sunny and then it's like one day of rain and I'm like, seasonal depression. But I'm like, dang, everything is just terrible, whatever. And then I'm like, gosh, this is so like unfair that I have to feel this way. And then I'm like, but where in the Bible does it talk about like, you always have, you always should be completely happy and fulfilled. It's like, yeah, no, I think that in weight, I think like, I don't know if it's our day and age we live in or are like self help culture of like, no, you can always feel your best. And it's like sometimes in life we don't.
Leslie Johnston [00:44:22]:
And I think there's got to be something that God teaches us in that, of like, it's okay to not be like at your highest every single day.
Morgan May Treuil [00:44:33]:
Yes.
Leslie Johnston [00:44:33]:
And there's a waiting process, but in order to be actually really fulfilled and happy. I know happy feels like a, like a fluttery word, but it's like to be joy filled, I guess, is like to know what it feels like to be also in pain. Like, I don't think you can, you can really feel that fulfilled if you don't know what it feels like to be unfulfilled.
Morgan May Treuil [00:44:56]:
Yeah.
Leslie Johnston [00:44:56]:
So maybe some of those harder days that you're walking through, whether it's a waiting season or just like a harder time in your life is like, I think you can be encouraged of. Okay, I can feel this right now because I know this isn't forever. And I know that someday I'm going to be in a spot where I'm like, I'm actually way more joy filled because I've had days that were harder. Like, I know what it's like to be in pain. So then therefore later my joy will be even more com, like complete in
Morgan May Treuil [00:45:24]:
that we're so scared of being sad because I think we're worried that it's permanent. Yes. And then we'll get stuck there and we'll get stuck. But no feeling is forever. They all pass. And it makes me feel a little convicted that I'm definitely a rusher out of feelings that I'm uncomfortable with. So I'm feeling scared if I'm feeling sad, if I'm feeling. I don't know, like, even the times where I'm.
Morgan May Treuil [00:45:50]:
I feel, like, a healthy amount of conviction or sadness or grief over my sin or my mistakes or whatever, I'm very quick to rush through those things. I don't even like watching movies, honestly, because anything that I have, I really only watch. Like, I watched a scary movie this morning, which is so random. Like, it's 10 o' clock in the morning and I'm facing Whalen away from the screen, so he's not scarred by it. But I'm watching a scary movie at 10am and I think that reveals a little something about my. Like, my impatience with feeling deep things is like, I just want to feel adrenaline because it can be, like, felt. It's done. Moving forward.
Morgan May Treuil [00:46:25]:
I don't want to watch any movie that makes me feel something too deep, because what if the feeling gets stuck to me? I can't get out of it. But I think you're right that we are so uncomfortable with those feelings of sadness. And I don't think we give credit to the fact that sadness can actually do something really good in us. That when you feel things, there's something that God might want to teach you or to change in you. Maybe a perspective shift he wants to accomplish. But sometimes we don't wait and see that happen because we're too busy rushing through them to get to the other side.
Leslie Johnston [00:46:55]:
Yeah.
Morgan May Treuil [00:46:56]:
And I think that's what God did with Abraham and Sarah. He promised them family, but made them wait 25 years before they saw that promise realized. Yeah, but he did something in their perspective while they waited. It says in. In Genesis 15, the next part of the verses, the word of the Lord came to him. This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir. He took him outside and said, look up at the sky and count the stars. And if indeed you can count them, then he said to him, so shall your offspring be.
Morgan May Treuil [00:47:29]:
So Abraham's waiting wasn't just about him waiting to make sure that he still wanted the thing that he started out wanting. Like it wasn't God being like, hit pause. Make sure, you know, let's wait 25 years. Make sure you really want a child. It wasn't that. It was like Abraham's desire stayed the same. He still wanted the chairs at the antique store, but his perspective shifted. It wasn't.
Morgan May Treuil [00:47:54]:
It wasn't that God squished the desire for him to want a child. But he brought him outside and he told him to look at the stars and how many there were. And it was like in Abraham's waiting, God shifted his perspective. It wasn't just this small desire to be a little family unit with God and Sarah and with their son. It was that Abraham would actually be the father of many nations, that he would have lineage and a whole like, dynasty that would come after him. That was about something much bigger than just Abraham being the father of many nations. Like, I know this at least in the South. I don't know if this is as big of a deal in California, but having family that has family that like, carries on the last name kind of family, that's like a big source of pride and security to have.
Morgan May Treuil [00:48:37]:
It's. It's kind of like your legacy.
Leslie Johnston [00:48:39]:
Yeah.
Morgan May Treuil [00:48:39]:
And in this culture, that was also really important to have a son who was your own, that would become your heir, that would pass down your name, that would have more children of his own. This was a huge part of the story and the testimony of who you were. And God's not saying that Abraham wouldn't have that. He's saying, I'm going to give you that, but I'm going to give you so much more. And the thing I'm going to give you actually points more to more to Jesus and to me being God and would cause people to come to faith in God because of how Abraham's desire would be met and realized. But. But part of waiting is having what you want merged with what would bring God glory.
Leslie Johnston [00:49:17]:
Yeah.
Morgan May Treuil [00:49:18]:
And then once that marries, that's usually when your waiting season comes to an end. When you're more on board with your desires, meeting up with God's desires, then you are your desires being accomplished on your own and in your way.
Leslie Johnston [00:49:30]:
Yeah.
Morgan May Treuil [00:49:30]:
And I think that's. It's. He's not delaying for the sake of just delaying. He's not cruel. He's delaying to reshape Abraham's perspective, Taking his small and immediate thinking and expanding. Expanding it to bigger generational vision. He's stretching Abraham's capacity to believe and he's increasing the severity and the bigness of Abraham, of what Abraham is about to be a part of. And that's true for us too.
Morgan May Treuil [00:49:52]:
If we're willing to submit our weight to God, he will reshape our thinking and he will reshape our dreams. And that's a perspective change that I think all of us need. I think it's partially why he asks us to wait on sin stuff.
Leslie Johnston [00:50:07]:
Yeah.
Morgan May Treuil [00:50:08]:
So we can realize that. That God's in it. The last thing I was going to say, too, is. Is waiting, prepares us for what's. For what's next. Because in Genesis 21, now, the Lord was gracious to Sarah, as he had said. And the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised. Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age at the very time God had promised him.
Morgan May Treuil [00:50:30]:
Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him. He made them wait. Sarah was very old when she had a. When she had Isaac. And that wasn't even the only child that she would have. And by the time that Sarah had Isaac, there was no question about who the source of this miracle was. It wasn't just Abraham and Sarah doing things on their own. It was so clearly from God because of how much of a delay that there was.
Morgan May Treuil [00:50:55]:
And I think sometimes God delays us so that we are unquestionably aware that he is the author of good things, not us being the author of good things.
Leslie Johnston [00:51:06]:
Yeah. You know what I love about this story is that even though they disobeyed God and they messed up and they tried to make it so they didn't have to wait and, you know the
Morgan May Treuil [00:51:17]:
whole story of Ishmael and all that. Yep.
Leslie Johnston [00:51:19]:
I love that God still fulfilled his promise. Like, he's like, I know you're disobedient. I know. But there's still repercussions of that. I think we watch as that turns out to be something that was not great. And I think there's repercussions for our sin and for the ways that we try to cut corners that God doesn't want us to have to deal with, which is why he tries to protect us. But I still love that God wasn't like, well, you're disqualified. I'm gonna go to someone else.
Leslie Johnston [00:51:48]:
Like, our mistakes, our shortcuts don't necessarily disqualify you.
Morgan May Treuil [00:51:54]:
Yes.
Leslie Johnston [00:51:54]:
From God still working in your life.
Morgan May Treuil [00:51:56]:
Yeah.
Leslie Johnston [00:51:56]:
Which is really cool.
Morgan May Treuil [00:51:57]:
Yes.
Leslie Johnston [00:51:58]:
Because sometimes I think we can think, oh, like, I can. I can earn. Like, I can. I can make myself into, like, Exactly. God's will. Or if I mess up, he will be done, you know?
Morgan May Treuil [00:52:10]:
Yep. If that was true, then so many people in the Bible would have not been a part of the story. They wouldn't have been mentioned in the Bible for their part in this story because they would have disqualified themselves by not waiting well in the first place.
Leslie Johnston [00:52:25]:
Yeah.
Morgan May Treuil [00:52:25]:
Yeah. But that's not how God works.
Leslie Johnston [00:52:27]:
Yeah.
Morgan May Treuil [00:52:28]:
And it just goes to show that there's a huge part of God's waiting design that has so much to do with our heart change.
Leslie Johnston [00:52:38]:
Yeah.
Morgan May Treuil [00:52:39]:
And if that's part of the point, if us being changed in our waiting is part of the point, then no, you're not going to get disqualified for you doing it the wrong way. You need to mess it up, get back up, get back on the horse and keep going. Because it's. It's part of God's heart to change you and your thinking in that. So I would just say, like, that. I would say, like, go into whatever your waiting season is realizing that part of this is about you learning something about God and having part of you changed.
Leslie Johnston [00:53:09]:
Yes.
Morgan May Treuil [00:53:10]:
And if that's the mindset that you can go into it with, it'll make the wait that much easier because it's feels productive. Right. Like, I think we talked about this one time in a message that you and me and Jake taught in, like, it was like a high school thing at Auburn.
Leslie Johnston [00:53:24]:
Yeah.
Morgan May Treuil [00:53:24]:
And it was like, wait, when you're at the DMV or you're at the doctor's office and you're just sitting there, like, waiting for an appointment, it feels so unproductive.
Leslie Johnston [00:53:34]:
Yeah.
Morgan May Treuil [00:53:34]:
And I think that's part of what makes us stressed to wait, too, is it feels unproductive. Like, yeah, my life is not moving forward if I'm waiting.
Leslie Johnston [00:53:41]:
Yes.
Morgan May Treuil [00:53:42]:
But there are so many things you can be doing while you're sitting there waiting.
Leslie Johnston [00:53:46]:
My mom always says, she's like, when you are not yet married and you don't have kids, she goes, take all the time you can to, like, be in God's word, doing all the things that you have time to do right now that she's like, every new step in your life cuts back that time.
Morgan May Treuil [00:54:06]:
Yes.
Leslie Johnston [00:54:07]:
Like, okay, when you get married, you could still obviously spend time with God, do all those things, but your time gets cut in half. And then she's like, and then you have a baby, and then it's way
Morgan May Treuil [00:54:16]:
more cut in half.
Leslie Johnston [00:54:17]:
And she's like, every time you add more to your life, it's blessings and really great things, but your time with God shrinks. And so, like, the time you have to, like, sit and read the Bible.
Morgan May Treuil [00:54:28]:
I think all life is worship, but blah, blah, blah.
Leslie Johnston [00:54:32]:
But to me, she's like, take advantage of the time that will build you a solid foundation while you can, instead of just wishing that time away.
Morgan May Treuil [00:54:40]:
That's really good.
Leslie Johnston [00:54:41]:
Which I think is really good.
Morgan May Treuil [00:54:42]:
Yeah.
Leslie Johnston [00:54:43]:
Is Abraham the one that God's like, bring your son up on the altar.
Morgan May Treuil [00:54:48]:
That's the crazy part. That's the next part of that story, is that the baby he waited for, that God eventually made good on his promise. Eventually, God asked him to lay that child up on the altar. And I think there's a whole other lesson in that of, like, yeah, okay, but then the gifts that God does give you and the promises. God. God does. Fulfilled. God.
Morgan May Treuil [00:55:11]:
God does fulfill. Do you recognize that they're still gods, or do you take them and try to, like, hide them away as your own?
Leslie Johnston [00:55:16]:
Yes. Which I think is such a good story. We should talk about that sometime. I heard something literally just the other day about that because I've always been like, that is so weird that he would be, like, willing to kill his son. Which is like. I mean, cool if you're like, wow, you really listen to whatever God tells you to do. But someone said, which this might not be right, but they said the only reason he actually got up there and was ready to sacrifice his son is because he knew God would not take him away. Because God promised him and promised him to be, you know, like, go on to do amazing things.
Leslie Johnston [00:55:49]:
So it was almost like Abraham's trust in God was so strong that he's like, I will do this because I know that you will not go back on your promise.
Morgan May Treuil [00:56:00]:
Right?
Leslie Johnston [00:56:00]:
And I never thought about that way before. I thought it was just God's test to be like. Which it was a test, but I thought it was just God testing him to be like, will you, like, do you love this more than me?
Morgan May Treuil [00:56:09]:
Which it might be, but that's brilliant.
Leslie Johnston [00:56:11]:
It was really interesting.
Morgan May Treuil [00:56:13]:
And then what builds that kind of trust in someone like Abraham? The fact that he. Wait, he. It would have been very easy for Abraham to think maybe God forgot what he spoke over me because too much time has passed. But God doesn't forget, right? It's like. It's like a. Gosh. I'm trying to think of it in like, a. You know, someone.
Morgan May Treuil [00:56:36]:
A friend of yours or a family member or something, like, promises to get you a gift or is like, hey, I'll take you to go do this. And then too much time passes and they forget. And then you're like, okay, well, that's never. Actually.
Leslie Johnston [00:56:48]:
My dad has always been like, we're going to Hawaii as a family, and
Morgan May Treuil [00:56:51]:
you haven't been to Hawaii. And it's like, okay, well, then that's the thinking we apply to God, right? It's like, yeah, he said he would do this or he said he would give me the desires of my heart, but too much time has passed and he's very busy, so he must be just thinking about something else.
Leslie Johnston [00:57:05]:
But Abraham had him mad, so now he doesn't wanna do it anymore.
Morgan May Treuil [00:57:08]:
Yeah. Or I made him mad and so now he's gonna punish him by not doing it. And Abraham is a walking testimony. Or not currently walking. Rest in peace. He was a walking testimony to the fact that time had passed. But God still remembered what he said he was gonna do, and he still did it.
Leslie Johnston [00:57:25]:
Yes.
Morgan May Treuil [00:57:26]:
And so in Abraham's mind, when he's on that hike with Isaac and God's like, lay him on the altar. Abraham's like, oh, I'll play ball. Because I know that God. I know that God is trustworthy because I've walked with God through long periods of time where God made good on what he said he was gonna do even when I waited for him. And so I do think that that's another beautiful piece to the waiting thing. It's like you're learning to trust in the person of God and to the point where. When. Not that God's going to ask you to lay your son or the thing that you've waited for on the altar, but when you come into a moment where you're curious about, like, what's gonna happen with this thing.
Leslie Johnston [00:58:01]:
Yeah.
Morgan May Treuil [00:58:01]:
You've trust. You trust the person of God because he's proven his character to you through your waiting.
Leslie Johnston [00:58:06]:
Yeah. And that your trust is actually in God. It's not in that thing that you get.
Morgan May Treuil [00:58:09]:
Yes. Which makes you less attached to the thing. And that's a really good thing because things are very temporary.
Leslie Johnston [00:58:16]:
Oh, yeah.
Morgan May Treuil [00:58:17]:
Yeah.
Leslie Johnston [00:58:17]:
Nothing.
Morgan May Treuil [00:58:17]:
We've seen that in easy examples and in deeper examples.
Leslie Johnston [00:58:21]:
Yeah. You lose everything in this life at some point. So it's like.
Morgan May Treuil [00:58:24]:
Yes.
Leslie Johnston [00:58:24]:
The only thing you do not lose is your relationship with God.
Morgan May Treuil [00:58:28]:
Yeah. It makes me feel like. Yeah. For all the years that I waited on, Benji, didn't know who Benji was. It's like, I really hope that at the end of all of that, my trust isn't in just having Benji because I won't always have him.
Leslie Johnston [00:58:41]:
Yeah.
Morgan May Treuil [00:58:41]:
That's very morbid. But.
Leslie Johnston [00:58:43]:
Yeah. But it's.
Morgan May Treuil [00:58:44]:
And I hope my faith was in something bigger.
Leslie Johnston [00:58:46]:
Yeah. For sure.
Morgan May Treuil [00:58:47]:
Yeah. So anyways, thanks for helping me flesh that out. That was great. There's great things that you said. I'm like. I took notes on it because I was like, okay, shoot. That's really good to remember.
Leslie Johnston [00:58:56]:
Good. You're gonna do great.
Morgan May Treuil [00:58:57]:
Oh, thanks. Blush Blush.
Leslie Johnston [00:58:59]:
Event Blush.
Morgan May Treuil [00:59:00]:
I don't know why it's called that,
Leslie Johnston [00:59:01]:
but when you listen to this, it will already be over, so you can't go. But you can go next year.
Morgan May Treuil [00:59:04]:
You'll have missed it. Make sure you pencil it in for the next year. Year.
Leslie Johnston [00:59:07]:
Exactly.
Morgan May Treuil [00:59:08]:
Thanks for listening to. Am I Doing this right? We'll see you guys next week.
Leslie Johnston [00:59:11]:
Bye.
Morgan May Treuil [00:59:12]:
Bye.