Our guests today have both experienced encouragement from someone who believed in them—their mothers. Our first guest is Jeff Hostetler, a Super Bowl champion quarterback who led the New York Giants to their win in Super Bowl XXV, some 1 1⁄2 months after the starting quarterback went out for the season with a broken foot. Jeff shares the ups and downs, frustrations and rewards of his football career and celebrates the woman who never stopped reminding him “whose he was,” and that “God had a plan for his life,”–his mom.  Shaunti Feldhahn is a researcher, a speaker and a writer who has studied the effects of rest on the lives of stressed-out moms–and women in general. Her new devotional, Finding Rest: A Woman’s Devotional For Lasting Peace,” guides women in the practice of recharging emotionally, physically and spiritually through finding rest.

 

My Mother Believed In Me: Super Bowl Champion Jeff Hostetler & Researcher Shaunti Feldhahn – Jesus Calling Episode #94

Narrator: Welcome to the Jesus Calling podcast. Our guests today have both experienced encouragement from someone who believed in them—their mothers. Our first guest is Jeff Hostetler, a Superbowl champion quarterback who led the New York Giants to their win in Super Bowl XXV some 1 1⁄2 months after starting quarterback Phil Simms was lost for the season with a broken foot. Jeff shares the ups and downs, frustrations and rewards of his football career and celebrates the woman who never stopped reminding him “whose he was,” and that “God had a plan for his life,” –his mom.  

Growing Up Mennonite

Jeff:  Hi, I’m Jeff Hostetler. I played in the NFL for 15 years. I’m a strong, Christian man that loves the Lord and grew up in a great Christian family, a father of three grown sons, I’ve got four grandkids, and one heck of a beautiful wife.

I grew up in a small farming town. I call it a farming town. It was a rural area. I was one of seven kids in a Mennonite family, so we had dairy cows and 18,000 chickens. So, we had lots of chores to do outside an awful lot. But, grew up in a real strong Christian family and a mom and dad that led by example. My mom was the glue. She was a strong woman of faith and believed in the power of prayer. Every day, we knew where she stood. She loved the Lord and she passed that on to us, all seven kids.

“My mom was the glue. She was a strong woman of faith and believed in the power of prayer.” – Jeff Hostetler

Growing up Mennonite, they were always a tight-knit community. Whenever something would happen that was negative or bad, people all over the community, all over the state, would come to help. We experienced that firsthand. It was in 1969. I was, at that time, 8 years old and I can remember waking up with the whole ceiling aglow and wondering what was going on. My mom was screaming, “The barn’s on fire.”

It was a complete devastation, burned the barn down to the very bottom. We had just put in, I don’t know how many thousands of bales of hay, and it was a difficult time because we knew mom and dad … It was a real struggle because that was their livelihood. That was what allowed us to maintain our living and put food on the table. So, we didn’t know how we were going to handle it, what was going to happen.

Through that time, we had people all of a sudden show-up and do all this work, the cleanup efforts, the things that were necessary just to get us back to normal. But, the Mennonite family, as I call them, because they do stick together and they’re there when there are times of need, had a big impact on me, because you never know when life changes and when things can go from top of the world to the very bottom. When those things do happen, to have people show up without words–just show up and help–it’s powerful.

“You never know when life changes and when things can go from top of the world to the very bottom. When those things do happen, to have people show up without words–just show up and help–it’s powerful.” – Jeff Hostetler

A Talent For Football

Jeff:  I started playing football when I was … I don’t even know when I started, to be honest with you–in the backyard. I had two older brothers that had started to play, and it was always my two older brothers against my younger brother and I. So, we used to get the tar kicked out of us. But, we did a lot of playing in the backyard in between doing chores and taking care of things on the farm.

It was something that we realized, and I say that as my brothers would say too, that we were really talented. God gave us the gift of some athleticism and it was something that kind of came naturally for us. I never ever dreamed that I would go to school, play football, and have my college paid on a scholarship to play football, and then eventually be paid to play the game.

I can look back at that, and I know that God had a plan for me, but that plan included the game of football because He’s taken me from this little Mennonite farm boy to the peak. I’m awfully blessed to be able to have that platform to go ahead and tell people about my Savior, my Lord, and what He can do in times of need, and what He can do. When you think that it is impossible, He can.

As a senior in high school, I was a quarterback and a linebacker. After the first game, we lost our tailback, and so my coach came back and asked me if I would move from quarterback to tailback, and let my younger brother be the quarterback. I thought, “Yeah, I’ll do that.”

So, I actually never played quarterback my senior year. I was a Parade All-American as a linebacker coming out of high school. Somehow, God used that to take me into a professional career and to the top of that professional career through the Super Bowl.

The Value of Perseverance

Jeff:  I started out at Penn State. I followed my two older brothers and started out as a freshman, and played in five or six games as a quarterback as a freshman, which was pretty amazing at that time. I started my sophomore year, started the first three games of the season as the starter, and then was told after that game, we had lost the game, I was told that Joe was going to make a move and he was going to start another guy.

I had a very difficult time with that because I didn’t feel like I had deserved that. I felt like I had deserved to continue to be the starter and to play. It was a really frustrating time in my life, trying to figure out, “Why God? I’ve worked so hard to get this position and I’ve earned it, and yet it’s being taken away from me. What’s the purpose of this?”

I really struggled with where I was at, why I was there, and my faith. Again, I go back to my mom and dad. My mom would constantly tell me, “Jeff, God’s got a plan for you and you just have to keep plugging away.” Seeing the example that my dad would set being on a farm, there were things that always went wrong, and yet constantly, every day he’d get up and continue to plug away, continue to plug away. There was no quitting.

So, I had that mentality but it was tough. It just felt like, “Okay, if I’m here, God’s got a reason for it, I’ve got to make the best of it,” and was able to at that time just put it all aside. I remember my dad telling me, “Don’t let one person ever determine your fate.” It made sense to me.

If God wants me to be the starter, I’ll be the starter. If He wants me here, I’ll be here. If He wants me elsewhere, I’ll be elsewhere. I found real peace in that and was able to throw all these things off my shoulders and just have some fun.

I got a chance to play later in the season and played probably one of my best games ever, and was told that I would start the next game, and then I didn’t. Then I was told I would start the bowl game, and I didn’t, and I finally made a decision that it was time for me to move on.

God’s Got A Plan For You

Jeff:  I know God wanted me to play the game. I know He had a plan for me, I just didn’t know where it was going to be, and He took me to West Virginia.

When I came down, I fell in love with the coach, I fell in love with the people, fell in love with the city of Morgantown. I thought, “This is where God wants me.”

I fell in love with his daughter too. I saw her, and I can remember at the time seeing her and thinking she was cute. She had a boyfriend that was there. I can remember my mom telling me at the time … She kind of nudged me and said, “Wow, she’s really cute. You might want to see if you can date her.” It was funny because I just said, “Come on mom,” and never really thought about it.

But a year or so later, the opportunity … God put us in the same place and there was a connection there. There was something there that drew me to her, and sure enough, 34 years later, I know the reason God drew me to her. She’s my soulmate.

Faith To Find Your Worth

Jeff:  Coming out of my senior year, there was a lot of interest in me in the draft. I was one of the top two quarterbacks that they thought would go. I had never really thought about ever playing in the NFL at the time. I think as a boy, you grow up and you kind of … yeah, I’m going to play here, or I’m going to do this, or I’m going to do that.

But I really never can remember thinking that was my goal. I never really had that goal. If it happened and had God led me in that direction and opened doors that I was going to be there, I knew it was going to be because He wanted me there. Sure enough, the draft came along and it was an up and down day. It was a battle because I was supposed to be taken in the first round, one of two guys to be taken, and here, neither of us got taken in the first. He ended up getting taken in the late second, and I was the third pick of the third.

So, the New York Giants was going to be my home, and I’m thinking, “What am I going to do in New York? What’s it going to be like?” There was some disappointment there, but there was excitement because I know it was a new chapter and it was a place where God wanted me to be for some reason.

My NFL career didn’t start out as I would have liked, and there was a lot of frustration. I didn’t see the playing field my first year at all. The second year I came in, was just looking for a way to get on the field to try to do anything that I could. I ended up being behind a starter that was his first year full time starting, my first year coming into the league. He played well. He played really well.

So, there was this sense of not knowing if I was ever going to get an opportunity when it would come, the pressure of it to see how you play the game, the speed of the game. All these things were big jumps from college into the NFL. So, there were doubts that creep into your mind when you don’t get an opportunity to step out onto the field. You wonder, “Can I do this?” If you don’t have an opportunity to do it, you can’t prove it to yourself or to others.

So, lots of times in the NFL, your worth is based on your performance. So, when you don’t have an opportunity to perform, it’s a struggle trying to maintain what you feel like your worth is, and it’s one of the things that I think, faith-wise, helped me get through that time because I realized that my worth wasn’t based on my performance out on the field.

“In the NFL, your worth is based on your performance. So, when you don’t have an opportunity to perform, it’s a struggle trying to maintain what you feel like your worth is.” – Jeff Hostetler

That’s a tough thing to be able to handle in that. I know why God had me in the NFL, I know why He had me in football. If you look at my bible, my bible is outlined, underlined, pages turned down, and all those times were during football. Those were the times when my heart was struggling and I needed to know that God had me and that He had a plan for me.

“Those were the times when my heart was struggling and I needed to know that God had me and that He had a plan for me.” – Jeff Hostetler

I go through that at times, and look and see the pain at times, the hope at times, just through those highlights or underlines. I know God had me there for that reason. He was teaching me a lot of things. He taught me about patience.

My mom was a prayer warrior, and so I know that she was constantly there, and look back at times and know that the only way that I made it through some of those times was the prayers of my family and members of the faith.

A Moment To Shine

So, the seventh year of my career, we came into the season. I was the backup at the time and played really well during the preseason. So, I felt really good about that and felt like I deserved an opportunity to play, and even had the head coach at that time tell me that I deserved to see the field to play. But, I was also behind a guy that was playing really, really well.

And so, I didn’t know if I was going to have any opportunities or not, but I felt better as to where I was professional. And then all of a sudden … I think it was somewhere around the third or fourth game of the season. Phil Simms was the starter. He went down. I came in and we ended up winning a game. We were down 19 to 10 with five minutes left in the game and was able to bring us back and win the game with the last second field goal. And so, it was an awesome opportunity for me to go out and show, and do something that I’ve always wanted to do, but never had the opportunity.

About two, three weeks later, out of the blue, we’re in the middle of a game, Simms is fine, he’s playing, and Parcells yelled out, “Hostetler, you’re in.” He was testing me. This was during a game where the outcome was not decided, and it gave me the opportunity. Came in, Phil wasn’t hurt, went in, we drove a field, I scored on a scramble. It gave me a lot of confidence because I knew the guys around me all believed that I could play, and my head coach believed that I could play. He was testing me and he put me in, and I passed.

Remember “Whose” You Are

Jeff:  God taught me so many things during that period of time. Things that I could never ever have been able to understand, or fathom, or believe. Talk about patience and perseverance, and dedication, and belief in your self-worth. My mom used to tell me this when I was in high school. Whenever I’d leave at night to go out with my buddies, she would tell me, “Remember who you are, and Whose you are.” It used to really bother me because she was always putting that in my head before I left, and how could I go out and do something when I knew that they wouldn’t approve of when she’s telling me, “Remember who you are and Whose you are?” I remembered who I was, and I know I was God’s. I know where I came from and I know Whose I am.

Having a constant at home with mom and dad telling me that, “God’s got a plan for you, son …” My mom was constantly praying for me and constantly sending me little quotes, and sending me verses, and encouraging me, and telling me, “God’s going to reveal it to you. Just stay focused. Stay diligent.” It’s an emotional time because we ended up getting into the playoffs.

A Super Bowl Miracle

Jeff:  At that time, our team was struggling somewhat. So, when Phil went down, there was this outpouring of negativity. How could they? They’ve lost all their opportunities to win this Super Bowl, to get into the playoffs, win a Super Bowl, because now they have a backup that has never played the game. So it was a tough time, but it was also a time that I was looking forward to. I felt like God had prepared me for that. My mom especially was behind the scenes there, constantly uplifting me in prayer and continuing to throw verses at me, and courage.

So, through the season … we ended up winning our last two games of the season, and then we played the Chicago Bears in our first playoff game. I played really, really well. Next week, we’re playing the San Francisco 49’s, who are going for a three-peat. They’d won the last two Super Bowls, heavily favored against Joe Montana. There was all this negative stuff about the comparison between him and me, and that we weren’t going to have a chance. We had played them earlier in the season and lost. So there was no chance. No chance at all. And yet, I felt like God had me there for a reason. Our team felt like, “Hey, we’re going out, we’re a different team. That’s why you play the game.”

So, we went out, we’re playing, and we’re in the third quarter, I believe. Fourth quarter, something like that. I drop back to pass and a guy comes in, hits me right on the knee straight on, and I go down. I heard a pop and felt burning. I knew from my playing days what an injury was like, knew what a tear of a ligament was like, and I knew I was done. I remember just laying there. I was still, laying on the ground, and just broken because I thought, “God, after waiting all this time, and having this opportunity, and being so close, to go out like this.” I just couldn’t speak. I was devastated.

I remember laying there, and laying there, and laying there, and thinking, “What am I going to do?” And just being heartbroken. Then all of a sudden, the doctors are there and they’re asking me questions, and I’m not responding. Then, I just felt this tingling come down through me, and just this peace. I was able to get up and start to walk off. It didn’t feel right, but yet I felt like, “I might be able to do this.” I knew something wasn’t right but I felt, “maybe I can continue,” and was able to get on the sideline, and felt like, “Okay, I think it’s stable enough. I’m going to go.” I was able to go back out, lead us back to a drive at the end of the game to kick the game-winning field goal, to go to the Superbowl.

 

The next week, we win the Super Bowl. My mom and dad are in the stands. They watch their son win a game, win a Super Bowl that they had always dreamed of.

Six weeks later, my mom died.

The Powerful Prayers of a Mother

Jeff: It was after her funeral, I was home, and we were going through some of her things. I came across this little booklet, and it was her prayer journal. It was actually her football prayer journal because it was all the stats of the games that she would watch. Here, she couldn’t make it out to the San Francisco game, and so she’s sitting there and she’s watching the game, and she’s got all the stats on there. She has things that people are saying. Then, all of a sudden, there’s this area at the bottom where she says, “Lord, heal my son. Heal my son. Heal my son.”

 

You go back and you time it out. She’s watching the game and she says I go down, and then it’s, “Heal my son, heal my son, heal my son,” and I had that feeling come over me.

That’s a woman of prayer that believed the power of prayer. She’s with the Lord now. But I know at that time, God honored her prayer. She was an integral part of who I am.

I’m just so blessed. The Lord’s been so good. He’s taken me to places I’ve never dreamed that I would be. He’s provided me with things that I never dreamed that I would ever have: A wife that is my best friend, the family that I grew up with, a background that I would never trade for anything. It’s not been easy. Yet, I can honestly say I would never trade any of them because I can see how God has used those and how He has blessed me or others through those things.

Football provided me with an opportunity. Actually, it kind of forced me into having more of a devotional time because it was so tough on me. Having that, having passed and getting into a life without football, having a devotional time at times has been a struggle. It’s just trying to find the time. You get so busy and you get going here and there, and with your kids, and this and that. Yet, I know how important it is. So for me, it wasn’t as consistent as it needs to be or needed to be.

Jesus Calls Us To Trust Him

Jeff:  One of the greatest things that’s happened to me since the first of the year was Jesus Calling. That devotional–it’s given me the opportunity. It never leaves my kitchen counter because I come out in the morning and there it is. I open it up and try to be consistent in reading. It’s been an awesome instructional guideline for me. It gives me a perspective of what God may be saying to me just on a one to one basis, and how He might verbalize that to me.

It’s a different perspective. But the thing I think that I take away from it the most is there’s so much in there about just “trusting Me.” The devotional just tells you, as He would say, “Just trust Me. Trust Me.” As humans, it’s a difficult thing to do because we always want to have our hands on something or we want to control it in one way or another. We feel like we can do it. I want control over what my day is going to look like, who I talk to, what my time schedule is.

At times, you can’t do that. The devotional has been a constant, God just actually talking to me and telling me, “Trust Me.”

I wouldn’t be doing the things that I do today if it weren’t for my mom and dad dragging us out of the house, sometimes by taking an ear and pulling us and saying, “Listen, we’re going to this family. They’re struggling right now. We’re going to go take them some food and some gifts. You’re coming.” And, never wanting to do that. “Come on, mom.”

It changed me. Remembering who you are and Whose you are, it changed me.

 

Narrator: To read more about Jeff Hostetler and to find out more about the charitable work he is doing in his community, please visit HossFoundation.com. That’s H-O-S-S Foundation.com.

Narrator: We’ll be right back with our next guest after this message about a free offer from Jesus Calling.

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Want a daily reminder that we can have hope, peace and joy each day in Jesus? Now it’s as easy as opening an email. The Jesus Calling Daily Email brings you a thought from the Jesus Calling family of devotionals every day. Brighten up your inbox with this little reminder and take a minute to connect with God during your day. To sign up to get your free, daily thought from Jesus Calling, please visit Jesus Calling.com/daily-email.

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Finding Rest To Overcome Stress

Narrator: Shaunti Feldhahn is a researcher, an author, and speaker.  Shaunti discusses the incredible pressure the women feel–and especially moms–to “do it all.” Between working, parenting, helping others, and time with God–women are incredibly stressed. She encourages women to seek rest, and advises on how we can refresh and recharge emotionally, mentally and spiritually.

 

Shaunti: I’m Shaunti Feldhahn. I am a social researcher, and an author, and a speaker, and a wife, and a mom to two teenagers.

I think all of us as women have discovered that finding rest is really, really difficult. Part of it is external pressure, but a lot of it is internal pressure. The world around us just brings so much at us–there are so many different choices, and there are so many cool things that we want to do, and we’ve kind of got this idea that we should be able to do it all, and we should be able to be superwoman, and there’s something wrong with us if we’re not. But also, I think there’s an internal feeling of like, you know, “I matter more if I’m busy. If my calendar is full, I feel better about myself.”

Women, in particular, have incredibly high levels of stress today, and that causes all sorts of problems personally and medically. I know this sounds crazy, but you get all sorts of issues from lack of sleep. You can have all sorts of diseases that are just caused because you’re not getting enough sleep. I know that sounds nuts, but that’s something the medical community has been finding over the past number of years. Neuroscientists have been tracing all of these anxiety disorders and all of these physical disorders purely back to the level of stress that we’re carrying around on our shoulders.

“Women in particular have incredibly high levels of stress today, and that causes all sorts of problems personally and medically.” Shaunti Feldhahn

As I started to look at how can we solve this, and realizing that the promise that God gives us in the Bible and the promise that Jesus gives us is actually in the context of work. We can find rest in the middle of busyness, because if you look at it, there’s a great scripture that all of us are probably familiar with where Jesus says “Come to Me all of you who are weary and heavy laden and take my yoke upon you, and learn from me.” If we’re gentle and humble in heart, then we will find rest for our souls, right?

That whole passage–the yoke. “Take my yoke upon you.” That’s an image of being handed, as a beast of burden, a horse, or an ox. Who’s going to plow a field? A yoke helps you do that, right? It helps you pull the plow. It’s not, “Oh, here let me take the yoke off of you and send you back to the barn to rest.” It’s “no, in the middle of the day, you’re in the heat of the day you are plowing, you are working, you’re probably sweating–My yoke is upon you and you will find rest for your souls.” That to me is a “blow your mind” promise.

It is not realistic for us to slow down forever. It is not realistic for us to think that we’re no longer going to have a busy life, and yet to me, the promises that Jesus promised–Jesus says even in the middle of that, you can find rest, actually.

I know it sounds funny, but we’re essentially trying to chase doing everything that we want to do, in the way that we want to do it, to have it all, and be it all, and do it all–all at the same time, and not be anxious, and not worry, and have rest. That doesn’t work. We have to adjust to what it is and look at what Jesus says to do to find rest in the middle of that busyness.

“We’re essentially trying to chase doing everything that we want to do, in the way that we want to do it, to have it all, and be it all–all at the same time, and not be anxious, and not worry, and have rest. That doesn’t work.” – Shaunti Feldhahn

It was not long after Jesus Calling first came out, many, many people, you know–many women, especially–people started saying “have you read Jesus Calling? Have you gotten that yet? Man, you need this. You know, you’re on the road all the time–this devotional would speak to you.” I ended up, actually ironically, I ended up being at one of my events where I was speaking. We were selling my books and organizers were also selling a few other books that they felt were highly recommended for women on this Women’s Retreat. And one of them was Jesus Calling. And so I ended up picking it up there.

It was like September or something, it was starting the Fall. I took the devotional out to sit on the porch of the little retreat lodge where my room was, to just flip through it. and started where we were–in September at the time. I can just remember I had tears rolling down my face. I had this beautiful promise that Jesus is talking to me every day with this little bit of insight and wisdom –that clearly God gave Sarah Young straight from the Holy Spirit–to be able to shift how we think about things and to have that sort of refreshing drop of water for the day.  

Small Things Make A Big Difference

Shaunti:  I am so busy as a wife, as a mom, as a speaker, as a social researcher, as an author. Everybody else that I know–every other woman I know–is so busy. My guess is that it’s the same. My guess is that there are probably some little things–that if we just change to this, or if we just knew that–that things could be so much different. So, that’s why I embarked on this project–to be able to figure out; what are the primary causes of stress and anxiety and worry for us as women?  What are the little things that are going to make a big difference, not just because I need it, but because all my girlfriends need it, and everybody listening to this needs it?

I was blown away as I started to see that there really were some very small things that will make a difference to us finding rest for our souls. You know that Jesus promises us He is there for us. I realized there were these little elements of rest that we’re just not seeing. We’re not thinking about we’re not doing, and it’s no wonder that we’re stressed and anxious, and if we just switch to a few things, it will be different. I also realized you God set this up for me to be able to do this as a devotional, which is nothing I’ve ever done before. I’ve never written a devotional

I realized having a book where I put all of the “here’s your solution to finding rest, and you go read this book for an hour” is not going to necessarily change your life. It’s going to feel overwhelming like, “Oh my gosh, I need to do all these things differently.” It seems really hard. You know, a book like that would feel really hard–about finding rest–it would be counterproductive. So, really I felt like God set this up as a daily devotional.

There’s 60 days where it’s just a little nugget, a little change, a little aha moment, a little water to your parched soul every day, with an opportunity to say “how does truth apply to me? It’s not a lot of work. It sort of gets absorbed. You learn a little something about, for example, shifting your perspective so that you’re focusing on the things that are you know are worthy of praise rather than what’s worthy of driving you crazy. How do you, how do I have the wrong perspective sometimes, and what are still good things to focus on, and let me write them down–you know–take a minute here to jot them down. Now, suddenly you’ve jotted it down–it’s in your mind. You’ve got that in your heart for the day, and you don’t have to start working on it all purposefully, it’s just kind of in there. Then, the next day is something completely different.

Little by little by little, suddenly you’ll realize, I am finding more rest–and it’s not that suddenly I’m less busy–because I’m just as busy as I’ve ever been. But I have that rest in my soul.

Why Finding Rest Matters

Shaunti:  Why does finding rest matter? You might be listening to me, and you might be going “what do you mean why does it matter? Because I’m stressed and I need some downtime.” We all need downtime. Okay, gotcha. But why does God promise us that we can find rest?  Why is that important from a bigger picture perspective? I think the answer to that–and this is actually one of the days in the devotional, that we really tackle this–is that we have to recognize that this life is–if we give Him our heart, to the Lord, if we have given our life to the Lord, and said “I’m Yours”–at this point,  from this point on, this life isn’t about us, right? It’s not about me, as much as I like to think it’s all about me. It’s not. To not be stressed and to find rest, not be anxious.

God says “don’t be anxious for anything.” All of that isn’t just so that we have a happier life, so that we can be better servants, so that we can actually accomplish the things that God has called us to accomplish–one of the things that we have to recognize is that God designed us to be plugged in to Him constantly. Certainly every day. But regularly–even beyond just sort of an official quiet time in the morning where you do your daily devotional.

The idea of plugging into Him is so crucial, and on day four of Find Rest, I put this in here, so I’m just going to read a paragraph or two here. So, we’re talking about the things we easily rely on. You know, we can rely on our caffeine fix, or we can rely on friends to make us feel important, or a husband to make us feel lovable. But these power sources don’t cut it. They can’t quite get our battery to a full charge. We’re left feeling frustrated, rundown, letdown and even defeated. There’s only one real energy source and it’s not found at the coffee shop. It’s found at that moment when we come before the One who understands every minute detail about us. He longs to give power to those who know that they are weary and weak before Him. You may feel like you need a nap, but He never grows weary. You may feel weak in the knees as you struggle to understand how to handle a difficult relationship, but He gives you strength. He provides guidance and wisdom and fills every single need of your heart.

His charge will take hold and fill you. But here’s the catch. You need to plug into Him and it actually reminds me–there’s a day in Jesus Calling–-when I first read Jesus Calling–I bought it in September and I was so struck by it, and I sat there reading it you, know. I think I said it–with tears rolling down my face and because of the promise that is sort of  embedded in the way God speaks to us, and so it reminds me of September 15:

Rest in Me, My child. This time devoted to Me is meant to be peaceful, not stressful. You don’t have to perform in order to receive My Love. I have boundless, unconditional love for you. How it grieves Me to see My children working for Love: trying harder and harder, yet never feeling good enough to be loved.

Be careful that your devotion to Me does not become another form of works. I want you to come into My Presence joyfully and confidently. You have nothing to fear, for you wear My own righteousness. Gaze into My eyes, and you will see no condemnation, only love and delight in the one I see. Be blessed as My Face shines radiantly upon you, giving you Peace.

Narrator: To find out more about Shaunti’s devotional, Find Rest: A Women’s Devotional For Lasting Peace In A Busy Life, A please visit ShauntiFeldhahn.com. You can also visit JesusCalling.com/podcast to find the transcript for this interview and links to resources from both Jeff and Shaunti.

Narrator: Next time on the Jesus Calling podcast, we begin a series of podcasts featuring country music artists, as we countdown the weeks to CMA Fest, a celebration of country artists in Nashville, Tennessee. Our first guest in that series is the non-stop international duo, The Bellamy Brothers, who were recently inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame. They have also announced their autobiography, Let Your Love Flow – Life and Times of the Bellamy Brothers, which came out in April of 2017.

 

Howard Bellamy: We’ve toured in 72 countries and you see good people everywhere, you know. I don’t care what country you go to, there’s really good people and they’re all concerned about their families doing the things.

When you see people come and enjoy, and leave with a big smile, and lightened hearts, you know that you know you’ve done your job.