Your Joyful Order With Leslie Martinez

#119- Finding Hope And Action When The World Feels Broken

• Leslie Martinez • Season 6 • Episode 119

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The headlines won’t slow down, and neither will the knot in your chest, anger, grief, fear, and that creeping numbness that pretends it’s relief. We go straight at those feelings, not to minimize them, but to name them as signs your empathy still works. From there, we draw a line from Scripture to our moment: Jesus moving through a charged, divided world; a crowd swayed to choose Barabbas; Isaiah’s warning about a nation busy with religion but empty on justice. The pattern is old: fear manipulates, innocence pays, and power protects its pockets. Naming it clearly is the first act of courage.

We don’t stop at diagnosis. We talk about redemptive anger that refuses cruelty, and the nervous system care that makes it possible. Breathwork, walks, sunlight, and limits on doom scrolling help you drop out of fight or flight so you can act with wisdom. We share practical, local moves: listen before you post, speak truth without spite, support a family under pressure, serve at a pantry or school, and pray with intention that nudges you toward courage. If public protest fits your wiring, go in peace; if not, serve where you’re steady and safe. Community is essential, find the friend you can hike with and cry with, the circle where silence and prayer can hold what words can’t.

Most of all, we anchor in meaning over outcomes. We can’t undo a decade of damage overnight, and another election won’t heal our hearts. But ordinary goodness, quiet, stubborn, and daily, keeps compassion alive. Ask what is yours to carry and what belongs to God. You can feel anger without becoming cruel, grieve without losing hope, and feel fear without letting it run your life. If you’re ready to turn outrage into mercy and helplessness into small, faithful steps that matter, press play and walk with us. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs steadiness today, and leave a review to help others find the conversation.

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Email: lmartinez@yourjoyfulorder.com
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Welcome And A Heavy Heart

SPEAKER_00

I'm a lesson more human and you're listening to your Joyful Order podcast. Each week I will bring you joyful stories that will motivate and inspire you, and at the same time, bring order to your everyday life. Let's just say this show will be a mixture of teaching and teaching with a kick of motivation from your girl here. Welcome to your joyful order podcast. Hey friends, welcome back to another episode of your joyful order podcast. Uh today's going to be a different episode. I have been sitting with some things that have been very heavy on my heart, and I have contemplated sharing this on the podcast or on any of my platforms because there is so much ugliness and division about a lot of the things that I'm going to talk about today. I've been sitting with just some heavy things that have been going on in the world. And I know that I'm not alone in this. So many of us are carrying a deep mix of emotions right now. We're angry. We are grieving. We're in fear. We're disillusioned. We're frustrated. We're stressed. We're anxious. We're exhausted. And for some of us, we're just even numb because we don't even know what to feel or how to feel. And we're watching so many of this happen on social media, what's taking place here in the US, in our country. We're seeing division, we're seeing hate, we're seeing injustice and systems that feel overwhelming and just completely out of control. For all of these episodes, this is episode 119. I have been very mindful about what I share on my platform because I don't want to bring more division. I don't want to share a lot of my opinion on things, um, political, that is. And I just I've I've always just wanted to bring joy and order. That is what I feel God has called me to do. But I have had this heavy conviction in my heart. And this isn't just from this weekend, from things that have come to surface that took place here in the U.S. this weekend. This has been heavy on my heart for a long time. Our nation here, the US, has been under this just umbrella of evil and hate and division for nearly a decade now. This isn't something new. This isn't something that is, you know, left or right wing um thinking here. It has been 10 years, and we've had both left and right wing in office, and it has not gotten any better. There is fear that has been spread widely amongst many people that live in the US. There is an uprising of racism and division and hate and evil, and it is very stressful. And how do we live in a nation that you're seeing all of that unfold before us and try to carry on with it every day? Like if nothing is going on. We're seeing so much of this. And if we're really being honest underneath all of that, one of the most common feelings that many of us are carrying is helplessness. So before we go any further, I want to say this clearly. I want to acknowledge I've been angry. I've been angry and I've been mindful of what I share and where I get my information because that anger can also turn into sin and judgment and more division and so forth. And that's not what I want to do on this platform. I want to bring truth, I want to bring discernment. And I've been sitting heavy for the last two days, literally laying this out. And I I have scripted so much of this out. So please forgive me, but I want to be very, very intentional in what I share and the information that I give you because God put this on my heart to share, and He allowed me to put it in a way that I hope just brings some light and truth to you. And if you're listening, and um, I'm not here to really like share opinions so much as just truth, and you may think indifferent, and that's fine. I just hope that you can listen through this podcast and maybe see that there is some truth here. And there may be some truths that you agree with, some things that you don't disagree with, and that's fine. I just hope that you can be open-minded because we all have indifferences. I want to allow you to use discernment and opening your heart to see where God is leading you in just what you can do during this time of feeling helpless. This episode is not a ramp by any means. It's reflection and it is a way to help us to not just feel helpless. Now, if you've been feeling distress about what's happening, that doesn't mean that you're weak. It just means that your empathy is intact. It means that your conscious is alive. You're seeing what's taken place. The problem isn't that we are feeling these emotions. The problem is that we just don't know what to do with them. And that's what this episode is about. I'm going to share some truth and maybe bring some light to some things that are happening in the world and what has happened in the Bible and to kind of see the connection between that, but also bring some light into what you can do with these emotions that you just don't know what to do. And I just I want to frame this question for us first. And that is, what do we do with righteous anger when the world feels fractured and cruel? And that's what we're gonna get into today. Now, y'all, I'm I'm angry. Like I am pissed. I am pissed off. I'm just I'm gonna say that. I am pissed off. I'm not in, I'm not living in fear. I am like furious of what is taking place right now. It pisses me off. And for those of you that are offended by me saying pissed off, forgive me. That is my clean like language that I'm saying, just so you know, okay. But I'm pissed off because what we are seeing is it's not okay. I'm pissed off because people in power are instilling fear that should not be there. We have normalized division, we have normalized hate, we have normalized racism, we have normalized um sexism, we have normalized evil, we have normalized evil.

SPEAKER_01

We're not okay.

The Alex Pretty Killing And Moral Outrage

SPEAKER_00

I'm angry because of what is taking place, and people are just numb. By nature, my personality trait is I'm a challenger. I am a Enneagram A, and we are challengers. We do not like bullies, we stand up for people, and we challenge the status quo. The challenger in me wants to go out and sin against what I'm seeing, honestly. Like I want to rage and protect these innocent, marginalized people and hurt these bullies that are coming against them. I have to sit back and I have to pray and I have to trust God in this. I have to use discernment. That's not what I can do. My fight or flight mode, I'm I'm a fighter. If you come at me, fight or flight, I don't flee. I fight. That's who I am by nature. That's what I do. And I have had to learn to regulate that in a way that is good. This is where the podcast comes in. This is where this episode is coming in. Um I have to channel that in a way that is going to be productive and actionable in serving other people because I just can't go out and fight everyone. That's what I want to do. But I want to bring clarity and love and justice to the community that God called me to serve. But I'm angry. And anger can cause me to sin. There's a verse in Ephesians 4.26 that it says, be angry and do not sin. Anger necessarily is not a sin. Being angry at what's taken place is not sinful at all. Anger is an emotion. If I act in anger, then it becomes a sin. I can choose to react or respond to what has taken place. And this episode is about me responding. I'm not going out and reacting in an inappropriate manner to cause more hate and more division. There is like rage or righteous anger. And I want to be righteous in how I channel my anger also. And if you are angry like me, that doesn't mean that you're, you know, hateful or despiteful or anything. It means that you have a true love for people. It means that you are grieving over injustice of what has taken place, and that you have an awareness that something is wrong. And there is clearly something wrong in our nation right now, in our politics, in our administration. And we're not okay. Now, this past weekend, there was a man by the name of Alex Pretty that was shot and killed. He was executed for standing up against um agents that were coming against a woman. Uh, he had a cell phone in hand. He was carrying um a pistol that he had in the back of him. He was not using it or aiming it towards the agents. He was trying to protect a woman. He is was probably, I'm guessing, an Enneagram, also in that he was a challenger. He didn't like people being bullied. He was trying to protect a woman against several ICE agents that were coming against her. He got on his hands and knees and put his hands up with cell phone in one, and he was executed in the back of his head. And we see these things unfold on social media and on the news, and we feel helpless, and we become numb to it because it is the norm. Because we say, well, he was carrying, well, he shouldn't have been there, well, we want to justify a man being executed for protecting a woman. It's not okay.

SPEAKER_01

And if you are angry about it, like I am, I want you to continue to listen. Because I want you to see the connection of us just not getting it right. I sit here in tears.

SPEAKER_00

Because so much of what is taking place. I have read these things unfold in the Bible, and all I keep thinking is, God, we are we ever gonna get it right?

SPEAKER_01

Will we ever not be against each other?

Jesus In A Divided World

SPEAKER_00

Will we ever be living in peace? Very emotional about a lot of this because again, I look back and as I've been studying a lot in the Bible, and God has really had me like face in the Bible learning and growing and understanding. And I really think it's for a time like this. And that's why I share that. I just have this heavy conviction in my heart that I had to share some of these things, and I was very doubtful of doing it. I've seen people that have shared their views on stuff, and they basically have been canceled. And you know, I I'm not even worried about being canceled, I don't care. My real people that I know will hear me um and hear this. Uh, you guys are the true faithful listeners of the podcast, and I know that you get me on this. Like, you're my people, and that's why I chose to share here. Social media has become a place that like you literally can lose your business if you share views on what is taking place. And if you have indifference or different opinions, people are quick to judge you and come out at you. And you know, the crazy thing is that a lot of those people that cancel you, a lot of those people that will come and just like rip you apart, are Christians or they call themselves Christians. They're not Christ-like, but they give themselves a name of being a Christian. Um, there are some things that I have posted on social media, not pertaining really to this stuff, other things that are biblical, and I like to have fun on my social platform and you know, um maybe maybe mock certain uh Christian things and and and more mock myself, if anything, make fun of myself. Um, and I have had like women that they don't even follow me, they don't know me, come out and say that, oh, you're full of sin because I was singing to a rap song. I'm full of sin because I was lip syncing to a rap song. The rap song was not like it wasn't even cussing. I don't cuss on my platforms. Um, but it wasn't even using curse language or anything. It was the boys in the hood song, if you guys know NWA, because the boys in the hood are always hard. Um, and a woman literally came out and said that I am full of sin because I was rap rapping, lip syncing to a song. A woman that again does not know me, that is judging me off of a reel, a like 30-second reel, basically summarized that I am full of sin, that I should go to hell. And when I went to her um bio, so there's a Bible scripture in her bio, that that is the reality of what we are seeing across social media. And I worried about opening my mouth about things because I worried about being canceled. But I'm just so angry and I'm just so over it that I don't give an F anymore. Yeah, I said it. I really don't give an F. Um, if you want to cancel me, cancel me. That's fine. I'm not your person and you're not mine. So bye. But I hope that before you leave, say a prayer. Say a prayer for the people that are out in this world being marginalized. Say a prayer for the people that are sinning and judging. Say a prayer for yourself that God softens your heart to not be quick to judge and cancel people out. Now that was a bit of my kind of personal sidebar there of some of the challenges of what I feel that I was worried about. As I prayed, I realized, God, you called me to even just speak to the one. And if I have 3,328 people cancel me and choose to not follow me anymore, but you leave me one, you leave me two, you leave me three. And those one, two, or three were changed because of what you spoke in and through me, then I'm happy. Then I'm just trusting God on this. Um, now Jesus, too, he lived in a divided world, and that's what I want to get to right now. In looking at scripture and looking at the Bible, and I mean, Jesus was canceled ultimately because he spoke truth, he spoke light, he spoke what God's word did, and he went against the grain. So Jesus was canceled. So if Jesus wasn't afraid of being canceled, why should I? I'm gonna trust God and say, Jesus, you are my Lord, you are my provider. And if bringing light to what has taken place and sharing the truth gets me canceled, then be it. So here we are. Jesus lived during a time that emotions were high, division was everywhere. He lived during a time during the Roman occupation. There was political oppression, there was religious elitism, there was political fear and misinformation. Jesus constantly disrupted that system. He touched who were considered the untouchable, he healed the lepers, he sat with the prostitutes, he had a uh a tax collector come and walk with him and be part of his ministry. He challenged the religious leaders, he challenged the Pharisees and the Sadducees during that time. He centered his ministry around the marginalized people, the oppressed. He fed the hungry, he served the sick, he served the the immigrants, he served the poor. He loved, he showed grace and compassion. And what happened from that? Division, the uproar. You can't do that. You can't, you can't sit with the sinners. You're not a prophet, because a prophet would never sit with the sinners.

SPEAKER_01

They compartmentalized people. You're immigrants, you're blacks, you're whites, you're Jews.

Barabbas Or Jesus: Fear Over Truth

SPEAKER_00

Just like we're doing today. You can't sit with them. They're no good. You can't love them. Them. You can't feed them. And Jesus was like, watch me. Now we know the story of Jesus. I'm not gonna sit here too much and and um you know go too deep in it, but I want to bring some clarity into some of the scripture. Now, fear and anger are a tool of manipulation, and that will shape public choices, and that's what we're seeing unravel right now. Fear, anger is being used to manipulate, to allow the people to believe one thing. That is what happened with Jesus. Now I want to read to you, I'm gonna try to read this to you without getting emotional because every time I read this scripture, um I get very emotional. I think because I I pre-read it earlier, I'm hoping that it just all got out of me. But I'm gonna read Matthew 27, 15 through 26 to you. That's Matthew 27, um, starting at verse 15 all the way to verse 26. Um let me find it here and I'm gonna read it to you. Now, this is um, let me just kind of set the tone here. This is when Jesus was about to be crucified. Now, it was the governor's custom that at the festival that they released a prisoner to the crowd, and they had Jesus. And this is where the crowd, because out of anger and manipulation, that they chose to have a murderer, a violent murderer released rather than Jesus. So let me read. Now it was the governor's custom at the festival to release a prisoner chosen by the crowd. At that time, they had a well-known prisoner whose name was Jesus uh Barabbas. So when the crowd had gathered, Pilate asked them, which one do you want me to release to you? Jesus Barabas or Jesus who is called the Messiah? For he knew it was out of self-interest that they had handled, handed Jesus over to him. While Pilate was sitting on the judge's seat, his wife sent him this message Don't have anything to do with that innocent man, for I have suffered a great deal today in a dream because of him. But the chief priest and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabas and to have Jesus executed. Which of the two do you want me to release to you? asked the governor. Barabas, they answered. Why? What crime has he committed? asked Pilate. But they shouted all the louder, crucify him. When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. I am innocent of this man's blood, he said. It is your responsibility. All the people answered, His blood is on us and on our children. Then he released Barabas to them. But he had Jesus flogged and handed him up and handed him over to be crucified. Then the governor's soldiers took Jesus into the uh praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him. And then they twisted together a crown of prones and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand, then they kneeled in front of him and mocked him. Hail King of the Jews, they said. They spit on him and took the staff and struck him in the head again and again. After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.

SPEAKER_01

Barabas was known as a criminal.

SPEAKER_00

He was violent, he was a murderer. Pilate gave the crowd a choice. Release Jesus who was innocent, or release Barabas who was guilty. The crowd chose Barabbas. And Jesus was sentenced to crucifixion. And I get emotional every time I read this because I just think like this poor innocent man. He never got violent. He never fought them off. He was flogged hundreds of times. He never once tried to stop it. He embraced those whips as they struck his back. He never shouted at them. He never called them names. He never cursed them. Jesus just took it.

SPEAKER_01

And even when he went to the cross, he still was so poised in who he knew he was.

History Echoes: From Camps To Today

SPEAKER_00

And we can look at the theological insight of this that fear overrides truth. And that's what happened. These people were fearful because here Jesus came, they they saw something that was against the grain. Crowds are very easily influenced. We had political, there was political power that were influencing this crowd to act out in the way that they did against Jesus. And innocence is often sacrificed to preserve power and comfort. And that's what we are seeing take place right now. Innocence is being sacrificed to preserve power and comfort. And I'm even going to go to the next level to say that innocence is being sacrificed to preserve power and pockets. Because there are people that vote with with their pockets first and their prejudice second. And that is why we have the administration that we do in power right now because it's pockets first and prejudice second. That's what happened here with Jesus. The crowd wanted to take and free a violent murderer because they wanted to protect their pocket and they wanted to stick with their prejudice and believe that their prejudice was okay. Jesus wasn't killed because he was guilty. He was killed because love, truth, and justice threatened the status quo. I'm going to say that again. Jesus was not killed because he was guilty. He was killed because love, truth, and justice threatened the status quo. It threatened pockets. That's that's what it did. It threatened power. There was no crime that Jesus committed other than loving people. How did Jesus respond to injustice? Jesus didn't incite violence. He again, he never cursed the crowd, he didn't retaliate. On that cross, he said, Father, forgive them. They do not know what they are doing. That is in Luke 23, 34. And that is just an example showing what is taking place now, and it just the relation to we're just not getting it. When you go and you look at the Bible and you can relate it to things that are happening now, you see that it is an endless cycle. I um I had shared the last episode that over the summer we traveled to Europe, went to a concentration camp in Germany. We spent a lot of time in Germany. We went to a concentration camp. And and I I don't recall if I shared this in the last episode or not. If I did, forgive me, but it has a different meaning now. Um, in that concentration camp, we we were told by our tour guide, and I cannot remember the name of the concentration camp, forgive me. Uh it was a German name, so I can't remember. But as we were walking through the concentration camp, the tour guide had told us um approximately how many like thousands of people were in prison in that concentration camp. And they had gave me a statistic that was shocking and sickening to my stomach. And that is that in that concentration camp, only 10% of the people in that concentration camp were actual Jews. I had always been like, at least I was taught and I had always believed that the majority of people that were in concentration camps were Jews. Um that wasn't so. You had political leaders that were against the Nazi regime that were imprisoned. Um anybody basically that spoke out against what was taking place against the Jews were imprisoned. Anyone that did not agree with the Nazi regime were imprisoned. So as we were walking down these uh barracks of where the prisoners were, there was some that they had like plaques and saying that in in this barrack, in this little cell, basically is the this was the person and this is who it was. There were priests. There were politicians, there were other religious leaders that were imprisoned because they were going against the grain into what was taking place with the Jews and how the Jews were being handled. 90% of the people in that concentration camp were not Jews. They were people that were speaking out and trying to protect the Jews and the injustice that was being done against them. We're seeing that today, friends. We are seeing that same thing today. As I walked through those barracks of that concentration camp, my heart was so heavy. And learning about what took place, the evil that was there, I felt that just this heavy cloud over that place and the evil that was there. I was so unsettling. It was disheartening. I was grieving what was lost there. I was grieving knowing that the correlation between what took place in those uh concentration camps back at back then and what is taking place now today in the US. We are repeating what took place there.

SPEAKER_01

And I I want you and being very mindful.

Prophets, Idolatry, And National Drift

From Rage To Redemptive Action

SPEAKER_00

So forgive me for these long pauses, being very mindful of how I articulate my thoughts and my words because I want them to come out in a way that um allows you to really just sit with what I am sharing today. Now, again, we see so we see biblical examples of what took place, we see things that happened here in in the US, um, or actually not just in the US and the world, uh the whole World War II, that was the world of what took place and how it relates again today, that we are just repeating it. And we can even go far back to like the Old Testament and look at the division with Israel before the Babylonian exile. And we can look at how Israel and Judah, how they basically turned to idolatry and those religious rituals that continued, but obedience and justice did not. And there was that back then you look at the separation of Judah and what caused that exile to happen. Uh, there was a lot of injustice that was taking place back then, too. There was exploitation of the poor, there was corrupt leadership, there was land theft, there was dishonest courts, there was religious performance without any moral substance whatsoever. People were performing to perform, they were looking to idolatry. And here in Isaiah 1, 21 through 23, it says, See how the faithful city has become a prostitute. She once was full of justice, but now murderers. Your rulers are rebels, partners with thieves. They all love bribes and chase after gifts. I'm reading in Isaiah right now, and I'm seeing the correlation between what took place in Judah and the just political power horse that it was. It turned to idolatry and power and politics, and it caused the separation of the people in Judah and they how they led to idol tree and how the Babylonian Empire came and all of this, you're seeing it and making the connection to what has taken place today. And God explicitly ties injustice to spiritual abandonment, saying that worship has continued, but obedience does not. And that's in Isaiah 1, 11 through 17. So there is a clear correlation when people have completely abandoned God, when they have turned to evil, when they have turned to idol tree, and injustice occurs, division, separation occurs within a nation. Our nation has completely withdrawn from God. They have made themselves idols, trying to grow platforms. And this is where I have to be careful with this. And that's why I said, if I'm canceled, I'm canceled. I'm I'm done playing it safe. I cannot continue to try to bring joy and order to your life without addressing what is taking place in the world right now. The people back then, during like the demise of Judah, they were religiously active, but they were spiritually distant. And that is when injustice occurs, and that's what has taken place. We have become complacent with keeping God in a box and putting other people in boxes. The gays have to stay right here. The blacks have to stay here. The immigrants and the browns, they gotta stay right here. The transgenders, they have to stay right here. The Jews, they have to stay right here. The Buddhists, they gotta stay right here. We have compartmentalized people and God. God, you have to stay here. You, God, you only come out on Sunday. You don't come out Monday through Friday. There are influencers online that do not speak anything about God because they don't want to be canceled. There's a difference between religion and relationship. And I think we have moved to a nation that is more religion than relational with God. We need to get back to relationship with God. And it starts by reading the Bible and understanding all of this and piecing it together and using discernment to understand what is happening, getting people to turn from evil and hate and turn to love and compassion. That's where we need to bring justice to the table. And this is where that anger can be used for good. Anger can become redemptive. You can turn this reflection of anger and stuff where it tends to be destructive, and you can use it to just stop outrage, where anger also can be redemptive in moving us forward in love and action. In Romans 12, 21, it says, Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. That's what we need to do. We need to overcome the evil that has taken place in this nation right now with good. How do we do that? We love others, we serve others, we are kind. We do not judge, we don't go onto strangers' social media and tell them that they're a sinner and they're going to hell because they rap to NWA. They litzing. We need to choose compassion over hate. And we need to continue to show up in a way that demonstrates Jesus in all of us. We we have to put that fear aside and walk in compassion and grace. We need to get out of our comfort zone and we need to be courageous to step out and say, hey, I want to take action. And we can't be silent anymore about God, about what's taken place. Like we need to act in in love and we need to move with love in action. We need to move forward so that people know that we're not just going to sit here and live in fear and feel helpless. Now, what does compassionate action look like today? And I want to be practical and giving you some ways to just really practice some ways to kind of like deal with the emotions that everyone is dealing with, I can imagine, but just processing everything that has taken place. So I want to equip you with just practices and not pressure you with um, you know, too much that is overwhelming. Some of the things that we need to do is we need to listen before we react. We need to not judge others with, you know, watching a 30-second reel that someone created, not tell them they're going to hell. We need to speak truth without cruelty. And that's what I'm hoping I'm doing here, that I'm speaking truth. Like I'm giving you biblical um insight and I'm referencing scripture and reading scripture and I'm tying it together for you that you can see just the connection of what has taken place and how we continue to repeat, repeat, repeat Old Testament, World War II, Jesus crucifixion today, Alex Predy, Renee Good, Charlie Kirk. Like I can go on and on and on and on. Those are just some of the names of innocent lives that were taken from the hands of evil political evil leaders. And whether you you voted for this or not, you need to be compassionate and see that it is time for a change. And maybe you did vote for this and Now you're like, wait a minute, this isn't what I expected. Maybe when you voted, you were more fearful to protect your pocket and your prejudice. And now you're resenting that because you're seeing what's happening. You're like, wait a minute, this wasn't what I voted for. And that's okay. We still love you. And it's okay to change your mind and to change your vote next time and to be angry about what's happening. And maybe repent and maybe ask for forgiveness and say, hey, this isn't what I thought it was. You have people that were running in Minnesota, a um a Republican that was running for governor, he retreated and said, I want nothing to do with the Republican Party right now because of what has taken place. Does that mean that every Republican is evil? No, it doesn't. And that's not at all what I'm saying. Okay. And I'm not saying that every Democrat is a saint. No. Politics are about power, about protecting the pockets, and about prejudice. And they want you on either one side or the other. Because causing division is what politics is about. That's what they do. And that's why I've never wanted to address this because there's so much division about it. And I get angry. Like I hear people talking, and I'm like, you don't even know what you're talking about. You are speaking. You are, you have diarrhea of the mouth with things that you are ignorant to. And you've been given a platform, unfortunately. And they are spreading lies, they are spreading mistruths, they are spreading things that they're saying are from the Bible, but they're not. Things that are they're they're taking scripture and taking it out of context. And that's why Jesus came, because we continued to take scripture out of context of what God was saying. And Jesus came to change the narrative of it.

SPEAKER_01

And we killed him.

Regulating The Nervous System

Boundaries, Bias, And Online Backlash

SPEAKER_00

Now it is important to know that again to listen before we react, to speak truth without cruelty, to uh advocate locally where you can, supporting a family or a community that are directly affected with things that are taking place, praying intentionally that will lead you to action, having discernment on these. These are just some of the things that we can do to take that anger into action. Now, here's a truth that most people don't talk about. When we're constantly exposed to injustice, to fear-based headlines, and to outrage, our nervous system goes into survival mode. And it goes into survival mode before our minds can even catch up and understand what has taken place. And I think that we have fallen down that, like just doom scrolling and going down those rabbit holes of looking up information and trying to seek the truth and trying to find some clarity in all of this. Our nervous systems are not made for that. And it is why so many of us are dealing with depression, anxiety, obesity, addictions, because we want to suppress our nervous system and not be in that overload, not be in that fight or flight mode anymore. So the first step isn't fixing the world because we can't do that. It's taken like almost a decade to get here, this mess that we're in now. It's not going to happen overnight. It's not going to happen when a new administration comes in. It's not. We need to self-regulate. That's what we need to do. And that's what I want to share with you on ways to learn to self-regulate when all of this is going on, because unregulated people burn out. And if you feel on the verge of burning out because of everything that has taken place, you are not alone. But once we are able to regulate, regulated people are the ones that endure. Regulated people are the ones that can take action because we have learned to regulate our nervous system and regulate our emotions in a healthy way. So a couple of things to remember. This is like the teacher in me. Um, I have a little sign in my classroom that said, think before you post. And it was like an acronym for things to do. But I want to just remind you of this before you post, before you argue, before you spiral out over things that are happening, just slow your body down. Regulate your nervous system because when that cortisol is high, we react in anger. And if you're like me, you want to just like rage against people and you need to step back a little bit. And that's where I have learned to channel my um fight mode because acting or reacting, I should say, in anger is not who I want to be. So believe me, I'm not perfect. I have acted out, I have said stuff, I have made responses that I know even as I'm typing it out, the Holy Spirit convicts me and I'm like, erase, delete. I can't do that. I need to change it. Sometimes it's even like uh okay, right? Because you just you don't want to go there. I am learning, I'm growing, and I fail many times, y'all. Just ask my husband, I fail many times. But he has grace with me, he has forgiveness, and we can continue to love each other and know that things are said in anger sometimes that aren't necessarily intentional. So we have to learn how to just channel that into being actionable in a way that serves for good. So sometimes it's as simple as just breathing. When we breathe, when we take big inhales and exhale, it slows the cortisone down, it regulates our nervous system. Going for a walk outside, grounding your body, letting your system come out of that fight or flight mode. This isn't avoiding what is taking place in the world. This isn't avoiding what's even taking place in your house. It's just using wisdom. Jesus often withdrew to allow him to re-engage. Like when we look at some pretty stressful times of when Jesus was doing his ministry, he retreated. He went into the wilderness. Think about when Jesus was going to be sacrificed. He knew his crucifixion was coming and he went to the garden to pray. He had to retreat and get his heart and mind right with God before he went forward and doing whatever he knew had to take place. I can imagine Jesus was angry. I can imagine that Jesus was frustrated and fearful and all of those things, but yet he retreated. And that allowed him to not act out or sin. Well, he went through absolutely the worst experience possible. So you want to limit exposure also without losing compassion. It's it's so easy for us to just like, I'm gonna stay off social media, I'm not gonna watch the news, which I I highly recommend. I do really highly recommend that. But then it's also important for us to not lose compassion over what's happening. Now, I have filtered my social media, I don't watch the news, I'll tell you that. I do get information on social media from trusted resources that I feel are not biased for that reason, because I've never been one to be into politics and look at things one-sided or not. Um, I just want the truth. Just feed me the truth. That's that's what I want, and I will make my own informed decisions. So my social media is catered to that if what I need to see the truth in a way that I think is non-biased and factual. So I do set boundaries, but I I will be transparent and I will admit that I have find my I have found myself doom scrolling and going down rabbit holes, trying to find like an answer and trying to understand why people think what is taking place in the world is okay. And I am, I just get more angry and I get more sick to my stomach reading comments and seeing vile hate. And a lot of this vile hate, when you go to these people's profile, they have a I Live Jesus or a Bible quote in there.

SPEAKER_01

Like, and they just so happen to be white.

Move Your Body, Steward Your Health

SPEAKER_00

I said what I said racism uh is absolute finest. I I will tell you this. I will say I I'll have to go back and properly look at statistics, but I and I don't even know if I can because I delete and like block a lot of these people, but any hateful comments that I have gotten about things that like on my YouTube, um, just recently I had saw there was a hateful comment on an old podcast. Like this comment was posted, I think it was like, I don't know, eight weeks ago or something like that. So I hadn't seen it. Um hateful things, you know, just nasty stuff on my social media, on regarding my podcast on YouTube and stuff like that. I would say a close 90% of it has come from a white woman, and her profile will have something about Jesus in it. I'm a brown Latina speaking out about Jesus, and they want to come out against me and judge me. I'm speaking truth. I'm not trying to spread division or racism or anything. I am speaking truth because there is some validity to this of what we are seeing take place in the world. I am a brown woman. I am a woman speaking God's word. I am brown. I come from an immigrant father, and there are white women that are hating against me. My hate's like very minimal. I just want to address that. Very minimal. But it comes from a white woman. That pisses me off. And I want to throw fists and I want to pop off. Block and delete. Block and delete. There have been some. I just it was so hard to not like slap back a little bit. But it was a slap back in love to like just slap them in the face with love. Because sometimes you need that. It wasn't mean, it wasn't cruel, it was truth. I literally slap back with Bible scripture and said, Okay, you want to come at me with that? Let me slap you with this. Here's the word, and that's what I'm doing today. I'm slapping y'all with the word in opening your eyes to what is taking place. Indifference is there. We have to set boundaries on scrolling, on social media, and we have to step away so that we don't step out morally. And that's where I have to protect my heart. I have to protect my boundaries because in 0.5 seconds, I will step out and come at a white woman. I will be quick to respond. And you want to act like a Karen around me, I will act like a chola come back at you. Okay. I have to retreat. And this is what I'm telling you. I'm being transparent here. Some of you aren't gonna like any of that stuff that I said. I'm not even gonna ask for forgiveness. It is what it is, but this is where I have to protect my heart. I'm telling you what my reaction is. I am 51% hood, 49% holy. I'm gonna act hood before I act holy. And a clap back and coming for you with my fist is my fight response. But I have had to learn how to limit my exposure to things that are gonna put me in that situation and that are gonna allow me to try to stay as holy as possible. So I retreat, I set boundaries, and I allow myself to say, this isn't worth my time. God, you clap back at them before I do. You hurt them before I do. And I have to trust that. You don't have to see everything that you care deeply about. Now, another thing that you can do is to just move your body. Y'all get out and move your body. Walk, dance, stretch. You know, do some strength training, go out for a hike. Moving your body is not punishment. It helps your body to release the weight that you are carrying. It helps you to release the tension, the fatigue, the anxiety, and even illness. It helps to release that cortisol. It gets you out. Now, for my midlife women, y'all, our hormones are already out of whack because we're in midlife right now. And then add in the heaviness of everything that's taking place in the world, like our cortisol levels are outrageous. I'm I'm learning all these things about hormones in my body and all of that right now. And one of the things that I have learned is that uh perimenopause and cortisol irregulation have very similar symptoms. So some of you women might be thinking that your hormones are out of whack and that you're a midlife, but the reality is that you have cortisome irregulation. So it's important if you feel that like maybe some of you you've gotten on hormone replacement therapy and you still feel out of whack. You're like, wait a minute, things are still not feeling the way that they are supposed to. Go get your cortisone level checks because what we are living through right now, nobody like should be dealing with this amount of stress or anxiety and anger and all of that than we were made to. So your cortisone levels are probably out of whack if you have not learned to channel all of this in a healthy manner. And that's what I'm trying to give you ways on to channel that and to bring your cortisol down. And here's another thing hopelessness grows when we feel powerless. And we're not we have to keep hope alive, y'all. And I know I've been in that kind of box of where I feel hopeless of like, God, what do I do? What can I do? I'm scared. I like, how do I act out? What do I do? And we can't feel powerless. We want to be able to fix everything, but we can't. And there are just some small things that we can do to make an impact. And small impact just helps to regulate our emotions that we're feeling. But these small things can also make a very huge difference. It's important that we get out and take action in serving others. That's what Jesus did. Jesus went out and he served, he fed the 5,000. When he fed the 5,000, he didn't ask them if they pay taxes. He didn't ask them if they're of their legal status. No, he just fed them. Yeah. And that's what we're called to do. We're called to help the homeless, the needy, the suppressed, the marginalized, the immigrants, all of them. The blacks, the straits, the browns, the gays. We're called to love them all and love them equally. Let God be the judge of their sins, not us. We shall not cast judgment on anybody because we all carry sin ourselves. And no sin is worse than the other sin. Sin is sin. There's no order in the Bible. When you read the Bible, like, I mean, you can read the Ten Commandments, and it I don't know that they were necessarily written in order as to which one is worse or not. I do know for this that um the first one listed is there shall not be any other gods before I. Idolatry of a president is another god. Idolatry of another uh political party is a sin.

SPEAKER_01

Idol tree of your pocket, your wealth, your power, your money, that's a sin. We're called to love everybody equally.

Small Acts That Restore Dignity

Community, Safe Spaces, And Prayer

SPEAKER_00

So go out and love people, even if they're different from you, even if they do not agree with you, even if they look different, vote different, love different, go to church different, just love people, have compassion for people, go and support a family, serve in a group, write a letter. If you want to go to a protest, go to a protest, create a piece of art, pray with intention instead of panic. Be intentional in praying for people. Now, my calling, I again I want to be in fight and flight mode, and I'm not called to protest because I will fight with people. I'm not even lying. I think God knows like what He called in my part to do because if He put me out to be in front of these political people and to protest, like your girl will probably go to jail or unfortunately be executed. So protesting is not my calling. Getting involved in politics is not my calling. My calling is right here, spreading this to you. My calling is going out and serving people in my community, in our classrooms and our schools, and just bringing love and joy and order to your life. But there's so many different things that we can do. There are small, meaningful actions can just restore dignity and it reminds us that we are not powerless. We can do these small little faithful things and bring power back to us, not feel helpless. Don't bypass the emotions that you are feeling. Please process them. Being angry at injustice is not sin. Acting out against it is, but having anger over what is taking place is not sinful at all. Grieve over what is taking place. Grief is not a weakness. You are human. We all are human. I'm grieving. Suppressing our emotions just makes them louder in the body and it makes it not healthy for our bodies. We have to process them by moving, by being in action, by moving, getting out, walking, serving others, doing these things. Get out and journal. Talk so much about journal. You know the impacts of journaling. Getting out and talking with someone. Y'all, I already scheduled a hike with my friend this Friday. Find a safe person that you know. That you can go and just vent with and express your frustrations and your worries and your doubts and make sure that it's like no judgment. And I have a friend. We go and we we have our hiking therapy sessions together and we vent and we share and we cry and we lash out of our anger and our frustration. And I know that it's a safe place. And at the end, my friend, we hug it out and we love each other and we speak love and light to each other. And I have that. And y'all, I prayed for that. I prayed for that for a really long time. I have that with my husband. Don't get me wrong, but there's nothing like having that with a girlfriend. And I have that with a friend now. I prayed for that for a long time. And I have that safe place with someone that is not going to come out and judge, with someone that is going to speak love and light to me, that is biblically grounded and that's going to check me. Find that in a person and go do it. If you need that in a person, hey, reach out. You're not meant to carry this alone. Get involved in your church. Get involved in the community. Get out, get involved in your outreach programs. Go find your local soup kitchen or your local pantry that you can go and serve and you know help other people. See what programs at the school that you can serve at. Maybe you can help your child's classroom teacher. Maybe you can help your child's coach. There are so many ways that you can go out and just do good. God called us to be a service to others, and this is how we can regulate and just deal with a lot of the things that are taking place. Stay connected. Go out and be in community. We were not, again, meant to carry this alone. Go and share meals with people, have honest conversations, get in prayer circles, and just be in quiet presence with other people. Because even Jesus didn't walk alone. At the heaviest and probably most scariest time for him, he didn't walk alone. He had his disciples with him. And finally, I want to tell you to anchor yourself in meaning. Anchor yourself in meaning and not outcomes. If we anchor our hope or outcomes that we can't control, despair will follow us. We have to be mindful of anchoring ourselves in faithfulness, in hope, and love in obedience in compassion and in truth. And that's what I hope this episode did, that it brought truth to you. And you're able to see what I shared, and it will shed some light on everything that's taken place. And maybe this has been heavy on your heart, you're angry like I've been, and you don't know how to channel that. And I hope that I was able to just bring some light to that. You can remain steady even when the world is shaking. And that's being steady and grounded in who God is and who Jesus was. And I want you to ask yourself this what is mine to carry and what is not? What is happening in the world right now is not yours to carry. We have to give it to God. We feel helpless because we can't control it. But that's where our faith has to arise up, and we have to trust God, who is greater than us, that things are going to take place. We can feel angry without being cruel. We can feel grief without becoming hopeless. We can feel fear without being ruled by it. The goal isn't to feel less. The goal is to carry our feelings in a way that leads to life and not burnout. That's how we stay human. That's how we stay faithful.

SPEAKER_01

And that's how we just keep showing up. Friend, I'm praying for you.

SPEAKER_00

I know this was a lot to take in. Some of you might have shed some tears as I did today. Um, and it's okay. I I could not go any longer by not expressing the weight of what is taking place right now in fear of being canceled, in fear of people, you know, rejecting me. Um, I'm I'm really good at rejection, by the way. I think I've kind of grown like a a back to that because I've been rejected so many times. Like being rejected by your own father, that'll give you a backbone right there. So it wasn't so much the rejection. Like I can care less about that. It really was. Um, I wanted to make sure that I didn't offend people. And I wanted it to come out in a way that was truly spoken from my heart and being compassionate, but also bringing truth to what has taken place. Our world has turned to evil. Our world has chosen their pockets and prejudice over compassion and grace. And I hope that this episode maybe revealed some things. And there were, if if there were some truth, it maybe felt like a little bit of a stab to the gut. Some of the stuff was a stab to the gut to myself, also, as I have read. And I have seen myself fall short of a lot of this. Friend, I love you. I'm praying for you. And even in the midst of chaos, still go out and chase joy.