A New Normal - Being All In - Belonging and More - E16

An interview of Lenora (me) by Marnie Swedberg from February 2020.  We cover five topics in fifteen minutes that can help with daily life:

• A New Normal
• Words to Create With
• All In
• Stable Love
• and for fun... Your Body Parts Know if You Don't Like Them

Enjoy!

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Note: Episode was recorded under the former podcast name of "3Ps in a Pod"

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Transcript

A New Normal - Belonging and More

This is Lenora your host for 3Ps In A Pod. Welcome to this week's new episode. This is about purpose, pathways, and perspectives. And this episode is actually where I was interviewed back in February by Marnie Swedberg. She's an international coach; she's a radio host and a keynote speaker, and we had a great time with the interview. At least I know I thoroughly enjoyed it. So, I wanted to share it. I cover five different topics in 15 minutes. One is about how sometimes we need a new normal, how we also belong. 

[00:00:41] I talk about the power of creative words. And I talk about, well you have to listen to find out what else I talk about, but it's good. So enjoy this episode of 3Ps In A Pod.

[00:00:56] Marnie Swedberg: Hey everybody. Welcome back to another Facebook live. This is Marnie Swedberg of womenspeakers.com. I'm here today with Lenora Turner from the state of Washington. Welcome to you Lenora. 

[00:01:08] Lenora Turner: Thank you. Thank you very much Marnie. I'm glad to be here. 

[00:01:11] Marnie Swedberg: Oh, excited to have you. And we get to pick your brain a little bit about some of your favorite aha phrases with God and so, I'm just going to dive in and as I share them, then you can just respond. So, the first one is, "Sometimes we need a new normal."

[00:01:27] Lenora Turner: Well, thank you. A new normal, for me, what that's talking about is, with what I do for career and just growing up with my own life and my own changes, I've seen that we often are good at recreating whatever's normal to us.

[00:01:41] The challenge can be is that normal may have been very, very unhealthy, very, maybe painful. So how do I not recreate that? And it's the simple as the way we learn. We kind of learn things, build a case with it, by our experiences, our words, what we saw, we build a case and we get a comfort zone in whatever area.

[00:02:04] So we kind of have to, on purpose, do that in a new way. Maybe hang out in new places, push yourself to talk to new people, get yourself into a new normal. Something you're thinking, well, I'd rather my life in this area is like, That. So then you take some steps to build a new normal, and there's lots more to talk about it, but it's to help take how we learn and use it for our benefit to get to a better place.

[00:02:31] Marnie Swedberg: So, what you said at the beginning of that phrase that you used at the beginning was we have this way that we are with what's normal, for us that feels very safe and comfortable. 

[00:02:44] Lenora Turner: And whether or not it's even safe, but we do, we get to where we don't operate in that space. We don't have function there, but maybe life would be a lot healthier, more positive if it were a bit different. 

[00:02:56] Marnie Swedberg: Right.

[00:02:57] Lenora Turner: I’ve got to learn to function in a new place. So, comfort zones are just what they are, they're comfortable. 

[00:03:02] Marnie Swedberg: Right. 

[00:03:02] Lenora Turner: So, if you're going to change them, you're going to be uncomfortable for a while. So, the good news is if you stay at something that's new for you, you can actually get a whole new comfort zone and a new normal.

[00:03:14] Marnie Swedberg: That's awesome. 

[00:03:17] "Give God good words to create with." 

[00:03:21] Lenora Turner: That's one that has been important to me many, many times.

[00:03:26] God's a creator. We know God as a creator and we were made in his image. And if you look in from Genesis ongoing, how he spoke words and created. Now we're living, obviously, within his creation, but the book of James talks about how hey your words are like putting a bit in a horse's mouth. It's directing the horse. Or a rudder on a ship to help, even if you're in a strong storm and fierce winds, the book in chapter three of James says, that rudder can keep you on course.

[00:03:56] And so you want to be speaking life, even in the tough things. When, I mean, not that you're not venting; sometimes talking and getting comfort and all that, but watch how you're directing your life with your mouth. Help God along, prepare the way for him by speaking life. Proverbs talks all over about the power of our tongue.

[00:04:15] Life and death is in the power of the tongue. So along that line, I just felt that still small voice years ago saying, "Hey, give me words to create with." And I went, is that scriptural? And Proverbs actually says, or actually it's in Isaiah, “God produces the fruit of the lips.” So, he's like, give me words of life, cooperate with God, pull good things.

[00:04:36] And a good pathway, especially when you're facing a storm. 

[00:04:41] Marnie Swedberg: So, what isn't true is that God can't create without us, because he can. He doesn't need us to create. But what is true is that he can't create what he can only create through me, through the 3 billion base pair of DNA that he strung me together with.

[00:04:54] That's the only way that he can create through me is if I partner with him.

[00:04:59] Lenora Turner: Well yeah, we are supposed to co-labor with him. 

[00:05:01] Marnie Swedberg: Right. 

[00:05:03] Lenora Turner: But yes, he's our creator, but we've got to cooperate with him. 

[00:05:08] Marnie Swedberg: Well, and what a privilege, right? I mean...

[00:05:10] Lenora Turner: Oh my goodness. 

[00:05:11] Marnie Swedberg: That's everything 

[00:05:12] Lenora Turner: And the more I learned, the more I've grown with him, you just realize how good he is. And he's like, "Hey, are you willing to take in how good I am? And I will. I want to bless you." We go through challenges, of course, but he's a good God. 

[00:05:28] Marnie Swedberg: He is a good God. 

[00:05:30] "When God says I do, he adds no prenuptial agreement." That's awesome. 

[00:05:38] Lenora Turner: Big one. When you think of when God says I do. Marriage, really, I'm comparing, as scripture also does, comparing our relationship with God, to a marriage.

[00:05:49] And I think sometimes we may want walk into our Christian walk at the beginning. We don't know God that well, and we kind of hold back areas do I really trust God with. But God doesn't do that with us. He's all in. He's all in. In fact, you know, covenant he calls it. The Bible is titled Old Testament, New Testament. That means old covenant, new covenant. 

[00:06:13] So we as a Western culture, those of us from there, there's a lot we don't realize what that means. And it changed my life during this study years ago with Malcolm Smith, actually, who talked about how God gives his name. Like we do in marriage. Abraham, he became the God of Abraham.

[00:06:33] He changed Sarai to Sarah Abram to Abraham, put that letter of his name in there. How you exchanged coats, David and Jonathan exchange coats, representing, who they are. They exchanged their belt and their bow, which was their weapons, their power to fight. And so, covenant with God and they would even exchange blood, I mean not drink it, but the communion represents, “My life is now your life.”

[00:07:00] And so God says I'm in; my life is yours. Me, who I am is yours. And I think because we've got to keep learning how much he's all in and we can trust him and learn to cooperate and grow up in who he is. 

[00:07:15] Marnie Swedberg: Yeah. I love that. When he made that covenant with Abraham, he did both parts. So, it's like, he's making a covenant, but he did both parts.

[00:07:23] So he agreed I'm in. Even if you want out, I'm in.

[00:07:26] Lenora Turner: Absolutely, so beautiful. 

[00:07:27] Marnie Swedberg: So cool.  

[00:07:30] Well, your next one is, "When you feel like you don't belong socially, God says it's okay; You belong to me." 

[00:07:38] Lenora Turner: Yeah. And that one came to me specifically at a time when I was in transition, really. I was very, very involved, in fact, I was on staff at a ministry. I still had good friendships, but I wasn't as immersed all the time in that environment. I had shifted over to more back in the corporate environment and that was good, but it was new. And I remember saying, "God, I feel like I don't fully belong over here. And I don't fully belong over here."

[00:08:07] Yeah. And he said, "That's okay, you belong to me to me." And that has forever been something to ponder and say, I learned more about how much you belong and how at home and how welcome you are with him, because we all have shifts and changes and seasons of life. And we have to, most importantly, have that rooted and grounded relationship with him.

[00:08:32] Because we all face insecurities, but if I know I belong to him and if he's excited to have me in his family to be my father, then I can walk through things and get to new friendships; new places. 

[00:08:49] Marnie Swedberg: It's just such a comfort to know that I belong to God. 

[00:08:53] Lenora Turner: It's huge. 

[00:08:54] Marnie Swedberg: It changes everything.

[00:08:56] Lenora Turner: I've seen so much these days is sadly is, sometimes you have the concept of the force be with you out there.

[00:09:02] And people are just looking for a force to be a part of. But God is personal. He's a father. He wants you. He's a best friend. He's a big brother. He's all of those parts that he names himself and he wants to be personal. 

[00:09:18] Marnie Swedberg: Yes. 

[00:09:19] Lenora Turner: We belong to him. 

[00:09:21] Marnie Swedberg: Your next one is, "He loves me. He loves me. He loves me. With God, there is no, he loves me not."

[00:09:28] Okay. That just makes me smile. 

[00:09:30] Lenora Turner: I'm so glad. I know how I have felt like, Oh, I did something dumb today or I did something I shouldn't have, or I had a lousy attitude and you feel like, man, God's mad at me or, and so you can have this very double-minded sense, "Does God approve of me today? He did this morning; He doesn't now."

[00:09:47] And it's just, it can really mess with you on your confidence and on all kinds of things. But with God, I think, for one he's constant, he doesn't change. But too often, I think we identify with love as a feeling and so do I feel like he loves me? Does he feel good about me? When he says in Corinthians 14 all about love is patient, love is kind, love is not boastful, it doesn't rejoice in evil. It rejoices in good. It always protects. 

[00:10:18] God has all these actions and he never changes those actions. He's always patient, he's always kind. He is love. And so, I have to shift to thinking love is some feeling. No, it's God's constant way with me. And so, I don't have to wonder, "Does he not love me now?"

[00:10:40] He's all in. His personality doesn't change. He doesn't have mood swings. He says he's not easily angered. It's hard to frustrate God. Although I can get frustrated a lot easier than he can. Usually it's about once a decade, if you read scripture, once a decade or two, he was kind of not happy about something.

[00:11:00] He's "I love you." He's all in. 

[00:11:05] Marnie Swedberg: He loves me. He loves me. He loves me. No, He loves me not. I love it. 

[00:11:09] Lenora Turner: It’s not like a daisy where He’s going, “He loves me. He loves me not. He loves me.” 

[00:11:15] Marnie Swedberg: And I remember the first time I kind of understood the concept of God's stability with that reading Steve McVey’s book Grace Walk and he had this picture and he goes, here's our emotions, you know?

[00:11:27] And then here's God. He's stable; so stable.  And we kind of have this impression deep inside of our subconscious. We have an impression that he's going up and down with us and of course he is walking with us, but he is that rock. He is the stability in it all. 

[00:11:45] Lenora Turner: I remember years ago I had a small fender bender, a little bump. I wasn't paying attention and barely bumped a car. I remember I was feeling that ugh, and I kind of felt that sense of God just laughing about it. Not that it was like, he was like, it's okay. He doesn’t get stressed. 

[00:12:04] Marnie Swedberg: In the big scope of things, this is going to be okay. 

[00:12:08] Lenora Turner: Yeah. Even when the big stuff's there I've been, he's just like, “I'm here.” “I'm here in the dark place. I'm hearing the bright place. I'm here in the awkward place. But I'm here and I don't change and I'm with you and you're going to be okay. Keep walking with me.” 

[00:12:22] Marnie Swedberg: That's awesome. I love your next one, "Your body parts know if you don't like them." Hahahaha

[00:12:28] Lenora Turner: This one is a funny one. I don't want to go too deep into this and try to make it some theological thing.

[00:12:36] But, I like to think about the concept, a friend loves at all times, right? That's a scriptural concept and New Testament says he wants us to be preserved wholly, W H O L E; spirit, soul and body.  If you think about it, we're different, you have different parts where we may go, gosh, I like my hair, but I don't like my arms or I don't like my, whatever.

[00:12:59] I like it. You need to go, I gotta be like God and say, I love all of me because he's accepted all of me and you know what I think, in fact I'm sure of it? The Bible says Jesus was not someone who actually, when you looked at him, you weren't drawn towards him. He wasn't somebody who was like, Oh my gosh. Often people make him a very handsome. Scripture, says he really wasn't.

[00:13:23] He was very normal, probably nondescript. You know? And, I think he did that very much on purpose to say this isn't about your appearance. This is you. I created you. I love you. And you need to accept, and that doesn't mean we don't want to be beautiful. I mean, pretty or do things. That's all great. But you need to love your whole self. You'll impact yourself if you don't.

[00:13:47] Marnie Swedberg: Yeah. And to be grateful. God created us each the way we are for his purposes. I mean, it's just, we are the way we are. I'm watching this whole video and I've got this shadow going on over here. And you know, it's making my nose look bigger, but this is a nose God gave me. This is the one and you know what, it's okay.

[00:14:09] You know, and we look at ourselves and we have these things that we say, this is not perfect. This is not right, but don't let that hold you back from doing what God has called you to do from being who God has called you to be, because he knew how you were going to be, today, before he ever created you. And he loves you so much. 

[00:14:27] Lenora, we're out of time. But do you have a favorite theme verse for life or anything like that?

[00:14:32] Lenora Turner: Gosh, I think one of my favorites; there are too many favorites, but one of them is in Daniel and it says, "Those that know their God shall be strong and do exploits." I recall thinking, I want to know him. Ultimately, that's what it's all about, knowing him. Everything else will work out from there. 

[00:14:52] Marnie Swedberg: I love it.

[00:14:52] I love it. Well, thank you so much for joining us today, Lenora.

[00:14:56] Lenora Turner: Love it. Thank you so much for having me.

[00:14:58] Marnie Swedberg: And thanks to you guys for joining us. It was fun to have all you guys live here today. And those of you who watch afterwards, thank you to you. You can learn more about Lenora at womenspeakers.com under the state of Washington.

[00:15:09] You will find her right there at Lenora Turner. Thanks. Have a wonderful day. See you next time. Bye bye. 

[00:15:14] Lenora Turner: I hope you enjoyed the episode. It was sponsored by Lenoradiane.com. I hope you subscribe to this podcast. I like talking with you every week.  I hope you're taking care of you. You matter.  Have a great week.  Let me know topics you want to hear about and stay tuned, I have a fantastic interview for us next week.