WEBVTT 00:00.171 --> 00:10.719 [SPEAKER_04]: This episode of True's Table is brought to you by our NAACP Image Award-nominated book, True's Table, Black Women's Musings on Life, Love, and Liberation. 00:11.140 --> 00:12.701 [SPEAKER_04]: Get it where all books are sold. 00:14.222 --> 00:15.403 [SPEAKER_00]: Sisters, how y'all feel? 00:16.150 --> 00:17.491 [SPEAKER_00]: Brothers, y'all all right? 00:17.872 --> 00:21.114 [SPEAKER_00]: If this is your first time at Truth's Table, welcome to the table. 00:21.315 --> 00:23.837 [SPEAKER_00]: And you've been sitting at the table with us all these years. 00:24.117 --> 00:33.786 [SPEAKER_00]: We are so grateful that you have been listening to us through these years, and we are inviting you to partner with us and support our work at patreon.com slash Truth's Table. 00:34.086 --> 00:37.009 [SPEAKER_00]: Now pull up a chair and have a seat at the table with us. 00:37.589 --> 00:38.950 [SPEAKER_00]: Hey y'all, welcome to choose table. 00:39.090 --> 00:40.451 [SPEAKER_00]: May wise a cultural for grace and truth. 00:40.532 --> 00:41.032 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm a camany. 00:41.272 --> 00:42.013 [SPEAKER_00]: Then I'm Christina. 00:42.413 --> 00:44.815 [SPEAKER_00]: This table is built by Black woman and far Black woman. 00:44.835 --> 00:45.756 [SPEAKER_00]: So welcome to the table. 00:45.796 --> 00:46.877 [SPEAKER_00]: See how you do, I'll go. 00:47.537 --> 00:48.678 [SPEAKER_03]: I'm doing decently. 00:49.339 --> 00:50.099 [SPEAKER_00]: Mm-hmm. 00:50.700 --> 00:50.960 [SPEAKER_03]: Yes. 00:51.781 --> 00:52.521 [SPEAKER_03]: Appropriately. 00:53.002 --> 00:53.342 [SPEAKER_03]: Right. 00:54.623 --> 00:54.963 [SPEAKER_03]: Fine. 00:55.544 --> 00:55.844 [UNKNOWN]: Okay. 00:56.224 --> 00:57.566 [SPEAKER_03]: How are you doing, Sydney? 00:57.606 --> 00:58.446 [SPEAKER_03]: Appropriately. 00:58.586 --> 00:59.027 [SPEAKER_00]: Fine. 01:01.721 --> 01:04.644 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, even though the times are a little kindness. 01:04.704 --> 01:05.484 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm fine. 01:05.585 --> 01:05.905 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm fine. 01:06.105 --> 01:06.606 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm fine. 01:06.646 --> 01:06.866 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm fine. 01:06.926 --> 01:07.266 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm fine. 01:07.306 --> 01:07.667 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm fine. 01:07.687 --> 01:08.027 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm fine. 01:08.047 --> 01:08.447 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm fine. 01:08.528 --> 01:09.188 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm fine. 01:09.228 --> 01:09.428 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm fine. 01:09.468 --> 01:10.049 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm fine. 01:10.069 --> 01:10.229 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm fine. 01:10.269 --> 01:10.690 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm fine. 01:10.710 --> 01:10.950 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm fine. 01:11.030 --> 01:11.571 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm fine. 01:11.591 --> 01:13.132 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm fine. 01:13.212 --> 01:14.093 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm fine. 01:14.193 --> 01:14.694 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm fine. 01:14.714 --> 01:14.974 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm fine. 01:15.074 --> 01:15.655 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm fine. 01:15.675 --> 01:16.075 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm fine. 01:16.135 --> 01:16.556 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm fine. 01:16.576 --> 01:17.016 [SPEAKER_03]: I'm fine. 01:17.036 --> 01:17.336 [SPEAKER_03]: I'm fine. 01:18.277 --> 01:25.341 [SPEAKER_00]: And the process was entertaining, we're over it, and cementated, and we talked more about that. 01:25.941 --> 01:31.604 [SPEAKER_00]: True, but yeah, it's been a doozy, twenty-two and five has been a doozy and a topic on the table. 01:31.784 --> 01:36.026 [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, it's grace to the unemployed. 01:36.106 --> 01:37.347 [SPEAKER_00]: Where is God? 01:38.207 --> 01:39.188 [SPEAKER_00]: I got no job. 01:39.868 --> 01:41.749 [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, that's good. 01:43.370 --> 01:44.470 [SPEAKER_03]: That's a whole time right there. 01:48.507 --> 01:52.888 [SPEAKER_03]: deployed, under-employed, under-employed, under-employed, but I'll work now. 01:53.769 --> 01:58.370 [SPEAKER_05]: All right, well, that's a good distinction because working employment are two different things. 01:58.550 --> 02:01.471 [SPEAKER_05]: Yes, that's good, working employment are two different things. 02:01.491 --> 02:13.195 [SPEAKER_05]: Working them, which is why, which is why, as part of why, amongst many, but one of the reasons why it is so offensive for people to treat those who are out of employment, traditional employment, 02:13.915 --> 02:18.958 [SPEAKER_05]: simply being lazy because work doesn't stop just because employment isn't happening. 02:19.459 --> 02:21.320 [SPEAKER_05]: Yes, there are other forms of work. 02:21.360 --> 02:23.481 [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, there are a lot of things exactly. 02:23.801 --> 02:34.568 [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, and I think that probably is what brings the exhaustion because there is still work in the midst of unemployment that must be done. 02:34.868 --> 02:36.810 [SPEAKER_05]: First of all, trying to get a job is a job. 02:38.092 --> 02:43.076 [SPEAKER_00]: It has always been a job, but it is, it is, I don't even know, it's beyond, you know. 02:44.117 --> 02:45.878 [SPEAKER_05]: Especially speaking about her, the country you're in. 02:45.898 --> 02:48.300 [SPEAKER_05]: I mean, throughout the country, they're their dynamics. 02:48.340 --> 02:53.184 [SPEAKER_05]: But I think depending on where you are, it could even be more high stakes, right? 02:53.204 --> 02:54.065 [SPEAKER_05]: And difficult to find. 02:54.085 --> 02:55.286 [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, the place to work. 02:55.306 --> 02:57.968 [SPEAKER_00]: Especially if you need a capital, so the NBA is difficult. 02:58.108 --> 03:01.370 [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, well, as we get into this topic, right? 03:01.410 --> 03:08.074 [SPEAKER_05]: Like, Laura, where are you in the midst of our own unemployment or underemployment or sense of financial lag? 03:09.555 --> 03:13.458 [SPEAKER_05]: And it's relationship to work and employment, right? 03:14.399 --> 03:15.659 [SPEAKER_05]: What is what's your take? 03:15.699 --> 03:22.424 [SPEAKER_05]: What's your kind of what's your theology or world and world view around humans and work? 03:23.553 --> 03:23.813 [SPEAKER_00]: Right. 03:24.014 --> 03:36.007 [SPEAKER_00]: Well, you know, even before an incident, which I really answered, I do want to say that the New York Times part of what is also animating this conversation is the New York Times did a extensive piece or article. 03:44.495 --> 03:57.258 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, strategically, by the federal firings, it has, it's the title of the article is in Trump's federal workforce cuts, black women are among the hardest hit. 03:57.358 --> 04:03.599 [SPEAKER_00]: President Trump has cut hundreds of thousands of jobs for the federal workforce disproportionately, affecting black employees. 04:03.619 --> 04:08.520 [SPEAKER_00]: This was published by Mrs. Written by Erica L. Green, and this was published on August 31, 04:10.920 --> 04:20.697 [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, I think that's what you can read by and I think even the article I think we people can sense that things are a shift. 04:20.737 --> 04:21.378 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you know. 04:21.398 --> 04:22.701 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so I think that 04:25.009 --> 04:40.513 [SPEAKER_00]: relationship to work is out, you know, I think about not only Genesis, but in the fact that God created, you know, work is part of our vocation, as far as part of what it means to be in the image of God. 04:42.173 --> 04:48.895 [SPEAKER_00]: And we are meant to draw, I think, enjoyment and pleasure, enjoy, in the work, before the fall. 04:50.639 --> 04:55.062 [SPEAKER_00]: And then the fall came and now it's a tragedy and this is hard, right? 04:55.082 --> 05:00.986 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, you're working hard and working working day and night, you know, for different levels for different people. 05:01.586 --> 05:01.926 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. 05:01.966 --> 05:02.166 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. 05:02.206 --> 05:15.795 [SPEAKER_00]: Different, you know, different levels and depending on what your, your, your, your work is, you know, this is an office job is a way to be brought more exactly, you know, or I think about also ecclesiasties, right, you know, how it's, we're meant to truly enjoy. 05:16.315 --> 05:22.382 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, our work, you know, and grateful to do the purpose for it, and even when we do the purpose will work. 05:22.583 --> 05:32.454 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, sometimes it doesn't come with, that's a common way to paycheck, and sometimes it truly is feast, or famine, you know, out here, but I think that we work. 05:34.376 --> 05:49.285 [SPEAKER_00]: in a way that is corollary to the ways in which God is working on our behalf and has worked in the creation about to create the world in which we live. 05:51.546 --> 06:10.673 [SPEAKER_00]: to take in the oxygen that we so enjoy, that we don't even think about in healing, exhaling, when we enjoy nature and all that is a manifestation of God's work, that he has already established and worked for us. 06:10.693 --> 06:17.455 [SPEAKER_00]: So the season's changed, the time is sun, the moon, we talked about all of that, just creation, creation of work, but then also God is working even now. 06:18.375 --> 06:24.239 [SPEAKER_00]: in our lives and invisible ways, his hand is moving pieces, and moving people. 06:26.300 --> 06:34.726 [SPEAKER_00]: Moving us, maybe geographically, depending on where you are, everybody's situation is different, to get us into position to where it is that God has next for us. 06:35.506 --> 06:47.310 [SPEAKER_00]: And I think that's hard when you're in a season of lack, when you're in a season of waiting, when you're in a season of just, oh my goodness, when you're at the bottom, you know, and things are not looking so great. 06:47.410 --> 06:49.090 [SPEAKER_00]: Like, I thought it was going to be my season. 06:49.210 --> 06:51.611 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, I thought it was going to be my year. 06:51.651 --> 06:53.872 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, whatever the other thing is, right? 06:53.912 --> 06:58.673 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, and it's hard to see, it can be hard to see that or believe that. 06:59.393 --> 07:00.733 [SPEAKER_00]: that guy is working. 07:00.753 --> 07:03.234 [SPEAKER_00]: It's hard to believe that God's not sitting on his hands. 07:03.554 --> 07:06.275 [SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes because it feels that way, but it is not that way. 07:08.595 --> 07:12.876 [SPEAKER_00]: So for me, I think working is such, it is a gift. 07:14.096 --> 07:15.097 [SPEAKER_00]: It is a blessing. 07:15.117 --> 07:20.358 [SPEAKER_00]: I think that in times of lack is when we really have to cultivate a heart of gratitude. 07:20.938 --> 07:21.138 [SPEAKER_01]: Mm-hmm. 07:21.418 --> 07:32.061 [SPEAKER_00]: Which is not always been, it doesn't always come so easily, you know, but it's something that I, it's a spiritual discipline that I've had to build up, you know, and and learn to really thank God for everything. 07:32.241 --> 07:34.641 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you know, and like write it down. 07:34.661 --> 07:38.462 [SPEAKER_00]: So part of my spiritual discipline is now it's like the night before I go to bed now. 07:38.502 --> 07:39.843 [SPEAKER_00]: I have a little gratitude, Jermal. 07:39.963 --> 07:41.243 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, help shout out to Ross. 07:41.803 --> 07:50.712 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, you're a gratitude journal and I just write down like maybe three to five things that I'm grateful for for that day. 07:51.093 --> 07:54.276 [SPEAKER_00]: But I'm looking forward to, you know, I'm screwed up. 07:54.496 --> 07:57.079 [SPEAKER_00]: And you, I mean, what I'm proud of or my favorite part of the day. 07:57.119 --> 07:58.881 [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, so that's kind of how it's broken down. 07:58.901 --> 07:59.181 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. 07:59.402 --> 08:02.144 [SPEAKER_00]: And I've been literally just started that this this year. 08:02.204 --> 08:03.966 [SPEAKER_00]: Like, and not that I wasn't ready yet. 08:03.986 --> 08:04.146 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. 08:04.727 --> 08:07.669 [SPEAKER_00]: writing it down does something, you have to reflect. 08:07.709 --> 08:09.510 [SPEAKER_00]: You have to think back on your disability. 08:09.670 --> 08:12.651 [SPEAKER_00]: You gotta go, oh, you know, like, take stock of your day. 08:13.372 --> 08:18.034 [SPEAKER_00]: And so that's what I have been learning in those seasons, a lack, and I'm not speaking to the subject. 08:18.054 --> 08:24.338 [SPEAKER_00]: That's some outsider I have been one of those black women that has been impacted by these. 08:25.058 --> 08:27.420 [SPEAKER_00]: Because y'all know it's not just federal workers. 08:27.720 --> 08:31.142 [SPEAKER_00]: It's people in all types of different sectors. 08:32.142 --> 08:44.767 [SPEAKER_00]: Um, and so, and even true stuff, we've been independent for all these years, you know, and so that has implications for us individually in our own individual ministries, but also collectively, you know, as well. 08:44.827 --> 08:50.569 [SPEAKER_00]: So I just want to name that out loud because sometimes people can assume only federal workers and it's like, man, it ain't just them, you know. 08:50.869 --> 08:52.650 [SPEAKER_05]: Um, but, you know, yeah, it's the color. 08:52.690 --> 09:08.901 [SPEAKER_05]: of the culture that has led to what we see with the federal workers has that culture, that same worldview, that same thinking, that same politician has reached way beyond federal workers as it relates to nonprofits and organizations. 09:09.042 --> 09:10.563 [SPEAKER_00]: And there's been an inverse relationship. 09:10.623 --> 09:12.884 [SPEAKER_00]: So as 300,000 over 300,000 black women have been, 09:15.446 --> 09:23.615 [SPEAKER_00]: I fired the gun, laid off, you know, I think it's a little over 300,000 white men. 09:25.197 --> 09:35.788 [SPEAKER_00]: I've been elevated, got into position, got into, it's just like the scarcity there that that's what, there's more than enough for everyone, you know, and I just, I like the ways in which 09:37.445 --> 09:39.706 [SPEAKER_00]: were repeated against each other. 09:39.926 --> 09:43.488 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, that fosters this strife and amosity. 09:43.548 --> 09:44.729 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's not necessary. 09:44.849 --> 09:46.589 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it just really isn't necessary. 09:46.830 --> 09:48.530 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, there's a more than enough everyone. 09:48.811 --> 09:49.591 [SPEAKER_00]: I agree. 09:49.611 --> 09:54.653 [SPEAKER_00]: But the scarcity mentality is such that it's made it such a dog eat a girl in it. 09:54.873 --> 09:55.974 [SPEAKER_00]: It ought not be that way. 09:56.054 --> 09:57.455 [SPEAKER_00]: And yet this is, um, 09:58.253 --> 09:58.733 [SPEAKER_00]: where we are. 09:58.873 --> 09:59.674 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. 09:59.694 --> 09:59.934 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. 10:00.314 --> 10:14.964 [SPEAKER_00]: So anyway, but for for you, how do you see what what ways of you have you have you have you seen impacts, you know, even your on in your own life, your own ministry, some of your ministry work, there's some overlap and there's some differences too. 10:15.085 --> 10:22.309 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, and of course we already lifted up true stable, but yeah, how do you see that as. 10:23.410 --> 10:25.413 [SPEAKER_00]: And what do you think during times of lack? 10:25.533 --> 10:26.755 [SPEAKER_00]: Where is God? 10:26.815 --> 10:27.957 [SPEAKER_00]: What is your position? 10:28.057 --> 10:35.928 [SPEAKER_05]: Tell him, it's time to... I mean, so I was an higher education for, you know, a decade in some way, shape, or form. 10:35.948 --> 10:36.469 [SPEAKER_05]: Hi. 10:37.965 --> 10:56.553 [SPEAKER_05]: I left a formal or full time higher education right before the, well, the pandemic, but it was during the pandemic as when I left, but I was going to say before the anti the eye crackdown in higher education. 10:57.513 --> 11:12.037 [SPEAKER_05]: So there's no doubt in my mind, had I been in higher education, whether I was still at the same institution or move somewhere else, that that would have impacted my work, whether it took the work completely away from me or just created such a hostility. 11:12.057 --> 11:13.958 [SPEAKER_05]: That's something for you. 11:13.998 --> 11:15.258 [SPEAKER_05]: It's such a climate. 11:15.358 --> 11:15.958 [SPEAKER_05]: Exactly. 11:16.378 --> 11:21.360 [SPEAKER_05]: Not that we didn't already experience that like anybody who's in higher education, we experience. 11:23.541 --> 11:30.605 [SPEAKER_05]: You know, just the, the, the, the marketness of it, the, you know, I'm paying for this. 11:30.665 --> 11:33.506 [SPEAKER_05]: So it should be my way and so that that comes out of a variety of ways. 11:33.566 --> 11:44.092 [SPEAKER_05]: It's like don't teach me things that are true and evidence based that that makes you so uncomfortable because I don't want to hear it, you know, or don't don't have standards for my behavior in this classroom. 11:45.132 --> 11:52.581 [SPEAKER_05]: Because it's just all about me and I'm like, no, this is a classroom experience where we have a culture that everyone is contributing to in terms of being respectful. 11:52.641 --> 11:59.468 [SPEAKER_05]: So I think that all educators, particularly those of us in the social sciences and administrators have felt 12:01.330 --> 12:07.958 [SPEAKER_05]: the implications of forces that do not want you to talk about human dignity and racial inequity and all things. 12:08.578 --> 12:19.070 [SPEAKER_05]: That's just the case, but I do think in the last few years we've seen this in a whole new, on a whole new level and I can think of people I know who are at universities and colleges aware. 12:19.610 --> 12:23.572 [SPEAKER_05]: their departments have been dismantled or they've had to be renamed. 12:23.612 --> 12:37.598 [SPEAKER_05]: The language that is historical and language associated with all kinds of credible research had to be changed in remix in order to appease these particular forces, right? 12:37.658 --> 12:44.241 [SPEAKER_05]: And so, and I think that there's room to be subversive and strategic as long as we have integrity in that. 12:45.282 --> 12:46.182 [SPEAKER_05]: But I think to even be 12:46.582 --> 12:48.304 [SPEAKER_05]: to be in a position to be asked to do that. 12:48.364 --> 12:50.327 [SPEAKER_05]: I just think it's really totally dysfunctional. 12:50.507 --> 12:53.530 [SPEAKER_05]: And the thing about that type of toxicity, it doesn't stop with the change of a name. 12:53.650 --> 12:54.371 [SPEAKER_05]: It wants everything. 12:54.391 --> 12:55.132 [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, it wants everything. 12:55.332 --> 12:56.494 [SPEAKER_05]: You know, it wants everything. 12:56.534 --> 12:56.654 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. 12:56.674 --> 13:02.000 [SPEAKER_00]: So we see that with some of the colleges and the universities that have been trying to count out to do. 13:02.060 --> 13:02.541 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. 13:02.561 --> 13:03.542 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's not quite working. 13:03.702 --> 13:05.663 [SPEAKER_05]: I was, it practically as it relates to me. 13:05.723 --> 13:11.345 [SPEAKER_05]: I mean, I think that there was a time when I would get a lot more invitations to universities or seminaries to speak. 13:12.205 --> 13:18.647 [SPEAKER_05]: And now, there's the thing, in the field, the work that we are in, there is a sense, a part of the work that we're in. 13:19.007 --> 13:21.748 [SPEAKER_05]: There is a sense where there are people who are just kind of popular for the moment. 13:21.768 --> 13:25.489 [SPEAKER_05]: People kind of, you know, people kind of, you know, on top of different, different ways of structure. 13:25.789 --> 13:30.071 [SPEAKER_05]: So it's also possible that there's like a new wave of interest or a new topic or whatever. 13:30.431 --> 13:32.132 [SPEAKER_05]: But I do think that that probably has impact 13:33.372 --> 13:44.255 [SPEAKER_05]: And I don't, we don't necessarily advertise our work to say like, hey, come and get me to come to your organization or to your university or whatever, but it would not be uncommon for someone to be like, hey, can, can you come and speak to me like that? 13:44.335 --> 13:44.915 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, no. 13:44.995 --> 13:46.035 [SPEAKER_00]: So I'm pretty regular. 13:46.375 --> 13:46.715 [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah. 13:46.755 --> 13:48.176 [SPEAKER_05]: So that's, that is not for me. 13:48.276 --> 13:49.156 [SPEAKER_05]: That's not as common. 13:49.196 --> 13:49.676 [SPEAKER_05]: But didn't get out. 13:49.696 --> 13:50.736 [SPEAKER_05]: I also talk about things. 13:51.076 --> 13:53.757 [SPEAKER_05]: I also talk about anti-racism, like unapologetically. 13:54.537 --> 14:06.128 [SPEAKER_05]: And I talk about issues of racial inequity and bias and so that's just kind of baked in to an honest conversation, so she'll actually leave out if I'm brought somewhere. 14:06.148 --> 14:10.111 [SPEAKER_05]: So I don't think people have the same tolerance for it. 14:10.131 --> 14:11.412 [SPEAKER_05]: I think even people who are with maybe. 14:12.740 --> 14:23.105 [SPEAKER_05]: believe it to be true are also probably at a place where they're operating through different emotions on that too, whether that they want that to be what they want to talk about, and then obviously those who just don't want to hear it all. 14:23.665 --> 14:26.966 [SPEAKER_05]: And it requires literally a blood sacrifice. 14:26.986 --> 14:33.889 [SPEAKER_05]: It requires the depth of the person, the unoperson usually in our country, people to then realize, oh, I can't want to be seeing as a bad person. 14:33.909 --> 14:39.432 [SPEAKER_05]: I don't want to be seeing someone who would be tolerant to or apathetic around public lynching. 14:39.472 --> 14:41.052 [SPEAKER_05]: So maybe I should buy this book and maybe 14:42.833 --> 14:56.042 [SPEAKER_05]: I do think when people jump on to a fed or they're doing this to kind of a swage their conscience or the thrill of holding a protest sign, but yet still not active now in the midst of what we're seeing. 14:56.763 --> 15:02.226 [SPEAKER_05]: I think that that has had implications in consequences. 15:02.567 --> 15:06.790 [SPEAKER_05]: I was even on a practical level looking at a truth table where we had people who 15:08.131 --> 15:12.814 [SPEAKER_05]: knowing the topics that we talked about would historically advertise with us. 15:13.434 --> 15:15.676 [SPEAKER_05]: And so we've seen our advertised dollars shipped. 15:15.796 --> 15:19.339 [SPEAKER_05]: So it was where we invited people to partner with us. 15:19.399 --> 15:25.483 [SPEAKER_05]: If you like the content, we've always known that we had the kind of content that our listener was going to have to support. 15:25.543 --> 15:28.546 [SPEAKER_05]: Like we never wanted to be in the hands of the market. 15:29.695 --> 15:32.898 [SPEAKER_05]: because when people are in the hands of the market, they modify their message. 15:33.479 --> 15:46.552 [SPEAKER_05]: And so one of the things that helps us, yeah, you know, one of the things that helps the person to be unbought and unbossed is they have to really be able to be their own boss on some level, to not be unbought. 15:47.233 --> 15:52.036 [SPEAKER_05]: And so we invite people to partner with us to help support the work in small and large ways. 15:52.076 --> 15:52.736 [SPEAKER_05]: You know what you got. 15:53.756 --> 16:01.100 [SPEAKER_05]: So we, if I'm able to do that, and that's just incredibly important for this type of working, anybody who's doing anything, anything near this. 16:01.140 --> 16:01.360 [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah. 16:01.861 --> 16:05.823 [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, it's going to be incredibly important that we put our money where our commitments are. 16:06.772 --> 16:07.792 [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, absolutely. 16:07.832 --> 16:10.953 [SPEAKER_00]: So we do invite you all to a partner with us on our Patreon. 16:10.973 --> 16:11.593 [SPEAKER_00]: Yep. 16:11.973 --> 16:12.714 [SPEAKER_00]: At Truth Table. 16:12.734 --> 16:14.374 [SPEAKER_00]: Okay, and we have a Truth Table Patreon, y'all. 16:14.614 --> 16:16.435 [SPEAKER_00]: And those links are actually in our show, and it's back. 16:16.515 --> 16:17.775 [SPEAKER_00]: Let's say a quick commercial break. 16:18.315 --> 16:18.835 [SPEAKER_00]: And we come back. 16:18.855 --> 16:21.976 [SPEAKER_00]: We're going to continue to talk about Greece to an unemployed, truly. 16:22.036 --> 16:23.617 [SPEAKER_00]: Where is God when you don't want to stop? 16:23.657 --> 16:24.617 [SPEAKER_00]: Like, what do you do? 16:24.977 --> 16:25.157 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. 16:25.197 --> 16:25.757 [SPEAKER_00]: What do you do? 16:25.777 --> 16:26.757 [SPEAKER_00]: And what was your hope in? 16:26.878 --> 16:28.118 [SPEAKER_00]: So don't go in that world. 16:28.138 --> 16:28.738 [SPEAKER_00]: We'll be right back. 16:32.099 --> 16:35.880 [SPEAKER_04]: Our NAACP Image Award nominated book, Truth Table. 16:36.374 --> 16:41.578 [SPEAKER_04]: Black women's musings on life, love, and liberation is making waves and shifting culture. 16:42.339 --> 16:49.685 [SPEAKER_04]: I closed this book feeling like I had just partaken in a multi-course meal, filled with grace and the courage to carry on. 16:50.525 --> 16:53.467 [SPEAKER_04]: And I believe you'll finish this book feeling the same way. 16:54.148 --> 16:56.510 [SPEAKER_04]: Morgan Harper Nichols artists in Poet. 16:57.050 --> 17:04.056 [SPEAKER_04]: By Truth's Table, Black women's musings on life, love, and liberation, at our website, or wherever books are sold. 17:05.753 --> 17:26.607 [SPEAKER_02]: As you can see, we're not good for asking you for money, but we are asking you for money today, and here's why, and in order for us to bring the concept that we've been bringing to you for years at this point, we've got a whole background of folks who are talented and gifted and loving people who we have to pay to make these things happen, as well as ourselves, and we want to keep bringing great content to you. 17:27.247 --> 17:30.312 [SPEAKER_02]: We are in a desert of truth right now. 17:30.372 --> 17:33.376 [SPEAKER_02]: There seems to be lots of lies happening last month. 17:33.397 --> 17:42.290 [SPEAKER_02]: And so if you support the idea of promoting security in any way shape reforms, we invite you to partner with true staple and become one of our Patreon supporters. 17:42.470 --> 18:05.205 [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, actually when you become a support, you actually get the episodes a couple days before the rest of the world Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, 18:05.325 --> 18:06.586 [SPEAKER_00]: Not in the middle of my imagination. 18:06.646 --> 18:07.507 [SPEAKER_00]: Nothing to say. 18:07.527 --> 18:08.669 [SPEAKER_00]: We'll be talking about the things. 18:08.689 --> 18:09.069 [SPEAKER_00]: So wait for it. 18:09.169 --> 18:10.631 [SPEAKER_00]: Join our community today. 18:10.671 --> 18:13.153 [SPEAKER_00]: And thank you for your for sitting at the table with us all these years. 18:13.674 --> 18:13.974 [SPEAKER_00]: Bye, y'all. 18:14.615 --> 18:18.579 [SPEAKER_00]: We are back at the table talking about grace to the unemployed. 18:18.639 --> 18:19.820 [SPEAKER_00]: Where is God? 18:19.860 --> 18:20.801 [SPEAKER_00]: We ain't got no chance. 18:21.131 --> 18:36.283 [SPEAKER_00]: This is, so let's say I have had different, you know, I've lived a lot of life at this point now, you know, so you say this now, firmly in my foot is limited to say, you know, I can now say in my 40s, you know, I'm pretty sit embrace it. 18:38.044 --> 18:51.789 [SPEAKER_00]: But I think about the fact when the Lord really shifted my world when I was in corporate America and my my I got laid off Dave for my birthday it was very dramatic. 18:51.809 --> 19:00.433 [SPEAKER_00]: I think I read in my whole sales team so it wasn't just me it was just boom yeah goodbye and that was like oh my very disorienting. 19:01.761 --> 19:09.085 [SPEAKER_00]: And I do remember before that I do, I felt like the Holy Spirit told me, you know, save your money and I'd always been good about saving. 19:09.125 --> 19:11.206 [SPEAKER_00]: So I was never like a reckless vendor. 19:12.027 --> 19:21.391 [SPEAKER_00]: My God's grace and so it's okay, but it felt like no, you're going to need to store up, you know, like on some like Joseph type stuff and and so I said, okay, well, let me do that. 19:21.512 --> 19:28.755 [SPEAKER_00]: Just tighten up and start storing up, you know, and I did that and so when that happened, I was still like, oh, you know, it's very shocking. 19:30.196 --> 19:30.877 [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, I had a mortgage. 19:30.897 --> 19:31.538 [SPEAKER_00]: I had all these things. 19:31.618 --> 19:36.624 [SPEAKER_00]: It was like, oh no, and so I remember that happening. 19:36.664 --> 19:44.953 [SPEAKER_00]: And I remember just thinking like, oh my goodness, like just doing some self reflection and just like, wow, I think I put a lot of faith and hope. 19:45.254 --> 19:48.377 [SPEAKER_00]: I'd miss place faith and hope into my job and me. 19:48.978 --> 19:53.079 [SPEAKER_00]: Not funny my identity in the job, because I didn't really love the job. 19:53.619 --> 19:57.000 [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I was going for a check, you know what I mean? 19:57.141 --> 20:11.225 [SPEAKER_00]: But I put a lot of faith in hope and security into the paychecks and to the numbers, the zero, the bank account into a lot of that and feeling, I'm stable, I'm secure, and I just say we should not see stability secure, you know what I'm saying next? 20:12.065 --> 20:15.007 [SPEAKER_00]: We need to be wise and stewards and be like those things. 20:15.367 --> 20:16.008 [SPEAKER_00]: We need those things. 20:16.068 --> 20:20.830 [SPEAKER_00]: I think that helps us to have the kingdom where we can really invest in good kingdom works. 20:20.890 --> 20:21.971 [SPEAKER_00]: I think that's important. 20:22.011 --> 20:23.652 [SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, we need that. 20:24.112 --> 20:36.260 [SPEAKER_00]: But I was, I couldn't back then, I can see how I was putting a lot of my security, my hope into that in reliance, more so on that paycheck every two weeks or has now, you know. 20:36.820 --> 20:40.363 [SPEAKER_00]: being so entrepreneur, more entrepreneurial, social impact type. 20:40.423 --> 20:42.184 [SPEAKER_00]: I think that's where they would put us. 20:42.424 --> 20:42.684 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. 20:42.784 --> 20:46.187 [SPEAKER_00]: And we're more in the knowledge economy because we're podcasters, right? 20:46.247 --> 20:48.228 [SPEAKER_00]: So we do podcasters, that's the logical. 20:48.569 --> 20:48.689 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. 20:48.709 --> 20:53.132 [SPEAKER_00]: And so, so where you don't get it, you wouldn't get a bit of a joke of a two weeks. 20:53.592 --> 21:10.877 [SPEAKER_00]: No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, 21:19.919 --> 21:21.820 [SPEAKER_00]: That's just one of the primary ways that we're grown. 21:22.441 --> 21:28.144 [SPEAKER_00]: I would have preferred not to, but you know, let's say we're hard to go around this. 21:28.164 --> 21:29.265 [SPEAKER_00]: We don't want to go down that person. 21:29.305 --> 21:35.009 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, but yeah, but that is something that I've had and I can see. 21:35.029 --> 21:38.711 [SPEAKER_00]: I think when I'm in those seasons of lack, like now, right? 21:39.151 --> 21:39.832 [SPEAKER_00]: I can say, 21:41.468 --> 21:42.909 [SPEAKER_00]: I can look back at God's track record. 21:43.489 --> 21:45.311 [SPEAKER_00]: I can look at the memorial stones. 21:45.811 --> 21:55.698 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, Jesus told the Israelites to prop up the memorial stages of God's faithfulness and what God's done and God's track record and how God's come in right on time. 21:56.018 --> 22:02.063 [SPEAKER_00]: And put a figure on somebody's heart and that person said, I'm supposed to give you this 3000 bottle of God's track. 22:02.956 --> 22:03.236 [SPEAKER_00]: What? 22:04.958 --> 22:06.919 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm just, I'm supposed to give you this car. 22:07.000 --> 22:16.147 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not, don't play, I'm telling you, the way that the Lord has come through, like you know, and so and how that has expanded my own prayer life. 22:16.268 --> 22:21.272 [SPEAKER_00]: And go, oh, I can pray that the Lord will raise it somebody that would want to cancel my student loan debt. 22:23.287 --> 22:39.162 [SPEAKER_00]: Okay, I can pray for supernatural deposits and the Lord can do that and we'll do that if that's God's will right you know So I there's just been I can think about the fact that I've not lost the meal I have been able to pay rent by God's grace. 22:39.202 --> 22:42.405 [SPEAKER_00]: I've been able to do these things That's all you know things. 22:42.425 --> 22:44.087 [SPEAKER_00]: I need to be clear about that 22:45.908 --> 22:47.489 [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, the groceries are tremendous. 22:47.689 --> 22:49.230 [SPEAKER_00]: Ooh, the groceries, listen, the groceries. 22:49.490 --> 22:52.252 [SPEAKER_00]: Every time I post the groceries, it starts like, oh, it won't right now. 22:52.512 --> 22:53.652 [SPEAKER_00]: I don't have to tell myself. 22:53.712 --> 22:54.073 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. 22:54.113 --> 22:54.713 [SPEAKER_00]: That is with you. 22:54.753 --> 22:56.114 [SPEAKER_00]: I literally have to tell myself. 22:56.554 --> 22:58.275 [SPEAKER_00]: I had this with you as they told me about my home. 22:58.315 --> 23:00.456 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, oh, I did was buy from the house. 23:00.476 --> 23:01.256 [SPEAKER_00]: 250 dollars. 23:01.697 --> 23:01.897 [UNKNOWN]: No. 23:02.317 --> 23:03.237 [SPEAKER_03]: Like, what's going on? 23:03.377 --> 23:04.278 [SPEAKER_03]: I see, you don't know. 23:04.298 --> 23:05.158 [SPEAKER_03]: Get any grapes. 23:05.719 --> 23:07.099 [SPEAKER_03]: I don't get strawberries. 23:07.119 --> 23:08.060 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna put them back. 23:08.280 --> 23:10.161 [SPEAKER_03]: No, that's the second of orange is an apple. 23:10.341 --> 23:11.062 [SPEAKER_03]: Don't get no eggs. 23:11.222 --> 23:11.422 [SPEAKER_03]: Hey. 23:13.024 --> 23:19.006 [SPEAKER_05]: It's leveled eggs though, it's leveled, which ones you get, because there's a price. 23:19.086 --> 23:20.006 [SPEAKER_05]: There's levels too. 23:20.026 --> 23:21.567 [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, there's a price stratification. 23:21.707 --> 23:22.547 [SPEAKER_00]: That's it, there is. 23:22.647 --> 23:29.870 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, so anyway, I, for me, that's something that I have, a person's being a ministry, which has been, woo! 23:30.970 --> 23:33.113 [SPEAKER_00]: this trajectory has been like 14 years. 23:33.654 --> 23:36.978 [SPEAKER_00]: That's far for me, you know, being on the other side of that. 23:37.078 --> 23:38.640 [SPEAKER_00]: And so that's been 14 years of life. 23:38.700 --> 23:39.401 [SPEAKER_00]: Wow. 23:39.421 --> 23:40.302 [SPEAKER_00]: Second track record. 23:40.563 --> 23:41.604 [SPEAKER_00]: Oh God, it's a fake fullness. 23:42.285 --> 23:44.147 [SPEAKER_00]: In my life, it doesn't make it easier, though. 23:46.630 --> 24:06.737 [SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't make it easier, but I am grateful that I can note back and say God has always kept me and is still keeping me I know God is working even though I don't quite see it in its full manifestation Yeah, how do you what what what what keeps you in season's a library do you see God do you draw closer is it further? 24:06.757 --> 24:07.877 [SPEAKER_00]: I like yeah, where is God when? 24:09.940 --> 24:11.121 [SPEAKER_00]: in times of lack in. 24:11.381 --> 24:16.065 [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, I mean, I do have a sense or in belief that God really is our provider. 24:16.285 --> 24:18.968 [SPEAKER_05]: God will provide for us according to God's riches. 24:20.128 --> 24:20.708 [SPEAKER_05]: not worry. 24:20.788 --> 24:39.353 [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, and not like, and yeah, and that is that is first and foremost a spiritual provision, but we we worship an embodied savior who understands and respects the body that the body has needs that we need sleep and food and shelter and safety. 24:39.973 --> 24:45.255 [SPEAKER_05]: And so we're not just so like esoteric and high-minded that we're only thinking about what is 24:49.736 --> 24:51.277 [SPEAKER_05]: And I've seen the Lord do that in my life. 24:51.317 --> 25:11.625 [SPEAKER_05]: I've just seen the Lord show up and just like my my faith has been built up in that way that I expect the Lord to because not because of my goodness but because of the Lord's character and faithful track record and Lord's commitment to his word that will show up in some way. 25:11.945 --> 25:32.826 [SPEAKER_05]: I don't really know exactly how the Lord does not show us all his cards, but we have confidence that the Lord will care for us, and so I have seen it, I believe God's word, I've seen it testified in my own life and others, the provision is there with that being said. 25:33.907 --> 25:48.833 [SPEAKER_05]: Um, I don't see myself as any better than a believer who is up in a part of the world or in part of the country or in a part of this city I am in right now, who is struggling economically, who is wondering where is my dinner going to come from tonight. 25:49.153 --> 25:49.353 [SPEAKER_01]: Yes. 25:49.813 --> 25:52.334 [SPEAKER_05]: I don't think of myself as having a higher moral fiber. 25:52.374 --> 26:00.616 [SPEAKER_05]: I don't think of myself as being more faithful, more deserving, more anything that's virtuous on that. 26:00.656 --> 26:03.977 [SPEAKER_05]: So I don't think that what we have is a product like I just was seeing. 26:03.997 --> 26:04.897 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm just so faithful. 26:04.977 --> 26:05.237 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. 26:05.257 --> 26:07.138 [SPEAKER_05]: I don't think so. 26:07.238 --> 26:12.199 [SPEAKER_05]: Which means that I also believe that the Lord chose to downsize my life considerably. 26:13.119 --> 26:18.685 [SPEAKER_05]: or upgraded from a natural standpoint, then none of that has to do with my character or faithfulness. 26:19.366 --> 26:23.670 [SPEAKER_05]: And the Lord, I think, was showing self-faithful in all of those circumstances. 26:24.911 --> 26:27.814 [SPEAKER_05]: So, I mean, I think that's where I stand on that. 26:27.834 --> 26:28.895 [SPEAKER_05]: I also think that 26:29.916 --> 26:33.820 [SPEAKER_05]: we, um, the Lord wants us to depend on the Lord. 26:33.880 --> 26:39.405 [SPEAKER_05]: And so there are times, not that the Lord delights in our suffering with the Lord certainly allows. 26:39.645 --> 26:47.753 [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, there's a lot of circumstances, so that we come to a place of recognizing that we're not defined by what we have, by who's we'd 26:47.953 --> 26:57.940 [SPEAKER_05]: And what we do, and what we do, but our identity rests in the fact that we bear the image of God and that we are coerced with Christ and that that has to be good enough for us. 26:58.000 --> 27:00.362 [SPEAKER_05]: If it's not, that's the only thing that doesn't get taken away. 27:00.382 --> 27:13.231 [SPEAKER_05]: It's the only thing that can take away, you know, what we have in our accounts, you know, whatever you got going on in your financial portfolio, if you think you use that language or not, what, like I'm well aware, that can be taken away by the end of today. 27:13.311 --> 27:16.313 [SPEAKER_05]: I just think we're presumptuous to think that what we have we will always have. 27:17.162 --> 27:21.567 [SPEAKER_05]: weird, you know, which is why gratitude is the proper response to what you have to say. 27:22.588 --> 27:24.150 [SPEAKER_05]: There is no guarantee you'll have it tomorrow. 27:24.490 --> 27:26.052 [SPEAKER_05]: The Lord is you may not be here tomorrow. 27:26.212 --> 27:34.882 [SPEAKER_05]: I mean, all the above and the Lord is very clear about what what has been guaranteed to us, what what remains, what will not be taken away is the love of God. 27:34.902 --> 27:35.342 [SPEAKER_05]: Like that's it. 27:36.422 --> 27:39.445 [SPEAKER_05]: everything else, and everyone else, stick to take. 27:39.665 --> 27:43.289 [SPEAKER_05]: Like everything else and everyone else is subject to change. 27:43.309 --> 27:44.650 [SPEAKER_00]: It was an exploration to examine. 27:44.990 --> 27:53.438 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, I think in these types of, that was good because there was something about, you're talking about how we don't know how God will provide, right? 27:54.700 --> 27:58.043 [SPEAKER_00]: And I think that in those seasons of lack, it requires and works in us. 27:59.363 --> 28:13.346 [SPEAKER_00]: If we let it, and if we aren't hard-hearted and hard-headed, it can work in us humility and in that we don't know how God will provide and so God provides through various means. 28:13.586 --> 28:13.906 [SPEAKER_00]: Right? 28:14.266 --> 28:15.787 [SPEAKER_00]: God can provide through people. 28:16.107 --> 28:18.447 [SPEAKER_00]: God can provide through systems, right? 28:18.527 --> 28:18.827 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. 28:19.348 --> 28:19.668 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. 28:22.086 --> 28:33.541 [SPEAKER_00]: through EBT, Medicaid, like you got to be humble, you know, gosh, vision ain't always going to be a money bag sitting at your door or a surprise return check it in the mail. 28:33.581 --> 28:34.322 [SPEAKER_00]: It's always nice going back. 28:34.382 --> 28:34.823 [SPEAKER_00]: It's nice, Matt. 28:34.903 --> 28:38.988 [SPEAKER_05]: Well, it's some kind of joy to situation with the Lord where you're not going to get the option to work for what you have. 28:39.569 --> 28:41.790 [SPEAKER_05]: You the only way you will have it is if you receive it. 28:41.970 --> 28:42.330 [SPEAKER_00]: Exactly. 28:42.410 --> 28:54.356 [SPEAKER_00]: If you receive it or you go public with your need, right, which is what the widow, you know, in second Kings, you know, had to do, you know, in order for her and her son to survive. 28:54.376 --> 28:56.097 [SPEAKER_00]: And she actually had to go borrow pots. 28:56.417 --> 29:06.242 [SPEAKER_00]: you know, and from neighbors, and Elijah, the Prophet said, and not too few, you a lot, get as many as you can, right? 29:06.302 --> 29:08.963 [SPEAKER_00]: And then the oil just kept on going, kept on going, kept on going. 29:09.083 --> 29:09.343 [SPEAKER_00]: Yep. 29:09.463 --> 29:12.965 [SPEAKER_00]: And it, it just kept on going until she ran out of pots before it to fill. 29:13.045 --> 29:14.226 [SPEAKER_00]: It was the oil never ran out. 29:14.306 --> 29:18.748 [SPEAKER_00]: It was just, it was just as many as she could, could get together, right? 29:18.828 --> 29:20.989 [SPEAKER_00]: And so we have to be able to go public with that need. 29:21.029 --> 29:22.250 [SPEAKER_00]: And so we can't be shameful. 29:25.431 --> 29:31.756 [SPEAKER_00]: We have to be like, you know, I'm experiencing a tough time right now, and we've got to be able, and we see that we see the go fund me. 29:32.416 --> 29:36.219 [SPEAKER_00]: We see the thing right, we see the guy fund me for people that are struggles. 29:37.019 --> 29:39.701 [SPEAKER_00]: I contributed to so many fun go fund me this year. 29:39.781 --> 29:43.744 [SPEAKER_00]: Like it is just, it is wild how many people are suffering. 29:44.184 --> 29:47.686 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, and just trusting the Lord that the Lord will provide for those people. 29:47.707 --> 29:49.368 [SPEAKER_00]: And I love going and checking it and be like, Oh, 29:50.328 --> 29:51.249 [SPEAKER_00]: they reach their goal. 29:51.289 --> 29:51.609 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. 29:51.729 --> 29:53.009 [SPEAKER_00]: Or they surpass their goal. 29:53.089 --> 29:53.449 [SPEAKER_00]: Right. 29:53.489 --> 29:55.650 [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm always like, I wish I could have done more. 29:56.911 --> 30:01.152 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, but, but trying to, you know, just help help your neighbor, right, help help people. 30:01.572 --> 30:02.553 [SPEAKER_00]: Um, so I think about that. 30:02.573 --> 30:04.393 [SPEAKER_00]: And there's also a fun. 30:04.413 --> 30:08.835 [SPEAKER_00]: So it, you know, in that same vein, I'm not being prideful and being public with your need. 30:08.875 --> 30:10.296 [SPEAKER_00]: There's the global state of 30:11.176 --> 30:32.623 [SPEAKER_00]: Black women, fun to believe, and so it is this network, you know, that has raised money for black women that have been impacted by the attacks on federal jobs, the EI work, anything to EI, adjacent, black women that find themselves in this circumstance, all you got to do, 30:33.323 --> 30:38.388 [SPEAKER_00]: is literally as a Google forum, you just put your name, your address, you know, your need. 30:38.408 --> 30:52.059 [SPEAKER_00]: I think they give out micro grants up to $1,500 somewhere there and you just put in, you know, what you need and the review it and see if you'll you'll qualify, you know, too. 30:52.119 --> 30:54.562 [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I'm sorry, if you've been approved to get it. 30:54.622 --> 30:57.784 [SPEAKER_00]: And so it's a very low bar and it's just a matter of the 30:58.625 --> 31:02.688 [SPEAKER_00]: So they just have to raise the money so that they can give it out, raise the money, give it out. 31:02.728 --> 31:08.632 [SPEAKER_00]: So people can pay rent, groceries, chocolate, whatever, whatever the sister is in need of. 31:08.652 --> 31:18.239 [SPEAKER_00]: So I put that out there because that's a resource and something I'll put, well, we'll make sure to put the link in the show notes so that other black women can access it. 31:18.259 --> 31:27.005 [SPEAKER_00]: But that's something I've been trying to share with other sisters like, hey, go ahead and sign up for that if you're in need of it because things are tough, you know, and we are our sisters 31:28.346 --> 31:42.172 [SPEAKER_00]: And if we think that you're immune or it's not impacting me, okay, well, I don't wish that upon you, but the way things are going, it seems like people, it will be hard for people to escape the impacts. 31:42.352 --> 31:45.013 [SPEAKER_00]: It's just somehow you're gonna fill it one way or another. 31:45.033 --> 31:49.675 [SPEAKER_00]: And that's a tough, jagged little pill of swallow, but that's the reality. 31:50.355 --> 31:51.856 [SPEAKER_05]: Oh yeah, yeah. 31:51.936 --> 31:55.117 [SPEAKER_05]: There's definitely trickle down poverty. 31:56.662 --> 31:59.565 [SPEAKER_05]: So yeah, we're interconnected. 31:59.665 --> 32:00.646 [SPEAKER_05]: We're interconnected. 32:00.726 --> 32:09.114 [SPEAKER_05]: And so I think it's I think you And I don't and it's just a matter of time before those dominoes fall to where it gets to where where you are you are. 32:09.174 --> 32:13.978 [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, that shouldn't be our soul motivation for Attitude of generosity. 32:14.038 --> 32:14.599 [SPEAKER_05]: I will say this. 32:14.659 --> 32:17.602 [SPEAKER_05]: I think that when you have experience lack 32:18.978 --> 32:26.183 [SPEAKER_05]: we have an opportunity for that experience of lack and God's presence and lack to create in us a generosity towards others. 32:26.983 --> 32:31.887 [SPEAKER_05]: Like a humility that shows up where we get, without asking a bunch of questions. 32:32.287 --> 32:36.790 [SPEAKER_05]: When we see the man injured on the road, we're not asking the questions. 32:37.050 --> 32:37.971 [SPEAKER_05]: Well, how did you get here? 32:38.011 --> 32:38.671 [SPEAKER_05]: Did you work hard? 32:38.731 --> 32:45.396 [SPEAKER_05]: When you're scrappy enough, our first concern is that they be safe and that they are fed and that they are healed. 32:46.836 --> 32:50.297 [SPEAKER_05]: And our assumption is not that they have four fiscal practices. 32:50.357 --> 32:54.098 [SPEAKER_05]: I mean, I just don't even have, I mean, pretend that that can be a thing. 32:54.138 --> 32:55.958 [SPEAKER_05]: I mean, that can absolutely be a thing. 32:56.398 --> 33:05.780 [SPEAKER_05]: But I think it is more of a thing that we are in a cultural context where that is capitalistic and it can reach a great amount. 33:05.861 --> 33:07.521 [SPEAKER_00]: It's a great amount of money or one paycheck. 33:08.221 --> 33:17.289 [SPEAKER_05]: Oh, I hunt from listening to broken toe, yes, from absolutely being put out of your home right without health insurance to cover something like that. 33:17.329 --> 33:28.899 [SPEAKER_05]: So that ought to that ought to, I think, stirring us a type of humility in a generosity that when we have it, we, we give, we share, we open our doors, we open our heart to the extent that we can, that's appropriate. 33:28.919 --> 33:30.340 [SPEAKER_05]: Here's the, the Lord does the math. 33:30.360 --> 33:35.564 [SPEAKER_05]: The math is a holy math and only the Lord knows what each person really actually had. 33:35.584 --> 33:36.225 [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it hasn't. 33:36.745 --> 33:37.446 [SPEAKER_05]: and can give. 33:37.866 --> 33:42.809 [SPEAKER_05]: And so really the posture is the heart posture, not the not the size of the purse. 33:43.810 --> 33:46.131 [SPEAKER_05]: And that just invites us into just another way of being. 33:46.191 --> 33:51.835 [SPEAKER_05]: But I do think that for some of us having that hardship of opening up the fridge and not seeing much there. 33:51.855 --> 33:52.576 [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah. 33:53.183 --> 33:59.451 [SPEAKER_05]: We'll make you, I think, should work in you a sense of, if anybody comes to my door, I have it. 33:59.491 --> 34:00.172 [SPEAKER_05]: I'm going to feed them. 34:00.352 --> 34:02.735 [SPEAKER_05]: I think it's just shit if you're thinking in that way. 34:02.755 --> 34:12.466 [SPEAKER_05]: And then also recognizing to your point that great example that you gave about, sometimes we have to go on record about our lack, but also knowing that there are many people who will not, 34:13.650 --> 34:13.930 [SPEAKER_05]: Right. 34:14.290 --> 34:32.835 [SPEAKER_05]: And so trying to, so trying when we have it, trying to beat people to it, and our generosity, trying to beat people if when we have it to the tab, to the check, trying to beat them to the offer for for to provide a meal or and that's just not our money, but also of ourselves for people. 34:32.895 --> 34:40.317 [SPEAKER_05]: And so I think that experience of not having can shape us to be people who want to give and share what we do have. 34:40.357 --> 34:42.438 [SPEAKER_05]: And again, I can do the opposite to our heart is not right. 34:42.738 --> 34:48.523 [SPEAKER_05]: can make us hoarders, we can make us particularly greedy and selfish, right, and defined by our stuff. 34:48.943 --> 34:55.328 [SPEAKER_05]: But it doesn't the Lord doesn't work in the midst of that, and the Lord makes all the difference between the people who will end up walking out and gratitude or those who hoard. 34:55.508 --> 34:59.471 [SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely, and I think that when we're in season, the lack of temptation is to 35:02.073 --> 35:02.293 [SPEAKER_00]: Right? 35:02.453 --> 35:03.313 [SPEAKER_00]: Right. 35:03.333 --> 35:04.274 [SPEAKER_00]: Because there's actual scarce. 35:04.554 --> 35:05.554 [SPEAKER_00]: There's actual scarce. 35:05.594 --> 35:06.094 [SPEAKER_00]: Right. 35:06.354 --> 35:07.875 [SPEAKER_00]: And anticipatory scarce. 35:07.955 --> 35:08.895 [SPEAKER_00]: Exactly. 35:08.935 --> 35:10.356 [SPEAKER_00]: So it's not, it's not in your mind. 35:11.616 --> 35:24.740 [SPEAKER_00]: But I think that that's an invitation from the Lord by the power of the Spirit to lean into generosity, trust, lead into trust, trusting that you are God's child and that God will provide for you. 35:25.220 --> 35:29.942 [SPEAKER_00]: God don't have no stepchildren and that God will show up for you. 35:30.262 --> 35:35.085 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, and God will honor what you've done in secret openly, right? 35:35.125 --> 35:35.305 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. 35:35.506 --> 35:45.652 [SPEAKER_00]: And I think that what you've decided in your heart, you know, to give to support whatever, you know, like, like, when I see like an unhoused neighbor, that's some some time. 35:45.752 --> 35:47.574 [SPEAKER_00]: I go, oh, let me see what I got. 35:47.874 --> 35:52.597 [SPEAKER_00]: Like, you know, just trying, just to support, it's not for me to determine what they're going to do with that money. 35:52.717 --> 35:53.598 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not holding goes, Junior. 35:53.978 --> 35:57.260 [SPEAKER_00]: I trust they don't bring in the national guard and try to get rid of them. 35:59.399 --> 36:01.480 [SPEAKER_00]: No, do you don't send the military to nationality? 36:01.520 --> 36:04.441 [SPEAKER_05]: I mean, that's just like a very obvious Essex there. 36:04.681 --> 36:05.321 [SPEAKER_00]: We don't do that. 36:05.441 --> 36:06.101 [SPEAKER_03]: We're at bottom. 36:06.261 --> 36:07.121 [SPEAKER_00]: And it's bad. 36:07.882 --> 36:10.022 [SPEAKER_00]: So I, you know, I think that's something. 36:10.082 --> 36:13.423 [SPEAKER_00]: It's like, we don't police, that's not my jurisdiction. 36:13.483 --> 36:14.164 [SPEAKER_00]: God will do. 36:14.284 --> 36:15.164 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, God will do. 36:15.524 --> 36:17.705 [SPEAKER_00]: They just bought my job as to help. 36:18.105 --> 36:21.406 [SPEAKER_00]: Like, you know, recognizing that we entertain angels unaware. 36:21.926 --> 36:23.047 [SPEAKER_00]: right as it says in Hebrews. 36:23.087 --> 36:23.567 [SPEAKER_00]: You don't know. 36:24.707 --> 36:27.869 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, when you saw me unclosed and Jesus going to be like, that was me. 36:28.469 --> 36:30.410 [SPEAKER_05]: You know, I'm just a little russet just like that. 36:30.650 --> 36:31.250 [SPEAKER_00]: That was me. 36:32.030 --> 36:36.332 [SPEAKER_00]: When I was on that corner shaking, that was me asking for change. 36:36.412 --> 36:38.573 [SPEAKER_00]: Like, you know, seriously, you don't, you don't know. 36:38.593 --> 36:40.174 [SPEAKER_00]: So it's like you want to honor God. 36:40.214 --> 36:42.635 [SPEAKER_00]: If you have it, don't, don't turn or you know how it is. 36:42.855 --> 36:44.015 [SPEAKER_00]: You see those little funny skits. 36:44.035 --> 36:49.578 [SPEAKER_00]: And I see, you know, I, all these reels and yeah, well, they were like, people looking around like, bro, I'm struggling too. 36:49.638 --> 36:49.778 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. 36:50.478 --> 37:08.715 [SPEAKER_00]: I understand the struggle is real, but you know, I lead you, but I'm like, if you've got to try to help you to try to help because it could always, yeah, you know, and for some people, I'm sure they are experiencing worse, you know, and so I think I just, I just want to, um, 37:09.395 --> 37:16.440 [SPEAKER_00]: encourage those that are out there that are really struggling and things are hard and they're just seems like you're never going to get ahead. 37:16.460 --> 37:18.862 [SPEAKER_00]: You're never going to get back to where you were or you've never been on. 37:19.062 --> 37:19.302 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. 37:19.522 --> 37:20.583 [SPEAKER_00]: Happy living high on the hog. 37:20.623 --> 37:22.304 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, whatever your circumstance is great. 37:22.345 --> 37:24.046 [SPEAKER_00]: There are a lot of people always doing this struggle. 37:24.166 --> 37:26.608 [SPEAKER_00]: It's always been a continuous struggle. 37:26.988 --> 37:31.031 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, to know that if you still got breath in your body, then the Lord is still yet at work. 37:31.411 --> 37:46.362 [SPEAKER_00]: you know, God still has a plan and a purpose for your life and things can turn on an instant on on the dime and we serve God of the suddenly and I think it's important to remember that and to hold on to that and I noticed difficult to do. 37:48.564 --> 38:08.446 [SPEAKER_00]: When you are down bad, like you know, I understand it can be really difficult to do that and you're just and there's so many resources I think that's also part of why we have get into a world where truth's tape, but we don't often talk about it a lot on truth's tape But where you can just have people reading the word or something you just need somebody to pray something you need to hear someone praying for you 38:08.946 --> 38:12.507 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, it's not like you need just that the word being read over you. 38:12.808 --> 38:15.929 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, and read for you even if you can't, you know, do it yourself. 38:16.209 --> 38:21.071 [SPEAKER_00]: So I think there's a lot of, um, I guess resources and lifelines. 38:21.131 --> 38:24.332 [SPEAKER_00]: I guess, you know, I'm just trying to think, I know what that is. 38:24.392 --> 38:25.312 [SPEAKER_00]: I know what it feels like. 38:25.332 --> 38:28.873 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, but you know, it's just like, and you're just cannot. 38:29.274 --> 38:31.334 [SPEAKER_00]: You feel like you are just in a rock and a heart plate. 38:31.354 --> 38:32.575 [SPEAKER_00]: And you can't win for losing. 38:32.655 --> 38:35.236 [SPEAKER_00]: It's like, yeah, like you often say holding water. 38:35.296 --> 38:35.576 [SPEAKER_00]: It's like, 38:36.617 --> 38:45.784 [SPEAKER_05]: You're losing it and I would say this and I know people have all kinds of issues with fair church or churches in general Bro, yeah, um speak on it. 38:46.285 --> 38:48.106 [SPEAKER_05]: We have to be honest and our churches. 38:48.326 --> 38:58.775 [SPEAKER_05]: It one if you go to church And if you and if you attend church a commitment to bringing your ties your talents to that community Right to pour into that community what God has put into you. 38:58.795 --> 39:00.417 [SPEAKER_05]: It belongs in that house 39:01.257 --> 39:03.739 [SPEAKER_05]: for the building up of that particular place. 39:04.239 --> 39:11.004 [SPEAKER_05]: But if you are in need, whatever, spirituality, but also physical financiality, you should be able to bring that. 39:11.064 --> 39:16.508 [SPEAKER_05]: And that's a part of confessing both our sin, which you do, but our church, we also confess sin and suffer. 39:16.548 --> 39:17.269 [SPEAKER_05]: You got a name. 39:18.289 --> 39:21.071 [SPEAKER_05]: And if you cannot do that, what that can reveal, 39:22.052 --> 39:34.115 [SPEAKER_05]: is a type of pride that makes you not one not able to get your knee mat, but also you're going to be you're going to be ill-shaped to serve and love other people well without causing them to feel a sense of shame. 39:34.796 --> 39:38.897 [SPEAKER_05]: So if you know, if I want people to really believe that they can ask for help. 39:39.517 --> 39:41.518 [SPEAKER_05]: than I have to ask for help, right? 39:41.738 --> 39:45.839 [SPEAKER_05]: Otherwise, what they're doing is something that is so below me, and I'll just throw them a little bit of what I have. 39:46.179 --> 40:04.186 [SPEAKER_05]: But there's a hotiness that happens when you can't do the very thing that you're asking other people to do, be your church, should be a place to the extent that other believers are there giving their time, talent, and treasury, which we were called to do, it should be a place where there should be something in the pantry, in which to serve people who are in need. 40:05.106 --> 40:21.452 [SPEAKER_05]: And I know too many pastors that long for their churches to be that, but that actually requires the body of that local church For everyone who is there to to hold a responsibility that I'm gonna let the God do the math and I'm gonna give when I'm supposed to give so that my sibling and this two rows above for me 40:22.472 --> 40:23.392 [SPEAKER_05]: and have their needs man. 40:23.412 --> 40:24.473 [SPEAKER_05]: I don't even know all their business. 40:24.933 --> 40:30.756 [SPEAKER_05]: I just know that that extra bonus of the Lord gave me, it might be a sign to that that mom over there. 40:30.996 --> 40:31.856 [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah. 40:32.076 --> 40:36.878 [SPEAKER_05]: And and that that I think is a part of the powerful witness of the church when we operate that way. 40:37.058 --> 40:38.259 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, been never as fun. 40:38.459 --> 40:38.839 [SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely. 40:38.859 --> 40:41.400 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, giving me a form we have hardship, absolutely. 40:42.240 --> 40:44.101 [SPEAKER_00]: That are beyond our control. 40:44.221 --> 40:44.601 [SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely. 40:44.621 --> 40:49.724 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, all matter of some reasons why I've been never as such a benevolence funds are 40:50.984 --> 41:04.515 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, and matter to us, you know, because we all have seasons of, you know, of try-on-than-lack-and-or-or-or-or-feast-in-fam-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h- 41:20.268 --> 41:20.768 [SPEAKER_00]: be that's right. 41:21.189 --> 41:27.695 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, so anyway, I am, you know, we, we wanted to, you know, just talk about that because we know that's a real issue and right. 41:27.715 --> 41:30.978 [SPEAKER_05]: I'm employment under employment and just people trying. 41:31.705 --> 41:33.385 [SPEAKER_05]: to just knit something together. 41:34.486 --> 41:38.787 [SPEAKER_05]: And also the anticipatory loss is just very real. 41:38.807 --> 41:45.589 [SPEAKER_05]: But even if people feel like they got it right now, there are many folks that feel like what I have, I think is about to be taken away. 41:45.609 --> 41:48.150 [SPEAKER_05]: And that's the way they show them in the world too. 41:48.350 --> 41:53.951 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, but the latest job report, yeah, people are hugging, you know, calling my hugging their jobs, even though they don't like it. 41:54.611 --> 41:55.432 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I love it. 41:55.452 --> 41:57.032 [SPEAKER_00]: The best job environment. 41:57.072 --> 41:59.813 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, but I got a hold on to it because, first of all, I can't get another one. 42:00.353 --> 42:04.895 [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I mean, I mean, I need to grow the grocery. 42:04.915 --> 42:06.536 [SPEAKER_00]: It's a guy's, you know, I've got to pay the bills. 42:06.556 --> 42:08.357 [SPEAKER_00]: You got to, you got to eat. 42:08.577 --> 42:11.338 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, so we hope that you all can receive that. 42:11.398 --> 42:20.842 [SPEAKER_00]: Those, those that are currently experiencing under employment, unemployment, you know, our steel may be really for the layoffs in the firing. 42:20.882 --> 42:24.064 [SPEAKER_00]: It's still very much shocked because you, you thought that job was secure. 42:24.084 --> 42:26.605 [SPEAKER_00]: And typically those federal jobs in particular are, 42:27.405 --> 42:33.233 [SPEAKER_00]: have been, you mean you're a good government job, so that was always often the goal for many, many of us in our community. 42:33.253 --> 42:33.453 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. 42:33.553 --> 42:33.773 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. 42:34.414 --> 42:36.957 [SPEAKER_00]: And now I mean the whole rug has been pulled from under you. 42:37.017 --> 42:45.969 [SPEAKER_00]: So I just to maybe God's grace attend to you, cover you over shadow you on the May his tangible provision be so evident and clear in your lives. 42:46.749 --> 42:59.481 [SPEAKER_00]: Um, and that you would have helpers that the Lord will bring destined offers because you need that destined helpers that can walk with you connect to you, um, speak a word of life over you, um, pray for you, um, when you can. 42:59.761 --> 43:05.566 [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm gonna, you need friends that'll carry you by their mat to the savior who can heal you. 43:05.606 --> 43:09.430 [SPEAKER_00]: And then, and then God will heal you based on their faith, not in because you're on. 43:09.914 --> 43:14.056 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you're as an amendment, but you really blessing you as only count of the faith of the friends. 43:14.116 --> 43:14.876 [SPEAKER_00]: Thank God for that. 43:15.036 --> 43:15.477 [SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely. 43:15.497 --> 43:17.858 [SPEAKER_00]: So faithful friends are very important. 43:17.878 --> 43:18.798 [SPEAKER_00]: So they yield much. 43:19.178 --> 43:20.039 [SPEAKER_00]: They yield much. 43:20.219 --> 43:20.839 [SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely. 43:20.919 --> 43:28.363 [SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, I'm so glad we were able to talk about greater than the point where is God when you ain't got no job. 43:29.155 --> 43:29.816 [SPEAKER_00]: God is with us. 43:30.156 --> 43:32.778 [SPEAKER_00]: God is with us always, always. 43:33.118 --> 43:35.700 [SPEAKER_00]: Um, so yeah, so tell us your thoughts about this episode. 43:36.020 --> 43:38.742 [SPEAKER_00]: You can email us at astrus table at gmail.com. 43:38.782 --> 43:45.286 [SPEAKER_00]: You can comment on Facebook, threads, Twitter, like we are on next week. 43:45.306 --> 43:46.247 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, what it is. 43:46.787 --> 43:52.470 [SPEAKER_00]: Anyway, Instagram, all of those, you can write and review the show on iTunes. 43:52.570 --> 43:54.171 [SPEAKER_00]: It's a scribe on your favorite podcast player. 43:54.291 --> 43:57.133 [SPEAKER_00]: And we are on YouTube, so subscribe there. 43:57.753 --> 43:58.914 [SPEAKER_00]: We do have a Patreon account. 43:58.974 --> 44:02.476 [SPEAKER_00]: So y'all can say you love offerings to patreon.com, slash choose table. 44:03.396 --> 44:06.858 [SPEAKER_00]: You can hit us on our PayPal.me, slash choose table as well. 44:08.179 --> 44:10.240 [SPEAKER_00]: Just a support, the work of choose table. 44:10.280 --> 44:12.762 [SPEAKER_00]: So we have been your host, Academy, and Christina. 44:12.862 --> 44:14.583 [SPEAKER_00]: We'll see you soon on the next choose table. 44:14.923 --> 44:15.103 [SPEAKER_00]: Bye.