Episode 151. Delighting in the Lord with Stephanie Rousselle
Stephanie. I'm so excited to welcome you to the show. Thank you so much for being with me. Oh, I am way more excited than you are for sure, Rebecca. Oh, this is going to be so fun. So for my people who have not met you yet do just a little quick introduction about your show. I want people to hear about the work that.
Yeah, sure. So I have lived for the best two decades on three continents, four countries, and five cities through six professional roles. And as you can hear, I have an accent I'm actually French. And so even though I live in the us right now, I'm still living cross-culturally. And that actually all of this really informs what we do on our show.
It's called the gospel spice podcast and we bring the spice back in your relationship with God, if you've ever. There is a level of staleness with God, which I think is most of us, right? I grew up atheist. I came to faith as a young adult. Maybe we can talk about that. And that has led me to experience depth of scripture and flavors within scripture that have to do with culture.
Having lived in a lot of different cultures. I love to bring the flavors of culture into our experience of scripture, because we often forget when we open our Bibles that it's like taking a plane and entering a very different culture. Space. And so that's what we do on the gospel spice podcast. We bring in first century Jewish flavors, we bring in fresh French, fresh spaces to through, uh, I love words and through the study of French and how that actually helps us experience scripture in deeper levels for.
Speaking audience. And we also have a ministry gospel space ministries where we provide Bible studies. We do events and we also are part of the movement to help raise awareness against human trafficking in our generation. But in a nutshell, our passion is to inspire you to delight in God. Our motto is God's glory or delight, and we invite you to taste and see that the Lord is.
Um, I love the work that you're doing, Stephanie and okay. A couple things. One. I love your accent. I adore your accent. I took French in high school and I haven't spoken a word of it since, but as soon as I, the first time I ever heard you talk, I was like, oh man, she, I know she's French because I know that accent.
And which I think is just so fun because I can't say that I actually had a great French teacher. It's just been 12 years since I've thought about it. So I love. And I'm curious, because this was such a pivotal moment in my life. I have to ask you, have you been to the holy land? No. And so here's the thing, Rebecca, we were all scheduled to go.
It was supposed to be the big family trip. We literally took years to plan for it. I had, because I'm a total Bible geek and I go out of the places, even though I've never been, I, we weren't going to do a tour where I had mapped out the entire 12 days of our child. This was supposed to be the second half of March, 2020.
Guess what happened? Oh man. Okay. And so we had to cancel and we haven't been yet. Okay. Okay. Well, I say that because, so my husband and I got married. Spring, well, may of 2019 and that fall. So we'd been married about six months, which was so cool to experience this in your first year of marriage. We went to the holy land and my husband helped sort of lead a trip with some folks from our church and just kind of throughout our state.
And Stephanie, it changed. My life, it changed the way I will forever read scripture. I don't read anything in the new Testament. The same since I've walked in the footsteps of Jesus, it is just the most amazing experience. And so when you talk about experiencing different cultures and how that has really played into your understanding of scripture, that was where my mind immediately went, because I can't wait for you to go you.
Yes, we'll just. It will just open your eyes so much, because I think if you grew up in the church and you maybe grew up with a children's Bible or, you know, whatever, and you've seen maybe some cartoon pictures of the sea of Galilee and, and just the things that you're going to see when you go over there and experience it, you have this picture in your mind.
It's almost like reading a fiction book. Right? When we read fiction, we imagine in our minds what we think the characters are going to look like, what we think the places are gonna look like. And then. Maybe that movie about the book comes out and we watch it and we're like, okay, that wasn't at all what I thought, but maybe it's better or different.
And now that I've come home from Israel, I mean, I just, I can't even tell you every time I open my Bible, I just, I, I, I not only can picture it, but I have actual pictures of my feet standing in those very places. And it just is the most incredible experience. So I can't wait for you to go. I'll shut up about Israel, but same way.
No, seriously. I'm right there with you. I'm um, I completely agree. Uh, actually it's interesting because people ask me all the time because they say that the way we do our show, um, the depth of knowledge that we bring about, uh, the holy land in general and the culture in particular, I keep getting asked all the time, like, and I actually get invited to actually lead the tours there.
Uh, which is an interesting thing considering I've never been. So I can't wait to do that. I think what. Um, what, um, I've experienced a little bit, not at that level of obviously, but we've lived for almost 10 years in a country in north Africa that is culturally and geographically the most similar to Israel in the first century.
And so actually that's where all of the. Jesus movies get filmed because it's so even the landscape is similar. And so I've never been there, but I've kind of experienced a little bit of the culture and the hospitality, even the way people dress in remote villages is still very, very similar. So. I've got a glimpse.
Yeah. And so I cannot wait to experience the full thing, Rebecca, so, well, I can't wait to experience it. I can't wait to talk to you when you get back. That's what I'm looking forward to. So you're going to have a black sister, so that's awesome. Well, I am so excited to have my people hear more of your story and to have this conversation today, and you've, you've touched on this, but I'd love to start out with just a little bit of your background, Stephanie.
So you've, you've covered this a little bit. You share a little bit more about your journey and how you came to. Yeah, sure. Uh, I love how God works in everybody's stories in such unique ways. And so I grew up fiercely atheist. Okay. So this was obviously something that I inherited from my family of origin at first.
And so. Can I simmer in the cultural environment that we grew up in as children. And so mine was atheism, but as a teenager, as I began thinking for myself, Rebecca, this is what I embraced as my personal worldview. So it's not like I can say, well, my mom and dad taught me. Yes, my mom and dad taught me. But then I had reached an age where I could choose for myself and that's what I chose.
And so intellectual atheism truly was my worldview. So I would read the books by the leading. And philosophers of the day, whether they were long dead or the ones, you know, the recent one, Stephen Hawking was one of my heroes, for example. Uh, and I would understand, um, faith based worldviews through the eyes of my atheist heroes.
That is important because I discovered the danger of that later on, because when I came to the U S as a foreign exchange student for my senior year of high school, as a 16 year old. As a strong AC atheist, I found myself inside a Christian home for an entire year. The American family that hosted me, that welcomed me for the year were very strong followers of Jesus and living with them.
I discovered that everything I had read about Christianity was not what they were telling me about Christianity. Wow. You see, I had discovered Christianity through my atheist. And they were probably sincere in their description of Christianity, but it just really, wasn't what Jesus had pretty top. And so for the first time I was actually exposed to biblical Christianity for the first time I opened the Bible and I discovered it really wasn't.
I thought it was. And so that didn't change my worldview, but my point here is as believers, even when we are trying to experience or to understand someone else's faith, if you have Buddhist friends or Hindu or Muslim or atheist or whatever, yes. Read Christian books about these worldviews, but also. Those worldviews books, because that will teach you what they actually think, because sometimes we just cannot distort reality a little bit.
And so, um, I think that's a very important thing and we do this with us, with culture, and that's kind of what we bring even today to gospel spaces, this intersection of culture and scripture, where we are looking at scripture through. The lens of it's original culture. And in that sense, I was looking at Christianity through the lens of it's original biblical roots for the first time.
And so that was challenging Rebecca, because all of a sudden, a lot of my. Very welt well-built arguments against any faith based worldview. We're crumbling because I was realizing they were actually built on, on thin air. Um, I was firmly planted in thin air. That's how it felt. And that's very discouraging.
When you think you're 17 and that you've got life figured out. And I think there's the natural arrogance of a 17 very self-assertive self-confident young girl here, and my husband would tell you, you know, I'm French. So I was born to be arrogant. So Jesus is working on that, you know, but so I think most of the arrogance hopefully has gone, but the stubbornness was there and is still there.
My husband will confirm I'm still stubborn, you know, 23 years in of marriage, I'm still stubborn, but this stubborn girl was stubbornly trying to understand everything and, and how to relate her atheism to. Biblical Christianity. Yeah. So it was forcing me to think, which is a beautiful thing. And I very quickly came to a most uncomfortable confirmation or most uncomfortable conclusion from reading the Bible from talking with my American mom and dad with whom I was getting to be very close with.
It was that Jesus was a historical man who had truly historically risen from death and Rebecca, when you're an atheist, it's very uncomfortable to believe in the resurrection. That is not a good place to be as an atheist. It's not good. It's like sleeping on a bed of nails. It's just doesn't work. It's not good at all.
And so it led to a very restless season, intellectually where I was literally wrestling with God. And so I can relate to Jacob and his wrestling with God from this day forward, because I did leave that wrestle match with a limp, but also with faith, because God was basically saying. Obviously I'm real, obviously.
I mean, people don't just raise from the dead. So obviously Jesus deserves like five minutes of your time. At least the problem Rebecca is that you can come to an intellectual, um, consequence of the resurrection. I mean, there are theologians that are atheists. Right. So you can have all of the head knowledge of the world, but that doesn't, that's not enough to believe.
I mean, Satan, but he's in the resurrection that, that that's not enough to save you. Satan is when you knows more about the resurrection than you and I probably do, but that does not save him in any way, shape or form. And so it's uncomfortable. I mean, it obviously is Satan's biggest stumbling block. The resurrection is.
Or one of his many, but for me, it was not enough to come to faith because I think Rebecca that faith and trust or two words that are largely interchangeable. And so to have faith means to have trust. You cannot have faith in Christ without trusting him. And that was my problem because when someone can raise from the dead, that doesn't mean they're trustworthy.
So how could I know that God would be a trustworthy ruler master savior king for my life better than I could be for myself. How could I know that? And God said, well, you can't really know that until you try it. Yeah, it's kind of like going to the store in searching for a pair of shoes. There can be rows and rows of shoes in front of you.
You're going to have to try them on before you choose whether they fit or not. Looking at them is not enough. I love shoes, but I have been known to buy shoes without trying them on and usually regretting it because they don't fit and that's stupid. And so God says, you need to try this. Yeah. In other words, he told me you need to taste and see whether I am good.
Yeah. And here's the deal, Rebecca. I have the most pathetic conversion story that I've ever heard, and I've heard a lot of stories and they're all beautiful, but mine is just really pathetic because I told God, okay, I get that. Like, I really understand that trust cannot happen without giving you a chance at being trusted.
I get that like intellectually. It makes sense, but I, I, I don't know if I can trust you God. So here's what we're going to do. For one week, I'm going to try you on for size. I'm going to try the shoes on. I'm going to taste the chocolate. I am going to put on that coat of faith and see what happens. But if I don't like it, if it doesn't fit, I fed like the taste.
I'm not going to stay a believer. I'm not going to, I'm just, I'm testing this thing out. Rebecca. The crazy thing is that God, in his meekness and in his grace and in his kindness, he actually took me up on. It's it's mind blowing that God would be so kind and so gentle to the stubborn, arrogant self-sufficient control freak of a teenager, that he would actually meet me on my terms.
I don't have other words for it, but sheer grace. And so when I tasted the chocolate of faith for the first time, and I love really good chocolate. So that's. Yeah, I live in Pennsylvania and they have this great, big, huge brand of chocolate around here. And I'm sorry, that's not chocolate. I don't know how you call it, but it's just, it looks good.
They're super good with marketing. And I get that. The founder was apparently very good. Christian man. Good for him, you know? Oh girl, that's not chocolate. Anyway, you got to taste the real deal. Right. And so. Rebecca. I have been fighting God for so long. I had accumulated so much head knowledge about God and faith and Christianity and the Bible that when I finally was able to stop fighting what I had known with my head to be true, where for a week I could take a break and embrace it.
The sense of peace and rest that came upon me. I think I literally slept for 24 hours solid. I was exhausted from wrestling with God. The piece that the, all of a sudden it's like those pieces were beginning to come together, you know? And then I have been for the last 30 years still putting the pieces together and sure.
Layers and levels in scripture. And, you know, I've barely scratched the surface at this point. And we would spend all of eternity discovering out of this. And I can't wait for the, for the sheer joy of that. But God in his faithfulness and his kindness and his trustworthiness met me where I was. And, um, I never really looked back about five years into this, a friend and I like you and I were chatting and she asked me what happened at the end of the week.
And I looked at her and I went, oh my goodness. Like I never thought about it. The week is up. I just, I never really looked back. And, uh, that's kinda the story of tasting and seeing God's goodness, that's so good. Stephanie and I, I agree with you in that, um, I'm jumping all the way back to. This idea of it wasn't until you lived within a Christian home and you had exposure to God's word and what true biblical Christianity looked like it wasn't until then that you truly understood.
And by the same token, I think you're right. We're, we're really comfortable with loving God with all of our hearts. We're not so comfortable many times with loving God with her. And sometimes in order to be able to witness to other people in order to be able to share and have empathy for maybe a different worldview, it might take truly hearing it from the source and in order to be able to speak truth into it.
Right. And that feels like kind of icky. If you are raised in the church. Like I know for me, I was raised in an extremely traditional church environment where, um, You know, you didn't go see movies. You didn't like, you didn't have friends that had a different worldview than you. And so I, it really wasn't until my adult life.
When I went to a huge university for college, that I was really exposed to a lot of people. That felt and thought differently than me. And so it was really in those years that God, God really challenged me to learn what I believe in why I believe it, but I totally agree with you. And I love that. That's part of your story, because I think that's such a Testament to that piece of like the greatest commandment of.
Um, well, we loving God and loving others, but then also the commandment of loving God with our heart, soul, mind, and strength, we're real comfortable with the others, but sometimes I think we're not so comfortable about loving God with our minds. And so I love that that's part of your story and part of your ministry.
So you've mentioned a couple of times, this thought of delighting in the Lord, we find this in scripture. And I'm curious as you think about delighting in the Lord and what that's meant to your story, what does that mean to you? And how would you explain what that looks like to others? Yes. Well, let me take you down a little bit of a French lane for a minute, if that's okay.
Um, you might remember those words from, from high school. So what I love about languages is that often you will find nuances in languages in one particular tongue that you won't find in another. And, uh, the way I like to see it is that in English, sometimes you have two words for one word we have in French, and sometimes it's the other way around.
And so the word delight. Is the word is a word that you actually have two words in English that we would both translate delight in French. The first is delight. So, um, something that is delightful, you know, and that would be the same that a French word, but there's another word in French that we would translate in French dailies.
So that would be delight. But the lease might remind you of another English word, which is delicious. Yeah. So it's the same word in French. Something is both delightful and delicious. It's the same thing. So in French, God is both delightful and delicious. Talk about a feast for the five senses. So it takes me, it takes us back again to taste and see that the road is good.
And again, gospel spice. You know, it's all about this experiential moments with the Lord, because delight is a feast for the senses. It's intellectual. And I, I really kinda think that the intellect is, is a form of the five senses in some ways, because we need to be convinced with our minds, with our hearts, to love the Lord, your God, with everything we have, but also to love our neighbor as ourselves.
It's very practical, it's intellectual, but with feet. And so that notion of delight to delight in the Lord, um, it is definitely something that you find in the Psalms. David cries out that he wants to delight in the Lord all the days of his life. Um, Jesus obviously delighted in the Lord in ways. Led his disciples to ask, how can we pray?
Like teach us to delight in God, the way you delight in God. When we experience delight in God, when he becomes our chief, as desire above all things, then he is both delightful and delicious. And the fact that the French, you know, again, taste and see that the Lord is delightful and delicious that he is good.
And when you have this very hedonistic culture that I grew up. Uh, where food is really so important in the French culture, you will always relate all things that matter to you to either food or intellect. That's kind of the two grand passions of the French culture and food and intellect or. At the utmost in our delights slash or, um, the, the delight, the deliciousness that we take in God.
So I love that. I love that different meaning in the French. That's so fun. So cool. I love thinking about it that way. Well, you talk about one of your favorite verses in scripture being Philippians three 10, I'm going to read it for us. It says for my determined purpose is to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering.
You know, Stephanie, I don't know if you feel this way, but sometimes. Uh, I've been Phyllis way and I have conversations about this, that we just, we get overwhelmed by this idea of our purpose in life of God's will over our lives and things like that, those big words and phrases we can get super overwhelmed by.
And when I read this verse, this really kind of points me back to. Kind of the point of it. All right. And I love that it is a verse that you really clean too. And so how would you want to encourage somebody listening, who maybe feels a little lost in their calling today? Yeah. Yeah. Uh, well, I love the, the translation you use, because it does say for my determined purpose is that I may know Christ and yes, I think we do get lost about what is a calling, what is a purpose?
What's the difference? I mean, this is all, you know, semantics. It doesn't really matter. Here's my definition of a successful life, Rebecca, it's the, it's the plying. This verse success is to know Christ success is to delight in God if seriously, like if you boil down. Humans desires for all things that are success oriented issue, realize that your ultimate definition of success at the deepest level is not, not even a successful marriage.
It's deeper than that. It's not even raising children successfully. It's not a successful career. It's not, you know, looking your best. Are important more or less, but they are not what is going to give you purpose and Corning and identity. Yeah. Those, when, if you find the place where there's the convergence of your purpose, your calling and your identity, however you define those terms, I would challenge you to start thinking of success as delight in God.
If you have grown in your delight of God today, you had a successful. If you have grown in your delight of God, in your experience of him, in your knowledge of him. And I'll get back to that board knowledge in a second, if you have grown in your relationship with him this week, this month, this year, Then you are leading a successful life.
That is the heavenlies. The heavens definition of success is relationship with God. That is the whole point of why Jesus came. He came to give us a relationship with God. So if that is a foremost importance to him, how can it be anything? But to us, If you can reframe your entire thinking and even the neurological pathways inside your brain to start thinking of the definition of success for your life.
Not being a bank account, not being a street address, not being a particular size or shape or form, not being particular status, but being delighted in God. If that is success. First success is guaranteed good. Jesus promises to make it happen. And that's always nice. And second, oh, it is the biggest thrill of your life.
It is more addicting than anything else delight in God is the ultimate addiction. And that is one I pray we never recover from. So how do we delight in God? I guess that becomes the question because if I wanted to lead a wildly successful. Then I need to make delighting God, my priority. How do I do that?
It's summed up in that verse for my determined purpose is that I may know Christ the power of his resurrection and the fellowship in his sufferings. Let me start from the end, the fellowship of his sufferings. That's probably the part we cringe at because we're all happy with the power of the resurrection, like cuddle for it.
Right. But the fellowship of the sufferings. Well, here's the thing. I mean, who among us can expect to live a sufferings free life. I mean, we all go through it. We don't choose. Most of us don't embrace the choice of suffering that it comes upon us, whether we want to or not. And so the fellowship of our sufferings, it's understanding that Christ can relate to where we are.
I mean, I don't think Jesus, um, primarily came to earth so that we could relate to him, but so that he could write. Right. As, as, as human fully man and fully God. And so the fact that he's able to meet us in the fellowship of our sufferings because of the fellowship of his sufferings, that brings great comfort, and this could be a whole separate conversation, but then the power of the resurrection is the promise of the success of our delight in God.
That's the guarantee that it's going to be successful and whether it is through suffering or through the power of the resurrection that we can grow in, our delight is summed up in the fact that we know. Jesus more. And let me take you down the French lane again, with that word to know, because I was saying earlier how our French word, Denise has two English words, delight and delicious.
Well, this time it's the other way around. You have one word in English for two words in French. And so, uh, we have two words for your English word to. And let me show you something. That's really cool because there's a, I'm a Bible nerd. Okay. So I'm sorry. Let's go down. And our people know that. So there's about a thousand times in your English speaking Bible that the word to know is going to appear okay.
Out of those a thousand times or so there's about 300 times where in my French Bible, I would find the French word savoir. That word self-wash is actually head knowledge. You know, it from the English slash French expression, savoir. To know how it's literally the skillset to do something. So it's head knowledge and it can be practical knowledge, but it's, it's intellectual knowledge.
It can be applied like, uh, that word is 300 times out of the thousand times. You have the word to know that we have the French. To know, equivalence of why it's funny, primarily found in the Chronicles, for example, it's the historical facts, right? When Samuel writes the Chronicles of Israel, these are head, this is head knowledge, they're dates, they're Kings their battles.
It's history, head knowledge. It's also when Solomon in Proverbs talks about wisdom, that actually is considered head knowledge because wisdom is knowledge applied, but it still is. It can still be head knowledge. I mean, Solomon didn't end his life very well, even though he was the wisest man on earth. So obviously wisdom is a great thing, but it's not enough to lead a role model life.
I mean, Solomon didn't end too well there. So that's headline. But then you have another French word for the other 700 times that you have your English word to know. And that word is the French word, quintet and CANet is hard to knowledge. A word that you will find the Psalms when David is begging God to know him, to make him the desire of his heart.
It's that it's almost essential word. When Adam knew Eve that's connect. That's not Southworth. That's very intimate knowledge. When we say we want to know God, when Paul says, I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection, that's obviously the. Cornet. If he wants to know Christ in the same way that David wants to know God, it's this intimate experiential knowledge that can only come from.
The power of the resurrection and yes, the fellowship and the sufferings. We can not know someone unless we know what the experience, including the sufferings. And so Paul is the primary user of that French word. Kohenet 95% of the times that Paul uses to know in English, it's the French cornet. He hardly ever uses savoir.
I mean, he does once or twice for historical facts. Uh, one of the most famous instance where he does his, um, evangelistic approach, where he is on Mars hill and he is speaking to the Athenians in acts. He is being asked by the Athenians. They're saying, we want to know more about this God you're talking about.
Right. And then it sounds like a very promising opening to sharing the gospel until you realize the English to know that the Athenians are using is actually . They want to have head knowledge about there, but this God, they don't want heart knowledge. So they're not interested in conversion. They are only interested in intellectual facts, which is.
Symptomatic of the 21st century Western culture that we live in today, people might be interested in head knowledge, but definitely not in transformational knowledge, but that is what God calls us to in Philippians three 10 through Paul's words, we are to know. Christ to delight in him to make him our greatest delight.
And that is the measure of success, purpose calling identity. Yeah. That's so good. As you were talking, it's making me think of a book that I read recently. It's sort of a compilation of some sermons that AWS Hoser gave and it's called the purpose of man. Have you read that one? Yes. Sort of God. Purpose of man.
Love those books. I love AWS. Yeah, he's great. And one of the things that he says when it comes to purpose is. Really when it all comes down to it, our purpose is to worship God and enjoy him forever. And that phrase has stuck with me so many times when maybe I get caught up in striving or, you know, my, maybe my own definition of success.
It's like, no, one's. I am to worship God and enjoy him forever. That is the end of the day. That is my goal. And so I love the way that you shed light on that. And it kind of leads us into our last question, which is something that I love asking our guests. You know, the podcast is called radical radiance, which is really.
With the heart of helping women see how they can radiate the heart of Jesus in their life, their work, their relationships. And when God gave me this name, he kept pointing me back to this verse in Psalm 34 it's verse five. And it says those who look to him are radiant and their faces are never covered in shame.
And so the question I love asking is Stephanie, what about Jesus makes you radiant? Hmm. I love this question. And actually it's interesting because sometimes. Four or five that you just quoted 34, 6 is taste. I know, I know. I earlier, when you were saying that, I was like, oh man, our hearts are so like in the same lane.
So love it. And, and I think, I mean, that's the answer to your question, the way you are radiant before the Lord and in front of others is by tasting and seeing that he is good because you know, we are what we eat. So let's delight in the Lord and if that's what we eat, it's. Yeah. You know, I don't know how else to say it tastes and see that the Lord is good because then he will shine through you because we are what we eat spiritually speaking, if not physically speaking, but definitely spiritually.
So filling ourselves with him, making him, making our relationship with him, making deeper intimacy with him, making delight in him, making worship of him. The true desire of our hearts really is I think. Both the very simple and the very complicated answer. It's simple because a child can understand it, but it's complicated because I think it takes a lifetime to develop into, but that doesn't mean that it's not accessible.
I think the secret is that a lot of people will go, well, how do I do that? And I don't think God gets caught up in the, how I think it's more his, I mean, Jesus made a clear come with a childlike attitude of. This is not really difficult. Uh, just, just taste and see, you know, and if you don't know how to do that, well, God knows how to do that.
He's going to show you. So that's what I call the prayer of weakness, because oftentimes I see like something inspires me, but I'm not going to know how to go about it. And so I feel very weak in my approach to it, and God can take that. And so it's going from. God, I can do that, but I can't like, I would want to be able to do that, but I can't to go into a more humble place of saying I can't do that, but I want to be able to do that.
God, can you please make, make it happen through me? And I love that because that takes the focus off of me off of my striving off of my ability to do or not be able to do something. And it puts my focus back on him. And he's the one who's going to make it happen. He is the one inviting us to taste and see.
I might or even worse, I might not even be willing to change my definition of success. I might have been clinging to a particular idea of what success looks like. And I might have invested so much in this particular definition that it's very hard to hear what we're saying right now, namely, that maybe I've put my eggs in the wrong basket.
Made, um, my waistline or my social media followers or my street address or my bank accounts, my definition of success. And I've invested so much work into it. Then it's really hard to hear that. Oh, maybe that was the wrong focus after all. And so I might not be willing to change, but maybe I could consider the idea of being willing to be made, willing and saying, I don't want to change, but God, if you want me to change, can you please change my hearts so that I will want to change?
And so it's praying that prayer of saying, God, I might not be willing to change my definition of success, but I'm willing to be made with. To change my definition of success, but I need you to tell me how to do that. And he will because delight in him, you know, Rebecca, nothing beats that. And so to taste and see that he is good.
That's going to make you radiant. If your goal is to be radiant, you're going to fail because that's. Success, uh, your goal is to delight in him and you will be radiant as a result. Radiance is a consequence of intimacy, not the cause of it. Yes. Oh, say that again. Radiance is the concept of consequences, intimacy, intimacy with God, not the cause of the cause of it.
That's so good. Oh, that's so. Well, I just have loved this conversation so much, Stephanie, and I'm so excited for my listeners to tune into your show as well and all the work that you're doing. So before we go, I want you to share with them, how can they connect with you? How can they listen to your show?
All that. Sure. Yeah. So gospel spice is right next door from radical radiants. So that's pretty easy to find it's, uh, you know, you're listening to this podcast, just hop on over to gospel space. The easiest way also is gospel space.com one word gospel, space.com. You'll find the podcast, the Bible studies out of the ways that we, um, inspire our generation to delight in God awesome stuff.
And then social media, of course, but really gospel space.com has all of them. Awesome. Good deal. Well, Stephanie, I'm so grateful for the work that you're doing, pointing people to Christ and just using your story and your perspective to do that. And I'm just so grateful for your time today. Thank you so much.
I love what you're doing, Rebecca. That's awesome. Sharing our stories. Um, just points to him and inspires me to delight in him. So thank you for doing that.
