Janna Shoultz: Hello there, I’m Jana Faith, and welcome to episode 49 of Faith Talks. Well, I’m excited to be here today with my most favorite person. Sorry, not Anna Faith, but I’m here with my husband today and we’re going to be talking about a topic we were actually discussing a couple days ago and just thinking about with an illustration that Jetson actually heard on a podcast. But kind of the theme of it actually uses the example of a coffee bean and just thinking about coffee. I was thinking about coffee before we started this podcast and actually it doesn’t help that I’m looking straight at our coffee little station. in our living room so um maybe you like coffee maybe you’re the type that drinks it black maybe you’re the type that needs cream that’s me um and Jetson’s the cream and sugar both um it’s amazing how fast he goes through the container of sugar just by the one spoonful a day somehow or maybe you more prefer like lattes frappes coffee ice cream something like that anyway that’s going to be part of what we talk about today so i think we’ll start it out by just talking about that illustration so i want to share that yeah so i should probably preface this

Guest: that the original story was not from a christian perspective per se but i think some of the principles they really helped me thinking about my influence really on the world because jesus tells us Christ is in you the hope of glory and then that should permeate to the world so the illustration comes from a guy who actually grew up in Dallas Texas and in college he was a division one starting quarterback for a football team and his senior year got a season-ending injury ended up career ending so he had aspirations of going further couldn’t end up playing any more sports it was that bad and to make a long story short he actually went from there got into politics on a national level in washington dc then he went from there to work on wall street so he’s working a successful very lucrative job and it was in that period of time that he started to get into some drugs entry level drugs moved back to the dallas area and worked in a massive bank right in downtown dallas very successful and he even said his parents had been married you know they’ve been married their entire life so good upstanding family well it was when he was working at this bank in dallas that he got him with the wrong person and this person introduced him to meth and um that that first encounter led to his demise and so here he is i think he’s in his mid-30s very successful and and this is the way he said it. He said, in 18 months, I went from Wall Street to living on the streets, which is crazy because this guy was, I mean, he had it all set up for him. He’s a good family. He literally worked in politics in Washington, D.C. Now he is living on the streets, in and out of drug houses. And to fast forward a little bit, he spent three years in crime and ended up getting busted for it. And his sentence was 65 years in prison. And it’s effectively a life sentence at that point. So he’s in jail right after he gets sentenced. And there’s this other guy in jail who’s kind of helping him understand the ropes of what it’s going to look like in prison. And the guy gives him this illustration and kind of helps him with his mentality in prison again. So it’s coming from a secular perspective, but I think we can draw some spiritual application. So this is what the guy said. He said, imagine prison is a boiling pot of water. And he said you can put three things in that boiling pot of water, and they’re all going to react differently under the pressure and the heat. So the first thing he said, if you put a carrot in a pot of boiling water, what does it do?

Janna Shoultz: Well, it becomes very mushy and soft.

Guest: Just kind of.

Janna Shoultz: If you left it in there long enough, it would eventually maybe even kind of dissolve. Kind of fall apart. Yeah, kind of fall apart. So that’s what he said.

Guest: You put a carrot in a pot of boiling water, it softens. It weakens. He said, that’s some guys, they go into prison and the pressure, it weakens them, it softens them. He said, the second thing you can put in there is an egg. So what would an egg do in a boiling pot of water?

Janna Shoultz: Well, the egg goes from being liquid to being hard, but not too hard. The outside is hard, but the insides, you know, like a boiled egg kind of squishy.

Guest: Yeah, so you put a whole egg in there, shell included. The inside stays soft, but the outside maintains its hard shell. And what the guy said is some guys go into prison and they come out with a hard shell. They’re bitter, they’re tough, they’re angry, but they’re soft, they’re weak on the inside. Then the third thing he says, if you put a coffee bean in the water, he said it’s the smallest of the three things, but it actually changes the water. And this is a secular guy. He said, why does it do that? It’s because the power that’s in the coffee bean. The other two, the water changes it. The coffee bean, you put it in the water, and the coffee bean changes the water. And I heard that, I think it was just last week, and I thought, that’s a great illustration of the Christian life in the midst of pressures in life. And we were just talking, a great example of that, even he went to prison, was with Joseph in the Old Testament. and definitely some pressures that he didn’t even bring on himself. By the way, back to that guy in Texas. It’s a long story, but he was sentenced to 65 years, and he went into that prison and began to just really do his best to change his mentality and the guys around him. After seven years, the parole officer brought him in, and she said to him, we see what you’re doing, and she said, you have changed this prison. And they actually let him out on probation. And for the rest of his life, he’s under the judicial system in Texas. But he’s using that message of the coffee bean to help people.

Janna Shoultz: And didn’t you say like when he showed up, I think at the one prison, which is which, you know, housed lifers more or less. Yeah. There was, you know, a guy who came up and said, you know, like, what gang are you going to join? Or trying to get him to be a part of the things that weren’t.

Guest: Weaken him, really. Yeah. Yeah. They’re trying to weaken him right away.

Janna Shoultz: And even the idea of fit in, like, right to be like all the other prisoners, you know, unruly and all that stuff. And he said, no, I’m not going to join. I’m not going to do that.

Guest: Yeah. And he took it and he said, I’m going to I’m going to make a difference.

Janna Shoultz: Yeah.

Guest: Where I am. Which talk about one of the hardest environments you could go to. Yeah. He said all the lifers, these guys are they’re not going to make it out of prison. They put them all together. And so it’s tough guys. They don’t have a good outlook on life. So he really had an uphill battle. but he made a difference where he was you think about though the pressure of like life in the world as a Christian there’s a lot of that same pressure you know and we have the ultimate

Janna Shoultz: life inside of us I was thinking about you know even just anytime you work a secular job environment you can feel that you can feel that pressure to even just conform to those around you or you know you think about if you have a job at a fast food restaurant you know it can make you weaker as a christian like the carrot yeah you know it can make you harder on the outside you know just almost like you put up a wall um or you could be a coffee bean and change that workplace

Guest: yeah by sharing the love of jesus um you know it’s interesting um there’s a couple of girls we know and from the same family but they’re very different but they have the same home background and it’s interesting I think both of them could benefit from walking with Jesus more but the one you could say is kind of like the egg she’s a very hard outer shell but she’s definitely soft on the inside she’s she needs the encouragement the other one’s a little bit more tender but not always making a difference around her though she does a good job but I think another thing about life is especially for these two girls what the events in their life they didn’t have control over it’s a

Janna Shoultz: it’s a tougher situation definitely a boiling pot of water yeah kind of and it causes that pressure

Guest: like i i’ve studied just a little bit this week peter walking on the water and how jesus calls his disciples he literally says get in the boat and go across the water knowing that the storm would come and then he goes up in the mountain to praise and not that he caused the storm though he is the lord of creation but he also knew that if they were going to get in the boat and go into the crust of lake they were going to encounter a storm and sometimes the pressure comes from the world sometimes the pressure comes from other pressures that are just uncomfortable either the sin of others or just the sovereignty of god allowing things in our life that are uncomfortable

Janna Shoultz: that cause the pressure. I think it’s important to realize, you know, just because you might feel like you’re in that boiling pot of water, that’s not wrong, you know? And I mean, unless you got there by your own choices, but a lot of times you’re in that boiling pot of water, um, because God knows that you, you need that. And that’s, what’s going to actually, you know, have your life make a difference. And I think about just even the different work environments I was in, in the past couple of years, like I can see how God placed me in each of those places for a specific purpose. And we were just thinking together about the story of Joseph, literally how he does go to prison. Like he’s almost has a, you could say that’s the spiritual

Guest: version of the coffee bean story. He lives it out wherever he is. So Psalm 105 gives us a pretty detailed history of Israel’s history, but it talks about Joseph in this psalm. So it talks about in verse 17, why Joseph was brought to Egypt, the grand scheme, but it says Psalm 105, 17, he sent a man before them, God sent a man, even Joseph who was sold for a servant. I mean, Joseph didn’t have many part of that. He was sold into slavery and brought into a country you didn’t know. I like verse 18 because it gives us a window into what Genesis doesn’t really tell us specifically. It says, whose feet they hurt with fetters. He was laid in iron, so his feet are bound. He’s in jail. Verse 19, until the time that his word came, the word of the Lord tried him. But then we know eventually Joseph was brought out of prison. Verse 20 says, the king sent and loosed him, even the ruler of the people, and let him go free. He made him lord of his house and ruler of all his substance. So here’s this little Joseph, a little Jewish boy, goes to Egypt. He doesn’t know their language. He doesn’t know their culture. It’s a different religion. It’s not to God of his father. And on top of that, he gets thrown into prison for something he didn’t even do. I mean, talk about a boiling pot and a pressure of life right and yet when he got out joseph used what god had placed him into and the life that he chose to live in that boiling pot changed the lives of those around him physically and spiritually i mean the whole psalm all psalm 105 is god preserving his people throughout history he says he sent a man before them so why did joseph go to egypt so that his

Janna Shoultz: family and the nation could be preserved you even see that with the dreams like the fact that joseph dreamed what would happen later in his life just shows how much that was god’s hand yeah not his brother’s hand yeah even though it was his brother’s simple choice that did get him there um and i think that’s if you even just think in your own life of the trying circumstances you’re in I think it’s really helpful to think of those as opportunities, not something that’s holding you back. You know, sometimes you can think, oh, if I didn’t have this or if I didn’t have this or if this person wasn’t in my life or if I had a different home, you know, I could be a better Christian or I could make a difference more. But that’s actually like super not true because right where you’re at, God knows where you’re at and he has a plan for where you’re at. And if you weren’t in the family you’re in, there wouldn’t be that coffee bean to reach that family. And so just trusting the Lord, I think one to just simply say, OK, God, I’m going to trust you that where I’m at right now, You see me and you know that I’m here and I’m here for a reason. But then also saying I’m not going to be passive in it, but I’m going to actively pursue Jesus to come through me. Because again, it’s not the outer shell of the coffee bean that does anything. It’s that inside, like you said. And I think that’s something that’s been helping me, especially in the past couple months, ever since we’ve kind of reread the Experiencing God book, just about asking and being like, okay, God, I need you to guide my conversation. I’m going to be talking to this person in two hours, and I need you to guide my conversation. I don’t want to just speak for you out of rote, you know, saying things. I want you to guide my lips, and I want you to just show me what to say. Just that spirit of looking to Christ for dependence, not just, oh, I’m going to do my own thing. And especially when you’re in those trying circumstances, you need that because you on your own can’t make a difference. Yeah.

Guest: I think it’s important to note, too, that it’s the pressure of the moment that actually makes the difference. James said in James 1, count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations. Why? Knowing that the trying of your faith worketh patience, but let patience have a perfect work that you may be perfect and entire wanting nothing. The coffee bean doesn’t influence the water in the analogy until the pressure in the water is turned up. Exactly. And I think that’s true in the case of a lot of Christians. And the determining factor, like you’re saying, is are we going to trust God in the pressure or are we going to cave under the pressure? But I think it’s inevitable that pressures are going to come. You know, we live in a world full of pressures, some of which we bring on ourselves because of sin, but a lot of which we live in a sinful world. Man, God’s going to bring those pressures to test our faith. And if we respond under pressure, according to what God is doing, then that’s when our lives, that that’s really going to show what, what’s true about us. And it’s going to influence others. Otherwise you’re not going to make a difference. You’re going to cave into the pressure or you’re going to put on this hard shell might look good. It might not, but it’s really just

Janna Shoultz: masking what’s weak inside of you and i think like um i just think of what when oh what’s the verse my strength is made perfect and weakness yeah talking about you know the the egg for just the example doesn’t let anything come out you know it’s like trying to be strong trying to keep its shell now the carrot would more just sure dissolve but just the idea of when you’re in pressures like if you just try to be strong that’s never going to impact anybody around you but if you allow your weakness if you’re humble about your weakness and access Christ’s strength that’s what can make a difference I also was just thinking of what my dad always says about like you know if you wouldn’t see Jericho walls fall if there were no Jericho walls or you wouldn’t see Jordan rivers crossed you know if if there weren’t if there weren’t any Jordan rivers and it’s the same in our lives like you wouldn’t see you wouldn’t see your mom healed of cancer if she never had cancer and you would never see you know your house paid for if you didn’t have a house if you didn’t have no money if you didn’t have any money so like just the idea that every every that boiling water that pressure in your life is an opportunity for God to work you say the pressures of life either make

Guest: you or break you but if they make you that will influence others and that’s what we’re really called to i think about at the end of joseph’s story when everything resolves with his brothers and they’re scared because they here’s the most powerful man in like the world second most powerful man in the world and they just cheated him out of his life so they’re basically coming to him like save us and don’t kill us and he says he does fear not and then he says am i in the place of god he’s not going to put himself above god and then he says but as for you ye thought it evil against me but god meant it unto good and joe that proves that joseph in the pressure won and then he even says why did God mean it for good to save much people as it is today to be alive like God sent me here to preserve your life and I think how are how’s that going to influence people if we win under pressure it influences those that maybe cause the pressure so here Joseph is brought under pressure by his own brothers unjustly he couldn’t do anything about it And in the pressure, he looks to God and he wins. And then he turns right around to his brothers and says, God put me here to impact you. And we know that he impacted the whole nation of Egypt and many, many others around that area because there was a great famine. And that’s what it looks like to be a coffee bean, to influence others. But it took the pressure of the moment to make Joseph who he was. And God made it for good.

Janna Shoultz: And I think of just this weekend, like what was the most important, you could say pinnacle moment in Jesus’s life was the moment of the greatest pressure and the greatest just intensity was the cross. And then, of course, we’re celebrating his resurrection. But this whole weekend of we are celebrating his, of course, his risen life, but we’re also celebrating his death. And that moment of him absolutely giving himself for us. And I just think if we can view our trials and our pressures that God brings into our lives as opportunities to show him, that can just change our perspective. Just one ending story we were thinking about was Joshua and Caleb. And we’ve both been talking about this a lot. He preached a series of revival meetings on this topic. And then I’ve been just reading in Deuteronomy and Joshua and just thinking a lot about Joshua and just thinking of him and Caleb in this group of spies. And in my mind’s eye, I can, you know, just picture them all and go see. They’re looking at the land. You know, they’re strong people, lots of everything. And they’re thinking, this is going to be hard. Like, I don’t know if we could do this. And you can just tell like the popular opinion. Most of the people in the group are like, no, we can’t do this. And you can just hear the gossip starting to go. Oh, like we got to go back and tell them we can’t do this. This is too hard. And it would have been so easy for Joshua and Caleb to really even just be quiet, you know, think like God could help us do this. But like, I don’t want to be that one guy who’s, you know, standing up for something. So, but then they get home, you know, and everyone’s saying, but they were unashamed to just say the truth and to really just proclaim like, no, God is able to do this. We got to go in. We got to take it by faith. They were absolutely not afraid of, you know, any anybody in their group, but they were men of faith. And who led them into the promised land eventually? That next generation. It was Joshua. It was that one who said, you know, I’m not going to, I’m not going to just cave into the pressures around me, but I’m going to be a leader. I’m going to stand for what’s right.

Guest: Yeah. He was the one who impacted a whole nother generation because he said, no, I’m not going to let the pressure get to me. I’m going to believe God. And yeah, he’s the one who ultimately brought Israel that next step forward into the land, the promised land, the victory land.

Janna Shoultz: Yeah. So as you go this next month, I appreciated Midge and Boogie’s just that look at looking back at what has God done in the past. That’s just looking at that can give you that faith perspective moving forward. appreciated that and this month just as you’re thinking through things I would just encourage you to even just examine your life of okay what’s causing me pressure where do I feel uncomfortable or even where do I feel like I need to blend in I know for me there’s scenarios I feel comfortable being a witness and there’s scenarios I want to blend in and even just examining that and saying, okay, God, would you show me opportunities in this scenario where I can be a light, where I can share the gospel, where I can say a word about you to just share you. And maybe you’re going through a family crisis and feel discouraged that this is, you know, ruining what God could be doing in your life. Just realizing that this is right where God has you. So choose that faith response just as you go about your month. Remember that faith doesn’t just talk. Faith walks. And I think faith also drinks a cup of coffee.

Guest: Thanks for joining us for this episode of the Thee Generation Podcast. If this challenge stirred your heart, then you might want to join us this coming October for our annual Thee Generation Youth Summit. You can compete in exciting four-way competitions and hear how your life can turn the world upside down.