3: The Good News About Broken Dreams
This is a story about the search for a barn.
Today we dig into what it looks like and feels like to watch your dream break into little bits and pieces you can't make sense of. Christie takes us from Chicago to Florida to a small town in Pennsylvania that often reeks of mushroom farms and manure where she buried all her broken bits of hope and then watched them grow. She shares the story of the time she opened her home to a small group, bought all the study books, and not one person showed up.
If you're like us then you already know that dreams usually look nothing and also everything like you hoped. There's no straight road between what we dream and the realities we live and along the way all kinds of things we imagined, prayed, and hoped get broken. Let's talk about that today.
Join the conversation! Let us know if you'd be interested in joining us for a day at the Black Barn by tagging @lisajobaker and @christiepurifoy or use our hashtag #OutOftheOrdinaryPodcastBecause we've got a new dream now and we hope to have you all over some day!
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I totally had the same thing that happened to Christie happen to us when we moved from Chicago and a small town in Maine to the rust belt in Wisconsin! I had the same realizations about community. Also, I am glad we aren’t the only ones who have tried really hard to have community and not been able to do it very well in the new place 🙂
This podcast was so good for me to hear and encouraging.
I’m coming to the barn!!! All the way from country Australia. Again, thank you both for your honesty and for the amazing fact that I found you both and your podcasts in answer to heartfelt prayer. Literally stumbled upon you. God heard me ask for help. So encouraging, so real.
Christy, I had exactly the same experience when we moved to Florida. Nothing I tried to host worked and it took 12 years to have any kind of a sense of community. Like you I am an introvert without your gift of hospitality. Now that we have moved to Ohio, community has happened and the Holy Spirit is pushing me in amazing ways. And I so agree with your description of God’s role in our hardships. Thank you so much for this podcast, even though I am so far behind…
My “Florida” experience was when our only granddaughter Emma died (aged 3 years 8 months) after a 9 month battle with leukemia. She was the apple of my eye and somehow we had a very special bond. Out of this breaking experience so much good has come – we are all much closer to Jesus, at least one person rededicated her life, broken family relationship have been restored, our daughter, Emma’s mom, wrote a book that has helped so many people deal with grief and loss and much more. However, I would lie if I were to say that I long for more grandchildren and since we only have one daughter and that is not where they feel God is leading them to right now, I can only live in hope knowing that my Father God and Lord Jesus are the Ones who restore and multiply out of brokenness.
I have listened to podcasts 1, 5, 4, and now 3. Two will follow next. So far this one touched me the deepest. Thank you for your time and words and love.
If South Africans are allowed and God provides financially, I’m coming to the barn!!!
Sometimes you need “small groups”. It is in those small groups that you really get to know people intimately. We can pray for encourage each other. I go to a small church. We still have small groups Women’s Bible study, Ladies class meetings, Sunday School classes, etc. It is in those groups that the “hard” parts of our lives are shared. What is said there stays there. The rest of church doesn’t need to know about this stuff. Community is also about being there for each other. Getting food together when people are ill or having someone to call just because. When I’ve had a bad day or something came up with my aging dad I could call this friend & she would understand. That is truly community.
God will break us to mold us into the person He wants us to be. Suffering is hard. Trials produce perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. We grow spiritually when going through suffering. I can attest to this. I have been through a lot with my aging dad’s dementia. My faith is stronger & I trust God more readily. I know with certainty that he can & will help/guide us through any trials!
Blessings 🙂
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I am totally bingeing on your podcast. I’m in the middle of this season you are speaking of: the breaking, the waiting, living in the reality of a warped dream, seeing this season as “the other dropped shoe” that I felt was coming. Yearning for a closeness from God, then hearing His voice so clearly, and then standing, watching with the wind knocked out of me as the unraveling happens in what feels like utter silence from Him but seeing His hand in the most undeniable ways. I’m totally emotionally vomiting on your comments page here, but this is hitting every raw emotion from the past 8 months. Thank you. Keep going!