Jesus Calling: Stories of Faith Sarah Young

We’ve all experienced situations that might seem hopeless—and the overwhelming feeling of not knowing where to turn when things look bleak. Our guests this week have experienced traumatic situations that found them at the ends of their own means, when all they could do was breathe a prayer to God in desperation—searching for a glimmer of hope to cling to.   
Author and TV host Ali Landry shares her moving story of overcoming a heartbreaking betrayal in her marriage, and on top of that, finding herself facing health issues that made her feel like she was living half a life. Interior designer Carley Summers battled addiction for several years in her young adult life, and at her darkest moment, felt the presence of God guiding her to ask for one more chance—opening the door to a brand-new world.
 
Links, Products, and Resources Mentioned:
Jesus Calling Podcast
Jesus Calling
Jesus Always
Jesus Listens
Past interview: Jon Gordon
Upcoming interview: Tara-Leigh Cobble
 
Ali Landry
Reshape Your Life
Breaux Bridge, Louisiana
Crawfish Capital of the World
University of Louisiana
Oprah Winfrey
 
Carley Summers
ADHD
Alcoholism 
Addiction
DUI
Christian Faith Rehab 
2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV
Interior design
Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Goodwill
www.carleysummers.com
Sacred Spaces
 
Interview Quotes:
“My prayer has always been, Lord, let them see Your light in me.” - Ali Landry
“I've done a lot of things over the years and always the grounding force for me has been my relationship with God, 100%.” - Ali Landry
“Here I am with this job that I'm supposed to love and it's supposed to serve me and my life and my family, and I feel like I'm sitting on the sidelines in my life and I feel like I'm kind of having half a life because I'm not a player in my own game. And that's when I decided I deserve more than this.” - Ali Landry 
“I always knew that if I was able to lean on God and He was able to pull me through these situations in my life, that it was my responsibility to share it.” - Ali Landry
“I will say my relationship with God 100% is the foundation, it got me through to the other side every time. When you put gratitude in your life, it really shifts everything. It completely shifts your mindset. It completely puts you in a different mood.” - Ali Landry
“We're so busy with our lives that sometimes we forget to stop and recognize God working in our lives.” - Ali Landry
“It was not until my second DUI when I was at the age of twenty-two, when I finally realized that I needed some help and I was ready to surrender my life over to Jesus.” - Carley Summers
“I realized that something was going to have to change. Jesus tried to reach me in that moment because He had a plan and a destiny for me to use my story to give Him glory.” - Carley Summers
“I let the root of Scripture take a hold of my life, and it gave me this unexplainable joy, even though I was in one of the lowest circumstances you can be in.” - Carley Summers
“I think that my life verse is 2 Corinthians 5:17, ‘If I am a new creation and Christ, all those things that have been are now gone, let the new come.’ And so I have to wake up every day and recognize that I am healed from those things.” - Carley Summers
“I always thought that I had to work in the church to do ministry, but I realized that through stewarding people's money well and creating homes where people walked in that they could do life with and have Bible studies and host and work as a family together, I realized that I could create something sacred for other people.” - Carley Summers
“God started to use my story to help set other people free.” - Carley Summers
“We've curated a space to help people feel safe, I think that's how our homes can impact us and help tell our stories.” - Carley Summers
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Enjoy watching these additional videos from Jesus Calling YouTube channel!
Audio Episod

At one time or another in our lives, we are bound to experience bouts of anxiety. The Bible does not teach that lack of faith is the cause of anxiety. In our world today, it is almost impossible not to experience anxiety to some degree. We just can’t avoid it. What if instead of running away from our anxiety, we name what is happening, and develop ways to support ourselves through it while leaning on God in the present moment? 
Curtis Chang is a pastor and a non-profit director. He remembers early moments of anxiety that were a response to his fears of being in an empty house after school, waiting for his parents to come home. He shares how he developed early coping mechanisms which exacerbated anxiety later in his life, and how through that anxiety, he was able to draw closer to God. Kim Gravel is an author and TV personality who shares about the early anxiety she had while competing in pageants as a young girl and opens up about her journey to find self-confidence. 

 
Links, Products, and Resources Mentioned:
Jesus Calling Podcast
Jesus Calling
Jesus Always
Jesus Listens
Past interview: Janine Reid
Upcoming interview: Ali Landry
 
Curtis Chang
Duke Divinity School
Redeeming Babel
latchkey kid
The Anxiety Opportunity

 
Kim Gravel
Atlanta Olympics
WATC TV57
Kim of Queens on Lifetime
Collecting Confidence

 
Interview Quotes:
“Anxiety is the fear of some potential loss. We all carry that around with us. We all carry around some fear of potential loss.” - Curtis Chang
“Our anxieties have a lot of wisdom contained in them, they tell us a lot about who we are, about our experiences growing up, and what we fear losing.” - Curtis Chang
“What I believe human experience and Scripture tells us is that anxiety itself is not a problem to be eliminated, that in fact, it is actually a fundamental condition of what it means to be human—that to be human is to be vulnerable to loss.” - Curtis Chang
“I know full well the nature of anxiety is a problem, but I also have experienced firsthand the promise of anxiety as an opportunity for spiritual growth, because it takes us to our core beliefs and our core fears about loss, about God, about who God is in Jesus, about what we are actually promised by Jesus in terms of our future.” - Curtis Chang
“My calling is to see people rise in all that God has for them. And for me, the adventure of this life is sharing His message with others. Jesus is probably the reason why I do everything that I do and why I am who I am.” - Kim Gravel 
“I did have to deal with a lot of pressures and stress, but it was such a learning ground for me. It's those times of growth that God puts us in so that we go to new levels.” - Kim Gravel
“Get still, because God is constantly wooing and speaking and guiding and leading us. We just get too busy or too broken to hear it or see it or feel it.” - Kim Gravel
“My philosophy on confidence is probably a little different than what the world tells you it should look like. It's truly a Christ-centered confidence, but it's also a confidence that I know whose I am and why I'm here.” - Kim Gravel
“When God calls you to do something, nothing can stop it, damage it, alter it, or prevent it, except you. And that's the reason I want to share this message, because I know without a doubt, true confidence comes with a relationship with Jesus. True calling comes from Him.” - Kim Gravel
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Enjoy watching these additional videos from Jesus Calling YouTube channel!
Audio Episodes:     https://bit.ly/3zvjbK7 
Bonus Podcasts:     https://bit.ly/3vfLlGw 
Jesus Listens: Stories of Prayer:  https://bit.ly/3Sd0a6C 
Peace for Everyday Life:     https://bit.ly/3zzwFoj 
Peace in Uncertain Times:     https://bit.ly/3cHfB6u 
What’s Good?     https://bit.ly/3vc2cKj 
Enneagram:     https://bit.ly/3hzRCCY 
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It’s been said that parenting is a lifelong job that doesn’t end when your children grow up. Our guests this week know firsthand how hard it is to be a parent, and they’ve done the work to build the kind of relationship with their children that is returning dividends in their adulthood. And now, their kids really appreciate them as people, and the influence they’ve had in helping them become who they are today. 
Dionne Warwick is a six-time Grammy Award-winning singer who raised her son Damon—who is also a musician—as a single mother. Despite her status as an international superstar, Dionne made it a priority to carve out meaningful moments with her children. Andy and Sandra Stanley are preachers, authors, and parents of three. One of their greatest prayers was that their relationship with their kids would evolve into a friendship and that as adults, they’d still appreciate their family time.
 
Links, Products, and Resources Mentioned:
Jesus Calling Podcast
Jesus Calling
Jesus Always
Jesus Listens
Past interview: Reba McEntire and her sisters, Susie and Alice
Upcoming interview: Curtis Chang
 
Dionne Warwick
Gospelaires
Hal David
Billy Ray Cyrus
Dolly Parton
“Peace Like A River” - song with Dionne Warwick & Dolly Parton
 
Andy and Sandra Stanley 
North Point Ministries
Enneagram
The 5 Love Languages
Dr. Charles Stanley
Parenting: Getting It Right - book by Andy & Sandra Stanley
 
Interview Quotes:
“One of the greatest things that I've learned is just to truly be who I am.” - Damon Elliott
“All the things that [God] does for me, I am truly thankful and grateful for. He's given me a path to follow and a plan He has for me. And I'm following that plan and that path. So whatever comes within the realm of that, I'm supposed to face. I have no problem with that.” - Dionne Warwick
“We prayed with our kids at night when they were young, but we continued to pray with them through every season of life.” - Andy Stanley
“Our parenting goal with our kids was to end up with kids who wanted to be with us and with each other, when they no longer had to be.” - Sandra Stanley
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Enjoy watching these additional videos from Jesus Calling YouTube channel!
Audio Episodes:     https://bit.ly/3zvjbK7 
Bonus Podcasts:     https://bit.ly/3vfLlGw 
Jesus Listens: Stories of Prayer:  https://bit.ly/3Sd0a6C 
Peace for Everyday Life:     https://bit.ly/3zzwFoj 
Peace in Uncertain Times:     https://bit.ly/3cHfB6u 
What’s Good?     https://bit.ly/3vc2cKj 
Enneagram:     https://bit.ly/3hzRCCY 
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Do you struggle with how to fit a faith routine into your life? It’s hard to prioritize time for prayer and reflection in our busy, over-scheduled lives, but when we come up against those moments that stretch us beyond our normal limits and make us question the very foundation of our faith, turning to that connection that we have already been establishing day by day to God can be crucial for us to lean on when nothing else makes sense. 
Author and podcaster Cleere Cherry Reaves clung hard to her relationship with God when her son Sledge, who was born three months premature, fought for his life. Author Larry Loftis shares about the incredible bond Corrie ten Boom had with God, and how she bravely trusted His guidance to do what was right as she helped hide Jewish people in her home who were fleeing Nazi oppression during World War II. The relationship these women built daily with God informed their responses to heartache and tragedy.

 
Links, Products, and Resources Mentioned:
Jesus Calling Podcast
Jesus Calling
Jesus Always
Jesus Listens
Past interview: Cam Ayala
Upcoming interview: Dionne Warwick
 
Cleere Cherry Reaves
Cleerely Stated 
Apneic episodes
The Miracle of You
 
Larry Loftis
Corrie ten Boom
The Watchmaker’s Daughter
Gestapo
Ravensbrück
Mother Teresa 
Darmstadt
www.LarryLoftis.com



Interview Quotes:
“I feel like when we were in the hospital, before Sledge came home and that daily experience, I felt like the veil between heaven and earth was thinner than a sheet. It was so obvious to me that God's presence is the miracle.” - Cleere Cherry Reaves
“We learned how to walk through waves that once fell like tsunamis. We learned how to operate and say, ‘Lord, this is not our preference. We would love to take [our son Sledge] home, but we know that Your ways are higher, Your plan is greater, and You are working miracles all around us. Help us see those miracles.’” - Cleere Cherry Reaves
“Life really is a gift, it's pure grace. And I think when we operate from that, we really can fight for contentment in any circumstance.” - Cleere Cherry Reaves
“Miracles are not always water into wine, or the healing that we had expected. Miracles are a million different things in a million different ways.” - Cleere Cherry Reaves
“Fight for a life that operates in contentment and peace that isn't based on what's happening in the world or what's happening to us… I know that good is happening here because God is here.” - Cleere Cherry Reaves
“When we think of people that have to go through things like [what Corrie ten Boom faced], we think Well, they're superhuman. But these were regular people. And what's inspiring is that you have these normal people that rise to the occasion.” - Larry Loftis
“Lots of people hid Jews in the Netherlands, so [Corrie ten Boom is] not unique in that sense. She's not unique in that she suffered, where she's unique is this: Corrie forgave everybody.” - Larry Loftis
“[Corrie ten Boom] traveled the world sharing the gospel, sharing her message of peace and forgiveness and what had happened to her and her family and how the answer was in Christ and He will give you the strength to forgive as He's done for her and her family.” - Larry Loftis
“Corrie is unique in that she was able to forgive the hardest people to forgive, people who were cruel to you, people who betrayed you, people who were responsible for the death of your family. Corrie realizes that, I can't do it on my own, but with God's grace and God's help, I can do it. That’s the big takeaway, because we're all called with the great commission to share the gospel.” - Larry Loftis
“We can look at what Corrie did to forgive the hardest people in the world, to forgive what she [forgave], and use that as our inspiration—with that example and with God's grace, we can forgive, too.” - Larry Loftis
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Enjoy watching these additional vide

It’s a blessing to be able to celebrate with others when joyful things happen in their lives. But it’s also an honor to be able to stand by someone when they are heavy with sorrow and joy seems nowhere to be found. 
Popular Christian writer Karen Kingsbury and her son Tyler Russell help others celebrate the joy of their faith by writing stories for families through their Baxter Family children’s books. Pastor David Emmanuel Goatley, the sixth president of Fuller Theological Seminary, has traveled all over the world as a minister and has been inspired at how Christians from all walks of life hold each other up and bear each other's burdens, no matter how much or how little they have.
 
Links, Products, and Resources Mentioned:
Jesus Calling Podcast
Jesus Calling
Jesus Always
Jesus Listens
Past interview: Nikki DeLoach and Pat Bradley
Upcoming interview: Cleere Cherry Reaves
 
Karen Kingsbury 
Tyler Russell 
Philippians 4 NIV
NIV Bible 
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance
Los Angeles Daily News
Baxter Family Children books
Being Baxters
John 16:33 NIV
Colossians 3:23 NIV
1 Thessalonians 5:16-17 NIV
www.karenkingsbury.com
A Thousand Tomorrows
 
David Emmanuel Goatley
Fuller Theological Seminary
 
Interview Quotes:
“The family that God puts you in are the ones who are going to be with you forever, so really foster those relationships and pour into those relationships.” - Tyler Russell
“I had a beautiful relationship with the Lord, but I was still seeing pain. I was still seeing people going through hard things. And I just didn't think that Christian fiction would be able to handle that. I want to tell stories that are real and true.” - Karen Kingsbury
“We really do both want to serve the Lord first. That's kind of our top thing in everything we do, we want to please God first.” - Tyler Russell
“Prayer is an all day, everyday thing for me. I am so thankful to be able to walk through this life not alone, but with Jesus, and knowing that I have His presence beside me.” - Karen Kingsbury
“I believe that we need to love and laugh often and look for the miraculous in the everyday and lean hard into our relationship with Jesus.” - Karen Kingsbury
“My father's orientation was that you always talked about church and community together. You never spoke of church in isolation from the community because the church should be embedded in community, and the community was informing the life of the church.” - David Emmanuel Goatley
“We were taught to be salt for the earth and light for the world, and so you have to engage the world that God puts you in so that you can bear good and faithful witness. I think that that kind of nurture helped to inform who I have become and how I see the world.” - David Emmanuel Goatley
“I think it's important for students to listen to and learn from the testimonies of people in the global church.” - David Emmanuel Goatley
“I don't recall ever feeling like the hard work of Christian leadership has not been worth it. There have been times where the weight of it has been heavy and wearisome and draining and fatiguing. There have been those times where it's been a headache, but I have not felt that it's not worth it. I've been fortunate to sense that I am where the Lord has sent me.” - David Emmanuel Goatley
“If we don't try to get out in front of Jesus and we let Jesus lead us, then we'll make it through the sleepless nights and we'll make it through the anxious moments, and then we will be able to look back on it and say, ‘The Lord both led me through it and taught me something in it.’ The Lord has been exceedingly kind. And for that, I'm grateful.“ - David Emmanuel Goatley
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Enjoy watching these additional videos from Jesus Calling YouTube channel!
Audio Episodes:     https://bit.ly/3zvjbK7 
Bonus Podcasts:     https://bit.ly/3vfLlGw 
Jesus Listens: Stories of Prayer:  https://bi

We’re back with another Jesus Listens Stories of Prayer special bonus episode and we’re talking with Hollywood beauty expert and reporter Kym Douglas who makes it her mission to bring laughter and positivity to the world, but is also candid about the tough seasons she’s been through recently. The loss of her husband of 37 years and a recent cancer diagnosis led her to rely on her faith even more–and also reshaped her sense of her own beauty; by seeing herself through the eyes of her Creator.
 
Guest’s Links
Facebook: @hollywoodbeautyexpert
Twitter: @kymdouglas
Instagram: @kymdouglas
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*Episode produced by Four Eyes Media*