It has been a long summer, but I hope you guys have enjoyed what we've been doing here on the podcast. We've been, you know, just kind of introducing you to some of my other friends here at the Life Way Podcast Network, and I hope you have found some great new friends. I know I certainly have, and I hope you've loved it, but let me tell you something. I have been so excited to get back and start season two. So if you're joining me for the first time, let me introduce myself to you. I am Angie Elkins. I'm the host of Let It Shine. I work at Life Way. I am the manager of the Life Way Podcast Network. I'm also, obviously, the host of this podcast, and I work with all of our other shows at Life Way. Let me tell you a little bit about my podcast, Let It Shine. It started last year. I'm going to tell you kind of the iteration of season one in just a minute, but before I started Let It Shine, I hosted a podcast called Chatology. I released over 200 episodes, and you can find those right here in this feed. So if you like what you're hearing and you just want to hear more, first of all, check out season one of Let It Shine, but if you want to hear it even more than that and kind of what happened before Let It Shine, check out any of those 200 episodes of Chatology. I love it, and I want to encourage you. If you hear something today that you love, please hit follow wherever you are listening to your podcast. So you may be listening on Apple Podcast, Spotify, wherever you are, just hit follow right there. You won't miss a single episode. I want to encourage you to do one more thing, and that is share this episode with a friend. I know as a podcast listener, I often listen to episodes, and as I'm listening, someone will come to my mind that I think would also enjoy that episode. So I just want to encourage you, whoever God brings to mind for you as you listen today, please hit that share button wherever you're listening and just text them a copy of this episode. I promise you, that is the best way for people to find out about the show, but also to just let your light shine. Who is flourishing in your life because of what you are sharing? So I encourage you, share this episode with them. So today is the trailer episode for season two of Let It Shine, and so I'm excited to give you two big reveals today. Today I'm going to be sharing with you our theme for season two and letting you know who our illuminators are. If you've never listened to Let It Shine before, you're wondering, what is an illuminator? Well, guys, an illuminator is what I have decided to call my co-host here on Let It Shine. This season, I've got three people who are my recurring co-host who rotate with me and have conversations about the topic at hand. Before I tell you who those illuminators are, I'm excited to tell you that our theme for a season two is holy habits. Okay, holy habits. Why have I chosen holy habits? So I know that if you're familiar with Let It Shine and season one, you know my love for habit creation. Last season was born out of a spiritual growth experience that I had through forming some new habits around a physical challenge that I did, called 75 Hard. If you haven't listened to that season, it's totally okay. You don't actually have to listen to the whole season to be able to grasp what we're talking about this season, but I do encourage you, if you are looking to develop some new habits physically, season one would be something great for you to listen to. You can just add those episodes in as you're listening to season two. But this season, I've decided to focus more on our inner life and developing new habits toward building our inner life. For those of you who know me in real life, you know, or if you've been listening to the podcast for a while, you know that these episodes are always born out of a personal struggle that I'm having. It's something God has teaching me in my life. So that is exactly what's going on with season two. I'm using real life examples of my struggles, my wins, my family situations, my friendships, all kinds of things as I share with you what God is teaching me this season in the role of spiritual disciplines. So there it is, holy habits are spiritual disciplines. So if you've been a Christian longer than you haven't like me, you probably have heard the term spiritual disciplines. If you are new to this Christian life, welcome, we're so glad you're here and this season is for you as well. I am going to be talking to our illuminators about how they practice these holy habits where the spiritual disciplines in their lives to draw closer to God. I can't stop thinking about an illustration from one of my favorite authors and speakers, Hosanna Wong. She uses the illustration of a trellis and how it upholds the vine and the branches. So let me break it down for you. In her book called You Are More Than You've Been Told, Hosanna Wong talks about how we can begin to think of building these spiritual disciplines in a different way. So one of the things I learned from Hosanna in her book is that we all know as Christians that Jesus said the vine and the branches must stay connected. He is the vine, we are the branches. And in order for those to stay connected, we have to have a really strong trellis, okay? So if you are familiar with gardening at all, I'm not. I do like to plant flowers, I do like to get out into my yard and do a little bit of yard work, but I'm not huge on yard work, but some of you may be and you may know that if you have a vine, which Jesus says he is the vine and that we are the branches, that they stay connected and for us as the branches to grow and to be healthy and have a vital Christian life, we have to stay connected to the source. Jesus is that source. He is the vine, he is the life for the branches, the only way that we can keep growing in our spiritual walk is to stay connected to Jesus and to that vine. But how do we do that? We need some practical advice on how we actually stay connected. Now, if I were to ask you, most Christians would say, "How do we stay connected to Jesus, what we read our Bible?" Yes, we pray, yes, all of these things are true. We go to church, yes, all of these things are true. But I think what I have found in my own Christian life is, "How do I develop the habits that I need to develop in order to keep these practices going or these holy habits going?" And so really that's what we're going to talk about this season. Hosanna has given me a great illustration that I've mentioned I can't stop thinking about. A friend of hers told her, "The branches, as long as they are connected to the vine, they still have a life source. But in order for them to really stay connected and be healthy, there has to be a structure or as James Clear calls it, a system to uphold the vine and the branches together so that they can grow in an optimal way." So we are going to talk about a structure. We're going to talk about a trellis. We are going to talk about a system. We are going to talk about a way to create holy habits. Many of you remember that last season I did an episode on Making Room for God. I'm going to link that here in the show notes because I want you to know that in order for you to start new habits, in order for you to accomplish something new, you are going to have to make room. You're going to have to make room for God in your life. We talked about making room for physical habits, walking, working out, exercising, drinking water. What did we have to get rid of in our life in order to make room for something new? And so this season I want to concentrate on making room for God in our inner life. How we can move things out of our lives so that God can step in. So you may be asking, "What are the holy habits we're going to focus on?" So I'm just going to run through a list here. These are things that are known to most Orthodox Christians as habits that we should practice in our daily life, that we should follow along in the footsteps of Jesus. He practiced these things and so because he practiced them, we want to practice them. This is a way that our branches and our vine stay connected. This in short is how we abide in Jesus by using these habits and instilling them in our lives. So these habits are prayer, reading our Bibles, fasting, solitude, worship, community, stewardship, Sabbath, or rest, gratitude, and celebration. So guys, we are going to implement all of these things into season two. We're going to talk about them with our illuminators and how we practice them in a practical way. So now, are you ready for big reveal number two? I am excited to introduce you to my illuminators. This season on Let It Shine, season two, our illuminators are Dr. Elena Baron, Nicki Ogden, and Stacey Thacker. These three women are people who have been in my life for a lot of years. They've been through some stuff with me and I know them, I know their hearts well, and I'm excited to introduce them to you. So now let's take just a few minutes and meet our illuminators. Okay, Let It Shine listeners, I'm so excited because I get to introduce you to one of my illuminators this season, and her name is Dr. Elena Baron. Welcome Elena. Yay. I am thrilled that I get to introduce you to the world. You know, one of my favorite things you may have heard me say this before is introducing my friends to each other. I love it. It's literally one of my favorite things. So that's what I'm doing today is I'm introducing you. So I have to tell the world in case you haven't heard the story, which did we tell the story about how we met on our other episode? I was on your episode. Okay. So Elena has been on Let It Shine before she was on season one as a guest. I want you to go back and listen to that episode. I'm going to have Nicki Linkett in the show notes, but also let's just tell the story again. So we met at Southwestern Seminary. We were both in Southwestern Singers and we were sitting beside each other because we're both Altos. Yes. So we were in the Altos section and I looked at you and I said, Are you wearing terracotted lipstick from Clinique? And you said, I was shocked. I was like, yes, I mean, it's the only lipstick I ever wore. It was in and I was shocked. I was just like, How could you know that? How could you possibly know because I worked for Clinique and I knew every shade of lipstick. So yes, that is exactly how we met this the first thing we said to each other and we became fast friends after that. Yeah. That was immediate. That was the first day of Southwestern Singers. Yeah. That's pretty amazing. That's a funny, such a funny story, but it's so true. Clinique brought us together. So we were in Southwestern Singers together. We did Singers tour together. We were, you know, I like to tell people that we were friends when friends was actually on TV. Yes. Everybody. That was Thursday night. Yes. And people would gather at my house. Yep. I would buy myself and we'd cram. And that cute little house. Yes. One bedroom, little bungalow and everybody would cram in the living room in my house and we would watch friends together as friends, male men and women in there watching it and. We were friends. Exactly. We were them. We just didn't have a central perk. No. We did. What would our central perk have been? It would have been Einstein brothers bagels. Oh, yeah. That's true. That is 100 true. I was talking to my Gen Z son yesterday with a friend of his and I was telling them, well, no, they were saying, oh, we're like friends now, like they just graduated college and they moved to a new city together. And they're like, we're just like Ross and Rachel and all of them except for we don't live across the hall from each other. And I was like, y'all friends, I was friends when friends was friends, like when it was being invented. Friends was my show before it was your show, Gen Z, so step back. Anyway, so that's exactly right. That's who we were and in those days living that life together, it was so fun. We were all single and but meeting our mates during that time in life too, which was so fun. You met John at seminary, I met Robert at seminary, I sang in your wedding. Yes. And Robert played the piano. That's right. Y'all were the music duo. It was fantastic. It was. It was really fun. That was those were the days. And here we are. How many years? Well, we've been married 28 years this year. How long have you been 28? Y'all got married just three months after us. That's right. That's right. So here we are. And I think I say this on an episode later that you'll hear later in the season, but I tell my kids, like the people that you are becoming friends with at this point in your life, some of them are passing through, but a lot of them are not, and you will remain friends with them for the rest of your lives. And it's one of the best things about getting older. And you say, oh, I have friends from so many different eras, but this friendship, these friends I made during that time period of my 20s, that is the strongest group of friends I have. That's incredible. Like we can pick up in a moment, you know, just see each other and we're back to that time. Yeah, absolutely. I am still on a text thread with my college roommates. I talk to them every single day via text. And my college kids are amazed by that. And I'm like, listen, it living with people, it just does something. It does something for you to you and bonds you to them in a really unique way. And what's really funny about that is that specific group, we have all changed so much in our belief system, maybe even our core values have changed. But we are still so tightly knit together. And there's a trust amongst us that kind of is so good in that I learn so much from them because they think so differently from me and believe different things from me now. But because we were so tightly knit back in the day, we still have this amazing relationship. And I don't feel like I'm in an echo chamber with them anymore. You know what I mean? Which is wonderful. So okay, so that's how we met, that's how we know each other. I would love for you to share with our listeners just a little bit about who you are. So we know we went to seminary together. When I finished seminary, I got married and moved on to having kids and family. That was pretty much the end of my education, but not for you. You did a lot more after that. Well, the goal had always been for me to get my doctorate. And then I was married the last year of, I was going to master's divinity in the last year of seminary. God blessed us that we became pregnant. And I can remember coming to Dr. Karen Bullock, who was my mentor, and say I'm pregnant. And I remember her looking at me and going, Elena, it's okay. Her story is not to get your doctorate now. It will happen one day. Yeah. Don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. Wow. And so we went on to be missionaries for the North American Mission Board, is Mission Service Corps, and we served for them for four years in different parts, Idaho, and then that brought us to Kentucky. And I was a mom, teaching in the community, and speaking, and traveling, and doing speaking events, and that kind of thing. And that's what I did. I actually worked for LifeWay at that time, teaching on fall festival and marriage, and different things like that. And then just grew with the children, and John worked in college ministry for years, and then we ended up accepting to become missionaries, which we're going to talk about later. And Guatemala for two years, when my children were in middle school and high school, that was very transformational for our family. I went through a really hard period, also almost dying, a health condition that almost became terminal, that was long term. We're going to talk about that. Yeah, we are. That's a big point of my story. And then when my children were in high school, all of a sudden I realized that God was calling me to get a doctorate. Okay. And I came back. I came back to Karen, Dr. Bullock, and was like, "All right, it is time. You are right." And I went for that to get my doctorate of ministry. Where did you get that? From B.H. Carroll of the Elijah Institute. And so did that. And God has just, it's a story. God has been moving. Then I moved into what I do now, which is I'm a spiritual director for a Christian counseling center. We're going to talk more about that. The episode from last season, we really talked about what is spiritual direction. Yeah. Is that something new for you? I encourage you to listen to that. And so that is what I do now is I'm a spiritual director. I see women from all over the nation, actually other countries too. And then my husband's a pastor. I have two grown children, Lauren and Jack. Lauren is pregnant with our first grandchild due September 29th. We're so excited. I know. That's so great. They're married to Daniel and they high school sweethearts and later we're married. And then Jack is 23, lives here in Nashville and the music world, music business. And we are loving life as empty nesters and just traveling this journey that God has us on. Well, I'm so glad that you agreed to come on this season because your episode, if you're listening to this and you have not listened to my initial conversation with Alina, I really encourage you to go back and listen to it. We've linked it in the show notes, but there were so many of you as listeners who were really fascinated with the concept of spiritual direction. When we did our listener survey, many of you asked to hear more about it. And so that confirmed what I was already feeling was that I wanted to have you on to the show because this season we are talking about really what we're calling holy habits, but it is all about just pursuing growth in our life and how the spiritual disciplines do that. They create sort of a trellis for us as the vine and the branches grow together. And so I knew that having you on would be exactly the step in the right direction for the season. And so I'm thrilled that you're bringing this perspective of a spiritual director to the conversation. So friends, that is my friend, Dr. Alaina Barron. I'm excited to introduce you to her and you're going to hear so much richness from her this season. ♪ Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine ♪ Nicky Ogden, welcome to Let It Shine! Hi, I'm happy to be here. I am so thrilled to welcome you to be one of our illuminators this season. You were one of the first people I thought of that I wanted to have on the show. I think you were my first ask. I thought I was going to be the last. No. I think you were the first one because we talk about these things in real life. That's true. Yeah. And honestly, we can't be in a room together for more than five minutes before we're like going deep into conversation. I know. Sometimes we're like, we just need to work or we just need to go to lunch. Absolutely. So let me tell everyone that you are the producer of Let It Shine. People may not know that. Every once in a while I'll say, Nicky, you'll put that in the show notes. But you've heard her name at the end in the show credits and you work with me on a lot of the podcasts and life way, but this is like one of the main ones and I'm so thankful for that because I honestly could not keep it going without you. Absolutely could not. There's too much happening in my life. But anyway, I want to take just a minute so that everyone can meet you. So just tell us a little bit about you. Okay. Well, I'm Nicky Ogden. And like she said, producer of Let It Shine and a few other shows at Life Way. But I think really in my everyday life who I am is wife to Chris who is a pastor at Horizon Church, which is the campus of First Orlando. So Angie and I go to same church, different campuses together. And then mom to Addison, Olivia and Jonah who are in third, fifth and sixth grade. And can I just tell you that middle school, like we are just a few weeks in and middle school has just like come in the bang. Wow. Those days, I remember them. Yeah, they're that easy days. No, they're not. She's wonderful. But it's like the school, everything just got so intense all of a sudden. Yeah. It does. You know, it's not as intense as they make it. That is a good reminder. That's what I needed to hear today. That is what I needed to hear today. I mean, for those of you who have kids entering kindergarten, maybe they're starting kindergarten year. This continues to be the lesson over and over is that it's not as big a deal as it feels in the moment. You're so right. And she is my first and so I, I catch myself like freaking have freaking out moments with her more than any of the other kids, not because of her. Right. Because it's my first time doing this. Yes. I get it. Yeah. Sorry. Totally. Well, you know what? You already inspire me because you took your kids out of school for a week to go on a mission trip, right? We did. Yeah. See, I think that's the important stuff in life. Do you know what? I, I kind of heard this about talking about something else and it came to my mind with the kids that we make school the experience when it is just an experience. That is so true. And I'm really trying to live life that way with my kids. I love that. You see, it doesn't mean that the teachers always like it. Yeah. It's certainly not easy on them. I mean, we spent all weekend doing school work because they didn't do it all week. But school is the same, school season is the same season that you get your kids in your home. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And your kid is likely going to live more years outside of your home than in your home. Yeah. And so don't make school the entire experience. That's right. That's just part of the experience. That's exactly right. So yeah. Good word. Thanks. Good word. I try to. So when you think of letting your light shine, what does that look like for you? I think that for me, it just means being faithful in my little corner of the world. I am an enneagram one. And so oftentimes we like to strive for more and perfection, right? Right. And if there's anything that God has taught me over the years, it's that less is more. And it's just being faithful just with the things that God has given you, right? So letting your light shine to your spouse that can be challenging sometimes, right? Letting your light shine to your children, letting your light shine in your home with your neighbors. You know, my neighbors are very important to me. Yeah. I love my neighbors very much. Letting that front porch, you know, like how at night I always have my front porch light on. Yeah. And so that is kind of like a representation of who I try to be and the little spaces that I go to. And I don't do it perfectly, obviously, but I try to be mindful of it, you know? It's so good. Yeah. I am so excited that I get to share you with our audience. Oh, yeah. I've been holding, holding this little friendship and relationship and conversations between us, but we're opening it up now. I'm excited. I love having conversations with you because you just say what you're thinking. Yeah. Right? Like some people need to like process it and she want it and then deliver it. Yeah. But you let me like work it out with you and you let me like process it with you and it feels so good. It's like, instead of having a personal trainer, you have a workout buddy, right? Yeah. And I don't really like personal trainers. Like it feels awkward because like, I just can't do what they're asking me to do. Yeah. But I want to work out buddy and that's what I feel like with you is like a spiritual workout buddy. Oh, I love it. Yeah. And so I just love the ping pong that we normally have like in our conversations. And so yeah, I guess it's time to record them. No, I guess so sometimes we don't figure it out. I mean, pretty much we can rule the world, but we think we can. We think we can. But we'll just do our little, our little quarter. Yeah. But we really just kind of talk through stuff. And I like that you let there be nuance sometimes, you know, like I mean, that's the area of growth for me is just knowing that sometimes there's just a nuance. Yeah. Sometimes there's an imperfection that you have to live in or sometimes there's a gray that you have to sit in. That's right. Thank you that year. Thank you. I'm so glad you're here. Thanks. Stacey Thacker, welcome to Let It Shine. I am so excited. I'm excited to introduce you to the audience. We've been friends for a long time. Tell our audience a little bit about you. Oh goodness. Well, my husband, Mike and I have been married 30 years. Stop it. What in the world? How are you? Only 25. It's a math thing. And so we live in central Florida in the same location as my dear friend Angie. I have four daughters, which always throws people a little bit. I used to think it was five. Angie used to think it was five. Some people think it's three, it's the whole thing, but they are grown up girls. So our oldest is going to be 25 in a couple of weeks. That's right. Cannot even believe that. Our next oldest is going to be 22 in December. And then we have an 18 year old and then the baby. The bringing up the tail in there is, she's going to be 15 in October. So just a whole thing, 25 down to 15 basically. And so they're, you know, pretty much our whole world. We love our girls. So we're an all-girl crew. We love that. I am a writer and a speaker. I do that. Used to be kind of just my full life, but now I'm very excited I get to serve the women of our church. I am the director of women's ministry at First Orlando. That's right. It's almost two years and I love getting to serve women and point them to Jesus and build community and create spaces where they can know God and be known. That's kind of my passion. And so that has been my day job these days. I'm writing and speaking when I can, kind of a little bit more of as a side hustle. But I have been working on a couple books recently. Tell me, how many books have you written? I just finished my 10th. How does that feel? Crazy, really, honestly. A lot of people will say to me, "I want to write a book. I want to write a book. I've got a book in me." And I love that conversation, but I have to be honest. That was never. My story, I've always written. So writing was a passion of mine, but I didn't know you could. I mean, literally was waiting for someone to give me permission. And so when I first started writing, it was never, I never saw that as a path. But God was so gracious. I started writing on a blog and it just, you know, I followed a spark and it just turned in one book to another and that's been honestly the biggest surprise of my life is that I am an author. It's taken a while for me to be able to say that, but I think I can now. Absolutely you can. I love it. I love it. It's a joy. When you think of the title of the show, Let It Shine, when do you think you're shining? Like describe what it looks like for you when you are really shining. You know, that is a great question. I have been thinking a lot about light lately and one of the things that I know about light is that sometimes when your light is shining, this may be the answer you probably weren't thinking I was going to give. But sometimes when your light is shining, you feel the opposite. You feel maybe a pushback from the darkness. You feel like things are kind of, it's hard. Like there's things coming against you, a friend of mine said, whenever you're putting out into the world, expect the opposite to come back at you. So let's say I've been writing about light. I've had a lot of, I want to say spiritual attacks. So sometimes when you're letting your light shine, you might think, oh, my goodness, like my car broke or oven broke, you know, my kids are sick or all these crazy things. I think the enemy tries to steal, kill and destroy the other parts of your life. So sometimes when my light is shining, I think the opposite is coming against me. So that's usually an indication. But also if I am shining my light in the way that God has called me to do that, it means that I am walking an obedience, that I'm listening, that my heart is responsive to even subtle nudges from the spirit. I can sense him. It also honestly sometimes feels like I'm not prepared in the sense that there are so many times, a couple weeks ago, I had an opportunity to share in our church service. And I'm not going to lie, when I stood up, I literally couldn't feel my legs. Like I felt there was a weakness, but sometimes you feel like when I'm letting my light shine, I need to feel really strong. Actually, sometimes I feel weak and it felt like, oh my goodness, I can't do this alone. And so you know that is coming from the Lord, that power and strength. And so I feel dependent when my light is shining. That probably sounds like a very negative explanation. It doesn't at all. But I think obedience, expecting attacks from the enemy and also knowing and seeing other people catch a spark of something, I think that is a good indication. But not always. I think sometimes our obedience, we don't get to see the fruit of it. Well, I'm excited. We've got some great topics we're going to talk about this season and holy habits with you. We're going to talk about prayer. We're going to talk about grief and lament. We're going to talk about hope and we're going to talk about Sabbath. And I am excited to have you with us. Thank you. It's a great conversation. Anytime I get to spend time with you. It's my favorite. I know. Same. Okay, guys, I hope you are just as excited as me to run into season two. Before I let you go, I want to give you one practical step you can take as you are moving toward next next week and the first episode of season two. I want you to ask yourself this question and I want you to pray about it this week because when you ask God to reveal something about you in prayer, he will do it. He will do it. And so I'm going to give you this one question to ponder this week as we roll into season two and begin episode one next week. And that question is this, which of the holy habits do I really need to grow in? Which one of them? I'm going to ask you just to pick one to start off with. Which one of them do I really need to grow in? When you ask God that question, he will answer. Okay, guys, I want to encourage you. Check out the show notes because today in the show notes, we have a list of holy habits. If you're thinking, what were those holy habits again? I know she just said them. I've put them in the show notes. See, there's a list there for you to reference. I also have linked some recommended resources. If you just want to start reading more about the spiritual disciplines, they are number one, Kelly Mentor, one of our life way authors who is beloved here at Life Way has an amazing Bible study called Encountering God, and it's all about spiritual disciplines. I encourage you to check that out. Also a book called A Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster. This is a classic. It's something that I read over 20 years ago. Before I even got married, I remember reading this one chapter a week just to help me in the formation of my own holy habits. As I mentioned earlier, you are more than what you've been told by Hosanna Wong. Check that book out. Another book I'm loving right now is Practicing the Way by John Mark Comer. Such a great, great read in learning how to abide in Jesus. And then again, another fantastic habit-forming book, not a Christian book at all, but will help you pair what you're learning on this podcast with the formation of habits in general. It's called Atomic Habits by James Clear. If you have not read that book, it has to be on everybody's reading list. Check it out. Okay, guys, reminder, please, please, please, as you have listened to this episode, and I hope you've been inspired enough to share it with a friend, someone came to mind as you were listening. Maybe two people, maybe a group thread that you're in. Will you share this episode with them? I'm going to tell you that this morning and yesterday, I sent a podcast episode, two separate podcast episodes to the same group text because we're always looking for good stuff, right? So I encourage you to share this episode with someone that came to mind and help us get the word out about Let It Shine. Thanks, friends. Let It Shine is a production of the Life Way Podcast, executive produced by me, Angie Elkins, produced by Nikki Ogden. It's recorded at the Life Way Podcast Studios and engineered by Donnie Gordon, edited by Robert Elkins. An original theme song arranged by Robert Elkins, the maestro himself, performed by Tiffany Casey, Abby Pierce, Ryan Walker, Jarian Felton, and Shawna Felton, art by Grace Morgan, and I'm your host, Angie Elkins. Meet me back here next week. ♪ This is the light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine, this is the light of mine ♪ ♪ I'm gonna let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine ♪ ♪ I'm gonna let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine ♪ (silence) [ Silence ]
