Venture Unfiltered Episode #4: Navigating the Storms of Life

Venture. What is up everyone? It is Pastor Tony and my faithful friend,

Pastor Leader Companion is not here with us today. He is currently in

Rome eating lasagna. He's on a trip to study the life of Paul.

So instead we brought someone who's cooler, who's talented, who is gifted,

who is a true Californian, not the brandham Beale's version. I lived in

Modesto for five years so considered myself a Californian. We have Pastor Nicole Butcher.

Everybun, how are you. I'm doing well. Thanks for having me.

You're welcome, I said, every bun, everybun, welcome, everybody,

the hot dog buns uns. Um, Pastor Nicole, it's an honor

to have you. I want to ask you. Let's just let's just dive

right in. So a couple weeks ago, Pastor Brandon Um referred to the

staff as like, like, what will our family dynamics be? Oh?

Yeah, which was what evs. Let me ask you. Actually, I

just want to say, yeah, proud, I'm proud to be the aunt.

You are the fun at the fun aunt who like has the itinerary made

but also like remembers to pack all the snacks and you know it doesn't have

to be the disciplinarian he called Die the babysitter. Yikes, um, because

she is. She's just not that. No, let's share our favorite Pastor

Brandon's story since he's not here. All right, you could go first,

Okay, are you sure? Yea, I gotta think of one. I

have fourteen years of memories to sift through. Okay, sifting. So years

ago, I was on Twitter and it was a late night because I couldn't

sleep, and I found there's this person commenting on all these Seattle sports twitters,

like on these tweets, and this person is ripping apart like management sports

teams all this, and I go to click on his profile and I clearly

had just found Pastor Brandon's secret Twitter. Oh now everyone is going to go

looking. Here. Here's I don't remember what the handle was, but the

profile picture was a Vegas night and in the bio it said I love Seattle

Sports Huskies in the Vegas Nights, but didn't have a name that could be

anyone. Of course, there is no one under the sun that just loves

those specific teams. That's true. Anyways, Well, I don't know if

I can think of a memory, but I'll give you my most recent favorite

Pastor Brandon experience. So it was just my birthday this week, are birthday

Welcome And I got a birthday card. And Pastor Brandon's not known for sentiment,

I'll just say that, but he wrote in my birthday card he loves

us by buying us gifts. He does. You know that's that's true.

We received them, we do. But he wrote something nice in my birthday

card, and so it started. The first line was super nice, can't

remember exactly, but then the second line had what I'll call a typo,

and it changed the meaning a little bit. He said I could do what

I do without you, and I thought, oh, well, isn't that

nice to write in my birthday card he could do what he does without me.

You guys don't know, don't need What am I even doing here?

I'm pretty sure he meant couldn't do? Say, hey, man, I

did. I showed him a picture screenshot at it while he was on the

plane too. Oh you're up in and he said, you're right, there

is a typo and oh made it even worse. Oh my goodness, Doug

itself in a deeper hole. We love Pastor brand and Pastor Brandon. We

miss you. I hope you're having a good time now, Nicole, I've

known you for how many years? Now? About a decade? About a

decade? Over a decade is a decade? Twelve years? Ten? Why

is a decade? So? What's a Baker's dozen? Twelve? Thirteen?

A Baker's dozen is thirteen? A regular dozen is twelve? That makes Did

you know you were signing up for a math when you tuned into this podcast?

I have no idea. Why do they call it a Baker's dozen?

Guys? Because the Baker's like extra. They're a little round around the name

doing on it for you? Okay, are we going to keep that part

in? We have now? Yeah, we are. We're gonna keep that

part in. It is unfiltered. This is the side of Nicole. Whoam

We've known each other forever. Our daughters are best friends. Your husband is

a beautiful man inside and out. I agree. You guys have two children?

We do you guys live in Mucletio? We do? Do you have

a view of the water, A partial view? It's beautiful, better than

the winter when the trees aren't full. Yeah, and you guys have a

wonderful dog named Yogi. That is the lie and all of those sentences that

you have a dog or that he's wonderful the wonderful part. Hey, I

wanted to chat through a topic today going off the message from Sunday. A

lot of people in our church. I mean, you've been in ministry longer

than me, so you've dealt with this way more than I have. Storms

happen in life all the time, and it's hard to judge what is a

storm and what's not a storm. And it's also like people go through things

and they handle it differently than you and I, which means to them it

could be a massive storm, do you and I could be just like a

moment. But that's not to belittle what they're going through. Yeah, so

we're kind of going based off Paul All and him sailing to Rome and his

ship get wrecked after he told everyone, dude, we're gonna crash this boat

and no one listened. They didn't listen. Actually, if anything, they

kept throwing stuff overboard. But God reminded him that he would make it to

Rome someday. Yea, So let's dive in. Let's do it. Tell

us about your deepest, darkest storm. I'm kidding, just right here on

the pot, really diving into the deepest of ends us. Yeah, let's

talk about him. How do you define them? What's a storm and what

do you do? Well? I think, like you said, I think

a lot of people ask the question of you know, what's the storm and

what's just a difficult? Yeah, and we can't. I think we kind

of get into trouble when we tried to put storms or difficulty on a scale,

because, like you said, like somebody's what I would consider somebody's just

a difficulty is the biggest thing they've ever faced. Ye. You know,

we learned that a lot in youth ministry, right in teenagers. My dog

died and that is a huge deal and is to a lot of people.

Um, they don't view their dog the same way I viewed my dog.

So the death of their dog is a huge traumatic experience. And so you

can't say that that's not a storm in their life. And and as pastors,

you know, that's not what we're called to do. As friends,

as as people who love one another. We're not We're not supposed to sit

there and say, well, this isn't an important thing that you're going through.

Um, you know, yeah, that's really good. I think.

You know, there are moments where, yes, we need emotional maturity to

get through things one hundred percent, and that's where like we got to lean

in on emotional intelligence. But also there's moments where man life is hard.

Like, for instance, I'm picking on the dog thing again, maybe that

person's dog died. Maybe they got that dog when you know they were a

little child, or through a season of deep depression and someone you know,

they got that dog and it's helped guide them through that season, whatever that

may be. I don't want ever belittle what someone's going through. Let's talk

about So when you're in a storm, let's let's let's let me ask you

this question. I've heard this asked multiple times. Is God mad at me?

And that is this why I'm facing this storm? Is it like a

punishment from God? Almost? What are your thoughts on that? Yeah?

Oh gosh, Um, I think that if you're asking the question is God

mad at me? You kind of already have the answer in your mind.

You already believe that God is mad at you. Otherwise you really wouldn't be

asking that question. And so if you're coming at it at like this,

well, God is mad at me? You one, I think you have

a wrong view of God. Because God will, God allows storms in our

life, Like storms are inevitable. We're all going to face them. We're

either going to be in a storm, coming out of a storm, or

about to go into a storm. Right, that's kind of where we live

our lives all of the time. And so if you're asking the question,

why is God mad at me? Because there's deep difficulty or a storm in

your life, you have, you have this view that he's angry, that

he's judgmental, that he's out to get you, and that is just an

opposite picture that the Bible paints for who he is to his children, to

believers. So so I think that that's the wrong question. But also like

it kind of points to like, when you're in a storm, what you

want to do. There's a lot of things you want to do, and

I'm sure we'll touch on these later, but the last thing you want to

do is pull away from God when you're in a storm, right, Like

he's going to be your lifeline spoiler. But the last thing you want to

do us pull away from him. But if you have this idea that he's

mad at you, then you just you're not gonna want to draw near to

somebody who's mad at you, Like that's like not our human inclination is like,

Tony, you're mad at me, I'm gonna like push it and and

try to you know, rely on you. No, you're mad at me.

I'm going to distance myself. And so that I think that's where we

can get into trouble is with that idea of like is God mad at me?

Or why is God mad at me? Because that automatically causes us to

pull back. Man, that is really good. I mean I've noticed in

life when I have conflict with people, I'm not a fan of conflict.

I really just don't like it. If I have to have it, I'll

have it. But typically when there's conflict, I almost I pull myself away

from that person, Like this happens all the time at home, when there's

something unspoken that Aeriel whatever, it's not necessarily her fault, but I was

upset, I'll pull myself away from her and then she'd be like, Hey,

why are you being so weird? Why are you being so quiet around

me? And I think maybe that's how sometimes we treat God, we just

pull away from him and we think, well, he's mad at me,

so it doesn't matter. Now. A lot of people pooh pooh on the

life of David. So David is God's chosen right, So God's annointed David,

He's called David to b King. There's this huge period where David is

in the waiting and God is still with him and pours out favor on him.

And I often feel like a lot of people when they think of David,

they just think of him and Bathsheba, how he messed up, and

it's like, oh, man, David was this good dude until he messed

up. But like, also, there's this moment where David repents and humbles

himself. So he's going through this massive storm and loses his son, listens

to the prophet Nathank gets right with God, but there are still consequences for

what happened to him in the middle of that storm. Yeah, do you

want to unpack that a little bit or what are your thoughts? Well,

I mean there's lots of different storms, right, Did God bring that storm

into David's life? No, David brought that storm into his life. So

I think that There are definitely storms in our life that God uses for correction,

and so I think that that was one of them. That God did

not bring this storm. God allowed this storm. David had sin, but

God wasn't doing like allowing that storm to punish David. He used the prophet

Nathan in that he used God's spokesman to speak that correction, and David did

humble himself and walk through that storm and then came out differently, you know,

And so I think that that can be used in our storms too.

Like we all sin, We're all going to mess up, and we have

a gracious God who sometimes shows you know, mercy in not giving us what

we deserve. But sometimes we are allowed to receive what our sin deserves,

and God still walks with us. But it's our choice how how we're going

to navigate that storm, whether we're gonna again press in or whether we're gonna

be mad that God allowed this correction. And I think you actually nailed something.

So when when I've noticed in my life, when I am man,

I don't want to just sound like like a Debbie down or reaping the consequences

of my sin. But when I'm going through something difficult, in life if

I brought it upon myself or if it was external, like some things are

out of my control that just happen in life. And man, you start

to kind of feel like I'm being pulled into this thing. I've noticed that

with like with people in life who have conflict with family members or whatnot,

or they feel like they're kind of being pulled into something. They're the greatest

thing you and I can do in a moment or a season of a storm,

and maybe also the toughest thing we can do is to truly press into

our relationship with Jesus to give him everything, to ask him, God,

help me navigate this. God, help give me the wisdom. God,

grant me peace right now. God, Man, I have no strength,

strengthen me in this moment. But also I think the second thing, it's

what you hit on, is finding after you know you and the Lord are

right, finding that person in your life who is going to speak wisdom in

life into you. And I think that's why it is so key for everyone

listening. We need to be surrounded by people that aren't just my age or

your age, being around spiritual leaders, being around people who can speak some

truth into our life. Hey, you've done messed up, but let me

tell you what you can do now, or hey, I'm sorry you're going

through this. Here's what I suggest you should do. Paul was trying to

suggest to these dudes what to do in the storm, and no one listened

to him. And that's fine. Actually it's not fine. The shipwrecked.

But talk to me maybe a little bit, uh, kind of your thoughts

on that or what you think people should do navigating a storm, like with

the like seeking people, Yeah, maybe seeking some seek him some wise,

counsel in your life. Yeah, yeah, I think you know. Obviously

David had the prophet Nathan, which is great, and we all need those

spiritual leaders in our life. I also think of Job, who thought he

had all these great friends in his life, right, and then when stuff

hit the fan for him and he's going through it, all these people who

were supposedly his great friends are now like, well what did you do and

kind of throwing it back and not really helpful through his storm, given him

bad advice. And so I think you there's there's this You need to be

careful who you're surrounding yourself with room because if you're if you find yourself complaining,

just in regular circumstances with your with your circle of friends. They are

not going to be the ones who are the positive people helping, helping pull

you out of it. Um you want voices that are going to push you

closer to God and give you hope because there are storms where they last a

long time and it's hard to maintain hope. And so are these people going

to continuously be there, you know, speaking that encouragement and that life and

scriptural truth into you or and that is something I think you do, really

go You've always done that for me, more so for Ariel when there's something

we need some wisdom on or just some encouragement, You're always there in a

coal and I think I need to give you some credit. Shout out,

shout out in a cool due to give her the button right now? Come

on, where's that button? Give her the fog horn? Wo No,

no, no, please? That sounded like like like like the same thing

that just played. Nothing nothing like that, um I, Buzzard. Let

me ask you this. We are in a season, not a season.

We are in a culture right now, I think, especially coming out of

Oh sorry, there's a rule on this podcast, we don't talk about COVID

or the last three years of just said it. I just said it.

I broke the first rule. Is there like a wa wa sound there isn't

good? Well, I just made it for the next time. Okay.

Therapy is a big thing nowadays. We're going therapy more than ever, and

it's it's not necessarily like I feel like people are more open maybe about them

going to counseling, into therapy and to seeking that type of counsel What would

you say to someone who's maybe never gone to something like that or is never

sought out counseling or therapy. I think it's useful for some people. I'm

in counseling. Yeah, um, I wasn't in counseling for a long time

because I didn't know how to find a counselor. But I also was just

very cautious of a voice in that kind of authority level that I would allow

to speak into my life. And so I think a lot of times we

can find just a counselor and they we don't necessarily know them, we you

know, and and we're like, oh, well, they have this degree,

so they can speak into my life. And I think as believers.

We need to be careful to make sure that the voices giving us that deep

truth and guiding us in a healing process are ones that love the Lord.

Yeah, they love Jesus, they know how to interpret the scriptures. I

just you know, I obviously I love the Lord, and I'm thankful for

the people's brought in my life. And this year or two, I started

going to I wouldn't necessarily call it counseling or therapy, but I started going

to someone who's very seasoned in life. He's way way older than me,

and he has just been able to speak some really hard and good truth in

mid life and call out stuff that, man, I didn't realize. I

just need to be healed of things I just didn't know I have kind of

And the reason why I bring that up is, like I often sometimes think

too in storm is like you said, it is wise to be very selective

with who we allow to speak into our life and who's who we're going to,

which I think is well because like David, David was in like a

correcting storm, right like this was to correct behavior, to correct sin.

But there's a lot of us who just face storms because that's life and it's

not that we've done anything wrong. Just like Job, A lot of times

those storms just refine us. They're more of like a perfecting storm, so

to speak, So they perfect our character, they refine us a little bit.

We're always supposed to be learning and growing in everything that we go through,

and I think a lot of times we might try to like rush through

the storm because it's uncomfortable. Yeah, we don't like it. It's not

this necessarily super joyful place. But God Is wants to refine things in our

character and teach us like that's the whole processes that we're constantly being refined to

look more like Christ. That's it. And sometimes that's painful. I think

a few weeks back, Pastor Morgan talked about pruning, like pruning is painful,

and sometimes storms are for pruning. Yeah, and so you want like

voices in that too, that aren't just going to be like well, you

like like with Job, like you did something wrong, but they're gonna help,

you know, say, well, let's grow in this character trait.

You know, maybe maybe you need more discipline or maybe you you know,

I don't know. That's no, that's that's brilliant. One of my favorite

scriptures is Second Corinthians, Chapter four, verse eight. Paul writes, which

is so funny because he wrote this before the storm crash. He writes,

we are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed.

We're perplexed, but now driven to despair. We are hunted down, but

never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, we get up again.

Just kidding. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. And

I think that is where sometimes it is health The healthiest thing is to allow

there to be that pressure, and rather than run away from it, I

think you nailed it. Asking God, God, what are you teaching me?

God? What can I learn in the season? And God, help

me to understand you better, help me to understand your love better. And

I just you know, you've never found ever in the scriptures, in reading

this book a couple dozen times now, I've never discovered someone call out on

God, call out for Jesus, and Jesus say you know what, I'm

gonna ignore you ran sorr bro. I got a two PMT time with Abraham.

That was such a bad joke. I'm so sorry that was rough.

Okay, can you share something that's going to sound better than that. Please

when you speak something good killed our podcast in thirty seconds. Okay, here,

this is just as I was thinking about storms, kind of preparing for

being your guest today, I kind of thought about how sometimes a storm can

be disorienting. It comes on suddenly. Maybe you're just going to the doctor

for a routine checkup and you get a cancer diagnosis, or there is a

sudden loss of a loved one due to a traumatic event, you lose your

job suddenly, or there's like a betrayal that you had no control over.

Like those things are really sudden storms that can really throw you for a loop.

And so I was just thinking about how in those seasons, and just

thinking about like an actual storm with sailors on the water, if a storm

comes on suddenly, that can be disorienting and they have to constantly be in

tune with like what is true north or like what is like like what is

this specific kind of landmark or a fixed reference point that they can go back

to to know where they are in the midst of the storms. Um.

And I was just thinking about how important that is for us to know our

true north and to have that fixed reference point in our faith. Ye that

is wow, that was brilliant. No, it's I mean, there's nothing

new under the sun. I no, No, But you're right though.

I think I think that we need something to look to. We need someone

to look to, We need something to look up to. And it's not

I'm not suggesting we'd be codependent. I'm saying we should be codependent on Jesus.

Yes, we need to look to him. He's the true North,

He's the guide, he's ours our he's our savior. And I think the

minute we lose sight of him, it's like when Peter was walking on water.

Peter loses that moment of faith, he starts drowning. He took his

eyes off of his reference point. Is that? Oh man? That is

this is why you're on the podcast today. Well, thank you. I'm

gonna lobby that. I just stepped down and you just do this thing with

Pastor. Okay, Hey, we just have a couple minutes left here before

we got to wrap up. Maybe let's share some final wisdom. Let's say

to the average listener right now. I mean, here's what's so cool about

this podcast, And I just want to pause and thank everyone who's been listening.

We have young people, season people, married people, single people.

There has been I'm like, you know how pastors exaggerate we have nine thousand

people at church today, Hey, you got like ninety there's honestly goodness.

Ever received dozens not bakers dozens, but dozens of texts and calls from people

saying, wow, this is really speaking to me in this season. So

thank you to everyone who's been listening. We really appreciate it. For everyone

who's listening today, Pastor Nicole, they're going through a storm, they're coming

out of a storm, or they're going into a storm. No, they're

through a storm right now. Regardless, what are your final thoughts what would

you share to someone right now in that sea in life? Well, first,

I think it's easy to sit here and tell people how to navigate the

storm right Um, but I think it's important to know, like, hey,

I've been through storms, like I've faced financial difficulty, um, where

you know, we were just like how are we going to do this?

Or how is how is this going to happen? I've you know, gone

to the Lord in prayer wanting a child and and it not happened. And

just in that waiting like been very confused, and so I'm not without storms.

None of us are without storms. Um And I will say I wish

that I had followed all of the things that you know, I say,

you know that we're advising in how to navigate it. I wish that I

had gone to people for more encouragement instead of kind of reclusing in on myself

and keeping it to myself. I wish that I'd leaned into God instead of

wondering why he was mad at me. I wish, you know, I

wish I'd done it different. So if you're not, if you don't navigate

the storm quite right, it doesn't mean you're not going to get through it.

I think, um wow, I think God is going to get us

through every storm because he is faithful, He is good, He is for

us. Romans eight twenty eight says this. It says, and we know

that for those who love God together that and sorry, let me say that

again. And we know that for those who love God, all things work

together for those who are called according to his purpose. That's the storm is

seasonal, it will not last your whole life. You will get through it.

Come on, there is nothing else I want to add to that.

You nailed that. That was beautiful. Thank you storms. I think that's

the toughest part. Actually, I'm going to add, when we're in a

storm, we sometimes think this is this is my forever. You know what.

Sometimes the store is just a store. A storm is just to see.

It's just a moment. Sometimes it's not even a day, it's just

a couple hours. I mean, this is like every morning in our home,

kids screaming, we gotta get to work, we gotta get everyone ready,

we got to get out of the house. Nanny just said, called

out. Whatever financial burden, it's not forever. It's temporary. And I

think the reason being is everything on this plan, everything on this earth,

this life you and I live, it's all temporary. None of it's.

None of them we're going through will be eternal. The only thing eternal is

Christ Jesus and in us being with him. Can I share one more verse

than just because you just said it and it's open on my phone. I

felt like the Lord was please leading me to it earlier. Second Corinthians four,

verse seventeen and eighteen. It says, for our present troubles are small

and won't last very long. Come on, Yet they produced for us,

a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever. So we don't look

at the troubles we can see now. Rather we fix our gaze on the

things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be

gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever. Judah, give

her the button right now, because that was just the cherry on top.

Oh gosh, sorry, this is only episode four. We're trying to give

still learning, still learning our button. Man. Hey, thank you so

much, Pastor Nicole for making time to be here. Thank you for being

a woman of influence at this church and on the staff, and a lot

of people look to you and admire you. And I think what's really cool

is this just kind of shows the caliber of leaders we have at our church.

It's not just the Brandon Share team, got a great team that There's

so many people we could interview and so many people that can share from experience

and whatnot. So thank you so much. This has been so fun.

I've enjoyed today to next week. Everyone Pastor Brandon is back and then I

am gone all of July, and you're gone all of July. I am

We're on sabbatical. Baby, We're gonna rest, go on vacation. Are

we going on family vacation? We are, Our families are vacationing. Where

we're going quartelaine queer DeLine, what's pronounced like? I'm excited. We need

rest. It's good for our souls. Hey, thanks so much for listening.

If you like today, please share it, Please subscribe to the podcast

Our Venture Church, download the app. We love you guys, We'll see

you next week. You think Pastor Brandon's gonna come back from Italy with like

an accent? Oh banja? No, no gelato? You don't think you

will? Okay? You think he'll go well, Okay, bye guys