LET'S DIG | Pierre & Danilee Aristil
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LET'S DIG | Pierre & Danilee Aristil
How to Trust God | Trusting God Through Life’s Toughest Challenges
Navigating the unpredictable twists and turns of life, we share the moment we discovered impending parenthood and the initial struggle between personal desires and new responsibilities. Our conversation explores the growth that comes from trusting God through uncertain times, and how these experiences can strengthen our relationship with Him. We draw parallels to biblical teachings and touch on a humorous bird mishap to reinforce the message of faith and trust, even when circumstances seem daunting.
In the final chapters, we delve into the transformative power of prayer and action in strengthening one's faith. Through personal anecdotes, like major life decisions and moving across states, we highlight the importance of living a life dedicated to God. We encourage you to journal your challenges, place them in God's hands, and find peace through prayer. Reflecting on biblical passages and the significance of walking with Christ, we emphasize that true access to the Father is through Jesus. Join us as we continue to explore and deepen our spiritual journey together, trusting God's guidance every step of the way.
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What's up everybody? Welcome to the let's Dig podcast. We are going to dig into some things today, and this is just really for anyone who may be struggling with your walk with God and maybe you are going through a hard situation and you're kind of wondering where he is or maybe you can't see what he is doing. We've gone through a lot. We have trusted the Lord in a lot of circumstances and things that were really hard, and so today we just want to really speak to that and really encourage you that you can trust in God and he hasn't left you, and so we hope that today what we share will really encourage you in that.
Speaker 2:Let's dig.
Speaker 1:Let's dig. So I sent you a screenshot a few days ago. It was, you know, facebook. Don't say Facebook. I don't know. It's like only old, my parents use Facebook.
Speaker 2:The moment my mom and my dad got on Facebook. I got off.
Speaker 1:You did. I feel so embarrassed to say, like I was on Facebook, like it's a shame thing, like I mean TikTok, it was totally TikTok. Yeah, it's a shame thing. Like I mean tick tock, it was totally tick tock. Um, so, anyways. So I sent you this screenshot and it was a status that I had shared or whatever. And um, and it says this it says I'm going to get emotional just reading it a little bit and I'll tell you why in a second. It says having a different kind of Memorial this week, so it was Memorial day weekend, um, and I said a memorial that reminds me how God always knows better than we do and always sees more than we can. And it said I'm so thankful for how great he is. And I wrote that a year after we had our miscarriage. We had our miscarriage, we got married in March of 2010, and we were pregnant in May of 2010. And it was super fast. We were not ready and, it was a surprise, I was on birth control.
Speaker 2:And just I'm going to say this right now this was a real marriage pregnancy.
Speaker 1:This wasn't like, oh snap, they got got pregnant and let's rush and get them married. We actually thought at first it was gonna, it was a honeymoon baby, but that didn't even add up. It was after we because you know people do that for sure.
Speaker 2:Like people, like you know they're dating in the church um or courting cour they're dating in the church and, um, they fall short, they mess up, they sleep up and they have sex and something happens the girl gets pregnant. And because of judgment, um, because of condemnation from people, um, from leadership, things like that, and we're so caught up in what things look like that we've seen people rush to get married and most of those marriages don't last. I can count on one hand the times that I've seen it last in church, because we work so hard to maintain this look. So I just had to put it out there, right there. No, we were doing things right. We got pregnant, actually after we got married.
Speaker 1:After we got married and it really rocked our world. We were not expecting it. Like I said, I was on birth control. We had plans to wait a few years. We wanted to be married. We wanted to work on husband and wife before we were mom and dad, but we knew that we would have kids and that was definitely a dream of ours.
Speaker 1:And the reason why I got emotional reading that is because I really, really had to go through this whirlwind of emotion when it comes to miscarriage, and most women have to. Like, your body goes through all these changes, even though I was already miscarrying when I found out I was pregnant. So it was like super, super fast in it. So it was like super, super fast. And because I wanted to be a mom so badly, but I didn't want to at that point, it was really hard for me to process. Like God, why did you allow this to happen? Why did you take this away from me? You know this is what I want, just not right now.
Speaker 1:And so it was the first major time that my emotions did not match what my spirit knew was right. My emotions were were broken hearted. My emotions were like, well, let's get pregnant again tomorrow. My emotions were all over the place, but my spirit I did know it wasn't the right time for us. I didn't know we weren't ready. I I did know we were making, we were working jobs that didn't make enough money. And so it was this tug of war, a little bit of having to have faith in God to know that he knew better. And that's why I said, like he always knows better than we do and he always sees more than we can.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I remember when you, um, when you told me you were pregnant and it was a shocker for me Cause I was just like hold up, like pregnant, like I could have sworn you were on birth control.
Speaker 1:We were only having sex for three months and you got pregnant.
Speaker 2:I was like I mean, man, I know you know, be careful. I see where you're going, relax, I see it in your face, I know. I know, you know.
Speaker 1:Be careful. I see where you're going. Relax, I see it in your face.
Speaker 2:I know I got a perfect score, but I was like dang, that's crazy, got you pregnant that quick.
Speaker 1:You know.
Speaker 2:But yeah, I was. I was obviously shocked, I was obviously frustrated. Yeah, to me, me it was like wait what? We just got married and I'll be honest with you Like I didn't really know what was next for me and I wasn't even into production yet. You remember what you said. Yeah, I was actually in the middle of getting ready to buy a computer it was an iMac right after we got married, and saving up money for it, getting ready to buy this, the brand new iMac at the time. And you tell me you're pregnant, and then I'm just not going to lie, I. My first response to her was like can I still buy my computer?
Speaker 1:Guys, he's telling the truth Like he, legitimately, that was. The first thing he said was can I still buy my computer?
Speaker 2:I was like can I still buy my computer?
Speaker 1:And I said yes. Yeah, and it was, but we wouldn't be here today, you wouldn't have gotten all the gigs done, all the the things been what you're working on even now oh yeah, this year yeah we would never be where we were if it wasn't for that season and I now, looking back, I know it was our wake-up call. Yeah, it was okay. Work hard to do what you love, to pay for the family when it does come, and as emotional as it was and it was hard to do what you love, to pay for the family when it does come.
Speaker 1:And as emotional as it was and it was hard to trust the Lord, I knew it will happen, it will come in its right time and we'll be ready then. Was everything perfect? No. Did we have $10,000 in the bank? No, but there there was a difference in that season when we did get pregnant with Jordan and we did have Jordan, um, our first son. I just know that those experiences of walking through, of just trusting God, when you really can't see what's in front of you every time, you do it the next time builds more faith. And every time that you are like, oh no, but I remember how God came through last time. It won't do it the same way, but I know he'll come through again.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I feel like walking alongside you for the last couple of years. It seems like your relationship with God has always been weird. I'm not going to lie, okay, why, watching you like sometimes you'd be like, yeah, god bro, you're going to have to come through or else I'm going to be real mad at you. I'm like that's how you talk to God.
Speaker 1:Sometimes it was, and it wasn't a disrespect thing. It was the only way I knew how to take the responsibility off of myself and put it into God. I even just realized this recently. We talk about Enneagrams a lot. I'm a two, I'm a helper, and I realized that that actually even impacts my relationship with God, because I feel like I'm supposed to be helping him. So if I don't have what I need, I'm like okay, what am I supposed to be doing? I can help do this.
Speaker 1:I listen, I tell people all the time I give God really great ideas. Yeah, I give him really great ideas of crazy. If you, he never listens to me. He always does it differently. But I'm like, hey, if you do this and you do that, then that would be so cool and it would build a lot of people's faith. He doesn't, he doesn't need my suggestions and his ways are not my ways and his mind doesn't think like Danny Lee's. So it. But part of that time when you were like, why do you talk to God like that? It was the only way I knew how to take that pressure off of myself and literally put it in God's hands.
Speaker 2:So I had somebody ask me. They asked me he's like yo, how do you get to the point where you can fully trust God? And my response to him was as clearly as this. You know, the Bible says that God's ways are not our ways and that his thoughts are much higher than our thoughts. Right, his thoughts on our thoughts. And so when I hear that and when I read that, I think like okay, okay, god, whatever way you you're going to work this out I know I haven't thought of it because you operate at a different level than I do as human beings, right?
Speaker 1:It's supernatural. That even bothers me because I still have really good ideas.
Speaker 2:And so I think what happens is everybody, everybody wants to like be God's Robin. You know he's Batman and you're Robin, you're like Batman. What if we? What if we? And then Batman's like relax, I got this man. What if we? What if we? And then Batman's like relax, I got this.
Speaker 2:And I think you get you end up getting frustrated with God because he did not execute your broad idea that you had for him for your life. And so, for me, I've learned to just trust him and just know that he's in control. The Bible says that he's the author, right? He's the finisher, he's our maker. And when I know that I think, man, he really does love us and he really does care for us, right? We talked about this in a couple of episodes ago, of like when the Bible, jesus, is talking in Matthew 6 and he says like look at the grass, look at the lilies, like they're taken care of, they're more clothed than the baddest king in the world, solomon. Yeah, right, he's. Like look at the birds they don't do nothing and their stomachs are always full. Speaking of birds, yo, one bird pooped on my car the other day and that bird had diarrhea.
Speaker 1:The bird was unwell.
Speaker 2:He had diarrhea. I'm not sure what he ate, but Even the kids were like dad.
Speaker 1:what happened to your car? Yeah, my son.
Speaker 2:Yeah, my son was like he's like dad, this bird hated you. That bird, yeah, I don't know what that bird ate, but I was like buddy, I feel bad for that bird. It was bad, it was bad. But I think about that and you know, jesus is saying he's like that's the father in heaven cares for us even more than these animals. And so when I know that I hang on to that Right and that's, I know that's a challenge for us, because for us we see things in the natural and right in front of us.
Speaker 2:A situation just doesn't look like it's going to add up. And I say this all the time like for us humans, one plus one equals two. But when I've come to know that with God, one plus one equals whatever he wanted to equal. We've seen him do supernatural things, we've seen crazy things happen. I'm just like how can I ever doubt him again? I heard someone say the other day like every time you step outside your comfort zone, your comfort zone just expanded. And I think what happens is we just forget the things that God has done for us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, actually I was thinking about that while you're talking of I love when David went to go fight Goliath. Yeah, like he had to even remind himself he's standing at a giant. All these other soldiers are doing nothing. He's just bringing food. I'm just here for the food, like I'm not here to kill the giant.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But when he realized like this was his moment and this was his purpose, he told himself like he spoke to himself and he said you have been with me to kill the bear, you have been with me to kill the lion, and now you will be with me to slay this giant. And so I do use those things that God has brought us through. That's why I said, every time you go through something, your faith builds a little bit more. It's the same concept as every time you go through something you hit a lid, you're that comfort zone expands. That's just how your faith zone expands as well Of like every time God walks you through something, you're like man. God, you really never left us, you really never forsook us, like you were there the entire time and your hand was always on us.
Speaker 2:What would you say to somebody that has never trusted God yet? Like they know that God is there and they think he's just in the background working, but he's actually all around. What would you say to someone that's like, okay, I've I've never like put that much trust in God. Like I know he's there, I know he's thinking about me, but I don't think he's in control Right? What would you say to someone that hasn't taken that step yet?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I would encourage them to literally pray for God to open their eyes, because he is there, he is doing things. You just may not be able to see that. And if your spirit man isn't to the maturity level to where you know, like, oh, this able to see that, and if your spirit man isn't to the maturity level to where you know, like, oh, this happened because of that and that happened because of that, like if you can't see those things, but when you start to see them, then you can't doubt it, you can't question it, you know without a shadow of a doubt. Now, I could have made that up, that was for real, and so I would encourage them to pray for God to open their eyes so that they can see it. Um, and then even just to pray more in the sense of I love that.
Speaker 1:Every single decision we've made as a family, we, there's not a shrivel of doubt in those decisions. When we moved from Florida to St Louis, from St Louis to Florida, from Florida to California and California to Orange County, california, every single one of those moves, people probably thought we were crazy, people thought we were church hopping, people thought we were chasing opportunities. But I will, I will stand 10 toes down and say that I know the Lord directed every single one of them, and so I always encourage people to pray, and I pray for them that they would have not a shrivel of doubt and that they would know that. They know that they know. It's how I knew you were the one to marry.
Speaker 1:I was talking to a young lady the other day and I said do you know this person that you're dating is the one? And she said, yeah, because God did it. No, no, no, no, no. That's not an answer. I said how do you know? She was like because God did this, Nope, still not the right answer. Like I needed to pull that answer out of her so that you know social things around her weren't peer pressuring her, so that even the man she was dating was not peer pressuring her. Like I needed to know, not for me, for her, obviously, but I needed her to verbalize how do you know that this is God? Because when it gets crazy and when it gets hard, I need you to have something to go back to. And so, um, yeah, I always really pray for people in their decision-making. When they're talking to us, they're sharing with us that they're in a hard decision or they're trusting God in this situation, like I. My my heart's cry is always that God would make it so clear. Right, they would have no doubt.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I would encourage everybody that you're at a point where you're like man, I just never trusted God before like that. You know the Bible says to taste and see that he is good. Yeah, you know he loves us, he cares for us, right, everything about God is good, every good thing comes from him. And I say this too what's the worst that can happen in your life if you gave it all to God? Right, we've seen him come through in so many different ways and I get it like it's hard sometimes in the natural sense, because everything here in the world, everything here in culture, is saying the opposite. Right, yolo, right, stuff like that. You only live once. Take care of yourself, right, like you know, mano y mano. Like you know, like we think it's just one-on-one, it's just us, like like we're just doing all these things, but in God's kingdom it's all about humbling ourselves and putting everything in God's hand. And so maybe today you're listening to this conversation and you're like man, like I want to have that kind of faith. You know the Bible says like it's impossible to please God without faith, without faith, right, and Bible also said faith without works is dead. So meaning, like you got to put your faith to work, you got to trust in God.
Speaker 2:I would encourage people to start journaling. Start journaling like keeping a log of things that you want to put in God's hand. Like literally take your situation and say, god, you know what I'm going through this thing, or you know what I just lost. If you just lost your job, go to God and say, lord, I just lost my job and I do not know what's going to happen. I've lost everything, I'm losing everything. I'm putting it in your hand right and literally put it in his hand journal it. Put those logs together.
Speaker 2:But I would also say, like, learn to sit with him. Like learn to sit with him. The more you sit with God, the more you start to trust him and believe that he really does exist and he really is in control. And there might be some times where you might want to go left and he's telling you no, no, no, no, no, no, go right, go this way, go this way. But you're looking right and you're like no, no, no, nobody's going that route, nothing's happening that way. I remember a story with our son, jordan, several years ago. He was five or six and we were going to the park and while we're going to the park, there's the walkway, there's the playground and stuff, stuff. We're going down the walkway and there's a fence right next to us and instead of just going down the walkway, he just wants to jump over the fence to go to the playground what did he see?
Speaker 1:that? And he must have watched a movie where he thought jumping over a fence was cool because he was really, really dead.
Speaker 2:So he's like daddy, can I jump the fence? And I'm like no, buddy, like we're walking, there's a walkway. He's like but I really want to jump the fence. I said don't jump the fence. He's like but why? I really want to jump this fence. I'm like, son, trust me, you don't want to jump this fence. He's like, but how come? I said you know what? Fine, go ahead and jump the fence. Jump the fence. And he's like really. I said jump the fence. He's like are you tricking me? I said nope, boy, if you don't jump that fence, it's going to be problems.
Speaker 2:So he goes, climbs up to the top of the fence. He's struggling and this guy jumps the fence and his leg gets caught at the top and he scratches the of standing there and we're all watching him and he looks down and he's like checking the inside of his thigh and I was like what happened, buddy? He's like I just scratched my leg. I said, oh yeah. I was like have you ever jumped the fence before? He's like no, I was like, that's why I told you not to jump the fence. So now he has a scar. It hurt him. He like he. It started to bleed. He couldn't take a bath that night, like he was hurting. And he now he's coming to me. He's like but daddy, you never showed me how to jump a fence. And I said, son, I was gonna show you eventually, but today wasn't the day. We had your mom, we had your baby sister. It's hot right now. I'm like I was gonna show you how to jump the fence, but not right now.
Speaker 2:You wouldn't listen to me. And what I'm saying is sometimes I feel like it's a lot like that with us and God of like. God is putting stop signs in front of us. He's stopping us. He's telling us not to do things. He's telling you not to date that guy. He's telling you don't take that job. He's telling you don't go on that trip. He's telling you don't go to that club, don't go to that bar, don't answer that phone call, don't text that person back. And you're like but why, but why? And then you get caught, you get trapped, and then I would go crying to God and say but God, you didn't. And God was like no, I did, you're just not listening. And so I feel like you know, I just want to encourage everybody like learn to put everything in God's hand and just really trust that he does love you and that he does care for you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I wanted to read Psalms 46. It says God is our refuge and strength and ever present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth give way and mountains fall. Into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging, there is a river whose streams make glad, the city of God, the holy place where the most high dwells God is within her. She will not fail or she will not fall. Sorry, god will help her at break of day. And then down, he verses down. It says. He says be still and know that I am God, and I love that. It also says be still and know that I am God, and I love that. It also says right after that, it says the Lord Almighty is with us, the God of Jacob is our fortress, and I just love that word of fortress, that it is literally the encompassing safety that when everything is going crazy. Even in that scripture I love that water was referred to as waves and ocean and foam.
Speaker 1:And in the next verse it was waves, it was streams that make the city of God glad, like water can be so forceful and water can be so peaceful. And it matters where you're in the presence of God of how that water is affecting you. If you are in that storm, it can feel encompassing, it can feel scary, it can feel like it's going to drown you. But if you are in the fortress, if you are in that that, under the shadow of his wings, that water can't touch you, it can't hurt you and it actually becomes peaceful.
Speaker 2:That's good, that's good. I was um. I had a friend, one of our friends, text me this morning and she wanted prayer because she said that she's getting ready to have an interview for a position that she applied for and she's nervous and super nervous, but she knows God's in control. And I sent her since we're reading scripture, I sent her this verse right here, psalms 37. Psalms 37. And I really like it because, like Psalms 37, verse 23,. It says the Lord directs the steps of the godly, he directs the steps of the righteous, and it says he delights in every detail of their lives. It's good, though they stumble, they will never fall, for the Lord holds them by the hand.
Speaker 2:It's good, and I think about that. Like all that, attaches is attached right. Some people might read that second verse and say, though they stumble, they will never fall right, they will never fall or they will never fail, for the Lord holds them by the hand. But you go before that. It says. The Lord directs the steps of the godly, the righteous, those that are called by his name, those that want to be with him, those that that want to submit their whole lives to him, and because of that, he said, he delights in every detail of their lives. And so you might think well, god's not in the small, little, tiny details. He's a big God. No, he is in every small details.
Speaker 2:I mean, there's been situations like small, tiny situations like wow God, that's crazy. I've been in this one time I was traveling for work and I had a really long day. Flights were being canceled, uber messed up like bags were acting weird, like all this stuff. Money was funny and I had the longest day. Flight got moved, it got moved, it got moved. And my very last flight, I just sat there, broke down, said God, I'm so tired, lord, like the flights got moved around, didn't get a chance to eat in between flights. I'm frustrated and I get a ping from um, from the gate or from the the. The agent at the gate calls my name and say you just got upgraded to first class and because we're running so late, when in first class they give you meals, they take care of you, um, I'm like wow God. These are the small details in my life.
Speaker 1:And if your eyes aren't open to see them, you don't know that that's God's hand saying like, hold on, I'm here, I've got you. Like, but that's what I'm saying. Like pray. Like some people won't see that to be God, they'll see it as luck, they'll see it as like that's right, like they'll see it as their entitlement. And I'm like, no, no, no. Like you have to pray for that spiritual awareness to know, like, no, those are little things that God's saying like hey, I'm here, I've got you. Like.
Speaker 1:When we talked about the gas, that that was like a whole thing last summer, um, when I wasn't working, we shared it on another episode that the fact that we got to go stay in a hotel with the kids on somebody else's dime, that they were sending us grocery money, and it was the first week that I had stopped working, I didn't have a job, I didn't have income, and that all these different things were like. It was literally just those little things of like. And if I would have known like, hey, this is going to be a rough season, but knowing that those little things were like God saying, hey, I'm going to take care of you, I'm going to provide for you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love you, I love you daughter, I love you son. It's big man. It's big and maybe listening to this right now and you're like man. Okay, this is encouraging and you feel like this can encourage you and other people in your life. I want to encourage you guys. If you wouldn't mind, hit that like button. Hit that like button. It's helpful for us. It lets us know that this is actually uplifting for you and it's inspiring you and it's bringing value to you in your life right now. Also, I want to encourage you.
Speaker 2:If you can share this with somebody, someone specific in your life that you're like man, this will lift up somebody Subscribe to as well. You know, we want to know, like, where can we come alongside you guys and have conversations like this that can really help build you guys up when it comes to your relationship with God and others and yourself, man, especially that relationship with the Lord. It's big and if you're listening to this right now, if you haven't accepted Christ as your savior, you know that right there, that's the door, right there to God. Right, it's not just. There's a lot of people that just believe in God and just think about God and think that he's there. But you know what the Bible talks about. It's through Jesus that we have access to the father in heaven, and it's one of the greatest relationships that I've had since I was a young boy is walking with Christ is walking with Jesus.
Speaker 2:That's what brought us together right. That is what. That is what has kept us all these years. Man is walking with Christ and after Christ ascended, when you went up, he sent the Holy spirit. And because of that Holy spirit that lives in us, lives in our heart, that's what nudges us, that nudges us, that's what guides us, that's what leads us.
Speaker 2:In these moments, I go walk into a room and say I don't feel comfortable here, my spirit is uncomfortable, and I know that that's the spirit of God living in me.
Speaker 2:There's times I have thoughts that just today, before we started hitting record, before we hit record, I was standing and I said, oh my gosh, I dreamed this moment, and I know that it was God that brought a random dream back into my spirit, up to my mind, to really process, and I'm like, whoa, we're exactly where we need to be doing, exactly what God has called us to do right now. And so we want to encourage you, guys, man, come along with us in this journey, even want to encourage you, guys, man, come along with us in this journey. Even though your natural may not line up with what you're believing in your heart and in your spirit. I believe, if you're able to put everything in God's hand, we'll see the supernatural and the natural come together and we'll be able to make a difference in our community, in our environment, in our circles, in our homes, in our families. We're going to continue to dig, all right.
Speaker 1:So let's, dig.
