Worry Less, Pray More: Encouragement Through Jesus’ Questions

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:00:00]:

Hello, good people, and welcome to the To Be Encouraged podcast with Bishop Julius C. Trimble. This is the podcast where we look to offer an encouraging word to an often discouraged world. I'm your co host, Reverend Dr. Brad Miller, and we're pleased to be joined by Bishop Trimble as we want to have some conversation today about worry. About worry in our world. There's a lot of things happening in our world right now, Bishop, and a lot of people are worried about a lot of things. But you have some response to that regarding what Jesus may have something to say about that.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:00:37]:

What do you say, my friend?

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:00:39]:

Absolutely, Brad. It's good to be with you again. And I want to say to our listeners, please feel free to share and encourage others to join and subscribe the podcast. Because we talk about things that not just Christians, but people of faith and people who are just concerned about humanity want to embrace. I believe that there is still good news amidst the world that is so fraught with conflict. And as a Christian, I just, I resonate on the words of the Apostle Paul, who says that with Christ Jesus, God reconciled us to him and did not count our sins, or some translations, did not count our trespasses against us, so that, so that we're really in a good place. God has already, you know, said that we're okay, that we're good the way we are. And I think we, we tend to find things to worry about and argue about as opposed to Brad, what I like to say is lift up the power of storytelling and by sharing stories and asking more questions than being prepared to argue our answers.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:01:46]:

Well, certainly Jesus was the prime example of a great storyteller with the parables. And a lot of times parables are about asking questions so apparent. You've got a. I got a feeling, you've got some stories in mind and maybe some questions in mind that can help us deal with worry. And of course, the Bible says, don't worry about today. So help us unpack this a little bit, my friend. What are some of the stories that you have in mind from Jesus or otherwise that you think are going to be helpful to people to cope with worry?

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:02:15]:

Well, number one, I think all of us have or will have some hard times. I remember a preacher saying, I don't know if it was my pastor, someone saying that you're either in a storm or you're going through a storm, or you're coming out of a storm, or you may be the one causing the storm. So at some point in life, we all will have some challenges or Difficulties. I know you can testify, I can testify to that. But Jesus consistently actually asked more questions.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:02:47]:

Yes.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:02:48]:

And also one of the promises that's made throughout the Bible is of course many argue about the number of times it's been said, but do not be afraid. And I great promise throughout Genesis, the Revelation, Brad is the promise that God will be with us. God with us. So I, I think I've changed my position. I used to tell people, don't worry, but that's not, that's not helpful because we all find sometimes a word. But I do say if we can worry less and pray more, worry less and ask more questions as opposed to just being settled for answers that are given to us. Jesus asked lots of questions. Some say more than 300, some say at least 100 questions.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:03:34]:

And I just thought about this as we were as reading through the Bible that he does. Jesus does ask a lot of questions, but we make, we make the mistake of thinking the questions are only for the disciples or the people of that.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:03:48]:

Are you saying the questions are applicable to us today, my friend?

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:03:51]:

Well, absolutely. Example, Matthew, you, you just quoted a bit of Matthew 6 says, can any of you by worrying, add a single moment to your lifespan? Matthew 6, 28. Why are you anxious about your clothes? And it goes on. Why are you anxious about what you will eat or what you will wear? Or I paraphrase it, where you will go, you know, is not God. Does not God know what you already need? And so we, someone has said that worrying is like having a rocking chair. And I do have a rocking chair. We have two of them that actually came with the house. So two rocket chairs.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:04:30]:

But someone said a rocket chair will give you something to take you anywhere. So that's what worries like. Worry is like a rocking chair. It will give you something to do, but it won't take you anywhere that you really want to go. Wow.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:04:44]:

Wow. And yet, having said all this, we live in a time when there are profound challenges to people's lives, to their health, to their welfare, to their financial well being, to feeding their kids, housing, fair housing, any number of things, immigrant issues, political upheaval, all kinds of things. So what do we say to folks who are dealing with these real life struggles? They may not know in some cases where their next paycheck comes from, or if they have a paycheck or where their next meal comes from, things of this nature. So you said that worry is a reality, and I believe that is the case. And the Bible says these things about worry. So what are some stories we can tell some points of encouragement to those who are discouraged about these everyday real life worries.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:05:40]:

Well, I think one of them is that we can join in community to resist the things that are evil and that oppress people at various, various stages along life and across the globe. For example, if you go to the there's a website, impactcounter.com it's actually from gives you data on the USAID about the reduction and elimination of humanitarian aid from the United States. How it is it, how it is daily impacting lives across the globe. Over 200 plus thousand adults have died since there's been a reduction in humanitarian aid from the United states. Brad. Of 416,000 plus children have died, 88 people, children and adults die every hour as a result of us not feeding people, not providing medicine for malaria or, or tuberculosis or clean drinking water. These are things that one out of eight Americans depends on food assistance. So fortunately the government is now reopening in the United States.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:06:49]:

But a lot of people think of people who need help, Brad as people who are not working or people who are just not participating. But did you know that 85% of people in the United States who receive food assistance at one point there's at least one person that has, that is working. In other words, we have.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:07:08]:

Right.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:07:09]:

Who are working every day, but they still don't make it.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:07:12]:

We're not talking about, we're not talking about lazy people in many cases or people who don't want to be engaged or working. It's circle life circumstances are such that they just can't do a child care cost is another thing. And let's just pause for a moment, Bishop, reflect on what you just said there about how many people have lost their lives or are hungry around the world because of policies in a world where there is definitely without question enough food and enough money and enough resources to go around to serve everybody in the world probably twice over. And just there's this real sadness and profound melancholiness that comes over me at least when we think about that. And we need some ways to reflect and to think about that for a moment and then find ways to address it.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:08:05]:

Yeah. What I've done is, and what I encourage others to do is that, you know, invest in your witness so you can reduce your worry. So, so even though I may not be able to change something immediately, I am committed to writing my senators and congress people and joining others, whether it's local issues or church issues and saying okay, what is it that we can do to address issues through our witness and our participation. And what are the questions we need to be asking and answering? For example, Jesus, when the disciples came to him and said, listen, the crowd is too big. We cannot feed all of these people. Jesus gave a commandment and he asked a question. The commandment was you feed them.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:08:55]:

Yes.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:08:55]:

So I believe, I believe, Brad, that even though SNAP benefits were frozen for a period of time, the churches were gearing up to feed as many people as possible. I don't think we will, we will intentionally let our neighbors go hungry. And we see this whenever there's a disaster, how people rally around and do that. But on the flip side of that, we all should be demanding our governments or governments to participate in, in caring for the citizens so that no one should be without access to health care. No one should be without access to support after a natural disaster. Politics should not be the determining factor whether or not people receive help or not. And I think under our current administration in the United States, we are being penalized based upon whatever so called camp you're in. Right.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:09:52]:

You didn't support the current, as some people call the current regime or the current right. Somehow you're not considered as worthy as others. We spend trillions of dollars, Brad. Trillions of dollars in military weaponry investment that we, that we pray that we don't have to use. Yes. If we could spend one 25% of that amount that's been dedicated in the new budget, budgetary process towards humanitarian aid, we would save hundreds of thousands of lives. Some might say it can't be simply that simple, but it is that simple.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:10:27]:

It is, it is. So part of what I'm hearing you say is it kind of, it's a both and thing and that we need to have fair and practical practices among our legislatures and our government to help to provide the needs. But we also need the private sector and church sectors to step up and say we're all in this together. And especially when we had situations where benefits have been cut off, the SNAP benefits you mentioned, that is certainly where the private sector and the churches need to step up in some ways. I know the last church I served is in an urban setting and many, many people, they serve in their weekday children's ministry were impacted, Many people were impacted by the lack of snack benefits. And so appeal went out from that ministry to help for that. And they raised almost instantly a very, very short period of time, a few days, something like 11 or $12,000 to help out in that, in that particular urban neighborhood, in the, in the inner city of Indianapolis. And so I was really encouraged to see that.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:11:31]:

And yet it's too. It's too bad they had to have this desperate appeal to do that. It needs. It's a. Both and thing. And, and I think there's some encouragement in that and that the, you know, churches and other public, private, Private and public sectors are stepping up. But we can. We.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:11:47]:

We just need to work better together, don't we, Bishop? We need to find some ways to work better together. Instead of being at odds, let's work together.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:11:55]:

And why don't we take the many of the questions that Jesus asked that we assume were for the disciples and apply them to them to ourselves? So after he told the disciples, you know, to. To. To feed the people, and, and their response is, we don't have enough. And here's the question he asked Brett. How many loaves do you have?

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:12:15]:

What do you have?

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:12:16]:

What if we answer that question? Yeah, how many loaves do we have? What do we. I need to ask that question personally, but also in a corporate and a community standpoint. What. What is it that we do have? Yes. And then that. That kind of changes the temperament and the balance, if you will, around the whole question of worrying. If I'm focusing on what I do have, I have less time to complain about what it is I do not have. So, Jesus, that's a critical question I think we need to ask.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:12:48]:

I want to mention the power of stories.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:12:50]:

Sure.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:12:51]:

And I believe most people, if not all people, have a story if they work, if they thought about it when they were in a time of really need, critical need. I'll tell you my. One of my stories because, Brad, you. You relate to it.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:13:06]:

Yes.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:13:07]:

Because it was when I was living. My wife and I lived in Evanston and we lived in student housing as I was a student at Gary Evangelical Theological Seminary. It was in 1981. And remember, the reason I remember that is because that's when our first child was born.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:13:25]:

Okay.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:13:26]:

He was scheduled to be born at Rush Presbyterian Hospital in Chicago. In fact, we drove all the way there in a snowstorm, and they said this was December 20th. And they said, oh, you're not going to get birth. You might be another week before the baby's born, so you can go back home and come back. So we drove back in a snowstorm back to Evanston. By the time we got back, my wife was literally having. The baby was coming.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:13:57]:

Wow.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:13:58]:

We had to call 91 1. Anyway, the parameters came and they had to cajole my wife. And we say, hey, we Got to get you to the emergency room. Otherwise you're going to have the baby right here in the apartment complex.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:14:09]:

Oh my goodness.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:14:10]:

Wow. We made it. We made it there. Baby Cameron was, Cameron was born. He's a grown man now.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:14:16]:

Sure.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:14:17]:

But here's what happened. My wife was the primary breadwinner at the time. She was working full time downtown Chicago. I was a full time student. I think I might have had a little part time job cleaning the apartments or something. But my, my income was very incidental. Incidental. So our income was based on my wife's job.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:14:39]:

So she had to. We didn't, we didn't. There was no paid family leave. So she had a couple of weeks that she got paid for but she was off for I think eight to, eight to 10 weeks. And so we qualified for what was called, I think it's still called Women's Infants and Children's.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:14:57]:

Oh yes, right.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:14:59]:

Well people would call food stamps.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:15:02]:

Right.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:15:03]:

And so we went and applied and qualified, I mean because we needed, allowed us to get the infant formula and, and it support. Support our grocery bill. And we were on. Actually we were on that for almost a year, I guess.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:15:18]:

Yeah.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:15:19]:

And so I say that to say that at some point many of us, if we think hard enough can think there's been a time when we had need. There have been other times. Sure. Family where there's been, you've been. Been in need of one or the other. So this assumption that there most people can just make it, you know, make it by your, your bootstraps and nobody ever needs any help because you know, if we're all honest and work hard and go to school.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:15:46]:

Yeah.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:15:46]:

Everything I do believe God will supply, but I also believe that it makes a difference in when we start from the standpoint not what is wrong with someone or what's wrong with the world, but what is it that we really want to see happen? What kind of world do we want, we want to live in? Jesus asked a very critical question that most of us think is just for his closest disciples. Who do people say that the Son of Man is? I think that's critical for those of us who, who seek to be Christians. Who is it that we say Jesus is and what, what is Jesus just our pathway to heaven or is he a model for, for inclusion? Is he, Is he, Is he, Is he one who's asked. You ask us questions because the anticipating anticipation is that maybe we will work on ways to respond.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:16:46]:

Wow.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:16:47]:

What do you say?

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:16:48]:

Well, I just, I think this question has to do with how we respond to crisis in our lives and how we respond to the crisis in other people's lives. And when it's us, you know, we are just focused on what our needs are. But sometimes with somebody else, we are a little slow to react. And I think the message of Jesus is to react accordingly. It's not just about our needs, but when we serve others, we are serving ourselves and we're serving the Lord as well. And I love what you shared there about how you had some need in your life and you saw to. And the public sector came involved. But I know you and your efforts for children matter first and things of this nature.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:17:31]:

You are very involved with the needs of others as well. And so I want to. And I've taken, you know, lessons from that in my own life and working with you for many years and in the church. And when we serve others, we indeed are served ourselves. And that's the story that we can tell, I believe the ongoing story of the gospel, the good news is that we share in this life together. So I want to ask you then, how would you be a voice of encouragement to those who are in this discouraged moment where they are kind of desperate to take care of themselves and may want to kind of hoard a little bit, maybe be, you know, kind of put up barriers to our fences, to kind of keep it to ourselves without serving others? What might you say to those persons, or particularly maybe even a local church or a pastor who are trying to deal with the reality of what is going on here? There's this sensibility of take care of ourselves first and then take care of others, But I'm not so sure that's what the gospel says. What do you say to that, my friend?

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:18:35]:

Well, I, I just. I repeat some of the questions Jesus asked. How many lows do you have?

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:18:41]:

How. What do you have? Right.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:18:42]:

How many of those. What is it that you do, what you have individually or in your, in your, in your family ecosystem or in your local congregation? You know, what are the loaves that you. You have. I was talking with my sister, one of my sisters, who was. Who's headed back to her church from visiting with her grandchildren. She said, because I teach a craft class that, that's open to at the church. You know, many of us bring some kind of gift to that that we think maybe is not relevant or not helpful, but it's amazing what the things that we can do. And I think that it's been proven that when you help others, you reduce the stress that you experience yourself.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:19:28]:

And sometimes if you're in the midst of a tremendous crisis, you might need more help than you're able to give. We all are at different points along the spectrum there, and that's to be understood. But if you are in a position to, to give and to do do for others than we should. My wife and I have been talking about, okay, let's not focus on, you know, just hoarding, overeating on Thanksgiving. Let's, let's figure out what we can do on this coming Thanksgiving to, to be giving to others or maybe volunteer or, or you know, we are, we already kind of designated some places we want to make some contributions to because we believe that in doing for others we are actually, we are actually praising God in the process. One of the questions Jesus asked it I think is very helpful Brad, and like to hear your response to this. Very helpful. In this time where we're judgment and we're so hyper partisan is that when Jesus says why do you notice the splinter in your brother's eye yet fail to perceive the wooden beam in your own eyes? I never really liked that text because it felt like it was boy, it was like that Jesus was really just looking right at me saying listen, tremble, you know, don't, don't get so high on the high and haughty about how holy you might think you are.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:20:49]:

And you see, you see all the wrong and these other, other folks even now in the work of justice.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:20:54]:

Yes.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:20:54]:

And yet fail to proceed the wooden being in your own eye.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:20:58]:

Well, just to respond to you that then would want to come back to you to put this all in a perspective for us to be encouraged by. And there are certain things that you just choose. We make choices and how we notice or not noticing. You know, there are certain things that we could let go by, you know, that if we just choose it to be, to ignore it, we choose to ignore things. Like sometimes with my wife wants me to do some job around the house, I have selective hear right about that. Or if she says, you know, let's go out to dinner, then I'm more likely to hear that, you know, let's, let's, let's do that. I think people choose to do that based on their own level of selfishness, our selflessness. And then the selfish part of us is that kind of that part of the, the dark side that maybe we all have the evil one or spiritual warfare, whatever you want to say that says, you know, it's all about me, me, me, me, me.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:22:01]:

Well, I think what the, the word of Jesus is. It's not. Then that's the log, you know, not seeing the log in your own eye, that's the, you know, that's about me. But we, when we see others, we need to see, not only not see the speck anymore, but just see the humanity. There's. Let's just talk about the eyes, you know, let's see the eyes. Let's get it. Get rid of the log and the speck and let's just see the eyes of the other and to appreciate the other and not be fearful of the other, but to embrace the other and to see the gifts that they bring.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:22:36]:

And so I kind of think about, let's get rid of the speck and the log and let's look into the eyes.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:22:41]:

So that's wonderful. That's wonderful.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:22:44]:

Well, why don't you bring us around here, my friend, and kind of give us some concluding thoughts in terms of how in this time of worry, given the stories of Jesus and the stories we've been telling back and forth here, what are some words of encouragement you might share with those who are going a little bit of discouraged time through the stories of Jesus and good questions?

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:23:04]:

Well, I'll tell you something that my family's been discussing even in recent days is the importance of retelling stories over and over again.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:23:14]:

Yes.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:23:15]:

As you know, Brad, my mom died this year and she lived to be 102 years old. She was a. She was insistent on telling stories because I think she knew that, you know, she had lived long enough where there was nobody else who knew some of the stories that she knew about, you know, our family history. And. But more recently, we've been talking about things that have, things that have made us to laugh in our family.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:23:43]:

Yeah.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:23:43]:

And so, and we say this is important to tell, to tell stories, stories that. Things that have made us smile, things that have made us laugh, because the ones that have made us cry, we seem to remember, we don't have trouble remembering those.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:23:56]:

Right, right.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:23:57]:

I would say to our listeners, you know, invest some time in retelling stories and collecting stories and hearing the stories of other. And also asking some questions that maybe stretch us a little bit. When, when Jesus asked those, he, when he. When he asked those who had asked him about his mother, he said, who is my mother? Who are my brothers? You know, we. We assume these questions are just meant for the. Those who were in that audience at that time. I think Jesus was given a hint that we really need to have a broader understanding of who we belong to and what Community means. I mean, we are not biologically brothers.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:24:42]:

Brad. But you are my brother.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:24:43]:

Indeed.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:24:45]:

And so that's what I think Jesus wanted me to hear. One of the. I'll conclude with a couple of questions. I think a critical question. Jesus, yes. The whole question, do you want to be well? And I think when he asked that about the lame man who laid by the pool, I've been rethinking that. Maybe that's just not about physical wellness or, or that question, Justin. What wasn't just intended for the lame man at the pool.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:25:12]:

This notion, do we really want to be whole people physically, spiritually? And I don't think we can be whole. We can be well. If a large percentage of the world's population goes hungry, how can we be well and allow that to happen? The last question, I will say, I say it by way of encouragement as Jesus asked, do you love me?

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:25:40]:

Yes.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:25:41]:

Do you love me? That's that question several times. Peter says, you know, of course you know I love you. You know, been hanging out with you all this time. You know I love you. Do you really love me? Then he answers, feed my lambs. Yes. Feed my sheep. Some translations say, tend to my sheep or tend to my lamb.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:26:01]:

Yes. Oh.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:26:03]:

So I, I, here's the answer. If we love whether we love Jesus or not, we already know that God loves us because the Bible says God.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:26:12]:

There you go.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:26:13]:

There you go.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:26:16]:

Yeah. Well, awesome, awesome.

Bishop Julius C. Trimble [00:26:19]:

Well, for the Bible tells me so.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:26:21]:

Well, that's great. What a great one. Jesus loves me. This I know. Well, to be well. Are you want to be well and do you love me? What a great way to conclude our conversation here today. And we know a lot of people in our world right now and it's always good to hear your encouraging words for an often discouraged world. And so that's why we come together here on the To Be Encouraged podcast with Bishop Julia C.

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller [00:26:46]:

Trimble. This is the podcast where we offer, indeed, an encouraging word to an often discouraged world. I'm your co host, Reverend Dr. Brad Miller. We'll see you next time on the To Be Encouraged podcast.