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Welcome back to Fierce Calling! In this episode, host Doris Swift welcomes back her friend and returning guest, Rebecca George—author, speaker, and founder of the Radical Radiance podcast community. Doris and Rebecca dive into themes every woman can relate to, including living in that “in-between-almost-but-not-yet” season, and the struggle of waiting on God’s timing in a world telling us to hurry up, because we’re falling behind.

Rebecca shares insights from her newest book, You’re Not Too Late: Trusting God’s Timing in a Hurry Up World, and opens up about how longing, comparison, and even resentment can creep in, no matter what stage of life you’re in. Together, Doris and Rebecca discuss faith and trusting God with hopes, dreams, and that thing we’re longing for. They also talk about the importance of community, the dangers of the prosperity gospel, and how to cultivate spiritual resiliency in our everyday rhythms of waiting.

Whether you’re waiting for a breakthrough, struggling with unmet desires, or simply looking to find more joy right where you are, this episode promises wisdom, encouragement, and a reminder: it’s not too late for you. Join us as we lean into God’s timing, celebrate kingdom work, and find inspiration for your own fierce calling!

Episode Highlights

Introduction to Rebecca’s New Book: “You’re Not Too Late”

• Book’s core message: Trusting God’s timing in a hurry-up world
• Who the message is for and why it resonates

Living in the “In Between Almost-But-Not-Yet”

• The tension of waiting and longing
• Faithfulness in the “meanwhile”

Rebecca’s Story and Passion Intersection

• Multiple hats Rebecca wears in life and ministry
• Importance of community among writers, speakers, and podcasters
• Creating environments free of competition and comparison
• How real-life women’s stories are integrated
• Each chapter’s exploration of an opposing mindset/emotion
• Interactive aspects—readers relating to stories and self-reflection prompts

Shift in Book Focus: From Singleness to Bigger Picture Regarding Longing

• Original intent as a “singleness” book
• Expansion into broader themes of longing and desire
• Recognizing longing continues even after certain desires are fulfilled

Coping with Longing and Waiting

• Gospel-centered perspective versus earthly focus
• Transitioning from struggle (despair, doubt, isolation) to hope (joy, community)
• Challenges of comparison and resentment

Idolatry and Resentment in the Waiting

• When desires become idols
• Personal stories of jealousy and difficult emotions
• Honest conversations with God about unmet desires

Navigating Comparison

• The ongoing struggle with comparison
• Coping with guilt over mixed emotions (joy for others, pain for self)
• Reminder of true fulfillment found in God

Prosperity Gospel and Misguided Self-Help

• Critique of self-help and prosperity gospel ideas infiltrating Christian messaging
• Dangers of self-reliance and the myth that effort guarantees results
• Importance of biblical truth as the foundation

Culture of Instant Gratification

• How technology trains us to avoid waiting
• Everyday habits undermining our resilience and patience
• Practicing small disciplines to build spiritual resilience

God’s Timing and Looking Back

• Reflections on answered prayer coming in the right season
• The sweetness of fulfilled longing after seasons of waiting
• Gratefulness for God’s story being better than our plan

Favorite Stories and Practical Takeaways from the Book

• “The Bench Story”—Rebecca and her husband’s intertwined journeys of prayer and waiting
• Psalm 139 “Search Me, God” prayer as a practical tool for self-examination
• Encouragement to use scriptural prayers during hard seasons

Encouragement for Listeners Still Waiting

• Praying for future blessings and spouses
• Warning against making impulsive decisions out of fear of being “too late”
• Affirming listeners’ value and God’s perfect timing

Connecting with Rebecca & Additional Resources

• Where to find Rebecca online (Instagram, podcast, books)
• Free video series accompanying the book
• Use of book for group or individual study

Conclusion and Invitation

• Reiteration of every woman’s “fierce calling”
• Encouragement to partner with God in kingdom work
• Preview of future episodes and invitation to tune in again

Connect with Rebecca!

You can connect with Rebecca on Instagram @rebeccageorgeauthor and her website radicalradience.live

Rebecca George is the author of You’re Not Too Late: Trusting God’s Timing in a Hurry Up World, and Do the Thing: Gospel-Centered Goals, Gumption, and Grace for the Go-Getter Girl , and the host of the popular podcast Radical Radiance. Her work has been featured on outlets such as Life Today TV, HomeLife magazine, and Moody Radio. Rebecca and her husband, Dustin, live in East Tennessee.

Link to Previous Episode with Rebecca

What Threatens to Steal Your Joy?

Check out Surrender the Joy Stealers: Rediscover the Jesus Joy in You 6-week Bible study rooted in John 15. You can find more info at https://dorisswift.com/book/

Let’s Stay Connected!

Find my free resources including Fear Fighting Bible Verses, Simple Tips for Sharing Your Faith, Surrender the Joy Stealers, Step Out of Your Doubt and Into Your Calling ebook, and more on my dorisswift.com homepage!

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Thanks for Listening!

I hope this episode encouraged, inspired, and challenged you to cultivate community, live and walk in the value, purpose, and worth God gave you, and take action where your passion, compassion, and conviction intersect.

If you’re looking for a speaker for your next women’s conference, retreat, luncheon, or workshop, reach out and connect with me on my speaker page at https://www.womenspeakers.com/florida/edgewater/speaker/doris-swift

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Stay tuned for more amazing content and remember to check the show notes for all the links mentioned.

Thank you for being a part of our community. We are grateful for your continued support and encourage you to embrace the unique gifts that make you magnificently you.

I hope you’ll join me next time when I talk with another guest who is taking action where her passion, compassion, and conviction intersect …

Until then friend, have a blessed week, and I’ll talk to you soon.

With love and joy,

Doris

P.S. Don’t forget to follow us on social media for bite-sized wisdom and inspiration from Doris and our incredible guests! 📲

Transcript

Doris [00:01:40]:
What is threatening to steal your joy? What is it that feels so heavy right now that you could barely stand? God has a plan and his plan is to surrender it. Surrender it to him. It might be a prodigal, it might be a relationship, a marriage, something with your job. So many things. We have so many amazing blessings, but there are so many things in our life that threaten to steal our joy. I’m Doris Swift, author of the award winning six week Bible study, Surrender the Joy. Rediscover the Jesus joy in you. And it helps women rediscover the overflowing, ever present Jesus joy within that fills, empowers and ripens the fruit that God produces in our lives.

Doris [00:02:31]:
Using personal biblical stories, I share how you can identify your joy stealers. Surrender them to God. Reawaken the joy within and share the joy with others. You can do it on your own or with a group. Check it out, friends. Surrender the joy stealers. Rediscover the Jesus joy in you. It’s available on all the online retailers.

Doris [00:02:56]:
It’s time to take your joy back. Welcome back to the show. I am so excited today to welcome back a returned guest, my friend Rebecca George. She is the founder of the podcast community Radical Radiance. She’s a speaker and an author whose greatest joy in life is discipling others to pursue their passions in a way that builds the kingdom, which is amazing and it’s also the heart of fierce calling and I love that so much. She was actually previously on and it was back in 23. That was right before her other book came out, do the Thing, Gospel Centered Goals, Gumption and Grace for the Go Getter Girl, which we love talking about. And that was episode 138.

Doris [00:03:38]:
And I will put that link in the show notes so you can check out that episode. And today we are going to talk about a lot of things, but we are also talking about Rebecca’s newest book, you’re not Too Late. Trusting God’s timing in a Hurry up world. And I just can’t think of a person that that message wouldn’t resonate with. So welcome to the show, Rebecca. It’s so great to have you back.

Rebecca George [00:04:02]:
Oh, Doris, I’m so happy to be with you. Thank you for having me again.

Doris [00:04:05]:
Yeah, I just love that we’re doing this. Well, Rebecca, you’ve been a super busy gal. You have a lot going on. You also have an amazing retreat that we can talk about too. You know what I really like in the back of your book. I love the whole thing about your book Your whole book. But you know the message that says, what does it look like to be faithful in the meanwhile? There was a quote that I really liked and it says the in between almost, but not yet. So the in between almost, but not yet, all like with little hyphens, tension is where we live most of our days.

Doris [00:04:41]:
So the in between almost, but not yet. We live there. We live there a lot. So we can definitely relate to that. And so we’re gonna jump right into this conversation. I would love if you would share a little bit about you, a little bit about your story and then also how you’re currently taking action where your passion, compassion and conviction intersection.

Rebecca George [00:05:01]:
So good. Well, I’m so excited to be with you. And a little about me. You, you did a beautiful job introducing me, but I’ll, I’ll add, and I think you will probably relate to this, Doris. There’s a lot of hats that we wear. Right. And so I’ll tell you kind of a few of mine. I’m a wife to Dustin.

Rebecca George [00:05:16]:
My husband is the lead pastor of our local church here in East Tennessee, where I live. You can’t tell by my accent. You’ll learn that pretty quickly. And so being involved in our local church is a huge part of my life for sure. And as you said, I have authored a couple of books and I’m in the throes of launching You’re Not Too Late: Trusting God’s Timing in a Hurry Up World. I also host a podcast myself called Radical Radiance, which just seeks to have conversations each, each week about what it looks like to radiate the heart of Christ and all that we do, our life, our work, our relationships, all of those things. And also, as you mentioned, host a retreat for people who do the work like you and I do of writing and speaking and podcasting.

Rebecca George [00:05:59]:
And I just absolutely love gathering like minded women in one place, just in a. In an environment that’s free of comparison and competition and a lot of the things that we can experience in our industry and just truly connect with one another and learn from one another. And so wherever I can create conversations, resources, experiences that accomplish that in some way, I feel like I’m, I am doing what you described that you, you, you described it really well of like the intersection of these three different things. And that’s when I feel like I’m in the, the thick of that. If that makes sense.

Doris [00:06:42]:
The sweet spot. Yeah, that’s perfect. And, and your ministry has just grown so wonderfully over the years. God has really Blessed it and brought so many amazing guests to your show. Like, you recently had Annie F. Downs on, and that was really cool. And so just building the Kingdom, you know, doing partnering with God and kingdom work is just so awesome. And.

Doris [00:07:08]:
And how you kind of put these messages out that we really, really can see ourselves in. You know, like, we can actually step into these things and realize, hey, you know, this message is also about me. Like, I. I’m a go getter girl. Sure, some days we might not feel like it, but really, every woman of God has a fierce calling is what I say.

Rebecca George [00:07:34]:
Yeah.

Doris [00:07:35]:
And so that’s what, you know, your messages really speak to as well. And, you know, I love how in the book, there’s just amazing case studies of real, real life women. You know, you share their stories and then you ask us how we kind of feel about that and how we can relate to that and how really each chapter is kind of exploring an opposing mindset or an opposing emotion or something. So if you could explain a little bit about how that came out. And also, and I love, thank you so much; I was so honored to write a piece for the devotional that you had as a giveaway. So that was cool.

Doris [00:08:17]:
And so, yeah, share a little bit more about that because that’s really something we can all relate to for sure.

Rebecca George [00:08:23]:
Totally. Yeah. I loved having you be a part of that, Doris, and so grateful for that. And, yeah, as I started dreaming with the Lord about this book, a little insider that most people don’t know, I thought this might be a singleness book at first, because I’d gotten married later in my 20s, which to some people might still be very young in terms of when they maybe got married or maybe they’re still waiting on their spouse. But I had been through a pretty prolonged season of singleness. I’d been a bridesmaid 12 times when I married my husband. And so I had just spent many years walking alongside other people and really meaningful people in my life, getting to experience the thing that I was longing for.

Rebecca George [00:09:07]:
So I’d really spent a lot of time navigating through that very imperfectly, if I’m honest. And I felt like I had a lot to say to single women walking through a similar journey. But as I started having conversations with important people in my life and just really considering this topic of longing, it felt so much bigger than just my desire to be married. Right. Because as I’m sure you could say about your own life, the day I married my husband was not the day longing ended for Me, it just now looks different, right? And so as I thought about that and prayed through that, there were all of these different areas that I have struggled with, whether it be doubt or like, the despair of like, will this ever happen for me? Comparison, isolation, feeling like I’m the only one that feels this way. The resentment that can build in our hearts when, when we have that prolonged season of waiting. And so I remember just scratching down all of these struggles for a very long time and just kind of wrestling through that with the Lord and then thinking like, okay, but I don’t want to stay stuck there. And I don’t want my reader to stay stuck there either.

Rebecca George [00:10:16]:
And I don’t want to miss the hand of God where I am today. And I feel like that’s happened in the past when I’ve been so focused on the thing that I want. And so I then began thinking like, okay, what if we turn from those struggles to a more gospel centered view of our waiting and of our longing? And that’s where kind of the shift started to happen in the chapter titles where I thought, okay, let’s like talk about what it would look like to go from despair to joy or doubt to hope, isolation to community, and all these different things. So I could have written about a lot more things, but we chose 10. We whittled it down to 10, and that’s what became the book. But yeah, that’s a little bit of the, the behind the scenes journey of that for sure.

Doris [00:10:57]:
Yeah. Nice. You’re right. I mean, there’s a lot that could be expanded upon in this particular arena of waiting and all of that. But I do love how it did transition to something bigger. And was, was that after you had written like a book proposal on it, was it originally for Singleness and then did it change?

Rebecca George [00:11:19]:
Well, what was interesting, you know, I wrote and released do the thing in 2023, as you mentioned a minute ago. That was when I was on the show last. And after the book had been out a few months, you know, I started dreaming about what was next. I was actually in a two book contract for do the Thing. And then what became, you’re not too late. And so naturally the conversation started of, you know, what’s next. Right. And I remember going back to my original book proposal and you know, as any author does who wants to show that they have kind of a vision for their career, I’d had some subsequent ideas that I, you know, might be something one day.

Rebecca George [00:11:55]:
And one of them was actually titled Always a Bridesmaid.

Doris [00:11:59]:
Ah.

Rebecca George [00:11:59]:
And. And I had a little description for it, and I, like, I don’t know, it might be a book I write one day. I don’t know. I have a lot more that probably feel more important to me now and significant to me now, but that was the one that, like, stirred my heart the most. And then I just. Honestly, before I took it to my agent, before I took it to my publisher, I just sat with a lot of people in my life and just said, like, what of my story do you think is kind of a thread here that I could talk about? And that was really where the longing conversation came in. And. And even the titling of this book was.

Rebecca George [00:12:35]:
Was a whole journey in and of itself. You’re Not Too Late was not the original title. And as I walked with this group that I’m in, a mastermind group and told them a little bit about the message, and one of them actually came back and said, I feel like what you’re trying to say is you’re not too late. And that feels like the raw nerve ending that’s kind of underneath what you’re trying to communicate here. And so I took it to my publisher, and they were so excited about it. And so I actually didn’t write a full proposal for this book, which is, I feel, like, really rare, and I’m really grateful I didn’t have to, but it. It actually. And I think this is interesting, like, flew out of me faster than anything I’ve ever written.

Doris [00:13:16]:
Wow.

Rebecca George [00:13:17]:
It was one of the harder books. I mean, of the two, do the Thing was a really fun message to write and a really fun message to talk about. And this was a lot more vulnerable of a message. But I think because it’s such a universal challenge for myself and every woman I know it, there were just many moments where I’d sit down to write and come up for air an hour later, and I’d have half a chapter, you know, because it just. It was so in me. So, yeah, it was a really fun book to. To work on.

Doris [00:13:46]:
Yeah, that’s awesome. And, you know, and I love how when you talk it out with people and that can go for anything, you know, you’re going through a struggle, something going on in your life, and all we need is in the word of God, you know, everything we need is in the word of God, and he gives us community, you know, and that’s a big part of what you talk about, too. I mean, in the book, you even talk about isolation versus community. And. Yeah, you know, that is. It’s so cool how These things come out in community that God gives each of us different gifts and talents and you know, he gives us all wisdom when we ask. And so I, I love how that kind of came about. It was like woo, kind of like a light bulb moment that happened.

Rebecca George [00:14:32]:
Totally.

Doris [00:14:32]:
So, and, and yeah, in the waiting, it’s just like what we said earlier. What does it look like to be faithful in the meanwhile? See, so what have you found to be a common thread, like for women when they’re waiting? Because it can be for a spouse, because it, and it could be any season in life that a woman is waiting. But what are some of the other things that you kind of discovered and learned as you went through your research for the book, talking to women who participated in the book? Does anything like stand out?

Rebecca George [00:15:07]:
Yeah, totally. I think it’s important to kind of zoom out a little bit, right? Because if we are so laser focused on like the earthly thing that we want, which is often a good thing, and I think that’s important to say a desire to be married, a desire to have children, a desire to grow in our careers, to get involved in a ministry, to start a business, to do things with excellence to the glory of God. All of those things are God given desires, but we view them imperfectly because we live in the midst of brokenness and we’re human and all of those things. So if we zoom out a little bit and go, okay, the reality that I’m experiencing now in a broken world is not as God created it to be in the garden. So if we zoom all the way back to the garden, perfect fellowship and communion with God as He designed it to be, that was severed because of sin. Then Jesus came, lived a perfect sinless life, died on the cross, made a way to reconcile our relationship with God. And so we live in this in between of navigating brokenness as we follow Christ and awaiting his return when he. When all things are set back as they should be and restored and redeemed and all of those things.

Rebecca George [00:16:18]:
And we experience glimpses of that here on earth, but we won’t experience it in its fullness until heaven. And so we kind of sit in the middle of that. And I say it’s kind of like we’re sitting between two Edens, right? It’s not as it was or will be. And so obviously our hearts desire things, our hearts long for things. And so many times our desire for that thing is actually just an imperfect reflection ultimately of our desire for that communion with God. That’s that unbroken fellowship. And so I think it’s what we do with those desires and how we view them rightly. I think so many times those things can become an idol.

Rebecca George [00:17:02]:
And I have a whole chapter about that in the book. And I remember turning that one into my editor and I was like, this is a pretty spicy one and I’m not apologizing for it. Like, I can’t write a book about longing and not talk about idolatry. Right. And so many times that good God given desire, we can elevate that thing to a place of prominence that’s meant for God. And then when that is the thing that’s sitting on the throne of our hearts, it’s really easy for us to just miss the hand of God in our current season of life. And I know that’s been true in my own life so many times. And so I think that’s a little bit of what happens in us for sure.

Rebecca George [00:17:41]:
And I think most commonly what we don’t always love to talk about, one being idolatry, the other one that’s kind of a hot button topic for me is resentment. I think so many times when we either experience that prolonged season of waiting or we’re watching everybody else get to experience the thing we desire, it’s just that kind of death by a thousand cuts type of thing in our hearts where that bitterness and resentment can really grow if we are unwilling to, to confront and really take that thing to the Lord of like, I just want to be really honest. Like, I desire to have kids and all my friends are having babies and I’m going to baby shower after baby shower, and yet I still have this longing in my heart. Lord, I just, you know my heart better than I do. And would you just grant me the joy to show up for my friend really well. But then also would you sit with me in the middle of that waiting? Like, if we’re unwilling to have those kinds of conversations, what happens in us is that that continued growth of that bitterness or resentment. And that I think is also really unhelpful. So, yeah, those are some of, I think, the most common ones.

Rebecca George [00:18:51]:
I would be curious to hear what you think. But as I researched and prayed through it, I think that’s oftentimes what happens.

Doris [00:18:57]:
Yeah, well, that was really beautifully said and just so true, you know, and, and I feel like sometimes some of those things Jesus said, he gave us his joy, that our joy would be full, but sometimes these things that get in our way kind of blocks our joy and we kind of can’t see it. It’s like an eclipse that occurs when the sun is, is covered over and it, it’s like, where’s the light? You know. And so I love the things that you touched on because definitely we can relate to those things. And how you talked about earlier comparison and people can say, you know, how many people are going to write about or talk about comparison? It’s like, well, we can’t talk about it enough because we keep struggling with it. So we need to be reminded not to do that. The comparison trap can really happen when, like you said, you, it’s kind of a balance between. You want to be joyful for others, but yet you don’t want to have that resentment and you don’t want to feel like bad because then it makes you feel guilty that you’re feeling bad, you know, about someone else who’s having something joyful happening in their life. And what you said earlier was so perfect because we are yearning for a relationship with God.

Doris [00:20:12]:
He’s the only one that fills that void in our life.

Rebecca George [00:20:15]:
Amen.

Doris [00:20:16]:
And so the struggle between the Eden, that was what we were meant to be like. The Blythe Daniel Agency, we love her agency. It’s our agency. And her brother wrote that book made for Eden. And it’s just, it’s so very true. So, so I love that so much. And another thing too, I wanted to mention that I really also think is powerful and important is you talk about in the book the prosperity gospel. There are so many people right now, even influential people who say they’re Christian and all of that, but have really drifted away from historical Christianity.

Doris [00:20:56]:
They aren’t like reading the Bible much anymore. As far as when they speak, it’s kind of. I don’t know if it moves more toward self help or what I guess Melissa Dougherty talks about like new thought, law of attraction and all of that. So if you could kind of talk a little bit about that and how that came about in your book and why it was so important for you to mention that.

Rebecca George [00:21:18]:
For sure. Totally. Also, you just got some major brownie points with me that you were willing to talk about this one because it was another one that I just felt so strongly that we had to talk about and confront in the book because so often. And you and I both love books. We love our industry, we love the work we get to do. And there are a lot of books filling our shelves today that are kind of this. And this is a Melissa Doherty ism as well. She, she says it’s a lot of this like self help with Jesus as our mascot kind of Thing like he biblical truth is the afterthought, not at the forefront of the message. Right.

Rebecca George [00:21:52]:
And so as I thought about my desires and how I view them rightly, how I view them in light of God’s word, I think so many times the messaging can look like this. Like if you just work a little harder, if you pray a little more, if you wait a little longer, if you hustle yourself a little bit, get up earlier, pull yourself up by your bootstraps, all of those things, it’ll happen for you. Right. And the problem with that equation is that makes it all about us.

Doris [00:22:22]:
Right?

Rebecca George [00:22:22]:
Right. Meaning that it happens in our own strength. We can will it to be in our own strength. And as a follower of Christ and as we look to Scripture, you and I both know that not to be true. And so it felt really significant to point that out because I don’t even think we always know when we’re doing it.

Doris [00:22:41]:
Right.

Rebecca George [00:22:41]:
Right. Especially when it comes to just those, those really significant longings in our hearts. Right. I can remember when I was single and, you know, I’m walking with a lot of other single women in my life. It would be this, like, well, maybe if I lost the weight or maybe if I just got out more, maybe if I just would put myself out there. Like, it was all so inward focused, rather than taking a step back and going like, man, God does not need my help.

Doris [00:23:13]:
Right?

Rebecca George [00:23:14]:
God does not need my help to orchestrate his plan. I get to praise God. I get to be a part of that and, and get to watch him hold the pen to my life and write the story. And now that I’m on the other side of getting married and I talk a lot about our story in the book, it was a story that I could have never written, you know, and, and that’s what I want to just point back and look back and say to all of our friends listening and even to myself as I look to the future with more longing in my heart is like, man, hand the pin over. You know, like, God will write such a better story than we ever could have.

Doris [00:23:52]:
Amen. Amen to that. Yeah. And you’re right, too. I think you kind of cover this in your book as well. You know, even when we long for something for so long and then it finally comes. Of course, when it does come and it has been something we’ve longed for for a long time, it just makes it so much sweeter in some ways. But then it, you know, but then we still have longings for other things.

Doris [00:24:16]:
And so it, you Know it. Oh, if only I could do this. Oh, if only this happened over. You know, we kind of like can do that, you know, the what ifs, if only and all that stuff. But yeah, it’s true. Like because of that humanness that we have, but yet that longing that we kind of misdirect in the wrong places. So yeah, that’s true. And, and yeah, I love really talking about truth because we don’t have to really be as concerned with the messages that are blatantly not biblical at all.

Doris [00:24:50]:
Like, you know, we can, you know, sense that we can smell that a mile away. Like, but there’s so many subtle things that slip in that all of a sudden something changes, the tide turns or whatever and we don’t, like, like you said earlier, you know, sometimes we don’t even realize when things are happening in our life. So, you know, can you talk a little bit about how that can come into play?

Rebecca George [00:25:16]:
Yeah, totally. Something that I think is really important about that, Doris, is so many times we’ve created this culture with technology that does not warrant us or have the desire for us to wait, right? Like if we want to order something on Amazon, it’s on our doorstep oftentimes by the end of the evening if we, you know, are strapped for time, but we want to make a home cooked meal, we don’t go to the grocery store, we just doordash everything to our house. If we have an early flight, we don’t inconvenience a friend, we just call an Uber and we’re there in 15 minutes, right? So we’ve created a world that in the insignificant parts of our lives does not cause us to have to wait or long for anything at all, really. Right. And so if I’m unwilling to do that about groceries and my travel plans, it is no surprise to me that my heart has no resiliency to do it in the things that really matter. And so I’m even finding myself challenging that a lot, right? Like it’s actually good for me to stand in line at the grocery store and there’d be two people in front of me and me actually not grab my phone to entertain myself for five minutes, right? You know, like have a conversation with the person in front of me in line.

Doris [00:26:40]:
Yeah.

Rebecca George [00:26:40]:
Right. Where I get stuck in traffic and like the anxiety kind of starts to swell in my heart and then I go, you know what? I’m not going to get there any faster back then like this, you know, and just kind of confronting those things because I think similar to how when we look at around other people’s lives and compare ourselves. It’s that death by a thousand cuts type of thing that gets us to the resentment. I think the journey out of that is in the same way making those small daily choices towards practicing resiliency and practicing waiting. Because our hearts will then have more patience towards it, more resiliency for it. When we’re talking about, you know, our kids struggling with infertility or our desire to be married, or we’re waiting for the promotion or whatever, our hearts will have just a greater sense of resiliency if we’re doing it in our everyday lives, you know.

Doris [00:27:38]:
Yeah. Wow, that is golden right there. I think that’s the title of your next book, the Holy Resiliency or something like that. The Holy Practice of Resiliency. I mean, even with Amazon prime, like two day delivery, we go, well, can we get it in a day? Because you can also get it in a day or same day. And now they have it even where you could get it in the middle of like the wee hours of the morning or like 4pm and 3am or something ridiculous. Like I was like, what did that start? That is kind of crazy. But yeah, so good because we do not work that muscle of resiliency.

Doris [00:28:13]:
Like, you know, it’s kind of like you wouldn’t expect to just go to the gym one day and then be able to run a 5k. Like you have to.

Rebecca George [00:28:21]:
Yeah.

Doris [00:28:21]:
You know, like work it out, work on it and do it in God’s time. Like, I love that your book talks about God’s timing because time and time again with that word, time, time and time again, we can see and look back and see like, wow, I had a longing for this for that long. But if I would have gotten that answer to prayer or whatever back when I wanted it, it wouldn’t have been as good as sweet. It wouldn’t have been exceedingly, abundantly above.

Rebecca George [00:28:52]:
Yeah.

Doris [00:28:53]:
What we ask or think like that God does in our life. So I love that you talk about writing things out in your book. You have us like write things out. What are some of your favorite parts of the book? Or even was there any parts of the book that came in later that you kind of added because it was needed?

Rebecca George [00:29:13]:
Yeah, I think. Oh man, there’s so much there. The Bench story is my favorite story that I got to write in the whole book. And so I’ll give our friends listening kind of the, the Spark Notes version.

Doris [00:29:24]:
Okay.

Rebecca George [00:29:25]:
As, as I said, you know, I experienced a pretty prolonged season of singleness before I reconnected with my husband. And we actually were in each other’s lives many years before we dated, which I think is so interesting. So many times, you know, if our friends listening are single, like, you may know your spouse, right? Like, who knows? Who knows if you already even, even know your spouse? But separately, God both said, sent us to the same trail in the Smokies, years apart. I was hiking with a friend. He was fishing by himself, and we actually stopped at the same bench on the same trail with the same waterfall in the background and prayed for one another years apart. And both took a picture of that day and discovered that it was the same place where. Where God had sent us to both pray for who we didn’t know at the time was. Was one another.

Rebecca George [00:30:16]:
And that was actually where Dustin proposed to me. And I remember talking with a friend about this book. So this wasn’t actually a late ad. It was probably the first thing I knew I was going to put in the book. I was telling her a little bit more about our story. And she’s a fellow author, Elizabeth Thompson, if you know her. And I, I told her kind of the thread of where I felt like the book was heading. And she said, rebecca, you have to bookend this book with the bench story, right? Like, tell, you know, your version of it at the beginning and, like, tie it in a bow with his at the end.

Rebecca George [00:30:49]:
And I do think it’s just such a powerful remind of how God is working in our lives and writing a story that we don’t always know the fullness of. And I think that’s really important to remember. So that’s been an encouragement for sure to a lot of readers and, and to me, it’s probably the most significant story I’ve been able to write in a book so far in my life. But I think the practical thing I’ll. I’ll leave our listeners with. It’s been helpful to me, is straight out of Scripture, but I talk about it at the end of every chapter. I call it the Search Me God prayer. And it’s straight from Psalm 139, verses 23 and 24, where the Psalmist says, search my heart, O God, try me and know my anxious thoughts.

Rebecca George [00:31:26]:
And if there be a grievous way in me, lead me in the way everlasting. And that has become a. A little bit of a prompt for me as I’m praying through my own seasons of longing, of just God. Would you examine my heart? Would you show me where this is causing me anxiety? Where the way I’m thinking about this is, is contradictory to your word and to your perspective. And would you point me back towards that? And I think that’s one of the most helpful things we can do as we be as we’re really honest before the Lord about what we’re struggling with. So more than anything practical I could give you that is a scripturally based just prompt that has been so helpful for me.

Doris [00:32:05]:
Yeah. So beautiful. We were just talking about that in our staff meeting at the church. You know how sometimes we can use those. I think, you know, we were talking about prayer. You know, like sometimes you just need help, like what to say and how to pray. And sometimes you’re in a place where you can’t even feel like you. You can even pray.

Doris [00:32:26]:
And then these prompts are so helpful, I think. Yeah. Rachel Wojo says they’re like borrowed prayers. So. And I love that you do the scriptures and praying the scripture and affirming, you know, the word of God, you know, and so that is so precious. And the bench story just gives me goosebumps or God bumps or whatever. That’s like.

Rebecca George [00:32:48]:
I know, right?

Doris [00:32:49]:
It’s so sweet, you know, it’s just so precious. And. And if someone is listening right now and that’s a longing that they have, maybe longing for a spouse. Pray for the. Pray for who your spouse is going to be that God will send. Because when we don’t have that resilience, we can make bad choices.

Rebecca George [00:33:07]:
Yeah.

Doris [00:33:08]:
And feel like because your book is. You’re not too late, which is a great message someone that’s listening right now really needs to hear because we tend to make decisions based on our emotions. And you know, it’s like we think we are too late and so we just have to settle. And that’s not what the message is in this book or in the word of God. So. So I encourage you all to pick up this book. It’s so amazing. And this has been a really fantastic conversation and you’ve just shared so many wonderful nuggets of truth and encouragement.

Doris [00:33:49]:
And I would love Rebecca if you would share. Where can the listener connect with you? Find radical radiance and your books and all the things. Rebecca George.

Rebecca George [00:33:59]:
Totally. I’m the most active over on Instagram. My handle is at Rebecca George, author. I’m a CCA Rebecca, so that should be pretty easy to find. And you can grab the book you’re not too late. Trusting God’s timing in a hurry up world. Wherever you like to buy books. Amazon, Barnes and Noble Christian book, all the places.

Rebecca George [00:34:16]:
And yeah, I would love to connect with you. Radical Radiance is the name of my podcast and we just actually walked through. I love it. Doris has the book right behind her.

Doris [00:34:24]:
So good.

Rebecca George [00:34:25]:
We just walked through the book chapter by chapter on the podcast for the last 10 weeks. So if there’s a topic that we talked about in this conversation that felt really tender to your heart or you want to dig into more, There’s a whole 30 to 40 minute conversation about it over on my show, so make sure to check that out.

Doris [00:34:42]:
So cool. And you can get videos that go.

Rebecca George [00:34:44]:
With the book and they are free to the reader. There’s a QR code in the introduction of the book and there’s an 11 session video series where I kind of walk alongside you throughout the book. So if you’re reading it alone and you just want a little extra jolt of encouragement, great. If you’re leading it in a small group and you just want a little 5 to 10 minute kickoff for me at each one of your sessions, I would love for you to use that for sure.

Doris [00:35:07]:
You are so precious and I just. And that is so great because the videos will help your readers really get to know you more on a little bit more personal level. I mean, as personal as we can get when you’re not in the same room. But you never know what God’s going to do. He might have you meet somebody in a bench or whatever. So we never know. God puts divine appointments in our path every single day. So yeah.

Doris [00:35:30]:
So wow, this has been so great. And yeah, I hope to have you on again.

Rebecca George [00:35:35]:
Yes.

Doris [00:35:35]:
Getting to be a thing and I’m loving it. So friends, thank you so much for listening today and I will put all the links in the show notes that Rebecca mentioned and also the link to our previous episode so you can listen to that. And friend, remember that you do have a fierce calling. Every woman of God has a fierce calling. And just be encouraged by that. Be encouraged by the way that God calls us to work with him in kingdom work. And that no matter where you’ve been, what you’ve done, or what’s been done to you, that God can use you. So I hope you’ll join me next time when I talk with another woman who’s taking action.

Doris [00:36:13]:
We’re passion, compassion and conviction intersect. Until then, friends, have a blessed week and I’ll talk to you soon.