Looking for the Real God

Christy takes a break from her series on deconstruction and reconstruction of our faith to voice some heartfelt thoughts about her real life. She shares her disillusionment with social media and the Christian celebrity culture.

Pursuing a book contract is something that Christy thought she wanted until she realized the pressure of platform building and sustaining was not mentally or emotionally healthy. Christy has gone back to teaching this year and as a result has significantly less time available for social media. She has discovered that she is better off without it. Christy encourages her listeners to embrace their real lives even if they aren't glamorous or Instagram worthy.

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If we are only basing our faith deconstruction and reconstruction on human reasoning then we will miss out on the Real God. God is bigger than our understanding and more than we can comprehend. If we are going to find Him, we need to humble ourselves and realize that we might be wrong about Who He is.

As Christy has stated before, we don't get to decide who Gog is, we just get to discover Him. God is not changed by our beliefs, or minimized by our doubts. He is who He is whether we like it or not.

Christy encourages her listeners to seek and find a God who is only more than our wildest imaginations but who will completely satisfy every desire of our hearts.

Scripture mentioned: Hebrews 11:6; Numbers 21.

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Christy continues talking about deconstructing our Christian experiences and beliefs this week by exploring the Bible. What if the Bible we experienced in the Christianese bubble world isn't the Real Bible after all?

Exploring things like hermeneutics, translations, and the fact that the Bible is an ancient Eastern book, Christy challenges her listeners to reevaluate what they believe about the Bible before they throw it away completely.

Related episodes: Episodes 7, 11-13, 27-29, 53, and 70

App mentioned: Read Scripture

The rest of Uncle Jim's story: https://christylynnewood.com/chased-by-grace-a-testimony/

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As Christy continues to explore faith deconstruction, she turns her attention to church. Church hurt and spiritual abuse are real, and they are being increasingly exposed. After experiencing this kind of painful brokenness within the church, how do we think about church or choose to participate in church again?

Christy acknowledges the pain -- something she shares from personal experience -- and encourages her listeners to reconsider the way they view the Church. What if church has been messed up because we've turned it into something it was never meant to be? What if we've taken a good thing and corrupted it?

Christy invites listeners into a paradox where we hold the pain we've experienced in one hand and the love Jesus has for His Bride in the other. She doesn't have all the answers, but Christy wonders if it's possible to restore the truth Church from within.

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In the second episode of season five, Christy discusses the option of deconstructing our faith without deconverting from it. There is much to deconstruct in our experiences with legalism, religion, Christian patriarchy, the purity culture, and spiritually abusive situations across the board. Some of the people who talk about deconstruction seem to think that the only option is for everyone who doubts to walk away from Christianity completely. Christy thinks we can do this a different way.

Christy suggests to her listeners that it is possible to deconstruct around Jesus Christ -- even with Him -- as we involve the Holy Spirit in the process of tearing down and rebuilding our beliefs.

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Christy begins Season Five of Looking for the Real God by exploring the various definitions of faith deconstruction. Deconstruction really just means to take something apart down to it's individual pieces, but because of people's various experiences it tends to mean different things depending on who you talk to.

Christy shares a poem/analogy she wrote about a Lego set to explain the definitions of deconstruction and tells her own story. She knows that many people are reevaluating their Christian/church experience right now and wants to provide an option and resource for those who wish to deconstruct without leaving the Christian faith.

Resources Mentioned:
The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill Podcast: https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/podcasts/rise-and-fall-of-mars-hill/
With This Much Rot, There's No Choice But To Deconstruct article by Karen Swallow Prior: https://religionnews.com/2021/08/04/with-this-much-rot-theres-no-choice-but-to-deconstruct/
Christy's Poem: https://christylynnewood.com/defining-deconstruction/

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Christy finished her summer series Stories from Camp with the second half of her love story. This young, totally opposite young man had snuck his way into her heart and she wasn't sure what to do about it. Convinced he was distracting her from Jesus and the campers, Christy was determined to give up her crush. It worked for three days.

Having never had a boyfriend Christy had no idea how to be in a relationship with anyone. But Josh wouldn't take no for an answer even when she told him "don't even think about it" three times. So what happened? How did Josh convince her to date and eventually marry him? Listen and find out!

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Christy is closing out her summer series, Stories from Camp, with her personal love story. It's amazingly strange and beautiful how God can work in more than one person simultaneously. While Christy was learning how to live in the real world and letting go of her religious and cultic baggage, a troubled teenage boy named Josh was being challenged to surrender his life to Jesus and see what happened.

The first two years Christy was at camp, Josh was still a camper up on the high-school camp. They met once. The third year Christy came back to camp she discovered that Josh -- who had just graduated -- had also been hired as a counselor. They reluctantly became casual friends. It wasn't until Christy's fourth year of camp that things started to heat up.

How do two people who are so completely opposite become a couple? Listen and find out!

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In this third from the last Story from Camp, Christy describes the "rusticness" of her cabins and the little camp she called home for five wonderful growing summers. It wasn't much to look at, but Christy discovered that you really don't need much for a full and fantastic life.

She shares stories of some of her most memorable campers. From the wild tale of campers who punished Christy for not letting them keep cups of tree frogs in the cabin, to the more heartbreaking memories of campers who acted out because of abuse and trauma, all of these kiddos impacted Christy's life. Summer camp is a special and beautiful experience!

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A huge part of Christy's summers at camp was her relationship with Jesus. She would often escape into the woods to walk the trails and process these new experiences with the Holy Spirit. She also had little hidey spots around camp that she called her cathedrals where she spent time with God.

Even though Christy came to summer camp still trapped in religious formulas, a legalistic mindset, and plenty of pride, she also loved Jesus. Working in the middle of this messy mixed bag, the Holy Spirit met Christy where she was and continually drew her into the truth.

Christy reminds her listeners that God will always meet us where we are. He reveals Himself differently because He knows our needs and personalities. God works in the middle of our mess and is able to use us even when we don't have it all figured out.

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