Brooke Ligertwood on Longevity, Self-Protection, and How She Makes Decisions that Shape Her Life

brooke it's really a treat to welcome you to the podcast i am so honored to be on here thank you so much for having me yeah it's really an honor and you know brooke i was really struck by one of your recent instagram posts where you talked about longevity and so here's where i want to start the conversation today you know the pace and the pulse of culture is bigger better faster stronger and i do think uncertainty and fear and loss have been motivators to people uh to just plow through life and pick up the pieces later especially after the last couple years you know but i watch you and i watch scotty moving in the opposite spirit and you know if i could use words to describe it healthier slower longer deeper um what's your what's your take brook on what's happening around us and what's motivating you to then aim your life at longevity um i i can't remember where i where i first heard of this word picture i'm sure it would have been a book somewhere a very long time ago um and i i came across this i would have been in my late teens perhaps so um had only been walking with walking with jesus for a few years and uh but it gave the analogy of the iceberg life it invited it invited us into this iceberg life and and that's how i uh from from from the time i heard about that picture i i i kind of said to myself that's the kind of life i want uh where the life that no one sees is so much bigger than the life that people do see um and and as we know from the titanic those that it's that kind of life that can do the most damage and so if i've got if i want to live a life that is going to um bring uh be the most damaging obviously in our context we say the most damaging to darkness the most damaging to then then it has to be um there has to be so much more below the surface than there is above the surface well that's really beautiful because i think about longevity and and i think it requires focus and consistent diligence i love that word diligence and even steadfastness um but that requires guard rails for life brook i'd love to know just what are the guardrails that you and scotty have set up for your mental and emotional health and spiritual growth in day-to-day life i mean the podcast here is all about mental health emotional health spiritual growth and i'm excited for that but i'd love to know like what are the specific guard rails the boundaries that you've put in place to say this is the greenhouse that i'm going to create so that the iceberg life can be had yes such a great question and and i guess before i attempt to answer um such a fantastic question i would give the disclaimer that um uh that scotty and i if he was here he would say that same thing that we are very much um on on the journey uh that i mean i i know that seems obvious but i think that also i think each season um i think there are things that guard rails um as you put it that um that are consistent through all of life and then i think there are seasons when we we need to um identify where there's additional things that we need to put in place or there's things that were appropriate for the last season that maybe can be removed now that way it's important for us to stretch out in an area where maybe it was important for us to shrink back in in time so i think there's things that um for longevity's sake should be consistent and then there's also things that i think we need to put in place for certain seasons but then if we don't remove those things when it's time for them to be removed they can become things that restrict or distort our path instead of protect it so i think we we always need discernment from from season to season um to try and identify what are those where am i exposed in a bad way where i perhaps need to put in a boundary um and then where was the boundary where was there a boundary that it was appropriate in the last season which now i'm just kind of using um as a uh as a protection that's perhaps a an amateur providence but i need to kind of stretch i need to remove that now and and kind of stretch out push out grow uh grow out once again all that to say um i think there are a few guard rails as you put it um that that scott and i have put in um or not put in a bit just convictions that we have we are committed to remaining um and clinging to over the years uh the first one that comes to mind would be uh community so we are we really um are believers in the local church um and being planted in a community of people even with all of the flaws and failures and mess and um and challenge that come with that um i think for us you know uh i think even even recently an example is a few months ago you know we had we live in america now but we had a close family member become very seriously ill in australia and you know um we we're from you know we're from a church that is in australia also you know where we are here in orange county but you know my husband um met the lord in this church um we've been part of this community for coming on 20 years but i remember he went to uh he went back to australia to be with our ill family member and you know the people who picked him up from the from from the airport were those people who are part of the community when because of covert restrictions he wasn't allowed into the hospital for the first first days it was our friends in that community who went into the hospital and took communion with our close family member when we couldn't be there there's there's there's a um there's and it's not just the practical benefits of community but there is a richness of relationship that comes with walking and serving together over a long period of time that i feel i feel for people who perhaps don't have the same conviction and maybe are in and out of different pockets of communities and now i'm definitely not discounting that you know um this this this community this can be seasonal for some people i guess but for us we have just really experienced um the the richness of blessing that comes with being planted in one community for a very really long period of time so community is um is really um important to us um not just for um the reasons i just mentioned but also um you know i think that um it's important to be part of something that's bigger than yourself and to be reminded um that um the thing you're part of is bigger than the part you play i think that's really important um for something my pastor always says so i take no credit for that phrase but you know the thing that we're part of is bigger than the part that we play no matter how big we might think it is our part it's still a part and i think it's a there's an appropriate um humility uh that that is obtained from choosing to be part of community so that would be a big one and then um you know i'll just answer another one and then we can move on but and then just accountability and and and mentorship and i think you know scotty and i haven't experienced that um in a in a formal way i think there's some people that experience that in a formal way and they would say this is my mentor and i am their mentee for us it's been um those those relationships with with older people um kind of in our church and in ministry who have just committed to walking with us and we've committed to walking with them and we deliberately invite their feedback we say we're this is this is how we're thinking about this thing at the moment how are we feeling about this thing you know where are we wrong we our biblical interpretation of how we should respond to this situation would be this you know is this off are we you know is this wrong and and having those people who are so much wiser than us uh have have more longevity than us be able to in love pinpoint those things and go hey you know what here you're right watch out for this look out for this because this part could be where it goes a little wonky so um just really uh yeah putting placing value um on those relationships um where we can invite um that ouch truth uh that will the the hurt for the healing uh has been a a guardrail that we've put in place yeah well it's super helpful to hear and i want to sort of go back inside the question a little bit because you touched on something that i think is super important so folks listening i think one of the keys that i want to distill down and through brooke's story is to help you understand that we need discernment we need to know that what worked in uh in one season of life won't necessarily work in this season so brooke just to back pedal inside uh the the specific guardrails you shared around relationships and time and how do you make decisions how do you make commitments how do you discern how do you develop that quality of discernment how do you make these decisions like take us under the hood however you'd like and the reason i ask is because i see a trail of longevity and stability in your life and it's refreshing and it's inspiring and i'd love to sort of get under the hood of how that's developed for the listeners yeah i think um god has been very gracious um and um yeah just so so so gracious um i think in terms of developing discernment um uh i have i have failed in discernment um enough um and still do to where i um you know you sometimes you just gotta learn the hard way um i think um and so you know obvious the the ideal way is to learn from others mistakes but sometimes you you do really just do learn from your own mistakes when it comes to um discernment something i heard many years ago was that the good uh can be the enemy of the best um and and and and i guess the the thing i would add to that is that then discernment needs to come in extra much because sometimes what we think is best isn't best so it's easy easy easy for you know you know you could apply that in a really shallow way and say oh it's good for me to um to lead at the at the kids meeting but it would be better for me to lead at the um at the meeting where there's more people at the young adults meeting that's not that's not uh that's human logic but but we have to go okay what's what's what is uh what is the best in god's eyes um so that's not always how we wouldn't you know how we would interpret it um and so it's been you know so there's there's always an invitation into deeper discernment um i think you know i've i and and sometimes it looks different in different seasons so that's a really roundabout way of saying i don't really know then i constantly inquire of of um the lord and i'm constantly asking um ask i'm constantly asking one thing i take from the life of david is that um he never stopped inquiring of the lord um he even when he had all of these military victories under his belt when he had written all of these times when he had all of these things that people might label as ministry success he never he never stopped inquiring of the lord we said it over and when he was in the cave when he was in the palace he inquired of the lord now of course he messed up a lot as well and i'm so glad the bible records that because it's an encouragement for us but i think i never stop inquiring of the lord and i can't even think of things in the last six months where um you know i i prayed things um you know almost off hand and i and then months later oh lord i'm so glad you answered that you know there was a particular situation where uh i was praying with a group of people about something we were venturing into and i prayed you know not thinking about it but i just pray lord if there's um anybody who's supposed to be involved um who isn't involved we ask you to bring them in if there's somebody who is involved that actually they're not supposed to move up lord would you move them out it was like that literally the prayer was that short and over the coming few weeks we just saw um god's faithfulness and bringing to light some stuff that was actually very painful but thank god he brought that to light and answered that prayer and we were able to kind of move forward in health with the situation and the people who were supposed to be involved but just i think that that constant um inquiring that constant inviting of the lord into situations um is really the only answer i know how to give yeah it's so helpful brooke and i think what i want to extrapolate from what you said and so folks just just lean into this for a moment because brooke what i heard you say is number one this requires a teachable spirit number two if we go to first samuel 30 for instance like you were referring david asked he inquired of the lord should i pursue and should i go after this and i think one of the things one of the teaching points that i heard you give us brooke is that we should take we we must take the very real true situations circumstances problems challenges questions that we face every day but then we must surrender our true to his truth yeah because because the goal here is freedom and where there's freedom we're empowered to live uh a life of that's overcoming but then a life of longevity so i'm just trying to connect this for the listeners to say you know we started out brooke talking about you know what are your guard rails how do you make decisions what's your take on this and then we're backpedaling inside how do you make the decisions now i've got one more layer deeper question for that then because i love how you've already established for us submitting your life to those who have just gone ahead of you i think that's so important um and i know on the surface it probably sounds like a vanilla question to the listeners because you know in this type of conversation um people ask about how do you create space whatever but what i'm really interested in brooke is your core values then that intentionally carve out space and time for the things you've just shared to happen consistently because nothing nothing that you've shared happens by accident it's intentional and i think that has to come from core values so you could share core values that inform your decisions that inform the guard rails that inform your perspective yeah what would those be um i guess my my core values are um i'm i just really want jesus and i really um something i say is that you know that from a really early age um i knew that the the song that i'm writing with my life is so much louder than the song that's coming from my lips and so through every season i've been determined to not neglect that song because that's the song that's loudest and that's the song that's loudest to the lord as the song that i'm writing with my life is the way that i present my life before him and invite him into it and ask him to consume it and transform it um and so for that reason i think you know even even how i find myself talking to you today and what you know what we're what we're talking about and um and this this new project that i'm doing that i never saw coming yeah i think it's i'm not attached to i'm not i'm i'm not i'm not attached to myself in terms of i'm not i'm not um i wrote a song a few years ago a worship song called new wine and it wasn't even so much a song that i wrote as it was just a prayer that i was praying on my piano on my own for months before i went maybe i'm supposed to bring this to our church but that wasn't a cool song i wrote it was a prayer i was praying and it was a prayer i was living and it's much easier to sing the prayers than to live the prayers um but there's a there's a line in here and there that says um you know make me your vessel make me an offering make me whatever you want me to be i came here with nothing but all you've given me and that is really how i um have approached each season of life as i'm not attached to the wine skin i don't need to be i don't need to be anything in particular other than i just want to be one who walks with jesus and does what he says and it doesn't have to make sense to me and i think that that's probably why it doesn't make sense to a lot of other people but that doesn't bother me i think um i'm just committed to to obedience and committing to running the right running the race to the finish um and i think i'm in a pretty critical time right now i think this is this is the time when um when the wheels could come off if i'm not careful i'm in my late 30s um i i have i have i've begun well and i've been running well so far but i can never take for granted that that's just how it will continue i have to be more attentive kind of now than ever if i'm going to finish well so i don't know that i answered your question very well but um that's what i've got for you today no i think you did brooke and it just makes me want to ask another question because you and i are in the same stage of life and i'm just curious and i'm just going to be selfish so listeners you can just glean from this brett brooke you said i have to be more careful in watching that the wheels don't fall off in this season what is it about now that poses that challenge that maybe just wasn't at the forefront of your heart 10 years ago i think i'm pretty um i'll be really honest with you i'm pretty just hesitant about um about putting something out there with my name on it um i don't i can't and that might sound funny to some people uh but you know with my with my entire brook fraser catalog yeah you know under my maiden name my mainstream music and you know next year is the 20-year anniversary of my my first book phrase record i think i want to do something there do something but um but it's always been you know that was obedience um and then when it comes to worship worship is something that um that i consider to be so sacred and and it deals with the glory of god and you don't muck around with the glory of god you don't you don't package it and make it a product um you know we we saw with we see with the story of you know user in the old testament he reaches out and he handles the ark of the covenant and he gets you know which represented you know the presence of god and he gets struck down because all of a sudden he thought that the presence of god uh was something to be protected and handled not something to be dwelt with and so and you might and you know people might think well you've been doing worship music for years yes i have but i have been doing it under the context and under the umbrella of my local church and um that covering uh and and you know with hillsong worship i get to serve a legacy that is has been going around along going around it has been going on since way before i was around and i pray will be going on long after so i get to be a part of something again that's bigger than myself so i think this is a pretty dangerous time where there's um i am you know we're putting out this album and it's a project um it's worship songs and the reason it's not hillsong is because you know i wrote this with people who are outside of our church um and god made it very clear this is something he wanted but my name's on it and that's terrifying to me um it's uh but i remember even like whinging to myself i would say praying but i honestly wasn't even talking to the lord but i was just having a good old winch vest in my car a few months ago and i was kind of going why does it have to be my name on it why does it have to be you know oh and i felt the holy spirit like cut across my thoughts and say oh it's your name is it and and uh and i was you know immediately rebuked and how i interpreted that was you know first of all it's obviously it's not this is the name of jesus but i didn't understand the holy spirit to be saying to me in that way but more like um is this the thing that you've been holding on to is this the thing that you've been holding back and i was reminded yet again you know in this life i don't get to keep anything from myself i can but i know how that ends and how that goes but actually i'm determined i chose a long time ago and then i continue to make that choice that um god gets to do with my life whatever he wants that's one of the only things that i know i don't have a plan i don't have a i don't have like material goals i just know that i want to be wholly belonging to the lord and if this is what it takes um then so be it yeah thanks for sharing that brooke you know and we'll talk about your new album seven here in a moment it just makes me think because i wanted to ask you about um really what drives a lot of these values and goals at this stage of life and you've got the statement that i pulled from this instagram post that really just created this whole conversation today because i was so intrigued by it and you made this statement i could count on half a hand the goals i have in life and none of them involve tasks or achievement but all involve the kind of person i'd like to be i think that is just such a great distillation of what you just shared anything else that we should know in and around that i mean you started our conversation today talking about the person you are like first peter talks about the hidden man of the heart um you talked about that is as preeminent beyond the surface stuff anything else that we should learn from that really rich statement you made um i think i guess our lives um should proclaim the work of christ but perhaps even more so they need to reflect the person of christ people connect with people people connect with a person and the person of jesus is actually even bigger than the message of jesus and you can only understand the words of jesus correctly if you understand them in the context of who he is and the more that i walk with jesus the more i'm able to uh understand the words that he speaks just like i've been married to my husband now for 14 years and so the things that he says um that other people might misunderstand i understand them because i have been walking with him intimately for a long time um and and and and so it is with with christ and his words and our and our understanding of who who we are we don't discover ourselves by looking inward we discover ourselves by looking at christ um i don't understand more of my what it is to walk with him by being so focused on the walking uh but just by by being focused on him and keeping in step with him and then i discovered that my walk has changed without me going oh this is i put my foot here and then i put my foot here and you know i'm just focused on on on him and keeping a step with him and then i find that i'm walking in the way that i was that i was meant to go um so i think it's less of a less of a less of a focus on ourselves and more of a focus on christ doesn't make us doesn't make us less of who we are it actually makes us more of who we were always supposed to be he just talked about being in step with him and i mean this is this is so cool but brooke this is such a throwback and i'm just thinking about it now but um honestly these words come to me once a week at least once a week and half the last 12 years and they're actually words from a song you wrote and i'll read you the lyrics your statute your statutes are my heritage forever my heart is set on keeping your decrees here's the line that just gets me please still my anxious urge toward rebellion let love keep my will upon his knees so brooke the phrase anxious urge toward rebellion is so sobering what's behind that anxious urge towards rebellion in what way because i think uh that'll sort of wrap around what you just shared well i think the um perhaps i could definitely be mistaken um that that behind all all rebellion is uh the urge to control um no matter what that looks like it's an urge to regain control and um and i think that uh and it makes sense that that's also the root of anxiety when we feel out of control we we we we need to grab a foothold we need to regain some control and so i think when it comes to walking with christ um we we need to remember that that he's in control i remember i think it was 20 20. um i i i got really um caught up and trying to fix things there were so many things wrong in the world in the church and i and and i was trying to to fix things i got really into oh i need to help i need to help this person i need to help and um and i i became what you know oswald chambers cause and i was trying to be what oswald chambers calls an amateur providence and i remember the lord was so kind and kind of a few months into all this kind of um emotional friendlied activity where i was attempting to help um i remember i kind of heard the lord say brooke you're acting like an orphan um and i was like oh my gosh you're right and i think that that's that that anxious urge toward rebellion even if it's rooted in a desire to to serve and be helpful when we try and do those things in our own strength with our own gifting with our own resources and disconnect that from the revelation of the lord's sovereignty of him loving these other people more than we could ever love them when we when we disconnect um kind of the power source from that we we just we get a little crazy um and so i think that was so kind of lord to say that to me and it was almost like i'm saying like come back come back into my fatherhood and into my fathering and you know still serve still help but do it from this place not from an orphan trying to find kind of for themselves kind of place ah well i i love that because um you know you just you just said in 2020 you're motivated to fix everything and amateur providence is as you said um you know brooke there's been such a dramatic shaking within people's lives in the last couple years and i think a lot of people right now are deconstructing their faith i think there's healthy biblical way to do that for sure but we've also seen a massive fallout in leaders worldwide so trust is at this undeniable low trust for leaders trust the church trust for truth if if you were to use as an example or case study if you're motivated to fix everything do you feel like distracted by that then like do you get distracted by all this fomenting yeah i think i well i think i think that i was for a second and i felt um yeah and it was actually a friend um bob goff who called me on this and he said you know he said brooke he's like the enemy is really really working hard to distract you right now um and and i mean that's all he said uh in his bob way uh but i knew that i knew that he was right because i i am not the savior of the world i'm not the savior of the church um and and i and and coming back to that thing of if we must um do what the lord has asked us to do and fulfill our assignments from a really from a really really healthy sense of identity um as as as god's children but he gets to be god he gets to be father and we uh and we do as he says uh from under his wing and under his covering um but and certainly when we kind of yeah move move move out of that and into kind of a a striving place where perhaps we're letting orphan mentality kind of creep in again uh we then find ourselves really distracted really frenzied and really easily disturbed by things that actually aren't supposed to disturb us there are things that are supposed to disturb us but then there are things that are distractions yeah well that even goes back to what we were talking about regarding surrendering our true to truth because if we live inside if we look at the children of israel hebrews 3 the bible says that they were led astray by what was going on in here in their hearts and that that that self-protection that insulation of the heart keeps us from being able to see the nature of the father so we we say inside ourselves i must take care of myself you know so i'd love to know because i think this is like a temperament thing when fear when shame show up at the doorstep of your heartbroke how do you respond because a lot of people get reclusive and they they tuck away some armor up and plow through let's go what happens for you um i think being um one of my one of my favorite places to be is on my knees and and um and just bringing bringing all of that before the lord um he he he always speaks through his word always as well with an open bible you know that's really important as well i'm being being onion and there's a there's a picture actually that i saved from a photographer called adam adam i think ja jalo you pronounce his name perhaps um and i saved it i i'll probably post it at some stage but i also sit on things for a long time i like to keep things close for a long time but i saved this photo um i think it was the end of 2020 and it's actually uh he wrote in the caption it's actually he's a photographer i believe he's in the uk it's a picture of his mum and now he's not a christian at all but it talks about he he refers to his mom came to faith in jesus a few years ago and he said this is the posture he constantly finds herself in and it's an image of his mum um and she is on her on her bed on her knees with a open with a bible open and her hands are outstretched as she looks down into the word of god and it was just to me this incredible i remember i saw that picture just because i follow him because i enjoy his photography and i i thought to myself she's going to be okay and i was like if if that's where i am i'm gonna be okay too just that that that returning to that posture uh making that a physical posture but just that being the heart posture um on bended knee eyes on the word hands to heaven ready to receive um ready to surrender um she's gonna be okay i'm gonna be okay yeah that's so good brooke well i do want to turn the page uh because you do have a brand new album that's out called seven and you had mentioned earlier in the conversation that you just didn't see it coming i think if if i remember what you said correctly but just drill down on that why not what was what was brewing beneath the surface that eventually led to this project yeah um i you know i have no desire to be i don't know if i should say this not because i don't want i don't want it to seem like a judgment on anybody else but the term uh worship artist deeply i find deeply disturbing um you know i just i just i i struggle with that term um and i i yeah i think i'm hopefully appropriately skeptical um about a lot of the activity um that can surround songs of worship to jesus [Music] and i don't want to be a stumbling block to anybody i don't want to i don't want to contribute i don't want to inadvertently or subconsciously contribute to something [Music] i had i had written on uh one of my notebooks for many years and i'd get a new notebook and i'd write this in the front page it's like a latin phrase that's uh essay qualm for dairy and uh that's true when it's translated it means to be rather than to appear to be uh and that's the driving force of my life i don't want to appear to be anything that i'm not i just want to i want to be it um and i guess um my my hesitancy about doing something in my own name is especially when it comes to worship which is something that i think is as sacred and holy and unto god is i just i don't want to contribute to appearance you know i want to i want to i want to be the real thing and i want to encourage other people to be the the real thing and to walk closely with the lord and and so yeah my my reasons for hesitancy or for why i i always discounted the possibility of this is really to do with my own um ethere ethereal philosophical crises um but then when it when it came down to it when when i realized that this was something that um that that god had done and was asking um like i said before he gets to do what he wants and i actually cried when i had to post about it for the first time because when we um when we stepped out and uh and said said yes to it which was only after all the songs had come this was why i i didn't realize that there was an album coming until there was an album in my hand um and uh when i said yes to it and just the way that god brought all the people who were going to be involved and how holy and sacred and um and divinely delightful it felt was just so precious and and putting it in front of the other people's eyes um felt um a bit tricky and a bit hard but then at the same time um i do believe that god's given me these songs given us um these songs for this time it's why it's called seven um i've been in the book of revelation a lot and there's a book called discipleship on the edge that's really helped me by daryl johnson about the book of revelation and you know in revelation 1 john hears a voice behind him saying right what you see and send it to the seven churches and so um that's what i'm doing i feel like this is what god has given me to to write and send um to the churches uh and and so that's why it's called seven so i call it the alpha and the omega this is the first and it will probably be the last but wow brooke is there a dominant theme throughout seven or a message like a core message because all of all of which all the things that you've shared have been so near and dear to your heart and tender i can tell regarding the songs the formation of the project and whatnot but if if you look at the project is there a dominant theme that sort of came away out of it that you said oh my gosh this is the message for now this is the message i want to carry anything like that it's this these songs are extremely um uh christo centric so no matter where the the songs begin lyrically they they always end with jesus um uh even there's a song called honey and the rock which uh has a there's one line in the chorus that changes every chorus because the song is about uh is you know honey and the rock from the scripture and the psalms but it was really important to me and to my co-writers who were writing the song that we got to so the first chorus says um everything everything i need you've got the second chorus says everything you did's enough and the third chorus in one says jesus who you are is enough and it was really important that we got to that place because often people stop with that everything i need you've got which is true you know which is true but we can't stop there like uh uh we have to and then and then the second war is everything you did is enough the finished work of christ and then the third christ jesus who you are is enough um certainly walking with walking with the lord means there is sweetness in the wilderness for the believer but it is only possible because of the finished work of christ and in connection to the person of jesus and so so that's just one example of how no matter where the songs started they all of them end with the the person of jesus and i think that's really important it's a very uh there's very little self-reflection um which i which i think is you know hopefully just a little bit of a balance i think it's really important that in the in the song library of the church in any given and in any given in any given generation i think it's important that we have a diversity of devotional vocabulary just like we see in the psalms um so so so really i think that this project as well um it's not better or worse than anything out there but hopefully it's just helping to bring a little bit of a balance to the devotional vocabulary not dismissing anything else at all but just making sure that there is um uh there is a a sense of balance and and the whole vocabulary uh of songs of worship to the church um for now yeah well it's so cool brooke because and i maybe i shouldn't say it's cool i'm i'm inspired because it's obvious that i think you've had a wrestle within yourself to just just make sure everything's done with integrity which i just so admire um if you canvass the last six months or a year just in looking at life and this project came out of it and what the lord's doing in your life you know to the extent you're comfortable sharing of course like what's the hardest decision you've had to make in the last year um i guess um i guess it was the hardest but also the easiest is just the just the decision to obey um it's the hardest but it's the easiest you know um it's a it's a no-brainer and i and perhaps the lord was preparing me for it but uh right back at the beginning last year i went away for a couple days my husband is an absolutely incredible man who uh sometimes knows me better than i know myself and he said i think you need to go away for a couple of days by yourself um and so i just drove to a little beach town a couple uh not even an hour south and just um stayed in a little room with a fireplace for a couple days and just read and was still and and just being and i and i felt led to um that uh that verse where david um sees bathsheba and uh and we read in that chapter that it was spring which is the time that kings go to war um david was a king but he wasn't where he was meant to be um instead of going out to the battlefield he chose for whatever reason to stay at the palace that's when he uh spotted bathsheba across the roofs and we all kind of know you know what that began and how that ended and i really felt um i really felt like the lord impressed upon my heart that um that i had a choice um but that um it was spring and it wasn't time to stay home in the palace it was time to take my place on the battlefield and even though um that seemed um difficult um that by doing so and being where i was supposed to be that actually the lord was sparing me from a whole bunch of stuff that i'll never know about um and so uh and so that that image just stayed with me and i was like okay lord i i don't the palace is super comfy here but but um but i also i don't want to be where i'm not supposed to be i want to be where you need me to be and where you know that i need to be for my sake as well because you're a good father so so yeah the hardest choice but the easiest choice was to say yes lord well it's amazing that you you shared that story because we're back to where we started this requires discernment which requires a slowing down commitment to longevity a commitment to receive feedback to ask people what do you know about me that i don't know that i need to know and uh brooke it's just uh such a deep well of wisdom that you shared with us here and i'd love to ask just as a follow-up then because there are a lot of us all of us who have blind spots and the danger of blind spots is that we just don't know we have them we don't know what they are you have a sense brooke and i don't i don't mean this for a generalization of of culture or society the church whatever but do you have a sense of a few blind spots a lot of us in life are just uh walking with that we're unaware of it's interesting i had a long drive yesterday actually so i was listening to um i started listening to um a lecture on church history and the um the teacher was saying you know one of the most one of the best reasons for us to study church history is because we can be encouraged that um you know obviously if if all of these messed up people couldn't couldn't mess up the cause of christ in the church then we're probably not going to be able to damage either we're going to be able to certainly stain it corrupt it do or do all these horrific things but in the end it's jesus who's building this church and the church will continue um like gamaliel said you know if this is of human origin it will fall down but if this is of god there's nothing that can stop it and we'll find ourselves fighting against god if we fight against the capital c church but he talked about as well one of the reasons to study church history is because we said that every generation has blind spots every generation had blind spots um and and i guess you know the definition of blind spots is that you're blind to them so i think certainly i wouldn't presume to uh identify the blind spots that we have in our generation but rather than try to identify i would simply want to commit to praying more for whatever that is um you know i lord lord save us from ourselves um you know uh raise up leaders in our generation who will who will take the church to where you know it needs to go um quench the things that are not of you and don't bring your glory um and give mercy um to us all um who fail you in a million ways even as we um try to proclaim your name and your gospel faithfully um so i would yeah i would i would rather than trying to answer that question and myself that question makes me just want to commit to to praying more for for the church and for the generation of leaders who are leading now and and those who are to come yeah so wise and i'll just spring off of that and and use your life as an example so how do we then throughout our life through our contemplative exercises and in prayer and our devotion how do we then become aware of blinds about some folks listen i think it is by employing uh feedback and that great tool of having again where we started today brooke having people in our lives who are further along than us then keep they can help us stay out of that independent spirit the orphan spirit we can put multiple labels on it but i guess the point is teach ability and the commitments to stay diligent produces steadfastness and longevity which i think is just such a beautiful aim so yeah yeah i love that you know brooke i think in landing the plane in this conversation one of the things i respect about you is even throughout this conversation i see i see proof of it you tend to respond rather than react respond to cultural moments how does that how's that happen how's that maturity forged is a better question i think i uh i've probably reacted um far too often and that hasn't gone well or i've or i've regretted my reactions you know and so i think just i i i've tried to learn from from my many mistakes uh i'm still pretty numb scold so i'm still i still make the i still make the same mistakes many times but i just think yeah i've um i and i and also i think i also possibly um i've recognized when i've been the recipient of the response rather than a reaction there's plenty of times where i've seen you know leaders or people in my life who could have reacted to me and instead they responded to me and the grace of god that i felt in that moment how how real grace became to me um so possibly also i've i've had the benefit of some really beautiful examples um and so that causes me as i have received that grace um to to want to do the same yeah to want to want to be the same yeah but this has been such a rich conversation today and i'd love to ask is there anything else that we haven't covered anything on your heart or even just a distillation of the principles we shared today that you'd like to leave with the listeners um i guess i would just encourage um anybody listening that uh even um even by the choice of the the posture you chose today and leaning into leading into this podcast leaning into um [Music] leading into uh input um i think that that tells me a lot about the kind of person that you are that tells me a lot about the kind of way that you desire to walk and um and i would just say um you know it comes to mind the scripture with osama says you know in vain have i have i kept my heart pure and so i would encourage um i would encourage everyone listening um it hasn't been in vain your your decisions to be to be steadfast and consistent in the things that you know are right and correct and pure and noble and praiseworthy and beautiful um none of it is ever in vain and sometimes you don't see the harvest for many many years sometimes in some cases you won't until until eternity but um but it is it's never in vain so keep going it's a good word brooke well listen uh the album seven is available everyone go connect go follow it buy it whatever you got to do but brooke i'd love for people to stay connected to you and uh just what's going on how can they do that um i guess um i could you could come to my house but that might scare my children a little bit because they don't know you so probably the easiest way would be um yeah i guess uh social media um or um you know all the music is on all the usual places you listen to music so i could spend time with you that way too and your little headphones in your car that's good i i just i got to tell you so your team sent me um i don't know a couple weeks ago a thousand hallelujahs and it rips i mean brooke yeah praise god it's oily it's all it's so good i'm thankful for you brooke i'm so thankful for um just the example that you've set your steadfastness i mean i i look to you as a peer as someone i go yeah i want to model my life after her steadfastness because you've it's just really marked me so i'm just very grateful for your time today and the wisdom that you shared with thousands of people so thank you thank you thank you very much for having me it's been lovely ah thanks so much and hey actually before i let you go i don't really ever do this will you actually pray for the listeners i feel like yeah some you know people could really just uh die to what the lord's doing yeah i would love to um all right let's pray if you are driving don't close your eyes just maybe like raise a finger and receptivity um but heavenly father i just want to thank you for this this person or these people who are listening maybe there's a couple of them in a car or in the living room somewhere lord jesus i thank you that your your word says that every day ordained for us was written in your book before one of them came to be and i thank you lord that um they are living in ordained days days that have been ordained by you and i just pray god um that even as we just close out these moments together that you would reignite um and uh reassure in them just that firm conviction that that you are trustworthy that they can trust you with every detail of their lives that you care that you are attentive that you are a good father and that you are a sovereign god uh and a trustworthy savior so i pray lord god just um that yet again this person listening might be able to re-surrender trust to you today jesus and that they would see your faithfulness come to the fore in every area of their lives that they need to lord so i just pray your blessing upon them and their household in the mighty name of jesus i pray amen amen brooke thanks again for being here today awesome thank you it's an honor you

Channel: Christopher Cook

Views: 6,870

Keywords: christopher cook win today, win today, chris cook, chris cook win today, win today with christopher cook, brooke ligertwood, brooke ligertwood seven, brooke ligertwood honey in the rock, brooke ligertwood interview, brooke ligertwood seven album, brooke ligertwood a thousand hallelujahs, brooke ligertwood elevation church, brooke ligertwood nineveh

Id: Z4lZT7fmLNI

Length: 53min 4sec (3184 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 02 2022