What’s Your Story?: Interview with Robert Wolgemuth, Part 1

[Music] Robert Wall Duluth it is your beautiful Brides birthday is September 3rd 58 1961 today 60 that's right you know my goal in life has always been to be a godly old lady yes so you're the only friend I know with that goal well the old part is easier than the godly it happens whether you want to or not but we're just grateful to be healthy and alive and together yes if I could sing like Robert I would sing happy birthday to you right now oh oh my I have never been serenaded quite that way every sing Nancy it's also a special day because this is an anniversary for the revive our hearts ministry yes its revive our hearts 18th birthday like I said I'm not very good at math but I think that's right 2001 that hardly seems possible that's the day we first went on the air 8 days before 9/11 day and what a journey this has been and how thankful I am for just you know it's Robert and I travel we talk with people we get emails and and texts and social media comments from people we're just hearing all the time these days about people who've been on this journey with us over the years some of them I got one recently from a woman who read one of my books when she was in high school and now she's an older woman reading the new version and just saying how deeply its impact your life you get to see fruit that remains life after life long term there's another reason we're celebrating today so this is just a big party today it is momentous a anniversary and also the release of the first book written by Robert and Nancy together together we did it yeah we weren't sure grace no no and you know it's like wallpapering the kitchen with your wife oh there's a shot Lance we haven't dried that but I mean it's like okay here's the deal with writing you can't compromise you can't say okay I want this word and you want this word so let's find one in between you have to pick one or the other done this in our first year the night before we started to write this book we look at each other standing in the kitchen said should we do this it's is this the right thing to do he's being kind actually I was having a meltdown standing in the kitchen and say I don't think we can do this and it wasn't just because of us writing together but there were a lot of things going on in in in our world in our lives in our work at that time and I'm gonna say that Nancy meltdown is sort of a restrained meltdown you know we've all seen milk-bones that are like you know real melting I did four movies right but it was it was tough and we looked at each other and said you know we can send the contract back we don't have to do this so I did my best to take the pressure off like we have to do this said we don't have to do this I thought okay we can do this no you wanted to do it okay was a sweet process and we're so so thankful for all that God did in us through the journey of writing this book and for the things we've learned for the people we've talked with and the stories we've heard and now so anticipating the fruit that God's going to bring through it in other people's lives mmm I have been so blessed by this book and I'm so excited in anticipating the fruit that we're going to have this month on the program as we discuss this topic the title of the book is you can trust God to write your story embracing the mystery of Providence and it's a big subject but we're giving the whole month of September to just unpacking some of what it means to trust God to write your story and we're gonna do that in different ways for having this conversation together and then we've recorded several teaching days where I'm gonna go to the word as we try to do every day on revive our hearts and talk about what God's providence is why it's a mystery at times things we can't understand about it and then we've talked with a lot of people that whose stories we'll be airing this month who are trusting God to write some really difficult stories usually difficult into their lives yeah so Nancy we're gonna hear from Holly Elif a longtime friend of revive our hearts and your longtime friend she has taken not one but two parents through the journey of Alzheimer's and trusted God every step of the way yeah I knew her I've known her for many years and watched her as did you go through that season and it was hard it was there were a lot of times when she would you know we'd be texting or calling and saying she's wondering what am I gonna do next where am I gonna put mom while I'm dealing with dad and there were some really hard times but we watched her go through that journey with such Grace and I'm and I know our listeners are gonna love hearing her story now she reflects on what that was like it's such a beautiful story you're gonna need tissues it is both painful and beautiful whether you have a parent who's struggling or not it's gonna speak to your heart about how you relate to your aging parents we're also gonna talk to Charmaine Porter lead teacher for true girl who is in her 30s and single and Nancy she has one of the most beautiful perspectives on singleness and trusting God through that which is something that you yourself have walked through I have and I've watched other women that I know and including in our ministry walk through again with such grace the hard parts the hard times of trusting God to write a story that you can't see how it ends so like my story now you know I'm married happily wonderfully married and and that's what a sweet ending to the singleness story but it's not the end of my story we don't know what God has ahead for our story you and Bob don't know what God has ahead for your story so at any given moment we're saying we're looking back on the story God's been writing but and we can see that he has been writing it but we're in places of mystery right now and then we face a future that's totally unknown to us but that's where we want through this book and this series this month to challenge all of us to say God you are big enough and good enough and great enough to be trusted no matter what my story somehow that's Nancy I'm so excited my heart has been stirred we all face those times when we're like God what are you doing yeah are you there is this part of your plan help me understand this and I think this month whether you're in one of those seasons and you need someone to just come bolster your faith in your hope or for me it's been a preparation I feel like pondering the Providence of God and choosing to trust him to write my story has prepared me for whatever is ahead in that story and we're also walking with friends and loved ones who are in hard parts of their story so even as Robert and I wrote this book and we were digging deep into the word thinking about Providence thinking about our stories and other stories we were constantly meeting people who are in difficult places themselves and when we would talk about this concept of trusting God to write your story they would just tear up oh it's true like I need this now it's true in fact we're about to celebrate our 46th anniversary we celebrate months so the 14th every month is an anniversary just four years and how many times honey have we told people about this book we tell them a little bit about our story and then give them the title of the book you can trust God to write your story we've you know the rental car bus driver people standing in airports friends in the neighborhood everybody because everybody has a story and this touches them in a very deep way so we're great we're grateful for the opportunity not only to tell our story but a lot of other stories and and give listeners a chance give readers a chance to identify with that and rest in God's leadership in his Providence in his sovereignty it's a big deal yeah you know you are a wonderful storyteller Robert I've always admired that about you I'm excited to see how people respond to how you have unfolded these stories and Nancy you've just folded in deep biblical truth so the story opens up your heart and then there's a place for that truth to be planted because your heart is so open and those stories in the book are true stories there are stories of friends of ours many of them longtime close friends that we have watched walked through really hard places every imaginable we interviewed a couple who were he was dying of cancer and three weeks later we were at his funeral and so we wept with them in that those last parts of his life we wept with her at the funeral well now we're now walking through with her in the process of widowhood and so these are real stories with real people that we actually talked with and we said just unfold for us and they're not all happy endings yet right some of them are you know marriages that there's some of marriages that did get put back together but some of marriages that haven't and may not there are people with prodigal children who the child still out there and these are parents who through tears and anguish at times are saying God is horrible and hard as this is we still trust that you are writing a story that in the end is going to be for your glory and our good that's huge the word trust really is is the heart of what you're saying and we can trust God because we believe he is good the end of the day we believe that he's good even in the moment we may not see it or know it or feel it but we trust him so that really is the message of these programs this month as well as the book you trust him with what you can't see yeah that's his heart when you can't see his hand as some great theologian said but it's true when we can't see the end we can't see how it's unfolding we can't see how in the world this crazy scene could ever be part of a good story and see that takes me back to your birthday is a an anniversary for a time when God asked you to learn to trust him in a new way can you take us back to your 21st birthday oh wow yeah um a lot of memorable things have happened around Labor Day weekend for me I was actually born on a labor day so that was a that's fitting well but it was also on a Labor Day weekend by 21st birthday I was actually working at a church in the south and my dad asked if I would come home for my birthday because the whole family was gonna be together for the first time in like a year and a half so I just felt even though I had a lot of stuff going on at the ministry there that I needed to honor my dad and be there for that weekend and Friday night as we all got home from dinner back to the house my dad said to a friend of one of my brothers who had come along he said you're really fortunate to be with us tonight because we may who knows we may never all be together this way again it was a Friday night the next day Saturday my dad and mom took me to the airport I flew back to Virginia when I landed this is the day before cellphones and your daddy was wearing tennis he was wearing his tennis clothes because he was going from the airport to play a tennis match with some guy friends and I got the call from my mother that while I'd been in the air my dad playing tennis had dropped to the ground had a heart attack and instantly was gone and that was a part of a script a plot twist that I never would have written I never would have thought how could this be good I was very close to my dad on the oldest of seven children my mom was 40 years old that time there were seven children ages 8 to 21 and I loved my dad in fact if we compared notes after he died and we all seven kids thought we were his favorite so but let again I'm sure I was right now they're all sure they were and in that moment it's really interesting Danna there were a lot of tears to follow a lot of questions extended time of grieving and lost to this day many years later I sometimes really miss my dad but in that very moment of hearing the news that he was gone the Lord brought to mind a verse I had read just I think it was days earlier from psalm 119 that paraphrased says you are good and everything you do is good and in that moment what a grace that was from the Lord to put that verse into my head because it represented something my dad had spent those 21 years teaching me and that is that God is good and that he can be trusted to write our story and it wasn't like this flippin thing Oh God's good so he you know he took my dad it wasn't that at all in fact let me say that I think it's important to note that it's okay to grieve it's okay to cry chortles in conjunction with trusting God you do it against that bedrock thing at the bottom of all your grief and your pain and your heartache that says deeper than all of what I'm feeling right now is this reality that God is good hmm and Robert you too have a story that you've been acquainted with the loss of a loved one yeah I have when this book was beginning to take shape several years ago publisher contacted us both with me on the phone and it was really two things he was wanting us to talk about our marriage Nancy being 57 never married before and my having been married almost 45 years and the story of losing Bobbe two and a half years of valiant battle with cancer and really the connection of Nancy and Bobby was a really sweet thing Nancy visited Bobby we lived in Orlando but Nancy was there for a conference and she came to visit Bobby I was out of town but Bobby had just begun chemo so she was just beginning to lose her hair and when I got back from my trip I said to Bobby how was the visit with Nancy and she said it was wonderful she brought a friend along and she said we prayed when she left and then when she hugged me goodbye she wouldn't let go so there was just a sense in which I think again in the Providence of God maybe there was something in the back of Bobby's mind that said you know if the Lord takes me home if I step into heaven I wonder if Nancy would be somebody that my husband could love but just imagine that hmm that takes my breath away even just to think about to say those words but again in the Providence of God that that's what happened that's exactly what happened yes it is that is a plot twist right there explain explain that Robert what happened before she died Bobby told two friends I want Robert to remarry that's so interesting because I've spoken with women since then and some don't want that they don't like the idea of envisioning their husband in love with somebody else so it's a very unselfish thing really but not only that because Bobby had met Nancy she had read her books actually we had been on revive our hearts singing as a family so we knew each other I had represented Nancy professionally in her writing and so she told two friends I want Robert to get married again yes we know that but I want him to marry Nancy lead moss on unbelievable really it is it is and you know Bobby walked with the Lord and so I believe that the Lord nudged her with that now the thing is she didn't tell me that she didn't tell me either no when this whole love relationship began to unfold you really are one of my few single friends who I loved being single love being single and never envisioned marriage as part of God's story for my life and so actually you had to trust God to enter into this relationship let's just say there were a few adjustments I needed to be made in my life which is a good thing but that can be hard and it was a letting go of some things that I had become very comfortable with familiar with I knew how to be single I didn't know how to be married in fact people used to ask me sometimes do you think you'll ever marry and I would kind of quit half kiddingly only half I don't think so because then I'd have to live out all the things I've been telling married women all these years it is interesting when we got engaged May 2nd 2015 we began talking about a wedding just to confirm what you just said on May 3rd 2015 when I asked Nancy if she'd marry me and she said yes with all my heart I said so let's talk about a wedding I didn't like in that moment but a few days later and she said to me I've never dreamed about a wedding so not only was she committed to dreamed about teaching as mmhmm yeah so this is like you're saying this is the gods this is God's providence and we talked about the fact that you have two choices really God is out of control he's standing by and thing well that's an interesting twist hmm how interesting or he really can be trusted and he's really writing this story for good or bad and so our choice is to trust him and and throughout Scripture there are stories of people raising their fists people who walked with God and said this can't be happening I don't like what you're doing here but at the end of the day they trusted God and that's the lesson that we learned from this and the beautiful thing is that God and only God has the power to redeem the broken parts of our stories because their choices that we make that people have made that have affected our lives and we all know people who've been just so deeply wounded and damaged by sin committed against them or sinful choices they've made and you think how could God ever make something beautiful out of this but he can turn ashes to beauty he has the ability to redeem the faults the failures the guilt the sin the shame the abuse the things that have been committed about us and we've all walked with friends and loved ones and experienced it at some level ourselves that God can make all things beautiful in his time and it is my message of the gospel is that God turns a cross into an empty tomb that isn't only there that's throughout redemptive history that's our story that's the story of our friends who are listening right now that's used to your story that's the story of you and your family it happens over and over again but a word picture is from the cross to the empty tomb God is writing the story it's beautiful you know you to talk about this so peacefully almost gratefully you talk about your pain with some quality that is really unique and hard sometimes for others to understand but as I read through the pages of your book I saw something Nancy I've known you for over a decade and this book is just full of things I didn't know about you and what I saw is that through your childhood your family prepared you for those moments of pain to choose trust and let me say that pain is an is painful mm-hmm it's never not painful suffering hurts it's hard and when we're in the midst of some unexpected plot twists in our own lives I'll just speak for myself I'm not always peaceful and grateful and you know calm and collected sometimes I feel frantic or frazzled or frustrated or upset or angry or whatever but there is something that both of us have been given as a great gift from our parents which I realize that many of my friends and many of our listeners don't have but they can give it to others that is the gift of growing up in a home and in an example of being grounded in the Word of God and really good theology which just means what you believe about God believing the right things about God really does incredibly prepare us to face hardship and I'm thinking as we're talking about Steve Saint who's the son of one of the martyred missionaries in Ecuador along with Jim Elliot his dad Nate st. was one of those martyred missionaries years later Steve saying and his wife lost a child in a very awful sudden freak illness where she basically just dropped dead it was a like 20 years old something like that and when I talked to him about that later he said he'd the way he watched his mother and those other widows respond to the news of five of those women losing their husbands he saw them anchoring their hearts in the Word of God and then goodness of God decades earlier he said that prepared him for that moment when he and his wife would be holding their daughters lifeless body so it doesn't make it easy but it does say that if your heart is tethered to who God is and to his word then you have that moment like when I get the news about my dad you know being taken suddenly on the weekend of my 21st birthday and what comes to mind is that kind of default that's been placed in there through the scripture and that is God is good and everything he does is good so you weep you wail sometimes you wish it were different sometimes you kind of push back and say I don't I don't think so not you it's not what you would choose but you realize that if you knew what God knows mm-hmm it is what you would choose and one day we will see we will know and we will say Lord you did all things well yeah you're so kind in saying that we sound peaceful talking about these things but Nancy and I have gotten the baseball I've got Nancy into into baseball and this is like looking at the box score the following morning that's pretty objective well this is what happened but in the middle of the game you know when you when you hit a pop-up and the bases are loaded I mean it's frustrating in real life it we we cry we struggle we question we wonder we doubt all of those things in the moment and and you know the model there is the scripture the Book of Psalms is filled with lament 70% of the Psalms that David wrote are lament like why are you doing this what are you doing oh and even Jesus said take this cup from even Jesus even Jesus lamented in the Garden of Gethsemane and said really father is there another plan is there another way to do this so it's okay to do that because he knew that beyond the cross there would be the resurrection yeah promise of life his father could be trusted yeah yeah that's the message you know as I'm as I'm listening to this I'm thinking that trusting God is kind of a little bit like banking you don't want to get to one of your painful periods in life or a time when you really need to choose to trust God and not have built up something in your emotional account in terms of truth and pondering God's Word and hearing other stories of trusting him so that you're ready for those mountains right now it's a reserve that you have for the difficult rainy stormy day and that's what we're gonna do this month on revive our hearts we're gonna build up the reserve of women you may not be in a particularly difficult painful time right now but you're gonna be preparing your heart for when and if those times come and and there'll be some who actually are in like need a lifeline a life preserver at the moment and a whole range of everything in between because you know what I'm thinking is that it is God's providence that they'll hear ya just the right word that's right on just the right program on just the right day for their story this month how exciting is that I just chills when I was a kid somebody said to me you pack your lunch before you're hungry so it's it's it's the vault it's the bank it's putting money in reserves someday you'll need to write a check on those funds so that's what this is it's even when you don't feel like it you you commit to doing the right things day after day and someday you'll need that yeah I cannot wait to get this book into the hands of men and women Nancy and Robert it's called you can trust God to write your story embracing the mysteries of Providence we'd love to send you a copy of this book when you make a gift in any amount this month to revive our hearts you can make that gift at revive our hearts calm or call us at one eight hundred five six nine five nine five nine Nancy I am very excited about unfolding I guess some of the more transparent parts of your story and Robert your story tomorrow on revive our hearts as we continue to talk about trusting God to write your story

Channel: Revive Our Hearts

Views: 13,310

Rating: 4.9405942 out of 5

Keywords: You Can Trust God, Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, Robert Wolgemuth, suffering, providence

Id: EZbj_Rv9764

Length: 27min 32sec (1652 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 05 2019