Episode 6 – How to protect your peace during times of turmoil

Episode 6 Transcript

Brigitte Factor 0:13 Hello, and welcome to the hungry for truth podcast. I'm your host, Brigitte Factor, a truth seeker, researcher, scientist, nutritionist, teacher in truth teller, and awakening is coming. Get ready for it.

Brigitte Factor 0:47 Welcome back to the hungry for truth podcast. I'm your host, Brigitte Factor. And I'm so glad you're here. We're just a couple of days away from Christmas. And so I wanted to spend today talking about peace and how we can protect our peace. So today's episode is going to be personal. I'm going to be sharing some of my story, some of my testimony and some of the lessons learned through my own experience, and talking about how I have learned to protect my peace, especially during this past year. But first I wanted to share a funny story, just to you know, lighten the mood, and share a story from you know, a recent episode driving around with my kids, and my youngest asking me about how my name is spelt because he noticed that the name on my coffee cup was not spelt like he was normally used to seeing it. And I explained to him, you know, my name is spelt BRIGITTE. And the American pronunciation is Bridgette, if you're French, you can say Bridgette, if you're German, you can say bruh-Geeta, and to which immediately my oldest son replied, gesundheit. So, that's the silliness that happens in our family driving around town, which my boys are a lot of fun. And they're super silly. But I just love having moments like that, that are light hearted and fun, even during these crazy times. And I wanted to share that with you.

Brigitte Factor 2:31 So really, what I wanted to talk about today was peace in this idea of, you know, we think of the song peace on earth, and how we can have peace in this time of turmoil. And as tension and division is increasing on Earth as well. And this year has been hard for many of us. You know, we have gone through a lot, as a community as a country in each of our own families. Some of us have lost loved ones, and some of us have lost jobs, the stress has definitely been increasing. And that's been, you know, the theme from several of my podcasts is how to handle that and how we can shift our thinking. Last week, I talked about how to shift out of a fear based mindset to a love based mindset and how that can actually help us be healthier and more resilient. And today, I wanted to share more about my personal story, because I think it is relevant during this time. And my hope is that, that as I share these lessons that I have learned and experienced personally, that they help you. And that you can find something that you resonate with, or something that helps you reframe, or have hope during this time, especially as we move into 2021.

Brigitte Factor 3:58 But it was a year ago, around this time. You know, about a week before Christmas, I had hit a really another low point in my life, another rock bottom moment, and our family was going through a difficult challenge where we felt like we had the rug pulled out from other under us. And, you know, we were struggling to figure out what was next. And we knew that God was our provider. But things had changed for us and we needed to figure out what what was next. And even though we had trust and faith in the Lord, to take care of us and provide for us. It was still challenging. It was still you know, shaking our beliefs and the tension was increasing. And I let my thoughts spiral to a negative place and get out of control, too. To the point where it brought me to a low point and I had to reach out for help. And at that point, I reached out for help, and was encouraged to start working with a counselor. And I am very thankful that I had done that at that point, because it was the work with my counselor that helped me manage the season of 2020. And what we have been through in 2020, it was challenging for me. Because as the pandemic hit, I was working on several things in my business, and in our in my community, trying to get bills passed, and laws changed and grow my business and established partnerships and all of this stuff, and it just all shut down. One by one, things started shutting down, things started that I had been working hard for four years, we're being taken away. And it was really, really challenging. And it felt like I was losing control. And that was hard because I had put so much effort, and prayer and focus and energy and time into trying to accomplish these things. And they were just all taken away. And it started to trigger some PTSD in me, and I don't use that term lightly. I have suffered from PTSD. And I know that that's a serious issue for some people. And it brought me back to that moment in my life. Where I had had my rock bottom moment that my my car accident that happened, some of you may be aware of this, some of you not.

Brigitte Factor 6:51 But several years ago, I was in graduate school, working towards my PhD. And in there, I was under a lot of stress and strain. And I had a car accident that took me out of my PhD program. And I had suffered PTSD from that car accident. And at that point, I had lost everything that I was working for, towards then because you know, my goal, my focus, I had a lot of selfish ambition was to achieve that highest level of education and get my PhD. And that was taken away from me. Because of the trauma that I had suffered, and I had to reframe and, and basically build my identity from scratch. You know, I had, my identity was wrapped up in my accomplishments at that time. And I had to learn who I was as a child of God. And I had to start that all over. It was a really rough time for me, I had to rebuild my confidence and who I was in Christ, and the way this pandemic is being handled, no the fear of losing my freedom, the loss of the things that I was working towards, brought me back to that place where I started, the trauma started to resurface. And I started to experience PTSD symptoms again. But thankfully, I had family supporting me, I had the support of a Wonderful Counselor helping me work through that trauma, helping me release that trauma that gets stored in the body and deal with it and face it again, instead of stuffing it back down, which was my normal way of dealing with things was just saying, I'm such I'm strong, I can handle this all you know, and you just push it away, instead of facing it. Well, this time I had to face it, it was time to deal with it and get rid of it, and and release it. And it was through these trials that we have, that we are refined, right? That make us stronger. And for me, it was also drawing me closer to my Creator, and re learning who I was in Christ and the value that I have in him and how he is ultimately in control and he has a plan for my life. He has a plan for each of our lives, plans to give us hope and a future and that he's got this he is going to take care of me and I it took a lot of hard work to get to that point of realizing that he's got this that I don't have to worry my worry and fret isn't accomplish any accomplishing anything. And, you know, I spent a lot of time in the in the word reading the Bible praying, having conversations with God working through this. And I had this moment of Oh, I it's hard to explain this moment of real realisation or awakening, where I realized that it's not my efforts that are going to get me through this, it's my complete reliance on him. And that he wants what's best for me. And it just took a lot of weight off. And I had to learn to release the shame of trying to do everything right, and feeling like I was failing.

Brigitte Factor 10:28 And, and to reframe those false beliefs that we circulate in our head, or that we grab onto in our head to try to justify things. And I talked about, you know, how our thoughts affect our biology last time, and the importance of reframing our beliefs from one of fear to one of love. And so I had to learn to reframe myself with the work that I was doing the personal work that I was doing this year. And I want to go back to what I talked about in the last episode about how all of our responses either come from love or fear. And we can choose which what how we respond now, but we have to first be aware of how we're responding, we have to first be aware of those thoughts that we're thinking and how they're driving our behavior and our beliefs. And Denise touched on this in her when I interviewed her about that awareness is that first step. And that's why it's important to have loving wise people around you, so that they can be that reflection, to help you have a better awareness of what's going on. And, you know, the understanding that the majority of the thoughts we think happen on the subconscious level, they're reactions that are built into our nervous system that we don't actively control their subconscious. And we have to do a lot of work to reprogram that we we can't just rely on what we've always done. And there's ways to do that. And some of the work I was doing with my counselor was helping me to reprogram that nervous system response. So that I would shift out of that place of fear or that place of fight or flight reaction that was causing some of my symptoms. And it also takes, you know, work in identifying those negative thoughts or those thoughts that are not true and fighting them with truth or reframing them with truth. That's what I want to touch on today is to share the lessons that I'm learning as I walk through this, in hopes that they can help you or inspire you or that you can share with somebody else who may be walking through this as well.

Brigitte Factor 12:55 And some of the stuff that I'm going to share is comes from a book called The way of life by Bill Johnson. And Bill Johnson is the pastor of Bethel Church. And I just love how he puts this in a perspective that is really understandable and profound. And it really comes back to understanding how we respond to things. And how to, not to give way to fear based thinking, and to recognize what we're thinking about and to respond from a place of love. Because if we're responding from a place of fear based thinking, and that fear is thinking apart from the promise of God, and we are exchanging that piece for fear the piece that we have in Christ, we are exchanging that for fear based thinking. And once we realize that we're not thinking along with Christ, that we're not capturing those thoughts and submitting them to the truth. We have to ask ourselves, where is the root of this wrong thinking, coming from where am I ignorant of truth that is being mishandled or truth or unbelief? And how is that unbelief showing up in my life? And how can I correct it? We aren't designed by God, to live in fear, we are given a spirit not a fear but of power and love and sound mind. In our human nature, or our fallen world. It's easy to react out of our instincts to protect ourselves. That's human nature. But really, we need to learn to tap into the love response. wrong thinking doesn't coexist with peace. When we have fear based thinking we are thinking apart from the promise that has been given to us from Jesus, once we realize that we can ask God for His peace and really start to dig into what's at the root of the wrong thinking that I'm having. Where am I ignorant of truth or mishandled truth in my unbelief because it's the mishandled truth that drives the suffering we experience in life. We can start to reframe that wrong thinking we can find peace again. The key to this is understanding that peace is a relational journey with Jesus. It's abiding in Christ, being led by the Holy Spirit, with absolute trust in God.

Brigitte Factor 15:27 And so we have that peace when we abide in Christ. When I embrace fear instead of peace. I am doubting God, I am doubting those beliefs, those promises that He has given us. One of the lessons I've learned is that if I make an effort to protect my peace, his peace will protect me. But it comes about in a relationship with him and spending time in His Word, and talking to him and listening for his voice to reveal truth to me, in His Word says that, if I give up my right for understanding, he will give me a peace that surpasses understanding. And that's really hard for me as a scientist, because I want to understand I'm hugely curious about how things work. But there's also a part of having faith where you have to let that go in order to have peace. And if I choose to live in response to Father God, and not in reaction to darkness, and I think that is a very good piece of wisdom here, living in response to our father, instead of in response to the negativity and the division and the deception that is happening in our world. Right now. The devil is the father of lies. Okay, he that is that's what he does, is he deceives. And it is very obvious that we are being lied to right now. And it's difficult to discern truth from wise, because they're mixed, you know, the idea of these conspiracy theories is that there's a little bit of truth in each one of them. And it's really hard to discern who is telling us the truth, and what is a lie. And we know that people in power lie, and that absolute power corrupts. Those are just universal truths. And so we have to have discernment, we have to ask for that discernment. But ultimately, we have to rely and trust our sovereign God to guide us through this time. And another lesson that I learned is that faith doesn't come from striving. It comes from surrender. It comes from a place of rest in peace. And that was another lesson that was hard for me because I want you know, one of my strengths and Strengths Finder is achiever. I like to achieve things I like to accomplish things. And I'm used to striving in my own strength to do those things. And realizing that my success in life isn't going to come from me constantly striving, it's going to come from me, being at a place of rest, not inaction, but a place of peace, and where I am in, that can give me clarity on where I'm going, and that I just need to focus on that next step. And another verse that I love is that perfect love drives out fear. And I mentioned that last time, I'm living in fear, I'm not living in love, and faith rests and fights from a place of rest and confidence in God. So all of these lessons are very valuable in, you know, reframing, how we aren't supposed to be reacting out of fear, we are constantly bombarded with these messages, messages of be afraid, be afraid. And that's not how God asks us to live. And we're in it's creating this deception, that we should be afraid of our neighbor, that we should view each other as threats that we should call 911. If somebody's not wearing a mask, and that's just utter nonsense we are. We are called to love each other we are called to walk in grace with each other and to see each other as God sees us. God doesn't see us as these vessels of disease carrying death spreading bodies. God views us as His child, we are vessels of love and light. And we have to ship back to that understanding.

Brigitte Factor 19:41 And I want to read this section from this book by Bill Johnson, because I think it speaks some profound truth that our nation needs to hear right now. It says when peace is the agreed upon value of a community of believers who are contending for on earth as it is in heaven, they will not use fear to control or influence others. This is so deeply rooted in our culture, that people often seem to be unaware of using this tool to manipulate others to their need or point of view. And I'm going to insert in here, this is also happens inside the church, you know, the ultra religious people can also use fear, to try to control and manipulate their point of view. And it goes on to say politicians do it a lot. Most of the media outlets live off the money produced by fear. You know, I used to wonder why people love scary movies. You know, I hated them. I, you know, my friends would try to drag me to the scary movie. And I always ended up leaving early, because it just, it made me sick. It just didn't feel right. But I understand now that that fear response produces an adrenaline rush. And that adrenaline rush is what drives people to want to keep watching the news and keep watching scary stuff. It's a it's like a drug that keeps us stuck. And the news is designed for entertainment. It's designed for consumption. So one of the biggest ways we can protect our peace is to turn off the television, the television is just a box of lies. Most of the stuff that comes out of the television is completely untrue. Even the commercials, I mean, I turned off the television A long time ago, I haven't watched a mainstream shows and news in several years, because I could not stand how we were being blatantly lied true to through the programming that was coming through the television. And the passage goes on to say heavens culture doesn't allow the use of instruments of fear, as fear is inferior to and undermines real faith. problems exist, in seeing them from God's perspective is the safest way to survive, thrive and overcome in the days we live in. We are living in some pretty dark times. And while I believe reframing to prop positive belief can have benefit, I understand that that doesn't take away the problems. It's not a cure. And I'm not asking you to lie to yourself, by you know, repeating something that's not true. To try to shift into a positive mindset. What we need to do is to reframe from, from the truth of who we are rooted in our identity in Christ, that we are wonderful, beautiful children of God, that he views us as holy and blameless, that we have to shift away from this guilt, this fear, this shame that keeps us stuck. We, in order to turn things around, we really need to shift to a place of love and viewing each other as the way God views his creation. He loves us, He created us to love us and for us, to love others. You know, that's the command of the Bible is to love God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul, all your strength. And then to love your neighbor as you love yourself. We have to go back to that fundamental truth to get through this difficult time. And I'm not denying that people are dying, yes, people are dying, but we are being lied to. And this whole situation is being blown out of proportion out of context, and making it worse. And that to get through this difficult time. To have a positive influence on our community. We need to shift to a place of loving our neighbor. That is what's going to help bring about peace. That's what's going to help bring about internal peace, knowing who we are in Christ, knowing who you are in Christ that you are loved. And when we have that confidence in our salvation and who we are, it's easier for us to reach out from a place of love to others instead of fear.

Brigitte Factor 24:22 So, I hope these lessons that I have learned some of them have helped you through this time. Ultimately, as we move into the Christmas time, to focus on our Lord and Savior, the source of our peace. He is the source of our peace. He is called the Prince of Peace. And that's in him when we rest in him. That's when we will have peace and we can have peace on earth but it is through us as believers. It's not Gonna be something that just, we're waiting for a time when he comes back, and it's all going to be better. No, we are saved to be the hands and feet of Jesus on earth on earth as it is in heaven. And that was done through those who follow him. So I hope this message blesses you. And I'm gonna say a prayer for you, as we close today. Dear Lord, thank you for this opportunity to share your love with others. I thank you for each one listening right now. I asked for your peace to cover them, Lord, for the peace that transcends understanding to surround them during this time. And I asked that you put on them the very character of Christ, the belt of truth, the shoes of peace, the breastplate of righteousness, Lord, the helmet of salvation, that, that when they put on that very character of Christ, they can stand firm and who you are. And they can be that light on the hill for others to see. I thank you for the hope for a brighter future for each one of us. Lord, I thank you for your love and your grace. Thank you for creating each one of us. Help us to know who we are in you, at all times. Help us to be vessels of love and light and peace to the world. And I ask this in Jesus name, amen. I want you to know how much I appreciate you taking the time to listen if you enjoyed this episode, please consider sharing it with others or leaving a review or just reaching out and sending me a message. That would be wonderful. If you would like to get more lessons from me in your email, then you can go to my website Brigitte Factor calm and I have a seven day email course that's free to sign up and it will send you lessons and you'll get on my newsletter and it's a great way for us to stay connected and to communicate. But I hope that you have a wonderful Christmas holiday and new years and I thank you so much for listening, and until next time and grace and peace to you.