Taking Our Faith Out Into the World

What does it actually look like to live your faith in everyday life—at work, in hard conversations, in disappointment, and in a world that often feels heavy?

In this episode of Speaking of Faith, Bishop DeDe and Adam talk about what it means to carry faith beyond church walls and into ordinary life. The conversation begins with a question many people are quietly asking: Is it okay to feel joy when there is so much suffering in the world? Bishop DeDe reflects on the idea that joy, kindness, generosity, and compassion are not ways of ignoring the world’s pain—they are acts of resilience, resistance, and faith. Living a good, joyful, compassionate life is not selfish; it is part of our Christian witness.

A major theme in this episode is that most of the time, we share our faith not through words, but through how we live. How we treat coworkers, how we handle conflict, whether we gossip or show integrity, whether we are kind, honest, prepared, respectful, and compassionate—these things speak louder than any religious language ever could. Faith in the workplace often looks like integrity, consistency, humility, and treating every person with dignity.

The conversation also explores how to talk about faith in a way that is life-giving rather than harmful or fear-based. Too often, Christianity has been associated with judgment, fear, or exclusion. Instead, we are called to be self-defined by love, repentance, forgiveness, and resurrection—not by anger, fear, or the need to win arguments. The goal is not to shout louder, but to live differently.

Bishop DeDe also reflects on the pattern of the Christian life as a constant movement through death and resurrection. We experience this pattern in conflicts, failures, job loss, broken relationships, disappointment, and grief. There are moments when things fall apart, when we feel lost or in despair, when we feel like we are in the Garden of Gethsemane asking for the cup to pass from us. But those moments are not separate from faith—they are part of the spiritual journey. The promise of resurrection is that despair and failure are never the end of the story.

Ultimately, this episode is an invitation to live intentionally and faithfully wherever you are—in your workplace, your family, your friendships, and your community. You may not always be able to preach about faith, but you can always live it. Every act of kindness, integrity, forgiveness, compassion, and humility is a way of taking your faith out into the world.

As the episode reminds us, we cannot fix everything, and we cannot carry the whole world. But we can do the next faithful thing in front of us. We can bring love into the spaces we inhabit. We can choose not to dehumanize others. We can rest, pray, begin again, and keep moving forward.

And in every season—whether in joy, failure, doubt, grief, or hope—the promise remains the same: You are loved beyond measure. And you are called to be a blessing.

AI Disclosure: To support our staff in their limited time,  many of our episode summaries are first generated by AI and then edited by the Communications Director to accurately reflect and preview our podcast episodes.

Transcript

Bishop DeDe (00:02.327)
Hey friends, welcome to the podcast, Speaking of Faith. Boy, is that something we don't really do a lot of, speaking of our faith, or maybe you do speak about your faith. Let's talk about it. My name is Dee Dee Duncan Probee. I am the Episcopal Bishop of Central New York, Canada to Pennsylvania, Utica to Elmira, that big swath of New York right in the center, Central New York. And I'm joined by Adam Eichelberger, who is our Director of Communications. And we're here today to talk about

how we live in this time. People recently have said to me, I feel kind of bad being happy because of all that is happening in our world, the war and the suffering. Or people have said to me, well, I go to work and I just feel like I don't know how to bring God to the workplace. How do I live my faith? How do I speak about faith when I'm at work or in public places? How does that work?

And so listener, you were invited to this conversation. This is a conversation. You're always invited to send in your questions and comments because we do take those seriously. I do respond to those during the podcast. And so this podcast is about empowering all of us to live more intentionally and to live more boldly the faith that we have and that we believe in. So let's get into it. So.

In this time, once there's so much suffering in the world, we kind of feel like we should be muted or we shouldn't be saying that we're having a good day at work or that we're feeling good about how our life is progressing. And I wonder about that because, you know, part of whether you want to say resistance or resiliency, integrity is about living our best lives. You know, the best revenge is a life well lived.

joy in the midst of sorrow is where we find God and where we connect with God's ongoing love and mercy. As a Christian, at the heart of our Christian polity is the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, the passion of Jesus, which when this podcast comes out, will be in the middle of Holy Week, this time when we really look at draw closely to the cross and to the suffering of God.

Bishop DeDe (02:23.435)
And the purpose of our faith is the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the dying to ourselves, the repentance of our sin, that acknowledgement that we aren't living fully for God. And then that renewal of our lives that comes through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Bishop 

DeDe (00:02.944)
As Augustine would tell us, we are resurrection at the people. At the grave we make our cry, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. It is part of our actual funeral rite in the Episcopal Church that even in times of sorrow, we seek joy, we seek that restoration of Jesus. And so in our living of our lives, we're not called to go about and sack cloth and ashes. That's even in our scriptures.

We're called to proclaim something that's bigger than this moment and reminding ourselves and others that God is bigger than this moment. And so being joyous, sharing love, being compassionate, being generous, being kind, these are acts of not only resistance and resiliency, but invitation to all of us to live more fully into the life we believe in.

Our Christian polity says we're going to love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. That no matter what is happening, our love of God is bigger. And then like that, that we're going to love our neighbor as ourselves. When we seek to care for one another, and that includes caring for ourself, we can't love our neighbor if we're harsh with ourselves. We can't truly help others if we're constantly in self-denial. That is a

that corrupts our witness. But when we are practicing self-care, when we are honoring what does bring us joy and then offering that joy to the world, it offers something to the world that is not readily available all the time, which is a transformed life offering transformation. So when we go to work, taking with us our faith in God, however you listener may experience God, if you're Christian,

or another religion that you bring to work the fullness of your belief that God is present or in the ways that God is present. And then share that with our coworkers. We don't, you know, we all often think that sharing our faith means speaking words. And I want to affirm that sometimes it does. Sometimes it does mean saying, I'm praying for you and I hope that, you know, you feel

Bishop DeDe (02:23.116)
the love of God or the love of eternal being with you, whatever your phrase is. But how we live our lives is an expression of our faith. So if we're generous and kind, that says something. If we're hateful and secret keeping and gothsopee, that says something. When I was a priest, used to say, I would preach about once a year, because there's a reading that would come up.

I would talk about turn signals when we're driving. And one of my parishioners would always say, you're meddling now. And I would say, yes, I actually am. Because when we drive our car, when we are at the store, when we're at the office, if we're the person who's always trying to put people down or get a, if we're harsh or dehumanizing or cutting into traffic and not signaling, then we're contributing to a world.

that is not transformed. We're contributing to a world that's self-focused, where they're seeking revenge, where we're part of something that corrupts the soul. But our faith is about being healed and renewed and resurrected in our soul. So identifying where we're being selfish, where we're being competitive unnecessarily, where we may be dehumanizing because we're trying to get ahead, those are places where we need to repent and be renewed.

And in this season of holy week, of drawing close to Jesus and the disciples, to be reminded of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, to be reminded of Jesus praying to God and seeking to invite others to pray with him and be pastoral with him and their dismissal of him. They go to sleep. They're like, I'm tired, dude. You you pray. I'm all over. We had a big meal. You know, I'm going to take a break.

And Jesus is, can't you even stay with me an hour? Can't you even recognize what's happening for me? And I wonder for us, if there aren't people in our lives at work or around us who might be saying a similar thing, can't you just pay attention to the fact that this is hard for me? I'm grieving, I'm suffering, I'm sorrowing. And for us to bring into those spaces our companionship, our prayerfulness, our willingness to reach out to others.

Bishop DeDe (04:45.588)
our kindness, our generosity. And so we have an opportunity in this moment when the world is just wrestling and fighting and divided to be about something bigger, greater, stronger, healing. And that begins with how we are, what we have in our lives. So we've practiced all through Lent, having acts of piety, we've given something up, we've taken something on.

and the desire is that it prepare us for the resurrection of Jesus. So my question to you listener is how has that worked for you? Has the thing you've given up or taken on helped you be closer to God? And how is that transforming the way you see your life? How is it inviting you to greater peace, greater stability, a sense of your purpose? When we give over that purpose thinking, I need to feel bad because things are

terrible, then we give up that center of our being where we can say, you know, things are terrible and I acknowledge that and I know God is bigger than this moment and I will find my peace and my security in my faith. I will live my faith in each situation. I find myself ready to be kind, to be generous, ready to seek the well-being of another like first Corinthians 13 ready to

not be a clanging gong, but rather to be an ambassador of the love of Christ. And especially in this season, that there's never anything so broken that the redemption of Jesus isn't inviting us into a resurrection, a holier way of living, forgiveness, restoration, wholeness. So I've talked a lot about this, Adam, and so I welcome you to the conversation.

As we're talking about how we are in this moment and how we're bringing our faith into our lives, what is kind of alive for you in this conversation?

Adam Eichelberger (06:52.443)
I couldn't agree with how you started off Bishop. I very much share the sentiment that right now it's so difficult for me to celebrate the wins. It's so difficult for me to feel joy or happiness. I hope this doesn't reflect poorly on me with you, but it's difficult for me to go to work because there's so much going on. And it's helpful for me to kind of take a step back.

Bishop DeDe (07:10.862)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Adam Eichelberger (07:19.899)
And remember that this begins with how I live my life. I can't remember who said it earlier in my life, but I think it was a priest that said, the best witness that we can give to who God is, is the way that we live our lives. And I think that that's super important, whether we're in the workplace, whether we're a student, no matter what our role or a vocation is right now, it's living by it's living that love of God by example. I think that's how we get this done. We have a unique.

Bishop DeDe (07:32.77)
That's right.

Bishop DeDe (07:44.674)
Mm-hmm.

Adam Eichelberger (07:50.046)
position you I the people that we work with in the sense that Talking about faith in the workplace is commonplace for us. It's literally what we do These two things don't just it the Venn diagram is a perfect circle for us So I guess the thought I was having for those of our of our friends who were joining us for this episode What does this look like when we move beyond? When we feel that sense to move beyond

Bishop DeDe (07:58.702)
Right.

Bishop DeDe (08:04.15)
Which exactly. Exactly.

Adam Eichelberger (08:19.697)
just the living of it. And we have somebody in our life who starts asking us questions. Maybe they've got some doubts. They're going through a hard time. Somebody's sick. They lost a job. There's so many reasons why somebody may come to us and start asking us big questions about God, life, purpose, all of that stuff. Because I can't tell you how many times Bishop, I've struck out with like, well, you should come with me to church. Like that's my first response. And it's like, this never worked. That never works.

Bishop DeDe (08:44.843)
man.

Mm-hmm.

Adam Eichelberger (08:48.335)
So what does that look like? I'm curious for us, what does that look like in some practical ways? Like what is the discussion we start having? What are some things that we can do to start really getting into those deeper topics with folks?

Bishop DeDe (09:05.698)
Well, boy, is that a tough question. So listener, I'm going to invite you into answering this question. What are some ways that you found where you can share your faith in a way that's life-giving both for you and for the listener? you know, I think first and foremost, the thing that comes to my mind is to sort of G D church our language. Often we want to say things that, you know, from the catechesis, you know, we want to go to real churchy language and

For someone who may have never had a faith or may not be part of the Christian faith, to speak instead of, know, churchy language to talk about where someone is finding love or what brings them hope or how they're connecting with their deepest sense of purpose and how our interconnectedness as a species is a real thing. I mean, when we talk about, one of the things I love about Dr. Robin Wall-Kimmerer,

is she talks about the interrelatedness of nature, like pecan trees, or especially sequoias, for instance. The reason these huge trees can stand up is their roots are intertwined and they hold each other up and they're both a basic part of their being. For us, our connectedness with other people is similar to that. So if we're at a workplace and God isn't the topic, as you're right, we're pretty much on that topic.

But we're at a workplace where that isn't the topic, but kindness or generosity, compassion are, or we're in, especially if we're in a workspace where it's very cutthroat and there's a lot of revenge and where there's a lot of kill or be killed behavior. First, there may be some decisions to be made if that's a good place for us. Maybe this is a place where we need to look at some.

some career options if that's not a good place. But then secondly, we can be self-defined in situations that are difficult. To choose our reaction rather than to be co-opted into a way of being. To kind of look at the system and say, okay, who will I be in this work environment? I'm gonna, this is what I bring my integrity to work. I bring my honesty, I bring my compassion.

Bishop DeDe (11:30.804)
and I engage with people with a sense of who I am, where I've done the work to internally have a whole being. And then in this environment, I adjust how I behave to be the most effective. In some environments, it's not a great idea to be super honest and vulnerable because the environment is very cutthroat. But in that environment, we can choose to live in a certain way where

we're protecting ourselves and others where we're not engaging in harming others, but we're engaged in transforming the system in the ways that we can. And all of this is situational lead dependent. mean, in some places we have a lot of power over how a system functions at other times we have no power over it, but we have power over the things that are us. So how I think, how I allow something to impact me.

the ways in which I self-care, the ways in which I engage with others all reflect my economy of belief. And so that can be a very difficult thing in certain environments. For most of us though, especially, I was a school teacher before all of this. And I think as a school teacher, how I treated my students with respect, how I treated my coworkers with respect.

how I went to meetings and I was prepared for the meetings and I was on time and respected people's time, how I wasn't expecting people to take care of me, but was a partner in work. Those are ways of being that speak to our faith. We're not saying Jesus or, know, catechesis, but we're saying how I live is how I believe. And so I respect the dignity of every human being. I seek justice. I tell the truth.

I try to ask for forgiveness or I say I'm sorry when I've done something wrong and say, I hope you can forgive me. Let's work on this. I try to do better. And that is how we can bring our faith into the workplace, regardless of what the topic is. It's how we are that will speak to it. I had a experience once as a school teacher, because as a school teacher, you don't talk about faith because it's,

Bishop DeDe (13:56.386)
I think illegal. So I just was working with teenagers at the time. And one of the teenagers was kind of, you know, an edgy kid that was big on talking about Satan worship. He's big on talking about all kinds of stuff. He was he was one of those people who's a little bit, you know, he was just trying things on and being edgy. And one day he said to me, so well, he said, I know you probably don't approve of people lying. And I said, well, what do you mean?

And he said, well, you seem to be like a Christian. And I was curious about this. So what does that mean to you? And he said, well, you're always nice to everybody, all the kids. said, and we we've talked about, we don't know who your favorite student is. And it struck me that for him, being a Christian was that I treated them equally, which was curious to me. So it's still even today, I think, isn't that interesting that that was how he saw my faith?

was that I didn't have favorites. And to this day, I really try very hard, clergy who are listening, people in parishes who are listening, that I don't have favorites. To each person when I am in front of them, when I'm relating to them, is a beloved child of God, and it's my responsibility to act that way. All of us have the ability to embody the love of Jesus.

in our lives and ways that spoken and unspoken how we exist, how we are. And I think people feel that far more than if we say it. If I say I love Jesus, but then don't have, you know, joy, that's what Paul is talking about. Then I become a clanging gong. I just say stuff, but then act differently. It's that consistency of living that really helps.

Adam Eichelberger (15:52.373)
100 % agree. When we stay consistent, that is sometimes the best form of evangelism. And it's interesting that you made this a great little segue because you talked about this difficult student who had a particular worldview and his particular worldview of Christians is, well, you're nice. And he somehow made a connection that like

This is something he opposes and this niceness is something he opposes. And that's not me judging this individual, but it drummed up the thought for me. You and I have seen this time and time again, I think just a couple of weeks ago, I can't remember where we were. There's always seems to be somebody when big things are happening. You're at a game, a big event, a concert. It could just be a Thursday on campus at SU. There's one or two guys standing on a street corner and they've got their

Bishop DeDe (16:41.296)
huh.

Adam Eichelberger (16:46.76)
Like those things as like three signs stacked on top of each other. And it starts with like, yeah, yeah, like I am the way, truth and life. And it's like repent or burn. And it just gets progressively worse and worse as the signage goes down.

Bishop DeDe (16:49.943)
Yeah, placards,

Bishop DeDe (16:58.988)
God hates these people and God hates those people and turn get right or get left. Yep.

Adam Eichelberger (17:05.104)
Exactly. And the rhetoric gets really ramped up. And I think that sometimes we as Christians, regardless of your flavor of Christianity, kind of get lumped in with that form of evangelism. And then that word evangelism gets to become like an ugly word. We've talked about evangelism a little bit on this podcast, but what does that look like for us? Because this is not exactly in the workplace, but it does have to do with the workplace. What is that?

that, like, how do we avoid getting caught up in using hateful language or hurtful rhetoric when it comes to talking about God? Because I feel like sometimes for a lot of folks, there's way more fear involved when it comes to a relationship with God or the church than love and acceptance. So how do we get around and navigate the fear that so many people feel

about talking about God one-on-one or to other people.

Bishop DeDe (18:09.646)
Great question. And listener, this is a conversation. You're invited to consider how would you answer that for yourself? I I can say for me, the way I'd answer that is, Christianity has been so corrupted and co-opted over the years, whether some will talk about Constantine and empire and others will talk about colonialism and others will talk about Christian nationalism.

white Christian nationalism, white supremacy, doctrine of discovery, crusades. mean, the list is dreary and long. Slavery, racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia. The misappropriation of faith is as endemic to faith as anything else almost. Hopefully the resurrection of Jesus is

more pronounced, but really in these times right now, it's hard to get past those deficits. And I would say that, you know, the word self-definition will come up a lot in my language. I think I say it a lot, the same as dehumanization. Those two choices, forces, facts of life, realities are always in competition with each Our tendency to dehumanization and our

need to self differentiate. One place of really dehumanization is with our preaching. mean, we for centuries have preached about those Jews, anti-Semitism. I mean, it's just heavy in some ways, because when we talk about those Pharisees or those Jews, we're talking about a group of people who are taking seriously their faith.

and trying to live their lives. Making mistakes, failing, being hard-hearted, judgmental, but trying hard and also probably doing good things. No different from you or I. And yet when we talk about them, they're the people who killed Jesus, we take no responsibility for the fact that we're just as culpable as anyone and that we have no high ground, no weird, know, throwing rocks at glass houses that we live in. And so,

Bishop DeDe (20:36.226)
For all of us, we need to differentiate ourselves from our environments, and we need to be self-defined around repentance and forgiveness and resurrection. In this season, especially here we are in Holy Week with the triduum of Thursday, the Maundy Thursday or the Mondatum, the great commandment to love one another.

Holy Friday, Jesus's passion and death, the time in the tomb on Holy Saturday, and then the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Saturday evening, Sunday morning, whether you celebrate the vigil, the great vigil of Easter or Sunday morning. So this movement that is throughout all of history, well, we know that in our own lives. And I would bring it into this conversation because we go along and there's a situation.

and we want to put others down. We want to dehumanize those people. They're so terrible. But we have a conflict with a coworker and we're at odds with them. We're going to battle them. We're going to fight fire with fire. We're going to be all whatever. And then we realize, you know what? That's breaking this relationship and we need to die to that. We need to let it go. And then there's the time of healing. And then we talk with the coworker.

and we work out a better arrangement or we just come to peace with it in ourselves and then we come through with resurrection. That movement through the passion and resurrection, it plays over and over in our lives. We often think of it as a one-time event and yet in our faith, we are always moving through our moment in the Garden of Gethsemane of doubt and Lord, let this, if it be your will, let this cup pass for me. And then moving through

to remembering the commandments of God and then moving through to rededicating ourselves to those commandments and then experiencing in whatever way is possible the resurrection of Jesus in this moment of renewal. And so for all of us, dehumanization as self-definition is gonna go through this pattern of the cross, of the passion, of the resurrection and call us into a new way of being.

Bishop DeDe (22:56.822)
And so we are self-defined, we face the situation and say, you know what? I understand this is what I'm tempted to do, but I'm going to choose this because it feels like my faith is intact. This is what the world would expect me to do, but I'm different than the world. Whenever we find ourselves sounding like every other talking head, then we probably aren't really offering the world transformation. We're just offering more clanging gongs.

but it is in the integrity of living our lives, of being self-defined, and of choosing not to dehumanize others, but to humanize others. When we are self-defined and humanizing, we'll find life, we'll find resurrection, we'll find a way forward, and we'll feel more whole and more able to handle the day.

Adam Eichelberger (23:45.472)
think the last thing that I'm thinking about as we're as we are kind of wrapping up this discussion about the workplace and faith. And this does apply to the workplace some, I think it can apply in a whole lot of other contexts in our life. You know, you and I, as we were getting ready for this episode, we talked about the times in scripture where it says everything that we do do it for the Lord. Let our work be for the Lord, that these are things that glorify God. And the only reason I ask about this is there's been one or two times in my professional life that

Bishop DeDe (23:51.713)
Mm-hmm.

Bishop DeDe (24:04.897)
Right.

Adam Eichelberger (24:14.889)
there was like a round of layoffs or there was downsizing and I lost my job. And for me, that was really destabilizing. It was really demeaning. It was really hurtful because now as somebody with a family, I was like, how am I going to do what I need to do? How am I going to be able to provide and care for my family? But also there's other contexts when the relationship falls apart. And this thing was based on

Bishop DeDe (24:18.446)
Mm-hmm.

Adam Eichelberger (24:43.461)
like a shared faith, like we got married in church or all, there's so many times where the disappointment hits and faith and this thing were so intertwined. How can we, whether it's the workplace, the personal life, deal with the disappointment in a way that doesn't give into despair? Cause I think that that's a really easy way to, that's a really easy path to go down. It's like,

Bishop DeDe (24:50.606)
Mm-hmm.

Bishop DeDe (25:01.678)
Mm-hmm.

Adam Eichelberger (25:10.549)
It's like Star Wars, know, like the dark is the easiest path. Choosing the light is easier. So how do we not give into that when we encounter failure in our work? Like we failed at a project, our boss gives us some really hard feedback. How do we navigate those disappointments, especially in light of like being part of the world?

Bishop DeDe (25:14.25)
Right, exactly.

Bishop DeDe (25:23.0)
Mm-hmm.

Bishop DeDe (25:33.774)
such an important, important question. And again, I go back to the Garden of Gethsemane. I think we give short shrift to the Garden of Gethsemane. We kind of like, Jesus's wishes, they were praying with him and he's kind of happy. But we don't take seriously. Jesus, the son of God, all the things we may believe about Jesus are prophetic. You know, the things that we say about who Jesus is saying, if it be your will, let this cup.

past from me. I don't like this. This is, let me see beyond this moment. And so when we have those moments where we really feel despairing, and I think despairing is important to allow ourselves to feel there are times when we despair. Jesus is certainly despairing in the Garden of Gethsemane, both for the isolation and lack of friends, but also for the moment, there's a very

deep connection to Job in the Hebrew scriptures, suffering and where is God in this? All my friends have left me. You know, I'm alone, I feel isolated. Those hard, hard moments are part of our faith, not separate from our faith. We often think, if I just had more faith, or if I just prayed more, or I'd feel better if I just trusted God more.

I wouldn't feel this way if I just knew that God was gonna be showing up. These moments of despair and doubt and fear are part of the spiritual journey. And that's what we can see in the Garden of Gethsemane. When the Son of God feels despair, feels isolated, longs for companionship, then we know that God is not foreign to what we're feeling. God's right with us in those moments. And we may be,

We may be cut off from all people, but our baptismal promise is so true that nothing can separate us from the love of God. And so in that moment of despair to hold it before God and say, I come to you as Jesus did with this despair, with this grief, with this awful feeling of not liking this moment, seeking your mercy to carry me through.

Bishop DeDe (27:59.68)
And then to know that the dark night of the soul, you know, for resurrection to happen, there's a death. For the joy that comes in the morning, there's a dark night of the soul. And so our faith isn't devoid of those moments, but actually present in those moments. It's what promises for us to hold on a little bit longer.

It may seem impossible right now for us and listener, really, especially those of you who may feel like it is an impossible moment for you right now, that you're despairing and feeling that this is the end, to know, to hold on just a little longer. And notice that Jesus says what Jesus wants in the garden. He says to the disciples, could you not pray with me? Could you not be here? He says the words and

It's not that they suddenly say, sorry, we're going to come, you know, wake up, we'll get with it. No, but we also see that when he's taken captive, they come to themselves when they're gathered in the upper room for fear of of the authorities. That Jesus comes to them in those moments. And so our ability and the deepest, dark despair to hold on a little longer.

to reach out to those we love. And even if they disappoint us, to hold on a little longer and know that joy will come in the morning. This isn't the end of the story. One of my favorite lines, this is lightening it up a little bit because it's very serious and it is a serious topic. But if you've ever seen the best exotic miracle hotel, one of my favorite lines of any movie is from that movie where he says, if it's not all right, then it's not the, everything will be all right in the end.

Adam Eichelberger (29:40.245)
Mm-hmm.

Bishop DeDe (29:49.014)
And if it's not all right, it's not the end. All will be known. We're being called into resurrection. All will be better to hold on a little bit longer, just a little longer to reach out, to do the things that reconnect us with our deepest soul and purpose, to know that we are loved beyond measure with eternal love, to know that you're valuable, and then to find that joy that comes in the morning, to just...

one more step and to allow ourselves to feel that despair and hurt and grief are hurtful. They feel hard and isolating, but they're not the last word. And that is the promise of our faith. They are not the last word. Resurrection will come and it will come in ways we may not be able to identify. Unbeknownst and you know the surprised by joy. Just at the moment we think it's the worst.

then someone may reach out and say something to us that lightens the load. So in this time, dear friend, I think we're gonna come to a close here, but in this moment when so much is happening in our world, it's destabilizing. And I actually think what we need to talk about next is how in this moment where we feel so insecure and like we're kind of our confidence is knocked and like if we were just taller, smarter, stronger, faster, we would do better.

But we're just not up to this moment. It's just too much for us to know wherever you are on your journey that God loves you. And if you're in a moment of despair or a moment of joy, that always, always it is returning to what centers our life that gives us hope. It's returning to what centers our life that restores us. And to never underestimate the power of some rest, taking a minute, reflecting and being gentle with our souls.

We can't do it all. So let's stop and do the best next thing and know that you're loved. So, dear friend, thank you for this conversation. We've talked about a lot of really heavy things, but I pass the baton to you. I hope that you will talk with someone about what we've talked about. How do you live your best life? How do you bring your best self into the workplace? How do you bring your best self into this?

Bishop DeDe (32:11.342)
hurting world in this moment and reconfigure your life so that you're able to offer transformation and love. And especially in this holy week and moving into the Easter season, in what ways might you find resurrection and new life by walking the path of Jesus with others? So may you be blessed and be a blessing, know that you're a love beyond measure, and we'll talk soon. Take good care.