Expectation vs Reality | Spark Talks Week 5

00:00:00

We've all been forced to pause, reset

00:00:02

and reclaim our futures in light of the chaos of 2020.

00:00:06

There's always darkness and adventure

00:00:07

when you're not sure where you're going.

00:00:08

Join us for Crossroads Weekend Spark Talks

00:00:11

and hear from people who will challenge you

00:00:13

with new ideas to ignite your life.

00:00:16

- Welcome to Crossroads, I'm Chuck Mingo,

00:00:17

one of the teaching partners at Crossroads Church.

00:00:19

Hey, we're in this series called Spark Talks

00:00:22

because you know what, 2020 has been crazy.

00:00:24

And in the midst of it, people are talking

00:00:25

about how God is still working in their life

00:00:27

amidst all the change.

00:00:29

We think you're going to be inspired and encouraged.

00:00:30

We're so glad you've joined us today.

00:00:32

Let's get started.

00:00:46

- Hi, everybody, my name is Todd Henry,

00:00:48

I am a speaker and an author, and I know about you,

00:00:50

but I want to be the kind of person who does brave things.

00:00:54

But it's funny how when all of the things

00:00:56

that have been propping you up are removed,

00:00:58

you suddenly realize where you're placing your trust.

00:01:02

So the week before the pandemic hit, I just come back

00:01:05

from a trip where I'd spoken at three large conferences

00:01:07

for huge numbers of people.

00:01:09

I was just wrapping up my fifth book with Penguin Random House,

00:01:12

which is coming out in October called The Motivation Code.

00:01:15

And I was super excited about that book and all that was in store.

00:01:18

I was building a new business with several business partners.

00:01:20

Frankly, I think my exact words were, "Man, I'm exhausted,

00:01:23

but 2020 is going to be awesome."

00:01:26

Does that sound familiar?

00:01:28

So when news of the pandemic shutdown first happened,

00:01:30

we thought, you know what,

00:01:31

we're going to be able to reclaim this time

00:01:33

to do all the things we always wanted to do,

00:01:34

like learn how to play violin,

00:01:36

read the entire Bible a couple of times,

00:01:39

plant a vineyard in our backyard, right?

00:01:41

Actually, no, we didn't do any of those things.

00:01:43

We binge watch Tiger King.

00:01:44

We organized a little bit and we watched

00:01:46

the entire 87 hour extended director cut of Lord of the Rings.

00:01:50

That's really what we did with our time.

00:01:52

So that was Monday.

00:01:53

By Wednesday we realized this thing was going to last for a while.

00:01:57

And as we settled in to the shutdown,

00:01:59

we realized this wasn't going to just be a couple of weeks

00:02:02

It was actually going to be a much longer period of time.

00:02:05

And we also started realizing some of the things

00:02:08

we had worked so hard for and really look forward to

00:02:10

were now going to be taken away.

00:02:12

Like, for example, our kids had worked so hard

00:02:14

on spring sports and now those were just gone in an instant,

00:02:18

No track, no spring musical.

00:02:20

None of the things that we look forward to,

00:02:22

the things that we typically use to mark our time,

00:02:25

we're all gone in an instant.

00:02:27

I mean, the second thing is our close friendships

00:02:29

in our neighborhood, the people we love spending time with,

00:02:32

all of a sudden we're being told stay away from them

00:02:35

and don't go near them, don't be around them.

00:02:37

Which is really hard, especially because we love --

00:02:39

we love our community. We love our neighborhood.

00:02:41

We love all of our friends.

00:02:43

And so all of a sudden we're being told to stay away,

00:02:45

which is really, really hard.

00:02:46

And then finally and probably most urgently,

00:02:49

my business was completely shut down.

00:02:52

"So I went from this is incredible.

00:02:55

This is going to be the best year ever,

00:02:56

speaking to all these cities.

00:02:58

I've got a book coming out, got a business launching."

00:02:59

All of a sudden it's like the pandemic shut all of that down.

00:03:03

I don't know if you heard the part about me

00:03:04

speaking to multiple audiences,

00:03:06

but there are a lot of live events happening right now.

00:03:09

So all of a sudden all of that was gone in an instant.

00:03:13

So as part of my research for my book, The Motivation Code,

00:03:16

one of the topics I was exploring is the topic of bravery.

00:03:20

Why is it the two different people can encounter

00:03:22

the exact same circumstance and one of them chooses

00:03:25

the brave option and the other person chooses the cowardly option?

00:03:29

What is it that exists that causes those two people to diverge?

00:03:32

Regardless of where you were before this pandemic,

00:03:34

we've all been thrust into the exact same circumstances.

00:03:38

And what I discovered is that for bravery to exist,

00:03:42

two things have to be present.

00:03:43

First, there has to be a sense of agency,

00:03:46

a sense that I can act in a meaningful way

00:03:48

to bring about a better possible future.

00:03:51

Without that sense of agency, bravery can't exist.

00:03:54

The second thing that has to exist is a sense of optimism.

00:03:57

That by my action, I could actually make something better.

00:04:00

I believe there is a better possible future that exists.

00:04:04

So not only do I believe that there's a better possible future,

00:04:07

but I can actually act in a way

00:04:08

that could bring about that better possible future.

00:04:10

Bravery exists when I believe there's a better possible future

00:04:15

and I believe that I can act in some meaningful way

00:04:18

to help bring that future about.

00:04:20

We tend to think about bravery in terms of bravado.

00:04:22

We conflate bravery and bravado.

00:04:24

We think that bravery is about the big things,

00:04:26

storming beaches, launching big businesses. Right?

00:04:28

That's how we tend to think about bravery.

00:04:31

But the reality is most of the bravery

00:04:34

that we experience in our daily life

00:04:36

is the result of small, everyday choices,

00:04:39

small, everyday acts of bravery.

00:04:42

And I believe as followers of Jesus, we are to follow His model.

00:04:46

If anybody modeled small, everyday acts of bravery, it's Jesus.

00:04:50

That's what we're called to, to follow in His footsteps.

00:04:53

I believe that God's planted in each of us the ability,

00:04:57

not only the ability, but the mandate,

00:04:59

the calling to engage in these everyday acts of bravery.

00:05:01

But here's the problem, the problem is

00:05:03

we have an enemy that's working against us.

00:05:06

And our enemy wants to rob us of our ability to act bravely.

00:05:10

As a matter of fact, Jesus describes this enemy as a thief.

00:05:14

In John 10, He says:

00:05:23

Steal, kill, and destroy. Deception, death, destruction.

00:05:29

You see, the enemy only has a couple of tools.

00:05:31

The enemy doesn't make new things.

00:05:33

The enemy only destroys the things that God's already made good.

00:05:37

That's what the enemy does.

00:05:38

Well, what does the enemy want to steal from us?

00:05:40

What is the enemy robbing us of?

00:05:42

The enemy wants to rob us of our agency,

00:05:45

of our sense that we can act to create good in the world.

00:05:48

The enemy wants to rob us of our sense of optimism,

00:05:51

that there is a better possible future that exists.

00:05:54

That is what the enemy is wanting to steal from us.

00:05:57

And the enemy is having a field day right now

00:05:59

in all of the things that are happening in our culture.

00:06:02

So let's talk about agency first.

00:06:03

How is the enemy robbing us of our agency?

00:06:05

I don't know about you, but this pandemic

00:06:08

has made me feel kind of helpless.

00:06:10

I see politicians arguing on both sides of the aisle

00:06:14

and spinning this pandemic to their own political advantage.

00:06:16

And all of us are just caught in the middle

00:06:18

of watching these arguments play out between both sides,

00:06:21

that it feels very hopeless to me. Right?

00:06:25

What can I do in the midst of that?

00:06:26

I believe the enemy is trying to play out this narrative

00:06:29

right now in our culture that you're helpless,

00:06:31

there's nothing you can do.

00:06:33

You're just caught in the wind.

00:06:35

That's that's all you are.

00:06:36

But here's the thing, I believe that

00:06:40

as a follower of Jesus, my agency doesn't come from my business.

00:06:44

My agency doesn't come from the economy.

00:06:47

My agency doesn't come from the government.

00:06:49

My agency doesn't come from any of the things that I can do.

00:06:51

My agency comes from the fact that Jesus calls me a brother,

00:06:54

and that means I'm a child of the King.

00:06:56

That is where my agency comes from.

00:06:58

And I am called to follow in the model of Jesus.

00:07:02

And so my amazing wife has introduced a mantra

00:07:04

during this season for our family.

00:07:06

And that mantra is: we can do hard things.

00:07:10

It's OK, we can do hard things.

00:07:12

Yeah, it sucks right now. That's OK.

00:07:15

We can do hard things.

00:07:17

That's a way that we can reclaim our agency

00:07:19

and recognize, listen, doing the hard things

00:07:21

is just a part of following Jesus.

00:07:23

That's what we're called to, it's OK.

00:07:24

So that's agency.

00:07:25

Let's talk about how the enemy's robbing us

00:07:27

of our optimism right now.

00:07:30

I think pre-pandemic, I didn't realize

00:07:33

how much my hope was placed in things I was doing,

00:07:37

things I was building, the future that I was building.

00:07:40

I think if you would ask me, I think I would have said,

00:07:42

"No. My my trust is in God. My hope is in God.

00:07:44

My trust is in the kingdom of God."

00:07:46

But I think really deep down, when you really picked at that,

00:07:49

there were a lot of things I was putting my hope in,

00:07:52

my trust in that really were not the Kingdom.

00:07:55

It's funny how you suddenly understand

00:07:59

where your trust really is when all of the things

00:08:01

that have been propping you up are taken away.

00:08:03

And you have to ask the question, where do I really put my trust?

00:08:07

My trust is not in my government.

00:08:09

My trust is not in a document that was written

00:08:12

a couple of hundred years ago to form a country.

00:08:14

My trust is not in an economy.

00:08:16

My trust isn't in a business I'm building.

00:08:18

It's not even my own talents.

00:08:20

My trust is in God.

00:08:22

And I believe that God is bending the story

00:08:24

towards peace and justice in the end.

00:08:27

So whatever is happening in front of me,

00:08:29

this is just a little sliver, a little sliver

00:08:31

compared to the giant story that God is weaving.

00:08:34

God is going to bend all of this in the end

00:08:37

toward peace and justice.

00:08:38

And that's where I need to put my sense of hope,

00:08:40

my sense of optimism.

00:08:42

If we just look at this little sliver in front of us,

00:08:44

we're going to lose hope quickly.

00:08:45

It's not about that.

00:08:47

It's about the ultimate story that God is weaving.

00:08:49

As a follower of Jesus, that's where I put my trust.

00:08:51

And so the other monster that my amazing wife

00:08:54

has introduced to our family is: and this will end.

00:08:58

And this will end.

00:08:59

Whatever we're going through, this will end.

00:09:01

So we can do hard things and this will end.

00:09:04

That's become our family's mantra over the last handful of months.

00:09:08

So, you know, I'm really grateful that we ended up

00:09:10

having the time to watch the 75,000 hour version

00:09:14

of Lord of the Rings that we watched

00:09:17

over the course of this pandemic, because

00:09:20

one of my favorite scenes from that trilogy

00:09:22

is the scene where Frodo is kind of lamenting

00:09:25

all the stuff is happening.

00:09:26

And Frodo says, "I wish the ring had never come to me.

00:09:29

I wish that none of this had ever happened."

00:09:31

And Gandalf, his mentor and The Great Wizard, said,

00:09:34

"So do all to whom such times come.

00:09:36

Ours is to decide what to do with the times that we are given."

00:09:40

So on the other side of all of this, and by the way,

00:09:42

there will be an other side of all of this.

00:09:45

We're going to look back and we're going to ask,

00:09:46

how did I use the pandemic?

00:09:48

How did I use the time I was given?

00:09:52

And I'll tell you what the enemy wants to do with this time.

00:09:55

The enemy wants to use this time to steal, kill, and destroy.

00:09:58

The enemy, wants to rob you of your sense of agency

00:10:00

and your sense of optimism so that you can't act bravely

00:10:03

during this time.

00:10:04

But I'll tell you what Jesus wants to do with this time.

00:10:07

Jesus wants to use this time to teach you

00:10:09

what abundant life looks like.

00:10:12

And what does abundant life look like?

00:10:14

Well, abundant life begins when we choose

00:10:17

to engage in small, everyday acts of bravery.

00:10:21

Be brave friends.

00:10:37

- My name is Teresa Tanner, and some know me

00:10:39

as the chief administrative officer for Fifth Third Bank.

00:10:42

I spent about 10 years in the C suite of Fifth Third Bank

00:10:46

running a variety of different corporate functions

00:10:49

and leading thousands.

00:10:51

I'm also a mom.

00:10:52

I go to Crossroads.

00:10:54

I'm a wife.

00:10:55

I have two great kids.

00:10:56

And my favorite title, only two years, is Nana.

00:11:01

You know, this is definitely not what I expected this year.

00:11:04

As a matter of fact, I expected this year to be epic.

00:11:08

For years God has been telling me about this year.

00:11:11

And so when I thought about 2020,

00:11:14

I expected something very, very different.

00:11:17

And let me tell you why.

00:11:18

A couple of years ago, 2018, I turned 50 years old

00:11:22

and I knew for a long time when I turned 50,

00:11:25

I was going to go away for a week,

00:11:27

have a silent retreat all by myself.

00:11:29

And I was just going to to listen to God.

00:11:31

I was going to do some inner reflection

00:11:34

and I was going to figure out,

00:11:36

you know, am I still on the right path?

00:11:39

Because being in a C suite of a Fortune 500 company,

00:11:42

that's a fast lane.

00:11:44

It's like you are on that treadmill and you are booking.

00:11:46

And it's really easy just to get swept up.

00:11:50

And then the days turn into weeks that turn into months,

00:11:52

that turn into years, and I didn't want that to happen.

00:11:54

And so 50 seemed like a good halfway point to kind of stop and pause.

00:12:00

But I could have never anticipated how much chaos

00:12:03

was going to be in my life in that fiftieth year.

00:12:06

Things were not going well.

00:12:08

I was stressed at work.

00:12:10

My health wasn't that great.

00:12:12

I wasn't sleeping. I wasn't eating well.

00:12:14

And to be honest with you, I really didn't have

00:12:16

a posture of listening well to God during that time.

00:12:19

As a matter of fact, a couple of weeks

00:12:21

before I went away on my trip, I was sitting at Crossroads

00:12:25

and it was one of those moments we've all had

00:12:27

where we felt like the Holy Spirit was speaking just to us.

00:12:31

Everybody else in the room could just tune out

00:12:34

because that day was all about us.

00:12:37

But instead of feeling convicted, I felt defensive.

00:12:42

I remember Brian, he's up there and he's preaching it,

00:12:46

but I didn't want to hear it.

00:12:47

As a matter of fact, the more he talked, the angrier I got.

00:12:52

And then there was this verse he kept on putting it on the screen.

00:12:57

And every time I saw it,

00:12:59

I just felt myself tense up a little bit.

00:13:01

And I just put that hand up and I said, nope, nope, nope.

00:13:05

Not really. I didn't really put my hand up,

00:13:07

but that's how I felt.

00:13:08

I was like, "No, no, no, I'm not listening to that, God.

00:13:11

You need to hear my point of view on this."

00:13:14

So anyway, that service was over.

00:13:16

A couple of weeks later, I go on my trip.

00:13:18

I go to the hotel, I check in, I open the door.

00:13:22

You know, the first thing I saw

00:13:23

when I opened up the door to my hotel room?

00:13:25

On the wall in this beautiful frame was that same verse.

00:13:31

He was a same flipping verse that Brian had on the screen.

00:13:35

It was the one I was saying, "No, God,

00:13:37

I don't want to hear that verse right now.

00:13:39

I'd like to pick another verse that plays into my own intentions."

00:13:43

Now, I'm not going to tell you what that verse is,

00:13:45

because that's a whole different story.

00:13:48

But that verse, I couldn't believe was on the wall.

00:13:51

First of all, let me say the obvious,

00:13:53

who decorates a hotel room with Bible verse art in 2018?

00:13:59

I was stunned.

00:14:01

I sat on the bed and shook my head.

00:14:02

And I'm trying to process like, really>

00:14:05

Like why is that verse on the wall?

00:14:07

I even picked up my phone.

00:14:10

I go to the Internet, I look at that hotel.

00:14:12

And I'm like, "Did I miss something?

00:14:15

Did I accidentally book a Christian retreat center?

00:14:17

That's not what I was looking for.

00:14:18

I was really looking for a good spot."

00:14:20

God spoke to me over and over again that way

00:14:24

in miraculous, in very clear ways,

00:14:27

more clear than I ever heard Him speak to me.

00:14:30

More clear than He's ever spoken in my life before or since.

00:14:35

And when I left, I had a lot of clarity about

00:14:38

what God wanted from me in several different areas of my life.

00:14:42

And I'd like to say I obeyed on all of them right away,

00:14:45

but I didn't.

00:14:46

Some I did, some immediately, as soon as I got back,

00:14:49

I obeyed and I started to see the fruit of that obedience.

00:14:54

But there was one thing I was holding out on

00:14:56

and it was that treadmill of work.

00:14:59

I had worked really hard to get into the C suite.

00:15:01

How many women get into the C suite of Fortune 500 companies?

00:15:05

Not many, about 20%, that's it.

00:15:07

So I knew I was really fortunate

00:15:09

and I had worked that hard to get there and I loved my job.

00:15:14

And so I kept negotiating with God.

00:15:16

I kept kept talking to Him about why I shouldn't leave.

00:15:20

And there were some some great things about leaving

00:15:22

and some things that were really, really scary.

00:15:24

But finally, last year, the middle of the year,

00:15:29

around June, I knew that I had to leave

00:15:33

and I knew that God was saying, "Leave now."

00:15:35

And it was so clear to me that I knew not moving

00:15:40

would be an active act of disobedience,

00:15:44

so I moved and I left.

00:15:46

And it was scary at first, but I got to tell you,

00:15:48

as soon as it -- as soon as it happened, I felt this joy.

00:15:51

I felt this release. I felt this peace.

00:15:53

I was so excited and I just knew,

00:15:56

"God, you've prepared me for this.

00:15:59

And you have placed something in my heart

00:16:01

that I know you want me to do."

00:16:03

And the mission, the work that He's placed deep inside me

00:16:06

is lifting others.

00:16:08

It's about me having an opportunity

00:16:11

to leverage my corporate experience and lift others.

00:16:14

And specifically, what God has spoken in to me

00:16:17

is a love for women and a love to lift women

00:16:20

and support women and help them become

00:16:23

the person that Jesus intended them to be.

00:16:26

And so I was excited.

00:16:28

You know, I immediately got back up on that treadmill,

00:16:31

because that's what I do, I run hard.

00:16:33

And I just got to work, rolled my sleeves up.

00:16:36

I got to work. And I was running and I was running.

00:16:39

And I'm like, "Thank you, Jesus."

00:16:40

I started like, you know, I was going to --

00:16:43

I was going to have the start up

00:16:44

and I was going to have this company

00:16:45

and it was going to be about empowering women

00:16:47

and lifting women and helping organizations

00:16:50

fix the systemic issues.

00:16:52

And so I'm running.

00:16:53

Well, have you ever been running on a treadmill

00:16:56

and you're going at a good clip and you look down

00:16:58

and you see that little red key and it's that emergency key

00:17:01

for like when you're having a heart attack.

00:17:03

But have you ever thought, "Huh, I wonder

00:17:05

if I'm running really fast and I pull that key what will happen?"

00:17:09

I have and I did it, and let me tell you, it's not pretty.

00:17:13

Because you're running and then you pull that key

00:17:16

and you get like flung off.

00:17:18

It's not a slow stop. It's an abrupt stop.

00:17:22

Well, you know what?

00:17:23

That's kind of how I felt about 90 days after I left.

00:17:28

90 days after I left on this path that God put me on,

00:17:32

this mission He had set me on, I got flung off the treadmill.

00:17:38

And that was in the form of breast cancer.

00:17:41

And I had no idea why this was happening.

00:17:44

And my first response, I have to admit was, "God, why?

00:17:47

What are You doing? You put me on this path, this mission.

00:17:51

I don't even have risk factors for breast cancer.

00:17:54

How did I get breast cancer?

00:17:56

And what are you trying to do here?"

00:17:58

Thankfully, that only lasted for a day or two,

00:18:02

because I had learned God has a purpose.

00:18:05

So I said, "All right, God, what do You want me to learn?

00:18:07

What do You want me to see?

00:18:09

What do You want to teach me?"

00:18:10

And He did. There was so many things.

00:18:13

I had this heart for women.

00:18:14

I had this heart for women being successful at work

00:18:18

and balancing work and life,

00:18:19

and specifically when they have to step off a career track.

00:18:22

And here I was working and and being in therapy with these women,

00:18:26

and I'm learning that they're losing their jobs.

00:18:31

They're scared about how to go back to work.

00:18:34

I see this huge issue that I never saw before.

00:18:39

And so, you know, I soak it in, I'm like, "OK, God,

00:18:43

I'm seeing things that I think You want me to see."

00:18:46

Now, thankfully, my breast cancer was caught early,

00:18:49

surgery, radiation, no big deal.

00:18:52

The doctor said, "Get back on that treadmill.

00:18:54

You shouldn't have to worry about anything."

00:18:56

So I say, "Thank you, God, for healing me."

00:18:58

And I get back on that treadmill and I'm like,

00:19:00

"OK, I got it now.

00:19:01

You've shown me so many things.

00:19:03

I've got more more tools in my tool belt."

00:19:05

I'm running, I'm running, I'm running.

00:19:07

And you know what?

00:19:09

90 days later, again, I get flung off the treadmill

00:19:14

and this time it's COVID. It's this pandemic.

00:19:19

I'm like, "Oh, my goodness, I can't believe this.

00:19:22

I'm trying, God, I'm trying to do Your work.

00:19:24

I'm trying to run on this mission that You've placed in my heart

00:19:29

and I'm flung off again.

00:19:31

All right. What do you want to teach me?"

00:19:33

And all of a sudden my eyes are open.

00:19:36

He's lifting the veil. He's opening the curtains.

00:19:39

And I'm seeing, wow, this pandemic is highlighting

00:19:46

challenges that women have that I never saw.

00:19:49

Work life balance, oh, it's taken on

00:19:51

a whole different meaning during this pandemic.

00:19:53

We're seeing the weaknesses in our infrastructure

00:19:56

and systems that we didn't know existed.

00:19:59

"All right. God, thank you."

00:20:01

"I need you to quit, Teresa, working around the margins

00:20:05

on these issues.

00:20:06

In corporate America, you were known for adding some pieces

00:20:10

and trying to tweak the game a little bit."

00:20:13

But I've heard God saying to me this year is,

00:20:16

"Do the work, the quit working around the margins.

00:20:19

Quit trying to tweak a game that was never designed

00:20:23

for everybody to play."

00:20:25

We have to build a new game.

00:20:28

The structures, the systemic issues that we have in place,

00:20:32

we can't tweak them anymore.

00:20:34

We have to build new systems.

00:20:36

We have to build new games, and God knows how to do this.

00:20:41

God is the master of creating the game that works.

00:20:46

And so I want to be part of that game.

00:20:48

I want to be part of building a new game.

00:20:51

I don't want to be tweaking at the margins anymore.

00:20:53

So, God, I'm all in, game on.

00:20:57

- Whether you've been around Crossroads for a long time

00:20:59

or you're new, the app is a great tool

00:21:02

to help you in your spiritual journey.

00:21:03

You can read scripture there.

00:21:04

You can pray with other people. You can be inspired.

00:21:07

So I encourage you to check that out.

00:21:08

You know, the world wants to beat us down.

00:21:10

And one of the ways we fight back is we choose to surrender,

00:21:12

that includes surrendering our money.

00:21:14

If you want to be a giver around Crossroads,

00:21:16

you can go to Crossroads.net/give

00:21:18

or text the word Crossroads to 313131.

00:21:22

We want to give you tools to help you in your journey with God,

00:21:25

and that includes podcasts.

00:21:27

Let's check out the offerings.

00:21:30

- Life is crazier than ever these days.

00:21:32

You could use some hope, some encouragement,

00:21:34

fresh ideas, faith driven perspective,

00:21:36

and maybe even a little bit of laughter.

00:21:39

We've got you covered.

00:21:40

Parents, you are not alone.

00:21:43

Ladies, it's time for some real talk.

00:21:45

No matter who you are, stop settling.

00:21:48

No matter what stage of life you're in,

00:21:50

Crossroads podcasts have something to offer you.

00:21:53

Find them today on all major podcast platforms.

00:22:11

- I'm here with Teresa Tanner.

00:22:13

She's been in corporate America.

00:22:15

She's an award winning banker in corporate America.

00:22:18

She's been in the C Suite.

00:22:20

She's started a new business.

00:22:22

She's a pretty impressive woman.

00:22:24

Teresa, great to be with you today.

00:22:26

- Thank you.

00:22:27

- Give us a little background on just your career,

00:22:30

your path or your life that you want to lead into it.

00:22:33

- Well, my life has changed dramatically in the last year.

00:22:37

June 2019 I stepped off that fast treadmill of corporate life.

00:22:43

I really felt God was calling me to a different second chapter.

00:22:47

So I've been off and running and, you know,

00:22:51

been thrown off that treadmill a couple of times.

00:22:54

But I keep getting on and God just keeps

00:22:56

just giving me more and more clarity of mission.

00:22:58

- While you were on that treadmill, you went pretty far,

00:23:01

at least as far as a treadmill could take you

00:23:02

in corporate America, didn't you?

00:23:04

- Yeah, further than I ever thought possible.

00:23:06

Getting to the C suite and a Fortune 500 company,

00:23:10

most people don't get that

00:23:12

and most women certainly don't get that.

00:23:14

And so I just felt really, really blessed

00:23:17

and really grateful.

00:23:18

And I had a great run and I loved that job.

00:23:22

But I also really felt God pulling me a different direction.

00:23:25

- So you still have scars on top of your head

00:23:27

from busting through the glass ceiling,

00:23:28

or did you find there wasn't a glass ceiling?

00:23:30

What was it like for you?

00:23:32

- Well, definitely, you know, I don't know

00:23:34

if we call it the glass ceiling or not, but, you know,

00:23:37

there are some headwinds that women and minorities face

00:23:40

in corporate America.

00:23:41

It's just true. It's no one's fault.

00:23:42

It's just a reality.

00:23:44

You know, the corporate structure is really built on

00:23:48

many, many decades, hundreds of years of kind of one structure.

00:23:53

And it is a structure where you go to work

00:23:56

and you work from seven to six or whatever,

00:23:59

and then you go home and then you do it all over again.

00:24:02

And sometimes that doesn't work for everyone,

00:24:05

and especially women who so often have so many

00:24:09

of the child rearing responsibilities, home responsibilities.

00:24:14

And so I saw as a young woman, "Hey, you know,

00:24:17

how are all these men successful?"

00:24:19

And a lot of them were successful because

00:24:22

they had this amazing infrastructure around them to support them.

00:24:25

They went to work all day. They worked.

00:24:27

They didn't have to worry about all this other stuff.

00:24:29

And so I had to figure out if I want to get there,

00:24:33

I've got to figure out how to work around that system.

00:24:35

I have to do what they do

00:24:37

and I have to create the support infrastructure around me.

00:24:40

And so that's what I mean about, you know,

00:24:43

I had to look and say, "How does this game played

00:24:45

and how do you win?"

00:24:47

And and it's easier sometimes

00:24:49

for men to win that game than women, it's just a fact.

00:24:52

- Yeah, it is.

00:24:53

So 9/11 had some stuff that changed the country,

00:24:58

maybe not as drastic as we thought forever.

00:25:00

But, you know, how we get on planes

00:25:02

has been forever changed since 9/11.

00:25:06

Metal detectors more places than ever.

00:25:09

I don't know if the change has been that,

00:25:11

but there's still been a sustainable change.

00:25:15

When we come out of the COVID, whenever that is,

00:25:18

whenever that is, do you see something like sustainable changes

00:25:22

or things that are just going to be always

00:25:24

be different than we are right now?

00:25:27

Are there things that are going to be

00:25:28

permanently restructured in how we work

00:25:30

and how we structure our lives?

00:25:32

Do you have any forecast for

00:25:33

what some of the some of those things might be?

00:25:35

- Well, I hope that we fundamentally change

00:25:39

how work is being done, because there are

00:25:43

so many opportunities for us to leverage talent differently

00:25:46

and really enable people to do their best work

00:25:49

and to live their best life.

00:25:50

So I hope that fundamentally we change the way work is done.

00:25:53

But I also hope that we take the opportunity

00:25:58

to really examine these structural issues that are a big problem.

00:26:03

You know, I really worry about families

00:26:06

who count on school, for example, for child care.

00:26:10

You know, this isn't just a situation of, "Oh, well, OK,

00:26:14

you know, so the kids aren't going to go to school every day."

00:26:16

Well, who's going to be home with them?

00:26:19

So maybe I can't work and maybe I am someone

00:26:23

that can't afford to have a nanny come in.

00:26:26

Child care, daycare, it's gone, and so --

00:26:30

I was just reading an article in The Wall Street Journal

00:26:32

that that said as many as 30 percent of the women

00:26:34

that are currently employed are going to have to drop out

00:26:37

whether they want to or not.

00:26:39

And that's huge.

00:26:42

- I really like your vernacular of remaking the game.

00:26:45

We know about a game changer,

00:26:46

somebody is inserted onto the basketball court

00:26:49

and their level of so high it changes the game. Right?

00:26:51

But your idea of just remaking and changing

00:26:56

the whole structure is really a head tilt.

00:26:59

As we look at some of the things that you're referencing here,

00:27:02

economic disparities, some of the battle between the sexes

00:27:06

that's still going on.

00:27:08

This is a lot of weighty stuff for us to get depressed about.

00:27:11

How do you keep hope in the midst of it?

00:27:12

- Because I really think we all want to change.

00:27:16

We just don't know how to get into the fight.

00:27:19

And what I say to that is just do something, right?

00:27:23

Use your voice and we need everybody.

00:27:25

And if I can be so bold, Brian, we need men --

00:27:28

No, you cannot be more bold.

00:27:29

No, no more boldness. Can't take any more of that.

00:27:32

- I might say some things that are

00:27:34

a little bit controversial here, but we need men

00:27:37

and we specifically need white men.

00:27:39

And so often when I talk about --

00:27:43

- That's very controversial.

00:27:44

I don't think I've ever heard anyone, seriously.

00:27:46

I've never heard anyone say we need white men.

00:27:49

- Hear me out.

00:27:50

- I'm dead serious. - Hear me out.

00:27:51

- You're going to make me cry.

00:27:52

- Because I really -- we need white men.

00:27:54

And so often when I talk about my passion for women

00:27:57

and empowering women, the automatic assumption

00:28:01

is that I must be like against men. And I'm not.

00:28:05

You know, to bring equality, it is not by pushing others down.

00:28:11

Lifting people doesn't happen by pushing others down.

00:28:15

And why we need white men is because

00:28:17

white men have a position of influence.

00:28:22

You have a voice, you have strength, you have leadership,

00:28:26

and you have the ability to give power to ideas.

00:28:32

You have the ability to give voice to those that can't be heard.

00:28:36

You have strength that we need to help push us up the mountain.

00:28:42

So don't think that this work is done without you

00:28:47

or around you.

00:28:48

We have to have men stand up and say,

00:28:51

"I may not understand the life that you live.

00:28:55

I may not understand some of the challenges.

00:28:58

I may not have been able to see it,

00:29:00

but I'm in this fight with you."

00:29:01

And it goes more than being an ally.

00:29:03

It is about saying, "I'm going to use my position

00:29:07

of privilege, and maybe we don't like that word,

00:29:09

of privilege, but really, it's also about

00:29:12

using your position of power and strength

00:29:15

and voice to make a difference.

00:29:18

So get in the game.

00:29:19

- That's good. That's good.

00:29:21

That's a different message to a lot of us white men hear,

00:29:24

because all of us white men are defensive

00:29:29

or feeling like people are saying that we're

00:29:34

somehow unjust or lazy or whatever, and maybe in some cases,

00:29:39

but that's a different message what you just said.

00:29:41

Where we are right now, we've got to elevate others.

00:29:44

- You know, we seen on social media all the time right now,

00:29:46

and this going to --

00:29:47

this year is going to get crazier with the election.

00:29:49

Right? And so we say we're about tolerance

00:29:52

and we're about inclusion, but if you don't think like me,

00:29:55

I'm going to unfriend you. Right?

00:29:57

- Right.

00:29:58

- So you can't preach tolerance with intolerant behavior.

00:30:02

You can't teach inclusion with exclusionary behavior.

00:30:07

And you can't teach equity by pushing

00:30:10

or putting other people down, including the white male.

00:30:13

Right?

00:30:14

I believe that God has a heart for justice,

00:30:17

and I think that God has a heart for equity.

00:30:19

But that means us lifting one another up.

00:30:22

It doesn't mean it is about blaming or pointing fingers

00:30:25

about how we got here.

00:30:27

It's about us all getting in this fight together

00:30:30

and doing the work God called us to do,

00:30:32

to lift the oppressed, to bring justice, to love one another.

00:30:35

- When we look at some of these things, Teresa,

00:30:37

to have a faith that's rooted in the scriptures,

00:30:41

a lot of these things just aren't in the Bible.

00:30:44

Like the Bible doesn't have any talk about

00:30:45

for profit corporations.

00:30:48

For profit corporations are really, really good.

00:30:50

Some people would be really shocked to hear me say

00:30:52

the Bible doesn't really talk about and give firm rules

00:30:57

that are for all cultures of what the man does

00:30:59

and what the woman does inside the home. Right?

00:31:02

A lot of the things that we inherit are convictions

00:31:05

or things that other people taught us.

00:31:07

When you think about a very tenuous, fluid future

00:31:11

where we're going to be having to do things

00:31:13

that we haven't done before,

00:31:14

are there certain Bible stories or passages

00:31:17

or scriptural principles that route you and say,

00:31:19

"Well, as long as these the things are being done,

00:31:22

then we're going to be OK"?

00:31:24

- You know, when God was leading the Israelites

00:31:26

and He went before them in a pillar of fire and a pillar of smoke.

00:31:32

And I think about that all the time.

00:31:33

And I think, "God, I don't know where you're going with this.

00:31:36

And I just can't see the future by myself.

00:31:40

I'm just going to follow You and I'm just going to know

00:31:43

that You're going to be ahead of me." Right?

00:31:44

- That's right.

00:31:46

- "And day by day, step by step,

00:31:47

You're going to illuminate it."

00:31:49

And just moving and walking in faith,

00:31:50

it is scary sometimes, but just knowing that He's above me

00:31:57

and He's before me, it's just amazing.

00:32:00

- Boy, that's really good.

00:32:01

I mean, I think to myself, like, I want to know the end

00:32:05

and want to know when I can go to a movie again.

00:32:08

I want to know what I can go in the office

00:32:10

and everyone's hustling and bustling

00:32:12

and three feet away from each other.

00:32:14

You know, like I want -- That's a great word.

00:32:18

What I need is just to have God in my life today

00:32:21

and the next day and if I can see that far forward,

00:32:24

then I'm going to be OK.

00:32:25

- And I think right now what's maddening is

00:32:27

we don't know when the end is, right?

00:32:29

We don't know when there's going to be a vaccine.

00:32:31

We don't know when all of this is going to be back to normal

00:32:35

or if it ever will.

00:32:36

And so it is that constant faith, "God, you go before me.

00:32:41

It's just I can't worry about what it's going to be like

00:32:44

in December or next June.

00:32:46

I just need to worry about just stepping out

00:32:49

in faith every day with You."

00:32:50

- Teresa, great being with you today, I really appreciate it.

00:32:52

- Thank you.

00:33:07

- I want more of God's goodness in this world.

00:33:10

Probably you do, too, but it seems like we're so far from that.

00:33:13

That's why we choose to worship.

00:33:14

Worship as a way for us to put our trust in God and say,

00:33:17

"God, we want to go where You're leading."

00:42:53

- Hey, thanks for watching.

00:42:54

That song and many others are available

00:42:56

for you to listen to and be encouraged by at Crossroads music.

00:42:59

You know, watching a video once a week is great,

00:43:01

but there's so much more available for you

00:43:03

in your adventure with God.

00:43:04

I want to give you a challenge.

00:43:05

Try the 30 day adventures, 30 days of content

00:43:08

that we will send to you to help you grow

00:43:10

in your relationship with God.

00:43:12

You can check it out at Crossroads.net.

00:43:14

We also want to help your kids grow in their spiritual journey.

00:43:17

I'm a father and I love going to crossroadskidsclub.net

00:43:20

and using those videos and other resources

00:43:22

to make it a family affair and help my kids

00:43:24

grow in their relationship with Jesus.

00:43:26

We'd love to see you back next time.

00:43:28

Thanks for being with us.

00:43:32

- Thanks for watching.

00:43:33

My name is Lena,

00:43:34

and I want to help you go on your spiritual adventure.

00:43:37

We have a community of people that gathers online

00:43:40

to go on an adventure together through processing

00:43:43

the weekend message and applying it week in and week out.

00:43:46

We call this weekend follow up groups

00:43:48

and you can join one today from anywhere you are

00:43:50

by heading to Crossroads.net/onlinecommunity.

00:43:54

It might just be the thing that takes you

00:43:55

to the next place on your adventure with God.

00:43:59

We'll see you next week.

	Todd Henry: "Everyday Bravery”	0:34
	Teresa Tanner: "Changing the Game of Corporate America”	10:23
	Interview: Teresa Tanner and Brian Tome	22:02
	Worship: You Are Able	33:17
	Worship: No Longer Slaves	38:15

Recent Series