The Ramsey Show - App - A Message of Hope Series: Christy Wright

Episode Date: April 2, 2020

It’s scary out there, but hope is greater than fear. In times of crisis, facts are your friends. So get the facts and other common sense guidance on life and money from thought leaders Dave Ramsey, Ken Coleman, Rachel Cruze, Chris Hogan, Christy Wright, Anthony ONeal and John Delony. Get a FREE trial of our life-changing Financial Peace University today: https://bit.ly/3dFT7ir daveramsey.com/hope

Hey y'all, I'm Christy Wright, and I want to take just a few minutes to share a message of hope with you all. Now many of you may know that I am a Ramsey personality, and part of being a Ramsey personality means we are all in the business of hope. I know that this is a scary time. I know that there are a million variables that you can't control, and I know that you might have a lot of fear about what is going to happen. That's why I think it's so important in this season or any season to focus on what we can

control and look to our source of hope. Now, I don't know about you guys, but I am busy all the time. Well, at least before this happened, right? Like I go nonstop. My schedule's always full. My goal almost every single day was to see how I can fit more in to less time. I'm always trying to be more efficient, more productive. How can I multitask? How can I get more done with less resources, less time, and less energy? I'm always, always busy.

Now, granted, part of this might be my season of life. I have three kids under five. My husband works full-time. I work full-time. We both have demanding jobs in different ways. But I think as a culture, even if you don't have little kids at home, we just get caught up in this culture of busyness, don't we? Like we run hard, we run faster. There's a million articles and resources on how to make the most of your time, how to have more time, how to fit more into less time, and we're all just so stinking busy. I realized probably a couple months ago that I would say busyness is kind of like my drug. Like I always tend to go to that. That is my temptation. That is my struggle. I thrive in busyness. Even when I'm not busy, which is rare, I tend to find a way to be busy.

Now, in my season of life, that drug is always readily available. Because let's be honest, someone needs milk in their sippy cup. Someone else needs a diaper change. The house is a mess. Grocery needs to be bought. We need to go to the dry clears. There's always errands to be run and things to do and commitments to show up for and things to volunteer for. And oh my gosh, I totally forgot to put my child in his pajamas for pajama day. I'm a bad mom. I'm always busy. And I got really used to that. I know what to do with that. I know how to control my schedule and my calendar. I know how to run hard. I know how to run faster. I know how to operate in that world. So the first few days of this shutdown, when the whole world got shut down, I kind of

was paralyzed. Like, I'll be honest, I treated those first few days kind of like a snow day where I just stayed in my pajamas. I didn't know what to do. I didn't know how to function. Everything I was supposed to show up for was canceled. Everything I was supposed to do, I didn't have to do anymore. And I just kind of hold up. And what I realized is all of the other things that I could still do, I still didn't do.

I didn't work out. My house was a mess. Everything that I knew, everything that I was used to doing just came to the screeching halt. And I realized that apparently I can do 5,000 things or zero, but not like four, not like four things. But you know, I think many of us experienced something like that. Many of us didn't know what to do when there was nothing to do. When life came to a screeching halt, some of us, myself included, had a little bit of an identity crisis. We don't

know how to slow down. We don't know how to not run fast. We don't know how to not be doing things all the time. I love the quote, you aren't a human doing, you're a human being. But you know what? Some of us, myself included, again, need to learn how to be and not just do. And then you add technology in the mix, which I'm so thankful for technology right now because it's because of technology

we can do things like this. It's because of technology we can stay connected even when we're social distancing. But we've gotten so used to distraction and so used to information and so used to being connected that we can't not be thinking about something or doing something. You know, my kids, whenever we go on a road trip, they're used to having a DVD player in the car. Like, they're used to having a DVD player in the car. Like they're used to having a movie playing. It makes the hours go by fast. They don't cause as much trouble in the back seat and it's a win for everybody. You know, when I was little, like we just played I Spy. We learned how to just sit there in silence sometimes or get creative and make up games. You know, you and I, we can't even ride in an elevator for three or four floors

without looking at our phones. We're all so used to going non-stop. And then this happened. And then the rug was pulled out from underneath us, and we don't know what to do with ourselves. You know, I had a conversation last week with a good friend of mine, and her name is Crystal Evans Hurst. And she said something that I thought was so clever. She said, you know what? We are on a forced elimination diet. Now, for those of you that don't know, an elimination diet is where you remove foods from your diet that you suspect your body can't tolerate, and then later, as you reintroduce

them one at a time, you're kind of looking for symptoms that show a reaction. It shows what's been making you feel bad. You know what? I think that's really true. I think that we are experiencing a forced elimination diet in our schedules, in our calendars, in our commitments, in our social interactions, even in simple things like our daily habits. We're in this forced elimination where we went from doing a thousand things and now we have nothing in front of us that we're used to and we have an opportunity. We could look at this as something that everything's been taken away. I don't know what to do. I'm sad. I'm bummed. And yes, we have real challenges. There's no doubt about it.

There are things that we have got to find solutions for. We've got to take practical steps for. We've got to pray about. But there's also an opportunity in this margin. There's an opportunity to look at your life differently. There's an opportunity for a reset where you really can use this blank slate to create a better life. You know, I do an exercise with clients whenever I'm coaching them. I'm a business coach and I love helping people with all aspects of their business, but I

love helping them with time management and this idea of life balance. What does that even mean, right? Well, one of the exercises that I love to do with them is I help them create an ideal schedule. Now, granted, this is in a different world. It's not in this world of pandemic when everything is shut down. So normally, when we're all running hard, running fast, trying to be efficient, trying to get it all done, I'm trying to help them make the most of their time, find more time,

manage their time well. You get the idea, right? So here's the exercise. Instead of trying to clean up their current schedule, which is hard, because sometimes when you're so deep in it, when you're in the weeds day to day, it's hard to imagine your life being any different than what it is. Because you've got to go here and you've got to do this and that's already on the calendar and I've already committed and, and, and, and, and, right? You feel that. So to help them shut that off and not think in that way, I say, let's just forget about that for a second. Let's create an ideal schedule.

Let's just look at this perfect schedule. If your schedule could be anything you want it to be, what would it be? What would you do? So you look at it and you start to fill in, well, I do work, you know, eight to five, and I do have these commitments that I want to stick with. And so you start to fill in, I do sleep at night, like when the rest of the world is sleeping. And so you fill this in and you put your priorities there. And then what you're left with is this ideal schedule. And I say, okay, let's look at these side by side. You have your ideal schedule. That's still realistic, right? It still has your job, your commute, sleeping. You've got your

ideal schedule, and then you've got your actual schedule. And what I want you to do is I want you to begin to make incremental changes to your current schedule to get to your ideal schedule. You don't even have to do that exercise because right now you have been given an incredible gift. You've been given the gift of a clean slate. You've been given the gift of an opportunity to look at your life, your time, your schedule, your calendars, your commitments, your family in a completely different way, a way that you would never be able to look at any other way. This is not necessarily a time to do more and run faster and fill time and add to do's to your do list because you're just so used to doing. Instead,

it might be a time to reset. It might be a time to use this blank slate to truly create a better life when things get going again. It's a time to think about and create the life that you want, the life that you've always wanted, but you never had the time for. You don't have any excuses, right? You don't have the excuse of, I don't have the time. I've used that excuse. I'm with you.

And you don't even have FOMO, right? You don't have the fear of missing out because no one else is doing anything either. Everyone is at home. You've got this beautiful, fresh perspective and a clean slate to consider what you want your life to look like. I saw something on social media last week from Dave Hollis, and he said something to the effect of, before you rush back to your old life, think about what you're rushing back to.

I don't know about you guys, but there have been aspects of being at home that are so beautiful. There have been aspects of slowing down, even for someone like me, that is a type A, Enneagram A, hard, fast runner. There have been aspects of this that I just love. You know what I've noticed? I notice things more. I know that sounds so simple, but when you're running fast, you miss a lot. I have noticed the most interesting things. I have noticed freckles on my son's face that I didn't know were there. I have noticed how my other son says certain words so funny and comical. My son Conley, he says things all the

time and I thought it was just gibberish because I can't really make out what he's saying. He can't totally, you know, speak perfectly at the age of three, but I've been picking up that a lot of what he's saying, y'all are movie lines. Like my son is quoting Aladdin and Frozen. And once I slowed down to notice what he was saying, it's so funny. His new thing, by the way, is that he runs around when he's mad and he screams true love. So I'm like, Conley, it's time to eat dinner. He's like, no, it's true love. It's from Frozen. Those of you that know Frozen know that's a line from Frozen. I notice more.

I also am embracing more. I'm embracing this season of slowness. I'm embracing getting to sit with my son and read not one or two books, but maybe like five or six or seven books because I can, because I'm home, because I'm present, because I'm not in a hurry, because I'm not rushed going to the next thing. You know, it's incredible the emotional weight that we carry in our households, especially as women, for those of you that are watching that are women. Our energy, our anxiety, our peace, we can sway an entire room, whether we realize it or not. The other day I was rushing around trying to get a diaper change before I went live

at one o'clock on Instagram to do this Hope in the Chaos series that I decided to do to just offer hope on Instagram. And as I was rushing upstairs to get a diaper, I saw my six-month-old daughter, her whole posture changed. And she was like looking around. My six-month-old picked up on my energy. So I stopped and I slowed down. How do you want to use this time?

How do you want to use this blank slate? How do you want to use this gift of perspective to look at your entire life differently? Now, I know there are things we do want to rush back to. I want to rush back to having our team at the office because I love getting to collaborate in person. I want to rush back to getting to hang out with my friends. I'm sure you do too. There are things we do want to rush back to, but maybe, maybe this is an opportunity to look at everything differently. To really think about those commitments that we had that our heart wasn't in anymore. To think about all those obligations that we just crammed into a weekend.

To think about all the things we said yes to. To think about what we're saying no to in order to say yes to those things. You know, one of the most common questions that I've been asked through this whole thing is how should I be spending my time? You see stuff on social media where you've got people that are like, use this time to hustle and grind, get after it, chase that dream, build that business, do that thing, go for it, go, go, go. Now you've got the time, reorganize that attic.

You got this. And then you have other things that you see on social media that say, I don't know about you, but I want to slow down. I don't know about you, but I want to use this as an opportunity to just be present with my family, to cook meals, to have picnics, to go slow. And you know what? I would say that there's no right answer of what you should be doing and what you should be spending your time on. Because my advice for you on how you should be spending this unbelievable gift of a time is the same answer I have given for 10 years. Now, or when you're not in a pandemic crisis, is that you should be spending your time

on what's most important to you. This month, this week, today. Spend your time on what's most important to you. If you want to build a business, do it. Go for it. I think it would be amazing if you can find something that meets a felt need, especially in this business landscape right now where you can solve a problem. Maybe

you start a business just running errands for people, a delivery business, something like that. Maybe you start a toilet paper business. I don't know. Maybe you come up with something amazing during this time. Do it. If that's important to you, do it. And if you want to slow down, if you just want to be home, if you don't want to reorganize your attic because you just don't want to because it's not important to you and you'd rather read to your kids and have picnics and play in the sprinkler, do it. Do what's most important to you. What's so beautiful about this time that none of us could have ever planned and would have ever wanted, certainly not in this way,

is that all the things that we say we want to do, that we never have time to do, we now have the time. The excuse has been taken away. We're not missing out on anything with anyone else because they're not doing anything either. And we are left with this opportunity to look at our life with the clean slate perspective, to look at our life and say, what do I want to put in it? What do I want to go back to whenever life gets going again? What do I want my weekends to look like when things get busy again? What do my evenings look

like? Maybe your evenings rush back to what they looked like before of everyone running around trying to do all the things. Maybe your evenings look like to what they looked like before of everyone running around trying to do all the things. Maybe your evenings look like a walk around the neighborhood because you got really used to it right now. And it's pretty awesome to just go for a walk and wave to neighbors and enjoy the sunshine and listen to the birds and not have an agenda and not have plans and just go slow. So what are you going to do? What are you going to do with this clean slate? I want to give you some journal questions to consider. I would love it if you actually write these down. I know that sounds silly, but y'all,

sometimes you don't even know the thoughts that are in your mind, the things you're sensing in your heart until you sit down with a pen to paper and you begin to write what's on your mind. Sometimes I write down things that I didn't even know I was thinking. Sometimes I feel like God leads me to write down words I didn't even know were coming. So I want to give you some questions to ask yourself, questions to reflect on, questions to pray about and journal about as you think about this unbelievable gift of a clean slate. What do you want to do with it? What do you want to do with this clean slate? Another thing to consider, what do you not miss about your old life?

I'll tell you for me, I don't miss rushing. I rush everywhere all the time. I don't want to rush. My friend recommended a book to me, and my pastor recommended this book as well, and it's called The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry. And the irony about this book, it's by John Mark Comer, the forward by John Ortberg. The irony is I started this in January. I started this before I knew any of this was coming. So I was already sensing something needed to change about my life, something needed

to change about my schedule. But as I got into this book, there was one particular part that I thought was so interesting because I always think of rushing as, well, that's not fun. You're full of anxiety, all that. But there's a very real implication to this that I never considered. So the conversation is between John Ortberg, who's a pastor, author, many of you know him, and he's having a conversation with Dallas Willard. And so John Ortberg asks Willard, what do I need to do to become the me I want to be?

Now, this conversation is not happening in a pandemic. This is just in life. What do I need to do to become the me I want to be? Now, this conversation is not happening in a pandemic. This is just in life. What do I need to do? This is a pastor asking a brilliant philosopher, also just teacher in the ways of Jesus. He asked this man, his mentor, what do I need to do to become the me that I want to be? There's a long silence on the other end of the line. According to John, there's always a long silence on the other end of the line. According to John, there's always a long silence on the other end of the line with Willard. But then he says this,

you must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life. So he writes this down. John writes it down. He goes, okay, what else? He said, there's nothing else. Hurry is the great enemy of spiritual life in our day. You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life. He goes on to explain the unbelievable benefits of eliminating hurry from your life. When I hurry, I'm not really kind. When I hurry, I'm stressed. I'm short-tempered. I'm irritated. When I hurry, I don't have a lot of time to pause and ask God what he's doing. When I hurry, I don't always think of others. There are so many negative side effects of rushing, and we are in a time that is unprecedented. There has been this massive pause button that has been hit where we have the chance to look at things differently. We didn't have to ruthlessly eliminate, hurry from our life.

It was eliminated for us. And we have a gift of a clean slate, of a reset to look at everything differently. So how do you want to use it? How do you want to use this clean slate? What about your old life do you not want to go back to? What about this new life do you want to keep? You're like, you know what? I want to maintain this. When things get rushing again, and they will, they will. I want to keep these things.

These things I want to still be true when things go back to normal. What are some things that you're grateful for right now? Where do you see God right now? What are you sensing that God is doing in your life? What are you sensing that God is teaching you just in this season of slowing down? I had a thought the other day as I imagined our entire world, because this is a global thing, and I can't think of another time, certainly in my lifetime, when the entire globe is focused on one thing like this. I wonder how many people are looking up for the first time. How many people are praying their first prayer? How many people are seeking a God they don't even really know if He exists, but they're going to branch out there because they're desperate?

Because we all have this gift of slowing down and looking to something bigger than ourselves. You know, as I think of all the analogies I've used in this pandemic, I've noticed that every single analogy that we are desperate for, there's an actual example in Scripture of what God says about that. We want something we can depend on, right? Like it feels like the rug's been pulled out from underneath us. We want something firm. And the Bible says that God is our rock, our firm foundation. We feel like we're in a storm. We've got the storm analogy. I'm in a storm. I'm in a storm. And the Bible shows us Jesus actually calmed a storm.

You remember that? We feel like we're sinking. That's another analogy. I feel like I'm sinking. I feel like I'm sinking. Jesus showed us that he walked on water. We feel anxious. The Bible says Jesus is peace.

We want healing. The Bible says he is the healer. We want to know the way. Jesus says he is the way. We want to know the truth. When there's lots of misinformation out there, the Bible says he is the healer. We want to know the way. Jesus says he is the way. We want to know the truth. When there's lots of misinformation out there, the Bible says he is the truth. And we want our life back. And Jesus says he is the life.

That's who our God is. The God that has gotten me and got you. Regardless of where you are right now and how you're feeling and what you are facing, I just want to remind you that our God is a God of hope. I want to remind you that the greatest message of hope any one of us could ever have is the hope we find in the person of Jesus. So I'll leave you with one of my favorite verses.

Romans 15, 13 says, May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. And amen to that. Now, I know that many of you are facing real practical needs. I pray that this message is one of hope and inspires you to look at your life with fresh eyes. But I also want to give you some resources, some things that you could actually use right now today with the things that you're facing. Now, I spent a lot of time talking about time.

We have a lot of time now, but it won't be long before all of those things are flooding your calendar all over again. So I actually have a free resource for you called 25 Ways to Protect Your Time. You can get that free download by texting PROTECTIME to 33444. That's PROTECTIME, all one word, to 33444. That's where I just wrote up 25 ways to protect your time, 25 ways to say no without even saying the word. So when all this stuff starts getting back going again, you've got that muscle of saying no strengthened and you're able to protect the things that you're deciding today you want to keep and protect.

So that's how you can protect your time. Now, I know also there's a very real financial strain going on right now. Many of you are scared. You might feel powerless. You might feel hopeless, like you don't have any good choices. But I want you to know that you're going to be okay. We help millions of Americans here at Ramsey Solutions. In fact, it's the best thing we do. It's what we're known for. We're known for helping people get control of their finances, even in a crisis. You will make it to the other side of all this,

and we know that, and we know that because we have the best resources to help you do that. So we're doing something crazy and awesome that I'm so excited about. For the first time ever, we are giving you Financial Peace University for free for 14 days. This is a proven plan to win with money. And you can even watch it from the comfort of your bed or your couch with your kids, with your dog, on your patio if you have a TV or want to take your laptop out there. You can watch it anywhere for 14 days for free. All of our lessons, the EveryDollarPlus budgeting app,

and you get all this for two weeks. And I promise you, if you get in there and you take this class, it will not only give you hope in your finances and your bank account, it's also going to give you very practical steps that you need to take. It's going to show you when you take these steps, you will be okay. You will make it. You will win. I promise you, you do have choices. You can do this. All you have to do is go to DaveRamsey.com slash hope. That's DaveRamsey.com slash hope to get Financial Peace University for free for 14 days. That's going to help you with your money. The 25 ways to protect your time

will help you with your time. And I pray that these two free resources give you a very practical sense of control over the two big resources I know that you're struggling with right now. But again, above all else, I pray that you feel the hope that God offers because I promise you He has this and I know that He has you. Thank you so much for tuning in to A Message of Hope. Now, I'm so excited because we also have

another incredible resource for you, which is a brand new podcast called A Message of Hope. You're going to hear from thought leaders like Dave Ramsey, Rachel Cruz, Chris Hogan, Anthony O'Neill, John Deloney, and myself with common sense, practical inspiration, and teaching on life and money. I know that it's scary out there, but hope is greater than fear. Search for A Message of Hope podcast wherever you listen to podcasts.