Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 693 | Jase Survived Snapchat as a Teen Girl & Willie Calls Out His Mother-In-Law Over Her Cooking

Episode Date: June 2, 2023

Jase recalls spending a few days pretending to be a teenage girl on social media so he could figure out what they’re really doing on there. Wilie’s mother-in-law, Chrys and her best friend, author Shellie Tomlinson, talk about their newest projects. Chrys admits that she was a little annoyed when Willie publicly criticized her cooking on a previous Unashamed episode! Al and Lisa discuss Shellie’s newest book with her and how it offers a unique perspective on the Gospel of John.  https://philmerch.com – Get your “Unashamed” mugs, shirts, hats & hoodies! "The Blind" hits theaters on 9/28/23. Get sneak peeks, updates & insider exclusives: https://theblindmovie.com — Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? So we just recently celebrated Mother's Day, which is a cool concept because, I mean, obviously, it gave me a chance to publicly acknowledge mom. And because, you know, I told the story, Mom was a teenager, you know, when she found that she was pregnant with me. And she wouldn't, she had just gotten out of her teen years days when she was pregnant with you. I mean, she was married by then, and she wasn't with me. But it was really to go through that as a young girl, because when I was able to tell the story, I just had a 16-year-old girl read our scripture in our church. So everybody looks, that's what a 16-year-old girl looks like.

It was her birthday. And then I thought about this thing, because there's mom sitting down there, who's now in her 70s, but I thought she was the age of this girl when you and she found that you were going have me. And so I thought, man, what pressure that is to think about that I've got to live now in a way that supports another life as a young girl. And even though you guys did it and you raised me on a college campus, I mean, it's a powerful testament. Well, it is. And Mary wasn't too far away from that age. Exactly. She had to undergo having a bad reputation, being slandered, alienated by her family. And she didn't do anything wrong. I mean, when you think,

about God allowing and picking her to be that, to use her such just an ordinary girl and her heart at that age. And the angel even said, great favor is resting upon you. She was like, uh-oh. Well, I see why God chose her. Right. Me too. I mean, you know, what a heart to undergo all that. Because there's nothing she can say. I mean, if you say the truth, oh, you know, this is God's baby. I mean, not only do you have a bad reputation, and in everybody's mind, you've been cutting up. You're crazy. You've justified it by a lie saying that, oh, this is God. I'm a virgin.

Oh, yeah, okay. Yeah, we need to get her some psychiatric help right now. So in the same time I was preaching the sermon, it gave me a chance to acknowledge, Mom, Jase, you were describing that someone attended that had a connection to Missy as a month, which I thought was a pretty... So we, you know, we invited, you know, both sets of parents for Mother's Day. And y'all came. Phil was there. Had a good meal.

It was a nice gathering. But before we had the meal, well, we had a knock on the door. And it was a young girl who, of course, she's college age now, that brought Missy Mother's Day present. And so you said, well, what was the story here? And I told Phil a little bit of it there. but we met her. I actually, I think I'd met her one time before, just as one of my daughter's friends.

But where we got to know her well is when I did the infamous look at my daughter's phone and realized that there's some things that Jesus would not approve of. And I told that story in a previous podcast, and it's years ago. And my daughter's doing fantastic now. but, you know, the cell phones are just speeding up the process of teenagers losing their way. And so that was the question that started this whole investigation. I was like, is there anything on your phone?

Because I'm paying for this phone that Jesus wouldn't approve of them. She was like, no, it's fine. You can look, you know. Well, after the investigation and the confrontation, it started with us having a lot of come-to-Jesus meetings over what was going on. the phone and eventually, you know, she found her footing in the Lord. But one of the things I did when I confiscated her phone, because that's what I did, is I went into Snapchat and got to know her seven closest Snapchat friends. It was a little group because they were earmarked. And people that are familiar with Snapchat will know, you know, where I'm going with this. So I acted like my

daughter for a couple days on there. And look, was it good? But after a while, they figured out that this is no longer Mia. Something has happened. So I called a little meeting, a little group texts. And this is all done through the airwaves here. I don't know what these people look like. They got little Ike. But they're seven of her friends. And I said from now on, you know, the gig is up. I'm Mia's dad. Nice to meet you. But at this point, if you want to continue a relationship with my daughter and be her friend, she's going in a different direction. So if you want to be a part of the new direction, you are welcome to be a part of that.

But I don't want you doing what y'all have been doing the last two days because I've and I've looked at all your profiles and everything you did because I got access through my daughter. I said, you will need to come to my house with your mom or dad or both. and we'll have a discussion if you want to be me as friend if not nice to meet you you gave him an exit ramp yeah you know bye that's what i did well the girl who knocked on our door years later and gave my wife a mother's day present was one of the girls on that in that group that's amazing now we've come a long way in in these years now where she unannounced you know we never like we didn't she has parents.

She's doing fine. Yeah. But she, you know, remembered that connection in that moment in her life where she needed some direction. Because when she came over and brought her mom, we went through the gospel and the reason, you know, Mia was, and look, we've become friends with her and her mom. And so,

and have listened to her many times and try to help her. I mean, she became part of our family just as Mia's friend. And she just came to the Lord just a few weeks ago. Now, it wasn't an instantaneous. She just searched and she followed and she came around and she studied. And so she just gave her life to Christ. And one of the things she did as a new daughter was she remembered where this all got started. And she brought, you know, my wife, Missy, a Mother's Day present, you know.

And look, we all cried. Me, her, because I thought. I was just shocked. I mean, it shocked me. So I think it's not a reflection of them being, you know, bad parents or it just takes other people to come in there. And part of that was what you saw live out there. She was grateful that she's now in the Lord and that she's on her way and that she has a new job.

And her life is controlled by the Spirit of God. So I wanted to share that. It's very powerful. It's very powerful. And part of that is that reminder of, Very good story. We're going to get to later in Luke, remember when he heals some lepers, but only one came back to say, hey, I appreciate you doing that for me.

And he wasn't an Israelite. And I'm just thinking about the story. I think that's right. So it's kind of like that in that situation. Not that all the other people that you had an impact on was not great, but one said, hey, I want you to know. Yeah, and what's fascinating is this girl really wasn't like going out and doing a bunch of wild. You know, it really wasn't about that.

It was just kind of a follower. Yeah. Was part of this little friend group. Had this weird thing happen where somebody's dad is, I mean, because that was crazy. And because she was like, oh, it was all over Snapchat. I mean, Mia's dad is just throwing haymakers and all her friends. You know, it kind of became a little viral sensation there. but through that she got some you know what what people need especially young people

is someone who's really trying to help them and we don't have an agenda that's it and uh we listened to her we uh invited over we ate meals together we gave her spiritual direction but we really we didn't force anything on her except if you want to be me as friend we want to you want to are you being a positive influence or negative if you're going to be a negative influence, we don't want you around here. But if you're open to being positive and listening to why and what we believe in, then you're welcome here anytime. This will be a safe place.

And so, you know, just saying that you wouldn't think it worked, but there's been many times throughout the last few years that she just showed up. And look, we have a lot of other people who do that too, young people. And they show up. I mean, the other night we had a whole house full of them. but we want to provide a safe place where they can go when temptation happens or all their other friends are going somewhere else and we don't make it uncomfortable for them and we don't try to entertain them they can just come and hang out and read a book downstairs you know if they won't and people do that if you want to talk about spiritual things we'll talk about spiritual things so i'm a little more aggressive than missy missy's just real friendly with them and listens to them and here's what their problems and ask them what they want to do do for a living and what are you good at? And we've had all these discussions with them as their parents are doing at the same time. Right. But I think that's something that we need to be aware of.

Well, and it's making yourself available for spiritual mentoring. I've got a couple of guys that send me a Father's Day text every Father's Day. They're not my kids. But I put time into them an effort when they were young. Now their fathers are gone. Have crossed over. And so they see me as a figure that spent some time with them, just like what you're describing. And look, my heart's just every time because not only do I hear from my own kids, but I hear from those that I was willing to put my life into. So because you tell me that story, which I thought was powerful, Chris Howard, who is Willie's mother-in-law, and also my next-door neighbor.

They live in our neighborhood, Chris and Johnny. And a very godly woman. Very godly woman. And she did the announcements on Mother's Day. And I thought it was amazing how she did. And she's a woman that's just, it's amazing how much energy this woman has, but how godly and spiritual she is. And so it made me think I wanted to at some point get her on the podcast. And so one of her close friends that she does a podcast with and also I think they've written a book together.

Shelly Tomlinson has just written a book. And so they wanted to be on the podcast. And so I said, all right, well, let's do that. But I wanted to be able to do that and also have, you know, this idea of women, mentoring women and what that means. So she's written this book about the book of John. So she took the book of John as her entire text for her book. And so we're going to have them on the podcast, but we don't have enough chairs here for everybody. So Lisa and I are going to interview them for our podcast, but I want to let y'all know what inspired me, Jason, was this whole story about Mother's Day that we should have some mothers and grandmothers on here to do that.

So we're going to take a break. When we come back from the break, Lisa and I are going to have Shelly and Chris on the podcast to talk about their new book, but also talk about the importance of mentoring and making a difference in people's lives. So I think you guys will enjoy it. I think it will be great. So y'all get the rest of this podcast off and I'll take it from here. Welcome back to Unashamed podcast. We have changed locations.

It's like magic, you know. We started out in the lair. Here we are at one break, which is amazing. So it's the magical. Probably something disastrous happened in the layer. Well, yeah. The disaster was. trying to get Jay's under control us.

I'm glad we did. I almost feel like I'm on Duck Dynasty. I mean, this is what I saw the whole time of the show. This was really the core of the show. It was the scene. I'm like, should I be making duck calls? And is Willie going to walk in the door in a second? He probably, if he knew you were here, he would.

He would come in here and cause mischief. People don't know Chris. So let me welcome our guest before, because we just get right into it. We got Chris Howard, who is Willie's mother-in-law. Yes. If you were on the show, that's what he would say, Willie's father-law. Because none of us have a name. I'm Al's wife or Willie's sister-in-law. I'm like, I have a name. I have a name, people. No, you're exactly right. That's what it would be. And if this were the show, he would walk in the door and call me some other name. But we'll call you Chris today. Yeah, thank you. And we have Shelly, Tomlinson. Welcome, Shelly.

Thank you. Shelly's got a brand new book out called Seizing the Good Life that we're going to talk about a little bit later. Okay. So, yeah, so I wanted you to mention that. So a lot of people, so when I go on the road, I try to, like, give the behind the scenes of kind of how we really are or how we are, not just from the show. Because that just has that one. So Willie's always the bad guy on the show trying to get everybody to work. But you know, Chris, right? What I know is he's the biggest goof off and sluff that they ever was, right?

I mean, you know. I don't know if I'd use sluff as the mother-in-law. Probably would get me in trouble. That goof off for sure. She's so diplomatic. She handled that so well. Well, I tell people when we travel and people ask about the show that all four of you guys are funny, but the funniest is you and Willie. Especially if we're together.

Yes. And you couldn't see that in the show because he was the boss. He was running the operation. He had a role. He had his role. So that's what he did. But no, you're absolutely right. He is the craziest.

Yeah. I always thought that when I saw the show. because I knew, I didn't know you out a lot before it started Aaron, but I'd interviewed the guys, and so I'd been around them a little bit, and Willie cracked me up. When he just walked in the room, he'd start something, I'd start laughing, and then you didn't see that. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, they kind of gave it to Jace. They did. And Jace is not that person, typically. But when he would look into the camera and do his little cameos, they just, they nailed it. He was hilarious. Yeah.

Yeah, Jace is more serious in, in really, real life. Then he, on the show, he's kind of goofy. And he's dry humor. He has a lot of dry humor. It's like dad. Dad's super funny, really without trying to be just by being dad. You know, so it's just, you know, I laugh because he does things and I ever says. But I don't feel like you and Willie try either. Y'all are just funny. It's a different kind of funny. Well, we're really good at like if somebody makes a mistake. Pointing it out. Y'all are really good at that. They call it pouncing. I think. We love to Pounce.

Should I be nervous at this point that I'm going to miss speaking? No. Absolutely not. Not with a mother like Kay, not if you're miss speaking. Okay. No, not at all. That's right. I adore her misspeaks.

So, Chris, just for everybody to know, so we go way back. Way back. Way back. Whenever Lisa and I were probably only been married less than five years. Yeah. We came to White's Ferry Road. We had been out at another little church. We had started out close, and then we came back.

And so Chris and Johnny became good friends of ours then invited us. We had never been to the beach before. We didn't have two nickels to rub together. This is back in the day. This is when preaching school was a step-up financial. You know what I'm saying? It was like, ooh, somebody will pay me money to go learn the Bible? Yeah, I'm in.

I'm in. And so Chris and Johnny were super gracious and took us along on some of their family vacations and just, you know, opened a door for us that we had never seen. Yeah. And they also helped support us along with the rest of their family. So we go way back to an appreciation, but also just been, you know, friends and involved in mission work and camp and so many different years.

It's been a blessing. We're next door neighbors. And next door neighbors. Which sometimes we don't even think of that because we're all so busy. We don't see each other in the neighborhood. We see each other at other things that we do, but we are next door neighbors. And that's super fun for us because when my sister, move next door to us, we made her promise to never, ever move.

And she did. Well, she broke that promise. But she sold the house to Al and Lisa, so we... Upgrade. It was... Got an upgrade on that one. I don't know that Joe Neal would believe that. Well, she'll never...

That's great. She'll never hear this. She'll never hear this. Hey, just like y'all thought I wouldn't hear the one where I was thrown under the bus from my cooking, which, was that an ashamed podcast? Well, who knows? Were you there? I don't know.

But Corey claims... I would never. talk about you. Well, Corey said that whoever's not in there on it is going to get thrown under the bus. So apparently, John Luke was trying to defend me and my cooking, and Willie was like not having any of the defense at home. Oh, that could have been ours, because we had Willie and John Luke on the podcast. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I didn't remember them throwing you under the bus, but I'm not surprised. No, not surprised. No. Willie's actual comment was something like John Luke was saying at two mama's house, which is me, the kids get to eat first. At the Robertson house, the men, the adults eat first,

and the kids just get whatever's left over. So John Luke was trying to be nice. And Willie says, y'all eat last at my house because they don't know if it's any good. This is where we... Now it's coming back to that. This is where we need to say, let's go to the video, right? I want to see that part.

Now it's coming back to you, yes. So anyway, and I, of course, I was a little bit offended because most of the time the food I serve at my house isn't mine. It's other people. And I'm like trying to defend them. No, Mamaw cooks really good. And Joe Neal, everybody does. We used to have a joke that Chris, they had a, at Johnny's Pizza,

at the closest one to where we live, there was just a button that said Howard on it. And so like when their family would call in and said, this is Chris Howard. You'd hit the button, the order winning. And it was just, you didn't have to worry about it. Yep. Lloyd Williams, who lived across the street from us said he's never seen Johnny's pizza truck, a car so much, just living next door to us. Well, of course, Nassel is funny because, so Chris mentioned that we bought her sister's house. So when we all got famous and got a couple of dollars in our pocket, not from the early

days, we were like the Beverly Hillbillies. We just, we moved into the neighborhood. We ascended. Yeah, and just came in and started buying up. So now we're all there in with Corey's family on the same street. Do you have a cement pond? I got a cement pond. I don't doubt about it.

And a trailer. I got a trailer. I had to redneckify it just a little bit. So I put a trailer back there behind our house. I had to remind them who exactly had moved into the neighborhood. And Willie says in the wintertime from his taj Mahal up on the mountain up there, he can look down and see my little double wad. In front of the cement pond.

That is exactly. That is too good. We just like to keep it real in our neighborhood, I think. So there we are. So, Shelley, you're from Laiiard. Lake Providence. So you're one of those uppity people, you know. Right. Yeah. That took me for a little loop there. You weren't expected that. Never been introduced Lake Providence as the upity people. But in a way, because I did, I was raised 20 minutes outside of Lake Providence. So I was kind of like

coming to town. When I came to Lake Providence, it was a big thing. So then I came to the city. Right. From Alsatia. So I guess I'm pretty uppity. So to our audience who may not know Louisiana geography, and Lisa. And Lisa. She goes by, when I says east or west, she looks at, I said, the mall. Right. You know what I mean?

It's just like you have to. My grandson, Al, just two days ago was telling me something. He was asking a question, and this is West and his nine. And he says, well, Keggie, was that north or did you, was that west of so-and-so, or is that north? And, I mean, he's asking me a question with the words, that. I don't use in my everyday language. And it's like, well, Weston, I'm sorry to break this to you, but Keggy does not speak north-south, southeast, west.

Yeah. Me either. I don't do that. He rephrased his question. When you were looking at it, Keggi, was it at the left or the right? I'm like, okay, I understand that. Well, that's what I have to do with Lisa. So just can you imagine like a U.S. mat?

Do you know what our country looks like? And I'm like, no. No, not really. You know, so, I don't know, it's a loss cause. I get it. I get it. So Lake Providence is east of here. This is true.

Between here in Mississippi. Yeah, exactly right. For those that can read a map, they're visiting. And Lake Providence is farming country. Yes. So her husband is a farmer. Oh, yeah. We farm.

My husband farms right outside Lake Providence, and I drive all the way to the big city of Monroe, West Monroe, when I did just about anything. This is it. So we see people at the airport all the time that live over that way, because it's the place to come to the airport. So it's a floodplain, basically, from Monroe to the Mississippi River. That's why it's so flat.

And, of course, why the farmmen in the soil is rich. So, I mean, it's a great area. It's a wonderful life. Good folks. Yeah. I live on the lake there, and it's little bitty tiny Lake Providence, and I get to say I have the best of both worlds because I get to travel and speak and see everything, but then I get to go home to this little bitty town on the lake, and I love it. Yeah, you get your retreat.

of how we feel. So tell us how you got into what you do. I mean, you've written books. You're a speaker. You know, how does that, how did, how did that? We were on TV, so I know how it happened for us, but how did it happen for you? Did you just kind of get asked to do stuff or what? It's really hard to kind of retrace it in a way that doesn't take all the oxygen out of the room. So let me try to make it Essexink so we could talk about something that's more fun, but let's see, I had always been infatuated with words. And my children were in high school, and I started trying to finally put those things down on paper. And I'm a little bit, like you referenced earlier, Al, when we were talking before, we came on air the first time someone had read something of mine, and they wanted to come and have me come speak. And I thought to a room of people, and they offered to pay me money to come and speak to a room of people.

To do what you'd like to do? Why are you kidding? And I get to talk about Jesus, which is my favorite subject ever. I mean, could this be any better? So I kind of fell into it that way. And people began to be aware of my writing. The Internet was really young, and I created a website, and I started putting things out. And so word of mouth, someone started asking me to speak, and then another person.

And I actually, the book you're holding is my 12th book, but I self-published three books before I got a traditional publisher and an agent and all the deal, because no one would let me in to the little tight-knit publishing circle. It's hard. They were all like, Shelly, who, you know, and why do we care what you're saying? And so I have a type A personality. So the podcast, the self-publishing came about because no one would let me in. They would say things like, well, you really need an agent to get published. And then they would say things like, but agents like to represent people that are published. And I'm just like the original chicken and egg, how do you get in?

So I self-published, and it was the sales of those first three self-published books that finally got an agent's attention. So I was looking in the back of this book, and these must be funny books, I guess, by the titles. Suck your stomach in and put some color on. Yeah. Is the title of one of your books now? Is that just a humor book or what is it? That's just kind of... That's pure humor.

It says the subtitle is what Southern Mamas tell their daughters the rest of y'all should know to. And so I just kind of unpack it for the rest of the world. Which I think for me, as we were in the publishing business for many years, that, was her ace in the hole, too, was that humor, that southern humor. And so when she, I could remember years ago, I really didn't even know Shelley, she came to the publishing company and talked to me about her humor books, but that she wanted to do a more serious book like this one is. And from a publisher's viewpoint, I told her, honestly, a lot of publishers don't want that mix. You know, it's one or the other. That was really one of the hard things for me. In publishing was people wanted to pigeonhole me,

because I came out with humor first. It was the first book that was published. They didn't want me to cross genres, you know, because they were like, your humor sells. But my humor and my storytelling for me, when I'm speaking to an audience, it is to open their hearts up. It is to plow their hearts up

so that they can hear what I have to say that matters. You got it. Because even though I love the stories about my family, I love the humor, it's in vain if it doesn't have, a more eternal point and reward for it. Now, that's my style, too. I mean, I'm always funny, tell a funny story, but it opens people up.

That's what it's for. So Lisa and I, when we speak on the road, so I come out and do my whole opening, and really it's just to get everybody relaxed and I tell funny stories about the family and then begin to set it up where we're going. And then she goes in and it's just like, you know, then it's really, but they're open. They're open then because I like to say to realize, that everyone comes in with something hard. They may have their mask on, and it may not look like it,

but life's hard when it's good, like we all know. And so they all come in, and they're sitting there, and they have their hard thing, and they can't hear what you say. So when you get them to laughing and having a great time, then their hearts begin to soften, and then it's just there for the word. There was a preacher, Chris, Jeff Walling, that was when I was, you know, forming my style was really popular. And we heard him a lot.

And that's what I learned from him. Yeah. Is he was so funny and he told such great stories. But then he was, when he came in with this stuff, you were, you know, you relax. You were ready. Right. And so that's kind of how I modeled myself after his stuff. Which is what Shonda Pierce has done so well because her story was so tragic.

Yeah. But you're laughing all the way until you're crying. That's right. Because she was, she's able to mold that. Right. where Shelley doesn't have the tragedy to it, element to it, but she has the humor and then that love for Jesus that she just weaves in so beautifully that an audience loves. So did you meet with the publishing stuff? How did you know? Originally with that.

Originally, but then Chris invited me to speak. Yeah, I was doing those mom events. So for five years in a row, we did fairly large, about a thousand women mom events here in Monroe. Louisiana and I wanted Shelley for that humor part for that humor element because you want that in your panel of speakers somewhere so I asked Shelly to be a part of that and then that was really kind of the beginning but she lives in Lake Providence so it's not like she's next door or close so we were just kind of back and forth and then she started radio and I started radio so we got together a few times talking radio how do we do this radio life then I was on her show. She was on mine kind of back and forth with that sort of thing. And we just

kind of grew, yeah. And y'all did a book together? Well, a few years ago, she approached me because I was kind of, my radio was, it's a mom thing, and I did that for 10 years. Can I say I'm paying close attention because I cannot remember how rocking it grand happened? And so I'm like, okay, so how did this next work? I learned stuff all the time on the podcast. How did this next part happen? I'm going to tell you my version. I'm not positive that that's right. But I'll tell you my first, we have a joke in our whole family that Jeremy and I remember the least amount of the whole family. Like we called Ask Joe Neal, who's my older sister, and she says something and we don't know if it's true. But Jo Neal knows things.

She knows things. But Chris, you know in our family, if we don't know, we just make it up. That's it. Well, I know. And see, that's what we're not sure if Joe Neal's doing. But we don't know. So we, you know, anyway. So anyway, a few years ago, I had done the whole mom thing in which I love, still, we still love to do a lot for moms and young moms and older moms.

But I was kind of turning my attention ministry-wise to more grand parenting things. And Shelley called one day and said, why don't we team up and try a website, lifestyle site, podcast, those kind of things. That's not happen. That's how it happened. And so I was like, okay, because it always seems a little bit easier where there's two of you. Because taking on something like that you're going to have to do every week and keep it up, like you guys know with even this podcast. Right. It's like, you know, it's part of a job.

It's a lot. It becomes a job. And so we called that Rocking at Grand. We call that Rocking at Grand. And we both have the desire to help people understand that, you know, your kids are not going to accidentally pick up the faith of Jesus Christ. You've got to be intentional about your parenting and your grandparenting. And I knew Chris had that same heart and that same passion. So Rocking at Grand grew out of that.

And then, yeah, then we released it. a book by the same name, have a podcast by the same name, because we can't think about other names, I guess. I don't know. Well, we wrapped her brain for weeks and they were like, why are we naming it something else? I just name it what the podcast is. Yeah. Well, you know, it's really amazing because I've said this before that you have podcast, because we've had several in our family that have had podcasts when it first kind of became a thing. But none of them have lasted very long because unless you have some specific content over the long period of time, you know, you're just getting together telling stories is not going to last for that long. Okay. You're reading my mind right now

because when I came off of live radio, so I did live radio my own show called All Things Southern with Shelley for 10, maybe 11 years. And when I came off of live radio, basically because God got me long enough to say, you know what, you can't do everything that you're doing. I'm the one that's infinite. You're finite. We got to figure out something else. And so I came off live radio to open up more ministry time, and I went to podcasting. And my intention out was to podcast regularly.

And now that little podcast, it's called The Storytable, and it just kind of floats around out there, and I say something when I want to say something. But I don't do it the way I thought that I was going to do it. And I'm always meaning to. Right. It's a, you know, I mean, I always say it's a grind, but it's a great grind. Because in our case, when they approached us from Blaze about doing Unashamed, they had, they wanted us to do Bible.

And I was like, well, that's great because that's the only thing I know that we can do a long time. Yeah, right. Because you're not going to run out of soap with the Bible. You just turn around and do it again. Yeah. And so I get the blessing on our podcast of getting the shared wisdom of Jace and dad and Zach. And so if you put all of our teaching experience of the Bible together, it'd be,

you know, 125 years of teaching. Right. You know, collectively. And so, you know, it really has, you know, strengthen my faith, just being a part of that discussion day in and day out. So, but I look at other podcasts and I think, unless you're doing current events or guest or something, it's hard to keep it going. Right. It's a lot of work. So I understand. We're kind of the same way for us Christian parenting, which is a network out of Dallas, approached us about a podcast on grandparenting. And I think that's the only way we keep this going because they keep us going. And it's, you know, they expect a certain number by a certain day. Then they, we send it to them.

They take care of it over there. So what's the name of this podcast? Oh, wait. Think about it. Rocking it grand. We can't think of another. So basically we're just going to throw a dart at Rocking the Ground. That's what it's whatever it is.

Let's take another break. I want to talk about this book because I love it. I love the concept. I hadn't read the whole thing. I just kind of had to skim it because we're about to go on vacation, so we're going to read it. But I loved that you based it on John, which is, and so that was my first question to you. So were you in John and thought, man, I need to write. a book or did you think I need to write a book and I'm going to John?

Which came? What was the chicken and the egg on the John study? Because it's so good. By the way, I love that you have humor in your structure here. Because I laughed out loud two or three times with the stuff you said in there, you know. So I really loved. So yeah, which came first? Were you just in love with John and said, I'm based my book on that?

Or was it the other way? It really was that. I just love John's gospel. I do too. And I always point people there. when they say, I wish I loved God's word like you did, but I don't. And I'm like, okay, this is what I want you to do. I want you to get in John's gospel and don't leave. You know, just stay there and don't try to get through it. Just live with it and just let it, you know, begin to speak to you. Let the word

talk to you. And you'll become a word lover. So I've always loved John's gospel. And one of the things that I've loved about it is how John is very real showing you the disciples' progression. Like we meet them and they're not heroes of the faith. You know, they are stumbling, bumbling, anybody identify, I do, disciples taking two steps forward and one step back, they don't understand anything. And so we identify with them, right? They don't understand what Jesus is about, what he's after, and then we get to watch them grow. But one of the beautiful things about John's gospel is why they're growing. Jesus is right. They're strengthening their faith. He holds his harsh words and his criticisms, his judgments,

anything like that for those who are opposed to the gospel. But those who are after him, he is there to strengthen their faith. And I want people to know he's not grating from a distance. He's like right there. And Chris and I are actually talking about this yesterday. One of my favorite parts of it, guys, is that they are shown growing in their faith. and John uses verbiage like, Jesus did this, and so we believed. Yeah.

But he had already said that a couple chapters earlier. And then he says it again, and you see him saying, yeah, we believe, but he's just like we all are. Lisa, we're walking on this dusty planet with doubts and things that happen. And not only would he say that, but you can hear Jesus saying, okay, guys, I told you this. This is Shelley paraphrase. But he says, okay, guys, I told you this,

so that when this other thing happens, you'll believe. Right. And we go, didn't? They already believe again. Yes. And so the whole message of seizing the good life is that, of course, Jesus is the good life. We know this. But that Jesus is there and he wants your faith to grow. He wants to strengthen you. He's not judging your growth as long as you're after him. He's just there helping. So that's what I wanted to get across. I loved, another thing I loved is you structured your book in a really interesting way because you kind of have three components, which I thought was a really cool concept. Because, you know, we do a lot of publishing of our family books, and so I know Chris is in this world. So I'm always intrigued when people come up with a creative idea. So tell about that. So you have three, dear John.

This seems to be coming up a lot in interviews. We talked about this yesterday and when we were talking about in our interview, because it's so different, and I remember when she came to me with the idea, how do you say, that's weird, but in a real polite kind of way? So you wearing your friend hat or your editor hat? Yeah, I was like, okay, I'm trying to put it on her editor hat. Like, okay, I've never heard of that before, but you've got a vision for it, so go for it. And my agent said the same thing.

When I brought him the idea, and, you know, they're going to begin shopping it and see where it's going to land. They're like, I'm not really sure it's going to land anywhere because it's so different. And so what we're talking about, the difference, is that each chapter is built on the corresponding chapter of John. And each one of my chapters is broken into three segments. And the first one is Dear John. And that's where I just write to John. And I tell everyone it's not meant to be any type of seance. always do that disclaimer.

That's not biblical, you know. So it's not that. But it's me talking to John about what it was like when Jesus broke in to their world so that we can recognize, you know, him and ours. So the first one, I just talked to John about whatever, you know, is on my heart about that chapter and what's going on. And then Dear Reader is the next section. And that's where we unpack the meat of the corresponding chapter.

It's the Bible study part. And then there's a Dear Jesus. and that's a journaling prayer at the end of it to help us implement what we've learned during the study part. And so it really is, my agent said, okay, you've written something that's really, it's like nonfiction, but it's an epistolatory novel, but it's also got humor in it. I'm not sure where they're going to put this, you know, on the shelves. But I tell you what it makes it for me was easy to read.

It's easily readable. And I told Shelley what it does for the reader is it teaches us how to have a relationship with the Bible. Yeah. Because we all know the verse that the Bible is alive. But we can't always figure out how to make that, how does that make sense? Exactly. But when you read how she talks to John and then shares Jesus, you also, as a reader, maybe somebody new to the Bible study, figures out, oh, wait, this is how I have a relationship. I really understand and can communicate with John about what he said and what he did and how that

worked. So I just think she did it. She nailed it. She did it. It's very conversational. And like I said, it's a very easily readable book. So I would encourage people to be sure and get it. So one of the things I want to mention just a little bit of it because I couldn't help.

So I went to two chapters that I love. John is great. I mean, you could almost pick any chapter and find something fascinating. And it's such a condensed, you know, gospel because it just gets in right there at the end. And it's like, you know, I think that's why it's so good. But John 8 is probably one of the most unique and interesting chapters in all of the Bible. And especially in the Book of John, because it starts out with this early morning Bible study, you know, him teaching, you know, in the temple courts early in the morning it says. So, you know, these are people there that are serious about doing it.

You're thinking about Biblecloth. Who's going to come, you know, at daylight? Right. They're serious. They're serious, right? Wiping the sleep out of their eyes. And then they, and as you paint great in this chapter, you know, they dragged this woman in. Yeah.

And then, of course, it becomes about her. But it's all about trying to trap him. Yeah. And so that's the setting, you know, and you painted that beautifully. And but what's amazing to me about the chapters is you keep going. Like, that happens. That would have been a great chapter, just that story. Yeah.

But then it keeps going because then he keeps teaching and then some people believe. Then he challenges their belief and says, you know, if you know the truth, the truth sets you free. Well, we're not. We've ever been slaves of anything. So and then it winds up with this harsh, your son of the devil, you're too, you know. Then at the end, they go back. Some of these same people, I'm sure that were there. Because now a bigger group and they pick up the rocks again.

but this time they want to stone him. Yeah. And just the bookend of that chapter is so powerful. And so I immediately went to that one and read it and you did a really good job. You focused more on the woman part, which I think is powerful story. So talk a little bit about that, just kind of things like that that that motivates you when you're writing it. I mean, it's so rich, you know. I think, like I was listening to you and thinking, wow, I want to read that again.

What did I say? Because that was interesting. Hearing your take on it out was fun. for me. But I think each chapter, and even as I wrote it, like we were talking yesterday, and we keep referring to that, but it's just so fresh on my mind that

I learned, like, with the reader, hopefully. When I was writing this, I learned all the way through it, and I have loved the gospel John forever, and I've always been deeply invested in it. But writing on it when I felt like, okay, now it's time, and I began

writing on it because of the pandemic. And the whole wide world was freaking out. And John's gospel can speak directly to that, that we are not, we are called, we can have, and we're called to have peace and to have joy in the midst of everything that's going on. And so that's how I knew it was, it was time, you know, to write on it. But then I would get in a chapter like you're describing, and that I had always just

kind of thought about the woman only, you know, that was the story of Ken. You kind of have an idea from each chapter that stuck with. with you. And then when I would see it in the larger picture and everybody that was watching this develop and realized that they all saw it all, they saw the early morning study, they saw Jesus with his graciousness to her, and then because they could not accept that truth. That's right. You know, those rocks turned to him instead. And I think I would have like a little mini revival with each chapter. I'm like, I need to rest now, you know, before I go on.

One of the greatest drop the mic lines and the entire Bible was in John 8. Before Abraham was born, I am. Boom. Right. Drop the mic. You know what I mean? Yeah. It just, so that particular chapter for me, I mean, I could teach that.

Oh, I could just move. And just turn around, teach it again and teach it again. And we put it in our, one of the chapters in Desperate is about her. And Lisa does a really nice job talking about her own life. Yeah. And understanding it right from the. perspective of that woman being in that situation where once you once you're out in who you've been and where you've been there's nothing left you can do other than either be forgiven

and move on as Jesus did with this woman or not because I think I think each one of us and especially those of us who are living a a sinful life you know we're not one of those who are seeking Christ. You know, we're seeking our own fulfillment. I think we all have to be naked. We all have to be brought before Jesus naked. Right. Because that's the only way we can see where we are and the shame of the living that we're in. Because you just think about whenever they brought her and dropped her in front of those people. I mean, you know, I think of my body here. I don't want anybody seeing me naked. Worse thing ever. And especially I don't want to in front of what they consider what she probably considered to be religious people.

Right. Yeah. Because they're sitting there, you know, with Jesus. So, I mean, I just look at it and think she had to become naked. She had to be thrown out there naked in order for her to see the shame of her life. Right. And for her to accept Christ. And at the same time, they, you know, these people that were out there,

I really feel like for just a moment, they got it. Yeah. I mean, because he says, those of you who have never sinned, you cast that first one. Well, I mean, you just think about it. Think in your own mind of the things that you think. And I'm thinking of men, you know, that. So they're thinking those thoughts that I just had. Right.

those things that I might have said yesterday, the way I looked at that woman yesterday. I mean, okay, well, I can't throw this rock. And so it worked for a little while, you know, until they were like, no, I'm not letting this guy. It said the older ones. The older ones. That's right. Because there was more wisdom there. And probably more sins, Pallet.

Yeah. And they began thinking through their life. You know, when you said Mike, Rock, I just wanted to say this, I love. I love the mic drop in chapter 7 is one of my favorites. When Jesus stands at the end of the festival, and he says that he is the living water, you know, he makes that proclamation. I would love to have time to unpack that whole chapter,

but I'm going to try to make it really quickly. It's at the end of a celebration, guys, that's all about the water for seven days in that celebration. There would be a procession with a priest leading it. to the pool of salome where they'd get the water, and then they'd pour the water out on the altar. And every time that they would do it, they would have like a parade and procession. I mean, think Montagra without the debauchery. I mean, it was just big, you know, big, loud celebration.

And then they'd pour that water out, and it symbolized for the Jewish people, the living water that was going to be poured out on them one day. That one day, God would pour his water out on their nation. And at the very end of that, I love the might drop. When Jesus stands up and they have got to the height of their celebration. And I said in the book that I read a quote that I love that said, in the ancient days, the older guys would say, if you had never seen this celebration, you had never seen one.

I mean, that's how the Jews thought about this party. So at the end of the party, when they've been talking about this living water for seven days, Jesus stands up and he says, I am the living water. if anyone is thirsty, come to me and drink. We just read that, and we think it sounds pretty and nice, but they knew what he was saying. They knew he was saying everything that's been prophesied, everything everyone's taught out, all the dreams.

He was saying, I'm it. My favorite thing is that he doesn't say if any rich man or poor woman or well-to-do guy or, you know, he puts no disclaimers, know anything. It's just, are you thirsty? Yeah. And so you can look at that, and that's the only thing we have to bring to Jesus. Are you thirsty? If you're thirsty, I'm the water.

Right. You know, and I mean, it just brings it down. So good. Simplifies it. Simplifies it. Are you thirsty? I'm the water. So you know what we say is when we know we have a good podcast is when it's over and you didn't even, it seemed like we just sat out.

Seriously. Because we're out of time. Oh, we threw. This was fun. We're out of time. But we do have an overtime statement because there are a couple of questions I didn't get to ask, so we'll save that for overtime. Folks can find the book.

Where do they buy books? Is there any... Absolutely. Do you have a website you said to? I do. You can... ShelleyT.com made it really easy. It used to be Bell of all things other than. It was just like hard to say.

Shelly tea. And so it's I.E. on Shelley. Shelly.com will get you to me. And then all my links are there and all my books are there. But again, you can find it on Amazon or wherever books are sold. Perfect. Well, we really appreciate you guys coming on the podcast. And our audience is all the time.

So we need the wives on more. We need women. We need more women. We need more women. So we fulfill that today. If you want to follow us over for over time to continue our discussion with Chris and Shally and Lisa, you can do that at blaishtiv.com slash unashamed. So we'll see you on the other side.

Thanks for listening to the Unashamed podcast. Help us out by rating us on iTunes. And don't miss an episode by subscribing on YouTube. And be sure to click that little bell to get notified about new episodes. And for even more content that you won't get anywhere else, subscribe to BlazeTV at blazedtv.com slash unashamed.