WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - Lived and Learned: Take the Step with Anna Novak - Part 1

Episode Date: March 30, 2026

Anna Novak talks about the importance of focusing on the things that matter, doing things even when you’re afraid, and taking the next right step.

This is video free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. I'm Grace Novak on the Live and Learn podcast. And with me today is Anna Novak, my mother, who is going to be providing lots of interesting and helpful insight for what it looks like to be a young woman and a young adult growing up in today's culture. Welcome to the show. Thank you. I'm excited to be here. We're excited to have you. This is fun. So far I've been interviewing lots of people, but this one feels special. because I have a lot of, I already know a lot about my mom, so I'm excited to see what advice she's going to choose to share in this format. But, okay, I obviously know an insorbent amount of information about you, but our listeners do not. So why don't you just introduce yourself, tell us about your life now and, yeah, and then once you're done with that, you can get into what your life was like when you were 20. Sounds great.

My name is Anna Novak. I'm a 39-year-old woman. and we recently moved to Fallbrook, California, and we are loving the sunshine here. I have three children. Grace is my eldest, and then I have Lucy is 16, and Charlie is 14. And we began homeschooling and traveling during COVID, and had some wonderful years doing that, and then decided to settle in Sunny, California. Where were we?

This is so funny, asking questions. that I already know the answer to. But where were we before you guys decided to move to California? Yes. So we raised our children in Metro Detroit. We had a wonderful, cushy life there. But my husband and I, your father, always had a deep longing and a deep dream to kind of leave society and try something different. And we are one of the few families who is incredibly grateful for COVID, because it was really a catalyst to a new life for us, which we were held back by mostly just fearful. So we sold our home just shortly after COVID,

and we moved to Northern Michigan. We spent about a six-month period of just kind of rest and restoration and anti-society, basically. And after that time period, we were refueled and refreshed and felt the call to go. travel and use kind of a great commission lifestyle and see the world. Well, both just from hearing and from experiencing, I think that's pretty cool. And before, obviously, I have a lot of questions that just dive right off of that because

that's a huge major life decision to make, which kind of mirrors the independent focus major life decisions that me and my friends now in our 20s are about to make. But before we get into that, why don't you just tell us, how you got to that position in life. What was your life like when you were my age and my friend's age and when you were facing all of these big decisions and things in life? Yeah, so when I was your age, I was a lost puppy, lost sheep, I should say. I like to highlight that my name at that time was not Anna Novak.

My name was Anna Kopp, and that has become important in my life because in the Bible you see a lot of examples of people getting a name change when they come to Christ, and that is what happened to me. So when I was your age, I believed that God existed and was our creator. And that was about the beginning and the end of my faith. I had no relationship outside of believing that God existed. and it was a it reflected in my life. I lived a very flesh-driven lifestyle. And when I was 19, I became pregnant with a beautiful girl named Grace out of wedlock. And that was a really scary time.

But it was very transformational in my life. So what happened is you were born. And I just vividly remember. remember holding you in my arms and I was so overwhelmed with love and undeservedness for what was in my arms. And that was the moment where I really questioned what is the point of all of this. What is the point of life? What does all of this mean? What future do you hold? Is it just this empty shallowness that I'm feeling? And that was really the beginning of me. seeking God with all of my heart and soul. And praise the Lord, I found him, which aligns with the name

change because my wedding day came about 14 months after you were born to your father. And it was such a beautiful spiritual day for both of us because we had accepted the Lord into our hearts for real. we knew the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit very intimately. And it was a beautiful day when I became Anna Novak. I became Anna Novak, the wife of Michael. I also aligned last names with my beautiful daughter. But most beautifully, it really felt like a gift from God to have the name change for my new heart and soul towards him.

Well, well, that is a lot right off the beginning. I honestly, I don't think I've ever really heard you talk much about the name change being so significant there. Obviously, I knew your story and everything, but that's really interesting. And I think that's really powerful too. Okay, so that's just, that's a huge, that's a hugely powerful way to start your life. Because I think I'm looking around right now at being 19 myself and my friends and I all being so young. And it's so obvious that we're just at the beginning of our lives. And so that is just such a major amount of self-discovery and discovery with God and trial and error, I think, too, that most people probably don't experience to that degree at that early stage of their lives.

So I'm really curious, what benefit, like, what pros and cons, I suppose, do you think you experienced going through such a formative thing so early on? Yeah, so the cons were really, Satan kept them on my heart for a long time. So a lot of the cons were wrestling with the fact that I was not proud of who Anna Koff was. And Satan kept me in shame for a long time with that, which the name change actually was revealed to me not too long ago, which is probably why I haven't shared it with you. but God has really, I feels like a big gift that he gave me in my life to just clearly acknowledge that Anna Kopp is dead and Anna Novak is the beautiful daughter that he always intended me to be. So yeah, I guess the cons are that I lived in shame for a while and regret.

But through drawing nearer to God and working towards sanctification, I just rest in a contrite spirit. And I feel like it's been like a bonding experience growing closer to the Lord through that. So every morning I denounce Satan in that lie that he holds over me. And I feel honestly the loving arms of Christ around me through that experience. But that was really hard for me, especially as I was a young Christian, just dealing with that. and always having to answer why my anniversary came after your birthday. There was a lot of shame in that.

But that's gone now. That's dead with Anna Cap. And I am able to rest in that. Some of the biggest pro is I don't feel like I have a lukewarm faith at all. I feel so grateful to be born again. I just couldn't believe that looking back, at your age, I would have said, of course, I'm going to heaven. And I look back now and I'm like, what, I lost sheep. I did not know anything, it feels like. So now I know I'm assured of heaven,

and I just want to share that with everybody. So I'm so grateful for that experience to just live each day fresh and renewed that this day is a gift from God. And we all have a choice between heaven in hell and who can I show a glimpse of heaven to today? And recently I have started, God revealed to me pray that people can experience a glimpse of how. And so I pray that on people that I know, don't know the Lord. As Lord reveal a glimpse of hell to them. Yeah, that's scary, but very, very powerful. That makes a lot of sense. For those who are just now tuning in, this is Radio Free Hillsdale 101.1.7 FM. I'm Grace Novak from the Live and Learn podcast. and I'm talking with my mom, Anna Novak.

Okay, I have a lot of questions that I want to dive off of this, so I'm just sorting through which one makes the most sense to start with. But I think I'm going to ask so frequently people look back with regret, you know, and it's hard to see, you can't know what would have happened if you had been living, perhaps a godly life at that time. And it's so obvious just the beauty that God has brought from that to. Even just looking at our family, I think we are closer than it is probably typical of a family because we all went through such formative things together at such a young age for all of us.

But I'm really curious, two parts. First, what would you, is there a message that you think 19, 20 year old women, or just in general people, but this is particularly for women, would benefit from knowing, Like if there was one thing you could impress upon all of us now who are at that same age that you were, and then follow up to that, what about something that you wish you had known? Like if you could go back, you would have told yourself. Yeah. So before I answer your questions, you mentioned the word regret.

And I just want to make very crystal clear that I don't regret anything because where I am today in Christ. and sitting across from my amazing, beautiful daughter who is interviewing me for Hillsdale College, how could I ever regret a second of that? So yes, I lived in sin, but I do not live in regret. I have a contrite spirit because I disobeyed God, but God can turn all things to good, and he has turned the situation into the biggest blessing of my entire life. So I just want to make that super clear. I would not change a thing at all. And I love my life. I love my daughter and I love the Lord.

Well, and that's the most glorious testimony, right? When you walk through the hardest trials of your life and look back and would do it again in a heartbeat. Absolutely. And sorry, I'm not answering a question yet, but God really impressed it upon your dad and I to name you grace. And at that time, you all know now we were not walking with the Lord, but I just knew the moment I became pregnant. that you are going to be grace if you were a girl and you were. And there's a verse that I hold really dear to my heart, and it's Ephesians 2, 8, verse 9,

for it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works so that no one can boast. And not to misrepresent, I do not believe that you are my savior. Jesus Christ is my savior. But that verse I hold so dear because you were, absolutely the catalyst that pointed me back towards God. So anyways, I don't remember what your question was.

That's okay. That was a very nice interruption. The question was just advice for us now who are walking in those shoes and then what you wish you had known, which is the hard question to ask because like you said, that implies like doing something differently then. But yeah, you can just take that how you will. My best advice, I think just it's so easy to get caught up in where you are. And literally, nothing in this world matters except for eternity.

That is it. Nothing matters. And when you're at college, so many things are coming at you. They're coming at you so fast you probably don't even have time to process if they're important or not. And I can just basically assure you that everything that feels so heavy, does not matter. And advice to my old self would be this pretty similar.

Just nothing matters. So seek ye first the kingdom of God. And that is it. Just seek God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and everything will fall into place. The test doesn't matter. The trivial friendship doesn't matter. The clothing doesn't matter. It matters so little.

It is actually sickening. God matters, eternity matters. And literally every single moment that you are awake and alive is an opportunity to share Christ. And if you're not doing that every single day, if you're not seeing every single moment as an eternal decision, you know, I would challenge you to look at it that way. Okay, this kind of leads me into an interesting question, which I did not prepare you for, so I've noticed. I'm used to that. but um okay i think it's interesting because i think what you're saying it just it makes so much sense but also undeniably like looking around at at my life and my friend's lives the the things that

we're going through right now are very very different in a lot of respects than what you were going through at that time but it seems so obvious that it was it was the difficult nature of your circumstances that led to such growth in your life so i'm curious like looking around at I mean, you know everything about my life and most things about my friend's lives too. But like we're not facing unplanned pregnancies and loss of faith. We're experiencing, I don't want to say smaller things because to us it feels big. But like our scope of things is just very, very different. So I'm curious how you would just advise us particularly to to grow in those experiences

when we're not having the same pressure, I suppose. Yeah, absolutely. So I feel like that can be a dramatic advantage, obviously, because you're not coming from behind, right? So you're all in a wonderful spot. I'm assuming that most college students at Hillsdale have an incredible faith already. So my challenge would be make it real, make it alive.

faith without works is dead. So what are you doing right now? You're recording a podcast. And we have this amazing gift in this day and age where, you know, the great commission is to go and make disciples. Well, we have the internet. So you can go virtually and make disciples. So I would just encourage you to be on fire. And it comes from seeking. Read the Bible every single day. I pray every single morning a prayer of Thanksgiving for all that I have. for who God is, for my family. And then I ask him and kind of beg him every single day anew to fill me so full with the Holy Spirit that is just bursting out of me every day.

And I try to live that way every single day. And I see you do the same thing probably because I pray for you to be bursting every day as well. But you're also my child. So our personality is aligned. But just be an absolute radiant beam for Christ. in every moment, in your classroom, everywhere. You never know.

You never, ever know who is struggling with what and who needs the love of Christ. Aside from that, one of the things that I really struggle with is I have met and know a lot of people who proclaim Christ and are just kind of mean, spirited, ugly-faced, like they don't look like they have the love of Christ. and that can be really confusing. So don't be that. Be a radiant beam for Christ. Every single moment.

You're starting ahead. Seek him, find him, read the word, make it real, talk to the person in line at the grocery store, talk to every single person you know. Never let a moment pass you by where you're not proclaiming and exclaiming Christ. Do you have any examples or stories of situations where you implemented that and it paid off? Yes, I do. You do not prepare me ahead of time with that one, so I have to think about it. Yes, so most of the time I will say it's seed planting and become a master gardener, and you don't get to see the end of the story, especially when you're dealing with strangers.

But I do have a really cool story from a few years back. that's one of my favorites because I did get to see the conclusion. I love people. Absolutely love people. And I just think that just comes from my like overflowing love of the Lord. But it flows on to people. And I just tend to think that everybody's business is my own sometimes. I don't really mean to.

But it was at Target. And I was just shopping. And this employee, a young woman, was speaking to another employee. and she was talking about how she didn't think she was going to keep her baby that she was pregnant with because she didn't know the dad that well. And basically she was just very abortion-minded. And I just, how do you shop through that? You don't.

And it was a moment where I knew I was supposed to intervene and I was absolutely terrified, which brings me to one of my 17 points of advice, which is do it afraid. especially if it's in the name of the Lord, do it afraid. So I just said a quick prayer, Lord be with me, give me the words. And I went up to this poor unsuspecting employee who probably should not have been verbalizing her abortion at work. And I said, please, I beg you, you cannot abort your baby. I was like, you just can't.

It's life or death to me. I will help you. I will throw you a baby shower. support you, all walk through you, I'll adopt your baby. Please, please, please, please. You cannot abort this child. It is a beautiful life. And I went just full, poor girl, full blast, love of children and love of the Lord. And she was absolutely so stunned and I think slightly embarrassed. And it kind of, I don't, I honestly don't remember how the conversation ended, but it ended. And she got the point that a stranger loved her and loved her.

baby and love the Lord. And I left and I called my sister-in-law who's just as crazy as I am. And I told her what happened and told her to pray. And my sister-in-law marched right up to Target to do the same thing. Oh my gosh, I don't think I remember that. Yeah. And she couldn't find her. For the record, I'm named after the sister-law. Grace Teresa. And she called me and she was so upset because confined her and I just could not get this off of my heart so I went back to Target the next day and um oh I'm so sorry it was absolutely not the next day I went back to Target but it was a little while later I just could not get this woman off my heart and I had been praying and and just really really suffering and I went back it was actually a few weeks later and I had gone there several times looking at

for her and I finally found the girl she was talking to. And I was like, do you know where that girl is? Do you remember me? And she's like, yes, I remember you. And she's like, don't worry. She's keeping the baby. And we literally hugged and clapped in Target. And she never came to me for any help, which is totally fine. But that's what happens when you speak up for the Lord. Do it afraid. That's perfect. And this is the perfect way to wrap up part one. Tune back in with us next time for part two. Our guest has been Anna Novak and I'm Grace Novak on Lived and Learned with Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM.