Shannon Popkin (00:02)

Well, Kara Seymour, welcome to Live Like It’s True.

Kara Seymour (00:06)

Thank you so much for having me, it’s an honor.

Shannon Popkin (00:08)

Well, it’s super big honor for me. Like this is my first time ever inviting someone that I just happened across on Instagram. I don’t think we have any mutual friends, but I just am so intrigued by your story. And I understand this is your first podcast as a Christian. Is that true?

Kara Seymour (00:18)

you

That is true.

Shannon Popkin (00:28)

That is so fun. And okay, I just have to tell a little bit of our backstory. You and I both like we talked about doing this and then I hadn’t heard from you and I was thinking like, well, I don’t want to force anyone to be a guest on my podcast. Like that’s not my jam. So I’m going to just stop annoying her, you know, and you were also having to tell what was going on on your side.

Kara Seymour (00:50)

You

Well, basically, know, February was when I fully came out of the Jesus closet publicly on social media. And with the one with this first post that I did, it basically went viral. I’ve never had that kind of experience before. within a week of that, I got very unexpectedly.

I had a lot of podcast interview requests and I was so honored and yet to be honest, I was also very overwhelmed. It was a lot to take in.

Shannon Popkin (01:25)

I can imagine.

Kara Seymour (01:28)

And you know, as time went on, just, I’ve been in the prayer that, God, please, whoever I’m meant to connect with, whoever you want me to connect with, wherever you want me to share your story, my story, just bring the right,

people back into my field, into my DMs, and just make that really clear. so you were the first one to do that. And I also sat with it and prayed about it and it felt right. And so here I am.

Shannon Popkin (01:53)

Yeah.

I love it. Well, I was having the same like, okay, I just sensed I don’t know Lord, I feel like you are saying to reach out one more time. then you told me.

I think this is God ordained and I’m super excited about it. So let me just tell our guests a little bit about you. You spent over 20 years deeply involved in the new age movement and deeply entrenched in Kundalini yoga. You’re a yoga instructor, right? And believing that Jesus was a myth for, you said nearly 45 years. So something amazing has happened for your eyes to see this differently.

Kara Seymour (02:12)

Totally.

Shannon Popkin (02:39)

right? ⁓ Something supernatural. And so like you say, you’ve read the Bible, you never willingly went to church. Maybe as a kid you were, you know, forced to sit in church or something, but something happened. So tell us a little bit about that.

Kara Seymour (02:54)

Okay. I’ll start with I guess what happened because like there’s so much behind all of that. But all of what you just said is true. I was 99 % sure that Jesus was just a myth and a good story and a good role model. But I really didn’t believe that he was an actual man who walked upon the earth or he was God’s son. I didn’t believe in any of that. And at the end of 2023,

I before… Right before getting introduced to Jesus for the very first time, I had been teaching yoga for 20 years, Kundalini the last seven,

At that time, I was running an online Kundalini women’s community that I had been for years. And I just had this knowing, now I would call it conviction, but then I would just call it a knowing that I was supposed to close up my yoga business and retire as a yoga teacher. Now that is the only thing I have ever done as an adult and as a career. And I thought that I would do it until the day I died. I had and felt great purpose around it.

I, there were a lot of beautiful things that came with that. I felt very fulfilled by it, but that last year, I wasn’t feeling the fulfillment and I was feeling conflicted I didn’t have the drive for it that I once did. And was kind of just like running through the motions. Like I was teaching online. I had had yoga studios in the past, but I had moved to North Carolina. So I just had my online business.

And so in December of 2023, I closed that business and I told everyone, I told all my students, I am retiring as a yoga teacher. I had no idea why, I didn’t know what that meant for me, I have no other credentials to do anything else, but I did it. And I do believe, looking back, that

God was just stripping away, all these parts of my identity that were not of Him, but I didn’t know what was happening, so it was a very uncomfortable year for me, probably the most uncomfortable year of my life. But I was getting prepared. And so…

How I got introduced to Jesus and how my whole new life began was on January 5th, 2024. I got invited by an acquaintance that I didn’t know I had just been introduced to her. She invited me to a quote unquote women’s circle. Okay, this women’s circle is actually a Bible study.

I did not know that and I’m grateful that I didn’t because I would never have shown up. So the only thing I’m told ahead of time is that we’re going to be sharing our New Year’s intentions and doing some meditation and journal around that. And I was longing for sisterhood. My whole life has been based around community and girlfriends.

And I had recently, a year prior to that, moved to North Carolina and the only prayer, because I did pray in my new age way, I prayed a lot. I was praying to the God of my own unique understanding, I was praying to the universe, et cetera. But my one prayer that I held for myself is that I would meet one woman who would bring me into a community of

a bunch of friends, an established community of friends who all loved each other, who all hung out together, and who didn’t require me to be the one bringing everyone together, because that had kind of been a role that I had played for a long time. So what happened on January 5th is an answer to all the prayers, basically. So this woman I had met on a dance floor.

Shannon Popkin (06:56)

⁓

Kara Seymour (06:58)

invites me to a woman’s circle at another woman’s house. I’m going into a house I’ve never been to, I don’t know the woman, and I’m really excited because I’m searching for my girlfriends. Now, you know, they are my sisters, but at that point I would have called them goddesses, okay? Because my whole, like, identity… ⁓ yeah, it was goddess everything, okay? So, I go down into this basement of this woman’s house, and there are three women there.

Shannon Popkin (07:17)

Really?

Huh.

Kara Seymour (07:28)

and they’re all just sitting on this couch, big smiles. I look and I just, like I instantly feel like I think these are my girlfriends that I’ve been praying for. And my goddesses, exactly. And they’re, you know, they’re all around my age. They have kids my kids age. And I was like, oh, this makes so much sense. This feels so good. We spend the first 90 minutes.

Shannon Popkin (07:42)

your goddesses. ⁓

Kara Seymour (07:56)

journaling, sharing, New Year’s intentions, all of this is familiar. I’ve been leading women’s circles for years and years, so I’m like, I’m all about this. And then one of them pulls out a Bible. And I basically just froze. Internally, was like my whole system is like, what is happening? And I was super confused.

Shannon Popkin (08:19)

Yeah.

Kara Seymour (08:22)

And there was no preparation, there was no like, and now we’re going to re-, you know, I don’t even remember, but I was so confused in that moment and a part of super, super disorienting.

Shannon Popkin (08:32)

Disorienting, disorienting. Like what you thought

you were entering, you realized, this is not what I thought.

Kara Seymour (08:40)

So, there was a part of me that wanted to run. I knew that I would not get up and leave, like I’m not rude, so I’m not going to do that, but I wanted to. But then there’s another part of me that is just like a little bit curious and what’s happening. So, the whole time they’re reading scripture, I’m just literally repeating to myself in my mind…

Just stay open, just stay open. That’s all I remember. So… Mm-hmm.

Shannon Popkin (09:12)

Can I just interject? Like

that literally is what faith is. Faith is staying open and we think of faith as this narrow view, but actually it’s imagining that there’s something that I can’t fully comprehend and understand. And Jesus talked about people who didn’t have faith and how he couldn’t perform the same miracles in their midst because they didn’t have the faith. so faith is this belief

Kara Seymour (09:28)

Mmm.

Hmm.

Shannon Popkin (09:41)

It’s an openness. that’s, mean, you, without realizing it, we’re opening your heart that God might work in it. I mean, he’s already preparing, like we, I don’t know theologically if you’ve even thought through this, but there’s this big debate on do we choose God or does he choose us? And the Bible kind of says both, right? And so like there’s verses you could lean on to say either one, but I see both of these happening in your life. You know, God is tilling up the soil.

Kara Seymour (10:06)

Yes.

Shannon Popkin (10:08)

with this

year leading forward, like you have let go of everything that you would have identified in before that is gone. You are asking God, crying out to God, asking for a sisterhood, your own goddess group, your women’s circle. You enter and here, ⁓ this is amazing. So continue, please.

Kara Seymour (10:25)

Hahaha!

I love that disreflection of like, this is an example of faith. after they’re done reading scripture, they move into some worship. I don’t even know what worship means. Like, I mean, I would use my own term of like, worshiping the earth or a goddess or whatever, but like they’re singing worship songs, but I didn’t even know what a worship song was, but I knew that they were singing to Jesus. So this is very different.

than anything I’ve ever sung. So I’m recognizing, okay, some of these girls also have dreadlocks and they love Jesus. Like, I literally… Okay, when I say this, there is zero exaggeration. I didn’t know… I was about to turn 45 in two weeks from this date, and I didn’t know a single person in my life that I was aware of that loved Jesus. Okay?

So this is a profound moment for me. So they close up worship and I basically go into confession and I was just like, I’m a pretty wide open book. So I didn’t want these women to think I was someone I wasn’t. And I just said, you ladies are amazing. And I also just want you to know that I have never opened a Bible in my life.

very intentionally. I have read so many sacred texts, but I have never read the Bible and I don’t know anything about Jesus other than just culturally, you know, I’ve obviously heard of him. And they were just like, that’s okay. Like, I don’t remember exactly what they said, but they were just so loving and I’m sure I was dropping many F bombs because that was my favorite word. And

And okay, so I leave their house at night. Yeah.

Shannon Popkin (12:29)

Wait, can I just pause there?

I love the fact that they did not respond to your F-bombs. Like that is a that’s a true witness of Jesus because he did not recoil when, he ate, I’m studying this right now in this book I’m writing, Judgy Girl. He ate with sinners, people that the Pharisees like they wouldn’t eat with, they wouldn’t, they wanted to stay separate from.

⁓ There’s this story of this dinner party and this woman comes in and she’s known as a sinner in their community and she’s like crying at Jesus’ feet. She’s completely making a scene. She lets her hair down, is completely un… This is like scandalous in that culture. Women didn’t show their hair except to their husbands. And so she’s, I mean, literally making a scene. And the Pharisee in the room is thinking to himself, would this guy Jesus? Clearly.

is not a prophet because if he was a prophet, he would know who and what sort of woman this was. In other words, he would say, get off me, leave me alone. That’s how Jesus would respond. This is the Pharisee’s response. And yet Jesus doesn’t do any of those things. He receives her kisses. He lets her draw near. He sees into her heart. so those of us who would recoil at an F-bomb, we are the ones who.

are the sinner in that scenario. Like Jesus receives and I just, it almost makes me wanna just cry to think of them saying, that’s okay. You are welcome here because that’s the heart of our Lord. That’s the heart of Jesus. I love that you got to experience. That’s the best of Christianity. Many people experience the worst, but that’s the best.

Kara Seymour (13:58)

Mmm.

These ladies, I mean, they led me to the Lord and I always say they introduced me to Jesus. And when I really more recently had a revelation about that because someone’s like, well, how did they introduce you? Because obviously Jesus is not sitting physically in physical form on the couch with them. And it’s like, hey, Kara, here’s Jesus, Jesus, me, Kara. But what I realized recently is that the Holy Spirit

that is so alive and abundant and vibrant in these women’s lives and bodies and hearts and minds.

That is what drew me in and that is how I got introduced to Jesus is through the spirit that lives in these women. And I mean, these women have become my best friends. And when I left, you want me to share a little bit more of like what happened like a little bit after that of like, or where do want me to go?

Shannon Popkin (15:01)

You did meet him.

Well,

I want to go there next, but I just am curious about like in this setting where you’re feeling so disoriented and they’re reading Bible verses and singing worship songs, ⁓ was there anything that they were like in the Bible or in those songs that you were drawn to? was like, was that just so foreign that you couldn’t even take it in?

Kara Seymour (15:46)

didn’t take in anything consciously anyway. I literally when I say I was just like repeating the mantra, just stay open. That’s the only thing I was focused on. Like I had to focus on not leaving.

Shannon Popkin (16:02)

That’s incredible. And I mean, that just gives us ⁓ an insight into who you were, right? And you had from an outside perspective, I mean, how had you thought of Christians before that moment?

Kara Seymour (16:16)

Okay, so even though I didn’t actually know any Christians, I had all of the judgments. So, you know, I thought Christians were judgmental, I thought they were boring, I definitely thought they were brainwashed. I mean, to the point where I didn’t even let my mom take my daughter to church when my daughter was four because she was curious because…

I was afraid of her getting brainwashed in like one church setting. I just thought they were like duped, you know? That they had everything wrong and they were controlled and yeah, I had all of the negative judgments, beliefs, connotations that you could basically possibly imagine, but without knowing any of them. I didn’t have firsthand judgment experience

Shannon Popkin (17:11)

Mm-hmm.

Kara Seymour (17:12)

So I was just taking on the world or the enemy’s view.

Shannon Popkin (17:18)

Mm-hmm.

Kara Seymour (17:20)

of people who love Jesus, not based in any sort of reality of my own.

Shannon Popkin (17:27)

Okay, well, and then I’m just curious and we will go forward, but this, it just, this whole scene within the basement is so intriguing to me. Do you, like if you were giving advice to like, let’s say these women, your new best friends were wanting to bring in another woman from a new age background, would you have them tell her ahead of time what she was stepping into? Cause I think that’s a debate among Christians is like,

Kara Seymour (17:35)

You

Shannon Popkin (17:56)

you know, how much do we, how do we lead, you know, how do we lead into this conversation? What would you say?

Kara Seymour (18:00)

Mm-hmm.

Okay, well I will tell you that since me coming into the basement, many women have come into the basement who have a similar background. Yep, I know. And…

Shannon Popkin (18:12)

Wow, that’s amazing.

Kara Seymour (18:19)

Okay, I don’t… I actually don’t even want to necessarily give advice on how to approach it because these women, they have the Holy Spirit discernment inside of them. So, I trust that the woman who invited me knew exactly what to say and what not to say to get me there, and it worked. Now…

I will tell you for myself and just my own, like, personality, I’m… I’m just a very laid-out, on-the-table kind of gal, I would tell someone. I would… Yeah. Yeah.

Shannon Popkin (19:02)

Okay, yeah, so what you’re saying is it’s different

and the spirit leads us in different ways and that’s exactly, I knew that, you know? So you’re just reinforcing what I already knew, so that’s really good. Okay, so you’ve left the basement and then what is your mind spinning, you know, how did you process after that?

Kara Seymour (19:17)

Okay, I left the basement.

So, okay, so in the basement I’m 99 % confused, 1 % curious. I leave the basement and now I’m 50 % confused and 50 % curious. I mean, I’ve never stated that way, but that is like how I felt. Like, I’d already experienced a pretty radical shift just in like the moments of after worship and my random…

Confession not random, but just like going into confession and then leaving There was something The curiosity was like bubbling for the next 10 days

Every single podcast that I normally listen to, and I listen to a lot of podcasts, they were all New Age podcasts, every single one of them is at one point or another referencing Jesus and or the Bible. And I was like, what is happening? Like, none of these ever mention Jesus or the Bible, like ever. And then I…

It was even a few things I was watching on Netflix. There’s Jesus in the Bible. Like I couldn’t get away from it. Okay, so on January 15th, which is exactly 10 days after the Basement, I’m in my car. I had just recently started driving for Uber. I was in between Uber riders and I had this knowing in my heart that I was supposed to have a Bible.

And I imagine myself walking into like Barnes and Noble and trying to find the Bible section and trying to figure out which one to buy and then buying. I was like, that’s not gonna happen. Like that is so awkward and I don’t wanna do that, okay? So I said to God out loud in my car, if you want me to have a Bible, you need to bring me one.

Shannon Popkin (21:15)

Yes.

Kara Seymour (21:26)

And two hours later, I pick up three women from a hotel to drive to the airport. They had just left a women’s Christian conference. They talked very loudly and unapologetically about Jesus the whole 30 minutes. And I was like, okay, I am listening, you know? And…

Shannon Popkin (21:56)

Yeah.

Kara Seymour (21:57)

Before they get out of my car, they ask if they can pray over me and I said yes. And then one of them gives me a Bible. And she signs her name and dates it and leaves her phone number.

Shannon Popkin (22:05)

My goodness.

I love that and have you contacted her?

Kara Seymour (22:14)

I it took me a whole year. And actually this part of the story is like, it’s so I mean, God is just so awesome and funny and good and faithful. So I, I thought about contacting her all year. But to be honest, I wasn’t in the Bible all year. So even though I had the Bible, and then I had several other Bibles people had gifted me, I really struggled read reading. I was

Shannon Popkin (22:16)

Okay.

Kara Seymour (22:42)

barely reading for a whole year. Then in the beginning of January, I started reading daily. And even though I had these other Bibles and these other translations that are like maybe a little easier to understand like the new living and whatnot, I always felt drawn back to the one that I was gifted. It’s NIV. And part of that, I just know because it is such a gift from God and

Her she has like it was her Bible. So she has it underlined and notes and it feels so special. So finally in the middle of February, I decided to finally text her. So I texted her my story or reminded her of who I was. I sent a photo of myself and then I never heard back. And then ⁓ three, I think it was three weeks later. I didn’t hear anything and she has an iPhone so I could see it got delivered.

Shannon Popkin (23:13)

you

Kara Seymour (23:38)

And I was like, why would she not respond? And I was like, I was so excited to hear from her because I was like, you were obedient that day and it changed my life. So anyways, three weeks later, I post an Instagram reel about the story of January 15th, about these women giving me the Bible.

Shannon Popkin (23:39)

⁓ okay.

Yeah, yeah.

Yes.

Yeah.

Kara Seymour (24:06)

And I said her name. I didn’t say, yes, I said her full name in the real, because I was holding the Bible and I said, Shelly Ann Murray. And then, so three weeks later, I open up Instagram and in my DMs is a message from Shelly Ann Murray. And she said, Kara, you have no idea how surprised and how excited I am. I never received your text message, because I mentioned that.

Shannon Popkin (24:15)

Okay.

you

Kara Seymour (24:35)

in the video that I had sent a text, and she said, I never received your text message, I don’t know why, but a friend who lives on the other side of the world saw your video and sent it to me. Right? Yep.

Shannon Popkin (24:37)

Okay. huh.

my goodness, no way, no way.

Kara, that is amazing. Now I wanna go forward in the story, but I wanna interject here and tell you a story of a woman in the Bible. And have you respond to this and then we’re gonna pick up with ⁓ a second episode. But ⁓ there’s this woman in the Bible named Rahab and she lives in a city called ⁓ Jericho and it’s like a completely like,

pagan city, there’s no one in this city who knows God or follows God. And in fact, it’s a really super sinful city. And and God’s coming in destruction against this city. And the whole town sees the army of Israel, this is God’s people coming. They see Israel coming toward them camping. And the response in Jericho is like

we got to board things up and it’s a very fortified city. There’s double walls. I mean, it’s the most fortified city in ancient times. That’s the way, you know, they didn’t have guns or whatever. So what you did is you fortified with walls, like really thick walls. And so they were boarding up there, you know, but they’re also terrified because they’ve heard stories about God and his people and how, these people like walked through the Red Sea.

the Red Sea because they were escaping as slaves and God opened it up. so these people in Jericho, they’re terrified and everyone, like the general response is like, we are boarding up. We are going to defend ourselves against God. But in that city, there is one woman, the only one.

And she is seeing it differently. She’s like, if this God is able to do all those things, and if he busts slaves out of slavery, I want on his team, like I want to wave the white flag of surrender, and I want in on that. And so God supernaturally sends in these two spies, and they’re not there for her. They don’t know anything about her. But he sends in these two spies.

to scope out the land, you know, cause they’re, they’re looking for a way to attack. And if you know the story of Jericho, what you know is the way they conquered the city is they, they walked around the city a bunch of times and then the walls just fell in. God made that happen. And then they came and they take, they took the whole city. So like they’re on this reconnaissance mission and they did not get any information that helps them with that battle plan, you know, cause walking around the city doesn’t require any inside information. So anyway, these two spies come in and so God sent them in for her.

Like they’re on a rescue mission and they don’t know it. Like that’s how I’m seeing these women in the car. They don’t know. They’re just in the car. They’re there for you. And they don’t know. They’re just there to take an Uber ride somewhere. Or these women in the basement, they’re there for you, right? And so what happens is these spies are immediately found out in the city. everybody knows where like…

Everybody knows who they are, And so the king sends somebody to Rahab’s house. They have entered her house. She’s a prostitute they’ve entered there seeking a place to stay for the night. two of the king’s men, or some of the king’s men are sent to the door and she aids and abeds these spies with no reason. And so it’s very confusing. And so.

They come to her door, she’s like, oh yeah, they left. You’re gonna have to go catch them, know, go after them. She closes the door and in the night she tells them, look, I believe that your God is the God over heaven and earth and I want in on your side. And they’re like, okay, let’s make a deal. Because you have hidden us, because you know, our life for years, when we come in to take the city, what I want you to do is tie this little red cord in your window.

and we’re gonna come there and anybody behind your door, anybody in your house, we’re going to ⁓ come and under our protection, they will be escorted out of the city. And that’s exactly what happens. They find her house by this little red, I don’t know, string in the window. That’s how they find her. It must have a little piece of material or something. So Kara, I am picturing that basement.

As I mean, you’ve brought others in there now, right? And it’s just the people behind that door with the red cord in the window. Those are the ones who are gonna be escorted. They’re gonna be the ones in a place where like you had never even met a follower of God. And that’s the parallel I see with Rahab. She had never met someone and yet she chose to switch sides, know, like.

wave the white flag, can I be on your team? And God said, yes, I think both sides of those are amazing. But just hearing that story, do you have any responses? Do you see any parallels? Does anything stir inside your heart?

Kara Seymour (29:49)

So, I thought I knew God for decades. I thought I was leading people to God for decades through yoga.

But when you actually have an encounter with the real God, not the counterfeit, like, you just know, like, okay, I… I was wrong all along, like, super humbling, and whatever it requires now, because I have actually, like, I personally had been…

seeking God since my early twenties. And I just was searching in ⁓ the wrong places. I didn’t know because New Age is very, ⁓ you know, it’s very, very enticing. So I think like Rahab, when you get even just the sliver of a taste of the real deal, like you cannot deny it.

even if it means walking away from your entire community, your entire life. And then you want to bring everybody with you because, you know, it’s once you’ve found and tasted… ⁓

Shannon Popkin (31:11)

Yeah.

Kara Seymour (31:18)

True love.

Like, how could you not want that for your people? You know?

Shannon Popkin (31:24)

Yeah,

I love that. I think it’s intriguing that lots of people heard those stories about God, but there was something in her, there was like an openness, like you talked about, you know, everyone around her was boarding up, was like in defiance and rejection of God, like in defense against him.

Kara Seymour (31:35)

She was ready.

Shannon Popkin (31:45)

She’s the only one who had this open heart and God came and got her because of that. And so what words would you have to someone who’s scared to open their heart to consider, to have that openness to faith?

Kara Seymour (32:03)

Well, I would say…

Everyone has faith in something or someone, even those who proclaim to be an atheist, right? We have faith.

Shannon Popkin (32:10)

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Kara Seymour (32:20)

in a lot of things. And if you are genuinely

purpose in your life. If you are genuinely desiring to know truth, which I actually feel that we are all designed for that to long for that because I think that if we keep searching and we don’t give up, we are going to end up at Jesus. This is what I am finding. So just like your heart may be open to a particular person or

Shannon Popkin (32:45)

Yeah.

Kara Seymour (33:00)

your mind and your heart are open to these modalities, whether it’s in the new age or something else or just like of the world. If why not open your mind and your heart to just the possibility that maybe Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. And

Shannon Popkin (33:25)

All right.

Kara Seymour (33:29)

I just want to say, because I was never open to that, I thought this was a ridiculous concept, I will tell you that in January… I’m sorry, in February of 2024, so it’s like one month after the introduction, and I’m back in the basement and I give my life to Jesus without really knowing what that means or what that’s going to mean for me, I will tell you all right now that the amount…

I don’t even know if I’m out is the right word. The peace that came over me and entered me and has never left me does not even compare to anything I experienced in the 45 years prior.

Shannon Popkin (34:18)

Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. I love that you are the recipient. You are a sister and you are, I mean, already given testimony and inviting others in just like Ray Harp. I just, I love that. Thank you for sharing part one. We come back for part two so we can hear a little bit more from you.

Kara Seymour (34:20)

Praise God. Yeah.

You are so welcome.