Shannon Popkin (00:00) Asherita Choochoo is a national retreat speaker. She’s a YouTube Bible teacher and the bestselling author of 10 books, including full, Prayers of Rest on Wrapping the Names of Jesus and the one that we’re gonna talk about today.

delighting in Jesus. And so she lives in Northeast Ohio. She’s married to her high school sweetheart and has three spunky kids, she says. So Asherita, thanks so much for joining us here today.

Asheritah (00:33) Shannon, thank you so much for having me. And every time that part of my bio is read, makes me smile because like that is the best descriptor of my kids. They’re spunky. They’re full of life.

Shannon Popkin (00:43) I it. Well, that’s better than just a couple of days ago, I interviewed Dana Gresh and I didn’t know a word in her bio. I’m like, you’re gonna have to help me here, Dana. It was like a monogony, a monogony. I learned a new word, a monogony of animals in her little hobby farm. So thank you for giving me all words that I knew, Asherita. That was great. So we’re gonna talk about your new book, Delighting in Jesus. And this is a very opportune.

One of the reasons that I said yes, please to this interview is because I need this right now. I just personally, friend, I am in this season of feeling tired, overwhelmed. I have a huge task in front of me. You know that task. Writing a book is like this mountain you have to climb. And,

it’s just like, I feel, think I can, I think I can. And I know he can, but it’s just, there’s almost like this overwhelm. I wake up tired and it’s only January. It’s not even the end of January yet. So help, you know, help. And I know I’m not alone, right?

Asheritah (01:51) So, yeah.

Shannon Popkin (01:56) Tell me about like what prompted like did you need help? Is that what sent you to this topic? And yeah, just tell me a little bit about the background.

Asheritah (02:05) Yeah, yeah, for sure. And it’s not even just writers and speakers that struggle with this, right? Everyday people, men and women and teenagers, young adults, empty nesters, like every stage of life and every season of life, it just seems like it’s a recurring theme that we feel overly busy. We wake up tired. We go to bed exhausted. There’s a constant stream of

Shannon Popkin (02:09) for sure, for sure, yeah.

Asheritah (02:33) tasks and thoughts running through our brains and it feels like we’re always behind. And that’s certainly where I found myself. it felt like it was getting worse for years. And I could tell, I’m not in a good place. Spiritually, I’m not in a good place.

Probably 2018, 2019 was probably the first time that I felt like I distinctly remember sitting at the kitchen table with my husband to my right, holding my head in my hands and feeling like I am on the edge of a precipice and one gust of wind is going to push me over into like a full mental breakdown. Like I’m holding on by a thread. don’t know. Like, I don’t know that I can do this. And, um, my husband and I talked through like, okay, what are.

obligations that are, you know, overwhelming. Where are places that I can ask for help? What are some things that maybe I could lay down for a little bit? Um, and we kind of worked through, you know, how do we slow this thing down? So I would say probably from 2018, 2019 to 2022, 23 was when I hit rock bottom. So even with like an awareness of this is not sustainable, um,

Even with like trying to, I would liken it to trying to remodel a room while still living in the room. So you’re like slapping some paint on the wall, but you’re moving furniture over and like, let me just try a new couch in here. Maybe that will help. And no, like the whole thing, you just need to like, you just need to start over in some ways. Yeah, that feels impossible. Sometimes it’s like, can’t.

Shannon Popkin (04:12) You need a bigger room. But you can’t have a bigger room. This is your life, and there is no more space.

You can’t have a bigger life than you actually have. And I would just add to that, it sounds like we’re talking about capacity and can we do the things that we’ve put on our assignment list.

Asheritah (04:26) Great.

Shannon Popkin (04:37) Those are all things that we can manage, but there’s a lot of times that you’re hit with things you can’t, like you don’t have the choice of what’s coming at you. like whether it’s just stress, tension in relationships, your church is going through a split, your family is erupting about something, you’ve got a prodigal child, like all these things that come at you and you just carry all of that too. anything you but yeah, the stress in the stream.

Asheritah (04:57) Yeah, I

use the term joy stealers just in that there are all these things then that can kind of sneak into our lives and rob us of joy. And some of it is like, I put it on my own task list, right? Like I over committed, like it’s really high. I’m the problem. It’s me. And then there are other things where it’s other people.

Asheritah (05:18) So we live in a fallen world. That’s not the way that our creator intended. And all of creation groans and longs for the restoration of things to be made new. Our own bodies groan. Like I felt this in my life, right? That physically it feels like my body is falling apart. Also, this shows up in broken relationships, in broken people who then their brokenness hurts us. It’s like shards of glass.

Shannon Popkin (05:47) Mm-hmm.

Asheritah (05:48) It’s all over the place. So yeah, it could be things that we’ve done that we’ve over committed to or perhaps Addictions or choices we made in the past that the consequences are catching up to us But sometimes like you said Shannon there are things out of our control That it just keep coming at us. And so that’s where I found myself in this place in the fall of 22 of just crying out to the Lord and saying I Can’t do this anymore

Like whatever this thing is, I don’t have the strength to keep going. And, it physically, it felt like my body was falling apart. There were so many physical symptoms. I’d seen so many specialists. No one was able to give me answers. No one was able to give me like even a diagnosis that would give me hope that things are going to get better. and emotionally, spiritually, relationally, mentally, it felt like on every level of Shannon,

Shannon Popkin (06:39) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Asheritah (06:47) things just starting to fall, to fall apart, to break apart. And that.

Shannon Popkin (06:53) And

not the least of those, I’m imagining your joy, right?

Asheritah (06:57) Well, and that was part of it. So I had become a really grumpy, cantankerous person, like resentful and bitter even about all the good things that I had to do. whether it was, you know, professionally in writing and teaching God’s word, I love doing this stuff. And yet there was this resistance of like, again, like they were just, there wasn’t energy to keep going.

But then, yeah, the joy was gone too. And that was especially challenging for me because my name, Asherita, is a made up name, but it means God is my happiness. And so this theme of happiness and joy had always just been so integral to my identity and to who I was. And so to recognize in this season, like not only do I feel broken in every way, but where has my joy gone? And how do I get it back? And who am I?

Shannon Popkin (07:55) Get it.

Asheritah (07:56) if not a joyful person that it became almost like an identity crisis. Like, I don’t recognize.

Shannon Popkin (07:59) Well, yeah,

yeah. And the in the Hebrew mindset, you are to live into your name, like what your name is. That is a distinct thing about you.

I can just imagine as your parents chose this name for you, they’re picturing this happy little girl who’ll grow into this beautiful, joyful woman. this is the vision they had for my life and this is God’s vision. And I don’t see them matching up, right?

Asheritah (08:26) Yeah, especially since it has been true of me. Like ever since I was a little girl, I was joyful. know, even in my, my walk with the Lord, it felt like he just had something special to show me about joy and happiness and that fullness of life in his presence. Like that’s always been so close to my heart.

Shannon Popkin (08:30) Mmm.

Well, and

wasn’t that the name of your, like, it was one thing alone, but wasn’t it something about delighting in Jesus? Like, wasn’t that early on? There you go. The joyless girl who’s, know. Yeah, yeah.

Asheritah (08:51) Yes. Well, I’m enjoying Jesus was my time. Like that was what my whole ministry was about.

So imagine what a fraud I felt. Shannon would

be like, know this is, like, scripturally, I know this is true. I know what I am teaching and writing and sharing with people is true. And yet somehow it’s not working in my life. And that then actually heaped on more guilt and condemnation of like, I must be so broken then if this no longer applies to me. And the lies of the enemy saying like, well, yep, that’s it. Like, God might have used you up to this point, but he’s done with you.

Like there’s no coming back from this. It was just such a dark place of not even wanting to get up in the morning. And that rock bottom moment in a season of just crying out to the Lord and saying, I can’t keep going this way. Like even if I never write another book and I never speak at another conference and I never like do any other external public ministry thing, I still need you to restore my joy for my.

for my own integrity and for my family and for my children. I don’t need the public acclaim. Just let it be well with my soul here. I need that. And crying out to him in such desperation. I was at a conference, Shannon, I think you were there too. And the conference speaker put this verse on the screen. It’s from Psalm 13.3. And I’ve read through the Bible multiple times. So I know I’ve read this verse before.

but it never really clicked with me. You know what I mean? It really felt like I was reading it for the first time, and it was a fresh translation. And Psalm 13.3 says, turn and answer me, oh Lord my God, restore the sparkle to my eyes or I will die. And that sounds so dramatic, like truly. Really, David? Come on.

Shannon Popkin (10:33) Registered.

you

Asheritah (10:57) Yet it put into words just the desperation that I felt like, God, if you don’t restore my joy, if you don’t restore the sparkle to my eyes, this is literally my identity. This is who I am is the one who would learn that joy is found in Jesus. I need this to be true of my life. I need you to restore this joy in me. And it didn’t happen overnight, Shannon. But he answered that prayer in such a powerful way.

bringing healing and restoration, yes, to my soul and to my spirit, but also physically bringing healing to my body, to my mind, to relationships. Like I can say now, a couple years later, like he has restored the joy. And I truly believe that he longs to restore his joy in us. He wants us to discover that fullness of joy that’s found only in his presence. But I think he wants to do a work of healing.

whole person, like not just in our souls, but in all of who we are, that we would experience that peace and shalom of God, that the wholeness and restoration that he longs to bring, that Jesus says like, this is what I’ve come to do. I have come to bring liberation to the captives, to proclaim freedom to those who are in bondage, to declare the year of our Lord, the year of Jubilee.

And that’s why I’m so passionate then on the other side of this journey of healing and restoration to say, if God has done it in my life, you can do it in your life. And I truly believe he longs to do this work in his bride today.

Shannon Popkin (12:40) 100 % amen.

Shannon Popkin (12:45) So I get all of that. And I think that if I am counseling someone else or counseling my own heart, when I feel like there is this disparity between what I say and what I believe, what I tell people to do is go to the Word of God, open your Bible, I’ll say, read the Psalms and spend time first thing in the morning with the Lord so that when you’re soaking in the truth so that then when you…

are confronted with that thing that feels out of your control that well then you’ve been you’ve meditated. And so it’s like all of these spiritual disciplines, these routines I look to as sort of like, I don’t know, a recipe or a I don’t know, a functional. I don’t know what I’m trying to say, but it’s like that is what is going to ward off all of these these negative effects. So you talk in this book about how

spiritual disciplines are anti-Christian. Now that is quite a statement, my dear. So talk though about that. Like what is, what are we missing that you’ve discovered is unique or different than spiritual discipline?

Asheritah (13:45) I’m scared.

Yeah, well, let me say it’s maybe it’s a matter of semantics, but in my own life, in my own life, what I’ve noticed is, and I think it’s just a human, a human tendency is to create like a self salvation plan for ourselves. Like here’s the formula, here’s the steps, here’s what I need to do.

Shannon Popkin (14:04) Words are important.

Asheritah (14:20) And as long as I go through steps one, two, three in this order for this amount of time, for these many days, then I will get the result that I’m looking for. And you can put whatever in those blanks, right? You can say, go to confessional and like do certain things. You can say, go to church and read your Bible. Like whatever the activities are. If we miss the person of Jesus.

Shannon Popkin (14:32) Yep, fill in the blank.

Asheritah (14:47) in the practice of our disciplines or habits or whatever you want to call them, then we miss the power of His presence. Ultimately, it is not reading the Bible that will renew our minds. It is the presence of Christ Jesus in us. And yes, we learn who He is by reading our Bibles, but it’s very, very possible to read the Bible and to miss Jesus. And I know this because it’s happened to me. I mean, how many of us have like tried to read through the Bible in a year and we get to Leviticus and we’re like,

Eh, not sure about the sacrifices and the blood and the water and like, what’s going on here? We don’t understand how this is meant to apply to us. We feel like that’s what we’re supposed to get out of it. Like, what am I supposed to do? Instead of saying, what does this reveal about Jesus? And in missing Jesus in the text then, our spiritual disciplines run the risk of becoming yet another self-salvation plan. It’s what I would call performance Christianity.

Shannon Popkin (15:17) Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm, yeah.

Yeah.

Asheritah (15:45) where we think what God expects of us in order for us to be right with him is to do these daily things. If I read my Bible, then God is pleased with me. If I pray, God is pleased with me. If I fall behind on my reading plan or I skip a day of reading the Bible, God must be so disappointed in me. And that, Shannon, is what I believe is anti-Christian because the message of the gospel is that if you belong to Jesus,

Shannon Popkin (16:06) There you go.

Asheritah (16:13) then His perfect righteousness is placed on you so that when the Father looks at you, what He sees is not your good deeds, not your spiritual disciplines, but the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ. That is what it means when He like spread out His arms on the cross and said, is finished. That is what it means. You cannot add to the righteousness of Jesus Christ through your Bible reading or your prayer or church attendance or tithing or fasting or evangelizing.

All of those things are not avenues of gaining God’s approval. That is anti-Christian.

Shannon Popkin (16:51) That’s so good. You know, when Jesus died on the cross, that’s not the only thing He did for us. He lived a sinless life up until that point. It’s like He did all the spiritual disciplines. Like when He met with the Father, He was living on our behalf. When He said no to temptation, it was His righteousness that has been imputed onto us. And so it is finished for Him. It is finished for us. It is finished in Him for us.

And I think you’re exactly right. Like his word, James talks about receiving with humility the implanted word. And I think sometimes when we do like what you just described and come to our spiritual disciplines, come to our Bible as a self-salvation program, in that kind of a program, I am growing in pride, right? I’m growing in like,

Did it right. I checked the list. Mm-hmm.

Asheritah (17:49) And it’s so sneaky. It’s so sneaky, Shannon, because it’s

something that’s controllable, right? Like we can see on paper, I read my Bible three days a week, right? Like it’s measurable. And I think that’s what makes it so sneaky is even in our pursuit of these disciplines, we’re not growing in dependence on the Spirit of God. We’re independent doing our own thing. So I don’t think reading the Bible is anti-Christian. Far be it from me.

Shannon Popkin (17:58) Yeah.

Yeah.

right,

right, no.

Asheritah (18:17) The Word

of God is his revelation to us. How else will we know who God is if not by studying his Word? And yet when we come to his Word, we need to come, like you said, with humility and with dependence to say, Spirit of God, would you open my eyes? Would you open my heart? Would you help me to see Jesus here? Would you give me a hunger and a thirst that I would long to know who you are?

And getting honest with God, I think that’s where we have to start, right? Whether it’s that we don’t enjoy reading our Bible or that we’re overwhelmed or overworked or exhausted or just broken, whatever state we find ourselves in, this is what we see in the Psalms, it starts by getting honest with God and by saying, perhaps with Bible reading, God, I’m kind of bored with the Bible. Like, is it okay that I say this? Yes, it is, because God knows that.

Shannon Popkin (19:09) Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Asheritah (19:11) All right, he already knows that.

Shannon Popkin (19:11) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Asheritah (19:14) Let’s get honest and say, this is where I’m I’m really struggling. And instead of us just trying to muster up the desire or the determination or just scrolling Instagram or TikTok to try to get some inspiration, it’s coming to God himself and saying, would you do a work in me? Would you change my heart? Would you stir in me a desire? Would you?

reveal something about yourself in your word, like I need you. And that is where then these spiritual disciplines, these rhythms of delight, as I like to call them for a very good reason, that’s why these things then nurture our friendship with Jesus. It then becomes an avenue by which we come to him, by which we grow to know him and understand him, by which we grow to understand God’s delight in us and his invitation then.

to taste and see that he is good. So we do these things not to add to our righteousness and not to secure God’s favor. He already delights in us because of Christ Jesus. These things we do then are invitations to receive his delight in us and to grow in delighting in him.

Shannon Popkin (20:28) So true. Have you ever been out for dinner and looked over at a couple that’s like, you you can tell they’re out on a date and they’re not talking to each other. They’re like scrolling on their phones or they’re, oh yeah. I try not to be that couple, but. Oh yeah, yeah.

Asheritah (20:40) I’ve that couple, okay?

I mean, I’m not pointing fingers here. like, I’ve done it. I’ve done it. And then we touch ourselves and we’re like, OK, phones away. Like,

this is face to face time.

Shannon Popkin (20:55) Well, but especially older couples, know, it’s almost like they’re just like, this is what we do. We go out for dinner together and like you can just tell their their relationship is tired. And it’s honestly, we have to work to even get a date on the calendar, first of all. But then when we are together, like, yeah, our phones are so distracting or just, I don’t know, we’re eating our food and it’s

The whole point of the date is that we would be building this relationship. I would hear from him, I’d ask him questions. It’s the communing together. And that’s the whole point of our spiritual disciplines. That’s the whole point of coming to our Bible, it is to get to know another person. It’s to get to know God. The end of the journey is not me reading my whole Bible and knowing it. That’s not it.

The end of the journey is like reading that Bible and getting to know the one who wrote it. And so like when Jesus said it is finished, his work on our half was finished, but not the relationship, right? It’s like that part isn’t finished. Yeah.

Asheritah (22:03) That’s just the beginning then. So

we read scripture. I mean, this is one of the five rhythms of delight that I talk about, but I think it’s so important because your listeners love their Bibles, right? Like we do Bible study here on the podcast. Like we read scripture, not just to gain information about God. Like that’s important. Yeah. Like loving God with all of our mind, as well as our heart is important. Biblical literacy is important.

Shannon Popkin (22:17) Mm-hmm.

Asheritah (22:31) But if we just stop at information, we miss the point. Yeah, like our study of scripture ought to lead to information that then grows us in adoration of who God is. That knowledge moves to our hearts and it grows and like, Lord, how amazing you are. That it would overflow out of us, but not just stop there then. That adoration then leads to our transformation.

that we would grow in the image and likeness of Christ Jesus. That as we understand God’s delight in us and we respond to him with delight, that that delight then overflows, Jesus says, like a spring of living water that brings refreshment to everyone around us. That when they see us, like maybe our physical faces don’t literally shine and radiate the presence of God like Moses did, but Paul says, you guys have something better.

Like they with, he had to put a veil over his face, but we with unveiled faces receive the glory of God. We do that in scripture. Yeah, so it’s not just the information. It has to lead to adoration and ultimately transformation into the image and likeness of Christ Jesus, which is not then a heavy task or a duty.

It’s our delight. Like the more time I spend with my husband, the more alike we become, you know? Like we rub off on each other. We get to know each other. We have inside jokes. Like we can say something and across the room, like just catch each other’s eye and we know what we’re thinking. says you have the mind of Christ. We get to know his voice in scripture. We get to know what he sounds like.

Shannon Popkin (23:56) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Asheritah (24:17) so that as we go about our day, as we’re doing grocery shopping or we’re presenting something at a board meeting or picking up our kids in the carpool line in the noisiness of life, we would recognize his still small voice because we’ve spent time with him in the pit. It then is just this amazing, rich relationship that is nurtured throughout the day. That, that.

Time in God’s Word was never meant to be this isolated block of time at one point in the day. It’s meant to then, I think, nurture and foster this friendship with Jesus that spills into every part of our lives.

Shannon Popkin (24:57) Yes, amen. There’s this passage that you used in the book that we’re going to take a look at in Matthew chapter 11. And it’s all about that. You know, Jesus saying his yoga is easy and his burden is light. knowing him should not lead us into this this heaviness of like, oh, despair. The more we know him, the more that that burden

is lifted, even if our physical burdens aren’t

Can you read Matthew 11, 29 through 30? 28,

Asheritah (25:32) Sure, I’ll start yeah.

This is the CSB. So if Jesus looks at the crowds then that were around him, the ones to whom the father is pleased to reveal himself and he says, then come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take up my yoke and learn from me because I am lowly and humble in heart.

and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Shannon Popkin (26:09) So the people that are coming closest are the ones who are just like us. They’re wary, they’re burdened, they’re not feeling very self-sufficient. And he’s like, yeah, come on, come and you’ll find rest in me. And like this idea of a yoke now, a yoke was both a physical thing and it was used as a metaphor in Bible times. So was like some sort of apparatus where you would have to

beasts of burden and they’re kind of like connected and so they’re going to work together. And the rabbi is at this time would use that as a metaphor. Like here’s you, you’re on one side of the yoke and here’s all of this, you know, wisdom, the commands of God, this life that he has called you to. And so this is a yoke that you’re under. And I think they probably felt like it was pretty heavy. I mean, if I was a Jew.

And that was, they had to do a lot of stuff. I don’t think I would have considered that to be an easy yoke, right?

Asheritah (27:12) Yeah, yeah. I’m so glad you brought that up because, in Jesus time, a rabbi’s yoke was his interpretation of the law. And because the Jews had so many laws over 600 and some laws, sometimes the laws seem to contradict. Like, you know, what, what do do if, don’t know, if someone needs help, but they live too far away and you can’t walk that far in the Sabbath, like then which law takes precedence, which one is the most important. And we see this actually coming up with Jesus when.

Shannon Popkin (27:36) Yeah.

Asheritah (27:41) People come up and they’re like, okay, which one is the most important? What’s the greatest command? That’s actually what they were asking. What’s your yoke, Jesus? Tell us your interpretation of the law. Which law, which rule takes kind of the preeminence over everything else? So it’s not in this text, but because of that word yoke, Matthew actually intends to kind of hyperlink us to that story. We’re supposed to read these two stories together because Jesus explains that his yoke

His interpretation of the law, the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength. And the second is like it, love your neighbors as yourself. So Jesus concludes the entirety of the law, all 600 and some laws are summed up in love, love God and love one another. So when he looks then at the people who are following him, this is the yoke that he’s talking about. He’s saying, take my yoke.

upon you. Take my interpretation of the law, which is love. Love. I am calling you to love. And here’s the best part. You don’t have to do it on your own because you probably don’t even know how to love in a way that is perfect before God and others. Like you can’t love God perfectly and love others perfectly. In fact, the law was given to clarify what love is supposed to look like. It was never intended to be this rigorous

self-salvation project that we just talked about, right? Like, I’m going to do all these things and I’m going to be okay. She’s like, no, no, no, no, no. The point was always love, love God and love one another.

Shannon Popkin (29:10) Mm-hmm. Yep. Mm-hmm.

I just listened to this teaching by Brad Gray. he was saying

when he says, I will give you rest, Jesus is saying

my life was intended not to give you a self-salvation program that you have to meet all of the requirements so then you can

escape God’s judgment and have this righteousness. No, my life is lived on your behalf. I came for you.

Asheritah (29:45) Yeah. And here’s the other part of the metaphor that I think is lost on most of us because most of us don’t live on a farm. And even if we do, it’s probably not going to be, you know, with like ancient agrarian kind of, technology, but I grew up in Romania and in the little village where I lived, my grandfather was one of two men to own a tractor. Everyone else still worked with cattle.

Shannon Popkin (29:53) Yep.

Asheritah (30:12) And like they literally used yolks. Like it was common for me to look out my window and there is like Bacha Todere with his, you know, kind of plowing the field with a yolk with the beasts of burden, as you said. And what I’ve learned from that experience living in that agrarian culture is you always yolk an experienced animal with a new inexperienced animal.

You never put two inexperienced ones together. And again, we kind of have to flesh this out because it’s lost on us. But for Jesus’s first listeners, they would have been like, of course this makes sense that he uses this metaphor. That the experienced one sets the pace. Like, no, no, no, young grasshopper, we’re not like sprinting to the end of the road because we still have to do the rest of this field, right? Like, they’re going to set the pace. They set the direction.

Shannon Popkin (31:01) Good.

Asheritah (31:09) they shoulder actually the burden because the think of it, the burden of the yoke will be on the shoulders of the bigger cattle and the younger cattle then doesn’t have to carry that burden. It’s carried by the other one. So what Jesus is presenting here is not just that the law of love and what a life of love looks like, but he’s actually saying like, I want you to learn from me. Like watch my life.

Walk with me, let me teach you. Like notice his invitation again then to friendship and relationship. It’s not about you then trying to go out on your own and living the law, however you want to interpret that, right? It is about you learning from me. Watch me, learn from me, walk with me. I think this is what Paul is talking about when he says, let us then walk in step with the spirit and we will not fulfill the desires of the flesh. So often as Christians, we look at

Well, what are the desires of the flesh? Let’s make a super long list, and let’s just avoid them then. And that is, again, anti-biblical. The opposite is what we should be focusing on. How do we walk in step with Jesus? How do we walk in step with the Spirit? And as long as we are staying in step with the Spirit, we will not be fulfilling the desires of the flesh. He’s not going to lead us into the desires of the flesh. He’s going to lead us in the path of life. And his rhythm.

Shannon, this is what really got me a couple years ago. His yoke is easy, his burden is light, and you will find rest for your souls. So if I am hustling from morning to night, if I wake up overwhelmed by how many things are on my to-do list, if I feel like physically my body can’t keep up, my soul is overwhelmed, I might have to face the reality that

Those things are not of Jesus. His pace is not hurried or rushed.

Shannon Popkin (33:06) Maybe.

Maybe I’m outpacing

Jesus. I’m like the young one, the grasshopper saying, I gotta get further, you know? And he’s like, hold up, right? That’s ridiculous, outpacing Jesus, what?

Asheritah (33:20) Stay next to me. Keep my pace. Walk and step with me and I will lead you where you need to go. Once you start seeing this language of walking with Jesus, it’s all throughout. It’s all throughout scripture from Psalm 23 to even Jesus’ call to his disciples, one of the ancient rabbinical blessings on a disciple. was, may you be covered in the dust of your rabbi.

Maybe so close to your rabbi that like the dust from the sandals gets on you because you’re like right there keeping step with him, being with him, listening, leaning in, going where he goes, stopping when he stops. That has become one of the primary pictures Shannon for my own life for the past two years then is.

sitting like just very practically sitting down with my plan for the day and looking at the tasks and saying if there are too many things for me to literally get done in the time that I have and there’s no margin so that if one of my children needs me I then snap because I don’t have time for this right the commands do then love my children falls down the list because I’ve got important things to do and you’re getting in the way that that needs to be ordered then

and paste in step with Jesus.

Shannon Popkin (34:42) would be living like this isn’t true, right?

pacing Jesus, you know, no margins, snapping at my kids, not putting my schedule under the scrutiny of Jesus. Like this would be living like, no, have to, it’s the self-salvation program for me. I don’t want your help. I don’t need your help. I can do it on my own. Flip that around for us though. Tell us like today, give us your schedule. How did you live like this is true that his burden is light and his yoke is easy.

Asheritah (35:19) Well, one of the things that I’ve started incorporating is really just meditating on this rest of Jesus and noticing that joy can only flourish in a heart that’s at rest. And so if I want joy in my life, then I need to figure out, even if I still have a lot going on, what does it look like for my soul to be at rest with Jesus, for my soul to be in pace with the pace of Jesus? That means getting rest for my body.

as well as my soul, so practically. I slept in this morning until 7 a.m. For years and years, I would get up at five because I believed I had so many things I needed to get done, and I don’t need sleep, I can live on coffee. Well, no, we’re not superhuman. God created us with limitations, and one of those limitations is these bodies need sleep and rest. And part of worship is releasing to God the burdens and the cares and the worries.

and getting enough sleep for my body. Like that doesn’t sound super spiritual, but it’s a big step of trust.

Shannon Popkin (36:24) It is

so important in Sabbath too, right? Honoring the Sabbath, like just putting in those margins, going to bed on time. Like that can be a very godly practice that invites His joy. But continue. Yeah. Yeah.

Asheritah (36:38) Yeah. So even before I get out of bed in the morning, right? Like this is

one of the rhythms that I’ve learned that I need to embrace the limitations of my body. And some of it sleep. Some of it is nurturing my body with foods that give me energy. And that will then energize me for the work that he’s given me to do. It means like, I don’t start my day with donuts. Not because donuts are bad, but that donuts caused me crash. Like it’ll make me crash halfway through the morning.

So again, it doesn’t sound super spiritual to be meal prepping or planning meals that will nourish my body and my family, but I’ve learned that even the way that I feed myself and I feed my family can be an act of trust and worship, inviting Jesus into that process and saying, teach me how to take care of this one body you’ve given me so that I can walk in pace with you. It’s in the morning.

I’ll spend time, the way that I now start time with Jesus is actually looking back on the last 24 hours and sitting with a question, what’s brought me joy the last 24 hours? Where have I seen the presence of Jesus in my life? Where do I see God’s fingerprints in my life? And allowing that personal connection then to lead my heart in gratitude and praise and worship.

And then I’ll sit with scripture. I’ll meditate on that scripture. What does this teach me about Jesus, about who he is, about his heart of love and praying over not just the people in my life, but, this is super practical. Like I’ll pull up my schedule for the day. I’ll pull up my task list and I’ll pray over those things. And I’ll say, God, if you want to reorganize something here, if something needs to fall off or if something needs delegated or it needs to like pushed to another time.

Shannon Popkin (38:16) That’s good.

Asheritah (38:26) then I am asking for your input on my schedule, on my day. And sometimes it’s bringing the heavy burden to him and saying, you know, that one thing that I’m supposed to be doing today, I’ve been procrastinating it for three or four days. I don’t want to do it. Or I feel overwhelmed by it. Or I don’t feel equipped or qualified for it. It’s inviting again the presence of Jesus into those parts of our day. Like I could go hour by hour.

Shannon Popkin (38:32) So good.

you

Asheritah (38:55) in what it looks like then to walk in step with Jesus, to acknowledge his presence with me every step of the way, to ask for his input, to listen to his voice. But that is how he has brought healing and restoration then. Living like it’s true, not just isolating my quiet time at one part of the day and then living the rest of the day as if I need to perform for God’s approval and love.

nurturing that friendship and delight with Jesus all throughout the day.

Shannon Popkin (39:27) It’s so good. It’s not a checklist, it’s a relationship. And that doesn’t stop when you close your Bible. So, Ashita, this has just been a joy, which doesn’t surprise me. So how can we find this amazing new book? It’s Delighting in Jesus, right?

Asheritah (39:44) Yes, Delighting in Jesus. You can go to delightinginjesus.com to find out more about the book. It’s available wherever books are sold. We also have a fun quiz. I’m kind of like a personality quiz type person. like, tell me, I want to learn more about how God created me. And one of the things that we’ve done is looked at the many creative ways that God created people to feel close to him.

And so we’ve identified five devotional personality types that connect with these rhythms of delights. And that’s also available at delightinginjesus.com, completely free.

Shannon Popkin (40:21) I love it. I want to go take the quiz, get the book.

Will you tell us which type you are before we take the quiz? Or is that secret?

Asheritah (40:30) I mean, this

will come as no surprise, but I’m a word nerd.

Shannon Popkin (40:33) Okay,

a word nerd. So that’s one of the devotional, what is it? Devotional.

Asheritah (40:40) It’s emotional personality types, yeah. So we have the radiant worshiper, the word nerd, the wonder chaser, the prayer whisperer, and the obedient walker.

Shannon Popkin (40:42) understand.

And I feel like, wow, wouldn’t it be great if you had like a group of all five of those, you know?

Asheritah (40:59) truly believe that we need all in the body of Christ and we do a disservice when we compare ourselves and then like judge each other that they’re not doing it the way I do it. I mean, that’s a whole conversation for another time, but we need the body of Christ to work together.

Shannon Popkin (41:10) Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well.

I love that. Yeah, I’m getting to work on a new book on judging. And so maybe I’ll have to have you come back and talk about that. That would be great. Thank you so, so much though, friend. You are amazing. I always learn so much when I get to talk to you. So this has been awesome.

Asheritah (41:31) Shannon, thank you so much for having me on.