Longings, Part 3: Safety

Transcript of a Sage Hill Live Fully Podcast conversation with Dr. Chip Dodd. Lightly edited for readability; speaker labels omitted.

You're listening to the Sage Hill podcast with Dr. Chip Dodd. Sage Hill is a social impact organization that helps people see who they are made to be so they can do what they're made to do. The following podcast was recorded at this year's Sage Hill training, an in-depth experiential training that helps people bring their heart to what they are called to do. To learn more, you can visit sagehilltraining.com. So longings are that thing inside of us that is very painful to touch, but everything we're made for. And everything we're made to pursue. Guys, look. When you're when you're doing your houses all cool and everything, like, Kelly, you do interior design. It's like, you love to shape something that you hope will, like, be a place people wanna go to. But it's a reflection of what you ultimately want them to have, A place they won't have to leave. Walt Disney. Brilliant. Walt Disney is selling longings. That's what he sells. He sells the the longing to go home and memories that are never finished. They're always reflected on. You always have to go back there to relive what you had to try to get to a place that you can't get to. It's like, he makes you come back because he gives you a place where you have the second longing touched. And the second longing is a longing for safety. A safety of a nature that is a kind that lets you quit. You quit. You get to quit. Now, safety that's the kind that that that like, the way I've written about it and talked about it, it's like shoulders big enough for you to put your head against. Arms strong enough to wrap around you. And a voice kind enough to say, it's okay now. You don't have to go back. You can rest. You're done. You're done. Come on home. Then you'll feel bad about it because you're gonna be leaving people, you know, like you can rest. It's like, but what about all those people that need me? Like, they'll be okay. I know they won't, they won't, they won't, they won't. And I don't wanna leave. It's like, well, okay. But that's what safety is. Like, see, you and I have a a rest need within us that I'm continuing to learn about. That is deeper than your, just your physical tiredness of the day, it's bone tired. And the moral of your bones, which is like right next to your soul, like soul tired, like you're tired. That which is in you that wants to go home also will be safe there and can stop this. And, the prayer that I hope that we will have is ultimately that each of us becomes a sanctuary. Do you remember in the very beginning when when we start talking about the spiritual roots of stuff, it's three movements. First is the spiritual root system is how you're made. And then, the second one is who you're made to be, which is you move from the spiritual root system into euphoria river. Euphoria river is to bear life well. That the hope, the loss, the pain, the sadness, the joy, the gladness, that you become that strange creature that's living your life. Now, you do you know what I mean? What I mean by the strange creatures that's that's living your life, what that means is that you're a character. See, a character is a person that's like them. They're a character. It's kinda like saying, you're kinda unique. You see, and I want you to hear that, and I know this is gonna sound weird, but every single person in here is in a movie. See, because movies tell the truth and reality doesn't. See, reality is all the ways we hide from the truth and movies strip reality away, squash you into exposing the inside of a person on the outside and interacting with everyone around them. They make characters. And so when you get to heaven, Mark, when you get to heaven, God's not gonna come up to you and say, man, hey, Joel. You're gonna go, Joel, like, Mark. And and God's go, that's correct. I was just kidding. And he's gonna say, hey, Mark. How good were you at playing Mark? How good were you at being Mark? How good were you at growing Mark and saying Mark and living Mark and being who you're made to be and doing what you're made to do. And you went, God, from that context, I mean, like, I was good at that. And it's like, but you see what I did with it. I mean, it didn't look good, but I was good at like that. And God goes, this person after my own heart, Mark, here's your Oscar. Now you didn't have a supporting role. You are the main actor in the movie of your life. So get in it. With all that's in it, live in the process of how life works instead of trying to escape from it. See, that's really where you're being in your life. Now, everybody wants to escape from life. I get that. It's like that's what anxiety and depression does. It takes us out of life. Takes us out of having to experience. I get that. Shut it down. Once you shut it down, do you know who you are? Do you know who you are if you shut it down? Number 81. Number 8081. Number 81000000. Number (800). In other words, you are not you. You are an object. You are one of a trillion. You are not yourself. You are not in your life. Now most people try to get into their lives by using their external environment and attacking it. Bungee jumping. That's a good good example. Using your external environment and attacking it. It's called thrill so that you feel like you're alive. Well, it's like, you know what? You can, like, like a car can like, you could start pulling out from a stop sign, you know, before other people do and have the car almost hit you and have the same thing over and over again, thrill of a lie. It's like, in other words, you feel like you're alive because you're scared or because your your your genetics go, you know. See, that's not living. Living is from the inside out. You're bringing your insides to the outside and full living is you bringing the insides to the outside like you're meeting life on life's terms and meeting others on theirs. It's like like, it's where life happens and love happens. And then the third movement of the spiritual root system is sanctuary. How you're made, who you're made to be, what you're made to do. Now whatever you're made to do whatever you're made to do, and this is no insult to this vocation, but plumbers too. This is not about the helping profession. This is about the living in profession. So, even a plumber, if you're doing what you're made to do, you are a sanctuary. You are a safe place for someone to come to to to have a chance to get what they don't have from you because they need it and you can give it. And the fuller you are as a human being in terms of processing your experience of living, the more of a sanctuary you become because you become the person a person can come to when they don't know where to go. You become a refuge because you have found one. You become a restoration spot because you know what rest is. You become a redemption place because you know what it was like to feel worthless. You become recuperation. You become resurrection, which is to rise beyond the surgery. You you become you see these things, replenishment. You become recreation, not recreation. You become recreation because if you can wake up every day, the the mercies are new every morning, and you can experience that daily experience of the mercies are new every morning, you are a recreational being. Versus an enduring creature who does life like a marathon, well, that was just another mile. No. That's not another mile. This is another day. So, that's where you're headed. It's not just about waking up every day and feeling your feelings, it's about feeling your feelings, doing your needs, facing your desire and touching your longing so you go where you're made to go. And you gotta become somebody somebody can come to. The simplest way to put all of this, you've gotta become somebody somebody can come to.

This is Stephen James, the executive director of Sage Hill Counseling. Thanks for listening to the Sage Hill podcast with Dr. Chip Dodd. If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction, anxiety, depression, or burnout, please reach out to the Center for Professional Excellence for Health. For more than twenty years, CBE's long term residential treatment programs have been helping professional men recover their lives, marriages, and families. I'm professional men recover their lives, marriages, and families. To find out more, visit cpenashville.com. Further, if you're a therapist, a pastor, or professional that works with people, and you'd like to be better equipped to help them live fully, we invite you to learn more about Sage Hill Training, an in-depth experiential training to help you bring your heart to the work you're called to do. You can visit Sage Hill Training to register.