Noticing Meaning in Everyday Life

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. Hey, Chip. Hey, Stephen. We're back here in the pod you took couple weeks off of the podcast. Yes. We did. And now we're back Yeah. Brand new podcast material. Good to see. You know, a lot of peep a lot of people have said they can't tell who's talking. Who's who? Sounded like. Yeah. I'm not I'm not laughing. Now. I'm not laughing as much today. You can tell. Yeah. I know. I can tell you're a little, little heavy today. I am. Yeah. You know, I was thinking this week about all the New Year's resolutions I haven't kept. Right? And how like, I started right? I started the year with great clarity and dedication and devotion. Uh-huh. And as life has gotten busier, it's it is almost Busier again. Busier again. It's gotten back to normal, which is clamoring and and loud and good things and hard things and taxes and all the stuff that happens. Right? Mhmm. Spring is coming and yards are being mowed and all those things. I've lost sight of those things. And it got me thinking just about the other day. It got me thinking about how hard it is to just even recognize God sometimes.

You know? The the Like, what once the tax season kicks in, it's hard to remember the God of the fall The God of of last fall, the God of Yeah. God of Christmas. Harvest and Christmas and And and Valentine's Day. In my tradition right now, it's Lent, right, in Anglican Church. Mhmm. We observe Lent, and we're practicing forty days of really looking at our own, darkness, our our own need, our own insufficiency as human beings. You mean your own neediness? The yeah. And our sin and just how it's not up to us. Mhmm. The heritage of sin. Yes. Mhmm. Yeah. And the hopelessness kinda in that. Right? Anything I can construct. It's like a real kinda, heavy time as you get ready for Easter. Yeah. And it is in church today that I recognized just how I don't see god. And then I started thinking about how god doesn't really show god's self much. Mhmm. You know? Yeah. Like, it's god's not obvious Yeah. Except god's everywhere.

K. Mhmm. Obviously, everywhere. Right. So is Lent Lent for you as a time to also stop and listen? It's supposed to be. Stop and watch? Like it's supposed to be. Yeah. But it ends up being about just not doing x It can't as a way to prove that you're all all in or Yeah. Give up on that. Sacrifice, suffer. Yeah. Start on Monday, give up on it by Wednesday with the grace of the rest of the week, I guess. But it it sparked to me this idea you've been talking about about the fingerprints of God and how we have to stop and pay attention to Yeah. And and recognize it. Can you talk about that a little bit? Yeah. Yeah. You know, I was thinking of it. You you you framed it beautifully to to me. I was thinking about the the complexity of being a grown up. Really, the complexity of of trying to figure out all the things we can't factor in or factor in all the things we can't figure out. There's no way to control this thing. And I've noticed that the more technology has improved to give us access to immediacy, the more complex things seem to be and the more crisis oriented things seem to be and the faster I'm supposed to, according to rules, address all the things I should be doing. I I emphasize the word should there because it's about keeping up. If I don't keep up, I fall behind. If I fall behind, I'm left behind. If I'm left behind, I'm all by myself. I just think that at least the way, technology is created supposedly to address on some level calming our inner selves through efficiency, that those efficiencies don't do anything to calm ourselves. They actually increase our anxieties. Makes us more anxious. Yeah. Yeah. And it gives us the illusion too of not needing God because I've got a cell phone. See, I can remember years ago, I would drive somewhere. I know where you're going. Yeah. I didn't have a cell phone. Then we got But how did we get places? We had beep we had beepers. Amazing. So many we had them on our belts to get, the important, messages with I was going from our counseling center in Texas to the hospital where I was working and doing some work there. And if the beeper went off, I had to pull off at an exit and go to a payphone of all things. Isn't it it's crazy. And I watched all those things disappear. And and I'm glad too they're gone. But but what what I've seen happen is if I've got my phone, I don't need to worry. If I've got my phone, I don't need to have a sense of neediness, and I don't have to need to wait on God. I don't have to trust the process. I don't have to believe necessarily in anything.

Oh, no. You know what I'm saying? And McClaire is 17. She was out of a friend's house the other night, and I must have checked find my friends on my iPhone a half dozen times to kinda keep an eye on my daughter, her progress. Safety, her progress. Down the interstate. Yes. Right? It's like, what did parents do twenty years ago? Yes. Just worry? I I I think that parents, the ones who are awake to themselves, they had to trust more than we have to. And I don't see myself trusting more accepting more technology if I wanna keep up with whatever it is I'm keeping up with, whether it's success or performance or achievement or Like a smartphone a couple years ago. You've been on a flip phone.

No. No. I'm no. No. No. No. I well, see, the sad part is I know I haven't been on flip phone in years, but I don't know what a smartphone is. That's ridiculous. But but I I'll tell you something I've been thinking about lately about the complexity, and I and I do remember I think all of us remember, even in the midst of, all of our childhoods, whether a child now is 26 or a child is 46, 56, or 76, we can all look back on childhood and somehow, even in the midst of missing a lot emotionally or spiritually or growing up in abandonment or whatever, There was a simplicity, an easy an ease of believing, an ease of trusting or ease of hoping, that that, things would could really be better tomorrow. They would be different tomorrow. Or our hopes were simpler because we did not know how to even speak the words of a complex question. The closest we could come as children to a complex question was why do things happen like they do. Mhmm. And then tears would follow that perhaps, and we would need someone to comfort us rather than give an answer to it. Do you know? It was really a question of comfort, a question of relationship more than was a question. Yeah. I'm scared. Is the tornado gonna blow the house down? Why are there tornadoes? Well, I don't know why there are tornadoes. The real question is, are you gonna be with me in one? That was the real question, I think. And I was thinking, when I was young, I literally didn't know the words for what I'm about to say, but I believed in the fingerprints of God, and I believed in the whispers of God. And there was evidence in those things when, spring came or even when stories from the Bible are found later in life. For example, when and and it's in the book of John in John nine when the the the blind man there's a blind man and Jesus spits into the dirt and makes a poultice and presses it into the blind man's eyes. He he puts a poultice of of mud on his eyes with his fingers. He presses his fingers into the man's around the man's face and his eyes. The man never sees Jesus. He says, go to the Pool Of Siloam and wash your face. And and so he did exactly what Jesus said, washed his face, and he could see. And he experienced the DNA of God on his face. Jesus touched him, left fingerprints on his face, and he could see. He trusted that. He wanted to see God's fingertips were put upon him. He washed his face, but didn't wash the identity of God touching him off of him. Because God touched him, he could see. And then he was dragged in front of the the Sanhedrin, I believe, put on trial, basically. And he's he just simply said, look. All I know is I was blind and now I see. And they told me it was this Jesus who did it, who put his fingers on my face. And do you wanna meet him? Is it what you're looking for? Do you wanna be his disciples? And they started yelling at him, screaming at him. But all he could say was, this is the truth. His fingerprints are on my face. That's all I've got. And that was just the truth, and it was very simple. And I just wonder, do we still look for the fingerprints of God in our daily lives? His fingerprints upon life, upon the earth, upon our our own lives, upon the details of our experiences in in daily life. Do we stop and look for where he's touched us? And for him to touch us is is for him to bless us. And only the needy can receive a blessing because blessing you you told me the word blessing is a process word. It's not a statement with a definition. It's a process of going from neediness to receiving, almost like we're on our knees and we're raised up with our hands out as the the communion is delivered in the Anglican church. You start on your knees. Do you know? Yeah. And so, blessing itself is is, comes from us needing to see his fingerprints. Show me what you've touched and touch me so that I can remember the possibility of simplicity. And then the whispers of god, you remember the story of, Elijah. Remember he did the great magnificent proof that god was greater than their gods and the 800 ran off into the woods because she was gonna come kill him. Yes. He did. After he did this extraordinary thing, they had this extraordinary proof of the sound and loudness of god. He heard that Jezebel wanted to kill him and was coming to get him. He just ran. And he ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran into the mountains and he hid in a cave. And then he he was praying, God, you know, where are you? Where did you go? What happened? Those kinds of things. You know, some people have said he was in self pity, and I think that's not true. I think he was forlorn. He was afraid. He was sad. He was lonely. He, was tired, and he did not wanna die, and he wanted a rescue. And he knows god could do it. He saw it. He saw it right there just the days before. Yeah. And it says that that that I think the fire came, and then the the earthquake came, and the winds came. Hail. Yeah. And as and Elijah did not come out of the cave. And then a whisper came, and Elijah stuck his face out of the cave because the whisper drew him. It sounded familiar to the heart that he wants remembered Mhmm. Of as as a child when he could listen to the sounds of his heart and the needs of his heart and the addressing of his heart from the god who cares with the whisper. And so whispers and fingerprints, we I think we have to stop and be still enough to notice because the technology and the complexity and the swiftness and the really, the overwhelming bureaucratic regulatory technological demands upon our lives make us give up on the things that children value most, I think, are the fingerprints and whispers, like like like like fingerprints like sanctuaries that we need and refuges that we need, places that we go where we know we're cared about. The the the fingerprints and and whispers of places where we can trust. And there's truthfulness and faithfulness in others, encourage in others, giving, integrity, friendship, and passion. Those are things that children easily trust in and believe. Those are things that I, as a man, value more than anything else. But I can't maintain their value and live into their value unless I see and feel the fingerprints and whispers because it's so loud and there's so little evidence of God and the complexity of technology and this knowledge and our own self worship that we forget. And it I I just think it's only like the child's heart that can see, a wind sweeping through a pine tree and hear whispers in the in the limbs and notice them. And then when a grown up notices them, they they they remember they remember, the possibility that god is present and with us and cares and does things.

Ewel Claire was baby sitting a kid from down the street last night, brought him over to the house for a little bit, and the storm blew through. Yeah. Thunder and lightning. He's a little probably three year old. Yeah. And he stood on our back porch. And every time it thundered, it was like the first thunder he'd ever heard. It was the same excitement. Thunder. Thunder. And then it would, you know, thunder. Thunder. Like, it it was so he was teaching us how to hear the thunder in a way that I'd forgotten. Yeah. You know? And the lightning would come, and he would said, what's that? Or every time, what's that? Yeah. That's lightning. Yeah. Happening in. What's that? That's lightning. His recognition remembers us. Mhmm. I mean, like, his recognition puts us in a place to remember our own growing up, our own Innocent. Desire for simplicity and naivete and just being

like, seeing life as remarkable. Oh, just to him so much awe Yeah. Of his So we're remembered when we stop and remember. Yeah. Memories remember us. They put us back together like we're made. And and I just if there are no fingerprints and if there are no whispers, if Emmanuel, god with us, isn't, we're in a lot of trouble. And if we don't stop to listen, if we don't stop to look, I think we miss it. And I think it has disastrous results. We can't help but make bad decisions because we're depending upon ourselves only. Yeah. Or on technology that increases crisis and gives us a false sense of security of knowledge without what? Knowledge without Context. Context or trust or It's a very thin knowledge that's just based in our momentary slice Yeah. Like, you're you're paying attention to where Emma Clare is on your phone. Yeah. And all of a sudden, it goes off course like crazy. And then all of a sudden, it's the phone's in a ditch somewhere, and you can't find her. All you get to do is watch the movie of her disappearance.

Oh, thanks. I really do. But do you see that's crazy? Yeah. Isn't it? And I somehow have this magic belief inside of me that if I'm watching her, then I can somehow keep her safe on the road Yes. From 25 miles away at night. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I don't trust a god that's Mhmm. That's Mhmm. I mean, with the hairs on our head. Yeah. And and I know it sounds crazy, but but name the stars and put them in the heavens. And and look, either it's magic and as in magician, which is illusion, or it's mystery that puts us in a place of asking and trusting, looking and seeing so that maybe you and I can get to the point. And I know I have this in me because I had an opportunity to invest in something, like, participate in something that I know is gonna be a venture that would be work against everything I named in terms of courage and faithfulness and trust. And I'm turning it down because of faithfulness and trust and courage and integrity and passion. But to do so, I have to believe and trust not in magic, but mystery that that pursuing the fingerprints and the whispers is better than my best logic a lot of times. Mhmm. You know, I believe those things to be true. And if I if it not for fingerprints, I will go the way of technology only. Does that make sense? Yeah. Yeah. Technology is great. I'm not downing technology. Thank god for polio vaccine and and heart heart surgery and Electricity. Electricity and smartphones. They're wonderful. But not if it takes us away

from the realities of the presence of god. And there which is also the reality of the presence of ourselves. Right? To see god's fingerprints upon my own heart, to see my story being played out in a way that brings hope, not just to me, but those around me. Yeah. And like the blind man, by me seeing the fingerprints, I can literally say by me feeling the fingerprints, I literally could say, look, all I know is this is where I was, this is what happened, and this is where I am now, and these are decisions I'm making based upon those things. Those fingerprints allow me to make decisions. But as a witness, not because I'm believing something and figured out the best possibilities, not even because I've looked at a chart that shows the beginning and the end of something, and I've got to follow these guidelines to get there. Those are great and good. But if I'm not a witness of these fingerprints and these whispers, then I've got nothing to go on but those charts.

The charts aren't alive. This is Stephen James, the executive director of Sage Hill Counseling. Thanks for listening to the Sage Hill podcast with Dr. Chip Dodd. Sometimes in life, we get stuck or blocked or reach an impasse. At times like these, an intensive short term therapy could help you overcome what's keeping you from the growth and changes you desire. At Sage Hill Counseling, we offer therapeutic incentives to help couples gain new momentum in their recovery process. If you wanna find out more, please visit sagehillcounseling.com.