Hope Mangiafico (00:00)
So that was that was an interesting illustration at the end.
Nikki Humphrey (00:04)
But okay, so as you were speaking, you know how I always meet Jesus in the garden. But it's like, almost like a dome. Like my garden's like in a dome.
Hope Mangiafico (00:11)
Mm-hmm.
So it's like shaped like a womb almost.
Nikki Humphrey (00:20)
will
shape like a womb. So it made complete sense to me. Like that's my safe place to meet Jesus. Like there's beautiful flowers and trees and everything, but they all come up. It's not open. It's not like I'm ever looking at a beautiful sky.
Hope Mangiafico (00:37)
interesting.
Nikki Humphrey (00:39)
And that's why I think I feel like when I do my Jesus time or use my sacred imagination, I always feel so safe. It's never a scary space for me.
Hope Mangiafico (00:49)
if he's the creator of all things it would make sense that he has an element of himself that mimics a womb, right? I mean...
Nikki Humphrey (00:56)
Because he's going to want
to put a baby in the safest place possible.
Hope Mangiafico (01:03)
Yeah.
It's so good.
And you know, as you were speaking about your garden, I don't know if I've told you this before, nor do I know where I ever heard this, but it made a lot of sense. know, when Jesus ascended and they went to go to the, the women went to the tomb and they mistaken him for the gardener.
Nikki Humphrey (01:30)
⁓
Hope Mangiafico (01:32)
And that demonstrated or illustrated like his love of the garden.
Nikki Humphrey (01:39)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Thank you.
Hope Mangiafico (01:43)
And it feels like a full circle moment with your
own personal experience. Like what if Jesus loved the flowers and the garden and so much so because it felt safe and it really is a beautiful display of the Father in the natural realm. Yeah.
Nikki Humphrey (02:03)
The of Eden was beautiful and had everything
in the Edamame felt safe.
Hope Mangiafico (02:09)
So safe until.
Nikki Humphrey (02:12)
But that's, you know, that's, it's all, it's coming like full circle, like the garden's no stranger for Jesus to be walking in.
Hope Mangiafico (02:15)
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's so cool.
Nikki Humphrey (02:24)
Yeah.
Hope Mangiafico (02:24)
Wow. Makes you wonder if there's more layers to the Garden of Gethsemane then.
Nikki Humphrey (02:30)
Right, that's the,
mean all the gardens were gone.
Hope Mangiafico (02:35)
Wow. it's these kind of aha moments that we sit with and we just kind of discuss real time that makes me hunger even more for my alignment with God's covenant and God's agreement of my life. these conversations, the fuel on that fire so I keep pursuing the pure agreements and the words of my father.
Nikki Humphrey (03:01)
Cause that's so exciting. So now I'm thinking about Eve. She made an agreement with the snake, right? But if she never would have came into agreement with what he was saying, then the garden wouldn't have got rocked in the first place.
Hope Mangiafico (03:18)
Right. Yeah, it all started with an agreement, which agreements go.
Nikki Humphrey (03:23)
it.
Hope Mangiafico (03:26)
That goes back to Hebrews 13.5 that I started with because Satan the serpent said, did God really say? Which means that going back to Hebrews 13.5, he never left. God never left or forsook them, but Satan was able to be like, but did God really say this?
Nikki Humphrey (03:35)
Mm-hmm. Yes.
Hope Mangiafico (03:50)
And the way he presented it was with a lens of covetedness. Desirable!
Nikki Humphrey (03:54)
Mm-hmm. Yes!
High-fiving you! ⁓
Hope Mangiafico (04:02)
Got it back. I received it.
Nikki Humphrey (04:05)
Hahaha!
⁓
Hope Mangiafico (04:06)
It began, excuse me, I don't know why my words are real struggle today. It began with coveting something because they didn't believe in what God had said. Oh my gosh.
Nikki Humphrey (04:09)
Yeah.
Right.
No, I'm I'm like mind blown. People are probably like, yeah, duh. But I'm like, it's blowing my mind over here.
Hope Mangiafico (04:28)
It's blowing my mind too,
and it's blowing my mind even more because if I'm fully honest, this week has felt like a lot of reading for our Bible reading and...
Nikki Humphrey (04:37)
You're
so far behind. I'm still Micah up.
Hope Mangiafico (04:41)
That's okay. I did like four days worth in one day. ⁓ So it's okay. But unfortunately, then I have to tell you that there's not a lot of short days. But all that said, despite all the consumption I've had, which I feel like it's in here, I just can't recall it all, that one verse out of all of the readings in a week jumped out. And here we are having a full circle moment around.
⁓ New Testament scripture that we're making connections with real time back to the beginning Genesis
That is God.
Have you ever seen that like graphic on social media where it's like an open Bible and they show like different colored lines linking up from Old Testament and New Testament? It's like this one massive rainbow.
Nikki Humphrey (05:33)
No, but I am now because my phone is listening.
Hope Mangiafico (05:37)
Let me know what you think when you see it. That also links to our full podcast.
Nikki Humphrey (05:38)
Hahaha!
Yeah.
Hope Mangiafico (05:47)
But speaking of that, think that was such a good point you made about social media. ⁓ And you know, like I've said, many people are like swearing that their phones are listening to their thoughts, but I think it shows the validity on thoughts or things because our thoughts don't just sit in our head, they dictate our actions, which lead us into some sort of agreement. And I'm really glad you shared that.
Nikki Humphrey (06:07)
Yes.
Yeah.
And I think sometimes whether you're in a ⁓ good place mentally or like a self-condemning place mentally, your algorithm will shift and you'll get confirmation on either thing. Do you ever notice that like when you're like going good, then you get like, get all this like joyful, happy stuff. And then when life gets heavy or things get hard, it's just like this serious stuff. And it's just like things. And you're just like, that's just like me.
she's struggling too, look at that and I'm just like you're getting that immediate confirmation.
Hope Mangiafico (06:43)
Yeah
Yeah, I have noticed that.
Nikki Humphrey (06:49)
And then like,
I know a lot of times I'm be like, me too, me too. But that's an agreement.
Hope Mangiafico (06:57)
Well, so yeah, so exactly, which then just kind of digs you deeper into the hole. There's like this, there's this need to acknowledge where you are. And you know, a lot of people say God meets you, Jesus meets you where you're at. I think that's true, but he doesn't leave you there. And social media will try and leave you where you
Nikki Humphrey (07:02)
Hmm?
Yes.
Right.
Hope Mangiafico (07:23)
or make you dig into it even deeper so it's a bigger hole, deeper hole, harder hole to get out of. ⁓
Nikki Humphrey (07:30)
And
that's when you start searching for your God, your guru, your five steps to get you out.
Hope Mangiafico (07:37)
Yeah. Huh. That's really good, and that's actually a really good point.
And this is something I notice and it complements what you're saying in a more lighthearted way, but also not really. ⁓ We talked about screens, we talked about what's on the TV, what they're forecasting as well as social media. But let me tell you something that happened to me. We talk about algorithms, we talk about how we have some Jesus loving algorithms, okay? I have gone through a phase where I haven't slept great. That's happened periodically this year. And so,
My brain's just kind of like, in the middle of the night, so what do do? I just go on Instagram, right? And I go to the Explorer page. Lots of Jesus content at first, and there will be one, this is mind-blowing, it just shows that there's always an intent to lead us somewhere. There will be one video of Taylor Swift, just one. And I clicked on one Nikki, and my entire Explorer page changed to her forever! Like, they didn't go away, no matter how.
Jesus content I looked at. So then so yeah, it's not only true what you shared, but then also if they have a bigger agenda and you express any kind of interest, they're going to make sure that somehow you fall into that and agree with that because I have zero interest in Taylor Swift. None. I am not a Swiftie. But you wouldn't have known it because I lost
Nikki Humphrey (09:01)
Yeah. Right. No, me neither.
Hope Mangiafico (09:09)
looked at one video. I was shocked and I was then I was angry because then I was like you got an agenda here I don't even know what you're trying to do right now but your girl was just trying to
Nikki Humphrey (09:23)
Well, that was an example too that I didn't say in the episode how many times when I was not.
Jesus girl, how many songs did I sing out loud and coming into agreement with those words that I sang out loud?
Hope Mangiafico (09:41)
Yes.
Nikki Humphrey (09:44)
Like that's one of those we not even realize in what we're doing.
Hope Mangiafico (09:49)
You know, there's so much to that, right? It's both like the hurts they're at and the different ways they're playing, but then also makes me think of my childhood, childhood slash teenhood. Rap was really big and it was all very sexual. So is it coincidental that everyone listens to that and then people struggle with sexual sin?
Nikki Humphrey (09:55)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Right. Yeah. Right. Because you think it's okay, everybody's doing it, everybody's coming to agreement with it, like it's no big deal, you know, it makes us, it makes it normalizes things that shouldn't be normalized.
Hope Mangiafico (10:13)
Exactly like you're saying like probably not
Just listening to it.
Yeah.
And at the end of the day, I think that's a really good example of like why scripture says be in the world, not of it. It's only one example of many that we need to consider as followers of Jesus. But as extreme as I think for a season, many followers of Christ or I'll just deem Christians actually, because Christians, unfortunately, weren't always following Jesus truly thought a lot of extreme.
Christians were over the top. But there is a reason why the convictions within them kept getting stronger. It's not to judge the world. It's to protect so then they can have a positive effect on the world.
And I hope who I felt like someone needed to hear that because I feel often people want to expect the best, believe the best in people. And there's nothing necessarily wrong with that innately. But it's then allowing yourself to experience the world through their eyes and keeping them stuck instead of you purifying yourself to then be the light to change the world.
Nikki Humphrey (11:42)
Yes.
Hope Mangiafico (11:42)
Does that make sense?
Nikki Humphrey (11:43)
It does.
Hope Mangiafico (11:44)
Hmm. That's interesting. And I guess my last thought on that that just came to me is when you allow people you love to stay where they are, like I said a little bit ago of Jesus meets us where we're at but doesn't leave us there. If you allow someone you love to stay where they're at, it's not love.
and that's really important to keep in mind as well. You're actually, by allowing them to stay, you're coming into agreement with something that's not in alignment with God.
Nikki Humphrey (12:13)
Yeah, and that can be hard. Like I used to do that with my niece. She would say things and whatever, but I would always speak God's truth into her, whether she grabbed it or not. I was definitely a seed planter for that. And I would say, know, just whatever God was revealing to me at that moment.
Hope Mangiafico (12:35)
Yeah.
You know, one of my favorite, I've had a lot of like sadder moments recently. I think it's because we're coming one into really, really dreary outside, but like two, it's coming to the end of the year where things got really hard with my dad. So I've had some really tough days emotionally. And one of my favorite things I did recently was I have this armoire and I made a bulletin board and I put some pictures of him up, but then I put his arm.
take a lack of better term, I can't remember what it's called. I think it was like his rebirth certificate or salvation certificate, but it answers some questions. And one was like, who led you to Christ? And he put hope, my daughter. I didn't technically lead him to Christ. I was not there when he like full blown ⁓ said yes. He did it at celebration or celebrate recovery, which thanks to you, I learned about, which is a cool full circle moment as I'm speaking, but it reminds me of your story.
your niece because they were the seeds I planted for years.
Nikki Humphrey (13:38)
Yeah. Yeah.
Hope Mangiafico (13:41)
wall-kicking moments, but I knew even despite, which I know you can speak on this too or relate to it, despite hurt that may have been extended to me throughout the journey, I knew within myself that whatever was showing up in his actions, his words, whatever, they were not him. He was in unknowingly so many agreements with the wrong kingdom. And we did our best of planting the seeds and I believe
both of us in different ways saw what those seeds did and the outcomes for both of them were not what we wanted. But we know that we pointed them to the only thing that matters and actually helped them answer that question of, you be my child today? We helped them be God's child.
Nikki Humphrey (14:15)
Yes.
Hope Mangiafico (14:39)
That's all I got. ⁓
Nikki Humphrey (14:40)
That's all I got.
