Hope Mangiafico (00:00)
Man, we just wrapped up episode all about the miracles that Jesus did and who he did them for and how they are for all of us and that he loves us. And I just, it's no surprise, Nikki, that we struggled getting that episode going because every single person could relate to somebody that received a miracle from Jesus.
Nikki Humphrey (00:25)
And you could think of somebody or think your own story or some, can, it's so relatable because so many times we do feel overlooked or misunderstood or like we're left out or it's too late. And this is concrete evidence, proof that it is not.
Hope Mangiafico (00:38)
Mm.
A wonderful way to say it, all of these stories, and we didn't even cover hardly any of the miracles Jesus did, and then scripture says that if they were all recorded, we wouldn't have enough ability to record them all, there wouldn't be enough pages, enough books to be able to do that, which is mind-blowing. ⁓ But I love how you said that's concrete evidence when we have doubts of does he love us, does he care, does he want me well?
Because boy, do people have good intentions and they're like, God's will is for you to just show everyone what's possible through your element. ⁓ We have that concrete evidence. I like that, Nikki. It's good. And that actually leads really well to this other story because, again, church means well sometimes, but they make some assumptions as to why something may be happening.
And Jesus cleans that up real fast. He had to do that in my own heart, to be honest. So let's dive into that story.
Nikki Humphrey (01:47)
So this one is the story of Jesus heals the man born blind and that's in John 9 and this story hit me hard. I know it hit hope hard and so This this is gonna Speak to all of you. I believe it. So this is story of a man who was born blind Jesus and dislike in his disciples are walking along and they see him this blind man and before anyone even talks to the man
The disciples, maybe Peter started this, not you. The disciples
Hope Mangiafico (02:19)
You
Nikki Humphrey (02:22)
start talking about him. They asked Jesus, who sinned? This man or his parents? That he was born blind. Already talking about this poor man, like he did something wrong or his parents did wrong, and this was God's punishment. In other words, whose fault is this? And I just want to sit here for a second because
Hope Mangiafico (02:33)
Yeah.
Nikki Humphrey (02:47)
Haven't we all at some point asked the question, maybe out loud, but internally, what did I do to deserve this? Is
Hope Mangiafico (02:56)
Yeah.
Nikki Humphrey (02:57)
this happening because something I did wrong? Am I being punished? ⁓ I got the chills.
Hope Mangiafico (03:07)
I literally heard someone say that Sunday, this past Sunday, talking to them. I never met her before and she believed that what she just left was due to punishment. And she said, I'm working on not believing that anymore, you know? ⁓ But hearing that come, you know, it's what you can.
share this too, Nikki. Like it's one thing for you internally to feel it for yourself, but then when you hear it coming out of someone else's mouth, you're like, whoa, that's how dangerous that thought is. That's how much pain that actually causes me because my heart's breaking for them. So that also means it's really messing up with messing me up too when I have that same belief. It hurt to hear her say that.
Nikki Humphrey (03:52)
And when you hear other people say it.
When we think it, we think we deserve it. But when we hear other people say it, we feel like they don't deserve that thought.
Hope Mangiafico (04:00)
A- Why are we- You know, we are so goofy in that way. It's like a ranking system in our head and we're at the bottom all the time. We don't ever climb up. Everyone else does, but we stay at the bottom. Hmm. Wow.
Nikki Humphrey (04:15)
Right. But
then as Jesus hears it, he shifts the lens. He says, this isn't about blame. And then he does something so expected. He kneels down, he makes a paste out of mud, and he puts it in the man's eyes and tells him, go wash. And I'm sure this man's like, what in the world just happened? He's telling me to go wash, but I'm probably gonna wash anyway, because there's...
Hope Mangiafico (04:43)
Ha
ha!
Nikki Humphrey (04:45)
But in my eyes. So the man goes and he comes back and he's seen. And you would think this would be a moment that everybody celebrates, right? But instead, here we go again, the religious leaders start interrogating him. They question his parents, they analyze the miracle, they start to pick it apart. And I love this man's response so much.
Hope Mangiafico (04:57)
Right.
Nikki Humphrey (05:13)
Because he doesn't have any fancy words. He doesn't try to explain everything that just happened. He just says, I was blind and now I see.
Hope Mangiafico (05:25)
Period.
Nikki Humphrey (05:26)
Amen. I believe this story hits a very
specific place in us. This is for the person who feels like my struggle, like we just said at the beginning, must mean something is wrong with me. The one who has quietly carried the belief, maybe this is my fault. The one whose story has been hard from the very beginning up until now.
Hope Mangiafico (05:46)
. you
Nikki Humphrey (05:55)
so it feels like you never really had a fair shot at life. This is also for the person who feels like they've been talked about more than they've been cared for. Ooh, that hit me hard
this morning. Analyzed, labeled, explained, but never truly seen. And maybe even this is for the one who finally starts to experience breakthrough.
And instead of it being celebrated, it gets questioned, it gets doubted, it gets picked apart. But here's why I love the story so much.
Hope Mangiafico (06:39)
Hmm.
Nikki Humphrey (06:40)
Jesus completely refuses the blame narrative, the victim mentality. He doesn't look at this man and say, let's figure out what went wrong. He looks at him and in essence says,
Hope Mangiafico (06:40)
Yes. Yeah.
Nikki Humphrey (06:54)
Let's reveal what God can do here for you. And for some of you, this is the deepest part. When your whole identity has been built around a limitation, this is just who I
am. That's what I used to say, this is just who I am. I'm never gonna get any better. This is how I've always been. This is what defines my story. Jesus steps in and will write something new for you.
Hope Mangiafico (07:13)
.
Nikki Humphrey (07:23)
I love that this man doesn't walk away with a perfect explanation. He walks away with a testimony. I was blind and now I see. That's it. Real.
Simple.
Hope Mangiafico (07:43)
Okay.
Nikki Humphrey (07:45)
So if you've ever believed that this hard thing in my life must be punishment, I want you to hear this clearly today. Not every hard thing is a punishment. Jesus does not move towards you with blame. He moves towards you with compassion, with the intention of revealing God's goodness, even in the places where you felt shame. That shifts the question from
Hope Mangiafico (08:08)
Hmm. .
Nikki Humphrey (08:14)
Why did this happen to me? To God, what do you want to reveal to me today? And what might it look like for you to begin to believe that your story isn't disqualified? That is actually the place where he wants to move towards you.
Hope Mangiafico (08:36)
So good and this story is so good because I guess it makes us feel seen. It's a reminder of what matters. But it also was very convicting to me because I have been that person questioning. It's kind of like in our main episode, trying to remember which story it was where it was one story you shared, Nikki. I know that it wasn't the one I shared about like, have you ever been, for the people I don't ask.
and he still shows up. Like have you ever been bitter about what he does for other people? And that's one reason I was drawn to this is I so often try to figure out who could I blame? What did they do differently? How can I turn it into a checklist? Which is why it is so cool like you said, like Jesus did the most odd thing with this. And I think it's a good reminder of walk away with the testimony and that's sufficient.
Nikki Humphrey (09:11)
Hmm?
Hope Mangiafico (09:34)
And to be what scripture calls us to be, which is to be followers of him that celebrate when other people celebrate. And I have not been great with that historically and struggle still sometimes when I'm in a allowing, a little dark pit, pity party, victim mentality. And this is the simple reminder of Jesus shifts from belaying mindset to God's work being displayed. It's that glory.
a glory mindset.
It's really convicting. I have always cared and desired freedom and healing in my life and seeing others, but in the background, I still had the blame, especially the who sinned thing, right? Because again, it's what it's taught. And there's some proof in that pudding, generational curses. And that's probably where that question comes from.
Nikki Humphrey (10:21)
Yeah.
Hope Mangiafico (10:31)
is there's talk about in Deuteronomy about the curses going from generation to generation, but I like through Jesus' arrival onto the earth, then his death, burial, and resurrection, those are no longer the questions we actually should be asking because if we're actually pursuing the glory of God to be what manifests through our testimony, we're gonna have the answers that will get us there to align with the proper character of him.
Thank you, Jesus, for simplifying the process for us when we've tried to overcomplicate it. Religion tried to overcomplicate it. The law had to, to paint a picture, but he fulfilled the law.
Nikki Humphrey (11:00)
Yes.
Hope Mangiafico (11:16)
And I pray that for myself, for you, Nikki, for every person listening, like, we can be okay and settle with however he does it for other people, how he does it for us. If he wants us to put on a mud mask, we'll say okay.
No questions asked.
That is actually my mentality I want is no questions asked. I want to believe his love.
Nikki Humphrey (11:40)
That's right.
And because Hope and I used to be the queens of questions. So we would see somebody else get a miracle or somebody else have a breakthrough or somebody else. And here's Hope and I running as fast as we can up to the steeple. What did do? How did you do it? What's the formula? What's the thing? And this guy just got just laser. I was blind. Now I can see. Boom. That's all you need to know.
Hope Mangiafico (11:47)
yay.
What'd do?
What did you do? Wow, that you're so right. That was like my favorite question.
Nikki Humphrey (12:13)
Yeah, what did you do? How'd you do it? What's the formula? Can you share it with me? I'd love to know more.
God's just up there like, no, I did that for them. I will do stuff for you if you just get out of the way.
Hope Mangiafico (12:28)
Yes. Well, and you know, to complement that just for a current, like as of yesterday's story, I was talking to someone about life stuff and I told them simplicity, right? And she, she was talking to me and she was like, but there is a place for this other stuff. And, you know, I paused and I said, you know what, I am now speaking from a person that's gone through all the other stuff and I am now speaking to you as if
this is a one-way thing and like one track, right? Mindset, I guess, for lack of a better term. And while what I'm saying is not wrong, you're right. Depending on where the person is, I mean, I literally had to be like, you're right. Depending where the person is, what I'm saying isn't wrong, but it doesn't make it right for the person. He has to show up and meet us exactly where we are.
Nothing else can fix that.
I was like, yeah, I'm talking from a girl that's been almost walking 10 years side by side with Jesus. Now I'm saying these things as if I have utmost confidence that I understood that 10 years ago. It was so convicting because you can quickly get this like hierarchy mentality too that you're starting to figure it all out, which is what this story.
Nikki Humphrey (13:28)
What?
Yeah, I got the secret sauce
now. I got the download.
Hope Mangiafico (13:45)
Yeah, that's what the story dismantles is pride.
Nikki Humphrey (13:49)
has.
This story is so good. You could spend a month, two months just on this story.
Hope Mangiafico (13:51)
So I, yeah.
Seriously and huh? That's why we couldn't have it in the episode and honestly we could have spent a longer time on every story because they're so layered because they're the life of Jesus and his love for you not just his love for this man born blind or in the centurion servant or the woman that lost her son and he brought him back to life or a synagogue leader or someone that's been tormented for 18 years or a
It's for you.
Nikki Humphrey (14:27)
Yes, and we don't wanna give too much, we wanna give just enough so you get excited to go into your own Bible and read these stories or listen to them and get your own revelation out of it because what Jesus spoke to me about these stories is different than what he spoke to Hope and it's gonna be different for you. How we see ourself, who are we in these stories? What resonates with you? What moves you?
Hope Mangiafico (14:32)
Thank
Nikki Humphrey (14:53)
What did Jesus reveal about Himself to you? It's so different for every person. That's what's exciting and that's what we want you to do.
Hope Mangiafico (15:00)
Exactly. So whatever story jumped out to you, even if you're just hearing the overflow and you want to go in John 9 and read about the man that was born blind, go do that. It's a living word. And then let your sacred imagination run wild and picture it. Nikki, before we jump off here, before I wrap up my segment, you do so good painting the picture of these stories.
and help my mind actually settle more into a sacred imagination of really picturing the reality in our full episode. It wasn't until I shared like a second or third story where I'm like, wait, she was hunched over. That meant she probably wasn't, he couldn't even see her. Like my brain, my natural brain was limiting my ability to picture these, but through your storytelling and your freedom and your sacred imagination.
I started really getting this real life picture of what was happening and then it got me more fired up to continue telling the story because it's so easy to forget to put yourself in it and what did it really look like? I mean, clearly real time I was guilty of that. And so use this story and do that. Picture all of it because it makes it more more miraculous the more you do that.
Nikki Humphrey (16:14)
Because a lot of these scenes aren't calm. These aren't calm like places where Jesus is walking into. These are events. These are like the rock concerts of the day. You know, there's a lot going on.
Hope Mangiafico (16:18)
and
Yeah.
And you know,
sometimes I wonder if because they're so short, sometimes they're only like five verses, that's with intention. So you can get to know the story more intimately yourself if you choose to, you know, and get the context from like Nikki saying rock concerts.
Nikki Humphrey (16:53)
It is like, yeah, there was nothing bigger than, you know, these synagogues or like these events or like. It's cool.
Hope Mangiafico (16:57)
Yeah.
Yeah, so so good. I can't wait for the next episode.
Nikki Humphrey (17:07)
We need it.
