Episode 224 (Transcript): Navigating Transitions | What Triggered Your Faith Journey?

Episode Transcript

Many thanks to listener, Sarah Thomas, for her work in transcribing this episode!

This episode can be found on any podcast app, or can be listened to here on our website as well. All the notes and resources we cited in the episode are found at this link as well:

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Hi, I'm Susan Hinkley. And I am Cynthia Winward, and this is At Last She Said it. We are women of faith discussing complicated things, and the title of today's episode is What Triggered Your Faith Journey? Pretty sure we've spent 220 episodes answering that question, Cynthia. So it's time for our listeners to have a chance to answer that question.

CW: Yes, it is. Meaning, this is a voicemail episode. 

SH: This is a voicemail episode, and we've been calling for these voicemails ever since we held a Friday chat where we used this as the topic. And it was just so amazing hearing all of these women's stories that we thought we wanted more of them and we want everyone to hear them.

I always think of the Maya Angelou quote that's so well known, “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”

And I think a lot of times when these things happen in women's lives where a faith shift starts, it can be a long time before they're able to say anything about what triggered it to anyone, or about the beginnings of it.

You know, they can carry it for years, sometimes decades, sometimes a lifetime. Before they start asking, where did the problems begin? And so, that's why we thought that it would work so well in our theme for season 10. Because this is an opportunity to see women navigating transition in real time.

And I think a lot of times when women land in the At Last She Said It space, they are in the middle of gnarly life transitions of some kind. And I guess you and I were when we started.

CW: Yeah. I think what amazes me the most is how many women are experiencing this for the very first time.

SH: Oh, so many. Yeah. 

CW: I guess I just assumed so many of our listeners are where you and I are, which is like a decade into this. So it actually touches my heart that for so many people, this is brand new, fresh. So I hope today is helpful for that reason. 

SH: Yeah, me too. And I've been amazed at how much these stories really prick my heart. There's just so much here that so many women are carrying. I was thinking about doing these episodes as I listened to the voicemails and they just felt kind of heavier and heavier to me, it just seemed like a lot. I thought, I can imagine that a lot of church members would start listening to an episode like this and they would say, “Why don't you just have women share faith promoting stories because then you could be helping lift each other.”