Circle 31 Podcast

Note: Please note that the text below is an uncorrected transcript of the audio captured for this podcast. We pray the Lord uses these words to bless you as you seek Him!

Ellen Adkins: All right. Hello, friends. Welcome to the Circle 31 Podcast. I'm your host, Ellen Adkins, and I am here with my co-host, Melissa Taylor. Hey, Melissa.

Melissa Taylor: Hi.

Ellen Adkins: Hi. Today, we have such a very special guest. We have my very good friend, Anna Johnson, with us. Anna, welcome.

Anna Johnson: Hello.

Ellen Adkins: Hello, Anna. As you know, each week, we have been highlighting a different story about what it looks like to glorify God with our work. And so, this week, we're gonna talk about how to handle God in kind of, transitional work or maybe you are making a pivot in your life, or you don't really know, what the future holds and you're just in a season of transition. And, Melissa, when we were planning this podcast, I think I told you from the beginning, we have to have my friend Anna on this podcast because did.

She has experience in this, and I just knew that our, listeners would be, just so, inspired by her story and that she will have a lot of wisdom and insights to share. There

Melissa Taylor: From what you've told me about her, I cannot wait to hear from her today.

Ellen Adkins: Wonderful. Okay. So, before we start, I, would like to ask a question.

Are you ready? A little icebreaker question. Oh, yay. All right. Out of all the jobs you guys have had in your life, what has been the most fun?

What's been your favorite? You want me man.

Melissa Taylor: You want Anna to go first?

Ellen Adkins: Yeah. Amy, you go first.

Anna Johnson: Well, that's, that's I'm just going through so many things in my head right now. Yeah. I know that the highlight really counselor for four years. And so, you can't have much more fun than that probably if you like being a camp counselor. If you don't like being a camp counselor, that'd probably be terrible.

But for me, it was great. I got to play around and be goofy and be out in the sun, and it was perfect. Peak in Love that. Camp counselor. Dress like a pirate.

Like, get paid. Dress like all sorts of stuff. It was fun. Christmas once a week. That sounds amazing.

Yeah. Makes me wanna go back to camp. I know. I know. Right?

Melissa Taylor: Yeah. Mine is similar. I probably didn't have quite as much fun, but it was really fun. I was a second-grade teacher for five years. Are you serious?

Mhmm. Oh my goodness. Oh, man. It's a perfect age. They love their teacher.

Mhmm. And yet they can tie their shoes and feed themselves and go to the bathroom by themselves, all that good stuff. But it was just so fun. I loved it.

Ellen Adkins: I don't think I knew that about you, Melissa.

Melissa Taylor: Yeah. Maybe I did vaguely in the back of my mind, but that is Before I stayed home with my kids, I was a second-grade teacher.

Ellen Adkins: Oh, I love it. All right. Well, this is actually a perfect segue, because, Anna, I alluded to this before, but in all the nears years that I've known you, which has been almost ten years.

Do you realize that? We've been friends for almost ten years. I can't hardly believe it. But you have experienced quite a few twists and turns as it relates to your work. So, I was wondering if you could give us just a brief overview of what you do and kinda how the Lord led you to where you are today.

Anna Johnson, Oh, yeah. Lots and lots of twists and turns, and I, am still in the woods a little bit, but I have learned, I guess, through the how to trust the Lord whenever you are still in the woods a little bit. So, yeah, I've spent the past six months speaking of teaching as a long term fourth grade substitute teacher at a public school, like, ten minutes from my house.

Ellen Adkins: And there are jewels in your crown because of that, Anna. I'm telling you.

Anna Johnson: Oh my gosh. It I have it has been crazy. It has been crazy, but it has been, really sweet. It has been really sweet. So, I'm about to actually enter in the fall into my first year as a full time fifth grade teacher at the same school, and I'll actually have my same kids.

Ellen Adkins: Oh, my gosh. That's great. I didn't realize you were having the same kids. That's so special.

Anna Johnson: I think that it'll be, really neat, and I'm excited.

I got to tell them that, I got to tell them that I was gonna stay with them, and they all cheered when I did. And I was just, like, beaming because these kids are I don't know a good word, but it has been really cool getting to know them and build trust with them and see them grow. And I'm happy to be with them again. But I, never thought in a million years that I would be doing this. In fact, there have been different junctures where I've considered this and then been like, nope.

So, it has been a lot of twists and turns, as Ellen said. I actually went to school for music and music production, back I graduated from college in 2014, and I was working in studios, in, publishing, especially, which is songwriting and working with writers and artists to try to figure out, just the songwriting process and getting the right songs to the right artists. And at that time, I think I did that just because it was fun. I was kind of in a phase in my life where I was like, well, I guess that's interesting, or I guess that's interesting. I'll do that.

And so, I that's how I wound up doing music. But from there, I was simultaneously working for this camp that I referenced. And whenever I was wrapping up college and had these different opportunities in Nashville, I started asking myself, like, what is the end of this? And I started realizing that the end to that sort of life in music and publishing, it could be really fun and cool. And maybe I'll pitch a song to a really big artist, and it'll get cut, and we'll make a bunch of money.

But then I started thinking about the kids that I was working with at camp, and I would think about sitting with a kid in, like, a hot parking lot and talking with them about their family and things going on with them and how they're relating to God in that. And I started realizing that, like, that conversation felt a lot more fulfilling, and I felt a lot more like myself sitting, you know, on the carport with a kid than in a studio trying to hustle and, like, make big decisions and, exciting steps forward for whoever I'm working for. And so, I actually pivoted very quickly from what I got my degree in and went to school for missions, which is where I met Ellen.

Ellen Adkins: Yes. That's true.

Anna Johnson: Our MDivs together. I, at that point, was just sort of focused on, yeah, how can I use literally everything that God has given me, for him and for his kingdom and his glory? And at that time, I think, I was really craving impact. Like, I wanted my life to mean something, and I wanted to figure out how to make that happen. I've always been a very achievement-oriented person, a very driven person, a very confident person.

And so, I wanted to, yeah, go to the hardest place I possibly could and make the biggest impact there that I possibly could. So, I actually ended up after seminary moving to the Bay Area in California with a church plant, and I did all the production and worship and volunteer coordination for them for a little bit. But there's no money doing any of that, especially in the Bay Area for a church plant. And so, I had a career reality check, which led to me having a lot of different jobs. I worked in finance.

I worked in higher ed. I worked in education, trying to make money so that I could do this missions work that I also really cared a lot about. So, I had a lot of different jobs out there. And then there was a pretty big change, which was that I got really burnt out, and I started really struggling with my faith. Mhmm.

I mean, hustling and trying to make money and serve and be really, really, really engaged at church and really engaged with non-Christian friends. And there came a point where I just realized that if I stayed in the spot that I was in, I wasn't gonna be myself anymore, that the changes sort of happening to how I functioned and how I relate it to God. They were not changes for the better. And so that's actually something maybe we can come back to. It was like changes that are connected to, like, felt, failure.

Like, changes that where your hands kinda forced because you realize you can't do it anymore. Yeah. Because that was a big one of those for me. And then I actually moved back in with Ellen at that point.

Ellen Adkins: It is true.

Anna Johnson: We reunited. It was a special year. So, I, I was looking for a place where I could go and be known and be supported as I kinda put pieces back together. And so, I, had a big change with that. And then, moved back to the East Coast, got a job in education.

After about a year of, I feel like being in the spiritual ICU a little bit, I was able to move to the spiritual physical therapy or, I guess, the spiritual therapy. I don't know. But yeah. I was able to kinda get back on the horse a little bit with serving and thinking about, like, missions and, just the stuff that led to me, moving out to California in the first place. And I actually moved from North Carolina to where I live now, which is Louisville, to take the lead of a mission’s program.

I ran a gap year missions program for a little bit. And then, speaking of change because of failure, this was not necessarily, like, my personal failure, but the org actually after COVID had to close. Yeah. We ran out of funds. And so, my admissions program that I moved to Louisville for closed.

And I was left in another season of, unforeseen and unwanted career change, which, was this this past sort of season that brought me to where I am now, which is stepping into, teaching and actually pursuing another master's, to be able to do that. You asked for concise. Y'all can edit as much of this as you want. No, Anna. You're good.

This is so good. A long story. You know? With, as you said, many twists and turns. Yeah.

Since, that's where I am now.

Melissa Taylor: Anna, when you were talking about being in California and how you, you know, you moved out there for mission and purpose and you were working in ministry, but I think a lot of people, they confuse working in ministry with, like, finding your calling or your purpose or working for the Lord even because you can be working for the Lord. You can be working in ministry, but it doesn't necessarily mean that's where you're supposed to be. And, you know, we're the book that we're reading right now in book club is all about, you know, glorifying God in your work. Mhmm.

And when you're not you, if you're not being you, which you said, you know, you’re kind of were losing yourself and you were burnt out and you had to move, you know, you moved back east. How do you how were you connecting with God through all that? You had a lot of different changes, and yet, now here you are in public school and finding that this could be it for you. Like, this might be where you're supposed to be right now.

Anna Johnson: Oh, it's definitely where I'm supposed to be right now, and it might be where I am for a long time.

I kind of hope so, but God knows. But, yeah, I think for me, relating to God in all of that, like, one of the biggest things that he was showing me was, what success really is and what failure really is. Because whenever you have it in your mind that you wanna do something big for God and you wanna have this impact, you have this idea of what that looks like. Yeah. Right?

And sometimes it doesn't turn out that way. Right. And it makes you realize that maybe what you were looking for when it comes to success wasn't what, like, God had in mind at all to begin with. And I had somebody help me whenever I was making that hard decision to move, away from California and away from that church plant. And they told me that success is simple.

It's listening for the Lord and doing what he says. And that it has nothing to do with being able to make things happen the way that you want them to. It doesn't have anything to do with, like, metrics that you're taught in your seminary classes, like, lead to a church plant being successful. It doesn't have to do with being able to convince anybody to believe what you believe. It doesn't have anything to do with, like, goals that other people set for you or even sometimes goals that you set for yourself.

It has to do with, like, relationship with the Lord and submission to him and trusting him. And then whatever outcomes he wants to bring from that, they can be huge. That's up to him. Or they could be small or, like, is it imperceptible or imperceivable? I don't know.

They can be like, you don't know what they are, and you never know when you just accept that. And I don't know. For me, I, I tried to make that decision, which that moving back, it felt like failure, but I knew that it wasn't because I was, doing it with him.

Melissa Taylor: That's right. Yeah.

Anna Johnson: So yeah.

Ellen Adkins: That's really profound.

You thought it was failure, but it wasn't because you were listening to God. What was it? Listen to God and doing what he says.

Yep. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. And I I'm just thinking about your story, and I know that everybody's story is unique, but I know that there are a lot of people listening who might be in kind of this season of trying to figure out what God has called them to or what they're supposed to be doing with their lives.

Could you speak a little bit? Like, how can we trust God when the future seems uncertain and unknown?

Anna Johnson: Well, I know in y'all's book club that y'all have talked with because Ellen talks about it so much. Megan Fate Marshman.

Ellen Adkins: Oh, we love Megan Fate Marshman. Yeah.

Anna Johnson: I know. You do. I, Ellen bought me for my birthday the relaxed book. Uh-huh. And she talked in that book about how you can be at peace, without understanding because you trust the person or the god, I guess, who is in control.

Like, you don't have to be in control to be at peace. Mhmm. And so, I think, like, just knowing, like, God's not trying to trick you. He's not trying to have, like, some hidden trail marker and see if you see it or not. Like, he promises that he leads us in paths of righteousness, and, like, we can trust that.

And we wanna be, you know, paying attention and spending time with him and growing in, like, awareness of his care and his presence and his guiding, but he's not trying to he's not trying to trick you. I think that that's big. And then, also, like, sometimes these seasons, these weird in between, these transitions, like, God's speaking to us about what is more important, which is our identity in him. That's more important than our function, like, how we're functioning or what we're what we're doing or what we're accomplishing. And our identity in him, like, it must precede that, like, when we're thinking about ourselves, identity precedes function.

Like and so spending that weird in between time, just, like, really seeking to enjoy God and asking him to speak to us about our identity and who we are in him and what that means and who he is. Like, just sitting there and being willing to sit there for as long as he has you there and trust that, yeah, he's not trying to trick you. And when it's time for you to know the next step, he'll show it to you. That's probably what I would say is just, like, taking the time for what it is, and that felt kinda scattered. But I would say, yeah, just seeking to it's weird, but, like, rest in it.

Right. Right. That, like, when things are supposed to give and things are supposed to change and you're supposed to have some big realization, like, you you'll know in in trusting that if God has you in some weird time of transition, he's with you there and being with a minute. Right. And so

Melissa Taylor: Right.

Yeah. Well, Anna, you are certainly I mean, going through so much, and you we're learning so much from you right now. I love what you said about success, listening for the Lord and doing what he says. And then sometimes we're in those situations to learn who we are in Him. And that is gonna be more important than anything else that we can be doing even for Him, is learning who we are in Him.

And so, thank you so much Yeah. Thank you, Anna. For being with us today. It's been so great to meet you. I've heard so much about you from Ellen.

Ellen Adkins: I brag on you all the time.

Melissa Taylor: Yes. She does. So, I kinda feel like I already know you, so it's been great to talk to you today. Thank you to everybody who's listening right now.

We're so glad that you're with us. Just a little, info about what's going on in book club. Next week, we are entering the final week where we will be reading C. S. Lewis's biography. I cannot wait.

Ellen Adkins: Oh, I'm so excited.

Melissa Taylor: It's such a good one. C. S. Lewis. I can't wait for that. Our last teaching video drops on Monday. And next week

Ellen Adkins: Who's coming?

Melissa Taylor: My best friend in the whole wide world, Denise Hammond, will be on the podcast with us. So, Ellen, you've had to have some of your friends on over the past few weeks. You get to have your friends on too. I get to have mine, so I'm very excited. And if you're looking for where you can get all this information, you guys, you know what to do.

Just head to Mighty Networks and you can find all of the information that I just shared with you. All right.

Ellen Adkins: See you guys’ next week.

Melissa Taylor: Bye, everybody. Bye.