Episode 1: The #1 Most Important Thing In Life Is This.

episode
Written By Grace & Alex Tran

What if we told you that the ONE answer to all your questions and struggles in life is right in front of you…

But you're probably overlooking it?

In this week’s pilot episode of the Let’s Unpack That with Alex & Grace Podcast (!!), we explore the #1 MOST important thing in life.

It's something that’s so easy to overlook and undermine. But through it, we find answers to our questions; overcome the most painful struggles; have peace, purpose, clarity, and so much more.

Join us as we unpack the reasons why so many of us miss this - and dive into how it all starts and flows out of this.

We’ll talk about our own personal journeys of discovering how this one thing is the most important above everything else, what it practically looks like, and how you can have it for yourself!

Praying that this helps you live the full and intentional life you were made for!

Transcript

[00:00:00] 
What if we told you that the one answer to ALL of your life's problems is right there in front of you, but you are probably overlooking it?
[00:00:15]
Hey everyone! Wow... we can't believe we're finally starting this. It's been years in the making! Again, my name's Grace, and I'm Alex, and we are so honored that out of everything you could have done right now, you're listening to our very first episode. We're super humbled. We don't even know if anyone will listen to this, and that's okay... we're just gonna have fun! And we hope that you glean from some of it. 
Today, we are talking about the number one most important thing in life. What a way to start our podcast with the meatiest subject... seriously. So picture this. Just imagine if there were a cure for cancer and people were still trying to figure this out, but they're just not making much progress. But the cure is right there!
And oftentimes, we do that to our lives. We try to figure things out... when the answer is right there. We hope that you take away encouragement from the stories and even the challenges that we're gonna share, and hopefully it relates to you and hits you in in different ways.
We're gonna also give you actionable items and do a little reflection exercise at the end. So make sure you stay till the very end, 'cause that will be where the best and the biggest value comes from. 
[00:01:43] 
So we thought we would introduce this topic without revealing it yet... firstly by sharing a quick story from my (Grace's) own life, and Alex was in this journey with me as well. But to give you a kind of picture, so if you don't know who I am or know anything about me, I started really following Jesus seriously in college. Before that, it was like, eh, I don't know... I think I'm Christian, but debatable.
But then in college, I really decided to pursue Jesus. And actually same with Alex, even though we hadn't even met then. So in college, I remember learning more and more, especially in community and in my campus fellowship, about the importance of following God and just doing all these things like praying, reading the Bible, going to small group - and all of it was really helpful.
It was, it gave me a new perspective on how to look at life, look at myself, look at my purpose. I mean, we'll get into that in another episode, cause it's a long story. But fast forward many years - actually 10ish years now - Last year, I was working at a church in full-time ministry. I had been there almost two years at, around this time.
And I remember feeling like, oh my gosh, like things are so great! Like, we had just finished this amazing project, I felt like I was at the "peak" of my career, but it was interesting because something felt a little off inside of me, and I couldn't explain why. Like, to be super honest, I think it was like maybe like beginning of summer, I was just having a hard time when I was praying and when I was reading my Bible. I just couldn't be present.
I felt like all this internal chaos... I don't know if anyone can relate with this, but I just felt like there's something that's not aligned. Something's not working. I'm distracted, I'm not present, and I remember just talking to Alex and being like, I don't know what to do. And do you remember like what you told me or when we were right here on this couch?
You basically told me: just talk to your boss. Like talk to our pastor. And so yeah, I was like, well that seems obvious, but I don't know. I just felt like very insecure about it. But yeah, that's what I ended up doing. And it was the best thing, because I did talk to our pastor, and he was like so supportive and he told me something I'll never forget:
He said, "Grace, I would rather you drop a thousand balls in ministry than be unhealthy in your soul." And that really, really spoke to me, 'cause it wasn't just telling me to make sure I was healthy spiritually, emotionally, mentally, but also like, it's okay to let go of other "responsibilities."
Because this is the most important thing: pursuing your relationship with God and making sure it's healthy, and it's cultivated. So he straight up told me, like, do anything that you need, like whatever you need to do to get into a right and healthy relationship again with God. And I honestly didn't know what to do with that.
I was having like a life crisis, like what do I need? What's going on? And so Alex and I took a really long walk. I remember just like processing this, like thinking out loud. And then Alex gave me really good insights too about what gives me life and what trends he's noticed in my life where I've been the most alive and most myself.
And I don't know if you've ever like experienced that where you're just like off, you feel like you're not yourself. Maybe it's like you're going through like depression or anxiety or, or you're just like not really present. It's kind of out of body a little bit. So the trends that we noticed was, or Alex pointed out, was that I needed to get away, like in a different environment and just not be working and just get away, have intentional time with God.
So that's literally what I did. I actually ended up flying to London. Shoutout to our UK listeners. So it actually worked out perfectly, 'cause Alex had a work conference he had to be away for anyway, staying in San Francisco.
And then I went to visit my friend that I had made in Australia who just moved to London and helped her move in. So anyway, long story short, it was during that time, that period was pretty much the best time in my entire life. I came back refueled, rejuvenated, rejuvenated, and so clear about what God had spoken to me.
And I hadn't felt that way in actually many years. And part of the reason why, and this is what we're getting to in terms of the topic of what is the most important thing in life... The reason why I realized was because I had been going so perpetually on autopilot of like working, doing things even for God, like even in ministry, like doing so many things.
And I had never had the chance to have full permission to be present with God without all the distractions and demands. 'Cause even if you're like taking vacation, you've, you still feel kind of guilty, like your mind is still saying, "Oh, I should get back to work. They're probably worried without me."
Yeah, I just had full permission. So that was the best time I literally ever had. And then ever since that day that experience, literally my life has changed. And Alex can attest. Do you wanna share like what kind of person I am post-London? 
Yeah. Well, Grace was basically part of the executive leadership team at our church, and we go to a pretty big, multi-site church. So there's, as you can imagine, a lot of responsibilities. So, pre-London trip, she was well on the outside it looked really fruitful, like a lot of people coming to our church through her marketing efforts. It was very fruitful in terms of business metrics and external worldly things.
But not even worldly things, like It was literally for the kingdom of God. So I felt very fulfilled, too. It was very rewarding. Yeah. We were literally making disciples of all nations leading people to Jesus. Yeah. But the cost of that I saw was Grace was always talking about work. 
And just to be clear, this is not a bash on the church. We don't wanna like make this into a, like, if you work for a church, it's gonna be like this. This is just our experience. I'll go into it in another episode, but I've learned so much about the things that I personally had to unlearn that I didn't even realize I had to unlearn.
And I realized one thing that was holding me back was this unhealthy way of relating to work, even ministry work. That God literally just like... what is the phrase? Like blew your top off what? That sounds so weird. Sorry. He helped reframe new perspective for me.
Yeah. Have a new perspective on like, how do you approach work in a healthy way? Who, what's my value? Who am I? So again, I, yeah, sorry to interrupt. I just wanted to clarify. This is not against like if you work in church, it's gonna be like this. It's more that I needed that personal revelation from God, and that's how I got it from him.
Yeah. So she took a trip to London and afterwards, in the following months - even now, actually (we're recording this almost end of February, 2023) - and Grace feels and looks more alive. And she's spending more quality time with God. And I can tell that she's more connected with him and can hear his voice more clearly, too.
And I have like daily downloads so much. Yeah. Props to your boss too, too. Yeah. For giving you that freedom to just do what you need to do to take care of your soul. Yeah. So just to clarify... the thing we're gonna dive into today and what made that change for me pre-London versus post-London was realizing, like, truly believing, not just knowing in my head, realizing and reflecting that the number one most important thing in life is to have an intentional, consistent, and prioritized relationship with God. And the reason why, we'll go into those three things we'll unpack later.
But I just wanna emphasize again: we hear about this a lot. But I wanna challenge you right now as you're listening to this episode, think about your own life. Think about your relationship with God. Is it intentional? Is it consistent? Is it prioritized? 
Maybe you know that in your head. But like, how do you really live that out? And we wanna challenge you with that. Yeah. We definitely hear all this a lot, like relationship with God and it's great to spend quiet time with God. Yes. Many of us know that already, but we wanna dive a little beneath the surface. So we have three practices for you and also three principles.
[00:11:40] 
So this is important. So the first practice is: the Bible. So, okay. You're probably like, okay, standard... I hear this all the time. I could have gotten this from going to my Sunday service or Chat-GPT. 
But let's just say: when you're reading the Bible, it's easy to just read it. But the thing that people is their approach to God. So my first thing is when you're reading the Bible, your approach should be, wow, this is the inerrant Word of God. This is God-breathed. This is truth. This is not just a book that you pick up from Amazon. Although you could buy Bibles from Amazon, but you know what I mean? It's powerful. 
So for me personally, I actually wasn't always loving reading the Bible. I sort of found it boring at times, and this is a real podcast. Like, yeah, we're not gonna sugarcoat things and say like, we're perfect, holy and amazing. We have our we have our flaws, too. Yeah, we're human. But one thing that I've started doing recently is memorizing scripture, and I memorized Psalm 23 which is a famous psalm, and the first part goes something like: The Lord is my shepherd, and I lack nothing.
I'm not gonna recite the whole thing. But the reason why I was memorizing that was because I was personally very anxious about finances. And whenever I memorized that, I could draw that from my bank of memory. So there's like power, it's almost like a weapon. So your approach to the word is, It should be reverent.
Yeah. It's the Word of God. And with anything we listen to or watch or we hear, like, the more we hear things, the more it gets ingrained in us subconsciously. So when you're in certain situations, you just like quickly recall those things. So Scripture is one of those weapons.
The more you know the Bible, the more you deepen yourself in not just like reading it, but understanding like, what is God saying to me through this? The more when you go into situations where you're anxious about something, you can recall Psalm 23: the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. Like those things that remind you in those in the times when you need that.
Even five to six years ago, I was super insecure. Not gonna lie, like really, really bad. But one thing that one of my mentors challenged me to do is memorize versus about my identity and personalize them. So I literally had 3 or 4 full pages of identity verses, which I honestly recited even on my walks, like out loud. 
And there's power in that. So the more that you recite it, the more that you memorize it, the more you believe in it. Rather than just reading something off a book. And we can get into another episode too, but this is just a high level overview.
Your thoughts inform your beliefs, which inform your actions. So it literally shapes your whole life. So it's not just something like you read like it's a textbook, but really realizing God is speaking to you... and how do you approach it with humility and earnest seeking, 'cause your approach to something shapes like your interaction with it, your experience of it.
So how you view the Bible also shapes how you receive it. Yes. 

[15:49] 
So the first practice is the Bible. Second is prayer. Again, you're probably like, okay, Alex, this is so basic, but let me remind you that when you're praying, you're praying to the God of the universe. Who is almighty and sovereign. He's everywhere.
He can literally take you out in an instant. He can give and take away. He has like so much authority. So yeah, you're like communing with with an almighty God. Yeah. And I'll say for this practice prayer, I honestly had a very sucky prayer life. Especially before COVID. I was like, reading the Bible, praying like, God, gimme this, God, gimme that. Help me with this. 
Or like before meals: God, thanks for this food nourish for our bodies. Amen. And it's like junk food. Yeah. So I would say like the turning point for me, and this is something I'm still working on, I would say before COVID in 2020, when we had to be in indoors, my prayer life kinda sucked.
But actually it was during Covid that my prayer life shifted. And it's hard to say what exactly, but I can share what I do personally to help me in this. So, I really like taking walks. The one thing you should know about Alex, he takes so many walks a day.
Yes. I love taking walks multiple times a day, morning after lunch, after dinner. On top of in-betweens. It's just hard for me to sit around, but that's besides the point. So I, I learned this practice of walking, but when I would be walking, I would actually be praying and singing worship, too.
So I actually put on my AirPods, and I play my favorite worship songs. Shout out to Maverick City Music for getting us through the last few years. So I would literally just walk around and go walk around our neighborhood and sing worship and pray out loud to God. And I think there's something powerful when you're in movement, and you're also saying things out loud.
If that's not doable for you, or maybe you live in a place that doesn't allow that... we fortunately here have a lot of space, and I'm not really ashamed to sing out loud. You don't want me to sing, but  that's just something I do. 
Can I share my approach for people who, like me, are not daily walkers by by nature? So my approach to prayer is I feel the most present when I'm literally still. So I'm like in our bedroom or here without any distractions without my phone in the room, and I'm just still. I'm just present. I'm just praying. Sometimes I'll just be in the quiet, but I'm also like listening, too.
I think that's a big one. And again, we can cover it in a later episode, but sometimes we're so busy like giving God our laundry list, but we're not being still and listening for: How is he speaking to me right now? What is that? People call the inner voice, but it's really, oftentimes it's the Holy Spirit speaking to you about truth, about things that they God wants to challenge you with.
So, what helps me, too, is kind of like what you're saying, like worshiping him through prayer, remembering that the God you're praying to is not just like some person that you can treat like a genie in the bottle. Like, give me these things. I need these things. Please help me with these things. Like of course he wants to help you, but ultimately prayer is about a relationship, right?
And not just any relationship, a relationship with a God. In his heavenly thrown room with angels surrounding him saying, holy, holy, holy, all day long. And that really just changes my approach to prayer and worship when I'm like, I'm not gonna say any like, you know regular prayer. Like I'm praying to the God of the entire universe in heaven, so how can I just humble myself before him instead of just demanding and expecting things from him?
[20:02]
All right, so we covered the practice of the Bible. We covered the practice of prayer just now, and the last practice is community. This is super important, and I will say as someone who's been out of college for a while, I would say one of the most challenging parts of life, and it sounds kind of sad, but it's to find real friends.
Not just any friends. Like quality friends who give life to you. You give life to them. You just finish each other's sandwiches. Or prayers. Yeah, exactly. And so I think the practice of community is super important.
And we got, Grace and I both, got a glimpse of this in college. It was literally just, hey, you wanna get, like, you wanna go out and and eat something? And you'd get coffee 12:00 PM in the dining hall. Or you wanna just like chat for long hours late at night? I can't do that now 'cause I'm getting old.
But it was like a beautiful glimpse of community. And I think you really have to prioritize relationships and community. And even if you aren't able to find community maybe in your church, find it outside as well. For me personally, I keep in touch with about one of two friends outside of the Bay Area where we live, and we talk on a consistent basis.
And we call each other randomly. And one practical thing that I do is for one of the friends: we actually have a meeting every two weeks. So we just go hang out every two weeks on the calendar. It's on the calendar. Put it on the calendar, or else it doesn't happen.
And I think it's not just any friends or any hangouts, 'cause it's easy even in churches or even Christian spaces to just socialize. But it's like, you have to have a consistent meeting space and time where you know, you can talk about real things. Yeah, like about your faith, about your struggles. Be encouraged in your faith and pray for each other.
It's totally different when I, I think we see this a lot, especially in our generation of people. They hang out a lot and have fun, which is great. It's, it's great to just like socialize, but like, are, are there people in your life who really know what's going on inside? Like in your soul and in your relationship with God?
Like, you need those people who can cheer you on, who can pray for you, who can challenge you. We were just talking with a mentor about this before this, and he said the exact same thing. You need people who can pour into you so that you can also pour out to others, right? So yeah, whether that's within your church or outside of church or both, or, you know, just making sure you find and are seeking and praying for the right community to invest in and to get plugged into consistently is really, really powerful.
And just 'cause it's hard outside of college doesn't mean you shouldn't do it, because it doesn't mean it's impossible, either. It's what God desires for us to do, so. I just remember like one of like five, six years ago, I had this friend, he's awesome. We're friends now still, one of my closest friends, and I would go over to his place, and we would have real conversations.
Like, how's your temptation with lust? Or you know, it's like very deep. You don't really talk about this type of stuff. But you really need friends who just challenge you and call you out to a higher level. Yeah. It's uncomfortable and awkward. Iron sharpens iron. Yeah, exactly.
[00:24:03] All right, let's move on. And, and we're gonna go a little bit faster. Okay. So we just covered a three practices, which is more of the what, and now we're gonna go into the three principles, which is the how. And I would say actually this is even more important because you can do all the what's, but if you don't have the right hows, it's not gonna be like the right approach.
And so the three things we covered in the beginning, which was intentionality, consistency, and priority. So for intentionality, I always like to make this metaphor. Like, you know, those people you see sometimes after not seeing them for a while and you're like, oh my gosh, it's so good to see you.
And then maybe one of you says, we should hang out sometime. Then knowing full well it's probably not gonna happen cause no one's gonna reach out. No one's gonna set a date. Unless you know they actually mean it, which is amazing.
But, I always think about that when it comes to intentionality, because if you don't make it happen, it's not gonna happen on an accident. So this especially applies to relationships. Right? Especially like marriage, for example. Even if we see each other all the time, we could very well just be roommates if we're not intentional about connecting.
Yeah, we could be drifting. We could be on our phones during dinner. We could be like going on weekly date nights, but just completely absent-minded. So it's really up to us to be intentional about like, are we focusing on connecting at a deeper level, at a heart level instead of just being present or doing the action, but our mind and our heart are completely absent.
Another analogy I wanted to throw in is we were actually long-distance dating for a long time before we closed the gap. And so I always think of like, technically if you think about it, we're kind of in a long distance relationship with God right now.
Like, we're not seeing him in his full manifested glory of being face-to-face. yet But someday we will! Someday after this life, we literally are going to be united in person face-to-face. And it's kind of daunting, but it's gonna happen. And so right now we get a glimpse, we get to experience him, but it's just a tiny fraction.
But imagine if like you're long-distance dating someone, and you're like not even trying to get to know them. They wanna talk to you: Hey, can we FaceTime? And you keep saying: Oh, I'm busy and you're just like ignoring them for most of your life. When you finally like see them in person, it turns out like you never even knew the kind of person they are. Like it's a like a total stranger. Wow. 
But when we actually met for the very first time, I remember feeling very excited. I hope you felt the same, but I felt nervous. Yeah. Excited. Yeah, nervous and excited because we had spent months like daily talking on video, on chat, and just like getting to know each other, asking the deep questions and everything we could to know each other - even though we had never met. 
And so that's kind of the approach I think of when it comes to being intentional with God. Like how can you intentionally, as much as you can, know God on this side of eternity - so that when you get to heaven, you're not surprised and caught off-guard like, oh, I guess I never knew who God was, because this is a complete stranger in front of me?
You know? Yeah. That's good. So Grace just covered intentionality. She was very intentional in our long distance relationship. You were, too. I was, too. Which is how we're married now. Without intentionality, you probably would not be listening to this! Yeah. So intentionally is a very important principle.
[00:27:42]
Second is consistency. This one's super important. We all know consistency is important for success in anything in life. But I just wanna share a story. Like, we know this, but how do you actually do it? I just wanna encourage you that even we and pretty much everybody falls inconsistent.
Many times we're consistent with being inconsistent. For me I would say I'm very consistent as a person, as I'm just naturally in my personality, very consistent as a person. So I have very consistent quiet times. I would say I spend time with God to some degree,  almost, I would say like maybe 360 days out of 365 days.
But sometimes during my quiet times, it's a miss. Like I felt like I didn't get anything. I felt like I'm distracted. I need to do work, I need to be on a Zoom meeting for work. There's just a lot of things going on in my head. And it just feels like, wow, I think I just wasted time.
But then there's other times where I feel like God actually powerfully meets me. And those are actually the rarer times. Like last week, I was just worshiping and reading the Bible, and I was just so touched that I started crying. And that doesn't happen all the time, but it's those moments where it just reminds me that, wow, God is so gracious, he's so loving, and he's so real and he meets me right where I am.
And he's actually always there. He's always with us. He dwells inside of us, too. If you have placed your faith in Jesus, his Spirit is inside of you. So it's not even that he's not there. 
I love how John Bevere puts it. There's a difference between his manifest presence and his omnipresence. He's always there omnipresent, but his manifest presence comes when you are totally present when you're inviting his Spirit. When you are paying attention to God, like, how are you with me? What are you speaking to me? And that's what we mean by like, you know, you have to get quiet and still enough and intentional enough to really experience that. I would say for me, I'm a very spontaneous person, so I struggle with consistency, but I've seen the fruit of consistency with my relationship with God and also just in any relationship really, like in a marriage and any healthy habit.
And so it really takes you realizing like, this is worth my consistency to make it happen. If you don't make it happen, it's not gonna happen by accident. So it also, like the more natural and ingrained it is in you over time, the more you do it. So for example, like working out, Alex loves working out. He looks forward to it every day. 
I'm getting there, but I recently restarted, and I will say definitely now working out is a lot less daunting, less scary, versus when I first started. 'Cause when I first started, I was not used to it. I was like, oh my gosh, this is outta my my comfort zone.
I don't know if I could do it. But now I'm like, oh, well I've done it a couple times already. So it's not that bad. And so like the more you do it, the more it gets ingrained, the more your body and your whole being realizes it's actually good for you. And then you actually see the results in your life.
And I think it's the same thing with your relationship with God. The more you're consistently making space and time for him, the more you realize, wow, there's a black and white difference. When you spend time with him, you hear from him and you receive from him versus when you don't.
Last point on consistency is that it's kind of like meeting with a friend. Some meetups and hangouts are great, are cool, are whatever. So same thing with God, right? Yeah. But it's important too to consistently meet with God.
But also know that it's not always gonna be just fireworks. It's not always gonna be like a revival or anything. Yeah, just like marriage, it's not always a feeling, it's a choice. So especially with God, I think people kind of get tripped up. Like, I feel like I'm not getting enough, or it's not exciting. 
It's just like it's a relationship. Any relationship is not gonna be always exciting. You choose to show up, and you choose to love, and you choose to honor that person, not only doing it if you feel it.
[00:32:27]
Yes. The last thing is priority. So kind of going back to what I was sharing earlier about my story from last year, I realized the thing that was holding me back from really experiencing God's clarity, God's voice, God's presence, was because - if you looked at my calendar, yes, sure, I had time blocked off for God, but in my mind I wasn't truly prioritizing it as like: this is THE most important thing.
I think a lot of us subconsciously are like, oh yeah, let me read my Bible, pray, do my time with God. But the real work is me going to work, doing my meetings, doing my project, you know, getting stuff done, and you kind of feel like that's where the real value is.
But it totally flipped for me during that time off when I realized, oh my gosh, like the amount of life that I'm getting when I truly prioritize God, not just in terms of like logistic time, but like my mental value placement of this as the most important time in my entire day - it just totally changed the game.
I think even now, like, to be super transparent, I had to say no to something that I had been wrestling with these past few weeks. I'm like, ooh, that seems so exciting. I would love to do it. Both of us were actually like, oh yeah, like, we could try it out. But I was wrestling with it because I was like, I kind of feel my schedule getting way too full again, and I know I need margin in my schedule to not be rushed and not be thinking like, oh, I gotta like hurry so I can get all this stuff done. And that means my time with God needs to be super efficient. 
You know, like it's just not letting me to be present with him and content in my time. So I actually decided last or early this morning, and then today, I was like, you know, despite how enticing that opportunity that idea is, I'm gonna table it.
I'm gonna just revisit, you know, maybe months down the road, but right now that's not my focus. And right now I know I need space and margin in my schedule and in my mental and emotional capacity to really know that I'm not gonna rush through my times of God or think that, oh, this is, you know, I wanna hurry up.
Anything you wanna add to that? I would say it's also not in your schedule, but it's in your life, right? Yeah. It's not always block off time with God from 8:00 AM to 9:00 AM. One thing I recently started doing more is just talking with God throughout the day personally.
Yeah. Like inquiring of the Lord and even things like praying over emails I send to clients. Just asking God about what should I do today? You know, it's very simple things. It's just inviting God into your journey and your life.
I think of like even a marriage, like I mean, everyone's different in marriage, but for us, we're like texting each other throughout the day. We're, you know, checking in or maybe we're doing something apart, but we're thinking of the other person. Like, if I'm out at lunch, I'm like, oh, maybe I should get something for Alex. So I'm like constantly thinking of him throughout my day. Not every minute, but it's not just, I see him in the morning, I see him at night and that's the only time I'm like thinking about Alex, you know?
So I feel like it's the same way. The more you cultivate your relationship with God, the more you realize, oh wow, God is throughout my entire day, not just in the mornings or my quiet time, but how can I interact and listen and ask him and, and just bring him into every aspect of my life. We'll dive more into that in following episodes.
Yeah. This episode is more focused on the core things, like Bible prayer in the mornings and community. Yeah. So just to recap, since I know, that was kind of a lot: The three practices (or the "what"s) are Bible, prayer, and community. The three principles (or the "how"s) that we just covered are intentionality, consistency, and priority.
[00:36:40]
Yes. And so we wanna end this podcast episode with a reflection and application for your life, 'cause we know it's easy to hear all these things and be like, all right, sounds good. And then move on to the next thing, play your next episode and then kinda let it fly out the window.
But we wanted to make sure, you know, this really goes deep and is ingrained, and you kind of start practicing what this means. So real quick, wherever you are, whatever you're doing, we wanna invite you right now. Take a few seconds as much as possible, put down, if you're doing chores, or if you're rushing...
Take a minute to like, calm yourself. Just ask God to help you be present. Be still to notice that he's with you right now. And we wanna ask you to ask God: "Hey God. How are we doing? What's, what's our relationship like right now?" Be honest, like think about if you were to rate your relationship with God from one to 10, what would that be and why?
And don't try to justify it. Just be really honest and allow God to highlight to you... It's kind of like defining the relationship. Yeah, exactly. How are we doing? Where are we at? Are we strangers? Are we acquaintances, or are we friends, or are we actually intimate?
And so once you have that number, the second thing is: what is the barrier holding you back from growing deeper? So imagine, if you were to go from that number to something higher, so say you just rated your relationship with God a four, what's holding you back from growing just one step? 
I don't want you to think: how do I get to a 10? 'Cause that's very daunting. How do you get from a 4 to a 5, or even a 4 to a 4.5? What is that one barrier that's holding you back? So I'll give you some examples, because I think it's easy sometimes for us to think, it's just 'cause I don't have time. It's just 'cause my family has a lot of needs.
I think a lot of times, it's because we have these limiting beliefs and lies inside of us, like: oh, I need to be doing all this other work, otherwise I'm not valuable to God. Or it's a false belief, like: because God is always there for me and his grace is enough, I don't need to really try. Or whatever it is.
Ask God to highlight that to you right now: What is a barrier holding you back? Ask him to help you highlight that. If you can't think of it right now, throughout the day, just keep that marinating in your head and ask him to highlight it to you. Then the next thing is to ask him for ideas on what you can do to start overcoming it.
So, for example, if you don't have a community, if you're not plugged into a local church, a really good idea would be to start looking for a local church or start looking for people who can encourage you in your faith. Or if you've never read the Bible, or maybe it's been a while, or maybe you're not consistent, start a consistent Bible reading plan.
A good way to start is on the YouVersion Bible app. They have a lot of plans on there. You can even do it with other people, which I love. You can like send the link to people, invite them to do it with you. There's also a Messenger X app, which is also really good. There are a lot of resources. So think of what are those ideas that you can do to take steps to grow in your relationship with God.
And then the last, and I mean it's a related action step, but throughout this entire week, we wanna challenge you to not just think about this today, but to think about it throughout your week. So make a commitment right now. What is that one thing that you know you need to do to grow in your relationship with God, but you've just been putting away or putting aside, or maybe you don't even know what you need to do?
Don't be afraid to reach out to someone in your life, or you can even DM us, and we would love to chat with you. We're happy to pray for you or help you or talk to you, but whatever you need to do, get clear on how do you grow in your relationship, 'cause I guarantee you, and both of us can attest: It's the most important thing! Like if there's anything in life you're trying to do, like solve a broken relationship, you're trying to figure out why you feel so lost in your career, you're trying to overcome your addiction to alcohol or to porn or whatever it is...
There are all these things you can try to do on your own strength, these self-help methods, but the only way to get internal inside out transformation is through God. The only way to have that sustained life. Not just like, oh, I'm gonna come here for a dose of God and then, you know, go out for my, for my regular routine.
The only way is to be consistently connected with him because he is the vine. We are the branches, just like Jesus says. Anything you would add to that? I think that was well-put. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Holy Spirit for speaking. But yeah, we pray that in that really challenges you, that you would really think about that, because it's worth it.
If there's anything worth thinking about, this is the one thing that's worth it. So yeah, as a closing encouragement, we just hope that this pushes you at a deeper level to prioritize and be intentional with, be consistent with, and to prioritize your relationship with God and whatever you need to make that happen.
Go make it happen, 'cause it's not gonna happen on its own. God isn't gonna force you to love him. He's waiting for you to choose into relationship with him. So, yes. Thanks for tuning in to our first episode! More to come every Monday. Yes. Thank you. We love you. See you guys!
If you liked our podcast, we wanna ask you to help more people learn how to grow closer to God and experience the fullness he has for them by taking just 30 seconds right now to rate and review this podcast or like and subscribe on YouTube. It's a small action, but it makes a big difference so we can continue serving you with resources like this! 
We'd love to hear from you about your reflections and questions for us to unpack in the future. We invite you to share this episode, tag us on social media, and follow us for more encouragement and helpful tools for living fully the way God designed you to. We pray that God fills you with his love, his joy, his peace, and his wisdom as you continue growing in your daily walk with him. We're so grateful for you and we can't wait to see you again next week!
Grace & Alex Tran
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