Leah Chrest is the author of At the Edge of the Jordan and It's Okay to Be Okay. She is a Christian Meditation teacher, blogger, and podcast guest. Both books as well as her blog speak of the transformative power of God's love in the face of loss and the intimate walk with our Creator that is possible, even while here on this Earth. Leah and her husband reside in Maryland and are blessed with four children between them. In her other (equally interesting) life, she is a special education teacher.

Learn more about Leah at her website: www.thecontemplativechristian.com

Welcome to 12-Minute Converse with Jesus Believers.

God chose first to have a conversation with us, His creation.

Our prayer is that this listening space brings growth and transforms your life forever.

Praise God for you Leah.

It's a great pleasure to connect with you.

What part of the world are you in today?

I'm coming to you from Maryland, east coast of the United States.

What does contemplative mean to you?

There are three aspects that some faith teachers talk about that maintains our faith life.

And the first is our knowledge and understanding and praying with scripture, understanding the word of God and relying on that.

That is one leg of the stool.

The second leg is our church, our faith community, so that we have that community of believers that uphold us, that we uphold them.

We live in community and we worship God together.

That's that second leg of the stool.

And the third leg is that personal relationship with Christ, with the Holy Spirit, with God the Father.

And that personal relationship oftentimes over the history of the church has gotten a bad rap.

And I believe that's because during the period of the enlightenment, we went to this place where anything that we couldn't understand on a scientific basis was sort of shoved aside and said, well, if we can't touch it, feel it, examine it, measure it, we don't know if we can trust it.

And so it was sort of shoved aside.

But early on in the church's life, both in the time of the Acts of the Apostles and the time in the middle ages, also was a huge time where it was very prevalent.

There is that idea of that firsthand knowledge and understanding of God.

And that's that contemplative piece.

And the other side of talking about being contemplative is when we're having a conversation like you and I are, there's talking and there's listening.

And if we're only doing one or the other, it's not balanced.

And so often as Christians, we do a lot of talking to God, but then we also need to listen.

And being contemplative is number one, having that firsthand experience of the love and presence of God in your life.

And number two, to spend time listening to the voice of God.

We can praise, we can have our times of gratitude, of petition, but then we also need to just sit and listen to the voice of the Spirit to be guided by that directly.

And so that's what a contemplative to me is, is rebalancing the stool, so that we have that working in unison with the life of the church that you're a part of, as well as the scripture.

When did you realize this?

I guess about 10 to 12 years ago now, my late husband was an alcoholic.

We had two young children and I just was struggling immensely.

We were a part of the faith community.

I was a part of a Bible study.

So I was, I had those two legs firmly in place, but I was struggling emotionally.

And my oldest at the time, who was four or five years old, on my birthday said, I wish mama wouldn't cry so much.

And I realized that my life was, I was struggling and it wasn't just affecting me, it was affecting the children.

I don't know what brought me to this, but I realized I needed to spend time in silence, listening to the voice of God.

And so that's what I started doing.

And it was interesting because within a couple of weeks, I noticed a difference.

I noticed that I was happier, that I was calmer, that I was more at peace.

I wasn't crying as much.

Just within a couple of weeks, there was a difference of 10 to 15 minutes a day of silence.

And then my husband started to notice.

And he would encourage me to take that time of silence when he noticed that I was getting stressed or overwhelmed, even though he personally did not believe in it or wanted to do it.

He saw the value for me.

And then a few years later, the same son who said, I wish mama wouldn't cry so much said, mom, nothing ever bothers you.

What's your secret?

How do you do it?

And so there is clearly a life transformation that happens with sitting in the silence.

And then the last little piece I'd add is that at the time, the idea of Christians taking time to meditate was something that was far less common than it is now.

We've seen a resurgence of the contemplative movement over the last 10 years.

So at the time, there really wasn't much available in the way of digital meditations for Christians.

So I developed the YouTube channel that I have, which it's pretty mediocre YouTube videos, feel free to check it out.

But you know, there are better out there right now.

In the current time at the time, there wasn't much.

So I started creating these guided meditations for Christians, just so I could listen to something, because I wanted something to help guide my practice.

So that's where that journey began for me.

And now it's become a part of my life.

I take time in that silence two to three times a day.

And if I don't take it, I notice the difference.

I'm off course, and I'm focusing on things that aren't of God.

So simply said, it is truly that third leg of the stool that it falls over if it's not there for me.

When did you officially meet Jesus?

I was born into it.

There are multiple, you know, turning points, right?

Like everyone has where you deepen your faith.

Yeah, I can point to just a couple.

One was in college, where it became truly personal for me, where I, quote, unquote, gave my life to Christ.

I grew up Catholic.

So that wasn't something that we said in the Catholic Church.

But when I was in a Protestant group on a college campus, intervarsity, that's officially, quote, unquote, gave my life to Christ in college.

And then about three to four years ago was when I made another commitment where pretty much said, look, I want my desire.

My only desire in my life is to be able to walk through the world and let my ego fall away and just let the Holy Spirit and the love of Christ just pour through me, which is another level of commitment.

And that brought about what I can only describe as miraculous.

And that's brought me to where I am now with being more of a Malay preacher and on podcasts.

And I think more humble than I've ever been when I realized it's not about me.

I don't need I actually don't want my name out there.

I mean, it kind of has to be.

I'd rather just be this anonymous person who's just spreading the love of Christ in any way that I can.

What does family life look like as we fast forward to the present?

My first husband passed away a little over four years ago.

I remarried a year and a half ago.

And so between the two of us, we have four children.

The oldest is 15 and the youngest is nine, three boys and a girl.

My husband's children are with us just a couple of days every couple of weeks.

So it's only a full house, you know, 20, 25 percent of the time.

It's very lively.

And I guess I feel like my primary mission or God given.

I guess mission is the word right now is to be a mother and being a mother to our four children is the greatest joy.

And then aside from that, I'm a special educator, so I spend my days working with all my children, as I say.

But family life is just beautiful.

Having a blended family is something I never would have expected in my life.

It was came as a huge surprise that that was God's plan.

But I clearly have never been happier, which is why we allow God to make the plans and not us.

And our life is me and my husband and I wake up every morning and we pray together for about 15 minutes before we start our day.

And having a marriage rooted in prayer has been life changing as well.

Do you consider your writing a form of meditation?

Absolutely.

I think that's the primary reason I write is a form of prayer.

Also, when we write.

And a lot of my ideas I can write first and then eventually put into digital form by writing, you're cementing it in your own mind by preaching.

Right.

Those who teach are the best learners.

When you teach it, you're learning it two or three times over.

And so that's actually the number one reason why I write is for my own faith growth.

And there's things I write that I don't even publish or put out there, that it's just for me because I needed to put it on paper so that I would learn to integrate that new piece of my faith.

And then, you know, when I put the effort to really fine tune it and really get it into polished form, my prayer is just that, you know, Holy Spirit, let one person be touched by this.

And if one person is touched by it, it's worthwhile.

It is like you said, it's very meditative process.

Imagine five years has passed and I asked you to get back onto the podcast and you don't remember exactly what you spoke about.

So as a reference point, you go listen to the conversation and you hear the evolution of Leah from being married to, of course, crying often to then having a huge stability where your son actually says, you know, there's much that can rock mommy's world.

And then you get to leave yourself a message.

What is a message you'd leave for future you?

Always remember that your life is dedicated to Christ and to follow the ways of Christ.

It's so easy to fall into those traps of wanting, whether it's attention or wanting a good self-image or feeling like you need to check this box or that box.

But Christ was all about when Jesus was on earth, he was all about letting go of himself and letting the power of God flow through him.

Letting himself go wasn't about him.

I just remind myself to go back to that because it's so easy.

We've seen this all the time with believers who find success initially and then they get sidetracked by things that don't matter.

And so that is if I have one fear, that's probably the greatest fear.

It's very small because I trust that God's going to hold me fast, but is that I would get sidetracked.

So come back to the basis, come back to faith, come back to a complete dedication of my life to God and living from that standpoint.

Leah, this has been an honor to have this conversation with you.

In closing, is there anything else you'd like to share with our amazing audience?

Just to remember to surrender, you know, that your life lived in surrender to God, his will, not ours, will lead you to places that you can only, you can never even imagine, honestly.

So just trust God with everything you have.

It's the best way to live.

This has been a pleasure, a treasure.

Thank you for being on What Is Inspired by 12 and a Quarter