Episode 45 :: Susie Finkbeiner :: Stories of Hope and Heart
07/23/20 • 67 min
1 Listener
Today I’m chatting with the wonderful Susie Finkbeiner. Susie is an incredible Christian Fiction Author, and a woman who just radiates joy, love and hope. I actually got to talk to Susie when we were all in the thick of quarantine, and it feels so timely as many cities go back to that sort of a model, but everyone I know is processing the immediate future. Whether that is school decisions, community decisions, election oriented decisions, there is a lot of tension, a struggle with holding on to hope, and how to be present for one another with feelings and fears running rampant. Friends, this episode is for you. Susie shares really beautiful insight about trusting the Lord, especially when everything feels like it's falling apart. God’s trustworthiness and His goodness is bigger than the certainty of encountering the brokenness of the world, and that is something, as we wrestle with what’s around us, that we can put our hope in. It's the only thing that won’t change.
During our chat you also get to hear more about the heart and the history of her newest book, The Stories That Bind Us. Susie shares how personal and even painful this story was for her to write, but when God asked her to write something very confronting for her, no matter how hard it felt, He met her in the Refiner’s fire. We also discuss the beauty and the mess of what it's like to be in the trenches with someone with a calling from the Lord, as well as when someone who is walking through a deep valley through hard seasons or struggling with mental health. The Lord will provide encouragement, and support. When we are going through the deep valleys of life He delights in us, and draws us closer to the body of Christ, but we also have to be willing to receive it. Even though there is wrestling, the hope we have in Jesus is kept in a place no broken person or thing can ever touch. Sharing our stories, engaging one another’s lives, praying for and bearing with one another, these are some of the life-giving ways the Lord is close to the broken-hearted and rescues those who are crushed in spirit. (Psalm 34:18)
I hope that you’ll pick up a copy of The Stories That Bind Us and check out Susie online and engage her other work too! In a space that can feel like a sea of chaos, she’s such a fun light. Hang in there, friends. Just like Susie says: “our heritage is shared through our stories.” Yours matters, friends. You matter.
Resources:
Detroit theme park being restored, aquarium around from the early 1900’s:: Belle Isle Aquarium (in this article, you can actually see the jade ceiling Susie mentions in our conversation)
Laura Frantz // Laura’s posts // (and our conversation!)
My conversation with Jennifer Greenberg, and the allorgorical conversation about suicide
Sarah Sundin (and our conversation!)
Christian Fiction Readers’ Summit
Beth White (hear her episode, and here’s the book I was reading! That series in my top 5 fave 2020 reads)
Susie’s upcoming book, features the end of the Vietnam War, 3,000 orphans were airlifted from Saigon to the U.S., Aus...
Today I’m chatting with the wonderful Susie Finkbeiner. Susie is an incredible Christian Fiction Author, and a woman who just radiates joy, love and hope. I actually got to talk to Susie when we were all in the thick of quarantine, and it feels so timely as many cities go back to that sort of a model, but everyone I know is processing the immediate future. Whether that is school decisions, community decisions, election oriented decisions, there is a lot of tension, a struggle with holding on to hope, and how to be present for one another with feelings and fears running rampant. Friends, this episode is for you. Susie shares really beautiful insight about trusting the Lord, especially when everything feels like it's falling apart. God’s trustworthiness and His goodness is bigger than the certainty of encountering the brokenness of the world, and that is something, as we wrestle with what’s around us, that we can put our hope in. It's the only thing that won’t change.
During our chat you also get to hear more about the heart and the history of her newest book, The Stories That Bind Us. Susie shares how personal and even painful this story was for her to write, but when God asked her to write something very confronting for her, no matter how hard it felt, He met her in the Refiner’s fire. We also discuss the beauty and the mess of what it's like to be in the trenches with someone with a calling from the Lord, as well as when someone who is walking through a deep valley through hard seasons or struggling with mental health. The Lord will provide encouragement, and support. When we are going through the deep valleys of life He delights in us, and draws us closer to the body of Christ, but we also have to be willing to receive it. Even though there is wrestling, the hope we have in Jesus is kept in a place no broken person or thing can ever touch. Sharing our stories, engaging one another’s lives, praying for and bearing with one another, these are some of the life-giving ways the Lord is close to the broken-hearted and rescues those who are crushed in spirit. (Psalm 34:18)
I hope that you’ll pick up a copy of The Stories That Bind Us and check out Susie online and engage her other work too! In a space that can feel like a sea of chaos, she’s such a fun light. Hang in there, friends. Just like Susie says: “our heritage is shared through our stories.” Yours matters, friends. You matter.
Resources:
Detroit theme park being restored, aquarium around from the early 1900’s:: Belle Isle Aquarium (in this article, you can actually see the jade ceiling Susie mentions in our conversation)
Laura Frantz // Laura’s posts // (and our conversation!)
My conversation with Jennifer Greenberg, and the allorgorical conversation about suicide
Sarah Sundin (and our conversation!)
Christian Fiction Readers’ Summit
Beth White (hear her episode, and here’s the book I was reading! That series in my top 5 fave 2020 reads)
Susie’s upcoming book, features the end of the Vietnam War, 3,000 orphans were airlifted from Saigon to the U.S., Aus...
Previous Episode
Episode 44 :: Bethany Turner :: For the Love of Jesus, Stories and the 90's
1 RecommendationsToday on the podcast I have the fabulous Bethany Turner back for round 2!!! Bethany was one of my very first guests early in the season (episode 7, to be exact) and we got to talk about how she writes books that provide a space for pop culture and hard topics and faith to intersect with a lot of humor and heart. Bethany and I have bonded in a friendship solidified by a love for the Lord, stories and 90’s pop culture. So today, you get a little bit of all those things!
In the first half of this episode, we talk about what it's been like to be creative with how we enjoy movies and books and what not, and how we engage our creativity differently. You’ll also hear us talk about her latest book Hadley Beckett’s Next Dish, and actually we had this conversation on Hadley’s book birthday which was fun to celebrate that with her. Then, thanks to some of her readers’ question submissions, I also got a chance to get to put Bethany in the “Renowned” hot seat (for all those #hadbeck readers out there!) to hear more of Bethany’s story as an author as well as her miraculous survival story of ovarian cancer.
Then, in the second half of the episode, Bethany and I lay out our love for all things 90’s movies and television. I laughed SO HARD during this episode and it was just the kind of levity that I need during such a crazy season of time and we hope you get to enjoy that as well and maybe even pad your movie and tv viewing list as the Pandemic stretches on. There’s a lot of heart, there’s a lot of fun, and it's a good day to hang out with BT and me on Simply Stories. Thanks in advance for hanging out and laughing with us!
For the record, you can find everything we mention in this episode (all the books, all the movie references, all of it) in the show notes as well as how to keep connected with Bethany! This will definitely go down as the longest set of show notes in the history of the podcast, but WORTH. IT. I may have also snuck in some additional content in there, so happy hunting!
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Resources:
-Original episode with Bethany (episode #7!)
-The Secret Life of Sarah Hollenbeck, Wooing Cadie McCaffrey, Hadley Beckett’s Next Dish
-article on straight to streaming because of Trolls, AMC won’t do Paramount movies
-Lori Beth of Elevating Motherhood’s post
-Nashville, TN - Howdy, y’all ;)
-Vanderbilt announcement about funding vaccine research, thanks, Dolly
-Robin Leach - Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous clip to hear his voice
-Susie Finkbeiner -- stay tuned to hear her episode here next week! :) We love ya, Susie!
-”Save the Last Dance” Keri Washington (yes THAT Keri Washington)
-Blockbuster (MAY IT RIP!!!!)
-Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon Game
Our Crazy Pants 90’s Movie and TV List of References:
Next Episode
Episode 46 :: Cindy Sproles :: Mountain Stories, Faith, and Adoption
On today’s episode I am chatting with a woman who wears many hats, Cindy Sproles. Cindy is an author, an editor, a ministry director, and does all of it with a faith as big as the mountain she calls home. As the faith stretching process of 2020 continues, this conversation felt like a drink of water in the wilderness. Cindy shares with us how the Lord has deepened her faith as she has worked in ministry and watched Him provide over and over again, and it was such a rich experience for me to remind me that the same God who has moved miraculously before still does just that.
Cindy’s most recent fiction work is called What Momma Left Behind takes place in the rural Appalachian Mountains which is an area near and dear to both of us, and you guys will get a kick out of how much my East Tennessee accent comes out in this episode. We talk a lot about the history and the heart of mountain people as well as the heart of her book’s story, which is actually adoption. Cindy’s powerful story shares what it was like for disease to run rampant on the mountain, which is wild because she had no idea this book was going to come out during a global pandemic, and then what happened to the children that were left behind before there were options like formal adoptions and orphanages. And while we have more systems in place now, there are so many children that are still longing to be loved and wait to be adopted.
Cindy is such a firecracker. She reminds me so much of the people I grew up around, and I just love it. Listen, friend, if you have a heart that has maybe been stirred by the concept of adoption or fostering, I’m putting some links in the show notes just for you! OR if you are interested in how you can partner with some of the other organizations mentioned in this episode like ASP, or even how to connect with Cindy as a writer, and faith encourager, I’ve put all that connection information in the show notes.
Resources:
Blue Ridge Christian Writers’ Conference
Asheville Christian Writers’ Conference
The Autobiography of George Mueller
Her book What Momma Left Behind
Snapping and canning green beans
Fonde, KY -- This happens to be a project my sister worked on that shares the history of Fonde
Appalachian Service Project - ASP
More information about telephones in the Smokeys
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