Time transcripts of Jazmin [00:00:00.01] [Interviewer]: Hi. So if you could just us your name and just a brief outline of what your story is going to be about today. [00:00:08.73] [Interviewee]: My name is Jazmin and my story's going to be about the passage Luke 12:22-31 [00:00:16.18] and just how it has impacted my life and my outlook on life in general. [00:00:22.28] So... about a year ago I started encountering a lot... [00:00:28.77] of anxiety with school and family, and just my personal life. [00:00:33.72] And I had a lot of questions in general about life. [00:00:38.05] Like, What is my purpose? [00:00:40.04] You know, What is all this going to do? [00:00:42.94] Like, you know, Why should I continue to try in school and with my family? [00:00:47.98] And just all these different questions that I had. [00:00:50.78] And I started actually coming out to a Bible study around, about a year before that, [00:00:55.63] where one of the girls there was actually talking to me about how she struggles with anxiety, [00:01:02.14] and how she found the passage in Luke really helpful. [00:01:07.93] And it was interesting because I had never really thought about the impact, [00:01:13.72] or like thought that anxiety could ever have an impact on my life, [00:01:16.30] but at that moment, I was really stressed about everything. [00:01:19.77] I felt like I had no way out. [00:01:21.62] And I never actually thought that the Bible could have such a deep impact as it was going to have on my life. [00:01:30.28] I mean, I grew up going to church. [00:01:33.05] It was a once-a-week thing I did with my family. [00:01:36.24] I even started looking for a church up here in...Columbus when I came for college. [00:01:43.41] And during my search, what I found was that, church really... [00:01:49.11] Actually, the reason why I was looking for a church wasn't to seek any sort of... [00:01:53.39] spiritual knowledge or any sort of spiritual truth or anything like that. [00:01:57.95] But it was because I did miss my family. [00:02:00.45] It was just really interesting to see that at that point [00:02:05.67] when that passage was really helpful, [00:02:09.24] I didn't have much support from my family. [00:02:11.28] I really didn't have many friends, and school wasn't going very well. [00:02:15.66] And the passage, I really like to sum it up as, [00:02:18.66] God provides for the birds in sky, the flowers in the field. [00:02:22.67] How much more are you worth? Do not worry, God will provide. [00:02:25.94] Seek the kingdom of God above all else and He will give you everything you need. [00:02:29.54] So it was just really interesting to... learn about that passage [00:02:33.02] because I think about these really meaningless things, [00:02:36.64] like flowers, like weeds. I think of like, dandelions, or things like that, [00:02:42.01] that people purposely rip out of the ground because they find no meaning in it. [00:02:45.54] Or birds, like crows, who are scavengers and they're usually seen as pests. [00:02:50.92] And just to learn that God provides for these things that are meaningless. [00:02:56.69] And, you know, if we are created in God's image, then how much more does that mean for us? [00:03:03.48] That He's going to provide for us more [00:03:06.14] than He's going to provide for these meaningless things that He already takes care of. [00:03:09.95] So that was just really interesting, because I always... [00:03:14.72] like, struggled with that idea of, Am I going to have this security, [00:03:17.51] like, How is school going to benefit me in the long run? [00:03:21.36] Like, Do all of these things actually have a purpose? Like, What happens when I die, [00:03:26.03] or like when I'm in my last moments of life, and I just sit there wondering, like, What is all this for, [00:03:31.27] if I don't get to enjoy it any longer? [00:03:34.72] So it was just really interesting because I think... [00:03:38.00] this passage has definitely brought a lot of reflection to my life. [00:03:42.31] Just thinking about how the things that I do, do have purpose and they do have meaning. [00:03:48.23] And God's going to provide for me even when I can't see the outcome of that. [00:03:53.31] So it's just been really cool to see myself, like, [00:03:57.57] to have this more positive outlook on life, [00:03:59.72] knowing that...there are passages like this, [00:04:04.77] where God says that He is going to look after us, [00:04:07.57] even when, you know, when things are good and when things bad. [00:04:12.72] [Interviewer]: Cool. So you mentioned that what you were really looking for in a church when you first, you know, started looking for one was, you know, [00:04:23.07] because you missed your family. [00:04:24.90] So, do you think you could elaborate a little bit more on that? [00:04:28.85] Like...I guess, why did you associate church with family? [00:04:32.91] [Interviewee]: Well, church, and like, religion, and culture are really intermixed, [00:04:39.06] like, are really just intertwined for me. [00:04:41.27] And, it's something that I've done with my family since I can remember. [00:04:46.06] Every Sunday, that was our thing to do. [00:04:48.24] We'd get up in the morning, get dressed, you know, brush our teeth. [00:04:50.98] We were running late all the time so we would, you know, rush to church, and we'd sit there and listen. [00:04:56.34] And then after church, we would hang out as a family [00:05:00.38] and that was normally the day that my parents set aside to run errands, [00:05:04.86] and just go out and grab lunch. [00:05:07.17] So that was really why I associated with, like, church and family together. [00:05:11.08] Because coming to college and being an out-of-state student, I didn't get the opportunity [00:05:15.43] to see my parents every day, like I did when I was in high school. [00:05:19.77] So I really saw that like, if I can go to church, I can at least hold on to this one aspect, like my family. [00:05:28.85] So it was, I think for me...a tangible way of, kind of, remembering my family, [00:05:36.00] and just kind of getting the sense of, everything is somewhat normal. [00:05:42.18] I guess in the sense of, like, this is routine, this is what I'm used to. [00:05:45.03] It was comfortable to me. [00:05:47.41] [Interviewer]: Yeah. Ok. Well, thanks for your time.