Between Seasons Week 1: What Pressure Reveals

I’ve been thinking about how quickly we move on. We finish the thing.We release the thing.We learn something.God puts His finger on something. And then almost immediately, we start asking: What’s next? I’m especially aware of that right now because Season 2 of Wake Her Soul is finished. And if I’m being completely transparent, I did very little to promote it while it was coming out. So there is a decent chance that unless you were a regular listener, Season 2 happened rather quietly in your world. Shawna and I recorded it. We released it. We had conversations that I still believe were deeply timely. And then life kept moving. So before I move Wake Her Soul into Season 3, I don’t want to rush past what God already gave us. For the next four weeks, I’m calling this little space Between Seasons. Not a replay. Not exactly a Bible study like the series we did between Seasons 1 and 2. More like a return. Each week, I’m going back to one of the larger conversations from Season 2 and asking: What was God trying to wake us up to here—and what might we still need to sit with? And we’re beginning where Season 2 began. With pressure. Season 2 actually had a progression to it: Pressure. Purity. Priorities. Pursuits. We started by noticing what pressure reveals, moved into what God might be refining, looked at what needs to be reordered, and ended by asking what we’re actually pursuing. So over these four weeks, I want to walk that path again, but from the other side of the season. Not What did we talk about? so much as What has actually changed because we talked about it? When everything feels urgent The first mini arc of Season 2 was really one long conversation across three episodes. We started with the question of why everything feels so intense. Then we moved into what happens when that pressure gets into our emotions—when disagreement becomes offense, when conviction becomes defensiveness, when faith starts getting loud but not necessarily loving. And finally, we went deeper into allegiance. What has our loyalty? What has our emotional attachment? What has enough authority in our lives to determine whether we feel peaceful or threatened? Looking back, I think the movement of that whole arc was something like this: What shakes me.What I protect.What I serve. And there is one thought from that first conversation that has continued to stay with me: Intensity is not the same thing as importance. I need that reminder. Maybe you do too. Because we live in a world where everything seems to arrive carrying the same message: Pay attention to me. React to me. Have an opinion about me. Be afraid of me. Fix me. Defend this. Condemn that. Say something. Do something. Now. And because something feels urgent, we can very quickly assume that urgency itself is an instruction. But it isn’t. There are things God absolutely asks us to care about. There are moments when obedience requires us to speak. There are things happening in the world that should grieve us, move us and call us into action. But not everything that enters our awareness becomes our assignment. And not every intense emotion is discernment. Sometimes it is fear. Sometimes it is offense. Sometimes it is our desire for control. Sometimes it is the uncomfortable realization that we have attached part of our identity to an outcome, a belief, a group or a sense of being right. That’s why pressure can be so revealing. The storm tells us something Jesus gives us that picture at the end of Matthew 7. Two houses. Two foundations. One storm. The storm hit both. The difference was not who managed to avoid bad weather. The difference was what each house had been built upon. I would much rather spend my energy trying to manage the storm. I want the uncertainty resolved. I want the conflict fixed. I want the answer. I want to know how everything turns out. But sometimes God seems far more interested in what the storm is revealing about my foundation than He is in making the storm disappear on my timeline. Pressure has a way of showing us things. It shows us what we reach for when we feel unsafe. It shows us where we have confused information with wisdom. It shows us when concern has quietly become false responsibility. It shows us how quickly we move from conviction into offense. And eventually, it can reveal what actually has our allegiance. That is uncomfortable work. But it is good work. Because exposure in the hands of God is not meant to humiliate us. It is an invitation back into alignment. A little WAKE-up call One of the things that came out of this season, and something I want to keep developing, is the WAKE framework. It gives us a way to do more than listen to a conversation and think, Well, that was interesting. It asks us to let the conversation move somewhere. So, as we revisit the Pressure Arc, I want to walk through it this way. W — WONDER Wonder begins by getting curious before getting defensive. What has pressure been revealing in me? What makes me feel immediately responsible? What makes my body tense? What subjects seem capable of hijacking my peace? What am I afraid might happen if I don’t respond, fix, explain, defend or prepare? What pressure am I currently under that may actually be revealing something God wants to address? And then there is another side of Wonder that matters just as much. Awe. The fear of God. Who is God in the middle of the thing that feels so enormous to me? What have I forgotten about His character because I have been staring so closely at the problem? Sometimes the world does not have to get smaller. God simply needs to become bigger again in our awareness. A — ADMIT Then comes the part where curiosity has to become honesty. Maybe my admission is: God, I’m afraid. I’ve been carrying something You never gave me. I’ve been using information to create the illusion of control. I have allowed urgency to decide what gets my attention. I have become defensive because part of my identity is attached to this. I have called fear wisdom. I have called offense conviction. I have said I trust You while behaving as though everything depends on me. There is no benefit in giving God the polished answer. He already knows. Admit simply gives us the humility to agree with Him. K — KNEEL This may be the part of WAKE I love most. Kneel. Because kneeling puts things back in their proper order. I am not God. I am not responsible for holding all of this together. I can care without carrying everything. I can participate without believing the outcome depends entirely upon me. I can have convictions without allowing them to become my identity. I can care deeply about what happens in this world while remembering that my ultimate allegiance is not to an earthly kingdom. Kneeling says: God, You are God. I am Yours. This matters. But You are greater. So I give back what I have picked up that You never asked me to carry. That is humility. And it is also freedom. E — EMBODY Then comes the question that keeps all of this from becoming another thoughtful thing we heard and forgot. What changes? What does an anchored woman actually do differently? Maybe she doesn’t begin the morning with the news. Maybe she waits before answering the message that made her angry. Maybe she asks one simple question before picking up another burden: Is this actually mine to carry? Maybe she stops confusing adrenaline with discernment. Maybe she becomes a little harder to bait. A little slower to speak. A little quicker to pray. A little less dependent on an outcome in order to remain at peace. Maybe she becomes harder to rush. I really like that idea. Not disengaged. Not indifferent. Not passive. Just anchored. If you missed the Pressure Arc If you were listening during Season 2, I’d love for you to revisit these conversations with fresh ears. And if you completely missed Season 2, this is a really good place to begin. The first mini arc spans Episodes 1–3. We move from pressure and reactivity, into offense and identity, and finally into allegiance and Kingdom authority. I’ll link all three below. As you listen, you don’t have to take notes on everything. Just carry these four questio… This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wakehersoul.substack.com