[00:00:00] Jim Jansen: Hey everybody. Welcome to the Equip Cast. So today I sit down with Sharon Doran and we have a marvelous conversation. We talk about 25 years of teaching the word of God through her seeking truth ministry, and we go deep. We talk about how do you protect study time, and really. Get into the word of God and make sure that you're really getting that time.

We talk about resisting pride and prioritizing the family and the way the word of God can heal marriages and families. We talk about what God has been doing in the church over the last 25 years, the role of women in teaching Scripture and the unique feminine genius, uh, it's really a fun conversation.

You're gonna love it. Take a listen. Hey everybody. Welcome to The Equipped Cast, a weekly podcast for the Archdiocese of Omaha. I'm your host, Jim Jansen. Now let's dive into some encouragement and inspiration to equip you to live your faith and to be fruitful in your mission. Let's go.

Sharon Doren, welcome to the podcast. How you doing? 

[00:01:10] Sharon Doran: Thank you. Thanks for having me, Jim. I really appreciate it. I'm doing great. 

[00:01:14] Jim Jansen: Okay, so this is fun. I think I, I was just actually realizing this. We have known each other probably for about eight years. Do you remember where we met? We were not in Nebraska. 

[00:01:26] Sharon Doran: We were in Orlando.

[00:01:27] Jim Jansen: Yes. Whoa. You totally remember. 

[00:01:28] Sharon Doran: Yeah. Yeah. We were at a synod or something, right? 

[00:01:30] Jim Jansen: Yes. Yes. We were the synod for the new evangelization in the United States. My first day on the job. Oh my. I was like supposed to come to this. Gosh. So I woke up July 1st, 2017 in Orlando. Know, brand new working for the archdiocese.

I'm like, I think I can do this. Fresh orange juice, sunshine. Right? Lets talk about Jesus. Right. That wasn't in January in Omaha. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. No, it was, it was a lot of, yeah, it was a lot of, lot of fun. Sharon, I'm gonna give you a chance to talk about your work, uh, with Seeking Truth, but just, just to get started.

Tell people who you are. 

[00:02:06] Sharon Doran: Well, I am. I am Sherry Lewandowski, that's my maiden name, Lewandowski, and I'm from Grand Island, Nebraska. I went to Grand Island Central Catholic, and I came from a family of seven kids. Mike and Maryanne were my parents and. Yeah, that, that's good. Good, good memories. I feel like I had a very wonderful childhood and upbringing.

[00:02:31] Jim Jansen: Were you in town or, or were you in the country? 

[00:02:32] Sharon Doran: In town. Okay. In town. And, um, I was number three, five, uh, girls and two boys. And yeah, my, my parents just loved the Lord. Oh. My dad was Polish and. When Pope John Paul was elected, my dad, just, I'm sure, yeah, bawled like a baby, and called us all into the kitchen and we knelt down on the linoleum floor and prayed a rosary for our new Polish Pope.

My dad had tears streaming down his face. So yeah, I got a really. Great start with a very faithful father, uh, who loved his kids and his wife, and who would sit in his rocker chair every morning with his great big Jerusalem Bible and read God's word and he would devour God's word. And he had, uh, highlighters and he had pencils and pens by his chair, and he was underlining and making notes in the margins.

[00:03:29] Jim Jansen: And you saw that growing up. 

[00:03:31] Sharon Doran: And I saw this as a little girl and I'd walk. By, we lived in a three bedroom house, and I'd walk by his bedroom and he'd be down on his knees on the hardwood floor first thing in the morning. His knees would hit the floor. Last thing at night, his knees would hit the floor.

Was he an educated man? He was a telephone repairman. Okay. He just went to high school and then he went right to the army with his identical twin brother. They were both linemen in the army. Poleman, you know? Yeah. Repairmen and with insulators back then. And then they both from the army became telephone men, poleman.

Yeah. For Mabel. And, uh, they,

[00:04:04] Jim Jansen: I mean, that makes the, the study of scripture, I think all the more. Outstanding. I know it was, I mean, it wasn't like he was a college professor. 

[00:04:13] Sharon Doran: No, there wasn't Google. There wasn't Yeah, computer. There weren't cell phones. And I mean, he would just sit with his Bible and he was making these connections on his own and he was connecting the Old Testament and the New Testament, and it was by the power of the Holy Spirit.

And so when he died, the only thing US kids wanted was his Bible. A Bible. Yeah. All seven of us wanted, can I have dad's Bible? 

[00:04:35] Jim Jansen: Did you cut it up? What happened? 

[00:04:36] Sharon Doran: You know what we did? Yeah. We, we, my mom said, no, none of you can have it. Like we got, you know, one brother got the fishing poles and one brother got the toolbox and you know, but we wanted that Bible.

So what we did is we pass it around and you get to keep it for one year. Oh. And then you pass it to the next sibling.

[00:04:52] Jim Jansen: My goodness. That's so beautiful.

[00:04:54] Sharon Doran: I had my year with dad's bible, and it was a wonderful year just to look at his handwriting to see. See the connections he had made, uh, just to feel him and his presence in God's word that was so important to him made a huge impression on me and all of us.

[00:05:09] Jim Jansen: Sure. That's, that's amazing. Do you know, I know we're supposed to be talking about you, but what sparked that in your dad? 

[00:05:16] Sharon Doran: You know, he had a mind for it. Mm-hmm. And he had a heart for it, and he was full of the Holy Spirit because we grew up in a charismatic Catholic. Community. Mm-hmm. In Grand Island called Servants of the Father's Love.

And my dad wasn't in leadership or anything. He was very humble, layman, telephone man. He walked his kids to school, to the Catholic school every day. We walked with our dad. He came home for lunch every day. We had breakfast together every day. We had lunch together every day. Even during school, we'd walk home for lunch with dad, and then we had dinner together every day.

Wow. Monday nights dad would go to Legion and Mary Tuesday nights we'd all go to the prayer meeting and I mean, wow. I mean it was pretty, uh, we, we didn't know on our front door was the verse from Joshua. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Yeah. And we really did. And that's why holy cow, a lot of fruit has come.

From my family, from my mom and dad. Yeah. And my mom. How my mom contributed to that was joy, joy, joy, joy. And to me, joy is a magnet. Mm-hmm. It's a fruit of the Holy Spirit and it's very attractive. Yes. When you find someone that has true joy, and that means when things are going bad, when things are going good.

[00:06:33] Jim Jansen: Mm-hmm. 

[00:06:34] Sharon Doran: It, it's an inner deep joy and, uh, my mom had it and so. There was just a joy in our house. When I started dating Steve, you know, first thing came to the door and saw that sign as for me in my house. You know, we knocked on the door, but there was so much joy in our house. Everyone was welcome around the table.

My mom could always set one more chair, and our house was teaming with joy. 

[00:07:00] Jim Jansen: Wow, that. Thank you for sharing. That is so beautiful. And I know a, a little bit, I mean, again, I don't know your extended family. I do know a little bit of your sister's work. Mm-hmm. My wife is part of the, the well-read moms. Oh, that's great.

Uh, group, but increasing number of groups, I think Forming here. Yeah. In, in Omaha. So 

[00:07:16] Sharon Doran: yeah, she has over 10,000 women reading with her. 

[00:07:19] Jim Jansen: Yeah. It's amazing. If you haven't, it's not, not really like check out, go to, go to the, the Well-read mom. Well-read Moms. Beautiful. Just, you know, series of like, kind of like a, a now a National Book Club themes every year.

Really, really good. Mm-hmm. Stuff. Mm-hmm. Oh my goodness. Proud of her. So, Sharon, talk a little bit about like, how you got started. 'cause you, you, uh, started the Seeking Truth Bible study, which doesn't almost feel like it, it does justice to the scope of what Seeking Truth does. Tell us a little bit about like, how did you get started into the scriptures?

Obviously. I mean, your dad's influence was huge. When did you get started beginning to teach the scriptures? 

[00:08:07] Sharon Doran: Well, when I was in seventh grade, I made a life in the Spirit seminar and, uh, a bunch of girlfriends. In seventh grade, we made up a bible study group called Tabs. Teenage Bible study. Wow. And we were called tabs and I played guitar and a couple other girls played guitar.

And we'd do our own little praise and worship time and then we'd study the Bible together. And So seventh grade. Yeah. You know, so it was, uh, seeing Dad read his Bible and just. Word of God, myself. There was something so living and so powerful in the word of God. It just spoke to my heart and I couldn't be without it.

I remember taking my Bible to college and I played volleyball and basketball, and I, I just remember taking my Bible and just going and sit in my, a lake by myself or just I, I, I, I, I need a time in God's word. Every day I just to regenerate my spirit. I notice when I, if I take a break from the word of God, like that doesn't go well.

Hmm. So I just, I just hunger for it. I just, it's so life-giving to me. I just, I, I really am insatiable about the word of God. And so, um, I started when I got married. Right after undergrad, Steve and I got married and he was in a long residency. He's a neurosurgeon and so I was along a lot.

[00:09:30] Jim Jansen: They make them study. Don't they?

[00:09:30] Sharon Doran: A lot. Yeah. And I, uh, this neighbor girl at family housing at University of Michigan, we lived, we had no money. We lived in this. Oh. She said, you gotta come with me to a bible study. And I tried to get in and it was full and I couldn't get in the first year. And I'm like, oh, wow. I, I had never done a bible study and this was ecumenical.

So all faiths were welcome. We were in Ann Arbor, Michigan and mm-hmm I got in the next year and uh, one woman in my study group was Ann Martin, and I didn't know who Ann Martin was, but it was Ralph Martin's wife. Yes. 

[00:10:02] Jim Jansen: Yeah. 

[00:10:02] Sharon Doran: And I'm like, and she said she was Catholic and almost no one there was Catholic.

And she said she was Catholic and her answers were so wise and I was like, wow, this Catholic woman really knows the word of God. That's really cool. You know, I just. Started going every week and I, they had a children's program for my kids and it was my favorite time of the week. 

[00:10:23] Jim Jansen: That's awesome. 

[00:10:24] Sharon Doran: I had no family around I, anyway, I just got to be friends with the Catholic women that were in there and I really started to learn the word of God and I did that for eight years.

And um, then we were moving to Omaha, Nebraska and I searched, do they have this Bible study there? And they did not. Mm-hmm. And it was almost a deal breaker for me not to move here, but. We started praying. I started praying and I contacted regionals and they said, well, if you get another woman to pray. And then another woman moved here and she had done it before.

And then there were two of us, then there were four, then there were eight. Then they said, you know, there's 15. You have enough to, okay, yeah. Start a group, you know, and they sent us to training and I was gonna be a helper bee, and it was a Protestant woman who was gonna lead it. And we had 75 women signed up, and the regional director came.

Wow. It was January. And we were ready to start and the head Protestant lady said it came to her in prayer that she's not to do it and she's stepping down. And we were like, what? Whoa. And the regional director said, everybody go home and pray and we'll meet back again in a few hours. And I went out to my suburban, I turned on the radio.

It was Catholic radio and it was Sister Ann Shields. Hmm. It was a feast of. Elizabeth Ann Seton and she said, is God inviting you to something right now? Something you're not equipped for? 

[00:11:48] Jim Jansen: She always had a way. Yeah. For those that like younger folks who didn't listen, sister Ann Shields could like pierce through.

She'd like all of a sudden she's sitting next to you in the car 

[00:11:56] Sharon Doran: Yes.

[00:11:56] Jim Jansen: Challenging you.

[00:11:57] Sharon Doran: And she was my neighbor in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Oh my goodness. That's dear. Friend of mine. And so when it was her trusted voice right then on the radio? Yeah, and it was, Jesus was feeding the 5,000 is what she was talking about, and she said, there are people now who need to be fed.

The word of God is God calling you. I pulled over the car and I started to weep because I thought maybe I'm the one who's supposed to step in. 

[00:12:20] Jim Jansen: And that wasn't in your head until that that time. No. No. Which is fascinating because it's not like scripture study. Was a new thing for you at that point. 

[00:12:29] Sharon Doran: I know, but I, it was a desire of my heart.

Yes. Deep desire of my heart, because when I saw this teaching director in Ann Arbor, it was a Protestant woman too. Mm-hmm. I thought, oh, I wish I could be like her one day.

[00:12:40] Jim Jansen: Mm-hmm.

[00:12:41] Sharon Doran: I wish I could open the word of God like that for women so they could understand deeper, and it was a deep desire, but I, Catholics weren't doing this, you know?

[00:12:49] Jim Jansen: Right. Yeah. What year are we talking about now? 

[00:12:52] Sharon Doran: Oh gosh, 26 years ago. 

[00:12:54] Jim Jansen: Yeah. 

[00:12:54] Sharon Doran: So, oh, while ago, 1999. I, I'm not good at math, but Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:12:58] Jim Jansen: But no, it's been, yeah, it's been 1999. 

[00:13:00] Sharon Doran: 1999. Yeah. I mean, we, we didn't have, there were no Catholic Bible studies that I was aware of. 

[00:13:05] Jim Jansen: Yeah. I mean, I could, you know, relate to this.

1999 is when I first started as a focus missionary. And, you know, part of the, part of the deal is your fundraising, your salary. And so I'd sit down with all these wonderful faithful Catholics and they're like. Bible study. Does, does the bishop know? I'm like, well, I mean, I think so. He, he, I think he's excited about it.

Yeah. But it was just, there was, it was so counter-cultural. People didn't initially know what to make of it. 

[00:13:29] Sharon Doran: Yeah. Well, I, I, uh, when we got back together with the regional director, she said, what has come to you ladies in prayer? And the first lady said, oh, we think it's, it should be Sharon. And the next one said, yeah, we think it should be.

[00:13:42] Jim Jansen: Sharon, before you had a chance to say, after I had 

[00:13:44] Sharon Doran: heard Ann Shils and I Yeah. Before I had had a chance. 

[00:13:47] Jim Jansen: So you didn't tell, everybody's like weaving a chair and you're like, oh, I need too, and 

[00:13:50] Sharon Doran: then I, and what I said is, I'll fall flat on my face. If that's what God is asking, I don't know how to teach Bible.

And it was starting in a week and I said, if this is what the Lord wants, you know, I'll fall flat on my face. I'll give it a try if you guys, you know, come along with me. And so we had 75 women signed up and you know, the next year we had over 200 signed up the next year, two 50 oh cow. And I did that for eight years until one day in my kitchen.

The caller Id said Archdiocese of Omaha. And I thought, what is this? This is great. I have never been called by the Archdiocese of Omaha. They must need something, or a fundraiser or lemon bars for a funeral. What I answered, father Matthew Gutowski, uh, we're getting a new bishop. We, uh, might be going a new direction.

We're wondering if we heard you're doing a Bible study over there. We wondered, uh, we, we heard over half the ca classes Catholic. We wondered if you might do it over here. 

[00:14:52] Jim Jansen: Yeah. 

[00:14:52] Sharon Doran: And I said, oh, I don't know. You know, I was loving it over there. Yeah. And they added. Leadership team and they'd send us to training and to retreats and it was a amazing that support structures and all of that.

A children's program, full running children's program with children's directors and training, blah, blah, blah. So I came in and he said, you know, what would it take for, for you to do this? And I said. Nothing, you know, I mean, he said, what would we have to pay you? And I said 

[00:15:19] Jim Jansen: Nothing. That was the first God has to tell me to do it.

[00:15:21] Sharon Doran: Yeah, yeah. Little did I know my mother was praying. Mm, she was praying a lot of rosaries that I would do something Catholic. And uh, this door opened up and I talked it over with my husband. And, um, same time father said, why don't we, he got out his calendar and he said, you know. I said, I need to pray about this father, 'cause I really enjoy what I'm doing.

And he said, let's do a novena, a nine day novena, because nine days from now, it's the feast of the exaltation of the Holy Cross. Now that is to me, still to this day, one of the most powerful feast days on the calendar. Mm-hmm. And I said, okay. So we start doing our novena to the Holy Cross, and on day four, the novena, I get a call from the dermatologist saying, I have a malignant melanoma in my head.

[00:16:09] Jim Jansen: Oh. 

[00:16:10] Sharon Doran: The the test they had done on this little mole on my scalp is a malignant melanoma and I will need surgery. This was after a radical limb salvage when I was 36. This is too long of a story for this podcast, but I called father right back and I said, father, guess what? I can't do the Catholic Bible study because I have cancer for a second time and I'm gonna have to get this.

[00:16:32] Jim Jansen: Yeah. Which seems like a good excuse.

[00:16:35] Sharon Doran: I, I thought I was off the hook for sure.

[00:16:37] Jim Jansen: Yeah.

[00:16:37] Sharon Doran: I'm like, that's the answer. And Father Gutowski said, you know, if you don't need chemotherapy or radiation, that will be our answer to go forward. He goes, you go ahead and get the surgery done. 

[00:16:49] Jim Jansen: Oh, I love that. I'm so glad Father Gutowski getting some shout outs here, this is great.

[00:16:53] Sharon Doran: Yeah, and they took, love it out. A golf ball size. Tumor from my head turned to flap, his skin covered it. You know. Wow. I can show you my, my hair transplant here, Jim. Isn't that beautiful?

[00:17:02] Jim Jansen: I am somewhat jealous.

[00:17:03] Sharon Doran: They said, you will not need, you will not need chemotherapy or radiation. And so Father's like. 

[00:17:09] Jim Jansen: Wow. 

[00:17:10] Sharon Doran: Forward we go with the Catholic Bible study.

What shall we call it? So Steve and I. Prayed about that, and in the meantime, Steve is having a reversion. Mm-hmm. Back to the Catholic church. I don't know if you know that part of the story. No, I didn't. No, not he didn't leave the church, but he just.

[00:17:27] Jim Jansen: Right. But just a new awakening, passion and. 

[00:17:29] Sharon Doran: Well, we went, I was a student at Augustine Institute and tim Gray said, do you wanna go on a trip? There'll just be six of us. It would be me and Marcy, my well-run mom, sister, nice. And Tim and Chris, his wife. Wow. The six of us. And we were like, oh, twist our arm. But then I said, oh no, I can't go on the trip. I got this thing in my head and I had the surgery and he and, and I didn't need chemo radiation, so we said, okay, let's do the trip.

Let's go. So we went, we're on the Sea of Galilee. Tim Gray opens up. Matthew 14, he reads, Peter, stepping out. My husband Steve. Starts crying. He falls to his knees. He says, I wanna get out of the boat. We're like, what is going on? It was the Holy Spirit, and we all just laid hands on him. He cried and he said, I, I, I want, I wanna get outta the boat.

I want more. I wanna go deeper with the Lord. I'm, I'm at surface level only, and he had this most beautiful. Conversion moment. Yeah. Yeah. And when we got home, we have five sons and they said, what happened to dad? 

[00:18:32] Jim Jansen: To dad? Holy cow. That's great. 

[00:18:34] Sharon Doran: He's a different, he's a new man. And so, so now Steve's fully on board.

You know, I'm fully on board. I said, you wanna do that? Bible's? Study with me study. And he said, I do, or I think he came to me, he said, you know that Bible study you're doing with Father Gutowski? He said, could I do that with you? Wow. And so from day one, we have been co-founders and done it together. And boy has it ever blessed the socks off our marriage.

[00:18:57] Jim Jansen: Mm-hmm. 

[00:18:57] Sharon Doran: And I'm telling you, people out there, friends. We have had so many people, we've had 500, between four and 500 people live every year for the last 18 years. Mm-hmm. And we have had so many married couples tell us one guy. Came up to the hospital when my husband was having a serious surgery. He came up and said, I have to tell you, seeking truth saved our marriage.

Mm-hmm. I just want you to know this seeking truth saved our marriage. And that's not the only story of how marriages, when couples are studying God's word together and and talking about deeper realities of life. 

[00:19:36] Jim Jansen: Yeah. The word of God knits your hearts together. It does and, and it heals and it reaches into like, I didn't even know I was heard about that.

I didn't even know that was a problem. And here, uh, the, the Lord is healing it and redeeming it and bringing us together. Yes, yes. That's so good. And I think that's just, you know, a lot of folks listening to the clip cast, they're really eager to go on mission and do their thing and they wanna, they wanna go with their spouse and maybe take some time to, to get into the word of God together first.

Right. Be because the pain for, for those who feel where their, it feel, they feel like their spouse is lagging behind. Mm-hmm. You're like, this is, this is how you do it. Go. Right. Immerse yourself in the word together. 

[00:20:19] Sharon Doran: Yes. Honestly, I mean, yeah. The word of God is the basis of every ministry. It's the basis of the church.

Mm-hmm. I mean, the church exists to evangelize, but only everything is steeped in the word of God. Every sacrament is steeped in the word of God. Every you know it. It's just. It's living in active, it's truth. It's our plumb line. Now we are in a famine. Amos predicted this. Amos a know you'll be in a famine for the word of God.

And I feel because of biblical illiteracy. Mm-hmm. It's changing for Catholics, because Catholics have gotten the last 20 years, Catholics have really been studying the word of God. 

[00:20:56] Jim Jansen: It's a huge. It's hard for me to wrap my mind, mind around sometimes I forget how much Bible in a year the Augustine Institute.

So much. I mean, thank you. Ignatius Press seeking truth, like there's all of these there. Like the word of God is being broken, open and poured out into people's laps and it's having its effect. It's really beautiful. 

[00:21:19] Sharon Doran: It is. when you said 20 years ago when you were a FOCUS missionary and they said, does the bishop know you're gonna be reading the Bible and stuff like this?

I, not anymore. Catholics are in Omaha anyway.

[00:21:30] Jim Jansen: Mm-hmm.

[00:21:31] Sharon Doran: Yeah. I mean, I have had guest speakers come and say, what is with these people in Omaha? They know their stuff. Omaha is well.

[00:21:38] Jim Jansen: Yes.

[00:21:39] Sharon Doran: catechised in the word of God and it's making, and it's going out like how the Holy Spirit blows things, you know? Mm-hmm. How he, the rha, how he breathes it out.

It's so organic, but I would not say Omaha is illiterate anymore in God's word. 

[00:21:53] Jim Jansen: No. There, there really is something, yeah. Very special that I, I don't know. I mean, the, you know, the Lord. I just, right, right here at the Heartland. I was just traveling, we were talking before we turned on the mics. I was doing a pilgrimage in, in Italy.

Uh, got to go around with my daughter, lot of young people there, and I would talk about, it was like, okay, yeah. New York's over here. Florida's over here. California's over here. Nebraska's right in the heart. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Right. And I, I think the Lord use sacred that, that what seems like no man's land, geography to radiate out.

Several aspects, I think, of the renewal. Mm-hmm. Of what he's doing in the church. Mm-hmm. Amen. Sharon, I wanna go back to something you said earlier. This is again, in retrospect, seeing all that the Lord has done through you, through seeking truth and then knowing just a little bit of your story of how much you were already immersed in the word of God, sharing it even as a seventh grade girl.

That when you got a call from Father Gutowski, your first thought was, maybe he wants me to make lemon bars. Mm-hmm. Right. May maybe there's like, talk a little bit about. Like how the Lord encouraged you and, and helped, helped you to realize your call, to teach the word of God as a woman.

[00:23:08] Sharon Doran: I feel so honored and so privileged, and I wanna encourage women out there because sometimes women feel, where's my place in the church?

Mm-hmm. Is I can do more than lemon bars, you know? You know what? We can do more than lemon bars and the Pontiffs, the last few pontiffs have known that. Mm-hmm. And out of the 16 beautiful Vatican, two documents, one of them is called ver Boom. Do. And it is, uh, well this is an apostolic exhortation actually.

[00:23:40] Jim Jansen: Mm-hmm.

[00:23:40] Sharon Doran: By Benedict the 16th. 

[00:23:42] Jim Jansen: Mm-hmm. 

[00:23:43] Sharon Doran: And, uh, he talks about the word of God in that, and he talks about highlighting recommendations of the syn concerning the role of women in relation to the word of God. And he says today, more than in the past, the feminine genius to use the words of John Pauli has contributed greatly to the understanding of scripture and to the whole life of the church.

And this is now also the case with biblical studies. When I read that. My heart leapt because I thought, can a woman be a teacher? I mean, right. Yeah. I totally understand the theology of only women priests, and I'm a hundred percent supportive of that. I'm not a radical feminist in any way, but I do know that women see.

When women open up scripture, it's different than the way men open up scripture and to hear our pontiffs say, this is needed. This is needed. That women have a place in teaching the word of God. 

[00:24:41] Jim Jansen: And more than a place, something special. A feminine genius. 

[00:24:44] Sharon Doran: Yeah. And the sin paid special attention to the indispensable role played by women in the family, in education, in catis and in communication of values.

Before he died, Pope Francis, the last three years before he died, he repeatedly told us that church is woman. Church is woman. It, it means that she's receptive and he said more than just in liturgical roles, more than just having girl alt alter boys or you know, girl altar servers or it's not that. 

[00:25:18] Jim Jansen: Yeah, yeah.

There, there's a. 

[00:25:19] Sharon Doran: It's the church's woman. 

[00:25:20] Jim Jansen: Right? 

[00:25:21] Sharon Doran: And so we, we, we have to let women have a place. I'll read a passage and Steve will read a passage and we will get totally different insights because I'm feminine and he's masculine. Yeah. And God is both in the image of male and female. Both. He created them.

[00:25:39] Jim Jansen: That's so good. I had such a, such a, I mean, it's a funny experience. This, you know, for years my teaching of scripture was almost exclusively to college aged men. Mm-hmm. And so you'll appreciate this. One of the first times. Now I'm, you know, I'm teaching in my parish, uh, back in Lincoln doing, you know, salvation history.

One of my, one of my first loves. We're talking about the story of Abraham sending out Hagar and Ishmael. Oh. And there's just things that I focus on in the story. And this is the first time I was doing this for this. Kim and I did this mommy's vacation Bible school. Right. So while the kids were at Totus Tous in vacation Bible school, we offered a Bible study for the moms.

And so I'm teaching this awesome, and we're talking about how Hagar is sent out and she's got Ishmael with him and all the moms are like. Why does she have him on her back? That kid's 14 years old. What's, and I'm, and I'm like, you know what? Mm-hmm. None of the college guys ever noticed that. I don't know.

Mm-hmm. It was just so funny. Uh, just a dramatic illustration that there is something about our gender. Who we are as men and women, that helps us see things mm-hmm. That, that we miss. Just, you know, I know being a man and hanging out with Right. You know, uh, 19 and 20-year-old college guys. 

[00:26:51] Sharon Doran: You kind of skip over the hemorrhaging woman for 12 years, bleeding out, you know, like

[00:26:55] Jim Jansen: Yeah.

[00:26:55] Sharon Doran: Like, but to a woman who's older and going through menopause, yeah. She's all over that, you know? 

[00:26:59] Jim Jansen: Yeah. 

[00:27:00] Sharon Doran: So we need both. And when this Vatican two document said that. That was a great encouragement. I respect Benedict so much as a Bible scholar. Mm-hmm. And so women now are on the Pontifical commission of the church Papal Commission.

It's just incredible to see that, hey, this is a place where women can thrive. 

[00:27:20] Jim Jansen: I mean, we, we talked about, again, before we turn the mics on, both just a respect for Dr. Mary Healy and, and I would add not as much of a biblical scholar, but Julian Stan, like both of them. I, I had a chance a year ago to spend some extended time with them.

The seminary in St. Louis, Kenrick. And they were, they did, they brought something special, particularly as women. There was a, there was a, I mean, a whole lot of things, but there was a gentleness and their prophetic call mm-hmm. In, in that, you know, the, the way like when, when dad calls you to a higher standard mm-hmm. And mom calls you to a higher standard.

There's just a gentleness and, and, and they had this very motherly way of. Calling, uh, and I think frequently do calling people to conversion. That was just, it was so fun because I'm often in that role and I'm like, oh man, it goes really it. I think it goes way better when it has that feminine gentleness to it.

[00:28:15] Sharon Doran: I got an opportunity this summer to direct at the Seminary Formation Council. I'm also a spiritual director in the Ignatian way. I would say the same thing in spiritual direction. This is all priests. I was one of very few female directors. You don't know how that will be received, but it was received really well.

Mm-hmm. And almost delighted in by some of the priests that they would get to. Right. Speak with a woman and get a woman's take or a woman's heart on something they were praying about. 

[00:28:47] Jim Jansen: Yeah. I mean, you know, for, for their vocation. Embodying Christ as the spouse, you know, and the bridegroom. And then to hear someone who maybe is just a little bit more in touch with the, the perspective of the bride.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's so good. Sharon, I wanna maybe pivot a little bit here because seeking truth obviously deeply imbued with the feminine genius, but there, the way you approach scripture study, kind of the, the marrying of. Catechesis and a full kind of, I'm gonna say just a, for lack of a better term, a full Catholic reading.

Talk about the way you approach scripture study. 

[00:29:31] Sharon Doran: That's such a good question, Jim. It's such a gift. The way my mind works is I am a very visual learner. 

[00:29:40] Jim Jansen: Mm-hmm. 

[00:29:40] Sharon Doran: And. Image, I pray with image and image sends me all different directions. Mm-hmm. We incorporate lives of the saints. We incorporate papal documents.

We incorporate catechism every lesson, and we're all over the Bible. Mm-hmm. Because one thing makes me think of another thing. 

[00:29:58] Jim Jansen: Yeah. You're very synthetic. Thinker. It's fun to watch. You can almost like it's, you can watch the tapestry being woven in front of you as you're teaching because you're like, and you're pulling in all the stuff.

[00:30:09] Sharon Doran: Funny. That's funny that you call it a tapestry because Steve calls it that too. And then Steve, who's very linear and yeah, he writes our, our writes, he writes our commentaries after. Spend the whole week studying and preparing a lecture. Then Steve will spend at least six hours on Saturday morning writing the commentary.

And then we give those commentaries away free for the next year. And I write questions for each chapter so all of our content is archived and free online. 

[00:30:35] Jim Jansen: We'll cite it later, but where's it at? Where's it at? For those 

[00:30:37] Sharon Doran: Seeking Truth net. Seeking Truth. Seeking Truth. Net. 

[00:30:41] Jim Jansen: Net

[00:30:41] Sharon Doran: fishing net.

[00:30:42] Jim Jansen: Yeah. For those who are like, I mean, keep listening, repeat it at the end.

Those who have to go there right now, 

[00:30:46] Sharon Doran: we've done it 18 years, so there's 18 different free studies on there. A lot of parishes are using them. This time of year, I get a lot of calls and emails of parishes that, right. 

[00:30:56] Jim Jansen: Because everybody's starting up.

[00:30:57] Sharon Doran: Mm-hmm.

[00:30:58] Jim Jansen: They're figuring out their kind of fall offerings.

[00:30:59] Sharon Doran: Mm-hmm. And then we have online the free, and they're going all over. I mean, Venezuela, Ireland, the Philippines, we get different ones every day of who, they're all over the place. Is paid at Seeking Truth. We like we, we've kept it free from the very beginning and it's an offering back. It's part of our tithe, you know, of talent, treasure and time, and it's been an absolute joy.

Yeah, so, so when I'm studying and I take it very seriously, you know? Mm-hmm. I read the scripture first and pray with it for several hours, just praying with it first, and then see where the Lord takes it, and am just really inspired a lot. Oftentimes, I have tears rolling down my eyes when I'm at my computer, my time in my office.

I just have this cave up there where I lock in all week. Mm-hmm. I have my writing days and I don't take phone calls, I don't do emails. I just am locked in with God's word and that has turned out to be the biggest joy in my life. Yeah. Uh, my friends, my contemporaries are out having lunch and doing things and picking out wallpaper and do curtains and remodeling.

I'm just up in my cave in a messy house usually, and just in my word of God and I just. The day goes like, boom, it's gone. 

[00:32:15] Jim Jansen: Sure. And I wanna like, I mean, the contrast between, again, I think many of our listeners, even if like, okay, well I'm, I don't teach a, you know, a, a 500 person, you know, Bible study every, uh, every week.

But when these moments come to teach or to share, or to give a witness or anything, it's, it can be hard to protect that time. Mm-hmm. You know, it, it's just so easy to like, well, I'll just kind of like, I'll, I'll just share the, the five kind of trite things, uh, that I heard in a homily once the, you know, the, the notes from my missionary training or whatever, but you're like, you're, you're meditating and praying through the word of God and what he asks you.

What he's asking you to share. 

[00:33:01] Sharon Doran: Mm-hmm. 

[00:33:01] Jim Jansen: How do you protect that time? 

[00:33:03] Sharon Doran: I think that's an excellent question because those of you who are in missionary work, you know that you can't give what you. Don't have. 

[00:33:13] Jim Jansen: Yeah. Well, I mean, we should know that, right? But sometimes we fudge it. 

[00:33:17] Sharon Doran: Well, life is busy or Yeah. Or we just, things come up and we lose it despite our best intentions.

Sick, and a kid needs this and this, you know? Yeah. So, so, um, it is a very intentional act. Sometimes it means getting up. An hour or two earlier. Sometimes it means staying up late, which I'm really bad at. I'm not creative at night, so I know night's off the table for me. Plus, it's very important to tune into your spouse and your children or the other people in your life that you need to have relationship with because the Lord, you know, it's all about relationship.

Life is relationship. That's the trinity. So you have to keep those relationships. You have to have your priorities in order, God's order. And so we have to keep. Then our families, you know, then our ministries, right? And our ministries are for the Lord. So it's okay to block out time and turn your phone off and say, no, I need a four hour chunk because I gotta present tonight at the parish mission or whatever you're working on.

[00:34:16] Jim Jansen: But, but to highlight what, what you're sharing, like you couldn't do that without. Steve's support. Right. Without this awareness that like, he wants me up in the cave, I, I've not abandoned him. Uh, you know, my, my, my spouse, my kids, my kind of primary vocation Right. Don't Is, is in order. Mm-hmm. And now I have the freedom to.

To give myself to this. 

[00:34:39] Sharon Doran: Right. And I try to do my cave work when Steve's not home. Sure. You know, and I'm sure you do too. Mm-hmm. You try to be efficient at work so that when you're home you can be fully present to your wife and children. That's super important. 'cause God wants healthy families and, and if you're in the public eye and a missionary, you have to have a witness of your own family serving the, you know, like. 

[00:35:00] Jim Jansen: Well, and it's, it's hard.

I mean, so I wanna, I wanna maybe ask you another question. There's a temptation. That those of us who are in the public eye. Mm-hmm. Or even if you're not a, like a public person, if you're just serving, you're just a small group, you know, leader, whatever, there's a reward to that. Mm-hmm. People's gratitude, affirmation that.

Could easily pull us away from our, from our families. Right? Nobody, you know, nobody thanks you for like, hey, thanks for being late today because you stayed, you know, to help your spouse clean up vomit. But that was exactly where you were supposed to be. That's exactly right. And, and there can be a temptation to.

To seek the affirmation mm-hmm. Of those you're serving. Yes. The right, the mm-hmm. The praise that comes mm-hmm. Being in a public eye serving well, and to miss your primary vocation, 

[00:35:52] Sharon Doran: how do you protect against that? That is so honest, Jim. That is so human. 

[00:35:57] Jim Jansen: Well, I just have this friend maybe who. 

[00:36:00] Sharon Doran: Yeah. Yeah, I have a friend too.

It's, it's my friend's question. I have a friend too, and she is so nice. But yeah, she would ask that same question. The thing is, all glory must be redirected back to the Lord. 

[00:36:10] Jim Jansen: Yeah. 

[00:36:11] Sharon Doran: And I tell Steve this all the time 'cause he's a new deacon and when he'll preach and he'll get compliments after mass. And I said, did you say to God, be the glory or blessed be God, blessed be the name of the Lord?

Mm-hmm. I learned that a long time ago. Mm-hmm. From another teaching director, all glory gets turned back to the Lord. Every single. Mm-hmm. How many leaders have we seen fall because too many. And that is such a temptation. And, uh. 

[00:36:36] Jim Jansen: The best ones, 

the, the, you know, they're like, oh, you just see happen. They're so dynamic.

They're such a good preacher. 

[00:36:41] Sharon Doran: See it happening. 

[00:36:42] Jim Jansen: Look at all the good work happening, and then it's scandal. 

[00:36:44] Sharon Doran: Yeah. So you have to. Always redirect, I'll praise, honor and glory back to the Lord and come from a heart of gratitude. I say, Lord, thank you so much for giving me this platform. Like especially as a woman that you've allowed me, that Steve always says people vote with their feet.

Hmm. These people keep coming. Yeah, I'll keep teaching as long as they keep coming, but I'm gonna give him all the praise, honor and glory. I love that one Psalm. You know, like I'll praise him before his praise will be ever in my mouth. My soul makes its boast in the Lord. I must make my boast in the Lord if I start making the boast in me mm-hmm.

And my head starts getting bigger and bigger and bigger, the ministry will fall and I don't feel the anointing will be on it anymore. Mm-hmm. There is a real anointing when it's a pure hearted ministry and you're giving it Yeah. All back to the Lord and for the greater glory of God. 

[00:37:34] Jim Jansen: Okay. So I talk about that because that, that concept, I'm, I'm very familiar with myself, this idea of like, okay, the, the Lord's anointing, the spirit's blessing.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. That's. Different than this was a well laid out lesson plan. This is a good strategic, you know, way to engage. We've got a nice social media presence. What's the difference? 

[00:37:58] Sharon Doran: The difference is the Holy Spirit. I, I've taught two years at Mundelein Seminary. Now. I just got back in June. I teach an intensive course on the Holy Spirit.

Yeah. And it's a demon course for pastoral theology with an emphasis in the exercises of Ignatius, of Loyola, the spiritual ministry of those exercises. But what people don't realize is how full of the Holy Spirit, Ignatius.

Our ministries that are full of the Holy Spirit of the living God. And that means, uh, you know, not the Holy Trinity of me, myself, and I, but the Holy Trinity, you know, I is the middle of sin. S-I-N-I-I-I. That's, that's, oh gosh. That's good. We ego. I 

[00:38:44] Jim Jansen: is the middle of sin. Yeah. SIN Yeah, that's too good. 

[00:38:48] Sharon Doran: You know, so like.

The emphasis must be on the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit is what the perfection of love between the. It, it all comes down to love. Mm-hmm. How well did I love, how well did I love Everything else is passing away except for love. 

[00:39:07] Jim Jansen: Mm-hmm. 

[00:39:07] Sharon Doran: We're headed to eternal love that union of the Trinity, you know, that is love.

We won't need faith anymore. We won't need hope anymore because we'll be sucked into love, you know? And, and they used to carry St. John around on a stretcher mm-hmm. In his late nineties and all he would say is, children love one another. I love one another, and they say, is that all he can say? Now can he say anything else but children love one another and no, it, it all comes down to love.

[00:39:33] Jim Jansen: Yeah. 

[00:39:34] Sharon Doran: And so everything else is gonna pass away. I mean, all that we think we're building and we're doing and my name and this book I'm writing and this, it's all gonna pass away. How well did you love. That means how well did you love your wife? How did, well, did you love your 2-year-old? How well did you love that old 90-year-old lady that's, that's on her walker at bible studies?

Mm-hmm. Spending her last few years in God's word before she dies. How well did you love? 

[00:40:01] Jim Jansen: Mm-hmm. 

[00:40:02] Sharon Doran: You know, were you always in a hurry? Were always concerned about your own mission, your own accolades, your own. It's just, it's all gonna come down to love. How well did I love 

[00:40:15] Jim Jansen: Sharon? I wanna. Give you a chance to talk about those you serve.

Right? Because, 'cause clearly your love for the Lord, your love for the word of God is so deep. But the other right. The other part of the, the, the great, you know, commandment is love of neighbor. Mm-hmm. You really love the people you teach. 

[00:40:37] Sharon Doran: I do. And a lot of them are older. I mean, who's gonna come? Who's gonna do, you know, a few hours of homework.

Ours is, mm-hmm. We have a niche market in that our people are there to really dig deep and it's a connection of the intellect and the heart, both. Mm-hmm. And so they do their homework. They read a commentary, they do 20 questions of pretty hard homework, and uh, they listen to a 50 minute to an hour lecture and then they go discuss for an hour in small group.

Yeah, there's, there's four. That's a two hour commitment every week. Yeah. And that's not for everybody. And then there's all different models. Some people watch the lecture at home online, and then they just get together to talk for 40 minutes. You know, you can do it all different ways. Mm-hmm. But the original model was that young people don't seem to.

It's not a soundbite, it's not a sexy app. It's not a mm-hmm. You know, it's, it's, it's study. Yeah. It's time, it's effort. And if you do it, you'll understand scripture in a canonical way. You'll see how Amos fits with Ruth and how Ruth fits with Maccabees and how Maccabees you, you'll see like, wow. 

[00:41:46] Jim Jansen: Yeah. Talk about you use that term.

I don't know if we've used that yet, like the canonical approach to the study of scripture. Just talk a little bit more about that. 

[00:41:54] Sharon Doran: It's, it's seeing the whole covenant and how God's mercy keeps increasing. Every covenant God makes, he extends more mercy to more people. 

[00:42:03] Jim Jansen: Mm-hmm. 

[00:42:04] Sharon Doran: Till the very end, Jesus is universal for all.

[00:42:07] Jim Jansen: Mm-hmm.

[00:42:08] Sharon Doran: Started off, you know, and, and so where did.

[00:42:11] Jim Jansen: Right. Just one couple, one family. Yeah. One tribe. Right. And then Jesus is like. All of mankind. 

[00:42:17] Sharon Doran: Do you see how his mercy keeps increasing? Like, like you can't get that with a soundbite. You can't get that with a verse. Yeah. You gotta see the overall big arching theme, and then to see how 73 books with different authors and different genres of literature could all fit together in a perfect.

Puzzle puzzle. And each one could have its place and fit with the others and not contradict and not, I mean, this is a plumb line of truth, the scripture. And you know, one of my sons said to me the other day, he said, mom, I'm so confused. Like I don't know what's true anymore. He said, I don't know what's true online.

I don't know what's true on the news. I don. Oh, it's true. And we don't because of ai. 

[00:42:55] Jim Jansen: He's not the only one. 

[00:42:56] Sharon Doran: You know, everyone's confused. I don't know if this is true. Yeah. I gotta fact check the news now. I gotta fact check this station against this station. Yeah. I gotta read this book and this book to make and compare the two to say where I fall in the truth of this.

So I told them, I said, scripture's a plumb line. Mm-hmm. Scripture is a plumb line of truth, which means like we can measure everything against it. Jesus is the same today, tomorrow, and forever. Jesus doesn't change. In the Bible, in this canonical approach, you must take the entire canon and people say, I can't do that.

I dunno, the entire canon. Well, if you came to seeking tooth for 73 years. 

[00:43:32] Jim Jansen: Well, right. Or to have a guide who's able to say Now, as we, as we're looking here, you know, at Corinthians mm-hmm. We're not just going to look at Corinthians and we're not gonna be. Unaware of. Mm-hmm. What, you know, uh, archeology might teach us, but our guide to Corinthians is what did Jesus say?

What did Paul say in acts of the apostles, and you're using other portions of scripture, what did the prophet Isaiah and just bringing Yes. All of it together. Yes. To illumine, infallible word, the word of God to illuminate. The word of God you're studying.

[00:44:10] Sharon Doran: Yes.

[00:44:10] Jim Jansen: That passage. 

[00:44:11] Sharon Doran: Because Paul will always talk about the law and the law.

[00:44:13] Jim Jansen: Mm-hmm.

[00:44:14] Sharon Doran: And the law and the flesh against the and, and so then we gotta go back to Moses. What's the law? What was the law? What was this marriage on cyan that he had with the first chosen people? And why are they the chosen ones? And, but then we see, so yeah, you need to know the whole story and where it fits in.

And it's such, it's so exciting when I find. A typological connection or a mm-hmm. The people get so excited when they discover like this mysterious book and how these, you know, Augusta knew it. Yeah. You know, the old is in the new, yes. New field. The new is revealed, but only with those hermeneutical glasses of Jesus Christ looking through the lens of Jesus makes everything pop.

[00:44:54] Jim Jansen: Okay. So I feel like this is a dangerous question. Okay. But I mean, I can't resist. Sharon, what are, what are some of your, your favorite passages? Like just your favorite stories, particularly if you wanna go after some of those typological connections, because I love those two. Yeah. Those changed me. Yeah.

As a young missionary beginning to see the connections. 

[00:45:12] Sharon Doran: Yeah. Yeah. It makes it so real and cool and they're so fun to find. I am a huge fan of Genesis one to three. I can't do anything. You cannot understand anything unless you know how it was not supposed to be. Hmm. In the beginning it was not so. 

[00:45:30] Jim Jansen: Mm-hmm.

[00:45:30] Sharon Doran: So you have to know this, all this fallen world stuff, this was not God's plan for us. This was not his dream for us. Right. So if you don't get Genesis one, two, and three I, I come back to that all the time. I love Joseph in the Old Testament. Oh my gosh. And the typological connections that Jesus is the new Joseph.

I love Moses and Jesus is the new Moses. I love Ruth. And seeing that, you know, she's the great grandmother of King David, and that brings in the kingdom theology, and she was a Moabite and the. Origin of the Moabites. That was one of lot's daughters. Mm-hmm. You know, that had paternal incest with, with a patriarch.

[00:46:13] Jim Jansen: Yeah. Not a great start. 

[00:46:15] Sharon Doran: No, not a great start. But she's redeemed. 

[00:46:16] Jim Jansen: Redeemed and she becomes the great grandmother of the king. Yeah. And then eventually the great times 22 of the Messiah. 

[00:46:24] Sharon Doran: I, I mean, stuff like that. It's just like you can't. Make this up. Yeah. And we are all dysfunctional families, including in the Bible.

I mean, that always makes people feel better when, and also those things that make God seem so mean in the Old Testament. Like how could he possibly kick them out and banish them from the garden and kick 'em out and they such a big mean God of the Old Testament. Well that's marcian. And you know, he's not, that was merciful.

So they wouldn't eat from the tree of life and live forever in the state of mortal sin. Mm-hmm. It's, it's all his mercy. Everything that seems so mean in the Old Testament, that big mean God is really that merciful God, but we just have to understand it in a different way. Mm-hmm. I love doing that. Yeah. I love figuring those out.

[00:47:10] Jim Jansen: That's so good. You've seen so much of the church now for, I mean. You know, over 25 years in very actively teaching the word of God deeply connected to God's people and also teaching in seminaries, you know, serving at, at the diocesan level. What have you seen, what's, what's God doing in the church and just, I mean, just in the United States, what, what do you, what have you seen God do over the last 25 years?

[00:47:47] Sharon Doran: Hmm. Well, you know, church is always counter-cultural. Mm-hmm. But not really. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. Like it's supposed to be the heart of the culture really. 

[00:48:01] Jim Jansen: Yeah. Yes. Yeah. It's like sometimes we feel like we don't fit in the culture, but at a deeper level. The heart of what actually makes culture is God's people.

Right. And his word. Right. And our worship and our work and yeah. 

[00:48:16] Sharon Doran: Right. And the human heart is always hungry for that. Mm-hmm. Is always, is never content. Um, you know? Mm-hmm. My heart will not rest unless it's resting in you. And so we see the world chasing after everything and we're all trying to find something.

And what I love about the church, I love. These four last popes we've had, I'll just start at John Paul. Mm-hmm. Paul Benedict, Francis, and Leo. I mean, the Holy Spirit doesn't choose the Pope because, uh, Benedict said that he said, you know, if that were the case. He said, we pray that the Holy Spirit will guide each cardinal to open his heart and listen and vote.

You know?

[00:48:55] Jim Jansen: Mm-hmm.

[00:48:56] Sharon Doran: But it, it's not as if the Holy Spirit comes out from the sky and picks the pope.

[00:49:00] Jim Jansen: Right. Right.

[00:49:01] Sharon Doran: You know? 

[00:49:01] Jim Jansen: It's, yeah. It's, it's not like, it's like everybody looks around. It's like, Hey, see that guy has a halo. Let's go for him. Yeah. So there's, I love discern 

[00:49:09] Sharon Doran: seeing how the church has navigated that, those last four enclaves.

Mm-hmm. And how just the person who. God needed at this time in this culture was chosen. And I see each of them in such goodness. 

[00:49:25] Jim Jansen: I, I do too. Oh my gosh. I get, I get pretty impatient. I mean, I see, I, I'm not blind to the differences and occasional moments of humanity that you see in church leadership, but I see a great continuity between our last Amen.

Four or five, six popes. And exactly whether we like it or not. Exactly what the Lord wanted us to have, what we needed. 

[00:49:51] Sharon Doran: I couldn't agree more. Yeah. I, I have loved each and every one of 'em in different ways, but I, oh, I cried so hard when Francis died. Yeah. My son told me we were, uh, it was. We were in Colorado and, and he said, mom, the poke just died.

I started bawling. It just came over me. Mm-hmm. And that surprised me. And they were all like, someone said, what's wrong with mom? And said, oh, the Poke died. And then the other boy said, why is she crying? Yeah. I'm like, I'm so sad. Yeah. I mean. But, but God will bring a new one. And he did. And what a delight.

You know, I just, 

[00:50:26] Jim Jansen: wow. Didn't see that coming. 

[00:50:27] Sharon Doran: No. I just love how he works. Yeah, it's so good. It's so, the surprises are, but, um, the church is, is, is sheer goodness. I mean, the holy cath, the one apostolic holy Catholic church, now it's full of sinful people and it's full of dysfunctional, uh, humanity. We're quite a dysfunctional family, but.

We have a great father. Mm-hmm. Who loves us and we have a bridegroom who laid down his life to make us spotless. 

[00:51:00] Jim Jansen: And if I can go back to something you said earlier, that's why the narrative of scripture is so powerful. 'cause I mean, if you're not honest about like the, the human weakness of the church, you just haven't been paying attention.

You know, that has been. Front and center again and again and again, and we would be tempted to despair, to be overly scandalized, to to doubt the Lord's presence were it not for the family of God portrayed in scripture. And it's like, oh man. Okay. Well, I mean. My family was kind of messed up, but, you know, we weren't the product of incest, you know, from aunt and uncle, and we weren't, you know, you know, dad didn't have four wives or four women.

So it's like, oh, okay. So you, when you see the, the raw reality of the dysfunction of God's family in scripture, it teaches us to expect. The brokenness and to see the father's work even through our mess.

[00:52:03] Sharon Doran: I love that and, and I see the increase of mercy in my own life. Yeah. I'm far more merciful now than I used to be.

Right. Because I've lived longer and I've experienced measure, you know, mess ups in our own family. Yeah. And, and we need mercy. More than ever. And so I, the more mercy you need, the more you tend to extend to others. So

[00:52:27] Jim Jansen: Yes. Yeah.

[00:52:28] Sharon Doran: You know, you learn that with time. 

[00:52:29] Jim Jansen: And that's way's supposed to, right? Yeah.

It's like the real mark of whether we've received God's mercy is are we able to extend it? Yeah. Yeah. Amen. So good. Sharon, our time is just flown by, but I wanna give you an opportunity for the, for those who are listening. They're maybe just feeling a twinge of guilt. They're like, oh, I need to, I need to spend more time in the word of God.

I need to let the spirit lead more. What would you say to them? You know, maybe they just, it doesn't feel possible to make it happen to, to, to do it as much as they they want 'cause they've tasted it. Mm-hmm. They, they've heard the stories and they, they, they want this, but they don't know how to, how to make it happen in their life.

What would you say to them? 

[00:53:14] Sharon Doran: I think, I think I would say be kind to yourself. Be gentle with yourself. Those are two fruits of the Holy Spirit, kindness and gentleness there in Galatians five, I would pray. I would say pray for the desire. Pray for the desire. If that's a little inkling in your heart, like, uh, Jim called it guilt, but maybe that's desire in disguise that uh, you really would like to spend more time in God's word, ask him to increase that desire and ask him to increase your time.

[00:53:48] Jim Jansen: Mm-hmm. 

[00:53:49] Sharon Doran: He'll multiply it. If you make that a priority and set him first, he will order your whole day and you will get more done than so, so if, if that's at all in your heart, take that to the Lord and, and ask him. Ask him to increase that desire and, and then do it. Yeah. Yeah. He's got something for you.

It's living and active. It penetrates joint and marrow of your bones. I mean, he, he loves you so much. He gave you this personal love letter from himself. It's the number one selling book of all time. But not only that, it's, it's his love letter to you and he wants you to know it and he wants live it. And in his word.

[00:54:41] Jim Jansen: Amen. And it seems fitting right in a jubilee year of hope that we can expect that when he, if he gives us that, the desire that he's going to give us the grace to, to act on it. Yeah. Right. To, to that he's gonna help us. He's not gonna just give us the desire, he'll help us to, uh, fulfill it. Yeah. Amen. Oh, Sharon, thank you so much.

Yes, my pleasure. For today, the conversation and so much that you've done, uh, for Omaha, for really, I mean the, the whole country. Thank you. 

[00:55:13] Sharon Doran: Thank you, Jim. And anyone out there, if you wanna join us@seekingtruth.net. There's a bunch of free studies. We'd love to have you come and dive into God's word with us.

It would be a pleasure and a joy to share his living word with you. 

[00:55:29] Jim Jansen: What's the, what's the book for this year? 

[00:55:31] Sharon Doran: We're doing matthew.

[00:55:32] Jim Jansen: Matthew.

[00:55:32] Sharon Doran: Matthew, the Gospel of Matthew. That's a great place to start. It's the kingdom gospel. 

[00:55:36] Jim Jansen: Yes, it, it is. Actually. That's a great, like, okay, let's get started. 

[00:55:38] Sharon Doran: Let's go. All right.

We, we've got David in the Psalms, we've got Revelation, we've got Hebrews. Yeah. I mean, 18 years of material. Yeah. Right. Moses, the Exodus. Genesis study's great. John is great. Uh, yeah. Anyway, 

[00:55:52] Jim Jansen: so good stuff. Alright. Thank you everybody. You know, you're, you're listening to this. Maybe you're walking the dog, you're going through a drive.

You know somebody that needs to hear this, so I wanna encourage you, take a moment. When you're safe, when you can like, give your attention, uh, share this out with a friend. All right. Thanks everybody. Thanks for listening to the Quip Cast. We hope this episode has inspired you to live your faith and equip you to be fruitful in your mission.

Stay connected with us by going to equip dot omaha do org. God bless and see you next time.