Jennifer Rothschild Show: Where Are You Now God? with Tammy Trent

**NOTE: This transcript was generated by AI and may contain errors, misspellings, or mistranslated words.**

Tammy Trent: I knew at that moment that somehow I wouldn't just survive, but I would overcome this. But I think it was in that moment, as she wrapped her arms around me, I felt the very presence of God breathing life into me, into my direction at that moment.

And I think that's when I knew that I knew that this is going to be hard, Tammy, but keep, keep, keep the faith and keep trusting God, even when, when there are no answers, even when there is silence.

When there are unanswered prayers, all the things that you're going to go through, not just this loss, but you have multitudes of things that you're going to face, and that things from your past that will also come up that you will face and wonder where God was in all of it.

Jennifer Rothschild: Welcome to the Jennifer Rothschild Show. This is where thoughtful people come to grow, and I'm so glad you are here because today, Tammy Trent, singer-songwriter, author, and my friend, is she is going to give you some really solid biblical insight, practical tools to help you ask the hard questions like, where are you now, God? Mm.

We've all asked those kind of questions, but Tammy is going to guide us to name our hidden wounds, and she is gonna keep us rooted in the truth that you are never alone. Oh, we're going deep, but it's not gonna be heavy. It's gonna be delightful.

So, settle in. And let's grow. Well, hey friends, I'm so glad you're here with me.

I hope you've had a good week. But we're in October, and you know what this is called? Pumpkin Spice Month.

You may be one of those women who love to go get your pumpkin spice from Starbucks. It's been out for a while, but now it's finally getting cool enough to drink it, as far as I'm concerned. But you know what?

Surprisingly, I am not a pumpkin I'm not a pumpkin spice girl. I don't like to drink it. I like to eat it in my pie, and I like to smell it in my house with my candles.

But I'm just such a purist when it comes to coffee that I don't drink pumpkin spice. But if you do, I hope you are enjoying one. But I don't know about you, one of my favorite things about fall is the clothes.

Can we be honest? I've entered the age in life where I'm so hot that I have to wear sleeveless, but I don't like wearing sleeveless, you know, because like when I'm done waving, my arms aren't, you know what I'm saying? And so, I love it when it cools off and I get to wear long sleeves.

It's just awesome. And it's also the time mostly when I'm on the road, which I've been on the road out getting to meet you guys, and it's just been a delight. And, you know, I was thinking about our conversation today with Tammy.

She's gonna deal with some hard questions. And it's interesting, at most of my events, there's some kind of Q&A. And a while back, someone asked me a question, and I didn't know that my hubby, Dr.

Phil, had recorded my response. And so, he just sent it to me. Just, you know, out of the blue, he said, hey, by the way, this is what you answered a question, which is helpful because I don't remember my answers often.

And anyway, when I heard it, I thought, oh my goodness, this fits so perfectly for what we're talking about today. So let me just take you to one of my live events and you can hear that somebody asked me a question that's pretty relevant. So this one was about unanswered prayer.

Here you go.

[LIVE RECORDING]

Jennifer Rothschild: And I think that's something that we as believers need to be very— we need to relax into the discomfort of that, that sometimes we literally don't know that God is answering us. We can know he hears us, but we may not know what his answer is. That's where faith comes in, because when we pray, it is about knowing that the object of our prayer, who is God, is faithful and hears us, and therefore we can not be as concerned about the outcome of the prayer.

Okay, and I know that's hard, but I guess I want to make it super clear. I don't always know that God is answering me, at least in the way I'm expecting. But I do know he is faithful to answer.

And I guess one of the things I would always go to is, first of all, the Word. If there's already an answer in the Word for what I've prayed about, well, if I don't feel like I'm hearing or feeling an answer, well, maybe it's because I have already received that answer in his Word. So I was going to go to his word first.

That's one way to confirm what an answer may be or if I've received it. Secondly, I think praying in community— where 2 or 3 are gathered, he is in our midst— when we pray in community, there can be the affirmation of a fellow believer that can help us understand perhaps if we have received an answer or if we have not.

[LIVE RECORDING ENDS]

Jennifer Rothschild: Well, I hope that helped you a little bit today, maybe, with what you're dealing with, because truly, we feel more peace and we have more freedom when we focus on the object of our prayer, who is God, not just the outcome, not just the outcome.

All right, my friends, now it's time to get to our girl Tammy Trent. She's going to be talking about her book, which deals with a lot of questions.

The main one is, where are you now, God? And you probably know Tammy because she has been Serving the Lord and people for more than 31 years. She got her first record deal in 1995.

And over the years, she's been a TV host, a speaker. She's authored 3 books. And today we're gonna be talking about that latest book.

Y'all, she is one of my favorite people ever. If you've never seen her live, you need to, because the girl can dance. All right, this conversation is gonna lift your heart and I hope deepen your faith.

So let's grow.

[INTERVIEW BEGINS]

Well, I already told you guys I'm so happy to have Tammy. Tammy, just one of my dearest friends. And before I let her talk, I just— I, I— this is why I bragged about her off mic, um, because there's just so much I could say with you, Tammy.

But you know you're one of my favorite people, and we have been able to serve together for years. And, uh, as I told my friends earlier, what that means to me is I get to see you on stage, off stage, on a bus, in a van, in an airport, and you're the same person every place. Oh, I love that.

That means the world to me. And, and, you know, you just— and not only are you just the real deal spiritually, of course, you are just fun. You're just absolutely fun.

So this conversation is gonna be that, but we are gonna start though with something that I can simply call unfun, okay? Because there are some people who don't yet know your story. And so, um, you had an experience with your husband Trent, and I wonder how much that situation caused you to ask the title of this new book, Where Are You, God?

So can you— um, Where Are You Now, God? So can you kind of take us to that situation?

Tammy Trent: Yeah, I mean, I think that for me, Jennifer, that, that's the foundation of my life is almost that the question and the answer that I searched for. And I think in the worst, deepest heartache, disappointment, unanswered prayers, unmet expectations, all of it came crashing down on me. And I have felt it through the years, pieces of it because of this huge one event in my life that I never saw coming.

And I met this kid in my youth group when we were 15 years old and fell in love, dated 7 and a half years. I went off to Bible college and came back and married the love of my life. And we were married for 11 great, wonderful, fantastic, adventurous years.

I was truly a lucky girl. I'm just gonna say it that way. I say blessed, I say lucky, all the things.

I had it all with this guy.

Jennifer Rothschild: Yeah.

Tammy Trent: I just felt love every single day. He covered me very, very well. And we started traveling in ministry full-time together as I signed record deal, and he started managing me.

And, and I loved it because we were together all the time. And somehow we made it work. And it was 11 years into marriage, moved to Nashville.

We built our first home here. We were in this home for 2 years. You know, those seasons where I think many of us probably hit at one point or another where we probably say, man, it can't get any better than this.

Jennifer Rothschild: Mm-hmm.

Tammy Trent: Like everything feels like it's Just going well, all the pieces are falling into place. You can see the hand of God. It all makes sense.

And I think that was a place that I was in. And, and yet I still had questions. And I remember being asked to go over to Jamaica on a missions trip.

And the questions that I had was the season of also wondering, though, what's next? What does God have next for me? Is it music?

Is it writing a book? Is it mission work? You know, kind of lots of questions of where are we supposed to be?

But the biggest question I had was maybe it's starting a family.

Jennifer Rothschild: Hmm.

Tammy Trent: And so I remember talking to about that after 11 years of marriage. And he agreed, like he was so ready, had been ready for a long time. So we add a maternity to our insurance, we took off on this trip to Jamaica.

And I had no idea that everything, everything was about to shift. Everything was about to change in not only Trent's life, but also my life. And mine was the harder path because I remember waking up on September 11th from a really awful night on the 10th.

Trent had gone scuba diving, freediving in the Blue Lagoon on the 10th, and he never returned. And a search began for him on the morning of September 11th until they recovered his body. And that was my path of trying to put together the pieces of my life after a shattering loss.

Jennifer Rothschild: Wow.

Tammy Trent: And after I had all the questions of wondering and asking God, where are you? In this? Where are You now, right now, in the middle of my pain?

And that began my journey to try to find God in the worst moment of my life.

Jennifer Rothschild: Oh, okay. There's just so much here, Tammy. And because I know you well, and I know your story well, there's a couple of things I want to clarify as we continue to unpack the question, where are You, God?

Where are You now? Because I know you received some unique answers to that question, even in the midst of your most difficult heartache. But I also know we've got some very keen listeners.

Okay. And they're going, wait a minute, her name's Tammy Trent and her husband's name is Trent. Was he Trent Trent?

Jennifer Rothschild: Yes.

Jennifer Rothschild: So why don't you just clarify that before we move on? Okay.

Tammy Trent: So many questions, my friend. So many questions. We've lost a few people already going, Trent Trent, what a stupid name.

So yeah, when I signed my first record deal in 1995, I took Trent's first name as my last name. Together, we were Tammy and Trent Lenderink. But on the platform, I became Tammy Trent.

And I loved it because truly, even God knowing how important that would be to me all these years later, that—

Jennifer Rothschild: Yeah.

Tammy Trent: This incredible man who changed the heart of a girl, who influenced me, who spoke life into my spirit, who was the greatest spiritual covering this side of heaven for me, that he would always be somehow a part of this testimony in this ministry of my life that I have chosen to continue walking hand in hand with God. It's been a hard road. It has been nothing close to easy.

It's been very hard. But I think, Jen, one of the miracles that began to happen for me standing on the edge of the water that day, knowing that everything was going to shift and change, is somehow, somehow I had enough in me to know that That Trent was now somehow a part of my future, not my past.

And so, if I really believed in all the things that I'd been speaking about, if I really believed in all the things I'd been taught, all the things I had studied, all the things that I truly believed, then it, for me, came to that moment, like future, heaven.

Jennifer Rothschild: Yeah.

Tammy Trent: Is heaven real? Is God real? Is everything I've ever learned and studied, the promises of God, Are they for real?

Do they work for me or do they not work for me? And I think at that moment, I knew that it would be a very hard road, but that somehow, if I kept choosing faith, I would find some of the answers that my heart was longing to know.

Jennifer Rothschild: Because, you know, when you ask a question like that, you're overseas, and you did mention September 11th, and we can't forget what happened on that September 11th. So you're stranded in Jamaica, you've lost your husband. All you have is God.

And I can only imagine the sheer— just the way your soul would have been totally torn and shattered.

Tammy Trent: Yeah.

Jennifer Rothschild: And so I think it's interesting, and we're going to talk about some of the ways that we know the presence of God is with us, because that's what you deal with in your book. But I think there's something that happened in a hotel room in Jamaica. Your father-in-law had just arrived, but your father-in-law went back to the Blue Lagoon to see where he lost his son.

You're just alone in a Hilton hotel, and you're crying. And I believe God answered that question, where are you now, God, through someone else. Can you give— take us to that scene?

Tammy Trent: Yeah, it might have been one of the first times that I asked that question in the most serious way. I was in a bathroom and just, you know, curled up with my blankets and just weeping and crying. And as I tell you the story now, I always, even every time I tell it, I can go right back to that moment, right back to that place of just crying out to God, asking Him where He is.

Like, do you see me? Do you see this girl? Are you there?

Um, can you pick me up? Do you see the disappointment? Do you see the brokenness?

Um, if you're there, could you send me someone to hold me? And I remember feeling something coming over my spirit, and I knew it was, was Holy Spirit saying, move, move, move. And so I got up and I just started to move, not even knowing exactly what it meant.

But that's the point. Sometimes you just have to respond. And so I responded.

And I moved and I moved and I made my way over to this opening in a doorway. It was the adjoining room that I was sharing with my father-in-law. And I looked in and I saw this beautiful Jamaican woman standing there in a Hilton housekeeping outfit.

And I remember looking at her and just saying, can you come in and just make my bed? Could you just come in and make my bed? And it had come right after I had prayed to God, one, to send me someone if you're real, all the things, send me somebody, right?

Jennifer Rothschild: Right.

Tammy Trent: So here I'm asking her to come in and she looks at me and says, I could hear you crying, and I've been trying to get to you. Then she said, could I just come in and hold you?

Jennifer Rothschild: Oh!

Tammy Trent: It was an instant answer to my prayer, Jen, because it was specifically the thing I also asked. Not just, are you real? But, would you send me somebody to hold me?

And here she was saying, can I just come in and hold you? I don't know what's happened to you, but I know it's deep. I can see it.

I can feel it. It's deep. Have you lost somebody?

And so, I went on to tell her, I have. I have. And so, she began to pray over me.

And I knew at that moment that somehow I wouldn't just survive, but I would overcome this. But I think it was in that moment, as she wrapped her arms around me, I felt the very presence of God breathing life into me, into my direction at that moment. And I think that's when I knew that I knew that this is going to be hard, Tammy, but keep—

Jennifer Rothschild: Yeah.

Tammy Trent: Keep the faith and keep trusting God, even when there are no answers, even when there is silence. When there are unanswered prayers, all the things that you're going to go through, not just this loss, but you have multitudes of things that you're going to face, and things from your past that will also come up that you will face and wonder where God was in all of it.

Jennifer Rothschild: Well, what a beautiful picture. And I don't want us to miss that you asked specifically. You know, when you're asking God, reveal Your presence to me, show me You're here, help me to deal with these unanswered questions, even right this minute, you are very specific in your request, and He showed His presence, to be strong by specifically responding.

And he can do that for all of us. But you mentioned in that moment, these beautiful Jamaican arms are surrounding you, and you know, it's not just the loss right now, but it's the loss I'm about to live for the next decades.

Tammy Trent: Yes.

Jennifer Rothschild: Okay. So here you are decades later, and you've dealt with grief. You probably still do.

I mean, I can't imagine you wouldn't. So how do we grieve and at the same time, release the life that we hoped we would have? Like, how do we balance that tension?

Tammy Trent: That's the million-dollar question, right? I think we all have that. How, how do I balance this tension?

So, this book for me, let me start with this, it really was birthed out of that place. Like, if anybody, you know, as you and I are out ministering weekend after weekend to hundreds of thousands of especially women, we talk to them a lot. We hear What they have to say, the questions they have when they say, pray for me, if they send us an email.

So, I thought for one moment, like, I'm not the only one going through all of this stuff, right? So, there's a lot of us. So, if you've ever whispered, God, where are you?

In the middle of heartbreak, disappointment, loss, unanswered prayers, this is the book I wrote for them, not just my story. So, it's kind of evolved past my story of grief, and it went deeper into, now, how can I help somebody else?

Jennifer Rothschild: Amen.

Tammy Trent: Because if they don't have the answers. They have to be able to know where God is in the middle of those questions. You don't have to have all the answers, but you do need to know where God is when life doesn't make sense.

Jennifer Rothschild: Yeah.

Tammy Trent: So, for me, Jen, it was sitting down writing this book. I went back— the first chapter, I went back and dove into trauma in my life when I was a little girl, and how it affected my life, my relationships, because I thought of so many women that are probably in the in the heartbreak that they've carried of trauma or shame, have probably cried out to God, where were you when this? Where were you when that?

Jennifer Rothschild: Yeah.

Tammy Trent: And trying to find the presence of God. And so, I dug into those kinds of questions, whether it was the unmet expectations, the shame, the divorce, the health, the cancer scares, like all of those things I have faced since even losing Trent or watched my family go through things. I had a lot of moments where I asked God, where are you?

And then let me now dig into the Word. And so, if I can find your fingerprint through Hagar's story, through Naomi and Ruth, through the woman at the well, through Mary and Martha, through the woman with the issue of blood, how about the guys on the road to Emmaus, or Moses, or Joseph being thrown in the pit by his brothers? How did he— how did he come through that rejection? some of us face and we don't know how to get through that.

What about Saul, who became Paul? So I dove into all of these different topics. So not just my story of loss anymore, but, but let me go deeper.

Jennifer Rothschild: Yeah.

Tammy Trent: Let me go deeper and share with you maybe years later where I sat in my study one night writing this book and I looked at my bookshelves and I saw a bunch of children's books that Trent and I had been collecting since the beginning of our marriage. And all of a sudden, Jen, it hit me all these years later what I've been carrying still in the unmet expectation of what should have been, what could have been, but didn't happen in my life. The dream that didn't happen.

The voices of children filling this home in this hallway, every hallway in my home. It didn't happen for me. So even in my studies, I started writing that chapter on unmet expectations.

I was kind of faced with a lot of things and even some more grief and letting go and facing things. So, I think for me, I just kind of thought about every woman that feels like she just doesn't have answers. And what— I don't think the book for me was like, I'm not going to sit here and fix everything for you.

I don't think I'm going to be able to do that.

Jennifer Rothschild: No.

Tammy Trent: I'm not a counselor. I'm not a therapist. That'd be fantastic, or even a Bible teacher.

But I do know that if you do not know the presence of God, if you do not know the voice of God, if you do not know the character of God, you will fall deeper and deeper into a pit that will be harder and harder to get out of eventually. So, your greatest investment that I think you'll make, anybody will make, in your life, in your home, in your finances, in your career, is maybe in strengthening your faith before the next storm comes.

Jennifer Rothschild: Yes. Yes. Isn't that just a beautiful daily investment?

It's a daily investment. And you know, when you even kind of ticked through all those people in Scripture, and how women experience this and that. I mean, what you're describing is loss, difficulty, trauma.

It's universal.

Tammy Trent: Yes.

Jennifer Rothschild: It might have a different label for everybody, but it's universal, the feelings. And one of them that you even mentioned very specifically was rejection. Okay.

And in your book, you write about rejection. And I think it's interesting because you say that God can use rejection as protection.

Tammy Trent: Yes.

Jennifer Rothschild: Or redirection. Okay.

Tammy Trent: Yes.

Jennifer Rothschild: Explain what that looks like.

Tammy Trent: Oh my goodness. So for me, uh, rejection, protection to redirection. So those are good.

I think we've all faced rejection. I think we're all going to continue to face rejection. But I think for me, even in that chapter, was how can I give people the tools?

How can we actually have some moments to pause, to reflect, to journal some things that have affected your life, maybe some rejection either in your past or that you're facing now. That's one big thing I do throughout the book. Like, let's take some moments to think about this.

I'll even ignite some questions and some thoughts in case people feel stuck and like, I don't even know where to start.

Jennifer Rothschild: Yeah.

Tammy Trent: I'll help them go back and revisit and, and like dig up a little bit because I want them to find breakthrough. I want them to find healing. I want them to find answers, and I want them to know God's presence.

So for me, rejection was always sort of based around music because I signed that record deal in '95, and I've had different deals here and there, you know, different booking agents. And, you know, one day you wake up and you no longer have a booking agent, you no longer have a record deal, and no one's told you, but somehow you found it. You know, all the things where you're like, what in the world is going on?

Or relationships where you've thought you were the best of friends, the closest of working buddies, and then all of a sudden something happens, something triggered. Then there's betrayal. Then there's abandonment.

Then there's misunderstandings, there's rejection. And sometimes you're in the middle of those moments and you're trying to figure it out and the hurt runs deep. And sometimes you will carry that into season after season after season unless you try to find God in the middle of it and find some answers.

So, for me, I can take a step back from a lot of that rejection in my life, which started beyond music. I mean, it started when I was a teenager, you know, and even I think before that.

Jennifer Rothschild: Sure.

Tammy Trent: I think we all have those moments. But I think for me, once I'm able to step out of that, breathe a little bit, sometimes it has taken months or even years to get out of a situation to look back and then see the hand of God and see, oh my goodness, I can see how you protected me, Father.

Jennifer Rothschild: Yeah.

Tammy Trent: Like, your plans are always good. They're always good. Man's plans aren't always good for us, but God's plans are good.

So, he will redeem, he will restore. So, if you stay in it, you try to find him, You will ultimately find God's protection even wrapped around rejection in your life. And then in that protection, in time, when he saw that I was ready, I think as I processed through a lot of things, I could see him redirecting.

So I'll take you in that chapter through a personal story to give you, I think, a moment to go, okay, I believe her.

Jennifer Rothschild: Okay.

Tammy Trent: I think I'll lean in now and listen because I think, okay, I get, I get where she's coming from. I can totally connect and resonate with her vulnerability, her honesty. I don't wrap a bow around any of it.

I put it all out there.

Jennifer Rothschild: Yeah.

Tammy Trent: But then I'll align it with a biblical story. And that's the one for me about Joseph. I mean, he faced a lot of rejection from his own family that threw him into a pit, sold him into slavery, false accusations, imprisonment, and forgotten is what he felt.

And I think so many of us can feel that way too, when we go through rejection and feeling totally forgotten and deeply hurt. But even every wound had the potential in even Joseph's life to make him bitter. But Joseph chose to trust God through it all.

And I think that's the thing for me with preparation, preparing me for something greater. If I trust God, there's, there's always going to be redemption in it. God redeemed every painful chapter in Joseph's life, and he's done it for me too, using the very wounds that could have destroyed my life.

He used it for good, and He prepared me through some of this rejection in my life. He prepared me and He used it, prepared me for my calling and my position. And it's exactly where He wants to meet other people as well.

Like, you can't just give up. God's got more. He always has more.

He always has better.

Jennifer Rothschild: Yeah. Gosh. And because I've watched your life, I -- what would be called maybe, or experienced as rejection in your life.

I can't imagine any different story for you because of how the Lord has used it in your life and used it for others. And that's the thing too, Tammy, because God is a redeemer, He redeems every sorrow, every heartache. So it's not just, well, I love Tammy so much, I'm going to work this out for her good.

But no, I'm going to work it out through her for others' good also.

Tammy Trent: Yes.

Jennifer Rothschild: I mean, that gives us such deep sense of purpose. But, and I, and I think we need that too, because -- so in your story, my story with blindness, many who are listening right now, they got their stories, right? And loss, I always describe it as a sentence that does not end with a period.

It ends with an ellipsis. You know what I mean? Like, it doesn't end is the point.

It just goes on and on, and it's hard, and it takes endurance. Mm-hmm. And I have seen endurance in your life.

So I would like to know what you think the biggest stumbling blocks to endurance are, and Then like, how can we overcome them?

Tammy Trent: Gosh, Jen, I mean, I think endurance is hard. It takes a lot of us to stay in it, to stay in a fight, to stay in purpose, to stay in wonderment, to stay in adventure, like just to stay, just to stay. Sometimes we have felt, or I have felt, and I've heard many that have said it'd just be easier for me to walk away.

Jennifer Rothschild: Yeah. Right.

Tammy Trent: Just be easier for me just to say, give up. Yeah. Just to give up because I can't take it anymore.

Jennifer Rothschild: Yeah.

Tammy Trent: I can't take the hurt. I can't take the pain. And my prayer for them at that moment too, thinking about endurance, is just stick with it, stay with it.

Pray for that encounter, that personal encounter with God, because once you have it, it transforms everything. Like, you have to endure well. And I think for me in this book, it's probably chapter 9 on endurance and finishing well.

Jennifer Rothschild: Yeah.

Tammy Trent: And it's probably, Jen, one of my favorite chapters. Honestly, I'm so glad I saved the best for last. It's one of my One of my personal stories in, in this chapter is one of the most hilarious stories I've ever told about an experience that I had on learning to endure in the Spartan Race that I had to take part in with 2 of my other girlfriends.

And it was enormous challenges and obstacles and running and throwing darts and arrows and leaping around things and climbing up you know, cargo-netted 20-foot walls. I mean, swimming under dunk tanks and not knowing if you'd come up on the other side. It was unbelievable.

And I was scared out of my mind, and I wanted to back out and thought, there's no way I can do this. No way. But the story goes on to tell you different moments and also how God kept speaking to me with all these different obstacles.

And He would keep showing up when I was like, I can't do it. And then my friends, the community, doing life together. that would pull me over an obstacle or cheer me on, all the things to the very end of jumping over this fire just to get to the other side. And sometimes we have to in life jump over a fire to get to the other side.

Sometimes we have to go through the fire to get to the other side. And endurance is messy. Endurance is muddy.

Endurance is exhausting.

Jennifer Rothschild: Mm-hmm.

Tammy Trent: It's hard, but the rewards to finish well. Greater than anything we will ever hear this side of heaven when we see Jesus face to face and he says, well done.

Jennifer Rothschild: Oh yeah.

Tammy Trent: You did it. You did it, Jen. You, you carried every bit of this and you did it the best you could.

And he says, you did it well, Tammy. You did it well. It wasn't perfect, but you did it well.

Why? Because you stayed. You endured.

Jennifer Rothschild: Yeah.

Tammy Trent: And I think that to me, as I align it with the life of Paul and everything he went through, you know, he was one of the greatest missionaries the world had ever known. The transformation of his life was unbelievable. That encounter that he had with Jesus, that changed everything.

But he endured a lot of suffering. He endured persecution, imprisonment, beatings, shipwrecks. I mean, it went on.

The countless setbacks in his life, as you know, many of us probably know. But I also wrote these stories for those that don't know the details. You know, I write it very cinematically in this book to like bring these—

Jennifer Rothschild: Mm-hmm.

Tammy Trent: Pages to life. But through it all, God strengthened his faith, providing everything that he needed to overcome and to endure. And I think that's the story of endurance.

If God did it for Paul, he'll do it for you. If he did it then, he'll do it now. He's not a God who disappears.

He's a God who draws near. He's not a God who abandons. He's actually God that draws near, and he's near to the brokenhearted, and he's He saves those whose spirits have been crushed.

Jennifer Rothschild: I think the thing about endurance, Tammy, that we miss is that it should be hard. It feels hard because it is hard. And so, what you just described is hard, and there's not an easy formula to make something that is inherently hard not hard.

And so, therefore, you're surrounded by your community who cheers you on. Paul is exercising faith, and that faith fuels the endurance, and then he has the endurance to have more faith. It's just— quitting is never an option.

And I'm so glad, my sister, uh, that you haven't. And so we'll get to our—

Tammy Trent: It's not been easy, Jen. As you know, it's not been easy. I mean, there's days I'm like, I, I just— I'm out.

I'm out today. And I, I weep on my couch. I mean, just the other day— every day, Jen, I feel like I've got something, some little thing around the house that if Trent were here, he, he could do it and I wouldn't have to do it.

But I've got to try to figure it out, and I'm muddy, I'm dirty, I'm sweaty, I'm— my wrists are hurting because I don't have enough strength to turn this or to pull that.

Jennifer Rothschild: Absolutely.

Tammy Trent: And I just, you know, and I'm— I'll fall to the ground and weep. I'm kind of like, I wear my heart on my sleeve kind of girl. And I'm just like, God, why?

Like, why? Why so much? I don't need another challenge.

I don't need another test. I'm tired. Where are you?

Like, I'm tired of this. And I can't help but to think that many people have asked that same question. Many people are carrying the same kind of stuff where they just want— they want to know that they know that they know.

And so, for me, Jen, I was like, I've got to write a book, not just about those moments because they're all real, but how can I write moments to help them in each chapter to slow down and to create moments of a personal encounter that they can now have with God?

God, how can I guide them? Not just to read, but to reflect on their own journey, just like I do with mine every day, but to talk with God and consider how each truth, God meets them, each heartache, each disappointment, he will meet them right there. And it's— he's going to walk them into little places of peace and clarity.

Jennifer Rothschild: Mm-hmm.

Tammy Trent: And I'll hold their hand the whole way through, but so does God. He's such a real God. And I think my whole thing was, I've got to show them— anybody reading this book, I've got to be able to lead them and guide them in the best way that I can.

So, when they close this book, Jen, they go, man, I just— I didn't know I was gonna find the answer that I needed, but I think I did. And I think for me, the answer for me, Jen—

Jennifer Rothschild: Hmm.

Tammy Trent: Through endurance, through rejection, through cancer scares, through unmet expectation, through loss, through trauma and shame. was that God was the God who saw me. He's a God who still sees me. He's a God who uses my wounds to fulfill his greater purpose.

Jennifer Rothschild: Yeah.

Tammy Trent: He's the God who gives strength to endure. He's the God whose delays have purpose in your life. He's the God who draws near, not away, when you reach for him in faith.

He's a God who walks beside you through it all, even When everything in you wants to quit, he is the God who redeems, and he is the God who restores and is still working in your life today.

Jennifer Rothschild: Hallelujah, he is. All right, Tammy, I know that God is going to fulfill that desire of why you wrote the book, because I got to read it and I've endorsed it, and it is a companionship for the one who has a question And the one who maybe just needs a friend to walk with while they're walking through something.

So, so let's suppose you're able to sit at coffee with someone right now, and you're handing them your book and saying, here, let this be part of your journey.

But before I say goodbye, this is your last question, Demi. I want you to imagine that you just reach over and you hold their hand just like God has held yours. What would you say to them right now who are— they're asking the question, where are you now, God?

What would you say?

Tammy Trent: Every one of us will eventually ask, if you haven't already, will ask, where are you now, God? In the middle of my pain, my heartache, my disappointment, my unmet expectations. I don't know what you're going through right now, but it's just seeing you in this coffee shop.

I felt led to come over and just give you this book because God loves you more than you could ever imagine. And I don't know where your faith level is today. I don't know if you're trusting God for something or if you just kind of gave up on trust.

I don't know what promises broke you, but I just felt led to come over here and give you this book because the question isn't if you'll ask it. It's when you'll ask it. So my prayer today for you as I give you this book is that it will help you discover what I learned myself, that God has never left and he'll never leave you.

Even when you can't see him, he's already at work in your life right now.

[INTERVIEW ENDS]

Jennifer Rothschild: Ooh, that was some good insight. And can we be honest? It's not like Tammy said, if you will ask, it is when you will ask, because we all have those moments when we ask those hard questions.

But the answer to the, where are you now, God, is always the same. He's with you. He is with you.

He's never left you and he never will. But you know, Tammy made it clear that the main thing is that if you never ask him, You may never get the answer. So ask, because he's with you. Ask him. He's with you. He is near.

I'm telling you, good stuff, wasn't it? So you need to go to the show notes so that you can get her book, you can read a transcript. And you know what?

I'm also going to have a link there to some of my books and Bible studies, because I also dive into these hard questions. In fact, one of the books is called God Is Just Not Fair. Sometime I will unpack that title for you.

But I deal with 6 big questions of faith. And we've all got 'em. So, maybe that'll also be a blessing to you, too.

All right, my friend. I hope that until next week, you just enjoy your people, your days, the Lord, his presence, and maybe even, maybe even a pumpkin spice. But just keep thinking, keep growing, my friend.

I'll see you next week.