Free Girl Summer

What does it actually take for you to be free? Well, I have a few thoughts and I'll share them with you today. Hi, my name is Chrystal Evans Hurst, and if you're catching me here on video, that means you are watching me on YouTube or Facebook where I release a video every week on Sunday evening. My goal is to help you live your life well, so consider me just as a big sister that's decided to share a little bit about her life in hopes that it might help you to learn from my life and to live yours even better. But every now and then I go live randomly too. So if you happen to catch this video because it came up in your YouTube search or whatever, here's what you want to do. You want to subscribe to my YouTube channel and make sure the bell is, uh, click that bell so you get all the notifications. And you want to make sure that you are following me on Facebook if that's your social media of choice, so that when I go live planned or when I go live random You won't miss it. I want to talk about freedom today because actually at the time of this recording, it is July the 4th. It is Monday, July the 4th, 2022, and I plan to be here on July the 7th, 2022, when I will turn 50. And I'm recording this, and because of course it's a day of freedom, I want to talk about what it takes for you to be free, really free. Now there are levels of freedom. We can talk about freedom as it relates to your spiritual life. Okay, are you free in Christ? That's a different— that's a kind of freedom. It could be free to do what you want to do when you want to do it. Do you have financial freedom? That's a kind of freedom too. Do you have relational freedom? Are you free in your relationships to be who you're supposed to be, or are you being who they want you to be? There's all kinds of different types of freedom, but no matter what the type of freedom is, there are 3 things in my mind that do not change. Freedom takes 3 things. It probably takes more, but there are 3 things that I want to share with you today. Here's what true personal freedom is to me. It means that I have the ability and the privilege to live in integrity with myself. What does that mean in short form? That I'm free to be me. But before I can be free to be me, I actually have to know who I am. And for many of us, it takes a lifetime to truly learn that. We get glimpses of who we are through seasons of our life. We remember the teen us, the 20 us, 30, the 40, maybe you're in your 50s or 60s or 70s, and the versions of you that you've come to know have morphed and developed over time. The beautiful thing about living life is that if you will come full face to who you really are and not have pretenses about who you want to be or who everybody else wants you to be, but to show up and say, this is who I am, I may not be perfect and I may not be finished developing, but this is who I am today. And as a good friend of mine said, this is the best me that I can be today. Even then, when you're learning who you're supposed to be and you're 31, living in integrity with yourself. The freedom that comes from that acknowledges that you may not even know all there is to know about you, but what you do know about you today, you are showing up as the best version of you that you can in your full-fledged, honest version of who you are. You're not playing the fiddle and you're not drumming to the rhythm of somebody else's beat. You know enough about you in this season to hear your own drumbeat and to do it well. I am of the opinion that you cannot live in full integrity with yourself if you don't know yourself in addition to what you know about yourself from your life experience and what you know about yourself from the person who created you to have a life in which you would have experiences, because your Creator knows you better than you know yourself. In fact, That is the dance of life, is coming to know who you are as you begin to see, eyes wide open, and having an unveiled view to who the Creator has been building in you all along. That means you have to be open to possibilities, to things you never knew you could do, be, or say. It means you have to be willing to try things, to walk without fear, to say, in my experience, I don't think I could do or be this, but because I feel pulled by the Spirit of God in my life, who had a plan for me before I was born, as Jeremiah 29:11 says, that I'm gonna walk full forward into something that I'm not even totally clear about. But because I feel pulled and I believe the Spirit of God is doing the pulling, I will move forward and discover who God created me to be. This is the fun of life. This is the beauty of life, is being free to learn, free to discover, free to try, free to express, free to be something you never knew you could be. I wanted to be a teacher. I would play teacher at home. I would get the papers and I'd get the red pen and I would grade away and I would tell the kids, mainly my siblings, to be still and in their seat. My mother would say to me, you know, you're a teacher, Chrystal. So when I got out of college and went to work in accounting and hated my first job, and then went to work in finance and developed as an institutional money manager, as a stock picker— I was an assistant VP in my company, and I was doing all these things that were making me great money and giving me the opportunity to try great things. Oh my goodness, the lobster and steak at the investor meetings were crazy. Loved it. And even then, I love teaching. I was asked to teach a session at my church about investing, and I created this whole presentation about investing in mutual funds and saving and building your emergency fund, and even then learning how to pick a stock company, how to buy a company and know based on its financials whether it was a good or bad investment. And when I taught that, I felt the wind of God underneath me. I felt the breath of God at my back. I felt the Spirit of God making a way. And even though it was in the financial field, he confirmed once again what my mother had said and what I knew in my heart all along, that I was a teacher. So here I am, knocking on the door of 50, teaching you. And there's a lot of things I like to teach. I like to talk about finances still every now and again. I like to talk about making a home. I love to talk about homeschooling. I love to talk about speaking and teaching and writing. I love to talk about Being a woman who chases after God's heart for you, I love to talk about what do you need to put on your face so that you are moisturized, girl. I love teaching. Or when you get sick of paying the prices at the department store, that you learn how to make your own, girl. Teacher. What God has done in my life has given me the freedom in different seasons of my life to teach something different, but the whole time he's been saying the same thing, and I did not know that. In my late 20s and in my early 30s. You would have thought since I homeschool my kids, I would have gotten that message. You're a teacher. But here I am combining my life experiences where I learned and tried and failed and tried again with the rhythms of God as he has been faithful to allow the Spirit of God to roll underneath me, for me to feel the pleasure of God at my back. That is freedom. It's to operate to the best of your ability as who you are in the season that you're in, and continually giving yourself the room to learn and grow, to make mistakes, to try things and decide you don't like them. So there are 3 things that it takes, in my opinion, to live in integrity with yourself, because at the end of the day, that is true freedom. The first thing is to know that your freedom will require sacrifice. In fact, it already has. I believe that Jesus did die a horrific death after living a perfect life, and he did that because you and I can't do it. We cannot do it. And God said, I'm perfect, and the only way to be with me is if you're perfect also. So since I need perfection, you got to come and say, I, I came with Jesus, I came with him. That was the ultimate sacrifice given for your ultimate freedom. Freedom not just in time but also in eternity. But there's so many other kinds of freedom. Freedom requires sacrifice. If I want to be financially free, guess what I have to do? I have to work, to have the discipline to stay out of debt or get out of debt. And that can be hard, especially when those school loans are knocking at your door every month. If you want to be relationally free, that means you have to recognize when you have a codependent relationship and sever it. You have to recognize when there's this one person who, when you're around this one person, you're not you. You become somebody that you're not because you're just trying to keep the peace. That's not freedom. Freedom is knowing that in every section, segment of my life, whether that be money or relationships, my spiritual walk, or emotionally— emotionally, I'm crying and then I'm holding back the tears. Why? Why are you not free to let the tears fall? You should investigate that, because in order to be in full integrity with yourself You have to make the sacrifice of spending the time to get to know what's really going on inside so that you can really be free. You have to make the sacrifice of getting out of debt, the sacrifice to live on a budget, the investment of your time, which is always a sacrifice, to have great relationships. Freedom requires sacrifice. It requires a payment. And on July 4th, or when we think about Memorial Day, there we think about the freedom that we have, whether, whether you're in the United States or whether you're in Africa or whether you're in Europe or whether you're in Asia, whatever freedom you whatever level of freedom that you have, somebody before you had to make a sacrifice of their time to create it. They got in the, the political realm and they wrote the laws, or they had the meetings, or they went to school, they argued for, for it in court. There are freedoms that we have that other people have to fight for. But guess who is the only person who can make the investment and the sacrifice to fight for you? Ultimately, it's you. One of the things that I have said many times about my mother is my mother fought for me, and losing her has made me feel very uncovered. It's like if, if something is wrong in the world, if something is wrong relationally, spiritually, financially in my life, and she would see it and she would fight for me and she would call it out, she would, in full integrity with who she knows me to be and what she believes is possible in my life, she would say, Chrystal fill in the blank. And guess what I've learned? There are other people in my life that can fight for me, but guess what? I'm the only person who is in my skin all of the time, and I'm a big girl. Sometimes I do need my husband to fight for me or my friends to fight for me, but guess who is always with me and who should notice when there's a travesty or an adjustment or an uneven application of justice? Who should notice when the balance is not budget— who budgeting and, and it's not balancing out. Who should know when there is not the, the right amount of love in my family? When there's strife, who brings the fight for freedom? Me. I told my girlfriend last night, life right now is so hard. It's so hard. I mean, I'm here with you and I'm smiling and I'm encouraging you, and I thought I never would have said in a million years that my gift is encouraging other people, but I think because my life has been so hard— and it's been not as hard as other people's for sure, but I've had my fair share— I know, I know, I know what encouragement is needed. And if I know what the encouragement is that's needed, then I want to give it. I told my girlfriend last night, right now everything feels like a fight, every single thing. And honestly, I'm turning 50 this week, and even thinking about how I want to celebrate, it's a fight because it takes energy. Freedom takes energy. You can't be on the front lines of your life, even willing to make an investment of your time and have no energy to fight. I was like, I'm exhausted. And she said, well, that's why I'm here. Because there are times when the investment that you need to make in the fight for your freedom is a price that's a little too high to pay. And that's what I want to tell you. That's why I'm here. That's why I make the videos and go online and share the courses and created the Inner Circle. It's because I realize that there are times when the fight is hard, or you don't know where to wield your sword. You don't know where to aim your rifle. You just know I'm here on the front lines and fighting. And then sometimes you've been fighting nonstop and somebody has to come along and say, that's okay, you rest, I'll take the post. But what it will always require is sacrifice. Time, energy, resources, money, friendship, your freedom in whatever area you need it in. If you're not willing to pay the price, you won't ever have the full throttle freedom that you desire. So the first question I have to ask you today is, what's the sacrifice that you are making or that you have not been willing to make Where are you fighting for freedom and what's the sacrifice that's required? The other thing that freedom requires is honesty. In order to have full freedom, you have to be able to admit where you're not free. And a lot of us don't want to do that because the places that we are not free are actually locked down. We've almost thrown away the key. We kind of sort of remember where the key is, but we don't really want to remember because we don't want to be held accountable for letting that thing out that we locked away. You have to be honest and tell yourself where you're not free. Every time you hesitate, every time there's something you want to do and you convince yourself not to do it, every time you jump forward and feel yanked back, every time you want to do it but you question yourself, doubt yourself, talk yourself out of it, that's where you're not free. You know that you're not free because the chain pulls. So you have to be honest with yourself about where the chain is pulling, where you want to move forward and the chain says, you can't go there, stay here, be comfortable. The thing about freedom is that freedom comes from unlocking the chains, and the only person who holds the key to the chain is you. So freedom takes your sacrifice, it takes your honesty, and then here's the kicker right here: freedom takes action. And action is not talking about your desire to be free. Talking is not action. It takes movement. Now, I can talk about freedom, and like, you know, I think about slavery days when there was lots of talk about freedom. There were songs about freedom. Sunday sermons were about freedom. But freedom didn't actually come until someone took the step. Now, freedom was inspired. People were motivated to freedom. People were thinking about it. They wrote down a plan. They talked about it. They got their gumption up. So talking does help, but it doesn't actually set you free. Freedom takes action, because freedom means I want to go somewhere I haven't been. I want to be someone that I haven't been free to be. I want to experience something that I have not yet experienced. If you want freedom, it takes movement. You have to get out of the box that you're in, how to get out of the cell that you're in. You have to get out of the space that you're in and go to the new location. So the question is, what's your action? Where are you not free? Be honest. And then how would you get free? And if you don't know, then that's why there's help. That's why I'm here. That's why there are lots of people on YouTube. That's why your pastor preaches every Sunday. That's why there are a million books to read. That's why the Inner Circle exists. Because some of us go, okay, I have the key, but it's been so long since I put it in the lock. I tried it, it's not turning. Can you teach me? Can you help me? Let me give you some practical examples. Honesty means, do I want to lose— again, do I want to lose about 50 pounds, 60 maybe? Yes, that's honest. Honesty requires sacrifice. I'm gonna have to eat the things I don't want to eat, or eat less of the things that I want to eat after my birthday. Um, but honesty will require action. My freedom will require action. But freedom also means I don't want to lose weight to appease anyone, right? I want to lose weight to fit good in the clothes that I own. I want to lose weight to be the healthiest I can possibly be, but I don't want to lose weight so that I can dress like someone else. I don't want to lose weight so that I can look like someone else, because this is what I love wearing right here, right here. Foo-foo, a moo-moo. It feels like I just got out of bed, and maybe I did. It's being honest with the whole thing. So am I willing to make the sacrifice to make the changes in my diet? I'm willing to be honest about what I'm really aiming towards. What my goal is, not someone else's goal for me. And am I willing to take action? I know what the action is, and if I don't, guess what I can do? I can go look up books about keto or intermittent fasting or Weight Watchers or whatever flavor of weight loss I choose to have. There are plenty of tools, but you can only pick the right tool. You can only take the right action when you acknowledge the problem that you have. So the other day I had a problem with my pool. I have a pool cleaner in the pool. The pool cleaner's supposed to go along and pick up all the dust. It hasn't been doing its job. There's too much dust on the bottom of the, of the pool floor. And I went and got a net. And as I was digging the mess outta the bottom of the pool, I thought, I don't wanna be doing this. I have a pool cleaner. I need to fix the pool cleaner. So I unhooked the pool cleaner, took it down to the pool supply store where they told me they would look at it and tell me what was wrong. He got out a Phillips head screwdriver and he unscrewed the bottom of the pool cleaner. And then he got out another tool because there was another part that he needed to look at that he had to uncover, and he started unscrewing it. And I said, I saw, I could have done this at home. And he said, well, you could have looked at the first layer because most people have a Phillips head. He said, but the second one, this was a special tool that I used. Do you have this tool? And he held it up. No, I don't. I don't have that tool. He said, well, that's why I'm here. Not only to uncover what you couldn't uncover, but to show you the tool that you need. So the next time I have the problem, I have a Phillips screwdriver. Most of us have that. That's a tool that most of us have, but I'm gonna make sure I have the specialized tool so that I can look at now what I now have learned to look at so that I can access it with a special tool and see myself what's been broken on the inside. It's okay if you need somebody else to show you what tool to use. It's okay if in order to take action, you have to figure out how to buy or borrow the tool that you need. But then when it comes down to it, when you realize that something in your life needs to be freed up to work properly, freed up to operate well, you make sure that you first of all are willing to make the sacrifice. You have to get the tools. You join the membership, you get the coaching, you spend the time, you go to church, you take the Bible study, you start the group, you invest. Then you be honest. What am I here for? What's the problem? What do I need to get out of this? What does running well look like? And then you make sure you take action. And if you need the right tools in order to take action, then that's fine. Find out from somebody else what's the right tool, then get your own, and then the next time you'll have the tool that you need. But I'm not going to fix my pool cleaner without unscrewing the bottom of it and seeing if it's clogged. And you're not going to fix your life and operate in freedom. You're not going to be able to move around in the water, the living, breathing water of your life, if you are not functional. And you're not going to be functionally free if you're not willing to sacrifice to get the tools you need, if you're not willing to be honest about what the problem is, and if you're not willing to get the tools and take action with them once you have them. Y'all, I went to the pool supply store, and when I went to the pool supply store, not only did I take my pool cleaner and have him take a look at it, but I said, the pool is so dirty and the net is not getting it all. He said, do you have a brush? I said, no, I don't have a brush. I have a net. I have a pole. He said, well, here's a brush. I came back home. I bought the brush. I brought it back home. I took off the net off the end of the pole and I took the brush and snapped it onto the top of the net, and I started brushing the floor of the pool. Once I was done and I thought that the pool cleaner had run long enough and the filter had run long enough— because those are two things that I never even knew that a pool needed. You mean you don't just jump in a pool and swim? No, you have to take care of the thing. I went over to turn off the pool cleaner and turn off the filter, and then I looked down, and guess what was in the ground, covered a little bit by dirt, but there nonetheless. A brush. I'd had it the whole time. Do you know why I hadn't seen it? Because I didn't look well enough for it. I believe that you really do have everything you need, but sometimes we don't know when— where to look. We don't know how to look, or we're not looking hard enough. Sometimes you don't and you have to go get it from somewhere, but I'm convinced that what you need to get, you either have, or where you're going to get it, it's not that hard to find. I've been avoiding going to that pool supply company, y'all, for months. I don't want to do this. I don't want to learn it. It's too hard. I've never had a pool. And then all of a sudden, when I finally made the trip, it wasn't that hard after all. And then I learned that what I had just bought I'd had in my possession the whole while. I want you to be free to walk in your life, to run in your life, to swim in your life if that's what is needed. I want your, your environment, I want the way to be clear. I want you to have clarity about what you're supposed to do with this one very precious life that you have. And I don't want you to waste time not being free. So Be willing to invest. I bought the brush, I spent the time, I used the net. Be willing to be honest. I had to look at that pool and be like, you know what, it used to be clearer. I don't think this is as clear as this pool is supposed to be. And then I had to take action. I had to stop avoiding the trip to the pool company and saying, I don't want to do that. I had to go down there and take my honesty and my sacrifice with me. And here's what I got out of the deal. Today's July 4th. My family is coming over together today. We get together every first Sunday, but we didn't do it yesterday, but we will in honor of the holiday today. I wanted to make sure that my pool was free and clear for them to swim in, that they would enjoy it and not be distracted by any unnecessary mess. That took some work on my part. I had to get the screwdrivers, I had to take the pool cleaner, I had to go down to the store and buy the brush. I ran back and forth to that store 3 times yesterday because I want my family to swim and enjoy the day. It took my sacrifice, my investment. It took me being honest— didn't quite look right— and it definitely took my action. But it's July the 4th and we've got barbecue coming, and we're gonna swim and enjoy the day to the fullest. This is what happens when you walk in freedom. You get to experience your life to the fullest. So stop pretending if you're bound, that you're not bound. Stop pretending that if you're in debt, that you're not in debt. Stop pretending that if you're in a relationship that's not good for you, that it's going to be okay. Stop pretending. Stop complaining about the job and pretending like it's the job when you know it's really you, your commitment to doing things well. Or maybe it is the job and it's time you part ways. Freedom requires whatever you're going to do for you to make a sacrifice, for you to be honest, and then for you to take action. And one of the reasons why I'm here week in and week out is because I want to help you take action in very practical ways. Assuming that you're a woman of faith, you don't even have to be super Jesusified, just, I don't want to be on the wrong side of God, I want to learn, I want to grow, I want to get better. That's who I'm talking to today. And I want to talk to you about everything from motherhood to marriage, to your finances, to your emotional freedom, for you being a better writer or speaker or figuring out how to uplevel your resume. Me, not only me, a bunch of friends, we do that through the podcast, the videos. We also do that through the Inner Circle. And it's my pleasure to provide the information because this is what brings me freedom, is helping you connect with the information and the inside connections that you need. But I want to free you up today to look around and see if the piece that you've been looking for that you think you didn't have, you've had the whole time. You just weren't looking for it and you weren't using it. Because for half of us, at least half, I would venture to say what you need, you already have. You're just not using it. Something wonderful happens when you engage with what you have, what you're doing is agreeing with God, agreeing with what he's already given you. And once God sees that we are using what he's already given, then we see heaven's doors open up because he knows we, he, we can be trusted with the little that we've had. You need freedom? Don't stress out because freedom seems so big and so far away. Do what you can with what you have today, with what's right in front of you. Reach for freedom and know that when you do, that the God who frees is also reaching for you. I hope you've enjoyed this. If you have, be sure and subscribe to the YouTube channel, follow me on Facebook. If you want to listen to this again in motion, know that this will be very soon an audio version of this video broadcast. If it's been helpful. Be sure, grab that share link and share the video with a friend. And then know that I'll be here next Sunday night, most Sunday nights, with more content that is ready for you. All right, now go be, be free. The free you is the best you that there is, and I am rooting for the free girl in you. Alright, see you next week.