After the biggest spiritual win of your year, why does everything suddenly fall apart? Shannon and Joy sit with Elijah under the broom tree. Exhausted, afraid, and ready to quit, they uncover something the church rarely says out loud: sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do is take a nap. From Elijah's angel-delivered meal to the pressing of the olive that produces anointing oil, this conversation walks through why painful trials often follow our greatest victories, why the enemy targets us hardest right after a breakthrough, and why rest isn't weakness — it's a weapon. If you've ever prayed "Lord, I've had enough," this episode is your reminder: don't find it strange, and don't fight the press.

Ways to Connect: Website: JourneyLivingMinistries.com Email: shannon@journeyliving.org Facebook: Journey Living Ministries Instagram: Journey Living Ministries YouTube: @Journeyliving2911 Also on Spotify Apple Music iHeart Radio Find Joy: Website: BootCampForTheBlues.com Facebook: JoyWareMiller - iJoyInspirations

Some questions you answer in a second. This one sits there. In this episode of Joy in The Journey, Shannon opens with the question she uses in life coaching and marriage rescue retreats, the one that leaves a room in what Joy calls holy silence. Are you okay with that? Okay with a marriage that has quietly gone cold. Okay with the health you keep meaning to deal with. Okay with the bank account, the cluttered house, the friendships that faded while you weren't looking. Nobody falls off a cliff. We slide. Shannon and Joy talk honestly about the slow fade that turns a life lukewarm one small compromise at a time, and about the verse Shannon says haunts her more than any other: "God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble" (1 Peter 5:5).Then comes the question underneath all the others. If Jesus came back today and you didn't go with Him, would you be okay with that?This isn't an episode about shame. It's an episode about honesty, and about what becomes possible the moment you finally say out loud, "No. I'm not okay with that." Because that's when the better question shows up: Lord, what's my next step?

Ways to Connect:

Website: JourneyLivingMinistries.com

Email: shannon@journeyliving.org

Facebook: Journey Living Ministries

Instagram: Journey Living Ministries

YouTube: @Journeyliving2911

Also on Spotify Apple Music iHeart Radio

Find Joy:

Website: BootCampForTheBlues.com

Facebook: JoyWareMiller - iJoyInspirations

Be honest: if everything you're working for went through the fire today, what would survive? Shannon and Joy are not playing around in this one! They're digging into Matthew 6:33 and calling out the lie so many of us have believed for years: that performance equals love. From people-pleasing to ministry burnout to chasing likes, follows, and parking spots with our name on them, this conversation is the loving heart check we all need. If you've ever felt guilty because you can't drag yourself out of bed for a 4:30 a.m. quiet time after being up all night with littles, get ready to exhale. God sees your season, and He's not asking for a two-hour war room. Sometimes "seek Him first" is a whispered thank-you over a warming bottle at 3 a.m. So grab your coffee and lean in. This episode will free you, refocus you, and remind you what's actually worth your one beautiful life. Because when it's all said and done, the only thing going to heaven with you... is each other.

Ways to Connect:

Website: JourneyLivingMinistries.com

Email: shannon@journeyliving.org

Facebook: Journey Living Ministries

Instagram: Journey Living Ministries

YouTube: @Journeyliving2911

Also on Spotify Apple Music iHeart Radio

Find Joy:

Website: BootCampForTheBlues.com

Facebook: JoyWareMiller - iJoyInspirations

It's so easy to look at someone else's life — her marriage, her ministry, her bank account — and wonder why your hands feel so empty. But Shannon and Joy want you to look again. In this warm, honest conversation, they talk about the exhaustion of comparison, the danger of expecting a spouse, a friend, or even a pastor to be your savior, and the fear that keeps so many of us burying the gifts God has already given us. Walking through the parable of the talents in Matthew 25 — with a detour through a half-marathon, a frozen hip flexor, and a friend who refused to leave anyone behind — they land on a challenge that will stay with you all week: "You can be pitiful or you can be powerful, but you can't be both." If you've ever felt too old, too ordinary, or too far behind to matter, this episode is God's gentle reminder that what He placed in your hands is exactly what He intends to use.

Website: JourneyLivingMinistries.com Email: shannon@journeyliving.org Facebook: Journey Living Ministries Instagram: Journey Living Ministries YouTube: @Journeyliving2911 Also on Spotify Apple Music iHeart Radio Find Joy: Website: BootCampForTheBlues.com Facebook: JoyWareMiller - iJoyInspirations

Some days the loudest voice in your head isn't yours — and it isn't God's. It's the one insisting nothing will ever change, and you're not enough. So how do you tell the difference? In this episode of Joy in The Journey, Joy and Shannon get honest about the thoughts that torment us and the God who offers perfect peace instead. They share the simple, steadying practice that has carried them through grief and despair: three questions to hold every thought up against — "God, is this You? What do You want me to know? What do You want me to do?" Because the enemy is the father of lies, and anything that sounds like condemnation, hopelessness, or shame did not come from the One who is Life. They talk about taking every thought captive to the cross, why "getting consumed by Jesus" is a daily choice and not a Sunday one. Scripture references: Isaiah 26:3 • 2 Corinthians 10:5 • 2 Corinthians 11:14 • John 8:44 • Deuteronomy 30:19 • John 3:16 Ways to Connect: Website: JourneyLivingMinistries.com Email: shannon@journeyliving.org Facebook: Journey Living Ministries Instagram: Journey Living Ministries YouTube: @Journeyliving2911 Also on Spotify Apple Music iHeart Radio Find Joy: Website: BootCampForTheBlues.com Facebook: JoyWareMiller - iJoyInspirations

"It's a comparison kind of day." If we're honest, most of us have days like that too. One scroll and suddenly your body, your marriage, your house, and your ministry all feel like they came up short. In this raw episode, Joy and Shannon pull the comparison trap into the light. They talk about why social media — and now AI-perfect faces that never wrinkle — is the number one fuel for it, how grief made the scroll unbearable, and why comparison is really rooted in the oldest sin there is: pride. Even Lucifer, the most beautiful angel of all, decided it still wasn't enough. The freedom comes in one shift: stop measuring your hand against someone else's. You may walk into a room and feel outdone — but you can still hear "well done" by being faithful with exactly what God put in your hands (Matthew 25). They dig into contentment, the difference between admiring people and envying them, and why the two who finally reached the Promised Land got there on attitude, not comparison. Be faithful with your one. Cheer on everybody else's five. You are fearfully and wonderfully made — so quit picking on what God called good. Scriptures references: Psalm 139:14 • Matthew 25:14–30 • Philippians 4:11–13 • Numbers 13–14 • Luke 24:13–35 Ways to Connect: Website: JourneyLivingMinistries.com Email: shannon@journeyliving.org Facebook: Journey Living Ministries Instagram: Journey Living Ministries YouTube: @Journeyliving2911 Also on Spotify Apple Music iHeart Radio Find Joy: Website: BootCampForTheBlues.com Facebook: JoyWareMiller - iJoyInspirations

A retired first responder stopped Shannon at a kids' ballgame just to say the show had been meeting him right where he was. That's the whole heart of this episode: however you found it, God knew you'd need it. Joy and Shannon get honest about a quiet danger of modern life — we've made everything so instant (DoorDash, one-click, answers on demand) that we can go days without ever feeling our need for God. "I've got this." "I don't need Him — I already have everything I want." It's one of the enemy's most subtle schemes: keep life so convenient and comfortable that you forget Who you're actually depending on. With a lot of laughter and a few grandkids' stories (carry me, carry me…), they talk about why God sometimes lets us wait — not because He's distant, but because He loves us too much to cripple us. They land in Psalm 23 ("I shall not want"), the Israelites' manna and murmuring, and the courage of Caleb and Joshua — two out of two million who believed God. The charge: be one of the two. Lord, we need You — every hour.

Scripture references: Psalm 23:1–3 • Psalm 8:4 • Galatians 5:22–23 • Numbers 13–14 • Matthew 18:12–14

Ways to Connect: Website: JourneyLivingMinistries.com Email: shannon@journeyliving.org Facebook: Journey Living Ministries Instagram: Journey Living Ministries YouTube: @Journeyliving2911 Also on Spotify Apple Music iHeart Radio Find Joy: Website: BootCampForTheBlues.com Facebook: JoyWareMiller - iJoyInspirations

"I don't want to talk about this." That's how Joy opens — and honestly, most of us feel the same way about pain. So we numb it, cover it, and build beautiful glass houses to look fine while we're bleeding on the inside. In this real, raw, tender episode, Joy and Shannon sit in the truth we keep running from: the healing hurts. By His stripes we are healed — but healing, like surgery, often hurts more on the back side than the wound ever did. They talk about why we lick our wounds instead of letting them close, the "skim coats" we slap over the cracks in our foundation (a new car, a new haircut, a fresh start), and the difference between numbing pain and actually being made well. Shannon shares the unforgettable story of her daughter Bailey's 30 days in a burn unit — and what it taught her about letting the Great Physician tend the wounds we'd rather hide. And she opens up about her own season of being set aside to finally heal, because you can't climb off the operating table mid-surgery and expect to be whole. Wherever your pain is today: don't run from it. Lean into Him. Scripture references: Isaiah 53:5 • Jeremiah 30:17 • Isaiah 43:2 • John 5:1–9 • Matthew 11:28 Ways to Connect: Website: JourneyLivingMinistries.com Email: shannon@journeyliving.org Facebook: Journey Living Ministries Instagram: Journey Living Ministries YouTube: @Journeyliving2911 Also on Spotify Apple Music iHeart Radio Find Joy: Website: BootCampForTheBlues.com Facebook: JoyWareMiller - iJoyInspirations