The Road Home | Sarah and Isabell Bowling | EP 133

where we talk about the impact of prayer in God's Word. Welcome to another episode of iRefresh. Glad to have with me wonderful friends Sarah and Isabella Bulling. Welcome. Yay. Hello, Cheryl. We are so happy to be here. It is great to have you. You guys are always fun, bubbly. Someday I'll get up there to see you guys. We had a great opportunity a while back on episode 124 of our Fresh podcast where we had an incredible journey of talking about your first collaboration of a book called The Road to Wholeness. And loved it so much. I thought it was so great. And what I wanted to find out is when you were writing this book, you kind of gave me a little hint behind the scenes that you were thinking of the sequel, which is The Road Home. Okay, tell me, what was it when you were writing before that made you think you might do a sequel? Such a great question. I knew that I wanted to do something with family because family was on my heart. And we had had a couple of collaboration, like sermons. We just couldn't really land on like one where we both felt like it fit the idea of family. And then mom had done a sermon on the prodigal son. And so in her own heart, that was kind of, I know, pinging. And so when we thought about family, finishing when we finished Road to Wholeness and we were even thinking about titles, right? So we were thinking about what to call the book because we didn't know what to call Road to Wholeness. And I thought, you know, it would be interesting if we did a couple books and we had like different roads. And I was like, if we did The Prodigal Son, we could do The Road Home. Mom was like, that's a good idea. And it just kind of fit into place. I think, too, for me, I had been reading, and I tend to read slowly and with a lot of repetition, kind of to sink deep into these various parables, you know. And so Good Samaritan, I think, is Luke 12. And lo and behold, the prodigal son is Luke 15. So you could tell there is a time lapse in that. But I was excited. I was really excited because I just felt like as I read The Prodigal Son, because it's a very common parable. I mean, but I just I felt like it's relevant and same for the road, the wholeness. It's relevant. Trauma is every single person. Family is every single person. And so I was like, you know, I love and I love that Jesus did these stories because the stories are inherently sticky, you know. And we relate and we connect. I mean, you watch character, character development, the whole thing. And so I was just really excited about it because I just think it's, they're timeless. They're universal. And you can talk to anybody back in 800 AD. You can talk to anybody in Liberia, you know, who knows where, but everybody has these issues. If you haven't gotten a copy yet, this is going to really entice you that because I'm going to give you a little blurps, people out there, is the road to wholeness was, yes, the Samaritan, the good Samaritan. But how cool is it when we start to read the road home is the tie in that Isabel has with her storyline? I thought, how creative is this? to intertwine these two books was fascinating. And so I was enjoying hearing how that was going to happen because you kind of gave me a hint that that was going to happen. So it was fun when I saw us immerse into one of the characters from the book one that And just the creativity, I have to say kudos to you. Wonderfully well done. Thank you. Thank you. It was all honestly divinely inspired. Well, like, so what was it when you were writing book one that all of a sudden you're like, that can carry over? Curious. Yes. So if you remember from book one, mom had originally written the characters. And when she had written the fiction, she had written in the potential for the prodigal son. But in her version, it was a different character. So in her version, the victim, whose name is Jerome in the first book, he had like an older brother. Yeah. And I remember reading it back through and I was looking at the characters and kind of making them my own and figuring out their personalities. And I was noticing that the so this is a little bit of a spoiler, I guess it's on the first page of the book. But the the bandit in the first book is the younger daughter in the road home. And I was reading through kind of her story and what she told the reporter in the first book. And my heart broke for her. And I was recognizing that feeling when I read The Prodigal Son and my heart broke for The Prodigal Son. And then I had this understanding of I cannot relate to the relationship between a father and sons. That's just not something that I'm familiar with because shocker, I'm not a son, but I can relate to the relationship between a mother and a daughter. And there's a scene in Road to Wholeness where the mother and the older daughter kind of have a tender moment. And I was like, wait a second. I wonder if we could play into that kind of relationship. And you think on the outside, it's kind of this like tender, beautiful thing. But inside the mind of the older daughter, she is like, what can I do right? How can I make it up to my mother? And that's very much the older son mentality in the parable. And so things just kind of fell into place while I was writing. And then the continuation. So the first book is kind of like true crime because I was watching a lot of true crime when I wrote it. The second book is a lot to do with courtroom drama because I was watching a lot of courtroom shows. And so it just plays into... It kind of works out perfectly. Now we're watching fantasy, science fiction. So it's going to be my favorite alien. My favorite Martian. Oh, my gosh. It'll be out of this world. So I'm expecting, okay, so that being a case, so when there's a book three, what storyline, what parable are you going to have some old son from the courtroom into space? I don't know. boy that's a cliffhanger isn't it we we're not gonna give you the spoiler alert on that one oh my goodness come on i'm waiting for it come on we are too we'll see oh my gosh Think about it. Creation is very, very sophisticated. Well, like you got to go into different dimensions, right? I mean, it's, you know, like, you know, Marvel's got nothing on you on the multi-universal things. Come on, like you got to go there. And Doctor Strange, you know, like I do mommy and he kept coming back over and over. I can't. There's no redemption in that story. No, there's not. That's an endless cycle. So we're going to just not do that one. We'll tell you right now. But The Road Home is a great book. It's about family. Well, see, okay, so your roads are on Earth, but maybe your road heads somewhere else to another dimension. So work on that. Exactly. I like it. The road to heaven. Well, you know, Elijah, right? Elijah, you could talk about something related to his route to heaven, you know, or was it the stairway where we had an encounter? There's a lot of stories. I think that was Led Zeppelin. No, that was stairway to heaven. Hey, let's go promote it all, right? He probably needs a steroid. You might want to help him. He might have been the prodigal son. And it's interesting because we were both prodigals. No, no, it isn't so. Well, well, okay. Let's speak to that. Okay. So in your part of the story, Sarah, I'm going to have both of you talk on your segments here. You wrote on the section to explain your idea about the different characters where you gave backstories to, because those don't necessarily, do they tie into the part where Isabel talks to? Yeah. Explain maybe your part where you're giving the different character breakdowns. Yeah, so I think in The Prodigal Son, I mean, you only have three characters, basically. That's not entirely true. You have cameos, like you have the villagers, you have the servants. Definitely talk about the servants. Yes. And you have the party friends. You have the citizen in the foreign country that he attaches to. So you do have these little cameo appearances, but the key players in the whole story are the father, the younger son, and the older son. Yeah. And so as they relate to the allegory that Isabel wrote, I think Isabel did a really masterful job looking at those key figures and what does that look like. And the story that you created around it was pretty, I was like, wow, that was really cool. I liked it. It's a little dark. Yeah, but I liked it. I thought it was really good. But I really like those characters because I think Jesus selected those three for all of us to think about, who am I? You know, am I the younger son? Am I the older son? Am I the chasing father? And, you know, in the Jewish tradition, this parable is called the chasing father, not the prodigal son, which makes a whole lot of sense because the father is a hero for both boys. So I think it's really thought-provoking, and I think if you sit with it for a little bit and you ask Holy Spirit to talk to you and lead you into truth, is there some prodigal? Is there places and spaces in our lives where we distance ourselves from our Heavenly Father? And the rhetorical answer is no, but I'm never satisfied with rhetorical. Cheryl, you know me better than that. And one of the hard times that I had with writing the character of the father, which is a mother is I just realized like nobody can write a character like Jesus wrote himself in the Bible and like his heavenly father. And so I kind of stopped trying. And instead of trying to write the character of the mother, like I would imagine, I just thought about how even my own parents reacted in my season of prodigalness. And so I wanted it to be relatable to parents going through seasons of prodigal families, just because I feel like you know, you can very easily lose hope in those seasons. But the way that my parents treated me and even the way that my heavenly father treated me when I came back into, you know, his arms, I just tried to recreate that as best as possible in one character. It really is a powerful story, the way in which... I think both, both of you highlighted, and I want to give that away because each of you, the way that you shared each of the different characters and like the, that the cultural backstory of the role of the firstborn, I didn't know that. And I don't necessarily think we should probably give that away. I think they should read about it. It's so good though. It's such a powerful thing that I didn't know about. And I'm like, wow. I'm like, Wow, where was the firstborn? Like he was supposed to be present on some different places. And then the other part though, I thought with Isabel, when your story, like I was in tears and you shouldn't read a book in public. You shouldn't, you should have warned me. I should not read it in public. Cause I'm like, all of a sudden I'm like, It was such a moving experience to walk through what the father was going through and that passion that helps us to realize that redeeming story that we all like you guys have spoken about how we all relate to it. So powerful. So, well, I thought both of you, the way you highlighted culture to have a greater understanding of the parable, but then, Isabel, how you were able to give such depth and the restoration of relationship was beautiful. Just love that. Thank you. It speaks to both of our characteristics, too, and our personalities. It's true. Yeah. Well, I mean, I think I'm curious because you mentioned, Isabel, too, about each of you kind of have a part of that prodigal. I really think the most important thing, not the most important, two things is it is very relatable today, is we have so much things going on in so many families. I think we all can say if it wasn't in our own family at some point, it's been around us. We're praying for prodigals. The encouraging thing that you guys are talking about too is that there is an incredible message of hope. This is a book that I saw hope being restored, hope for don't give up. Continue to be consistent and faithful with where God has you for loving that person. And I'd love you guys to both give us, give your thoughts towards what is it you see in the prodigal and the father that would bring hope to the audience? Yeah, so one thing that I purposefully kind of wrote into the story was the character of the prodigal decides to come back home, but a significant amount of time elapses from between the decision and when she actually comes back home. And that was written on purpose because sometimes you really don't know what's in the heart of your prodigal child. And you don't know where they're at on their journey. And they can be on their way home. And they can be, you know, like stopped on their way, walking away and deciding. And so it really kind of wrote hope in my own heart. And then also the older daughter just like... coming to terms with her own inadequacy and her own brokenness. And the, the, both of the characters, their safe place was back with their mom. And so just encouraging parents to continue to be that safe space, because you really have no idea where your kids are at. You know, every parent thinks they know everything about their kids. No, like you have no idea sometimes what your kids are going through, but they always need a safe space, a landing pad. And, um, You just never know when they're going to need you the most to be that safe space. I think, too, the other thing for me is, you know, and I've been kind of ruminating a little bit on this whole, at the end of Romans 8, it says, nothing separates us from the love of God. You know, and he gives two lists. He gives kind of like earthly things, tribulation, distress, persecution, and, you know, Nakedness, famine, sword, peril. That's one list. And then the second list is neither life nor death, neither angels nor principalities, powers, neither height nor depth, nor the present, nor the future, nor any created thing can separate you. from the love of the father. And I think that's, I ultimately think that's the whole, the whole objective with the, the parables here in the prodigal son is that your father, your heavenly father loves you. And no matter you can't earn more love, any more than you can lose love you can't change god i mean god is who god is and regardless of what we do or we don't do it doesn't change god and it doesn't change god loving us and god chasing us and and i think you see it with both of these the boys in the in the parable one was so good that he excluded himself and kept himself away from god Every bit as much prodigal, but just for a different reason. And then the other side is, you know, the one who is the reprobate and the party dude. He kept himself away. And even when he came back, he's like, I'm not worthy to be your son. Make me your sir. I mean, so they each had their own reasons for distance. Yeah. But I love that the Father, again, it's the Father who chases us and constantly chases us and chases us because of who the Father is, not for anything we did or we didn't do. But specifically because of who the Father, the characteristic, the design of, and the Father. And I love that we're created. in the image of God, but also as God's son, as God's daughter. And so I think that that's kind of the ground zero is nothing separates us from the love of the father, period. Well said. So powerful. You know, when you like these are the stories that are so pivotal today. that, gosh, we need this story of hope. This is like a thing that I think resonates in almost every other household, if not every household. And you're right, it's the relatability. And I love, though, that the angle you're talking about is more of the father's chasing that. And it almost reminds me of, you know, how in David Dance, you know, he was indignified. It was talked about. It's like, I almost feel like that's where the father was. Like he went against protocol and stature and culture, right? It was because of that pursuit that God has. And I don't think we have full revelation, even the way you're describing that, is we have full understanding of how passionate the Heavenly Father is in that relationship he wants with each of us. I mean, look at the person of Jesus Christ. It is wildly inappropriate that God would come down onto earth, shed his divinity and die on a cross, a sinner's death. Like that's super like... almost obscene. Like you would never even have thought of like God doing that, the creator of the universe who had a snap of his fingers could have left the cross. But like, that's the love of the father that he sent his son, that he chose to come down to earth. And then demonstrates, right? I mean, think about all the unsavory characters and he even picked Judas to be one of his father, right? The one who betrays like, and knew that Judas, and this is, I've been chewing on this today, even, you know, Judas betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver, but, Back up the train. Jesus gave Judas charge of all the money, like the money bag for the collections. And knowing full well that the money was kind of the weak spot for Judas. And I'm like, I think there's... Jesus wants to redeem, wants to... show us our own frailty, our own humanity, and redeem that. But there can't be redemption without some truth to it. So I don't know. I just think I watch Jesus and what he does and how he acts. I mean, I've been reading in Luke 13 now about the woman who was bent over for 18 years, and Jesus heals her on the Sabbath in the synagogue, and that's like outrage. His existence demonstrates such outrageous love. Right. It's just phenomenal. Well, I'm hearing that maybe Jesus is a rebel because he literally goes against everything cultural, every traditional cultural statute, law or whatever, he breaks it. I think he's kind of a little defiant. You know, which is kind of hopeful for the people that have that tendency towards, you know, we all have those moments. But you know what I think it is, though? I think it's when we're trying to discover and find our own self and our own identity on what we are wanting to become and seeing where our value is. And there's just so many different things we have to explore on our own to really to come to that. I mean, I think there's a greater understanding and appreciation for the love of the Father. When we try to do everything we can to pull away from that, and yet he is still not willing to let go. And I think that's the real emphasis I would love for us to really, as we're talking about that, is what would you each want to say to those who might be listening that are in a place where, from the standpoint of the parent that is praying and trying everything they can to love the prodigal? how can you encourage them? So first of all, sometimes there is religious trauma and we have to be really aware that sometimes people have deep rooted hurts from church that can't be solved with more church. They need to be solved with the love of the father first so that the people can fall back in love with the father. They can fall back in love with his body and, and really work to make it better. And so the first of all, the solution isn't going back to church. The solution is a relationship with Jesus. And oftentimes those things go hand in hand, but it is critical that we remind our prodigal sons and daughters that number one, they always have a place in our home at our table. I mean, I have some friends and their son was highly addicted to drugs. And they said, you're always welcome home for a hot meal and a shower, but you're not allowed to stay here and you can't show up high, right? And that's... Totally fine. Their son knew there's a place for me at home in my right mind where there's safety and comfort and I'll be fed and I'll have a shower. Um, and that's, that was the way they love their son. And I mean, it turned out really well. He came back to the Lord and, um, you know, for my mom, my mom's always been a safe person. And she used to tell me when I was a kid, if I catch you doing something, you're going to be in a lot more trouble than if you tell me that you did it. Right. And that really sets up. that spirit of truthfulness and of honesty. And when we look at prodigals and we only see the sin, we're not seeing how Jesus sees them. And so when you look at your prodigal son, your prodigal daughter, your prodigal niece, nephew, whatever, when Jesus looks at them, who does he see? And asking him to remind you of that and really call out the truth of their identity. You are loved, you are treasured, you are valuable to Jesus. You are not your sin. You are not the decisions that you make. What you are is so loved. You belong here. You belong in the family. And I think for parents that have kids that aren't necessarily serving God right now, you know, I just think it's really important to, number one, keep your focus on Jesus and not cogitate on your kids. And it's easy, right? You're worried. What are they doing? Where are they? The choices they're making. Yeah. So I think first and foremost, you have to come to the appreciation that your son, your daughter is actually God's son, God's daughter. And God actually loves them even more than you do. And God knows them even better than you do. And so I think it's really important to keep, number one, our eyes on Jesus. But number two, I think it's really important to... There's pieces to it where I think as a parent, we tend to blame ourselves. Well, I screwed up, I didn't parent well, these are my failures, and that's why my kid has lost the plot. And there could be some truth for sure to it. And so I think you have to kind of do your own assessment with God and forgive yourself. And if you can, ask your kids to forgive you. But I also think the shame piece of it, you know, if when the kids come back around, it's really important that we don't shame them, that we don't. tear them down or, you know, I'm disappointed in you or some of that stuff. I think those things are not constructive and not helpful. Um, or if they come back and they're like, well, you know, started going to church. Well, it's about time, you know, that it's not helpful. And some of that you just have to kind of catch yourself and keep your lips and nod your head and be supportive. And there are things that you might want to say that wouldn't be constructive and helpful. So you just have to really be conscientious. Sometimes silence is golden, just like the movie theaters. Watching your kids' life play out as a movie. Well, you know, but I think keep praying and keep your eyes on Jesus. And I think at the end of the day, you know, our own personal relationship with Jesus, we have to keep that front and center. That has to be the crosshairs, personal. And our kids, we love them and we pray for them. But again, it's like individually. And God doesn't really have grandchildren. God has children. So yeah. We have to keep that in mind too. That's powerful. That's so good. You know, in closing, one thing I would like to find out from each of you is what is the goal you have that you want people to take away from reading The Road Home? And who is it for? Yeah. So for me, I mean, I wrote it for every overachiever and every prodigal who is trying to find their way in the world and who's there's the overwhelming weight of the world is kind of crushing them for whatever reason. So anybody, the verse that keeps coming to my mind, even as I think about this is where Jesus says, come to me, all you are weary and heavy burdened for me. Take my yoke upon you for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. And whether the pressures of life are on you or the character or she is really struggling with addiction, one of the characters. And if that addiction is overwhelming and overpowering, come to Jesus with it. And you almost have to force yourself to let him take it and just come to the father. Because what he has for you is so much easier than what the world has for you and even what you might have for yourself in your own mind. And I think for me, my hope would be and my prayer would be that each person who reads this experiences the love of our father for them, no matter where they're at in their journey in life, no matter the highs, lows, whatever it is. And not only sensing the father loving them, but also seeing themselves as an agent of God's love, of our father's love. That the Father can be loving through us and not just to us. And so I think that would be the key thing. If there's any takeaway, that's what I would want, is that deep abiding. You know, I think it's in Ephesians 3, rooted and grounded in love. That's... I think if we really can drill down in that and have identity in that as God's son, God's daughter. First, oh my goodness, 1 John 3.16. Consider the quality of the Father's love that we should be called God's children. And that is who we are. Holy buckets. If that gets in us... Man. Revelation. We can write. Yeah, it's all golden. Oh, yeah. That's good. What a powerful tool that can be used right here is a book can be more than just a book. I think both of you sharing the significance of what this book can do. It's really a place of wholeness and healing. Now, you know, I think you really just have to have both books because it's a really part of it's a continuation. It's from different perspectives. And but I think, you know, one of the things I'd love you guys just to share with us is how can they get what are the couple of ways that you would like to get a copy of the books? Yes, you can get it at our website, MarilynandSarah.org. You can also get it wherever you get books. Amazon. Amazon, Barnes & Noble, all those places. But yeah, make sure you follow us on social media. I know we're offering some free copies. So make sure you're following us on social media. We have some giveaways scheduled. Nice. Yep, that's exactly right. That's great. And then the other part I feel like is really helpful is I would suggest people go directly to their website because if you do request them to give you an autographed copy. So I think that would be like the special bonus is that they've signed a copy for it. Just saying. And actually, they probably get a better cut of the book, to be honest with you. Going direct, it might take you about three extra steps, but it's worth it. And you should stay more connected with the ministry. A lot of things that they are ongoing doing to make a difference in the community, they are there. But it's actually... things that they're doing internationally, I think people need to be more aware of it. So definitely like Isabel, you're saying is get connected with your social media and the website. There's a lot of great things from the podcast, the different things that you guys are always doing. It's so profound. So I thank you so much for sharing both your talents for the teaching and the storytelling to really bring it to real life. It was really powerful. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to be here. We love you, Cheryl. We think you're awesome. All right. You're the bomb diggity. Bless you guys.