Showing Love to the Unloved | Go M.A.D. | Hutchcraft Ministries

Jesse:
Hey friends, Jesse here, producer for Go Mad with Doug and Brad. Today for the first time we have all three Hutchcraft siblings on one episode. Lisa Hutchcraft Whitmer joins Doug and Brad to discuss practical everyday ways to show the love of Jesus to the people around you who need it most. Lisa is somewhat of an expert when it comes to being a make-a-difference presence in the community, so you may want to take notes in this one. Ready? Let's go mad

Brad:
Welcome back everyone to another episode of Go Mad with Doug and Brad. We're glad to have you back with us. Of course, I have got Doug here.

Hi Brad. And I've got Jesse on the other side of the glass. Hi, Brad.

Hi Jesse. Hi, Doug. They're they're much better.

Well, I am uh really excited because today our podcast is gonna be, you know, we're about to cross over Valentine's Day. This episode will cross over there and everything. But this episode is going to be much more than about Valentine's Day.

So if you hear that mention, be like, oh, it's March. I should turn this off. No, you shouldn't, because we have a very special guest.

We'll introduce her in just a couple of minutes, but she is going to share three very practical ways to encourage someone in your life. who isn't feeling loved right now. And maybe you're that person and you'll be encouraged by what we share today.

So don't make sure you stick with us because it's going to be an incredible episode today.

Doug:
We are talking about like real love today, like love in action. Think of that. Think of maybe the uh a person that you know that just has been struggling in a big way. You go I wonder if there's anything I could do to make a difference to be an ambassador or representative uh for Jesus in their life. We're gonna give you some ideas about that today.

Brad:
Now I well I gotta start with an important question here. Yes, sir Favorite or least favorite Valentine's Day candy. Oh boy.

Doug:
Go.

Brad:
Doug? Jesse?

Doug:
Those hard, those little hard candies that you got when you were in elementary school, it's like I choo choot choose you.

Brad:
So you're saying you love them or not?

Doug:
No, I can't stand them. I I I like bit off or or I broke like nine of my baby teeth on those things.

Brad:
Oh no, you kept our dentist in good business with those. That was I make dentists make those things. I equate those to the uh Cadbury eggs at Easter.

I can't I can't handle those. They're both so sweet. Uh Jesse, how about you?

Jesse:
Are you talking about the ones that are chalky? Oh yeah. No, when I was a kid, th I remember distinctly that candy and they had the little the little sayings on the top.

It said fax me. It actually said It said fax me. Fax me.

You know it said like Love You or whatever and fax me.

Brad:
Oh my goodness.

Jesse:
I got that in third grade.

Doug:
I could eat those. I could eat those Cadbury eggs until I saw that commercial where a bunny was apparently birthing the eggs? No, no. I No, that had to be w that's the only logical conclusion.

Brad:
There was a lion and there is a b I don't know. We're gonna get we'll cover that around Easter how to do that.

Doug:
I don't think I can eat these anything. You you think of um when you hear my name, probably the top way to describe me Do I can I start? No, I'm gonna do this for you.

I don't trust you to do it. Uh would be a romantic, right? Oh, that's that's on a list.

That is on a list. I mean I hopeless you know th that hopeless people say that person's a hopeless romantic what does that mean anyway? Oh they just usually say I'm hopeless

Brad:
I didn't I never get that other part actually.

Doug:
So I can't stop watching rom-coms. Hopeless romantic. But see, I'm okay, I'm from northern New Jersey.

We've actually actually all of us are here and The thing with me is when I start to get I I've been told when I start to get excited, some of my accent comes back. Oh, totally. So like when I start to get passionate.

And so like, you know, I I've been married for 27 years. I'm still very passionate about my awesome wife. But I so apparently when I get excited, I'm like, oh, can I get you some flowers?

You like flowers? I sound like Rocky and Adrian apparently. I don't know.

I mean I write a song for Anna like every Christmas just for her So so I'm like, uh, you know, I've I've got this this vision of myself, Mr. Romance here. So Anna the other day is saying, you know what would be so romantic for Valentine's Day this year. And I, you know, I do the I I try to be creative, you know, I do the flowers and all that, but other things, and and I'm like, Oh what, honey?

What would be romantic? She goes, um, wallpaper. Wallpaper.

Have I missed something? Is that like the 27th anniversary thing? I know like the 20th anniversary is something silver or

Brad:
I don't know if here's a little hint to that, by the way. Uh the uh Make a Difference Marriage, our last episode, that marriage part is not the gift isn't just the wallpaper. You gotta put it up. I mean you've got to put it up and that's not gonna go well.

Doug:
I think we want it to actually stay on the wall. So what happens at thirty years? An air fryer? I mean this is that is this what happens when you get past 25 years of wallpaper.

Brad:
30 years, I will take an air fryer.

Doug:
I am I'm good. Actually, that is very romantic. So, all right, so today we're talking about how To love people who are struggling.

Brad:
Yeah. We all have them in our lives. Because this month everyone's talking about love and everything, and that's in the air all the time. You've got all the these couples, married couples, people dating, everything else And and it you sometimes lose focus on there are people who are hurting around us and not feeling loved.

Doug:
Yeah, and it doesn't take long to when you're at your workplace, at your school on your sports team, even on social media, you'll see friends that are dealing with all sorts of stuff Especially these days, man. And you know, the very first verse, for some reason, when we started talking about this about this that I thought of was that whole mourn with people who mourn. Uh and and because that sounds like serious love in action to me, but I'm like, that's always been kind of a weird verse to me because I'm like, well, how how can you I mean the person who actually had someone close to them die or go through something awful, they're the ones mourning, how do I do that It's interesting because uh the context of that verse, like right before it are all those verses a lot of us have heard about offer your bodies as living sacrifices.

Um the body of Christ is one body, many parts. Each one, this one is pretty deep, each part of the body belongs to one another. So apparently that means if I'm putting this together right, loving someone, uh mourning with them, rejoicing with them, like the Bible says, it has something to do with giving of yourself that when you're actually show when it's actually love in action and you're loving someone who's struggling, it's gonna cost you something.

Brad:
Well and I have to tell you that as we welcome in our guest Now, this is someone who we know very well. Uh, it is our sister, Lisa Hutchcraft Whitmer, and uh Lisa is someone that When you talk about love in action, I'm we're just being straight up with you. If you know her, if you follow her on social media, if you've seen some of the videos she shares of encouragement, if you may be someone that has been blessed directly by her.

her love in action. That is Lisa. She over and over again, she showed it to us growing up all the time.

I mean, she let me have her room when she went to college. I mean that was a that was huge right there. It was pink.

But it was huge. And so she loved us growing up, but she lives that out every day. When we talk about being an ambassador for Christ.

I the f I'm just being totally honest that Lisa's name, Lisa's face jumps to the top of that list because of her make a difference heart. Well when we

Doug:
When we research guests for the show, you know, last week we had Pastor Ted Cunningham on because he's an expert in family relationships. We go, who is the person we know who is the expert in this. And I mean, it's not just brothers being nice about a sister.

I mean, Lisa literally is on like the front page of our local newspaper here. I'm serious. Like she recently uh she recently brought a a bunch of care packages to frontline workers, COVID frontline at the hospital.

And and somehow the paper heard about it and and so her example of love in action affected them. She loved them. And then everybody who read that went, hey, there's an idea.

Here's someone, here's a way I can love an action. So we're excited to talk to Lisa Hutchcraft Whitmer today. Lisa, welcome to the podcast.

Lisa:
Oh hey, thanks for having me, you guys. You know, I am your older sister, so I I always hope I treated you kindly enough, and I guess I did because I'm honored to be invited to be on your pod

Brad:
Are you kidding me?

Doug:
You you loved us. You bought me baseball cards when I was like massively addicted to them as a twelve year old.

Brad:
Of course you love us. And we didn't even mention Lisa plays a big role in the ministry here but the reason we didn't mention titles and everything is because for her it is about a make a difference heart but she's been with Ron Hutchcraft Ministries from the get-go and uh plays a huge role here. But Lisa, you are, like we said, you know people who are hurting.

You know people who, and in fact, you've got a special radar. Uh honestly, for people who aren't feeling loved. You you read between the lines on a Facebook status or an Instagram post.

You you hear from people by a text or whatever and you just have a sense that this person needs some someone to love on them and uh talk to us about that.

Lisa:
Well, and sometimes, yes, there are people all around us who uh are having hard times and my goodness in uh over recent years even some of that has become even deeper for people and I think we have to have eyes to stop and look around us for that And sometimes there are not people who are obviously they're not aching and hurting, but there might be a underlying thing and then something happens in their days or their year and it brings something more to the surface and sometimes they just need encouragement. And they might not realize they need encouragement. There are times that I've been fine, but in in life, but it seems like someone did something. It's like, wow, that really touched me that really encouraged me and it wasn't necessarily hurting badly.

Brad:
And Lisa, you're gonna share some practical ways, but what I just heard from you there is something that's really key because you mentioned that maybe they're having rough day, rough week, or rough spot in their year. But that means you're invested in people. That's not something that you just all of a sudden are like, oh, all of a sudden I see someone hurting or whatever. You're Well, you're talking about what I hear is it's important to be invested in people's lives to stay in touch with them. So first of all, you can know when they're maybe going through something like that.

Lisa:
Yes, and I do think there's a big word with this called intentional. And I think if we are not intentional about relationships with followers of Jesus and intentional about relationships with people who are not a follower of Jesus yet. That is Very important because we can't reach out to other people if we are not intentional about relationship.

Doug:
Oh, that is Lisa. How do you uh I mean that's that's pretty huge what you said as believers It's it's I mean to even know that someone is struggling with something, you have to at least have a level of interest, of genuine interest in them. we're with with beyond just the how you doin' question.

I remember dad would would tell him, hey, if you really want to know how somebody's doing, ask the follow-up. Everyone will always say, like the first question, how you doing? Oh fine, I'm doing great.

If you ask Are you sure? A lot of the time you will get, well, actually this is happening, so you care enough to do that, but Lise, you just said I it's I think it's it's easier as believers to see when a uh another believer is going through something. Can you talk a little bit about How you invest in the life of somebody who is not a believer.

You just mentioned that, and and showing love to someone who isn't a believer. So many people, so many Christians these days, barely have relationships with anybody outside of their Christian friends, even though the word says that that it's our responsibility to go and be an ambassador to for Jesus to people who don't have him. So can you touch on that a little bit?

Lisa:
Yes, and I do have to say I'm a big believer in I and our parents modeled this so much, but a big believer in what you said of asking the second question because When you ask the second question and I I'll just say something like, Oh, that doesn't sound real convincing when they're like, Oh, I'm doing well or doing fine or whatever and I'll just say that's not really convincing and it seems like so much of the time you ask that second question and everything comes gushing out. It's like people are so on the brink and on the edge that if someone Just but that means time, and we're a very hurried culture. And we know if we ask another question, it's going to cost us time.

And maybe money. And so and though jumping into reaching out to someone who's not a follower of Jesus yet, who's not a believer in Jesus. There are so many ways to reach out.

If you think of within our churches, we have structure for if someone has a baby, you know, we can People bring meals. If someone is uh has cancer, people bring meals to help out. Uh a lot of people don't have that kind of structure who are not in a setting with community with other believers in Jesus.

So I think a big thing is they're on their own. Yes. And there are so many times we can reach out, but again It's called intentional about having relationships with lost people.

And there's some mixed feelings on this. Some people say, well, the Bible says we shouldn't uh you know, relate with people who uh don't you know with unbelievers. But if you look at the lifestyle of Jesus, I always go back to God's word.

Which is our guidebook for life, our guidebook for truth and living. And Jesus was intentional. He went out in the heat of the day.

to meet with a lady at a well, someone who is a they were hated people groups with each other. And he went and he talked with her and He calmly spoke truth to her. He wasn't finger in her face, but he spoke truth, but he had intentionality about connecting with her at that moment in time.

And that's just one example. Jesus also was, I'm real big on seeing how Jesus related to people on the fringes of life. And it's so easy, again, coming back to culture and what our the hurry in our life dictates, people in the fringes get overlooked.

Brad:
All right, so Lisa Hearing all that, and Jesus shows the model of intentionally reaching out to others, what are some just straight up practical ways people can do that in their lives right now? If they're like, I don't know how to do that, help me. How do we help them?

Lisa:
Well, I have three things I always think about. Number one, and I'll just give them quickly and then uh you know, but to pray because uh We need to stop and pray and get out of our everyday hurry and everyday rhythm so we can look outside ourselves. So stop and pray.

The second thing is focus. We've got to change our focus. Get our focus off ourselves.

Uh, family is a big priority for me, but we need to have a mission. A lot of times we've chosen as a family to have a mission to look outside ourselves often. So uh stop and pray.

Focus, we got to change our focus, which means looking around at who we can touch and reach out to. And then the third thing is to do. Basically, when God puts something on your heart, do it.

And the times I haven't, I've regretted it because that opportunity usually does not come again. And if we don't make the most of that moment, uh, here's an example. Someone loses a loved one.

They are um having a hard time walking through grief And there are so many ways where we can reach out. Here's just a handful of things for anything, whether it's someone uh experiencing a loss, someone who is uh walking through a hard time in life, maybe they have a broken relationship, maybe they have had that medical diagnosis. uh come through that they did not want to hear.

Maybe they have a broken relationship with a child, with a um a parent, uh another loved one, a broken relationship from uh a marriage. And when you look at something like this right now, like a Valentine's Day, even there are people all around us. I sat down, I stopped.

I prayed and I said, okay, who has walked through a divorce over this last year? Who has lost a husband or wife this last year. Um and there are so many names.

Who's having a hard time? uh during this time. Uh who's going through a new season of life and looking around, because this is how we have to find who we're going to reach out to.

And then we can Again, stop and pray and say, God, what do you want me to do? And what are those actions? Uh someone might be going through a new season of life, an empty nest.

Maybe their kindergartner has gone off to school of that sort of. You know, there's so many seasons Of life. And I can jump in.

I'll give just some examples of some real easy, tangible things. And guys, these are things that I do based on our family's budget from super cheap. To you can do whatever God puts on your heart.

Doug:
I'll do it. We want to hear this. I'm taking notes myself, man.

Yeah, we're writing things down here. I can't write fast enough right now. Tell us.

Yeah, give give some practical uh practical ideas.

Lisa:
I do believe we need to also be intentional about how we build this into our budget, whether we are single, a couple, or a family. And um I I'm gonna actually say something about my brother Doug right now. I know Doug's family built into their budget over the years.

His son has been in children's hospitals every now and then uh for some different medical issues and Doug I know would get great sales on toys for kids and donate them to either children at a children's hospital. or on a r in a reservation community somewhere and he built it into his budget. My husband and I will sometimes say, you know what, let's do less for us.

We don't do elaborate stuff for Valentine's Day really I think again that comes back to being intentional about our relationship with others on a daily basis. You know, it's not just a Valentine's Day thing. But here are some ideas just to throw out there for you can do for anybody, any season, any time um a a text, a note, a card, a Valentine for this.

I love here's one example for Valentine's Day. I sit there and I ended up coming up with and I'm still not done, but I dumped about a hundred and fifty Valentines in the mail just yesterday uh for people and we're talking to m Charlie Brown and Snoopy and Mickey Mouse Valentines. It's just the old school Throwback you guys.

Doug:
I just want to affirm that what you what you just said, even just about sending the Valentines and sending a text I think maybe there's there's someone listening today who doesn't understand, who doesn't know just how much of an impact something that seems so small to us, like just Just not a big deal. You send, I I sent a couple weeks ago a text to somebody. I try to send I every now and then a an encouraging text where I have a specific compliment for somebody I sent it to somebody, they sent me back a crying emoji.

I'm like, what's going on? Are you okay? And they said, you have no idea how much I needed to hear that today.

Because people just are, like you said, least people just aren't used to people taking their time and getting out of their own way and just the fact that you thought of somebody else. I I get a Valentine like that in the mail from from my friend Lisa. I get a text like that I go, okay, so you're telling me that as I'm hearing my little cocoon here and I'm feeling all alone and nobody cares, wait, I just got evidence that somebody cares.

I love that. And P I and the things it they might seem like small things. These these make a big difference.

Brad:
Now we have got it we've just got a couple minutes left here, Lisa, and you've got the Valentine's is one, but Roll off some others for us because we uh I know there are so many practical things you do. Keep hitting us with them.

Lisa:
How about something small like candy? How about brownies? You can leave Uh brownies on someone's porch whose family are all down with COVID.

Uh you can bring a meal, bring a coffee. A small gift, you can do coffee and a meal together, uh, a gift card. If you live far away, no excuse Because technology.

Here are just some examples. Get together through Zoom. Uh there are so many ways you can reach out to people.

I've used the tools of DoorDash. of grocery orders that deliver. They don't they don't deliver everywhere, some grocery places, but they do deliver a lot of places around our country.

Email a gift card. Do a little research. to a local coffee shop or restaurant and uh send something for like an anniversary to a local place or Um, how about you Venmo Money?

Five bucks for a cup of coffee, just because I'm thinking about you and I know this might be a tough season. Maybe it's babysitting, maybe it is just being And having presence with that person. And I don't oh we were talking about presence, P-R-E-S-E-N-T-S, but I mean presence P-R-E-S-E-N-C-E. Just being with that person.

And guys, there might be holiday specific gifts like a. chocolate dreidel to give a friend who maybe it's celebrating Hanukkah or who knows the possibilities are endless but first you gotta stop and pray Look around, change your focus, and then do whatever God puts on your heart to do. And then Doug, like you mentioned, even doing a Valentine. I threw this out on social media and said, hey, if you want to get a Valentine, let me know.

And uh one person messaged me and she said, it's been a long time.

Doug:
Whoa.

Lisa:
And so many people, our culture screams like with Valentine's Day, you're more valuable as a couple. And I we honestly don't handle singleness very well in our culture, but that's a whole nother thing. But if we can celebrate people and just send something that just says old school Remember grade school and this in Valentine's Day, and this goes for all life occasions.

Everyone got a Valentine. No one was really like Charlie Brown. missing out.

And that's the thing. If we can just make people feel special and valuable and each one of those Valentines I sent out is to the person's name. And I just wrote, You are special and valuable.

And they're so cheese whiz. But I hope it'll encourage a heart.

Doug:
Elise, you know, and this here's the thing. All these things that you're saying sound like something almost anyone can do. If you're not comfortable sending a Valentine's, okay, then drop off some Starbucks.

I I love You this I I don't know if I've heard more great advice in as short a time as I am here. I want to touch on something real quick. You said the first thing you gotta do is pray.

So what I love about that Jesus did that. When they tried to find Jesus in the morning, the disciples, oh, where's Jesus? He's talking to his father again.

Jesus himself was getting in alignment. with the Father at the beginning of the day, and at least it just when asking, Lord, who needs me today? He will show you.

And then you said, get focus off yourself. Great way to do that is to start thinking, how can I practically help somebody? And I love this.

This budgeting This budgeting thing, I call it a love budget. That's the first thing I'm here. What's our love budget this year?

But I'm not only I'm budgeting some money, I'm budgeting some time. This is I'm busy, I'm busy, I got the kids, I got my job and everything. Take a few minutes because here's the awesome thing, at least I know from your personal experiences how many times this has happened.

that when you are an ambassador for Christ to somebody who needs him, in is including and maybe especially someone who doesn't have him. They want to know what's different about you, and now you have an opportunity to share about your awesome Savior and how he can make you feel valuable and loved all the time.

Brad:
And I love the other thing that really stuck out to me, Lisa, that you shared before we wrap up here is just When God puts something on your heart, do it then. And following those spirit promptings is so key because it's so easy to forget. And that's something that I've really tried to put into practice in my own life even recently is hey, there's someone that needs me.

Well let's just do something about it. Let's it it doesn't take much and it doesn't take long. I agree, Brad.

Doug:
That's this has been awesome. Least Would you take a moment here and lead us in prayer for the people, someone who's listening right now, going, Man, I need to make more of a difference like this. They need to hear The who, they need to hear how, and they need to hear from the Lord on how to do it. Would you pray for those people?

Brad:
And for those who aren't feeling loved right now, who might be listening. Yeah, Lisa, if you could lead us in prayer, that would be awesome.

Lisa:
And here's a a verse before I pray from Ephesians 5. 16. This is why we do this, to make the most of every opportunity.

Because the days are evil. Jump down to verse 19. It says, speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.

I speak Psalms to followers of Jesus and people who do not know Jesus yet.

Jesse:
Wow.

Lisa:
Because it's not just other people. And let me uh go ahead and pray for Lord, we just ask that you will give us eyes to see, which are really eternity eyes, so we can look around us and say, Lord, who needs a touch from you? How can I encourage someone around me?

How can someone be left feeling special and loved and cared for? Around me. And Lord, we know our world world is full of people who are in different seasons of life.

And we pray that you would just help us to see those people around us, people who are uh widowed or uh newly divorced or uh heartbroken for whatever reason uh that single parent um the broken relationship, those who are sick, those who are um walking through really difficult seasons. Give us eyes to see them. Give us ways that are tangible where we can reach out to them.

Give us funds, Lord, where we can reach out. Um, give us wisdom on how to um step out and touch their lives. And um and just to help ultimately point people to you as well.

And Lord, we just thank you so much for a new day where we can make a difference for you in some way. And we thank you for this time together. Amen.

Doug:
Just as we're praying there, I just got an idea popped in my head, something I am going to do specifically that Lisa talked about. I'm gonna go do it today and I even know who I need to do it for.

Brad:
Thank you for praying for us, Lisa. Well thank you everyone for tuning in. Thanks, Lisa, for being our guest today.

Yes. And we just wanna again Thank you though to those of you who have subscribed and left a review. Those really just help more people hear this practical takeaway advice.

That's what we want is for more people to learn how they can make a difference. Thank you for being part of Go Mad With Us with Doug and Brad here. Thanks to Lisa.

Thanks to Jesse.

Brad:
And from all of us, all of you, till next time, Go Mad