Welcome back to the place we find ourselves podcast. I'm Adam Young and we are in the middle of a series of episodes on warfare.

Last week we talked about making agreements with evil and how those agreements bind us.

Today we're going to take a break from the series to hear Susan's story. Part of my interview with Susan

includes a discussion about an agreement that she made. I wanted to make the last episode very practical by sharing a

specific example of someone who made an agreement with evil in a moment of heartache so that you could see how it played out in somebody's life.

In the next episode after this one we will pick back up with the warfare series. Thanks so much for listening. Here's my conversation with Susan.

Okay, welcome to the podcast. I have Susan with me Susan. It is good to see you.

Hey Adam, it's good to see you. Say a little bit about yourself and kind of where you are geographically.

Okay, well I'm in Tennessee. I am a wife and a mom of two young men now 17 and 20 so we're about to be empty

nesters. I'm also an English teacher and a writer. And we are going to talk story today. You're going to

read a story after a little bit that you've written and generously agreed to share but let's start off by

just kind of talking about your journey of engaging your story. Like when did you first learn that you even had a story?

I think I have always been so captivated by the idea of story. I can remember from just being a little girl

something in my heart deeply connecting with story. I think it was in story that I kind of found myself and also could lose myself.

I my favorite place was the elementary school library or once a month I would get a book in the mail from

the I can read book club and those were my favorite times. And in particular I loved the stories of

the Bible. We had a lot of story book Bibles in our home and I would just sit and read the stories of

the Bible and something in those narratives really deeply resonated with me as a little girl.

I can in particular remember reading the story of Moses when his sister put him in the basket.

And the Egyptian princess saved him out of the river. Part of my story is adoption. And so as I read that

story of Moses it felt like part of my story. There's something special about me. I remember the story of

Samuel when he heard the voice of God and Ruth and her faithfulness. I remember the story of Mary and

...