Brave but Not Always Confident - Part 1 (episode 276-1)
A candid chat on courage, insecurities, and trusting God anyway.
I have long admired this woman. Michelle LeBeau is back for an uplifting conversation about faith, courage, and community. We catch up on life updates, share plans for shorter podcast episodes, and highlight Michelle’s impactful work at the San Diego Rescue Mission, where she helps meet both the physical and spiritual needs of the homeless population.
Next we move into how Christian women can build confidence, overcome childhood insecurities, and bravely step into new experiences—whether in professional settings or personal growth. With reflections on church community, faith in everyday life, and entertainment habits (from PBS NewsHour to Stephen Colbert), this episode is a reminder that courage often starts small but can change everything.
Michelle is our guest this week for Spicy Christian Women - Becoming All that and a Bag of Chips. Here is part one.
She has been on the podcast before in A Hippy at Heart.
You can find Michelle at San Diego Rescue Mission.
Blessed. Expectant. True.
— Michelle LeBeau
Not that Kind
Thoughts from Brave but Not Always Confident - Part 1
I am fortified by Michelle’s faith. As I have seen her throughout the years we have been acquainted, it has remained steadfast and true. I am hopeful the same can be said of me.
I recently had dinner with a group of family members, some of them don’t really know me very well. Sure we see each other at family occasions, but they don’t know much about my thoughts, my feelings, my convictions. Case in point, one mentioned how religious I am. Hmmm, I went on to explain, I don’t consider myself religious at all. They found that curious and asked me to share further.
I am not legalistic. I do not follow a man-made set of rules designed to keep me enslaved and away from the very source of my faith. I identify as Christian but will typically add, not that kind. Why do I feel the need to do that? Because that term has been hijacked by a very narrow, very specific set of people who don’t seem to bear the fruit of love, of kindness, of dignity that I read about in the pages of the sacred text we both seem to hold dear. Are we reading the same book? You have to wonder.
Tracing our lineages back, we are reminded our families came to this land for the promise of believing as they saw fit, for not being told they had to belong to a specific church and follow specific rules, again made by man. Ok, not everyone came from Europe but the general idea of freedom is what drove people from all over the globe to want to be here, to risk their lives to have a better one.
And I’ve got news. Jesus was not white. Shocking, right? He was all about: how you treat the least of these, is how you treat me. You know, love your neighbor as yourself? Everyone is your neighbor. Newsflash for some. He was not a captialist either. (I’m not knocking being white or capitalism, but it is not supreme nor the end-all, be-all.) Sell all you have and give to the poor. Leave the edges of your field so the hungry can eat. And I don’t think I’m going out on much of a limb here when I say his views on government all had to do with putting God first in what you say and do. Look at the fruit that people (a government) bear. It is how you tell what others are made of.
So if you ask me about my values I will typically tell you, I am a woman of faith. And if I do say I’m a Christian you will hear me quickly add, not that kind. Never that kind.
Love one another as I have loved you.
Artwork of a friend, made up of individual rocks. Whoa! Ok, no sacrilege meant here, but we may, or we may not call him “hot Jesus.”
