Episode 06: Reba Rambo: A True Lady
Transcript
Patsy: Hi, I’m Patsy Clairmont, and I’m a Boomer.
Andrew: I’m Andrew Greer, and I’m a Millennial.
Patsy: And you are listening to Bridges.
Andrew: Spiritual Connections Through Generational Conversations
Patsy: Reba Rambo is my friend, and she’s also going to be our guest today on Bridges. Reba has got a legacy in the field of music, but she also has a legacy in the hearts of people as their personal friend because she’s so caring and she’s so nurturing. And when she loves on you, you know you’ve been loved upon. She just blesses you in the name of Jesus. She is just an amazing person to be around because she’s inspiring and she pulls the best out of you. She wants you to be able to shine and to show Jesus to others. So you’re really going to enjoy this today, and I know you know she’s quite a lady.
Andrew: She is quite a lady. Speaking of, she has just rereleased a couple of her legacy records from the ‘70s called Lady, one of them, which was a Grammy-nominated record, a big record in Christian music. Now this was the pioneering days of Christian music. CCM, contemporary Christian music, was really seen a little bit kind of like rock ’n’ roll. You know, it was getting away from that church music, and she was a pioneer that after her she really paved the way for people like Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith and Sandi Patty. So she’s a legend, and we have her here in-house and are excited to celebrate these rereleases of a legacy with Lady and Confessions with our friend Reba Rambo.
Patsy: I have the joy always of presenting a bridge, a bridge that we hope takes us across to our guest today, and this bridge is a little different than others I’ve mentioned because you can’t see it because it runs under and through the water, which makes me so nervous.
Andrew: Happy.
Patsy: It makes me nervous, but I love that there’s a deep place to take us from one side of water to the other. I mean, there’s something very poetic about that. But haven’t you been through this tunnel?
Andrew: Oh yeah. The Holland Tunnel, which of course connects us from New Jersey to New York City, or back, whichever way you’re going. It’s the only way. There’s two tunnels, and they go underneath the Hudson River. And as many years as I have traveled that tunnel, for whatever reason, because I guess I refuse to be aware of certain things in life, I didn’t realize we were under water. It’s a tunnel with tile, but then, this last time, just last week, there was a drip of water that came down on the windshield.
Patsy: No, no. If you’re putting me underwater, there cannot be drips in my tube. Thank you so much. That is a bridge I don’t want to cross is water in the tunnel, but I have learned in life that sometimes the best material, if that’s the way to say it — the material of life that makes our story — comes from things that maybe other people don’t see, the deeper places, the darker places that we draw from. Our magnificent guest, may I just say because I am crazy about her, is someone who knows how to take her pen and go into the ink of her life and experience and be able to sing it in such a glorious way that you cannot forget what has been sung. You carry it inside your bones because it fits an ache in your own soul, and that person is Reba. Do you know how glad I am to see you?
Reba: You know I could just lick your face.
Patsy: How about you don’t.
Reba: I’m laughing, Patsy, because you’re talking about these bridges. Years, many, many, many years ago — I was just a young girl, and I’m sure you know Kenneth and Gloria Copeland — we were doing one of the big crusades with them, and Kenneth looked at me and said that I have a word for you. I’m like, Okay, and my eyes are big as saucers. And he said, “God says you’re a bridge.” And so I’m seeing some majestic bridge, you know, London Bridge, whatever, and it’s like he was reading my mind. He said, “Oh, no, no, no, no, no. The Lord said you’re a rope.” I went from the London Bridge to a rope. And he said, “But you’re going to be thrown across dangerous crevices,” and he said, “And some will despise the rope, but others will crawl across the rope to safety and they will cherish and honor the rope.” I’ll never forget that. I’ve got it written down. I’m a rope. If there’s bridges around here, I’m just an old rope.
Andrew: Some people get rope burn, but other people get on to where they’re going. You know, that word that he spoke though makes me think about we’re kind of on the edge of celebrating this rerelease of one of your watershed records and really a watershed record in contemporary Christian music because that was a little bit before contemporary Christian music was contemporary Christian music.
Reba: I was country when country wasn’t cool.
“I was country when country wasn’t cool.”
Andrew: That’s exactly right. 1976, right? And the record Lady, which was rereleased amazingly digitally for the first time and is No. 1 on all these digital charts, so people coming back to the table. But if you think about it, or if I think about it, the criticism you probably received around kind of thinking about Kenneth’s words about some will despise the rope but others will make their way across because of the rope. That record, because of its pop-rock sensibilities, it’s current in the musical landscape, not everyone was into that, were they, in the faith-based world?
Reba: No, not in faith-based, and certainly not in the Southern gospel world. And when I did leave the Rambos in 1976 to go out on my own, I was working a lot of Jesus festivals and those kinds of things — what fun days — but a lot of the Southern gospel base thought I’d betrayed, I’d walked away from God. And I said, “Are you listening to the music I’m writing?” But it was all part of my journey and part of my path.
And now to have it rereleased after all these years, I mean, you couldn’t find Reba product unless you went to a garage sale and found one somewhere on an old vinyl. But to see that God is doing a new thing in my life, and not just Lady but before long there are going to be a couple older products released, and I’m so excited because my grandson can hear what his grandma sounded like and there can be a little bit of a legacy.
And we had it remastered and everything worked on. I think it sounds better than in 1976, so that’s exciting.
Patsy: Well, it certainly was received well.
Reba: It was received well and won the Dove award.
Patsy: Very exciting to watch that climb. And Dove awards, you’ve got enough you could be flying. You wouldn’t need a bridge; you could just take the wings off those Doves.
Reba: The Lord has been good.
Andrew: You talking about now my grandson can hear what I sounded like and kind of relate who he knows…
Reba: I’m Gran Reebs to him, just Gran Reebs who makes great pinto beans and cornbread.
Patsy: That’s important.
Andrew: That’s right. But you are also a bridge to generations. This podcast was inspired by Patsy and my friendship because we span a generation gap. Your music is now doing that and maybe has even done that before. Did you feel ever purposeful in kind of a call sort of way or even just like this is the mantle I’ve been given, which is to help span some of these…?
Reba: The Lord spoke to me about it out of the treasury. We draw from the treasury of the old and the new because nobody’s a bigger Dottie Rambo fan than me. Nobody wrote songs like my mother, and I say she’s like the Hallmark cards of songs. There’s a Dottie Rambo song for every occasion, I promise you. You can put a new little dress on it, put a little different beat, but the lyrics are…an amazing lyricist.
So I love my heritage. And you know, one of the words the Lord’s been dealing with for a long time about is honor, and that’s not a word you hear a lot in the younger generation. Honor your fathers and your mothers — that’s not just your natural obey those that have rule over you but to honor your father and mother. One of my chosen sons is with me today, Tim, and I love the way he honors me. There’s such a bond that’s created out of honor.
I honored this precious lady, Patsy. I want to be like her when I grow up. I’ve said it over and over. Her zeal for life and her wisdom, it’s coupled together. She has the zeal of youth and the wisdom of a little bit older, but she’s so current.
Can I read a little something? Would it be alright? She doesn’t know I’m going to do this, and I just thought about it this morning.
She was at my house one day, and she started giving me some words. We were in the studio with Dony, and these are primarily her words. It’s called “River Sky.” If you saw that on a record, wouldn’t you want to go get that?
Andrew: Oh yeah, my hippie heart.
Reba: Yeah, your hippie heart. I’ve got a hippie heart too, but I do wear a bra. But anyway.
The first verse says:
There’s been a drought so many years, a famine way too long.
Our broken hearts are open wide. We’re lifting up our song.
We hear a distant rumbling sound, a rhythm in the air.
As hope begins to spring alive, we offer up our prayer.
O river sky, with misty waves and thundering high tide, rain down upon the thirsty fields and streams.
Water us with laughter, renewing us again. O river sky, restore our lives and flood us with your dreams.
River sky, river sky, open up, open wide.
Sing, sing while cloud bursts fill the endless sky.
Dance, dance in rainbows till our souls revive.
Soar, soar while bluebirds chase the winds and fly.
Shower down upon us, O river sky.
Now see, that’s wisdom but coupled with fresh words, fresh insight, and she did that on purpose. That’s not just something she nonchalantly tiptoed through the tulips and said. No, she’s lived a very purposeful life, and that’s what I want to be. I want to be young enough to run with my kids, to be current enough to understand their language, but yet be the one they come to and say, “Mom, what do you think?” Or, “Gran Reebs, what do you think?” And that’s a dance. That is a dance.
Patsy: Well, sweetie, you nurtured that to a better place that I could’ve ever written it.
Reba: And when you hear the music, oh my goodness, it’s so powerful.
BRIDGES SPONSORSHIP MESSAGE
Patsy: “Where would I be if I did not believe I would experience the Lord’s favor in the land of the living? Rely on the Lord! Be strong and confident! Rely on the Lord!” Those are the last two verses of Psalm 27 from the Abide Bible. It is a new bible that has been in my home now for several months, so I’ve had time to work with it and it to work inside of me. It offers beautiful, old art that is associated with verses, so it helps it to become a bigger picture in our mind and our retention is improved. It has places for us to journal on the side as we read. It also has instructions on how to pray this Scripture, how to meditate on it, how to contemplate it so we can sit and soak in God’s Word and allow it to dwell richly within us.
Andrew: What I love about the Abide Bible is that it’s invitational, not just informational. It’s inviting us not to just exercise the Word of God in our head but to really invite it to dwell in our hearts, which to me reminds me of John 15:4: “Abide in me and I in you.” So you can order your copy of the Abide Bible today at bridgesshow.com/abide.
BRIDGES SPONSORSHIP MESSAGE
Patsy: I’m excited about Food for the Hungry because they know how to get to the need of people. If you meet their needs, then their heart is open to anything else you say, so they’re feeding the children not only to nurture them and prepare them for real life but to hear about Jesus. And one of the ways that they’re able to help these families and it be sustainable is by chickens, Andrew.
Andrew: That’s right. It’s incredible. For just $14, you can provide a family with a chicken, and if you want to multiply that blessing, you can provide them with two chickens for just $28. And we know that chickens multiply, so that’s more eggs for the children to have the protein that they need, for them to sell the extras at market, and those chickens last eight to 10 years. It’s a huge blessing. All you have to do is go to fh.org/bridges.
Andrew: Yeah, I remember when you came from writing with them, Patsy. We saw each other a couple days later, and she was telling me all about it and was so excited about it. Reba, you’re our spotlighted guest, but we’ll talk about this for a second, Patsy. You’ve never considered yourself a musician.
Patsy: Oh goodness, no.
Andrew: But the poetry of song is… Patsy had to talk me into poetry. I’ve never loved reading it. I’ve never loved dissecting it. I’ve never found a lot of meaning from it. And she said, “Well, that’s ridiculous. You write songs.” But we have to find our entry point into different things. Of course, not all of us… What was that, the lyric that you wrote that you called Mandisa up and said, “I think this is for you,” and then she cut it. Now, that’s not a songwriter’s journey.
Reba: Oh my goodness.
Andrew: I’ve had many words from the Lord that someone should cut a song, and when I called them up, they said, “You’re ridiculous. I don’t want that.”
Reba: Or you say, “God gave me this song,” and they’re saying, “Yes, don’t show it to anybody else. It’s just for you. God gave you, specific.”
Andrew: That’s right. That’s only for you. But there are these currents within us. Reba, what do you think about that as a creative person? And Patsy, I know from our conversations people are creative by nature because we have been designed by a Creator. I mean, you grew up in a musical family, so maybe that’s the answer, but when did you first sense those rhythms within, and then how did you help express them without?
Reba: Well, first of all, before I could physically write, I wrote poetry and my mother would write them down. I never thought I’d be a songwriter, certainly not a singer. I wanted to be a neurosurgeon. I had that in my brain from the time I was little.
Andrew: Really?
Reba: I think because my parents, they traveled and so many churches, and we slept in prophets quarters they called them, which was glorified church basements. I’ll never forget waking up one morning about 3 a.m. I’m a little girl on a pallet on the floor by my mom and dad’s bed. That’s a fold-up quilt for those of you that don’t know pallet.
Patsy: I slept on many of them.
Reba: Oh yeah. But I was there and woke up, and there was a rat nibbling on the end of my finger. And so when that happened, I said, “I’m going to be a neurosurgeon. Y’all have fun doing this church thing.”
I was always the child that was out in the woods. I always wanted to be outside among the trees, always, and I had three very unique experiences when I was little with the Lord coming to the woods to play with me. It’s interesting though. I ran to my grandmother’s house. My uncles were there. They were getting ready to go hunting that morning. And I start talking about the man in the woods, and they’re like, “Where is he? We’ll kill him? Did he hurt you?” So finally I said, “No, it was the Lord.” And they’re patting my head like people do with children and saying, “Oh, bless her. She’s got such a great imagination.”
So the second time that happened I just told my grandmother, who was wonderful. The third time it happened I didn’t tell anybody because the big people are supposed to know what they’re talking about and when they just act like you’ve lost it.
But from very young, I would hear these words. I think in rhyme. I do it all the time. So I would tell me my teacher, Ms. Jepsen, or I would tell my mom or my grandmother, “Will you write these down?” And then I learned to read almost supernaturally when I was 4. The same thing happened to my son Israel when he was 4.
So I just thought I’m a poet, and my mother encouraged that. I didn’t see myself as a songwriter, just like Patsy doesn’t. But you get around great musicians and something starts happening. And what I loved about Patsy, working with her, she was so pliable because she thinks like a poet. But sometimes a song structure, you’ve got these boundaries around you with the music, but she was so fast I wanted to smack her upside the head. She was so fluid and said, “Oh, I see that. I got it.” So teachable, which is so fun because she should be teaching me. But on this particular day, I was showing her just a little bit about songwriting.
There is that thing. It’s intrinsic. Our Father is the Creator, and to find the medium that we flourish, whether it’s art, whether it’s being a genius of engineering or architecture or whatever, I really believe because God is so fair that if we find our passion, we find that thing within us. Even with children of autism, it’s fascinating to watch how they may have challenges but they’ll turn around and be a child prodigy on the keyboard at 3. It’s just built into our DNA, I believe, that we all have that.
I think a lot of people are frustrated because they don’t do what is intrinsic within them, but when they find that path, oh my goodness. My friend Tim Miner the other day was saying, “You know, Reba, we really need to focus on we write for this for a cause and to make money.” And I said, “Yeah, I know that, Tim, but I’ll write if you don’t pay me anything. I write ‘cause I have to write. I can’t not write.” And I’m sure that you feel the same way with what you do.
“People are frustrated because they don’t do what is intrinsic within them.”
Andrew: I think all our creative spaces… It’s funny. When you say someone finds that, I do think there’s a bit of an obstacle. I think people don’t always go down that road, and I’m not sure why. Maybe that’s a message that they received.
Reba: Try going to your parents and saying, “I’m going to be an actor, or a songwriter in Nashville.” Those of us who live here know how hard that is. Somebody living in Opp, Alabama, may say, “I’m gonna go to Nashville, and I’ve got three songs and I’m going to be a star.” No, you’re not.
I’ve learned probably as a songwriter the first 50 or so songs are going to be pathetic anyway. But when you’re studying keyboard, you don’t expect your child to go play “Rachmaninoff” the first song. They’re going to do Mary had a little lamb, little lamb, wrong notes.
Let’s get Jesus in the picture. Jesus says everything in the Kingdom’s like a seed, everything, and so it is how much do we nourish that seed, water that seed, how much sunshine. It’s up to us to say, “What are we going to do with what You’ve given me?”
Patsy: I tell my people who come to me for help writing their story let’s talk about your gift first because your gift will lead you to your purpose and your purpose will help you take closer look at what has been unfolding all your life, that God has given us far more potential than we could ever tap into because His potential is endless, endless, so we can’t use up our creativity. And this is strictly just my own belief that the gift we have now is an indication of something we’ll be doing in Glory.
“God has given us far more potential than we could ever tap into because His potential is endless.”
Andrew: You think so?
Patsy: Yeah, I do.
Reba: Are you kidding? Sure. I’ll get on that train and ride with you girl.
Andrew: I mean, I hope so.
Patsy: We’re on a bridge together.
Andrew: When we think about eternity — let’s just go there. This kind of eternal place, how we will live forever in communion with God. It’s so funny because there’s so much that has been prescribed as to what that may look like. And of course, as songwriters, especially in gospel music, we know that there’s a part of that visual that we put into place just as a way of making it tangible or something to look forward to. How in the world would we ever know? And I think that’s a positive thing. I think it’s beautiful to experience and to imagine.
I just don’t think there’s anything wrong with imagining that we will know our family, no matter how it looks. I mean, I think we’ll be in such a place of contentment to be in communion with God that however it looks will be the most beautiful and by design thing. But I love y’all even imagining that our giftedness, and the belief in that, will continue for forever, that that will be our connection to others around us and to God.
Reba: Well, I think we’re eternal beings, but I don’t think we’re just eternal beings forward. I think we’re eternal beings backward. In my belief, and if you don’t believe that, that’s fine, and don’t write me nasty emails because I don’t answer them.
Andrew: But don’t unsubscribe to our podcast.
Reba: Yes. If you’re mad at me, don’t get mad at Patsy. But you know, I really believe that before the foundation of the Earth — this is my belief — I believe that I was hidden with Christ in God. Now whatever that means to different ones, but I believe that we were already… I believe that I’m as eternal as God wanted me to be. But I also believe — and this kind of gives me a giggle — that’s why when I first met Patsy I looked at her and said, “I remember you.” I believe somehow there was something before time began that there are certain people that in your assignment on the Earth… I believe Mark Lowry was part of my assignment. When I saw him at 11-years-old, I looked at him and said, “I remember you.”
Andrew: That’s a heavy project.
Reba: Well, that is a heavy project. But there are certain people, when I see them, I say my baby jumps. It’s the same thing that when you’ve read a scripture 50 times but all of a sudden it’s an a-ha, you know, your baby jumps. Well, there are certain people. And I think when we are cognizant of this eternal I Am-ness that it’s all the Lord in us. I’m not saying I’m God; I’m saying but my Father is God, and I am His child. But I think when we get into that space of opening our spirit up and being aware of how awesome this plan is and how eternal this plan is and we begin to see people…
You can look at people and not see them. Jesus would say things like, “Having eyes, can’t you see? Having ears, can’t you hear?” Because He understood you can. You can see. You have the potential. You have the potential to hear. And I think that there’s something about those of us that have tapped in, and even in a small way, to that eternal I Am-ness of Spirit within ourselves. And I know I’m not new age, but I don’t want to be old age either.
Andrew: True, yeah.
Reba: I just believe that there are places in us. Because I teach writing, I love the word imagination, that we get to image a nation. I tell my students, “You’ve got this blank page. You can image a nation of you can be the cowboy and get the cowgirl. You can be an alien in space, and you can go conquer galaxies.” And that’s a God gift.
I wrote a song years ago called “Coloring Book,” and it says, He grew tired of darkness, so He said I’ll make a coloring book. I’ll color me some grass and trees and skies and birds and babbling brooks. I’ll draw mountains just to sit and dream on and add a few volcanoes just to keep my toes warm. And I’ll be happy all day just painting away on my world, and if one’s not enough, I’ll just paint a few more.
And to see that as a young girl, to see the metaphor of God in that place, I had to open myself up. But we get to open ourselves up and say, “God, what if? Could it be?” And of course, we guard what we think. We don’t go off into insanity. But I think there is that place, and God wants us to be co-creators with Him.
Patsy: Absolutely.
Reba: That’s what you do when you write a book. You’re a co-creator with God.
Patsy: Pretty exciting that He gives us that privilege and opportunity and expansiveness apart because you grow in the midst of it when you trust Him in new places you’ve never been before.
Andrew: Patsy, I hear that you have a book club.
Patsy: I do. Books are what God used to help heal me, so it delights me to offer that service to others, that they could sign up, anybody. All y’alls, come on in. We want you to join in the book club, and we will read ourselves silly and sane. We’ll have different selections, one every month with a bonus. You can check it out: patsyclairmont.com. And also on that page, you’ll see that I do cheerleading for people. I coach them in helping them stir up their creativity to tell their story. But here’s what I know: You’re into a different kind of storytelling, and you’ve been set up to win awards for what you’ve done.
Andrew: I love music, and I have new record out called Tune My Heart, and it includes some of my really close friends, some of your friends, like Sandra McCracken and Cindy Morgan and Buddy Greene. And you can find that record anywhere you stream or download, or at andrew-greer.com. You know what else, Patsy?
Patsy: What?
Andrew: I’ve got another podcast. It’s not my favorite podcast, but if you like listening to Bridges, then you might like listening to and viewing Dinner Conversations with our pal Mark Lowry and myself. You can find it on Apple Podcasts or Amazon Prime, or simply go to dinner-conversations.com.
BRIDGES SPONSORSHIP MESSAGE
Patsy: Andrew, I’m so excited that one of our sponsors is Food for the Hungry because I like people who are feeding people. I say let’s get to the basic need that a person has, and let’s build up from there. And when you feed a child, you feed their brain, you feed their disposition, you feed their ability to have strength to do the hard work that oftentimes is involved, even if it’s just their studies. If the synapses aren’t snapping, it’s gonna really be tough, so Food for the Hungry’s got the right idea, and they’re talking chickens.
Andrew: That’s right, Patsy. Bawk-bawk-bawk. You can give a family a chicken or a pair of chickens to help them find the nutrition they need on a daily basis, as well as these chickens are producing eggs all the time. We know that, right? We have friends and neighbors who have chickens now here in the States, and they provide those eggs, which then can be sold at market. So a chicken is this warehouse of opportunity for a family. Now, get this: You can provide one chicken for a family in need for $14. That’s it. That’s the chicken. That chicken lives for eight to 10 years and provides those daily eggs. It’s incredible. You can provide a pair of chickens, because we know chickens multiply fast, to help that family on an even deeper level for $28.
Patsy: Yes. I love the idea you can double the blessing for just $28, and this goes to countries like Bolivia, Peru, Ethiopia, Rwanda, and the Dominican Republic. So it’s a wide reach, and it’s something that God spoke to us about and that is giving to the poor and offering something that will help their life. Let’s feed the hungry.
Andrew: Go to fh.org/bridges to provide some chickens for families in need today.
Patsy: And every chicken you purchase for our friends across the world, it becomes an entry into our first ever Bridges giveaway.
Andrew: That’s right. One winner and a guest will receive roundtrip airfare, one night’s lodging, and ground transportation for a getaway in our hometown, Patsy, of Franklin, Tennessee. Plus, we’ll take you to dinner and interview you on a special episode of Bridges.
Patsy: The winner will be drawn on March 31, 2021, so get your chicken before then.
Patsy: One of the things I’ve noted about you is that you have built a lot of bridges even when you were very young in bringing other people along who were homeless so to speak, who weren’t certain of the direction their lives should take. You had the willingness and the open arms and the heart to bridge for them a place of safety.
Reba: You know, Dr. Oral Roberts, when I was very young, prayed over me concerning mentoring. I didn’t even know really what that meant, but I remember he used that word and I thought, Man, that’s a big word. That’s a word, back then, that I hadn’t heard a lot of. And he said, “The mark of true success are those who have successors,” and that stuck with me.
It seemed like such a daunting, foreboding task to do this, and he’d say, “Honey, to lead somebody, all you have to be is a step ahead.” Because if you’re three miles ahead of them and they can’t see you, they’ll lose sight of it, but if you’re just a step ahead, they can even reach out and touch you and just hold on to my back. Just put your steps, your feet, where mine are going. And that can be scary because you don’t know squat. You're green as grass and sour apples when you’re young.
But I knew a few things. First of all, my mom had taught me, my father had taught me, more by demonstration than sitting down at a table. Mother never set down and said, “I’m going to teach you to write,” but I observed her. She was the most disciplined writer for many years of her life, until sadly the back problem and all took her in so much pain. But for many years, when the Rambos would be on the bus and everybody would be going to have lunch, we knew mama wasn’t gonna go have lunch. You’d hear that guitar in the back room on that bus. She said, “Everyday I’m going to write something creative, if it’s one line.” And she was so disciplined in her craft, and she taught me the art of discipline. I’m not saying I’m always as disciplined as she was, but I’m pretty good at it because I saw the reward of her discipline.
There were some things I realized I could teach some of these young people. Tim, again, who’s with me, observed my life for a long time, and when he physically came into my world, it was just, “Come hang out. Just come hang out, observe, watch.” And it’s just been so fun to be around a lot of chosen children, and Dony was a big part of that. It’s just been good to do that. And it keeps you young — you know that. You’ve got all these young people around you wanting to just be close and touch you.
Andrew: It’s true. I would say even though y’all are maybe in a place of life that gives you the ability to be even more significant mentors because you have so much life experience to draw from and therefore wisdom to impart, part of I think what makes a great mentor is still remaining in a place of a teachable spirit. I don’t really have any desire to learn from someone who learned up to a certain point and stopped and now wants to impart this to me.
I think of my parents, who are your peers, and they are constantly growing and evolving in their thoughts. I’ve never seen them stop at a certain point and think that was the endgame and now they have it figured out. They’re still very open to you talk about this expansiveness within you. So I would say the teachable spirit, if I can speak into something for a second, it’s that you both still have very teachable spirits. You’re still learning. You’re still growing.
“Part of what makes a great mentor is still remaining in a place of a teachable spirit.”
Reba: And that means we’re alive, because when you stop learning and growing, that’s when death is inevitable I believe. I want to be on my final breath going, “Kids, how do I work this iPad better?” Whatever it is. Bless their hearts, my kids, but they help me but I’m learning.
Patsy: My son says, “Mom, I just showed you how to do that.” “Okay, but show me again.”
Reba: Can we film it so I can watch it?
Andrew: I love that yin and yang of generations. I think it’s so necessary for a healthy society. I think it’s so necessary for a healthy spiritual community too. There’s so many things in conversation with you guys that open my eyes to who God might be, and I hope the same in the reverse or in the reciprocal is that there’s things that I’m experiencing as a part of my life as a 30-something in 2020 that says something…
Patsy: That’s new to us. The language is new, and you’re constantly helping to define that for us.
Andrew: One thing I do want to ask though, and some people could take this to a negative place, but I think you’ll have a wonderfully positive response. Have you ever felt left behind by maybe a younger generation?
Reba: Oh, sure. I think country music is probably one of the best art forms that honors the generations. I really do. I’ve watched some things that Marty Stuart and some of the things that have happened that are so wonderful. But sure, you do, and you feel antiquated and set to the side at times. And then suddenly something will happen like Lady, and people go, Oh, she was kind of cool.
So yes, but you know what, I don’t sit around thinking about that. First of all, I just stay too busy and writing, and I’ve pressed myself into working with young people because they teach me all the time. I sometimes laugh when they call me teacher. I’m just like, “No, I’m learning from you.”
But yeah, sometimes you do feel that, and sometimes even in Christendom, what we have done sometimes to kind of lay people to the side, or if they made a colossal mistake, and I’ll just really go there. Like if I say a name like Jim Bakker, sometimes we see the image of him with a towel over his hands, or a coat or whatever that was; or Jimmy Swaggart and we remember the fall instead of saying, “Oh my goodness, how many times have I fallen or made the mistake?” Maybe not to go to prison, but sometimes we freeze-frame people in a moment. We still say the woman with the issue of blood. Well, she doesn’t have issues no more. Or the man with the withered hand. We freeze-frame him in a moment instead of saying, “I’m going to release these people and trust the plan.”
You know, I went through a divorce. Fourteen months ago, my world fell apart. But learning to release people and trust the Lord that He is the God of their soul and He’s never lost one that was His. Isn’t that a beautiful promise? And so to release people to go on in their journey.
Now I’m learning with my children. My children are 43, 33, and 31, and to release them even with their challenges and trust the God of the path, saying, “God, they’re more Your children than they are mine. They’re much more Yours. They were Yours before they were ever loaned to me.” To be able to release all of that, boy, that’s a learning experience. And to honor them, to honor them in their place and not enable them, it’s a tough world out there.
Patsy: Well, learning to discern between those two things is a full-time process, especially for the heart of a mother.
Andrew: What does that provide for you though when you are able to release others, even in places where they have hurt you very personally. What does that then allow for you in your heart and spirit?
Reba: You know what, it’s powerful, and to know when to release totally and to stand back, it’s frightening because you see them. I think of those little eaglets when they’re learning to fly. It’s so scary because they’re falling, and just before they hit the ground, here comes mama eagle. And sometimes I feel like that. But trying to be calm, be a safe place, and know that the Lord is the ultimate mama eagle and He will catch them and trust Him in that. But it’s hard.
Raising children, whether they’re natural or chosen, because some of my chosen children are as close to me as those that I gave birth to. They really are. To know when, as you say, to discern, that’s the mark of a mature bride is discernment to me, to know when to speak and to know when to hold my piece. And that’s what I long to be. I don’t always get it right.
Patsy: Boy, I don’t either.
Andrew: Yeah, but I can’t tell you the gift and the beauty of seeing the generation above me when they do that because it teaches me and reminds me that I can do that too and that everything I think is not something I have to say. I think part of my honoring the generation ahead of me is to watch and observe that grace and that mercy that’s extended sometimes through silence.
Reba: It was really interesting. I guess it was about 18 years ago. We began a church here, The River, and we had just come out of seven years of revival, going from church to church and revival. God was moving, and people were being healed and saved. And the first Sunday sitting in that little rented place I literally felt duct tape go on my mouth. I mean, it was tangible. I could feel it, like this duct tape, and I really felt like the Lord spoke to me and said, “I’m going to teach you a new way to minister and that is in prayer, to just pray.”
I wanted to have an answer for everything, and I thought I was pretty darn good at it. I had quite a bit of wisdom. And for three years, the Lord shut my mouth, and I would just say to people, “Well, I’m going to take it to the Lord in prayer.” And it wasn’t just something I said. I lived on that floor in that bedroom. And I’m not saying, Oh, look at me. I’m just saying it was the hardest thing I may have ever done, those three years.
And then after three years time, one day I’m sitting in church, people are worshipping, and I felt this thing, you know when you start to take off a bandaid? But it was duct tape, and it started peeling off my mouth and took about three weeks to get totally peeled off, and the Lord said, “Now I can trust you to speak.”
That’s three years of God shutting you up and you had all these pearls you’d been giving out so freely, and then you realize maybe they weren’t pearls at all. I had to swallow a few pearls.
Patsy: I’ve always been free with words, and I too have had to be still for seasons. And in those seasons, there was a new work that He was up to, and one of them was to show me that I didn’t have to say everything on my mind.
Andrew: Well, we have been grateful, Reba, that you have said many things on your mind today. I’m glad you offered some of those pearls today, and I will say personally how grateful I am as someone in my stage of life to be able to be influenced by people in your season of life and that you are willing to participate in the cross-generational talk.
Patsy: And thank you for being such a bridge for people, for being who Jesus has called us to be, which is to be like Him. I see in so many ways how you extend the love of Christ to others even in a season of forgiveness, so thank you for that.
Reba: Thank you, sweet lady.
Patsy: And I’m Patsy Clairmont. I’m a Boomer.
Andrew: I’m Andrew Greer, and I’m a Millennial.
Patsy: And you’ve been listening to Bridges.
Andrew: Spiritual Connection Through Generational Conversations, and we have been thrilled to have you, Reba Rambo, here with us today.
Patsy: Bridges is co-produced by Andrew Greer and myself, Patsy Clairmont.
Andrew: And our podcast is recorded and mixed by Jesse Phillips at the Arcade in Franklin, Tennessee.
Patsy: Remember, don’t forget to leave us a rating, a review, or a comment. It all helps our little show get going.
Andrew: To find out more about my co-host Patsy Clairmont or myself, Andrew Greer, or to read transcripts of our show, simply go to bridgesshow.com.