Falling More in Love with Jesus with Annie F. Downs

April 23, 2020

Jennie Allen

Bible teacher, founder of IF:Gathering

Today I'm excited to have one of my friends Annie Downs on the podcast! One of my favorite things through this whole quarantine has been getting glimpses of my friend's lives in their homes. We have really gotten a glimpse of Annie's, because she's been locked down longer than a lot of us. We can all learn from Annie what it looks like to pursue Jesus, have fun, and seek community even during quarantine. 

First, let's talk about how long you've been in quarantine. 

The end of my 10-day quarantine was when our stay-at-home order started in Nashville. So it's been 22 days since the stay-at-home order, so around a month for me. About the third or fourth day, I genuinely feel like the Lord said, "I'm inviting you to go first." I was like, I'm not interested in this party. No thank you. Because the news was saying this might happen, and pretty quickly into my experience I felt called to it. 

Watching you go first prepared us all. Zac ordered the monster post-it notes because of you and they're still on my fireplace. He loves himself a to-do list, because he's an enneagram 3. It's helped all of us though. I told him the other day he needed to make me my own, because once my jobs are done, I want to get in bed and watch Netflix. But watching you be intentional with your rest, with your Sabbath, and choosing to love and serve in the middle of this thing, I want to talk about all of it. Give us a glimpse into your week. 

Here's what my life looks like now. Every morning at 7:30 I record a podcast with my friend Eddie. We do 30 minutes and it's called TSF Quarantine, because my regular podcast is called That Sounds Fun.  We just talk about whatever. The reason we started it is because I got quarantined on a Friday, and I called him and said, "I just need to know I'm going to talk to someone everyday." We're really good friends with him and his wife and we've done a lot of podcasting together. So I just asked if we could do 30 minutes a day for my 10 days of quarantine. We had no idea we'd still be going. I normally wake up at 6am and go to work at 9am. I'm a slow morning person - I like to take a shower, get ready, have my quiet time, eat my breakfast all during that time. But now, I have a thing right in the middle of that. So I told my team something had to give, and it wasn't going to be my time with the Lord or taking a shower. So we figured that out and I've got a new morning routine. Then on Monday's, I do a mini BFF book club where I read a book every night, because everyone's kids were scared. I used to teach elementary school and I'm kind of a magician with kids. I know how to talk to them - it's a weird thing about me. It's crazy because I used to teach 4th and 5th grade, and one of the things I missed the most when I left is reading aloud. On the second night of book club, there were 15,000 devices tuned in. And some of the pictures we got were two or three kids. So I was like, am I reading to 20,000 kids at one time? Only God can take a woman trapped in her home and fulfills and exceeds any dream she could have ever had. It's crazy.  

I love it so much. I think what you are emulating, and why I wanted to have you on, is because I could just get in my pajamas and be sad and feel sorry for myself until this ends, or I can make the best of it. You're making the best of it. Whether it's porch time visits with your friends outside, I just feel like top to bottom, you've modeled being intentional through this. Everybody listening can wrestle with this tension of not wanting to keep up the grind and hustle of our lives that was unhealthy, but we also want to still be intentional and not slip into unhealthy and slothfulness. So talk about how you wrestle with that and how you've decided to do these things. How have you chosen these rhythms and disciplines versus checking out? 

I think there's space for both, because we've just never done this. I have one friend who lost her job, so what is she going to do all day? She can only do so many house projects and go on so many walks before she takes a day and lays on the couch. There's some permission to do that some days. For me, I just know myself. If I don't have a list, if I don't make a schedule, and if I don't put on real pants a couple times a week, my inclination toward gluttony or laziness or wastefulness is really high. In order to thrive, I need those things. It helps to have these pillars in my day. I'm grateful my job is still as busy as it was when I was in the office everyday. God is not a God of disorder. So when I notice significant disorder in my life, I start to lose peace. What I've found in quarantine is the way to live in peace in a world I do not understand is to choose order over disorder as often as I can. 

I totally relate. Here's my problem: the last two days I have been in my robe watching Money Heist on Netflix. It's good, but it's not that good. It's not worth giving a day of your life to. But I did, I just kind of sink and it's bad for me. When I downshift, I go into a deep dark valley. There's grace for those days of course. I don't really regret those two days. So I washed my hair and put on my pants and took a shower. 

Yeah, everybody's personality is different. So for some people, what order and peace looks like for them is taking a day off every week. But I could accidentally, if I didn't have employees, deadlines, podcasts that needed to come out, I could blink and have spent a month of my life on the couch. I know myself. I think you or Beth Moore said this, but it was on Twitter and it said, "if we get on the other side of this and don't know Jesus better, what have we done?" There's no excuse, because we've got the time. The enemy has done such a fine job of isolating us, and our main way to combat that is to not be alone. And the main way I combat isolation as a single woman who's not married and doesn't have kids or roommates is to be with Jesus. That sounds like the Christian answer, but it's the actual truth. He is a person that rose from the grave. He's alive and we can be with him. 

Let's go there Annie, because this week we're talking about our people and how to connect with them. It obviously looks different for us right now. This has been such a priority for you. How have you been connecting? How are you meeting that need right now?

For me, I use this app called Marco Polo a lot. The way I actually got quarantined is because I was watching the finale of the bachelor with all my friends, and we were at the house of someone who got sick the next day. One of the first 10 cases in our county. So we all got Marco Polo and started talking, and we have had deeper and truer conversations trapped in our houses over our phones than we have ever had watching a TV show together. They're all married with kids and have busy lives and we all go to different churches. We're just a friend group. But when you're trapped in your house, ironically, you can't hide. There's also a small group of us who have decided to see each other and only to see each other. It was one of my solutions as a single woman. There's two other singles that are up close to me and also live alone, so we do dinner once or twice a week where we sit outside six feet apart. We just decided to tell each other who each of us is going to see and commit to seeing each other. I think if it goes longer than April 31st, there will be some social changes for me, as in seeing more people. But of course being very careful. I don't want to get sick. I've seen people get sick and I do not want it. Instagram stories have also been a gift, because I've still gotten to be me and talk to people everyday. 

I feel like I've been hanging out with you from your stories! I'm grateful you do them, because I feel like I've watched you through this journey. Alright, I want to hear the top three fun things you've done this week. 

I did a distance dinner last night with friends, so that was really fun to see people up close. I finished a puzzle, which was really fun. I always do it with another activity - watching a sport, listening to an audio book, sitting with someone, etc. I've done a call with a girl I mentor and we've both done our own puzzles the whole time. It's one hobby of mine that doesn't involve food or words, so that's good. I don't need more of either of those in my life right now. I have some plants I bought that I'd like to try to keep alive. They're barely alive. I'm listening to some Andrew Peterson books. He is reading his novels for young adults on his Facebook every night for 30 minutes, which has been so fun to listen to. One of the tricks of being trapped at home for all of us is you didn't realize what you could walk to until you could only walk. I live in a condo and there's a big street, like five lanes, that's always packed but right now it's not. Across the street is a beautiful trail and neighborhood with all these houses, so I like to play Frogger across this five lane highway everyday to go on a walk over there. It's just been fun to find things that are beautiful that were always right beside me, I just didn't know it. 

I love it. What would you say to someone who's lonely right now? How would you encourage them if they are alone in their house? 

The first thing I would say is, I've talked to a lot of people that are alone, and a lot of people who are living with other people, and everybody's lonely. It's just not supposed to be like this. So if you're feeling lonely, you're being a very good human because you're at least calling it that. The other thing I would say is, remember this isn't forever. This is not the rest of your life. This is not how we will live. My question would be for you, what could God have for you in this? There is a gift in this for all of us that are home alone or with families. I'm asking God everyday when I wake up, when I pray, that whatever gift he has for me today, I'm open to it.     

That makes me want to ask one more question. What do you hope comes out of this? How do you want to take what you've learned during this season and let it change us?

I'm reading the gospels every month this year - Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John every single month in different translations. It is making Jesus so real to me. Right now I'm using Dr. Evans bible study and it's unbelievable. It takes me twice as long to read because I'm reading every single one of his notes. But what I hope is on the other side of this is that Jesus and I are better friends. I want to know him better. I want him to know me better. I want him to tell some stories I've never told him, even though he's lived through all of it with me. I want to hear him better. I just want us to be better friends on the other side of this. 

That's one of my favorite things about you Annie. When I met you, all the questions you would ask me were how I was keeping my soul close to Jesus. It's your priority. And it bleeds over into every time I'm with you, everything you post on Instagram, your whole life. I love it.