No Sanity Required
No Sanity Required is a weekly podcast hosted by Brody Holloway and Snowbird Outfitters. Each week, we engage culture and personal stories with a Gospel-driven perspective. Our mission is to equip the Church to pierce the darkness with the light of Christ by sharing the vision, ideas, and passions God has used to carry us through 26 years of student ministry. Find more content at swoutfitters.com.
No Sanity Required
Raise the Ebenezer, Remember the Savior | Beyond the Flannelgraph
In this episode, Brody unpacks the importance of remembering God's faithfulness by looking at the story in 1 Samuel—when he raised a stone of remembrance after God delivered Israel. That moment, and the phrase “Here I raise my Ebenezer,” challenges us to mark the moments God shows up in our lives.
Brody shares personal examples, including how Snowbird’s North Campus became a reminder of God’s provision, and reads a heartfelt letter to the SWO summer staff as they wrap up a powerful summer of ministry. He also shares encouraging feedback from readers of his new book No Sanity Required. This episode is a call to reflect, remember, and keep pressing forward in faith.
1 Samuel
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Well, we're going into week 10 of our summer camp here at SWO. Swo 25 is going to wrap up this week and I'm actually recording this on Monday morning of week 10. And I'm going to be sharing here in a couple of hours with our staff. We meet, as most of you know, on Mondays and we just worship together. It's usually very brief and I share just a word of encouragement from the scriptures.
Speaker 1:But this last Monday I'm going to share some things that I thought I'd bring y'all along and just give you my thoughts before I go share this with the staff, because I think it is something that serves as an encouragement to all believers. So this morning, or this week rather, we're going to go beyond the flannel graph and we're going to consider some lessons from the early ministry and life of the great prophet Samuel and we're going to hopefully be encouraged by that, and so I want to share this to our staff, but I also want to share it with y'all and I guess this is kind of a warm-up run before I go out and share with our staff later today. So I'm looking forward to that, but for now I'm looking forward to just sharing my heart and my thoughts with y'all and hopefully this will be something that will encourage and motivate you in your own walk with Christ this week. So welcome to no Sanity Required.
Speaker 2:Welcome to no Sanity Required from the Ministry of Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters. A podcast about the Bible, culture and stories from around the globe.
Speaker 1:I've written a letter to our staff and I want to read that to you at some point in this episode, and I plan to. But first let me share with you the passage of Scripture. It's not a passage that I can share all of and it's four or five chapters. But let me tell you the story of what I want to share from and where this comes from. There's a line in a song. The line is something to the effect of here I raise my Ebenezer, or now I raise my Ebenezer. It's a. It's an old hymn and you might be familiar with it. Uh, it's a hymn from. Uh.
Speaker 1:The song is called come thy fount, and the hymn writer's name was Robert Robinson. He wrote it in the seven 1750s. But in the second line he he writes here I raised my Ebenezer, and it's one of those words that you hear and probably for a lot of people you don't know why we sing that and what it means and what's the significance of this word. So I want to share it with you. It comes from for this hymn writer, robert Robinson. It's part of his personal testimony, but where it comes from is in the story of the Ark of the Covenant and the early ministry of Israel at the time of the kings. This is the transition period where Israel has been ruled by judges. Samuel is the final judge and under Samuel's judgeship, israel will demand a king and Samuel will then anoint and install that first king, whose name will be Saul.
Speaker 1:But at the time that 1 Samuel, the book starts in fact it starts before Samuel is born and it goes through his early life and at that time there's a lot going on in Israel, and one of the things that is going on that really stands out and gets our attention is that their leadership, the spiritual leadership, the priests of Israel, are not faithful to the Lord. There's one priest whose name is Eli, and Eli has been faithful in times past, but he's raised two sons who are now not faithful. They're very unfaithful. These men remind us of so many pastors and ministry leaders in our day that are using the platform God's given them for selfish gain. They're using it for sexual gain, for monetary or material gain. They're using it for selfish reasons, and that's what Eli's sons are doing, and God eventually brings judgment on Israel, and the way that this judgment comes in 1 Samuel, beginning about chapter 4, I believe beginning in chapter 4, is that Israel goes into this battle with the Philistines and Israel's getting whipped and they're losing the battle.
Speaker 1:So they go and they get the Ark of the Covenant, which the significance of the Ark of the Covenant, which the significance of the Ark of the Covenant was sort of multifaceted, but primarily it represented the presence of the glory of God in the life of the Israelites. And so they bring the Ark to the battlefield and it's as if it were some sort of magical object that is just going to. If they bring this up here and march it out in front of the enemy, the enemy will fall over dead, and that's not what happens at all. In fact, israel is destroyed in this battle. They lose thousands, tens of thousands of soldiers die and the ark is actually captured. And so there's a really good lesson there that it's an honor and a blessing to have the provision and protection of God on our lives, and his presence in our lives is a great gift, but he's not like a genie in a bottle. It's an important principle. And so the Philistines capture the Ark and then they take it to one of their cities.
Speaker 1:Now this is where the story gets interesting. They take it to one of their cities. They put it in the temple of one of their pagan deities, this god named Dagon, which I think is the primary deity of the Philistine people. They put the Ark beside this statue to Dagon, this idol, and then what happens is that idol falls down face, first before the ark, and this happens a couple of times. Eventually it's broken, in fact it's broken, and the hands, like it's, dismembered, the hands they come off of it, these people. What would happen is they'd come in in the morning and this thing would be turned over before the ark of the Lord.
Speaker 1:And so God, you know, know, there's a sort of a really strong perspective of, even though god allowed israel to be defeated, and it seems as if his glory is being defiled, god's glory is never defiled. So even in defeat, he preserves his glory, he defends it sovereignly, and so he uses the, the Philistines, to bring judgment on the Israelites, but then he judges the Philistines for jacking around with the ark. So they, and they move the ark around from city to city, place to place, and it's just more of the same continues to happen. People get tumors and they break out in different types of disease, and there's a, there's a, there's a lot of there's. There's, you know, a lot of consequence to even being in the presence of the ark plagues and disease.
Speaker 1:And so, as God is defending his glory, even in exile, the Philistines decide, in consulting with their own priests, they decide we've got to return this thing. And so they return the ark and they come up with their own version of guilt offerings to try to appease Israel's God. They don't know much about Yahweh, but they know we better, we better appease this God. And so they go through this whole process. They get this certain types of cows, and then they make these little idols and they offer them. They put the Ark on this cart and so they bring the, they bring, bring the ark. They set the cows loose and the cows walk the ark back to israel. And then, when it gets there, it's a crazy little twist israelites look at the ark and I think about 70 people look into the ark and then they die.
Speaker 1:So again, god is emphasizing his glory. Don't jack around with my glory. So God's absolute holiness is of utmost importance in the story. So we were reminded of the, the critical nature of how reverent worship of Yahweh needs to be. And so, uh, god's covenant, people are not exempt from the same type judgment that the pagan people have endured if they don't take God's glory serious.
Speaker 1:So in chapter seven, samuel, who's the prophet? He leads the people of Israel into like a revival of repentance. He calls them to return to the Lord, to turn back to God. They put away their foreign gods and Samuel intercedes for them. And then in that chapter, the Philistines attack. But there's a, there's a great defeat, and it's clear that that defeat is from the Lord. It's not from the Israelites own ability. God delivers them. And so there's a place called Ebenezer and Samuel raises up a stone at that place. It's a, basically it's a stone monument. And Ebenezer and Samuel raises up a stone at that place. It's basically it's a stone monument, and Ebenezer means stone of help. It's as if he's saying that the Lord has helped us to this point. We are here because God has helped us. The Lord is the one. Who's who's helped us, who's established us.
Speaker 1:For Samuel, chapter seven, verse 12, samuel took a large stone and placed it between the towns of Mizpah and Jeshanna. He named it Ebenezer, which means the stone of help. For he said up to this point, yahweh has helped us. And the point in that moment is that in repentance, the people turn to God. Salvation doesn't just come through. You know the fact that you're an Israelite or that you practice certain rituals, but you're reminded that it is an act of God's sovereign grace that we receive salvation and he's the one that delivers us. And so I want to challenge this. You know our listeners this week and I've been challenged by this. I want to challenge our staff at SWO that in our own lives we need these sort of Ebenezer, these symbols of God's faithfulness. I don't know what that looks like for you.
Speaker 1:Some people you know might write certain verses that have meant a lot to them in times of deliverance and put those on the wall of their study or their room or their living room, over the mantelel, over the kitchen table. Some people get tattoos. Some people um, I know, some people have literal stones. I remember years ago we had our staff all pick a stone, a rock, and we carried it to the top of the mountain at snowbird, a place we call swofast, and we put those rocks up. There's raised up our Ebenezer, but it's just basically a symbol of God's faithfulness that reminds us.
Speaker 1:One commentator wrote this Ebenezer is a monument to sovereign grace. Israel had no strength of their own. They had just repented, that's all. Yet God helped them. God's sustaining grace is emphasized in the past, giving hope for the future. It echoes the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. He's talking about the raising of this stone. God, who has helped, will continue to help. And so in your life, I don't know maybe there's something that you might want to do this week. Maybe it's write something on your hand that every day you look to and remember, refreshed, you know, with new ink every day, and you're reminded of that verse for the week, or you remember you commit it to memory, but there need to be these things in our lives, that are these monumental moments where we're reminded of God's deliverance.
Speaker 1:I know for me, every time I drive on the North campus I'm reminded of God's sovereignty in the preservation and advancement of this ministry during during the COVID-19 pandemic, which was crazy. But God not only preserved us, but he grew us. And so I feel like every time I drive down the four lane on the bypass in Andrews, north Carolina, and I look over and see Snowbirds North campus, I'm reminded of God's faithfulness, his sovereignty, the idea that God's will prevails, whether it's through judgment or mercy. Sometimes God's faithfulness, his sovereignty, the idea that God's will prevails, whether it's through judgment or mercy. Sometimes God's will is perfected through judgment, like we saw with the Philistines and even with some of the Israelites, and well, all of the Israelites. In the story we see the judgment of God as an, as an outworking of his sovereignty, but then we see the mercy of God, where he preserves his people. Ultimately, we see the holiness of God. We recognize that God is holy and that that holiness is something that we should we should fear and tremble in light of. But then also we see that God is a God who restores. He restores those that have turned away, fallen away, have walked away, and it's wonderful, um, it's wonderful to know that we serve a God who is long-suffering, long-suffering, impatient. And so God's means of grace for us might be different from day to day. It might be different for you in the season of life that you're in or the situation you're in, but in your life I wonder what might be your Ebenezer. You're in, but in your life I wonder what might be your Ebenezer. Do you have an Ebenezer moment you can look to? Um, I know that most of us do. I certainly do. I have many of those.
Speaker 1:So, sharing those thoughts with our staff, I want to read to you a letter that I've written to the SWO 25 staff. To finish and this week's episode is going to be a little shorter, if you'll bear with us we're wrapping up our summer and we'll be back next week in the saddle with some longer form type content, but hopefully this will be a very encouraging episode for you as we wind down the summer. So here's a letter to the SWO staff that I plan to read this week To the SWO 25 staff. This includes everyone who worked at SWO in any department this year. It's hard to believe that we are down to one final week.
Speaker 1:I can honestly say, after working and serving alongside of y'all for these last 11 weeks, that of all the summer staffs I have worked with and it's a lot, 31 to be exact of all of those summer staffs y'all are one of them. It's really been amazing this summer, and it's crazy when I think back almost 30 years to walk in this property and praying for those the lord would send to do the work. The work that is being done in 2025 was prayed over in 1997, 1998, my favorite, 1999. As we walked in the new year. That year, also known as y2k, we're walking the property and praying. None of y'all were even born then. Well, it's not true. Carter was born in may, have had a driver's license, probably already had a mustache. For those of you listening to nsr carter's uh gown staff, he's a. He's a few years old, he's like 26, he's a little older, but he gets picked on all the time for being the old man. So inside joke there. But most of y'all were not born then. Little's grandmother, charlene, walked the property and prayed over it in the 1960s. We began walking and praying over that same property in the 1990s and I genuinely and truly believe that y'all are an answer to that prayer.
Speaker 1:The Lord impressed on your heart to come and serve at SWO and you responded to that call. You answered that call. You set aside a summer when you could have done so many other things, could have pursued so many other things. You could have served wonderful number one combos at Chick-fil-A, snow cones at Pelican Snowballs, or you could have gone on vacations with your family. A lot of options, a lot of options. And yet you chose to be here.
Speaker 1:You came here, you took a seat in the galley of this ship that is on a voyage and a mission through the choppy and tumultuous cultural waters of your generation and you put your hands to an oar and you began to row. It's not a cruise ship, it's a battleship, it's a mercy ship. It's engaging the darkness to rescue the souls of those who are lost and dying. It's a lifeboat that is caring for those who have been pulled from the icy waters of abuse, broken families, addiction and simple and immature, childlike apathy towards the things of God. You've all done your part on this mission. It hasn't been without conflict and there have been some tense moments. Hopefully all of the grown men in the room have learned valuable lessons about what's appropriate and what's not appropriate physical contact with other men.
Speaker 1:That's an inside joke, by the way Just as we knew they would. The days have been long, but the weeks have gone quickly. At times ministry feels overwhelming and at other times it seems to be flying by, and it's easy to stand here and look back wondering where the days went and how we got to where we are. But I'm so thankful that, while we have not been perfect, we have been faithful. We've all taken part in something bigger than ourselves and we've learned lessons that will shape and inform the rest of our lives. The testimonies of sons and daughters brought into the family of God, adopted as heirs and co-heirs with Christ, will fill our memories and motivate our steps in the months ahead. We can trust that the word of God never returns void and as it has been proclaimed from the stage and in share groups and on bus rides and in early morning conversations over coffee and over the word, neither will it return void in our mission of SWO 25. It's a mission that would declare the glory of God for the good of his people. I've kept the screenshot of every text I've received informing me of another student who had professed faith in Jesus. I look back on those in long and dark days of winter or the long and dark seasons of ministry that we all encounter and go through in our lives, and I'll find encouragement. They will be to me a type of Ebenezer. I'm grateful. We will turn our attention respectively to the various and varying tasks that God is calling all of us to as we go in a couple hundred directions.
Speaker 1:Next week let's go realizing and recognizing what it's like to be a part of a team where everyone puts their hand to the plow and labors together for a prize that will not tarnish, perish or fade. There's great power, efficiency and efficacy when God's people unite together in like-mindedness and on mission to make Christ known and to work so that his glory may fill the earth and our days on the earth. There are no perfect churches, no perfect ministries, and that's because there are no perfect people. But when imperfect people trust in the call of a perfect and glorious God and surrender to that call, great and mighty works are accomplished. And here we have seen great and mighty things accomplished over these past three months, and there's more to come. We're not finished. There's yet work to be done. As we enter into our 10th and final week of ministry, we do so realizing that in all reality. This is week one, so let's put our hand to the plow. Let's look forward, not back. Don't be a chump, don't be a punk, don't take days, hours or even minutes off. If you do, you just might get killed by a lion.
Speaker 1:The gospel in this calling is foolishness and folly to those who are perishing. In the world's eyes, the type of calling we've embraced is foolishness, but thanks be to God, the foolishness of the world is brought low in light of the wisdom of the gospel of Jesus. As Paul said, if we are fools, we are fools for Christ's sake. The sanity and wisdom of the world is not required for carrying out the mission that Jesus left us with. We've tasted and seen that the Lord is good, but let's be reminded there is yet much work to be done in each of our lives. And as long as we have breath, let's grip the plow, hold fast to the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, expose the darkness, fight for the souls of men, minister the healing love of Jesus to those who are hurting and let's ultimately advance the gospel of Jesus. I love you all and I'm thankful for you and proud of you. Plow on Brody.
Speaker 1:So there's a message I'll be sharing today with our staff by the time this episode drops. We will share that. And just a final word of encouragement and gratitude to them, grateful, and I want to say to our listeners it's easy to get caught up in thinking that we live in a time and an era and a day where there's no real faithful young men and young women. But I'm surrounded by them every day and none of them are perfect and they're young and they're immature and they make stupid mistakes. But I'm old and mature and I make stupid mistakes. And so we're all just in this thing together, trying to honor the Lord and be faithful to the call and he's given us, and I'm grateful that he would call so many young men and women to come take part in this and it's an honor to serve with him and it's been an honor to minister alongside of him, so grateful. So thank you all for your support and for the way you've followed along, and a reminder that the book is flying off the shelves.
Speaker 1:I want to close this episode by reading to y'all just some quotes and some comments on the book that I think are an encouragement and that I think y'all will enjoy hearing. Let me read a few comments. Here's one Started and finished the book yesterday. Thank you for writing this. I'm going to be promoting it to our church so they know exactly why we choose SWO over every other camp. That's from a youth pastor named Evan who brings his students about 20 hours, 18 maybe from Wisconsin. So that's pretty cool. Kevin writes good morning.
Speaker 1:Read the book last night, enjoyed it very much. I could say a lot about how much Snowbird has meant to me, but that would be a long text. So I will just say I didn't know it and she didn't either, but I was one of the people that grandma Coleman was praying for. That's a reference to um, something I explained in the book about a little grandmother walking and walking the property and praying over it. Man, the book must be great because my son read the whole thing on the ride back from camp today. That boy hates reading. I can't wait to dive into it. That's from a buddy named Kyle uh, from Northern Virginia.
Speaker 2:I think maybe not.
Speaker 1:Northern Virginia, but from Virginia, so that's pretty cool. Um, mike writes this. Hey, brody, I know it's late, but I bought the book. It came today. I started it after supper and just finished it at 1115 PM. It was good to read all the backstories about the vision and origin of SWO. I have to admit I was a bit emotional over the retelling of the 2007 year.
Speaker 1:Those staff members who lost their lives worked with our group. The church is called Eastview from Rock Hill Baptist Church. It hit our group, me and my wife very hard. It's a great read. Thank you, that's pretty cool.
Speaker 1:John says just finished your book today. It was great. So much to be thankful for. God did good in putting it together. Of course, also loved your no drifting NSR this week, something this old man fights each day. Love you, my brother. Keep the steam. Thank you, john Appreciate that.
Speaker 1:And then Randy writes I saw that you wrote a book, so I rode up to get one. Okay, so this was last Monday. At 11 in the morning I saw you wrote a book. Well, I rode up to get one. This guy, randy, rode in on his motorcycle from Atlanta and then at 10 o'clock that evening he wrote finished your book isn't God good. I love that. So phenomenal, phenomenal response to the book. It's so cool just the faithfulness of the Lord and to see that he's using the no Sanity book.
Speaker 1:For those of you that have a copy, let us know what you think. For those of you that have not picked yours up yet, get a copy, read it and let us know what you think. It really is more than just a kind of a how to or a little story of how snowbird came to be. It's, there's layers to this thing, and I think it it's. It's helping people understand why we do what we do the way we do it, and so please read it. You can see from those messages I read it's a super fast read. People are reading it in just a few hours and, um, and I think you'll be encouraged by it.
Speaker 1:Thank y'all so much. Please pray as we wrap up our final week here, and then the staff most of them will be heading out for some much, uh much needed, much earned, much deserved rest. It's been a phenomenal summer. Could not be more thankful for the Lord's faithfulness. It's just been awesome. So thank y'all and uh, yeah, look, the next few weeks we'll be back in the saddle with some longer form, uh, longer, longer, a little bit longer episodes and, uh, some, some folks you're going to be hearing from that I'm very excited for you to hear from next week. If we can get all the editing done, you will.
Speaker 1:I believe JB's about done with it, but you will get to hear from and see an interview I did with John, a young man named John Pollock. John is a student pastor in Alabama, but he came out of the Catholic church an awesome conversion story of how he came to faith. But also he sheds, I think, very insightful and helpful light into the world of Catholicism and he does so with a lot of endearment because his family is still there. He loves those people and understands the error in their doctrine, but but it's not uh, but has a lot of love for the people that are still there. So, uh, looking forward to that episode next week and um hope that you guys have an awesome week again. Pray for us that we finished strong hand to the plow, no looking back and that we get it done this week and that God gets the glory. Appreciate you and we'll see you next time.
Speaker 2:Thanks for listening to no Sanity Required. Please take a moment to subscribe and leave a rating. It really helps. Visit us at SWOutfitterscom to see all of our programming and resources, and we'll see you next week on no Sanity Required.
