Lacy Apfelbeck, founder of Edge of the Red Seas Ministries in St. Francis, believes she’s fortunate to know what it’s like to have Christ as her anchor. She first encountered Christ as her savior when she was 8 years old.
“I know that oftentimes … we get caught up in the secularism of that next thing, so whether it’s graduating high school or college or getting that career or that home and getting married; and sometimes those things can be really exciting and fun. And then sometimes when they’re not coming and we’re in that season of waiting it can really stir up that tumultuousness of desolation,” Apfelbeck said on the “Practicing Catholic” radio program set to debut at 9 p.m. Aug. 1 on Relevant Radio 1330 AM.
The ultimate goal is heaven, Apfelbeck said, and we pass through this world on our way to it. When she takes her eyes off that greater purpose she can get caught up in what is or isn’t happening and what she wishes is happening, Apfelbeck said.
“For me it means allowing my character … to be formed to be more like Christ,” Apfelbeck said. “Whether I have little or whether I have much and I think that’s so true in life … as St. Ignatius reminds us, ‘This too shall pass.’ So whatever desolation we’re in, or uncertainty or fear, it’s not going to last forever. And that can, for me, take that anxiety off.”
Apfelbeck said she needs to put God first and herself second. When she has disordered attachments, when things are out of order in her life, she feels uncertainty.
“When I flip flop this around, life is miserable. Or when I think that phone call or that paycheck or whatever is where my happiness is coming from, it never satisfies, because God is the only thing that can satisfy,” Apfelbeck said. “In April, actually, I had just gone on retreat because I really feel like I had my perspective and my priorities out of order, and God just kept calling me to trust him like a little child.”
With big life changes, such as death or illness, Apfelbeck believes these difficult times can be God taking her deeper into surrender of things she thought she had control over.
“Nobody is on the straight trajectory of joy,” Apfelbeck said.
To hear the full interview with radio show host Patrick Conley, listen to this episode of “Practicing Catholic,” which repeats at 1 p.m. Aug. 2 and 2 p.m. Aug. 3.
Produced by Relevant Radio and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the latest show also includes an interview with Bishop Kevin Kenney on ways to avoid needing approval and affirmation. Also, Mike Rios-Keating, director of culture and belonging at Catholic Charities in the Twin Cities, shares how the organization’s summer programs help those struggling with heat, hunger and hardship.
Listen to interviews after they have aired at archspm.org/faith-and-discipleship/practicing-catholic or choose a streaming platform at Spotify for Podcasters.
