Counter Culture Mama Podcast with Danielle Venables

112. You Don’t Need All the Answers to Take the First Step (from New Age to Jesus)

• Danielle Venables • Episode 112

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Perfection looks impressive online, but it can quietly starve your soul. I share why the chase for “arrival”—in faith, business, and identity—is often pride wearing a halo, and how Scripture reframed my need to look finished. Walking through Exodus, I found courage in Moses’ reluctance and God’s patience with imperfect people who still say yes. That lens changed my rhythm: not a sprint to polish myself, but a steady relationship where Jesus refines me as I go.

I open up about the messy middle—sitting with tension around my oracle deck, questions about yoga, and the fear of being judged by both New Age friends and Christian critics. Instead of flipping a public switch from “before” to “after,” I’m documenting the in-between so seekers can watch conviction mature without shame. We talk through sanctification as a lived process, not a performance; how real study (textual history, manuscript evidence, Old–New Testament coherence) can strengthen faith; and why an honest question can be an act of worship when it draws you closer to truth.

If you’re Jesus-curious but afraid of what you might lose, take one small step. Pray a simple prayer—Jesus, show me who You are—and see what unfolds. You don’t need every answer to begin. Start with relationship, let clarity come, and watch what falls away when a better love takes its place. If this resonates, share it with a friend who’s wrestling, subscribe for more candid journeys, and leave a review to help others find their first step forward.


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SPEAKER_00:

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Counterculture Mama podcast. I am Danielle Venables, your host, and today I want to talk to you about the journey. And this applies to everybody, no matter where you're at on your journey. I feel like there is this illusion or this appearance, whether that is at church, whether that's in business, where people like to look like they have everything together. They like to look like they have all the answers, like they have everything figured out, and that there's some sort of destination or arrival that they've arrived at that shows that they've made it, that shows that they're a good Christian, that shows that they're a successful entrepreneur. Um, and that's something that myself as a high achiever, as somebody who digs deep into truth and really looks for, you know, the ultimate, the ultimate truth, the ultimate success, the ultimate like fulfillment. Like I naturally strive to arrive, I strive to succeed, I strive to do things right, and I take pride in that. And part of that is conditioning from this world, and I think maybe part of that is also just a personality thing, um, where I struggle to say, okay, that's good enough, or you're good enough where you are. And it's something that I've really been initiated into in this season of my life, and I'll share a little bit more about my own story with it. But one thing that I want to say is that there is so much power in embracing the journey, in being present in the becoming, right? I think, you know, for me specifically, I mean, historically, this story has played out in my business, it's played out in my spirituality, it's played out in different areas, but ultimately, um, all that that is, that desire to be there, that desire to arrive, all that that really is, is pride. It's just your ego wanting to be good enough. It's your ego wanting to be able to say, Hey, look at me, I made it. Um and yes, I think our our brains are also wired to desire completion, right? To to desire to witness the closing of a cycle or you know, the arrival at a goal. Like there is some fulfillment in that as well. But what we really need to pay attention to is where pride is taking hold and where it is just our ego running the show telling us, oh, we're not good enough because we haven't, we're not as far along as so-and-so, or um, because we don't know as much as this other person, or because maybe I'm really good at this, but they're really good at that, and you know, therefore, I'm not good enough, or I'm not worthy. And I've been reading through the beginning chapters of Exodus in my personal Bible study over the last few days, and one thing that I really related to Moses with was you know, he is constantly pushing back and you know, telling God, like, who am I to be doing this? I am unworthy, I'm not a good enough speaker, I'm not a good enough whatever. And what I love about the Bible is time and time again, God takes these flawed, imperfect people who don't even see themselves as good enough, and he not only uses them in their imperfection, right? It's like even when they're ridden by sin, even when they submit to maybe a fleshly impulse as opposed to a faith-based um, you know, action, he still he uses them, he refines them, he uses them in their imperfection, and then he also refines them over time to get them to a place where they are who God needs them to be to complete the mission or to fulfill the prophecy, right? And I think that that's such a powerful reminder because time and time again through Genesis, through Exodus now already, we see people who are still imperfect. And you know what? God shows up and he talks to them and he uses them and he does big things through them. And that's been a really important reminder for me as I have been seeking truth, as I've been trying to arrive, I've been trying to, you know, get to a place where not only do I mentally know what the word says, but also where it becomes a part of me, where it's integrated, right? Where um, you know, I'll I'll be completely transparent. My oracle deck has been the biggest challenge for me with this, where it's like, what do I do with it? And I've I've been getting frustrated at my unwillingness to completely let it go. And I'm like, I haven't had a clear sign yet. I know what the Bible says though, and so is this delayed obedience disobedience? Like, am I not being a good follower because I'm not taking action in this one area of my life yet? Like I'm kind of waiting for clarity. And um what I've realized is that no matter what decision I make, his will is going to reveal itself to me anyway. And so even if I feel like I'm not hearing the answer right now, even if I feel like I'm not, you know, on the perfect righteous path right now, you know, if I do Celldex or if I do, you know, these things that I know I'm not supposed to do, but I haven't really been like convicted entirely yet, maybe a little bit. Um, you know, what what the Bible has been teaching me, what the word has been teaching me, is that there is still space for redemption in that. There is still space for learning. And if I do make the wrong move and I do step off the wrong the path that he wants me on, he's gonna rectify that. He's going to restore me to where I'm supposed to be. Um, as long as I am, you know, keeping my mind and my heart and my eyes open to what it is that he wants to do with through me in my life. Um, and so with that said, even sharing that feels confronting, it feels vulnerable because I know that I have listeners on both sides of the fence where some of you are very new age and you're like, well, why does it matter? Like, this is your deck, do what you want, follow your heart, follow your intuition, right? And a few months ago I would have agreed with you, and um not anymore, you know, so I'm I'm kind of opening myself up to maybe judgment or um just you know, opinions about that on that side, and I know that I'm also by speaking about this by admitting out loud that I haven't fully been convicted into exactly what I'm supposed to do with this deck yet. Um I know that I'm going to also draw the criticism of Christians who, you know, will quote Deuteronomy and tell me that everything I'm doing is wrong and that if I don't buy all, you know, several thousand copies of it and burn them, that I am doing something wrong. And so I'm aware that I'm sort of torn in between. I I know where I'm going in my heart. I know that when the clarity comes through, I know that I will take the appropriate actions because that is who I am, and I have faith in myself and my relationship with God to be guided in that way. But I know from the outside it's not a good look. And honestly, that that's hard to admit to, it's hard to say out loud, um, because it does open up to external judgments, right? So I'm just I'm I'm being vulnerable in this moment to show you that yes, I I am a follower of Jesus Christ, and I have no apology for that. Yes, the Bible has changed my marriage, my life for the better. It is continuing to change me and transform me and refine me every day when I sit with the word. I'm not going to apologize for any of that. I'm going to continue to share that because that is my experience. And I can also admit that I am still on the journey. And for a long time I let that hold me back from speaking on it. I let that hold me back out of fear of judgment, that I would do the wrong thing, that I would say the wrong thing, and it would be public, and people would have something to say about it. And that's true. I mean, it absolutely can happen. Um, but the other thing that I've realized is that I feel called to document the journey. The ups, the downs, the confusion, the clarity, the messy process of what I know to be true, regardless of what other people want to project onto me. Like I have to be okay with all of that. Because my deeper mission at this point in my journey and in my life is to document this in a way that's really candid and really honest. Because I know that over the coming years, a lot of you who are in the new age space are going to come home to Jesus. You, he's going to be pulling on your heart, he's going to be coming for you the way that he came for me, because he leaves the 99 to find the one. That's from the Bible. You can look it up. Um, and so I know that this is going to be a transition that a lot of my friends and followers are going to be navigating over the coming six months, over the next year, over the next five years, whatever it is. And my hope, what I hope to accomplish with this podcast, is not to lead Christians astray. My hope with this podcast is to lead new agers to new life in Jesus. And that's why I'm being so radically honest with you. Because I think a lot of people that we see in the online space who go New Age to Jesus, they have this like sudden revelation and it's like a 180. And you look at them and it's like all of a sudden they're denouncing everything they ever did. They're asking you to burn their books and their oracle cards, they are, you know, taking it in a very extreme way. And I'm not saying that that's right or wrong, but what I am gonna tell you is that in my journey, when I saw that, I saw that with Dorian Virtue, I saw that um with some of the coaches in my space, and every single time that I would see it, it would feel really unsafe and really threatening and really confronting. And that's not on them, right? It's it's a reflection of my own reality when I saw it, um, and then just the way that they handled that. And so instead of waiting until I have all the answers and then going public and sharing, you know, my new insights and my new revelation, what I've decided to do is to document every step really honestly, because that allows you the insight into my heart, which again is vulnerable. It opens me up to a lot of opinions and judgment and attacks. And honestly, I'm prepared for that because I know that I am covered. I know that I have the covering of Jesus. I know that I'm gonna be okay, and it's what I feel called to do, and so I'm gonna do it as an act of obedience. But um with that said, I'm letting you in on those vulnerable parts so that you can relate to me on the journey. So that the person who's listening to this, who is thinking or maybe feeling that tiny little tug, right? That that that tiny little like niggle in your heart of like, uh, why am I why am I really interested in Jesus? Or why, you know, why why do I feel like this urge to go to a church, but I never would. That's not me. Or I went to church before and it was awful, and so I'm never going back, but I'm still like Jesus curious. You know, anybody who has that little pull, these episodes, the things that I'm documenting, those are for you, so that you can see somebody navigating this in the public eye in a way that's really honest, really raw, so that when you feel conflicted between old beliefs and new beliefs, or when you feel like, well, I want to say yes to Jesus, but I can't give up my Reiki yet, or I can't give up my Oracle cards yet, or you know, whatever it is. I'm here to tell you that in that in-between, that's okay. Don't let that be the thing that stops you from taking a step towards him. Don't let that be the thing that keeps a wall up instead of seeking him. He is calling at you for a reason, he is tugging at your heart for a reason. And it is your duty to yourself to seek that out. Even if you think, oh, I'll have to give up this or I'll have to give up that. There's no denying, like, we are called, biblically called, to die to ourselves and be reborn in Christ. That is one of the core messages of Jesus. And at the same time, don't let that stop you from taking the first step. Because I promise you, if you trust the process, if you trust the journey, some of those things are going to fall away naturally anyway. And you're not gonna have to, it's not gonna feel like some big sacrifice. It's not gonna feel like, oh, well, I said yes to Jesus, so now I have to do this and I have to do that, and I have to do whatever. I'm gonna tell you one thing that I realized, and this this made all of the difference between being raised Catholic and leaving the church, and between being baptized this summer and coming back to Jesus in my adult life through my own will. The biggest difference between those two things is that growing up, I was taught that this is a set of rules, this is a set of expectations, this is a set of standards that we have to hit. And what I've realized in my adult life is that the things in the Bible are actually symptoms of getting to know Jesus. The closer you get to him, the more everything else that is called sin in the Bible starts to fall away naturally. And it doesn't mean that we never have a desire to sin. It doesn't mean that we never crave something, it doesn't mean that we never, you know, give in to our fleshly impulses, but there is a sanctification process that happens inside of you when you draw near to Jesus. And so instead of looking at all the rules, all of the judgment, all of the condemnation, when you think of, you know, Christians, Christians have a horrible name. And actually, I learned yesterday that the term Christian was actually meant to be like a derogatory term for followers of Jesus back when the apostles were were, you know, spreading the word of Jesus. So I find it really interesting that it carries such a negative connotation now, and it was actually originally a slur. I can't quote exactly where that came from historically, but it was in a podcast that I was listening to. I'll link it down below. But all of that to say, you don't need to become a Christian, you don't need to um conform. In fact, I would encourage you to not conform to the idea in your head of what Christianity is, because a lot of people get it wrong. A lot of people let religious pride slip into their practice and actually misrepresent um Jesus, they misrepresent the Bible, they misrepresent um what God ultimately stands for. But the invitation is to draw closer to Jesus, is to invite him in. It's to reach out to me if you have questions. If you're like, I've been feeling this and I don't know what to do about it, or I've been feeling this and I have resistance towards it because blah blah blah. Let's talk through it. I'm not charging for I mean anything right now in in this regard. It is just literally conversations of sharing what I've learned, sharing what I've experienced, sharing the transformation that's happened for me since I started to just say that little yes. That little like just that yes to that little curiosity that was like building inside my heart. And again, like I have to be okay with the process of being imperfect, of being unfinished, not because I want to sin, not because I want to create separation between God and I, but because I know that when I get convicted of something, my belief in it is gonna be a hundred times harder than if or a hundred yeah, a hundred times firmer than if I just start to do it just because the Bible says to do it or not do something because the Bible says not to do it, right? And I have experienced that sanctification process firsthand. And so I know that even though my journey feels really awkward, feels like I'm still doing something wrong, um, those are all things that you know that that separation, that that confusion, that you're not good enough, that's all the enemy trying to take me away from from being a child of God. And so don't let that win. Don't let that inner voice win of oh, but you could never be a Christian because you like oracle cards, or you could never be a Christian because you're not willing to give up yoga. That's a whole other actually the the podcast episode I'm gonna link below, um, where I mentioned the thing about um what was it that I said? Anyway, when I said I was gonna link a podcast episode down below, in the same, oh, about the uh Christians being derogatory. That same podcast episode goes in depth into yoga. So if you're curious about that rabbit hole, um it'll be there for you. Um and that was another one when when people first started saying that yoga was demonic. I was like, what are you talking about? That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Like, I don't even get how you could say that stretching is demonic. And let me tell you, um, not only have I had my own convictions about it, but also listen to that podcast episode. It is very, very, very enlightening and makes very good arguments because I'm totally that person. And that's another thing about the journey, is that I'm totally that person where I will ask the questions and I will wrestle and I will ask God to illuminate the answers for me so that I know why. I don't just blindly follow, I, you know, I trust in God to work on my heart, I trust in the Holy Spirit to convict me, and also I'm not just gonna behave a certain way to behave a certain way. And so in developing that relationship with God where I can ask those questions and have them answered and have, you know, the answers either come to me um like supernaturally, or have the answers come to me in the form of a book recommendation or in the form of, you know, whatever, which I still believe God places in front of us, but I find the answers so that I'm not just blindly like, oh, I'm Christian now, so I'm not gonna do yoga and I'm not gonna do energy work and I'm not gonna do oracle cards and I'm not gonna blah blah blah because you shouldn't when you're a Christian. That's not good enough for me. And so I have been able to wrestle and it's been safe. It's been okay for me to ask those questions because ultimately it is a process, it is a journey. And I can tell you that when we do that, when we do our homework, when we battle with the, we wrestle with the, but I believe this, and now the Bible says this, and I don't know if I agree with it, and blah, blah, blah. When we when we wrestle with that, we are strengthening our conviction when we come to the answers. I had the same wrestling with believing that the Bible was just some man-made resource that was meant to control populations, right? Oh, brilliant. Like, write a book, say it's God's word, and then anyone who doesn't want to go to hell has to obey it, otherwise they go to hell. Like, what a good way to keep compliance, right? Was like my thinking when I was in New Age. And then I went deep into how the Bible was composed, where the manuscripts came from, how many manuscripts were found, um, why they made certain decisions about what went into the Bible and what didn't, based on dating, based on consistency. I started reading the Bible and knowing the Bible and seeing all of the ways that the Old Testament foreshadows to the New Testament, and that the New Testament, you know, flashes back or references back to the Old Testament and the way that it is all so congruent over thousands and thousands of years, it's insane. But if I had not dug into that and just blindly trusted that, oh yeah, they say the Bible's the word of God, so I guess it's the word of God now that I'm a Christian, my faith wouldn't be very strong. I wouldn't be reading the Bible through a lens of I believe this wholeheartedly because I know where it came from. And God wouldn't be able to speak to me the way he does through it, because there would still be little doubts. And those doubts are where the devil comes in and starts to, you know, oh, are you sure about that? I don't know. Maybe you can just omit that part because, you know, if you don't fully believe that the Bible is the word of God, like, you know, you can use your discernment, right? So I had to go down the rabbit hole, I had to deep dive and find the answers, and every single time I've done that, the answers have been wildly mind-blowing. Wildly mind-blowing. And so I think that speaks to itself. I think that's a testimony in and of itself that every question, every objection, every hesitation that I have had has been answered in a way that I far surpassed any expectation that I had. You know, I thought at best I'd find some pretty compelling arguments. And instead the things that I found were, like I said, mind-blowing. And I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna go on about that anymore because I really think that that's something that you need to discover for yourself. And so if you're feeling that calling, if you're feeling that nudge, just say yes. Literally, if you don't feel the call to change anything else in your life other than just saying, okay, Jesus, I'm in, do that. Say a little prayer. Say, I don't know what I'm doing, I don't know what to believe, I don't know where to start. This is all overwhelming. But Jesus, show me who you are. That's enough. Let him do the rest. So this got way off topic from what I thought that this episode was going to be. But clearly it needed to come through. Clearly, this is what somebody needed to hear today. And like I said, if you have questions, especially coming from the new age, coming from conflicting beliefs, um, reach out to me. It's all good. My my links are down below. I'm happy to share with you, not to pretend that I have all the answers, but to provide you with some guidance in the right direction, to share with you what helped me, to, you know, share my insights or where I've been getting my information, or, you know, whatever. I I'm happy to share. I'm happy to have that conversation and to do it in a way that is not going to condemn and judge you, but instead in a way that's just gonna point you towards the truth. In John 4, 16, 14, 6, sorry, um, Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, the life. And he is. And so I am here to point you in that direction. And just to walk alongside you, not from a place of hierarchy, not from a place of claiming that I'm more enlightened than others. That was one of my biggest pet peeves about the quote unquote gurus in new age. Um, but just from one sister to another, from one human to another. And uh yeah, I look forward to those conversations when they come in. I will be praying for each and every one of you, and I'll talk to you next week.