Rodney Olsen  0:00  
Even though I've seen this same video, dozens and dozens of times, heard the same stories, dozens and dozens of times. If I stop getting choked up, then it's my time to leave the organization. My heart needs to stay soft. 

Jerry Dugan  0:13  
Welcome to Beyond the rut, the podcast that shares encouraging stories and practical tools to help pull you out of your rut and into a life worth living. I'm your host jarred Dugan, and in just a moment, we're going to have a conversation with the host of bleeding daylight, Rodney Olson, Rodney Olson has a long career in radio broadcasting Christian radio, and he also represents an organization called ride for compassion. In this episode, we're going to talk about how you can come out of your rut by serving the needs of others, teaching them and showing them how to also serve others. And from that, you'll find fulfillment, you'll find alignment with your purpose. And you'll just come out of that funk, you'll be living for something beyond yourself. And so Rodney is going to talk about his first exposure to compassion, the organization, the work they do, but also the impact it has had on his life. So sit back and relax. Unless you're, I don't know, throwing butter at the window. Just see it slide down the window panes in that case, do both because why not? Right. So here we go. All right, I have with me the host of bleeding daylight podcast, Rodney Olson, calling in from Australia. How are you doing, Rodney? I'm doing really well, very well, indeed. Awesome. Now what part of Australia are you in? I want to pretend I know geography over there. But I'll look that up later.

Rodney Olsen  1:41  
I'm in Perth in Western Australia. And a lot of times people say that it's the most isolated capital city in the world. You can debate that. But nevertheless, we're fairly isolated from the rest of the country, even all the way across on the West Coast, most of the activity in Australia and most of the places that people have heard about are on the East Coast such as Sydney and Melbourne and Brisbane and those places. But we're over here in the West. We tried to keep it a secret from everyone else, because otherwise they'll find out how amazing it is. And they'll all flood over here. See, I see I see. Yeah, yeah, keep it keep it a secret. Yeah.

Jerry Dugan  2:20  
I'm imagining like the Tourist Bureau, like being the worst Bureau ever, like, showing like dilapidated buildings and like pothole roads, people miserable on a beach with sunburns. And like don't come here.Go to go to Brisbane or Sydney that plays out.Now, did you always live in Perth? Or is that just where you settled down more recently? 

Rodney Olsen  2:44  
No, I've grown up here. So been here my entire life. I've never lived in any other place. I've been to lots of other places around the world and some wonderful spots that I visited. I certainly visited a number of spots in Australia and overseas. But no, Perth will always be home. Nice. Now what stands out to you like when you travel somewhere else? And you come back home to Perth? What is it that stands out to you that says, Ah, this is home? And it's not that my own bed? Oh, yeah, there's always that. Is that? No, I think it's like the the atmosphere here is just a little bit more laid back than a lot of places. We have all the comforts that you could ask for. We have, you know, a very modern city. But the pace just isn't the same pace that you'll find elsewhere. There's not that same pushing in and of course that changes over time. And so, you know, the pace does increase, but I think it's just a relaxed place. Plenty of wonderful opportunities to make make a living here. There's beautiful white sandy beaches. There's a great climate here and I just think this is the place to be nice. Now you inadvertently just plug Perth as a place to go visit.

Jerry Dugan  4:03  
Okay.So, thank you for sharing that. I I know for me, you know, being from California, I grew up in army brat. But California has been home and I hadn't been there in a long time. But then a few years ago, I went back and the air was just different. You know, it was cooler, it was crisp, it had a different smell to it. It was probably the smog but it was just different. It felt more like home and I thought wow, I didn't realize I didn't think I would miss that about California but I wound up missing. So that's why I wanted to ask you what was it that about Perth that stands out when you go on a travel and you come home and you know that it's that feel of the city. So are the laid back culture in that area.Now I had the honor of being on your show bleeding daylight some time ago. And so I'm glad that you're able to come on here and talk with us and share your insights about getting out of a rut and but before we get into that you had a careerRadio is that right? Are you had experience in radio 

Rodney Olsen  5:02  
for well on and off for around 25 years worked in radio, here in Perth. And so it's something that I've always loved. And I guess that's why I started the podcast is that I'm now in a very different line of work. But I still need to scratch that radio ah, and the podcasting gives me the opportunity to do that. Because one of the things that I really loved about radio and when people would say it and miss it, I would say, Well, the thing I miss is talking to interesting people and hearing their stories. And that's why I started bleeding daylight so that I still have the opportunity to do that. And so that kind of scratches that itch. Yeah. Now, what kind of radio? Did you do that? Like? Was it like music DJ? Or did you do talk radio, Christian radio, like, what was that whole career? That's it. It's a Christian radio station, but quite different to what you might imagine, because we started a format here where it's not just 100% Christian music, it's actually a mix of normal music that you would hear on any other radio station. I mean, we carefully listen to it so that we're not promoting values that would go against the Christian faith. But we mix those with specifically Christian tracks. And on top of that, talk to interesting people from a range of different areas. So it's actually an invitation for people to come in and, and to hear about this thing called Christianity, what's it all about, I need to get my bearings on what this actually means without just having people giving me a sermon the whole time, which I don't understand and can't connect with. So that's the sort of radio it was. And so very much in the earlier days, I would sometimes interview people, but the last nine and a half years that I spent at the radio station, I was doing the morning show between nine and midday. And I used to have a lot of regular guests and a lot of interviews. And I guess that's probably the time that I enjoyed the most of being able to talk to those people. And that's where I got that each to be able to have those interviews, hence, hence the podcast. 

Jerry Dugan  7:09  
Yeah, bleeding daylight. For those of you who don't know, or didn't listen to the interview that I did with with Ronnie, I love the tagline for the show that you kick the darkness until it bleeds daylight. And of course, being an Army veteran. I was like, ah, yeah, Hall Hall. Like, it's so neat, that you showcase stories of other people who have gone through adversity in their lives. They're going maybe through adversity now. And they're coming out like, like the light had bled through this life of darkness. And 

Rodney Olsen  7:46  
yeah, yeah. And really, the title comes from a Bruce Coburn song. Some people might know, Canadian singer songwriter, Bruce Coburn, and he had this song back in the 80s. Lovers in a Dangerous time. And there's just a couple of lines in there that grabbed me where it says, Nothing worth having comes without some kind of fight. Got to kick out the darkness until it bleeds daylight. And I think you're absolutely right. Sometimes we've got to push back. Sometimes we've got to do some kicking. Because there is this myth within the Christian life that, Oh, God just opens doors and closes doors. And sometimes that's true. But it makes it sound like this Christian life is an easy thing, that we never have issues, because God's just opening and shutting doors we're just walking through. And sometimes I believe that God says, No, that's a door that is stuck. And I want you to kick it. Because there are things going on behind that door that are wrong. You need to walk through there and make a difference. You know, we think of perhaps one of the most well known scriptures, and many people who are not Christians will still know this the Lord's Prayer, but we pray that God's kingdom will come on earth as it is in heaven. And as I say, even if you're not really part of the Christian faith, you would know that from from hearing the Lord's Prayer over the years, and that means that we've got to try and bring some of what he wants to this world. And so when we see evil, when we see pain, when we see injustice, we've got to make a difference. And those doors just don't swing open. We've got a kick out them until they do open till it starts to bleed that little crack of daylight. And then we just keep kicking harder until we blow the door wide open. 

Jerry Dugan  9:28  
Yeah, yeah. And sometimes it's hard when that door you're trying to kick down has Christians on the other side of it, or people who proclaim to be Christians holding the door shut and trying to keep that out justice in the world. You're like, wait a second, are we not reading the same Bible here? What's going on here? And so that that's something that in the United States has come forward in, in our culture in the last couple of years is just the response to things like Black Lives Matter and and the the COVID and At pandemic, like, not to go too deep into that I just want to speak high level to that just, you know, some of the biggest most staunchest opponents to seeing good happen out of these events come from folks that I've seen who are Christian, I'm like, wow, what happened?

Rodney Olsen  10:22  
Yeah. And I think oftentimes in those situations, it seems more and more, and I see it from afar in the US. But that's not to say that that's where the problem is entirely. I see it creeping into Australia and other places. And I think that's when people start to align themselves more politically than they do to their faith. And they kind of equate faith to a particular political persuasion, be that left, right or center, and therefore anything that comes out of the parties that are the ones that they are backing, suddenly becomes Christian canon. And that's just not the case. I have a difficult time whenever I go to vote, because there are people with policies on the left, that I wholeheartedly agree with, and others I say, I just cannot vote for that in good conscience. And then there are those on the right. And it's the same thing. There are policies there that are excellent. And yet there are others that say, I don't know how I can vote for that. So it's a difficult thing. And I wish the world was just black and white that we could say, This is my party, and I'm sticking with it. But I think the world is a little bit more complex than that. Yeah. Yeah. And that, that makes the greater challenge, I think, is to be true to that faith, and operate within the world that we've got. 

Jerry Dugan  11:38  
And like you said earlier, you know, we're doing our best to bring heaven here on earth. And, you know, it's not a perfect thing here. Because I mean, you got imperfect people trying to create a perfect thing. Yeah. So yeah. Well, now one of the things that you do is you work with, oh, man, it's compassion. So you do Ride for Compassion. You'd mentioned you work for compassion. And it has a lot. It looks like it has a lot to do with like raising funds to to support those who are in poverty and get them out of that economic poverty. Did I nail that hit? The hit the nail on the head? Man, my use of idioms has gone out the window.

Rodney Olsen  12:21  
Yeah, pretty close. Pretty close. So yeah, I work for compassion. And our tagline is releasing children from poverty in Jesus name. So you're right, that we are dealing with that economic poverty. But we are a holistic development agency. So we're working with the whole child that we're releasing from poverty. So that means that we are helping them with all the things that you might imagine the things like the lack of food, the lack of access to education, the lack of health care, and all those things, we do that, absolutely. But we also introduce them to people in the local church who introduce them to Jesus. That's not to say that we're forcing anyone to convert, that's not what we do. But we want to give the reason behind what we do. And for those of us of the Christian faith, we don't believe that we can just give them a solution for tomorrow, when we know that there's a solution for eternity. So it's both and so we're giving a solution for now, which is a better lifestyle now, but it's also giving them the opportunity to know about being a part of God's kingdom forever. Now, when you're introducing them to folks who are in the church and doing God's work, what kind of things are are happening in that? So at a local church, and we only work through local churches, because it's the local people who know what the circumstances are, they are best equipped to be able to help in that sick in that situation. And so we work through the local church in the local church actually invites them in and says, you know, we want to help with all these things. And so they are being helped with education as far as health care goes, and

a lot of social stuff as well, in a lot of these places where there's not the training to how do we actually just get along with people? How do we do that? And making sure that there's education available health care available, food security is available, and also introducing them, as I say to Jesus, so that there's that opportunity to say, is this a belief that I want to follow? Do I believe in this man that they talk about Jesus? Will I follow him? So there, it's, it's holistic, it speaks to every area of the child's life to, to physical to emotional to spiritual? Yeah. And how long have you been doing that? That kind of work? It's been quite a journey in that I first saw compassions work. Back in 2008. I went to Haiti to see the work of compassion there. And I did that as part of the radio station where I worked I was invited to go along to see the work.

Have compassion, and so that I could come back. And we used to run a day on the radio each year where we would say, Hey, this is the situation, will you sponsor a child? So I went to Haiti and I was just up for an adventure, compassion sounded like a reasonable organization. But I was up for an adventure. I didn't realize how much of an adventure it was going to be. Because once I got there, we woke up the first morning of that trip, and we were meant to be going to visit a number of different projects, a number of local churches that were helping children through compassion. And yet they said, I look, things have changed, there's been a disturbance in this particular area. So we're going to be going elsewhere. And we, we went to a particular church, and we were interviewing children, we had our own personal recording devices. So we're interviewing children through translators. And they said, when the parents arrive, you can interview them, ask them what it's like, to be helped through compassion, but the parents were turning up and just taking the children away. And we didn't understand this. And then we found out that it's because they felt safer to take their children home, we didn't quite understand what was going on. But what it was 2008, the time of the global financial crisis, so also the time of the global food crisis. And so families weren't able to put food on the table. And they, they were protesting, they said to the president, you've got to do something, we cannot afford to feed our families. And you know, if you don't do anything, we will riot in the streets. And the President was quite dismissive and said, Well, if you're going to do that, let me know. And I'll come and join you. And so they did, right. And so there was this rioting going on, because they needed to feed their families. And there were stories at the time that families were actually mixing a little bit of oil, a little bit of sugar, a little bit of water, with the sand in the area, drying it out into these mud pies, and feeding that to their children just so that they had something in their belly. Now, that's unacceptable. That's totally unacceptable that that should happen. But of course, it made a difficult situation for us, because we only got to see that one church where compassion was working, we went back to the hotel, and that was a scary trip as well. Thankfully, as we turned into the main street, and people were running towards us with terror in their faces saying don't go up there. We were just near the compassion office. And we turned in there went and locked ourselves in and we looked out, and we saw people running down the street with all sorts of big hunks of wood and all sorts of metal bars. And they were just rampaging through the streets saying, we need to feed our families. And then we stepped back from the window, realizing this is not safe, even though we're a couple of stories up. And then there was this loud bang, and a glass shattered around the room and someone had thrown a rock from straight, they must have had a really good throwing, yeah, they throw this this rock and it just shattered around the room and we went to the back of the building, didn't know whether the people then would have thought, we've seen this people in there, we need to get in, overrun the building. But we stay there. And we realize that we couldn't stay in Haiti. So we, once things calm down a little, we went back to the hotel where we were staying. And then we made a very interesting trip to the airport the next day. And we almost didn't make it there were several times where, where people gathered around our vehicles. And they were trying to incite the crowd, because they would have seen us as an opportunity to get money to buy food to feed their families. And I wonder what you and I would have done in a similar situation, probably the same. It's like I need to feed my children. And there was a man with an iron bar who was really getting the crowd riled up until someone pointed to the side of the vehicle we're in, where there was the compassion logo and said stop there from compassion. They help our children, let them go. And on we went, eventually, to cut the story a little bit shorter. We found someone who could lead us a little bit further forward, we turned around a corner through these narrow alleyways as we just went along in these vehicles at a very slow speed, because there were just crowds everywhere. And we saw this this pickup or utility vehicle with a lot of people on the back holding weapons, thankfully also with police vests, and one of the people that was with us was originally from Haiti, and he just walked very slowly with his arms in the air towards that vehicle, and explained to them what was going on and we got an armed escort to the airport from there otherwise we never would have made it out. We got the armed escort we got to the airport. And I just still remember as we were taxiing along the runway, and the nose is starting to lift off and I'm looking out and there's kids playing soccer in the grass alongside the runway, but further afield across the city of Port au Prince there is fire going up everywhere as they're making barricades and setting them on fire just to say we need to do something we are in desperation.

And there was this sense of, we're safe. And at the same time, there's eight or 9 million Haitians there that are never going to afford a ticket to get out. And I needed to speak on their behalf. And I guess that was the start of me wanting to be a part of compassion. So that was 2008. I continued working in radio for another five years 2013, I got the opportunity to start working full time for compassion, nice. It blows my mind that that was your introduction to compassion.

Jerry Dugan  20:33  
First day, not even on the job, just almost getting run over by very hungry people very frustrated, very frustrated populace and getting out of there. And here's the amazing thing to me is that you didn't just get home and say, oh, man, hey, family, I got a story to tell you. Look at this adventure I just went through.

You just had it on your heart, I need to go back. I need to I need to help people in poverty, I need to maybe if I don't go back to Haiti, somewhere. Now, does compassion only help in Haiti? Or is it it's global, it sounds like it's global. 

Rodney Olsen  21:11  
No, it's global. We're working with over 2 million children at the moment in 25 different countries. And so a lot of the places that I've been since a lot of the countries around Asia, because Australia is close to Asia. And so I've been to Thailand a couple of times to the Philippines a few times. I've been to Indonesia a couple of times, as well as we had some people that were funding some projects in Africa. And so I took a couple of couples across to Rwanda and Ethiopia to see what the poverty was like there to see the projects that they were funding and meet the children and the families there. So yeah, I've been to quite a number of different places. So I've been to seven of the the countries in which we work, and seeing that poverty is different in different places. And that's the interesting thing that most of us in the West, we just kind of assume that poverty is this lack of food, it's a lack of shelter, or lack of education. And it is all those things it is that economic poverty, but it goes deeper. It speaks to a person it says, look around your everything's broken, everything is rubbish, and your rubbish to it speaks so deeply to the human soul to say, you are broken, you will never get out of this. And so it's really hard for those living in poverty through no fault of their own cannot make a difference in their own lives or in their family's lives. Recently, and when I say recently, of course, before COVID hit. So it was March of last year, I had the opportunity to visit the Philippines and I made a number of families. And as I normally do, I ask what are your hopes for your children? And this is the thing that always astounds me when I ask, what are your hopes for your children, they do have hopes and dreams. But then when I turn the store, the when I turn the question back to the parents and say, What are your hopes, they just stare at me blankly, because they've been in a place where they've never had the opportunity to hope or to dream. And so they don't have hopes or dreams for themselves, because that's just something they've never had the luxury of, because poverty has spoken deep to their soul and said, You're never going to have an opportunity to do better than you're doing your work to survive, then you die. That's it. And so I guess that's it, that poverty goes deeper. And so we're wanting to say we need to break these people free of all forms of poverty, the poverty that speaks deeply to them, not just to give them stuff, but to say, we need to give you the things to live a more fruitful life. But we also need to let you know, you are absolutely loved, you are precious, there is a purpose for your life, we can help you towards goals and dreams that that exist. And as I say poverty is different in different places. So I know in Colombia, for instance, one of the places where we work that you cannot charge someone for murder under the age of 18. Therefore the gangs are recruiting 12 year olds to go out and become the hitman. Now, once you as a 12 year old have been trained to go out and to kill people, how do you come back from that? How do you make a difference? So we need to get to those kids early in other places like I've been to Africa, as I say, and there is that dirt poor poverty in some of those places. And it's where you're just seeing people in, in very basic accommodation. And it's that dirt poor that we often imagine when we say poverty, and then in a lot of Asian countries, there is this poverty that is the exploitation, especially the exploitation of young girls, but also young boys into the sex trade. For instance, the Philippines, a one in 12 people that are trafficked around the world come from the Philippines. So we need to get there. We need to be with those children and to help them before these forces come in and actually make a very different path for their lives. That is just purely exploitation. 

Jerry Dugan  25:05  
Man. I think it's easy for us in the Western world and in first world countries to take for granted what we have. And, you know, when you hear these stories, you just like, there's no way there's, you know, there's, that's not happening No, are we just, Oh, that's nice story. But let me go back to my regular life. And for me, it's just moving to hear that there is an organization that's out there, trying to make a difference, you know, if we can just pivot and help one person, but you're not just sticking with one person, you're helping as many people as you can, as impactful. And it sounds like you really do take into consideration what that local need is. So it's not just a blanket, rubber stamp. This applies to everybody.

Rodney Olsen  25:49  
Yeah, absolutely, we've got to do that. We've got to know what the situation is. And I, I'm reminded of a one of the trips that I took to the Philippines a few years back, and one of the the local workers at the church, they are a volunteer mentor for the children. And they were taking us on a visit to one of the the children's homes. And so oftentimes when we visit will visit, the church will see the program there, we'll see what they're doing. But then we're invited to actually see where this child lives and to understand a little bit of their real life outside of that center. And as we were going along, we're going into this area of, of deep poverty. And we're heading towards this home, there was this very modest home, where I would say that those people are pretty much living in poverty. And this young lady that was taking us pointed up and says that's my home there. And that's again, where the realization hits that the people that are helping these young children, yes, they are marginally better off, but they're still living in a form of poverty themselves. And yet, they say, I need to help others. And I think that's one of the big things that I see over and over again, that those who have very little, there's a story very recently, of course, with COVID, over a young girl, who got a small gift, a small financial gift from her sponsor. Now, this is a young girl whose family and they're in Indonesia, they run a little food stall. And of course, when COVID hit, that wipes out the business for the food stall, so they have even less now she's already in extreme poverty. And that's why she's a sponsored child through compassion. So times are already tough, but then the whole family business is wiped out. And she gets this small financial gift from her sponsor. And she doesn't say, Great, we can now look after ourselves a little bit better over the next few weeks. Now, what she does is she gets her mother, they get some food, because this is the trade that they know. And they cook up 50 boxes of meals, little tiny boxes for 50. People, they take it to the church and say, Please give this to those in need. And this is what I see again, and again, those people who they're not just being taught to put your hand out and you'll receive, they're being taught, you know what, even though we have little, we have a responsibility to others as well. And so the care goes right around the community, and everyone's looking after everyone else.

Jerry Dugan  28:10  
Oh, wow. I'm not crying, you're crying? Oh, that's so powerful. I mean, it's just, you know, we would expect Yeah, that, that folks are just, you know, take care of me take care of me and, and there's so many people out there that are mindful of people outside of themselves. And, you know, there's a book I came across called the outward mindset, it's more for like corporate America, or just the corporate setting. And it has a lot to do with like, your career, and your company can change trajectory, if you just stop thinking about your own personal needs all the time. And think about how can I serve my coworker? How can I serve my customer? How can I serve my organization or my leader? And when you do that, it turns out that you're creating this environment where that you're also as a byproduct of being rewarded in some way.

So, you know, hearing this just now reminded me of that book. And then, so that brings it back to you, since you've been doing your work with compassion. How have you seen your own life change? Once you shifted from doing radio to helping people in poverty, 

Rodney Olsen  29:20  
I guess, even though I've always had a heart for these sorts of issues. It has deepened as I've seen more and more of the problem. It's it's certainly softened. I mean, part of my job is going to churches to present the work of compassion. And one of the ways that we do that to be able to tell stories well is to show videos that we've created of people living in poverty and the help that they're getting so that people understand, yes, if you sponsor a child, it is going to make a big difference. And there's some of those videos that are just really heart wrenching, and I found difficult to watch and I remember in my early days working for compassion, sitting down with one particular video and I would watch it again and again just to try and desensitize myself because I knew that it would come at a part in the presentation at a church where I would say some things in the lead up to it, I would show that three minute video, and then I would get up and sort of make an appeal, hey, can you help? And I kept thinking, Well, I'm gonna have to get up. And I know, I'll be choked up after this. And no matter how many times I watched this video, I still got choked up. And that's when the realization hit me. If I ever stopped getting choked up about this, even though I've seen this same video, dozens and dozens of times, heard the same stories, dozens and dozens of times, if I stopped getting choked up, then it's my time to leave the organization, my heart needs to stay soft. And so as hard as that is because you just feel battered around. And we see, you know, places like Haiti, which as I say, was the first place where I encountered compassion. Knowing that two years after I'd been there, there was this massive earthquake that changed everything for the people, then as they're repairing from that that was 2010, the earthquake, and then there's all the repairs, then there's massive political instability. over recent weeks and months, there's been massive political instability, and then comes another massive earthquake. And then days after that, there's a flood that comes through. And I just look at that. And I think I've, I'm just inundated with the information about that. And I know some of the facts and figures of those who have been affected. So I'm constantly surrounded by that, but I can't afford to let my heart get hardened. I can't afford to just let that be another day at work. It's like our small tragedy, we'll go out and get some more kids sponsored, we can't do that. We've got to feel what they're feeling and have that empathy to be able to do our job well. So I guess that's a big change for me, is that I've been drawn further and further into this. And the spin off is that it's not just the work that we do through compassion, there's plenty of agencies doing amazing work in various areas. And I find that my heart is softened in so many different areas. So, you know, all sorts of issues that come up, I just find that, ah, what's going on there. And one of the things that I know that some people will say, Well, how dare you, but I start to feel for even perpetrators. Who doing horrid things. Now, I don't excuse it, and I don't, I don't say, well, they don't need to suffer consequences, there needs to be a reckoning, absolutely. But I start to think when I hear of people that are exploiting others, when they are hurting others, and bringing this evil upon others, I start to think, well, what's happened in their life? Again, I still think we need to take action against them. We need to see the law, take it apart. But I do start to think you know, what has broken in their life? So I guess it's a it's a heart that has softened towards the whole of, of humanity? 

Jerry Dugan  32:59  
Yeah, you know, it's that that need to understand what got somebody there in the first place? How can we change the world so that that person doesn't get there? Or protect others from somebody who is going that direction? And, yeah, it just goes back to that same theme, you know, bringing heaven here on earth, you know, that you have a place where we can all find redemption, at some point. You know, there are the consequences that come from evil actions. But yeah, I can, I can understand that and appreciate that. Man, I lost my train of thought know, the power of editing, though, I can take that out, 

Rodney Olsen  33:36  
it's all gonna be good. In the end, 

Jerry Dugan  33:38  
it is always gonna be getting in the edit. So we talked about what brought you to working for compassion, and the work there and how you got introduced to compassion, even talked about how doing this work, as helped you appreciate the importance of having that empathy and keeping your heart soft, which does take a toll on you, I'm sure. Now, how do you keep yourself from? I guess you'd kind of explained it, though, just reminding yourself the why and enduring that, but how do you get through and prevent compassion from to fatigue, like where some of the techniques you do to prevent that compassion fatigue from hitting you? There we go. That's where I wanted to go.

Rodney Olsen  34:22  
I guess some of the things I do is to remind myself that we serve a big God, that none of this has surprised him and keeping an eternal perspective. Because if this life, if this world is all there is, then this is a very sad state of affairs. And it's sad in the moment, and I don't, I don't dismiss that at all. I'm certainly working to bring change in this world, but we need to look at it from an eternal perspective as well. And so I look at that bigger picture. I need to stay connected to God. I need to understand you know, the scriptures that say you know, the Darkness hasn't put out the light.

And to understand that there is hope in the midst of it, I need to look at some of the work that we're doing here some of the stories of the children whose lives have been absolutely changed. And remind myself, you know what, there is good going on. There's a lot of good going on. And we look, when we look at some of the statistics over time, we recognize that there has been good change, may there have been a lot of things that have happened to to start to turn this world around. Are we there yet? No, not by a longshot. And over the COVID period, there's been a lot of setbacks. recently read a UN report that said, between 119 and 124 million people have been forced back into poverty. That is the first rise in extreme poverty in decades. And so that is disheartening. But I've got to remember, actually, you know, what, we've done some good work up to this point, we're going to continue to do that we're hearing stories back from our field countries that say, you know, what families are being fed families are being looked after, because people have decided to continue to give towards that. So it is a bit of that. It's a matter of talking things through with with friends, with family with workmates, and realizing that, yes, we're going through some very difficult times, but there is still opportunity to, to laugh, to cry to, to actually get on with life and to take some of the enjoyment, I don't want all these things to completely SAP my ability to enjoy life and doesn't. So I guess there's some of the keys in there of staying connected to God staying connected to others. 

Jerry Dugan  36:40  
Nice. Now, somebody had mentioned, as we were preparing for this conversation with each other, you didn't say it tonight, you said it in the form, when we got the date, all set and everything that you you feel that people can get themselves out of a rut. And so with beyond the route we talked about, you know, maybe it's their faith journey, or their family life, maybe the fitness, their finances, or just their general outlook on future possibility. So any one of us can be facing that kind of rut and each share that you feel that people can get out of that rut by looking outside of themselves and helping others. Can you talk more about that? Like, how do you know what is it that serving others can do to help us get out of our own rut? 

Rodney Olsen  37:24  
I think when we serve others, we do start to see that the world isn't quite as we had imagined, we start to look. And so if we, if we tend to feel sorry for ourselves, if we tend to have that that really, as they say that bad self image, a lot of that is because we're spending a lot of time focused on ourselves, and we're looking at what we don't have. And so we're focused on that. And so that can spiral downwards thinking, Well, I'm never going to be good at anything. Therefore, we get caught in that rut of that sort of thinking. Conversely, we can also be those people who think I am amazing, just look at me. And we see those people that feel entitled, they think that they are God's gift to this earth. But that comes from the same thing. It's a self focus, and they can get caught in that right? Well, I can't improve, you know, I mean, I'm at perfection already. And so there's that, that sense of of that real entitlement that can get us caught in there and stop us from moving forward, because I've already got everything I need. And I guess that those are two sides of the one coin. But once we start to look outside of ourselves, we start to see, Aha, there are others that are doing better than me, there are things that I can aspire to, and we can learn from them. And when we learn from them, we move forward. But also we realize there are those who are having a tougher time of life than I am. And we don't just look at it and say, Oh, well, that's pretty good, I'm doing alright, then because they're doing it worse, we realize that we have an opportunity to reach out and make a difference for them. And once we do that, we start to take our eyes off ourselves. And so we stop the self pity, if that's our issue, we stop this, you know, self adulation, if that's our issue, and we start to look at something that's bigger than ourselves. We're constantly looking for a bigger story. And I think that that's the thing that when we enter into that, take our eyes off ourselves and look out, we see not only those who need our help, but we also see opportunities in front of us. And we were able to walk into those opportunities. So that looking outside of self, I think is what we were designed to do. And so if we want to get out of a rat, we need to say, well, what am I designed to do? I mean, I look in my kitchen, I see my toaster, it is designed to toast the bread. That's what it's designed to do. I can pretend it's meant to do all sorts of other things. But when I use it for what it's meant to do toast bread, I get lovely toasted bread, and it does what it's meant to do. So therefore, if we were created if we believe that there is a career

Yeah, and I absolutely do, who has created us to, to look outside ourselves, then we're never going to find fulfilment until we start looking outside of ourselves throughout the scriptures again, something that a lot of people would be familiar with, even if they're not people of faith is this idea of loving our neighbor as we love ourselves. Now that comes when when Jesus is talking to some Pharisees, they're trying to trip him up and say, well, what's the greatest commandment? Because they're thinking, he will say the wrong thing, we'll get him here. And he pretty much summarizes the 10 commandments. And he says, Love the Lord your God with everything you've got with your heart, your soul, your mind, throw everything you have at loving God. And then the second is like it, love your neighbor as you love yourself. And that's saying, okay, so all the good stuff that I provide for myself, I would need to provide for my neighbor, I need to make sure that they're doing all right as well. And that's a summary, as I say, of the 10 commandments, because the 10 commandments, there's some of them that are about how we relate with God, and the rest of them, how do we relate with others, and they're not meant to be just a rulebook, follow the rules, it's like, you know, what, the best way to get along with God is this, the best way to get along with others is this. It's for our own benefit, not as a set of strict rules that we must follow. And so when we do take that into account, we throw everything we have at loving this God who created us and the world. But then out of the overflow of that love, we actually say, How can I reach out to others who are in in a, in a space that they shouldn't be in, where it's suffering, injustice, or whatever it might be. And I want them to have the sort of opportunities that I have. And in my case, I think to some of the things I want is to have good relationships, I want to have a good relationship with God, how do I invite others into good relationships and good relationship with God, I think that if we're not doing that, then we're not really loving our neighbor as we love ourselves. It's not just about doing a good deed or, or handing something over to them. It's, it's actually that whole of life stuff in the way that we love ourselves. We turn that around and say, if someone missing out on on some fiscal stuff, some some practical stuff, I can help there is someone missing out on that relational stuff is someone missing out on knowing who this God that created them is? I need to help there as well. 

Jerry Dugan  42:20  
And so with that, like if folks want to reach out to you and hear more, maybe they want to hear your podcast, it's bleeding light. It's on Apple podcasts, Google podcasts. Spotify is the number one way people are consuming podcasts right now. Where else can people find your podcast and find out more about you and find out more about compassion? 

Rodney Olsen  42:40  
If they want to find out more about me and the podcasts connect with me at bleeding daylight.net That's the the home of the podcast, you can go there and connect with me just click on the sidebar, and you can find ways to connect. So that's bleeding daylight.net, if you want to find out a little bit more about compassion and the work that we do, in most places, you just go to compassion.com those in Australia would put the.au on the end of that, if you want to find out about some of the ways in which we're actually making a difference. So for instance, ride for compassion, you mentioned briefly, is a huge ride all the way across Australia, that's happening next year, where we're going to ride 4200 kilometers, raising money for kids in poverty, you can go to ride for compassion.com. So go to ride for compassion.com. And you can find out more about that, too, so many ways to get in touch. And of course you'll find me on Facebook and Instagram. 

Jerry Dugan  43:40  
And one final word of wisdom before we go from you, not me.

Rodney Olsen  43:46  
I guess it comes back to that thing that I was talking about is he's looking outside ourselves that we can get caught up in our own troubles. And we can get caught up with the things that are going around we can be overcome by that. But when we realize that we can look outside ourselves and look out to our Creator God, who says you know that the light is in the world and the darkness has not overcome it, and the darkness will not overcome it. We understand that we are in a very good place when we can connect with that Creator God that he doesn't mean harm to us. He's not just someone with a big rulebook. He actually wants to connect, and he wants to make a difference in our lives. So I guess that's where I would go when we look outside ourselves. Because when we truly, as I say throw everything we have at loving God, then He will give us the best ways to reach out and love our neighbor as we love ourselves. 

Jerry Dugan  44:42  
Rodney, it was a treat to have you on here. It just drew me in and I was just amazed to listen to the insights and the stories that you have. Look forward to keeping in touch with you and seeing how things go. 

Rodney Olsen  44:52  
Thank you very much for your time. 

Jerry Dugan  44:54  
Now I hope that you found a lot of value in this story from Rodney as well as some practical tips about how to come out of compassion fatigue. Now, you may be faced in a rut or you know somebody who is, and what they're looking for is how to make an impact in the lives of others. Because deep down as a community member, you want to reach out and help someone live a better life. I just believe that in people, yeah, we can be selfish, we can be self centered. But deep down, we also want to help others. We want to lift up our communities. We want to lift up the world around us. Share this with somebody. That's what I'm saying. So however you listening to this episode, hit the share button. Send this to someone you know, share it with your social media circles, email it to somebody spread the word. That's what I'm saying that you can share that also with the shownotes at beyond the rut.com/ 303. There you'll find links to Ronnie's podcast, his website, ride for compassion and so much more. Now, I'm glad you joined me this week. I'm looking forward to joining you again next week. But until then, go live life on the Road. Take care

Transcribed by https://otter.ai