Mamas in Spirit’ podcaster delivers talk on ‘Women at the Well’
By Gabrielle Nolan
Nearly 100 women from around the Diocese of Knoxville attended the annual Lenten evening of reflection hosted by Regnum Christi of Knoxville.
The event took place on Feb. 29 at All Saints Church in Knoxville and included a soup supper, praise and worship music, adoration, confession, and a talk by Lindy Wynne.
Mrs. Wynne is the founder and host of the Mamas in Spirit podcast, which she describes as a “mini-retreat in a podcast” where guests share “how God has converted their hearts and transformed their lives.”
The podcast is now in its sixth season and boasts over 250 episodes, presenting topics on addiction, infertility, marriage, adoption, forgiveness, mental illness, and more.
Women from several parishes in the Diocese of Knoxville take part in the soup supper held by Regnum Christi at All Saints. (Photo Gabrielle Nolan)
“I didn’t realize when I started Mamas in Spirit that it’s a healing podcast, and that really occurred to me in the last couple of years because oftentimes I hear from people who are in the podcast and share that it’s a healing experience for them, and it’s also healing for me because I get to see, time and time again, all of the ways that God works in our lives and how God transforms in love all the time,” Mrs. Wynne shared.
“And then also for people who listen, because what I hear is that it helps them to know that they’re not alone and that God is with them and that there’s also other wonderful faith-filled human beings who have been through difficult things who are willing to share so that they know that they’re not alone; and even when it seems like there may not be a way to get through something, there is always a way,” she added.
Mrs. Wynne resides in Tennessee with her husband and three adopted children. She holds a master’s degree in pastoral care and counseling and leads retreats and speaking engagements nationally.
Women at the Well
“Tonight’s talk is called ‘Women at the Well’ because that’s what we are. We’re going to be talking about the parable of the woman at the well, and I believe that God had a divine plan with that parable,” Mrs. Wynne said.
Kodi Schutte-Rogers of Regnum Christi of Knoxville introduces keynote speaker Lindy Wynne. (Photo Gabrielle Nolan)
“I love this parable so much because it’s really about her conversion, the conversion of her heart. How Jesus encountered her so personally and so intentionally because He loved her that much like He loves you that much. And so tonight we’re going to be talking about the woman at the well. I’m going to be sharing my own testimony and witness and story, but ultimately it’s really about you,” she continued. “Open your heart in ways that you didn’t even know that you needed to, so that God can get into your heart and transform and change you and bring new life to you so that this Lent can be truly a Lent where we experience the genuineness of Easter, the joy of Easter … and a new beginning and a new season in our life. Even if our circumstances don’t change, we can change. God can change us.”
Mrs. Wynne shared that the woman at the well went for water “in the ordinariness of her daily life,” not expecting the encounter she received.
“She went to the well for water, but she encountered living water, she encountered Christ. Christ revealed Christ’s self to her in that moment, and in the way that only God can, Christ converted her heart,” she said. “He totally changed and transformed her, and I think we can all ask ourselves tonight, what’s the state of my heart? What was the state of her heart? We’re going to dig more into that. Is my heart hardened? How open is my heart?”
Mrs. Wynne encouraged each woman to see herself in the woman at the well.
“He wanted to encounter her, just like He wants to encounter you tonight and every day of your life, every day of my life. Jesus pursued her,” she said. “Jesus pursues us. Jesus wants us. Jesus wants our hearts.”
Mrs. Wynne noted that Scripture says the woman went to the well during the middle of the day.
“And she went to the well in the middle of the day because she was avoiding the other women. It’s heartbreaking,” she said. “I think about the ways she might feel unseen, not just unloved, but unlovable; alone, judged, disregarded, demeaned, suspicious, thirsty, and like ‘the other.’”
Mrs. Wynne spoke about how every person is wounded and looking at people below the surface level, without comparison or judging, as everyone is going through something.
Sharing the quote from St. Augustine, “my heart is restless until it rests in thee, O God,” Mrs. Wynne spoke about the ways women try to fill their hearts with things besides God.
“Oh, my goodness, there are so many ways for us to try to fill ourselves with things other than God,” she said. “There are so many ways to put our minds and our hearts on things that are not of heaven. … There’s alcohol, there’s food, there’s social media, there’s beauty products. There are so many different ways, there’s men, like the woman at the well. There are so many ways to try to fill ourselves. … And so I ask ourselves that tonight, too, especially preparing for reconciliation, what am I trying to fill myself with?”
Mrs. Wynne asked herself what drew the woman at the well to stay there with Christ?
“I think about what draws us to the Lord, like that mystical experience that just knowing Emmanuel, that God is with us and that we are seen and that we are worthy and that we are loved,” she said. “There are really no words for it because it’s so great, it’s something that only God can bless us with.”
Lindy Wynne speaks at the Lenten evening of reflection for women on Feb. 29. (Photo Gabrielle Nolan)
“I can’t give you that; I can only point you to the well; I can only point you toward Christ. I can only point myself toward Christ, and hopefully you point me toward Christ, too,” she added. “Because it’s a divine gift; it’s the gift of God’s self so that we know how treasured we are. No matter what other human beings have told us or are telling us, or no matter what we’re telling us, or our own internal experience, that God loves us that fully and that completely, and that’s what I experienced as a 9-year-old child.”
Mrs. Wynne spoke about how the woman at the well chose with her free will to “open her heart to the Lord.”
“Every podcast I’ve ever recorded, every person I’ve ever sat with, this is the critical component, the choice to return to God. The choice to reopen my heart to God again and again and again,” she noted. “I love talking about the heart because we see that as the center of our interior life, which is really what matters. That’s the part of us that’s eternal.”
In Scripture, the woman at the well says that the well is deep.
“The things that we face in our challenges, in our sufferings, and our sorrows in life can be deep,” Mrs. Wynne said. “It almost feels so deep at times that they can feel untouchable. Yet, the well of living water is deeper than the depths of any suffering or woundedness. There is nothing that is untouchable by God. … Forgiveness is possible in all circumstances. God’s mercy is unending. He is the fount of mercy. She went to the well and she was with the fount of mercy.”
A parishioner takes part in the Regnum Christi Lenten evening of reflection on Feb. 29 at All Saints Church. (Photo Gabrielle Nolan)
Mrs. Wynne recounted from Scripture that the woman of the well returns to the town to share her encounter with Jesus with others, even those who may have judged her.
“She was full of living water. Her thirst, that deep desire and longing was quenched, and she became a vessel of living water,” the podcaster said. “God will fill, and God will carry us supernaturally in ways that we never could have imagined. … God wants to encounter us in the ordinariness of our lives and convert our hearts, help us to return to Him time and time again, and go out and share that love.”
Mrs. Wynne hopes that the women who attended her talk will “come to know the mercy, love, and presence of God more fully, and that they’re able to see how God’s love for the woman at the well reflects God’s love for each one of the women at the Lenten night of reflection.”
“We’re all invited to be that barren, that transparent and vulnerable with Christ, and to be in the presence of love itself,” she continued. “Like when I think of the woman at the well being there with Christ, He was able to tell her what He told her because she knew that she was in the presence of love itself. And I pray for that for all of us, and that we’re able to bring all the things to God in our lives and in our hearts, so that they can be refreshed and renewed and purified by living water, and that we can experience healing and reconciliation and grace and peace and love to then return to our lives with new life and want to proclaim the love of God like the woman at the well because she experienced it first.”
To learn more about Mrs. Wynne and to listen to her podcast, visit mamasinspirit.com.
