Kay >> I’m Kay Daigle. Welcome to the Beyond Ordinary Women Podcast and video. Today, our guest is Nika Spaulding. Welcome, Nika.

Nika >> Thank you. I’m excited to be here.

Kay >> We’re glad you’re here. You know, I was looking at your bio. You sent us a new bio the other day, and it occurred to me that I never really asked you about having a zoology degree from the University of Oklahoma. What is that about?

Nika >> Oh, so I will say I was originally pre-med. So while having a zoology degree is incredible, I originally thought I was going to go to med school. And O.U. weirdly doesn’t have a biology program. They have a zoology program that feeds into a med school which is so strange because Oklahoma State has a biology program that feeds into a vet school.

So it’s not I don’t know why we’re you know, part of the reason why, though, I actually know the real reasons because we had world class scholars in that field at O.U. and we have world class research facilities, so they just kind of combine them. But even though I don’t use my degree, I am utterly fascinated by the animal kingdom.

And so it was a really fun degree for me to get. And it always surprises people when they find out that’s my bachelor’s degree. So I joke, though, with that degree, I’m not even qualified to like work at a zoo unless I’m in the gift shop. So I would have to go on to a lot more school.

But, you know, there’s always time if I decide to go that route.

Kay >> Well, I love that. I wasn’t sure if you started zoology because you just wanted to go in that direction and then God changed your mind or if there was something else behind it.

Nika >> So it’s definitely med school. And then to this day, I mean, even when I was a kid, if I saw blood, vomit, anything that doctors see on a routine basis, I get weak in the knees, I get sick to my stomach, I get all of these things. And I really was like, that’s okay. I’m going to push through.

And so I was on my way to the MCAT in college at O.U. and God was like, you really, you really don’t get it, do you? And I finally was like, all right, Lord, what is it you would have me do? So took a hard left into theology. So I don’t know anybody who has a zoology/theology degree other than me.

I don’t know anybody. And so, you know, but that’s all right. Maybe there’ll be more someday.

Kay >> I don’t know either. You’re just unique. Probably in the whole world.

Nika >> Sure. Well, it took me a while to figure out. I should probably follow God, so maybe I’m not unique in that way. I just went a weird route to that, but. Yeah. So it’s fun, though.

Kay >> Well, that’s fun. Well, you also have a master of theology at DTS, and you have a DMin from Northern Seminary. So you have definitely made up for not having some sort of Bible degree, I suppose.

Nika >> Yeah.

Kay >> at O.U. So we are talking about the church calendar today, and I’m sure many of our viewers are as ignorant about the church calendar as I was years ago, because I did not grow up in a church that observed the church calendar.

So would you tell us what it even is?

Nika >> Yeah. Yeah. One, I love that you call it the church calendar, because sometimes people call it the liturgical calendar. And, you know, theology is great, but theology has its own vocab that often makes it difficult for people to know what we’re talking about. And so I prefer we just use words that make a lot more sense. So it’s the church calendar and the reason why you can call it the church calendar is for thousands of years, the church all across the world would celebrate seasons that revolved around the life of Christ.

And the idea was, as churches all over the world and throughout history would be oriented to the seasons of Jesus’s life as opposed to whatever the other seasons are. So throughout history, you might have seasons based on when the produce comes in. You know, you kind of think of farming communities that have like their harvest or their lives revolve around the moons or things like that.

In America, we sort of have, you know, Christmas, you know, Presidents Day, Super Bowl Sunday. But, you know, sort of our liturgical calendar is a little different. But the idea is life is busy, life is crazy. So what if we orient our year around the life of Christ and then use that time to really focus on these different seasons?

And so we’ve actually, we’ve done two previous podcasts on part of the liturgical calendar, the church calendar. And so we’ve talked about Advent together, which is a season before Christmas, where you’re really preparing yourself to receive the gift that is Jesus at Christmas. And then we talked about Lent, which is the season before Easter, where you’re really preparing yourself for the truth of Easter.

I mean, you know, we talked in those podcasts of—if you’re just kind of doing it how to do, and then all of a sudden Easter Sunday comes and you’re like, “Oh man, life changing, eternity changing, cosmic changing moment on the cross me. And then you go back to work on Monday.” We argued Hey, maybe you didn’t get the most out of that Easter season.

And so those two seasons are just two of the entire church calendar. And so and then one of the things I love, if you look up and we’ll put this and I know we’ll put this in the resources for you all—the church calendar, any time you Google it, I have never seen it in a straight line. It’s always in a circle.

And the idea behind that is it’s a cyclical every year, year in and year out for 2000 years, the church is saying this is how time moves and it’s all moving toward the culmination of time. But if you think about it, let’s we’ll start with Christmas because that’s in January. Well, Christmas is obviously at the end of December, but.

Kay >> Christmas is the beginning of the church calendar.

Nika >> Yes, yes, yes, yes. Yeah. So you have yeah. So you have Christmas Day.

Kay >> Yeah, and let me just throw this in you have sent us a the graph with the circle and we’ll probably show that as you’re talking.

Nika >> Yeah. Good.

Kay >> So they’ll be able to see it unless they’re listening on a podcast. But if you are listening on a podcast, you can always go to our website and I will actually try to post this on the page where the whole podcast is posted.

Nika >> Love it.

Kay >> So you can look at it.

Nika >> Yeah.

I know for those of you listening, if you’re listening as a podcast, then chances are you’re like me and you’re driving, in which case don’t do this. But if you’re just, you know, vacuuming around your house or you’re waiting in the carpool line, Google real quick, go to the United Methodist Church and Google the Christian calendar or something because it is so helpful to have it in front of you.

Do not do that if you’re driving, but if you’re listenin