“After the Mountaintop: When Peace Feels Far Away”

Have you ever come home from a beautiful vacation, retreat, or spiritual high and suddenly felt empty or sad — like the peace you just experienced slipped through your fingers?

In this heartfelt solo episode, host Shannon Mooney opens up about her recent trip to Maine — a week filled with breathtaking views, crisp air, and peace — and the emotional fog that followed once she got home.

Through honest reflection, biblical truth, and God’s promises, Shannon shares how to find peace not just on the mountaintop, but in the middle of everyday life.

You’ll learn:
 ✨ Why emotional “valleys” often follow spiritual highs
 ✨ How to recognize God’s presence in ordinary moments
 ✨ Key Scriptures to anchor your peace when life feels gray
 ✨ Practical ways to reconnect with God’s steady joy

Bible Verses Mentioned:

• Deuteronomy 31:8
• Psalm 42:11
• Isaiah 40:31
• Philippians 4:6–7
• John 15:4

Includes: Prayer of encouragement + reflection challenge

🙏 CLOSING PRAYER 

“Father, thank You for the mountaintop moments — the beauty that reminds us of Your goodness. But thank You also for the valleys, where You teach us to depend on You.
 For the listener today who feels weary, lonely, or emotionally drained — breathe new life into her. Let her feel Your nearness even in the gray skies.
 Remind her that peace isn’t found in a place, but in a Person — You, Jesus.
 Let her see Your hand in the ordinary.
 Renew her joy, restore her hope, and wrap her heart in Your unchanging love.
 In Jesus’ name, amen.”

🌿 ENDING ENCOURAGEMENT 

 “Sisters, maybe you’re in a gloomy week — emotionally or even spiritually. But remember this: peace isn’t just for the mountaintop. It’s for the middle.
 God is in your morning coffee, your rainy walks, your quiet tears, and your laughter too. You don’t have to chase the feeling of peace — you just have to rest in the presence of Peace Himself.”

If you’re feeling weary, lonely, or spiritually drained, this episode will remind you that peace isn’t found in a place — it’s found in the presence of Jesus.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:02

Hey sisters, welcome back to Unrelated Sisters Truth and Grace Conversation. It's Shannon, and today we're going to talk about something that's been sitting heavy, set heavy on my heart since I got back from vacation. Dear Lord, we just want to thank you for this day. We want to thank you for your mercy, your blessings, and your grace. We want to thank you for the success that this podcast has had. And we want to pray that we continue to touch our listeners and we continue to say the words that you want us to say, Lord Jesus. We pray for your strength and your guidance every week. We pray that the listeners are hearing what they're supposed to be hearing, Lord Jesus, that it's not us speaking, but it's us speaking, it's you speaking through us. We just want to praise you, Lord Jesus, and thank you. Amen. So um it's me by myself this week, and you know, that's all right. I don't mind. Uh, Deb's got a lot going on, all them grandbabies and Halloween coming. But um I was gone last week. I was gone out of town, and I spent a week in Maine up north with my husband, and it was so beautiful. Like my favorite color is fall anyway. Um, but you know, the leaves were changing, the air was real crisp, but the pace just seemed so slow and relaxed, you know, it felt very peaceful. Um, the kind of peace that's felt like when heaven, you know, it's kind of touched earth. Um but I was sitting here this week, you know, thinking about what I wanted to talk about this week and praying, you know, praying to God about what I wanted to talk about this week. And since I come home, it's been gloomy, it's been rainy, you know, it's just been ugh outside, you know, and I kind of feel like something shifted in my mood. I just haven't been haven't been happy. It's not that I don't have my joy, because I still have my joy, but I just haven't felt positive like I normally do, you know, and uh so I thought about it, you know, and it kind of hit me that when it's gloomy and stuff, you and it out the outside around you, or when it's around you, you know, you start to feel this this sadness that kind of creeps in, and it feels like um like the beauty's far, far away. If that makes any sense to y'all. Have you ever come from a mountaintop moment, a woman's retreat, a wonderful vacation, you know, just a spiritual moment with God at church in your car, you know, wherever you're at, and found yourself asking, God, where did that peace go? Well, if you've ever done that, this episode's for you. So, you know, life is all about mountaintops and valleys, right? It's all about um finding the mountaintops and experiencing, you know, but it's always followed by valleys, you know, and it's not because God has left us, but it's because he's teaching us to walk by faith and not by our feelings, you know. And as humans, we we tend to want to walk by our feelings, our emotions, we tend to dig into those kind of things, can't dig into our emotions, and we can't we can't be that way, right? In eclas in eclass eclastes 3-1 to everything, there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven, right? And if we allow our emotions to rule where we are in our faith, then you know we can be lost um when it's your emotions and not your faith. You know, um, it makes me think about Moses. He met God on Mount Sinai, but then he came down to just complete chaos. You know, in Exodus 32, it talks about where Moses would come off, and you know, everybody was questioning where they were at and what they were doing, and you know, why God had left them. And then, you know, and Elijah defeated the prophet of Baal on Mount Carmel, but soon after he ran into the wilderness feeling hopeless in 1 Kings 19, you know, and I don't really know how else to say this but be me. But you know, when you're chasing, when you're chasing something, uh, especially when you're in addiction, you know, you you're chasing that very first high that you got. And I'm not comparing that to any spiritual, because I can promise you that every spiritual encounter that I've had with God is nothing like chasing that high for addiction. But once you come down, the whole world is around you is just devastating, right? It's full of chaos and full of devastation, and your body hurts, and you're you know, you're you ache and you fall into a deep depression, and you follow in, you know, you fall into all these emotional things. But you know, when I before I left on vacation, the episode we talked about, I talked about finding my god, yes, right? Um, I'd been praying for things and looking for things, and I think I thought it was supposed to look a certain way, and it didn't, you know, it didn't look, but he had answered every prayer I'd been praying for, and I had been talking about being, you know, in a season of waiting when I really had been harvested, and I just overlooked it because it wasn't what I thought it was supposed to be, you know, and that's kind of how being on the mountaintop and then working your way back down to the valley, and the valley is is the time of renewal, it's the time of rest, you know, it's the time waiting for God's next next purpose or God's next task or God's next love affair or whatever you want to call it, you know. Uh Jesus was transfigured on a mountain, but afterwards he walked back down into the world full of sickness and unbelief. And, you know, and that's in Matthew 17, 1 through 9. Maybe if you've just come down from a peaceful place and life at home feels hard again. The valley doesn't mean God left you there, it means he trusts you to walk with him in every day, to find beauty in the ordinary, not just extraordinary. You know, and us humans, because we are emotional beings, that's what we do, right? Um, and it's hard sometimes to know where your emotions begin and where your faith begins, right? Um, because you want it to be, you want everything in life to be extraordinary. Nobody wants to be ordinary, everybody wants to have that, you know, that extraordinary moment, that spiritual uplift, you know, that moment presence with God, that hearing his voice louder than anything else in the room, you know, that's what you want. But why do we feel why do we feel this way sometimes? Why do we feel lost and confused and sad? You know, God created us to be emotional beings with senses, you know, we feel things, we enjoy things. Uh, you know, but when the atmosphere changes, sometimes our emotions shift too. It's not a weakness, it's humanity, right? We're human. And I say that a lot. Like there's a lot of things that we we go through in life, you know, emotional. And I call them emotional roller coaster, right? One minute you're standing at the top of the at the top of the at the top of the hill, waiting for, you know, you chug, chug, chug, chug, chug up to the top, and then you're sitting there for 30 seconds waiting, and then it's swam, and you know, and it's left and it's right, and it's upside down, and it's around, and it's all the things, you know, which, you know, makes me nauseated thinking about it. But, you know, it's it's the thrill of the ride sometimes. It's the it's just the emotions uh, you know, scared, fear is all the emotions in one when you're doing a roller coaster. You know, in Psalms 42, 11, it says, Why, my soul, are you downcast? Put your hope in God, for I will yet, I will yet praise him. So, and then in Philippians 4, 6 through 7, do not be anxious about anything and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ's Jesus. You know, and that, you know, I kind of feel like that's where I'm at. I'm not, I don't really feel anxious this week. I just feel blah, like just blah, right. Um, but you know, even David, a man after God's heart, battled those low moments. The key isn't to fake joy, it's to anchor ourselves in truth while we wait for our feelings to catch up to our faith, you know, and um I think that's kind of why I wanted to do this podcast tonight. Um, you know, Deb was supposed to come over Wednesday and you know, she texts me um talking about, you know, how something came up at work and she couldn't leave. And I was like, okay, um, because I've been working on a three-part series about marriage that uh me and Deb are gonna do um over the next couple weeks, and then uh we're probably gonna take a small break for the holidays. The holidays get really insane for me, and um I'm still praying on it. I don't know where I don't know yet where we're headed with it, but I don't know. You know, God promises in the gloom, God's presence never leaves us, and you have to believe that. You have to believe that God is with you no matter where you are. You know, you have to stay positive. And I know sometimes it's hard to be positive, but you have to. In Deuteronomy 31, 8, the Lord Himself goes before you and will be with you. He will never leave you nor forsake you, even when the weather or your mood changes, his presence doesn't, you know, and that's hard sometimes. That's hard for me sometimes. It's easier to revert back to that sad, lonely, depressed person than it is to just open up even to Jesus, right? Even even take that moment and you know, just pray to him sometimes. It's hard. It's hard for me sometimes, you know, and it's I feel like it shouldn't be hard for me. Um, but it is like sometimes it's hard to it's easier to put on the fake face and be everybody's rock and be everybody's joy and be everybody's whatever they need me to be. But you know, sometimes that's not what I need personally. You know, God renews us, not just restores us. And Isaiah 40, 31, those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. Maybe this season isn't about getting back to Maine's peace. Maybe it's about finding a new peace here. You know, it's um I always try to take a vacation in October. Um, this week through January is chaos for me. It's stressful for me. Um I love having Thanksgiving dinner with my family. I love being able to celebrate Christmas on with my family on Christmas Day, but the days leading up to both of those holidays are nightmares for me. Um, they're nightmares in my, you know, in my job. Um working for one of the biggest retailers in America, you know, and that's why me and my husband take a vacation one or two weeks before Halloween, we do it every year. Um, I feel like I need that new, renewed peace for just a few days before the chaos truly starts because I know it's coming. So I anticipate it coming. Maybe I have a little anxiety over it. I'm not sure. You know, but you have to realize that no matter how you are feeling emotionally, God is still standing there next to you. He still has your hand, he's picking you up and carrying you if that's what you need, right? He's holding you tight if that's what you need, he's giving you that bear hug that you you desire, or he is doing what you need him to do. God is still doing a good work in you, even though you feel like sad, you know. Philippians 1, 6, he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion. So don't think a moment of sadness is you backtracking to where you came from. You're actually growing through your contrast. So what if the gray days are holy too? Maybe God uses the gloomy skies to remind us to look for his light within us, not just around us. Um, so um, I had already planned on doing this um podcast before today. Um I actually uh excuse me. I actually got it up uh uh together Wednesday and finished it up early this morning. And of course, at work today, I get a phone call and they said, um, hey, this is the sheriff's apartment. Uh we have a family that's in need of some clothes going into the winter. Um, is there anything you can do? Of course, right? That's I feel like that's what I'm there for. Um, so they came, you know, and as gloomy as everything felt, I felt positive for the first time in a few days, right? I felt excited for the first time in a few days. I felt, you know, I enjoy being able to help people uh when they need it most. So how do we respond to these? What are some practical ways to stay grounded in God's peace? Well, I'm all about some lists, right? So create a peace playlist, worship that lifts your spirits. Um, if y'all can hear the music in the background, that's my playlist. Um, it's what I listen to when I just need to feel his presence. Um go outside even when it's gray, walk, breathe, notice God's creation. You know, uh when we were in Maine, everything they had, you know, they were going through the colors, the changes of the color, and and it was so beautiful, so bright red and yellows and oranges, and even the browns seemed bright. And then we came back here and it's done nothing but rain since we've been back. But if you look, your tray your trees are so pretty right now, like they've changed in those colors. Uh, you know, Deb believes in journaling, she believes in writing it down, write God's beautiful beauty moments down, write what he's showing you in the ordinary. What is he showing you? What is he pointing you towards? What is he headed you towards? You know, invite him into your space, light a candle, pray out loud, make your home feel sacred. You know, um we built our home um eight years ago, and uh when we were when we were building it, uh when it was just the studs, I had uh five of the strongest prayer warriors I know um come to my house and we wrote Bible verses uh on the two by fours on the frame of the house. We wrote them all over every room. Um that was so that I would know that my house was safe, you know. Um I I've talked about it before, but I walk around my building at work and you know, and and pray over the associates and to pray over the building and the business and the community. Um, I try to do it once a month. You know, I try to take 15, 20 minutes and just just spend some time with God inside my building. And I feel like that has blessed us in so many ways. And then community connections, reach out to a friend or a prayer partner. Sometimes peace comes through people. Sometimes you need that that one person to say hey, you know, or you need that group, you know, to say, hey, um, what's up? So reach out, reach out to us at unrelated sisterspodcast at gmail.com. Uh, we're on Facebook, we're on TikTok. Uh reach out, find us, uh, leave a comment. I've only figured out how to read the comments on Spotify. Uh, I'm working on trying to figure out how to read comments on the other platforms. I haven't quite figured it out yet, but we've talked about my technology here. You know, I always like to leave y'all with some encouragement. So God has never asked us to manufacture joy, He invites us to remain in His presence. John 15, 4 says, Remain in me as I also remain in you. In all honesty, and the one thing that I have learned the most is staying in his presence is where your peace and joy comes from. Um that's where it lives, and that's how you're gonna stay in it no matter what's going on. Read us, read your Bible, talk to him, pray to him. Share about him. You know, that's where I find the most peace, and that's definitely where I find my all of my joy. Father, thank you for the mountaintop moments, the beauty that remains uh reminds us of your goodness, but thank you also for the valleys where you teach us to depend on you. For the listeners today who feels weary, lonely, or emotionally drained. Breathe new life into her. Let her feel your nearness even in the gray skies. Remind them that peace isn't found in a place, but in a person, you, you, Jesus. Let them see your hand in the ordinary, renew their joy, restore their hope, and wrap their hearts in your unchanging love. In Jesus' name, amen. Sisters, maybe you're in a gloomy week, emotionally or even spiritually, but remember this peace isn't just for the mountaintop, it's for the middle. God is in your morning coffee, your rainy walks, your quiet tears, and your laughters too. You don't have to chase the feeling of peace. You just have to rest in the presence of his peace himself. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with another sister. Please download and follow us on any podcast platform. Uh follow us on Facebook at Unrelated Sisters Truth and Grace Conversation. Email us at Unrelated Sisters Podcast at gmail.com. Um we love y'all.