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MM.003: One Bite At A Time
A popular dad joke you may have heard before is, How do you eat an elephant?….One bite at a time! This seems like such a simple concept yet it is so hard for us to apply to real world situations in our lives. Why is that? Okay so lets imagine eating an elephant was actually a thing you had to do. Obviously you wouldn’t look at it and tell yourself, “Well I can’t fit it all in my mouth at once so I may as well not try!” So why is it that we look at the dreams God has put in our hearts, see how big they are, and say to ourselves that they are too big to achieve all at once so let’s not even try!?
Every God size dream is going to appear to be too huge to accomplish! That is one way of knowing it is from Him! This dream I have had for Flow Angel Media is enormous and for the longest time I had no idea where to start or how to explain it to people. (I still have trouble explaining it, that won’t change any time soon! haha) In college I discovered an enjoyment for most any form of digital artistic expression from Photoshop to 3D printing to coding and web design. I felt overwhelmed by all the directions I was being inspired to walk in career wise and in the end I settled for complacency in IT.
If you know me, you may know that this wasn’t my dream. If you have kept up with me recently though, you may be starting to see, along with me, how I have began to realize just how much God has taught me through my journey thus far. Nothing is wasted! Even though it hasn’t yet looked the way I planned for it to at first, God knew that I needed to take this slower route through some tough things in order to learn things I didn’t know I would need to know! Even though I spent years not knowing where to bite the elephant of my calling first, I didn’t stop wondering, learning, and seeking guidance. In the mean time I have grown in so many ways which has prepared me to take this next step which I will reveal to you soon…keep reading.
Another thing about elephants that I have seen people use as an illustration which I love is the fact that, an average elephant’s gestation period is 18-22 months long. That is at least twice as long as a human’s and at most almost two and a half times as long. The common illustration talks about how when we know something, like the fact that we are pregnant or that God has promised us something unbelievably awesome will happen in and through our lives, people may not believe us because they see no progress. Their unbelief does not discount the truth you know. Some times we are not called to share certain parts of our calling right away because the unbelief of others can rub off on us and cause us to lose faith in it as well.
I have been challenged in this regard a lot lately in different areas of life. I have been growing in wisdom about when and with whom I should share the glimpses of my callings, big and small, in order to protect them in their vulnerable unformed state. My fundamental flaw is overthinking and then being so sure of myself that I talk up a storm and then either lose all desire to follow through or have things crumble in front of me and make me look like the fool I was for presuming to know how God would work things out.
In light of all of that, I do not share this lightly. Some close friends and family already know what has been going on because there are some that I crave advice and prayers from and whom I trust to support me and not bash down my excitement. I feel like it is official enough now to share publicly and it may not come as a major surprise but….as of 8/8/2020, Flow Angel Media, Inc is officially registered as a nonprofit! I submitted the paperwork on that day and received the confirmation that processing has been completed just this morning! It’s finally official!! As an added display of God’s perfect timing, I ordered 50 stickers of this elephant design to have and offer as a launch special product. My vendor had an amazing deal on them but they were not supposed to make it till the 24th. However, yesterday I got confirmation that they would be delivered today and they have! I cannot ignore God’s perfect timing in all of this!
It feels like I have finally birthed this long gestated dream out into the world and now I get to nurture it and watch it grow! I am so excited for this new journey and cannot wait to see what God does through it all!
Blessings FAM!
p.s. Keep an eye out for the elephant stickers to hit my shop! I’ll have a special launch deal on them for a bit to celebrate the establishment of FAM, Inc!
What is a dream you have felt called to by God? What is holding you back from taking steps towards that dream? Do not let the unbelief of others discount your internal conviction to chase after it! God speaks directly to us and others are on their own journeys, they cannot always see the progress God is making inside of you. I pray for your wisdom to know when and to whom you should share your dreams with and for the boldness to work towards them each day regardless of external forces of encouragement or a lack there of. I hope that God brings your people around you, like He has for me, to believe with you in prayer for the realization of your calling.
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ThTh.002: Truth or Lies
It is all about perception. The devil likes to keep us from doing the will of God by making us feel unqualified or less than good enough to be used by Him. He tells us we are lazy, poor, powerless, lacking in the required skills or knowledge to succeed in the things we feel called to do. The thing is…he is not wrong! God knows our weaknesses and pretty much agrees with what the devil tells us about ourselves. The better news is that God uses us anyway! You see, it is in the darkest places where His light shines the brightest, it is in our weakness where His power is most evident, and it is in our brokenness where He heals us and makes us stronger than before!
God knows our damage, shortcomings, and deep sin issues but He also sent His Son to redeem us from the consequences of them. Because of Jesus’ sacrifice for us on the cross, and by defeating death in our place, we can come before God and man alike, walking fully in the shameless, forgiven, new nature He afforded us by raising from that grave. God knows what we have done but he chooses not to see it anymore. The old man has gone away and we have been made new. Yes, we will still struggle and yes, other people will love to remember every failure or misdeed we have done. Often they do not let us forget them. By embracing our past in light of our new self, we can effectively reflect the redeeming power of God that much brighter!
Here is a cool thought. Do you know how mirrors work? Most mirrors today have been painted with a metallic coating to give a brighter representation of what it is reflecting. However, you can create the simplest of mirrors by putting a piece of clear glass against a solid dark black surface. This will allow you to see your surroundings and yourself staring back at you and it works best when light is shown against the front of the glass. We must be vulnerable and transparent like that piece of glass, then turn the light of our new salvation on and let people stand in that light and look through us to the darkest parts of what is behind us, the black surface. Then they will be able to see themselves in our story (mirror) and hopefully begin to realize how they can move past similar mistakes and begin to let God redeem them as well.
People want to know that they are not a lost cause. That God still cares for them and that they have a purpose. By seeing honest testimonies of redemption, they can begin to wrap their hearts around the fact that God DOES love them no matter what evil they have committed and that, even though they are not enough, HE IS ENOUGH! That is all that matters.
So the devil may tell the truth after all! If only we could humble ourselves and accept the parts of us he tries to use against us. Instead of letting those things stunt our growth and shame us into an inability to walk towards God’s purpose for us, my hope is that we could focus on shining God’s light to those areas in our life and begin to grow what is dead and buried there. Eventually being able to display the beautiful fruit of God’s redemption for us in those areas as a powerful testimony for others.
Blessings FAM!
What truth about yourself has the devil tried to use against you? Pray now and ask God to help you own that part of you and learn how the testimony of your repentance from that thing can be used to encourage others. Your biggest hurt or struggle could be the key to your biggest purpose in this life. Others earlier on in their journey need to hear how God brought you out of those dark places in order to find hope for their own redemption story. Be a mirror and reflect your testimony for the benefit of others.
