Rebuilding the Ruins

January 25, 2016 By Gindi Vincent Leave a Comment

We all sat cross-legged in the living room laughing and catching up after too many months. Let me just get this out there so we can go on to happier news, she began. Then it came pouring out. What she’d been holding in for almost two months. The devastation he had wreaked. How it had all come out. Years of lies… I don’t know who I am. My confidence is gone.

We started out talking about work. Lots of big changes and challenging career relationships made things harder than ever. He just left. Wanted to reinvent himself. What do Christmas cards look like now? I thought I’d achieved my dreams, now what?

Dreams are unique and personal.

But we don’t achieve them alone. We can’t.

And when one of your pillars crumbles, or the foundation has cracked down the middle, you find yourself sitting in the rubble.

What do you do when you, or those closest to you, are crushed? When you feel like your future has been stolen?

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. Psalm 34:18

There are no easy answers. There are no quick repairs.

I remember sitting in tears on the floor of my grandparents bathroom after my parents marriage disintegrated. A church destroyed. A town stunned. The cold marble floor was the only thing not moving underneath me.

I’ve sat with dear friends these past few weeks in search of something to say as their heartbreak was whispered in quiet corners.

Dear dreamer, if your marriage is falling apart in front of your eyes, or has crumbled after an earthquake you never saw coming, might I dare to speak into your hurt? Because I don’t have the words, I give you His:

1. You are loved.

I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness. I will build you up again, and you will be rebuilt. Jeremiah 31:3-4

It is clear to us, friends, that God not only loves you very much but also has put his hand on you for something special. 1 Thessalonians 1:4 (MSG)

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ… Ephesians 3:16-18

2. He still has works and plans and dreams for you.

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11

3. Take time to heal. He is there.

[The Lord] has sent me to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.

They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated.”Isaiah 61:2-4

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Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. 2 Corinthians 1:3-5

4. You are a conqueror. You will come out on the other side of this.

You are a conqueror. You will come out on the other side of this.

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Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or discouraged because of the king of Assyria and the vast army with him, for there is a greater power with us than with him. With him is only the arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God to help us and to fight our battles. 2 Chronicles 32: 7-8

You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. I John 4:4

Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one… No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. Romans 8:33-37

We love you.

Let us know if we can be praying for you.

And an invitation to all dreamers: We hope you will join us for our spring book club in March as we walk through Alli Worthington’s new book, Breaking Busy.

Photo Courtesy of Global Table Adventure

Shared by: Gindi Vincent

Don’t Wear It

November 23, 2015 By Gindi Vincent 3 Comments

Much of the research done about successful leaders focuses on their ability to take risks (or opportunities, as they truly are!). It turns out, their set point for risk taking is often no different from yours or mine. The best leaders (and dreamers) have just learned how to frame the opportunity.

Effective leaders look at the upside of the “risk” – the people they will meet or the growth it will open up for the company or the lives they can improve or the chance to do something never done before. They don’t ignore the possible bad outcomes, but they don’t focus on them.

Because of unpredictable markets and changing economies and the uncertainty which comes with trying new things, sometimes those risks fail. Sometimes they succeed wildly, but it’s the failure which can level us.

I have failed.

Most leaders I talk to could talk for hours about “failures” which resulted from taking the best and smartest and highest potential risks.

It’s at the point of the failure, disappointment, unhappy outcome, or unexpected loss, we can truly shine.

Failure teaches us about ourselves.

Failure allows God to open doors we never even knew possible.

Failure allows God to shut doors we thought would have been interesting ones to walk through.

Failure allows us to better understand and relate to others at various points along their journeys.

Failure is one of the best teaching tools for success. {===>Click to Tweet}

But all too often, we let a failure define us. We allow failure to shut us down. We allow failure to stop us from continuing on the adventure God has specifically designed for us.

There are two categories of people particularly predisposed to wearing their losses for extended periods of time: (1) women and (2) dreamers.

Uh-oh.

Let’s stop.

Remove the cloak of failure or disappointment or detour or roadblock you’ve been wearing. Don’t let the “no” you received serve as the only voice left in your head.

God has big plans for you and me. When we allow a mess up (or mess ups) to derail us, we’ll never achieve the purpose for which God specifically designed us. (And I know it doesn’t feel small or insignificant at the time. We’re human. It hurts. But in the end, it’s a distraction – an obstacle thrown in our way by the one who does not want us to reach the promised land.)

Learn what you need to from the set back. Then stand up and walk forward in confidence, knowing God will not allow an earthly failure to stymie His Kingdom plan. {===>Click to Tweet}

Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. Phil. 2:12-13

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Eph.2:10

Shared by: Gindi Vincent

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My First Love

September 21, 2015 By Gindi Vincent 4 Comments

The smell of worn wood, ocean air from the propped open door, and thousands of bound and printed pages almost made me cry. Do you remember the smell of actual pages? The smell that assaulted you as you curled up in a bean bag in the corner of your neighborhood library and escaped down the hole with Alice?

While vacationing on the Emerald Coast of Florida, my friend and I were enticed into a local bookshop. It’s rare to write those words. There is hardly a local bookshop to be found anymore. I wandered into this coastal gem and fell madly in love. Or fell back in love. Words are my first love.

Faded and scratched wooden beams carried out of the store and onto the front porch to beckon passersby. Once through the painted portal, the homemade painted bookshelves rose nearly to the ceiling overstuffed with perfectly curated treasures. The children’s section had gorgeous cover pictures displayed along with bins of toy son the floor and puzzles perched atop the shelves. Not puzzles you might find in your local superstore, but gorgeous puzzles of interesting shapes and sizes displaying old fashioned ice cream stands and schools of fish.

I wandered, mesmerized, through the assorted sections with their handwritten labels: Southern Fiction, Children’s, Architecture, Religion, and wanted to turn every single page. Their daily calendars were oh so clever with titles like Imagined Desks of Remarkable Women. I bought every last remaining one of those.

I picked up the local fiction debating which to add to my collection. Finally, I settled on one with peaches on the front cover and a well written back cover.

This place, this sanctuary, reminded me of my first love. It reminded me why I wanted to become a writer. It lit something up in me to begin working at the craft again. {===>Click To Tweet} Not to pen quick placeholders from my life, but to work for hours and hours to craft beautifully developed chapters. To find words buried deep in the recesses of my mind which can paint pictures and spark imagination and draw someone into a story.

I’ve wanted to write for as long as I can remember.

I wrote my daily thoughts in spiral journals from high school until just before I married. A big box hides in a bottom home cabinet full of two decades of life stories.

In those early writings, I didn’t see myself as much as a writer as a processor. So much had happened and I needed a place to analyze it. Those pages were my therapist.

By the time I graduated from law school, I had visions of publishing dancing in my head. I wrote short stories which I dreamt would land in the pages of The New Yorker. I still love those stories. They were the fictional vindication for my real life struggles.

I tabled those dreams for a few years. I wrote nary a word, except for legal briefing, in the first few years of marriage. Life got busy and I had things to do before bed instead of putting pen to page.

A year after I had the triplets, I knew I had to return to chronicling. This time, technology allowed for a public journaling of sort. I sorted thoughts from their first steps to my faith journey in a tiny little spot on the internet.

I’m far from that dreamy bookshop in a sleepy beach town, but I curl up in my office, close my eyes, and smell the smells and see the brimming shelves. I know both reading and writing pages feeds my soul and fires my passion. It’s time to return to the craft. My first love.

What was your first love?

What did you imagine all those years ago you would do if the stars aligned?

You still can. Find the spot which kindles your passion again and dust off those dreams. {===>Click To Tweet}

Shared by: Gindi Vincent

The John Reaction

August 24, 2015 By Gindi Vincent 2 Comments

I’ve always found this passage in the Bible pretty remarkable.

The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples,
and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!”
The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus.
Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, “What are you seeking?” And they said to him, “Rabbi” which means Teacher, “where are you staying?”
He said to them, “Come and you will see.” So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour.
John 1:35-39

Look carefully or you will miss it.

John is hanging out with two of his peeps. Two dudes who have followed him around saying how awesome he is. What a great preacher he is. “His disciples.” They were managing the crowds as they gathered to hear the famous John.

Then Jesus walks by and John says, “Behold the Lamb of God.” Appropriately so. Giving the man his due.

What happens next?

John’s two guys, his right hand men, HIS disciples, hear that and leave John to follow Jesus.

There go John’s guys. His schedulers. His dinner buddies. His sounding boards.

I mean no disrespect here. But that is what happened. In an instant, John’s fans transferred their attention and became Jesus’ fans.

John does not melt down. You don’t see him whining, “why don’t people want to follow ME instead.” You don’t see him trash talk Jesus because he is jealous his followers are leaving him. In today’s currency, he could care less that Jesus ends up with all the Twitter followers, Facebook friends, blog subscribers, press requests, largest circle of friends, positions of leadership, award wins, etc.

Instead, he simply says (in later verses), “He must increase and I must decrease.” He says this brings him JOY. (John 3:29-30)

Whoa.

That’s some transformational attitude there. Because you know that’s not the “human” gut reaction.

Instinct here would be jealousy or frustration or depression or insecurity.

But at the end of the day, if we’re doing what glorifies God, you know, crying “Behold, the Lamb of God,” then we turn attention exactly where it is supposed to be. {===Click To Tweet}

All this “stuff” we’re doing is not about gaining personal glory. This is about His glory.

Everyone knows the person with the most Twitter followers doesn’t end up with the most mansions in Heaven, right?

So when we start comparing our “followers” to someone else’s, we need to stop and remember everyone really has to be HIS followers. Behold, the Lamb of God. Let’s make sure we’re pointing our attention to Him and set aside worrying about external metrics which only distract us from our purpose to glorify Him.

Shared by: Gindi Vincent

The winner of Wild in the Hollow book giveaway is…Lynn D. Morrissey! Congratulations! Please email us your address and we will get the book sent out to you :).

The Community in Your Front Yard

June 15, 2015 By Gindi Vincent 9 Comments

Hi there.

There are a couple of things you should know about me. I am an introvert. (Yes, an introvert can look like an extrovert when God calls them to be a speaker!) I am also a perfectionist.

I’m actually okay with community if (a) they are all people I already know, and (b) I can host them in immaculate fashion with plenty of advance notice.

Ahem.

God finds that humorous.

I went to Allume last year and heard a story about this crazy Turquoise Table my now-friend Kristin had placed in her front yard in Austin. God started saying, You need to go outside and build some community on your street.

Just so you know, I ignored Him for a while. For one thing, I didn’t know ONE SINGLE NEIGHBOR on my street. We live on a busy street, and my husband and I work full time and have young children, and well you can hear all the excuses.

But He wouldn’t let go of me. And given that He’s God and I’m just me, I went ahead and said, great, YOU figure out how this is going to happen.

One day, I will write the story of how God opened doors to actually get an assembled unfinished $88 Lowe’s table to my front door so my triplets and I could paint it on a Saturday, in colors they chose, to have families on my street over two days later. (Y’all, God is AUDACIOUS!)

That picture up there, that’s my table. A turquoise, kelly green, and cocoa brown picnic table.

Can I tell you this has nothing to do with me? I am a scaredy-cat. I want to make-a-good-show. I didn’t actually WANT to meet my neighbors because I was comfortable coming home after work to just my people.

I was completely freaked out by “what will people think.” The trio and I walked up and down my street on Saturday morning and put flyers in everyone’s mailbox inviting them to come to “the table” for Monthly Mondays. The first of which would be the very next Monday with pizza and drinks. I was WILDLY uncomfortable standing in my front yard with my kids at 5 pm wondering if anyone would come.

But this is what God made more uncomfortable for me: I’d lived on this street for over eight years, and I didn’t know anyone that lived around me. All of the 15 flyers I passed out on either side and across from my house went to people whose names I didn’t know and whose stories I’d never heard. God made that unacceptable and He proposed this as the solution. I felt like I was going to throw up as soon as we delivered those flyers.

So there we stood, in the front yard, with ten boxes of pizza, a big cooler of water bottles and juice boxes, and a bowl of name tags.

Six families came. Y’all, out of fifteen houses, SIX whole families came. Twelve kids played on the front tire swing and gobbled cookies one of the neighbors had brought “to the table.” I could have cried. In one hour, six families on a busy street in a big city met each other and shared stories.

We told everyone this table was theirs too. That our house could be a place they were always welcome. I want my kids to know that our space has been entrusted to us to share with others. {===>Tweet This}

We have hosted six Monthly Mondays. And God used imperfect little me to email my pastor and say maybe our church could go into our community somehow. Turns out, that is EXACTLY what his vision and prayer for the church was. So he says, “let’s give away these tables to our members. ANYONE who walks to the front on Sunday morning to sit at a table can have one delivered!” My church, oh y’all, my church is going to be community building with the FORTY-SIX tables they gave away in February.

I’d been trying to survive with work and triplets and a maze of schedules and competing demands, but I have to show my kids life can’t all be rushed and hurried and we MUST NOT hide out behind our four walls. We have to clear out some of the clutter and make time for community. {===>Tweet This}

That’s what we need more of: Community. I hope God calls you out your front door to be the Light on your street too.

Shared by: Gindi Vincent

The New Face of Brave

November 17, 2014 By Gindi Vincent 20 Comments

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Go on, jump, jump! C’mon, everyone else is doing it! JUMP!!! They yell at her standing on the precipice of the cliff staring at the waters below. Something in her warns, You shouldn’t jump. You should not jump. This is not the right choice for you.

So she steps back despite their heckling and jeers. Chicken, they charge.

But sometimes bravery is not jumping. {===>Click to Tweet}

Sometimes bravery looks like saying no.

Sometimes bravery means stepping out of the throngs pressing you into a choice and saying, This isn’t for me. I’m not scared. I’m wise.

There’s a difference. Risk taking can be just as much standing up against the tidal wave of pressure and stopping the momentum. In fact, that is often the face of brave. Challenging gravity. The tide. The force of public opinion. Accepting the possibility of anger or ridicule or alienation.

I’ve written a lot about risk when it comes to leadership. But we don’t always talk about what the risk looks like. In fact, one of my favorite quotes likens risks to jumping off a ski slope. What if risk was turning around when the slope was beyond you? What if you could endanger those coming up behind you by foolishly launching off a slope that wasn’t skiable?

All too often we fear what we might look like if we step backwards, scale back, take a time out. Don’t you always have to be jumping or climbing or sailing to be brave?

No.

That’s not always the face of brave. I am learning, slowly, that bravery can mean saying, No, I won’t go. This is the wrong choice for me. I leave your decision in your hands, but the choice for me is to stop.

I wrote here last month that I thought God was calling me to a quieter season. It’s funny how even that has changed in the past month. It’s looking like God may be leading me to a “homier” season which is more local but possibly not that much quieter. Regardless of the noise level, my dream has become less about standing on a stage speaking to thousands and more about kneeling before God to say, I will do whatever you ask. (That is still so scary to me, that I deleted the line several times trying to make it sound less definitive.)

That means in addition to turning down speaking engagements and travel, stepping off of boards, and spending more time with my family and in my neighborhood, I’m being asked to step away from serving in this space. This past year has been a gift. A dreamer’s gift. To serve on a team that has become my family. To have folks I’ve never met cheer me on and to be able to encourage you as you dream boldly, fearlessly, and most of all, bravely. Some of you have even modeled for me how bravery can mean changing course or standing still or, gasp, even stepping away.

Thank you for having me. I will continue to cheer you on {===>Click to Tweet}, and thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people—the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel that has come to you. For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. (Colossians 1)

Shared by: Gindi Vincent

Photo Credit: Masa Sakano

The Dream Versus The Dream-Giver

October 8, 2014 By Gindi Vincent 10 Comments

Sometimes we have to be willing to give something up to God in order to get it back from God…God will test us to make sure the gift isn’t more important than the Gift Giver, the dream isn’t more important to us than the Dream Giver. He’ll test us to make sure it’s not an idol. If it is, that dream, gift, or desire might need to die so that it can be resurrected. But God often takes things away to give them back so that we know they are gifts to be stewarded for his glory.

Mark Batterson, Draw The Circle: The 40 Day Prayer Challenge

It finally arrived. The professionally edited video of a 25 minute keynote address I gave to a large women’s conference in May. I was so excited. I’d been visiting with an executive coach who speaks nationally, and she shared that was the piece missing from my website. At long last, the missing piece.

I love to speak at conferences. I put on my game face (aka heavier make up than I’d wear out of the house) and my game uniform (which nearly always involves stockings – yuck!), and I head out with queasy stomach and rattling nerves. But then I get up on stage to speak and I love it. The endorphins kick in and the audience engages, and I’m on a high for hours afterwards.

The funny thing is, I’m an introvert. No really, I am a serious introvert by any test account. I hate walking into rooms of people I don’t know. I won’t approach someone and start up a conversation. I know none of my neighbors. I never make small talk with the grocery clerk. Yet put me on a stage and I feel like I’m home (even though only five minutes prior I thought I’d need to throw up).

This year, God has opened some unbelievable doors for me to speak to big and small crowds both in Texas and outside of my home state. Each time a bigger opportunity arose, I’d call two of my fellow sailors here and say YOU WILL NOT BELIEVE WHAT GOD DID TODAY!?!?!?!

So when I began Mark Batterson’s 40 Day Prayer Circle a few weeks ago, I didn’t have anything specific to circle in prayer except for my family and… I circled this one little phrase in the front of my book, “spacious place.” God had recently been bringing me to II Samuel 22 and Psalm 18, “He brought me out into a spacious place; He rescued me because He delighted in me.”

I didn’t know exactly what that meant, but it was interesting that one week into the devotional I spent nine days in Alaska for work. I didn’t know God would literally bring me into a spacious place. But as I sat with Him there, in the midst of clouds clinging to mountains and vast waters, I sensed a very clear instruction. One I was not prepared for nor even convinced I could make out such a specific instruction. This was the instruction: no speaking engagements for the first quarter of 2015.

Um, I’m sorry. What God? I think you have me mixed up with someone else. You’ve called me to speak. Specifically called me this and given me a gift to execute your calling. Did you forget that God?

Then the speaking requests came rolling in. Three within a week from different groups in different locations from Tampa to New Orleans. I actually called a friend one day and said, “did He mean ALL speaking requests?”

As soon as I left her that message I read the quote I began with: He’ll test us to make sure it’s not an idol.

Ouch. I was chasing my dream instead of chasing after the Dream Giver. {===>Click To Tweet} So it was time to lay it down. I said no graciously (God had ironically put The Best Yes in my hands at the same time) and connected the event planners to other wonderful speakers (which made me lay down a whole other prideful part of myself).

God sometimes requires us to lay down our dream, even the dream He placed on our heart, in order to know Him more. {===>Click to Tweet} In order to prepare for the season to come. In order to refocus on the Giver instead of the gift. To prepare, like Abraham did with Isaac, to lay something precious in the altar to show that we are willing to follow Him no matter the cost.

I cried when I had to write out the third no. The reality is, there will be other tests and more no’s to come. But I had begun to drive the dream, to return to my Type A planning self and do it all on my own, and I was slipping further away from His vision and plan for my life.

So my spacious place will be a quiet one. As He calls me away from so many things for this season. But I am confident of this: that He who began a good work in me will be faithful to complete it (Phil. 1:6) and that He does immeasurably more than all I could ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within me (Eph. 3:20).

Shared by: Gindi Vincent

How Darkness Tries To Crowd Out The Light

August 27, 2014 By Gindi Vincent 6 Comments

Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.
I Peter 5:8-10

I am learning, in the most painful way, that failure to maintain self-control directly opens the door for the enemy to submarine your own dreams.

When we slip, when we lose our vigilance and let little areas in our life slide, it opens the door to a ravenous lion.

This is not the kind of post I normally write. I’m more of a let’s-talk-about-our-faith in a soft around the corners way.

But this is what I know. I know that when we give darkness an inch, darkness takes a mile.

When we let people or food or drink or pride or ignorance or materialism grow in spaces that are meant for generosity and discipline and patience and wisdom and selflessness, then we stand ill-equipped to resist the lion stalking us constantly. When we abandon self-control, also translated as a sober mind, we lose right along with it the strength to resist the enemy from a position entrenched in our faith. {<==== Click To Tweet}

That lack of vigilance can shred our dreams.

I know this isn’t a cheery post about sailing under clear skies as your dream grows and blossoms, but I wonder if we get scared to say the hard stuff. I wonder if I shouldn’t have been called on losing some of my self-control earlier. Hard messages sometimes feel judgmental. But they aren’t. They’re just hard messages.

Peter spoke these words in love. He wanted to warn those champions of the gospel that they have to remain constantly vigilant. And do you see what happens when we do? The God of all grace (hear that, the God of GRACE), after a little while, will do what? He will restore you.

He. Will. Restore. You. From wherever you came. He will restore you. You and I begin to walk vigilant, self-controlled, sober, and alert, with a tremendous amount of help from Him, and we come out on the other side of all that suffering restored.

Because even though we know there’s an enemy stalking us and our dreams, desperate to take them both down, we also stand on the promise of John 1:5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. {<==== Click To Tweet}

Stand firm. Be self-controlled. If you’ve let things slip, then it’s time to fight back. I’m going to.

Shared by: Gindi Vincent

What Are You Afraid Of?

July 21, 2014 By Gindi Vincent 11 Comments

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What are you afraid of?

What is holding you back?

What turns your skin cold?

I have to tell you, I am scared to death.

I am scared of my dream failing. I’m at least equally as scared that my dream might succeed.

I am scared of disobeying God. I’m just about as scared of obedience given some of the things He is asking me to do.

I have generational fear. It goes way back. In fact, my fear is actually not as acute as the women who have gone before me. Women of faith. Yet women often paralyzed by fear. But this is what I know in the deepest core of my being:

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. I John 4:16-18

So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:10

Fear is not from God. Fear can not exist in the face of God’s love and His presence. {===>Click to Tweet}

I didn’t participate in that “my one word” for the year that you may have read about from other bloggers, but had I chosen a word it would have been courageous. I keep coming back to it. It seems every situation I’m faced with I hear a still small Voice saying “Be Courageous.” All year long I’ve found myself tackling one of my biggest demons: FEAR.

Courageous is defined by Merriam-Webster as having courage. Courage is defined as the ability to do something that you know is difficult or dangerous. Do you know why I love the word courageous more than brave? Because when I looked up the definition of brave, I read that brave meant feeling or showing no fear. Courage, on the other hand, recognizes that you’ll probably start out afraid because you are doing something difficult or dangerous. But you do it anyway.

One third of the references to courage in the Bible contain this instruction from God to one seeking to follow Him: Be strong and courageous. Sometimes, there’s even a “very” thrown in before courageous when God instructs His servant – because in some circumstances, it takes an extra measure of courage to face the call ahead. Good or bad, stepping out, making a change, moving into unfamiliar territory can be terrifying. But God says do not fear.

Be courageous.

Let His perfect love cast out your fear. Call on Him, out loud, to drive it from the recesses of your mind or the corners of your home. Because do you know what He says immediately after that call to be strong and courageous? Over and over again He extends one of these promises: I will be with you. I will never leave you. I will not fail you. {===>Click to Tweet}

I stumbled up on this song, You Make Me Brave, a couple of weeks ago when I was grappling with fear in the face of a new circumstance. Even if you don’t listen to it all, start at about minute 3 and let this refrain play over and over again into your life. Go back and read God’s early instructions in Deuteronomy and Joshua as He calls His people to be strong and courageous. Let His love fill the spaces of your life that have been filled with fear.

You make me brave. You make me brave. You call me out beyond the shore into the waves.

You make me brave. You make me brave. No fear can hinder now the promises You make!

As your love, in wave after wave, crashes over me. For You are for us. You are not against us.

Shared by: Gindi Vincent

Photo Credit: blusterywishes.tumblr.com

The Secret to Success: Looking Silly

June 23, 2014 By Gindi Vincent 5 Comments

I love the word silly.

It makes me laugh most of the time I hear it.

The only time I’m not a fan of the word is when it applies to me.

When I’m trying to be taken seriously, but I look (or feel like I look) silly. Or when people think my dreams are silly.

Well, pssst, let me tell you a secret – embracing silly might just be the key that unlocks your success. {===> Click to Tweet}

I write a lot about leadership and the corporate buzz phrase for this concept is risk taking. Successful leaders take risks. It means making hard choices and can come with failure. And if failure hits, well you can certainly look silly or foolish or messy.

But change doesn’t happen without stepping out and taking a risk. Dreams aren’t achieved without some serious risk taking. Stepping out into your “learning zone” as the authors of How Remarkable Women Lead optimistically couch this step into potential silly territory.

We are often consumed with what people think of us or what people MIGHT think of us if we act a certain way.

It is hard to let that go. But you MUST let go of your concern of what others will think or you will never achieve your dream. {===>Click To Tweet}

In Holley Gerth’s Opening the Door to Your God-Sized Dream 40 day devotional, she devotes an entire segment to this concept and uses King David as an illustration:

Instead of fleeing from the feeling of being foolish, lean into it. King David did this when the Ark of God entered Jerusalem. He danced in joy with lots of abandon and little clothing in front of the people. His wife scolded him for what she saw as inappropriate behavior for a person of his position. I love his response: “I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes.” Where most of us would apologize and try to defend ourselves, David essentially says: “You ain’t seen nothing yet.” He realizes that defending his honor is not his job and that God gets the most glory when we humble ourselves. If you’re not wiling to look goofy in the eyes of others at some point, you will never make it to your God-sized dream.

Take out a pen and a piece of paper. Write down what you really want to achieve. Write down that big dream that you packed away when you had kids or got divorced or went through bankruptcy or turned 60 or moved to a new high school. Then write down what is stopping you. Is there anything on that list that looks or sounds like this? People will think I’m nuts. I’m too young/old/inexperienced. No one would support me. I might fail spectacularly. My friends will laugh at me. I will look silly.

If any of that is stopping you, then pull the dream back out and pack those concerns away instead.

Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong. I Corinthians 16:13

No weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed. Isaiah 54:17