You think this setback was a cancellation on your dream, but Sis, you’re wrong. This isn’t a cancellation. This is an opportunity for you to see what you couldn’t see before. A chance to tap into the creativity your Creator has placed within you, and do something different.
Did you know many of the great inventions we enjoy today were actually a total accident in the making. They were a flop when compared to their original intention, but that flop created a greater success than ever imagined. If you’ve ever used a Post-It to add a sticky note on your mirror, your computer screen, your refrigerator, or a page in a book, you’re looking at a total flop. A cancellation of a dream that became an opportunity for greater success.
The original intent was to create a new super glue that would permanently stick to anything. The result was the exact opposite. A glue that would adhere, then gently peel right off. It was an utter failure in one way, and genius in another. But what if the creator would have given up in the failure of his original intent? What if he would have assumed this was a cancellation of his creation, closed up shop, and threw away the glue that wouldn’t permanently stick to anything at all? He would have missed a massive opportunity!
Honey, you don’t have to be an inventor to have the potential to be missing a massive opportunity here. Where has this NOT turned out the way you had hoped? Where has this been a disappointment? Where has the door slammed in your face? Can you believe with me for just a moment you’re simply being redirected by a loving God who has always had ridiculously good plans for you? Can you believe with me for a higher purpose than this disappointment? Can you believe in a channeling toward greater things, and this disappointment and failure was a massive move on behalf of a God who loves you wildly. A move to bring you to greater things. A move to show you more.
This is your invitation to do something different!
I recently started watching a documentary of the wild life of Richard Branson. I say wild because this man makes my adventurous spirit look boring. It’s a story of brilliant success, insane risks, and one set back after another. Every time he would create momentum, he would encounter a problem that would completely prohibit him from moving forward. But it was what he did with that problem that created his success.
Sis, it’s what you do with this problem that will determine your success. Will you lay there and lick your wounds forever? Will you become a victim of circumstances and let all those dreams die? Will you sit in the ashes of what was once beautiful and stay stuck in what was? Or will you use this problem like the wind in your sails, make an adjustment, and move forward?!!!
Richard Branson had started Virgin Records and experienced some success as the first mail order record company. That was until the British post office went on strike and absolutely nothing could be mailed. Now all his money was tied up in an inventory that couldn’t be shipped to fulfill his orders and he couldn’t change the mail situation. So, what could he do? He rented his first ever store front building, threw huge bean bags on the floors, plugged headphones into the previously unheard music he was trying to sell, and BOOM, it became bigger than the mail order business he had been building before.
You see, what you’ve been building before may have been halted, but this doesn’t have to be the end. I’m talking about businesses, marriages, homes, families, careers, and dreams. ALL OF IT. The enemy thought he was cancelling everything on you, but all he was doing was channeling you directly to the better plans of your Creator.
Nope, that didn’t work … but something else will!
Where’s your fight? Where’s your spirit? Where’s your spunk? You’re going to need it to see this isn’t the end, this is simply a shift to do something different.
As I’m watching the story of Richard Branson, it was almost comical how every delivery of bad news ultimately became an opportunity to shift and do what they had never thought of doing before. Every next big step was preceded by a problem in their previous direction.
And what if the same is true for you. What if this bad news isn’t to crush you? What if this end that has devastated you wasn’t really a dead end … what if it was a divine end?
Really, think about it. What if this isn’t a dead end at all. God says THIS ISN’T DEAD, THIS IS DIVINE! I’m working here. You asked me to guide you, and I am! I’m guiding you through a series of changes you didn’t ask for, to get you to a future you could have never dreamed of on your own.
But dang, we don’t like those changes we didn’t ask for, now do we? Well I bet you will like the future you could have never dreamed of, so perhaps this will be worth your time, Sis! Perhaps you shouldn’t just give up. Perhaps you should look for another way. Perhaps you should still show up and see what happens!
There’s a story in the bible about a good man who went through a series of changes he didn’t ask for. A series of betrayals and setbacks, a series of hardships and total unfairness, and I’m not talking about a 2 month rough spot. I’m talking about a rough spot that lasted over 20 years!
The story is of Joseph, and it’s sprinkled through Genesis chapter 37 to chapter 50. At just 17 years old, his brothers grow jealous of his favored position with their father, and they sell him into slavery to get rid of him. ROUGH SPOT. This isn’t how Joseph saw his life going. In fact, it was the opposite of the dream he had. He had been given a vision of rising to a position of power, but now he was in a pit being bought by traders who took him to Egypt as a slave.
Joseph was sold to Potipher, a captain of the King’s palace guard. But do you know what Joseph did? He did his best! Even in slavery, he did his best.
And that’s a message for someone today. Someone who has a husband or child who fails to show their love, so you have been growing unloving. Honey, don’t you stop giving your best. Don’t withhold the love that is in you. When you withhold your love, you’re left feeling not only unloved, but now unloving too.
This is for someone who has a job that has become miserable. You’re not appreciated. Your work isn’t recognized. So, the temptation becomes to give as little as you can to pay them back. But really, think about it … does that feel good? You’re showing up with a bad attitude and intentions to do the bare minimum, then you wonder why you go home feeling like the life has been sucked out of you. Honey, you can’t control them, but you can control you in this! I’m not saying stay stuck there, I’m saying while you’re there, be true to who God created you to be!
The enemy wins when he gets you in an unfair position and strips you of your goodness. Oh he may affect your circumstances, but why would you ever let him affect your attitude? Why would you let him change how you show up? This is a wake up call!
Joseph was sold by his own family into slavery, but he was the best darn slave in Egypt! And guess what happened? Genesis 39:2 “The Lord was with Joseph, so he succeeded in everything he did as he served in the home of his Egyptian master.”
Would you want to succeed at being a good slave? Would you want to be your best in a situation that is totally unfair? I mean really, think about that. Or would you want to give attitude? Would you want to be hateful back? Would you want to hurt those who had hurt you? Honey, God can’t bless that!
And kind of like the story of Richard Branson with every cancellation, he used it as an opportunity to creatively turn another direction. Not stop. Not give up. Not sit and sulk. Not become a pitiful victim. No. Show up, do what you are called to do here, and do it in a way that God can bless!
I’ve found God has a really hard time blessing my cold shoulder. You know, when I’ve been butt hurt over something, so I give that person the cold shoulder and push them away. Yip, never once has God been able to bless that in my life.
I’ve also found God has a really hard time blessing my negative attitude, my rolled eyes, my slamming doors, my attempts to payback harm for harm. Nope, I’ve never once been blessed in that.
But you know what he has blessed? He’s blessed me when I showed up and faithfully did work that wasn’t really mine to do. He’s blessed me when I was kind to someone who had been royally unkind to me. He’s blessed me when I went around what didn’t work to find what would work. He’s blessed me when I refused the invitation to a pity party for one. He’s blessed me when I resisted the victim label and opted to see how this could make me more like the girl I’m created to be.
I know you want God’s blessings in your life. I know you want this marriage to succeed. I know you want this business to grow. I know you want this dream to be fulfilled. I know you want your family to be whole. I know you want change. I know you want this to work. But this success will come through hardships. It will come through cancellations. It will come through frustrations.
Will you be faithful to keep showing up through it all? And not just show up to go through the motions, but show up with the best of you, even when you’re not getting the best of anyone else in return?
Show up with the best of you when the best results aren’t happening.
Show up with the best of you for no other reason than that is exactly what God has called you to do! He’s called you to be who he created you to be, and that’s not this cold shoulder, negative, overwhelmed, attitude giving, half-effort, going through the motions kinda stuff.
When you show up as the best version of who he created you to be, here’s what God does … The Lord will be with you, so you will succeed in everything you do as you serve.
When bad happens, you look for the good. When you’re treated unkindly, you keep showing up kind. When this becomes impossible, you look to God to see what he is making possible on your behalf.
You think this setback was a cancellation on your dream, but Sis, you’re wrong. This isn’t a cancellation. This is an opportunity for you to see what you couldn’t see before. A chance to tap into the creativity your Creator has placed within you, and do something different. And when you do something different, make sure you’re doing it with your best, then watch God bless that!
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