Propel Women PASSION Session 4

[Music] hey everyone welcome to session four of our propelled series on passion today we're talking about creating with passion and if you've joined us for the last few sessions on defining and identifying our passion you might be asking yourself well now what what do I do with my passion how do I bring my passions into the workplace how do I create something with my passion how do I make time to pursuing new passions how do I even prioritize my passions you know very few women are actually operating out of their primary passion most women are living and working to make the dreams of those around them possible and this is a noble thing but we're all accountable ultimately to God for the gifts and talents that he has placed in us and so we want to be good stewards of our god-given passions our hope is that you will dare to dig deeper and ask yourself if what you are doing is out of passion or obligation does your job make you come alive are you the very best version of yourself when you're at home or with your friends are you surrounding yourself with the right people have you accepted things as they are or are you daydreaming about how they can become better goddess place things in us and it's our job to get them out of us and into the world around us remember it's - our father's great glory that we bear much fruit and so our workplaces ought to be better because of our passion our homes ought to be better because of our passion and relationships should be better because of our passion and ultimately of course our own personal lives should be better because of our passion you know what mark will you leave on the earth because of your passion 1st Corinthians chapter 2 verse 9 it tells us that no eye has seen no ear has heard or nor has it even entered into our mind what God has prepared for those who love him God has so much more prepared for us if we're prepared to dig really deep and discover it so whether you're running a fortune 500 company your own business or a home you still have not even conceived of what God has ahead for you passion is the fuel that keeps searching asking trying discovering and pursuing human is ever unfolding purpose for our lives creating something with our passion can be so beautiful and so messy all at the same time just like us beautiful just like us beautiful and messy you know since we're speaking of beautiful and messy I would love to invite you into this conversation with my friends who have all got awesome lives beautiful lives and very messy lives that's for sure and I'm really excited about all of you women on the other side of the screen that have joined us again today thanks for allowing us to drop into your chapter we're just one big happy family and so as you eavesdrop for this first part I hope that it is going to stimulate you to compelling conversation about how to create with passion and so Bianca you're one of the most passionate people that I work with you know I am positively in a coma in comparison to you brought your gifts into the a21 campaign and creatively just unleashed your passion there right I think and I'm we mentioned this in an earlier teaching session but I didn't know that I was gonna be passionate about this particular social ill I didn't to be honest with you I didn't even know that slavery was an issue that was as pervasive as it is today all that being said you and I happened to have a conversation it was so random it was kismet serendipitous or sovereign whatever your theological some positions are however you call it God aligned a conversation for you and I have and that conversation you just so what are you gonna do with your life and I said I want to change the world for Jesus and you asked me this question and I'll never forget it you said are you doing that right in your blog because at the time at 28 years old and I thought well I'm change in the world for Jesus riding behind keys in my pajamas living at my parents house you know and there's a season for the panel but at the same time it was an invitation for me to rise so you get basically called out some gifts you said well you I was writing at the time and editing and doing some freelance stuff and also volunteering very much at my church and what you did and that one question is that you called out what God had wanted me to do and the gifts that I innately knew that I had and used it for his glory and his good things what I love to tell stories I love to write stories I love to synthesize things it's just I could see all the puzzle pieces and put them together and I also love things that are beautiful and there was this invitation to do is to take this simple thing called social media and whether it was 140 characters for Twitter 440 characters for Facebook or a blog or a newsletter how can we be get into efficaciously tell stories but not just speak about the horrors and the the travesty of human trafficking the horrific thing that is going around the across the globe but to bring hope and light and beauty and to see what a redemption looks like right it's good for slaves across the world really help people the anchor is one of the conversations we had when I walked into your office one day oh really and miss huge opportunities in God because of the very issue that I think you need to tell everyone so friends let's just call this for what it is I have I don't have a formal training to do it God had called me to do when I started a21 it's not a lawyer not a doctor not a philanthropist not a social worker I just loved words that's all that I knew and some people are called to be freedom fighters God had called me to be a freedom writer but after three months of working if we're gonna have real talk yeah when you work for a visionary who's crazy flipped upside down and and I thought like I was to be honest with you I thought like I am going to just sit on Chris's lap she's gonna stroke my hair tell me how awesome I am and we're gonna free slaves in the name of Jesus and it was really like I'm dropping you into the ocean if I drove back to California and in that moment I just felt so overwhelmed I felt like this was not obviously I did not hear the voice of God are aligned I'm deaf to the the voice of God and and I hadn't seen Chris in three months she lives on the plane she walked into an office my office that had the water tank and the refrigerator in no windows yeah you see do you see long story long start very long story short I basically told Chris through tears I don't think I can do this because I know I wasn't called to this doing it I literally was just telling her I'm done and the loving merciful Christine Kay said yes I didn't know how to respond in that moment yeah she said what is God putting your hand that's right I just put this in your hand and if God has put this in your hand and this is what you're called to multiply and she had said I'm not called to fight slavery which to me I'm like boy you're on the wrong profession I'm told to do what God's called me to do it if God has called you to do this God's gonna equip you that's right that was it that's right and that was okay all right okay and then after that was basically from that point on she was like here's water turned it into wine and I had to just start pointing to my girl but I will tell you something when there is a challenge in the invitation her words rang true that year we grew at a rate of a hundred and ten percent on social media we funded essentially at that point the job that I had and they created a team of four new interns and so there's an invitation to do brave bold and dangerous things are we willing to receive yes okay cuz it's similar okay Chris has this gift for identifying boom you come on in here yeah I did my thing my own thing for years you in Nashville you and Nick came to town and you were like you you're gonna come do this and I went mm-hmm I don't know you you come on let's do it and I realized okay I can put my passion to use through collaboration that's that's the key that's right passion inside you collaborating and getting to work together with people with a similar goal who were on fire it's great that's magic I wanted to be that person dropped in the ocean figure it out like I'm a builder that's what I love I'm a vacationer there's not a way to do it I'm gonna figure it out yeah the beauty about the collaboration is that you love that adventure I don't I love things that are fun and we hold each other's hand you've always said that we are stronger together than we are individually especially in our culture especially in Western American culture we are building idols unto ourselves what are you what are my purpose is my passion and sometimes right sometimes God has called us to be part of something larger and what goes around together yeah by aligning with vision and it's a great honor together and women are terrible at this because women tend to be we tend to come from a place of insecurity yeah so we think if somebody else gets the limelight that means I get less like guys as a liar if somebody gets a big nose that inevitably means the geometry is less for us and it's like no Chris and I get to do some events together and I've had so many people say it's gonna be so hard for you to speak after Chris it's not hard to speak after Chris because Chris is an activator I mean I'm ready to charge hell with water pistol when Chris beaches yeah I'm ready to go to wherever it is I am so much more pastoral yes and so crushed one time she said why do you keep talking about the love of Christ that's kind of what I love to talk about 70 his prophetic was somebody who's a little more pastoral that actually is I think for women to go wow it is so much more fun to run the race with everything I have and scream for the girls on either side and with Chris with anybody whoever is on your team I have a much better shot at getting the World Series ring and the bonus with a team than I do so if we would spend a little more energy collaborating and cheering genuinely when the water rises all the ships ride is actually a biblical template that's you don't see these people who are isolated in Scripture nobody said that Paul was better than his baby brother because Paul preached to thousands and as our Peter preached to thousands and and Ray led peak to Jesus whose job was more important there's a different skill set that's right he wouldn't have been leading you know Pentecost to the Andrew not said come I don't Matt the Christ yeah so I think if we would have simplistic simplistic as it sounds not only bloom where we're planted but bloom and then be fired up about the beauty at the blooms around that so good revival really would happen yeah true I think you're so right about the collaboration there's something about being motivated by those around us that help that forces us to be creative and innovative for example if you ask me come up with $100,000 tomorrow I'll be like right juices I can't write I see I'm a hurt your son if you do right hold up I'll be back with your money because I'm passionate about my child I don't want him to do well I thought about the four men who cut a hole in the roof for their friend to reach Jesus so passionate people they don't see obstacles they create opportunity created get in the way I think that what Peter and when they're healing the man at the gate called beautiful he said silver and gold I don't have right but what I do have I'm gonna give you so my limitations actually create opportunity that's for you to be healed thinking we a lot of women stopped short of pursuing their passion because I'll wait till I have kids I'll wait till I'm marrying yeah oh it's like graduate I'll wait an eloquent don't wait for anything create opportunities right wing there and perhaps those moments messy it is and using and we're in the middle of trying to sell our house and the other day Missy's just learned to spell my name and so she can spell Missy but she's just learned to spell mama which I love when she calls me mama but mmm golly sorry estrogen is rising as I had all these big pieces of construction paper that had sticky on the back and she had written mama really big on him and she had put him all over the living room to surprise me well the realtor was coming over we're just about to show the house and she goes look mama do you like it and I thought oh crud you know I have about 15 seconds to make a decision of whether I'm going to pull down all these things that say mama or whether I'm gonna let the house show with my baby's artwork all over and I thought I'm leaving it up you know even it up and I think we forget that's how God is with us we want to wait till we're you know Renoir Rembrandt or or the guy who cut his ear off yeah one of them and God is saying just paint yeah whatever you paint is so beautiful just paint so I think we're all creators because we were made in His image he's a divine creator Redeemer we may have different mediums but just paint just sing just write just step into it with everything we can get people to take that first step and knowing and I think a lot of social media what it does is we see everybody else's highlight reels everybody else's vanish product and we don't even step out because we think I'm not that well I wasn't this at 22 that's right I started driving you know for 14 year old girls to youth group that's it most people don't want to start with the four 14 year old girls and I'm going well then honey at 49 you're not likely to be running a global any traffic organization or you know women's community so I think what we have to do is start where we are with what we have right and then allow God to come in and to begin to multiply there and bless that and we could talk about this forever because I think when you start talking about creativity God gets fired up because that word creation is right there right from the beginning of scripture and God just specializes in making something out of nothing it's just what he does and that's what he's done with us and we ought to continue to do because we're created in his image so I know we're gonna have some great questions because I'm surrounded by some great creative women around yes so I'm really looking forward to taking some of those [Music] when it comes to creativity and passion I know that there be so many questions so I'm pretty eager to take a couple off the floor who's got some for me I've got one for you help me understand the best way to navigate I've got a creative idea I'm excited about it I'm passionate about I've been thinking about it for years actually and I present it and it's squashed right how do I respond and what do I do with that I think there's so many layers to that you know it depends on as I've come through life and leadership in the last 27 years there were just different seasons where I had great ideas in fact the embryonic form of what is now propel I probably had a heart for 10 years and I would sort of put it out there and it would just be squashed and squash from people that were key influences in my life and people that and you know what I have to accept in those cases that God was sovereign and it just wasn't the timing of God yet but then they did come a point when we launched it so over this last 12-month period where even though there were some people that were resistant to it I knew in my heart of hearts that okay I've got to be all-in am I willing to potentially jeopardize losing some relationships losing some support just losing the favor of people to whose favor was very important to me and I knew and there was a difference although this has been in seed form there for 10 years there's the sensitivity to the Holy Spirit where there are times where you yield and submit and go okay it's just not timing yet the resources aren't there it may put a strain on my family and my marriage that it's just not right at this moment so God has timing and rhythms but then there are times where you go okay there's gonna be a cost and there's going to be a sacrifice and you have to be willing to do it it's discerning that and again I think we talked a lot about having wise counselors around you wise decision makers around you because everything affects somebody and you know the Lord didn't call me to do this and for my marriage to be a mess or for my children to go off the rails so he's not schizophrenic it doesn't go well now I lost that because of my ministry we'll know you really didn't prioritize things in the right time do it in the right order so you know the Apostle Paul says in Philippians do nothing out of selfish ambition sometimes that selfish ambition drives us to step out of the timing of God rather than plan a purpose of God right and then other times our fear of man causes us not to do that God's called us to do this so there's you too you need wisdom and discernment and wise counsel that's right that's right any question have a question are you intentional about being creative taking time in your daily life or weekly life - and what does that look like I'd love a probably an alley to answer this in a sense of that she's just finished a book but had a full time job and has five sons and her husband in the midst of all of that so how do you creatively write a book while you're launching a brand-new ministry as well so there's a great question well people like to think that if you're writing a book you're gonna be at a writing cabin or you're gonna go on a riding or Treat and everything's gonna be great and the creative juices are going to be flowing no it was working a 60 hour week it's waking up Saturday morning kissing the kids be like mommy's gonna lock herself in the bedroom right and then maybe every hour banging on the door and sticking my head out going I cannot ever finish this chapter if y'all don't be quiet that's what it looks like right but out but the boys knew okay we have nine more weeks mommy's got her Saturdays we're going to we're going to be quiet until four and then we're going to go out and party um so I didn't look perfect there wasn't a Ryan cabin I didn't get together on a gross sabbatical I was just in it and it was ugly and I felt like it was important out I would always Instagram it because I wanted women other women to see it to be like life's messy and who knows how this is gonna turn out cuz it's crazy right now let's just get real and I find that if you get in the slipstream things come now you know it's this ethereal idea that we're all going to sit on a Greek island and be just inspired with creativity you can create spaces but find it where you are you know I grew up in the acquittal in government assisted housing in a very the poorest ZIP code in my state there was nothing nice about my surroundings there was no greenery it was just like literally bars on all the windows graffiti everywhere I mean just your stereotypical of what you would think for low-income housing and yet there was where I read all my first sermons there is where I look because I had to find God in the midst of all of that I would go for walks I would find it welling from within in a state of peace and calm in my soul and I am so inquisitive anything can inspire me and so I find that's what you have to do and I just read books that are outside of my either just interest even just so that I can spark different parts of my brain I'll try this year I've taken on some different weight training just because I want to just confuse my muscles a bit and start thinking differently and just get might and that's caused me to go wow I'm thinking differently about different things so I put myself in different environments talk to different people how do you know rather than waiting for the one day when in the by-and-by when all the planets will align that doesn't happen that's right that's right I think sometimes homogeny kills creativity and so I am intentional about spontaneity yeah and there are times that I go you know I'd kind of had the same thing as Ali I wrote a book over Christmas it may be a really bad book but I mean I only had like six weeks to write this book and it was mrs. first Christmas and so I made a very intentional choice that during the day I'm gonna be all about Missy and Christmas and I want her to just understand kind of the cella celebratory aspects of this know when to have fun and be spontaneous and then I'll write after I put her to bed at 9:00 I'll write from nine to three o'clock or four o'clock in the morning and then for the next few weeks I'll sleep four or five hours of night because it's a season but I was really intentional about spontaneity because I did not want to over schedule her yeah so we went on motorcycle rides and we went on hikes and we went sledding and we did all these things and acts I felt like I was so much more I loved your word efficacy because I think it sounds so cool there was a lot more efficacy in my ride it was much more creative because I've had so much fun with my baby during the day so I think to actually succeed at being creative we've got to be intentional about spontaneity because that's true that's one of the places where I think it's fertilized the atmosphere around you doesn't isn't really the only thing that creates that atmosphere for creativity sometimes it comes out of pain yeah necessity is the mother of invention sometimes a man there times when I'm with my children I just see a moment and I'll not jot it on my phone I'll use that as an illustration when I teach the Bible literally it's on my phone and target which target is of the Lord yes places are anointed yes there's an anointing it is so I'll literally John on my phone and that's my creative process people don't realize yes it's on the goods as we're going that's really not gives us that that's right which is always if I care I think we've got time for maybe one or two more it's a another question yes okay how do you cope with the disappointment that the messiness of creativity can bring you as in you finishing something and then it not turning out the way that you had intended it to sure because that has never happened to anyone so you know Bianca because perfection is your middle name and everything you touch turns to go right I would say in a 21 there was a project that I kind of begged to have I said as a storyteller we need to communicate not just the issue of human trafficking but the solution and what people can do and how do we tell stories and quite honestly how does this generate funds because we can only do what we can do when we have the funding to do it so if something called the Freedom report and basically that charts are 12 months of success I thought I thought I mean from here into the return of Christ that this is going to be our saving grace this is amazing this is wonderful and worked incredibly hard on doing it I will say to speak to the first question but what happens when it's rejected number one it got rejected three times and it boiled down to a number of issues not having team not having budget the sort of stuff we finally had those things aligned we get the project done and it was it was really a really good project the launch of it probably wasn't the most successful that's hard not just because I struggled for affection ISM but it's hard because you really believe in something right but you know what when if we take it Moses's rod I love that God asked Moses what's in her hands and he said his staff and God told him to lay it down and sometimes God asked us to lay these things down which represent who we are which represent our calling which represent our identity even our income we lay it down it's either for one of two reasons if God asked me to lay it down it's because it's not for you to carry anymore or you're gonna pick it up with greater strength we saw in the life of Moses that he picked it up and he became something that was dangerous and inanimate object became an alive object we became a state something dangerous and so what happens when God when you lay this let's say a creative process down a dream a book an article a song a blog you lay it down and it feels like failure it's either because that was not yours to carry or you're gonna resurrect it in a new strength in its due time when Chris was talking about it's not maybe that season propel is the strength that propel is today because it was in labor for 10 years our freedom report that comes out in July it's gonna be our strongest best freedom report that we've ever done to date and that's what I no longer do the freedom report and it pains me because that was my baby I've heard that and the winner would have slide out of my hands I was angry but I look at the success of it now it's because it wasn't mine to carry yeah and don't forget what when somebody calls your your baby ugly it hurts yeah but don't forget God is the author of what we're doing if your pen is submitted to him I mean some of the sweetest moments I've ever had in vocational ministry I can trace back to a mistake on my part one time I was writing in a woman's book and I just have a little bit of a DD people were talking right here and I wrote something they said out loud into her book and black magic marker and I was like oh crud how can I fix this and all I'm thinking is I've written this big mistake word in the sweet woman's book and I end up coming up I think with this weird verse that includes the mistake word and I thought you know cool this will be like scrapbooking I'll fix it make it look like meant the mistake word long story short this woman was just in a really really deep pit comes back around and says I need to talk to you about that verse she wrote in my book and I was like I think one team sure it was a verse you know cuz sometimes quote something ago I think that was in was even positive it was a verse and she said that verse she wrote in my book she tells me this whole story about how she feel like God wasn't hearing her and she said you know I opened my book and I was just shocked to see that the verse you inscribed was the verse I chose as my life verse when I was in under said in college 25 years ago she said it's such an obscure verse I haven't thought about that verse in years yeah and she said in here I am going Lord you don't see me I opened my book I've never met you before this weekend and she said that verse out of all the verses you could have chosen that versus what you inscribed in my book and she goes on to say thank you thank you so much and I said it is a bigger miracle than you think I wasn't being wise or sage prophet or even a good teacher when I did that I was trying to cover up a mistake that was my motive but our God is so kind and so good that in His mercy he takes even things that are messy something you've created and somebody says your baby's ugly and in his sovereign mercy if we're submitted to him even that he'll weave into a beautiful redemptive tapestry so you may not see it now no Moses didn't stand in the promised land and who is next to a glorified Jesus he was buried on Nebo do you not think our lives are confined by time and space this is not our home we're aliens and strangers here so what somebody tells you as a failure you do not do not own that because if you're submitted to the Lord he will weave it into something redemptive so good antastic and I think on that note we've given you some great great stuff to discuss in the propell chapters right there in your location so it's my hope that after this conversation and the conversation you're about to have with the women around you that you understand more about creating with passion and I hope that you experience creative freedom in living out your passion remember to bring all of you to what you do and by doing that what you do will become like all that is in you it is often by bringing our passion into where we are that we discover the passion in where we are enjoy your conversation Wow exclamation point exclamation point you [Music]

Channel: Kate Baldwin

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Id: ZNRe4Gf1Nog

Length: 29min 23sec (1763 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 15 2019