Hi fam,
Welcome to SHIFT.
If this is your very first time listening in,
I encourage you to hit the pause button.
Go and listen to the welcome and the first episode.
This will give you a solid foundation so that you get the most out of this journey.
Let's get started.
The first step in embracing change is learning how to SHIFT and considering the ways that your resistance to change has been keeping you from your destiny.
To help you embrace change,
I'm going to present SHIFT to you as an acronym.
One letter,
One word each week for the next few weeks.
With that,
Let's talk about the first letter in the word SHIFT.
The S stands for seeing.
Our focus today will be on how vision changes everything.
Y'all might as well know early on that I'm a country girl at heart.
When I was young,
I used to ride in the car with my siblings and we'd drive down the street saying,
That's my house,
That's my car.
A lot of little girls dreamed of a big cozy house with a white picket fence or something fancy,
But my dream house is a cabin in the woods with a little creek trickling down beside it.
Something peaceful and calm.
And while most little girls and boys dreamed of a fancy car,
I already had my favorite car.
It was a 2011 Toyota Tundra that I affectionately named Imogene after my childhood sister friend and my mama.
Y'all pray for Imogene.
She stayed on the sick and shut-in list so long,
I finally had to let Imogene go.
But Imogene wasn't my first vehicle.
My first vehicle was a 1977 Honda Civic with a manual transmission.
And if you know anything about driving a stick shift,
You already know learning to drive it was a mission within itself.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with a stick shift,
It goes in the same category as a rotary phone.
Old school.
In a traditional car,
You simply put your key in the ignition,
Turn it,
Put the car into drive,
Press the gas pedal to accelerate.
It's pretty straightforward.
But in a stick shift,
There's a third pedal called a clutch.
So it's the clutch,
The brake in the middle,
And the gas on the right side.
You put your key in the ignition,
You put your hand on the shifter,
And it's marked typically one through four or five,
And there's neutral.
You make sure that it's in neutral,
You push the clutch in fully,
Start the engine,
Then you shift into first gear and gradually press down on the gas while lifting off of the clutch at the same time.
Yeah,
That's a lot.
As a 16-year-old girl in her first car,
I was overwhelmed,
To say the least.
We were in the parking lot across from our house,
And I was frustrated.
All of the gratitude that I initially had from being given a car at the age of 16 had left the building.
There were tears,
There was grinding with the gears,
There was a lot of pleading.
See,
My parents owned a used car dealership at the time,
So they could have given me a regular car,
But my mama insisted that I have a manual transmission.
I didn't realize it at the time,
But she wasn't only teaching me the art of driving a manual car,
She was teaching me the art of embracing change.
Here's the thing about a stick shift,
One of the lessons,
The first lessons that you learn is knowing how and when to shift.
If you miss the moment,
You can strain the engine,
Push it too soon or too late,
And you can stall out.
When driving a straight shift,
You look at the odometer,
You learn to shift when the speed reaches a certain amount.
So you shift into second gear when you get between 10 and 15 miles per hour,
Then you shift higher when you get to the next speed range,
And you continue all the way until you get to the highest gear.
You've got to learn to see the signs,
The speedometer,
The sound of the engine,
The feel of the ride,
And life is that way.
From our perspective,
A situation can look like loss,
It can look like delay,
Or it can look like or feel like I can't catch a break.
But when we dare to see the story through God's lenses,
It shifts.
What looks like disruption may actually be a doorway.
What feels like closed doors could be protection,
Or it could be a reroute or preparation for a better road.
Often we have a tendency to pray for enough when God is preparing us for more than enough,
But our vision has to expand before our capacity can.
I mentioned in the last episode that I battled cancer this year.
My diagnosis landed on February 3rd of 2025 and I didn't see it coming.
With other instances of cancer in my family,
I had prayed that it wouldn't be a part of my story.
Even with that,
I kept a contingency plan tucked away in the back pocket of my mind,
Hoping I'd never need to use it.
At the end of 2024,
My husband and I prayerfully took a courageous step and we left our home church of 20 years,
A place where we grew spiritual leadership skills,
Grew in a lot of different areas by serving in a lot of different capacities.
And we did that because God impressed upon us that it was time to plant a church.
In addition to that,
I had been afforded the opportunity to found an organization,
A non-profit ministry as part of our church,
One that served youth in foster care,
And it resonated deeply with me and I poured my whole heart into it.
It was a very rewarding part of my life and it was difficult to let go of,
But I trusted God that it was time to shift.
After that shift,
God impressed upon us to take a 30-day sabbatical,
And it was around mid-January and I was getting excited,
Excited about using all of the lessons I had learned with founding the non-profit to start building this church that we were about to plant.
God was already giving me a vision for what it could be,
But sometimes I have a tendency to run ahead of God.
I see the vision because I am a visionary and sometimes I get things out of sync.
I start running ahead after he's given me the vision instead of running in pace with him,
Even though I was praying for him to teach me how to go at his pace,
And boy did that lesson come.
I scheduled my mammogram,
Realizing that I had missed it the year before because we had such a heavy year.
For 22 years,
I worked for a supplemental insurance company,
A Fortune 500 company that incentivized their employees to take their annual exams,
And with my family history,
I stayed on schedule until now.
I immediately scheduled my mammogram and they identified that there was a lump.
I had my biopsy and on February 3rd received the results.
I could have treated cancer like a wrecking ball.
Instead,
I chose to see it as a doorway.
Now don't get me wrong,
I didn't leap up after the diagnosis saying,
To God be the glory,
He's opened up another door and I'm excited to walk through this.
No,
It was nothing like that.
When the doctor told me that it was cancer,
I went numb.
What snapped me back were the calls that I received,
First from my husband checking on his bride,
Checking for the results,
And after some silence when I told him,
He stopped and he prayed.
Then came my granddaughter,
Who called to check on her Nana,
Knowing that I was going for the results,
And again once I shared the news,
She paused.
There was silence and I jumped in as I did with my husband to reassure her that God's got this,
No matter what his plan is,
We're going to put our trust in him,
And she quickly came back with my favorite verse,
Isaiah 41 10,
Saying,
No fear Nana,
We are not going to be afraid,
You're right.
The verse that I had taught her,
She was giving back to me,
And then was my aunt,
My mom's lovely baby sister,
Who I guard and protect with my prayers and hold very dear to me,
Especially with the losses that we've experienced these last few years.
I was concerned about her reaction.
I didn't want her to be worried or hurt.
So again,
I was trying to make sure that the people around me were okay.
I went straight into caretaker mode,
Making sure everyone else was at peace,
Making sure everyone else was good.
I didn't even give myself a minute to breathe.
I next went to pick up some tickets for Night to Shine for two of our children who have neuro differences.
While I was there,
Still tending to the others in my family,
I went to the prayer garden at the church where I was picking up the tickets,
And I shifted into neutral.
Neutral is our posture for realignment.
I paused and I told God,
I need the release,
To empty the fear,
To empty the fury.
Then I'll put on my big girl pants and fight,
But I need an unguarded opportunity just to pour,
And I could feel God saying,
I'm here,
And during this journey,
You may need the same opportunity again,
And I'll be here then too.
So I cried.
I poured everything out to God,
Unguarded,
Unfiltered,
No tidy church bows.
He gave me the liberty to release and empty everything.
That steadied me.
It helped me let go of my script for the season and give God room to write his.
Soon after,
A brother of ours shared a message that hit me right in the rib cage.
The message was of a spiritual leader talking about how God used a health crisis to sit him down and realign him.
God told him,
You don't know how to You keep pushing like I need you.
I don't need you.
I choose you.
I choose to work alongside you.
That found me.
That found me because I have operated in a very similar capacity.
I'm a visionary,
As I mentioned before.
Sometimes I sprint ahead of God,
Like I'm doing him a favor,
But he reminded me again,
Lead from neutral.
If you want to shift higher,
Lead from neutral.
For me,
Cancer became pruney.
Cancer became a rhythm reset and a restoration,
Not a detour,
An alignment,
A double mastectomy,
And two additional surgeries later.
I'm cancer-free and I'm better equipped to go higher,
To go at God's pace.
I also pause to acknowledge and give God gratitude for my spiritual growth.
There was a time in my life that something like this took me months to process and to get to that place of neutral,
That place of full surrender.
Then gradually,
As I matured,
It became weeks and days,
But this time the process to get to neutral and realign took me just hours.
That was spiritual growth and I needed to celebrate that because that came because God took me to those seasons.
He took me to those places and he expanded my capacity.
I was able to see through God's lenses.
I was able to get back up and be in warrior mode with a quickness.
I was able to walk into those spaces and those doctor's offices,
Not thinking about me and my problems,
But looking to see who needed prayer and encouragement.
Who needed that while I was there?
Because every place the sole of my feet tread is God's.
Who needed his light as it was shining through me,
Even in my difficulty?
It doesn't mean that everything suddenly makes sense when we get to neutral and that everything is worked out.
It doesn't mean the pain is gone.
Going to neutral means you've surrendered to God and you're now looking through spiritual lenses.
So what about you?
What are you facing right now that might look like a wall but could become a doorway if you shift into neutral and let God lead?
Consider this.
Vision reframes reality.
Imagine two people standing in the same storm.
It's very possible that one sees it as a disaster,
But the other sees it as direction.
The difference?
Looking through spiritual lenses.
God's pace is as important as God's promise.
He knows the timing.
He knows the speed.
He knows exactly when it's time for you to shift into the next gear.
Y'all,
It's time for a Just like I had to watch the gauges in that old Honda,
We have to check our vision.
Change often feels like disruption,
But disruption can be the very thing that shifts you into your destiny.
Are you seeing disruption as disaster or a doorway?
This week,
I encourage you to take a vision audit.
Zoom out and ask,
What might God be making possible through this situation,
Through this season?
And name the signal.
Where did your peace leave?
Where did new curiosity show up?
Write it down and rewrite this headline.
Instead of everything is falling apart,
Try this headline.
God is rearranging things.
Then take the next faithful step.
Something small,
Something clear,
And something scheduled.
It could be a call that you have to make,
Something God's telling you to do,
Or a step he's telling you to take,
Or a conversation he's encouraging you to have.
And hear this,
Stop trying to fix the problem and start fixing your eyes on Jesus.
He knows the timing.
He knows the speed.
He knows exactly when it's time for you to shift into the next gear.
Our anchor scripture for this week comes from Ephesians 1 and 18,
Having the eyes of your heart enlightened that you may know what is the hope to which he called you to.
What are the riches of his glorious inheritance to the saints?
Take time to meditate on this scripture this week.
Consider that without enlightened eyes,
We see problems,
Limitations,
And failures.
But with enlightened eyes,
We see hope,
Identity,
And God's unstoppable power at work.
It's like wearing a pair of glasses with the right prescription.
Suddenly what was blurry becomes clear.
In this passage,
Paul is praying that believers stop stumbling around in spiritual nearsightedness,
And instead see life from heaven's perspective.
So let's make some real life connections.
In your career,
Is God repositioning you for something bigger?
Something bigger than your current title,
Or encouraging you to reskill,
Or even change to a different role?
In your family,
Are there patterns that kept peace,
Yet now they're costing you your peace?
Vision may be setting new boundaries,
Boundaries that teach and not rescue.
In your faith,
Busyness replaced intimacy,
When vision says shift into neutral and lean into God.
In your health,
Look at your body's dashboard.
Are your lights blinking?
Vision claims sustainable rhythms.
Doing something this week for yourself,
For your health,
Whether it's rest,
Nourishment,
Or movement.
In your community,
Your circle shaped you then,
Your calling is shaping you now.
Your calling is shaping your circle now.
Is vision encouraging you to curate voices that call you higher?
In your being,
Are you holding tight to past hurt or past trauma when vision is telling you to let it go and make room for joy?
This week,
Write the vision.
What do you believe God is preparing you for in this season?
Be specific and reflect on this question.
What do you see right now?
Are you focused on what you've lost,
Or are you looking at what God is preparing you for?
He wants more than enough for you.
That's it for today,
Fam.
I hope this will help you to write your own vision,
To see your situations through spiritual eyes.
Until next time,
Stay ready,
Shift higher.
This is the Shift Podcast.
