Shift Happens (Wk 5 – Your History Leaves Clues)

When we look at every great leader throughout history, we see the stories of tragedy, transition, tenacity and triumph.  Did you know that your history leaves clues to your destiny?  The circumstances, life events, failures, and set backs can become a set UP for your greatest victories and finest hours. Opposition and storms of life are not sent to break you down, but to strengthen and build you up so that your scars can be turned into stars that light the way for others.

Steve Jobs said, “You can’t connect the dots (of your past) looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.”

At the age of 40, I hit the reset button and took time to reinvent myself. Although I had 27 years of great success in business and in my speaking career, I also had some serious setbacks that I had hoped to never experience again. While singing for 5 U.S. Presidents and performing at the Olympics was just a couple of the high points of my early years, going through the financial crisis of 2008 and experiencing devastating loss was certainly not a piece of history I ever wanted to repeat.

As I took time to evaluate my future, I realized I needed a plan to allow for the BEST of my talents and passions to run strong, but I also needed to buffer with wisdom against the life lessons that had caused great pain. Connecting the dots of my past allowed me to see a very clear pattern of how God continually used my voice and speaking talents to create transformational change in others.

HISTORY LEAVES CLUES

Here is a piece of my life history that left clues: As a baby, I was very ill and the doctors repeatedly diagnosed me with pneumonia. My little lungs would fill with fluid and my parents would do their best to calm me through the nights. Finally, one day, the doctors told my parents I had a disease called Cystic Fibrosis. Generally, in those days, babies with CF would die very young due to the fluid build up in the lungs.

They say there is no cure for the disease. That day, however, my parents made SHIfT HAPPEN by taking me to the church and have the elders pray for me. They prayed, ,”She will live and not die and she will proclaim good news to those she encounters.” After the prayer meeting, they took me home and from that day forward, I never had another form of CF or pneumonia. Some would say that was a fluke, a misdiagnosis or simple hogwash. But I choose to see it as a dot, a clue, a defining moment that asks the question, “Why would God allow such a miracle to happen to me? Why did I survive?  Why was the cause of my greatest opposition also the root of my greatest asset?

I believe the enemy of our destiny tries to kills us right where God intends to use us the most.    My lungs are the power-center of my speaking, singing and motivational abilities, which are what power my businesses and ministry today.  Where have you had the most opposition?  Has it been in your marriage, finances, children, or maybe in your health.  The source of your greatest pain could be the center of your greatest power and where God will use you the most.

In today’s Facebook Live video, I talked about the adversity of John B. Stetson and how his pain of tuberculosis became the center point of his desire to create the cowboy hats we know and love today.

Consider your own life: Do you have moments of adversity that could leave clues to your destiny? What if your greatest challenges, heartaches, pain, sorrow, or setbacks were actually a set UP for you to define the life you truly love and are passionate about?