108: Only by You and Only in This Lifetime
You never know when God is gonna lay one on ya.
After years of seeking direction on something, I finally heard from Him. In my car. In the Costco parking lot. During a fast.
Listen in for more of the story and how it may be time for you to open up to hear what He has for YOU to do in this lifetime.
EPISODE 108: Only by You and Only in This Lifetime
SHOW NOTES
(0:00) Intro
Happy Easter! The Lord has risen! The Lord has risen indeed.
I have a fun God story to share with you today. He recently dropped a clarity bomb into my spirit while I was sitting in the Costco parking lot about 20 hours into a superfast.
Romans 10:15 says, “How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the Gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!
It’s funny because you don’t, or I don’t think of feet as particularly beautiful. However, They get me where I need to go. And for that I am profoundly grateful.
There was a time I had this prayer ritual when I would go on my walks. This is when we lived at the ranch and I remember being in such gratitude for getting to walk outside in beautiful nature every day that I would run through a gratitude list.
I truly felt so grateful for the parts of my body that we often take for granted and that included my feet.
Think of your feet and all the parts of your body that you are so blessed to have and that work to the glory of God.
God wants your beautiful feet and beautiful all of you being all He created you to be in this world, glorifying Him, in your unique way.
(7:18) God didn’t design us to have cookie cutter lives.
Remember at the beginning of the year in the time management podcast, we talked about stewarding our time. The book Stewarding Life, had such a profound impact on my thinking. Especially the quote that said:
God didn’t design us to have cookie cutter lives. He has given every Christian a big-picture mission to glorify Him by making salvation known, but He gives each of us individual ways to fulfill that purpose. We must consider these purposes as priorities. God has given each of us a unique set of desires, aptitudes and gifts to creatively fulfill our purpose. What God has called you to do can only be done by you, and it can only be done in one lifetime. Numbered days demand focused lives.
That quote grabbed hold of me and hasn’t let me out of its grip since I read it. It has made me think a lot about what is mine to do - what is my big picture mission, what are my aptitudes and gifts to creatively fill my purpose?
This is something I have been praying about a lot through the years, asking God to show me what I’m supposed to be doing and how I”m supposed to be serving in this role as The Christian Nutritionist. I’ve talked here about having the desire to reach more people and I feel like He put that desire there. You know that verse from Psalm 37:4 that says, Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
A lot of people misinterpret that like If you love God He’ll give you whatever you want, when really I think it means, that He will put desires in your heart that HE wants you to have and that those will be recognized, revealed and manifested when you are in relationship with Him.
Considering that God has something for each of us to do in this lifetime feels like a big exciting yet overwhelming responsibility. I don’t want to miss it. I don’t want to be too busy that I miss the forest for the trees. Another really profound quote from that book was this:
*Satan will do all he can to destroy your time on earth. If he can’t destroy it by sinful living, he will devour you by eating up your time with activities of no eternal value.”
He has led me to this work I’m doing and has a bigger plan for it.
I feel like He is calling me to leader and connector in the Christian health world. That still was not very clear, sometimes God can be frustratingly vague BUT I decided to start there and so everyday since the beginning of 2021, I have been writing this in my journal:
I have called you to be a worldwide Christian health leader and connector. I have chosen you for this position. It can only be done by you and it can only be done in this lifetime.
And right under that I would write, still write, because I’m still writing this every single day this: I pursue my calling authentically even if it means imperfectly.
That is something I heard my pastor say and I loved it and it felt so right and so right as a sort of response to how I have been writing the first quote as if GOd were speaking to me. Like GOd is saying this is what I’m calling you to do and I’m saying ok, I will pursue it as best I can even if it means I mess up along the way. Because that is going to happen.
(13:46) Back to my fun God story:
That day I was sitting in the Costco parking lot about to go in. I wasn’t praying, I wasn’t even thinking about any of this.
I was in the middle of a Superfast because during Feast 2 Fast® for Lent we do a Superfast, which is just a longer fast and the length is different for each person, and I was about 20 hours into my fast when He dropped the bomb on me. Like that song says - you dropped on the bomb on me baby, you dropped on me.
I felt like I got a superdownload from God. Like all of a sudden, what I’m supposed to do next became so clear and I got a bigger picture version of where I am going. Mind you, I have been asking God to show me this for years. Like, what is the direction you are taking me? What am I working toward? What is the meaning of this or that?
What I felt Him saying was get more feet on the ground, raise an alliance of Christian Nutritionists who boldly keep me at the center of their work, get more of you out there sharing the good news of me and real food and good health. Give them tools to use to Help get more of my people healthy so that my people are strong and doing the work I have called THEM to do in this world.
And what popped into my head with that is to create a designation, like a title - I’ve already taken Christian Nutritionist - so what clearly came to me is Christian Nutritionist Practitioner. Other practicing nutritionists who are Christian and who want to boldly claim their faith in their work. I also felt God calling me to be a hub for that, like create the space where they can be found, put them on your website so they are easy to contact.
So get this. The very next day after I got the download in the Costco parking lot, my friend Jennifer posted in our Nutritional Therapy Practitioner Group about a nutrition talk she will be giving to a Christian audience. She was asking for some advice. And, oh my goodness, it was like the heavenly gates flew open and all of these Christian NTPs came out of the woodwork.
God nudge - like God saying, yeah, you’ve missed some time and opportunity here, don’t wait any longer. I was like, Yes, sir. So I have put the wheels in motion for this before I lose my nerve.
(20:56) Pursuing my calling authentically, even if it means imperfectly.
If you are a fellow nutritionist who loves the Lord, if the thought of integrating your faith into your work and being a powerful presence in the marketplace lights you up, I encourage you to go to this link which stand for Christian Nutritionist Practitioner, read more about it, prayerfully consider it, schedule a call with me to discuss it. Let’s do it. People are looking for us and need us my friend.
Let’s put more feet in the marketplace.
And I would ask you, my dear dear listener, where is God directing YOUR feet? What is He calling you to do? What are the desires He has put in your heart. What gifts has He given you that are uniquely yours and meant to be used?
What God has called you to do that can only be done by you, and only be done in this lifetime?
Our Lord is Risen, my friend. He is risen indeed. It’s time to get moving.
(22:48) Outro & Disclaimer
Thanks for listening! Have a healthy and blessed week!