WHAT IS THIS?! …I thought it was a jellyfish.
First mistake - I should not be identifying sea creatures.
Isn’t it magical?! It just seemed to draw me in. I couldn’t stop looking at it. Taking all kinds of pics noticing how the light caught it at different angles. Completely oblivious to all it was actually designed for.
It was a “man of war”. First time seeing one.
A few hours later, I think that was the same reaction a young mom had to me - when she saw me sitting in the shallows in my bright neon coral wetsuit. “I love your wetsuit!!” she said.
After surfing on the beach I had felt the nudge to just plop down in the shallows and take in the ocean waves and the scenery.
This young mom had been combing the sand nearby, looking for seashells for her boys.
After a brief chat in the shallow waves, she says “okay, I don’t want to bother you, I’m gonna keep looking for shells!”.
I suddenly remember - the “jellyfish” and yell back at her “Hey! There’s a cool looking jellyfish back there your kids might like!” as I point (thank you God this wasn’t mistake #2 and for protecting those little hearts from a man of war lol)!!
She goes to check it out and then runs to grab her family. They all stare at it with the same awestruck eyes.
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As I’m now back sitting in the shallows out of the corner of my eye I see this mom and one of her young boys coming back towards me, and she says “Is it okay if we keep talking to you?”
I beam - “absolutely!!!”
We chat for a good while as the waves crash over us all. And after a while later she then says “What are you doing tonight? Want to go out with my husband and I?!”. ….I chuckle and say “actually, I’m here with my roommate but I bet we’d love to!!”.
We exchange numbers and before parting she says “I don’t normally do this btw. I never go out with strangers. And definitely not ones I just met on the beach that very day lol. But I don’t know how to explain it, I just feel drawn to you.”
We meet up later that night for dinner - all 4 of us. Me, my new mom friend, her Japanese hubby, and my roomie.
And we close the place down. We couldn’t stop chatting. It was kismet.
One week later, this young mom texts me “Jen - I’m almost done with your book! I just read 8 hours straight!”. Not only had she ordered my book, but had finished it and was already following me on Youtube. And encouraging me every time she communicated.
One week earlier we met on the beach because I was sitting in the sand, in my wetsuit.
If that’s not crazy enough, the Hebrew month we were in was something called IYYAR. Well would you believe that part of the meaning of that month is linked with light, and there’s also way more to that but in summary it’s the month to light up with His glory and it talks about how it can be SEEN on you.
That’s just the 1st part of this story;
Here’s where I get really vulnerable with you.
I don’t know what you believe about what you see on social media or anywhere else for that matter.
But, maybe like me, you can relate to how easy it can be to feel discouraged.
Friend, I don’t know what your passion is, but this is for those who are working SO hard on that one thing you believe in more than anything else. I see you.
I know how it can at times feel like you’re in the baby stage of growing it, feeling so much passion, and it’s barely moving forward.
I can get discouraged so easily when I see just 200 subscribers on YouTube, and that may sound silly to you.
But when it’s the one thing you are working so hard on because you just want to help people, and get them connected to people that can help them the thoughts enter your head…
“Uhhhhh, what is it going to take to get this thing to really move?!?! So that awesome interviews and awesome stories of what God can do and is doing get into the hands of the hearts that are desperate to hear them?”
I know what it feels like to be in that place of putting everything you have into something you believe in.
Your God sees you friend. And in fact He sees you so much, I think this next part is for you just as much as it was for me this last Friday;
This last Friday, there I was spending my Friday night editing another interview. An incredible one. Tears were filling my eyes listening to my friends story and what God had done and her heart to see others be set free of the same thing she was sharing about.
And it suddenly hit me that it doesn’t matter if it (the movement) goes big.
What matters is the ONE.
The one person who feels stuck in silence, who feels so alone, needs to feel seen and heard in a safe space and is desperate to be set free because she’s carrying so much.
I was gripped, watching my own interview with her.
Talking later that night with this friend I had interviewed, she reminds me of how Jesus left the 99 to claim the 1.
If you don’t know the story, look up “the parable of the sheep”.
It’s about a shepherd who leaves his flock of sheep to go after the one who had wandered off and was probably feeling super lonely, afraid, and even hurting.
Like my incredible friend - Jacqueline Goodman-Yaich - then said to me next, I say to you now:
“You are making an impact. Only “1” person can start a revolution!”
“The enemy wants you to feel insignificant. He’s a freaking liar!!! Don’t let him take one more moment of your brain space”.
Would you leave the CROWDS, to go after the one? I would.
It’s that hurting heart in the corner of the room that I can SEE, and that image grips me.
It’s why I do every single thing that we’re doing at The Overcomers. To go after that ONE.
That’s his heart!!!
Friend, don’t let anyone else’s success make you feel insignificant!! If you are helping just ONE you have the heart of the Father!!!
You know deep inside what you were designed to do, and why.
Friend, if you are being COURAGEOUS with what you believe in, do it for the ONE.
In time it will be connected to the exact people who need your message.
Be real. There’s no way they won’t find you. It just might not be in the way you’re expecting.
It could be a woman walking down the beach when you’re in a bright neon coral wetsuit, staring into the waves.
Be open to how and when HE chooses to show HIS light through you.
The right ones, WILL be drawn to you.
The ones who DO need your light.
Do it for the ONE.
Do you know the ONE you are doing it for?