Light in The Darkness: How to Fight Your Toughest Spiritual Battles as a Christian Creative

00:00:00
Hello, my friend. Welcome to the God and gigs show. My name is Allen C. Paul and I'm your host and founder here, where we help you to thrive as a creative by connecting the dots between your spiritual life and your creative life. And if you hear a little bit of a different tenor or kind of tempo to this episode, if you've been with us for a while, you're right, there won't be any intro music.

00:00:22
We're not going to do some of our common different catchphrases and stuff like that because this is just a different kind of episode. This is an episode where I had to speak from the heart on an issue which is really tough to talk about but is so necessary. I want to help some creatives who are not only in my local area here in South Florida, but all over the world, hopefully, who are going through some dark issues, some dark struggles. And while I have none of the answers in myself, I hope I can direct you to some resources, both spiritual resources and resources in your community and in our country that might be able to help you at a time of need. So I'm not going to do anything else except let this replay of our creative checkup video where we talked about this play.

00:01:11
I've edited it to take out some of the parts where we were talking to the live viewers and the live responders. I wanted to make sure that it was something that was easy for you to listen to, but other than that, it's unedited. It's my heart for you and for anybody else who's trying to find light in the darkness. As a christian creative who's first a child of God and then someone who's gifted in the arts and entertainment space, content creation or entrepreneurship. So I'm going to go ahead and let this replay play for you.

00:01:40
If you need any of the resources that I talk about in this recording, please check the show notes right away and utilize those resources. Here's our creative checkup on finding hope as a christian creative in the darkest moments of our lives, ask God to bless this moment. Father, in the name of Jesus, I pray right now, God, put your hand of comfort and protection and most of all, of clarity and peace over everyone watching this right now. No matter what they're going through, whether they're here in South Florida and they're dealing with this senseless violence and tragedy that we're trying to process, or, Lord, if they're dealing with something, I have no idea what it is. But you do.

00:02:24
Lord, you said in your word you are close to the brokenhearted that you save those who are crushed in spirit. So, Lord, because your word said, you step in and you get closer when we're hurting, I pray right now that you would step in if anyone in this group, community watching is hurting and they realize you are closer now than ever. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. Thank you guys for letting me do that.

00:02:49
And again, that's not normal for me, but in this situation, which I will again tell you very generally, involves one of our local musicians here in South Florida and a pastor in our area of South Florida, and a senseless act of violence which has rocked our community. And that is where I am coming from right now, because in our group, our local facebook, we're going back and forth, and most of us are just in a sense of shock. And why this hits so close to home for me personally is because I, you know, as I'm not just the only person who knows the people involved, but I personally was so close to one of these individuals that he's actually, in my book, that he's actually, you know, was one of the first people I reached out to forgotten gigs and was trying to get navigated. And so I've served with this person and we have been, you know, and in very, very close proximity as a relationship and friendship. But things changed.

00:03:56
So now I have to go back to the people that also have this different kind of relationship with people and ask what happened? And again, I want to make very clear, this is not just about South Florida. This is about you. How can we deal with our darkest moments? And how do we make sure that we don't go it alone and fall into these traps, these holes that the enemy would love?

00:04:21
Almost every single person listening, the devil comes to steal, kill, and destroy. But especially those of us in the creative and the entrepreneurial, where we put ourselves out there, where we show up and we have to have this face and everything's happy and hunky dory, and I'm winning, and this is my winning season. Meanwhile, maybe something is devastating is happening on the inside and you're afraid to share it. So today, like I said, I'm going to be very transparent. I'm going to be very raw because I think it's better for me to go there personally.

00:04:55
Then number one, try to figure out what's happening with somebody else's life. And then number two, try to give you answers that only God can get.

00:05:06
So I wrote a blog a while ago called where to turn when music is not enough. But it was when music is not enough. And there's three places that I think creatives, christian creators, we're talking to each other now. I started with a prayer. This is not, we're not, you know, we're not hiding anything today, okay?

00:05:26
We're going straight to the word. We're going straight to the Bible. We're going straight to where God would meet us as creatives, as artists, as entrepreneurs, as content creators. Because, again, we live in this public space where we have this face, and we don't oftentimes get to share what's really going on. So, for a week, you guys, if you've noticed, I've been very bland with a lot of my messaging.

00:05:53
I don't know if anybody noticed that. But my posts this week were, there was no humor. There was no, you know, hey, check this out. But there was none of my normal stuff. If, and I don't know, even if you notice the tone that I share things in, I don't know if that's a big thing that you, like, pay attention to, but I noticed that my tone was not the same.

00:06:18
My tone was very kind of muted in all of my sharing. I tried to share, you know, just what needed to be shared. There's a big conference coming up. There's a lot of cool things happening, but I just did not have the spirit to share it with that kind of joy, because that's just not where I was. And I don't know, that's you.

00:06:41
Have you ever been in a place, Simone, Paul, anybody else that's watching? Have you ever had to kind of, and I don't mean fake it till you make it, but I think you all know what I mean, where you just show up, just to show up, because, you know, you gotta be. You gotta show up, but inwardly, you're dealing with some pain, you're dealing with some tragedy, you're dealing with some trauma, and you're really not sure what to say. And so, in this post, I said, there are three things that I believe we should all turn to. When you don't know what to say, when music is not enough, when song, when even worship feels like it's.

00:07:16
It's tough. So the three things I said were the cross, the church, and I'll say the community or the circle, the three places we need to run. And again, this is not me being a counselor. This is me simply saying what I've had to do when I was facing some of my darkest moments. And again, it's hard to talk about this stuff.

00:07:40
My wife is downstairs. She knows all these stories, and she's part of these stories. So I don't share them just to, like, trauma worship. But when we were going through our deepest, darkest parts of our marriage and I didn't know where to turn, a matter of fact, I did a whole, what we call the spiritual shed on this, and I called it broken hearted. Broken hearted.

00:08:04
And I felt like my art was broken because I felt broken. And so the first place I had to run to was the cross, the actual cross of Christ, praying and asking God to help me deal with the demons and the issues that I had brought on myself, but also maybe have brought being brought upon me. So that's the first place I had to run to, was the cross. And so I hope anyone listening that you're dealing with something that feels too heavy, that you realize that God, it will lift every burden that you can cast your cares upon him because he cares for you. The second place I ran was to the church.

00:08:41
And yes, I know musicians, creatives, we have a love hate relationship, which is crazy to say, but we do have a love hate relationship with the church. And so even as I say that, I realize some of you may not have a church home that you really feel comfortable with. I get that. But I don't think you can find total healing because the Bible does say in James that pray for one another, confess your faults to one another, that you may be healed. So I don't think healing truly comes place outside of community.

00:09:15
And so I believe we got to run to the church now. That's for us in our South Florida community. We've got so many wonderful pastors and people who are trying to bind together and help us out. But wherever you're at, I pray you're running to a church when you feel that sense of loss, that sense of tragedy, and not being sure where to turn, especially if it's in your own life, I pray you have people that are in your life that you can confide in, and you're not going to sugarcoat it, hide the mental issues, the depressions, things like that. And the third place I feel we all need to run is where we're at right now.

00:09:54
The cross to the church, into the community. You have to have a community to run to. And here's where I hope I'll just kind of like, be quiet and hope you'll comment if there's things that you want to ask and share about in this particular situation. How have you dealt with those same dark moments? Where did you run?

00:10:16
How did you deal with them? And if they got dark, if they get. And this is the hardest part to talk about, but I have to go here. Would you be willing to let somebody into the darkest moments? Because creatives, we have way too many sad stories of people who went to the dark areas and didn't come back out and didn't make it out.

00:10:39
Too many. John Mike, our friend who's been on the episodes plenty of times, John Mike said like this when he was talking about his diabetes and him running into a physical, traumatic situation that he had to battle out of. And he said, no more tragic stories. No more tragic stories. I'm personally tired of tragic stories.

00:11:00
Now they're going to happen, but why do we have to keep letting them happen if we have the capacity to talk about it and deal with it? So here's some numbers. Right now, I'm going to share some actual things that I hope you'll reach out to if it gets dark. The first one, I want to be very clear that this is serious. If this is happening to you, if you are feeling suicidal thoughts, if you're going to that place.

00:11:28
This is the National Suicide Hotline, 988. It's no passing goal, collecting $200, no hesitation. If you're in this kind of place, you call this number, you get help. And of course, all of these three things involve you running and getting to someone else, running to the cross or running to the church, running to the community. Here's an example of the community where we have national resources to help you.

00:12:01
If you're facing the darkest moments and you're ready to call it quits, please know that you can reach out for this number right now or whenever you're watching this. And if you know someone that's dealing with this, they may not know that there's a single three digit number. Let them know. There's also, for those of you who are dealing, who might have someone in your house or your friends or whatever musicians are dealing with, substance abuse, mental health, this is a national government situation. I cannot necessarily vouch for all of these services.

00:12:31
Again, I'm not a counselor or mental health professional. I'm simply sharing what I researched online. But if you have better ones, please post them in the chat, and that way I can post them up here. And if you are a counselor, you know a counselor, you know someone that has local resources, because obviously this could be going all over the world. And this is mostly a us based situation that I'm sharing these numbers from.

00:12:54
Please share it in the comments so that we can read the repost it and we can share it with our people. But this is a national one. The substance abuse and mental Paul Creative Services. They have a help number here, 1806 six two help that you can also call. And of course, once again, if you're dealing with the situation and you're finding yourself medicating and you know you're out of control, or probably you're denial when someone else has told you, please reach out and help someone by getting them to this number or some other resources like that.

00:13:28
Finally, there's also in the musician community, this organization called Musiccares. Now, you may not have known of Musicares, I'm not sure if any of you have heard of it, but it's a Grammy organization. The Grammys are an organization. They're not just awards. They're an organization.

00:13:44
And they have a helpline resource where they help musicians who are in crisis, who need help. And it's at musiccares.org. And let me make sure that I see one c. I want to make sure it's one c for music cares. And so I spelled it right.

00:14:00
But you guys check me and make sure I spelled it right. Musiccares.org, I believe I spelled it right. Yes, one c. So musiccares.org get dash help. And that is another place where you can go as a musician, as a creative, anyone that needs help, and you can go and look up information on you need to find with food, with addiction.

00:14:26
You know, when I say food, I mean hunger or having financial issues, financial difficulties. This is a place that you can go to. Here is a place you can run to in our artistic community where you don't have to do this by yourself. And the reason why I'm asking right now for you guys to also share your resources is because nobody has all the answers. Guide and gigs does not have all the answers.

00:14:51
But together as a community, we can help see that person that is struggling, and we think they're doing fine because they show up on the gig and they show up on Instagram, and we all think everything is okay, and we've got to stop the stigma. I've heard that many times about mental health in the stigma. But at the same time, we don't celebrate the stigma. We look for healing for the mental health situation. We look for healing for you in the cross, the church, and the community, so that nobody falls through the cracks, nobody feels alone.

00:15:28
And we always are here to help each other. So that really, honestly, was what I wanted to share today, and I want to make sure that I leave room today for things that you might want to share. Now, if you're watching on replay and you feel like, oh, I missed out, I didn't get a chance to share and I want to process this, then please feel free to reach out on social. Share this post. Share these resources right now.

00:15:54
If you haven't shared it, make sure that you send it to someone or save it so that you can send it later. So I hope that will be basically what this entails, a safe place where you can say, yeah, I'm a creative, I'm a musician, I'm an artist, I'm a content creator, I'm an entrepreneur. And I can't pretend anymore. And I think once again that I can be very upfront and say, you know, there's been suicidal thoughts in my head before, not judged from medications where I took the wrong thing. And there have been times that I have been at the lowest, at the low.

00:16:34
And if you see me now, you would think that was impossible. There's no way I went to the lowest of the low, the darkest moments, but I did, and I have, and I've had to battle that. So if I'm up here running these programs, doing lives, playing gigs, showing up, and yet I know in my heart of hearts that I can't tell my whole story to everybody because they're really not ready for it, then who else is? In our circles? Maybe it's you.

00:17:11
Who else is here that hasn't really dealt with these situations and you're really struggling and you don't know what to do and where to turn. That's why I wanted to make sure that this post, this creative checkup episode was solely dedicated to that. Now, again, if there's nobody that's dealing with anything and this is just like, hey, I don't need it, save it. Share it with somebody who wins, because somebody in your circle is probably going through something and you're not aware of it. And you got to ask, by the way, let me put this.

00:17:42
Let me see if I can put this on a scroll real quick because I would like it to show up all the time. It's not scrolling. That's okay. All right, so we'll save it for later, but I want to make sure that that's apparent all the time for these different places that you can go. So, as we are talking about this, another resource that I thought about was the different episodes that I've done on the podcast.

00:18:08
And I didn't think just sending you to a podcast would make sense, but there was one that I shared on episode 213. I wrote this down to make sure I wouldn't forget episode 213. And that's where I talked about what to do when you're feeling down as a creative. And the reason why I'm bringing this up is because if you've ever been down, and please let me know if you've ever felt like that kind of just maybe it wasn't deep, deep, deep depression, but it was a low moment, a low season. So if that's been you, please tell me, how did you cope?

00:18:44
How did you, and I don't want to say, just lift yourself up. Because I believe there's different ways that God kind of helps us heal from these things. But when you're like, I felt this week was that kind of week. This week was where I was looking at people, smiling, and all of a sudden I was sad. This was a week that I thought I was doing okay, and then suddenly I wasn't.

00:19:11
And it's like, it's crazy how that happens. I've heard somebody say it like this. I've heard somebody say it's like. It's like trying to pick up glitter. You just.

00:19:27
It just gets everywhere. Like, you don't know, like, you, why is that still there? And that's what it's like with this kind of pain. And you're just like, wait, I thought I got rid of all of it and you didn't because it's impossible for us to pick a bottle of pieces, and it's like all over the place. And that's the way it feels right now.

00:19:45
When some of us where you think you're over it, you think you figured a way to get through it as a creative, especially, let me be real. When we mask using our art, when we mask the pain and we say, well, I'll sing through it, I'll play. That's all good. I've done it. I've used my music, and it's been therapeutic.

00:20:13
I'm thinking, here are people who play for funerals. Here are people who sing at memorial services, but people don't realize that the people who are singing to you, who are ministering to you, who are trying to lift you up, probably need lifting up themselves. They probably do. They're not doing okay all the time, and they're trying to lift you up. Meanwhile, they are.

00:20:39
They are struggling themselves. So, yeah, we need encouragement as well. And, Paul, if you're like me and you're an encourager, you can get like, it feels strange to say out loud, man, I'm down today. It feels strange because you're the guy and you're the lady that always brings people up smiling. Everybody loves your encouraging word and how you share and your spirit, and then you just don't.

00:21:11
You just don't have it today. Like, and I think of the verse in Isaiah where it says that, you know, he gives us the oil joy for mourning, for the anointing of joy that lifts a yoke. I don't want to discount worship and the power of worship and the power of praise and the power of art to lift spirits. It is true. God can lift that heavy burden.

00:21:42
I just don't want it to become a cliche or crutch to simply say, worship your way through it. Sometimes that's all you got. And yet, creatives, we got to make sure that doesn't. That that's real. Let me say it like that.

00:21:57
It has to be a real thing. You say. Paul said, when I felt down, I recall scripture, but sometimes I have to go pray and get it off to myself. If I need to listen to music, I do that. If I need to cry, I'll do that, but I'll never stay.

00:22:12
Whoo. Right there. I'll never stay in that state. That is the key line. And I think that's why we have to be so careful that we don't allow these spirits of heaviness to stay.

00:22:33
Because if they stay, we get stuck. And if we get stuck, we become.

00:22:43
Job says it. The thing that I feared most has come upon me. I'm not going to ever say that Job wanted all of his children to be killed and to lose everything and that. But it's clear job had a fear and felt like his fears were realized. So as good as things were going, job had, like, an inner.

00:23:06
Some kind of inner anxiety going on, like, the entire time. Maybe that's why the devil chose the things he did to take away from job, because he knew here are the things that job is secretly struggling with and not letting go of. And when God took those things, allowed those things to be taken, job was, like, knew it. It's almost like Job was saying, I knew it. The thing that I feared most, which has come upon me, like, I knew this fear was the one thing I couldn't handle.

00:23:43
And here's what happened. So we have to be careful not to stay in that space, because it does breed and, like, it metastasizes, to use a term, a medical term. We had at least three things that you could say, hey, if I haven't run to the cross, if I haven't run to the church, if I haven't run to my community. And I'm feeling these heavy moments that tempt me to go to the deepest, darkest places as a creative, as a believer, I'm in a danger zone. And, um, I want to make sure that nobody in our circle slips through the cracks.

00:24:22
And again, this is okay. I'm going to get this off me, because, again, there's. Confession is good for, you know, healing. There's still parts of me that feels like I missed it with this individual that we're talking about South Florida, even though he cut himself off and we didn't know a lot was going on. I mean, I just feel like there was more I could have done, and I don't know what it was.

00:24:45
And maybe I'm being totally wrong about that. And it's just, you know, the devil trying to give me feelings of guilt where they shouldn't be any and no condemnation. But I just want to make sure that never happens again where I miss something and my discernment is off. But I'm not talking to my friends and my people. We're talking about how to deal with the deepest, darkest moments of our lives that's created, especially when we are used to showing up as the encourager, as the entertainer, as the person that's always happy go lucky, or the person that helps others.

00:25:18
And then we are faced with these deep moments of depression that drive us to things like substance abuse, that drive us to things like addictions, to drive us to things like suicidal thoughts. And again, this is not any kind of mental health counseling. It is a call to you to go to professionals if you are in this place. I'm a big believer in the efficacy of therapy. I don't think therapy is all we need.

00:25:47
But I believe, just like I'm wearing these glasses right now and I take these glasses off, I instantly realize that I'm missing something that helps me see clearly. And that, to me, is what therapy is. I can still see. I am not dependent on my glasses to see, okay? God gave me my eyes.

00:26:06
I can see right now very clearly. I can. Well, I'm blurry now, but that's the point. These thank God for them allow me to see what I'm supposed to see. And therapy to me is simply that it is not a replacement for my eyes.

00:26:24
It helps me see what I'm supposed to see. And if you have a good Christian therapist counselor, they're not replacing the Bible. They're not telling you to rely only on therapy. That's why I'm careful of these shirts that say Jesus plus therapy. As long as it's plus we're good, it's not therapy equals Jesus or Jesus equals therapy.

00:26:47
So I believe in that very much and I'm hoping that again, this is a reminder to all of us in this community. I don't care how many likes we get. I care about the efficacy of this share of what I'm sharing with you now. If you are prioritizing your mental, spiritual and emotional health first, then we will be able to help others who are also struggling in their physical, emotional, or spiritual or mental health. Thank you so much, Victoria.

00:27:17
I appreciate that you understand that, that you're agreeing with us here. You're a prayer warrior. You pray each day in your twelve street talk back and your devotionals. You know that we have to go to battle over these things daily. For those of you who are in South Florida who are dealing with this situation, please know we are working right now.

00:27:37
Jay Mills, my friend, Jay Mills. Jay the Connect Mills has been on the podcast, literally a partner of guiding gigs from the get go. And my other friend, Theory Dejan, who also is a partner. We have worked together for years in South Florida. We're currently working on doing a type of seminar slash I'm not even the right word.

00:27:58
Seminar is the wrong word. A gathering to help us deal with these issues and get real solutions to them. So please stay connected to this particular social media network. God engaged. I will absolutely share it.

00:28:12
Those of you in South Florida, I will absolutely share. We're getting ready to do something in the next two weeks to help support each other. And the venue will be named and the time will be named and all of that stuff will be figured out in the next couple of weeks. Hopefully not even a couple of weeks, hopefully a couple of days. We're talking right now to some organizations, some great people in our community.

00:28:33
So if you are watching and you're like, okay, Allen, you said all this stuff about South Florida and something that's happened that we need to get help with. Where do I go? What do I actually do? Here's where the rubber meets the road. We're going to have a joint type of gathering where we will all collect and connect.

00:28:51
Have some resources there, people that help you with, whether it's trauma, whether it's therapy, whether it's drug addiction, substance abuse, whether it's anything that you need, health insurance as a big one. Most of us don't think we have the capacity to go to some of these things because we don't have health insurance, so financial help as well. All these things are going to be there. So please, if you haven't signed up to our newsletter, godgicks.com info, I'm going to put that in right now to make sure you have that. I should actually have it somewhere.

00:29:22
So go check that out and please sign up because if you sign up there that way when it's notified and we get it all locked in, I can let you know for sure where it's at. Okay. I actually don't have that yet, so let me go here now and add it so that you guys can see it. Gottingigs.com info is the quickest way for you to simply join the newsletter and then I can let you know. I gotta get rid of some things.

00:29:48
Sorry about that. Here we go. Now I think I can post it. There we go. So go to guidingigs.com info if you want to sign up for our newsletter.

00:29:59
And again, this is not a pitch. This is the easiest way for me to let you know when this is notified, when we get this date in South Florida. And again, we might make it virtual. I believe we should be doing this for every organization, every creative organization, every church should be sharing these kind of resources or anything that we can share. We're going to do so on a, you know, national basis, but we're going to start local and then build out from there and help everyone.

00:30:26
Okay, guys, I'm at 137. Just to review, if you are dealing with any kind of, any ideation, any thoughts of suicide, please share this with someone. Let them know there's a three digit number, 988. Please let them know they can dial that right away and they can get help. If you're a musician and you're looking for help with finances or therapy or anything like that, where you need to get something that kind of fills the gap.

00:30:53
And again, this is a national number. If there's some local things, please share them in the comments as well afterward on the replay. But this one musicares.org gethelp with a dash. And then finally those people anywhere that might need help with substance abuse, this is another national number that's available. 806 six two help.

00:31:16
Or just check out substance abuse and mental Paul Creative Services on Google. You'll find that again, there's so many other resources I could talk about, but I just figured I'd keep it simple with the things that are national and that way you can then be motivated to look into this on a local level. Wherever you're watching. Okay. That was a heavy topic.

00:31:36
I'm not going to try to switch gears. I'm just going to do some quick church announcements and then we'll be done for the day. I'm so thankful for you guys watching. I'm so thankful to those of you who watching. Let me see.

00:31:46
Victoria. Let me get this in because I definitely want to share. Yes. Spoke about this, applying both prayer and professional help. I just literally told one of my church members, sometimes I feel like I pour so much into people, and when you look around, there's no one to pour into me.

00:32:00
Mmm. That hurt. Oh, God. I find scripture and let God fill me. But it's nice when you reach out to another human being.

00:32:07
Hey, my sister. I could not have said it better. There's. I felt it this week. I'm telling you, I.

00:32:14
And I love my church, and I didn't open up to my church. I should have to my small group about this particular. I really didn't know where to go. I felt like, oh, if I bring it up, I'm going to bring them down, and they don't really know. And so I'm just going to kind of soldier on.

00:32:31
And that's my fault, personally. That wasn't, you know, your situation, but I didn't let anybody pour into me, and I probably should have. And if you're watching this right now and you're learning this for the first time, that I was having a rough week because we had such a horrific situation in the musician community, then, yeah, I need to be better about taking my own advice and being honest when things are not going right. So thank you for that, Victoria. Thank you for sharing that, because I absolutely, at times feel like there's no one to pour into me.

00:33:07
It's totally false. It's totally false. Something we said on one of our podcasts that I helped with. Stephanie said this so well. We're talking about doubting your doubts.

00:33:18
My wife sent me a reel about this as well. Why do we give our doubts so much credibility? Why do we give our fears? Why do we think our fears are so much more credible than our faith and our confidence? And I think the same thing applies to being stuck and feeling like I'm all alone.

00:33:39
Why are we so sure we're alone? What gave us, like, the absolute authority to say, yep, I'm alone? When everywhere in scripture, when the you're Bible says you feel alone, you're not. Anytime I feel alone, God's like, you're not alone. So my feelings get more credibility than God does in that situation.

00:33:58
We just talked about the value of community, and so the value of my community's communities is that they may not all know each other, but they are all based on the same principles. So I am a member of Flip lifestyle, but I'm also a member of Bootstrap biz advice. Why? Because they share principles. I'm also a member of podmatch.

00:34:22
Why? Because they share principles. I am also a member of. Let me think of another one that I'm a part of. Let's get flip lifestyle.

00:34:30
Bootstrap, podmatch, podfest. That's another one. Now, do you see what's happening here? Each one of these organizations that I'm a part of, and, of course, my church, they are linking together to the point that there is no space for me to fall through a crack because somebody in one of these organizations is going to catch me.

00:34:53
We talk so much about multiple strains of income. Have you ever. Have you ever talked about multiple. Multiple sources of community? We talk about, like, you know, diversifying.

00:35:07
Right. We're using a financial term. Why aren't we talking more about diversifying your support systems? So that if one fails, if my church, they would never. I have amazing people in my church, but if my church misses it and I'm kind of struggling, then bootstrap catches God and giggs.

00:35:35
It's like, hey, what's up? And then in God and gigs, I see somebody else that's a member of three different communities, but they're. They're just kind of, like, kind of hanging out in that community. They're not really sharing, but in this community. Hey, hey, hey, hey.

00:35:48
What's up? Got in geeks 360, our prayer chat. Perfect example. Charmaine in our prayer chat. And, Paul, you, too.

00:35:57
You were like, why aren't we doing the prayer chat? And it was like, whoa. I let that slip. I started focusing too much on the entrepreneurial, on the practical, and I forgot that God comes first in God and gigs. So I realized I had to reemphasize prayer, and look what happens.

00:36:18
I need it this week, I went into the prayer chat and got in gigs 360, which, again, is open for everybody to join to through either the inspired program guiding gigs.com. Inspire just $10 a month, or you can join the gold program, which is our higher level in our coaching and our live master classes. This is where I found community that links and catches those little holes that things can fall through. And the more separate, you could be a part of a lot of things, but they're not integrated. They're not the same.

00:36:54
You're just a part of stuff. You're just, like, hanging out in these three different, five different, six different places, but they have nothing to do with each other, and they don't share principles, and they don't share the same heart. So even though you're a part of a lot of things, you're really part of nothing. I hate to be harsh, but I'd rather be harsh and real with you. If you're watching this far, you're probably one of us, so I can be real with you.

00:37:21
If you're just being a part of things, but you're not really connecting, it's because they aren't integrated and you're not really forcing yourself to be a part of something that's going to catch you when you fall. The Bible says a righteous man falls seven times a righteous man falls. Righteous people fall. Righteous. Good standing, creative people who were brought up in church and who know the Lord fall hard.

00:37:53
We fall hard. You say the bigger they are, the harder they fall, especially when you're a believer. Yo, I'm sorry to be real. We fall harder than the world does. Why?

00:38:06
Because we were higher. And so when we fall, we fall farther. And when we fall, we fall, and it hurts more people around us. But that's why we have to have the community, so that if we don't remember to run to the cross and we don't remember to run to the church, at least the community says, hey, hey, hey, get back to the church. And the community says, and then the church says, hey, get back to the cross and you get yourself back.

00:38:31
But if you don't have somebody to catch you in the first place, you don't remember that you got to go those other two levels to even get back to the cross because you got so far from the cross that you forgot you had a church, and you got so far from the church that you forgot you had a community. And now you're out there by yourself. And now devastation and danger and everything is around because the devil is a seek, is a roaring lion seeking who he may devour. And who is he going to devour? He's going to devour the people who are isolated.

00:38:55
He's going to find you. And I don't want that to happen to anybody else. My friend, thank you so much for being open to this very touchy, very hard to deal with, but so important conversation. I think I've said everything I need to say in that video, but once again, if you need those resources, please check the link in the show notes. Go back and especially if you need them right away, do not hesitate.

00:39:23
Use those resources and if you have more resources that will help in a local area, please share them. Either email me@allenottandgix.com comma share them in our Facebook group. Do whatever it takes to help someone who might need that help right this minute. My friend, again, I am so grateful that I have a place and a space and a voice that I can run to whenever things don't go right. And so if that's you and you've heard this podcast, then I hope you will take this to heart, that there is light in the darkness.

00:40:00
And my friend, if you know someone that is going through it, please send this to them. Let them know that they're not alone and then make sure that you stand beside them and help them. Don't just leave it to the resources themselves or to the people. Make sure that you become a person that can be called upon, that can be the person that will lead them to Jesus, lead them back to the cross, lead them back to the church and stay connected to community once again, ive already said everything, but I just want to leave you that benediction, that kind of just thought to remind yourself that there are more for you than against you and that he is close to the brokenhearted and that no matter what, you can find light in the darkness because the darkness has not overcome the light. God bless you.

00:40:49
Thank you so much for listening and I pray I'll see you next episode.