105. There is Treasure in You

Discover the untapped luminosity that's been dwelling inside you all along as we explore the divine blueprint for your life through scripture. Have you ever considered that your imperfections might just be the vessel for an inner brilliance, a light that's been eternally crafted to shine? Our latest episode takes you on a soulful journey, uncovering the biblical truths in 2 Corinthians 4:7 and Ephesians 2:10 that assure us of our preordained significance and purpose. We delve into the heart of personal worth, encouraging you to shift your perspective away from flaws and towards the treasure you hold within, a move that's essential to overcoming life's burnout and stepping confidently into the role designed just for you.

As we weave through the narrative of our God-given potential, we recognize that, like masterpieces, we are each intricately fashioned for a unique calling. No two fingerprints are the same, and neither are our paths. This episode serves as a soothing balm, affirming your distinctive brilliance and calling you to live a life that reflects the grand design of our Creator. It's an intimate call to embrace your individuality, to see yourself as a vital piece in the puzzle of existence, and to walk in the good works laid out before you.

Finally, we wrap our hearts around the concept of sharing life's burdens with Jesus, drawing on the profound metaphor of His yoke. Our discussion navigates the realities of our daily struggles and the ease that comes from partnering with Christ. As we conclude, I invite you to reflect and share the moments where your brilliance has positively impacted others, a testament to your irreplaceable role in this world. Tune in and let your heart be touched by the affirmation that you are loved, significant, and brilliantly crafted for a purpose. Love always, PBJ.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey, hey, hey, friend, welcome back to another episode of the Disrupting Burnout podcast, where we are giving you the strategies for pouring out purpose without living through the consequences of the cycle of burnout. Friend, as you know, we are taking our time. We're taking our time, no matter how long it takes to walk through this book, disrupting Burnout. We're going section by section, chapter by chapter, because this is not a journey that you take alone, but we are walking through the heart work strategies together. So, friend, listen, grab your book. If you don't have one, run, run over to Amazon, order your book and, week by week, we're coming here to this space in our community, where we can walk through the strategies, talk through the activities and disrupt these cycles of burnout. Friend, it is your turn. It is time to serve without drowning. It is time to show up but be able to breathe. It is time to walk in your brilliance without trying to be everybody's everything. Are you ready? Come on, friend, let's get started. All right, friends, we're jumping right in. We are going to finish chapter one today and we're starting with the section called there's Treasure in you, on page 10 of chapter one. If you're reading along, remember that you can always listen to the audio. All you have to do is upgrade your podcast subscription. For the price of a coffee every month, you can get the audio version and all of the bonus content for this podcast. But let's go ahead and jump in here y'all this section when I tell you this is the foundational truths that the book is written upon. So we've got to set this foundation today, and there's several scriptures that I want to share with you.

Speaker 1: 2:21

But I want to start out by answering this question that I often get when I travel the country and I talk to people about discovering their brilliance. The question I get most often is is there brilliance in everyone? I meet so many people who have counted themselves out, discounted themselves, because they haven't seen their brilliance. No one has ever identified it for them, no one has ever called brilliance out of them, so they are convinced that brilliance is not in them. But I'm here to let you know if there is breath in your body. There is brilliance in you. I'm telling you what I know, not just what I heard in you. I'm telling you what I know, not just what I heard. And if you ask how I know, I know because it's in the word of God point blank period.

Speaker 1: 3:12

I know that there's brilliance in you because it's in the word of God, and I want to walk through some of the scripture with you today to show you that there is, there is treasure in you and to also introduce this idea of brilliance and what we mean when we're talking about brilliance. So the first scripture I want to share with you is 2 Corinthians 4 and 7. And it says we now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. So what I want you to consider, and what I believe we often do, is we are so busy staring at our fragile, cracked, made from dirt clay jars that we miss the treasure that's on the inside of us. And through this journey of disrupting burnout, I want to encourage you and I pray that you become more aware of the light of brilliance that's on the inside of you. And I want to be very clear when I talk about brilliance, I'm not talking about just in and of ourselves, because as human beings we're just fantastic all the time, and that's not what I'm talking about. I am saying that inside of our broken vessels is the light of God.

Speaker 1: 4:45

You were created by the not a by the masterful creator, and in creating all of heaven and earth, he specifically created you for a specific work. I'll prove it to you. I'll prove it to you Because sometimes we think or we feel like we're here, we're born, we exist, and it's almost like God is in heaven also wondering what he's going to do with us. Like, okay, I'm here now. Like what, what am I searching for? What am I supposed to do? But I want you to know that when you were assigned to earth, god already had a plan for you.

Speaker 1: 5:26

In Ephesians 2 and 10, it says for we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works Watch this part which God prepared in advance for us to do. Let me read that one more time. This is in the NIV. For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. So let's break that scripture down. And all right, friend, I'm just popping in really quick because I need your help. Would you go over to Amazon right now and leave a quick review for Disrupting Burnout? You don't have to finish the whole book to leave a review and it doesn't have to be long or fancy, just your honest take on the book. I know that there's some algorithm fairies out there. If you leave enough reviews, they will share this book with other readers who need it. So would you help me out, would you help our friends out who haven't heard about Disrupting Burnout yet? Go over to Amazon and leave your honest review for Disrupting Burnout. I appreciate you.

Speaker 1: 6:40

All right, let's get back to the episode. Let me just say this For those of you who are just getting to know me or maybe you heard me teach at your school or at your company I want you to know that anytime I'm called into an organization, I am going to honor that organization. I'm going to honor the culture and the rules. But here, on this podcast, we don't hold back. It's all about the word of God. Everything that I teach comes from the word of God and I exist in spaces that I can't always say that, that I can't always acknowledge that, and I get it. I get it and I'm going to honor that space. I believe God has assigned me to honor those spaces, but here in this podcast, we. This is the space that God created for me to lead and I'm responsible for giving you the truth. So I just want to be clear. I want to be clear, so we're going to break down this scripture Ephesians 2 and 10. So the first part of the scripture, for we are God's handiwork. All right, full stop.

Speaker 1: 7:50

Let's pause right there, because I ask this question often to really help folks to think about it. So, the creator of heaven and earth, the same being who spoke and there was, created light and oceans, and animals, and plants, and ecosystems, and our bodies and our systems, have you ever thought about the complexity of the earth, the sky, the solar systems, how the moon and the sun works to keep the earth on its axis, how the ocean only comes so far, how animals and ecosystems work so that we can have plenty, how your own body systems work together, just for the miracle for you to wake up and move together, just for the miracle for you to wake up and move? Have you ever thought about the detail that it takes for heaven and earth to operate? The being, the God, god on high, the one who created all of these systems one time? He created one time and there was. He didn't have to go back and make it again and fix it.

Speaker 1: 9:06

I mean, we've done some things, friend, as human beings we've done some things, but he made it good. He said it was good. So the same God who made the sunset, the same God who made the field of flowers, the same God who made your heart and your lungs and your blood vessels and your muscles and your cells, that same God said you are his handiwork. So my question is if he did all things well, how in the world do you think he messed up on you? If he does all things well and he does why do you think you are a mistake, or you're not good enough, or you don't have brilliance, or there's nothing good in you? That's not the truth, it's a lie and we have to stand against that lie. So you are God's handiwork, the same God who created heaven and earth.

Speaker 1: 10:03

And then it continues. We were created, in Christ Jesus, to do good works. So first, you are the handiwork of God, you are the creation of God. And number two, you were created through his son, christ Jesus, to do what Good works. You were created to do good. Now we have free will and everyone doesn't choose to do good, but you were created to do good. So you were created by the hands of almighty God and you were created through his son, through our savior, jesus Christ, to do good works. And then the final part of that verse says which God prepared in advance for us to do. So you were created to do good works that were pre-planned.

Speaker 1: 10:53

You are not a mistake. Can I just say that you are not a mistake, regardless of the circumstances of your birth and how you got here. You are here and you are not a mistake, no matter what happened. There is no life without God. So because you exist, because you breathe, you are on purpose. It doesn't matter if human beings thought they made a mistake to get you here. You are on purpose and there was a purpose that was pre-assigned to you before you got here. Friend, there is treasure in you.

Speaker 1: 11:31

I really want you to sit with that, because sometimes we get so wrapped up in the day-to-day and the just making it through and the just getting it done and going from one thing to another, to another. We really feel more like robots than human beings and we get so caught up and so wrapped up in the day to day that we forget, we forget who we are, we forget that we were created in Christ Jesus, we forget that there was a purpose for us before we came to this earth. Friend, what is that purpose? What is that purpose? What is that brilliance? What was assigned to you before you got here? I want you to be so curious that you can't let it go. I pray that you are so intrigued that you keep on digging and you keep on seeking until you identify it.

Speaker 1: 12:30

And I know, I know, yes, we all have a collective purpose, right, our collective purpose. And we were called to make disciples, we were called to glorify God. We have a collective purpose but, friend, you have a specific purpose. There's a specific way that you're assigned to make disciples. There's a specific way that you are assigned to glorify the name of God and I believe that when we stand before him, we're going to have to give an account for how we honored the specific way, how we honored the specific way. There's treasure in you. Yes, we are clay jars, made of dirt, cracked and marred, but inside of clay jars there's treasure, there's light, and that light is the light of God, the one who made you.

Speaker 1: 13:19

Genesis 1 and 27 says we're made in his image. That doesn't mean you physically look like him, but I'm here to tell you that when you operate in your brilliance, you look just like your heavenly father. I have features of my earthly father. My nose is my daddy's nose. If you look at his nose and you look at mine, there is no doubt that I am assigned. I am his. I'm here to tell you that when you show up in your brilliance, there's no confusion. You look just like your daddy, you look just like your heavenly father. I want you to know that brilliance is purpose. Purpose is brilliance. Brilliance is the way you look, like God.

Speaker 1: 14:07

Your brilliance is unique and your brilliance is innate. It is unique because no brilliance is exactly like another. Your brilliance is as specific as your fingerprint. You may be a teacher, but you don't teach like everybody else. You may be a teacher, but you don't teach like everybody else. You may be a counselor, but you don't offer counseling just like anybody else, and that is why it's so important for you not to mimic or not to force yourself into a box to show up in the same way that everybody else shows up, because you were not created to show up just like everybody else shows up, right, yeah, yeah. So your brilliance is unique, but your brilliance is also innate. You did not learn it and you did not earn it. Nobody gave it to you. It is the light of God on the inside of you. We've learned and we've been trained and we have experience and all of those things are beautiful, but no person gave you this brilliance. It is innate. It was assigned to you before you came to this earth. That also means you've been sharing it all your life, not just when you got the job, not just when you got the degree, not just when you got the fancy promotion, but there's been brilliance in you your entire life right.

Speaker 1: 15:30

And the brilliance comes without repentance, which means that whether you trust God or not, whether you believe him or not, that brilliance is in you and he's not going to take it away. Now it is more powerful. When you recognize it's him. It is transformational. When you recognize it's him, it is positive. It can be detrimental when you believe that the brilliance is of you and you don't submit it to him and you don't honor him through your brilliance. It is so powerful it can wreck you and other people and you can look around and see it all. We can watch the news on any given night and see that there are people who are not honoring other people and not honoring God in the way that they show up in their brilliance. But that doesn't mean they're not brilliant. When you look at some of these criminals around here, have you ever thought, man, if you use that for good, if you use that for good, you would really change the world? And it's true. It's true. Their brilliance wasn't taken away from them because they've decided to use it in a negative way.

Speaker 1: 16:38

Just because you're not perfect doesn't mean your brilliance is gone. Just because you made some decisions that you don't like or some decisions that haven't served you or others well, doesn't mean you've lost your brilliance. You haven't. It is still in you and the power of that brilliance comes alive when you connect with God, the father who gave it to you, and recognize that it's him in you, with God, the Father who gave it to you, and recognize that it's him in you. Your brilliance is unique and your brilliance is innate. I want you to know that your brilliance is a perfect fit. Your brilliance is a perfect fit. I want you to consider like a custom suit, like you've gone to the tailor and they've gotten your measurements and you've picked out the fabric and the color and the design and you've showed up several times for them to take your measurements again and try on the garment as it comes together. And when that garment is done, you put it on and it fits you like a glove not just the physical fit, but your personality and who you are in the world and what you love. When you show up in this tailor-made outfit, we can clearly see that it was made for nobody but you. Your brilliance is tailor made for you.

Speaker 1: 18:07

Our foundational scripture you hear me turning in my book here, our foundational scripture for the book comes from Matthew 11, verses 28 through 30. And I'm going to read it here from the New Living Translation. It says come to me all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find we are going to explore this scripture throughout the book, but in this moment I want to focus on the end, where it says for my yoke is easy to bear and the burden I give you is light.

Speaker 1: 19:15

In studying this scripture, I became very interested in what it means about a yoke. Very interested in what it means about a yoke, because I don't know about you, but even in following God there have been moments where it didn't feel easy or light. So I needed to know what this scripture really, really meant. And in studying a yoke I found that a yoke is a piece of farming equipment. If you're looking at your book, there's a picture of a yoke on page 18. A yoke is a piece of farming equipment that would be used to hitch two beasts of burden together and then it would also be hitched to a plow and the yoke would help the beast of burden carry the plow to do the work that they were assigned to do. So the yoke is shaped sort of like an M, and under the humps of each, or under each of the humps of the M, it would be attached to the neck of the animal and in the middle of the yoke is a ring and that ring would be attached to the actual plow. And what the yoke would do is it would allow the animals to share the burden of the work. It would allow the animals to share the weight of the work so that one of them is not responsible for the full weight of carrying the plow to prepare the land. When I think about a yoke and even the scripture says for my yoke. So when I see for my yoke, that tells me there's more than one option of yokes, right. So this is Jesus speaking, and I believe that Jesus is saying there are several yokes, but I want you to choose mine, I want you to choose my yoke. And when he says for my yoke, what he's saying is I'm going to help you carry this. When was the last time you allowed Jesus to help you carry?

Speaker 1: 21:34

I believe that often, especially professional women who believe in God, we have a God box, right, and in our God box we put everything that requires a miracle, everything that's too big for us, everything that we know that we can't handle. Maybe someone has a diagnosis that we can't heal, or there's a situation that we can't handle. Maybe someone has a diagnosis that we can't heal or there's a situation that we can't fix. We put it in a God box when we just believe this is miracle status and there's nothing I can do. But then we have a self box and in our self box we put everything that feels normal our work situation, decisions we have to make, taking care of our family, managing our time, managing our, our calendar doing, showing up for all the things, taking care of our bodies, like we put all of the uh, seemingly normal things in the self box.

Speaker 1: 22:33

And what I find is we find it easy to trust God in the God box because there's nothing else we can do. We have to trust God, right? So I'm going to have all the faith and I'm going to have all the trust and belief in God for this God box, because I know there's nothing I can do about these things. But when it comes to the self box, I find that often we try to leave God out of the self box and we put it on ourselves. We put it all on our own shoulders to handle everything in the self box. And even as I'm saying this, the hymn words from hymn comes back oh what peace we often forfeit and oh what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.

Speaker 1: 23:19

And what I'm finding is I believe God wants us to bring it all. When Jesus says my yoke is easy and my burden is light, what he's saying is give me all of it, not only the detrimental, hard, huge things, but I want the little things too. I want to help you with your schedule. I want to help you manage leading your team. I want to help you manage your family. I want to help you in preventing illness in your body. I want to help you have peace in your mind. I want to help you. I want to help you with your anxiety. I want to help you, don want to help you with your anxiety. I want to help you. Don't just give me the God box, give me all the boxes and let me help you carry it.

Speaker 1: 24:10

When you take on this yoke that you share with Christ, the weight is not all on you, and what I find is he is so good. He often takes most of the weight. He'll take most of the weight so that you can be easy and you can be light. So one of the reasons I believe that we find ourselves in the cycle of burnout is because we don't know how to share the weight with Christ. We have learned that people are unpredictable and unreliable. We have learned that people are unpredictable and unreliable. We have learned that people depend on us when they find out we are dependable. We have learned that we are responsible for a lot of things, and so we continue to move and operate in a way that we have no help and I want you to know that you have help. You have help.

Speaker 1: 25:02

Jesus said take on my yoke. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. My yoke is easy and it's light. So I want you to consider are you sharing the weight of all the things? Share the weight of all the things, right? So if we get back to brilliance and we think about a yoke, the yoke had to be specifically fitted for the animals and it had to be adjusted as the animals grew, right. So the farmer never wanted to hurt the animals or put undue pressure on them because their work was too important. So as the animals grew, the yolk had to be adjusted or a new one had to be created to be a perfect fit for the animal. So I want you to know that the brilliance that has been assigned to you is a perfect fit for you.

Speaker 1: 26:02

Someone else would try to take on your brilliance and it would destroy them because they weren't created for it. It doesn't mean they're not smart, they're not intelligent, they're not beautiful, they're not enough. It means that that's not their brilliance and that's why you got to be careful comparing yourself to other people. That's why you've got to be careful doing things like somebody else does, because you weren't created to do it like they do it. You have your own way of showing up. You have your own way of serving. You have your own way of giving. You have your own way of doing the work, because your yoke is specific to you. Your brilliance is tailor-made, specific match to you.

Speaker 1: 26:47

So, listen, here's what I want you to do. I want you to do the heart work. I want you to look back over your life and I want you to identify the ways that you've had a positive impact on people. That's it. That's it for this week. I want you to just think back, even into childhood, your teenage years, young adulthood. What are the different ways that you can see, over and over that, you've had a positive impact on others? Meet me on social media, come to LinkedIn, come to Facebook, ig and tell me what you found. How have you had a positive impact on the people around you? As you identify your positive impact, it's going to point towards your brilliance. Oh, friend, as always, I want you to know we're going to continue this journey together. We're going to dig into this book together and we're going to disrupt these cycles of burnout together. But as we walk through, don't you ever forget you are powerful, you are significant, you are brilliant and you are loved. Love always, pbj Bye.