Venturing into the Unknown: Navigating Uncertainty and Finding Strength in Faith

Imagine finding yourself at the crossroads of life, unsure which path to take. Whether it's launching a new ministry or navigating choppy waters in relationships, we've all been there. In this heartfelt exchange, we share our personal experiences of venturing into the unknown, leaning on the wisdom of mentors, and the transformative power of seeking guidance through prayer. Listen in as we explore the courage it takes to step into uncertainty while keeping the flame of relationships alive, even during challenging times.

Not all storms are meant to disrupt your life, some come to clear your path. In the second part of our discussion, we turn our focus toward the strength derived from God's promises. We discuss finding solace in community support, embracing the fear of the unknown, and the importance of taking risks. Most importantly, we highlight the incredible power of continuous rejoicing in God, no matter the circumstances. Join us on this journey of resilience, sure to leave you feeling empowered and ready to face your own uncertainties.

Transcript

Danny Ray 0:22

Welcome back, it is good to be with you. We are going to be talking about doing whatever it takes in the areas of uncertainty today. Yeah, so when things are uncertain, maybe it's a loss of a job, loss of a loved one, maybe it's just a major transition or a small transition.

Kimberly 0:39

Or a global pandemic. Hey, look at that. Yeah, we are going to address a little bit Any kind of uncertainty, right yeah?

Danny Ray 0:45

a little bit of what we did during the pandemic, but it's not just that. It's really things that we've done in patterns that we've set up from the beginning that we want to look at. Yeah, how do you in the midst of your relationship one of the things that's going to help you create a great relationship is when things are uncertain, when things get a little shaky, which can happen like things get a little cattywampus in a moment. Nice word Turn upside down.

Kimberly 1:16

Yes, turn upside down, and yeah, it could be just a piece of mail that comes in and you go oh, we're being Jury duty. I did get that this week. Yay, I get to do that.

Danny Ray 1:26

You're serving our country.

Kimberly 1:27

Right, right, right, let's be positive. Yeah, just in the way of work, because this is my issue there. But mail, I mean you can open the mail and there's a tax audit. Life can be changed.

Danny Ray 1:41

We've had three of those. Those are so fun.

Kimberly 1:45

Hey, but we didn't do anything wrong, so that was a good thing. But uncertainty right, so it could be it can hit just your car, right, Like something happens in the car or a doctor's appointment or just anything. Right, yeah, get a flat tire.

Danny Ray 2:02

How do you navigate uncertain times? And so I want to take you way back to 2001. I was a youth pastor and absolutely like love being a youth pastor, loved just being with the students, creating things that were interesting. I feel like it's one of the things that I've done all along is how do I create things that connect people to who God is?

Kimberly 2:28

and who's love for them.

Danny Ray 2:30

And so 2001 started praying through, thinking through what would it look like to step out and create a new ministry, and at the time I didn't know any other magicians out there doing it.

Kimberly 2:45

No, yeah, that worked.

Danny Ray 2:45

There's a handful that I've trained up now and some others that I haven't that I know of that are out there doing it, but at the time I didn't have like a reference point for oh, here's how to be a traveling magician who speaks at church.

Kimberly 2:58

He speaks at churches conferences. Yeah, there was no template.

Danny Ray 3:03

We've done it thousands of times. Yeah, out of that, when I was meeting with one of my mentors, we were sitting in Coco's in San Diego, el Cajon to be specific, and we were sitting there. We're talking about different ideas, and he put nine dots on a napkin and a square, oh yeah.

Danny Ray 3:25

You know three up, three down, you know like a square, almost like looks like tic-tac-toe, but just dots. And then he said, danny, I want you to put the 10th dot. And I was like, well, where does it go? He's like you have to decide where that goes. And I put it clear on the other side of the napkin and he circled that and he said the ministry you're talking about is a 10th dot ministry.

Danny Ray 3:48

It doesn't fit in the box of what everybody else is doing, and I feel like that has been just really helpful for us in our relationship. And how do we create a marriage that's healthy in the midst of having things that don't fit into the box?

Kimberly 4:06

And I feel like there's so many things you like not fitting in the box, that's your jam. I'm perfectly happy with the box, so there's a difference in us right there. But I did support you being outside of the traditional job and, yeah, god called us to it and therefore equipped us to do that.

Danny Ray 4:27

Super thankful that you have supported me all along. So I want to talk about how, in a relationship, how do you support the other one when the idea just seems like it's out there?

Kimberly 4:42

Oh, it was out there, and lots of your ideas are out there.

Danny Ray 4:48

But that's certainly bad.

Kimberly 4:49

I've learned to appreciate that. But actually you've already kind of said one of the one of the first things is you went to a mentor at that time and asked, you sought wise counsel and and biblically that something were called to do when we have maybe a crazy idea or or just some uncertainty, like we said, not sure how something's going to to work out or pan out or what we should do, and then seeking that wise counsel is definitely part of that.

Danny Ray 5:17

Yeah. So I think, if there is, you know, an area of loss or uncertainty or something you're looking at jumping into in, not that you need two years, but we took two years to pray through that, to seek wise counsel in every single one of the counselors, both people that I knew and people that I don't and just an idea for in any area, whether it's a spiritual mentor, whether it's a business mentor, whether it's a speaking.

Danny Ray 5:47

I've gone to you know guys who are experts at you know communication and speaking and whatever, wherever you need help and we've gone to different marriage goovers and currently are meeting with a couple on a monthly basis to try to glean wisdom from them.

Danny Ray 6:06

But this is one of the patterns that we've set up from the beginning is hey, if we don't know something, there's somebody out there that does. Let's try to pick their brains and ask them for wisdom. And hey, you've been down the road a little bit. This is, if you have ever come to one of our the things that we teach at our house, you know where we're going through a book or something like that.

Danny Ray 6:27

As a married couple, you know we've had, you know usually studies yeah, six couples or so at a time, and one of the things we always encourage them to do is to meet with other couples that are older or have been married longer than them and ask them hey, what's going right, what's going well? And what they tend to find out is that it's not perfect like they think you know like they look at you know, they look up to these couples and go like, oh, they have to have everything together.

Danny Ray 6:57

Well, nobody has it all together, you know, there there's struggles, there's pain points, there's things that they've learned, but a lot of times they're a little bit further up the road and so that's where I would just always encourage people to just ask. I mean the worst case scenario. They say nope, I don't have the time. And here's some specifics in terms of asking Is anytime I ask somebody to mentor me, always set the boundaries on it so they they don't feel like, oh wow, this guy wants to meet with me every hour on the for the rest of my life.

Kimberly 7:30

That's a good point.

Danny Ray 7:31

It's usually I say hey, I would like to you know, ask you to mentor me in whatever area that is. So this is different than just seeking wise counsel on a one time basis from someone, gotcha, and I would like to do this for six months and I'll take you out for lunch once a month and you could pick the restaurant and we'll eat there and I usually, wherever they're they're located, I go to them regardless of how far, and I've driven hours and hours to get to people to pick their brains on on things.

Danny Ray 8:03

So that's just like some yeah, picking stuff on that. Yeah, but yeah. So, from the beginning, just trying to develop, how do we, in the middle of that, moving from one job to another, what do we?

Kimberly 8:19

do I mean a steady job with a steady paycheck and a high, moving to something with complete unsteadyness. Is that a word? I don't know. It is now your coining words. I like it. I'd hear it when you do your coining words.

Danny Ray 8:35

So so fast forward 20 years. We've been at it for well, it would be like 17, 18 years. Fast forward, like 17 18 to. You know, we're in the middle of 2020 and we've lost every single show. Every event for a year is done.

Kimberly 8:54

Everyone had to cancel.

Danny Ray 8:56

There you know, in 2020, with the pandemic, there were no live events. All the live events, at least that we had, were completely canceled.

Kimberly 9:08

And so across the country. Yeah, it didn't matter what the city stated. Yeah, they all had to.

Danny Ray 9:12

We had to completely pivot and go okay, what are we going to do? And I was reading through Ecclesiastes at the time and I got to chapter 11, and in chapter 11 it just really opened up my eyes to some of the things that God could do for us during this season. So it's. It says this ship your grain. Now, when you think grain, think whatever your job is, whatever like you're doing to provide for your family, whatever that looks like, ship your grain across the sea. After many days, you may receive a return, so there's no guarantee that your business will seed or that your job will be there tomorrow. And then it says, verse 2 invest in seven ventures yes, and eight, which is just like a poetic way that they would use invest in seven, no eight and then it says you do not know what disaster may come upon the land.

Danny Ray 10:14

And then, if you skip down a little bit to verse 6, it says so your seed in the morning and at evening, let your hands not be idle, for you do not know which will seed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well. And this was huge for me. During this season we created what we call our super eight. During that season, one of those led to performing on Penn and Teller another one led to doing zoom shows.

Danny Ray 10:53

There were eight of them, though, and not all of them succeeded. We, we created, we wrote a book during that season, and that one, by God's grace, it seated. So there were lots of successes, and there were a few that that just didn't work out, that it wasn't meant to be, didn't, it didn't happen, but we were investing in eight, not knowing what would seed, what would fail, and I guess and maybe I'll ask you, babe, like, because for you that season was very, very different of like coming alongside a meter in that season, but also going back to get your masters during that season so what did that season look like for you?

Danny Ray 11:35

and if somebody's struggling with like, hey, we're in this in between or we're trying to figure things out and there's a lot of tension, maybe right now, what would you encourage them with?

Kimberly 11:46

Yeah, I think for us it was a gosh, it was a bizarre season and you and I had to keep touching base, especially connecting to keep the marriage strong, obviously, but being intentional in that, because that was the first time where I stepped away from this ministry that we've been running for 20 years together, so because you're running the back end of all of it.

Danny Ray 12:16

And there was no back end. Yeah, the business side of it.

Kimberly 12:18

Yeah, there's nothing to do. On that end, I would say a huge shout out and a huge blessing was is our manager, gretchen, and so having somebody come alongside and encourage you, she helped come up with those super eight.

Danny Ray 12:36

Oh for sure she was instrumental there in that whole season. Yeah and skill.

Kimberly 12:40

So I think that was a huge part of it, that okay, yes, my role changed, everybody's roles changed, but that was a huge blessing to have somebody else help with those things and cast vision and brainstorm and you know. So I think maybe part of that is just knowing. Part of it's knowing our strengths and our weaknesses. That that's not my strength anyway to be, you know, brainstorming and shooting what's the expression? Shooting things in the dark, shooting Like I don't know.

Danny Ray 13:19

What are you shooting in the dark?

Kimberly 13:20

I don't know, shots in the dark. I guess that's the expression, right.

Danny Ray 13:24

There's a lot of people that have died. Now You're shooting in the dark. Oh hey, no, no, no.

Kimberly 13:29

No, but just that's not the brainstorming part is not my the dream.

Danny Ray 13:35

Implement. Yeah, you're better at implementing and you know putting those things into action.

Kimberly 13:40

Right. So I was implementing and putting things into action with my studies, so I took a totally different role but at the same time, we had to keep being intentional about connecting with each other every day, and that was a big switch for us.

Danny Ray 13:58

Yeah, it definitely. It was a huge switch because all of a sudden you know like the finances are gone. I'm desperately praying and we're praying together on.

Kimberly 14:08

How do we?

Danny Ray 14:08

figure out how do we make ends meet to put food on the table, quite literally. And and then we knew that during this season was an opportunity for you to go back to school. But with that, we, you know, made the office upstairs for you, and then I'm working downstairs and for 17 years we had worked primarily. Side by side, side by side, and so we had to learn to be intentional about carving out time. And yeah, because it was, it became more tricky.

Navigating Setbacks in Relationships

Kimberly 14:39

I don't know if it's more, I guess more supportive roles for each other, which is probably more typical of other couples. Right, they're not usually working together as closely as we were, so anyway, but but that sending the ecclesiasties 11 really helped you to focus on. Okay, we're sending out eight ships so to speak right.

Kimberly 15:02

Metaphorically, and we're going to try all these eight things and see what God does with it. And they were Great ideas, they were intentional, they were, you know, thought through, prayed through all of those things in uncertain times. That's, that's what it takes.

Danny Ray 15:21

And I think the key word that I would say there in terms of the relationship is being intentional, like we could talk about the business side and things that we did that were successful and things that were failures, but in defining what is sass and for us, yeah, yeah yeah, the the bottom line is we we had to carve out time to be intentional, and I think it was more difficult during that time, because being intentional to to carve out time for a date, it's like where we're gonna go, everything's closed down.

Kimberly 15:55

You know.

Danny Ray 15:57

So it was like do you want to watch a movie together? Well, we watched 16 movies today.

Danny Ray 16:01

No, you know it was you know, let let's go for a walk, let's go for a drive, let's, you know, in just learning to kind of get back to some of the basics and figure out what are, what are things we could do together, and I think that's always something as a couple is. You know, some couples have a lot of things that they enjoy doing together. One of the things that we enjoy doing together is working together and that that piece was.

Kimberly 16:30

Changed significantly, yeah, and so we were.

Danny Ray 16:35

We were learning to navigate. That. I think that's the key is is learn to navigate those when setbacks come, when rejection comes, when loss comes is Be intentional about creating time and carving out time to be together.

Kimberly 16:49

Because the alternative is that we pull away from each other right so often and and that, of course, is what the enemy wants is that, oh, everybody, just pull pull away from each other and go to kind of your corners of the ring and Try and work through it on your own. And, oh, you know, if you had just tried completely on your own to figure out how to make ends meet for us, that that wouldn't have gone as well. And if I had just been in my corner and and Doing my studies and and us you know, not being intentional about connecting really would have hurt the relationship for sure.

Danny Ray 17:29

Yeah, and I do think there was some some crossover of dreaming together when we were working on the book. You know we oh yeah. You know we had lots of time to to really think through what are the areas that We've been helped a lot in our relationship. What are the strengths of our relationship? What can we teach others?

Danny Ray 17:50

and that stuff we've been thinking about for years, but to put it to paper, is a different task and I just I want to say, during that season, and if you're in a season that seems uncertain right now, this is one of the verses that that I come to over and over again. It's Habakkuk 3, this entire prayer, and Habakkuk 3 is Definitely one of my favorite prayers and all of the scriptures, but this is the end of it. It says Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines. So think of whatever your business is. You know, fig tree is not budding, no grapes there's on. The olive crop fails, the fields produce no food. Though there are no sheep in the pen. Like business is not good, right, there's no sheep in the pen and there's no cattle in the stalls.

Finding Strength in God's Promises

Danny Ray 18:42

What do we do? Verse 18 says yet I will rejoice in the Lord. Hmm, I will be joyful in God. My Savior is, no matter what the Circumstances. And Paul gives us to us over and over again, is is it? Our joy isn't contingent on what's happening around us? Hmm, and it's easy for us to get wrapped in to whatever our business is, whatever is going on around us, and to say Well, based on that, I'm going to, you know, respond in this way, but God says, to learn to be content in all things, to rejoice even whenever things falling apart.

Kimberly 19:19

Hey man, yeah, not easy, but definitely. I think helping each other, like reminding each other at times too, of God's promises, that way brings us back to because we're we're normal, we're human. We have definite moments, or even days sometimes, where it's just the weight of the world on our shoulders and it just feels like wow, how are we going to navigate this one? And but then reminding each other again that teamwork and going, okay, you know what it's gonna be okay.

Danny Ray 19:53

Yeah, and I think even right now for us is you know, we we're in a new venture, which I feel like is a constant thing for us, as we're sending out ships, trying out new things, and so in this new season, we've been trying a residency show where I'm performing 10 miles away from our house, or something like that which is brand new.

Danny Ray 20:17

But the tricky part of that is I've never had to think about getting people to a show. I just show up. People are there, do the show, go home. And I've done that for my entire life.

Kimberly 20:28

And you're still doing it.

Danny Ray 20:29

Yeah, yeah, no, I'm still on the road constantly, but this is In addition to yeah, in addition to just a local event where we built a showroom over the course of a year and now I'm trying to figure out how do I sell tickets to it, and when the tickets are low, it's really easy to be discouraged and be like oh, you know what's happening. But coming back to that verse, even if there's no ticket sales, even if nobody shows up, yet.

Danny Ray 20:57

I want to rejoice in my God that there's. That's not what makes me who I am or defines me, or defines my success. My success is in God and who he's designed me to be, in aligning with that and so yeah. So, for whatever it's worth, if you're feeling discouraged today is just know that God's for you in that, regardless of your situation, that I would encourage you to just rejoice in Him.

Kimberly 21:26

Yeah, that's a great message for all of us, right.

Danny Ray 21:31

All right, well, with that, we are going to wrap it up. So, if you're having lost, we just want to encourage you to be intentional, to seek out wise counsel and to know the, regardless of the circumstances, to rejoice in God, that he's going to sustain you, he's going to provide for you and he's going to be there for you. We hope that there's something in here that will help you to really live this out and to create the best relationship that you can. I'm Danny Ray and I'm Kimberly, and this is we Do.

Kimberly 22:04

Whatever it takes.