Season 2: (Episode 34) Believing Bigger!

What if the only thing standing between you and the life God is calling you to isn’t your ability—but the size of your vision?
 In this episode of Change Chasers, Mandy shares the incredible story of Kelsey Pfendler’s historic solo row across the Pacific Ocean and unpacks what it means to trust God with dreams that seem impossible. Together, we’ll discover how faith grows when our vision becomes bigger than our fear and why God often calls us into opportunities that can only be accomplished through His strength.
 If you’ve been playing it safe, doubting your potential, or wondering if God can really use you, this episode is your invitation to believe bigger.
 Faith in Action. Change in Motion.  Listen now and let’s chase the God-sized dreams He has placed in our hearts.

#BelievingBigger #ChangeChaserPodcast #FaithInAction #KingdomMindset #PurposeDrivenLife #RowRowRowYourBoat #WorldRecord #GoKelsey

Faith in Action // Change in Motion

Transcript

0:17

Well, hey, Change Chasers. Welcome back to the Change Chasers podcast. I am Mandy, your host, and y'all, I am excited about this episode. It's going to be about believing bigger, casting vision, and taking next steps. It's been a fun gift to embrace that believing bigger is only the beginning. The next question that is, is well, what happens when believing gets hard, though, right? 'Cause we've all been there, done that, and hopefully we are not doing it tomorrow. But we know sometimes our reality doesn't always match up with what we're hoping for, what we're even believing for. And so, friends, you're not alone, so to speak, in that boat and thinking that way. I do wanna go ahead and get this episode started by asking you a question, though. What if the biggest thing standing between you and the life that God is calling you to isn't your ability? What if it's the size of your vision? What if it's the size of your vision? Do you hear me on that? I've said it twice in a different way so that you'll stop and maybe allow that to connect with you so that you'll make this personal as you ask that question and you self-reflect. Because I do think that most of us don't dream too small because we lack talent. We dream too small because we've convinced ourselves that extraordinary things are reserved for extraordinary people. But what if ordinary people with an extraordinary God, capital G-O-D God, right, are capable of far more than they can ever imagine? Or scripture even says we can ask, think, or imagine. So today, I do wanna challenge you to believe bigger. Because sometimes God asks us to step into something so impossible that if He doesn't show up, it simply cannot happen. Friends, I don't know about you, but I really wanna talk about this in this episode, because when I think about believing bigger, I am so just enamored. I have been enamored for the last 40-plus days, I think, what, day 43 we're on here, of watching the incredible rower, the solo rower, Kelsey Fendler. Y'all, she has been amazing to watch her journey. If you're on social media anywhere across the world, I'm sure that you have saw this be covered, be it on the news or on TikTok or Instagram or on a reel or on Facebook. It has just been so cool and so fun to watch her journey Maybe you haven't saw it. Just do a quick Google search and you will get acquainted real quick with what she has been able to accomplish. But thinking about her story and talking through it a little bit in today's episode, even though I've never gotten in a rowboat and I've never attempted to do what she's done. I'll be honest with you, I get tired after trying to row at the gym, just sitting there stationary for, like, two minutes or maybe even one minute. Like, you know what I'm saying. Like, I am, I am sucking wind and on the struggle bus real quick. But, um, you know, when I just think about her and I think about what she's done, it makes me stop and just imagine climbing into a rowing boat and then thinking through her story, realizing that she knew she wasn't getting in there just for the afternoon, not even just for a weekend, but y'all, she d- was expected to be around 80 days to accomplish this because that's what the woman's record was, and here she cut that in half, which is amazingly remarkable. But she was in that boat all alone, unassisted, for more than six weeks. No crew, no rescue ship following beside her. It was her. And so when I stop and I think about, gosh, if that's us in that story, if it just was you in the endless Pacific Ocean, the towering waves, the blistering sun, the sleepless nights, and then also add in the thousands of miles between California and Hawaii, man, most people, I think, would hear that idea and, and immediately probably say the two famous words of... And we all probably are, "That's impossible." But Kelsey heard the same ocean, the same scenario, and y'all, she saw a possibility. We know if you follow along, and if you don't, again, I encourage you, go watch some YouTube videos of it. It is so fun to see everybody so excited As you know, if you'll go and do a search, you'll be able to find out that on July 4th, 2026, America's 250th birthday, that Kelsey Fendler accomplished something that no American woman had ever done before. Her journey had started out on May 21st, 2026, and she rowed a successful 2,400 miles unsupported. And y'all, it is so miraculous that she concluded her successful journey, getting to the beautiful island of Oahu in Hawaii. She rowed solo from Monterey, California, which is beautiful, by the way. If you've never been, you gotta go. That harbor in Monterey is gorgeous. It's been a long time since I've been there, but I still can see it in my mind when I close my eyes. It is gorgeous. But Kelsey, y'all, she got in her boat and she rowed from Monterey, California to Honolulu, Hawaii, becoming the first American woman and the youngest woman in the world to accomplish the fastest time, and now has the world record of being the fastest person to complete that route. She made it in 43 days, 17 hours, and in 55 minutes. That's so remarkable and just absolutely amazing. She shattered the previous woman's record, who had been in her rowboat all along, doing the same wild and crazy accomplishment. Like, I mean, they are way braver than I would ever be. Out in the ocean all alone in that little boat. That lady was in it for 86 days. So Kelsey smashed it, crushed it, however you wanna word it, but she accomplished her goal in 43 days. And I share that in this episode because I wanna say, y'all, let's just stop for a second and just think about that. Think about the ocean that she crossed. Y'all, it didn't get any smaller. In fact, it probably got bigger, or the feeling of bigger, because she was out in literally the middle of nowhere And she couldn't even see land for so many days of her journey, pretty much the whole time except for day one and day 43. The waves didn't get calmer. The storms suddenly didn't disappear. The only thing that was bigger, I believe, was most likely her belief in her vision, that she believed bigger that she was going to be able to accomplish what she had set out to accomplish, her goal that she was like, "I'm gonna do this." And so she saw something that maybe many other people, dare I say everyone else, since she's one of three world record holders now, to even be able to successfully fulfill this mission. And I just think, man, everybody else most likely thinks that was impossible. But not to Kelsey, because she believed bigger. And as a result, history has now been changed. She's left her mark in the record books, and it kinda made me stop and it's just made me ponder and think and just wonder all about it, about for a personal reflection. And as a change chaser, it makes me stop and question, like, how many dreams has God placed inside of us that never become reality? I don't think that's a question I'm asking solo. I'm, I'm hoping that's connecting with you as you're listening to this episode and just thinking about, like, what is it in your life and your story of something that you know is dwelling from within you, that you know it's like, "Man, this has gotta be from Father God, and He's called me to do this." But sometimes we get so caught up in our mind with what I call stinking thinking, and we will adopt that mentality that it is impossible, and we make that decision in believing smaller instead of believing bigger. And so, friends, I don't know if you've ever been on a rowboat and you've ever done anything like that. If you have, shoot me a message over, let me know and I will cheer you on. I think that is so amazing that if you've done something super cool and you're a world record holder. Um, but in all real talk, this episode isn't necessarily about just rowing across an ocean. It's about discovering the invisible oceans that God may be asking you to cross. You, in the world's eyes, let's say all by yourself, but we know as believers, as sons and daughters of the one true God, that y'all, we don't have to do anything alone. He's faithful. He's always right there with us. We know that even in our uncertainty and even in our own unmet expectations, that we still get to discover the visible Or, well, not really visible barriers, invisible, I'll say, invisible barriers, so to speak, that something the magnitude of an ocean may present to us that we will put self-limitations on ourselves that maybe God, though, says, "Hey, no. You know what? I'm calling you up." I tell my youth group all the time that I'm not calling you out, but I'm calling you up, and that's kinda what I wanna do in this episode, is to get you thinking about how can you believe bigger? How can you cross those invisible, so to speak, oceans that maybe God is asking you to cross? Maybe some divine assignments that He's asking you to do. Maybe some entrustments that He is counting on you to step up and say, "Here I am, Lord. Send me. Use me. Speak through me." And so it could be something huge and audacious that the world is gonna know. Maybe you're gonna set some kinda record. Who knows, friends, right? I mean, don't let your age be your cage, and don't squash what God is saying, "Hey, no, I've planted this, and I want it to grow in you. But not just in you, I wanna allow you to let it go through you for the growth of somebody else." And so, hey, whatever that is, maybe it is starting the business. Start that business, sis. Start that business, bro. Like, is He telling you to go, take the next steps, right? Believe bigger. Start the business. Or, ooh, snap, crackle, pop, maybe He's asking you to do a really hard thing, that whenever you do it, you will learn that it's more for you than somebody else, which could be that maybe He's asking you to forgive someone. And I've learned in my own life for real-life application, forgiving is so much more for us individually than it ever will be for the other person, but it could also be a gift to somebody else as well. It could maybe help them from feeling like they're out in the ocean all alone, drowning because of a mistake that they've made. Just something to make you think about as well. But also, maybe God is asking you to adopt a child. Maybe God is asking you to cross the ocean of writing that book. It's in you. You've been talking about it. You've been thinking about it. You might even have a bit of an outline in your Word docs. Write the book. Maybe He's asking you to launch a ministry. Launch the ministry. Maybe He's asking you to lead a Bible study. Sweet friends, you got what it takes. You'll have a resource to use, I'm sure. Use the resour source, ask God to guide you, lead the Bible study. Maybe God's asking you to cross that ocean of belief in that you can apply for the job, your dream job, maybe one on paper you think, "Oh, I'm not qualified for." Hey, you know what? If it's God's will for your life, nobody can stop it. Maybe He's asking you to go back to school. Maybe He's asking you to share your faith. Maybe He's asking you to have the courage to do what it takes to start the healing process from your past. Whatever it is, maybe it's popped in your head. I might not have called off that whatever it is that you're thinking about, that you need to believe bigger for, that whatever it is, sweet friend, whatever God-sized dream, I do know that no matter what it is, each and every single one of them have one thing in common, and that is that every God-sized dream that we do have, they require God So with thinking about that, I wanna encourage you, let God be God. Invite him into your story, into your thoughts, into your process, into your dream big plan, like, whatever your vision is, for you to believe bigger. So friends, we're gonna start with our hot takes now. We've got three for this episode. Hot take number one is that your future is usually limited by more imagination than your circumstances. So we cannot allow our circumstances to be what limits us. Oftentimes, it is the stinking thinking. It's us believing that, "Mm, I can't do this," or, "I can't do that." Said who, right? Because it tells us in Ephesians 3:20, "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask, we imagine, according to His power that is at work within us." So when Jesus is in control, his power, his goodness, his grace, his mercy is within us. And I think that no matter what we can ask or think, imagine, whenever we are allowing God to be God, y'all, he will. And so in that, it, makes me stop and to just think about how when we allow Father God, and we embrace Ephesians 3:20 mindset mantra in our lives, is that we can notice something incredible, because when we think about Paul and all of the writings that he did in the New Testament, one thing about it is that Paul didn't say that God can do more than we accomplish. He said, God can do more than we can even imagine. So sometimes the ceiling on our future isn't God. Sometimes that ceiling, so to speak, or I have a basketball coach locally that talks about taking the lid off, and he has this visual idea about when you were to put a flea in a jar and you put the lid on it, that the flea will not jump further than the lid of the jar. It's gonna jump, it's gonna hit the lid, and it's gonna jump, it's gonna hit the lid. But then after a few days, you take the lid off, hypothetically speaking, that it would stay alive without air, but you take the lid off, and the flea never jumps out of the jar because it got used to hitting its head on the lid, and the lid became its limitation. And so in our own life, for real-life application, sometimes we can be the one who something's happened. Maybe we've crashed and burned, y'all. Maybe we've hit our head, so to speak, on the lid, and that limit stands before us and it stifles us and makes us stop from having the courage to say, "Hey, you know what? Things didn't work out the way that I had hoped before, but-" Maybe I'm gonna go for it this time. And so you have to choose that mindset of like, maybe I'm gonna go for it this time, and thinking through overcoming what our own imagination, our own circumstances, so to speak, that might come. Because I do have to believe that when God is in it, nothing, absolutely nothing, zip, zilch, nada, can squash it or stop it. And so I just wanna encourage you with that hot take number one of just thinking through that your future is usually only limited more by your imagination than it is by your circumstances. Hot take number two, faith doesn't eliminate fear, it simply gives fear less authority. Okay, come on with that word, right? Faith doesn't eliminate fear, it just simply gives fear less authority. Sweet friends, who are we giving our power to, right? Are we giving the enemy power over our minds, or are we allowing him to come and occupy precious real estate in our mind? One of my favorite sayings I like to say is, "Do not play host or be Airbnb to the enemy." Because it tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:7, "For we live by faith, not by sight." Y'all, in thinking about this story today, I'm so inspired by Kelsey, as we've already talked about at the beginning of this episode. You know, Kelsey's out there on that rowboat, and she is going for 43 days. She didn't row across the Pacific because she never felt afraid. I'm sure she felt afraid sometimes and concern, but she rowed across because her vision became louder and louder. I have to believe that. The closer she got, the more, more ambitious she got. When she calculated and figured out that she could actually, she was on track after like a couple weeks of this, that she realized her potential was not just to break the woman's record, world record, but she could also break the guy's record that was in the '50s, amount of days. I can't remember. I think it was 53, 54, something like that. It doesn't matter, 'cause she's holding the record at 43 days. But she rowed because her vision became louder than her fear. And so whenever we just stop and we think about what faith is, we know that it's not necessarily that it's, it's the absence of fear, but it's the obedience in spite of it. Because every great story in scripture, in my opinion, when I've studied through like all the saints from the Bible and those people who God used to do miraculous things, that God is who came and worked through them, that I truly believe that. But we know as we study out in scripture, we know that all of their stories, it truly did have to begin with their heart posture of saying, "Here I am, Lord. Use me. Send me." But also saying yes, right, before they even knew the how, and definitely before they knew the outcome. And so some of those scriptures, uh, people, sorry, that we think about from scripture, I'm trying hard not to call folks from the Bible Bible characters, because they're real people. And as I keep studying in, in the word, and I keep thinking through, I'm like, "You know, I don't think it's probably the best thing to call them characters," because they're not characters. It's not a made-up story. It is real life. And so when we stop and we think about these people that God called up, you know, to be able to go out and to serve. Y'all, I think about Noah, Abraham, Esther, Peter, Mary. Woo, man, fear may have came, right, knocking on their door. But they said, "You know what? Faith is going to be the actionable step that I, so to speak, answer that door with," right? Just believing bigger. And so if we believe bigger, I think that we can live out hot take number three with excellence, which is, you'll never discover what God can do through you until you're willing to attempt something you can't accomplish without Him. I want you to think about every miracle in scripture. Specifically, Noah couldn't build the future alone. Moses couldn't part the Red Sea alone. David couldn't defeat Goliath alone. The disciples couldn't feed 5,000 people Alone. The miracle always began at the end of human ability. Let me say that again, friends. The miracle always began at the end of human ability. We gotta let go and let God. Trust is a must all the days. I like to say in English that trust is a must or an every day that ends in Y, because in the English vocabulary, obviously, all the days end in Y if you're an English speaker, and if you're not, then I am betting I could probably lay $5 on the table because, um, I would bet that you would not understand this country as cornbread gal from Georgia speaking to you if you didn't speak English, right? I probably already need a translator for those of you that are not from the South. But in all good fun, when I stop and I think about knowing that the miracle in the scripture always began at the end of human ability, it makes me just stop and think about maybe the reason that God keeps even giving you that dream, maybe it is because it is too big just for you. Because the reality of it is God's calling you maybe to a higher level of courage, coming in to allow Him to be your source of comfort, for Him to be your strength, for Him to be your guiding light, for Him to allow you to be your be all end all, to help you to know that He is always, always with you and that He's never gonna leave you. He's never ever going to forsake you. And so in our story today, we know Kelsey was out there unattended to, without getting any other resources, no other supplies, but y'all, that is not our real reality. As believers, as Christians, when we are walking with the Father and we are pursuing after Him, and we are being intentional about being in service with Father God, of going and sowing so that others will be knowing of the gospel and the goodness and the love and the grace of Father God, of Jesus and Holy Spirit, it makes me just stop and just think about being encouraged that we don't have to be out, so to speak, rowing in our boat all alone, trying to face the storms or the deep blue sea, the ocean. We don't have to do that alone, friends, because God is faithful, and we get to remain with a heart posture of grateful, of having an attitude of gratitude, and knowing that it is up to us, and thinking about today possibly. May you be encouraged to decide whether or not your dream is possible or not, right? You're the one that adds the I am to the possible. And so if you're adding the I am to possible, you're making it impossible. But when you do that, hmm, that's pretty much rooted in saying I'm, right? Y'all, it is impossible just us, but when we invite God, all things truly are possible, as scripture reminds us. So I do hope that hopefully today you've just been so sweetly, but yet simply reminded that God is trustworthy, that God will continue to be who helps your vision to become possible. He's how your vision grows. He is how your faith grows. And I also know from personal real-life living, y'all, that when your faith grows, your obedience grows, and when your obedience grows, God has room to do things that only He can and only He will get the glory and the praise for. And so we'll get to raise a praise with gratitude for what God will do when we are willing to allow our faith to grow so that our obedience can likewise grow just the same Y'all, I'm gonna close this episode out, but I do wanna kinda go ahead and segue for a quick moment so that you can have something to look forward to. As we're growing, as we're going in our Change Chaser episodes building, I shared in the opening episode back for season two of kinda like what all of our theme and some of our episode titles are going to be. I want you to, to know that next week we're gonna be discovering something maybe surprising. It might be something new for you guys. I hope so. But I do believe that believing bigger is truly where our journey begins, but I also know that resilience is what keeps the journey going. We're going to be talking about one of the most overlooked plants, or as I like to call it, a flower, in the entire world, and that is called a dandelion. Our episode next week will be talking about being dandy as a dandelion, so be sure to tune in for that. Some people call it a weed, but we're gonna talk about why I believe it is so much bigger and better than a weed will ever be. Because even though it is a flower that most people do try to get rid of, it is one that God designed to thrive in places where almost nothing else can. Because y'all, when I stop and I think about being a change chaser, I'm inspired to know that as we are going through the idea of becoming all season, as that being our theme of what we are becoming, y'all, we get to become who God created us to be. And I know in that it's not necessarily always about blooming where it's easy. Wah, wah, wah. Right? We want easy peasy, lemon squeezy, but that's not always real life. We also know that as we are growing that we do have the opportunity to be able to flourish where Father God has planted us. And so I can't wait to share that conversation with each of you. In closing out this episode, I do have one final thought that I hope will be something you'll take with you. Maybe you'll chew on this thought all week long. Maybe it's even the signature line for this episode, that if you want to return back, it'll be easy to find right here close to the end. But friends, I want to encourage you to stop and think about this. Vision doesn't make the impossible easy. Vision simply makes the impossible worth pursuing. Mm, isn't that a good word, friends? That makes me excited, and also, I am just so thankful for you. Thanks for joining me on this episode. I do hope that you have a great rest of your day, and that you will keep rowing your boat, so to speak. And, but as you row, may you know that you are never alone. God is always faithfully joining you right there in the middle of the journey. Keep believing bigger, sweet friends. No stinking thinking. Y'all, we get to believe and receive, or doubt and do without. Let's keep chasing change and living with purpose. Goodbye, sweet friends.