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Welcome to episode 22 of the DVP, the Dan Vikus program, brought to you by your host, myself, Dan Vikus. I was working out this morning, and I had this weird thought. I was thinking to myself, why is it so different when I post about certain things online versus others? For example, why does it feel so different when I post about, let's say, my Jeep or my fiance online versus when I post about myself, my physical shape, my health, my fitness? And they feel really different, but why? Why is it so much different? Why is there such a weird cloud and fog in my mind? Um, such pensive thoughts, such a pensive attitude about posting myself. But when it comes to posting my Jeep, when it comes to posting about my fiance or my friends or anything like that, nothing. Happy to share, happy to talk about it. And as I was lifting, it kind of hit me like those things are gifts. I recognize that. All of those are gifts. My vehicle, my fiance, ridiculous. My fiance's the greatest gift I've ever received. Gifts in my life that I have received, that I've been given. Did I have to cultivate those gifts? Yeah, sure. I got the Jeep, I had to pay for it, like I worked all those long nights to pay for it. But did dad just show up one day in the driveway with it? Yeah, it was a gift. It was a gift from God ultimately. And same with my fiance. Did I go out and find her and like decide she's gonna be part of my life? Nope. That pretty much dropped in my lap. Hashtag hinge. But uh, there's a crazy story behind that too. But no, that was a gift as well. And did I have to cultivate it? Sure. And we had to fly back and forth for a year and a half to go on dates and hang out and everything. Yes, there was work involved, but ultimately it was a gift. There's a beautiful cardinal on the wall there. Ultimately, it was a gift. And so when I go to share it, when I talk about it online, it is evidence of what God is doing in my life. It is evidence of his love and graciousness. And somehow, somewhere in the back of my mind, my subconscious knows that and acknowledges it. And so the way I talk about it, the way I share it, is so fundamentally different. It's so easy. There's joy in sharing about it, talking about it, posting, showing. Because it's not about showing off, it's not about showing me what I did or what I can do. But it is pure joy. My love for those things. Um, and so in sharing it, it is it is purely about sharing joy and sharing love. It's not even about sharing the love for the Jeep or like sharing, look at my little fiance, I want you guys to feel love. No, it's it's sharing from a place of joy and love. Because no part of me or my worth or my value is attached to them. And so I can share freely, I can talk freely because I'm I'm I'm not worried about it, not thinking about it. I'm just expressing joy, and so it's so easy. And this is all going through my mind, probably in the span of like seven minutes while I was working out. But then it hit me. There's some part of my, not some part, my physical health, strength, all of it, whatever. I still associate with myself. Me, my work, my effort. I did this all me. I made it happen. It's all me. It is entirely self-centered. Which translates to, again, having this thought while I'm working out, which translates to me not like not really wanting to share or talk about it because it is, it is entirely selfish, entirely focused on me, myself, and I, center of the universe. And so when I would think about posting or sharing online, it was never from a perspective of, it was never from the position of joy and love. It was from one of like, I have pride in this because I've worked hard to build this and me, me, me, me, me. And so that surrounded, that surrounded any action that I might have taken with that gift of my physical health. I mean, it is a gift. Everything we have is a gift, and I believe that. And if it's true that I believe that, which I say I I truly mean I do, but if it's true that I actually believe that all the way through, then that applies to my physical body as well. And obviously, not just like, oh yeah, I'm here. Yes, obviously that's a gift, but it applies to my love for fitness and movement, it applies to my propensity towards athletics and towards doing stuff. That's a gift. Yes, of course, cultivated through years of sports and everything, but it's a gift nonetheless, nonetheless. And yes, genetics, thank you, mom and dad, but but a gift nonetheless. And yes, I've worked and cultivated it, but in the same way that my Jeep or my fiance coming into my life were both brilliant gifts that that have not have become an extension of the joy and love in my life, shown to me first by God, so that then I can show it to other people and share. The same applies for the gift of my physical self. And this me, me, me, self-centered focus on it all was the enemy's tricky little brilliant way of preventing me from sharing that gift. Right? Because I was entirely, it was entirely about me, and so I didn't share, I didn't talk about it because it wasn't about um, it was about protecting my pride and what I think I had done and built. And so I never thought to share, but I've been given gifts to be used for the good of other people, poured out to off to uplift other people, used to help other people to bring more life to their days, to bring more joy to their life. That's what gifts are for. We've all been given gifts by the Spirit, each poured out to us in a measure that's appropriate for what we've been assigned to do. Hello, and in my particular case, it's a love for movement, it's in a real enjoyment of strength and fitness and building that. But my brain, and and as again, this is all happening while I'm working out. My brain was made that a core identity. It made it entirely selfish on that. It was about me, so I never shared it. Because it was about me. And so I shared this with my fiance when we got in the car, and it got me thinking even further about why. And part of that was you know, growing up a bonehead or a meathead was like a term that I heard used for like bodybuilders, for fitness people. It was basically the equivalent of like dummy or like an emotional tard, like they don't know unstable people, blah blah blah. And I hated that connotation. I still do, it doesn't, I don't like it. Um and so I think part of me there was a default, like, oh, you don't want to be that guy, you don't want to be the bonehead, you don't want to be the meat head. And then this this other this this other side of that, like, well, you have to do more. That's cool if you want to play sports and whatnot, but you gotta do more. You can you can play sports, but like, go you actually have to have a real job. If you want to support people, you you actually gotta do something real. And if I actually did lean into the fitness, all of that, then another fear of not wanting to be known as just the fitness guy. There's a part of my brain that was afraid to to be put into that box. I didn't want that label of just the fitness guy. Because I felt that I was so much more. And so this fear of the the fear of, you know, not wanting, not liking the connotation of bonehead or meat head, and thinking like, I don't want to be that guy, I don't want to be that, I I don't want that to be what people think of me, and then thinking, well, I've gotta do more. Like, this is cool, fitness is great, but that can't be it, you gotta do more, as well as then hey, if you do do this, people are just gonna think of you as this meathead, as this person. That's it. You're gonna be limited to that, and not wanting to be limited. And then pair that with pair that with fitness and and my physical self being a source of self-centered pride and ego. Oh self-centered pride, uh, something that my ego is rooted in. It never allowed me the opportunity to to share that gift. I've been given a gift, and I just over-complicated it. Michael Smoke Hybrid, unless he says it all the time, right? It isn't easy, but it is simple. I just overcomplicated it. I have something that I love and that I'm super passionate about, and I always have been. Since I was little. I loved to move. I couldn't sit still in class. Thank you, Jesus. My mom, I think I was like five or six, um, you know, when I first started going to school, pre-K or whatever. And by you know, the teacher's all upset, and I went to the doctor with my mom, and the doctor was like, Oh, we gotta give him some medicine because he can't sit still, and the teachers are upset. And my mom was like, Yeah, he's a he's like a five-year-old boy, of course he can't sit still. And I'm very grateful. You know, my parents never ended up putting me on Adderall or anything like that. Um, but movement. I I've always loved to move in every capacity. I I'm fascinated by sports, movement, every everything you can think of. I love it. And I just overcomplicated it. Like, that's enough. Lean into that. Lean into that 110%. My brother about a week and a half ago challenged me and he's like, why do you think we have so we have we share some of the same friends? He's like, Why do you think so many people look up to you? And I was like, I He's like, I bet it's not for the reasons you think. And he he listed off a few. He's like, Yeah, this person's told me this, and this person's told me this. Um And what was beautiful was just the stuff he said was you know, the impact that I have on people is based on the things that I truly love and enjoy. And that's fitness, faith, character development, joy, excitement, energy, life. And those are all the things that those are all gifts that I have been given. Just like the Jeep, just like my fiance. And and my self-centeredness, my selfishness, my making it all about me, has kept me up until this point. And I'm sure there'll be future there'll be continuous work on that, but it has kept me up until this point from sharing that gift, from allowing that gift that I have been given to be a source of joy and life and light for other people. Well, we're done. We're done hiding that gift. We're done pushing it to the side, we're done not acknowledging it, we're done trying to overcomplicate it, and we're done not trusting God with it. That means we're done thinking that I have to do something else. Have to do something else. If I can, if I want to, go for it. Nuts. We're done thinking I have to do something else. We're done thinking that. We're done we're done being afraid of leaning into that and being put into some box or limited by it. We're done worrying about the outcome of leaning into those God-given gifts. So thank you very much for joining me on this marvelous Wednesday evening. It's been a couple of weeks since the last episode. I appreciate y'all hanging out. I look forward to everything to come. And for those of you that I have had the pleasure of interacting with up to this point, you guys are awesome. And I look forward to everything that comes from here on out. Um, I guess, oh, one more little point. It was funny. I made a commitment with my brother to to actually lean into this uh last week and built a plan and everything. Uh, and I've been kind of like quasi-working on it since for a long time. Um, but really focused on it since September of last year, and then last week was like this is it, and we're not deviating from it. That night, that following night, horrendous sleep. Like, talk about spiritual warfare. Oh my goodness. Um, my fiance in the morning was like, How'd you sleep last night? And I was like, dude, awful. I couldn't sleep at all. I was like, crazy. It was the weirdest, it was the worst night, and I don't have trouble sleeping ever, but it was the weirdest night of sleep ever. It was difficult, it was challenging, it was wild. Um, and it's funny to me because you're not I I took I took a little note here because uh it's getting kind of dark out, sorry. Um but you won't ever you won't ever receive your next steps without challenges, and it's funny because the the moment I haven't had any trouble sleeping recently, and I usually don't, I never do, um, but the moment I was like, I'm committed to this. A hundred percent. That night was just no sleep. It was a crack, like tumultuous evening, tormented, it was wild. Talk about some cool spiritual warfare. Um started praying the rosary in the middle of the night. That was great, solved our problems, but it was nuts, and that's really cool. And it made me smile, it made me think like, hey, alright, we're moving the right direction. Because you won't get those next steps without your challenges, and those often mean you're headed in the right direction. So that was pretty cool. Anyways, this has been episode 22 of the DVP. A lot of stuff changing. You're gonna see a lot of stuff coming from me. I cannot wait to lean into this. I cannot wait for whatever's to come for myself and for you. And I want to pray really quick for you guys. So here we are. In your father's and holy spirit, amen. Heavenly Father, I want to thank you so much for this evening. I want to thank you for the beautiful weather, I want to thank you for this technology that allows me the opportunity to record the podcast. I want to thank you for my voice, for the gift of all those things that I'm passionate about that I like, the gifts that I have in my life, um, from the very incredibly miraculous um but common things in my day, like my sight and my hearing and my sense of smell and touch and speech. Uh it's not a sense of speech, but my speech. Um, but I also want to thank you for the greatest things uh that I have. Those things that you've protected me from, those things that you have ordained for me, those things that you are leading me towards, and those challenges that offer me the opportunity to rise up and step into what I say I believe in and fully trust in you. I want to thank you for every person listening to this podcast. I want to thank you for their hopes, their goals, their dreams, their attention, their life. I want to thank you for the things that you've placed on their heart, their individual passions, the way they move, the way they love the people in their life, and the way that they the way I want to thank you for the way that they love the things that they enjoy in a way that moves other people around them and brings life to their days. Lord, I pray a very special intention for everybody tonight, whether they're listening or not, that as they move forward this week, you know, into this evening, into the rest of the week, and then into the weekend, that you be present with them. And if they haven't felt you before, that you'd be present with them in a way that they cannot miss. And if they just haven't hung out with you in a while, that you would present yourself again to them in a new way where they can't help but feel your love and presence and grace. Lord, I pray just a massive thank you again for this evening, for this time. We lift these prayers up, and I lift up every single person who's listening to this in the name of your son Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. I will see you guys next time.