Does Saying Yes to God Have to Feel This Scary? Meme Mulugeta on Obedience, Calling, and the Leap That Changed Everything

Has God ever asked you to do something that made absolutely no sense on paper?

Meme Mulugeta grew up in the church, the daughter of two ministers. At 19, she got pregnant — and the church turned its back on her. That single moment of rejection sent her walking away from God for 17 years. She built a life, tried to build a business, went into serious debt, and watched it all fall apart. It was only when she had nothing left to fill the hole that she turned back to God — and what happened next is the kind of story that reminds you He was never surprised.

What followed was a series of yes-or-no moments: Write a book. Sacrifice your son. Start a publishing company. Each one felt impossible. Each one came with provision she couldn't have engineered on her own.

In this conversation, Meme and Karen talk about what obedience actually costs, why your most painful seasons may be exactly what God was using to get your attention, and how the Holy Spirit shows up as teacher, provider, and guide when you finally stop trying to figure it all out yourself.

In this episode you'll hear:

• How being rejected by the church at 19 sent Meme walking away from God for 17 years — and what finally brought her back
• The Holy Spirit encounter at an altar call that released a burden she hadn't even known she was carrying
• What it means when God asks you to "sacrifice your son" — and the moment Meme realized her child had become her god
• A 10-year business download received in under five minutes — and the pink slip that came five days later
• How giving her son to God meant she could trust Him instead of panic when she lost her job
• The mentor who overheard her at the gym and became her guide for three months — and the Kingdom Business Coach who offered to coach her for free
• Why Meme wrote an entire book in three weeks — and why she never planned to publish it
• The one thing Meme says will save you the most time in your walk with God

About Meme Mulugeta: Meme Mulugeta is the founder of The One and Only Publishing and creator of the Legacy Project — a ministry that helps individuals record their God stories through documentary-style video and a keepsake book. She is also the author of her own memoir, written in three weeks in partnership with the Holy Spirit. Meme's mission is to help people uncover the goodness of God in their own lives and leave a lasting legacy for those who come after them.

Connect with Meme: Website: theoneandonlypublishing.com

Referenced in this episode:

• The sacrifice of Isaac — "God is calling for a sacrifice" (Genesis 22)
• "Those who are faithful in small things will be given more" — Luke 16:10 / Matthew 25:23

TIMESTAMPS

• [00:00:00] Introduction
• [00:00:49] Meet Meme Mulugeta
• [00:01:06] Growing Up in Church — and Walking Away at 19
• [00:02:11] 17 Years Away: A Business Fails and God Gets Her Attention
• [00:02:58] The Altar Call: "I Got You"
• [00:03:45] God Said Write a Book. She Said No.
• [00:05:00] The Women's Conference and the Call for Sacrifice
• [00:06:03] "I Want You to Sacrifice Your Son"
• [00:06:57] The Publishing Company Download
• [00:07:46] Five Days Later: Fired
• [00:08:09] Why Losing Her Job Didn't Panic Her
• [00:08:37] The Wilderness Season — How God Provided Step by Step
• [00:11:44] When Your Child Becomes Your God
• [00:12:59] The Real Cost of Obedience
• [00:14:51] Why God Let the First Business Fail
• [00:16:41] Being Okay With Not Knowing Why
• [00:17:58] Obedience Never Stops — and Neither Do the Miracles
• [00:19:38] Helping Others Uncover Their God Story
• [00:20:41] How Meme Works With Clients
• [00:21:29] The Legacy Project vs. Traditional Publishing
• [00:22:32] How to Connect With Meme
• [00:22:56] One Takeaway: Just Do It
• [00:25:28] Closing Reflection
• [00:25:53] Sign-Off

Want to be a guest on The GraceForge Podcast? Send Karen Dittman a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/1733503318442796293a1fecb

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Has God ever asked you to step into something that made absolutely no sense on paper? Something that maybe you even said no to until you simply couldn't say no anymore? What happens when you finally say yes? Even when everything around you says the timing is completely wrong. My guest, Mimi Mugaletta, shares how she returned to her faith in God after a long absence, and then God started asking her to do things that made no sense. But God made it all possible by his grace. Welcome to the Grace Forge Podcast. I'm your host, Karen Dittman, and this is a place to be reminded that when life brings the impossible, God doesn't just show up, He forges exactly what you need to walk through it. Mamie, welcome to the Grace Forge Podcast. I'm excited to have you with me today.

SPEAKER_01 0:53

So excited, Karen. Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_00 0:56

You're so welcome. I'm going to invite you to just start off by sharing your story of how you've seen God's grace at work in your life with us.

SPEAKER_01 1:06

Yeah, that's a wonderful question, Karen. And I guess I have to tell you the beginning point. So I grew up in the church, and um my both my parents were our ministers. I um, you know, growing up in a in the church, I was completely surrounded by only Christians. And so I went off to college and then I ended up getting pregnant at the age of 19. And the church sort of turned their back against me, which made me decide. I remember saying in my heart, Lord, if your people are an extension of you, I want nothing to do with you. So I turned my back against the Lord and I lived aimlessly in this world for about 17 years. And so how the Lord pulled me back in was uh at the end of around the end of this that 17-year um I guess run, I ultimately uh decided to start a business. This was a business that cost a lot of money to start. I literally put my house on on the, you know, I got its second mortgage. I did everything I could to make sure that this business would work. And it didn't. It ended up failing. And so I just sort of had a moment where I was just looking at my life and I realized like there was no relationship in my life that I was feeling fulfilled. There was nothing that I could do that would fill this hole that I had inside of me. And I said in like a very nonchalant way, Well, Lord, you know, I tried it all. Let me just try this God thing. And so I went back to the church and um I had a beautiful encounter with the Holy Spirit when they did an altar call. And I just felt the Holy Spirit just hug me from behind and said, I got you. And for for the first time ever, this burden that I had to take care of my family and the burden I had to just be successful or to be the type of person the world expects you to be was completely released. And I truly felt like I was back into the fold. But to fast forward on that, you know, I had lost this business and I was extremely in debt, but I just was so on fire for the Lord. And I was like, Lord, I just want to do creative ideas for you. I want to serve you. I'm so tired of working in the finance industry. And so that was my prayer for about a year. Give me creative ideas to serve you. So finally, the Lord impressed on my heart to write a book. And I was like, no, I'm not writing a book. That is just not me. And although I, you know, journaled a lot, writing a book was just not part of my my mix. So I was grossly disobedient for about three months until I ended up having a dream. And in the dream, a woman approached me and told me to write a book. So I woke up at 3 a.m. and I said, Holy Spirit, if you want me to write this book, we gotta partner up together and write this book. And so for about three weeks, the Holy Spirit dropped topics in my spirit to write, and I finished the book after three weeks. So that was definitely the Lord, but I wrote a lot of things in that book that was embarrassing to me in a sense, because it was a lot about my 17 years being away from the Lord. So I said, you know, I wrote it, Lord, I was obedient. What's next? But I had no intentions of publishing it. So moving forward, I ended up having a lot of issues at my job, and it was causing such grief and frustration, and it was it was just heavy on my heart. And so there was a three-day women conference that was happening at my church, and I was like, okay, you know what? I'm just going to put this at the Lord's feet. I'm going to tarry in the spirit, and I'm just going to ask God for breakthrough in during this three-day conference. So I went to this three-day conference, and on the third day, the speaker said to us, The Lord is calling for a sacrifice. Now, immediately my mind went to, I gotta sacrifice money, but already you know I was broke. So I said, Lord, I'll sacrifice my time because I I love to sleep. Waking up at 3 a.m. every morning was a huge sacrifice within me. So I was like, I'll sacrifice my time. I will wake up every day at 3 a.m. And the Holy Spirit said no. And so I said, All right, well, then I'll just give you all the money I have in my accounts. Not much, but it's everything. I'll give it to you. And the Holy Spirit said no. And so, in like just a bit of frustration, I was like, Well, Holy Spirit, what do you want from me? Because I don't know what else to give you. And the Holy Spirit said, I want you to sacrifice your son. There, and I I immediately when he said that, it was as if he asked me to cut off my right arm to just give you context. My son was pretty much the reason why I was breathing. Like everything I did was for him. Doing the business that failed was for him. Everything, everything. So when he told me to sacrifice my son, I started crying. And after I had this big old cry, I finally said, Okay, Holy Spirit, Lord, you can have him. And so the next day, which was a Monday, I'm standing in front of my closet, looking at my clothes, getting ready to go to work, feeling this burden again to walk into a hostile environment. And I said under my breath, Lord, please just give me creative ideas. And all of a sudden, I had this crazy 10-year download to start a publishing company. And I said to myself, publishing, like, this is not something that's ever come to mind. Like, you know, when you when you're like just thinking about great business ideas, or if something just drops, like you see a problem in front of you, and you're like, oh, it would be a really great business idea if someone created a solution for this problem. Publishing has never been one of those ideas that ever came in my mind. So I knew it was the Holy Spirit, I knew it was the Lord. It was about 10 years given to me in a in the no more than five minutes. I try to write down as much as I could, you know, take in. And I said, in agreement to the Lord, okay, Lord, I will start this publishing company as I work this job, and I will continue doing what I've been doing. Five days later, I get fired from my job.

SPEAKER_00 7:46

Oh my.

SPEAKER_01 7:48

And so I sat there and when you like going back to the Lord telling me to sacrifice my son, this is a really big point, right? Had I not done that the day before, the first thing I would have thought after I was let go was, oh my God, I have to support my son. I have to go find another job. You know, I it would have never even been, Lord, what do you want me to do? It would have been action immediately. But the Holy Spirit reminded me when I lost my job that I sacrificed my son, which means that his well-being was in the Lord's hands. So he wanted me to push forward and start this business, start this company, you know, despite what was going to happen after that, even though everything was so uncertain, he wanted to see me push forward with the idea that he had given me. And I mean, it's so interesting because I knew nothing about publishing at all. You know, this was a completely different industry. I was working in finance for 20 years, and uh for the first three months, I would like to say that was the initial stage of my wilderness stage, right? Because the Lord had to do a lot of pruning of who I was and my character and my mindset, but he also had to teach me. The Holy Spirit is such a beautiful teacher because I did not know anything about publishing. But the amazing part about the Lord is that every time I hit a brick wall of not understanding a process or system or how certain things worked in the publishing world, he would literally bring people into my life that had that experience. Like I remember complaining to my friend in the gym, like, I just don't really understand how do people market their books. I would, I don't want to start publishing and not being able to market someone's book the best way possible. And literally right next to me was a woman that does marketing for books. And she said, I overheard your conversation and I don't, if you want to call me and we could talk a little bit more about it, she ended up being my mentor for three months.

unknown 10:04

That's great.

SPEAKER_01 10:06

You know, even the idea of starting the business, but partnering with the Lord, because when God tells gives you a business, you don't start it the way the world tells you to start it, you start it the way the Lord tells you to start it. That was something that I had to change in my mind, which I I didn't understand what that looked like. And I went to an event just to to speak at an event about finance. And uh the next person that stood up on that stage was I help people who are building kingdom businesses to partner up with the Lord. When I approached her, she said, I will coach you for free. So, like I'm telling you, the Lord has just taken everything, all my fears and frustrations, and he made me, he placed me in a place where he said, I have you and I'm going to take care of you, um, despite how scary this is. And he has been doing it ever since.

SPEAKER_00 10:57

That is incredible. And I just want to pause because I've written a couple of books. The fact that you wrote a book as quickly as you did, that's a miracle too.

SPEAKER_01 11:07

It is, it is, and it was it was an agreement, a covenant I gave to the Holy Spirit. I said, every time you give me a topic, I will not go to sleep until I've finished writing that particular chapter. So sometimes it would be like three topics in one day. I would be up to like 5 a.m. in the morning trying to finish this chapter.

SPEAKER_00 11:26

So oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. Yeah. Wow, that is that is amazing. So I want to go back to you were at that retreat, uh, that women's conference, and God said to you, I want you to sacrifice your son. And as a mom, I think so many of us can go, no, I l everything I do, I do for my kids like you were. And just tell me, where did that hit you? What was that like for you?

SPEAKER_01 11:58

It was like I would, I I always describe it as it was as if he was telling me to cut off my right arm. That's exactly how the expression on my face, people were looking at me like, what is she crying about? That's but I was sobbing and it was something I couldn't even like contain. Um I just he was my purpose. That he was my God, if if we want to be honest, that was what it was. He was it was my son, then God. And I didn't realize I had idolized my child to that extent, but that was the sacrifice that God was asking for.

SPEAKER_00 12:37

That is just I don't even know what the word is, but yeah, to to come to that realization that your son had actually been your God. You were living for him and not for the Lord. Yeah. So I'm imagining you had to kind of make some shifts in your your awareness and in your life at that point.

SPEAKER_01 12:58

Yeah, those shifts were definitely um interesting because even in the process of me building the company, when I was like looking at my finances to determine, oh, do I have enough money to pay for my mortgage? You know, immediately something inside of me was would say, Go find a job, go find a job, you know. And I knew that was the enemy speaking to me, but it was the constant nudge and reminder that the Holy Spirit kept saying to me, remember what I told you, remember what you promised me. I have you, I'll take care of you. And then there I will be honest, there were months where I wasn't paying my mortgage. Like this is not being obedient, and this is the one of the things that I had to learn the hard way. I used to think, oh, if you do what the Lord tells you to do, He will take care of all of your earthly needs, and that's it, you know. But sometimes those earthly needs are not the the, I don't want to say it's not the biggest priority to the Lord, but first and foremost, obedience comes and struggles will come, but those struggles will never overcome you, if that makes sense, you know, and God gives you the peace and the rest to understand that yeah, I wasn't able to pay my bills, my my complete bills for that month. But um all of a sudden, the following month, something comes my way and I'm able to cover my expenses. Um, and it had and I had to stop thinking the way the world thinks. We were on a timeline, I'm on God's time, and God's time is so different, and that's okay. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:33

Yeah. Well, and it's so easy to get caught up in those fears of I'm gonna lose my home, I'm gonna lose everything. And you also had, I imagine, in the background that I already started a business and it failed. What if that happens again? Then I'm really in a in a bind.

SPEAKER_01 14:51

That's right, that's right. And I think that's why the Lord even gave me the coach, the kingdom business coach, because that was probably the first step before I could even really step into what he had called me to do. I had to come to grips with understanding that first and foremost, I think it I believe it was God's hand for the business to fail. Had it not failed, I would have never came back to him at that point, you know. So, you know, we we automatically assume that sometimes I believe I've learned to see this that sometimes in order for God to say uh to get you back into the fold, he allows things like this to come into your life. And it may feel devastating to you, but he's thinking eternal and not in the moment, right? I care about who you're going, where you're going to go later on. It sucks now, but that's the only way I could get your attention, Mimi. And if I if I can touch an area that is going to completely crush you in a sense, but will allow you to now see that the only way up is to look up is your business had to fail. Yeah, that was that was hard. And the mind, the mindset and the change I had to make to allow myself to realize like the decisions you made for this business is not the decisions you're making for the new business because you're you're now partnering with the Lord and you know what he has started, he will finish.

SPEAKER_00 16:18

Yeah, yeah. I just I was talking with somebody earlier today who was talking about how with God, when we hear a no, there's usually a big, bigger yes underneath that or behind that. And we have to accept the no, we have to accept that hard and that that time of suffering sometimes in order to see his real work and his power.

SPEAKER_01 16:41

Yeah, I've had to just accept to like I you I'm big on, but why? Why? I always ask this, but why? But I'm like that kid that you get frustrated with because that's what the follow-up question is. And I I had been that way with the Lord for a very long time. And part of being obedient is also surrendering and being okay with not knowing the why. But when you actually, and we don't do this often enough, but I I wish people did it more. Like after you've gone through that fire and after you've gone through all of those things, like to actually look back and retrace your steps, you're like, oh my goodness, I know why. Because now we're I'm here and I got here. If if that didn't work out, it's because he wanted to get me right here, you know. So recounting those steps is is so important to understand the why sometimes. And sometimes you'll never know the why, you know, that's the bottom line. So right.

SPEAKER_00 17:39

Yeah. There's I was just thinking to myself a couple weeks ago in church that, you know, there's a lot of the bigger picture that I don't see, and God does see it. So I do have to just step forward in obedience to this is the one thing he's called me to do. All right, I'll do this one thing.

SPEAKER_01 17:59

Okay, and it's interesting because obedience never stops, right? And it's almost like I found the first step of obedience was to write that book, right? And throughout that time, he was asking me to be obedient in other things, and it was like stepping stones for me to the point where eventually I got to being obedient to the business, right? But it's like even after the business, the obedient request never stops, and it almost to me gets bigger. Like, oh I you know, I can trust you with this. Now let me see if you'll do this, and it just continues. But it's like the bigger the it is, the bigger the miracle, or the bigger the the expectation and the excitement because it's just so beautiful how God's hand and his grace and his mercy just continues to follow us through those times.

SPEAKER_00 18:54

Yeah. I'm reminded of what Jesus said those who are faithful in small things will be given more. And we think, oh, I'm gonna have blessings then, but it's also more responsibility in God's economy.

SPEAKER_01 19:07

That's right. More responsibilities for sure.

SPEAKER_00 19:11

Yeah. So I love how you've walked through this difficult season in the 17 years of turning your back on the Lord, and then you return to Him, and God said, write a book. And then now you are helping people write their own stories in a way that I imagine helps them get clarity and helps them share what God's done in their lives with others.

SPEAKER_01 19:38

Yeah, I truly I never thought that this would be something that I would ever get into, but I've realized that learning people's stories and helping them see the goodness of God in their lives is probably the most beautiful experience you can ever experience. And it's it's beyond just publishing a book, it's beyond recording your story. It's truly coming to terms and coming to having this peace inside of you to say, Oh, God, you have done so much in my life. And I'm so grateful for that. And for them to be able to see that and it being uncovered right in front of their face is like the most exciting part of my job.

SPEAKER_00 20:21

Yeah, yeah. So tell us about this process about, you know, somebody might have a, oh, I think I have a God story to tell, or I have a, you know, a story to tell. Where will you start them?

SPEAKER_01 20:33

Yeah, it depends on where they want to go. If they just want to do a book or if they want to follow through with the legacy um project, then it they could they let us know. But um the biggest piece is uh just really working with them to understand why, the why behind it, what are they recounting? What is what is the what do they want the person receiving this book or this story to truly receive? What do they want to experience? You know, um, what transformation is part of this process? God gives us these stories and these experiences that that we go through, not just for us, but it's for others, right? And so we want to understand that piece first and foremost. Um, and then and then we go through the process of just sort of tracing back our steps to see those those simple steps that we're taking to get to the point where they are today. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:30

Yeah. So in a minute, I'm gonna ask you to share a big takeaway from our conversation, but let's talk a little bit about how if somebody has a story idea, how can they get in touch with you? Um, what's the difference between the legacy project and other books you might be putting out there too?

SPEAKER_01 21:46

Yeah, we have the publishing company and we have the legacy project, which is a subsidiary to the publishing company. And essentially both of them achieve the same thing. We want you to leave a legacy, right? Um, but it's really the path that You have to determine what that works best for you. For the legacy project, essentially we're meeting with individuals face to face, we're recording their story and we're creating a documentary style video that shares the life, their life, as well as creating a book that is a keepsake book that they can also use and publish if they want. The publishing side is just simply just publishing your book. And we use voice notes to do that. Or if you want to write it yourself, that's perfectly fine too. Um, and the best way to reach me is uh the oneandonlypublishing.com.

SPEAKER_00 22:37

Okay. So you're you've got the the legacy project, which is like a bookslash documentary, and then you've also got you're helping people write their memoirs, write their stories. Okay, great. So if there's one thing you want people to come away from hearing this conversation, what would that be?

SPEAKER_01 22:56

Obedience. I think that's the story of my life, and I think that is the story of most people's lives. I I find that sometimes when and I'll share this, you know, there were times where I felt like I couldn't hear the Lord, where I felt like he was silent, and um he wasn't, he was always working, but there were many times where I felt like he was silent, and I had to look within and I had to ask the Holy Spirit, what am I doing wrong? What is what is the area that I'm missing? Where am I, where is my blind spot spots? And sometimes, not always, but sometimes it was because the Lord told me to do something and I just wasn't moving as quick as I should have. Um, so obedience is extremely important. It shows that you love the Lord when you are obedient, it shows that you trust the Lord and you're putting your life in his hands. But if I could share anything with anyone that's listening, if the Lord is asking you to do something, no matter how small, no matter how great, just do it. It will save you so much time, just do it.

SPEAKER_00 24:02

Yeah, yeah, I love that. And you, your life and your story is such an example of the power of I'm just gonna take this one step, I'm gonna listen. You know, maybe like when he said, go write your book, and you're like, I don't think so, but he wouldn't let you go. He wouldn't let you get away with that. But then there's so much blessing and so much good that comes out of it. You know, we we have this tendency to think of obedience as a bad word or something ugly, like God's gonna make me do something, but he wants to love you and empower you and show who he is through it all.

SPEAKER_01 24:42

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 24:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:44

He and he comes so softly, you know, it's not he's not forcing you, but he's coming softly and he's just asking you. And you know, it breaks my heart sometimes. Sometimes now when the Lord tells me to be obedient, because there's been so many times where I've just been disobedient. And this is not the first time of the about the book, but when he tells me now, I don't question it, I just do it because I've realized sometimes I'm just grieving the Holy Spirit by just ignoring what he's telling me to do. And I don't like that, you know?

SPEAKER_00 25:14

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, your story just shows us that God is so good and so patient and and he will bless when we obey.

SPEAKER_01 25:22

Amen.

SPEAKER_00 25:23

Well, thank you so much for your time today, Mimi.

SPEAKER_01 25:26

Thank you, Karen. Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_00 25:28

As I thought about my conversation with Mimi, I was struck by how kind and patient God is with us. He waited 17 years for her to be ready to turn back to him. He showed her one step at a time to move into her purpose. He invited her gently to sacrifice her son to him, to stop putting her son before him. And then he gave her that download to start her publishing company just days before she lost her job. So if you're trying to see where God is in your story, just step back and ask him. I'm confident that he'll show you. And I'm confident of that because I know he loves you. So that's it for today. Until next time. Whatever you're walking through, remember this the grace that you need is already being forged.