Allowing God to Re-Brand You
He’s done this to me more than once in my life...changed the way I introduce myself, changed the trajectory of what I thought I knew to do. Can you relate?
The first time I had to rediscover how I showed up was in my 20’s. At the time I thought I would be serving in youth ministry for the rest of my life. I thought that was my calling, my identity, my purpose on this planet.
And then He whispered change...He said this season is over - it’s time to step out - so I did. I had come to terms that my highest and best at the time was to step out of my youth pastoral role to allow God to bring someone else in that had a different gift mix to take things to the “next level”. My season was about being a gap person - but I didn’t realize that when I was in it. So I stepped out, and in time God did bring that right leadership person to fulfill the vision that He had for the life of that youth ministry.
At this initial re-branding, I found it extremely difficult because I had put my identity into my work. I had locked my identity in as being a youth pastor and had no other vision. When that changed, and I had no other vision for myself at the time - I was in a really dark place. I felt lost, I didn’t know who I was - I had no idea who I was in Him. It was a journey of rediscovery - a journey of establishing my identity in Christ, not what I did.
Fast forward almost 20 years later, and I’m in a similar but different space. I’m a hairstylist by trade and have introduced myself as such for over 20 years. Except now I have had to retire due to a repetitive shoulder pain that keeps popping up. We’ve recently made a huge move as a family, so it’s been a natural break to reinvent myself in our new location, but it still feels strange. For half of my life, I’ve shown up this way - I’ve run my home hair business for close to 15 years - this just doesn’t leave you when it’s been a part of your fabric. The fact is I’ve always wanted to be a hairstylist - literally my whole life, so I was living the dream...and now...what now?
Because I have invested the last 20 years since my last re-branding into being firmly established in Christ and not by my works, this rebranding feels fluid and not painful.
It’s funny how God works - little did I know almost three years ago when I started my other beauty business that He would be creating the framework to build upon for where I am at in this moment. Though I am not working in hair like I was, I can still keep it a part of my life for freelance beauty services for photoshoots and special events, etc. And in this current space, I can develop a brand as a freelance entrepreneur. I am actually quite excited to see what will become of this venture.
But I know He isn’t finished...
He is also re-working me to show up with a new brand that He is in the process of revealing. But isn’t that true of everyone? Doesn’t He rework all of us? Isn’t He the Potter and we the clay?
Jeremiah 18:1-4 says:
The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.” So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.
How about you? Have you experienced being taken off the spinning of the Potter’s wheel just to be chucked back on, smooshed, and started over on? Do you have a vision of His Kingdom that is bigger than what you do? Your vision has to be bigger so that when He reworks you, you don’t spin out lacking in hope but can trust that He still has you in His hands.
As entrepreneurs, our identity must be locked in Christ so that the work of our hands is really just an extension of His hands. If He knows He has our hands and feet to work through - where will He send us? What can we be available for? If He says to give up our boats of what we know to follow Him, can we be flexible enough to do that?
When we let Him flow through what we do as entrepreneurs, our gifts will make room for us, and He will be the multiplier of the paltry amounts of loaves and fish that we have to offer. `
At the end of the day, none of what we do is about us or the expansion of our own efforts. As Godpreneurs, we are about expanding His Kingdom and He must increase and we must decrease.