Jan. 5, 2026

The Second Act: When God’s Light met my Darkness

The Second Act: When God’s Light met my Darkness

Send us a text We trace Mikayla’s journey from crowns and depression to surrender, purpose and a swift second act marked by peace, service and marriage. A locked door opens, a pill bottle vanishes and a new life begins as we unpack belonging, exposure and the power of a full yes to God. • small-town accolades masking depression and emptiness • the search for mattering versus popularity • a suicide attempt interrupted and preserved life • new age detours and pandemic exposure • hard truths fr...

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Send us a text

We trace Mikayla’s journey from crowns and depression to surrender, purpose and a swift second act marked by peace, service and marriage. A locked door opens, a pill bottle vanishes and a new life begins as we unpack belonging, exposure and the power of a full yes to God.

• small-town accolades masking depression and emptiness
• the search for mattering versus popularity
• a suicide attempt interrupted and preserved life
• new age detours and pandemic exposure
• hard truths from family and the cost of avoidance
• return to South Carolina and friction that refined
• Word Wednesdays and the mirror of reflection
• clearing house: habits, décor, affiliations, identity
• servant leadership as preparation for marriage
• rest in Jesus over hustle and self-definition
• launching What the Mirror Found on Substack

Like, share and subscribe because God is truly doing something really, really amazing. Don’t be afraid to become a part of the community. Don’t be afraid to reach out, talk to us. We want to engage with you in the comments.


00:04 - Welcome And Guest Introduction

02:56 - The Second Act Framework

05:37 - Act One: Crowns, Masks, And Depression

09:20 - The Empty Well And Belonging

17:22 - Suicide Attempt And A Miraculous Rescue

22:58 - Exposure, Hard Truths, And Avoidance

27:39 - New Age Detours And Pandemic Unmasking

33:09 - The Pull Back To South Carolina

38:20 - Backstage: Reflection And Surrender

44:56 - Rapid Turnaround And Visible Change

50:45 - Clearing House: Letting Go Of Old Identities

56:12 - Second Act Purpose And Servant Leadership

01:01:35 - Marriage, Preparation, And Provision

01:07:30 - A Word To Young Adults: Find Rest

01:12:40 - Substack Launch And Closing CTA

WEBVTT

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Hello, everybody.

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Welcome back to the Unlearned Podcast.

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This is your host, Jaquita Ross, and we are back for another episode of the second act, friends.

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This is the place where we come to reflect on where we've been so we can redefine our now and hopefully prayerfully rewrite our next.

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I am here, you guys, with an incredibly special guest.

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She is so dear to my heart.

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I hope she knows that in every way.

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Um, she is a friend, she is a sister, she is a wife, okay?

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She is a citizen of the kingdom of the of the Lord our God, okay?

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She is she's a menstrual, all right?

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She is a mentor to many, um, and she is just a lovely and wonderfully sweet person.

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Uh, I want to introduce you all to sweet, sweet Michaela.

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Say hey, Michaela.

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Hello, everybody.

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Yes.

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Y'all listen, I there are people that when you meet them, you are just immediately drawn to them.

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Right.

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Um, in my one of my previous roles, uh, Michaela and I started um in the same center around the same time within like a month of each other, I think.

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Yeah, and it was so, but as soon as I saw her, I was like, she's one of mine.

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I don't I don't care who she worked for, I don't care what's going on, she's one of mine.

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And I gotta figure out how to let her know that.

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Um, but Michaela is an absolute force, an absolute force to be reckoned with, both uh inside the school and outside the school.

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I think that there are so many people that can testify of how just powerful not only her story is, but her character, her spirit, her persona, everything that she carries, the spirit of God that she carries on the inside of her has impacted so many.

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And I just really cannot wait to introduce you guys to her beautiful story.

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Michaela, how are you feeling today, girl?

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I'm feeling so great.

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I'm honored to be here.

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I'm excited.

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Jakuda gave so many words and um to to introduce me, and it it's it's it's amazing, and it feels so great coming from you.

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Um, and it was just prophetic when you said she'll be one of mine.

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I was just like, she she doesn't even know what she was speaking, which and so um because there's so much in that that I'm excited for us to unpack that I became one.

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Um Lord have mercy.

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So um that's good to me.

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And yeah, I'm just I'm happy to be here, and I'm happy to be uh in the number.

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I listen, I told Michaela before this started that this might be my churchiest episode yet.

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All right, so I want she's not here, but I'm gonna apologize to Ruth Abigail right now, okay.

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Uh for uh uh my other uh Unlearned podcast host, because I'm about to be as churchy as can be on this one.

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Uh, because Michaela will bring it out of you.

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Okay, her joy for the Lord is just infectious.

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Listen, we're gonna cut up real bad, y'all.

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I wanna let y'all know.

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Yeah, like this.

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Michaela, I want I want you to know honestly and truly, when I set forth to uh to begin this this new segment, um, you were literally the first person I thought of as a guest.

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Um, I knew that your story was the type of story that I wanted to tell, that I felt other people needed to know and to hear.

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Um and the power of how God moved you, I mean, swiftly, okay, which we're gonna talk about um swiftly and completely.

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You know, it wasn't, you know, like to a place where there's no residue, you know, and um and I really just want to introduce people to the power of God through your stories.

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So let's start, let's start at whatever beginning you want to start.

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We're uh if for those of you who are just joining us and it might be your first time watching the second act, listen, this segment of the Unlearned series, Unlearned Podcast, is all about telling the stories of people and how God has moved them from the places where we were introduced to the world, where we were introduced to ourselves in our first act, where we learned, had uh uh periods of exploration and periods of self-learning and self-discovery and experienced challenges, um, experienced uh trials and triumphs that eventually the Lord pulled us away from in an intermission where he got us to himself, he began to make changes in our lives because when you go backstage, that's where the change happens, right?

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When you go to the dark of the backstage and the light from the stage is not shining on you, and God is able to do some things in the back before he launches you out into the second act, and so um, if you haven't watched the any of our other episodes yet, that's what we are about.

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We are about showing the how the power of God moves through the different acts of our lives.

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Um, and so Michaela, set the scene for us, right?

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What was pre-intermission, Michaela?

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What was Michaela's first act?

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Like, and feel free to start your story at whatever point you want to.

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Yes, as oh, that was so beautiful.

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That was so what a scene.

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Um as you were talking, I was just over here praying.

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Like there was just so much that happened in act one.

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Um, and it began super, super early when I'm thinking back through um that first moment when I had a realization about myself.

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And I would say it started.

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I'm from a small town, Georgetown, South Carolina.

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Georgetown.

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Georgetown, South Carolina.

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Yes, yes.

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And if you know anything about um Georgetown, South Carolina, there's not much.

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There, there's not much there.

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Um, it's it's a very small city.

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We got a Walmart.

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That's the mall.

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That's where everything that's really why I happen.

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Um but um a lot of people talk about you know this small town mindset or and they speak a lot about things like that.

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And I think I think some of that can reign true, right?

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And um I believe um being in spaces like that, um when when there's like a there's like a group think that's happening, right?

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Um that that started for me very, very early.

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Um, and so I believe since about high school, um, high school was the first time that I realized that I had a voice, right?

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Um and so I did things like the cheerleading and the um homecoming pageants and Miss Georgetown High School.

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Um and and I was winning these things.

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And I just told somebody about I just told someone about a month ago that I was winning all of these things and I was in all these spaces and the organizations and things, but there was depression there.

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I would I would have a crown on and I'm smiling in so many spaces, and I'd get home and I'd be in an empty space.

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It'd be alone.

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It was my my thoughts were going crazy, the space was empty, um, and it was just dark.

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It was lonely.

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Um, and so when I think about act one, it was a it was a phase of um being so consumed with everything that was happening around me and being so concerned with what are the what are the other students gonna think, what are my peers thinking of me?

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How can I be more like them?

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Um and it was driving me crazy, honestly.

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I didn't know that at the time.

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Um but um my my mask was to win as many things as possible.

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That's that's where I'm gonna feel uh like I'm matter.

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That's that's where mattering is gonna come from, from the validation of the people around me.

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Their votes will matter, them them cheering in the crowd, Gold Michaela is going to matter.

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Um I like I had literally have more crowns and trophies than I can think of.

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And it meant nothing.

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It it meant absolutely nothing because behind the mask of um she's winning everything was a dark and depressed girl, like super, super dark and depressed.

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And so when I think about that small Georgetown um mindset, I I feel that I was just in this phase of um how do I fit?

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How do I just fit what other people need me to be, or even what I thought myself, what I thought I was supposed to be for myself, um, and not fully having the full understanding of what purpose actually means, and thinking purpose meant the validation of other people, whether that be relationships from teachers, from friends, or the people around me.

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Um so it uh it was a lot of trying to understand mattering, and um, that started from a very, very early age.

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Wait a minute, wait a minute, because that that is so good.

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It was a lot of trying to understand mattering, right?

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Because, you know, when I think about my own journey through those youthful times, right?

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It was this constant fight for a feeling of worth, right?

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A feeling of somebody's gonna see me, and and what you're what you're describing as that darkness, I think I would describe as a hollowness.

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Like there is something empty, and I'm pouring out, waiting for somebody else to pour in so that I can feel full.

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Yes, right, and it and it was this, um, but it's like there's nobody, there wasn't any pour that could fill kind of this this enormous well on the inside of me.

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Because when you talk about a well, that well has to bubble up from in you.

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You can't pour into a well and try to fill right if the well is dry.

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You cannot get enough of these water bottles to pour into that well to restart it, right?

00:11:13.919 --> 00:11:22.399
You gotta find an underground source, yeah, you gotta tap into something that will bubble up on the inside of you.

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Um, and I love how you tell the story of how you were reaching for these things, yeah, right?

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You were reaching for these awards and these trophies and these celebrations and this external validation, right, to pour into an empty cup, right?

00:11:39.360 --> 00:11:45.679
I'm wondering what community looked like for you then, what friendship looked like for you.

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Yeah.

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Um again, when I that that's such a good question because um it was so fleeting.

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It was very fleeting because um when I think about uh just trying to be a person trying to fit, when you're trying to fit in all different types of spaces, you're constantly shifting and you can't just be uh one.

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You're not just comfortable in in who you are because you don't know, you you don't know who you are, because in every space, in every conversation, from the home life with your cousins, um, with friends, cheerleading squad.

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Um, like I said, I was in a lot of different organizations, but there was this constant shifting of persona and who I was showing up to be.

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Um, it was fleeting, very fleeting.

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When you think about, I love, but see, that's so, and people don't realize that that's what they're experiencing, you know, especially in those, you know, on this podcast, we talk a lot about being a middle adult, okay.

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Michaela has not quite yet made it to her middle adult years, okay.

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I did, I did want to introduce y'all to my young adult population.

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Okay.

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I know she's wise, I know she's rooted and grounded, and y'all are gonna hear her and be like, oh, this woman, that's the Holy Ghost, okay?

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And that is that is just really, really deeply authentic, real experiences that have really grounded her in God.

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Um but Michaela is a youngin', okay?

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Um, to me, to me, to me, okay.

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Um, but you know, we talk a lot about, you know, the things that we learned in our 20s, you know, that we had to unlearn in order to be successful in our middle adult years.

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And, you know, I I honestly think Michaela skipped some grades.

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I'm not even gonna lie to y'all.

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Um, sometimes I feel like I'm talking to Michaela like she's a mentee, like let me pour.

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And then other times I'm looking at her like, this girl got it.

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She just has it, you know.

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But I think it's so interesting, you know, the idea of the shifting, you know, of the of the because you're trying to find placement in a in a place in relationships and in communities where you you may not actually belong.

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But because you haven't been introduced to you yet, you know what I'm saying?

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You you have not yet met the real you.

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And so you feel unsettled, right?

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Right.

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It won't, but what I love about God is it doesn't matter what your life circumstances are, and y'all I move this ring around on different fingers.

00:14:53.840 --> 00:14:59.600
Okay, I promise you, we're not doing like the the uh, you know, I was about to say a name, but that's that's you know, real rude.

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We're not doing those edits and cuts.

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The ring fits on every finger, so it's gonna be it's my little nervous stick.

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But um, but but you know, what I love about God is that God, as our creator and as our father, there are glimpses.

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You know, it doesn't matter what what state you're in, you know, because sometimes when we recall our stories, we think about, you know, the dark.

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We think about yeah, but there were always glimpses.

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What were your glimpses in the first act that were kind of foreshadowing where you were?

00:15:34.799 --> 00:15:53.200
Well, one, as you were talking, it reminded me, uh, my husband and I were just talking, we were reading Ecclesiastes, and um there was this one part in Ecclesiastes that stood out to me, and um, it says that um he places eternity in all of our hearts.

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And I was asking for um him to reveal a little bit more.

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Um, and so as he's revealing, it reminded uh me that um all of us, like you said, we there's this void.

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There's this void, and we're looking a lot of times, we're looking for something to be filled, something to fill that void, right?

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Um, which that only God can fill, right?

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And so I'm I'm over here, and even in talking and discussing the fact that in so many places, uh even though I felt like I was fluid, I'm realizing now that I was trying to be filled by people who could never fill what only God could.

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And so I'm over here thankful.

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It it the the glimpse for me is the fact that there was no person, no no substance, nothing, no experience that could fill that void that only God could fill.

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That's glimpse enough for me, the fact that nothing could do what only He can.

00:16:56.159 --> 00:17:06.319
Um, and so that that was one of the things that stood out to me that um only God filled what I was looking for.

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He he was the only one that could truly do it, not even my husband, only God could fill that void in this eternity, in the this, this, this searching that I needed to be whole, right?

00:17:19.039 --> 00:17:22.079
So it was that that I would definitely say that.

00:17:22.319 --> 00:17:33.839
Um on Sunday, I was talking um to the church and telling them um in college I had a suicide attempt.

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And um, and I remember, I remember being in my dorm room and all that whole day, that whole day, I wasn't um talking to any friends, I wasn't really responding to anyone, and I had it in my head that that day was going to be the day.

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And I had a pill bottle, and the pill bottle is in my hand.

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All I'm the doors are closed.

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I'm in my dorm.

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I'm the only one who lives in it.

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I was an RA at the time.

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Um, and so I I was the only one in that room.

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And I have this pill bottle in my hand, and I'm I'm I'm talking myself up to this moment that this now is the time.

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I've I've done all I can do.

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I'm tired, I feel helpless.

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I'm I'm in a place that I don't know what else I have left.

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And I was just hurting.

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I was in, it it was just a rough space for me, mentally, physically, emotionally.

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Um, and again, purpose was something that I kept searching for that, but I couldn't find or I couldn't understand.

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And so when I was at that state of helplessness, I had these pills in my hand, and I'm getting ready to consume them all.

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One of the girls who was reaching out to me that day busts through the door.

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Jaquita, this door was locked.

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My door was locked.

00:19:07.920 --> 00:19:08.240
Okay.

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To this day, I don't know how she got through that door.

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She walks through the door, she walks over to me, she looks in my hand, she snatches the pill bottle and all of the pills and walks out the door.

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Jesus.

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Jesus.

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All I could do was sit there in awe.

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And I and at the time I did not know.

00:19:34.559 --> 00:19:40.240
I was I grew up in church, so I had an idea of God, but I didn't know him for myself.

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There was no relationship.

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And so I didn't know at the time that there was a glimpse of God and him reaching for me.

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All I all I saw was my friend came into the room and snatched what was trying to kill me, or what I tried to use.

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To kill myself.

00:20:02.079 --> 00:20:02.720
Yeah.

00:20:03.039 --> 00:20:16.960
And when you talked about glimpses, that's the one thing that sticks out to me because the devil, this mother told me the devil, his job is to still kill, kill, and destroy, right?

00:20:17.200 --> 00:20:18.000
But he can't.

00:20:18.240 --> 00:20:19.119
Absolutely.

00:20:19.359 --> 00:20:23.039
He but he can't kill what God has his hand on.

00:20:23.759 --> 00:20:34.720
And he knew, he knew who I who I was called to be, even though I didn't know for myself, he knew who I who I was called to be or how God was going to use me.

00:20:34.880 --> 00:20:50.720
And so he had my my mind so gone, so consumed by the things of this world, so consumed with even me trying to discover my purpose and so down in this idea of helplessness, in helplessness, that there was this thought to do it myself.

00:20:50.880 --> 00:20:52.480
Suicide was common to me.

00:20:53.519 --> 00:20:56.400
Suicide ideation was a common thought to me.

00:21:00.799 --> 00:21:02.400
I thought about it daily.

00:21:02.720 --> 00:21:04.640
It was a daily thought for me.

00:21:04.799 --> 00:21:05.119
Wow.

00:21:05.279 --> 00:21:17.839
And so it was so common to me that I was ready at any time to take that step in into uh suicide and uh death and dying.

00:21:18.000 --> 00:21:25.839
And um every time I think about that moment, I know that God was God was all up in that.

00:21:26.079 --> 00:21:27.920
He was all up in that.

00:21:28.240 --> 00:21:34.640
Um I mean, it's like the angels bust through the prison doors, honey.

00:21:34.880 --> 00:21:38.720
Okay, rolled the stone away on your behalf, you know.

00:21:38.960 --> 00:22:02.319
And I I'm grateful because your life, the life that the enemy wanted you to abort, has been used to carry so many others through, you know, not maybe not through the same pain, but to carry people through their pain, you know, and I know a lot of people talk about how the Lord will use what you've been through, you know, as part of your purpose.

00:22:02.559 --> 00:22:06.720
Um, but death was never a part of your purpose, but life always was.

00:22:06.960 --> 00:22:14.720
And I'm grateful that God preserved what he put on the inside of you because what he put in you was life.

00:22:14.960 --> 00:22:27.519
He put it, he put it in you that you would have life and that you would have it more abundantly, and that you would be able to teach other people how to walk in life and to walk in light.

00:22:27.839 --> 00:22:30.319
He put life and light inside of you.

00:22:30.480 --> 00:22:36.240
Y'all, when I used to uh when I would be in a big meeting and they would say, okay, it's time to introduce yourself.

00:22:36.400 --> 00:22:45.519
I used to be the brightest star, okay, because I had the vibes and the energy, and I knew I could, I could pep a crowd up until I met Michaela.

00:22:45.759 --> 00:22:54.960
And Michaela would get in a mic in front of a crowd, and literally everybody starts beaming and smiling.

00:22:55.119 --> 00:22:56.960
And I'm like, they used to be.

00:22:59.759 --> 00:23:15.359
You know, to be honest, when I met Michaela, and when I saw how she worked, and how people gravitated to her and how they corralled around her, and and before, you know, and we'll talk about kind of the timing of things.

00:23:15.519 --> 00:23:23.119
I mean, before, during, and after all of her processes, there was always life and light on the inside of you.

00:23:23.279 --> 00:23:25.759
The enemy wasn't after you for nothing.

00:23:26.000 --> 00:23:27.039
You get what I'm saying?

00:23:27.200 --> 00:23:36.960
Like he wanted to introduce the opposite of your gift to you, and he constantly berated you with the opposite of who you were.

00:23:37.279 --> 00:23:39.359
Because again, life and light.

00:23:39.519 --> 00:23:45.200
That's what's inside of Michaela, and that's what Michaela gives to everyone that she comes in contact with, right?

00:23:45.440 --> 00:24:11.279
And I really want to take a moment because there are people who experience things on different levels, and it may not be at the level that Michaela experienced it at, but we are all, everybody has experienced, especially in our first act, those seasons of doubt, those seasons of fear, those seasons of why, and if God sees, if God knows, if God's here.

00:24:11.519 --> 00:24:23.759
And I want to be a voice, and I want Michaela's voice to be a voice in this moment that reassures you that what's inside of you is greater than what's coming against you, right?

00:24:23.920 --> 00:24:34.079
And whatever voice is whispering to you, right, that is telling you that you're not worthy, that you're not good enough, that that life is not worth it.

00:24:34.319 --> 00:24:37.279
I want you to know that there is a voice.

00:24:37.519 --> 00:24:43.759
And just like there was an angel that came and bust into Michaela's room, I want to bust into your room right now.

00:24:43.920 --> 00:24:46.799
I want to bust into those thoughts that are berating you.

00:24:46.960 --> 00:24:55.359
I want to bust into those thoughts that have been covering over your mind, that have been uh uh trying to barricade God's voice in your life.

00:24:55.440 --> 00:25:03.920
And I want to tell you, I want to snatch what the enemy is trying to use against you and tell you that your life right now is worth it.

00:25:04.079 --> 00:25:10.160
I don't care where you are, I don't care what you've done, I don't care where you feel that you are, your life is worth it.

00:25:10.480 --> 00:25:16.799
Your life is worth it, not because of anything that you're gonna do in the future, but simply because you're loved.

00:25:17.119 --> 00:25:24.319
Simply because you are loved by a God, you are loved by a people, and we need you in the search.

00:25:24.640 --> 00:25:25.839
We need you.

00:25:26.079 --> 00:25:30.000
I need you, I need you if you don't hear it from anybody else.

00:25:30.240 --> 00:25:37.759
Because I can definitely sit here and tell Michaela today that I need her, that I need her, that she's needed, that she's loved, and she's wanted.

00:25:37.839 --> 00:25:40.799
And so I didn't want to let that moment pass us by.

00:25:40.960 --> 00:25:41.279
Okay.

00:25:45.279 --> 00:25:53.920
Because, you know, Michaela, when I met you, and I, you know, me and Michaela, we talk a lot about, you know, spiritual matters.

00:25:54.079 --> 00:25:59.920
Okay, because we we're both very aligned, okay, and what we see, know, and understand.

00:26:00.160 --> 00:26:03.680
Okay, we we are both very aligned, okay.

00:26:03.920 --> 00:26:18.000
Um, and I I promise you, when I looked at Michaela, I, you know, I saw, you know, when I first met you, I saw, you know, the way you dressed and I saw the way you carried yourself.

00:26:18.079 --> 00:26:21.359
You know, it's funny to me because again, I was an adult.

00:26:21.440 --> 00:26:31.759
They used to call me one of the adults in the space, you know, uh, because I was I started as a middle adult in that space, and they were all like 25 and 26, you know.

00:26:31.920 --> 00:26:40.880
Um but I I remember seeing past everything that you were presenting when you first got there.

00:26:41.119 --> 00:26:51.119
And I knew immediately the light that was in you and the goodness that was on the inside of you, to the point to where I almost couldn't see.

00:26:51.279 --> 00:27:04.160
And you know, like I'm usually a person that sees and knows, but there was so like what God had put inside of you was so much stronger than the light that you were living at that moment.

00:27:04.319 --> 00:27:08.720
It was so much his light in you was always so much brighter.

00:27:08.880 --> 00:27:15.759
Um, and I think if people really knew, especially in that first act, how other people really see them.

00:27:16.319 --> 00:27:20.079
Yeah, you know, because I don't think that's how you saw yourself in that moment.

00:27:22.000 --> 00:27:25.039
No, no, not at all.

00:27:25.279 --> 00:27:37.440
Um, as you were talking, I I I look back and um I think it again just goes to what was around me, what was I consuming?

00:27:37.599 --> 00:27:39.119
Who were the voices in my head?

00:27:39.200 --> 00:27:46.079
You were talking about the voices telling us what uh to kill ourselves or to do this.

00:27:46.319 --> 00:27:49.359
You gotta protect your ear gates, you gotta protect what you want.

00:27:49.599 --> 00:28:02.000
And I just remember uh even even in attire, I was trying to fit what voices were telling me, what how I should look, what I should wear, what I should oh my goodness.

00:28:02.240 --> 00:28:05.759
Um and so no, I I didn't see at all.

00:28:05.920 --> 00:28:36.400
I I didn't I knew deep inside that I was constantly trying to fit, but I didn't know that me trying to fit because you know people the people have tried to um um describe belonging in a way that um just means how do we fit with other people rather than uh helping us get to the internal uh piece first.

00:28:36.640 --> 00:28:42.160
There's an internal belonging and mattering that has to matter before you get into another space.

00:28:42.240 --> 00:28:48.400
You're never gonna feel like you belong or you matter in other spaces um until it happens inside first.

00:28:48.559 --> 00:28:55.680
It has to be uh inside work before you can go go out and do the and belong elsewhere.

00:28:55.839 --> 00:29:02.240
Um, and I I I knew that I didn't necessarily feel it and feel belonging or mattering.

00:29:02.480 --> 00:29:08.720
Um, and so when when that is the case, you are just going to try to fit.

00:29:08.880 --> 00:29:13.599
And so no, I I didn't see anything that you were talking about.

00:29:14.720 --> 00:29:17.599
I didn't I didn't see any of that.

00:29:18.319 --> 00:29:21.359
I just knew that I was uncomfortable.

00:29:22.799 --> 00:29:41.839
Listen, it's so interesting to me um when we think about ideas of purpose and identity and how those thoughts of who we are and what we're supposed to be doing, how those thoughts are built, you know, as we walk through our journey.

00:29:42.079 --> 00:29:59.039
Um and it it sounds like, you know, on your journey to finding mattering, which is feeling that whole concept, FYI, because when I, you know, maybe we can co we can co-write a little book about it, okay?

00:29:59.200 --> 00:30:01.119
Or write an article or something.

00:30:01.920 --> 00:30:02.720
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:30:02.799 --> 00:30:03.680
No, no, no, no, no.

00:30:03.759 --> 00:30:04.640
For real, for real, for real.

00:30:04.720 --> 00:30:05.680
We'll sidebar that.

00:30:05.839 --> 00:30:06.880
Y'all be looking out.

00:30:07.119 --> 00:30:11.680
Uh me and Michaela, we're gonna have a little something come out about mattering, okay?

00:30:12.079 --> 00:30:12.480
Come on.

00:30:13.279 --> 00:30:14.640
Listen, it's good to me.

00:30:14.720 --> 00:30:15.839
It is good to me.

00:30:16.079 --> 00:30:31.279
But when you when you think about kind of that journey to to figuring out who you are, you know, that's such a big question, especially during those college years.

00:30:31.599 --> 00:30:39.279
It's such a it's such a huge undertaking to go on that journey to finding that.

00:30:39.440 --> 00:30:48.480
And what I find is that by the time I meet students, you know, I always said that college is the age of differentiation, right?

00:30:48.640 --> 00:30:53.200
It's the age where you are making, you're no longer being told who you are.

00:30:53.359 --> 00:30:57.039
It's time to start making decisions about who you're going to be, right?

00:30:57.279 --> 00:31:03.759
And so you have to start, it is the age where we should start reflecting on some things, right?

00:31:03.839 --> 00:31:16.400
We should start reflecting on where we've come from and what we've endured and what we want to carry with us and what we might need to take off, what we may need to disrobe from, right?

00:31:16.559 --> 00:31:19.119
What we may need to submit to God in the fire.

00:31:19.200 --> 00:31:22.880
And college, you know, I don't think most people think about college like that.

00:31:23.039 --> 00:31:31.279
You know, most people think college is the time where you are like out here, you know, finding yourself and living it out, you know.

00:31:31.599 --> 00:31:44.240
Um but I think that there's an opportunity here that when you have the right voices, when you get connected to the right people in college, it can be completely different than what everyone expects.

00:31:44.400 --> 00:31:56.160
Um I'm interested because so through college, we were still learning and discovering this idea of mattering, right?

00:31:56.319 --> 00:32:03.599
We were still struggling with these ideas of wholeness, acceptance, um of life.

00:32:03.920 --> 00:32:06.799
Um after college, where do we go?

00:32:06.960 --> 00:32:07.599
What happened?

00:32:08.079 --> 00:32:09.279
Yeah, yeah.

00:32:09.519 --> 00:32:14.720
Um, after college, uh bachelor's, I ended up in grad school.

00:32:15.200 --> 00:32:24.640
Um, and grad school spoke even more to just this trying to understand and discover self.

00:32:24.960 --> 00:32:47.680
Um, and that was the period I got really into uh what they called the new age spirituality, and so the collecting of the crystals and and um heavy witchcraft, heavy witchcraft, um, was was very normal for me and being in spaces.

00:32:47.920 --> 00:32:56.799
Um so all of the you know, the tarot and all of that, um, that was those were all the spaces that I was in.

00:32:56.960 --> 00:33:04.000
Um, because I I believe that it was a quick fix in me trying to understand who I was.

00:33:04.319 --> 00:33:08.319
Um and it was it was it was catchy and I was curious.

00:33:08.480 --> 00:33:15.359
Um, and like you said, I'm in this this space and this stage of discovery, and so everything seemed cool.

00:33:15.599 --> 00:33:21.200
Everything when when you're not grounded in in who you are, you you want to do everything.

00:33:22.000 --> 00:33:25.759
Um, and so I was okay.

00:33:26.000 --> 00:33:27.119
So I let me touch that.

00:33:27.279 --> 00:33:28.000
Let me let me try.

00:33:28.400 --> 00:33:30.960
Yes, yes, yeah.

00:33:31.279 --> 00:33:41.279
And um not realizing that um those those feelings were temporary highs, temporary highs.

00:33:41.440 --> 00:34:05.920
Um I would have some I'd um have very high moments and days later I'm still in this this high and then the suicidal thoughts, high and the suicidal, it's like very um ebb and flow, just super excited and then depressed and masking and depressed.

00:34:06.160 --> 00:34:25.280
And um, let me go on this stage here and tell everyone that it's okay not to be okay, and then I'm just like going through it and not even believing anything that I'm saying, you know, um, or um not even really knowing truly what I was saying, you know.

00:34:25.519 --> 00:34:43.360
Um just trying to figure out um what was gonna help me, but it was it was just really diving into this curiosity phase where I tried everything.

00:34:43.519 --> 00:34:45.840
I I just wanted to try everything.

00:34:46.079 --> 00:35:02.639
Um, and grad school was also um I I entered grad school in 2019, in fall of 2019, and um in the spring of 2020, we all know that uh the pandemic hit, okay?

00:35:02.960 --> 00:35:06.400
And that exposed did indeed hit.

00:35:06.960 --> 00:35:10.400
It hit, it hit and it exposed.

00:35:11.119 --> 00:35:20.639
It was a year of exposure, it exposed where our minds were, where our hearts were, how close we were to God, how far we were from God.

00:35:20.719 --> 00:35:23.840
And this is this is not just in me as an individual.

00:35:24.000 --> 00:35:29.840
I believe that year exposed a lot in so many different spaces.

00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:38.400
Um, and the things that we consume during that time, um, I think it was also supposed to be a year of because in exposure, right?

00:35:38.639 --> 00:35:57.440
Um when you're when you're uncovered, a lot of times either you gonna dress it up to try to mask something, or you're or in the exposure, you're gonna lean into it and truly get to the root of what do I need, not just to be a mask or try to cover it up.

00:35:57.679 --> 00:36:00.239
Um yeah, but who do I need to walk into?

00:36:00.400 --> 00:36:02.639
What do I need to walk into in this time?

00:36:02.880 --> 00:36:10.800
Um, and it was a year of exposure, and I just kept on going in that route of curiosity because I didn't want to deal with it, right?

00:36:10.960 --> 00:36:16.480
It was it was like a laundry pile, you know, like I see him, but I'm just gonna toss it over here to the side.

00:36:16.639 --> 00:36:20.239
I'll deal with that another time, and it just kept piling up and piling up.

00:36:20.400 --> 00:36:29.039
Um yeah, it was so grad school that time of my life was a lot.

00:36:31.280 --> 00:36:33.280
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:36:34.000 --> 00:36:48.079
Um I'm I'm wondering, you know, as you as you're telling this story, and you know, I I'm I'm I'm seeing this kind of pivot point coming.

00:36:48.239 --> 00:36:51.679
Like we're getting to the moment where where the story's gonna shift.

00:36:52.000 --> 00:36:57.360
Um when you talked about this idea of exposure, right?

00:36:57.519 --> 00:37:01.440
Yeah, was it what was that like for you?

00:37:01.599 --> 00:37:04.079
Was there uncomfortable truths?

00:37:04.400 --> 00:37:06.079
Were there revelations?

00:37:06.320 --> 00:37:12.559
Were there things that you knew you were gonna have to start dealing with that you weren't yet ready to deal with?

00:37:12.719 --> 00:37:14.719
What did exposure look like?

00:37:15.440 --> 00:37:25.199
Yeah, um, I sat in it for a while, um, in the in the in the uncomfortability of it.

00:37:27.039 --> 00:37:34.000
During that time, I I also had um just went through a breakup that was really rough.

00:37:34.639 --> 00:37:45.199
Um and the guy actually told my mom some things about me um that you know I needed to heal from, that I I didn't know for myself.

00:37:45.360 --> 00:37:59.760
Um, so a lot of times uh what I've come to realize is that, like you said, um we'll try to hide from things or we'll think that we're not uh just because we don't want to realize the truth about ourselves, it is it's not that people don't see it.

00:38:00.239 --> 00:38:02.159
It's just that we don't want to confront it.

00:38:02.320 --> 00:38:04.800
We don't want to come to realize it.

00:38:04.960 --> 00:38:08.079
Um and so he actually shared some things with my mom.

00:38:08.320 --> 00:38:14.639
And um during that time I was living at home, and so her and I actually got a chance to speak.

00:38:14.880 --> 00:38:23.679
Um and so I I heard the truths about myself, but I didn't I didn't want to lean into it.

00:38:23.760 --> 00:38:26.639
I didn't want to do anything with it, and then it was coming from my mom.

00:38:26.880 --> 00:38:32.079
Like I don't want to I don't want to hear that, you know.

00:38:33.280 --> 00:38:36.159
I don't want to hear nothing she got to say, you know.

00:38:36.400 --> 00:38:44.159
Um at right, you know, we sometimes we in those, we're like, I don't want to hear nothing my mama has to say.

00:38:44.400 --> 00:38:55.760
Um but um so yeah, that's exposure for me just look like um I might see a little bit what y'all are talking about, but no thanks.

00:38:55.920 --> 00:38:57.280
I don't want to touch that.

00:38:57.519 --> 00:38:59.039
I I don't want to touch that.

00:39:00.559 --> 00:39:03.280
But you know, we don't want to touch it.

00:39:03.519 --> 00:39:05.920
But once it's been exposed, right?

00:39:06.079 --> 00:39:09.280
Like once it's been put on the table, right?

00:39:09.440 --> 00:39:14.800
It's kind of now becoming the thing that you're having to avoid dealing with.

00:39:15.199 --> 00:39:15.440
Right.

00:39:15.679 --> 00:39:21.519
And so now it's not just, you know, I can't say I didn't know, right?

00:39:21.679 --> 00:39:24.400
I can't say I was never told.

00:39:24.639 --> 00:39:30.880
Right now I'm I'm either I'm either avoiding it, I'm making an active choice.

00:39:31.119 --> 00:39:32.960
I'm not dealing with that right now.

00:39:33.199 --> 00:39:33.440
Right?

00:39:34.159 --> 00:39:44.480
You know, and as a person who has been told many uncomfortable truths about herself, that immediately, you know, a lot of things went through my mind about how I'm gonna deal with this.

00:39:44.719 --> 00:39:50.559
Either I'm uh sometimes we like to cast a shadow on the person who said it.

00:39:50.719 --> 00:39:54.400
You know, like immediately we like, what you how you gonna talk?

00:39:54.639 --> 00:39:56.800
Okay, because you dah da.

00:39:57.119 --> 00:39:59.360
So you can't tell me about me because da.

00:40:00.800 --> 00:40:05.199
You know, and so uh are we are we discount it?

00:40:05.360 --> 00:40:08.400
We discount what they said, like that's not true because they don't know all of it.

00:40:09.360 --> 00:40:11.440
They don't know the whole story, you know.

00:40:11.599 --> 00:40:19.199
They don't they don't I ain't tell them everything, so they don't know everything, so whatever they're seeing ain't really real anyway, you know.

00:40:19.679 --> 00:40:29.599
But I I there's just this moment as we're as we're thinking about how sometimes our first acts, usually in the first act of a play, right?

00:40:29.679 --> 00:40:34.400
They gotta they gotta make you want to come back to see how things resolve themselves.

00:40:34.559 --> 00:40:38.960
But in the first act, that's where conflict is introduced, right?

00:40:39.199 --> 00:40:48.000
Even with a troubled character, you can know that the character is troubled, but they gotta do something crazy that makes you say, My Lord, you know what I'm saying?

00:40:48.159 --> 00:40:52.639
Any good playwright during an intervention, they want the audience buzzing.

00:40:52.800 --> 00:40:55.599
Like, you know, girl, did you see child?

00:40:55.679 --> 00:40:57.360
I don't know how they're gonna get out of this.

00:40:57.519 --> 00:41:14.400
There's always some circumstance where we're like, I don't know how the main character is gonna push through all the obstacles, is gonna overcome all the challenges and all of the uh all of the burdens and all of the things.

00:41:14.559 --> 00:41:17.039
I don't know how they're gonna make it through, right?

00:41:17.199 --> 00:41:32.480
And so what I'm hearing from your story is that in everything that you went through, you got to a point in your first act where the Lord started laying before you, okay, here's what's here's what you've been trying to cover up.

00:41:32.719 --> 00:41:49.599
Here's here's the real narrative that you're trying to ignore, the things that you are avoiding, bringing to me, that you're avoiding healing, because I think a lot of times people think that healing, that the process of healing is easing the pain, right?

00:41:49.760 --> 00:41:53.199
That I'm gonna heal and it's gonna ease the pain that I feel.

00:41:53.440 --> 00:42:02.960
But a lot of the work of healing, the work of healing is confronting the pain, yeah, and then rendering it.

00:42:03.280 --> 00:42:24.719
Yeah, you said it's what some hard truths, confronting the hard truths, yeah, it's hard confronting the hard truths, and then allowing the wisdom and the counsel and the love and the grace and the mercy of God to minister to those areas of your life.

00:42:24.960 --> 00:42:33.360
It is not healing, is not I'm gonna lessen what I felt, or I'm gonna lessen what I've experienced.

00:42:33.679 --> 00:42:40.400
It is I'm going to completely allow God in to those doors that I thought I locked.

00:42:40.880 --> 00:42:46.239
I'm gonna let them in right in the places where I know it hurts the most.

00:42:46.719 --> 00:43:00.320
That is, those are the beginning processes of healing, and it always starts with a level of revelation because eventually you are going to have to tell yourself the truth.

00:43:00.960 --> 00:43:06.079
You are gonna have to sit in in some hard truths.

00:43:06.159 --> 00:43:07.920
I'm thinking of Job, right?

00:43:08.000 --> 00:43:15.440
I'm thinking of Job who after all that man went through, I mean that man went through, right?

00:43:15.840 --> 00:43:18.719
Satan was on him, right?

00:43:18.960 --> 00:43:29.599
First the children gone, then the animals gone, his house is all gone, except for a woman who don't understand him no more, right?

00:43:29.760 --> 00:43:35.679
A woman who don't know how to comfort and counsel and lead and guide him anymore, a woman who's hurting.

00:43:35.840 --> 00:43:40.800
That's how that's and Job is sitting covered in wools, right?

00:43:40.880 --> 00:43:47.280
And for 37 chapters, he toils with the state of where he's at.

00:43:47.519 --> 00:43:57.119
He toils with his friends in conversations with people about the state of his life, of where he is, of not understanding.

00:43:57.280 --> 00:44:01.840
He toils with not understanding how life ended up.

00:44:02.079 --> 00:44:06.079
And it wasn't until the Lord entered the scene, right?

00:44:06.239 --> 00:44:08.400
He had one friend who started introducing him.

00:44:08.480 --> 00:44:10.159
Hey, you're not looking at this right.

00:44:10.400 --> 00:44:25.440
And after that friend opened the door, the Lord came rushing in and said, Joe, let me let me let me lay out some truths before you real quick, because I need to combat what the thing that's in you that tried to overcome what I put in you.

00:44:25.519 --> 00:44:27.119
I need I need to come against that.

00:44:27.280 --> 00:44:33.760
I I gotta come against the pride, I gotta come against the self-righteousness, I gotta come against the I should, I need, I, I, I.

00:44:33.920 --> 00:44:37.519
I gotta come against the I in order to get you to the me.

00:44:37.840 --> 00:44:51.280
And so come on, there is just a point in our lives where you feel like everything is coming against you, and some of you may have feel like people start putting your business in the streets, right?

00:44:51.440 --> 00:44:54.239
This man went and told your mama, your business.

00:44:54.719 --> 00:44:58.639
It's so disrespectful to bring parents in you.

00:44:58.719 --> 00:45:00.320
Who told you to bring in parents?

00:45:00.559 --> 00:45:02.239
Hi, Miss Myrtle, I love you so much.

00:45:02.400 --> 00:45:06.320
I just want to say that um love and appreciate you, you know.

00:45:11.199 --> 00:45:18.320
But you know, but that was that was honestly probably the most loving thing he did for you in that relationship.

00:45:18.800 --> 00:45:21.280
I don't know that relationship, I don't know nothing about that, young man.

00:45:21.679 --> 00:45:22.480
I pray he will.

00:45:22.719 --> 00:45:36.800
But that was that was probably the most loving thing because it forced you to a place where you could not ignore what God wanted to take care of in you anymore.

00:45:37.760 --> 00:45:38.320
Right.

00:45:39.679 --> 00:45:41.599
So we get through the breakup.

00:45:41.679 --> 00:45:47.280
Now we've had talks with honest conversations about life and self.

00:45:47.599 --> 00:45:58.960
Um and I wanna I want to start moving into the pivot point and thinking through what intermission looked like for you, right?

00:45:59.039 --> 00:46:08.880
As we kind of started moving out of darkness, then revelation, and now we're we're being pulled to a place.

00:46:09.199 --> 00:46:10.559
Talk about the pulling.

00:46:12.000 --> 00:46:13.599
The pulling is so good.

00:46:13.679 --> 00:46:16.639
Um, after the heartbreak, I ran to Florida.

00:46:16.960 --> 00:46:23.519
Um, and I couldn't find any peace in Florida.

00:46:23.679 --> 00:46:39.039
Um, and I remember having a moment and I was walking down uh one of the streets in Florida, just um thinking about I just kept having this thought that I need to get back to South Carolina.

00:46:39.280 --> 00:46:41.039
I have to go back to South Carolina.

00:46:41.119 --> 00:46:46.639
That that the thought just wouldn't leave my mind that I have to get back to South Carolina.

00:46:47.760 --> 00:46:56.719
Um, and so one day I didn't have, you know, the best day um at work, and I decided to um apply to a job.

00:46:56.960 --> 00:47:04.719
Well, I I went home and I said, if there is a job in South Carolina that I know that I can take, I'm moving back to South Carolina.

00:47:05.440 --> 00:47:15.280
And you talk about the glimpses, and I mean, it's like I immediately pull up my laptop and I find um a job.

00:47:15.440 --> 00:47:22.079
Like everything that I want to do, everything that I need, the the increase that I needed financially, all of it.

00:47:23.599 --> 00:47:25.280
Increase, okay.

00:47:26.320 --> 00:47:29.119
We decided, oh my gosh, I'm yes.

00:47:29.360 --> 00:47:33.360
Anyway, so um there was a pulling back to South Carolina.

00:47:33.519 --> 00:47:39.760
Um, and so one thing I realized in that is I was trying to run from a thing that I still needed to confront.

00:47:39.920 --> 00:47:44.559
It wasn't like just because I moved to Florida that the baggage wasn't still there.

00:47:44.639 --> 00:47:48.480
You know, I talked about the laundry pile and we talked about trying to avoid a thing.

00:47:48.639 --> 00:47:50.079
That pile was still there.

00:47:50.239 --> 00:47:53.599
At some point, you gotta clean the clothes, right?

00:47:53.840 --> 00:47:59.199
Um, and so I got getting back to South Carolina is when the pivot happened.

00:47:59.360 --> 00:48:12.719
Um, and so I met um Jakuita in in that role and um another and another friend of young, another youngin', another youngin.

00:48:13.119 --> 00:48:16.079
Um shout out to him, shout out to him.

00:48:16.320 --> 00:48:19.840
So um, but there was a lot of friction.

00:48:20.239 --> 00:48:32.719
Um there was like love, but also friction because there was some light in them that was that was um again exposing, right?

00:48:33.440 --> 00:48:39.599
And um what was in me wasn't ready to comprehend what was in them.

00:48:40.719 --> 00:48:44.559
Wow, my lord.

00:48:45.199 --> 00:48:52.800
Oh man comprehended what was in you, but keep going.

00:48:53.119 --> 00:48:58.400
Yes, oh my gosh, and and you were talking about Joe, and this is why it's so important again.

00:48:58.480 --> 00:49:01.199
We talk everything is connected, that's why it's so important.

00:49:01.360 --> 00:49:17.039
The people around you, there has to be people speaking life into you because although there were times and moments of friction because I wasn't ready to comprehend, like you said, y'all comprehended and saw things that were in me that I didn't even see, right?

00:49:17.199 --> 00:49:20.480
And so you knew what needed to come out and what I needed more of.

00:49:20.639 --> 00:49:22.320
And oh my goodness.

00:49:22.639 --> 00:49:37.280
Um and so the the pivot happened in moving back to South Carolina and literally having no other choice but to but to sit in a space where there was no more hiding from the light, right?

00:49:37.519 --> 00:49:41.920
It was now I have to come towards God, right?

00:49:42.320 --> 00:49:46.239
Um, because what I was doing wasn't working.

00:49:46.400 --> 00:49:47.840
It it wasn't working out for me.

00:49:47.920 --> 00:49:52.400
It kept leading me in a cycle of trying to belong.

00:49:52.559 --> 00:49:57.920
And and I I kept going home and I'm like, I'm so miserable.

00:49:58.159 --> 00:50:00.480
I'm so miserable here in this space.

00:50:00.800 --> 00:50:14.159
Um, but it was it was it was allowing myself to confront, you know, all of the things that I kept trying to avoid, where the pulling happened and the pivoting happened.

00:50:14.320 --> 00:50:19.199
Um, because again, I just kept saying to myself, it ain't working.

00:50:19.280 --> 00:50:22.719
What what Michaela has planned for herself isn't working.

00:50:22.880 --> 00:50:34.800
And so I need to submit to a new will that is laid out for me because my plan has only led to destruction of my mind, body, and soul.

00:50:34.960 --> 00:50:37.679
And I needed a plan that was going to give me life.

00:50:37.920 --> 00:50:39.280
I needed a plan of life.

00:50:39.440 --> 00:50:41.360
And so, yeah.

00:50:41.760 --> 00:50:44.239
Okay, so we're headed, we're headed towards life.

00:50:44.480 --> 00:51:01.519
Um, and so you're in this moment, and you know, I know you said that you couldn't comprehend, but what I know and what I believe is that what is inside of you recognize the affinity to what was inside of us.

00:51:01.920 --> 00:51:11.440
And the war was who you were and who you were becoming, and it wasn't you embracing us, it was you embracing you.

00:51:11.920 --> 00:51:23.760
Um and it was it would be so funny because me and Michaela um and our friend, we would sit down and we would have these conversations, and Michaela would always leave early.

00:51:23.920 --> 00:51:27.360
Michaela would be like, who chat, I gotta go.

00:51:34.559 --> 00:51:48.159
Um but it was but every every single time, you know, we used to, girl, we used to cut up, we used to say, yes, you know, it was it was Word Wednesdays, because every Wednesday the Lord would come through.

00:51:48.320 --> 00:51:51.760
Okay, and he would every Wednesday, the Lord would be like, I got something.

00:51:53.199 --> 00:52:00.800
Um but I you know there was something in your in your backstage moment, right?

00:52:00.960 --> 00:52:03.440
In your in your intermission, right?

00:52:03.760 --> 00:52:16.159
There was this the secret tug of war where it was God uprooting some things, but there was so much planting happening, right?

00:52:16.239 --> 00:52:40.960
The Lord didn't take away anything that he didn't replace, he didn't take away anything that he didn't give you more back for, you know, and so as God was moving you away from some things slowly but surely, yeah, it slowly is a relative word because y'all within like six months, Michaela was a completely different person, okay, and we'll talk about it in a moment.

00:52:41.199 --> 00:52:43.760
So slowly is relative, okay.

00:52:43.920 --> 00:53:03.440
It was like I think you and I started working, you started in February, I started in March, and by December, I think, by March, but no, but what I'm thinking is by the time we came back from Christmas break, I was like, this is a brand new woman.

00:53:03.760 --> 00:53:07.519
Like, this is a whole new person.

00:53:08.079 --> 00:53:25.280
Like, I remember having some conversations with you in December, and we were all about to go home for Christmas, and then we came back, and I was like, Michaela is brand spanking new, like in a in a real and lasting way, you know.

00:53:26.000 --> 00:53:28.400
And I I was ecstatic about it.

00:53:28.639 --> 00:53:44.400
But when we think about, you know, what what backstage looks like, you know, there has to, there has to be a moment where a character has to decide to take off Act One.

00:53:44.719 --> 00:53:45.039
Yeah.

00:53:45.280 --> 00:53:57.360
Where you have to decide that who I've been is not gonna be enough for who I have to become in order to conquer, in order to have victory, in order to triumph right.

00:53:57.840 --> 00:54:03.360
What was that what was that decision-making process like for you?

00:54:04.239 --> 00:54:04.639
Yeah.

00:54:04.880 --> 00:54:08.960
As you were thinking about what to keep, what to what to give away?

00:54:09.280 --> 00:54:09.760
Yeah.

00:54:10.079 --> 00:54:12.800
My intermission was a lot of reflection.

00:54:13.199 --> 00:54:14.480
Oh my goodness.

00:54:14.960 --> 00:54:22.159
I I remember realizing that I had influence.

00:54:23.039 --> 00:54:39.920
I I remember finally, I remember realizing that, and I remember thinking if if where where I'm at, um, I'm masking, what am I going to influence?

00:54:40.639 --> 00:54:42.639
I'm going to influence masking.

00:54:43.599 --> 00:54:58.880
I remember thinking um that there are so many people who look to me, so people in general, we look to people for advice and things.

00:54:58.960 --> 00:55:04.400
And I remember that I I remember feeling that my life was a lie.

00:55:04.719 --> 00:55:08.159
It it wasn't in my reflection.

00:55:08.239 --> 00:55:18.079
I realized that I had nothing authentic to give that would truly help someone because it wasn't helping me.

00:55:18.239 --> 00:55:19.760
It nothing was helping me.

00:55:20.079 --> 00:55:36.079
And so my my inner mission in the time of reflection, I knew that I saw some real authentic joy and peace in our friend, our our friend from work.

00:55:36.960 --> 00:55:41.760
And I remember asking him, what do you do when you get home?

00:55:41.920 --> 00:55:49.920
What do you what is what does life look like for you when you're at home, when you're away from the hustle and bustle of work?

00:55:51.039 --> 00:56:01.039
And um because a lot of us in our in our early 20s were just drinking and smoking and partying.

00:56:01.599 --> 00:56:02.880
The culture was that.

00:56:03.039 --> 00:56:04.639
This is how we unwind.

00:56:04.880 --> 00:56:11.679
This is how we um this is how we relax from the day, you know.

00:56:11.920 --> 00:56:16.400
Um, but what I saw in them was also what I saw in me.

00:56:16.639 --> 00:56:19.039
And I said, this isn't working.

00:56:20.000 --> 00:56:24.559
It's not, I'm reflecting on myself, but I'm also reflecting on my surroundings.

00:56:24.639 --> 00:56:36.639
And I'm realizing that the real true joy was coming from the life that I wasn't ready to comprehend because I didn't want to.

00:56:36.719 --> 00:56:38.719
I just didn't want to, right?

00:56:39.599 --> 00:56:42.960
But at a at a at some point, you get tired, right?

00:56:43.119 --> 00:56:46.639
You you get tired of masking, you get tired of living the lie.

00:56:47.119 --> 00:56:54.960
And you also want to live a life that is truthful, not only to yourself, but for the people who look to you, right?

00:56:55.519 --> 00:57:02.000
And so I remember going to him one day and I asked him, what does life look like for you at home?

00:57:02.239 --> 00:57:04.480
Um, and he said, I'm just at peace.

00:57:04.559 --> 00:57:06.239
And I said, What do you do?

00:57:06.400 --> 00:57:10.719
Like, you don't go to the store and pick up a bottle of wine like the rest of us.

00:57:10.880 --> 00:57:19.920
You don't he said no, a lot of the time I'm absolutely not, okay?

00:57:20.800 --> 00:57:21.840
Absolutely not.

00:57:22.000 --> 00:57:23.119
Nah, uh-uh.

00:57:23.760 --> 00:57:27.199
The rest of us are at our friends.

00:57:31.360 --> 00:57:41.360
Um, and he told me that he is um he was all most of the time is spent reading the word and spending time with God and in prayer.

00:57:41.599 --> 00:57:44.639
And I'm like, this man is crazy.

00:57:46.159 --> 00:57:51.119
And that's also, I just want to clarify, uh, it is also the truth.

00:57:51.199 --> 00:57:52.480
Like, he ain't putting on.

00:57:52.880 --> 00:58:01.119
Like, he's not that's really what he is the only person I know who will reference three scriptures in a normal conversation.

00:58:01.360 --> 00:58:13.360
Um, he would and chapter and verse, chapter and verse, and I mean it's on up to point, okay, and reciting the whole thing, okay?

00:58:13.599 --> 00:58:14.880
KJV, okay.

00:58:16.320 --> 00:58:19.280
KJV, KJV, huh?

00:58:19.440 --> 00:58:20.719
Okay, listen.

00:58:20.880 --> 00:58:25.679
And we ain't gonna put him out in the streets, but I cannot wait to tell him that I joked about him online.

00:58:26.079 --> 00:58:27.920
That's gonna make my whole day.

00:58:30.800 --> 00:58:31.280
Uh-huh.

00:58:31.599 --> 00:58:37.039
Yes, so um I I just couldn't fathom that.

00:58:37.280 --> 00:58:46.079
I could not fathom that there was joy and peace in reading, you know, but I didn't understand.

00:58:46.320 --> 00:58:57.119
I didn't understand at the time that the word is alive and is breathing, yeah, and and it's the it's literally the the breath of God, right?

00:58:57.280 --> 00:58:59.199
Um, that that gives life.

00:58:59.360 --> 00:59:04.320
I I couldn't understand that he had so much life and peace because God is.

00:59:06.159 --> 00:59:08.159
Yeah, I'm getting happy.

00:59:09.679 --> 00:59:11.440
I told y'all we were gonna go to charity.

00:59:11.760 --> 00:59:13.280
I'm trying to tell y'all.

00:59:16.079 --> 00:59:29.679
Um and so intermission and and going into this act two was the point of reflection into let me seek out where I saw the real thing.

00:59:30.000 --> 00:59:32.159
I I I want the real thing.

00:59:32.320 --> 00:59:33.679
I want more of that.

00:59:33.920 --> 00:59:34.960
I want to know that.

00:59:35.039 --> 00:59:38.159
I want to feel that, I want to experience it for real.

00:59:38.559 --> 00:59:40.079
I I'm tired of faking it.

00:59:40.159 --> 00:59:59.519
Like you said, I don't want healing to just be soft anymore, and what it's put out and made to be that it's just this highlighters with your Bible, and like, no, I wanted the real thing, you know.

01:00:00.400 --> 01:07:53.199
Um and and so that's that's what he um he exposed me to and um I I went full force full force okay because wait a minute and when I tell y'all I have never I have seen a lot of people accept God accept Christ come to the church I have never seen the absolute 180 like how Michaela made it like I'm I'm telling y'all before there's a in my mind there's a before Christmas break Michaela and a after Christmas break Michaela okay because that girl came back in the new year okay and she was I serve the Lord I'm a servant until I die okay and I mean a complete 180 and you know there are people who during their intermissions they come out slow right they come into their second act and they come in slow right they come in tiptoeing they come in saying hey everybody I made some changes I have more to make you know I just want to let y'all know that that is not how Michaela that curtain the Lord lifted that curtain on on Michaela and it was just like how it happened with my hand it was now you see me now you don't all you see is the glory of God right like it was it was swift but it was complete and there is and I think that there's power in that because even in everything that you shared in your story you know anybody would have thought she could have got stuck you know what I'm saying she could have she could have been left where she was right but there is such a redemptive power to the fact that all you literally had to do was say yes yeah you literally said you gave God a full and complete yes and he took it from there and completely turned your life around yes now I'm interested because I I remember because when you came back to me I was like let's go I first of all I've been telling her this okay I mean our friend we've been telling and some other friends we got another friend we ain't talked about yet we're about to talk about him in a moment okay because you know we gotta we gotta talk about how the Lord how the Lord did a complete I'm trying to tell y'all it was complete okay but trying to tell y'all it's cool okay and I want to talk about it right but yes but you know I'm saying like there were all of these people who were who were speaking who were guiding who were who were reflecting to you who God was trying to show you that you really were right your inner mission and I'm sorry I'm I'm I'm writing your story and telling your story but yeah I just feel it can I can I go can I move can I move with it I want to move let's move let's move okay but your inner mission you literally went backstage and you know you really can't change properly without a mirror you have to go and you literally God showed you taking it off and standing bare before the Lord and saying God this is all I have this is all this is I'm presenting to you who I am and what I have this is it this is all I got and God coming in like he did I think it's in Zechariah and God coming in and saying give this give he was talking to the uh the priest Joshua and he said give this man a new robe for this is a bread that has been tried in the fire you came out you surrendered you said yes and God took off your old clothes that had been through all the fire that had been through all the struggle that had been through all the pain and it was a complete and full testimony turnaround because God himself robed you God himself gave you your identity you know he used people to reflect it to you to say Michaela this is who you really are this is how you get to your place of authentic joy and authentic peace this is how you find life and light this is the way he ref he gave you people who reflected to you you but it wasn't until you stood in the mirror for yourself and said Lord I want to put on what you've shown me I don't want to carry what I've carried the previous seasons I want to put on what you what you have uh shown me and when I tell you she came back and didn't look like smoke when I tell you when I tell you to the point where it made everybody everybody's head was on a swivel right everybody everybody said is that is that who used that where the turnout friend right where the where the girl at right maca came back and said hallelujah thine the glory right like she came back fully immersed you know um but I think that there's power in knowing that what we've been waiting on with all of the change you've been waiting on in your life all of the promotion you've been waiting on all of the I questions of who am I the identity questions all of those all of those things have simply been waiting on your yes it's simply been waiting on your surrender right okay all right I'm done telling your story I apologize it got good to me it got good to me okay the imagery was just it was too much for me girl I had to get in there but you you made this turnaround you know you you went through your intermission period and you went back and during during that time you made some important decisions which included what were those important decisions that you made backstage yeah um I knew I'm not pointing at anything in particular by the way I know I know I know um I knew there were things that I needed to let go of mindsets behaviors um organizations because God was trying to make me new yeah and in order to be new and like you said refined I couldn't be who Michaela tried to make herself be I I couldn't I could not be that anymore because it was not working it didn't work and I couldn't even fit there anymore I was so uncomfortable I was so uncomfortable like you said God is a consuming fire he it was so it was bubbling up inside me that I would be in a space that I was prior to knowing God and experiencing him for myself and I literally could not fit I I couldn't fit where where I wanted to fit before and I felt like I needed to be so badly before I could not fit it it it didn't even work.

01:07:54.960 --> 01:12:06.640
And so oh my gosh I I remember coming home and I'm throwing alcohol bottles away I was I used to vape really a lot and I'm throwing it away it had to go it it had to go everything everything had to go jaquiti ever saw me one day and I'm moving my bookshelf in my office ooh we everything had to be shifted everything I had um uh so I I used to be a member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority and um I remember there were like elephants everywhere in my apartment and there was just like big posters of me with like Delta everything I'm taking them down and I'm just throwing it out I'm throwing I'm throwing everything out because all of it all of it was um me realizing that Michaela has to true like you said truly surrender i i wanted to surrender everything even my home my office everything had to be surrendered to God and for him to be the potter not even just to make me but for for every single space to be made by him i it I had to steward it so well that it was unto him and I even I I realized that like I was getting rid of stuff and God was providing we still we started we got that email we got an email that was like oh yeah everybody getting a little increase I said look chat while you were shifting we was in them directors meetings like let's give them some money ain't that something like God is so good and even his the timing of everything so I'm I'm I'm getting rid of things and I'm not even worried about the cost because I knew God was going to provide and he did and and so he I was able to make my home and clean more I started realizing there were spots on the walls that I was like I gotta get that let me let me I'm like cleaning up everything I love a ring everything had to be clean shifted and done unto God everything and I just realized that um it was it was so much lighter it was so much lighter I was carrying less stuff physically and spiritually I was carrying so much let me tell you something it it for somebody who's looking for a shift in their life you need to do just that you need the clean house you need the clean house you need to you need to take the old pictures take down the old affiliations you need to vacuum you need to go through the clothes and clean it out the season you're trying to walk into throw it out give it away burn it do what you got to do but if it does not fit the story that God is writing for you right because there's a story we wrote for ourselves that when we reflect on that we're like okay that's not I was trying to define myself one way but this is who God is telling me that I am and the story that God is writing for me in the second act amen I need to make sure I'm I'm dressed appropriately I need to make sure that I'm speaking appropriately I need to make sure that I look like what God is writing for me right and so some of us I'm sorry I just feel it to say some of us which Michaela I hope she talked to us about a little bit about some of us are the Lord has written wife for your second act down now for myself because I wanted the Lord to see that it is it is let it be written let it be so amen but but you see that written you see husband written you see mother written you see father written take inventory take inventory because your life does it reflect what God has written you see it written but you're not reflecting it and so what was God wrote something for me and I need my life to reflect what God wrote about me.

01:12:07.039 --> 01:12:18.560
What God said about me that's how you move that's how you move into your second act and that's why she was able to move so quickly because she didn't hold anything back from God.

01:12:19.119 --> 01:13:52.239
Yes because a lot of times um we we want the things that God has for us but there's no room for him when we've consumed it with all of our own stuff we like we can we consume it with all of our own stuff it was uh it was just plain as day to me that you have got to let him make you and everything around you new everything everything everything had everything had to be new um and so yeah I I remember I just kept saying thy will be done thy will I don't nevertheless thy will be done I want his will for me because it mine was not working it it wasn't working that's so good that's so good okay Michaela so we've we've walked through your intermission we walked through your first act we walked through your intermission when you see the curtain raising on your second act what's on your stage yes um the second act is one me having more clarity of purpose it's a sound mind I'm not carrying heaviness anymore and weights that aren't even mine it's understanding how to intercede for those weights um and it's it's not just this like misery loves company any anymore it's like I'm seeing a weight and I'm I'm helping you see who who God has called you to be and that you don't have to carry those weights anymore.

01:13:52.319 --> 01:14:49.680
So it's truly understanding um um who I am and it's it's like um who you and our friend was to me I get to be that now it's it's a beautiful like um that has happened um and so um along that line of surrendering God continues to show me that sometimes people think oh you know Jesus and that's it but there's always so much more of him that he wants us to experience we can't even fathom how big how great how consuming he is and the connection that we can have with him and um I remember for uh my 27th birthday I turned 27 on the 27th half ago and I remember saying this birthday is going to be unto God I'm gonna fast going into it and we're gonna pray going into it.

01:14:50.239 --> 01:14:54.399
And so I had worship we had worship.

01:14:54.880 --> 01:15:52.960
And so I invited and some other women of God and we just got together and we prayed and God actually used Jakita because she spoke some things in her prayer um that I knew I had that I was like oh I'm getting ready to walk into a thing okay and so God literally like I said I was a member of an organization um and I lost so much like sisterhood and that hurt me it it really did and not even out of my own doing but you know it it just happened and it hurt me but that night God showed me I have given you more yeah I have replaced what you thought you lost and it's more it's it's so much more because it's not encouraging you to do things that keep a heavy weight on you or that keep you in depression but it's lighter and it's speaking life into you and when there's correction it's because I love you.

01:15:53.119 --> 01:17:28.079
Oh my goodness it's it was wonderful but anyway Jaquita spoke thing um God the Lord used her to speak some things and so I knew I was getting to ready getting ready to walk into a season um and so my birthday was March 27th and um of what what year was that 2023 um March 27th yeah was it 23 the 24 it was 24 it was 24 yeah it was 24 um and yes okay yes this was last year um trying to tell y'all this is crazy um and by June June um I had met my husband I'm trying to tell y'all I keep I I keep trying to tell y'all so fast it happened so fast but um God started and and and God um really showed me um what life was going to be like with him um and um even even before him and I even talked about it um and and talked about you know our feelings and how we felt and um it like we said it happened so swiftly like he showed me that I was going to be a wife he showed me um what it was like to keep a home and to do work heartily unto him and how to how to pray and intercede for other people just like how it would be in a marriage.

01:17:28.239 --> 01:17:36.880
I had to learn long suffering prior to marriage and I had to learn that love is love in all spaces in all seasons.

01:17:37.520 --> 01:17:49.680
And he taught me to be a servant even at work he taught me to be a servant that um just because nobody else want to take out the trash or whatever the case may be you do it.

01:17:49.840 --> 01:17:54.560
You do it because you never know what somebody may be carrying or even the fact that they don't see it.

01:17:54.640 --> 01:19:33.199
And it may be confusing to other people but you do it because I have called you to be a servant and he has showed me what that servant he's um is is great in the kingdom right exactly what Jesus did for us is asking for us to do with other people and in marriage greater words yeah right yes and so it's like I became his bride and he was preparing me to be a bride the oh my gosh and it happened so quickly here we are now and I'm what like well I think we five months into marriage now like a whole white and and and a beautiful Holy Ghost filled ceremony and to a to a man that love the Lord okay novel okay I think that's the first time I think one time I had to call Paul and I didn't he didn't answer and I heard his voicemail and I cracked up because it was like Hallelujah thinking Jesus you reach I was just like this boy is so deep in Jesus in the Lord okay in the Holy Ghost and when you but when you think about how God navigated I tell people all the time God does not compartmentalize our lives right and then God taking you through your reflective healing journey and you surrendering in that he he was already preparing something in one hand he was molding and shaping and shifting you and in the other hand he had what he had prepared for you and God was about to make his two hands meet.

01:19:33.359 --> 01:19:40.000
He was going to make what he was doing in his left hand meet what he was doing in his right hand and he was going to join something together.

01:19:41.279 --> 01:19:54.079
And I I'm just telling you I felt like I was had a front row seat I felt like I was just sitting there with my poker like God you really even I was sitting there like I was like Lord I didn't even know you could do it like this.

01:19:54.399 --> 01:20:03.359
Like y'all I met Michaela in 2022 okay I've known Michaela for about three and a half years.

01:20:03.920 --> 01:20:25.199
And three and a half years later, Michaela went from, you know, unsure, un you know, just kind of, I would say, I I I I don't want to be offensive, but I would use the word kind of aimless, like you know, trying to find herself, trying to trying to figure things out, but so heavy with potential.

01:20:25.520 --> 01:20:26.640
So heavy.

01:20:27.039 --> 01:20:31.760
I mean, who what was on the inside of her was so heavy.

01:20:32.000 --> 01:20:34.479
It was like anybody with an eye could see.

01:20:34.560 --> 01:20:35.680
We couldn't ignore it.

01:20:35.840 --> 01:20:37.359
We we couldn't pass by it.

01:20:37.439 --> 01:20:45.520
I could not act like all of this gifting and anointing and and just the love of God wasn't sitting there in front of me.

01:20:45.600 --> 01:20:50.000
I had to, I had I had I said I had to I had to be close to this.

01:20:50.560 --> 01:20:51.439
I had to be near.

01:20:52.479 --> 01:21:13.600
You know, but but in seeing in seeing her move from that to just woman of God, secure in who she was, making really, really, really hard decisions, and having to stand in her truth when people who knew her former could not comprehend her present, right?

01:21:13.920 --> 01:21:22.479
But still having to walk mature, having to have um character and integrity in the midst of it, right?

01:21:22.800 --> 01:21:58.640
That that even though God was doing all this work in her humility, yeah, you know, I watched her walk through all of that, and so when it got to the point where the blessing started pouring in, and then there was a boyfriend who became a husband who became, you know what I'm saying, and then when it was God is shifting this in your life and shifting that in your life, and the blessings came, there was never a moment where I didn't think to myself, she deserves every bit of God's love and his grace and his goodness toward her.

01:21:58.960 --> 01:22:13.920
Because I knew that God had finally gotten to the point where he had unearthed that well that was inside of you, and it was simply bubbling up, and everything that God had for you, it became present.

01:22:14.159 --> 01:22:15.760
Yeah, it became present.

01:22:15.920 --> 01:22:25.600
It's God moved what was in your past, he was moving that further from you, but he was moving what was in your future, he was moving that closer.

01:22:25.840 --> 01:22:36.560
Um and you allowed yourself to stay in the hand of God long enough, um, and securely enough, and true enough to receive everything that God had for you.

01:22:36.800 --> 01:22:44.800
Michaela, I want you because I know, I know this might be the only time I get the young adult audience, okay?

01:22:45.119 --> 01:22:57.039
This might be the only channel, okay, that my 18 to 30 audience is gonna shoot up through the roof because you know, Michaela, Michaela carries a grace for them.

01:22:57.199 --> 01:22:58.399
She carries an anointing.

01:22:58.560 --> 01:23:00.560
I used to, um, I still do sometimes.

01:23:00.720 --> 01:23:05.119
But I'm telling y'all, when I found Michaela, I said, I said, I'm a mentor now.

01:23:05.279 --> 01:23:07.840
I mentor these people who do the work.

01:23:07.920 --> 01:23:12.000
You know, when I moved into my middle adult years, I said, I'm here for the Michaela.

01:23:12.560 --> 01:23:12.800
Okay.

01:23:13.439 --> 01:23:19.359
But I know that you have an anointing and a grace on your life for that population.

01:23:19.520 --> 01:23:47.359
And if there's anything that you can say to them as they are walking through and navigating through their first act, and God is setting the scene uh for them to pivot in an intermission, what encouragement, what things could you give to them that they can have the endurance, the faith, and the persistence that you did to make it through that point to get to the place where God can raise the curtain in their lives?

01:23:48.000 --> 01:23:48.640
Yes.

01:23:49.119 --> 01:23:55.359
The first thing that comes to mind is um surrender.

01:23:56.000 --> 01:24:10.880
And in in surrender, it's knowing that the places that you're trying to fit and that void that you're trying to fill is never gonna work.

01:24:11.520 --> 01:24:19.760
It's constantly gonna be this trying to shift to fit people who are fleeting.

01:24:20.399 --> 01:24:23.359
It it's constant, so it's the knowledge of that.

01:24:23.680 --> 01:24:25.439
First, it's the knowledge of that.

01:24:26.239 --> 01:24:35.760
Um, and when you come to acceptance of that, what I would say, I was I was over here pulling up a scripture and I pull it up uh Matthew 11 and 28.

01:24:36.079 --> 01:24:45.039
And Jesus said, Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.

01:24:46.079 --> 01:24:55.600
Take my yoke upon and let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

01:24:55.760 --> 01:24:59.199
His yoke is easy to bear, and his burden is light.

01:25:01.680 --> 01:25:04.159
That's the best, that's the best piece of advice.

01:25:04.239 --> 01:25:09.279
That's that's the best thing that happened to me is that I found rest in Jesus.

01:25:09.760 --> 01:25:11.439
I I truly found rest.

01:25:11.680 --> 01:25:16.479
There was no more carrying weights, there was no more of this heaviness that I felt.

01:25:16.640 --> 01:25:18.560
Are there moments still of sadness?

01:25:18.720 --> 01:25:21.439
Yes, but sadness doesn't reach depression, right?

01:25:21.680 --> 01:25:30.720
Like there's there's no there's nothing that I'm carrying that I feel that I have to carry alone anymore.

01:25:30.880 --> 01:25:42.720
And a lot of times when we deal with things, when um when we're in seasons and our seasons in our life, um, we feel that we have to carry things alone.

01:25:42.960 --> 01:25:46.800
But Jesus says, come unto me and I will give you rest.

01:25:46.960 --> 01:25:51.039
He wants us to bring every single thing we have to him.

01:25:52.159 --> 01:26:08.479
And so at that moment of reflection, at that moment of I am so tired, and my will, my plan for my life is getting me nothing but trying to fit a mold that other people have tried to conform me into, including myself.

01:26:08.880 --> 01:26:16.319
We have to surrender it all to God and let him be the potter of our life so that we can find rest for our weary souls.

01:26:17.840 --> 01:26:19.600
My lord, y'all.

01:26:20.159 --> 01:26:27.359
Well, friends, listen, that was the last call of an amazing, amazing testimony.

01:26:27.520 --> 01:26:34.159
Michaela, thank you so much for agreeing to be on the podcast.

01:26:34.479 --> 01:26:40.560
Um is there anything that you want to let the people know that you're doing right now, working on right now?

01:26:40.960 --> 01:26:41.359
Yes.

01:26:42.159 --> 01:26:43.520
Yes, this is so good.

01:26:43.680 --> 01:26:48.960
Um, I love that you said um at the at the curtain call, there's a mirror.

01:26:49.039 --> 01:26:52.560
Um, so I just started a Substack and I've been writing on Substack.

01:26:52.800 --> 01:26:56.720
And uh writing has always been a passion of mine.

01:26:56.800 --> 01:26:59.199
Um, and now I'm truly just walking into it.

01:26:59.279 --> 01:27:04.960
And so my name on Substack is What the Mirror Found, and it's a whole lot of reflection.

01:27:05.600 --> 01:27:06.159
Right.

01:27:07.279 --> 01:27:13.439
Michaela, I've read like some of the stuff you wrote, but I did not, I promise I did not know the title of it.

01:27:13.600 --> 01:27:14.000
Wow.

01:27:14.239 --> 01:27:16.479
Yes, what the mirror found.

01:27:16.640 --> 01:27:26.239
And it's it's truly just this space of authentic reflection and hopes for healing and to lean into um into God a little more.

01:27:26.319 --> 01:27:32.640
And so um follow my substack, share and like and subscribe and tell me your thoughts.

01:27:32.800 --> 01:27:33.840
That would be amazing.

01:27:34.000 --> 01:27:44.000
And I'm just leaning into that a little more, like writing and poetry, um, because I just I know um God has a lot in store for that and what all that will be.

01:27:44.239 --> 01:27:49.920
He has shown me what that will become, and so I'm excited to walk into that.

01:27:50.079 --> 01:27:52.399
Um, but for now it's Substack.

01:27:52.640 --> 01:27:55.600
And um yes, I'm excited about it.

01:27:55.680 --> 01:27:56.800
I'm super excited about it.

01:27:56.960 --> 01:27:57.680
Yeah, okay.

01:27:57.840 --> 01:28:01.199
We will put a link for that in the description below.

01:28:01.359 --> 01:28:03.760
Make sure you go check that out, friends.

01:28:04.000 --> 01:28:05.680
Listen, okay, y'all.

01:28:05.840 --> 01:28:06.800
There it was a lot.

01:28:06.880 --> 01:28:08.399
We we gave y'all a lot today.

01:28:08.640 --> 01:28:11.840
Okay, take it bit by bit, piece by piece.

01:28:12.079 --> 01:28:16.399
But if you are not subscribed to the channel yet, what are you doing?

01:28:16.479 --> 01:28:24.079
Okay, I need you to like, I need you to share, I need you to subscribe because God is truly doing something really, really amazing.

01:28:24.239 --> 01:28:28.479
Um, not just with this segment, but with the whole Unlearned Podcast platform.

01:28:28.640 --> 01:28:31.119
We have so many great things in store for you guys.

01:28:31.359 --> 01:28:33.680
Don't be afraid to become a part of the community.

01:28:33.840 --> 01:28:36.159
Don't be afraid to reach out, talk to us.

01:28:36.319 --> 01:28:38.640
We want to engage with you in the comments.

01:28:38.960 --> 01:28:40.640
Um, all right.

01:28:40.960 --> 01:28:42.880
Well, friends, listen.

01:28:43.760 --> 01:28:44.720
This has been good.

01:28:44.880 --> 01:28:45.600
This has been good.

01:28:45.760 --> 01:28:46.560
This has been good.

01:28:46.720 --> 01:28:53.439
I want to tell each and every one of you, okay, you do not have to stay stuck in your intermission.

01:28:53.840 --> 01:28:58.079
You can move forward and raise the curtain to your second act.

01:28:58.239 --> 01:29:00.479
We will see you guys next time.

01:29:00.800 --> 01:29:02.000
Bye, friends.

01:29:07.760 --> 01:29:10.800
Thank you once again for listening to the Unlearned Podcast.

01:29:10.960 --> 01:29:15.119
We would love to hear your comments and your feedback about the episode.

01:29:15.359 --> 01:29:21.760
Feel free to follow us on Facebook and Instagram and to let us know what you think.

01:29:21.920 --> 01:29:28.239
We're looking forward to the next time when we are able to unlearn together to move forward towards freedom.

01:29:28.479 --> 01:29:29.439
See you then.