It wasn’t intentional to launch this series during Holy Week, and yet, this couldn’t be better timed, Godly enough.

Stepping into your new testament begins with a birth – or more accurately a re-birthing process. You slough off the old protective womb that’s enveloped you, and begin a new journey where you’re feeling fully alive – even if it hurts sometimes.

We also get to really feel what’s going on. Like everything is more vivid, more textured, more varied, more flavorful.

Life becomes more rich in every respect when we shed the insular existence of our old testament.

And unlike delivering a baby, it happens in waves, ripples, layers.

One little bit at a time – like cleaning that Masterpiece (since you are a masterpiece)!

So we don’t always see when we’ve peeled off another layer, or discovered a new area of our magnificence. Sometimes elements lay dormant for years until something acts on us from an external source, and fires us up to do something.

I was reminded of the cycle of sloughing off and growing again as I read this bit of poetry:

“Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I’ll rise.”
- Maya Angelou

There’s a cycle, a process to this whole thing. At least for me. I find myself returning to the joys of my childhood: performing, reading, writing. I remarked to a client the other day that when we are in full alignment with where God is guiding us, things happen VERY quickly. Like, the “strap yourself in and hold on tight” kind of quickly.

And it ripples out to impact not just your existence, but those around you as well.

Case in point:

Last fall, I told you about the crazy lady on the airplane, which led me to write a book that’s now being proofed by an amazing editor friend/client of mine. That triggered something in me to want to write a screenplay (I’ve never written for TV before, and had no real clue how to do it. I talked with my friends, and no one was available to move forward on the project.

Then, a conversation with a new friend pointed me to her friend, who had been wanting to do some screenwriting. We are now knee-deep into scripting episode three of this web series. In less than three months, this thing took off.

But it gets better. I’ve been feeling a tug to get back in the studio to record another album. Problem is, I sold my keyboard at the Godly inspired yard sale last fall. So I didn’t have any gear to do a quality recording. Well, my friend Mike just so happened to have an extra keyboard, mixing panel, microphone and stand lying around. I picked them up on Friday.

Seriously? When I recorded my first album 11 years ago, I worked in a makeshift “studio” (broom closet) at the university between classes so you couldn’t hear the teachers lecturing in the room next door.When I recorded my second album, it was all done digitally, in a “studio” where the “engineer” talked through the entire session. I spent so much time digitally fixing the audio tracks I thought I’d never finish the recording.

This time, it all kind of falls into my lap. A quiet place to work, all the necessary gear, and no crazy deadlines to press the project before it’s ready to birth. All these little ripples from different choices at different times with different people have converged to bring me to this moment, where for the first time in eight years, I’m making music my own way again.

For the first time since I was a kid, making music is a joyful experience for me. I’m really enjoying the process, the marinating, the choosing of tracks. I’m even enjoying learning all the new equipment.

It’s a re-birth for me to the creative space in which I have always known I belonged. But I was too scared to be that person. I was afraid of the rejection, the failure, the “loserness” that I thought would come from not “succeeding” in a performance profession.

In short, I assumed I would fail, so I didn’t keep persisting. When it got hard, I quit.

“It’s the only way you’re going to learn. The only way. God help you if you never fail.” – Bradley Cooper

That is my old testament. I return to those monkey bars with a new understanding. I’m building something new for myself, built on my past. I’m testing and trying and getting ready to make my magnificence visible in the world. Getting ready to swing from one bar to the other, and hang upside down, and do all those death defying tricks that only I can do on my monkey bars.

I’m stepping into my new testament, re-born into the character of my own Divinity: a continual becoming of who God has inspired me to be. And now, I know that the trappings of success are not real success. Real success comes from a place of maturity within ourselves, when we recognize we are doing our utmost in alignment with who we are called to be.

So whether or not I win a bunch of awards or even sell millions of copies of my music – that’s beside the point.

The call comes to rise into a place where you are being YOU in all its uniqueness and glory, for better or worse, and to not waver. Being someone else, to paraphrase Judy Garland, is a “second rate” kind of life.

I much prefer first-rate living, thanks.

So as you begin your rise, like the moon and sun, remember that being you – and allowing your True Self to be fully expressed in this world is exactly what we’ve all been waiting for. We will all life a much richer life when you do.

Since you’re still in the middle of my end game, you may be scratching your head yet, trying to piece all this together.

This is where Joan of Arc comes in. According to Wikipedia:

“Joan asserted that she had visions from God which instructed her to recover her homeland from English domination late in the Hundred Years’ War. The uncrowned King Charles VII sent her to the siege of Orléans as part of a relief mission. She gained prominence when she overcame the dismissive attitude of veteran commanders and lifted the siege in only nine days. Several more swift victories led to Charles VII’s coronation at Reims and settled the disputed succession to the throne.”

When people quote Joan, often it is “I am not afraid… I was born to do this.” But there are two other quotes that I offer today:

“One life is all we have and we live it as we believe in living it. But to sacrifice what you are and to live without belief, that is a fate more terrible than dying.” (emphasis mine)

“Act, and God will act”

Regardless of your religious persuasion (or lack thereof), you have to credit Joan with an incredibly powerful belief. She knew her end game. She even predicted her own injury on the battlefield.

She knew what she had come here for and to her dying breath, she did it without compromise.

Are you living your belief? In your life, your work, your coming and going, your “rising and resting” as some scriptures would say.

Do you even know what you believe?

Here’s a girl that’s been praying hard for years and finally her end game becomes clear. She figures out the steps in the cycle and makes her move. She achieves her end game.

It’s the same pattern you see in powerful leaders throughout history. The details  may be more personal, but the patterns are undeniable. I’ve remarked on more than one occasion about the similarities between the rise of Hitler and one of our more recent presidents. Both were charismatic speakers. Both wrote books about their life that outlined how they’d “change the world”. Both rose to power with a grassroots level of enthusiasm.

Patterns. Cycles.

More recently, you might have heard it called “modeling.” The idea that if you want to be a millionaire, find someone else that has done it, learn from them and model them.

The problem with modeling is that you are NOT them. Your set of beliefs, your core values are probably not the same. Modeling their successes may also mean modeling their failures. Or WORSE.

But finding the patterns… now that’s something that can benefit you. If you want to be a millionaire, don’t just look for one person that’s done it. Look at many people who have done it. What are the commonalities? Where are the patterns, similarities?

Take notes. Lots of them. Then find those commonalities in YOUR life and work.

Then ACT. Take action. Move the ball down the field and see what happens next. See the end game and move relentlessly towards it. If it’s your life’s end game, as it was for Joan, you’ve got to be willing to die for it.

What are you willing to die for?

Are you living that belief?

Photo Courtesy The Weinstein Company

His is a tale of reluctant heroism at it’s finest. Here’s a guy, born into nobility, yet he’s mocked, abused, and never given his due. He comes to not only believe the hype, but also produces a physical manifestation of his “worthlessness” by way of a stammer he developed as a toddler.

He has no faith in himself, and keeps praying beyond all reason that his brother David will see the light and let go of his “fantasy” relationship with this bad influence. But David has already accepted his call to live his own life. Albert must now become King.

Enter Lionel.

A man with no credentials, save the results he’s produced for a countless number of people with “speech defects”. No alphabet soup, no royal appellation, and in fact, regarded as unworthy to serve the King once his lack of official credentials is uncovered by the “royal attendants”.

As I watched the movie, I marveled at how two men from two very opposite ends of the social spectrum should ever come together.

And then the answer came: Faith.

A wife, determined to help her husband be the best he could be, simply would not rest until she found the solution to his “problem” – even against his wishes. Money was no obstacle, so why could Albert not over come this defect? She had faith that, somewhere, there was still one more stone to overturn. She found it in Lionel.

A teacher, determined to break down the walls built by a young man to protect himself from harm, simply would not acquiesce when told that this man was of noble birth. “My house, my rules.” was Lionel’s retort. His supreme faith in his own abilities left few in a position to debate the King’s choice to have him by his side for nearly every public address His Royal Highness ever made.

A king, forced into a corner, yet understanding his pivotal role in the “life” of his country, ultimately had faith in his own voice – a voice that would  assuage the fears of a restless nation as Hitler blazed a trail closer to their shore.

A country, longing for a protector, desperate for direction and unable to take heart in themselves, hoped for the best when their newly crowned king and well-known stammerer took to the wireless for his first-ever wartime address.

I was struck by the notion that being born into royalty doesn’t automatically make you a great man. And being a great man without a royal appellation doesn’t make you any less noble. When you aspire to greatness in your work, you will catch the eye of kings.

Scripture tells us that a job well done is rewarded richly:

“Do you see someone skilled in their work? They will serve before kings”

It matters not your station. It matters not your situation. All that matters is your focus, your conviction, and your willingness to do what’s right, whether or not you get credit for it. Lionel could have easily slipped into obscurity as an “unqualified” humiliation, at the behest of the court, but his skill and persistence won over a doubftul King and a desperate Queen.

And ultimately, an entire nation would have him to thank for the voice of their “fearless” leader.

But in the annals of history, who gets the credit for the impressive speeches? Certainly not Lionel. It was the king that spoke those words into being.

Yet, it was Lionel that spoke The King’s Speech into being.

According to the film, Lionel earned high distinction for his service to the Monarchy. Not bad for an uncredentialed, yet highly skilled “speech defect” coach.

You are where you need to be right now, doing what you need to do right now. Your credentials (if you have them) are meaningless. It’s your results that people care most about. So stop worrying about what you don’t have, focus on being excellent with what you DO have.

The rest will come in time.