Hi, from the Salvation Army, you're listening to Words of Life.
Welcome back to Words of Life. We are now in our fourth episode of this beautiful series about gratitude with our friend, worship leader, pastor, April Christina Farmer. Today, she and Bernie discuss our plans versus God's plans. When you live a life with a grateful heart, you really allow yourself to be open to how God is using a moment or a season to direct your steps and open new doors.
So we really never know how God will use the tiniest opportunity to do something incredible. We really hope this series has been a blessing to you. We hope you've really enjoyed this. For us who were in the room as we were recording this, it was a blessing to just watch these two longtime friends and believers just sit and talk about the goodness of God. So if you would like to learn more about April and her ministry, visit our website and we'll have links to her music and her website. Visit WordsOfLifePodcast.org. If you have a story that you would like to share with us about how you learned gratitude, how you learned to walk through life with a grateful heart, send us an email, hello at WordsOfLifePodcast.org.
And we never mentioned this, or at least we don't mention it enough, but if you could leave us a review on whatever podcast platform you're listening, that also really helps us out. Ain't that the parable of the talents? I know I mentioned that a second ago, but that's what it means to me. You know what, the dude that was scared to lose the money, that just kind of tried to play it safe.
I mean, he took a pretty hard hit in the word and I feel like he was just being conservative, you know? No, because what did the master say? You knew that I was a shrewd person or master or whatever. Didn't he call him wicked or something? He did. You wicked servant. Yeah.
I mean, that felt a little hard. You got your money back. He didn't trust that he was coming back. That's the whole, I think that's the context of that scripture. Like he didn't trust that the master was returning, so he didn't make an investment with the talent that he was given. So, cause he said, well, if you came back, well, I'll give you back what you gave me.
But if you didn't, I know where I buried it, so I'd have it. So that's why he took that hit because he neglected to have faith in the fact that his master says, I'm coming back. The other two did. And so they took what they had and they multiplied it. He took that hit.
He took the hit. This is the Bible according to the streets. The views expressed here are not necessarily the views of the salvation army or the Northport community. April, I'm so glad that you're back with us and I'm grateful. The gratitude has to keep coming through every episode we do. I think about life coming at us in so many ways. We've talked already about some of the emotional things and health challenges and struggles that come our way and how you navigate them with community, with the Lord, just simply understanding you're never alone. But you know, money's a real thing in this society too, right?
Oh yeah. Some people say more money, more problems, but I haven't had that experience yet. I haven't won the lottery. I guess you have to play to win. That's a problem for me.
Too cheap. And I don't like to gamble in general, but April, there was a really cool thing for me in our time together when I thought we were recording this new album for you, the solo CD, which you can find on all the streaming platforms under the name April Christina, by the way. I thought, wow, this would be great. You're going to make millions of dollars on the sales of this album and then you won't have to have a worry. Everything will be sorted. But that wasn't the case.
No. And it's so crazy because you felt that way. And for me, it was more so an opportunity to step in faith into something I was afraid to do, but I wasn't going to knock it if millions came. I wanted to do it well and I wanted to be successful at it. I've been a singer my whole life, a worship leader, I would say. I never necessarily was in pursuit of being an artist or a recording artist. I never felt a heart to do that. And it honestly, it took me a while to figure out, okay, well, Lord, you gave me this gift. I love worship.
I love leading people in worship. Should I even record? Should that be something I do?
Should I pursue that? But also seasons of life matter. I was a single mom and my son was about to embark upon his senior year of high school. So how could I record this album and then go on the road?
But I got a kid who we need college visits and I'm the only parent and just all those different things. And so while that album was successful in a lot of ways, it wasn't necessarily monetarily successful. And so what I had to learn is to, I guess, maximize all your gifts to the best of your ability at the time, but always continue to stretch yourself. That album was stretching me.
It was stretching me to find my own voice, to learn to love the voice that God gave me and not just this thing that you do where you sing other people's songs. And I'm not knocking that. I think that's great.
If somebody already started stirring it up, I can throw a little flavor in there and make this my own thing. But it was an opportunity to do that. But that was then, and God used that to open doors that I didn't know would be opened. And so while it may seem successfully small by the world's standards, I think in the economy of Christ, it was huge because it taught me how to step into new things and allow God to take what little I have and multiply it. It was me giving it to him to say, hey, do whatever you'd like to do with it. And it did open doors financially for me. And I had to learn how to navigate that. I'm like, oh, I can do this.
And some more doors will open. The same thing happened when it came to me speaking. I didn't want to be a speaker. I didn't think, I was like, let me sing. I will lead worship. I will sing.
I will do background vocals. I can do that because it was that obvious gift that I had known since I was a kid. But one of the things I learned about God is that success in the economy of Christ is maximizing those things that he's put in your hand to do. And recognizing, ah, this is what I love about God, recognizing that God is a master strategist. He doesn't waste anything.
And he's not so narrow as to just give you one talent. He's going to give you possibly some other things in there. Even if it's something like cooking, even if that's a hustle you have on the side, man, my egg rolls are the bomb.
Like I'm making, I make these fancy egg rolls. And so I'm going to make a little extra money on the side, but you use it for the glory of God, whatever it is. Every day when you log into Chumbacasino.com, the ultimate online social casino, you get a free daily bonus. Imagine if you got daily bonuses in other parts of your life. I chose french fries, overloaded french fries. I asked Stuart from accounting about his weekend, even though I don't care.
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And then it was this, this thing in me that I couldn't shake. And so I just finally said what I was talking about, you know, before, all right, Lord, if this is for you, if this is what you want, I'll say yes, but you going to have to make it clear and open the door. But in my yes, now I need to pursue being the best I can possibly be at it. Not wanting to be like anybody else.
Cause that'll, that'll catch you too. I want to be the best April. I want to be the best April vocalist. Nobody else can sing like April. Why? Because I'm the only one. And when I learned to appreciate the fact that I'm the only April there is, nobody can beat me at beat me.
The only person who can keep me from successfully being April is me. And I think that's what God does not want us to do. That's us taking our talent and just burying it and just be like, Oh, well it's good.
It's going to sit where it is. But God is looking at us to multiply what he's put in our hands. And so for you, not only are you musically gifted and you have those gifts and skills and abilities, you've got leadership abilities. What are you doing with that? You've got an ability to communicate effectively.
What are you doing with that? Are you trying to be better? Do you study? Do you look at other people who are doing what you're doing and gleaning? You don't have to necessarily knock on their door. Study. What's that? The scripture tells us the Bible says to study to show yourself approved when it comes to sharing the gospel.
You want to make sure that you know, and you studied this word in order to share it. I think it's true with any gift or any talent that we've been given. Study, learn, cultivate it, make it grow, and then use it to the best of your ability. But I don't get to say what success is in it.
That's God's job. Right. Buenos días world from the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance. On season three of our show, Amazing Wildlife, we have spotlighted captivating animals from around the world like the capybara. Capybaras are actually the world's largest rodent and they have short little ears that they wiggle very much like hippos. It's one of the cutest things. They're one of the most adorable animals. All episodes of season three are available now.
Listen to Amazing Wildlife on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is what I'm wrestling with now. I'll just be transparent, be a little honest. I have this pull in me to write like maybe a book and I'm like, I don't want to write them. Everybody's writing books. This person's got a book.
It's like, that's the trend. Oh, you're supposed to write a book. And God's like, you worry about the wrong thing. If I'm telling you to write a book, it's not up to you where it goes or what it does. It's up to you to write the book.
And it was the same way with the album. He's like the same thing I do. You don't know what I want to do with this. If it's for a hundred people, then let that book go bless a hundred people. But if it's for 10 million people, who are you to tell me what I can do with the gift I gave you? And so my job now is to, all right, let me do the best I can and continue to grow and then never settle to never say, oh, well, that's good enough. No, I'm going to write another one and I want to make it better. What did I learn from this experience? What can I take away from it?
Where was it horrible? Let's not do that anymore. And then also receiving feedback, being willing to hear from a person like Bernie, you know, I'm going to give it to like, Bernie, read the book and you're going to be like, this part is great. This, you know what I'm saying?
That's the iron sharpening iron thing. Exactly. And so just wanting to do that and learning how to be a good steward over that. And it's not, there's nothing wrong with pursuing success. You just can't allow success to be quantified by the world's standards.
Success in the economy of Christ is being obedient to what he's told you to do and doing it to the best of your ability. That's how I see it. So if God wants to bless me with millions, Lord prepare me to learn how to handle millions because what I don't want is to have millions and don't know what to do with it. You know?
Man, there's so much in there, April. I know. I'm learning a lot in that. There's probably services that will transcribe this for you so you don't even have to type up what you just said.
You can just copy and paste. We're halfway home on the first chapter. And that's the thing too. Like when you realize that God is pulling you in a direction and he's telling you, he's inviting you.
That's the thing. God won't make us do anything, but he's inviting you to step into something fresh, something new, something a little daring for you or something a little frightening for you. It's like, okay, Lord, I'll say yes, but can you prepare me? Can you give me what I need? I don't know what this is going to look like.
Can you help me? And then open yourself to that. He'll send people. He will send people. He will send opportunities. He will send classes. He'll send something on your social media that'll be like, hey, learn how to maximize such and such. And you're just like, oh my gosh, you know, you thought it was Siri just listening to your conversation all the time. Perhaps it's the Holy Spirit saying, yeah, I got you. Listen to this.
Pay attention. God wrote the original algorithm. He knows how to make it work.
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They have shows about prayer, Bible studying, parenting, and more. Thanks again for listening. We'll see you next time. Is life feeling chaotic?
I get it. I'm Rachel Wodeau, host of the Untangling Life podcast. Don't miss the passionate encouragement and faith-based resources you need to help you clear your head and calm your heart. As Shell says, it feels like Rachel always knows what I need to hear. She keeps it real and is so humble. Her podcast is just the cherry on top. Enjoy Untangling Life with Rachel Wodeau on lifeaudio.com or your favorite podcast app now. The Historical Jesus Podcast is the sweeping saga of the life and times of Galilean Jesus of Nazareth, as well as the faith, religion, and church founded to honor and disseminate his acts and teachings. Join me, Mark Vinette, on this fascinating journey through time exploring the many great works of Christian theology, literature, architecture, music, and art inspired by the words and deeds of Jesus Christ.
