Speaker 1 0:57

Are you a Christian with an online business? If so, do you share your faith at work or do you feel you need to hide your faith and not be your true, authentic self in today's a multicultural world? Well, you're in the right place, my friend, because this is the launch of the resilient faith online show. And today we're going to talk about how we can let our faith shape our work in episode. Number one,

Speaker 2 1:28

Welcome Shadrack host of the resilient faith online show. I'm a digital strategist and certified copywriter, but more importantly, a woman of faith in this podcast, you'll find a biblical perspective to the external and internal challenges we face as online content creators. Join me for some inspiration and practical tips. As we let her feed shape our work to create positive change online, to connect with our private Facebook group of faith-based online entrepreneurs, go to Marissa shadrack.com/faith . Hello. Hello everyone. How are you doing

Speaker 1 2:07

Today? This is Marissa, and I'm so glad to be launching this resilient faith online podcast. It has been long in the making and there's a reason for it. I have been a person of faith for over 35 years and most of those years I was in full-time ministry and I created these silos. I hate to admit, but I had my church life and I had my family life. And then when I thought of business life, I thought it was secular. And apart from what I was already doing in ministry, and I had kind of a mindset shift. So let me tell you what led to that. You know, when I was single, before I became a Christian , um, my lifestyle wasn't the best, right? And I was living alone and I was working and , uh , very much interior corporate climbing, the corporate ladder, like most people do at that age. And I found myself unfulfilled and I got tired of the cycle of getting up, going to work, eating, going to sleep, work, eat, sleep, work, eat, sleep. It just felt like such a hamster wheel life. And there was no fulfillment. And I was trying to figure out what was going on. And I was young. I should be happy. Right. And I needed to find joy in my life. And so I thought that taking an art class or trying some new things or, you know, travel maybe on the weekend going somewhere, I would do it, but nothing did it. And I began just having questions about life and God and trying to figure out the big picture. Right. And really having a heart searching for truth. And during that season, I don't know if you recall Amy. Um, the I'm going to date myself here, but that's okay. Immigrant was , uh, coming out with some well albums at that time it was cassette . So I'm really dating myself. And I had seen her on TV and I heard her sing one song. She was promoting her new, her new album. And so I went and bought it and I love the lyrics to it. I didn't understand all of it, but he gave me peace. And so I was still on this pursuit to try to figure out God and so forth. I had some type of a faith background. I was in a private school that was a faith based . And so I knew of God, but I didn't know God. And so in this journey, I decided to maybe go to a local church that was really, really huge. It looked like a cathedral, very intimidating. And I went there one Sunday and I remember going up the steps and these big doors went through them and it was kind of dark inside. And I chickened out, I looked against the wall and there was some pamphlets. So I went and grabbed some pamphlets and I ran out of there. I thought I don't belong here. I feel like a hypocrite. Why should I go here? You know, all these people are very Holy . You know, I had this like crazy idea of church. And so I went home and I threw the pamphlets on the coffee table and didn't think about it too much. I'd look at them and close to that time, my birthday was coming around and I decided I was not going to do the typical go out and go party with my friends or anything. I'm just going to stay home. I was going to , uh , listen to some music, watch some TV and do something different because I was really in a, in a, in a state of really reflection and thinking what I was going to do with my life and really trying to figure out the big picture for my life. And so on my birthday, I decided to pick up those pamphlets. And I can't tell you exactly what it was that I read, but something in the words, in the text, it evoked God's love for me the way I was. And that broke me and I, now, now it was, it was something spiritual that happened because, you know, I, I was searching and looking and something in there just made me understand with clarity that God loved this imperfect person called Marissa . And I felt like I didn't deserve it. And I remember breaking down, crying, thinking, how could this God that created everything love me because he knows everything. And he knows me with my flaws and everything. And that moment was so intense that I had my head down and I was afraid to look up because I literally thought I would see something because it was just so heavy, the presence of God. And that moment changed my life. I didn't know how it was to serve him. I didn't even know what I needed to do to serve him. I just knew that I needed to know more about him. And then I was all sold out. I was all in. And so someone had given me a Bible and I knew enough that red letters were the words of Jesus. And so in that Bible, I went straight to those words cause I thought, well , I'm going to listen to these other guys when I've got Jesus words right here. Right. I didn't realize how wonderful the entire Bible was at that time. And so I read all the red letters and then I got into community and I started this whole faith journey that totally transformed my life met . I remained within church community. Right. Um, very much so. And after that moment of conversion where nobody was there in my apartment was just me and the Holy spirit. Right. Um, I decided to leave Los Angeles cause I was in Los Angeles and I moved to Arizona. Where was so unlike me, I was not I'm person that puts in deep roots. You know what I mean? I mean, deep roots. I don't move once. I'm stable somewhere. And I just packed up and left and just going on this new adventure, I had an opportunity to work in Arizona and I thought I'm going to take it because I need to leave the influences, the environment. And so I went to Arizona with literally a few things that I had in my Bible. And um, when I went there, I met a Christian man that I thought was a total temptation of the devil and that I wanted to ignore, but he ended up being a Christian man. And our first conversation was about God. And he literally said, I'm Orissa , I don't want to date you. I want to marry you. And he became the man of my dreams. We got married very soon after that. And we've been married 35 years this year. So, you know, God had positioned me because the timing is incredible because he had just started working there when I started working there, right. Uh , divine intervention there. And I just know that God had his hand on me and was trying to get me out of Los Angeles to begin this new life with him and with my husband. And so I ended up doing a lot of ministry work because I loved God so much. And I felt that that was the sacred work. That was the work that was meant for God, was what I did at, at church in the four walls of a building. Right. And we tend to create these silos. Like I did that. There's your life, your personal life, which includes your husband and your kids and your self care and your health and your education, all those things. Then you have your faith, which for me was what I did and volunteer work. Or when I was in staff on certain churches, that was my faith work and then there's work work, which was secular work that, you know, I didn't have a whole lot of interest to pursue that any more . Cause I was so in love with God and I wanted to do his sacred work. So I created these little silos, right. And I think we tend to look at work as that secular work that nine to five grind that we just do to get a buck, right. To make a buck, to put food on the table. And if someone has purpose involved in there and it's, there is something that they have pursued intentionally. That's awesome. But a lot of people find themselves just working for the paycheck. The nine to five grind and work I think is so much more than that. And I've come to discover that. So resilient faith online was really a desire to reach out to all the online entrepreneurs that are working out there and realizing the value that we have with the internet and the opportunity that we have to create positive influence. And so, as I started , uh , realizing that , um, life is not a bunch of silos, you know, I ended up pursuing writing and writing was a form of communication. And after the writing, I pursued another form of communication, which was public speaking. And, and that writing that I was doing in the public speaking, you know, I , I started a blog and I started cutting my teeth with online marketing. And, you know, that was, that was some years back , um, almost a decade when I started that. And it all started coming clear that we can't let our faith just affect a small slice of her life. It should affect everything and we don't create these silos. And so when I was looking to come back into a work area, outside the church , um, you know, I had some reservations about it because I thought, Oh, now I gotta be a different person. I can't share my faith or I'm going to offend somebody. And I had all these thoughts that, you know, it's not going to be as fun because you know, it was just so great to be able to work within the church walls and do ministry. So I didn't realize that as you grow in a closer relationship with God is not just , um, an invitation to invite him into what you're doing, but an expectation to have him show up everywhere, even at work. So I realized as I was pursuing my online business as a copywriter and as a business coach and doing this work that I could have God show up, there was an expectation for him to show up an expectation for him to help me in my decisions and expectation for him to bring revenue, yes. Even revenue. And so , um, this is the truth. Um, I believe that the work is how we spread the gospel. And I don't mean necessarily pushing your faith people. It's a way that we worship God. Now, when you think about it, God worked, he created the world, right? He worked for a number of days and then took a day of rest. But God is still working. God is still creating. And he had Adam and Eve tending the garden. They were working, work was sacred, right? Work was sacred. It wasn't a separate thing. It was all part of his plan. And so I was looking at work differently and how it is part of how we worship God and how we impact the world and work is where we are able to show up with all of the talents and the gifts and the blessings that we have. Some people call it, Stuart your gifts, but it's simply managing all the things that have been given to you, unique you and using it in your work and who gave you all those talents and gifts. God gave you all those talents and gifts and you're leveraging all that and using it for work. And so work should be a joy to be able to do all those things, to create impact, to create, to have influence, to be able to serve others and help others, even through products and services, right. And work also stimulates the economy. So it's a way honoring God every day by acknowledging him and showing your love in how you live, not only in your personal life, but also in your work life. And really work is an extension of who you are. So it's not separate. And so I started realizing this and more and more, I started coming back to my ministry roots and combining what I do with just being my own authentic self in just sharing. Sometimes some truths that often we hear mindset truth, but it really is rooted in the Bible and just being my authentic self with who I am and being able to share something positive that's encouraging. And that's why I believe it. Online entrepreneurs have a special calling, so to speak because you have the privilege to lead in with positive change. You can be a leader. That's going to influence people toward positive change because of the power of the internet. I think you're special people that have an opportunity, cause you don't know who you're going to touch all around the world. I have clients from China. I have clients from South Africa. I have clients all over the United States. It's amazing to be able to touch people all over the world. So I truly believe you have a special calling when you're an online entrepreneur to work well, to serve others, to provide those products and services. And when God says go, and there's an opportunity to , um, to impart something positive to someone you can, and it doesn't have to be in an icky way either. There's, there really is no distinction between the sacred and the secular. Anything you do with your hands can be sacred when you do it to honor God and to give God glory. So there's no such thing as secular. It doesn't mean that we push our faith, but our lives should create a hunger or a curiosity at least about how we live our lives. So for living our lives for Christ, we should show patience and we should show kindness and we should show peace. And that something that creates a hunger in other people to inquire, and that does happen. So the application on, on how we do this, or how do we do this in a practical way? You might be thinking, well, I can't be sharing. I can't be breaching where I work, or I can't do that, you know, in my business or I'm going to turn off clients and things like that. I totally get that. I totally get it. And you're totally right. There's some situations where you , you can't do that. Right? But we become sensitive to God's leading for ourselves and our home and our work we ask for what we need. And we even ask in our work environment, we ask for opportunities. We ask for clients, we ask for those things that we need, and it's okay to ask God for those things. Um, at the end of the pandemic in 2020, it was crazy. Uh , fourth quarter was really rough for me. And so in the beginning of the first quarter, in 2021, I just started asking God. I said, you know, God, I've tried some things that , that , that they didn't, they didn't work, they failed. And so I need your help. And so I'm going to ask, I need some retainer clients. And I was almost not putting God to the test, but honoring his word in that he says to ask, and I started getting these retainer clients, the first one, the second one, the third one, the fourth one, the fifth one, and no credit to me. It was just starting to come to me. So we need to practice this daily resilience to be able to navigate through those times where we start feeling like we can't move forward. Or there is an obstacle because we have an opportunity online to share our faith and it doesn't have to be preachy. And you have to realize, even if you're in a business where you can share something to another believer, that's also helpful the edification of each other, right? Because just because we're Christian doesn't mean that we run solid 24 seven, right? We all need to encourage each other. So we can, we can look for those opportunities when we're working with other Christians to lift them up, to pray for them, but we can practice it in a setting where maybe they're not believers by just the way we present ourselves with integrity. And with honesty and honesty can be right by not padding a sales page and saying, you know, this is the last spot. When you know that there's more spots left by having integrity, having honesty, being patient with people. And especially when it comes to emails, going back and forth, being patient with people and honoring people, being respectful. There's the honor that comes in being respectful to all people, even salespeople, when they call on my phone. And I don't really want to talk to them, being respectful and having joy in the work that we're doing. Cause sometimes work can be hard, right? And sometimes when I have a copy client , some of the projects can be big projects and there could be a close deadline. And sometimes I have to work on the weekend to meet that deadline. But to have joy that I have that opportunity to serve in that capacity. Right? So in this, it doesn't have to be a preachy way. It's just the way you conduct herself , where you let your faith shape your work because your work is an extension of who you are. So in the meantime, what do we do? We hear a lot of things on social media and on the news, a lot of things out there that can try to derail us. So what we have to do is as that, we make choices and we choose not to hate, right? Not to get angry. We choose to respond with faith and not react fear. We choose to anchor ourselves in truth and not let our emotions take over. We choose to anchor our lives in God's truth. We choose to be vulnerable. We choose to heal. When we've been broken, we permit ourselves to be resilient. Children of God, because from the ashes of pain, God will make something beautiful. Not only in your life, but he'll use you to create something beautiful in someone else's life and together we become God's resilient bride waiting for his soon return. So I hope this has encouraged you. We're going to talk more about mindset. We're going to talk about the internal, external challenges that we face as we create an online business. And we're also going to have some interviews where I'm going to interview some people with some practical tips. So I hope you continue to join me. And I hope until next time, stay resilient to create positive change online.

Speaker 2 21:30

If you found this podcast helpful, then subscribe from wherever you're listening today. So you never miss an episode. Every subscription review or rating means so much to me. So keep them coming and share this with a friend for more free content, go to Marissa shadrack.com and remember keep cultivating resilient faith online to create positive change in the world.

Speaker 3 21:58

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