Overcoming the Past – BE and Overcomer

The rearview mirror of our lives holds many things. Looking into it can be motivating and awakening if intentional steps have been taken on your journey! This book is a look into the rearview mirror of my life and an acknowledgment of the intentional steps that have positioned me right here, right now!

I have been on a journey of influence since 1992. Not in my wildest dreams would I have thought as a kid that I would be telling you that I would be an influencer. I was always the one being influenced and following the crowd to fit in. There was no way that I thought that I had enough value to influence anyone else. So I continued to live my life submitting to everyone and everything else, no matter if it was healthy or unhealthy. This past of mine created a lot of havoc in my life and in other’s lives. I wouldn’t have been able to step into a position of influence without embracing the past that told me that I would NOT be an influencer.

Growing up in a shame-based family sets a person up for defeat before they even have a chance to embrace truth. Truth is the “thing” that God has designed for your life! Truth is nothing more than a reflection of Him showing up in our lives. He is truth, and therefore, each of us was created for truth. When we embrace Him into our lives, we get to experience true freedom!

I have been given the gift of music, and I started exercising that gift when I was four. It was the only place that I saw glimpses of worth. It was my saving grace many times when I sought true acceptance. True acceptance is something that each of us craves. We are seeking acceptance through the behaviors that we display. There is an inside drive of desire-seeking that is the force of the things we do and how we think. When we can connect that desire with its Source, freedom shows up!

I was given a platter in life that held “not good enough,” “insufficiencies,” “inadequacies,” and other “shame-based” self-defeating thoughts that took control of me in every area of my life. Due to my distorted thinking, I was positioned for disaster. That disaster started at the ripe age of thirteen and robbed me of every bit of it, which poised itself as freedom in life, true freedom in my life. I held on to deception, and I continued to buy the lies.

From the time I was 8 years old I was searching for something significant in my life. I searched many places high and low and got hung up in many potentially destructive behaviors. I thought that I had found significance a few times along the way, only to find out that selfish desires were getting in the way. I kept plugging through life, knowing there was something greater I was created for, although I didn’t really understand what that was or how to attain it. Why, out of all people, should I have purpose? The REAL question was……WHY NOT?!?

The past doesn’t define me, but it did allow me to be molded into who I am today. Molded into a man that can be used for the greater good. I can write this book, safe from the destruction that could have been, and in an awesome place in life because I have a purpose, a greater “why”! There was a plan for my life, even when I didn’t understand that plan. All of the years of searching for something greater paid off. That something greater for me has been understanding and embracing a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. He created me, and He created you for a purpose greater than our human understanding. He is enough! I am enough!

Embrace your rearview mirror today and allow it to propel you into embracing what He created you for. You are enough!