Light in the Darkness
Prayer Journal Entries from March 31st and April 1st, 2020
When the pandemic started, how did you approach it? Was your attitude positive or negative? My perception was that it was negative for most, understandably, but I chose to focus on the positives. For example, we shifted our WHOA GNV Podcast1 (currently on pause) from an in-person show to a “Zoom” show and started checking in with local businesses in short daily podcasts called the “coronavirus sessions”2 to gather as much information as possible from our peers in order to learn from one another. (I’d soon find out that I wouldn’t be the one doing the saving but instead would need to be the one that needed to be saved.)
The other positives I started to notice… more time with my family, family dinners every night (since life wasn’t interrupted by kid’s sports practices every afternoon), people stepping out of their comfort zones (pastors preaching through social media channels that hadn’t previously done so), and more.
These were my next two journal entries…
[Retyped and elaborated for clarity and context…]
Tuesday, March 31, 2020 8:46a
Jesus - thank you for the gifts you have given me. Thank you for my beautiful wife Shannon. As I write this, I hear her homeschooling Maddox, doing her best to be patient.
[Props to all the parents that pivoted to these new formats. My son, Maddox, like all students, shifted to class on the computer screen all day until my incredible wife realized that it simply wasn’t going to work for Maddox, eventually pulled him from public school and homeschooled him. It was a blessing and she even has a “Homeschool Mom: The Job I Never Asked For” t-shirt she got for Mother’s Day to remember her season of homeschooling, lol! My other son, Schaefer, excelled doing classes on the computer and eventually switched to Florida Virtual School and didn’t go back to public school when it reopened.]
She has so much of her own work to complete, but she is always putting this family first. I love her so much. I pray you bless her beyond her imagination and I pray for her forgiveness for any sin I may sin against her. I can’t imagine trying to navigate this life without her in it. Protect her. [I love you, Shannon. Thank you for all you do for me and this family!]
LORD - I just received a text message from [name omitted for privacy], one of our team members. She says she’s sick. Seems like our entire team is sick or paranoid about getting sick from this Pandemic. I start to roll my eyes so I ask you to soften my heart and help me be empathetic. [This particular team member called out sick A LOT. Most of the time I felt my “eye-rolling” was justified, but under these new circumstances with the pandemic, I really wanted to give her (and others) the benefit of the doubt.] I love my team. I want them to heal. Heal them. Protect them. Without them working, there is zero revenue, so I pray that you help me there. [The health of my team was certainly a priority, but I also couldn’t ignore the fact that without them working, we couldn’t generate revenue which was already shrinking drastically. We had already shifted a lot of our management (myself included) and administrative team to working remotely which as a retail brick-and-mortar business simply doesn’t work. Leadership is needed on the ground floor and this is one of the mistakes I made. I should have been at the dealership with the small team that was showing up during this time. Our service department was working and we pivoted to a model that limited interaction with customers but allowed us to keep servicing scooters.]
Bring in the revenue necessary for us to stay open. If the plan is for NS4L [New Scooters 4 Less] not to stay open, show me that plan. I need to know the steps. As I work through my day, let there be no wasted time and make every action one step closer to getting my family and team out of this mess. This wasn’t the first quarter of 2020 I had hoped for or was expecting, but I know you have a plan. Help me, remind me, to trust that plan.
Love you. Amen.
Collin
The next day…
[Retyped and elaborated for clarity and context…]
Wednesday, April 1, 2020 11:20p
Jesus - I see you working. I see the goodness shining into the world from this virus. Tonight I watched live Facebook videos from pastors that have never done them before. I’ve enjoyed the messages. People need encouragement and to be uplifted during this time. Myself included.
Pastor Brian Vasil [a pastor I had never seen or heard before this day] talked about how our purpose has to live on. We can’t let this isolation isolate our purpose. LORD - I feel my calling is to LEAD and INSPIRE. I feel responsible for building those around me. Is that what you want me to do? Rock my heart. Make my steps crystal clear. I feel a calling to build this podcast and to take this tool and this resource to build up people and this community.
[Today, I can tell you I miss the podcast drastically, particularly the relationships built through the show. I’m not sure if the podcast is part of God’s long-term plan or not. It’s been very apparent that God has wanted me to remain focused on New Scooters 4 Less in this season. Even recently I started making plans to bring the podcast back to just be hit in the face with “Focus on ONE THING”-type messages. I met with my friend (and videographer) a couple of weeks ago to talk about starting the podcast back. An hour after we met for coffee, I sat down to read and the next chapter in the book I was reading. Its title? REMEMBER YOUR ONE THING, NOT THE SHINY THINGS.3 (See picture below) You can't ask for a clearer message than that. My focus at this time needs to be on the scooter shop. A line further below says, "How many times have we seen organizations fail because they tried to pursue too many things at once? They moved away from their core, their identity." When I read this, I immediately think about how my time and energy being spent on the media company and podcast started to hurt New Scooters 4 Less well before the pandemic did. With that said and though I could be wrong, I believe the podcast will come back at some point. Sometimes, the hardest part is OBEYING GOD and abiding by HIS timeline.]
Help me do that. Let people listen. Let people sponsor and support. Let this be Gainesville’s, the State’s, the Nation’s most inspirational show. Let it become an incredibly valuable experience for our guests. Make me a fisher of men.
[As you can tell, I’ve had multiple conversations with God over this podcast. I’ve said, “Lord, you understand that I can reach more people for your kingdom through this microphone than I can being on the showroom floor of the scooter shop, right?” Sometimes, I think he’s trying to prove me wrong because the number of one-to-one conversations I’ve had about Jesus on the showroom floor has been too many to count!]
Help me change the world and let it glorify you. I trust you. Show me the way. Help me be uplifting to others. Speak through me. I am yours. I am your servant. Don’t let my life go to waste. [I don’t fear much, but if I had to pinpoint one thing, it would be this… that my life on Earth was a waste, that I impacted nothing and no one. I pray for the Lord to use me as a vessel.] Let my P&L be purpose and legacy [as opposed to profit and loss] and let all of it GLORIFY you. Thank you for your love and for the opportunity to even live this life. May I always thirst for more of you and thank you for overfilling my cup with your love.
Let’s change the world. [God doesn’t need my help to change the world. He does, however, want us to play a part in HIS plan to impact lives and help others learn the gift of salvation and surrendering their lives to HIM and HIS Will.]
Love you. Collin
Though times can get tough, storms can happen, and pandemics can shift the way you do life, I think it’s important to not only seek the light in the darkness but to BE the light in the darkness.
Matthew 5:14-16
14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
Things to think about:
Where do you need to shift your perspective?
Are you a glass-half-full or half-empty type of person?
Is your light shining?
Are you stressed out when things don’t go your way (or happen on your timeline)?
What’s your ONE THING?
Until next time, many blessings to you and yours.
http://whoagnv.tv and https://whoagnv.com
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3RFIt6nykpBV7RMRp8JcFu7uqe1uWyF_
https://www.amazon.com/Leadership-Not-Book-Unconventional-Principles/dp/1540902242