Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:04 Welcome to the Life Refresh podcast. My name is Ryan Robinson, and if you are looking for a podcast that is designed to uplift, encourage and revive your heart, mind, and spirit. You're in the right place. Welcome to the journey of Becoming the version of You God designed from the foundations of the earth. Now, let's begin.
Speaker 1 00:00:31 Hello and welcome back to Life Refresh podcast. This is Ryan Robinson. Welcome back yet again. Um, I want to keep, uh, going on the last topic we've been talking about, really the power of exposure. And I left our last podcast with a quote. I want to start off this same podcast with this quote. This is from Brianna West, uh, from the mountain is you transforming self-sabotage into self-mastery, and we can keep that, uh, put that in the show notes as a, as something for you all to read, but is such a powerful, powerful book to read in the sense that this book requires us to be aware of the things that actually keep us from becoming who we have been called to become. So I wanna start off with this quote. It says, this, your new life, your new life is going to cost you. Your old one is going to cost you your comfort zone and a sense of direction.
Speaker 1 00:01:37 It's going to cost you your relationships and friends. It's going to cost you being light and understood. It doesn't matter. The people who are meant for you are going to meet you on the other side. You are going to build a new comfort zone around the things that actually move you forward. Instead of being liked, you're going to be loved. Instead of being understood, you're going to be seen, all you're going to lose is what was built for a person. You no longer are such ai, uh, such a powerful statement. Um, it it, if I could tag this, I I would prefer to call this, this podcast here, re evolve or repeat me. Call it. Again, it's power of exposure part three. But I think the phase of this, of evolve or repeat is something that we really need to, to discuss really on this particular topic today.
Speaker 1 00:02:42 Evolve or repeat. As many of us, uh, walk through life, there are things that we just have to grow up from. We have to mature, we have to move on to different things in our life. And, um, you know, each day there's a quote that says, each day we are presented with two options to evolve or repeat. I know it sounds very, very simple, <laugh> to say that, but every day is not like the other day. And sometimes the same thing that got you to one point is no longer viable and outdated. In the next point, you have gotten everything you need, e especially when we're going through school and education, right? We, we go through everything we need to get to the next level. And then soon as you get to it, you graduate and move on to the next. And then you're at the bottom of the barrel.
Speaker 1 00:03:39 Uh, think about going from, um, middle school to high school. You're the bottom. You're a freshman again, and then you go all through the ranks, and then you feel like you got this thing down packed. You become a senior, and then soon as you go and you graduate, you're at the bottom again. If you go to college and then you're at this top again, and then you're at the bottom again at a different level, but at the bottom again going forward. So until we really change our perspective as to where we are, we will never understand and never evolve past where we're going. And eventually you'll actually, if you don't choose to grow past the level that you've been engaged in, you are actually going to repeat the lesson. I'm not quite the video gamer that I once was, many of my listeners might be.
Speaker 1 00:04:38 And there are games that require you to find keys, to find skills, to find tools that unlock potential in the next one. And, uh, many times in our own life, we are actually actually doing ourself a disservice because we blow past all the tools we need from one level that we're gonna need at the next. And then you are doomed and destined to repeat it yet again. In many ways, this journey is a quest for you to find and unlock the real version of you. And at the end of every level, there is a boss that you have to conquer a test. You have to perform and complete in order to find out who you truly are at the end of it. And in fact, it is the the boss. It is the, it is the gatekeeper to the next level that really affirms who you truly are.
Speaker 1 00:05:40 I'll give an example from the, from the Bible, David and Goliath. David and Goliath is a perfect example of when, when the enemy or when the, when the, that you need to conquer, that affirms who you are as an individual comes, you have to be prepared. David said, I've killed the lion. I've killed the bear. He had been prepared at different levels and different stages. Being a shepherd boy, he had to protect the sheep from predators. And as we can say, we, he did a lion that's one size. He did the bear, that's another size. And he says that he can take out Goliath too. Now it is a different method, but the enemy has evolved. So that method, the training that took place in order for David to be ready for this moment in time was already predestined, but it started small. He evolved to the size of the giant, not to the size of what he thought he was capable of the giant.
Speaker 1 00:06:54 In fact, Goliath pulled from David the greatest capability and greatest ability that he already had in order to defeat Goliath. And many people, particularly in that scripture, did not understand David's weapon of choice. Now, many of us, if, if you don't even know the Bible, honestly, you could come to understand this particular scripture. And this scripture was something I feel that many of us have heard in, you know, in, in just regular stories of David and Goliath, but don't really know the context of it. But, um, this scripture or this series of scriptures, this story is found in one Samuel chapter 17. And, um, it is a super impactful conversation, at least observation of what people put on David in order to think that he was prepared for it. Now, this is the key. When you evolve, evolving, may look different than what culture says it should look like for you.
Speaker 1 00:08:21 I'm gonna say that one more time. Culture may say you need to evolve a certain way, but that way may not be right for you. Okay? And this is such a powerful piece of, of, of conversation because at this point, I'm just gonna paraphrase most of this, but, uh, Jesse, David's father wants to have David, uh, send him, uh, uh, some grain and some bread to run to the camp of, uh, of Israel as they're waiting and being taunted by Goliath and the Philistines. So this is, he basically, hey, I'm going to be, he's the ancient DoorDash, he's the first version of DoorDash for his brothers, and he is going to take this food to his brothers. And, and he gets mocked immediately. He gets mocked in and says, what, what? Why are you even here? Why are you even here? Uh, David, why are you even here?
Speaker 1 00:09:20 You shouldn't even be here. And essentially this Goliath guy is talking mess. And David says, who is this uncircumcised Philistine? That's cuss words back in the day. <laugh>, those are cuss words back in the day. He said, who is this joker talking about us, God's favorite people? And, uh, you know, again, he's getting, getting, uh, ridiculed and they're like, oh, well, who's this guy? And he's Dave's asking questions, trying to figure out who, what does, uh, the person get if, uh, they knocked this guy out and they're trying to figure out and look at his pedigree and see where he came from. Um, and then he says, you know, I killed the lion and I killed the gray, and I did all these things. And I, I can certainly, based off of what I've done with the other levels that I've passed, I can clearly deliver us out of the Philistines.
Speaker 1 00:10:22 And like, okay, Lord, be with you. Now, this is the one point that I wanted to like nail down as far as culture's version of what they think is best for you. Um, after they go through this whole story, and David's telling them and explaining why he's qualified for this, Saul closed David, this is verse 38. Saul, the Bible says, Saul cloth David in his armor, he put a helmet of bronze on his head and he also clothed them with a coat of mail. David secured his sore to his armor and tried to walk, but he was not used to them for, he had not tested them. And Davis said to Saul, I cannot walk in these for, I have not tested them. So David took them off, he took his staff in his hand and chose for himself five smooth stones out of the brook.
Speaker 1 00:11:13 And he put them in his shepherd's bag, even in a pouch, and his sling was in his hand. Then he drew near to the Philistine. Okay, so, so many things going on here, but I want to, I wanna nail two things down. One, when the king gives you armor to put on, you probably should put it on it's free. It's what is customary for a warrior to be clothed in what the king has decided. But the Bible clearly says, and particularly my version has things bolded, um, in the fact that it said he had not tested them. He had not been in battle. He didn't know how the sword worked. He didn't know how the armor fit him. He didn't know if the armor could actually help him move. It did it cut off his agility. It was something that he was not used to.
Speaker 1 00:12:10 He hadn't broken them in. So evolving sometimes here it is evolving, is removing the things that were once and in many cases at one point useful, but are no longer useful for you. So you have to leave the things which are behind you and press toward the things which are ahead of you, which means leaving your past, leaving what worked before, and specifically what worked for you is what you need to work towards. It is such a challenge for many of us to leave what we are familiar with and head towards something that is unknown. Now, this is the thing y'all, the examples that David gave were evolutionary enemies. A lion has four feet, they all have four feet, but a lion is, you know, walks on four feet. A bear has the ability to walk on two H feet, our two legs, right? But he also can, uh, walk on four feet.
Speaker 1 00:13:34 But it was an evolutionary movement. The enemy evolved, but David evolved too. He evolved in skill, he evolved in capability, he evolved in awareness. His enemy increased in size, so did David's confidence. So hi, the size of David in himself and his belief in himself and the god that he served increased, even though he was the stature of a Bible kind of references about 16 year old boy. So think about this. This kid had evolved to such a degree that he had confidence enough to destroy, no say, take this back. He was confident enough in the skill that he was given and the favor that God had given him in previous battles, that he could clearly take out the champion of the, of the Philistines, Goliath of gath. And everybody knows the end. He didn't need five, he just needed one. It knocked out the giant.
Speaker 1 00:14:43 But this is the key. This is the key. That was not the final blow. The final blow was down. It was toward the end of this chapter, I wanna say verse 51. Yes, verse 51, where after he knocked him out, and this is what's clear, Bible says there was no sword in David's hand. He knocks Goliath out cold. So then he took Goliath's own sword, drew it from his its sheath, and he finished him off and he cut off his head with the sword. Now, this is the thing, I don't know anyone, anyone that trains to do that unless they've done something previously like that. This was something familiar to David, just a different enemy. He evolved his capability and probably did exactly what he had done before. Kill the lion, kill the bear, kill the giant. So if we choose to do and become someone different and evolve, the enemy will evolve the level of us.
Speaker 1 00:15:57 Let me say that again. The enemy will evolve. But when the giant and enemy shows up, the requirement for us to meet that giant is that we have had in past previous levels. Therefore, we are prepared to take on that giant at the end of this, this one, this one blow, this one kill changed the entire battle for the Israelites and particularly David. He had a life that was tax free. He got a free wife, he got some money, <laugh>, his life changed off of one opportunity, and then he was seen as the warrior of Israel. I mean, we can continue going down First Samuel, um, and we can continue to see David evolve from being just a shepherd boy to being a mighty warrior, mighty worshiper of God, uh, um, all at the same time. Not perfect, but clearly through this God has, God has always caught him a man after his old heart.
Speaker 1 00:17:12 So I clearly want to articulate this because evolving and repeating are dangerous. Excuse me, let me start this over again. Evolving is good, it's best, but repeating, that's another option that you don't want. I really want, I want to get into that a little bit more. But, um, I, I don't think we have time to get into the repeating portion of evolving. And again, this all comes back to exposure, y'all. Are we embracing experiences? Are we leveling up based on what we're experiencing? Just because it's unfamiliar and uncomfortable doesn't mean, it does not mean that it's wrong. It just means that you're not used to it yet. Just like David wasn't used to the armor, but he didn't need to put on what someone else thought would be good for him. He had already done the preparation to do it the way he was uniquely fashioned and designed to handle it, which was no sword, a slingshot, some stones and his skill that didn't seem to match. But with God's hand behind what you are skilled at, you will have no idea what the outcome could be. This is the thing. Sometimes we have to have enough faith just to throw the stone and the outcome is up to God. You do the best you can with what you have, but you had enough faith to at least show up to the battle. Use what you're used to
Speaker 1 00:19:02 And throw it to me, y'all, that is a clear sign that you have
Speaker 1 00:19:11 Evolved flaws and all. This is the thing. Y'all, there was nothing else in David's bag that he had. He didn't have the sword, he didn't have all the other weapons that anyone could possibly need. He showed up with what he had and what he had was good enough to defeat what was on the other side of the battle. I want you all to be encouraged to evolve in this time in your life, um, to act courageously again and again, to be happier and to shine your light from the inside out, but most importantly, doing something great with who you have become and the version that you have been upgraded. The next one.
