The Preacher Lady Official Launch!
Greetings all! Welcome to the official launch of The Preacher Lady show. This wilderness journey has been exactly one year in the making. It was NOT pleasurable or exciting, however, it has been enlightening and challenging as it relates to me growing into what God has destined for me.
Let me just start by sharing with you how TPL came to fruition and then share what God has placed on my heart to inspire and encourage you as you walk through your own journey to enlightenment.
As Joseph told his brothers at their reunion, which you can find in Genesis chapter 50, verse 20: “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” Now I may not be chosen to save many lives, but I can promise you, what those individuals who hurt me meant for my wrack and ruin, God flipped the tables in the sanctuary once again and built my lemonade stand instead of having those who mocked and betrayed me continue to throw lemons at me.
What's that old adage? "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." Some people even go as far as saying "add salt and tequila". Well, maybe I would have chanted that from my soapbox in my heathenistic (is that a word??) days, but now I'm more apt to cry out, "build a stand and sell some lemonade!"
“With age I've grown wiser... with God I'm growing stronger!”
Someone very close to me as well as, and their "colleague", laughed at me for serving in my outreach & women's ministries and working in the non-profit sector. When I tearfully confided in this person about one of my non-profit jobs ending, they betrayed my confidence and happily shared with their colleague saying, "Hey, the devil sure is busy!"
They both laughed at my misfortune as if they were genuinely overjoyed if the enemy were in fact, wreaking havoc in my life. "Oh stop! She gets the worst jobs!" their colleague replied in response to me working for a domestic violence shelter.
They laughed at me for majoring in Ministry at a Christian university. They mocked me by calling me "The Preacher Lady". SAY WHAT??!??!
I happened to hear all this on a recorded conversation between the two of them. There were other things said by these two individuals on numerous occasions that were nothing less than cruel, vicious, and just downright nasty. Now, don’t misunderstand...when I say “colleague” they were so much more than that. They just so happened to be working together and I choose not to use the general term used to describe such a relationship.
Now I’m changing the names to protect the guilty in this case and this blog isn’t about them. I’m made the past year of my life about them. This blog is about turning life’s rotten and bad lemons, not only into a refreshingly sweet (but tart) cool drink, but also about building a deeply rooted and strong foundation to launch yourself into the next level. But...however...although...don’t get it twisted. I will most definitely share what happened to me 365 days ago in my Dec 26th podcast titled, The Iceberg of Infidelity. That day and the 20 grueling and arduous days leading up to December 26th changed my entire fabric of being completely. It changed family members. It changed co-workers. It shook my foundation to the core. There is someone out there about to or is at this very moment, going through what I did and just like me, they have NO ONE to carry that cross with them. Even Jesus had his Joseph carry his “burden” to Golgotha. So I will put down my embarrassment and shame of what happened to me a year ago at the hands of two individuals to share my testimony and help my brother or sister pick up their cross.
Let me tell you something, pain is pain. Period! No matter how you slice it. But...the difference is in WHO is doing the carving. Family. Friend. Wife. Husband. Son. Daughter. Sister. Brother. The more intimate the relationship, the deeper the incision, thus making the pain greater.
That person who I trusted for the past 23 years mockingly called me The Preacher Lady. As if it were something belittling, something “silly” as they loved to often describe me and my outlook on life. When I think back on when they used that term, that sinking feeling would nudge its way up from the depths of my soul. My eyes slowly pooled in the corners of my swollen eyes, while my nose began to increasingly sting and burn as deeply as those words I heard that person say on many occasions.
Wow! That incision went clear down to the white meat, you feel me? Suffice it to say, I was overwhelmingly hurt, embarrassed, ashamed, and every other negative adjective you can come up with.
I ultimately found out about the deception on December 6, 2018, this is the significance for the official launch of this ministry. It took me a solid 365 days of crying, wailing, fighting, praying, screaming, shouting, threatening...to no avail...to “be still”...as in Psalm 46:10, “...Be still, and know that I am God...”. In my stillness, which at times, I tossed, turned, kicked, screamed, shouted, fell out, caught the vapors, pulled my wig off, put a wig on...God gave me blueprints to build a lemonade stand while He caught all those rotten and pitted lemons that He would eventually have me WASH, KNEAD, CUT,
SQUEEZE, ADD, POUR, and eventually SELL. (This process makes the BEST lemonade!)
He took what they meant to hurt me (calling me The Preacher Lady) and turned it into this ministry to help those on the same journey of REDISCOVERY – REJUVENATION – REDEDICATION, and HIS REDEMPTION. In the joy they’ve stolen from me, He has given me redemption in helping others who have been CUT TO THE CORE. Who have been BEYOND BETRAYED. Who have been MERCILESSLY MOCKED. There IS light in the darkness. There WILL be a dawn of a new day. Isaiah 43:18-19 says, “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”
God is getting ready to do a BRAND NEW thing in your life! I was so blinded by my waves of tears and sinking deeper and deeper into a self-induced depression over what?? Because someone betrayed a 23 year relationship? That was just the tip of the “iceberg” (remember, stay tuned for Dec 26th’s milestone podcast The Iceberg of Infidelity). That I get. That I understand feeling like someone knocked the wind right out of your sail. Now we’re all adults and even a Christian knows what transpires when someone decides to step “out of the ring”. I don’t mean a boxing ring and I’m not Michael Buffer. But to tell the truth and shame the devil, I heard him chanting “Let’s get ready to rumbleeeeeeeeee!” I wanted to drop kick, suplex, head-butt, upper-cut, windmill the folks who hurt me. They hurt me badly.
But my heartache and despair came from being laughed at. From being ridiculed by someone I had established a covenant with 23 years earlier. THAT’S what drove me to the edge. That’s the warped and scratched record I kept playing in my head...hearing their voices on a recorded phone conversation (which I did NOT record myself...that’s what happens when you use secret messaging and calling apps) making fun of my decision to study Ministry and to work serving the homeless brown bag lunches or rally a group of teens to help clean up their own neighborhood.
But they laughed at Jesus too, didn’t they? They spit in his face and called him names also, remember? Jesus built the ultimate lemonade stand...He rose again! And just like Jesus, we will all rise again from the pain and betrayal of those we either call friend or family. But Jesus had to walk through it in order to get to where He needed to be. It simply isn’t possible for us to be hurt and betrayed and not feel anything! It just can’t happen. Jesus felt pain, isolation, fear, rejection, despair...you name it, our Lord and Savior felt it, experienced it, but more importantly, survived it...and so can we through His strength.
Let me give you 3 nuggets to chew on if you find yourself facing life in a pillory having rotten and pitted lemons thrown at you in the form of betrayal, backstabbing, deceit, mockery, or lies.
So what’s that old catch phrase that came out in the early 2000’s? What Would Jesus Do? Better yet, What DID Jesus Do?
Number one: He kept PRESSING on... John 19:16–18, “Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha).” You’ve got to go through it. Beloved, I know it’s hard and you just want the pain to go away, but it ain’t, you’ve got to go through it and keep pressing forward. My brother went through the same exact betrayal and always reminded me, “You’ve got to touch the ground, Tracy! You’ve got to hit rock bottom so there’s but only one way to go and that’s up!” This is what it means when you’re “crowning”. In childbirth, it’s when the baby is emerging. Your big blessing is right there on the cusp. But you can’t stop now! You’ve got to keep it moving! Keep pushing! Keep pressing! And trust me, at this stage of having those little bundles of joy, is THE most painful of all. It’s actually called the “ring of fire”. Trust me, that’s just TMI.
Number two: He kept his mouth SHUT in the presence of his enemies...Matthew 27:12-14, “When he was accused by the chief priests and the elders, he gave no answer. Then Pilate asked him, “Don’t you hear the testimony they are bringing against you?” But Jesus made no reply, not even to a single charge—to the great amazement of the governor.” I can’t stress enough how important it is to keep your mouth shut when dealing with those you have cut you to the core. Shut your mouth! Callate La Boca!
Halt deinen Mund (that’s German you know) My mistake initially was letting that person know on a daily basis that their treacherous ways had devastated me. When I think back to how I kept pleading for a reason why they did what they did, it’s embarrassing. If I had opened my mouth to God earlier and shut my mouth to the offender, I could have saved myself so much disappointment not in them, but in myself.
Number three: He FORGAVE! Luke 23:34, “Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” I know, I know, I know...I’ve ready every book written on forgiveness. I watched every TD Jakes, Joel Osteen, and Joyce Meyer sermon of forgiveness. I’ve listened to every Kirk Franklin, every Hezekiah Walker, every Jeremy Camp, every Elevated Worship, every Marvin Sapp, every Tamela Mann, every For KING & COUNTRY praise and worship song I could find. I attended an 8-week study and ultimate encore event on Freedom (through forgiveness) at my church. I begged God to build a time machine for me to jump into. I cried out to Jesus to give me amnesia. I pleaded with the Holy Spirit to do a Jedi mind trick on me to forget. Nothing worked. That’s because I was looking for an act and not a process. I was looking for a “one and done”. Forgiveness absolutely does NOT work like that. My frustration with forgiveness was that I thought I had to forget. We all relate forgiveness with forgetting and the two are not interchangeable. Forgiveness does not mean you forget to the point of having amnesia or a spiritual lobotomy. Forgiveness is just what God promised as it relates to forgetting: “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” Hebrews 8:12. Focus on the forgiving part and soon you’ll remember their sin against you no more.
Are you ready to begin building YOUR lemonade stand? Are you ready to step into the next level of God's glory and provision for YOUR life? I'll be here with you to help you carry that cross...you're not alone, Beloved.