Interviewing Annie Mayfield - Part 5 - Using Your Awkwardness for GOD | John Giftah Podcast

0:01 Speaker 1: Like sometimes we just think that, oh, I'm not, I'm not I'm just a nobody, you know, stuff that are like, you're not a nobody, You're you're You're the one that God created as his own masterpiece.

0:14 Speaker 2: You know.

0:14 Speaker 1: Like for example, I don't know why I brought this, but I felt this was led by God. One of my Scoobyo collections. Again, this is you know, it's actually a limited edition piece of Barbie as Scooby Doo Daphne. So this was a limited edition in the fact that not only a novel Daphne, but this was from the two thousand and two Stimo Liang movie.

0:35 Speaker 2: So the fact that it's a limited edition adds more value to it because there's a very.

0:41 Speaker 1: Few in number, and this is something that you don't find very often and it was specially ordered. So if you say that there's very few in number, and it adds more value because it's limited edition, that you are just one of a kind in this world because God created you as one of his own masterpieces, then how much more valuable you and I are that He wants to go to any extent just for us.

1:04 Speaker 2: That's so true, that's so good, and that's the word and I want to share.

1:09 Speaker 1: And I feel that you have a very similar message on telling people that you know, your message is unique, your calling is unique. And I love many times when you talk about and I think even about your yes is God God's love even in your nose, I think, yes, yes, I saw that.

1:27 Speaker 2: That's so good. Guys, check out a YouTube channel by the way.

1:31 Speaker 1: And also you were talking about how even your awkwardness, even the things that are weird.

1:35 Speaker 2: About you, like the way no, no, you won't see.

1:38 Speaker 1: Any normal guy bringing a Barbie doll for.

1:43 Speaker 2: Message, But that's that's weird about me.

1:45 Speaker 1: But I believe that what's weird about me is what helps people to hear about him, you know. Like so likewise, what are some awkward or weird ways you feel that we can teach young people through the weirdness.

1:59 Speaker 2: The awkwardness is the uniqueness. What's your dick on that?

2:03 Speaker 1: Oh?

2:04 Speaker 3: I love man, I've never been asked that that's such a good question. What weirdness can we bring? I love that. I honestly think it's it's just whatever is yours. That's the first thing that came to me, like, whatever is your weirdness, whatever is your awkwardness. You know, for me, there's been so many times in my life that I'm like, this is going to be really weird. This is going to be really awkward. Things such as, you know, like I didn't grow up in a household that really prayed for one another.

2:34 Speaker 3: Like I had parents that believe, but like we weren't the kind that were like, hey, you're struggling with this, let me pray over you. I didn't really have anybody pray over me till I after college, and it was in the church and I and I remember like this was just a couple of months ago, And you know, I pray over people a lot, but I didn't pray over my family ever until like a couple months ago, because I was like, this will be so weird. This just isn't my family, and and I was like, oh, my siblings are gonna make fun of me all this stuff.

3:00 Speaker 3: But I really did, like I felt the conviction. And so to me, that's just an example of one of when the Spirit led me to this awkwardness. You also think too, Jesus like he lived in the awkwardness. Can you imagine when he said to the disciples, no, I'm going to wash your feet. Can you imagine how awkward that was? I mean, like, actually, picture, actually, picture if you work at like a company, or if you I don't know Taylor Swift, I'm thinking of someone who has a lot of notoriety. If she came in and you were like, oh my god, and then she was like, I'm going to wash your feet, you know you just it would be so weird.

3:35 Speaker 3: It would be so awkward. It was like your CEO of your fortune five hundred company coming in and saying I'm going to clean up your inbox for you and respond to your emails for you. You'd be like, stop, why are you doing that?

3:46 Speaker 2: That's so weird.

3:48 Speaker 3: But it's living in that awkwardness. And I think Jesus modeled to us by example. A lot of times the blessings come from our obedience to just sitting in that in between space where it's awkward, and that doesn't even have to be for other people. We internally always have so much awkwardness. Whether you're you're in between a diagnosis, like you know something hurts, but you don't know what it is yet. It's in between the healing of a relationship. You know your marriage isn't great, but you don't know what to do about it yet, you don't know what it's going to look like yet, a friendship or like whatever it is.

4:18 Speaker 3: You know you want to learn this thing, but you don't know how. You know you want to start a podcast, but you don't know how, you don't know what it's going to start. As we all live through awkwardness every single day, and I think, though, the power in living that out and embracing it. It's the same thing with vulnerability. I have a thing right above my desk that says like real not perfect, because for me, whenever I come on a podcast, the only thing that makes me less nervous is when I remind myself, wait, I don't have to be perfect.

4:51 Speaker 3: I just have to be honest. And when I'm honest, one, I never run out of things to say because there's always something going on. But two, it just loosens you up to know like, no one's perfect. When you feel like you have to be perfect, that's when you get so stiff and you feel like you can't do anything because you're afraid of doing the wrong thing. And so I think if we just live into our vulnerabilities, when you live into yours, you can help other people embrace theirs and then other people live out theirs.

5:19 Speaker 3: So back to your question about how do we inspire a generation coming up to like live into that weirdness, live into that awkwardness, live into that imperfection. It's by living out your own by example and being vulnerable and sharing that you know, I want to know because it's weird, but like for me, a massive insecurity of mine. I struggle with this thing called rosea Sha since I was a really little girl, like my face will just get really red. And I remember the first time on a podcast, I like took my makeup off and shared it and I showed it, and what's so cool is the responses I got.

5:58 Speaker 3: It was not from anyone that had roseatia, it wasn't from the thing that I had, But what it was was it let people say, I'm struggling with this thing and it's not that, but what you just did there helped me kind of like take the makeup off this thing I'm struggling with to know it's okay. And so that's what Like, I have another episode called like no Makeup Prayers, and I feel like that's just the way our life needs to be a prayer with no makeup on it. I'm not saying share everything you're going through with everybody.

6:25 Speaker 3: I'm not saying that even Jesus had like his three closest buds, right, But what I am saying is living your life in such a way that you're not making up your life to be somebody you're not by putting on it's about to be Halloween in the United States, by putting on costumes and personas and things that you never were to try to gain approval from people that will never really love the actual you because you're not letting them see you.

6:49 Speaker 1: Many places, what happens is I don't know, you feel hard about this, but there's a lot of this people of other faiths they have is feeling like all these Christmas are you only to come? You know, they have this anti conversion and all of these things against Christians because of that. And when I joined this new organization, no matter what I did, it always feel like they were trying to be Okay. No one let me keep film at a distance because they knew I was this preacher guy. So they thought in the back of their mind that I was only going to convert them.

7:20 Speaker 2: So but you know.

7:22 Speaker 1: So the real thing was being myself, like you said, being authentic, be sharing my feelings, sharing my emotions, and the best thing of you know, one of my gifts that I have is humor. People call them lame jokes, but I just say that jokes don't have legs, so they lame. But people call it dad jokes and all of this stuff.

7:43 Speaker 2: But hey, that's my gift.

7:47 Speaker 3: You know.

7:48 Speaker 1: That helped me break the ice with a lot of people, and about in a theme of twenty three people, at least eleven or twelve. I told me on my face that we thought you're here only to convert, but I realized that you are so genuine person and that helped me to you know, I'm not saying that I've preached the gospel to all of them or something like that, but that helped me to build the relationships. Like coming back to what you were talking about. By product, I was reminded of this how we talk about you know, Joseph reaching the throne, I mean not the throne, he reached the palace.

8:20 Speaker 2: Right.

8:20 Speaker 1: Everybody says I'm want to reach the palace, and like Joseph did. But that came as a byproduct of him investing in the cup Bearer's dream, right, it didn't come just randomly, And how did he invest in the cup bearers ream? If he just went to the cuppartit and say hey, tell me your dream, that cup Barra will give him a slap on his face. He'll be like, hey, you're not even talking to me. You're not even you know, have you're this super holy Joe, Why should I share my personal matters with you? So the fact that the cup Berea shared the dream with Joseph shows that Joseph had a good rapper with the Cambaro.

8:54 Speaker 1: That's so Christians need to understand that part of you know, like, because I've seen the other extreme where Christians are like this hyper spiritual folks.

9:03 Speaker 2: They're like, you know what, I'm so holy, I'm so holy.

9:07 Speaker 1: Kind of like that I'm slowly so so they're like, I'm so holy, holy holy. But but the truth is, yeah, we are set apart, but we need to also be in the world to you know, help people relate and understand. And that's how we are able to bring them to the table. That's how they pay attention to what they ought to say. My content even two days ago I did like a dance video, so people were like checking that out and it was stupid.

9:35 Speaker 2: It was kind of like mister Bean dancing though. But the next video.

9:39 Speaker 1: Was about how Jesus is the only way with their life to heaven. So unless they follow the dance, only then the neighborhood to see the other one.

9:50 Speaker 2: So that's the way we feel just going to be.

9:52 Speaker 1: Like back in the day, I was just you know, like the typical preacher style, you know, wearing a coat and coming in and you know with the say I still do those if I go and preach in the church or a crusade, that's a different setting.

10:05 Speaker 2: But on media, I'm a different being. You know.

10:08 Speaker 1: I use the comedy, these creativity and that that's how I'm able to break the ice being myself. So that is something I think is lacking among Christians. And that's how that's the challenge, like be the light, guys, don't be the team light.

10:25 Speaker 3: That's it's so well, it's so true and I think even you think about in the scripture, like the Pharisees, they knew every word of the law, but they didn't know why they completely missed the Son of God when he was in front of them, and I think that for me, when I think about my life, there's a quote that I love, which is let you're always or the best sermon you'll ever preach is the one that requires no words. It's just the way you live your life. And for me, like so often, it's like some of the best mena share ever done was in and my corporate job went in the lunch room when it's just like I was.

10:58 Speaker 3: It was a situation where everybody was so upset and I had this peace that people couldn't explain and they didn't understand why or for me, like my gift, I'm not I'm not funny like you, and I don't kick out the jokes, but I have a gift of encouragement, like I love encouraging people and whether they knew Jesus or not, like people needed a word of encouragement. And you even think what's so cool is like in scripture, Jesus tells you know, I can't I can't remember. Maybe it was Judah, I can't remember where, but he basically says, like a preacher greater than Jonah is here, and yet you do not hear.

11:32 Speaker 3: And I think, what's so powerful about that is wow. Like Jesus knew who he was in his father, so he did not base the ability or the amount of people's absorption of what he was saying on whether or not he was saying or doing it correctly. And I think so often we based like how great of Christians we are on how people we respawn to it. No, that's God's joke. Even in my family, my mom talks about this a lot. I'm one of four kids, and my parents grew up. You know, we went to church, Like my parents loved the Lord.

12:03 Speaker 3: Two of my siblings don't know God. They don't want to know God. And my parents talk about all the time. You know, as of parents, we did nothing different. Like two of our kids loved God and now we're so in love with him. One of them has writes the books about God. The other two don't even want to know God. And it's like at the end of the day, you plant seeds and then you have faith that God will water it. You know, you think about a farmer. All the farmer can do is plant the seed. He can't provide the sunshine, he can't provide the rain.

12:32 Speaker 3: Only the Lord can do that. And so like, are you faithful to showing up wherever God has you, planting seeds and letting God take care of the rest. Because the reality of it is John Us wanting that conversion metric. I led this person to Christ. I brought that's about us. That's about us saying I was the one that led the person to Christ. It has nothing to do with like glory to be to God. If it was really glory to be a God. It's like, hey, I planted that seed, but Lord, look at what you did, look at what you grew.

13:01 Speaker 3: And so it's like few of the faith to be a lie in the places that God called you to be and letting God take care of the rest, and trusting that any seeds you plant you might not see their fruit on this side of glory, but you planted a seed and we're faithful to that. And is that enough for you?

13:17 Speaker 1: Yeah, like you said, we just plant our seeds. Like for example, I when one of my books that I did was just a storybook, okay, which is just a fantasy story, but through that I bring in Christian principles. So even people of father faiths started checking it out. And that's how I hate hit number one and two categories. So here's the thing, right, Like if I go and say this is a Christian book, guys go and read it, they're not going to read it. So in a sense, what we need to do is we need to ask God for these unique ways of just say, God, how can I sow your word the seed in the unique way in a different way.

13:54 Speaker 1: And like you said, we do our part of sowing the seed, and it's God's job to do what me God kidd