Open to Collaborate

Becoming a mother has been my greatest joy and one of the most significant aspects of my calling. This journey has taught me that I can ‘birth’ many things if I yield myself more fully to the Holy Spirit. Motherhood has required me to be open to collaboration on many levels. Of course, there is the spiritual collaboration with God in this life-giving process, and a very tangible partnership with my husband, Ceaser, as we’ve embarked on this journey together, because yes, the birds and the bees. Reflecting on my path to motherhood, I am struck by the countless forms of collaboration that were essential for baby Caleb and baby Chiara to arrive safely into my arms. From the moment I decided to try again, it was a collaborative effort with the Holy Spirit to help my heart overcome fear. This decision led me to collaborate with my body, discontinuing birth control and preparing myself for conception. Ceaser’s unwavering support was vital, even on days when I felt less enthusiastic because we were united in our goal.

Preparing my body involved taking prenatal vitamins and, once I suspected I was pregnant, using a pregnancy test to confirm it. From that point, the collaboration expanded to include doctors, nurses, lab technicians, and sonographers. At twelve weeks, I faced a crucial surgery that required the skilled hands of scrub nurses and an anaesthesiologist, to ensure I could carry my baby to term. Post-surgery, I collaborated with a regimen of medications, a balanced diet, and a daily intake of yoghurt and cranberry juice to stay healthy. For twenty-eight weeks, I dealt with the discomfort of being on bed rest, a challenging form of collaboration with my own body. When the day finally arrived to meet my babies, it was a symphony of collaboration: cannulas, induction medications, midwives, my body, my doctor, music, gravity, and the unwavering support of my incredible birth coach, Ceaser. Each of these elements played a crucial role until I heard those precious first cries from Caleb and then Chiara, marking the grand finale of our collaborative journey.

Every step of this journey was steeped in faith and teamwork, making the arrival of Caleb and Chiara a true testament to the power of collaboration. Through the highs and lows, the moments of doubt and fear, I learned that the journey to motherhood is not one walked alone. It’s a beautiful, intricate dance of faith, love, and the incredible strength that comes from God when we are at our weakest. As I look at my children today, I am reminded of the many hands and hearts that helped bring them into this world, and I am eternally grateful for each and every one of them. This sounds like the perfect reflection of other babies we may need to birth, purpose babies, dream babies, goal babies, business babies, artistic babies and many many more. What collaborative efforts may those pregnancies and deliveries require of us?

If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact, God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body. ~ 1 Corinthians 12:17-20 (NIV)

Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble. ~ Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 (NLT)

Do you have a gift? I believe that recognising you have a gift is the first step in stewarding that gift well. What is a gift? It’s that thing you do that makes your heart sing so loudly you could do it for free for the rest of your life. Yeah… close your eyes and allow yourself to lock in on whatever that is for you. And don’t say you don’t have any. We all have at least one, you simply have to be curious enough to find it. The thing about a gift is that it doesn’t have to be what you’re qualified to do. God designed our gifts to be more powerful than any qualification we could ever get. Why? Because our gifts make us lean more on Him. Deciding to collaborate is another step in stewarding your gift. If you dream of something you can do all by yourself, it’s too small and, dare I say, shows that you’ve not fully realised your gift. Another thing I’ve found to be true concerning gifts is that people will almost always try to define you as the thing they knew of you when they first met you. If you attempt to grow out of that and try some different gifts, they don’t quite understand how to relate with you, and our mistake is that we believe them. By doing so, we put a close to a road that God is still enthusiastically building. How can we guard against doing this while keeping an open mind to the appropriate collaborations that can make our big dreams a reality? This is what I’d like to explore with you today.

Collaboration demands DNA

Own your gift and back it up with your DNA. For a child to be born, DNA collaboration must occur. In the same way, you may have the same gift as someone else, but they add their uniqueness to it and so do you. Stop trying to copy others and own the unique way God made you. Muleke! (translated you must stop!) The more you understand the unique flavour that only you have, the easier it will be for you to collaborate with others. Most people are opposed to collaboration because they don’t understand how God made them. This lack of knowledge makes them feel intimidated and insecure. Go to God and ask Him to reveal you to you. A few years ago, the Holy Spirit told me that He was taking me on a journey of introducing me to myself. Indeed He has and I’ve enjoyed every twist and turn of the crazy ride. Success at the end of your life is finding out who you truly are and doing everything that God intended for you to do. Ask yourself questions like; what needs did God design me to meet? What questions does my life answer? What aspects of my life display God’s character? As you discover these answers in prayer, commit to always being a student of yourself. Stop looking at everyone else and their momma! Learn who God made you to be.

Collaboration demands strategy

Collaborate with people who share your strategy. Back to becoming a parent hey. Is the person you’re procreating with on the same page about key things like parenting principles, faith, boundaries, discipline, extended familial influence and certain generational patterns you wish to break with your nuclear family? These things are important friend. Good collaborations don’t happen by accident. Pray for divine connections and have a plan that someone can easily latch on to when God sends them your way. Having a strategy helps you narrow down what and who you need. God is a God of order and He works within order. He blesses order and is pleased when we think so highly of the gift He gave us that we plan and strategise for it. What strategies and plans do you have for the gifts and dreams God has placed in you? If you’ve never thought about it, today’s the day! Putting that plan down will open your mind up to the wonderous possibilities that God has for you and He will be able to steer you accordingly. As they say, “You can’t steer a parked car.” Start making small steps to you’re your gifts and allow the Holy Spirit to guide you.

Collaboration demands exposure

How hungry are you for growth? It’s only when we’re hungry that God can do miracles. Without exposure, we’re starving our gift. By exposure, I mean two things. Firstly, are you investing time to see what others with a similar gift are doing? People who are farther along than you perhaps in years, technology or skill. By doing this, you open your mind up to the possibilities that are available for your gift which perhaps you wouldn’t normally be accustomed to seeing. Secondly, have you exposed your gift to the world? I know, this is very scary, but the truth is that unless your gift sees the light of day, it is in danger of dying on the vine. When I first started blogging, I did it to get better and more disciplined than I did for the readers. Now, as I’ve allowed the gift to grow, God takes care of bringing the readers and more opportunities. Yes, it’s very scary. I won’t attempt to sugarcoat it for you. But I will say this, God’s got you. For as long as you step out with the right motives and with all humility, He will be your guardrail and will breathe on that gift and multiply it in ways you could have never imagined. Some of you are too busy trying to “perfect” the gift in secret while God is waiting for you to come out with it so that He can breathe on it. You will never perfect it without Him, so stop trying friend.

Collaboration demands time

Has anyone ever told you that birthing dreams is long and hard and demanding? If your answer is no, then I’m telling you now. Don’t write off your gifts because they are taking too much time to cultivate. Don’t write off your dreams because they are taking too long to materialise. The problem with humanity is that we’re too impatient. We want to quickly move on to the next because we’re seeing so and so passing us by. Honey, you don’t know if so and so is running with a jackpot or a bomb! Stay in your lane and focus on what God has given you! God has chosen to collaborate with us and has committed to being patient enough for us to work through the kinks until the gift is good enough to receive praise. Even then, He’s trusting that when it comes to that, we won’t rob Him of the glory. If He’s chosen to trust the process why can’t we? Allowing human life to grow in the womb takes time and it’s uncomfortable but there’s something precious on the other side of all that pain, discomfort and time. In the same way, it takes time to grow emotionally, mentally or spiritually and sometimes it feels as though is all for nothing. No, it’s not all for nothing. God is stretching and growing you because of what He’s placed inside you. Lean into it. Don’t quit before He God has a chance to complete His work in you. Trust me, it will all be worth it in the end.

God can’t help you multiply a gift you’re pretending to have. He can only multiply and collaborate with the truest version of you. Many of us have pending dreams, not because we don’t have the gift but because we need someone to collaborate with. Often, this is someone we’ve sized up and determined, in our hearts, never to work with. On the flip side, God has pending dreams for some of us and they remain pending not because He can’t help us make them all they can be, but because we refuse to engage with ourselves and collaborate with Him in discovering the intricate way He designed us. Stop getting in your own way and desire a life of collaborations led by the Holy Spirit. As you do this, I pray that God presents you with the most amazing divine connections.