What if God isn’t waiting for you to be more talented, confident, qualified, or put together—He wants to use you, just as you are?

I’m going to fail. Someone else could do it better. I don’t have anything special to offer. I’m not enough.

At Collide, we call these our “not me’s”—the lies that convince us we don’t have what it takes for God to use us. But what if instead of focusing on everything we think we’re missing, we started believing God can use what we already have?

In this special team conversation, Willow Weston sits down with Collide team members Kelli Hawkinson, Tammy Lindhout, and Nina Hall to talk honestly about the fears, insecurities, and false beliefs that have held them back—and what they’ve learned about saying yes to God anyway. It’s a conversation at the heart of Collide’s Yes, You Bible study: believing that God can use our talents, stories, experiences, pain, and even our weaknesses to do amazing things in this world.

Throughout the conversation, each woman shares how she has learned that God wasn’t waiting for her to become more impressive or qualified. The invitation isn’t to become her. It’s to bring God what you have and trust Him with what He can do through it.

Key Takeaways

• When you think someone else could do it better: Stop waiting to become someone else. God created you intentionally, and your insecurity doesn’t erase your purpose.
• When you’re afraid you’ll fail: Borrow someone else’s belief in you. Sometimes we need people who can see potential in us before we’re able to see it ourselves.
• When the lies start creeping back in: Pay attention to your reactions. Defensiveness, anxiety, insecurity, or comparison may reveal an old lie you’ve started believing again.
• When your gifts don’t seem impressive: Don’t underestimate willingness. God can build something significant through small acts of obedience, one step at a time.
• When you think your brokenness disqualifies you: God can use it. When we’re honest about our weaknesses, our stories can give other people permission to be honest about theirs too.
• When you see potential in someone else: Tell her. Your invitation or encouragement may be exactly what she needs to step into something God has for her.

How This Episode Will Encourage You

You don’t have to be the most talented person in the room. You don’t have to get rid of every insecurity. You don’t have to wait until your story is perfectly healed.

God has a history of using unlikely, imperfect, weak, and broken people.

Willow describes Collide as a kind of “ragtag” group of women who are insecure, fearful, messy, afraid of failure, and in need of second, third, and fourth chances—and yet God continues to use their willingness to create a ripple effect in the lives of other women.

Instead of focusing on everything you think you’re missing, ask:

What has God already placed in my hands?

Your gifts. Your personality. Your experiences. Your story. Your compassion. Your weakness. Your willingness.

You don’t have to become someone else before God can work through your life. Bring Him what you have, take the next step, and trust Him with what He can do through your yes.

God wants to use you. Yes, you.

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Welcome to the Collide Podcast. We're a growing community of everyday chicks colliding with Jesus in our mess, our pain, our joy, and our stories.

We value showing up as we truly are.

So that's what you'll find here, walls and masks being torn down so that we can allow Jesus to meet us where we truly are and hear about other women doing the same. We can't wait to collide with you.

Hey, guys. Welcome to the Collide Podcast.

I'm Willow Weston, the founder and director of Collide, and if there's one thing that we're big around here about, it's that we believe God can use you to do amazing things.

And we believe it so much, though, that we came out with a beautifully designed Bible study recently called yes, you, that challenges women to believe that God can use their talents, their stories, their experiences, and even their pain and their weaknesses to do amazing things in this world.

And today, I'm so excited because we have three amazing women that God is using in this world, and they're on our Collide Ministry team, and they give of their time and their talents and their heart and their energy, and they have for years so that women can continue to collide with Jesus and be forever changed. And so I'm so glad, Kelli Hawkinson and Tammy Lindhout and Nina Hall, that you're with me today on the podcast.

You guys know we talk a lot about not me's around here, and yes you's and our not me's are all those lies we believe about ourselves, Right?

And I'm wondering if we can, you know, kind of begin our dialogue today where you each could share what are some of the lies that you have believed about yourself?

I think one of the biggest lies for me is that is like, you're gonna fail. And so everything makes me afraid. Like, I can't do that because I'm gonna fail.

And so I don't want to really try, but I do really want to try, but I'm just. I'm just afraid, like, you know, I'm a pleaser.

And so I feel like, you know, if I don't do it right or I don't say it right, I mean, even doing this, I'm thinking, oh, I'm gonna sound ridiculous and like. And, you know, you know, it's okay, and I know God will use me anyway.

I mean, I'm down to that point where I don't know how, and I think it's ridiculous, but I know he will. But my first thought with most everything is you're not gonna be able to do that very well. You're gonna fail.

And then, you know, I don't know if it's people laughing at you or talking about you or, you know, I don't know what that is, but it is. It's like my first initial thought is, no, you can't do that. You know, somebody else will do it better.

So, yeah. Yeah, I have that all the time. I get it. How about you, Kelly?

Well, I think for me, it's always just been thinking that my yeses aren't anything of value, and looking around at what everyone else has to offer and thinking it's greater and grander. I can't sing, I can't speak. I don't feel like I have these great gifts to offer.

And that's, I think, always held me back from offering what I do have.

I feel like, for me, The biggest lie I struggle with is I'm not loved. And. But that actually launches and propels me to compensate, to say yes to everything.

So even though I have these lies going on, saying, you're not loved, you're not good enough, so I have to do more and be more and show I'm of value, because then what am I? And that sends me into say yes, but in unhealthy and toxic ways. A little backwards.

Yeah.

It's interesting, right? Because, Tammy, you're sharing that your lie that you struggle with is I'm gonna fail.

And, Kelly, yours is there's nothing grand or extra special about me and, Nina, yours is that I might not be loved. So therefore, I should do a lot of things to prove that I am. How do you guys see those lies holding you back from the life that you want to live?

Well, for me, I sat in that for so long thinking that I had to have something like that in order to act, and so then I just wouldn't. And I would. Would hold back or think that what I had to offer wasn't anything of value, so I just wouldn't offer anything.

And I think then I wasn't seeing any progress or anything, and just because I was just sitting there waiting to discover what my big gift was or, you know, what my thing was. I was waiting. I was just waiting for God to reveal it to me. Kept me stagnant, right?

Kind of kept you paralyzed or stuck just in a standstill.

Yeah.

Yeah. How about you, Tammy?

I think. I think mine is probably, like, I'll end up doing things because I'm a pleaser.

Like, okay, I'm supposed to do this, but it's sort of like something that could be so great and so fun or so meaningful will just freak me out or make me. I don't know about maybe anxious, you know, where I should be enjoying it.

And it could be great, but I'm held back in that way, thinking I'm thinking too much about, like, the performance part of what it's going to turn out to be, where I should just. I look at people who, you know, they just do it. They have things and they don't care what other people think. And I love that.

Like, that's my goal is to be like that, you know, like this is what I'm doing and I don't have to worry about the other part. So I just feel like I should be enjoying the things that God is asking me to do.

How about you, Nina? How do you feel held back by your struggle to believe that you're lovable.

So I feel like that holds me back from joy and true, healthy relationships. It holds me back from actually looking at myself with the truth. I think I.

When you are in such a state of doing and going and being and looking at everyone open handed saying, am I enough? Is this enough? Am I good enough? Am I loved? It's exhausting. And it just holds.

It blinds you from all of that truth, which I know obviously for all of us were saying that, but when you asked that question initially, I said I have no joy. Like, I just go and I do and I be on this. On this emptiness. So, yeah, I think that's what it holds me.

Holds me back from health because I'm doing plenty of things, but not for the right reasons.

Mm.

I feel like I've known you guys each long enough where I've seen advancement in your life and progress and healing in your life in some of the ways that you have used to believe in lies. And I'm sure you've probably seen that in me. Maybe not, but. Yeah, maybe not.

But what did God use to challenge you to begin to believe that he could use you to do great things? Because I'm seeing the great things that God is using each of you to do.

So what did he use to move you out of that place of fear, Tammy, and out of that place, Kelly, of being kind of stuck in a standstill, of not doing anything, waiting to have someone else's gifts and, you know, in what challenged you to move out of that place of, you know, I can't do this right, and I'm messing it all up. Like, what did God use To challenge you.

I think for me, what he used to challenge me was I didn't really know it was anxiety, but I struggled with anxiety for a couple years. Not that God was using that, but I think that was a way in which something was very wrong in me that my yeses were not. Not good of. In good intention.

And it got to a point where he stopped me and said, you need to rest and you need to learn what it means to really know and follow me, and you need to love yourself. And because of that and that time of stillness, I was then able to move forward in ministry. That was so scary.

And say, I'm going to try and move forward in a healthy way that God is calling me to. So without that period of stillness and not doing and just being, it was extremely freeing for me.

That's a good word and one that I think a lot of people are afraid to stop and rest and allow God to love them before they try to love other people. Mm, good.

Yeah.

For me, I got to a point.

Where I just spent so much time complaining to God about how he didn't make me a certain way or like someone else or give me whatever. Whatever it was. And I feel like I felt him say, stop telling me that I made you wrong.

Stop telling me that I didn't make you the way I wanted you to be, and just start living in who I created you. And I guess I could kind of liken it too. I don't know if you know me, you know that I have, like, big curly hair and all.

Growing up, I hated my big curly hair. And I would walk around and, like,.

Hear other people be like, oh, your.

Hair so pretty, or whatever. And they would complain about their super straight hair. And I just sort of started realizing that, like, we all have our stuff, right? We all have.

The grass isn't always greener. That's the thing for a reason, right? And so it's like, okay, fine, I'm just gonna embrace my big curly hair.

And now I just walk in a room and hit you with it in the face. And so, like, thinking that, like, God's calling me to do that.

Just.

Just take every step. He's gonna open doors, and maybe I don't feel worthy to walk through them, but one step at a time to take, to follow his lead and just. Just go.

Just stop telling them that him. That he made me wrong. And just start going, yeah, start doing.

I love the idea of stop telling me you made me wrong. There's so many women who are tuning in today. Who are waiting to be someone else. Right? Like, I think we all do that in some way.

We even talk about that in the SU Bible study where I write, like, be you, not her.

Like, I think we're sitting around and we're waiting, whether it's or waiting to have her resources, or we're waiting to have her opportunities, or we're waiting to have her body or her talents or her husband or her vacations or whatever it is. And God's like, I.

If I made you, I have a purpose for your life and I can use you. And when we're sitting around wishing that we were someone else, we're stuck.

And it left me stuck in that place where my deepest desire was to be of use to God and to impact me and to show the love of Christ. And I was sitting in my own, why don't I have this or that? You know? And so my. My deepest desire was being overshadowed by my insecurities.

And it wasn't a magic, you know, poof that all those insecurities went away. I just decided that I was gonna stop telling God he made me wrong and just start going. That was really powerful for me.

I'm going to put you on the spot for a second, Kelly, because I know that you are a mama of kids, and I'm just wondering, like, as you are God's daughter and you kind of feel like you've spent all this time telling your father, in a way, like, you made me wrong. I'm not good enough to be used by him.

How would you respond if one of your kids had that same sense of self where they felt like they weren't made, they were made wrong. They weren't made in such a way that God could use them. Like, how would. If they came to you, your daughter, your son, what would your response be?

Absolutely anger. Not anger, but I would be like,.

Are you kidding me?

Because I think that my kids are the greatest, and my daughter is just beautiful and lovely, and I know that she doesn't always see her worth. And so that is really eye opening to me, too, to help me understand how my father sees me. And it's that and more of how I see my daughter.

So, yeah, that's been super powerful to see that through the eyes of that. Through mothering my daughter. So. Right.

You can probably hear God's voice even louder. Oh, I made you right. Tammy, what's challenged you? What does God use to challenge you out of that place of fear?

I think he usually challenges me with other people. Like, not like, challenge. But, you know, like, somebody will say, you know what I mean?

It's again, it's nice and quiet, but somebody is sort of like the big ass. You know, if somebody says, you know, I think you'd be really good at this, or I want you to do this, would you do that?

And because again, the please would be like, okay, you know, and it's sort of their inspiration or their, their thinking of, oh, you can do it. Like, it's just no big deal. Like, they don't have to talk about it at all. It's like, no, go ahead. You know, you're. You're good to go.

And like, oh, okay. You know, just that somebody has that. I don't know what that thought of you being able to do it is always been like, well, maybe I can do it.

Other people's believe me.

Other people's believe me. Yeah, that's the best way to do it. And I just.

It's happened so many times that, you know, now it's so much easier to say yes because I've seen God do things in it, right? Even though I didn't think, you know, I was just. It's given the line like, okay, well, here it is. I don't know how it's going to turn out, but.

But yeah, I mean, if I look back over and over, people believed in me to do it. And it gave me sort of a little confidence to, you know, to be able to do things even if I still wouldn't think I could do it.

But, you know, it was like just the push and a sweet challenge for.

Me to, like, do it right. What do you guys do when you can feel yourself starting to go back and believe the lie that God can't use you?

What's your, what are your tools that you pull out of your pocket when you could find yourself, you know, buying into the lies again?

I think I take what I just said, like how people say, oh, no, just do it. You're fine, you're good, do it. I tell myself that, like, hey, of course you can do this. God wants you to do this.

You know what you're supposed to do. You can do it.

And it's like coming back on me, like you were saying with your daughter, you know, you're saying the same thing over that you didn't want. So it's sort of that reminder to myself, like, yeah, you got it.

Yeah, you gotta preach to yourself. Yeah, I do it all the time.

When I was little, I used to write, like in a journal, and it's so hysterical because it'd be like, tam, get up early. You know, do a Tam jumping, drink some water. And that's what it's like. Tam, you can do this. So, yeah, it's.

So funny because we're totally on a tangent here. It doesn't have anything to do with what we're talking about. But years ago, when Bella just learned how to write, she had a little.

My daughter, she had a little whiteboard in her room, and I went in there in the morning to wake her up for school, and I still have a picture of it, and it pops up every once in a while on Facebook, but she didn't know how to spell, and she was trying to write Rise and shine, but she wrote risen sin.

So close.

Risen sin, ladies. That's what you gotta do. There you go. Nina, what do you do when you can feel the lies starting to creep back in?

Well, it's funny when you said that question, and I was like, yeah, what do I do? Because I still am learning a lot right now. I'm still in this midst of really knowing that I have an issue and really giving that to the Lord.

There's a couple things that will happen, I think, when I start to sense that. Okay, let me start over.

If I. I know when someone asks something of me, there is a feeling I get in my gut that I just trust, and it either says yes or no. Where probably so many years ago, no matter what it was, I would always say yes. Even if I felt in the pit of my stomach, like, that's. That's not.

Don't say yes to that. Like, that's not maybe the best thing for you to do right now. And so I think it's one.

Just listening, and I fully believe that's the spirit in me saying, nina, this is where I want you to be, and you need to be obedient to me. Like, listen, I know what's best for you. Because obviously, if I do it, I got myself into a place where I needed to go to counseling.

And the second thing is that. And this is really not a great thing, so I'm gonna be very honest. I'll get defensive.

And when I start to get defensive in something that I'm doing, I know that I need to reel it back because I'm listening to some lies going on. I'm basing my worth and my value on what I'm producing.

And so when I start to feel and get defensive, which there's been times where Willow's been like, nina, what's Going on. Why are you being defensive? And I'm like, yeah, I am. I need it. Like, I deal with that. I see that. And I. I don't know.

I. I think I work through, like, the underlying issue of, like, well, I'm feeling like I'm not good enough and I'm not loved. And then I unpack that, and it's like, why? You know, so, yeah, that's so good.

For all of us, though, to have moments where we self. We have these, like, self awareness once where we're like, why am I feeling this way? Why am I reacting this way? What is bothering me?

Why is my spirit agitated? Right. And kind of recognizing, oh, I'm starting to go down that path of believing. Like, I don't fit in here. I'm not good enough for this.

I'm gonna fail. I'm gonna fall flat on my face.

And when we can start to recognize what's going on, then we're like, oh, right now I'm buying into the lies that God's not gonna use me right now to do something amazing. And I signed up to do it, you know?

Oh, totally.

So that's good.

Yeah. It even happened really quick. It happened last night.

We had our volunteer get together Bible study for our next event, and something happened, and I immediately got defensive because I felt insecure, because I felt like I was left out. And I had all these lies going in my head. It was right before we're gonna walk down, and I'm like, I shouldn't be here. Why am I here?

No one wants me here. No one likes me. Like, silly stuff where you would be like, nina, why are you. What? What?

What?

No, you know, and I stop myself and I'm like, listen to what you're saying. And, yeah, so it was just one. That's, like, one of the healthiest things I've learned thus far. Don't do it perfect all the time. But, yeah.

Yeah. So, Kelly, you talked about how you were kind of waiting to have some special talent.

I think a lot of times we think if God's going to use us to impact the world or do anything great with our lives, he's going to use our talents, and he will use our talents. But so often he uses more than our talents. He uses our learning lessons, he uses our experience, he uses our pain and our weaknesses.

How have you three seen him use those unexpected things to impact someone else?

I think I feel like I've seen him use my willingness, which when I was sitting in that place of stuck, I felt like I was willing, but I wasn't acting on that loneliness. And so just saying, I'm here. I'm gonna do what you asked me. Open a door, I'll walk through it. I've seen him use that.

And I think that I always wanted some big, grand gift so I could see some big grand effect, you know, like a magic trick where everyone goes, wow. And then God is revealed in that.

And.

For me, it's really just seeing something build little by little, like, stone by stone. It's making a huge mound, and I love that. And I think that I was just looking for the wrong thing.

I was trying to make something big right away, when really it's just. He wanted to use my willing heart to just keep taking one step at a time.

Yeah. Nina, how about you? How have you seen God use your brokenness or your pain or learning lesson rather than just your talents to impact someone?

Yeah, I think. I think for me, it has one.

When I think about the moment where I realized I need to take a step back and really evaluate what I'm doing and then go to counseling to kind of work through this, like, weird, manipulative, toxic thought process I go through to launch me in to do the things that I do that time.

I think then going and moving into ministry with Kolide and coming into a place that said, we accept and love your brokenness, and then God using that and helping me move forward and work with other women and. And them say, like, regardless of what you produce, we love you.

And I've had the amazing opportunity then out of that place to love other women on the team, whether it was help them with their house and yard.

So I don't know if I'm answering your question completely right, but I feel like it wasn't until I got to this place of brokenness that God could really use me. That stuff before, though it is not wasted, and he still used me in such big ways.

There was no healing, you know, like, there's just been so much of that out of that place and really knowing that I'm loved, that I could really love people and I could move forward in that. So. So, yeah, I don't know if I answered that correctly, though.

I think it's funny. Like, I think what other people think is a talent of mine, which I do all the time, I don't really think that it is.

Like, to me, I feel like I have different talents, and those things are, like, maybe that's part of the acting thing where I put myself in somebody else's position.

And so the things like for me are like smiling or hugging or being kind to somebody or those little things where like, to me that makes such huge difference. Like those little things.

So instead of being, you know, out there where people can see you and be critical and judge you, and me thinking, well, I'll do this, but I don't think it's necessarily like my thing.

But I don't know, it's those other things where I can put myself into what would I like, like feeling that I am if I get afraid or, you know, whatever it is that I can be the person to be like, oh, I felt that way. That kind of little things like that I feel like he can use me with those little things that don't seem like talents because I enjoy that so much.

Does that make sense?

Yeah. You guys all serve such an important role on our Kolide Ministry team. Can you share a little bit about what the step to jump on that team?

It's a high level commitment, a high level of service. What was it like for you to say yes to God using you and jump into this collide story?

Mine was being asked again. You know, I didn't.

I would just be, you know, you think, you look at all this women, women that are surrounding you, kind of like what you were saying, Nina, like yesterday, being there with all the women. And I'm just like, what am I doing here? You know, you get all that feeling that we're not supposed to be feeling that we're talking about.

Just these people are incredible. You know, just to be in the. In the room is just sort of buzzing. You know, it's just really special.

And so the fact that, you know, being in there, the rest of it doesn't really matter because it is very fun. And I think most of all just watching and seeing what God does is incredible.

And we'll get down sometimes to just a few days before and then we switch something up and you're thinking, oh,.

A few days before the other.

A few days before. Let's write it. Let's write a new script. Or Jesus told me this. You know, Willow will say, I was taking a walk. I think we can do it.

And it's easier now to say yes because you might be, you know, it's like the magic of Ta da. But we don't know what that's gonna be. But like to be able to trust him because like that faith that we've seen it before.

And so I feel like God says so many times, you know, why would I have you do this. I've asked you to do that. This for me. Why would I have you fail? You know, like, oh, that's right.

You know, he's in it and in whatever it is we need to do.

It's actually exciting because you can see him working and stepping into it at first, you know, not knowing, like, well, okay, I don't know what really this is about, but let's watch. And it didn't take long to realize, wow, God is, like, doing things and I get to be part of it.

Yeah.

But I love that for you, all your yes needed was someone asking you. And I think about how many women are just waiting for that ask.

Right?

Right. Of, like, maybe part of our work with each other as friends is to ask each other to step up and tap into God's potential for our lives.

Like, we're waiting for someone to say, I know God can use you to do amazing things because that's all it took for you. And now you feel, like super purpose on this team, which is awesome. Yeah. How about you, Kelly?

What was it like for you to say yes to jump on the team?

For me, I've been a part of it for a long time, so I feel like I sort of stumbled in and then just kept on walking forward. And it now feels almost selfish just because it is such an amazing thing to be a part of.

And like Tammy was saying, we get to work with all these amazing people and see God do bigger things than however long ago when I started in this ministry. Like, never would have imagined, never would have even thought to believe all the things that God could do through this ministry.

And then it just makes it easier and easier the more you are involved and get to spend time with these people and see God work. It's just awesome to have a seat at the table.

I'm going to brag about you for a second, Kelly, because I don't think you're giving yourself enough credit. But when God sort of invited me in on our team, I'll never forget it because I didn't know Clyde was going to be a thing.

Right.

Like, I said yes to mentoring girl turned into Bible study, that turned into this thing. And all of a sudden there's like, you know, hundreds of people coming, and I'm sitting on the floor of a church, Right.

And I worked for a church in college ministry, but now we have, like, hundreds of women, all ages coming, and you walked in and we barely knew each other.

You walked into my office in this college ministry office that I was working in, and I Was trying to figure out how I was going to get all these women sort of in some semblance of our registration system and small groups and all the stuff that we were doing at the time. And I'm looking at all these names just sort of lost in a sea of papers. And you walked in and you said, what can I do to help?

You got down on the ground and, you know, within I don't know how long, we had that whole thing organized. And you've been saying those words for years. And I think sometimes that's all it takes is if you want to be used by God to do amazing things. Things.

All you have to do is say, what can I do to help? And the next thing you know, you're doing this, and then you're doing this. You're doing this.

And you've impacted so many lives by just asking that one question, which is. Right. Like, isn't that amazing?

It's been amazing. It's been life changing just to be a part of this.

And it's been a catalyst in changing my story of just feeling like I have something to offer and just. That's something I struggled with my entire life and finally feel like I'm walking in some parts of who God has called me to be.

Not there yet, but we're all work in progress. Right.

That's awesome. How about you? Can you share a little bit about what that step was like for you to say yes to God and jump on the collection?

Yes. So it was really, really scary for me, which is funny because I was such a yes person.

But the time that I was asked to join the team, had a really good friend, Kristen Behrens, ask, and I was just coming out of the rubble of, like, what I had done to myself.

You know, I had just gone to counseling for a couple months and working through this performance, terrible cycle I get myself into, and then I burn out, run myself dry, and then I just, like, become a terrible person.

So.

I was kind of, like, at the tail end of that and working through that, and Kristin come to me, and I said, I'm going to take some time to think about it. And I actually at first said, no. I was like, no, I cannot do this. It's too soon.

I have, like, just some, like, I would think about doing ministry, and my chest would get tight and my throat would feel like it's closing, which are, like, signs of anxiety if I. I'm not a professional, but I think that's what people say, and I would just kind of freeze up.

But as time went on, there was just something in me that felt like, I look at these women and I look at the way in which they are pursuing Jesus and they are using their weaknesses, their gifts, their talents, and they're doing it in a healthy way. I am not such a lost cause that I can't learn how to do that too.

I have, down the road, messed this up, but he loves me so much, and I want to do this, and I want to glorify him in a way that's healthy and not toxic like it once was. So he just stirred in me. And so I went back to you guys and was like, please take me.

After I said no.

And then funny got an email of.

Like, here are the dates and things.

You need to know. You know, at the beginning of, like, your college semester, you get your syllabus and you're like, I'm gonna throw up. There's so many things.

How am I gonna do this?

So I had another min attack of like, oh, my gosh, I can't do this. And I was like, no, Nina.

Like, it was just a lot of self talk and a lot of pressing into the Lord and just saying, like, you stirred in me for a reason, and I'm tired of being disobedient. Like, I want. I want to learn how to love you well and love myself well and do this. So, yeah, it was really scary.

But it's like, I heard you say purpose, and it's given me, like, just thinking about our last event, I remember, like, going and doing all the things, and I was just like, imagine if I wasn't doing this. Like, the purpose and the. It's just. I don't know. It's. I echo what Kelly said. It is selfish. It is selfish to get to be a part of it.

Yeah, well, there's no greater payment. There's no greater hobby. There's no greater thing we can do than feel like we're living a life of purpose. Right? It's. It's a gift.

I'm going to read to you guys this passage.

First Corinthians 1:25 through 31 says, for the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards. Not many were influential.

Not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly.

Things of the world and the despised things and the things that are not to nullify the things that are so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God. This is our righteousness, holiness, and redemption.

Therefore, as it is written, let no one who boasts boast in the Lord. Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord. How does this passage encourage you guys?

I think for me, the things that stuck out when you were reading, that was. He chose the foolish things because how foolish was I to. And really, it was to.

To go forward in Christian ministry previous to collide and say, I'm gonna do this, and I'm gonna use it to feel better about myself. Like, that's completely opposite of the Gospel. Like, that's. Like. He's. Like, that's not how I'm setting this up, girl. So I think it was.

It was foolish. And he's. He's still saw me of value to use me. Like, how sweet and good is that? And the. The phrase because of him? Like, it's because of him.

And that previously in that unhealthy place, it was because of Nina, you know, So I just really loved that.

Mm. Yeah.

I love how it talks about.

Weak.

And strong and how when he's. I like the verse 2nd Corinthians 12, 9. It says, for my grace is made perfect in your weakness, basically. Kelly, paraphrasing. And I.

That's one of the things that I claim to myself when that doubt creeps in is just when I feel weak or when I am weak. That's when he gets to show up and do the real work and gets glorified for that.

And so I rejoice in that weakness because I know God's gonna do something big. And so that's kind of what sticks out to me.

Yeah, I think, you know, the word fool sticks out because it's like, well, I'm there, you know, so, you know, I can be. I can. It's good to be foolish in. In that sense, because God gives you wisdom and he's the one doing it, like you said. I mean, it's.

It's him just working in you, and so you get to come along for the ride, basically. And you get all of those things at the end. You get redemption.

You get all these beautiful things that he has for you because he's the one who did it in the first place. And if you can, you know, become sort of nothing in a way, knowing that I'm I'm everything to you because I'm really nothing. Does that make sense?

I'm everything to Him. And so it is. It's just such a. It's a blessing to be a fool in that way. Does that make sense? Yeah, because it's upside down.

And God uses those things to show himself to everybody else. And it's. You can just stand back and be like, wow. I always feel that way.

Just feel in awe of the things that he'll do, because I don't expect him and I to use me to do it. And so kind of like you say, Kelly, it's like, okay, you know, go for it. I don't know what will happen there. But if I just go along, because he's.

He's the one.

I. One of my favorite parts about the story that God is writing with Kolide is that, you know, he started it from, like, my own place of brokenness.

And all he's really doing, which is crazy, is that he's basically created this sort of ragtag, you know, group.

Yeah.

Bunch of broken, insecure, fearful women who are afraid to fail, who are messy, who are, you know, needing a second and a third and a fourth chance. But he's using us because we're being real about all that stuff. And all he's doing is saying, no, no, no. That's actually who I use in this world.

And he's using all of those things to impact all of these women and change their lives. And now they're stepping up and saying, oh, wait, God can use me, even me, like, in all my stuff. And then now they're being used.

And so it's so funny, because God has the best sense of humor. He's using, you know, a bunch of women who never would have thought that he would have used them to impact other women's lives.

And it's kind of having this ripple effect where it's inviting, you know, women who are wounded, women who've been suicidal, women who have phobias, women who, you know, have gone to a million counseling sessions, women who wanted nothing to do with Jesus, women who, you know, are, you know, struggle with swearing like sailors, all the stuff. Right. He's using all these people to show his love to others, which I love. I'm going to ask you guys one more thing before we. We call it a day here.

But if you think about the women who are listening to this today, who are struggling to believe that they have meaning and purpose in their life, or struggling to figure out, you know, what is it that God wants to do through my life on this earth, struggling to believe they can be used to do amazing things, and they're being held back by a bunch of lies. What do each of you want to say to them? Just go ahead and say to those women who are being held back today what it is that's on your heart.

I think I would say that whatever God is calling you to, that, that thing within you, that's either saying, girl, you got to slow down, or, hey, I want to call you into this thing that is what is good and listen to it. Those things that you have going on in your head and those lies, nothing matters more than what he says and what he is calling you.

And however that looks big or small is so worthy and so value because he says you are. And so that's what I would say that whatever. Yeah, whatever.

Whatever you.

You have, or maybe not right now, whatever season you're in to listen to that. Because I went for three years not listening. And I just look back on that time of just, I don't know, just. I don't know, sadness and just.

Yeah, so that's what I would say.

Cool. Well, you talked about the ripple effect of God using brokenness and weakness.

And I think it's countercultural to the ripple effect that we usually experience, which is our brokenness wounds other people and that goes out.

And I think just learning from our experience in that when you turn that around and admit your brokenness and admit that you don't have it all together and maybe you're not perfect, is when that ripple can be used by God. It can be a positive. It gives other people permission to not be so perfect themselves.

And I love that because his power is made perfect in our weakness.

I think that, I would say it's kind of like when you think about kids and if you think of, you know, talking to a child like you talk about with your daughter, that, you know, what would you say? And so if you're listening to, just know that you're so precious in God's eyes. God, he made you and He.

He loves you beyond anything we can even imagine. And he made you like he made you. And you're, you know, more precious than anything else he made. And that he wants what's best for you. And he will.

He will help you do that. He will be in you with all of it. He. He'll never leave you or forsake you. And you have to know that you are he.

That he thinks about you, that he is excited about you, that he delights in you. And that if you. If you think about, like, oh, I mean, that's as he is. We're his daughters. And. And that's what he wants for us.

And so why would we not want to be a part of him and do what he's asking us to do?

And why would he not want to give us dreams to fulfill and, you know, do the ripple effect, do the things that other people would realize, like, no, you're amazing and God loves you. It's worth repeating. You see those on the bumper stickers? You know, God loves you, but it's worth repeating because of that.

And maybe just try it for a while and see if it changes your life at all.

I don't know.

That's kind of what I've been doing.

Just try it.

Peer pressure from Polit members. So, ladies, we're so glad that you are listening today and got to be a part of this conversation.

If you want to keep up with us at Collide, we're on Instagram at We Collide and on Facebook as Collide Women.

And you can also check out our website at wecollide.net and if you want to continue to be pushed and challenged and inspired to tap into God's destiny and purpose for your lives, I really do encourage you to check out our store online and grab a copy of yes, you. It will help walk you into what he has for you and the ways that he wants to use you do in this world.

So thank you for being with us today and we'll catch you next week.