Revive Your Artistry! How to Fight for Your Creative Dream w/ Victory Lyric, Entrepreneur

What do you do when your creative dream seems to be dying in front of you? Do you have the ability to keep it alive when things are going wrong?

Our guest on the God and Gigs Show, entrepreneur, TV host and author Victory Lyric has seen the best and worst of the creative journey, and she's got the answers to that question.

From cooking for the iconic Julia Child, to opening several businesses and appearing on the Food Network, Fox, CBS and NBC, Victory has earned the respect and admiration of creatives around the country. But that didn't protect her from facing devastating setbacks that threatened her creative dream.

In this episode, you'll learn how to keep your faith and hope thriving when things aren't going well for you as an artist and creative. You'll learn from Victory's heartfelt and practical wisdom on maintaining your course and seeing a light at the end of the long tunnel you might be in.

 LEARN MORE ABOUT VICTORY:
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Free Resource for Artists Considering Going Pro

If you are thinking about becoming a full-time artist, you've got to ask the right questions.
So we've created a workbook to help you figure out what you need to know before making the leap.

Go to GodandGigs.com/questions to get your free download of this powerful and practical resource, and take the next step toward your creative dreams! 

Transcript

Ladies and gentlemen, I am so honored and blessed to bring you this amazing creative and the most important title. She's got a million of them and all the creative things she's doing. But the most important one is a believer. That's why she's here on the God and Geek Show. So I would love to welcome Victory Lyric to the God and Geek Show. How are you, my friend? Hi, guys. I'm good. Glad to be here. Thank you so much for inviting me today. It's awesome to have you here. And we were just laughing because I love people. Getting in kind of like the back, you know, scenes, behind the scenes. Yes, I made a huge mistake as soon as I started because we are learning each other, learning about each other. 

But I did approach you first, I believe, when I saw you in a podcasting forum. And I just said, this lady's story is incredible. She immediately spoke to me in terms of resonating with your story, what you were trying to share, all those kinds of things. So I immediately felt like I had a kinship with you right away. way but we have to establish that, of course, with our listeners and our watchers. So you are a podcaster and a media person yourself. So you know this question is coming. but I have to do it to everybody, right? You have to do this part. So the 30-second elevator pitch, even though they read the bio, even though they've already clicked on it, you still have to kind of do the thing, right? 

So just give them in about 30 seconds the few things that if they don't listen to anything else, which they should, of course, but if they don't hear anything else, what are the few things you always want somebody to know or remember about you? Oh, well, guys, I am Victory Lyric, of course, and I have a show that is called RE5 Studios and RE5 Studios is a talk show that is intended to encourage others into all God called and created them to be and I think oftentimes we sit on the sidelines with the I don't know and I'm not sure how to get started those hesitations and what we really hope is that when we interview all types of artisans and entrepreneurs and creatives that you'll see something that will spark you 
that you'll see something about yourself in them and say, you know what, I can do it too. So that's really, you know, the heart of the show. I love the fact that right away, I love the word artisans. I remember that one of the first books I really got me into God and gigs as far as doing it on my own platform was The Artisan Soul. by Irwin McManus. I don't know if you've read that one, but that's a huge one in my life. Check out The Artisan Soul. Yes, it absolutely spoke to me and it kind of speaks to what I think. And again, I love the fact that we're learning about you and your show at the same time. But I think that that's your heart, right? 

Is to artisans. That's like an old word, but it speaks to a lot. So what exactly is that? Those people that you're speaking to or bringing on your show, it kind of helps define who you're about. What would define as artisan or a creative in your ideas? Well, I guess we can start with the fact that I was a pastry chef for 19 years. So, I had traveled around the country, working in all kinds of different environments and I lived in Maine, I lived in Colorado lived in Boston, and so I experienced so many different artisans of all kinds. And, you know, that's kind of the thing we love about traveling and going on vacation and things like that is coming across, or even art festivals, you know, coming across these amazing people that are living their dream, creating things and having businesses by creating, you know, our God, he is the creator of all things. 

And so he placed these creative gifts inside of us. And every one of us are so different. I mean, later today, I'll have a makeup artist on my show. Well, that's an artisan. I mean, she is, she's great at something. I'm you know and so you know and then you'll have like chefs or you'll, you know, even creatives that are digital creators, musicians, the gifts that God placed inside of each one of us, it's just beautiful to celebrate those. And they're all just so very different. Oh, well, you are clearly among friends. This is why, like I said, immediately it was like, she's one of us because God and Gigs was a music show when it first started in terms of my passions. 

and my gifting and the people I was speaking to. But quickly, it was like, okay, gigs? We all do gigs. Like, everything is a gig now. And all of us in those creative areas, like you said, whether you're a content creator, writer, poet, visual artist, drama, and yours, which is the first time I've had a chef on the guiding gig show so I have to dig into that a little bit. What was your experience? I read some of the bio. And again, people who are listening and watching probably read some of the bio. But just give them a little bit of a taste of those things you experienced as a pastry chef including one incredible chef that you got to honor with your own cooking a cake that you made so just give me some of that give me a couple highlights of being a pastry chef and what God showed you in that journey oh goodness well I 
tried to go to SMU for business school and then I tried to go for pre-med and that didn't, you know, wasn't sticking, nothing was sticking. I worked for a chiropractor, you know, I just kept trying things and then I got married around 21 years old and we went to Disney World and I had this amazing experience with food. I mean, the most beautiful food you've seen in your lifetime, you know, and I had just planned my wedding and so I had just the most wonderful experience with event planning. So it just was just a passion of mine. I remember getting in the limo after we got married and crying because I was like, my wedding planning days are over! And I really had a great time with all that planning, all those details, all the foods and things. 

And so when we went to Disney World and I saw the foods, it was like it connected. It was just like a spark went off. And so within two weeks of getting back from our honeymoon, I remember my ex-husband, he was like, you know, you have got to go. You've got to go to school. We've got to go get you enrolled. You know, you're in love with this. And it was just so easy for me. Whereas other people were like starting And it was kind of struggling. I was trying to copy cakes from top cake designers that were not even in my skill level, But I was doing those things. And so it was simple for me. And it it was kind of like this I 
Just you know to help individuals who are thinking well, you know, what do I want to be? How do I decide because you know I've got an 18 year old and a 21 year old right now Sons, and I've got my 18 year old trying to decide who am I where do I fit? And I'll tell you as I started working in pastry. It felt like this Ballet dance almost you know this like okay I'm keeping all the balls in the air juggling, but it was but it would electrify me lit me up You know and so as far as to answer your question and I didn't mean to kind of go off course but as far as that goes, I took a job in Maine. 

I was 22 and I went by myself because my husband at the time was finishing college. I took a summer job in Maine and I had the blessing and opportunity to meet all kinds of farmers that were, you know, producing amazing crops. I mean, food unlike you've ever tasted unless you've lived up in that area. There's something about hydroponically grown that has like amazing flavor. So they would just come right to the back door at the lodge I was working at and be like, do you want to buy these strawberries or whatever? And I'd be like, yeah, I'll take those. I'll take that. It was a blast, you know? And everybody out there was sort of, you know, that farmer type mindset, the artisan style where it's, they're literally coming to your door and everybody's supporting one another. 
It was a huge community. But in that community on that island lived, Julia Child and her family, and so they came into the lodge. I had actually gone to Dallas for my husband at the time's graduation from college, and then I came right back, and that very day, all the staff were like, okay, so here's what's happening. Julia Child is coming in with her family for her 88th birthday, and you're going to be making the cake, and you need to make desserts as well. And that'll be like in three days. I'm going to make you pause. My daughter does it all the time. Pause. Like I'm learning that from the kids. So pause. I have to ask, Julia Child, you, how old were you? 
22. I'll have to send you a photo of it. And what other than God's amazing grace and favor... would make them trust you, a 22 year old, to cook for one of the most iconic chefs in the world. I know, right? I know. And here's the thing, guys, is that I'm not... I'm not particularly young at this point. So, you know, the, the chefs, the celebrity chefs that were on TV at the time, there were barely any, I mean, we were watching Julia child on PBS. She was like the top of the top of everything. You know, I think Martha Stewart was out and about at the time, you know, but, but I mean, this was several years ago, at least 20 years plus years ago. 

And so everyone make it, they'll do the math. Don't worry. We're good. But the point is, is that we didn't have, you know, the Food Network, I think, was just beginning. We didn't have all those chefs. She was the queen of the food. So anyway, yeah, I was nervous. I mean, I remember my hands just shaking like this, you know, as I was bringing out that cake. But I got to meet her and her whole family. They ate the cake and everything, and then they ordered the entire dessert menu. And she said, can I please meet the pastry chef? We just loved everything. She signed my menu. She did photos with me. She was, like, asking me about who I trained under and whatnot. 

So it was. Yeah, it was a wonderful day in my, in my career. Oh my gosh. Okay, so yeah, so that, so it's so amazing. I love hearing stories like this because I'm always thinking of the person that's listening that's thinking, it couldn't be me, right? And we're not necessarily, and I know we're gonna talk about this later, we're not saying that the pinnacle has to be the performance, the great big door that opens with a great big star, because a lot of this fulfillment I feel that comes from your life is not necessarily what happened when you were on TV or what happened when you met this person. I feel like, correct me if I'm wrong, that a lot of this fulfillment has come from the little things, the moments where God has stepped in and shown you little things and miracles that have happened throughout your life. 
But that's a highlight. Clearly, that's a highlight. I got to ask, did that lead to the... anything bigger in terms of that? Was it was that a doorway to television? Was it something else that kind of you said this or this happened that I got to take this on? So, yeah. Was there another chapter after, you know, that big experience? Well, yeah, because I was just 22 at the time. So, you know, I had a lot of years. I went into event planning in addition to, you know, doing doing pastry, kind of had a split career during those years. But I will say that Later, a little bit later, I was working with with a bakery and we were invited to come on to the Food Network. 
And so we went on and did the Food Network Cake Challenge. And, you know, I think it's these little things that are on your resume that, you know, people find out about and then, you know, those things kind of propel you forward. But, you know, each little thing. So I was on, you know, the Food Network Cake Challenge and that was a ton of fun. We had a blast with that. And then when I... opened my own bakery not too long after that. And then I started on morning television. So they would invite me in to be the celebrity chef on morning TV, Fox for Good Day and Channel 5, Channel 8, you know, all the major networks here in DFW. I don't, you know, CBS, NBC, all of them. 

Even Fox, you know, we were on. But it would just be kind of a regular thing. Like every couple weeks or whatever. And my PR person at the time, she's a wonderful Christian woman, and I asked her, I said, I love this. This is kind of like when I first became a pastry chef. It lit me up on the inside and I felt electric, you know? And I said, would it be possible, not because I was on TV. Y'all, I didn't, it wasn't about being on TV. It was about the interview process and morning television it was about it was It really was about the interview process. I think that's what was lighting me up. And so I asked her, because they said you're such a natural, just so easy on TV, easy to interview. 
And so I said, well, do you think it would be possible for me to create a talk show that would be uplifting and encouraging and, you know, maybe have some things about the Lord on there? Would it be just clean, you know, fun morning television kind of thing, but all day long? and I would just interview all kinds of people who are doing amazing things. And she said, I think we could do that. Well, we were planning to, and then I went through a divorce. So it kind of took the carpet out from under me and it wasn't something I pursued for a long time. And fast forward about, I don't know, 13 years or so, and here I am having finally, finally started my own show. 
So it's been a blast. Gosh, I love that. Now you did the fast forward of 13 years right there. So So I do have to ask you, and I know that you also have a book that's out. Oh, it's coming out. Well, maybe it's, I don't know. Let's see. We'll do the time warp thing. By the time it's out, is it out? Is it not? I don't know. It depends on when it's got out. But the key I want to talk about right now are the challenges because everyone that's listening and watching also has those moments of, you just mentioned where your world was rocked. And I got to ask in terms of what you learned about yourself through those challenges and Did the dream die? 

Was it dormant? Was it in the back of your mind to continue becoming a producer and a creative while you're going through those storms? Because I think someone that's listening or watching, they might only see the pinnacles, right? They might see now and they saw back when you were cooking for Julia Child, but they don't understand what happens in those 13, those silent years when God is really taking you through something. So just give me a little bit of a, or maybe the listener, a little bit of understanding Think of how you made it through that season. Okay. Well, I will tell you during that season, I had to close the restaurant. I had to close my bakeries. I sold the final bakery. 
I had to sell my house. I had to go to work for someone else to be able to make ends meet. I tried marriage again and had to get an annulment. my church closed down because of COVID. I mean, y'all, I've been through 14 kinds of hell during the 13 years, but I will tell you that sometimes I feel like God gives you a vision or a dream for the future because he knows if you can just see it. See, cause he called me victory. He calls me victory. My name is not victory in real life, but that's what I go by now. I especially on my show, because that's what God calls me. But I saw victim. That's who I saw. Me. 
I was a victim. I went through abuse. I went through divorce. I went through all kinds of things. And so I felt like a victim. you know, I felt tiny and small and insignificant. And yet that lie of insignificance did not win. Even though I said, get back from me, God, you know, you put your hand out, you stiff arm, God, get back from me. I'm worthless. I should, you know, why are you giving me these dreams and hopes for the future? But when he, when he's let you see it or feel it in here, you know, it, it's almost like a buoy, you know, you're kind to hang it on like a life raft because it keeps you from completely going under a lot of times when you know you have hope a joyful expectation of God's goodness oh wow I love that. 
And you just reminded me of something that was on another interview may not have come out yet, but this young man said something that's brilliant that really, when you said victim, and he said the only difference between a victim is a victor are the last three letters. and you just have to choose what your last three letters are. So, Mickey, thank you for that, because it just came back to my mind, um, that you literally have the name Victory, and you just changed the end. You're still a Vic. You're still a Vic, but you changed the end, right? So, uh, yeah, I love the fact that you, again, are admitting that god was it felt i'm sure like god was absent and god was not absent. 
He's always present, but it can feel like he's just like, hey, here are all the dreams. Here's the creative things. I mean, you had seen how God could move in your life, in your creative space. And that's why I think it's so amazing to draw a bridge from the 13 years to now, where now you're giving space for other creatives to speak. So tell me, what's the biggest surprise that you have enjoyed since starting the show? What has been the thing that you're like, wait a minute, I thought it was going to be this, but it's even this. So what's been the biggest surprise as you started this and telling other people's stories on your own show? Oh, Alan, that almost made me cry when you asked that question. 
Because it's emotional in a joyful way, in a good way. I started the show thinking it was going to be about art and the this and that. And it was going to be about the show and who I was going to interview and what we were going to display and all of those things. But yet, what I have found is it's actually been about these amazing relationships that I've developed with people who are like-minded in the kingdom. And, you know, I told y'all that my marriage ended, my church collapsed, everything, all that happened right at one time. And so I had a lot of like, alone. you know aloneness um and and i've gone back to church since and, you know, all of that. 
And so i do have more community now, but i didn't at the time. And along that road, I've had a couple different, um, prophecies about, you know, if you, while you're walking on the path that god has for you in obedience in each little step, the lord is faithful to bring others along that path that he intends to have in your life and so when he removes individuals you know it's it they may not have been for your future you know and so we can have open fingers and let you know let that flow through like water rather than grab and hold and just feeling like everything is bad and everyone left us and whatnot if we have open fingers for the Lord and say you know just let those rivers flow through bring who you need to bring 
at this time, you know, for what you have for my life. And so it's been the guests that are on my show that have become friends in the journey, become cheerleaders in the journey. And I didn't expect that. And yet that is, you know, such a blessing. I cannot echo this enough as my own show became way more about the relationships that I look and it's like, how did this happen after, you know, mine mine started in 2017, so I look back at, you know, oh, it just happened on Facebook, because I have this, I'll talk a little shop for just a second, cuz we are talking to entrepreneurs, so I'm not selling any any any tools but my one of my software tools takes my soft my my posts my Instagram post and it recycles them for me. 
So things will pop up from like 220 21 and it'll be like I'm you know, it's automatically coming back up, which is a because nobody wants to be on Instagram all the time, right? Right. So my software brought up one of these old posts from an interview from 2020. And I saw her, and she's a pastor up in Pittsburgh, and she sang with all these amazing gospel artists. But she's one of my favorite people in a long time. But I just hadn't talked to her, right, in a while. And I saw her post. I was like, oh, my God, I love that interview. That was 100 interviews ago. Like, I hope she still remembers me, right? So I just put... Oh my gosh, my favorite person ever and I tagged her. 
Not for her to share the episode. Just to say, hey, you know what I mean? It was like one of those. And when I tell you the warmest response, she said, oh, my gosh, I love you. And she mentions my wife, which is, again, that touches my heart because it's not just about, like, you being an interviewer. You know what I mean? It's like, you remember my family. And then she did repost it, and people are, like, finding it, like, four years later. Oh. You know what I mean? And that's where the lesson for me and what you just shared is, As entrepreneurs and creators, we can get caught up in just, well, who's paying attention now? Who's buying it now? Who bought the song now? 
Who's listening now? Instead of thinking of what is God doing with that seed that could last your lifetime, it sounds like you're making lifetime relationships based on the experience that you've had over your lifetime. Is that fair to say? Yeah, and people that you kind of get each other now, whereas individuals and my past, they maybe didn't get what I was going through. I was going through a lot, you know? And so God's sending people in that are, you know, I get you. And these individuals, like people that I've interviewed, there's a few of them that are going to be writing pieces to finish up my book, you know, and sharing a little of their story, which is just, I mean, I remember probably seven years ago, I was at a coffee shop with my sister-in-law and we were praying about these books 
books that God had shown us, and she looks over at me and she goes, I feel like maybe God's saying something about letters from victim to victory in this book, or maybe it's called that or something, and here we are years later, and it's come back up, and these people I didn't even know at the time are ready to write letters, so it's amazing, you know, amazing how he planned it way ahead, and I was frustrated, because you know, I'm being a bratty human, right? Like, whoa why is it not happening? It's never gonna happen you know God's not coming through. And, you know, if we, I mean, a lot of us are in those spaces where we wonder about the timing of God. 
Why is he not coming through for us? And we can find ourselves incredibly discouraged and disappointed and losing hope in our lives because his timing is, is not our timing. His ways are not our ways. We don't see the things that he sees. Um, and recently he has really been working on me about this very first piece of the Lord's prayer and our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. You know, um, how can I say thy kingdom come? Thy will be done. If I don't even pause to look around me and think about the magnificence of how big he is and how how big his word is, how long, how many years, how, you know, before we could even conceive the fact that I was created tiny cell by tiny cell by him knit together. 
And I look outside and I live here on the lake and I think about the species of animals and birds and trees and, you know, allow yourself to do that every morning before you go out and do anything. Because if I am in awe of his greatness, I can be in surrender of his kingdom coming. His will be willful. will being done, you know, and I hate to, you know, keep talking, but I'll give you one more thing. This week I listened to a podcast and it was become good soil, um, with Morgan Snyder. Um, it's a men's podcast, but I listened because it's so good. But anyway, um, The point is, is that his wife was on there and they were talking about something called a daybreak prayer, which was really in alignment with what the Lord was showing me about the Lord's prayer and how we can come into this space of being like, whoa, whoa, you know, about him. 
And that realigns our thoughts, our attitudes, everything first thing. But a line that they had in this, and I hope I don't botch it because I don't have my phone near me. I'd written it down. But anyway, a line. that was in that prayer that they did this daybreak prayer that they created it had like the Lord's Prayer kind of and then it had like some of the armor of God and you know just had a variety of things in it but they do it with their kids but one of the lines in there was I come into agreement with who you are God with what you were doing and with how you are doing it and the how you are doing it really got me, you guys, because I was like, oh I have not been particularly good with the how he's part because the how he's doing it sometimes is really not comfortable. 
and so i just encourage you to, you know, you guys to kind of come into alignment with how even. Because I feel like we if we're a lot less resistant, he might be even a little quicker you know what you never know unless you find out but that i love your heart and your sense your your sincerity that's coming out right now and i i really hope that people listening and and watching are not simply again saying, oh, that's just her. That's just her revelation. That's just her victory after 13 years, after seeing how God has moved in her life and resurrecting a dream. I think the key is, is that this is for all of us. And I love the fact that you paused on the hallowed be your name, which a lot of us don't, again, old word, right? 
But hallowed just means holy. and set apart. Right. And so set apart is your name. And it means that whoever God sets apart is set apart. So we are called his holy priesthood is a chosen generation, you know, brought forth to show his life as first Peter says. So I think it's so key that as, as creators, people that have his creative spirit, that we realize that it is not just for those who made it. It's not just for those who God shines on. It's for those that are in the trenches. It's for the Daniels in the lion's den it's for the Joseph's in the pit and in the the prison like that dream that you're talking about is not just for the ones that are on the pinnacle you know Peter wrote that part where he was probably in prison most of the Bible that we that Paul wrote was when he was in the dungeons like 
God does not need you to be on the mountain to have a mountaintop experience like you're having. So I love that we're talking about this. I want to bring it to the practical for a second because God is working in your life directly with actual things that are happening. And I want to make sure that our creative tribe that's listening also knows that, hey, this also does not mean that you have to have like a full-time creative job that everybody is like pouring money into your coffers because you're singing your songs and you're making. So can you just talk a little bit about the practical about the, we talked about a little bit earlier, our parallel careers where you are a minister and you are a worship leader and you are a producer and a tv host and a podcast host, but you also are many other things that help you like sustain your career oh yeah um so i am blessed with the opportunity to work from home because i breed great danes and french Bulldogs. 
Now, not what I thought my life would be. Um, I had a construction company around the time of COVID and we couldn't get metal for the metal buildings. It was a month out and I didn't really have a way to make money. And something I had always wanted to do was to have a litter of Great Dane puppies. And I thought it would be fun. And I had, um, a Great Dane female at the time I had two. And so I went ahead and did a litter and God sent me all these people, um, to help me. There There was so much favor and so much blessing. And it was such a fun, amazing thing during the last few years. And it's just been like... 
you know, the Lord has been taking care of me. We talked about this Sunday about Elijah and the ravens bringing food to him. It's kind of been like that. I've had to hold on to him every minute for every sale, every bit of everything that I needed. It wasn't because of me. It was because of him, you know? And so I, you know, I really learned that dependency on him. And so when you were talking about, you know, like you've got your Joseph moments in the prison and whatnot. Um, I really relate to Joseph. Um, so, so it's been, I felt like this time has been that, I mean, here I am pooper scooping, you know, all the, you know, all day long. 
Um, because Great Dane puppies, if you can imagine 10 to 12 Great Dane puppies, one time we had 17, I kid you not, um, in one litter. Yeah. But you can imagine how much poop is created before they go home, you know, and that's, that was like my job. That's my job sometimes 24 seven, but the Lord has been faithful to provide in that. And in his provision, I then can say, you know, yes to him because I have time at home on my hands where I can do the show. I can reach out to guests. I can take time to edit and whatnot. Whereas if I was out doing a full-time job or whatever, I wouldn't have the time to learn all of those skills and I wouldn't have time to build those skills in those relationships. 
And I know that over time it's gonna be something where this can sustain itself, but we're not there right now and so the Lord is providing a way to be able to be still enough to learn these things so I think it's wonderful. Yeah Still enough to learn these things be still and know that I am God, right? And so we don't like to be still especially us creatives we like to keep things moving like to have all things happening for us in this specific area like you said earlier, the how we don't like when god is doing a certain how we like to determine the how, but i love the fact that you were very transparent number 117 puppies i'm already and i'm just dealing with two cats and one cat that seems to not understand what a litter box is. 
So I totally understand to a certain level. Um, but to the high, to all the people that are asking about not just the how, but the the why right the why you're sticking with this. I think you've answered that. So I don't necessarily, because I usually end these interviews with some type of question of, you know, if you could go back to the 22 or the 18 year old person that you were, what would you ask yourself? That's usually what I ask, but I feel like you've already answered it because your why is so strong through all of these other valleys and things that you've gone through. So I think maybe I'll rephrase it. What would you say to someone who is not necessarily you, but is going through something similar as you're going through, whether it's a divorce, whether it's church closing down and not having a community? 
What would your advice be to another creative who's in that season that you were in so that they can get to the place where you are now? Well, you know, I'll tell you, my sister-in-law has this funny phrase. She says, my darkness doesn't look like your darkness, but it's still there. I mean, we all go through a variety of things. I mean, if you're married, no, you're not walking through divorce, but you might be walking through like a season of not being able to have children or whatever. We all have these dark places, these moments, these struggles. And the struggles, they're constant, you know? I mean, if you're not in one right now, you're about to walk into one kind of thing, if you're not walking out of one, et cetera. 
You know what people say, but they're there. And they're even there sometimes in just a faith struggle. You know, I'm struggling to keep the faith or to keep hope and whatnot. So I would say to all of you a couple things. The first one is if you can take your eyes off of the struggle, And that's not always easy because, I mean, a lot of the struggles, I've got to pay the bills and so forth. But if you can take your eyes off the struggles as much as possible and place it onto the fact that the Lord is there. He promised to be close to the brokenhearted. And I spent a lot of years trying to not feel brokenhearted, trying to not walk through the valley of the shadow of death, avoiding it with busyness, avoiding 
with shopping, with this, you know, I mean, we all have various vices, ways that we numb, you know, might be Netflix and all day, whatever the case is, but the point is, is that avoiding feeling the pain, and yet, I have come to this space where I learned that because I was holding on to it. It was, it was baggage on me because I wasn't pouring it out to the father. I wasn't pouring out my disappointments to him. Even if I felt disappointed in the fact that he didn't make it all. Okay. You know, I can tell him that he's a big boy. He already knows. And so if I don't pour it out to him, that, that, that's getting bigger and bigger. 
And I am more and more like weighted down and exhausted. And there's no, No way to be very creative in a positive way when you are so drained and worn out from carrying all of this grief, all of this discouragement and disappointment. So I learned the Lord would ask me to come and sit with him. I just sit in quiet space. And here's what we would do. we would picture, I would picture him at a table right across from me, just a small little round table. And the table had a hole in the center. And then the down below was like a pot, like the old fashioned, you know, pots, vessels. And then in the center of the table, there was an incinerator, like a fire. 
Okay. And I would, pour out those things to the lord and i would give him and give him those and we put him in the incinerator. Because guess what? He showed me that if i'm carrying all of those disappointments, all of that grief, etc. I cannot have beauty for ashes. Because I didn't give it to him. We didn't burn it up yet. It's not incinerated yet. So I'm holding it because it's mine. And so i can stay a victim of everything, right? Because then i have plenty of excuses why i can't move forward or i you know, be who God called and created me to be. So I started to learn to let that, that weight go and give him each one of those disappointments. 
He'd burn them up. He's got the ashes now and we can let him make beauty from them. You know, it's not my responsibility. I don't need to make beauty from those ashes. I tried that too. Y'all that didn't work. So. Oh, gosh. I have been a pseudo trying to be a Christian, whatever you want to call it, for a lot of years. I have never heard anybody explain it like that. I never saw it either. Thank God for you, Victor, being open to that because the very concept of God burning things up, right? We could go so many analogies of the offering, right? Of the burnt offering, of everything. Everything that God does with fire, the fact that we are purified by fire. 
So, I mean, there's so many pictures in my mind that are popping up, but the most important one is the one that you just said, which is giving it away, putting it in there, being okay with not being okay, and that God is okay with that. One of my favorite scripture verses, that's one of the toughest ones, but also one of my favorite ones is Psalm 53, I think is where, you know, where David is admitting his mistakes and where he says thou desire truth in inward parts and in a hidden part that would make us me no wisdom God is okay with me being totally authentic. and getting real with him. Like, he's okay he's okay he wants that with us. He wants that and i think creatives and i've said this, I know we're going to go on a whole nother tangent, but we kind of knew this was going to happen um i've written before about how creatives, we, you said it, numb the pain, but we even try to numb the pain through doing godly things, through worship, like you mentioned, through overwork, through those things that we say, oh, well, God, if i just pray more, sing 
more, create more, and we try to use the worship to numb that. God didn't ask for that. He said, you know, I mean, I don't need your Amos. He said, I don't need a thousand songs. I don't need it. I don't need, he literally goes down like all these songs you're singing, like, nah, what I want is truth and justice and holiness and all those things, which of course come from being honest. So I love it. It's so amazing. And it's so much self love too, by, by allowing myself to feel the things that didn't feel comfortable. I think in religion, we can so often be trained to say, Oh, I need to be grateful. Well, If I just got, you know, raped or whatever, I don't need to turn that into gratefulness right away. 
I need to pour it out. you know, because otherwise we keep it upon ourselves, and then shame and those kind of things, we wear them around, you know, and certainly we don't let others and God close when we carry shame. You know, I need to pour out the pain. If somebody just passed away or whatever, I don't need to just get grateful. I'm so grateful. He's in heaven. Well, you are, but at the same time, you have to actually go through those stages of grief, because it will hunt you down. Grief will hunt you down, and you'll feel it at inappropriate times it's going to come out in inappropriate ways rather than just pouring it out to the Lord I mean Jesus he shows up he knows he can heal Lazarus but yet he still takes a moment to grieve because that's his friend you know and so it's just it's so important he the Jesus he models it for us I mean even before he went to the cross he you know he felt the grief of it the pain of it he sweat blood and so it's 
And he cried out to the father, does it have to be like this? I mean, I can cry out to the father the same way. God, it's not supposed to be like this, you know. And because it's true, we're not in Eden. This ain't Eden, you know. So there's going to be a lot of pain. And so we have to learn how to go to the father, run to daddy, and pour it out to him. It's not ours to carry. So powerful. So good. And I hope that people are listening, following, and starting to subscribe to your channel right now because this is clearly where it's pouring out. You're overflowing right now into our podcast. I'm blessing God for you and for the example. 
I always say this, and I put my guest on the spot. Pretty much you are abducted into the God and Geeks tribe once you are on the show like this. So I expect to see you in the membership. I expect to see you doing workshops. I expect to see you in an encore just because this is, like you said, it's a relationship that's built through where God is sewing and building these bricks and sewing these threads together into his fabric, into his masterpiece. And it's clearly something that we need to hear, that I needed to hear even now. So for those of you, we got to cut it off or else we'll be here two hours, three hours. No, you're good. I let it go and I'm not going to apologize. 
If they're listening now, it's because they need to listen. So there are anyone that wants to learn more from you and follow your show, all those things. Of course, the links are all in the show notes, but we assume that people need a couple of reminders. So tell them how they can stay in touch with you, how they can follow you, and how they can learn more about your beautiful message of hope and redemption. Oh, sure. So you can find us on Instagram, on YouTube, on Facebook, at Arivive Studios, A-R-I-E-V-I-V-E Studios. Or at Victory Lyric, you can find me as well. And they're all connected. So whichever one you can remember easier. That's awesome. Now, we have all those links there. But once again, everything from your story, from the pastry chef that got that amazing opportunity, to walking through your Joseph experience, through now getting to build your own kingdom. 
I won't say empire, but your own kingdom platform. platform right where you'll get to bring in other creators we are so blessed to be a part of it just to be able to tell your story victory i've been blessed and i'm sure that the listeners and watchers have been blessed as well so god bless you thank you for joining us on the gotten geek show thank you so much, guys.