Trust Your Calling

Wow, what a week… To everyone who has reached out regarding last weeks post, THANK YOU! I loved hearing from those of you who decided to participate in the "Nostalgia Challenge" or even those of you who just contacted me to tell me what it inspired you to do. Also, you may notice that I didn't get this up until a day late (Monday) even though I promised every Sunday I'd have new material. There is a reason for this other than the fact that I'm a world class procrastinator, but it is worth the wait I promise. Also, this may happen occasionally because I don't get paid in any way for this blog so if you are like "Oh, he's on week 3 and already a day late" ya need ta chill k? Alright, now that we're on the same page lets get into it…

I'd like to rewind back to week one and get a little deeper into that conversation. If you missed it, we talked about how sometimes we hear God's calling for our lives, but we don't necessarily know how to answer it. I have good news for you if that is how you feel because that is exactly the way God wants it. If God were to give you a vision for your purpose and there would be no faith involved then it wouldn't be from Him to begin with. The important thing here is that you are hearing what God is breathing into your life and now all you have to do is trust that a promise from God never fails. I'm aware that I may be speaking to an audience of people who may not share the same spiritual beliefs that I do and that is okay because no matter what you believe, I promise at some point in your life you will need to have faith that comes from a higher power in order to accomplish or overcome whatever it may be. Too many people confuse religion and faith. You don't need to be a "religious" person by any means, but I believe you do need a relationship with a power source that is not of this world. Sure, you may think "I don't need faith to drink a cup of coffee in the morning", or "I don't need faith to get hired at this new job", or whatever it is that you believe you can accomplish on your own. To that, I would say that I agree… I believe I don't need to tap into faith for 99% of the things I do in my life. But, when that 1% situation arrises that I CANNOT do without faith, I don't want to be unable to respond because usually that 1% is the make or break moment. Faith is not easy, it is like any technical skill or talent that you need to learn. It takes practice, time , and patience to get better. If you don't lean on your faith in situations when you "don't need it" you won't know how to tap into it when you do.  

If you are reading this and you're thinking that all sounds great, but I truly don't know what the heck my calling is and I don't know what you're even talking about. Thats okay, I was there too and without faith I'd still be there. Sometimes, I believe it is hard to separate what God's plan is for our lives from what our own plan is because when God speaks to you it won't be this deep voice coming down from heavenly clouds on a beam of light. Instead, it will sound just like your own inner voice. The only way to determine what ideas and thoughts come from your own mind and those that come from God's voice is to get to know Him personally. How do you do that though? Well, its like anything else… You have to start practicing somewhere. Nobody just picks up a guitar and masters it on the first try. You start by learning the parts of the instrument and what they do, then you get into notes, and so on. The same goes with faith… You won't be able to slide into God's DM's if you've never talked to him and be like "Hey, what up?" at 3 am when you're lonely and expect an immediate "Here is my plan for you life" response. Is it possible to hear from God immediately? Sure, but its definitely not the response I got. For me, I simply stopped caring about the things I thought were my purpose in life and said out loud "I trust you God. Use me however you need me." I didn't wake up the next morning with a blueprint for what to do next, but every day God has revealed his calling for me little by little. Giving in to God's calling was the easiest/hardest thing I ever did. It was easy because I no longer felt the pressure to be responsible for things that weren't part of my calling, but the hardest thing because it meant letting go of pride and all the things that I falsely represented myself up to that point.

Wherever you are in your life, I invite you to start practicing your faith more. I know I am bad at it sometimes myself… I will go days/weeks not having a real conversation with God without even realizing it sometimes so if you see people on social media acting like they're in a perfect relationship with God or whatever at all times, do me a favor… Click unfollow… 

I've learned to understand God's faithfulness through my own creative process in my artwork. Sometimes when I start a painting, I don't know what the final product will look like, but I know that I will commit to that blank canvas until I have my finished work. Some people may walk into my studio and see a half painted picture and not see the vision I have as the creator for the final product and may think, "well that doesn't seem like it will ever come together to be anything" and that is perfectly okay with me. If they could see my vision for the final piece then they could do it themselves and it would remove my significance as the sole creator of that work. I like to picture my life as God's canvas and surrender to his creativity for it, knowing that he is making a beautiful piece of art with me. People may see me in the unfinished creation process and think, "What is going on with him?" but that is where my faith comes in that its not up to me for them to understand my final product, I just need to trust that my creator will keep adding layers, removing extra paint that is unnecessary, and working on me until I'm made whole and my purpose is completed. Art is subjective. Some people might love a piece of art and some people may hate that same piece, but it doesn't mean it isn't art. That is what is beautiful about it! No matter what others think about your calling or process to achieve that calling, it is unique to you and it is like a beautiful piece of art. They don't have to like it but you were created to deliver a message or purpose in this world. Hold onto that trust that even if you don't know what you're going to look like, you know that it will serve a purpose. Answering a calling is not knowing exactly what to do, it is knowing there is more.

My challenge for you this week is for you to find a way to relate your daily work or activity to a lesson God may be trying to teach you about His own heart. I believe nothing we do in life is "just because"… I believe EVERYTHING is used as an opportunity to understand something on a deeper level but we honestly don't care to look into it because we're too busy or because we flat out don't want to. Learning faith is hard, but once you get better at it, you will become free to hear God's true calling on your life. 

I want this blog to be a place for you to find that calling, but there is no possible way to find that without others. If you have a revelation or breakthrough this week, please leave a comment on this post. You never know who it may help. We all like, comment on, and share recipes of stuff we'll never cook, photos of vacation spots we'll never go to, drama that we have nothing to do with, and everything else via social media on a daily basis. Why can't we do all that for something that actually may breathe hope into someones life or current situation?

Vinnie

If you know me, you may know that I am not just an artist. You may know that I wear several different hats in my day to day life between being a husband, graphic designer, painter, event planner, blogger, etc. With all these avenues that I'm pouring into on the daily, I feel like some of my work goes undocumented or unseen. So, something I'll be adding to the bottom part of all my future blogs is a weekly update of things I worked on or did the previous week. Some may be videos and some may be images of paintings or whatever else was interesting about my week. Look for it starting next week!

Oh, and you didn't think I'd forget about the "Nostalgia Challenge" winner did you? 

Congrats to Fard Morales, who decided to tap into that Nostalgic State by playing one of his favorite video games from his childhood. (Goldeneye 007 on his Purple N64 console.) Stay tuned as I will share the finished pictures of his free custom shoes in a future blog entry as well as on my IG @CandeloreCustoms