When Rejection Becomes a Redirection: The Story of Liv Well Daily
Love is our most powerful tool; it is what sets us free. Created to live in FREEDOM. Created to LOVE.
So love your neighbor as yourself.
A dream becoming a calling
It was 3:30 in the morning Valentine’s Day February 14, 2017. I had been tossing and turning all night with my mind flooding with random thoughts and ideas. With much frustration, I decided to turn on my bedside lamp and grab my Bible and journal. Opening to a blank page, my hand began to move uncontrollably. All of the thoughts and ideas bouncing around in my head came out on paper. Not even reading what I was writing, I decided to let my hand continue to move until my brain was done. It was supernatural and unlike anything I had experienced before.
When my hand finally stopped moving, I put my pen down and felt overcome with peace. The anxiety I was feeling, the random thoughts and ideas I was having were now gone. Closing my Bible and journal, I turned off my lamp and fell asleep.
I had this lingering desire, a desire to create a space where people, ALL people, regardless of our differences were invited to sit at the table.
Leading up to this moment, I had been having visions. Visions of creating something much bigger than myself, but I could not quite make sense of what it was I was supposed to create. You see I had this lingering desire, a desire to create a space where people, ALL people, regardless of our differences were invited to sit at the table. A space where we could grow and learn from each other as we shared dreams, ideas, and words of encouragement that empowered us to live well every single day. A space where we left feeling touched and healed not just by the conversations we were having but also from the food we were eating.
“Ask and it shall be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives and the one who seeks finds and the one who knocks it will be opened.”
Simply yet boldly do it
“How was I going to make this happen?” is all I could think.
“I have given you the peace of my words Olivia, now all that is left is for you to simply, yet boldly do it.”
He told me to “simply yet boldly do it.” Easier said than done. During that time, I was pursuing medical school. I had just taken the MCAT and was waiting to hear back from the schools I had applied to. Life was full of unknowns and even though I had the peace of His words it did not mean I had the blessing of His timing.
Even though I had the peace of His words it did not mean I had the blessing of His timing.
“For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come! ”
A dream put on hold
I decided to put His vision on hold.
Now what?
Well, I started dating someone! No really, I did.
One month after the vision, I was invited on a mission trip to the coast of South Carolina to help minister to young college students while working in teams in the local community doing disaster relief. With it being last minute, I was not convinced I was going to be able to get off work in time to attend this mission trip; however, I felt is was worth trying for. While handing in my written request, I had asked our office manager, who was not the most joyful spirit, if this was at all possible. To my surprise, she not only said yes without giving it much thought, but she also told me to “have fun!” Friends, this was big! I was shocked to say the least and knew in my heart the Lord was calling me to South Carolina, I just didn’t think it would be for this.
There is something beautiful that happens when you work with your hands and build something with others.
“A hammer and a nail, stacking them bails. I’m dog tired by the five o’clock hour, but I’m ready to raise some…”
We were not quite “stacking them bails” but hammers and nails were used and conversations were flowing. There is something beautiful that happens when you work with your hands and build something with others. It is truly a bonding experience like no other. If you think I am talking about the boy, well I hate to disappoint but I am not. He and I were not in the same group and had spoken very little, that was until the night before our trip was over.
“So you can live unafraid in peace and safety. I will make you my wife forever, showing you righteousness and justice, unfailing love and compassion.”
Open up your heart
The last night of the trip, we were told to go off and have quiet time with the Lord as we reflected on His word and our week spent in SC. I was so excited to hear from Him. I felt I was obedient to the mission and my purpose on this trip. Getting this moment together, I felt confident He was going to pat me on the back and say “well done!” So I hurried off to a quiet corner outside beneath a tree when He suddenly told me to open my Bible. To my surprise, my bookmark was on the book of Hosea, a story of a girl running from God’s goodness. A story I had related to when I was young and doing just that. My excitement went immediately to me being confused and in all honesty annoyed. This story was something I had felt the Lord and I had already addressed and I could not understand why He was asking me to reread it. I answered the Lord by saying, “What am I running from? Why are you revealing this to me right now? I was obedient. I followed you here. I spoke, I shared, and loved on the college students like you asked me to.” But all I could hear was a quiet, sincere whisper calling me to open up my heart. “Open up your heart, open up your heart, and I will do the rest.” Still so confused, I read the chapters, I closed my Bible and I prayed. I prayed for the students and their hearts as we were preparing to leave that next day. I also prayed for my own heart unaware of what was coming next.
If you run, I run and I will not stop until I have your attention.
Running away
Walking back inside, I was invited to join in on a conversation with a large group of young college women. Laughing and sharing about our week and all that the Lord had done, my heart started racing when a tall, handsome marine (who was a young adult leader like myself) sat beside me. Waiting for the conversation to die down and the girls to walk off we began talking. The minutes quickly became hours and our concept of time was suddenly lost… until he reached for my hand and said these simple yet scary words, “I would like to know you.” My heart dropped as I looked up and saw the room we were in that was once filled with students had quickly become empty. I filled his request with superficial facts about myself when he interrupted and said, “No, I want to know you Olivia, really know you. If I come to Tennessee, I would like to take you out sometime. Would that be okay?” Unsure of how to respond, I quickly took my hand away and said goodnight.
Confused at what had just happened, I did my best to get some sleep. The next day, my mentor came up and asked if I would help her pick up trash. I was happy to help, so she and I headed to the women’s bathroom. Getting on my hands and knees, I begin to pick up paper and water bottles that had fallen from the garbage can when she suddenly knelt beside me grabbed my hands and said, “Why are you running away?” Shocked by her question, considering what had happened last night and I had not shared any of that with her, I quickly responded, “I am not running from anything!” She held my hands and said “Olivia you are running again. Stop running and trust. Have faith and trust that he is good.”
“Every day we each get to decide if we will move toward the things that frighten us or move away…yet we move, we take a step. Deciding in that moment to move toward the things we cannot control for one simple reason: We believe in the One who is in control of all things.”
Avoiding him as best as I could, it wasn’t until the end of the day, just around sunset, when the Lord spoke very clearly to me. He told me specifically to ask him to go on a walk. Before I could say “no absolutely not” my feet began to move closer to where he was sitting. Before I could even open my mouth he looks up, smiles, and says, “Hey there! Would you want to go on a walk with me on the beach?” Picking up my jaw that had clearly fallen to the floor, I said “yes.”
I will give you all of the magical details that happened on that walk one day, but for now I will leave you with this. Towards the end of our walk he held my hands, looked me in the eyes, and said this “Olivia I know you are afraid, know I am afraid too. But here is the thing. I want to know you. Truly know you. So if you run, I run and I will not stop until I have your attention.” He prayed over me and before I could even open my eyes and begin to process what had just happened in the last 24 hours, I was in a car heading back to Tennessee.
Awe moves us. When I am in awe, I am open. I feel the blood running through my veins. My pulse beats like a drum. I am ALIVE! Flooded with the fullness of God. Flooded with the newness of life. When in awe, I am granted with new possibilities and the biggest dreams I could have never imagined possible for myself.
Beauty and risk, they come in a pair
The courage to open up in the midst of a pursuit is nothing but beauty and risk. They come in a pair. He continued to pursue and I continued to trust and slowly but surely my heart began to open up. Our experience, our relationship was something bigger than we could have ever imagined for ourselves. A relationship with two imperfectly perfect humans wrapped in adventure, mistakes, love, tears, deep laugh and sincere pain. But what you need to know is this, the Lord often times sends you a person, a human to walk with you, someone to hold your hand and remind you of YOUR faith in Christ Jesus. He was sent to me and I was sent to him. It was nothing he did that was special but it was everything God was doing in and through us that captivated our souls.
You see God uses His children to showcase His love, His grace, and His mercy. Every day that I was in a relationship with him, Jesus would ask me over and over if I trusted Him. “Hey sweet Liv,” He would say, “Do you trust me?” My response was always the same, “Yes Father, I trust you. I am here. My answer is YES!” He responded, “Then love me, put nothing before me and love me and allow me to love you.”
Put nothing before me and love me and allow me to love you.
July of 2017, my turning point
Those words pressed heavy on my heart when my life suddenly turned upside down just a few months later. Before I could fully comprehend what was happening, I was on my hands and knees with tears streaming down my face, collapsed, and overcome with fear and anxiety. Within the same month and only days between each event, my world came to sudden halt. The foundation I had subconsciously created for myself came crumbling beneath my feet. My biggest fear was now my reality and I was terrified. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t eat. I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t stand to be alone. Crying out to the Lord in utter surrender, I asked for vision. I prayed for peace.
In July of 2017, my mom hired an attorney and was filing for divorce. In July of 2017, the man I thought I was going to marry said I was not enough. In July of 2017, the school I was wait-listed for had rejected me. I was left with the Lord staring deep into my eyes wiping the tears from my face. Kneeling down beside me, He asked the three questions that finally broke the barrier that separated me from experiencing the fullness of who He is. He asked, “If I take away the things you love most in this world, am I still good? If I tear down the pillars that make you accepted and secure in this world, am I still your good Father? And if all that is left is me and you, do you believe I do not withhold good things from you?”
The revelation that is about to be breathed into your very bones cannot give life to your soul until you are still and looking directly at Him.
In all honesty friends, I couldn’t answer those questions for months. It took time, His word, friends closing in tight around me, and perspective. But what I found to be true during that time was this, sometimes God will arrange the conditions of your life to happen at such a time so you have no other choice but to stop. Stop and listen. Stop and look around. Stop and receive. Because the revelation that is about to be breathed into your very bones cannot give life to your soul until you are still and looking directly at Him.
Before the disaster ever struck the rescue plan was in place.
The rescue
At my lowest, He was my highest. And before the disaster struck the rescue plan was in place. One year before my mom hired an attorney, He had me pray for my family, the Workman tribe, the #crazy8!
It was a warm summer evening and I was eating my dinner on the rooftop of my downtown loft. On July 14, 2016 I felt this urgency to pray hard and fierce for my family, so I opened my journal and began to write. Early that week, we had a family friend lose a child and even though I did not know him personally, I had siblings and friends and parents who did. You see friends, his death was the kind of death that made you stop in your tracks, place a hand over your mouth, and take a moment. This moment would be filled with stillness matched with sadness and pain. Pain not just for his family but it made you think of your own. “What if it was my brother,” I thought. Just the thought made my stomach clinch tight, eyes teary, chest heavy…I couldn’t go there. His death was an example that our time here eventually has a stopping point and none of us know exactly when that is. Some would say it was a freak accident, but I do not believe in accidents especially when it comes to taking in your first breath or breathing out your last. I believe everything is divine, even something as painful as death, and I believe it has the opportunity to bring divine glory and a well of depth into our lives if we give it the space and perspective to do so. But what if death looks like a parent walking out of your family? Is that still death?
That evening I prayed specifically for my future daughter and her relationship with my mom. I prayed that she would know the precious sound of her voice and the soft touch of her hand. I prayed they would enjoy taking long walks together while sharing sacredly sweet conversations and wildly big dreams. Just like we did every single day until I left home. I wrote this prayer without any thought that there would one day come a time that I would go over a year and a half without hearing the sound of my mother’s voice. I wrote this prayer not knowing it would be one of the most precious journal entries I would ever write because it reminded me His rescue is bigger than our storm. God had me write this prayer knowing I would need to be reminded of my faith and His divinity when face to face with my own death.
I believe everything is divine, even something as painful as death, and I believe it has the opportunity to bring divine glory and a well of depth into our lives if we give it the space and perspective to do so.
“So we’re not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it appears we are falling apart—on the inside we’re being made new! Giving us NEW life—not a day goes by without His unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There’s far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today and gone tomorrow. But the things we cannot see will last FOREVER.”
Love Your Neighbor As Yourself
We may break but we are not broken. We may have fallen, but we are not defeated. You see in all this pain and in the midst of the suffering, He is making us like Him. Granting me the peace of His words and the blessing of His timing, He reminded me at such a fragile time that these people were never mine to lose but mine to love and love well. God’s love does that. It compels us, but it must be our first in our own story. It must be our only pillar of foundational truth. It must be the very essence of who we are before it can be an outward expression of how we live. And in the midst of the suffering and what once seemed so dark, suddenly began to cast light and make sense. You see, He wasn’t calling me to part the water; He was calling me to wash the feet.
He reminded me at such a fragile time that these people were never mine to lose but mine to love and love well.
On February 14, 2017, the national holiday of love, what was once so unclear finally made perfect sense. Jesus was calling me to love. Love others the way He loves me and to invite others into this sacred relationship the way He invited me. Secondly, He told me to trust. Knowing I would doubt His goodness and be afraid of His blessing, He reminded me to trust in Him while He takes care of the rest. My vision finally had purpose and now all that was left was for me to live it.
I was rejected from the plans I created for myself so I could be redirected to the vision He created me to fulfill.
A vision becoming a reality
One year later, Liv Well Daily was born. I was rejected from the plans I created for myself so I could be redirected to the vision He created me to fulfill. Sweet friends, my story isn’t perfect, it’s actually far from it but that’s what makes it beautiful and sharing it with you is what sets me free. Liv Well Daily is a space where I am changing the way we think about wellness and what it means to live well. As a health and wellness influencer, I believe we have the ability to live well every day and I begin this practice by shifting the focus from feeling unworthy to WORTHY. How do I do this? It is simple. My brand is built on three basic principles: invite, engage, and heal. I believe healing transformation occurs when we invite each other in, when we engage in one another stories, and when we use my integrative, holistic nutrition theory (make each meal BETTER not complicated) and clean wellness practices.
This space is sacred, the table is endless, and the seats are open and guess what? You are invited! Will you join me on this mission? Because, I can now confidently say He has given me both the peace of His words and the blessing of His timing, and my time, our time, is NOW! #livwelldaily #livingyourbesteveryday