Vernon Brown: 0:00

Welcome, welcome, welcome to Conversations at the Well.

Vernon Brown: 0:03

My name is Vernon Brown and my co-host is Desiree Brown, and today we are going to be covering the topic of Let your Light Shine. We listened to an awesome sermon that was talking and challenging us about letting your light shine and I figured it would be a good topic for us to dive a little bit further into. So grab your seats, grab your coffee cup, whatever you need, and meet us at the well. Hello, hello and welcome back to to another conversation at the well.

Vernon Brown: 0:27

Today we're going to be talking about letting your light shine, and I think it's an awesome topic because all of us have some light that we have within us, whether it comes from our Lord and Savior, jesus Christ, whether we think it comes from our talents and our gifts. But regardless of who you are and what you believe in, you have a light that's inside of you, and I think we listened to a sermon the other Sunday not this Sunday, last Sunday, I'm not sure when it's going to come out, but I think it was last week that was challenging us to let our light shine and I just thought it was so important for us to talk a little bit more about that.

Desiree Brown: 0:59

Yeah, so do you want to? I don't know. Do you want to talk about the place? Do you want to talk about the church? Do you want to talk about just the sermon?

Vernon Brown: 1:25

no-transcript.

Desiree Brown: 1:30

Lord, I need some help around here.

Vernon Brown: 1:32

We never talk about what that means in real life, and one of the points that he made that I really really liked is the question of are you letting your light shine or withholding it? And so often we think of our light as something that we turn on or turn off. But really, if you're honest with yourself, the light you have doesn't really turn off, but so often we hide it or we only use it in moments in which we think people deserve it. But you're doing more of a disservice to yourself by controlling your light that way than if you were to just let it shine all the time.

Desiree Brown: 2:01

Yeah, so I think maybe it was last season it was.

Vernon Brown: 2:06

Last season, like spring Season, one of our podcast. Yeah, we got multiple seasons. Now we do. We're in the big leagues. Right, I know it's weird, right.

Desiree Brown: 2:16

But we talked about like, we talked about using your gifts. Yeah, and I remember, because I remember bringing up the analogy of, like the elephant behind the light pole. Do you remember that? No, because I don't make no sense. Yeah, so it was, it was an analogy and this came from prayer time, because y'all know a lot of stuff comes to me elephant in the light pole but basically like stop trying to hide. You are like an elephant trying to hide behind a light pole, like people still see you. So stop, okay, so stop so.

Desiree Brown: 2:50

But I think that a lot of us find ourselves in situations where we have we may have some gifts or some talent or just something about us that when we're operating in that and when we're doing it, we're like, really like, at our best, but there there's a, I guess, cost for that, because it means you're either maybe more visible, perhaps you're more vulnerable, perhaps you're giving of yourself, which is often the case and we may hold back from doing that because of that vulnerability, because of, um, we might feel like we're all spent out and we have nothing left to give, and if we do this thing, it's going to put us, put us out yeah, you know yeah, um, and so we tend to.

Desiree Brown: 3:36

I'm good yeah I'm good, I'm over here, we're good and comfortable, but the way that we're created, that's that, I don't think, is the intention that God has for us. It is to share whatever that good and beautiful thing is that's within us. We're supposed to share it as freely as we can.

Vernon Brown: 3:57

Now question for you, though, because we do have a limited resource called time, and even further more than that energy. So are we just supposed to be out here willy nilly, just sharing and throwing it around like rice or kind of? Where is there a balance? Does it have to be a balance? Is there no balance? Where do you fall at?

Desiree Brown: 4:15

You know, I've literally been warring with this within myself for a long time. As you all know, I've talked about it numerous times on this, on this platform. But it's one of those things where I think, ideally we're supposed to be very free with it, we're supposed to just just but understanding our humanness, our, our limitations. There's a lot of different factors and the context matters, right. So I think that, probably more broadly than just going and being just freely giving of it, I think it needs to be uh, this is going to be so, churchy, okay, um okay

Desiree Brown: 5:05

just like when the prompting hits and you're like, oh okay, I know I'm supposed to do this, but I really don't want to do this. It's like that's when you know you're supposed to do it, not not when you're I don't know. I do think that there's there's a time where it it could be dangerous, seems very dramatic, but it could be potentially harmful, and so you got to use a little discretion during those times. But I'm not even sure, I don't know. I need to kind of think about that a little more, massage that out, or maybe you can help me to explain this a bit more.

Vernon Brown: 5:42

I don't even know if you agree, but I know I completely agree with you and I think part of it is demystifying the whole idea of spirit led Like there's no, for most people there's no voice like do this, give this away, or volunteer here. But but I think it takes and we talked a little bit about it last episode knowing yourself and knowing what your voice by yourself looks like, versus the voice of the spirit or the voice of your gifting leaping out of you, however you want to define it. Because me personally, I can be lazy and I don't want to do more stuff. I'm completely content with what I do right now.

Vernon Brown: 6:17

So if there is a nudging or an urging within me to do something, that's probably not my nature, that's probably not me. That may be something greater than me and by tuning your ear to that you can say I know that one, Vernon Troy Brown Jr. Right there, that was something else. And maybe as you get more mature, your thought process and your desires become more like Christ's desires and it becomes a little more difficult to distinguish. But as you get closer to God and that it's harder to distinguish, your nature is much more like his, or at least hopefully so, to the point where, even if you say no or yes, you're still pretty darn close to the mark of the high calling.

Desiree Brown: 6:51

Yeah, and we talked about the gut right Like trust your gut. You know some people refer to it as gut.

Vernon Brown: 6:57

Trust your ab.

Desiree Brown: 6:58

Trust your yeah, your stomach.

Vernon Brown: 7:01

There you go.

Desiree Brown: 7:05

Follow your heart I don't know, know all of those things are, it is what it is. But I think really and truly that that, that gut, that kind of knowing that you don't even know why, you know, you just know yeah that for me, as I have continued to grow spiritually, I understand that to be the holy spirit, yeah, and so it's trusting that.

Desiree Brown: 7:23

So if the Holy Spirit is not a familiar concept, then maybe the gut is, and that's something that you can kind of lean into and trust that and follow that, because it's I don't know about you, but it has not led me wrong.

Vernon Brown: 7:37

Yeah.

Desiree Brown: 7:37

So, so, yeah, I think that there's. There's a kind of a balancing act that's happening there, not really balancing, but just like a trust act that's happening there, because, again, you know what does it talk about casting your pearls among swine, like that's the whole thing. Right, you don't want to put your these, this beautiful thing that you have, this gift, before people who are just going to abuse or misuse it.

Vernon Brown: 8:08

Yeah.

Desiree Brown: 8:09

But I think, for at the same time, there are often opportunities where we are supposed to do whatever that thing is and maybe we should talk more about what those things could be and look like. But you're supposed to do what those things are, be what that thing is and look like. But you're supposed to do what those things are, be what that thing is, and we're just like be for laziness, for protection, for I maybe I just don't feel like it right now, or I feel overwhelmed and overburdened by other things, or last time I did it I was hurt, like there's a lot of different reasons why people choose not to do it or be it, and we can't always go by how we feel, but more what we know.

Vernon Brown: 8:54

Yeah, and I think I think that leads into what types of lights do we each carry? And I think there's different groupings and I haven't thought this through. So if it doesn't make sense, let me know. But there may be low cost, higher presence. That's like your joy, that's like how you show up in a room, your smile, things like that. It didn't cost you anything except you know the 0.06 calories that it took to make a smile with the muscles on your face, and it's something that's always present.

Vernon Brown: 9:24

I think there are things like that. But then there are lower frequency things that tend to cost more. What am I going to drive you to the airport? Or am I going to do this act of kindness, or am I going to utilize my gift for the betterment of you?

Vernon Brown: 9:39

And I think we have to recognize that all of those are available to us at any point in time during the day and it's our job to know and to implement whichever the right tool is for the particular moment. So when it says, let your light shine or don't hide it under a basket or put it on a candlestick forever, it's hard to do that If your gift is singing like you ain't just walking around singing 24 7, but your joy can be something that's exemplified, or your smile can be something that's exemplified, or just the fact that you always can speak kind words and and I think we overlook how impactful sometimes those small things can be, because you never know what people are going through, regardless of how much they smile or not yeah, I was just thinking about you weren't there, but I was with my parents in atlanta.

Desiree Brown: 10:27

We had gone to, um, uh, mary max the restaurant. It's a restaurant in atlanta, y'all so food um give you the runs no, no, I'm playing.

Vernon Brown: 10:37

No, no, it makes us good.

Desiree Brown: 10:39

But um, there was a lady there, she was a waitress and homegirl could sing, so like she would come to the table and she would take your order or whatever, and then, like at some point you're going to hear a song from her, really yeah, and I thought that was so cool. I mean, I don't know if other people find found it cool or annoying, I mean, I guess, depending on it's probably one or the other it's like, but I was, I was like this girl, she better work it because you know she's working in a restaurant right now, but perhaps her, maybe her dream or her goal is to be a singer, um, like professionally, yeah, and so she's like well, my profession right now is this. So I'm just gonna insert my gift here and maybe it'll land on the right person and and that man?

Vernon Brown: 11:22

I was thinking about that when we first started. Because so? Because so often now we're talking about like gifts, like tangible skills and stuff that we have, and so often we're like I don't want to use it or I don't want to waste it or I don receive or that people take advantage of, quite frankly, of our gifts are an opportunity for us to hone our gifts. For the moment, that's actually going to change our life. I think about gosh, joshua or Jacob. Which one is it? The coat of many colors.

Desiree Brown: 11:59

That is Joshua.

Vernon Brown: 12:00

Joshua coat of many colors. Joshua, joshua, Coat of many colors. And so he's talking to his brothers, kind of just making jokes, talking about this dream that he has and what it means, and all the while his brothers are getting jealous of them. Well, fast forward, wait.

Desiree Brown: 12:11

Joseph. You said Jacob, Joshua you told me. I said, I said, I said.

Vernon Brown: 12:19

Dude with the coat of many colors.

Desiree Brown: 12:21

It was. It was jake no abraham, isaac and jacob.

Vernon Brown: 12:26

So can't be, jacob it's either joshua or joseph. It's joseph. Okay, joseph, it's a j it's joseph.

Desiree Brown: 12:34

I was like it's not joshua, because joshua fought the battle of jericho and that was not the coat of many colors, that was different guy. Okay, so jacob, joshua and joseph. So it was joseph joseph, it was joseph the dude had a coat of many colors.

Vernon Brown: 12:47

I know that part, the coat of many colors dude, could interpret dreams, and so he did it, just randomly with his brothers. His brothers got jealous, threw him in a pit instead of killing him, and then he ended up in Potiphar's house Potiphar's wife, he's a king.

Vernon Brown: 13:03

Yeah, potiphar, which is a king. His wife lied on him, said he tried to sleep with her. Whole long story. It gets real juicy. You got to read the Bible. Anyways, he ends up in jail and he interprets the dream of these two guys that were cast out of Pharaoh's house, potiphar's house. One of them was a cupbearer, the other one, I think, was a chef. And he interprets their dreams and they're like hey, I keep having this dream. What in the world is happening now? In that moment as do with the coat of many colors, joshua, jacob or Joseph, whichever one? Joseph, as he was sitting there in prison, he could have said that this gift I don't want to give anymore because it's a gift from God. But God, you have put me in this presence. I have no intention of using this gift from you?

Vernon Brown: 13:45

Yeah, but because he used it generously for people who could do nothing for him. Now he did ask them don't forget me when you get back to Pradafer or Pharaoh's house or whatever. But they couldn't do nothing for him, but he still used his gift in that moment when they had nothing to give them, because he was still in prison and because of that, when Pharaoh had the dream, they were finally remembered.

Desiree Brown: 14:10

They finally remembered him.

Vernon Brown: 14:12

And then he was brought out and pretty much restored, even to a higher level than what he was. But none of that happens unless we use our gifts in some ways that look wasteful to us because we can get nothing out of it. So to bring that full circle, to the lady who's singing even if she never even I was gonna say, even if she never happens to like sing for diddy.

Vernon Brown: 14:37

But that's a whole nother story, even if she never happens to sing for another. Like song producer jesus, she's honing her gift there at the moment, singing on the spot. Yeah, now she's not gonna be one of these people where I gotta do my, me, me, me and fa so lots I'm ready to go right now. Right now yeah no, no auto-tune, no background vocals straight up in your face and I loved it too.

Desiree Brown: 14:56

I loved it because I was like oh, this girl shining, like she is just out here just doing her thing, yes, and how often do you not shine your gift because you think that there's nothing that's going to come of it?

Vernon Brown: 15:09

Yeah, and is that holding you back from being prepared for the moment that God has for you? Because it would be a horrible decision on the part of God to throw you in a place where you're not prepared, where you're going to fail, right? And so maybe those opportunities we overlook and we keep our light under a basket versus putting it on a candlestick, maybe it's those moments that are standing in between us and where we need to be.

Desiree Brown: 15:31

Yeah, and I think also with with that, I think it's there's there's risk, right? Because when you do that, like in this particular case with the singer waitress, people could have been like can you please? Just like not, you know, can you shut up and get my food Like can you stop singing and just serve me? Yeah like whatever their disposition is or whatever like. That's a risky thing to put yourself out there and to showcase what you have. But here's the thing she's in a place where there's so many talented people yeah there's talent on top of talent on top of talent.

Desiree Brown: 16:04

And here she is. This is a place. It's a, it's kind of a um, like a staple, like a go-to kind of place in atlanta. It's like on all the like a staple. Like you gotta go yeah yeah, on the the list of places to go in atlanta.

Vernon Brown: 16:16

That's like I wouldn't go.

Desiree Brown: 16:17

But yeah, a lot of people go a lot of people go and they've had a lot of you know, famous people and dignitaries or whatever that have come through there. And so she's like, okay, I have an opportunity to have a platform. And it may not look like a platform, because what it looks like is I'm a waitress in a restaurant and there's a bunch of restaurants here, but this one I know like people of some notoriety come through here, so I'm going to sing every chance I get because I have a dream that one day, whatever she has a dream whatever she has a, she has a, she has a dream, and even if it's not that like, not I don't say manipulative, but even if it's not that big of a deal.

Desiree Brown: 16:54

Yeah, I just enjoy singing, or yeah, yeah because you never know who's going to come through the door, who has going to be able to present an opportunity or who's going to be like, listen, I mean I'm not, I'm not anybody, but I got a wedding coming up and I need a singer. There's so many different ways that things can present there's a lot of opportunity and she's taking advantage. I don't think in a manipulative way, but she's like I don't know what her thoughts are. I didn't talk to her about this, but I did encourage her because I was like just keep doing what you're doing, it'll pay off.

Vernon Brown: 17:26

I just wonder how many people are amazing at drawing and they grew up drawing all the time and they haven't picked up a pen in months or years because they can't figure out how this is going to turn into that.

Desiree Brown: 17:36

Yeah, let your light shine or just stays in that secret little notebook that they've never shared with anyone yeah, yeah, exactly yeah, so shining our lights. So, okay, we talked about, we talked about singing, we talked about drawing. What are some other lights that people have? Because some people might be like, listen, I have no talent, what do I do?

Vernon Brown: 17:56

I think I think and people undersell it. But I think connecting with people is a, is a gift and a talent, like being able to sit down with a person, have a conversation and to have them feel comfortable with you to the point where they'll tell you their life story, like that's not normal, especially in today's time where people just don't connect or don't have conversations, and I think that's a talent and that's a. That's a light in which you never know you could be. We don't often think about it and it's very gruesome to say but you could be the last conversation somebody has. We don't often think about it and it's very gruesome to say but you could be the last conversation somebody has. Like in the temperature, in the climate of depression that we live in today, you never know if that's the last conversation somebody has before they make a life altering decision. And I think to be able to have people open up to you and have that conversation, you have no idea how impactful you could be.

Desiree Brown: 18:46

Yeah, and could be the life altering thing that needed to happen.

Vernon Brown: 18:52

But what if you were the last person to have a conversation with someone? How would they leave that conversation? Would I like, yeah, I don't deserve, I shouldn't be here anymore? Or would they feel like there's an abundance of hope just from that conversation with you where you had nothing to do with it or didn't have any knowledge of what they were deciding at the time? And I don't want to put that pressure on a lot of people. However, it's a very real thing. That's happening all day, every day, and we have no idea how our interactions with people impact them in the long run.

Desiree Brown: 19:22

What are some other examples?

Vernon Brown: 19:24

You sound like you have one in mind. I don't Really.

Desiree Brown: 19:39

That's why I'm asking you the questions um, let me think I mean you could be a musician. That's more like a talent well, like it's still a gift, but more than like there's a skill that you have. That is a learned.

Vernon Brown: 19:46

You could be an accountant.

Desiree Brown: 19:48

Accountant.

Vernon Brown: 19:48

Yes.

Desiree Brown: 19:49

Like seriously, like for real, like not even joking, but people who think of themselves as not having a talent or a gift sometimes. Your occupation and your presence in that occupation, your ability again to connect with people, to love on them, to give the good gifts, to show appreciation for people who often feel underappreciated, or to even recognize that someone is underappreciated and to reach out to them and let them know that you care and you see them Like all of those things are gifts.

Vernon Brown: 20:22

Yeah, yeah. And I mean, let's take the accountant, for example. They can be an overworked CEO. That's like, oh my goodness, my books are out of balance and I have no idea how I'm going to make ends meet or prove X, Y and Z to my board of directors. And you come in and say, hey, there's your quarter right there. Yeah, like that that could be a gift. Or your ability to be an accountant could be something that you share with someone who just needs an accountant in order to get over to the next step, where they feel like they're a failure as an entrepreneur. And you look at their books and you're like, nah, you're killing it. You just don't know what you're looking at. Like we sometimes, because when we're gifted it comes easy to us. We don't think those things are valuable, Whereas other people would look and be like there's no way in the world that I could do that would look and be like there's no way in the world that I could do that.

Desiree Brown: 21:11

Yeah, so how do you learn to value what, what you have and who you are Like if you're finding your place, self in a place where you're like is nothing special about me, like, how do you get out of a place of that thought process? First of all, because it's not true.

Vernon Brown: 21:34

Well, your first question was how do you value your gift? And I think it's really difficult because you don't see it in most cases. And so, with your second question, where you were saying, if you're a person who doesn't think you have a gift, how can you identify it? I think that goes back to being around people who can see you not see you through your own eyes, but see you with fresh eyes to say, when you do this, like it's life changing, or when you do this, there's no way I could have done what you've done. And, like every gifted person, they say, well, it's not, it's nothing, I just did this, that.

Vernon Brown: 22:03

And the third Well, that's because you're gifted, but every other normal person couldn't even fathom doing something that well. So I think and it has to be a trusted group of people, because you have to respect their opinion too, and a lot of times we surround ourselves with people who we may not necessarily respect their opinion. So when they do give us truth, we're like oh, okay, yeah, but your life is raggedy and I don't respect it, so I don't really care about your opinion, although they could be speaking truth to you.

Desiree Brown: 22:30

Yeah, it's making me think about. It's making me think about Vern. Actually, who Our little son, okay, why?

Vernon Brown: 22:40

I don't know. I just assumed you would be talking about an adult for some reason.

Desiree Brown: 22:43

It's making me think about him, Just we. It's making me think about him, Just we were talking about it earlier today. Okay, so it's environment right.

Vernon Brown: 22:49

Oh yeah. So like where you're sometimes where you're planted is not like the best environment for your growth, that'll preach.

Desiree Brown: 23:00

Just let that simmer.

Vernon Brown: 23:02

Cause remember this so ever sparingly.

Desiree Brown: 23:16

Um, so there, there there's a. So we had burn in a program that we would. We would get a lot of calls about our dear sweet son it was great it was private school.

Vernon Brown: 23:22

It was a private school paid for good money, with a comma every month.

Desiree Brown: 23:26

A lot of money anyway, consecutively yeah that means I never missed a month. I'm sorry, go ahead, tell your story and we would get a lot of calls about him not academic calls, not because he wasn't doing what he's supposed to do academically, but because he was just wiggly and all over the place and a boy, a boy um, and a five-year-old boy at that.

Desiree Brown: 23:48

And so it was. It was a situation where, like we were getting called so often I'm we're thinking something's wrong, like we think he is tearing it up in there, he's like just being a just bad and all of that stuff. And eventually we um sought out other places for him to go to school, and when we did and we made the decision to switch him, it was almost like night and day and we didn't find out until later that it was his. His confidence and his self-esteem was being impacted because he was constantly getting in trouble and he didn't understand why he was getting in trouble.

Desiree Brown: 24:27

To come to find out he was acting like a normal child, like so many other children, but in that particular environment he was just not planted in the right place. So once he got replanted in another place that could cultivate him and, like, like, add some structure to him and some guidance for him, he began to, first of all, do much better behaviorally, but he also began to thrive academically. No, that's not really true, he was thriving academically before, but it began to show more in his um, his next place where he was planted, so much so that, like earlier this week, you know he, he got recognized as student of the month at his school and it's like so we went from the kid who gets called on, like all the time my phone is ringing and his teacher's calling me and telling me you know he's doing this, he's doing that, he's doing this to being recognized as a student of the month, which has academic but also behavioral implications, like yeah.

Desiree Brown: 25:34

Wow.

Vernon Brown: 25:34

Yeah.

Desiree Brown: 25:35

So again, I guess the point of that is sometimes our gifts in a it doesn't mean we don't shine in those places, but sometimes our gifts, when they're not in the right environment, can be overlooked or looked at as something that is not.

Vernon Brown: 25:50

Like taking the flashlight of your gift and bringing it into um. What do you call those things where you look at the stars, those big domes?

Desiree Brown: 25:59

Oh planetarium.

Vernon Brown: 26:00

Yeah, like you took your, your gifts and you parked yourself in a planetarium and everyone says you're horrible because it's supposed to be dark in here and you're out here with this big bright sunlight. But if I take you to a place that isn't intended to be dark and you let your light shine, you thrive. And so we always have to take a look at ourself to make sure that we're doing what we're supposed to do, but I think for a lot of people, it may not be you, it may be the environment or maybe those who are around you that are misidentifying what you're great at as something that's not valuable when it truly is. We, um, we.

Vernon Brown: 26:43

We did a uh, an example in Sunday school where we sent the kids, like the kids planted tomato plants in different pots and it was about sowing a lot of seeds or sowing a little bit of seeds, and so we, we planted this thing and it, like it did okay, but it never like got big enough to build, like to grow any real tomatoes or anything. So we got a bigger pot and put that thing in there and I think it's like five foot tall. It's crazy, just because there's a larger space for it to thrive. And I wonder how many of us have stuck ourselves, either because we've lost confidence or we've never really pursued those things in which we're gifted. How many of us have stuck ourselves in these small planters and are wondering why there's nothing, there's no kind of harvest, there's no kind of fruit coming off of it. And it's not because our gift isn't good, not because our plant is invaluable, but just because we're planted in the wrong place.

Desiree Brown: 27:32

Yeah, yeah, I mean a lot of people can think of that. They can maybe think of it on their workplace, maybe in like a family context or in a friend group or whatever. Like it happens all the time.

Desiree Brown: 27:43

It's not an unusual circumstance. It's just that as we live, we learn, and as we learn, you been in a situation personally where your gifts were misunderstood, or just how things should be done isn't necessarily welcome, because it requires more of other people who are around you and so that's good. In a place like that, it's like no, it should be like no. That's an example. We should be on time, like we should be on time.

Vernon Brown: 28:09

Well, that requires others should be like no, that's the example, we should be on time. Like we should be on time. Well, that requires others to be on time, that requires others to manage their time, and it's so much easier to say well, you know how he is, you got to do this. And the third, and mutter all these things under your breath where it's like no, you just be on time and prioritize it because it matters. And so I think a lot of times when our not even gifts, maybe just disciplines or just the things that are important to us, shine lights on other people's failures or shortcomings, it can turn into you being the problem versus the problem existing and your presence just shining a light on those things that part.

Desiree Brown: 29:20

Well, okay, let's dig into that a little bit more, because I feel like I've ran into that a time or two in my life where it wasn't and I don't even know if it was any thing in particular that I was. Actually, I really wonder, like what was the thing that like irked the people, but the people were irked. The people were like the people were. They were irked, yeah, they were like with with me and I could. I was just like I don't even understand what this is. So, um, I guess what I want to do is I just want to share you've shared it, but I also want to reiterate that that also that happens.

Desiree Brown: 30:00

That happens where sometimes we're made to feel less than, or that we're better than someone or whatever, because our light shining, our light is doing what it does and it's uncovering some dirt, yeah, and some darkness, and people that like to be in the dark or amongst the dirt don't want that to be like highlighted. They don't want that to be shown, because who would? I mean? I'm not trying to have my dirt shown, so I get it like, okay, get away from me, light, but but, uh, whatever responsible person does with that, and I think each of us individually have to take the responsibility to say um, that light just got shown on me and my dirt. I need to clean this thing up yeah like let me clean up.

Desiree Brown: 30:48

And instead of being defensive of the dirt and being like get away from me, light, I want to keep my dirt. You know it, it's, it's. I think we, we each have to have a responsibility for that for a number of reasons, because the light, the light helps to, it's kind of. It's that correction thing the Bible talks about. God corrects and he disciplines those he loves, and so sometimes we need to not take offense to when other people are, are shining and revealing some things in us that we don't like.

Desiree Brown: 31:29

It's not for us to be like hide from the light. Let me get find the shadows, let me go back. Ah yeah, I'm melting like, um, like in. Uh, what was it? A vase or whatever? It's not like that, that's not our, that should not be our. Our response. Our response should be like ah, yeah, I really don't like that. But instead of leaving me just like, acting like it's not there or that nothing needs to change, let me go and make some. Make some, even like if it's a little change in the right direction, I think that even that is better than just trying to be like oh well, shoot, I'm good with my dirt, so let me just stay right here.

Vernon Brown: 32:08

Yeah Well, and honestly I think the best, the best response is to say, ok, I'm going to fix it, but we're not always there. So if we're not there, I think that's okay, but we don't get mad at the sun because it's shining its light. We say I got dirty places, I'm working on it, maybe not right now, but we can't then put the blame back on them, Like take ownership of it. I'm late, I'm trying to work on it. I'm failing at it. That's it like, and that's cool. I can deal with that like you're taking ownership.

Vernon Brown: 32:44

You recognize that you late, um, you recognize that you should be on time, but you, for some reason, can't. Cool. At least you're working on, at least you're giving me some lip service, but don't get upset here.

Vernon Brown: 32:55

He come on time all the time cracking a whip and acting like no, it's, like I'm just living my life yeah and a lot of times, I think what we don't realize, or what people don't realize, is for those lights that shine on the dark places of your life eight times out of ten there there's no malicious intent. They just live in their life shining and it just so happened to shine over in your dark places and illuminate the areas in which you fall short. Yeah, but what we have to recognize is just as strong as the light that shows. My dirt is. There may be some light that you have, naturally.

Vernon Brown: 33:34

That shines dirt in my life and we all got dirty places, we all got shadows, yeah, and so we have to not make things so personal all the time. It's not attacking me, we just live in our life and they're going to be some people with malicious intent and then we could just pick them up and throw them off the side of a bridge like cool with love in jesus name, but really okay for the majority of people.

Desiree Brown: 33:57

Come on, man, you know who he made but for the majority of people you can bring Jesus into that come on man, he know who he made but, like in most cases, people just live in their lives.

Vernon Brown: 34:04

Yeah, and my shortcoming just happens to be over here, where your shortcoming is in a different spot yeah but eventually we don't run dead smack into mine, just like I ran dead smack into yours. But I'm living light.

Desiree Brown: 34:16

I don't got time to worry about you what if we were like seeking out lights as opposed to running from them? Because I think that there's something about if you are the brightest in your world, yeah, first of all, you think everything revolves around you. So there's that part which can be dangerous, but also there's no opportunity to be further illuminated further if you hang out with nine broke people, you'll be the 10th that's what they say, yeah or you.

Vernon Brown: 34:52

You are the sum or you are the average of the intelligent, of intelligent to the people you spend most time with right, and that's what I'm getting at.

Desiree Brown: 34:59

It's just like to grow, to become better, to become the best version of yourself you can. It is not wise to be you consider to be the best in your in, in your world. You need to surround yourself with people who you admire, who are better than you in some way, so that you can grow.

Vernon Brown: 35:28

Yes, yes.

Vernon Brown: 35:29

But I think who you have to be in order to be welcomed into that environment is different than who many of us are, and what I mean by that is we say I want a mentor, I want someone to show me the way, but who we are at the moment is not a person that a mentor wants to spend time around, because we're that same person that when you point out my dirt, I get defensive.

Vernon Brown: 35:51

Or we haven't spent enough time cultivating any gifting within us to where we would have anything to offer. So we may not be perfect in one thing, but be perfect, be your best self in something Like. There are some people who got invited into amazing rooms just because they smile, just because every time some important person sees them, they welcome them in with a smile and a handshake. That's all they did. But now I want them in the room every time I close the deal, because every time I close the deal it works well, yeah, and it's nothing special. But they've been invited in because what they had they did to the best of their ability. And I wonder, if we looked at ourself critically, how many things within our control do we do with the level of excellence that someone would want to invite us in?

Desiree Brown: 36:37

it. Take notice the what does it say your gifts will make room for you. These are scriptures, but I don't know where they are.

Desiree Brown: 36:43

They're in the bible somewhere sounds like a proverb to me I don't know actually that one might not be, but proverbs usually has like if you, then you yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly it's yeah, but but that is a biblical concept and I mean we see it play out and we're like dog. They were just like people who make it onto these national news shows because they were like they showed an act of kindness or they did like something, just like pretty, actually, pretty normal, pretty basic if you will. But it wasn't basic in the way that they did it. Like, oh, I was reading a story about this 80 something year old guy, like 88 or something, and he hand makes cards and he hand delivers them to his neighbors for his winter party, his annual winter party.

Desiree Brown: 37:28

And this one lady, like like she, got on tiktok and was like, hey, so the cutest thing just happened. My neighbor across the street, he's like in his 80s and he said, look, it was handwritten like hand drawn, and this man made national, he was like on the today show because he took time to handcraft something and invite, like be neighborly and invite people, even strangers, because she was new to the neighborhood or whatever. And it was just like that man just shining, he just his light, just shining and I'm gonna butcher this story.

Vernon Brown: 37:57

We had a, a couple that we were friends with. We are friends with I shouldn't say past tense, but he had a business partner, I think yeah and I don't know if they butted heads ever, but they worked together and for a long time. And then, when he died, it may give to him a house unbeknownst to him. Unbeknownst to him, gift to him a house didn't know.

Desiree Brown: 38:16

He didn't have any, any heirs, no children or anything, just had a bunch of wealth that had accumulated over time.

Vernon Brown: 38:21

And, yeah, in his will, in his final like wishes, he gifted him a home so based upon paid for home based upon the experiences and the influence that you have on the people you work with today, because we see them every day. What would they gift you?

Desiree Brown: 38:40

Yeah.

Vernon Brown: 38:42

And I think for a lot of us probably a paddle as far as the people who we treat, who are how we treat the people who are immediately in our circumference, like do we treat them as we want to be treated, the golden rule, or are they? Are they the? Do they receive the rest or do they receive the residue from our other, otherwise sad life?

Desiree Brown: 39:16

It's a good question. It's definitely food for thought and yeah, and something that should promote some action. Yeah, absolutely yeah. But okay, so we've talked about. We've talked about what it. We talked about letting your light shine. We talked about like that there are lights of all different types, different flavors and varieties and all that kind of stuff.

Desiree Brown: 39:38

Um, some people might say, like asking robin's is 31 flavors, but I would, I would even venture to say it's like way more than that, because we can be very good at insert yeah, whatever here and so that we talked about when um, sometimes what happens when we let our light shine in places that may not yeah, may not want the light, yeah, um, but also our responsibility when light is shined in our life where we maybe we were not quite ready. Wait a minute now you over here just casting light on my dirt over here, but what? What our reaction should be versus what sometimes it happens to be yeah, you had some more.

Vernon Brown: 40:22

I was trying. I was like, if you're wrapping this up, you're doing a great job this week, last week I don't know, but this week you're doing a good job.

Desiree Brown: 40:28

But I wonder well, are there any, any other thoughts, any final thoughts that you have around this?

Vernon Brown: 40:33

No, I just think that, and in this week or whenever you find yourself watching this, just challenge yourself to let your light shine, whatever that means to you, and if you can't think of what that means, just smiling, just being a joyful person, no matter what's happening, like prioritizing those who are around you for a week over how you're feeling, and I'm sure by the time you're done doing that, you'll feel so much better.

Desiree Brown: 41:02

And don't discount the places where you are. So you may be. You could be the president and CEO of a company Fortune 500, let's say that you could be that person which is obviously very influential. Or you could be the doorman at said company or door woman at the said company.

Desiree Brown: 41:21

Whatever your role is or whatever position you find yourself in like, don't discount the position you're in now, because if you do that position, if you do that role with excellence and you do it with integrity and greatness, who knows where that takes you? And maybe you're the door person for the rest of your life, but how many people would you have influence? Because you get to have an ear with the CEO, you get to have an ear with every person who comes through those doors and you get to be the person to encourage them to brighten their day, to share a song, to sing I don't know just to do something great in their lives. And they too will be remembered for their greatness, not because they opened doors, but because of how they encouraged and made people feel coming through those doors.

Vernon Brown: 42:12

There it is. I think that's a good one.

Desiree Brown: 42:15

So anyway, thank you for joining us for this conversation at the. Well, I want to hear about your light. What is your light? What? How are you shining? Are you shining why you ain't shining? What's going on? I want to know about that. So please put in the comments. We'd love to hear from you. Don't forget to like, subscribe, share. What else we'll see you next time for conversations