#StartExp Day 3

I'm usually not one to get star struck... we are all just people... some have just gotten a break and are more well known. I am a follower of Jon Acuff - I've read.... well, skimmed a couple of his books, I read his blogs, follow him on Twitter. In one of his blogs last week he issued a challenge that you could sign up for. It was only available 24 hours and I signed up, not really knowing what I signed up for.... until I got the first assignment.

First step - identify a risk... my risk - admitting publicly I am going to write a book...

Then identify some actions steps. This was a little easier. I had spent the whole weekend working on my blogs, getting them copied and pasted and printed off so I could get a better handle on all the material. Another action: write/blog every day for the 24 day challenge.... again... pretty easy. Then... then... God nudged me... OK - He PUSHED me that one action would be to work on something to ACTUALLY SUBMIT for publication (an article) at the end of the 24 day challenge.

I tweeted Jon yesterday  and he actually tweeted my one of my blog posts and watching the views on that post rise was surreal. It went up about 150 in the first 15 minutes. As of this writing it is at 489. Before Jon's tweet it was at around 27. Some other posts have gotten a lot more views as well. So, while I am not "star struck" by Jon - I am thankful for his reach through social media and that he actually took the time to tweet me - I'm sure he gets thousands of tweets a day... the guy has over 177,000 followers... He is actually now following me on Twitter.... how crazy is that? (and extra bonus points for my younger big brother being jealous on that one!) ;-)

One of Jon's "mottos" which is on the cover of his book "Start" is "Punch fear in the face". I confess, I kind of begged the guy for to retweet me... I bombarded him a bit... and that was scary. I certainly didn't want to come across as some crazy lady... but it worked. The power of social media is amazing. Today's assignment was on fear... identifying your fears... I had plenty... failure being among them. The thing I realized today is that I will guarantee failure if I don't try. Not trying, not doing anything is actually failure. If I do something and it doesn't work then it isn't really a failure, it's more like I realize, "Huh... that didn't work, I'll try something else." or "Maybe I need to change my approach a little to make this work." By DOING something I won't fail... I will learn, I will grow, I will be a better me.

I got the idea for a new blog site. It's called "Not Too Broken for God" and can be found HERE along with my first post on that site.This blog started out as a marathon training blog and it morphed into something of my journey and process through healing and hurts. I realized that God doesn't want me to waste my pain - he wants me to share the hope I have found in Him. He laid it on my heart that a new blog would be the best place to do that. So I've been working on kind of "branding myself... here's the picture I came up with for my site:

I made this my background on my Twitter page and changed my Twitter handle to "Not2Broken4God" - it is my hope and prayer that those that might be out there feeling like they are too broken for God to heal will find hope in what I share through my journey.

For now... all I can say is WOW! Jon Acuff has turned my world kind of upside down. God has been leading me in some of this for a while, I just didn't know how it would pan out. Financially I can't afford seminars and writing workshops - but this free thing he's doing online is awesome and creates a community of others who have similar goals. To say I'm overwhelmed is an understatement.... I'm exhausted but it is a good exhausted knowing I am doing exactly what God wants me to be doing.

Trusting in God Who Brought me to This Place,

Sherri

(the link to my new blog was updated on 8/31/13 when I re-started my new blog with my own domain... CRAZY)