It Started with Sheep

Sheep. Sheep are the reason for Concepts & Clarity. Sheep are the reason the logo for my company is a sheep. Here is the story.

After loss after loss, I ended up on the verge of homelessness. I prayed daily. I read my devotional. But, the truth was I was still scared. I applied for jobs. I reached out to recruiters and recruiters reached out to me, but I couldn’t even get an interview. Did I mention I was scared?

I was renting a room for $215 a week. That was nothing if I was making what I used to make. However, I wasn’t making that. I wasn’t making anything. I stressed, all day, every day. As soon as I managed to pay the rent, I started worrying about the next payment.

Thank goodness for my friends. They kept me in my room for six weeks. While I was there I was reading my devotional. This verse stood out to me.

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” John 10:27

The question came to me (from God?) “What do you know about sheep?” I realized I didn’t know much. I did what every 21st Century girl does. I googled. As a result, I found out that sheep were mentioned in the Bible over 500 times.

Like I tend to do, I went down the rabbit hole. I learned a lot about sheep. And a thought (God?) came to me. “Why don’t you create a course and let people know why sheep mattered.” I said “Okay, I can do that.”

Taking Up the Mantle

I felt these were more than thoughts. I thought this was God speaking to me, directing my path. So, I started working. And as I worked, I started getting more ‘communication’. I had ideas about other courses: Jesus and Money and Beyond Proverbs 31 Women. Then the name Concepts & Clarity came to me – helping 21st Century Christians make sense of ancient biblical text.

A business? Was God telling me to start a business? I had tried before and failed. I had great ideas but was a poor saleswoman. How was I supposed to start a business? What was I supposed to do differently? It was bad enough that I couldn’t find a job but now I was supposed to fail, again, at business?

I was working every day on my courses. By this time, I was living in a Christian Women’s Shelter. The ladies rarely saw me without my laptop. As an instructional designer, I had created courses for a living. I knew how to create courses and it is something I enjoy doing. It’s what happens once the course is created that I had issues with.

Following His Lead

Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen. - 1 Peter 4:10-11

Concepts & Clarity uses all of my skills and abilities. It is exactly what I enjoy doing: creating courses, doing a podcast, speaking – all of it is in my wheelhouse. And as the verses above state, I am doing it all in service to the Lord.

I learned about sheep. I learned fascinating things about sheep. I put them all in my course. What gave sheep value, what they have in common with humans, the role of the shepherd. All of it is designed to give 21st Century Christians a more informed idea of why they are so prominent in the Bible.

In addition to being able to share this information, I found something I love to do, Concepts & Clarity.