Something Bigger...
It was the morning of August 20, 2014. I sat at my laptop with my finger on the "submit" button. I'd worked my butt off and finished my 8 weeks of PiYo. Now, it was time to submit my results in hopes I'd be cast in the infomercial. I had done everything in my power. But now, the power was out of my hands. Before hitting submit, I sat there, and I prayed. I prayed that if God wanted me to be a part of the infomercial cast, that He was going to need to open all of the doors. And if you've followed me over the past year, you know that He did. Out of thousands, a small group of us were chosen. You know the story and if you don't, you can read about it HERE. Flying out to LA to film an infomercial (with Chalene Johnson, no less) was a DREAM COME TRUE. The fact that I had gained the most beautiful friendships with the other ladies who were out there was the icing on the cake.
In April of 2015, we were contacted because they'd decided to go a different way with the infomercial & wanted to fly some of us back out to reshoot some footage. When I initially went out in November, I was bouncing off the walls with excitement because I was getting to go to LA to film an infomercial. This time, I was even more excited, but not because of the infomercial, but but because I was going to get to reunite with my PiYo sisters & spend some more time with them. Filming additional footage was now the icing on the cake. The first day in LA (Sunday) was arrival day. We all were flying in at different times, but congregated in my room to hang out & catch up. Dinner that night was one of the best times. We belly laughed til we cried. We prayed. We laughed and cried some more. We all had this overwhelming feeling of "we are here for SOMETHING BIGGER." A bigger purpose. His purpose. A lot of us were in seasons of our lives where yes, we were physically in LA, but mentally, our minds were back home on our families for one reason or another. A lot of us were stressed about situations. So, we continued to pray. At our hotel. At restaurants. On set. Wherever. Whenever. Monday was a rehearsal day where we went through wardrobe, learned where we were going to be on set and got mentally prepped for shoot day. We spent a beautiful evening in Santa Monica. Walking on the beach & pier, eating a delicious dinner, bonding some more & just being present and appreciating the siuation we were in. We had an early call time Tuesday morning because we were going to be shooting all day. We all met in LynNette's room that morning, turned on some music, sat on the bed and prayed (and cried) with each other. That moment will stay forever in my heart because we could feel His presence. Calming us. Preparing us. QUALIFYING us.
It was a long day of shooting, but we did have a chance to tell Chalene how we had spent our morning and it had brought her to tears. We felt that she needed to know that God used her to bring us all together for this purpose. And I know she appreciated it. We've always referred to each other as our PiYo sisters. And it was so funny to hear Maria Menounos use that term when she saw the bond that we all have with each other. She had no idea that we use that term...but she saw the sisterhood. Saying goodbye was painful as always. Each of these women have a piece of my heart... A few weeks later, I fould out that I was selected to be a part of Candace Cameron Bures' launch team (hello - another dream come true) for her new book, Dancing Through Life. I grew up watching Full House and the 9 year old little girl inside of me was so happy to be working with "DJ Tanner" to get the word out about her book. I received part of the book early and was able to start reading it. In the first chapter, there was a paragraph that stopped me dead in my tracks.
"Even though I love to dance and dreamed of being on the show for nearly a decade, for me, Dancing with the Stars became so much more than a dancing competition. It wasn’tabout being on an Emmy-nominated hit reality competition show or seeing a dream come true while millions watched. I believe that my time on DWTS was the opportunity of a lifetime because it allowed me to showcase my faith in Jesus Christ. On a bigger stage than I had ever graced before, I had the chance to be a witness in front of a watching world. Along the journey I learned in many ways what it was like to stand with conviction while being stretched way beyond my comfort zone."
YES!!!! I immediately emailed a few of my PiYo sisters with that paragraph. I told them to take out DWTS and replace PiYo and you have exactly how we'd been describing our experience back in LA. When we were out in LA initially, a lot of us had a conversation about being "good enough." Especially in this day and age of social media, we are inundated with images of so-called "perfection." It's enough to drive you crazy and make you feel like less than you are. To make you feel not good enough. To make you feel unqualified. But, they told us, we were chosen for a reason. We had all struggled in some way, shape or form. We'd all felt not good enough. We all came from different backgrounds, but had a few common threads that instantly bonded us. We all realized that we had a chance to turn our TESTS into TESTIMONIES. Our trials into triumphs. Because God doesn't call the qualified, he QUALIFIES the CALLED. *This post was inspired by Candace Cameron Bure’s new book, Dancing Through Life: Steps of Courage and Conviction. Order your copy of #DancingThroughLife today!