I just wrapped up two podcast episodes called Resolved. The word resolve is one of my favorites. The Apostle Paul said, “I resolved to speak of nothing but Christ and Him crucified.” 

I love that. 

Have you ever rebranded anything? A business? A non-profit? YOU?

I spent the last six months rebranding. A few helpful resources were my guide. Laura Brand’s book, From Individual to Empire, was the driving force behind finding my brand. Bull is an expert at pulling out the authentic. So you’re not really creating a brand so much as you are stripping away everything until you uncover what was there all along.

But I struggled with my new logo. I must have gone through at least ten versions until I landed on something that made my heart pound. 

Check it out: 

Do you love it?!! If you don’t love it, don’t tell me. It took too long to get here and my hubby and daughters have given me ultimatums if I change it again. 😝

Here’s why it took so long to find my logo: at the risk of sounding overly spiritual, the truth is I hadn’t received inspiration from God yet. Until just last week. For the life of me I don’t recall what brought my inner child to mind but I remembered my favorite cartoon as a kid. It was Jem and the Holograms. 

#TrueStory

I wanted to be a rockstar long before I wanted to be an interior designer or a writer and speaker. My parents fanned the flame of my musical abilities and Jem brought out my inner rocker. I remember my dad’s first electric guitar. Jet black. Shiny. Red pinstripe.  

I actually lived my rocker dream but it wasn’t until I was in my early-thirties. And it was in a church. I was part of our music team and one of our worship leaders saw my inner rockstar. He gave me a Benjamin Gate song and asked me to sing it at a youth service. Our youth group ran at about 600 students.  

I had a chunk of hot pink in my hair, just underneath, not too obvious but still fun. They called it peek-a-boo highlights.

And we had the most ridiculous (as in amazing) base player. His name was Joe T. During the set, Joe T. went missing. Turned out he had climbed a stack of speakers. I didn’t see him until he jumped off and flipped mid-air. Totally nailed the landing. I will never understand how he did that without wrapping himself up in the cable to his amp.

Meanwhile, I shredded the microphone. 

What made the moment so epic for me was that, even though I grew up on stage, competed with traveling jazz ensembles and choirs, played the piano and could read music, took private voice lessons…all the things, my confidence a few months prior to my rockstar moment was completely destroyed. 

There were several contributing factors that would hurt others if I spilled the tea but suffice it to say, when your nerves are off the charts it can be a big challenge to control your pitch. I found myself in a season where I couldn't hit the high notes even though I was a soprano. So I stuck to alto. 

I was a mess. Internally.  And it showed externally. 

So I put myself in voice lessons again. I got my inner rocker back; which is to say my breath support so I could do the scream-o stuff.

I made my comeback. And for whatever reason, I literally dropped the mic. I don’t recall ever doing a rock song again. Somehow that part of my life was just done. But at least I went out like a gangster. 

A few weeks later it was our 10th wedding anniversary. Rimmel surprised me and said, “Get ready. We have an appointment to get tattoos.” I had about 45 minutes to decide how I would permanently brand myself.

So I got a hot pink star outlined in black. I wanted to remember forever what comebacks feel like. I wanted to never forget that failure is miserable, but failing forward by getting back up is worth the reward. 

People are often pretty shocked to hear I have a tattoo. And maybe even more shocked to hear I had a budding rockstar career. They are even further shocked when they hear I can even rap! Yep. 

I may have been raising babies in my thirties but I was keeping it real. 

The real me. 

There is a point to this story and it’s this: I thought about Jem, I thought about the star on top of Jem’s name in the cartoon’s logo, I thought about my star tattoo, I thought about my rockstar comeback, and then I thought about Abraham. 

God took Abraham outside his tent and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Genesis 15:5

Abraham is often called the Father of Faith but he could just as easily be called the Father of Failing Forward. God knew Abraham was going to get off track time and time again, so He gave Abraham an exercise to keep his faith alive.

Count the stars.

Hence, the new logo. 🤩

If you’re way off track today, if you’ve lost your momentum and your confidence because you fell on your face … look up and count the stars, Abraham.

I’ve lived in Arizona for over 20 years now but I grew up in Seattle. Arizona is great for sunsets; not so much for a real starry night experience. But if you’ve seen a clear (and rare!) Seattle night, you’ve seen stars. 

Each star represents just one part of the whole God promised you. Count them. Because in doing so, you are using your faith to meditate on the promise that is coming. You are using your keys to the Kingdom to unleash your comeback. You are agreeing with God that it’s not over. You are rebranding. Rediscovering.

You are remembering you’ve been redeemed–taken back to the place of beginning. 

You are remembering who you really are and Whose you really are. 

So count the stars, Abraham.