THE JOURNEY - PART 2

Continuing the journey...

Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass. Psalm 37:5

THE VISION

It was during this time, as was my wife and I were doing our daily devotional (#dailydevotional) times that the Lord gave us both the name of Serpents & Doves®, at separate reading times. It happened like this. I had been asking the Lord what exactly He wanted me to do. All I knew is that it was ministry (#ministry) using creativity (#creativity), design (#design) and apparel (#apparel). How this was going to happen was beyond me. Knowing this, I started thinking of names to use for a ministry brand. I have to say it was pretty frustrating because I couldn’t think of anything with real meaning. So, in comes my daily devotional through the gospel of Matthew. Little did I know that my wife was also going through the same book let alone the same chapter that day, which would be chapter 10.

As the Lord is getting ready to send off the 12 disciples to witness to the jewish people, He tell them that He is sending them out as sheep in the midst of wolves. The Lord knew that the message of Jesus Christ (#JesusChrist) would be rejected by a lot of the jews. Not only would they reject the message, but would also be hostile to it, just as the world is nowadays. Jesus also admonished His disciples with these words found in Matthew 10:16 “therefore be wise as serpents and harmless (or gentle) as doves.”

I remember that as soon as I read this, I stood up with my bible in hand to go talk to my wife about the name Serpents & Doves®. I wanted to know what she thought. My wife is a very wise woman in Christ and I know that the Lord speaks in unity. I began sharing with her my thoughts about Matthew chapter 10 and before I could even say it, she told me that the Lord had given her the same name moments before. I knew then that this would be the name and key verse for what is now Serpents & Doves® MT1016™.

Mine Vs. His

Unfortunately, shameful to say, now that the Lord had shown me the name He wanted for His ministry brand, I pushed him aside and essentially told the Lord “Thanks, I got it from here!”. I quickly started sketching and designing for a logo that would fit the name. I finally landed on a logo I thought would be ‘the next big/best thing’…wrong again! I created the t-shirts, headwear, hoodie designs with it, branding guideline, started laying out a website, and on and on. However, no matter how much I designed, there was no movement to the brand, it was stagnant. At the same time, on the work front, the only thing I would get was a little bit of design work here and there. This ebb and flow went on for a few years.

Back To The “Drawing” Board

It wasn’t until I realized that Serpents & Doves® wasn’t mine or about me, but, that it belonged to Him and it was meant to bring Him glory, that things started to feel right and have momentum.

When I finally surrendered it all to Him, I realized that nothing that I had done pointed people to Him, it only pointed to me, and that was never going to work. So, I knew that I would have to re-design Serpents & Doves® to suit His vision, design a logo that would point others to Him, bring Him glory and serve His purpose. I remember thinking to myself what was I going to layout, design, sketch…what mark would point to Him? After all, the mark or logo (#logo) for a brand (#brand) is its DNA, its foundation…everything stems from that mark.

The Lord is always faithful! Little did I know that I had already come up with His logo a few years back when I had been doodling in Illustrator for a concept that I had been toying around with. After some searching on the hard drive, I found it. I knew then that this was it! After some minor tweaks and adding the type to it, the official logo mark for Serpents & Doves was born, I called it ‘The Almighty’. Obviously, it is named after the One and Only Almighty King of kings and Lord of lords, Jesus Christ!

Just Getting Started

I once again felt a renewed sense of purpose for the ministry brand of Serpens & Doves®. I started re-designing everything all over again. Yet, it didn’t bother me one bit. On the contrary, there didn’t seem to be enough hours in the day to do finish everything I had in my mind. I’ll say this much, you know you truly love what you’re doing when you’re doing it, yet you’re not getting paid one penny for it.

I would sit down to design at the computer, and I remember asking the Lord to guide me in the design process, that it would be Him guiding my hands every step of the way (and I still do the same thing to this day). I don’t ever want to run up against the old prideful way of doing things my way instead of His. I know that method never worked out in the past and won’t work out in the future either. I’ve learned to tread very carefully in this area, always remembering that this not about ‘me’…ever, but, about Jesus Christ, and the message of salvation (#salvation) that He offers freely to anyone willing to accept that free gift!

to be continued…