“Empowering Voices: The Journey of Speaker and Author Amilynne Carroll”

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Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates, national average 12-month savings of $178 by new customers surveyed who saved with Progressive between October 2022 and September 2023. Potential savings will vary. Welcome to the CJ Moneyway Show podcast, the podcast show where we unlock potential one dream at a time. Today we have another guest whose journey is truly worth hearing. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the Moneyway experience.

What's up, my good people? Welcome to the CJ Moneyway Show. Moneyway Johnson Show. Today I have an extinguished guest. Welcome to the show, speaker and author Amy Lynn Carroll. How you doing today, Amy Lynn?

Hey, I'm doing great. Really pleased to be here with you and your audience today. Thanks for the invite.

I appreciate you coming on. Appreciate you taking the time out your day to come on the show and share with your expertise and some of your journey experiences that you had. Uh, so, Amy Lynn, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and about your background?

Oh, well, I'm just like your listeners, and I'm just like you. I get up each day and I'm trying to figure life out. And each, each, uh, opportunity, each challenge as it presents itself, has really allowed me to figure out not what everybody else wants me to be, but what's my calling. And my calling is I'm a spiritual and transformation coach. I work with both clients outside in the big bad world, but I also work with clients who are incarcerated, giving people the tools, the, the skill set to not only figure out their own identity, but what is their calling in life and what is their purpose and how do they show up more authentically and find that peace and harmony that so many of us are looking for on a day-to-day basis. So Chief Travel Partner is my title. Don't like the idea of being a coach because I'm just there pulling up right alongside for the journey. And as we do that today, pulling up alongside, I'm looking forward to our conversation.

Oh, that, that, that's, that's what's up. So at our church, we have a prison ministry where we have a couple people that go out to the prisons and, and do the things that I believe what you're saying that you're doing and and talk to the young men and women in these prisons. It's a wonderful thing when you have people with that type of heart that actually wants to go out, even those who a lot may deem not worthy of forgiveness or a second chance, but you have people like yourself and others who are willing to sacrifice themselves to go out and reach out into the masses for for those who, you know, because at the end of the day, a lot of us was lost at one point. And who are we to judge and say that somebody can't be found, you know?

So you even talk about the idea that churches have ministries that reach out to those that are incarcerated. And one of the things that was really important to me and what really touched my heart and why I started the program within the prison ministry or within the incarcerated world is that I kind of have a little bit of a niche. As much as I want to inspire and uplift and support those that are currently incarcerated, my calling really came from a place of, for the most part, those who are incarcerated that I get to work with have been incarcerated for 20 years or plus.

Mm.

And they're looking, hopefully, optimistically, with the opportunity of parole in the next 18 to 24 months.

Mm-hmm.

And what I was realizing is, is that there's a big disconnect because you get that notification that you're going to receive your parole, and the next step is a huge, long laundry list of demands.

Mm-hmm.

Not requests, not suggestions, but demands.

Mm-hmm.

And oftentimes there's very little resources to go along with that list of demands. And so what we do is we work with these individuals on the personal development stuff, identity, you know, who do you want to be? You know, look, you've served your time, you have done the job that you were asked to do, and now you're looking to transition into a new phase into your life. And who are you going to be in that outside world? And because there's been such a length of incarceration for each of my clients is like, what's your support system going to look like on the outside? Once you're released and you're moving into that next phase of your life? Is your family going to be present? For so many, the answer is no. Job prospects, you have a certain amount of time that you have to go and get a job. And well, what does that look like? And you know, look, I'm gonna have to check that box that I'm a convicted felon, and what does that do to my job prospects? And so we go back and we do, we do that, that personal development work on identity and being authentic and taking our life experiences. For me, one of the biggest messages for myself, and I've never been incarcerated, was that the circumstances in my life may have formed my experiences, but they are not my identity.

Mm-hmm.

And when you share that with an individual who has served their term, served their sentence, and are looking at that next phase in their life and reminding them that they are not a convict, they are not a felon. That's part of what their experience has been, but it is not their identity. And if that's not their identity, then who are they? So we do that personal development work, but we also put together a CV, a curriculum vitae. We don't do resumes because it's all in how we talk to ourselves.

Yeah.

And if I speak to myself with a sense of worth and value and appreciation and honor, then when I'm sitting in front of that, that, uh, HR person or that manager for that interview, that first interview, especially out of prison, then I'm gonna walk in with a different mindset. I've got something of value to offer, and I've got something of worth to bring to your company? You want me as an employee regardless of my background and my living circumstances. What are the skills and qualities I can bring to your company? And those are the things we focus on because that, the character of a person, is what an employer is looking for in that scenario. Not a laundry list of what our biggest sins were, 'Cause look, you and I, if we've never been incarcerated, we've never had to talk about our worst day in a job interview. But if we've been incarcerated, that's a very reasonable conversation to come up within a job interview. And how do we talk about that while uplifting ourselves and reminding that person that we're talking to that I have value and I have worth and I have quality and character and skills that I can bring to your company, and you need to give me that opportunity because we will both benefit from it. So that's just one of the small things that we do when we're working with those individuals who are, are looking and hopeful— hopefully striving towards parole in the next 18 to 24 months. That's just a small part of the big plan, the program that we put together for them. It's not cookie cutter because everybody's life is different. Yeah, there's so many lessons we can take from that, whether we've been incarcerated or not. Is, you know, setting aside the labels that others around us have put on, whether it be family members or mentors or employers or friends. You know, look, we are not the labels that either are projected onto us or that we have put onto ourselves. That's not our identity. And we get to change that label by our behavior.

Ah, you know, 2 things that you were saying that resonated with me. One, as I was saying, we talked about a couple people at our church that does the prison ministry. One of the ladies that actually does it, she started a foundation, a company where it helps incarcerated people that just get out of jail to get jobs. She used to work in human resources in in the hospital, in one of the hospitals around here. That was something that was on her heart that she wanted to start, just as I'm hearing you say, we want to help you start a fresh start because it's hard for people that have a record and you're being judged by what you've done. But like you said, it's not your identity. That made me think too, on a level where you may have done some things, like you say, your family may label you as this, friends may label you as that, and one thing about how it is. Even when, when, when, when, when the word began, or God began moving you in a different way, say that you're a new creature, but everybody still want to put that label on you, or what you used to do and who you used to be. And so, as you said, as I'm listening to that, like you say, that, that's what I did, that wasn't my identity, right? Right. I like the way that you put that. That's not my identity. Yes, I made some mistakes. Yes, I went through some things. Yes, I went through some trials and tribulations, and a lot of it was on my own doing. But when God called me out of that, that's no longer who I am because now my true identity is being birthed. And that's one thing that I believe Aimee, that a lot of people don't want to see the rebirth.

Well, and I think that— let's take us back just a second though, is I'm in complete agreement with you. People don't want to see the rebirth. But if we take a step back for just a quick moment and we recognize that the only difference between someone who's been incarcerated and someone who hasn't is one person's public record is public. The other person's record is not public. And I'm not saying that, you know, people have gone out and murdered or stolen or whatever and gotten away with it, and that there's some comparable there. But what I'm saying is, is that we treat people differently based on their circumstances.

Yeah.

And for me, my job is to eliminate in my thought, the fact that there could be a difference between you and me, regardless of our circumstances. The Bible tells us, every scriptural text that you'll read out there, whether you're Christian or Hindu, Buddhist, you know, agnostic, every spiritual text out there says that we were created in the image and likeness of our Creator. And so when we talk about a person's identity, what I'm recognizing, what I'm learning through my own experiences is that Look, we're not changing. We're simply becoming who we were created to be all along. We just lost our way.

Mm-hmm.

And the— and there's an important distinction, because to talk about someone needing to make a change versus someone really tapping into their true essence of who they've been all along is— a change is something external that that needs to be thrust upon us, that needs to be seen and demonstrated. If we're going back to our true identity of who we were created, perfect, whole, and complete, every scriptural text out there tells us we were made in the image and likeness of our Creator, perfect, whole, and complete. So if we're going back to our, our origin, it's a whole lot easier to start from perfect, whole, and complete than it is to start from nowhere. And that reminder brings us back into that true essence that we have everything we need to be, to be the person we want to be. We just might need a good travel partner to help us uncover that and figure that out.

Yeah, I totally agree with you. You know, like the words say, that some so and some water. And a lot of times you don't know if you the water or the sower. And so as you're doing your part, is that it don't matter if I'm the water or the sower, because it say that neither one of them is nothing because it's God who gets the increase. But as you're doing, I'm just doing my part.

Right, right. Well, and that brings that up, that idea of our purpose, our role in life. You know, that's oftentimes a really huge question for people, and it can be a crisis moment for many of us, this idea of what's my purpose, what's my goal, you know, my role in life. And for those of us with a church background, a spiritual background, that can sometimes feel really heavy. Because if we're working as an ambassador for God or we're working as, you know, a foot soldier for the divine, that can feel really heavy.

Yeah.

One of the things I'm learning is that foot soldier, you know, warrior, prayer warrior— pick whatever word you want. If we go back to the word, if we go back to the Bible, the Bible tells us that we are called to witness.

Mm-hmm.

Witness. And let's think about that word witness for just a moment. Now, from a legal perspective, a witness is someone who's going to come up and they're going to testify. They're going to, under oath, share their perception, their recollection, their experience of one activity or another. If we now marry that physical activity with a metaphysical idea of witnessing, a witness is someone who sees who sees through, who is impacted by an activity or a behavior. Jesus witnessed God's love as he hung on the cross. God— Jesus witnessed the healing power of love at the Pool of Bethesda. And so our job as a witness is— I'm going to marry two things here. I'm going to marry the metaphysical and the practical. So the metaphysical, the spiritual idea says that we're to witness the good. So often the question is, especially in the midst of— I mean, all anybody has to do is turn on the news. There's a lot of not good stuff out there. So how do we find the good within that? And this is where we bring that practical conversation in. And anybody who knows me knows I'm a huge fan of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. Fred Rogers says that his mama, when he was young, would tell him in a moment of challenge, "You look for the helper." And so I've kind of transitioned that a little bit to look for the good, because every circumstance has good in it, because every circumstance is of God and God is good. So if we take a step back and we're looking at a circumstance, for myself, let's just take the physical situation of waking up 2 years ago a quadriplegic. That's a really good opportunity to be angry and bitter about a whole lot of stuff. And don't get me wrong, there are moments of anger and bitterness in my experience.

Yeah.

But we choose how we're going to show up each day. And for me, looking for the helper, looking for the good. How do I look for the good inside being immobile? Prior to my health challenges, my identity was so wrapped up in the things I could do, the places I could go, the things I was accomplishing, the do, do, do, do, do of life. And so I kind of say this tongue-in-cheek, and I get to because it's my story, is God needed a way to slow Amy Lynn down so that I could become the witness to the good in life that God needed Amy Lynn to be. And that's when BABBS comes out. BABBS is short for badass butterfly. And I don't know if your listeners know this, but a butterfly with 70% of its wing damaged or missing can defy gravity and take flight.

Wow.

70% of its wing damaged or missing can still defy the laws of science. And take flight. And I'll take one better example with a butterfly. We start out— butterflies start out as caterpillars. We all know this, right? It's just that we, we do the life sciences thing in grammar school where we talk about the egg and the larva and the chrysalis and then the emergence of the butterfly. Butterfly is the only creature on the face of this planet currently known to science where the DNA is shifted 100% from the caterpillar stage to the butterfly stage. And who creates the caterpillar? Same creator as you and me.

Amen.

So, man, when we've made decisions in our life, whether they were— whether they've now created a public record or whether it's a private record that nobody else sees, when we've made those choices, the butterfly is our absolute example that we can change, we can transform. Because the caterpillar was never meant to only be a caterpillar. A caterpillar is birthed to live the experiences that will then catapult it into a place of becoming a butterfly. And it's when that caterpillar goes into the cocoon, It's not sitting on the beach eating bonbons and drinking a Corona inside that cocoon. Yeah, literally transforming every ounce of its being into something brand spanking new.

Wow.

And that is what you and I get to do on a day-to-day basis, regardless of what the people around us are saying about who we are, what we've done. Or what we've not done that they thought we should. Man, I'm telling you, take that 10 minutes, take that 15 minutes, take those 2 hours, go into that cocoon, be reminded of who and whose you are and what you are and why you are here, and re-emerge from that cocoon reminiscent of standing solid in and confident in that place of being a witness to the good that you are and the good that God is putting in front of each and every one of us every day. It took a lifetime to find the person you want to marry. Finding the perfect engagement ring is a lot easier. At bluenile.com, you can find or design the ring you've always dreamed of with help from Blue Nile's jewelry experts who are on hand 24/7 to answer questions and the ease and convenience of shopping online. For a limited time, get $50 off your purchase of $500 or more with code POD at bluenile.com. That's $50 off with code POD at bluenile.com.

Wow, that's well put. I like the way that you transformed that, you know, and that's like to the human form, like go in your cocoon and be reminded that you can blossom to not what you are, to what you were purposed to be, as the caterpillar was always purposed to be a butterfly. And I like the fact that I didn't know that either, that a butterfly can lose 70% of their wing or have 70% of it damaged and still be able to defy gravity. I think that's, you know, that's science.

Yeah. You know, so often we're like, well, I can't, or I'm not able I wasn't created for that. Are you kidding me? There's not anything we can't do if we put our minds to it.

Yeah.

You know, prior to my stroke, when I became a quadriplegic, I was a paraplegic and I had lost use of my right arm and hand as well as my lower extremities. And so I took the time and I learned, I taught myself how to write with my left hand. And it became second nature, just like writing with my right hand had been for 35 years of my life or 40 years of my life. 40 years of my life or however long it had been. It's the, what is it? What's our impetus? What's our calling card? What's our purpose? And look, when it becomes less about who I am and more about why I'm here, well, why am I here? Why are you here? Why is your listener here? I mean, we've all asked ourselves these questions, especially in the thick of a challenge or a challenging situation. Okay, God, I know you're there, but why have you got me here again? Yeah, what's my purpose in all of this? Well, it's remembering that in those off days, it's really important that we do that cocooning work. And that cocooning work is everything from prayer to contemplation to meditation, to, to learning and listening and asking asking questions and shutting up and listening to the answers so that when we are faced in a moment of crisis or challenge, first and foremost, here's the first thing I'm realizing is, is when we do our work from day to day about our identity and our purpose here, our moments of challenge are fewer and fewer and farther between because there's a confidence with which we show up in our lives on a day-to-day basis. When we recognize that we are not a who, but we are a what— I'm gonna repeat that— when we recognize we are not a who, we are a what, our entire perspective on life changes. Because a who has something they're meant to do. A what says that our calling is divinely ordained. So what is that question? What are we? If we're not a who, then what's the what that we are? And we are but the expression of the divine. Without you, without me, without the guy at AT&T who's not dealing very well with my call, or the guy in front of us in the grocery line that's got 30 items in the 5 checkout line, without each of us being a full expression of who we are, the divine doesn't get to be fully expressed. And each of us, if we are doing our work each day, and that work is finding that quiet time to work through a challenging thought, finding the courage and the strength and the boldness to stand up for ourselves and others in a society where standing up for ourselves or others is seen as arrogant, or it's seen as martyrdom.

Mm-hmm.

But when we're coming from a place of knowing that we are expressing good, that it's not about Amy Lynn getting credit for standing up for herself or for another, but that's my calling. God tells me that my job is to be an advocate for my brothers, for my sisters. God doesn't say be your brother's keeper. He says be your brother. You are not your sister's keeper, you're your sister, because we're one. And so if we're waking up with that mentality, then these labels that everybody else in the world may want to put on us, or that in our past we may have put on others, those labels just disappear into their native nothingness because they have no purpose and no role in our experience any longer. I don't need you to be a brother. I don't need you to be good at this, that, or the other. I don't need you to be a boss or a boss lady. You get to be exactly who you are. And I get to honor that. Don't miss out on CJ Moneyway Johnson's book, Both Eyes Open and Both Eyes Shut, and get ready to preorder his upcoming release, The Issues of Life, coming soon. Moneyway Johnson, aiming to inspire.

Yeah, that's heavy right there. That's a lot. I appreciate you sharing your thoughts and your expertise in that area because that's a lot to grasp right there. So, what inspired you, since you were talking about it, what inspired you to start BAPS?

Well, the inspiration really came from— for many years, academics were important to me. Being first was important. If you weren't first, you were first loser. There is no such thing as second place in my world growing up. You're either first, or you're first loser. And first loser comes with a whole realm of emotional baggage, as I'm sure— you kind of chuckled there. I'm sure your listeners are too. We all know what first loser feels like.

Yeah.

And look, I had ticked off the boxes in my life of what it meant to be successful by society's standards. I graduated top of my class in college. I graduated with a double degree in less than 3 years. You know, I was always, you know, excelling and exceeding the expectations of the people around me. And what I realized is that I'm not happy.

Mm.

And when someone asked me what makes me happy, I couldn't have told you.

Mm-hmm.

Because at that point in my life, what made me happy was trying— doing my best to make sure that I was meeting the expectations of everybody around me, which had nothing to do with who I am or what I am.

Yeah.

So when somebody says, well, you just don't seem happy, you know, my first response was, well, that's not important. What can I do to help you today?

Mm-hmm.

And what that is, is that spiritual bypass, because God doesn't ask us to sacrifice ourselves for the happiness, prosperity, and harmony of someone else. He asks us to live the example of prosperity and happiness and fulfillment. But if we don't take the time to figure out who we are— so for me, it was an external catalyst. I got a dire health diagnosis. They gave me 6 weeks to live.

Wow.

2007. It's now 2024. I'll let y'all do the math. That's not my strong point. Yeah, but it's been— it's been— it's just been a little click longer than 6 weeks.

Yeah, 17 years later, here we are, right?

But what did I do with that information? First and foremost, I recognized it was just information. It wasn't my life. It wasn't a verdict or an edict or something that I had to adhere to, just because— even though an expert in his field and someone who I still love and cherish to this day His best understanding of what my body was experiencing is what he shared with me. But that doesn't have to be my story. It doesn't have to be my experience. And so I dug in and I started asking questions. The sky is blue. Well, from an academic perspective, I understand about photosynthesis and all of the et ceteras that go into why the sky is blue. And what I began to realize is, is that so many of the questions that we answer in day to day are the wrong questions. And that's why we are so displeased and ill at ease with the answers we're getting. And we keep asking the same question over and over again. Yeah. 500 different ways, hoping we're going to get an answer that resonates with us. But if we learn to ask the question differently, or we learn to ask a different question, and that is what was the impetus for me to starting the Sacred Kaleidoscope Community. It was creating a safe place for people to ask questions and not be judged, a safe place for people to come and bring their voice wherever it is in their life right now and not be shushed, for every voice to be heard, for every person to be seen. Because that, in my opinion, at the end of the day, is what each and every one of us are here trying to accomplish. The ego tells us, I want to be seen, I want to be heard, I want to bring value, but I want to be valued. And we think because society teaches us, especially here in our Western society, our Western society teaches us that our identity is all external. It's what we can accomplish. It's the notches on our resume. It's the academics. It's the awards. The accolades, it's all of that performance stuff. But if we go back to Genesis 1:1 in our Bibles or early in other spiritual texts, and we read those words that we were created in the image and likeness of our Creator, our Father, Mother God, we already have everything we need to be happy and fulfilled. Mm-hmm. What we need to do, what we get to do, is we get to start peeling away the layers that society has put on us for all of these decades and generations that say that things should look a certain way, or they need— we need to act a certain way in order to be accepted and to belong and to be a part of. When in reality, it's not about the external things. It's about the recognizing the who and what we are. And look, as a divine child of the beloved Father Mother God, My role and my purpose here is simply to see the good in everyone around me and to remind them of their good. Now, that doesn't mean that people aren't— are always going to show up, you know, with butterflies and puppy dog tails in my life. But for me, it was giving people a place to talk about the hard things so that they could uncover the good that has existed in their experience all along? Who do they want to be on a day-to-day basis? Who are they called to be? And how do we stand strong in those callings when others around us still want to hold us to who we were 10 years ago, or the mistake we made 5 minutes ago, or the expectation of who they think we should be 5 years from now? How do we navigate that space from a place of authenticity, from a place of fulfillment, from a place of prosperity and harmony in the midst of what feels like a very chaotic world? And that is why the Sacred Kaleidoscope Community came into being. And it was to create a place where people could feel seen as they are, heard regardless of what they were saying, and a place to heal the wounds that each and every one of us brings to the table. Because CJ, there's this new kind of movement afoot of bringing people in from the fringes, you know, bringing people in from the margin. I know we've all heard about it. And I gotta tell you, I, during meditation one day, I was— I couldn't figure out why I was so uncomfortable with this idea of bringing people in from the margins. Feels like a very altruistic thing, right?

Mm.

Why was it not resonating for me? Why did it feel so discordant? And I realized that what made me so angry— and I was angry, and I had to identify that feeling, that emotion— I was so blessed angry because, look, we don't need to pull people in from the fringes if we don't push them there to begin with.

Mm-hmm.

People are only on a perceived margin because in our thought, in our action, in our words, we have pushed them there.

Mm.

It's really self-righteous then to have this message of our goal is to bring you in from the margins. Our goal is to bring you in from the fringes and bring you back in. Are you kidding me? Our purpose is to let go of all of the distractions that allowed us to push them to an edge in our thought to begin with, let alone our actions, which does it physically. And so coming together in this space and bringing together the idea of the Sacred Kaleidoscope Community is, again, a kaleidoscope. What is a kaleidoscope? Well, a kaleidoscope is what, what is referred to in the scientific community as a gathering of butterflies. You've got a gaggle of geese, you've got a litter of puppies, you know, we've got a society of humans. Well, for butterflies, a pod of orcas, for butterflies is called a kaleidoscope. And for me, remember, butterfly with up to 70% of its wing damaged or missing defies gravity and takes flight. And so our kaleidoscope welcomes people from all walks of life, no matter how perfect or imperfect your wings may appear. To you. Because to me, to our community, to our tribe, you are perfect as you are. And our job is to remind you of that. And that is why the Sacred Kaleidoscope Community came into being.

Man, that's awesome. That's awesome. Just the part where you say you're beautiful just as you are, regardless of how damaged you may be, regardless of your past or whatever. You're beautiful just as are. So that's how the word and that's how God takes us. He takes us as we are. And a lot of times we were in places that we probably shouldn't have been, but he met us where we were at and brought us out of that situation. So, you know, I'm listening to you and as you're saying, how can I look at somebody else as if God can't bring them out of where they're at too, right?

How self-righteous is that?

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, how egotistical and self-righteous and un-Christ-like.

Yeah, yeah. Because, you know, the words that if he did it for them, he'd do it for you too.

Absolutely.

You know, he's no respecter of person. And so what he may have done for those in the Old Testament, he could do the same thing for you. He's still the same God. He still sits on the same throne. He still looks— sits high and looks low. He don't change.

Well, and take that one step further. Let's think about who is the greatest exemplar of God's love if we're coming from a Christian perspective. And in this conversation, we are. Jesus. Jesus is the absolute exemplar of Christlike love that God sent to us to be an example.

Mm.

Now let's think about those healing stories in the New Testament for just a minute. And look, growing up, I had to memorize Bible verses. I had to memorize Bible stories. We did Vacation Bible School. We knew all the Bible stories. But what was never pointed out to me as a child is, is that any time that Jesus was present and healing took place, Jesus never asked. He never asked a name. He never asked an identity. He never asked an ailment. He never asked a disease. He never asked a repentance. He never asked, do you believe in me? Have you accepted me into your heart as your personal savior? Jesus never asked those questions. He simply said, do you believe? And he didn't say, do you believe in me? He said, do you believe in my Father who sent me?

Mm-hmm.

Who sent you?

Yeah.

And then the healing takes place. And are you ready? He doesn't say, Now go out there and don't do this, this, this, this, this, and this, and this, and this, and this. He says, go and sin no more.

No more. Mm-hmm.

And what is sin? Okay, hold on. Here's a definition blurb. You know, if we had a sound effect here, there'd be like these bells and whistles going off.

Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.

Exactly. What is sin? Sin, for me, The work that I have done to better understand what sin is— for me, sin is nothing more and nothing less than my belief that I could somehow be separated from God.

Yeah.

And the Bible tells us we can't be. It's an impossibility because we are God's expression.

And so I was just reading that yesterday, Romans 8, I think Romans 8:7, they say, who can separate us from the love of God.

Exactly, because we are God's love being expressed.

Mm-hmm.

And so to sin is to believe that I could be separate from God. Now, it manifests and it's demonstrable in a million different ways, because as humans, we're really creative in the sin space, whether it's, you know, speaking ill of someone or thinking ill of another, or physically, you doing something, whether it's theft or harming another. But none of that is our identity. Look, I have moved beyond a place where I allow myself or others to be categorized as sinners. That's a human dialogue. God never called me a sinner. My Father-Mother God never says, "I am a sinner." I have committed sin. But it is not my identity. You know, we go back to the origin of our conversation here today, whether you've been incarcerated or not, what we do is not our identity. It forms our experience, but it is not who we are. And that message comes directly from our Father, Mother God.

Yeah.

And how do we know that? Because the Bible tells us that He forgives us 70 times 7. And that's what we are to do to our fellow man.

Mm-hmm.

So sin would be a belief that I could somehow be separate from God. So let's take it one step further, that idea of forgiveness, because we just talked about God forgiving us 70 times 7, right? And that, that's what we're commanded, commanded to do with our brothers and sisters is to forgive 70 times 7. Well, first and foremost, lucky for me, it's not about math, because that's not my strong suit. The inspired message there is to forgive. And what does it mean to forgive? Do a deep dive on that for just a moment. And for me, my deep dive on forgiveness, what does it mean to forgive? Well, for me to forgive, the very first step is for me to return in my thought that person, place, thing, circumstance to how God sees. What is unfolding. Because God is the ultimate seer of all.

Yeah.

And as a human, I know that my sight can be flawed, my understanding can be flawed. God's cannot. And God says he created each of us, not just me, not just you, but absolutely everything in the perfect likeness of God. So if we return our— in our thought, who a person, a place, or circumstances is to that rightful idea of what God is seeing, are you kidding me? Yeah, you don't need resentment. We don't need bitterness. We don't need anger, because God always holds me in my perfect, whole, and complete place in divine thought. And if I can do that with myself as well as my fellow brothers and sisters, It doesn't mean that things don't happen that we have to address because it's not proper or it's not principled. What it means is that when we come together to have that dialogue, we do it from a place of compassion and empathy and love towards supporting one another, as opposed to tearing another down or comparing ourselves, one being higher than another. And if you want a great example of a complete society that takes this idea, there are African tribes that believe in the idea of Ubuntu. And essentially what that says is, "I see the good in you." And so when someone in that tribe does something that would be against tribe rules or regulations or however we want to put that, okay, well, there's going to be repercussions, there's consequences, there's discipline that then will happen. So that person realigns themself with the proper principle behavior, right?

Mm-hmm.

No, no, no. We've got it wrong. This African tribe has it right because what they do is every tribe member comes together and they encircle this one individual that maybe will have stepped outside the lines. And they will, each and every one, recite the good about that person.

Mm.

Because the belief is, is that they've forgotten their true identity. They don't need to be reprimanded. They get to be reminded. And when we come from that place of restoring in our thought a person's identity as God sees them, regardless of the hurt that we may feel physically and humanly, we are able to open a dialogue toward restoration from a place of compassion and love and empathy and remembrance of when we were the person that maybe stepped out of line and hurt another.

Yeah.

And now we get reconciliation, we get restoration. And what is restoration? Restoration brings us back to our original identity. Um, good, of love, of principle, of right.

Nah. And on that note, Amy Lynn, I know I had some more questions for you. I hope maybe one day in the near future you can come back on and we could continue this conversation.

I look forward to it.

Yeah, I would love for you to do that. I have another call at, uh, 1 o'clock. But yeah, restoration, uh, the— oh, that's what I was going to say. The things— some things that say that don't add on and don't take away. So I won't try to add on nothing you just said because it's all positive and it's all true. I thank you for coming on and sharing your experience, sharing your wisdom, share not only your wisdom, sharing godly wisdom in this hour today, because it's so much needed in society today. People that has a heart for people, but not just our own fleshly heart, but a heart of God. You know, because God said that he would replace that stony heart and replace it with a heart of flesh. And so therefore, I'm seeing Amy Lynn's heart has been replaced with a heart of flesh, because that's a duplicate heart of the love of God. And, and I just appreciate it.

Thank you, thank you, thank you so much.

I appreciate it. And so like I said, I appreciate you coming on. Your social media handles real quick, where can we find you at? Where can we find your program Connect with Bax?

Hey, I gotta tell you, it's all real easy because in the show notes you're gonna have my name spelled out, Amy Lynn Carroll, and everything is my name, amylynncarroll.com. Amy Lynn on— Amy Lynn Carroll on Instagram, Facebook, all the socials. Drop in, say hello, come to a place where you are loved and accepted exactly as you are. Not here to change you. I'm here to support and inspire you to remember who you were created as.

You heard it here. Who you was created as. Amy Lynn Carroll. You have been listening to the CJ Moneyway Johnson Show. Thank you for tuning in. Until next time, we outta here. Peace.

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