Full Transcript for Choosing Authenticity in a Curated World: Atticus Shaffer & Ariel Fitz-Patrick

while I was still on the show. And so unfortunately, my poor mom, she has been through a lot of horrific things with her back, with her abdomen. And the result of that has been she has been forced to sacrifice the life of a homesteader, an artist, a gardener, and not be able to do the things that she has had nothing but a passion to do. 00:06:50 Speaker 1: Since she was a very little girl. 00:06:52 Speaker 3: That has resulted in a lot of sacrifice for my mom, and I'm witnessing her go through her own crisis of faith, where she is legitimately asking God, why? Why did this have to happen to me? Why was this allowed? What is the bigger picture for this that I am personally missing? Because I feel like all I've been asked now is to sacrifice. What is the reward? 00:07:16 Speaker 1: What is the growth here? 00:07:18 Speaker 3: And there are many times in this life where God does not give a direct answer immediately. Sometimes he doesn't give a direct answer at all. But we as Christ followers are in need of still pursuing the upward call of Christ, despite what we may or may not understand, because we need to remember who God is and who his character is. So these are huge lessons coupled with many, many others that I've learned that I've been able to witness. My mom has spent my entire life caretaking for me as I've gone through my medical ailments and my challenges and injuries and pains. And now the roles of that have been reversed. My mom would always tell me, no, I want to be taking care of you. I don't want it to be that you are taking care of me. 00:08:03 Speaker 4: But it is what it is. 00:08:05 Speaker 3: And my respect for her as a nurturer, as a caretaker, and quite frankly, that of those who truly and genuinely are caretakers and have a nurturing spirit within. 00:08:16 Speaker 1: Them has only quadrupled. 00:08:20 Speaker 3: Because of the work and the care and the dedication and the love that is truly had. My mom has done nothing but live the Christian life when it came to me and my brother for that matter. She has done nothing but sacrifice for our well-being, sacrificing her time, her energy, her emotional well-being. And the thing is, is if you were to ask her or prompt her a response from me saying that, she would say, but it never felt like sacrifice. I did it because I love my children. In my early teenage years, we had just concluded a season of filming of The Middle. And the very next day, it's my very first day of my hiatus, and I was much more fragile than I should have been at that particular point in time, had a horrific accident in my living room. And I ended up breaking both of my legs and cracking my shoulder blade. And the hospital that we were going to at the time did not have emergency services. And so right then, instantaneously, I am in horrific pain. 00:09:28 Speaker 5: Mom, help. 00:09:29 Speaker 3: I'm hurt. 00:09:31 Speaker 4: What do we do? 00:09:33 Speaker 3: It wasn't a conscious surrender of control to God. It

was completely subconscious. And it was from beginning, middle to end, everyone from the paramedics who came and got me to the hospital that I was taken to, it was completely from God. And I ended up Getting through the surgery, being all casted up, patched up where I needed to be. And so I woke up. I was sore as I was waiting for the pain medicine to kick in. I go, okay, let me turn on the TV and distract myself. And when I turned on the TV, it instantly went to Christian television. I have no clue who it was that I watched. I could never tell you the pastor's name. All I remember is that the pastor was speaking on what does it truly mean to give your life to Christ? And have relationship with him. 00:10:27 Speaker 2: It's not religion. 00:10:28 Speaker 4: It's relationship. 00:10:30 Speaker 3: And that was so profound to me. And so I prayed along with the pastor on the TV. And I gave my life to Christ. In that moment. And from that moment on actually. I shared with my mom that I gave my life to Christ the next day. When we came home from the hospital. She gave me my first Bible. And thus began my journey of reading the word of God for myself. And being able to cultivate my relationship with him. I'd sit with my Bible and look up the scripture, which was cool because Jesus Calling was a means for me to get better at finding chapter and verse in the Bible of different things. As we were going through the devotionals that she gave, it was a means of like, let's finalize the day. Let's have this be what's in our mind as we're going to sleep. We're easing now into sleep. We're dwelling on the word. And so that was really profound for us to be able to do that. That was like the devotion thing that we were dedicated to through my time on the shelf. I'm very grateful that I've been able to have a very long career in the entertainment industry and hopefully that's able to continue. I often say that actors are like nomads, you know, creatives were always kind of moving around to find new work and find the things that we need to do to continue those careers and be able to be creative. But I'm very grateful for all of the different things that I've been able to do in my life thus far, namely the middle and being able to be one of the leads on a, now going down in history, family sitcom. 00:11:58 Speaker 4: To learn more about Atticus Schaefer, follow his Twitch and YouTube channel. You can find him through his handle, Atticus Schaefer Vlog. Stay tuned to Ariel Fitzpatrick's story after a brief message. These uncertain times bring anxiety and fear, but Jesus listens prayers for every season, gives you daily prayers of comfort. With seasonally inspired illustrations, this beautiful book includes prayers that speak to your situation, whether it's a time of stress or strength. Look for Jesus Listens Prayers for Every Season wherever you buy books. Content creator Ariel Fitzpatrick grew up viewing God through a lens of fear and perfectionism, often hiding her mistakes out of shame. As an adult, she transformed her perspective on grace, learning to run toward God rather than away from Him. 00:13:00 Speaker 5: My mother, she was born in Trinidad and Tobago. My dad was born and raised in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and they both migrated to Montreal where they met and had me and my four other siblings. And I really, truly believe that being raised by parents who grew up in that culture, and they were both Christians, and they were both saved from a very young age, they brought that with them to Montreal. 00:13:22 Speaker 1: And we were literally raised in. 00:13:25 Speaker 5: Montreal, but we were completely surrounded by Caribbean people. So in church, it was people from Trinidad, St. Vincent, Barbados, Grenada, St. Lucia, name it. Everybody was there and everybody kind of came with the same type of upbringing. And it is quite different from Canada's outlook on, let's say, church and Christianity and faith and morals and habits. And it's a very strict one. It's a very like, you better follow the Bible to the T. There's also some other, there's some other rules that not necessarily from the Bible, but they in there and, you know, you kind of have to follow them. 00:13:59 Speaker 1: So I was raised very strict in that. 00:14:02 Speaker 5: And to add on top of it, my parents are also pastors from before I was even born. 00:14:08 Speaker 1: So it just added an extra layer to it. So they came up here. 00:14:12 Speaker 5: With like, we're going to make sure our children are like very much planted in the word of God and in the ways of righteousness. So I grew up very sheltered, very much like you can't do this, can't do that, can't go here. All the stuff that the other kids were doing, I was not allowed to do. You're going to be in church. Church was my playground. It was my school. It was my lunchroom. It was my social. 00:14:35 Speaker 1: It was everything. It was my house at many points. 00:14:38 Speaker 5: So church was just like, That and everything about the Caribbean culture was also infused into that very, very intensely. So it really influenced like everything about my upbringing and everything about how I am today. 00:14:51 Speaker 1: I grew up seeing God as. 00:14:53 Speaker 5: That type of father where it's like, oh yeah, Jesus loves you and all that stuff. But if you mess up, he's going to whoop your behind type thing. I grew up thinking where it's like, if I mess up, I'm going to get in so much trouble. 00:15:04 Speaker 1: God is going to be so mad at me. 00:15:06 Speaker 5: And I'm kind of seeing it like how when I would get in trouble with my earthly father, I'm thinking of. 00:15:10 Speaker 1: That type of reaction. I feel the shame. 00:15:12 Speaker 5: I don't want to go and tell my dad what I did because if I do, he's going to be upset. I know he loves me. I know without a doubt he loves me, but I'm scared to tell him. So I'm going to run away and I'm not going to tell him that. And I

took that same type of behavior into my walk with Christ, which was ineffective. I'm not ashamed now. Even if I feel sometimes you feel a little guilt, you feel a little shame. But at least now I know for a fact that even if I feel that little guilt and shame, I better not let it last for too long. I need to run straight to him and be like, God, this is what happened. Please forgive me. 00:15:40 Speaker 1: Help me. 00:15:41 Speaker 5: And then just take the right steps to be better and not keep on doing the same errors over and over again. Growing up in Montreal, if that's where I'm supposed to be and influencing millions of people, Montreal is like the worst city to start out in. I'm already at a disadvantage. I'm a Black. 00:15:57 Speaker 1: Woman and I am... English speaking. 00:16:00 Speaker 5: And Quebec is like the total opposite of that. I don't even speak the same language as the place that I live in. And I've faced so many difficulties here. I was like, first of all, I'm starting off in the wrong place. I used to literally tell God, God, I think you accidentally made me grow up in the wrong city. I'm like, I think I needed to grow up in the States or something like that. And then pursuing school and then having to drop out of my programs because I was going to be a doctor. And then I was going to going to be an actuary and just knowing that God is showing me like, that's not it. 00:16:31 Speaker 1: That's not the path I had for you. 00:16:33 Speaker 5: So I'm dropping out of those and then I'm not seeing results and then I'm quitting my job and I'm still not seeing results and I'm finally finding my groove and I'm getting somewhere and then I'm getting pulled. 00:16:43 Speaker 1: 10 steps back. It was just a lot of what on earth is going on? 00:16:49 Speaker 5: But I'm realizing every step of the way is important in developing who you are, my strength, and how I'd be able to deal with the opportunities coming my way, making sure I don't compromise, making sure I know who I am. Before I even got on social media, it was all so necessary. So I always knew that was something that I was aspiring towards. And I knew I was just doing it in a positive light for God's glory. 00:17:13 Speaker 1: But the path to get there was. 00:17:18 Speaker 5: It's not easy and it didn't look like that's where it was going to end up at all. There were times when it was just like, wow, this is giving the total opposite of what my vision is. It's just always been important to me, especially when I became a young adult to humanize the Christian walk. Because again, the way I grew up, it was like there's this disconnect with reality. 00:17:45 Speaker 1: You're being raised different. 00:17:47 Speaker 5: In a church or in a culture where it's like, don't do this, don't do that, don't do this, don't do that. 00:17:51 Speaker 1: It's a sin, it's bad, you'll end up in hell. 00:17:53 Speaker 5: But then there is almost no provisions for, okay, so what if I do do it? Most

of us know the message of forgiveness. You go to God, you confess your sins and he forgives you. But then we end up in this loop sometimes of being repeat offenders. And it's kind of like, well, if I'm a repeat offender, I can't just keep going back to God because now he's mad at me. And I think that's what's missing in so many of our walks. There's nothing perfect about the human. The only thing that makes us perfect is when we are fully in Christ. Paul literally said over and over again, he's like, I will to do good. 00:18:31 Speaker 1: I really do. 00:18:32 Speaker 5: But every time I will to do good, I just, I do evil. And I have to kill my flesh every single day. And he's showing you that's the human experience. You're going to mess up. You're going to do things that are outside of what you know you should do. And it's not like I get saved and now I'm perfect or I'm righteous. It's like, no, righteousness is a gift and you have to receive that gift every day. I realized that social media wasn't just a creative outlet when. 00:19:07 Speaker 1: I was receiving a And I was just having fun. 00:19:13 Speaker 5: And I was happy that my fun and my success was found in Christ. I saw it as, I'm not adding to negativity in the world. I may not be fixing the world, but I'm not adding to the negativity. I'm doing something positive online that's benefiting me and benefiting others. 00:19:27 Speaker 1: In some way or some form. 00:19:30 Speaker 5: So I never really took it too seriously until one day my father, he spoke to me and he's like, you do realize like what you're doing is ministry, right? And you need to take it as such. You need to see it as that important. And at first I was just like, no, I don't think so. I'm like, it's just social media. I'm just making some cute little videos. 00:19:53 Speaker 1: I love Jesus. 00:19:53 Speaker 5: So this is coming off naturally, but I don't see that as ministry. I don't see it as a calling. 00:19:58 Speaker 1: And one of the reasons why I responded that way is. 00:20:00 Speaker 5: Because I don't like the idea of the responsibility of that because I grew up seeing that. I grew up as a PK and I'm like, I don't want that. I've never wanted that. It was kind of intimidating. But the more I did it, the more I'd receive messages from like other pastors and I'd receive from viewers, from teenagers, adults talking about their children, being just so overwhelmingly grateful and thankful for what I was doing, saying that it changed their lives, saying that it brought them back to the word and stuff like that. So I'm like, oh, this is like a common thread. This is something that's consistently trending. 00:20:34 Speaker 1: So I'm like, okay, God. 00:20:35 Speaker 5: Didn't just give this to me to say, oh, I got a platform and I do social media. He intentionally gave me this opportunity to help people like One of the stories with a lady that was about to commit suicide, she said she had no idea who I was. And one of

my videos popped up and it literally stopped her from making that decision. And I was just like, okay, yeah, this is not just some cute idea of making little videos online. I think one of the greatest lessons I've learned with my walk with Christ, Dr. Miles Monroe, he said in one of his messages before he passed away, And he said, God will never show you the detailed path to where he's taking you. 00:21:21 Speaker 1: He only gives you like the end vision. 00:21:24 Speaker 5: He drops in your spirit, either in a dream or a passion or whatever you desire to do. And you can see, oh, this is what I want. That's where I'm going to end up. And he paints that picture for you. But the steps to get there, he doesn't. And then When you go throughout scripture, you see that this is not something I'm just making up. This is something that is proven. And like an example of that is Joseph. When he got the dream, God gave him the dream that, you know, his brothers were going to bow down to him, that he was going to be a ruler over all of them. That's all Joseph saw. He just saw that, oh, I'm going to be a ruler. I'm going to be on top of my brothers. But God didn't show him what he would have to go through to get there. He didn't show him the betrayal. He didn't show him that his brothers were going to try to kill him. He didn't show him that he was going to be sold into slavery. He didn't show him that he's going to be falsely accused and then thrown into prison. 00:22:15 Speaker 1: And then you're going to become the ruler over your brothers. He didn't show him all that. 00:22:18 Speaker 5: Because maybe if he showed him that, Joseph would have been like, you know what? The end result looks great, but I'm a pass, God. 00:22:24 Speaker 1: I'm a pass. That's Abraham. That's David. God gave them all these beautiful end visions. And they had no idea what they were going to go through. 00:22:32 Speaker 5: And I can see that in my life where God, from a very young age, God has showed me. And I think it's important for me and creatives like me to use our imaginations to paint the picture that the Bible is singing. Because not everybody's going to pick up a book. I encourage everyone to. But I think creating that visual and using the imagination that God gave me, using the creativity that God gave me to paint that visual, that's going to be a help to get people who won't necessarily, like Gen Z, who wouldn't necessarily open the Bible and read it. So I think that's the importance of using social media effectively. and imagination and creativity to reach the generation that's here now. Jesus Listens, July 21st. My living Lord, help me not to be so hard on myself. I know that you can bring good out of everything, even my mistakes. My finite mind tends to look backwards, longing to undo decisions I have come to regret. This is such a waste of time and energy, leading only to frustrations. Instead of floundering in the past, I want to release my mistakes to you. As I look to you in trust, I'm confident that your infinite creativity can weave my good choices and my bad ones into a lovely design. I know I'll continue to make mistakes in this life because I'm only human. My failures can actually be a source of blessing, humbling me and giving me empathy for other people in their weaknesses. Also, Failure vividly highlights my dependence on you. I'm grateful that you're able to bring beauty out of the mores of my mistakes. My part is to trust you and watch to see what you will do. In your marvelous name, Jesus. 00:24:28 Speaker 1: Amen. 00:24:31 Speaker 4: To learn more about Ariel Fitzpatrick, visit her YouTube channel and be sure to check out her new book, I'm a C for Myself, A Stubborn Girl's Guide to Trusting God, the first time around at your favorite retailer. If you'd like to hear more stories about overcoming shame through grace, check out our interview with Lisa Harper. Next time on the Jesus Calling Podcast, we'll hear from gospel music legends Bill and Gloria Gaither, who after years of creating their own music, have given their lives to celebrate the gifts of others through preserving legendary voices and mentoring young singers. 00:25:09 Speaker 1: I'm grateful back in 62 that God looked at. 00:25:13 Speaker 4: Two school teachers in central Indiana and said, I think this is a good thing. 00:25:18 Speaker 1: Because when it's that good, it has to be God. 00:25:21 Speaker 2: And just blessed it. Thanks for listening to the Jesus Calling Stories of Faith podcast on the Life Audio Network. Every week we'll bring you stories from people who share their journeys of faith and how prayer and a relationship with God transformed their lives. Be sure to follow us on Apple, Spotify, iHeart, or wherever you listen to podcasts. And leave us a review so others can be inspired weekly by these stories of faith. Finally, you can find encouragement, resources, and more on the Jesus Calling website at jesuscalling.com.