God is Able to Redeem ANY Situation - #17
DEEP reflections on one of the most painful of failures in my life thus far, and the DEEP redemption that has flowed in abundance from giving it ALL to God
This newsletter is very late.
I guess, in a way, you could say it’s on time.
Reason for that being is that I couldn’t have written this exact newsletter yesterday.
Today, at 6:37 AM, the topic for this newsletter just flew into my mind.
And now the act of writing it has blew away my mind.
I hope it is a blessing for you.
God is Awake, and Has Compassion on All Your Mistake (s)
God is awake.
God is aware of what is going on.
He is aware of all that you have felt.
He knows about all the lonely nights, the sad days, the struggles, the maze of emotions…
He is going to help you to get through this part. I am humbled and thankful for the things that I am learning right now in my journey.
Isaiah 1:18 says the following:
18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
Your story is unfinished.
Your story can be completely transformed.
You can talk to God about anything.
Anything.
The Lord Shows Up (Often in Very Mysterious Ways)
In response to my very specific prayers regarding my life I’ve had answers.
Deep answers.
They’ve been to such a deep level, in exact alignment with my desired self, and it’s crystal clear to me - it is evidence for me that cannot be refuted.
As Lamentations 3:23 says, His mercies are new every morning.
These were all done and sent to help clarify and make more clear to me three things:
God’s love for me - Unchanging, unyielding, uncompromising, forever there.
How God saw me - A mighty, noble, able son of God with a bright future ahead.
What God had planned for me - A brilliantly bright path that was worth trusting.
Spending more time with Him has dramatically improved my outlook.
He sees eternity.
He comprehends infinity.
Isaiah 40:28 says it well,
28 ¶ Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.
Surely, He knows EXACTLY what I need AND how to get me where I need to be.
He knows how to do that, using my current surroundings, outlook, and mindset.
One of His grandest goals and designs for me has been to elevate these things.
I have asked for it, and He has delivered.
Boy, has He delivering, (and He is still delivering!).
It’s like I ordered for 2 boxes of pizza and He brought 75 (and is bringing many more!).
God is filling my soul to overflowing (see Ephesians 3:20).
He has shown me that ANY situation can be redeemed.
Where there is faith, trust, and taking small steps outside of a comfort zone…
There are really no limits.
This, I have been very humbling experiencing.
My limits are getting stretched (and expanded) each day.
Even still
The war isn’t over yet.
I need to be constantly building.
I need to be constantly trusting.
And I also need to be still, and know that He is who He is.
He is a God and a loving Father in Heaven who shows up on time - every time.
Exodus 14:14 explains this well:
“The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” - Exodus 14:14 NIV
I need to be still.
I need to yield to Him my ENTIRE view of my current situation.
This, I learned to do when I was in my rebuilding and healing season.
This, I am learning to do as I am in my current building and growth season.
This, I must continue to do for the rest of my life.
I need to keep my focus on Him, especially right now as the tides seem kind of uncertain.
It seems they are seeking to swallow me up whole, and eat me for breakfast.
It is in this time though, just as at any other time, that I must look to the Lord.
I need to look to the Lord for my support, my guidance, my strength, and my life.
He is ALL of those things to me and much more, and so, I must give Him that place.
To do that FULLY He is teaching me right now to
Unsubscribe from Fear
It’s part of my kit, but it’s not who I really am.
Fear suggests, but can never be correct.
I ultimately get to choose what I do with it.
I choose to unsubscribe from it.
I choose to run to God’s love instead.
God must be the center of my life still, especially in those moments where I am struggling to feel towards Him and don't know what love and trust looks like.
I’ve learned He can do SO much with our little offerings - they are sacred to Him.
I have had times recently where I have been checking in on fear -
As if fear has anything worthwhile to say about me, that is more important than love.
No.
Fear (and all of its many forms) is going to say ALL of the same things to me until I leave this mortal life and go into the next.
My goal is to finish my course mightily and with joy.
I am done listening to fear.
I am listening to God.
He always has really, really beautiful things to say.
This I am learning very deeply in my life right now.
A lot of that is because this is a very important and deep season of my life.
So, let’s get back to now.
Now is all we Have
This is the third time I am writing this newsletter and I am finally finishing it.
I have been stressing out about it.
I have been putting myself above it.
I have been putting my fears above it.
The fact of the matter is that the Lord is able to deliver us from whatever we may find ourselves in.
Delivered From Deep Holes
I think of Joseph getting thrown down deep into a hole by his own brothers.
His brothers left him in the hole to die - they didn't really care what happened.
But then there were the Egyptian slave traders who were coming by.
And Joseph's brothers were moved by compassion (sort of, lol), and sold him into slavery instead.
That set a whole new world of movements in motion.
Joseph’s brothers killed an animal and put the blood on Joseph’s cloak.
They showed it to his dad, Jacob, who bought the story.
Jacob bought the story, and lived in that grimness.
The reality however, was much grander.
Joseph had just been given the golden ticket and chance he needed.
He was given a chance to grow.
He was given a chance to really make a name for himself.
Genesis 39:21 says the following:
21 ¶ But the Lord was with Joseph, and shewed him mercy, and gave him favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison. - Genesis 39:21
Joseph probably had moments he thought he was toast.
He wasn’t toast.
He was being toasted.
Grilled cheese is one of my favorite sandwiches.
The heat is sometimes the ingredient we need the most.
There are several ways to get that. Here are two:
Time - Giving things time to simmer can help the heat to rise, and our souls too.
Intensity - Giving things immense focus and deliberation, unleashing clarity.
When both are together, it leads to tons of growth, and, ultimately, a great sandwich.
Joseph was in prison for some time.
He also was given chances to prove himself while he was there.
These, he seized, and greater mercies, growth, and freedoms flowed from it.
Was the time in prison wasted?
Nope.
He was being toasted.
I’ve learned to trust God in my very heated moments.
It has led to me being toasted.
Toasted and prepare for a future I cannot even dream right now.
But once upon a time I was in
My Personal Deep Hole
My Winter 2021 semester of college at BYU Idaho was rough.
I chose for it to be rough (and kept choosing it), and so it was.
I took video games out of the picture, thinking that’d help me focus.
Nope.
It led to me making more foolish choices, throwing me out of my rhythm.
I went to some activities because I felt I had to, not because I wanted to.
What did this all lead to?
I failed my accounting class in college by five points.
All the way up to the final, I still had faith that I would be able to pass the class.
Here’s what I had going for me:
I met with a tutor for a week to have a STRONG finish to the semester.
I was planning to get out of there with a high grade on the final.
The teacher was also gracious enough to let me take one of the tests again.
It wasn’t enough.
I got what was coming to me.
It was painful.
I got the same exact score (a 50%) on that test as I had gotten before.
In addition to that I didn't do very well on the final.
I did okay, but “okay” wasn't enough to redeem my situation.
“Okay” wasn’t what I needed, “LEGENDARY” was what I needed.
If I had gotten a high grade on the final, I would have passed.
I made a much bigger deal about the whole situation than was necessary.
Genuinely I was really struggling within myself.
Hence, the downstream likely outcome occurred.
I Failed.
I failed the class on April 7, 2021.
I learned a lot from that.
From the second it happened, I knew my life would never be the same.
Yet, God was sending help to me in that very moment to lift me.
I could choose to trust in that help, or not.
I chose, in that moment, to humble myself and trust it.
I am glad I did.
I had a pivotal conversation with a friend that really helped me out.
He helped me see that I had really grinded myself into the ground.
In that moment I made a decision to change it up and be better.
I did basically everything I’d done poorly, but the opposite.
I used the next semester to rebuild myself.
I worked at Pizza Hut.
I made video games a reward for getting work done.
I intentionally spent time with those I wanted to spend time with.
This all added up.
I was very successful.
I had to take more classes in order to “catch up” and ended up rocking it.
I got all A’s and B’s, still was running my podcast, and it was just a vibe.
It probably was my most productive semester of college.
There were ones that were more enjoyable, but this one I accomplished more.
Yep. I did go from my WORST semester to one of my very BEST ones.
All I needed to do was change some things up, stick with it, and trust God more.
God helped me get that job, celebrate the moments, and learn tons.
After tasting all that success
I Took Accounting Again
This time, I took it in person rather than online.
I also just gave it more to God.
At first, taking the class again felt like pure torture.
Having to relearn things that I had literally failed to learn the previous time.
Then, two weeks in, I had a mindset shift.
I realized that I was perfectly positioned to succeed because of my failure.
I also noticed that there was a LOT I had learned from the class the first time.
Had I given myself credit for all the work that I had put into it back before?
Nope.
I was perfectly positioned to help out my fellow classmates.
“Trust me, I failed this already, you are going to succeed. I will help you.”
This became my mantra.
It later became my reality.
I got to help out some of my fellow students, which accelerated my learning.
I got a 97% on the first test and ended the class with a high “B”.
Did I celebrate that beautiful 97%?
Nope.
I expected myself to do better, and didn’t even celebrate it, like at all.
But that’s a story for another time.
The point is
God was helping me out the whole way.
I did way better in the class the second time.
During this humbling process I wrote one of the most important things I’ve written so far.
I wrote a poem called "Patience in These Pages" on October 18, 2021.
I shared it on a plane with a lady a few months or so later.
She loved it, and said it needed to be in a book.
Back then I wasn’t very believing in myself, thought she was just humoring me, etc.
Nope, she was serious.
I’ve gotten a similar response from several people now about it.
And it’s finally happening.
That poem has helped fuel a lot of the love and the work for my second book.
If you want to hear it performed by me, I did so in Monday’s podcast episode.
I believe this poem is going to help many, many people.
I’ve memorized it at this point, and I believe it is 100% the truth.
Here’s the first two lines of it,
“Patience in these pages will bring your desired end.
Patience in these pages will help you be a true friend.”
April 7, 2021 I failed accounting.
April 7, 2022 I graduated from college.
Yes, God is able to redeem situations.
Here’s the Hole I’m in Now
I kind of slacked on the second book, honestly.
I didn't reach out to my formatter and cover artist early enough.
Spoiler alert, my second book is probably not coming out on April 15, 2024 as I planned.
Facing this reality kind of reminds me of how I felt from failing accounting.
A few mistakes and lapses of judgment led to a whole new timeline opening.
Did I want this?
No.
I have decided to make place for it, and give it to God.
God can do glorious things.
He can turn ashes into beauty. (Isaiah 61:3)
He can turn trials into triumphs. (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)
If it comes out on the 15th still, great!
I have let go of that being the most important thing in the world.
It's all going to be okay, and that is what matters.
I have let go of having things work out a perfect way.
I have learned that the learning from the thing is far more important.
I’m Not Going to Cheat Myself Out of Lessons
Had I cheated in accounting I could have passed the class...
But I would have cheated myself out of the poems I wrote from it, and SO many other things.
Only from a place of deep honesty and vulnerability could “Patience From These Pages” be brought into the world.
As scary as failure was, I learned to face head-on.
I felt it, experienced it, and lived in it.
With God’s help and so many others, I rose above it.
I was able to enjoy a lot of the uprising as well.
I did NOT cheat myself out of what I came to earth to do - to learn.
No... Dallin Candland is not someone that does this.
From Upset to Pumped
Dallin Candland will learn from the deepest of the deep situations and keep on trusting God all the way.
Dallin is aware that the Lord is able to redeem situations, no matter how dismal or hopeless they may seem.
He has seen it before, and he will see it again.
Dallin continues to look to the Lord in the storm.
I am learning to more deeply surrender it ALL to Him.
Yes.
I am sending this out into the world today, because I have been holding onto my side of the story far too tightly.
I wanted to have a BIG book launch on April 15.
That really was what I wanted.
Now, I am choosing to be open to what God has planned.
I believe that it’s going to be WAY better.
This is how I’ve gone from feeling upset to pumped about the situation.
I am not holding onto the story I wanted to tell.
It is from doing this that we often hold back a lot of our blessings.
When we simply just recognize that anything is possible and we give the glory to Him, then we can really get things rolling for His mighty purposes.
Today we learned:
ANY Story is Redeemable
The Times Where You Feel TOAST You are Likely Being TOASTED
It ALL Comes Together Beautifully as You Trust God
Thank you for Reading YIELD Deeply
If today’s message touched your heart, I have one request.
Share this with someone whom you feel would benefit from it.
Thanks a ton for your support, encouragement, and fellowship.
The best is yet to come!
Quick reminder - When my next book launches, YOU will be getting a free copy of it.
Every person that is on this list when the book launches will get the pdf copy of my book sent to them.
It’s a small way I am showing my gratitude for your early support of my journey.
My prayer is that it will empower you to be patient and trust God more completely.
His plans are much grander, and I look forward to sharing more of His wonders and mercies that He’s been doing in my life, PACKED with scripture and general wisdom.
Thank you.
The Last Thought
Romans 8:18
18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
I know that Christ has complete compassion on our suffering (Hebrews 4:15).
I know that Christ suffered so we could live our very best lives (John 10:10).
I know that Christ is able to reach and bless us, regardless of where we are now (Isaiah 42:16).
I know these things are true, through my life experiences and most importantly, the witness of the Holy Ghost, who bears witness of all truth.
I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
I really resonated with the story about your accounting class.
I also had a humbling experience taking chemistry and I really was upset with the grade I got in the class, but it was definitely my fault.
When I took chemistry again later, I put more work and focus while also using help from my heavenly father.
I just thought I would share that I have a testimony of these things.