Episode 1236: Invest in Yourself - Interview with Treveal Lynch from I am The Possible – Part 1

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining us on episode 1,236 of the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

[00:00:06] Treveal Lynch: I'm Treveal Lynch, and I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talents, and your treasures to live out your. Having the ability to see the possibilities in yourself is key, and one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this The Inspired Stewardship Podcast with my friend Scott Maderer.

[00:00:40] Okay, man, If you're gonna, if you're gonna take this path, if you're gonna journey this way, this is not a, you get it and you understand it, and it's done it. This is a, you're gonna journey until Jesus, dude you're not gonna journey for six months and then you got it. It's no.

[00:00:59] [00:01:00] It's, it is. From now until you're face to face

[00:01:04] Scott Maderer: with it. Welcome and thank you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent, and your treasures for your true calling. In the Inspired Stewardship Podcast, you will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others, and develop your influence so that.

[00:01:29] Can impact the world.

[00:01:32] In today's interview with Travel Lynch, I asked travel about his journey from prison to the life he lives today. I also asked travel about his faith journey. During this time, travel also shares how he became focused on self-worth for himself and for others. One reason I like to bring you great interviews, like the one you're gonna hear today is because of the power.

[00:01:54] In learning from others. Another great way to learn from others is through reading books. [00:02:00] But if you're like most people today, you find it hard to find the time to sit down and read, and that's why today's podcast is brought to you by Audible. Go to inspired stewardship.com/audible to sign up and you can get a 30 day free trial.

[00:02:17] There's over 180,000 titles to choose from, and instead of reading, you can listen your way to learn from some of the greatest minds out there. That's inspired stewardship.com/audible to get your free trial and listen to great books the same way you're listening to this podcast. Trave Lynch is a Ware specialist podcast host Arthur and founder of I Am.

[00:02:41] The Possible Travel comes from a challenging past, including much trauma that led to homelessness, crime, and eventually incarceration. Today Travel is a father of four and husband of one. He's become an ordained pastor, a men's mentor, self worth specialist, corporate trainer, Arthur speaker [00:03:00] and podcast host.

[00:03:01] His journey in life exemplify that idea of self transformation and his company's philosophy. I and my possibilities are one and the. Everything. I hope to be tomorrow. I already am today. Welcome to the show, Tve.

[00:03:15] Treveal Lynch: Hey, thanks so much, Scott. I really appreciate this opportunity and really excited about being on the show today.

[00:03:20] Thank you so much for having me.

[00:03:22] Scott Maderer: We're excited to have you here, and I know there'll be a lot of great stuff for the listers today. So catch us up a little bit. I talked a little bit about in the intro about some of your journey, but let's expand on that a little bit. Tell us a little bit about your journey and how you got from.

[00:03:39] Incarceration to where you are today. There's a little

[00:03:43] Treveal Lynch: bit of, a little bit of a travel in there. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I always like to start in in explaining how I got there, right? Just a little bit about my background and I find that often people can relate to the fact that I grew up stutter.

[00:03:59] I [00:04:00] grew up as the fat, overweight kid. Bullied, picked on always the outcast. Never picked or either I'm either never picked or I'm the last one picked. And so I grew up really being self-conscious really. Being trained really to not accept myself as I was to not love myself, to not really see any good in, in myself.

[00:04:23] And so I grew up not having a father in my life. In those formative years, although God's blessed me to have my father in my life today, but in those early years no father, my mother, for the majority of her life addicted to drugs and alcohol. And so just that picture of who I was and where I came from was very distorted.

[00:04:47] And so I grew up just not thinking that I had much worth at all. And so that led to, as I got older just doing anything I could to, in a sense, get back at the world. Sure. And a part of getting back at the world and just [00:05:00] not really caring much about myself or others, landed me with the facing 15 years for grand theft.

[00:05:07] And that's what got me there that's what got me landed in, in jail. And it was there. That I met Jesus. It was there that I first heard about, as I like to say, this man named Jesus that accepts me just as I. And Scott, that's the first time in my entire life where I actually felt accepted without having to prove myself or do anything for anyone.

[00:05:38] I didn't have to put on a face or an air or a mask or pretend like I was something different to try to fit in this. Jesus said, Hey man, I'll take you just as you are. And so that's really that was the catalyst for change for me. It was understanding that I had someone, or at that point in time something [00:06:00] in my life.

[00:06:02] Loved me unconditionally. And that was something that I had never experienced in my upbringing. And so it was there where life began to change for me. And that's what led to me joining the church and me getting involved in ministry and me getting involved in outreach and really turning my life around.

[00:06:21] Scott Maderer: A couple of things. I wanna give you an opportunity, cuz I know I've talked to you a little bit before the show and things, so you're not using the way you grew up as an excuse or saying it wasn't your responsibility. The I, none of that. Talk a little bit about about that part of it,

[00:06:40] Treveal Lynch: right?

[00:06:40] Yeah, no, absolutely. No. The way I came up was no excuse for anything that I had ever did. It was really no, no excuse for really anything. It was just, that was the framework and the context in which I really perceived myself and perceived life. It was no one loves me.

[00:06:59] No one [00:07:00] accepts me, No one wants me. And obviously right as a child, someone wanted me, someone loved me, someone was caring for me. That was my grandmother and other FA family members. When you're being beat down emotionally on such a consistent basis, See, you can't see it. Absolutely.

[00:07:17] You're just totally blinded by that. And so the o the overwhelming idea is, I'm not worth anything. Who's gonna miss me? My life isn't worth anything, so who cares what I do and where I end up. And so really that was just a framework that I was working from, but it was absolutely not an excuse for anything that I've done as a result of that.

[00:07:36] Right.

[00:07:37] Scott Maderer: And I wanted to give you an opportunity to say that out loud just because there's always the pushback that certain people will have of Oh, they're just using that as an excuse now. I think it's important too, to recognize that. We all have trauma that we carry around and it's different.

[00:07:54] It's hard to compare the trauma that you went through growing up and the trauma that I went through or [00:08:00] someone else went through. It's comparing each other's journeys and scars and trauma is never a winning game cuz know, trauma's trauma. But when you were incarcerated and you met religion.

[00:08:13] A and even before that what was your faith journey like both before and then in jail, in prison, and then afterwards you turned to ministry, but what was the evolution of your faith like in that period?

[00:08:28] Treveal Lynch: So before going to jail, The only thing that I really knew was there was I believe that there was something out there, something greater.

[00:08:37] I even to this day where a tattoo on my arm that just represents this uni god. And this was something that I created, right? It was just this idea that there's something greater out there. There's something there. So I had been a Muslim for two years. I came up in a. I believe it was called Church of Science.

[00:08:59] [00:09:00] So there was some Church of Science mixed in there. And you would hear about Jesus and church here and there just because you're alive. And so I'm hearing all these conf conflicting views and I say, You know what? No one knows anything. All I do know is that there's something greater cuz we got here.

[00:09:17] So I'm just gonna make up my own idea of what God is. So I just said you're the Uni God, you're universal cuz everyone's got a different name for you. Everyone's got a different way to worship you. I don't like it here, but I believe that I came from somewhere. So you're the Uni God. So that was before prison.

[00:09:34] During being in jail again, my only experience was. on that Sunday morning that I talk about in my book is that I just wanted to get outta my jail cell. When you're locked in as we call it at six by nine, man, all you wanna do is just get out, right?

[00:09:49] So I had no, I, no context, no idea of Oh, I'm gonna go to this church service and I'm gonna worship this God, or my life is about to change. The bailiff just came down Hall and said, Hey, anyone [00:10:00] wanna, you? Attend this church service. I said,

[00:10:03] Scott Maderer: I'll go, It's not here. I'll go.

[00:10:06] Treveal Lynch: I'll go. It ain't staring at these walls.

[00:10:08] So just walking in and for whatever reason which is a mystery to me. Even to this day, for whatever reason, and I do not remember what they shared, but those little ladies, right? It was like three or four little ladies from a local church, whatever they said it, it hit home.

[00:10:25] But I do recall them saying, There's a man named Jesus who accepts you just as you are, and you don't have to do anything like that. That was all I took away from it was, Wait a minute, I don't have to do anything. You don't have to earn. He just accepts me. Yeah, so that was in in jail, in prison, and then again afterwards joining the ministry.

[00:10:46] The context was this community now of people that accepted me for the first time. Wait a minute, I don't have to. Pretend I don't have to do a certain [00:11:00] thing. I don't have to look a certain way. You guys want me here you want me to attend, You want me to be amongst you. That was something that I didn't have Scott.

[00:11:09] Like I, I didn't feel welcomed, man, anywhere. And for the first time this church community said, Come on in. We not gonna make you take your earrings out. We ain't gonna make you cut your hair. We ain't gonna make you take your tattoos off. We ain't gonna make you do nothing. We just want you to be around us and we just want to be around you.

[00:11:26] And that was a game changer for me. So that was my experience afterwards. And I of since then, just wanting everyone to feel that level of acceptance because that's what makes my heartbeat, how many people can feel the acceptance of God and how can I be a part of that.

[00:11:47] Scott Maderer: Yeah.

[00:11:48] So do you think everybody that has that kind of moment is called to some sort of ministry? Why? Why specifically did you feel like you got called to that way [00:12:00] of delivering delivering that message and being part of the community? I think

[00:12:04] it's

[00:12:04] Treveal Lynch: because without being too cliche, although it is a cliche, so cliche warning everyone your misery becomes your.

[00:12:14] And I don't always take that as an absolute, It's a very generic term, very generalized term, but I do to some degree believe that we are able to minister or we are able to serve our community and society as a whole best out of our deepest pain and deepest suffering. And so for me, all I knew was alienation isolation.

[00:12:38] We don't want you we don't want you on our team. We don't want you in our group. We don't want you around us. All you are is a punching bag. All you are is someone that we can spin on and make fun of. That was my entire experience. And so now in a sense, flipping it, how can I be a part [00:13:00] of.

[00:13:01] Showing up for other people so that they either they have those same scars and I can help them through the process of recovering and really rehabbing, or they're in the midst of it and how can I help them to process it and work through it as a young man. So that's why I feel connected to it, because I know it so thoroughly.

[00:13:24] Who better? to, to help someone else with it.

[00:13:26] Scott Maderer: So the, this may be a tough question, but I feel called to ask it of you. I am a, a. Older gentleman and I am very well aware of the privilege that I have that comes along with being a white guy with gray hair. I, there are things I do not have to worry about when I get pulled over my experience is very different than some of my friends and other people I know because of the color of my skin and the color of my hair.

[00:13:55] And yet you still have to hear those messages delivered in some way, shape, or [00:14:00] form today. E either delivered to you or delivered to people that you know that are in your circle. Cuz I know it's delivered to me and to people in my circle. And again I right. So how do you deal with hearing those messages?

[00:14:16] Treveal Lynch: What else? Specific

[00:14:17] Scott Maderer: message are you made? You don't fit. You're not you don't belong. We don't want you here. I you're an African American man a man of color with tattoos. I can imagine that you walk into some places and people do a double take. . Yep.

[00:14:33] Maybe I'm wrong. .

[00:14:34] Treveal Lynch: No. You're right. .

[00:14:36] Scott Maderer: So how do you deal with that today? .

[00:14:40] Treveal Lynch: Yeah. You know what? To be honest, it's different . Yeah. Yeah. You know what? If you were to ask me that question two years ago, it would've been a different answer four years ago. A different answer, obviously, right?

[00:14:52] Today, and where I can speak from today. I totally engage. I totally embrace the pain, [00:15:00] the heartache, the disappointment. I've come to a place in my journey where I no longer suppress or avoid. So when I walk into a place and they do that double take, I pause for a moment and really embrace, Man, this hurts.

[00:15:15] Yeah this sucks. Wow. Huh, This is unfair. Huh? Wow. What? What am I gonna do with this? And I allow it to do whatever it needs to do on me and in me. With an anchor, right? I call it my anchor to my soul, right? Anchored in the love of God, anchored in the fact that I'm always accepted, anchored that my mirror existence is the evidence that I need to know that I'm worthy of life and life to the fool because of Christ.

[00:15:47] But I do not avoid it. I do not suppress it. I do not pretend like it's not there. But I do always ask myself, What am I feeling? What am I experiencing and how can I use this to [00:16:00] further fuel what I've been called to do? And Yeah. Yeah. A couple of years ago, Scott, I would've ah it's okay.

[00:16:09] Or ah I don't feel that way. I do feel that way. This hurts. This is disturbing. I don't feel safe here. Like all of that, everything that comes up I'm okay now with allowing it to come up. and fully engaging in it, in the in the most mature way I can.

[00:16:26] Scott Maderer: I think that's really powerful. And because I do think a lot of people hide the hurt, if you feel rejected in your community or in another community that, Oh no, that I understand why they would feel that. It's Yeah, maybe you do, but that doesn't mean it doesn't hurt

[00:16:45] That doesn't mean it's not or fair or I, and again I've gone to churches where, I feel welcome and I've gone to churches where I don't even, who I am. Because [00:17:00] I've spent a lot of time in a lot of different churches. And it's always interesting to me the experience of and I'm using that as an example.

[00:17:07] I'm not just, that's the only place it happens, but it always disturbs me when it happens in a church cuz it's this is the one place where that shouldn't happen. .

[00:17:15] Treveal Lynch: You would think you would hope Like exactly ever to anybody but it, yet it does. And yet it does definitely that's definitely my, my female pastors that wear the shirt and yet she preaches because that know, there are churches where they're not welcome to deliver the message for various reasons, as an example.

[00:17:39] Scott Maderer: Absolutely. How did going back cuz you, you just mentioned three, four years ago, you would've had a very different experience than today. Yeah. Yeah. How have you focused on developing yourself and changing and growing from the last few years, the last decade?

[00:17:57] Treveal Lynch: I have a mentor and [00:18:00] I'm so pro mentor.

[00:18:02] That's always been a a staple. Looking back, that's always been a staple to my journey and my faith and the anchoring of my soul is God's blessed me with having very strong, mature men that have always been light years ahead of me. Who have taken me under their wing at some point in time where they just mentored me in various ways.

[00:18:23] Men mentoring doesn't look a certain way. It's just, it's very organic and very just it's very need based whatever you need in that season. So looking back at it I have a mentor who. Is of Asian descent. I know his wife is Japanese, but for some reason it doesn't come to mind what specific island he's from.

[00:18:46] But he's of Asian descent, so it's more ver very close to Japan and the Japanese culture and the Asian culture, the eastern culture. And over the last couple of years, I've really engaged in [00:19:00] contemp. Contemplative prayer contemplative lifestyle really dealing with a lot of dualism and really dealing with a lot of just inner work and learning to meditate and it's not taboo and it's not weird.

[00:19:16] Even the Bible talks about meditating in God's word, right? So meditation is okay. And so that's what's helped me to get to this point, is being able to be more objective. Versus subjective, not looking at the world through this is how it is cuz this is the way I feel. Or this is those people are like that because I say so.

[00:19:37] Maybe it's not the way that it appears on the surface. And if you take a step back, And you pause and you breathe and you allow, As we talk about, we just behold life and others and experiences and let them influence and impact us versus us demanding a certain concept of [00:20:00] them. Oh, those people dress like that, so they must be that.

[00:20:02] Those people dress like that. Let me behold them. Let me look at them. Let me think of them. Actually it's the, I'm sorry. It's the absence of thought. It's, don't let me think about them and let me allow their presence to influence me. And then that influences how you think. So that's really been the game changer over, over the last three or four years working with my mentor Kche and Learning how to meditate, how to contemplate and how to recognize when I'm being dualistic in my thinking, us versus them, and so on and so forth.

[00:20:37] Scott Maderer: Yeah. Yeah. One of the concepts that comes up on the podcast I've talked about in a number of different times is we have a tendency, especially in Western culture, to look at things as either. It's black or white, it's good or bad. It's up or down it's got you. Got it. And what I talk about is the theology of the both, and which is, Yep, there you go.

[00:20:58] What if it's up [00:21:00] and down? Not, or down. You know what if you just change the O'S to an and realize that, Wait a minute, , and if you recognize that God, Present in all things in some way, shape, or form from the best thing that you've ever seen, to the worst thing you've ever seen.

[00:21:18] God was still there. Totally. Wait a minute, then you gotta start, you gotta start thinking about it differently. And again, I don't do that perfectly. I don't think any of us ever do. And I'm sure you don't either, Nope,

[00:21:31] Treveal Lynch: I do not . But,

[00:21:33] Scott Maderer: but the more you can do that, the more you get to be open to.

[00:21:39] different, doesn't mean bad. Absolutely. Absolutely. One , absolutely. Yeah. No, one, one of the first things that my mentor told me was because it wasn't like he was like a gatekeeper to this new lifestyle. But it was like a, because he had been on the journey for so long as he introduced it to me, he kind of preface it [00:22:00] like, Okay, trave.

[00:22:02] Treveal Lynch: Okay, man. If you're gonna, if you're gonna take this path, if you're gonna journey this way, this is not a, you get it and you understand it, and it's done it. This is a, you're gonna journey until Jesus, dude you're not gonna journey for six months and then you got it. It's no.

[00:22:21] It is a from now. Until you're face to face with it. It is you're absolutely right. We do not master it. We do not get it. We definitely slip back into dualism, so unconsciously because it's so ingrained our culture. And and it's so ingrained within our character.

[00:22:39] So yeah.

[00:22:40] Scott Maderer: And I think it's one of the way again, I think we're designed. Created to have that. And there's reasons for it from a protection standpoint, from a there's benefits and yet yes, there's also negatives. No strength comes without a weakness.

[00:22:56] No good comes without bad attached to it. There's always the [00:23:00] other side of the coin. Yes. With that.

[00:23:03] with that. When you think about this journey that you've been on I'm of I'm of the Methodist background, so Charles John Wesley's statement was on towards perfection. Not you've reached it, but that it's always a constant journey. You're on to perfection. Not you are perfect, but you're on to perfection.

[00:23:23] You're moving that direction.

[00:23:24] How

[00:23:25] Scott Maderer: do you think how do. How do you practice that or what are some resources or ideas that you've seen that maybe would help somebody who's heard this idea this afternoon, this morning when they're listening and said, Okay, that sounds interesting.

[00:23:40] Where are some places they could start What one of the most practical places is the Bible. In and looking at Psalms one and looking at the fact that God he invites us to meditate. And he shows the [00:24:00] benefits of.

[00:24:01] Treveal Lynch: Of meditating we would be like a tree planet. We would be a tree firm and having our roots stable. And I believe that a part of that stability is being able to look at any situation and not having a need to judge it. Because I think judgment carries a lot of weight. It is very weighty.

[00:24:22] If I choose to judge you to be a certain person or to be a certain way, then now I have to be responsible for how I respond to you. And now I have to think of you in a certain way and carry a certain energy towards you. But if I allow you to be. With the respect that you're here, just like I'm here created by the same creator given the same source of gifts and talents and here to contribute in your own unique way, then it liberates me and it frees me up.

[00:24:50] To, to be able to be not only used by God, but to be able to flow even greater in the things that are most meaningful to me. So I [00:25:00] really think that the very first place is just understanding that meditation understanding that being still and quieting yourself is something that.

[00:25:11] Prescribed by God. And once you know it it's something that that you can practice and just really incorporate at any time, any place really with anyone. So that would be of my first step with just understanding that you don't have to knee jerk reaction everything. You don't have to judge it, yes or no, up and down, black and white.

[00:25:33] And realizing the freedom and the liberation. That comes with that that, that would, that for me, that would be my first step. You can follow Trave Lynch on Facebook or Instagram as I am the possible, or find him on his website at i am the possible.com. Of course, he's also active over on YouTube as Trave Lynch. I am the possible, I'll have links to all of this over in the show notes as well, [00:26:00] trave. Is there anything else you'd like to share with the listener?

[00:26:03] Yeah, I just want to, as I'm always given an opportunity to, or whenever I'm given an opportunity to is that I just want to encourage you, no matter where you are, no matter what you've accomplished, no matter what you've not accomplished that I really want you to really consider the fact that your existence is the evidence that you matter.

[00:26:25] The only reason that you're. Is because you matter. Your existence is the evidence that you need to prove and to show yourself where it matters most, that you matter. And be encouraged to take that journey of self discovery that journey of the inward journey. And to really seek out, to really search and to really secure an identity for yourself that comes from within and not come from, [00:27:00] or doesn't come from those things that are without on the outside of you.

[00:27:04] So that would be my number one encouragement.

[00:27:06] Four.

[00:27:08] Scott Maderer: Thanks so much for listening to the Inspired Stewardship podcast. As a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoyed this episode please do us a favor. Go over to inspired stewardship.com/itunes.

[00:27:35] Rate all one. iTunes rate. It'll take you through how to leave a rating and review, and how to make sure you're subscribed to the podcast so that you can get every episode as it comes out in your feed. Until next time, invest your time, your talent, and your treasures. Develop your influence and impact [00:28:00] the world.