You owe it to yourself

And the generation after you

You’re not struggling to be consistent. You struggle to bet on yourself. What would it look like to go all in on the idea at the forefront of your mind right now? Are you allowing the fear of success to keep you from taking the next best step forward? Deep down, you know that if you dare to believe and put actionable tasks in place, it will come true. However, it may not look exactly like what you envision, because maturity happens in the forward motion.

You have to be willing to take the first step.

You have to dream big and believe it.

You owe it to yourself.

Show up in the mundane. Dedicate 100% to the craft of perfecting. Let maturity do its work in you. Don’t let self-sabotage keep talking you out of commitment.

I think of Joseph from the book of Genesis often. Known as a dreamer and an interpreter of dreams. He had a dream that altered his destiny because he shared it aloud. God used the junk in his brothers’ hearts to catapult him into the future, saving them from a guaranteed famine. Yet God positioned Joseph after years of heartbreak and betrayal. When reflecting on his story, one verse in Psalms stands out. Psalm 105:19 says Joseph’s character was purged until God’s promise came to pass.

Regardless of when you capture the dream, your character will be tested. It’s the nature of the game called life. Life happens. How we respond, based on what we know to be true about God's nature, allows us to show up in ways that honor Christ and ourselves. God is good even when our circumstances or surroundings shout otherwise. God will always be good. God will always use people to advance His mission. God and the enemy are not synonymous. The enemy has a plan, and sometimes we experience the sorrow that comes with it, but God is always working behind the scenes, even when we don’t feel or see it.

This is where James 1:3-4 comes in.

Perfect and complete, needing nothing.

There is an inner peace in needing nothing. At this point, we obey. The testing of our character reveals the self-sabotage, in whatever form it arrives in your life. For me, it looks like fear or doubt, then using waiting on God as a crutch.

When in reality, God is waiting on me to do the last thing He told me to do, and to rest in His presence. Resting is an internal state of mind. It’s deciding the place of relationship with God.

What is the last thing God told you?

Is the last thing God told you to do too big to believe?

If you need help hearing God’s voice, please let me know. I can help you walk through this and gain clarity on what God is saying for your life.

Each decision to take a step forward makes the path clearer. Sometimes it does require a pivot, but you really owe it to yourself to keep showing up regardless.

Lately, I’ve been really intrigued by Mojo Brooks, curious about his origin story. I went down a rabbit hole this past week watching several interviews with him, and what stood out was his consistency of character across every screen. Now, his content is raunchy, so please look him up with discretion. The algorithm fed me his content once, so I decided to peek behind the scenes at the person.

In one interview, he shared a moment of desperation: his comedy career had tanked, a new career opportunity had opened up, and God told him that if he trusted Him, He’d make his dreams come true. Yet at that crossroads, he had to choose between his dream of comedy or making a difference as a police officer in Chicago. He realized that after all those years of being good at everything, he’d never gone all in on one thing. So he decided to go all in on comedy. Now he’s a highly sought-after comedian.

I became intrigued and convicted. Being good at so many things, I’ve never gone all in with my writing or poetry. I’ve flirted with it, but never said, “This is where I’m going to focus my attention.” This is the start of me going all in with my writing and poetry.

I kept watching interviews because of my curiosity of his story. The same curiosity I need to bring into my own writing. It’s not to have it all figured out. It’s to stay with it long enough to find out what it becomes.

The key to continuance is curiosity.

This is a message to tell you to stand in your clarity.

Keep showing up,

May God meet you in your obedience,
Janae Carlee