Over this past weekend, I hit a brick wall. I’m struggling in my finances, focusing on my purpose and integrity with my wife. The stilts that I attempted to hold myself up with snapped under my feet. This was a reflection of my efforts being sufficient to make things right in my life. See, God had to use this to truly get my attention regarding priorities and focus within my life. Many don’t like to be told they are wrong since the flesh thrives in the love of  “self”. Living in Christ, we see God’s correction for the love that it truly is and I am truly thankful because in that I see His love draws us closer to Him through never leaving us where He found us.

In being transparent I made a post on Instagram regarding what He confirmed on my heart when it came to the focus of my purpose and journey. The text within the post stated:

(𝘓𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘐 𝘩𝘰𝘱𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶) Starting this past weekend and leading to confirmation just yesterday evening, God has a perfect way of using our imperfections for His glory through confirming His will over our lives and revealing those things that we subconsciously repress. Two things that He confirmed in my heart…(CONTINUE IN THE COMMENTS)

 

“𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐞𝐬, 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐚 𝐂𝐓𝐎…” // Most of us can go down an entrepreneurial list and check every box but are we viewing the entrepreneurial journey with our gifts and talents in their proper purpose? Many of us know that we are entrepreneurs but we automatically place ourselves at the “CEO” position when in reality 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐠𝐢𝐟𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐳𝐞𝐝. We have a heart for change and purpose and using our gifts and talents outside of a traditional “9 to 5” environment but some of us have gifts and talents that are meant to support and not necessarily be the primary leader. In other words we can be leaders in our space but in no way must/should we be captains of the ship. God, through His loving correction, has humbled me to see that I am great at tech operations, I can integrate tons of systems together for increased automation while maintaining cost efficiency and quality of output….but I lack the structure and focus when it comes to the bigger picture of “running the ship”. I also tried to kid my myself into thinking that I could take my gifts and talents and use them to educate others; my brain is so complex that I will only confuse most and I have to acknowledge that. I can’t continue to lie to myself to pretend that I am good in a area in which I suffer. Instead of focusing on the big picture and feeling like I need my own platform (“CEO”), I am going to focus right on my gifts and talents when it comes to tech operations and just be the support role to other great platforms (“CTO”). He may change that in the future but I want to submit to His will and not my own

 

“𝐁𝐞 𝐚 𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫 𝐅𝐈𝐑𝐒𝐓…” // Right in alignment with the message above, another area that I struggled in yet pridefully denied was that I was too busy trying to lead when in reality I should have been listening, following and serving others. I am a visionary in that I can see complex operations and integration….but see that was just it, 𝐢𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐦𝐲 𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐞𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐈 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠. There is “𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘐 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘪𝘴 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵” and then there is “𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘴”. I focused on the former and time and time again would be frustrated that the person I was assisting never truly was excited with the final work; I see that complexity and confusion was at the root of this response. The issue was that I was in my own way and never put the other person first. I felt like I had a grand idea but that was selfish since it was my idea and not their idea. 𝐈 𝐚𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐤𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐆𝐨𝐝’𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐬 𝐡𝐮𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐢𝐟𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩 𝐮𝐬 𝐬𝐞𝐞 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐟𝐚𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐬 𝐲𝐞𝐭 𝐟𝐮𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐇𝐢𝐬 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞. See, this message here was not just for my entrepreneurial endeavors but also for life in general. I see this changing every fiber of my marriage to listen to my wife’s heart FIRST before already having a solution to fix things and possibly making things worse. I see this helping me become a father that avoids blind acts of discipline and missing a moment of mercy and exhibiting the love of Jesus Christ. Most importantly, I see His correction towards being a better listener to FIRST listen more to His voice so that I can, in return, listen to the hearts of His lost sheep so that when the Gospel and Good News of Jesus Christ is shared, they too can hear His voice more clearly.

 

My favorite quote by Sir Winston Churchill is “𝘴𝘶𝘤𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘪𝘧 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘧𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘩𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘢𝘴𝘮” and while that quote fully applies to all of the above, it comes second to God’s promise over our lives…

 

Philippians 1:6 (NLT) says “𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘐 𝘢𝘮 𝘤𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘎𝘰𝘥, 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘣𝘦𝘨𝘢𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶, 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘶𝘦 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘭 𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘊𝘩𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘵 𝘑𝘦𝘴𝘶𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘴.”

 

𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐥𝐥. I am truly thankful that God’s love is not one that leaves me as I am and instead continuously corrects me, molds me and shapes me more and more into the image of His Son, Jesus Christ. I hope this encourages someone and to God be the glory.

As I wrote out every word of this post, I was truly thankful to God for just the testimony and opportunity to give Him the honor. As I mentioned in the post, I truly hope that it edifies and encourages you in some way.

Listen to today’s podcast episode as I go into much more detail regarding His correction regarding this matter. *Whispers – subscribe while you’re at it*

As I mentioned, I want my life to be a reflection of His goodness for His glory alone. I am no one special. I am just a sinner that was snatched from the bondage of sin (Ephesians 2:1), given a new heart (Ezekiel 36:26) and put on a path to glorify the name of Jesus Christ (John 13:34-35). As a “sheep” that sees the love and protection of the Good Shepard (John 10:11-18), I will always truly be thankful for His love through correction and will continue to pray that He breaks “me” more and more so that His spirit can truly live fully within me. God bless.