Are you passionate about a cause or hobby? Are you gifted in the arts? Are you starving to share information or products that you know will benefit others? Are you a natural born athlete? What's that business you wanted to start? Are you aching to be a teacher or leader of a group? Are there classes you want to take, places you want to travel, empires you want to build or problems you want to solve? Do you want to have a family, climb a rock wall, quit your computer job to be a youth pastor, bypass college math to become a dancer or be a personal trainer? What do you day dream about, imagine, foresee and visualize for your life? Now, why are you letting people hold you back from doing it?...
The bible actually tells us that persecution will happen to those who give up their lives to follow Jesus Christ and his plan for our lives; this includes, but is not limited to ridicule, chastisement, mocking, name calling or perhaps even losing friends and family. In May of 2012 when I set out to pursue a childhood dream (which turned into something greater in Christ), I experienced those same things. By the grace of God, I'm not allowing that to stop me from following the Lord's plan for my life. Why? Simply put, my life is serving Jesus Christ, not pleasing everyone else, so that they can be comfortable with what I'm doing.
Every single one of you plays a role and we are not all called to do the same things. Whatever passions you have inside, are given to you by God himself. He put those desires in you for a reason; for you to do them, enjoy them, and have them be a blessing to others. It doesn't matter what your passion is either; whether it's designing architectural blue prints, teaching or even skateboarding! All of you who want to fulfill passions that aren't "normal" to society, of course people will mock you and tell you that they believe you should be doing something else! Expect this! There may be some who just genuinely don't understand and would like to, but remember there will always be a larger group of people who are envious; perhaps because they were too scared to take the risks themselves. Don't be one of them!
WHY IT'S WORTH IT
If someone told you that something about you, while engaged in your passion, changed their lives, would it be worth it to you? I think it would be such an amazing testimony of God's power to receive a letter, email or phone call from someone sharing that lyrics to one of my songs saved their lives (praise the Lord). Yet something interesting has happened...
Setting music aside, for the last 8 months, I have already been consistently receiving emails, Facebook messages, and texts, from those whom I've inspired. I don't say this to boast. I share this because it warms my heart to know God is visible and working through me! However, the messages all have one common theme...FEAR. Praise the Lord they say they admire my faith, my courage, my boldness, and my ability to put myself out there, knowing what some people are saying about me. They tell me that they actually support me, encourage me, and that I have motivated them to think about pursuing something they've put on the back burner. What hurts my heart, is that they also tell me the reason they are sending me the messages in private, is because not only are they fearful of pursuing their callings, but they are afraid of even openly commenting on my Facebook posts or blog articles; for fear of receiving that same ridicule, criticism, and mockery.
This isn't a scheme to get anyone to comment on anything of mine; if the Holy Spirit leads you, then praise the Lord, but let this be an encouragement to you; the spark that ignites your passions to come alive! How many times have you said to yourself, "I wish I knew then, what I know now." When you're at the end of your life, one of the first things you'll likely do is reminisce about it all. Now you have a decision to make. Do you want to be near the end of your life and regret never taking the chance? Do you really want to give other people in your life, so much power over yours that you never do what you enjoy and what you were created to do? Do you really want the insecurities of someone else to stop you from doing what you love? Worse yet, do you really want to miss out on the abundant life that the Lord has READY AND WAITING for you, all because someone else didn't agree with what you were doing? Chances are they don't agree because they're too scared themselves to take the risks. Or perhaps they've taken the risks, but when it got hard, they quit.
When you give up your life to follow Jesus Christ and you fully surrender to his will, by whatever means HE sees necessary...ultimately you'll end up with the desires of your heart anyway because HE gave you those passions and desires to begin with!
Every single one of you plays a role and we are not all called to do the same things. Whatever passions you have inside, are given to you by God himself. He put those desires in you for a reason; for you to do them, enjoy them, and have them be a blessing to others. It doesn't matter what your passion is either; whether it's designing architectural blue prints, teaching or even skateboarding! All of you who want to fulfill passions that aren't "normal" to society, of course people will mock you and tell you that they believe you should be doing something else! Expect this! There may be some who just genuinely don't understand and would like to, but remember there will always be a larger group of people who are envious; perhaps because they were too scared to take the risks themselves. Don't be one of them!
WHY IT'S WORTH IT
If someone told you that something about you, while engaged in your passion, changed their lives, would it be worth it to you? I think it would be such an amazing testimony of God's power to receive a letter, email or phone call from someone sharing that lyrics to one of my songs saved their lives (praise the Lord). Yet something interesting has happened...
Setting music aside, for the last 8 months, I have already been consistently receiving emails, Facebook messages, and texts, from those whom I've inspired. I don't say this to boast. I share this because it warms my heart to know God is visible and working through me! However, the messages all have one common theme...FEAR. Praise the Lord they say they admire my faith, my courage, my boldness, and my ability to put myself out there, knowing what some people are saying about me. They tell me that they actually support me, encourage me, and that I have motivated them to think about pursuing something they've put on the back burner. What hurts my heart, is that they also tell me the reason they are sending me the messages in private, is because not only are they fearful of pursuing their callings, but they are afraid of even openly commenting on my Facebook posts or blog articles; for fear of receiving that same ridicule, criticism, and mockery.
This isn't a scheme to get anyone to comment on anything of mine; if the Holy Spirit leads you, then praise the Lord, but let this be an encouragement to you; the spark that ignites your passions to come alive! How many times have you said to yourself, "I wish I knew then, what I know now." When you're at the end of your life, one of the first things you'll likely do is reminisce about it all. Now you have a decision to make. Do you want to be near the end of your life and regret never taking the chance? Do you really want to give other people in your life, so much power over yours that you never do what you enjoy and what you were created to do? Do you really want the insecurities of someone else to stop you from doing what you love? Worse yet, do you really want to miss out on the abundant life that the Lord has READY AND WAITING for you, all because someone else didn't agree with what you were doing? Chances are they don't agree because they're too scared themselves to take the risks. Or perhaps they've taken the risks, but when it got hard, they quit.
When you give up your life to follow Jesus Christ and you fully surrender to his will, by whatever means HE sees necessary...ultimately you'll end up with the desires of your heart anyway because HE gave you those passions and desires to begin with!
