So Grateful for Revelation!!

Sometimes God looks down the road and sees a storm brewing and therefore, he removes you from that situation to keep you out of that storm. You may not understand that at the time, but as you get older and experience life that revelation comes to you. That is nothing but GOD. I look over the last 10 years of my life and am just grateful for the things that have happened in my life good or bad.

In 2004, I was working at a bank. I was promoted to Branch Manager. There were several branch manager positions that came open but I was passed by until finally I got one! I was excited. It was not for anything other then the prestige and social status that came with that. Ultimately, it was a bad decision but a necessary one.  In that position, I was lied on, talked about, and given no support which ultimately led to the termination of my job. I was grateful. It was a very stressful job and it took a huge toll on my health and well being. I was relived but stressed that I lost my job due to lies and two-facedness. However, it was God calling me into another level. He pulled me into teaching, which is what I wanted to do anyway. Well I taught for a few years in the urban school district and loved it but there was also a lot of politics and favoritism within the school district. By my fourth year, I was stressed and overworked as was many of my collegues. I came home and just crashed on the couch. I would watch television, eat, fall asleep, only to wake up to go bed and repeat the same day. Work got overloaded, there was so many papers to grade, so many things to do. Well I  lost my job there too due to a certification issue that I thought was going to be okay. I was promised that I would get to stay another year. GOD had other plans.

When I lost my job, I was depressed. I thought this was what I worked so hard for. I let the devil get the best of me. I felt like a failure and disappointment to everyone who believed in me. It was the devil. When the school year started and I was not there w/ my friends I felt lost. I would sit on the couch and just feel miserable. Then one night I fell asleep on the couch and woke up to Joyce Meyer on t.v. She literally preached to everything I was going through. She mentioned her book Battlefield of the Mind. It spoke to me, I read it and read it, I began to journal write and reflect. It was truly an awakening.  I began to write and write a little more and more. Then God gave me ALL of these ideas. It lead me to the revelation that I could be a great writer, author and speaker. God wanted me to use all of my experiences to write and be an author. I am just grateful for what he has given me now. Now after all these  years, I am relocating to Los Angeles. After 15 years of wanting to do so, its finally here. I am so grateful. I have written my first book and awaiting publication. I have the foundation for several other books, and even an idea for a radio show to spring from this book. None of this would have ever happened had I not had these experiences. I have had some friends turn away because they did not understand and thought I was going down "the wrong path" , I get that but its o.k. It had to happen, I understand why it happened now. And I am moving forward...


The bank that I was terminated from was shut down due to financial failure. There is so much uncertainty there. The school district I was working at is now doing things that I would want to do. People there are more stressed than they have ever been. And ME, God is moving me into my season of favor. I did not do it on my own. It was nothing but GOD. I was not moving fast enough for him, so he made it happen for me. I am the happiest I have ever been. I am so thankful. My season is here! Yours can be too. Don't get comfortable. If you are in a place that you do not like, DO SOMETHING about it. If you have a calling on your life answer it. If you have a dream, make it happen. Do not settle. I have done that for far too long and I refuse to do it again!! Be blessed!! I am!!

The Adventure Begins

Thanks Drew, for motivating me to do get back on here. :-) I will be blogging a lot over the next few weeks as I detail my move to the west coast and pursuit of my dreams. I am looking forward to it. I am leaving Wednesday, September 29th. I will be taking a two day adventure. I will leave from Bonner Springs/Kansas City, KS stopping when I feel the need. I will spend the night in Albuquerque, New Mexico get up the next morning and head into Los Angeles!! Wow..saying it out loud is even more spellbinding! Its amazing. I am so grateful. This has been 18 years in the making and the dream is finally becoming a reality. I hope that all of you will share in this journey with me. I am thankful for all of the encouragement and support. For those of you that have not been so motivating, this is the only shout out you will be getting. Really there have not been any, but inevitably there will be some. You know what you can do, just lift me up in prayer as God lifts me higher and higher. Stay tuned for more updates in the days to come. Follow your dreams and desires, I am following mine. Goodnight. CG2

The Big Move

Good Morning,
First I want to thank EVERYONE for the well wishes and birthday greetings yesterday. I had a great day and my cup was overflowing with blessings and love. That is the greatest thing a guy could ask for.  I wanted to talk to you guys about what is coming up for me and what God is doing in my life.

After much prayer and reflection, I have decided that the time is finally right for me to move on w/ my life and make some things happen. I have decided that at the end of September, I will be relocating to Los Angeles. This should not be a surprise to many of you as many of you already know and know that this is has been in my heart for many, many years. I have wanted to live in California since I turned 18. However, I always found an excuse and stayed here for whatever reason. It ultimately boiled down to me just not being ready. Well God is ready for me to move forward and pursue some dreams and interests. He has given me the gift of writing/media  and educating and that is what I plan to pursue. I am very excited for what awaits me there. I am pursuing some dreams. It has been a difficult two years with some things, I feel like I am growing stagnant a little bit and its time to spread my wings. God allowed me to go through these last two years so that I can get ready for this. He is gearing me towards my biggest blessings now.

I am so overwhelmed with what is in store for me. My dreams are coming true. It has been hard to tell everyone because I know how it is when someone moves away. But in my heart, it just feels right. It is the right time. I am receiving so much confirmation from God that this is what I need to do. I ask for your support and encouragement and most importantly prayer as I do this. I am looking at my target date to move September 26th or the week of. Kansas will always be my home. I will be back quite a bit. I just wanted to tell everyone that I did not get a chance to talk to yet. I thank you for your support, friendship and all we have shared over the years. God bless you.
Also a prop and shout out to those who have left Kansas in pursuit of other dreams and have made it. You are an inspiration to me. (Marla, Evie,Gordon, Michael, Kama and others).

I alone know the plans I have for you, plans to bring you prosperity and not disaster, plans to bring about the future you hope for. -Jeremiah 29:10

The Lord said to Abram "Leave your country, your relatives, and you fathers home and go to a land that I am going to show you.  I will give you many descendants, and they will become a great nation. I will bless you and make your name famous, so that you will be a blessing. - Genesis 12:1-3

Thank you Karen, for giving that to me. More confirmation.

Stay Tuned...the best is yet to come! :-)

Men: Do We Still Count?

I am not liking what I see in regards to the role of men in our popular culture these days.

First of all, I am seeing numerous television commercials that show men as weak, insufficient, indecisive neanderthals and women as the domineering controlling being. There are several commercials out there that show men with no control and no say so in how their houses are ran. There are countless commercials that show a man with some domineering woman and he takes it. He will not watch the football game because his wife wants to watch Lifetime. Is this really what marriages and or relationships have been reduced too?

Then if I see ONE MORE show that has some guy with a girl who is completely out of his league so much so that his girlfriend or wife is calling all the shots and that is simply how it is going to be because she is "so smoking hot." WTH? On 90% of the television sitcoms out there right now, the man has NO CONTROL in the relationship. The man/husband/boyfriend and his friends are seen as unfeeling, unthinking, unloving neanderthals with the brain the size of a pea. While it is funny at times, sometimes it has gotten to be just a bit much. Is this what is going on in the homes? It does not bode to well for us single guys who still are looking or NOT looking for that Ms. Right. No guy want's a Ms. Right IN YOUR FACE  all the time.


I am not at all advocating MEN to be dominating and controlling. However ladies, are you really comfortable with a man who:

1. make no decisions in the home, you chose where to eat, where to go on vacation, what he can or cannot buy 95% of the time?
2. with a man who cannot have time with his friends, take time to watch a football game, or buy something with the money that he works so hard for?
3. whom you cannot trust? If you have to check his facebook, twitter, texts or emails, then there is an obvious problem. If he has given you no cause, why are you suspicious? No trusts, no lasting relationship. Work through your own insecurities. Men this coin goes both ways. This applies to you too. No probable cause, then you pause!

And another thing, we just celebrated Valentines Day. I bet a lot of ladies expected for the husband to go all out with the cards, the restaurants, the flowers, and the chocolates. Let me ask you, what did you for your man? Did you give as much as you received? Did you come correct?

Musical Excellence? A 2011 Grammy Wrap Up

Musical Excellence?: A Grammy Wrap Up

Remember that scene from Waiting To Exhale when Angela Bassett’s character went on this tirade at the party, and then all of a sudden she looked up confused and innocently and asked, “What happened to music, I thought this was supposed to be a party?” That is the way I felt the other day when I watched the 53^rd annual Grammy Telecast.

That is exactly what I want to know. What happened to all the music at the Grammy’s? The Grammy’s used to be about celebrating musical excellence in all fields: gospel, rock, rhythm and blues, and bluegrass, country, jazz. I did not see hardly any of that the other day. Instead what I saw was a painful reminder of what has happened to the music industry today.

Think back to the Grammy’s of just a few years ago, when you saw performances that represented each genre of music. You had gospel performances, rock performances, and even sometimes (although as I child I could not appreciate it as much as I do now as an adult) opera and classical music. The show seemed to celebrate celebrity more than musical excellence on Sunday. Lady Gaga, Justin Beiber, and Katie Perry dominated Grammy show. Performances were pretty much limited to who is hot at the time. There were not that many high points of this year’s show. There were a few highlights of this year’s telecast, but other than that most of this year’s telecast was painful reminder of how much the music industry has changed. Remember when the show honored such greats as Stevie Wonder, Fleetwood Mac, Tina Turner, Mariah Carey, and The Beatles? In recent years future legends such as Alicia Keys, Beyonce, Lauryn Hill, Nora Jones, and John Legend dominated the award show. There is something wrong with this: Marvin Gaye in his lifetime only won 2 Grammy’s. Diana Ross, whose contribution to the music industry cannot be ignored, has won a whopping total of zero awards yet Lady Gaga can win five in one night? There is something very wrong with this picture.

From what I have seen on facebook, and various other media outlets, this years Grammy’s were not well received. Reports indicate that this year’s telecast was the highest rated that is has been in the last 10 years. I do not see that happening next year if they repeat the same mistakes they did this year. Here is what the Grammy’s got right and what they got so terribly wrong:

Grammy High Points:

The Aretha Franklin Tribute:

What a way to start the show! You cannot go wrong paying tribute to the Queen of Soul. The video montage of the Queen winning her 18 Grammy’s and performing numerous times shows us all what true artistry and music is supposed to look like. Having great artists like Jennifer Hudson, Christina Aguilara (who redeemed herself from her Super Bowl fiasco), Yolanda Adams, Martina McBride, and Florence from Florence and The Machine pay tribute was the right touch. Then the queen herself making a videotaped appearance from her home in Detroit calmed everyone’s concerns about her health. She looked great! This tribute had me believe that the rest of the show was going to be the same way.

Bruno Mars/Janelle Monee.

A great performance all around! Bruno delivered. He reminded me of a cross between Al Green and Joe Crocker. He has the skills to last more than 15 minutes. Now I may be biased being a fellow Kansas City Kansan and DOTTER but Janelle Monee represented KCK in a major way. She was not trying to do a lot of this or that to be noticed. She is a true performer and has such a charisma and chemistry about her on stage. She connects with the audience very well.

Unfortunately, that is about ALL of the positive I have for this show. The rest of the telecast fell into the

LOW POINTS OR WTH (WHAT THA HELL?) Moments:

Lady Gaga:

I am really, really, really not a fan. Yes she inspires kids to be different, blah, blah, blah.  I am really not impressed with that. It is really like she is doing all of these antics to take away from the fact that her singing ability is average at best. I am not trying to be mean, but I do not understand all of the hype that surrounds her. Her song “Born This Way” as many, many others have said was a direct replica of Madonna’s “Express Yourself. “ She thrives on just being weird. The entire performance was awkward and head scratching at best. Lady Gaga represents what is wrong with the industry today: Do anything to take away from the fact that you really do not have the best singing voice.  I think about some of our other young artist out there such as Alicia Keys, Jill Scott, Carrie Underwood, Jennifer Hudson, John Legend, Kem, and Taylor Swift who do not have to resort to these types of tactics to get noticed. The focus is solely on their voices their natural talent. I am over the Lady Gaga craze. Then her acceptance speech saying she thanks Whitney Houston cause she envisioned Whitney Houston singing that song, I think we all know what Whitney have said to that.

Lack of Awards:

98 of 108 awards were handed out before the Grammy telecast. I think a big reason why people tune into the show is to see the “best of the best” represent in their fields of music. I am not an idiot to not understand that there is simply not enough time to have each award given out and still have performances, but they definitely could have had each genre represented on stage. R&B awards were all but eliminated from the live telecast as was bluegrass, gospel, and jazz.

Justin Beiber/Usher:

The performance was average. Justin Beiber has a lot of potential. But I think he is definitely overexposed at this point. Usher, I expected a lot more from. He is one that I would call a future legend. His performance mirrored Janet Jackson’s “Rhythm Nation”. I am going to give Usher the benefit of the doubt and say that he was trying to let his protégé shine on that night. Usher is capable of giving us so much more. There needs to be a definite game plan to give Beiber some longevity and not just focus on being so commercial and pop.

Lady Antebellum Tribute to Teddy Pendergrass:

This is kind of a catch 22. If it was Lady Antebellum who decided to do the tribute it was honorable to try, but if the Grammy’s decided to just have some random group pay tribute then it was an insult to Teddy’s legacy when you had John Legend, and other soulful crooners in the audience who would have given TP much more justice and give him the kind of tribute that he truly deserved.

Lifetime Achievement Award Rush:

Normally the Grammy’s will give a little bit more of a tribute to the lifetime achievement award recipients than just saying all of their names at once like they did last night. Usually, presenters would recognize all of the recipients before they present an award or that would just be their sole focus. For all of those artists who have paid their dues to get this type of award and them to just get some random 2-second call out to me was an insult to their musical contributions. The Dolly Parton tribute with John Mayer, Keith Urban, and Nora Jones was awkward too. Not because of the three talented artists giving it, but because it was rushed to a point that it was just uncomfortable. It was totally devaluing the talents of Ms. Parton and the three talented presenters. If time is an issue, maybe the Grammy’s should do like the other musical award shows like Soul Train Awards, Oscars, Golden Globe and focus on giving ONE Lifetime Achievement Award a year.

Rhianna:

I am really not trying to be viscous or mean, but is Rhianna the ONLY one that rappers can find to do musical collaborations with. I am not a fan of hers as well. She is all over the place. Her voice is just not doing anything for me. Its very nasally and whiny.

The Ezperanza Spalding/ Justin Beiber New Artist Controversy:

I believe the award is called Best New ARTIST. Artist is somebody that has really made a splash on the music industry because of his or her raw showmanship, artistry, and gift of song. I have to admit I was surprised that Spalding got it, but not upset. She truly deserved it. Beiber needs more time to develop. He is a teen artist/icon but his musical showmanship is not there yet. He is not a young Michael Jackson or Little Stevie Wonder. Rarely is a the New Artist award given to someone so young. Beiber fans were not being too tactful or gracious by being rude to Ms. Spalding while she was accepting her award. That was in bad taste. That was her moment. If Beiber develops himself as a musician a little more and really develops that and not just focus on being so commercial, he will have more time in the future to win awards.

In The Middle: Not Sure How I Feel Moments:

Cee-Lo Green Performance:
I am going to give Cee-Lo an A for effort. He was trying to do something different. However, I found it as a cross between Toucan Sam, Elton John, and George Clinton. It was just maybe too different for me. I do like the song and I appreciate Cee-Lo’s humor, I just do not know if I would call this the best performance of the evening. I am still not fully understanding the Gwenyth Paltrow portion and why she came out to sing on the song.

Stepping Out

Stepping Out And Taking A Chance: Living Your Dream

By Chris L. Gilrath, II.

“It’s not in what you thought I should be doing. It is not in what you think I should be doing.  It’s not in what you say I’m doing. It’s in what’s going to happen.”

Whitney Houston

Introduction:

I know what most of you are thinking. “Why is he quoting Whitney Houston?” But think about that phrase. Really, really think about that phrase. Have you ever thought this way? Have you ever been pigeonholed or stifled by what people think you should be doing? Are you afraid of trying new things or taking a chance because you are afraid of what others might think of you? Are you afraid to pursue your dream because reality and society tells you it could not be done?  It is really hard to step out on faith and pursue your dreams. For one, you might be afraid of what others think of you, and what you might think of yourself. For all of you struggling with this, I encourage you to read on…

 

Part I:  Drama , Insecurity, and Discontent

I think back to this last year. I had been teaching for the last four years. My first year, I loved teaching. It was rewarding, fulfilling and quite an experience. Everything that I had done in my life had led me to teach. I felt that way for the first three years of teaching in the urban school district. The last year of teaching had been very much a grind. I had found myself getting busier, and busier. I took a new position within the school on top of teaching that called for me to not only teach, but also administer discipline and deal with a lot of students who I may not have even had in the classroom. I found myself tired, grouchy, and not wanting to give the job my all. When I came home, I just literally crashed on the couch. I did not want to lesson plan, grade papers, or the thousand other outside tasks that came with teaching. Deep down, I knew that perhaps it was time to move on for a while. I ignored the sign. I kept at it, and I was more and more miserable. I was coming to work and just going through the motions. I was tired. I did not have time for church, my family, or my other relationships. I was also dealing with the issue of trying to get fully certified at the time. It came down to my job being on the line because of not being able to be fully certified by the end of the year. As it would turn out, I was not able to and I was not able to retain my job.

For the most part, I was not upset – at first. Throughout the summer, I was in denial about not having a job. I was like “I get paid through August, so I will be good.” I attempted to look at other teaching jobs in another state because their certification laws were a little looser. However,  when it came time to apply for those jobs I did not. Everything was all good until August, when school started back up. It began to hit me that I would not be at work with my friends, the students I formed relationships with and now had to face the trauma of telling everyone that I was without a job. 

What was the fear? For the last for years, teaching had been my identity. When I would see family members, or friends they would ask my “How are the kids?” or “How is your school year going?” It was hard for me whenever the question was asked. I fell into a state of depression for a few weeks. I felt worthless. I felt like I was lazy, and that I threw my career down the tubes. I was blaming myself, attacking myself and thinking the worst of everyone and thought everyone thought the worst of me. My defenses were up. I was on the attack anytime anyone had anything to say to me.  What I did not now at the time was that God was preparing me to do something great and he was in the process of gearing me towards something else.

**********************************************************************

Part II

The Breakthrough

One night I was on the couch, and I was down, real down. I was thinking of myself as a relative failure and that nobody would look at me the same again. Once everyone found out that I lost my job, everyone else would think I was failure as well. I fell asleep on the couch feeling as low as I could have ever felt. I let the devil convince me that my friends were against me. As it turned out, I woke up on the couch at about 6:00 in the morning. Joyce Meyer was on the television. She was literally speaking to everything I was going through. She talked about insecurity; she talked about doubt, and feeling sorry for yourself and how it was just a trick of Satan to keep you from having joy. I literally felt something wake up in me. At the end of the sermon, she talked about a book called In Pursuit of Peace. I knew I had to have this book. It talked about anxiety and discontentment. I knew I needed this book. I was broke at the time so I was not able to buy the book, so I decided to check the book at the library. I was not able to find the book, but I put it on hold for whenever it came in. In the meantime, I had put another book on hold two by Meyer, called Battlefield of the Mind. This book became available before the other book, so I decided to pick it up. God led me to that book. The book literally spoke to everything that I was going through. Being anxious about my bills, feeling like all my friends had abandoned me, feeling sorry for myself, having negative thoughts. All of that was me. Each day as I would read and journal, the book literally spoke to everything and was delivering me from all of the chains that had held me down for so long. I was able to get a handle on all of it. It was like therapy for me. It was God talking to me.

I began to understand what God was revealing to me. The devil was trying to convince me to give up. He was trying to get me to feel like teaching was the only thing that defined me and I would be lost without it. After all, I had being done so much to get to this point. But God revealed to me that sometimes we are only supposed to do things for a season before he has something else for you to do. So this was my season. This whole time what I had not realized was that God was allowing for me to pursue another dream of mine-writing. Now, I have been writing, and writing and it has in turn been so very freeing for me. I took my experiences and my observations and penned my first book “Seriously… Enough Already!” a book about issues that are imposed on issues and us that we sometimes impose on others. I thought back to the bank. I remember that last year working there hating the job. I had so much anxiety, so much tension. I was literally aging. I was lied on, deceived, and people were plotting against me, which ultimately resulted in me losing my job. I was fired from the bank. God allowed me to go through that, so that he could bless me with the teaching job. He was gearing me towards that. He allowed me to teach, to write. Everything happens for a reason, each season that I experienced was gearing me for another season, bigger and better than the last.

******************************************************************

Part III: In Pursuit of a Dream

It literally only took me three months to write my first book. I loved every minute of the writing process. I was so thankful to God for giving me the gift of writing. I was also growing and getting closer to God in the process. I had allowed my relationship with God to fall by the wayside. God allowed me this time to grow closer to him again and recommit myself. As I was growing closer, God gave me more to say and was freeing my mind. I also decided to get physically fit, I began to run in the park and focus on me and God. It gives me so much clarity. As I was running one day, God gave me an idea for book #2. He gave me the outline, the chapters, and the groundwork. Another day, as I was running and reading the story of Abraham and Sarah from the bible, he gave me an idea for a screenplay. Then another day he gave me the story for my first fiction novel.  Currently, I have three books and one screenplay in the works. Isn’t amazing how God works? The manuscript for “Seriously? Enough Already!” is finished. I am working on editing the book proposal and the query letter. If I had not lost my job, I would not  have been able to do any of this but more importantly, I would not have been able to take that time to work on myself and get the help that I so needed. I know that I am going to be a very successful writer and screenwriter. It has always been a dream of mine. I have always had stories to tell, and have loved talking to people sharing my opinions on the world, and other matters.

It has been hard sharing this with everyone. If its nothing something that is concrete people do not take you seriously. I am sure as some read this, they are saying “Oh he won’t make it. That is a hard industry to crack into.” I have had visions of appearing on talk shows, radio shows, and being a success. Then reality would set in and go “Oh this is not going to happen. Why would a ordinary guy like me from Kansas City be on that level? Get your heads out of the clouds Chris.” Then, I read the chapter from Joyce Meyer’s book called Mind Blowing Spirits. I discovered that Joyce Meyer had similar thoughts and now look at her today.  She suffered from what she calls listening to those “mind blowing spirits”. These spirits allowed caused all types of reasoning and logic to get in the way of what God called for her to do. I know it is hard for some of you to believe, but that is what it is all about. I encourage all of you to pursue your dreams and not just do something to “get paid”. At the end of the day, you are miserable and unhappy, and more importantly unfulfilled. I do not want anyone to feel sorry for me because I am not working a 9-5 job right now. I am doing what I need to be doing. I would not trade this experience or any of my experiences that I have gone through good or bad with anything in this world, it has geared me towards what I know is going to be my greatest success. Please understand, that a job or title does not define who you are. It does not define me. God is working through me. Am I 100% yet, no absolutely not. There are days that I struggle with insecurity and doubt. Those days I just pray harder. I thank God I am not longer 10% anymore. I am better. I encourage all of you to encourage others, even if you do not fully understand what they or doing. It is not for you to understand. When I told a few people about the job loss I got things such as:

“What are you gonna do now?”

“Teaching was you, now what do you do?”

“How are you going to make it?”

“Why aren’t you freaking out?”

It was hard for me at first to hear those things. To be honest, it was the whole reason I did not tell a lot of people for fear of those questions. Now, my answer is “God is gearing me for something bigger and better. If you don’t understand it, I am sorry.” I appreciate the concern, but understand I am doing my best work right now. I think of living to the standards that others have placed on me. Then I think of the Whitney Houston quote (see above) Am I where I need to be financially right now? No, I am struggling. However, I have not gone a day without food, or shelter. God has been providing for me and he will continue to do so. I have some money coming in. I am living a dream, I never thought I would.  When things seem down, and you are at your very lowest, know that God is getting you ready for a breakthrough and you are about to be blessed beyond measure. You just have to trust- I am.

God has begun a good work in me. He will be able to bring it into completion.

Philippians 1:6

Stay tuned…the best is yet to come! J

The Writing’s of Chris Gilrath, II: 

• “Seriously?… Enough Already!” (non-fiction; Self-help)
• Waiting and All It’s Craziness (screenplay/stage play)

·        Wait A Minute!: I’m A Work In P.R.O.G.R.E.S.S (non-fiction; self-help)

• Transformed (novel)

Encouarge Yourself

Encouragement – Pass It On

By Chris L. Gilrath, II

Think about these things? What if Barrack Obama listened to everyone who said, “Being President is hard work. You should not do it.” What if someone told Oprah Winfrey that poor little black girls from the south could never be a television reporter or be on television? What if Tyler Perry listened to the people around him and told him that because of his past his future would be forever tarnished? The message is simple. If these people listened to the haters or negative people in their lives, we would not have 1. The FIRST African-American president of the United States 2. The most powerful person in all of media, 3.The first African-American to own his own movie company.

When you think of someone who comes to you and says that want to be a basketball star, actor, or poet. Think of what your response can do to that person. Think about it. You could be discouraging the next Michael Jordan, Denzel Washington, and Maya Angelou. Often times if is not a 9-5 job, we like to tare down people and say it could never be done. We say things such as “Do you know how many basketball players there are out there?” or “Oh that is such a hard industry to crack into.” Yes, this is true. Are these reasons to not try? No of course not.  A lot of times, people need encouragement from others. Often times, people do not share their dreams out loud because of the excessive reasoning they get from their parents, friends, or other people.

Of course it takes talent and potential to be able to have something to work with. You have to be able to sing to aspire to be a singer. You have to have basketball skills to be able to take it to the next level. However, think about Michael Jordan. He did not start off as the a great basketball player, he had to really work and work at it. How far do you think he would have gotten if he did not have support and encouragement.

Encourage Yourself:

I think a lot of people are happier if you are miserable like they are. If you are not working a 9-5 40 hour per week job in which you come home miserable, you are a “lazy bum”. I think of my pursuits as a writer, screenwriter and motivational speaker. I think about all the time I have invested in working different jobs: banking, retail, education, and customer service. With the exception of education, all of the other jobs made me miserable. I did not like talking on the phone with angry, grouchy customers about their overdraft accounts. That was simply not my bag. Yes, it paid the bills but I was simply miserable. It was not bringing me fulfillment. I taught for a few years, and enjoyed it. However, circumstances came along and took me from teaching, no matter how hard I fought to stay in it. I was angry that I was not teaching but I believe God spoke to me and said “I never said you would be doing this forever.” It was only for a season to prepare you for your next blessing.” It was hard for me to come to this realization. Yet I have. I am grateful for what God has called me to do. He has given me the gift of writing. Sure, not everybody understands what I am doing. I can think particularly to one person in which I shared my pursuits and some of the progress that I had made with the book that I was writing. The person then responded by saying,  “Have you found a job yet.” No encouragement or praise for the good works that I was doing. It was then I realized that not everyone was going to be on board with what I was doing. Again, if it is not a 9-5 job or something that could be explained through excessive reasoning, then it made no sense. I can understand the concern. I understand the fear. Some of the things asked of me were things that I asked myself. Of course. I understand.

However, I think to what I know. I think of all the time, talent, and work that God has invested in me. He would not call me to write if he did not have a great work in store for me.

To all of you who have a dream that does not involve a 9-5. I am not saying quit your job tomorrow and be broke or not have a game plan. What I am saying is that take some time to invest in what you are doing. Really think about it. If you are in a job that makes you miserable, why stay? Life is too short not to do what makes you happy. If you are working in collection agency and you have dreams of being a doctor. Take steps to be a doctor. Do what you have to do to make that happen. 

Encourage yourself. If you have a dream or a goal, do it. If God has birthed a vision in you, do not ignore it by excessive reasoning and logic. If God has a plan for you to do it, there is nothing that man can do to tare it down.