Post By Carla Nelson
There was a time in my life when I was a part of an organization, coordinating their events and I loved it. Calls at any time (morning, day or late at night) would ignite my creativity and I would immediately enter into the initial state of planning to produce the engagement. Then one day I lost the fervor and I couldn’t fathom what was taking place in my life. I asked myself why it was such a challenge to do the same things I had been doing. I couldn’t let go of my role and yet I wasn’t as empowered by the thoughts of what I loved so dearly. My passion for events has always been there but in that particular setting for that particular group the grace had been lifted. SMH (Shaking My Head), I felt lost, the energy I once thrived from had seemingly waned. It was time for a change and deep within I knew this but didn’t want to actually let go and submit to that factor. A slight fear existed; the question of what I was going to do next was present. How else would I use my talent and ability? And for whom? Was this the end? Oh Lord!
Prior to this occurrence, I worked for a major corporation for many years and had come to experience the same loss of zeal for the role in which I was serving. Trying to search out what I should do, I started seeking counsel from others; not always a good idea, it just depends on the mindset of those whom you are talking to. In this case, I was talking to people who didn’t possess the same sort of progressive desires that I did, nor accomplishments that I desired to produce. Not good. So the advice I received from them was to stay on my job; where was I going to find another good job like I had they would say. So their reservations became my reservations and I allowed those thoughts to keep me bound to that job in misery. I could barely get up in the morning. I knew I had a gift and I knew I wanted to launch into a greater level in my life. I just didn’t know how to do it. Had I realized the voice of God in my life and sought Him more for direction than people (those without the same type of passions), God would not have had me ousted from that job (via layoff) to prove His position in my life.
“GOD WILL PROMPT YOU TO DO SOMETHING, BECAUSE OF HIS GRACE, MULTIPLE TIMES TRYING TO HELP YOU GET IT.”
God will prompt you to do something, because of His grace, multiple times trying to help you get it. Yet if you don’t take heed to what He is saying, He will go into taking whatever measures necessary to get the message through to you, so His will may be accomplished in your life and the lives of others.
Okay, well having that initial experience you would think I’d learned the lesson. Yeah okay, I guess not. So I stayed in this role with this organization again in discomfort. I held on to that role pushing and only depriving myself to keep going to fulfill the requirements I had committed myself to. The thing is I was holding the next person who was called to that role back as well. So I was hindering myself and that person too. My, My! I was depressing myself and hindering the next level in my life that God had for me. Nevertheless God is faithful and what the devil means for bad, God will use for your good and He did. For quite a while I continued in the role, suffering in my soul because it was no longer fulfilling the thirst in my spirit. Yet, I began seeking God like never before and now here I am almost 7 years later having feverishly sought out the direction of God for my life, and I am better than I have ever been before in my life. To God be the Glory!
“Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you.”
Matthew 7:7 NLT
Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.
Matthew 6:33 NLT
For a seven year period in my life, I continued on a roller coaster ride; experiencing divorce, layoff, physical health challenges, challenges with my family, financial and ultimately depression because I wouldn’t let go of various things, thinking there was nothing better. When all that time, He had the life I live now in store for me. I was like the children of Israel, who were in the wilderness for forty-years and couldn’t reach the Promised Land because of a mindset.
However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”—the things God has prepared for those who love him.
1 Corinthians 2:9 NIV
I allowed my commitment level and Peter like doubt (Matthew 14:29-31) to hold me hostage, because I didn’t understand that there is a season for everything and that seasons end. I didn’t understand that when you let go of one thing/role that it does not in any way mean that you are not faithful. It does mean that you have accomplished everything you need to in that role, that you are being obedient to God and that you are moving out of someone else’s way. It means that God wants to take you further and it’s time for the next grade so that you can continue to grow and excel. If you repeat the first grade it means you haven’t learned what you were supposed to, but if you have accomplished the objectives, why keep repeating what you’ve already learned when the next grade awaits you so you can build upon the foundation laid by the prior class. It’s when we fight the current that we are taken under by the water and drown, if we let go and stop fighting our body will begin to float right to the top.
And yes there may be struggle in the beginning but we struggle when we first start learning to walk. We fall down and yet we get up and keep trying to walk and the reward is amazing. If Oprah hadn’t recognized the season in her life and let go of her talk show, she might not have the OWN Network now. There would be people who did not hold the jobs they hold with that organization. There would be writers who might not have a career creating shows we are entertained and educated by. These things and more happened because she let go and went after the next level/season in her life.
So through those experiences, I caused myself lots of unnecessary pain. Yet I learned the greatest lesson ever, how to truly listen and hear the Voice of God in my life. I learned how to accept and embrace when He says a season is up.
Let go and let God guide you into knowing when the seasons of your life are changing! We must give something in order to receive, so we have to give up that current grade level in order to enter into the next.
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:
Ecclesiastes 3:1-4 NIV
