ALMOST IS NEVER ENOUGH

*cues Ariana Grande*

“A good heart isn’t strategic enough to take you into your next. A polite goodbye is due.” ”

— Pastor Hardy

Almost Rights are a distraction. What I am saying is: It’s a lack of faith to keep the wrong people around.

It implies you feel God is not sovereign and powerful enough for you to have faith in the unseen that the right people DO exist and WILL come to you. 

You don’t have to settle for “almost right,” simply because worse is… well worse. It’s weak. We must be like Abram… well Abraham and the way he slid on Lot. #Respectfully.

“So Abram said to Lot, “Please let there be no strife between you and me, and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen; for we are brethren. Is not the whole land before you? Please separate from me. If you take the left, then I will go to the right; or, if you go to the right, then I will go to the left.”” Genesis‬ ‭13:8-9‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

While the wrong people are in the right people’s places, the right people can’t come because you will not have the lens to see them or hope for the future that more right people exist. Clinging to people that you know are wrong for you and your purpose is chaotic microdosing.

Your vision will always be too large for the wrong company’s capacity. More plainly, their territory isn’t large enough to support what you say you’re going to do and who you believe you’re being called to become. Considering they cannot do for you or better than you what you are being assigned, do these people choose to come against the reality of it being able to be done at all? Do they place limitations on your humanity and what God has told you? Well, there you have it: they’re the wrong people. God said no Word returns unto Him void, so you WILL and CAN do what He said. Make room for the people assigned to help you steward your vision and purpose.

And you know exactly what wrong people are in your life, several of them have flashed through your mind reading this. But should you be in denial, I’ll help. Instead of coming up to where you are, these people have to bring you down into their visual field. They have to chop you and what you yield into consumable pieces. You know exactly those who you “can’t tell everything to.” If you don’t start letting these folks choke on the full version of you! This reinforces the evident lack of faith necessary to keep certain people around just to “have someone” or because it has “been so long.” Let them go! God did not call you to settle or force things.There will be grief in severing the ties, YES. But do you believe God can restore? His Word says where you do much with little, He will bless you with much. We serve a God of growth, no limitations— so anyone whom limits the love they’ll give you by how much dirt they can get on you to make a connection with them; instead of, how much they can clean up to connect with you— HAS NOT BEEN SENT BY GOD. Love is not hard, humanity is. So anyone starving you of unbridled support, consistency, encouragement, resources, and a safe space for correction and evolving has placed you in inhumane conditions. The “love” they offer is too expensive. Christ already died for it ALL. You do not have to pay for anyone’s love with your peace and self-fulfillment.

The Almost Rights are distractions from God’s best. Resist the desire to settle and deepen your faith. Have faith that you WILL be content walking alone until the Equally Surrendered come to help shoulder your purpose, as you theirs. It’s time to make the right decision and tell the wrong people goodbye. They have a story too, and most assuredly in someone else’s story they will be right for them— this is the “good” part of goodbye. Release them and more importantly, release you. The limitless version of you.

You’re allowed to be happy.

“Experience is the friend of wisdom, but it can be an enemy of faith. ”

— Pastor Steven Furtick

For a year and one week, I avoided writing because I did not know how to minister from prosperity. Which sounds crazy, but as a reformed cynic and pessimist, I truly did not know how to be happy and write about it. And how to not hold my breath while thinking, “it won’t last long, so keep it to yourself.” (sounds full of faith, huh?)

So when I started going through throes again (because I mean “as a man thinks, so is he” Prov 23:7) — I knew the decline was coming; negative begets negative. Again, I did not feel anything I wrote would be from a dynamic perspective “in the middle.” So I found ways at every turn to allow life to happen to me and muzzle my voice. And from this year of undulating faith, trials, and triumphs… I have learned that… for me and others…

---

We have the faith to get through bad situations and see God in our deliverance, but we don’t have the faith to walk out good things. Or believe the God capable of rescuing us, is the same God that can provide us with what we desire the most or beyond what we felt to be fathomable.

I find that it is actually much harder to steward a victory season, you’ve relentlessly prayed for in other seasons, than a wilderness season. It’s hard to accept a win and keep winning at it. Especially when some of that winning is interposed with favor and mercy, and not necessarily your works. It is hard to not question your happiness, your worthiness, your stewardship— and further— His grace, His mercy, and His sovereignty. We, in our humanity reach the point in happiness, where we start looking for culpability (be it in ourselves, circumstances, or others) and for things to reproach. 

It’s because of our experiences. We are supposed to learn in our long-suffering how NOT to mishandle victory. However, we lose long-term faith instead. We make our beds with suffering. We’ve told ourselves if we expect the bad and look for it— it hurts less. We say this behavioral compensation is “wisdom.” And maybe so...in discontinuing things of detriment; but your experiences can trap you in a retrospective lens for an anterograde God. This risk-averse self-governing and avoidance of fallibility is not how you’ll obtain the promise of God. The wilderness prepares you, yes; but you still have The Promise over your life to live out. 

Your life is to end with victory. A victory you’re supposed to have faith will arrive.

Why question it, when it does?

“For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,”
‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭3:14-20‬ ‭NKJV

We are okay with His spirit strengthening our inner man, and through faith having Him dwell in our hearts... the part that seems most difficult is being “rooted and grounded in love, may [we] be able to comprehend with all the saints [the boundlessness of Christ’s love] which passes knowledge and [allows] us to be filled with the fullness of God.” 

You do not need to understand why you were blessed, you just need to steward it accordingly because you asked for it and He provided. He is Jehovah Jireh, Genesis 22:14 “The Lord Will Provide.”

Therefore, to comprehend His omniscience and grace, so that you are freely able to operate within it, you must be rooted and grounded in love FIRST. Before one can even get to the power that works within in us, making way for the fullness of God to be bestowed upon us. 

"This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us." 1 John 5:14

“If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. [...] But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. [...] And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ.”
Colossians ‭3:1-2, 14, 17, 23-24‬ ‭NKJV

“For thus says the LORD: After seventy years [...] I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah‬ ‭29:10-11‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

You can’t have hope in the future God promised to you, if you live your life like your past experiences are your God. There is no such thing as pragmatic faith. You either have faith or you do not. So believe in the life you deserve and that you can and should be walking in victory— afforded to you by Christ’s life. 

You are allowed to be happy. We are allowed to be happy. It is written.

Food for thought: 

1. What kind of roots have your experiences given you that are choking out the love you’re supposed to be grounded in? Unforgiveness? Of past versions of you or others?

2. Why do we believe with ease the bad things that happen to us, but we question the good things— incidentally implying that we deserved the bad? Do you believe for you, what God believes for you?

3. What retrospective lens do you have on a new thing God is trying to do in your present life that reminds you of an old season problem? Are you not a new you? A you that God has graced to lay hold and maintain this time? Do you not trust God’s timing?

Who is using you?

It is time to turn your accessibility into just visibility. You can very well impact people’s lives by the way you live your own, without affording them access to you. Their access to you could become the very distraction that complicates your walk in Purpose. The walk you had before you aligned with people who don’t add to your life is more important, than retracting from your future to build theirs. Ministry in and of itself isn’t diminishing. Charity is love, and love is not monolithic.

Love has so many facets, with just one face— His.

Sometimes love is not allowing people to come to you— so they’ll go to God.

It’s about having the faith that you’ve known darkness and made it into light again; so He can do the same for them without your interference. I am not saying that we must not serve others, we must not serve others without the directive from God to do so.

We must not operate out of our humanity and give it the lens of God working through us.

Especially when the word says:

“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”
Ephesians 6:12 NKJV

Wickedness in a heavenly places could look like a bleeding heart that “just needs your help.” Okay, easy enough right? Where you take off your only band aid, to bandage them up? Now you’ve infected their wound with the pathogens of yours; prolonging their healing AND reexposing your own once more to infection. AND allowing your own wounds to reopen and bleed out. Does the both of you being more impaired look and sound like God is in it? It’s not wrong to help others, it’s wrong to do so from a finite perspective. It’s wrong to heed a inconspicuously selfish desire to be altruistic outwardly to others. Especially, at the expense of you recognizing the humility required to surrender to the idea that: the you today can’t do much to help them, and for them: learning the lesson that you are not an earthly god for them. Rest in the knowing that God will provide for you both.

The remaining scripture says…

“Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints— and for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.” ‭‭‬
Ephesians‬ ‭6:13-20 NKJV

This is important because He will appoint the time where you will exalt His name and take authority over the healing of others without them having access to you. Just visibility. An earthly vessel for His ethereal works. When we choose to do things without the voice of God to guide us, it isn’t always the devil attacking us for our well-doings. In fact. the devil may actually be trying to reward you with “warm feelings” and smug satisfaction to clout you from acknowledging your disobedience. While you do what you feel you should be doing you can’t hear what you’re being told to do, and what you should be doing evades you longer.

“It is possible to be successful without God being at the center of your success. ”

— Pastor LaBryant Friend

I actually think it’s EASIER to achieve success without God, when you have worldly stock and an ally to make you feel like “God is doing this.” Especially when we know we haven’t talked to God and we’re operating on autopilot. It’s like... if God says everyday you walk by a homeless person “feed them” but on the fifth day you just do it. You just assumed that is what He would want you to do, and on the 365th day you decide you’ll open a homeless shelter. And you’re so, so proud. Did God give you that directive? Did you hear His voice? Do you even recall if He has said anything recently? We do this in so many things in our lives. We get this bicycle push off from God and instead of staying close to Him letting Him guide and teach us... we get excited.. we lurch ahead... we’re peddling and peddling, but now we’re on rough terrain or we don’t quite no how to brake yet or worse we fall on rocky ground and hurt ourselves now we’re scared to get back on. We’re “upset and disappointed” with God that WE LEFT HIM. We get wounded because we didn’t stay connected. We leave God behind. We choose a “good life,” and not a God-potential life. 

In Isaiah, it reads:

“Woe to the rebellious children,” says the LORD, “Who take counsel, but not of Me, And who devise plans, but not of My Spirit, That they may add sin to sin; Who walk to go down to Egypt, And have not asked My advice, To strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, And to trust in the shadow of Egypt! Therefore the strength of Pharaoh Shall be your shame, And trust in the shadow of Egypt Shall be your humiliation.”‭‭
Isaiah‬ ‭30:1-3‬ ‭NKJV

But WAIT, because God is sovereign...

“Therefore the LORD will wait, that He may be gracious to you; And therefore He will be exalted, that He may have mercy on you. For the LORD is a God of justice; Blessed are all those who wait for Him. For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem; You shall weep no more. He will be very gracious to you at the sound of your cry; When He hears it, He will answer you. And though the Lord gives you The bread of adversity and the water of affliction, Yet your teachers will not be moved into a corner anymore, But your eyes shall see your teachers. Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” Whenever you turn to the right hand Or whenever you turn to the left. You will also defile the covering of your images of silver, And the ornament of your molded images of gold. You will throw them away as an unclean thing; You will say to them, “Get away!” Then He will give the rain for your seed With which you sow the ground, And bread of the increase of the earth; It will be fat and plentiful. In that day your cattle will feed In large pastures. Likewise the oxen and the young donkeys that work the ground Will eat cured fodder, Which has been winnowed with the shovel and fan. There will be on every high mountain And on every high hill Rivers and streams of waters, In the day of the great slaughter, When the towers fall. Moreover the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, And the light of the sun will be sevenfold, As the light of seven days, In the day that the LORD binds up the bruise of His people And heals the stroke of their wound.”‭‭
Isaiah‬ ‭30:18-26‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

I know, I know; that was a lot. But I am not sorry because it was necessary. Sometimes it’s God serving us our bad seasons based on our decisions to do “good” things He didn’t call us to. We know what bad things beget us, which is why I made no mention of them. We avoid bad things well. But hear me: It doesn’t have to be “bad,” to be damaging.

At some point, we have to get off our high horse and recognize that doing “something with good intent” is not what we’re being called to do. We’re being called to walk a specific walk— one full of obedience and submission.

What if the fullness of your ministry is to bring people into the fold by your very obedience and suppression to anything that makes you take your eyes off God? What if that’s just it and you’ve been “doing right” wrong all this time? It’s time to tap into who is using you— God, you, or them?

Sustaining and Maintaining

“You can’t have your cake and eat it too. ”

— American Idiom

I hateeeeee this old age adage. However, everything that touches us experientially we should use, which is why each entry will be riddled with quotes and excerpts from others. Wisdom lies in application, not the accrument of knowledge.

This super whack idiom made sense to me on a late NYC walk: if you only worship the cake’s beauty, you can’t consume it. You can’t let it inside, you can’t be jubilant about its taste, or embrace the moment. And if you decide to eat the cake, to enjoy it for its full intent and purpose because it was made for you or shared with you— then you have to release the moment once it’s gone. You can’t get it back. You can’t recreate exactly how it looked or tasted; it’s apart of you now and its gone. So let’s go back to not eating it... food rots (or gets freezer burnt), choosing to prolong your worship and not eating it— still leads to you ultimately losing it.

This is how we are about our blessings. 

You lose what you prayed for the moment you forgot Whom you pray to— to get it.

How can you maintain something you idolize? If it is an idol, is it not exalted above you? Something you desire ascend into or aspire to maintain its appearance? How are you going to maintain it and sustain the you in possession of it— if you don’t believe it should be yours without worship? Are you... so far from being deserving, that you’re shocked that you are blessed in the very ways you ask?  What does that say about you? Your internal lens of yourself? Is that healthy?

What does it convey that your lifestyle and mentality have not grown to accommodate the blessings you have? That you’re abusing grace? That your gratitude is superficial? How much anxiety does it cause to think any more days spent with it not together you could lose it? Could this be why we worship our blessings? Worship to supplement worthiness?

Are you internally whom you should be to externally maintain your blessings? Do you believe you deserve them? Or at least on the backend will earn their place in your life? How frequently do you forget the blessER sustaining you when you receive your blessings? Do you still have that same adulation when your new car blessing becomes the burdening car note? What about after an accident? Or how about the fervent prayers to get into a school and affording it— during finals week or a term paper? What about desperately seeking a job/career but keeping that same energy with a crappy boss and coworkers? What about when that companion/spouse disagrees with you? Doesn’t move in love towards you when they’re having a bad day?  

The blessings of today become the burdens of tomorrow, because we forget that REsources are a reflection of The Source. When you’re caught up in treating all your resources like separate Sources— you’re drained to maintain them all. Ultimately, your blessings should be RE-routing you to the Source of your  sustanence and their maintenance. 

You have to ingest the blessings, because you know you’re the person or becoming the person who reflects having them. You can not become so tightly tethered to worshipping them simply because you know they could be gone any day that you have not stepped up. OR your faith is so little that you genuinely believe there are no more to come. Both viewpoints are problematic.

You have to “eat the cake,” because that’s the truest testament to faith and reflection of self growth. You can’t fixate on the cake’s beauty, and you have to believe... no! You have to have faith—more will come from, where that came from. You have to believe IN YOU, that YOU will beget what YOU feel YOU deserve. You will lose what you worship because you’ve already lost yourself to it. You will always win when you become the person worthy of your blessings and remain mindful of whom your Baker is.

So go ahead, EAT THE CAKE! 

Perspective

“A person’s perception is THEIR reality. ”

— Senior Philosophy Thesis, Jordan Hall, My Morehouse Brother

It took me most of undergrad to learn: people can only meet you as deeply as they have met themselves and they only understand at their own level of perception. Perception is such a large component of life. I know, I know, perception is relative but that is my point exactly. A person's stance on whether or not they are right or wrong regarding a scenario depends on who they are CURRENTLY as a person, and every other fleeting circumstance that could play a factor in why they have chosen their side.

If time were frozen while a homeless person and a someone else were exchanging money: two perceptions could be obtained. 

1. "Omg! How nice that nice young man is giving back to the less fortunate." (a positive viewpoint)

2. "Someone call the cops! This guy is being mugged by a hobo!" (a negative viewpoint)

Understand that this ONE situation, was seen differently by TWO different people. Two totally different perceptions, but for each person viewing the scenario that was THEIR reality and THEIR response. This point alone is important because what they see in others is a reflection of what they see in themselves. So if they saw negative, likely they are pessimistic in character, etc. Who they are may not be where you are in your person, so that governs why you see things differently than them. This is where you need patience, because you HAVE to allow for people's humanity. You have to shine light in their dark places no matter how tiring it becomes. 

Actuality exists, yes, but it's mythical. We, as humans, are not conscious enough and do not take everything into account in every single moment of our lives to get the actuality of things. We think in absolutes, which is not fair to situations that are not black and white. This alone should change how you navigate a situation henceforth in life. Every battle is not a battle worth fighting, because you do not know what the reality of the other person is. Ever. 

That is not to say you should excuse upset when it arises, but it is to say you could be less selfish. We are all born naturally selfish; survival of the fittest mentality is innate. However, regardless of how you view a situation, it will not be parallel to the way the next person will view such. What is that person going through? Who is this person, in their entirety? IF there is even a right or wrong side, people whom agree won't always state the very same attributes as to why they have chosen that side of the argument. But if it is a battle worth pursuing, don't just gear up to have a standoff with enemy lines demarcated; gear up to love someone into a new level. Strangers and loved ones, alike.

You have to get off the soapbox... You just have to. The whole "I am allowed to be mad..." viewpoint will not make the other person see the error of their ways; it also won't offer up a solution to your problem. Furthermore, have you considered the other person's circumstances RIGHT there in THAT moment? Or is your reality just... "more important" right now? 

Ask yourself: 
Did they have a bad day? What kind of stress is on their plate? Do I understand why they feel themselves to be right in the wrong? Could I ask them to clarify what they're thinking/doing? Am I expressing mature vulnerability regarding my own emotions? Am I being humble and just? Am I communicating effectively? Am I being condescending? Am I belittling?
Am I moving in love?

AM I MOVING IN LOVE? 

Are you moving in love? That's the most important question here, hence it being stated three times. When you are correcting someone THROUGH LOVE, it is edification. Edification is the instruction or improvement of a person morally or intellectually. There is a scenario where you can very well handle a situation where you ARE right about what you feel but you've handled it all wrong. So ask yourself not in hindsight, but in the moment: How can I convey love through disagreeing with the actions of another? How can I through love make someone perceive the reality I have? How can I through love help someone displace their own druthers (a person's preference in a matter) and be empathetic to me?