What Must You Let Go Of to be Free to Be What God is Calling You TO BE?

“Whatever stands in the way of the complete and full surrender, we must search it out and remove it. If a bad relationship is a hinderance, one must clean it up. In other words, whatever roadblocks appear, the individual must remove them. The yielding of the nerve center of one’s consent is a private, personal act in which the human being, as sovereign, say Yes.” 

Howard Thurman Disciplines of the Spirit p. 19

Mark 9:43-48

⁴³ If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. ⁴⁵ And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell.^{,  47} And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell, ⁴⁸ where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched. 

What is causing you to stumble?

What is holding you back? 

What is in your way? 

What must you let go of, get rid of or dismiss so that you can live your vision for your life?

In life we collect people, relationships, habits, even jobs that get in the way of what we really want to do. Yes, I said what we really want to do. God expresses God’s will for our lives through that which we desire. God actually gives you the desire to desire. God puts desire in your heart for those things God has prepared for you and prepared you for.

That thing you want to do is from God. That thing you were created to do and yearn to do is from God. When we let things get in the way of what God has for us we are living a life beneath that which God has prepared for us. We acquiesce to a life that is satisfying others and not God or ourselves. We have to have he courage to dismiss those things which are holding us back. It may feel like we have cut our hand or foot off but if need be do so.  It may mean quitting a job, ending a relationship or walking away from somewhere you have lived literally or figuratively but you must walk away.

As Thurman says, “…we must remove them.” What is it you must remove? It is going to be painful and you are going to be misunderstood by some for the decisions you make but you have the sovereignty to make these decisions. In making these decisions your are saying yes to God, your dreams and God given desires. 

You have to surrender to you and that which you want to do. We think we need to feel some rush of the Spirit to know that which God is calling us to and I would argue God speaks to your hearts and minds via that which we desire. Simply be honest with yourself about what you want because “that want” is God speaking to you. Be honest with yourself about what you want. Take an inventory of your life and get rid of that which is hindering you, getting in your way and remove it so that you can live your YES!

Blessings,

Ralph Basui Watkins

The Creative Calling Series #3: The Energy Source for Life: Living the Abundant Life

The Energy Source for Life: Living the Abundant Life

“When a man (woman) is able to bring to bear upon a single purpose all the powers of his (her) being, his (her) whole life is energized and vitalized.”

Howard Thurman Disciplines of the Spirit p. 19

Thurman calls on us to find that purpose, that thing that calls us, consumes us, inspires us and gives us life.  That thing that gives us life will sustain our life. That thing that gives us life will fuel our life and give us the will to go on in the midst of struggle and hard-times. 

That thing, that thing you do. That thing you enjoying doing.  That thing you do so well that people will pay for it. That thing that comes natural to you even though you have developed it. That thing that you go to bed thinking about and wake up doing. That thing you can talk about all day and never tire. That thing you read about, watch YouTube videos about, that thing that fills up your Facebook timeline, Instagram and Twitter feed.  That is the thing that Thurman is talking about, that thing that gives you abundant life. 

John 10:10 

The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows). The Amplified Bible

John 10:10

 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.  NRSV

To have the abundant life that Jesus talks about we have to find that thing that give us life. Jesus came to show us the light as he was the light. Jesus came to shed light on darkness. We are in the dark when we are doing things for a living that don’t give us life. We are in the darkness when we are doing things to pay the bills that extract life out of us. If paying the bills is killing us we will die paying bills. To live the abundant life means we have found that thing that we can bring all our powers to and that thing gives us power.

To have the abundant life is to have a life filled with that which gives you life and light. It takes work to find that thing(s). You have to try stuff, be willing to fail, be willing to start and stop, be willing to quit and restart, be retrained, change careers and possibly start over (again and again).  We have to be honest with ourselves about what we want and then be willing to pay the price to get it. 

The thief is the thing(s) we do that suck the life out of us. The things that bring us down and makes our lives dark. These things steal our hope, they steal our joy and are thus they are evil in the sense that they drain us. They don’t sustain us. We can sometimes find ourselves in careers, jobs, relationships or majors in college that are stealing from us.  If we continue to do that thing(s) we are complicit in the crime of theft. The thing we are stealing is the abundant life that Jesus came to offer. Do want the abundant life? What are you willing to do to make your life more abundant? 

Blessings,

Ralph Basui Watkins

Ralph Basui Watkins, MFA, PhD

“The scholar with a camera!”

Five Minute Inspiration with Dr. Ralph Basui Watkins: What is God calli...

The Creative Calling Series #1 Navigating the Turns in Life: Four Essential Questions

The Creative Calling Series #1:

Navigating the Turns in Life: Four Essential Questions

I am often asked by people questions like this: How did you know to do such and such at that point in your career? I often failed in answering that question. I have historically talked about my passion, sense of call and my willingness to act on what iI thought was next for me?  Let me try to answer that question in this series The Creative Calling:

The book that has guided me throughout my life has been Howard Thurman’s Disciplines of the Spirit.  This book has been the most influential book I have ever read.  In the first chapter Thurman gives us three questions, I added a fourth, that has been the central questions I have asked myself at each juncture in my life’s journey:

1. Who am I?
2. What do I want?
3. How do I propose to get it?

When you sit with these questions, and don’t run pass them, they give you pause. You have to think and reflect deeply.  It is not about what others expect of me.  It is not what they call me.  It is not what I have accomplished but rather, at my core, who am I?  The question is not what I do but rather the question is who am I?

What do you want? Not what others want from you. Not what others expect from you. Not what others need from you but what do you want?

How are you going to get what you want, what you want out of this one life you have to live? This life that is passing each and everyday.  This life we live that we can’t stop the clock on. Each and everyday our life gets shorter as we get yet closer to the end of life. How are you going to use the time you have to get what you want?

Now let me add the fourth question that has guided me:

4. What do you want to create?

As a creative, my writing, photography, teaching, videography and other creative pursuits drive me and give me life.  I enjoy creating, it is in the creating that I honor what the creator put in me.  By creating I honor the gifts and call that God placed on my life while I was in my mother’s womb.  I have to create and I have ask what I want to create and then structure my life to create that which I am called to create.

To structure my life to create that which I am called to create at this point in my life requires I say no to somethings, that I change my life, I let somethings go so that I am free to grow. What do you need to let go of in order to grow? 

I offer these four questions to you.  Take time to answer them through prayer, mediation and deep reflection and let the answers guide your next faithful step.  You only have to take the next step on the journey, one step at a time.  Take the step!

Blessings,

Ralph Basui Watkins, MFA, PhD

“The scholar with a camera!”

The Creative Calling Series #2 : What Is God Making of YOU?

My favorite scripture is Mark 1:16-17

¹⁶ As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. 

¹⁷ And Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.”

 ¹⁸ And immediately they left their nets and followed him. NRSV

What I love about this text is that they had a faith to follow and let God make them.

They left their old life for a new life.  They left what they had to get what God had for them.  

They weren’t promised stuff, they weren’t promised riches or fame.  They were promised if you follow me, I will make you.

God is always making us, forming us and calling us but we have to let go of what we were, what we have and who we have been to be what God is calling us to be.

We have be still and know that God is God and God isn’t through making us.  Where is God taking you and what does God want to make of you?

This text is clear, we can’t be made if we will not go. We can’t be made if we will not follow?  We can’t be made if we are not willing to let go of yesterday for the promise of tomorrow!  

What is God calling you to leave, give up, move on and become what God has prepared for you?

What is God making of YOU?

Blessings,

Ralph Basui Watkins, MFA, PhD

“The scholar with a camera!”