FIND IT, GET IN IT AND STAY THERE

Moms has always told me to pursue my writing, but I just don’t think I'm anything special.  Maybe it’s because I haven’t really seen a lot of growth. And maybe that’s because I'm the one writing and always reading my work and have just become immune to it. But I've always been told I was a good writer. Even in middle school. I remembered in 8^th grade, my teacher trying to find ways for me to be admitted into a high school English class. He felt I wasn’t being challenged with the curriculum. I was always made an example in class too. Teachers were always reading my assignments. Talk about embarrassing, especially if I didn't know. Face red and hot, heart racing smh. People would even walk up to me when we were focusing on poetry in class and try to either borrow something of mine or have me do their assignments for the,. I remember almost an entire week of my sophomore year was shot because my teacher told me I was going to receive a B in class. My first B in English EVER! I was on “I'm pissed. Don’t talk to me.” mode. It broke my teacher’s heart too. And even though every time I write something, people always say they like it and that I'm a good writer, I still don’t see it the way they do.

So, I dove into the Word and it was talking about gifts. I would say it was a coincidence but I know when you look at life from a difference perspective, what seems like coincidence is really God doing what He does best: being Him and setting things up in a way that only He can. First Corinthians 12 (1 Corinthians 12) is all about your gifts, emphasizes on YOURS, not somebody else’s (FYI: if you think the Bible is outdated, you’re not reading it right). Pretty much it breaks down that God gives certain gifts, talents, passions, whatever you want to call it, to the people He chooses to do so. So with that, we have the responsibility to recognize and to use it (this is sounding a lot like my ethics class). It also tells us everybody cannot have the same talent or function because then we would be a bunch of people all doing the same thing and things do not get done properly, fully or effectively if everyone is trying to be like everyone else. It uses the human body as an example. If the whole body was an eye, yes we would be able to see, but we wouldn’t be able to hear, smell, taste or touch. If the whole body was an arm, we would have legs. So, if your talent is something musical, don’t try to change it or ignore it and be like all your athletic friends, or public speaking friends or computer tech friends. Unless it is an interest of yours, then of course try your hand at it, but recognize what your number 1 talent is and use it. You might be a good listener, or good at advice or the only reliable friend that has a car, the only person they can think of that can help them in math or just have great connections and can get them some discount tickets to fly somewhere, I don’t know. Use it for God. Use it to better the world around you.

I remember for the longest I wanted to be a rapper. I was like 13 and I freaking loved Eve. I was like “Imma be like Eve one day.” I wanted to sing too. Thing is, I'm the shyest person ever and can’t write raps and honestly, the only one who likes how I sing other than me is Jesus. But I used to always say if “I could sing, I would be in New York or LA somewhere right now.” But God didn't give me that talent, so I gotta stick to and work at what He has blessed me with: the gift of words.

Basically, what I got out of those 31 verses is that God truly has fearfully and wonderfully made us (psalm 139:14) and that copying people has never been a good idea. When we wish we could do something better just to be like somebody else and began to pursue it (when it was never for us to have), we basically are telling God how He made us wasn’t right or good enough and now we have to fix a few things. Basically, telling a perfect God that He made a mistake. Yeah, okay…no. so find your lane, get in it and stay there. Quit trying to merge over. Our culture is always saying it but we, as well as the culture, is steady trying to create a new being with bits and pieces of everybody else mixed with who and what we already are. That’s not how it works….