You ever have a mind-blowing conversation? Like the type of conversation that rocks you and leaves you wondering, "Who sent you and how did you know that?" Like the type of conversation you randomly enter but somehow end up in a dialogue so profound it leaves you speechless? That kind of conversation.
Well I had one of those conversations on Sunday.
On this particular Sunday, I entered church and I noticed one of my brothers-in-Christ that I haven't spoken to in a while. He's the homie and when we talk, we always have good chats so I went over to him to say hello. Little did I know this hello would turn into an existential challenge on life and career that would leave me reeling:
“If you could do anything, what would it be?”
Proceeds to answer.
“Okay, so what’s stopping you from doing that?”
Proceeds to offer a list of excuses of all the reasons I can’t do that thing.
“Hmm, okay. So basically nothing. So then what’s actually stopping you?”
Pauses to reflect: fear. “Fear is what’s stopping me.”
“Hmm, sounds about right.”
And scene.
Yeah, he basically conversationally gut-punched me and in so few words told me to get my life. With just one question, and a persistence to not accept my trite, rehearsed answers, this brother challenged me to honestly face where I am and what’s keeping me back from where I want to be.
Fear. It’s all fear:
What if it doesn’t work?
What if I’m wrong?
What if, what if, what if, what if? I’m filled with so many fear-filled questions, but this short, profound conversation reminded me that God has not given us a spirit of fear but of love and of power and of a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7). So if that’s all true, I do have to echo my brother’s question, “What is actually stopping me?” And if fear is the only thing, and that’s not something God has given me, then the answer is actually, “Nothing.” Nothing is stopping me because if God be for me, who can be against me (Romans 8:31). Even fear.
Hmm, sounds about right.
So I offer you the same question that rocked my world, “What is actually stopping you?” And I hope it impacts you as profoundly as it did me.
Lourdes Anita