Last night, while watching the show #TheResident, there was a scene with a lady who had a device called a ventricular assist device (medical definition – an electromechanical device for assisting cardiac circulation, which is used either to partially or to completely replace the function of a failing heart), a device she’d had for five years. She shows up at the clinic, miles away from their home and over 3 hours away from a hospital and her battery starts to beep and she’d left the replacement ones at home. The problem, if the battery died so would she. The doctors make plans to meet someone with a battery, but it was going to take one and a half hours to get to them. One the ride over, she realizes she may not make it, so she tells her sister all the things she needs her to know, writing passwords and stuff (starring death in the face does that, why can’t we do this anyway but that’s another topic).
If you haven’t watched this episode, stop reading.
They make it to the meeting place and the battery is not there. They begin to tell her what to expect, in dying. She’s okay with it. The doctors walk away, leaving her with her sister to die peacefully and when the battery dies, SHE DOESN’T! See, the machine that had been placed within her to assist her heart, healed her heart but the only way she was able to know this, the battery had to die. The machine that she’d been carrying around for over 5 years had healed her heart and she was still depending on it because she thought it was the only way for her to live.
Why am I sharing this? For somebody who has been carrying around people and things you think you can’t live without. Baby, the only reason you think this is because the battery hasn’t died yet. Yeah, it’s beeped a few times, but you never let it die. Therefore, some of y’all are hanging on to dead relationships, sent to assist you and not keep you but because it’s comfortable, you don’t know if you’ll survive without it. You don’t want to get that divorce because you’re still on your spouse’s insurance and you don’t think you’ll be able to make it without it. That place of ministry, God sent you there for them to assist you, not keep you but you’re afraid of stepping into your calling. That job, it wasn’t meant to be long term but you’re fearful, so God is allowing things to happen because It’s the only way for you to get serious about your purpose.
In the literary world, right now, some authors have lost catalogues of work. I don’t know the full story and I won’t speculate but I’m throwing this in for them. Just maybe God allowed your battery to die (the publishing stuff) to thrust you into the place already prepared that you couldn’t see due to the comfortability. God says, that place was only meant to assist you, not keep you. The battery died, YOU DIDN’T!
Your battery, that thing you’re comfortable with that’s keeping you out of your place, your destiny, your purpose and doing God’s business is dying BUT YOU WON’T. Yes, it’s scary. Yes, it hurts. Yes, you don’t know what’s on the other side but trust God. Stop making plans for the funeral, it’s not your time. Stop preparing to die when God says this is your time to live. That thing, it prepared you, but it must die for you to know you can make it without it. Thank it for the assistance and then let it go.
“Sacrifice thank offerings to God, fulfill your vows to the Most High, and call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me.” Psalm 50:14-15
Lakisha, the Author 