PASSION, PURPOSE & PROVISION: Bank on Yourself

Written for & Featured on the Sacred Desk

If you've been reading my entries to The Sacred Desk as of late, you know before getting you into the Word, I kind of like to explain how it pertains to my personal experiences in life that way you can hopefully apply it in a similar fashion. So here's another one for you, fam:

I grew up in a small town on Long Island, N.Y. A lot of people wouldn't be able to pin point it on a map, let alone have heard of it. It was a working class town, some affluent people lived there while I was growing up as they chose to raise their children in an area a lot quieter than the city, but also still very humble and a lot less flashy than the northern suburbs of Long Island. Growing up in my small town, I knew I wanted to be something great....but I wasn't actually sure what I'd be.

My parents are both creatives in their own right, and we had a pretty eclectic home, with very artistic experiences. So when I got into high school and started exploring my skill in writing, photography, and production, I wasn't quite surprised. I had found a deep passion for media...but I may have been a bit apprehensive about how exactly I would start a career with it. 

There weren't a lot of young women, yet alone young women of color, exploring media & production at the time I was in high school. Representation was also low in main stream media. Quite frankly the only woman of color I remember at the time doing what I could've foreseen myself doing was Suzanne de Passe (Sister, Sister, Smart Guy, Showtime at the Apollo, Motown 25, The Temptations) and she was about it.

One night when I was maybe a junior or so in high school, my dad took my sister and I on a random ride to this hole in the wall dumpling spot in Brooklyn. We parked outside and I remember dreaming with my dad–we talked about what I wanted for my future. I told him I wanted to be a producer. I knew this newly acknowledged and confessed dream wouldn't be limited to just television news or programming, but that's what I wanted and I finally felt like I discovered my purpose. And he told me I could do it. I wrote my first play in my dad's apartment that following summer I believe. And it's been a journey ever since.

In a world where everyone is trying to be like someone else, I believe it's a disservice to the gifts that God has given us to not develop our gifts and accept their peculiarity for what they really are--unique. There may be 100 amazing singers and you may be one of them, but what makes you stand out is that those 99 other singers aren't YOU. God's given every single one of us a gift/gifts, and some of us have a similar gift, but no two gifts are exactly the same. And sometimes it's hard to see that.

In a time where everyone has a camera or calls themselves a producer of some sort, it can get kind of discouraging at times to truly believe that someone will actually take a chance on you. Well, I learned I had to be the first one to take a chance on myself when I moved out of my mom's house at the young age of 21.

I moved out because I knew if I stayed in Long Island, I'd be limited. I would be too comfortable and therefore, probably would've never challenged myself to think BIGGER. So I moved to DC and then more recently to the outskirts of Maryland, where I got a job at a small market station. It's not a New York market, but it's where New York dreams are put into practice, tried, revised, and perfected. I got my first job as a producer in this small market at 23, fresh out of grad school. And I can say sometimes God takes you to unfamiliar places to birth purpose for your passion, and where He births purpose for that passion, He will most certainly provide. As my old pastor used to say, 

"God provides PROVISION for the Vision."

I've witnessed that.

In April of 2017, I started working on a docu-special with my news station. It was THE BIGGEST project I had worked on in my life. There were times I wasn't sure if I was capable of doing it because I was still relatively new at my station and if I'm being honest, SUPER INEXPERIENCED (read: I BARELY KNEW WHAT I WAS DOING!). But I knew that I had passion and that meant I had a purpose...and lo and behold, God provided by helping me and allotting me the opportunity to perfect my skillset to produce an amazing project with some other super talented individuals.

I'm not sure when but during that journey of making that docu-special, I wrote down on a Post-It, "2017 Goal: WIN AN EMMY," (those are like the Oscars of news & television programming). Not just get nominated, but WIN one--PASSION.

A few weeks ago, I found out I was nominated--PURPOSE.
Last night, I won an Emmy--PROVISION.
How do I feel about that? 

INSANE, of course. I told you I'm from a small town...and things like this don't happen too often out of that small town.

But what I find even more insane is the power of PASSION, PURPOSE, and PROVISION.

Since the time I was a teenager, I knew I had a passion to change the world through media and production, and it may have taken a few things to kick start my skills, but eventually I found my passion and that led to provision being made almost instantaneously. 

When you choose to take a chance on your passion, pursue your purpose, and adhere to the provision, you're able to Bank on Yourself.

Well, what does that mean, Nic?

Banking on yourself is believing and trusting that passion that God has placed inside of you isn't just a cool hobby, it isn't just a really cool skill. It is the purpose that He has bestowed upon you to change the world and to use for His glory. And when you take heed to that passion and accept its purpose, He provides for it!

One of my mentors used to remind me when I was getting discouraged in college,

"As God guides, He empowers and provides."

And it's true.

Eyes have not seen, ears have not heard, nor has the mind of a human being been able to conceive the things that the Lord has prepared for those who love Him (1 Corinthians 2:9).

The plan that God has for your life is unfathomable, but He has one. The call on your life may be one you didn't want because you don't think you're equipped for it, but He called you. That hobby you've given up on that everyone was doubting isn't just a hobby--God wants to use it, but you have to trust Him to provide opportunity for it.

Bank on Yourself.

If there's anything I can tell you that I know for sure outside of the power of passion, purpose, and provision is that when you write down the vision--the passion God's placed on your heart--and you expand on it, you command the universe to work hand in hand with you and for you.

One of my favorite scriptures is Habakkuk 2:2-3 and it says, "Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables...for the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry."

When we are in order and in alignment with God's purpose and plan for us, we allow the power He's bestowed upon us to be used accordingly, meaning we have the power to call things into existence as did our Heavenly Father.

So,
DISCOVER your passion,
PURSUE your purpose,
ACCEPT your provisions...and Bank on Yourself!

It may take time for your vision to come into fruition, but no vision is too crazy, no talent is too small; trust and use what God has given you and watch Him see you through it.

Have faith & Bank of Yourself, fam.
xo, Nic.