Show Notes
You HAVE to be specific and honest with yourself when it comes to where you want to go and be willing to honestly assess where you are. That way you know where you need to go a lot more efficiently.
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Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Most of the time, we don't want to do the very thing that we need to get to the next level. What is that? Find out right after this.
[00:00:33] Everyone, welcome to shifts and ladders. You know, it's Ryan. Excited that you were able to join me today. We are going through a journey or process right now. We're talking about, really when we're looking to clarify goals and visions that God has given us. There are some things that we really have to do. First of all, we need to define what is it that we want. The other part is defining why we really want it. And then the next piece, which we're going to talk about today, is assessing where we are. Okay?
[00:01:15] It's really hard to navigate where we are to where we want to be.
[00:01:23] And the challenge with that is you got to be really, really honest with yourself. There's points where we talk about. We talked about early on when we define what we want. That's really cool. It's very lofty. It can be. And again, it's your dreams. It's the visions that God has put into your heart. But the next reason right after that is why do you want it? And you have to be honest with yourself as to why you want what you say you want. But the next part, I would say part two of that, is assessing where you are in relation to what you want and why.
[00:02:04] The hard part about it is you may be way off, you may be far, you may be close. You really don't know unless you actually look at your surroundings and determine where am I according to where I say I want to be.
[00:02:27] No one usually sets a goal without being specific on what you actually want out of it. So give me. Let me give you an example.
[00:02:38] You know, I think this is just. I use losing weight often because it's probably the easiest and probably the most relatable topic that we can have to this.
[00:02:49] Excuse me. It's the most relatable topic because we always are trying to measure where we are in relation to our goal.
[00:02:59] So if I say I want to lose weight, that is a great goal, but it's not specific enough. Are we talking one pound?
[00:03:11] Are we talking 20 pounds?
[00:03:13] Are we talking 50 pounds? What? What are we talking about? Because everyone has a definition of what they want, but where are you in relation to that goal?
[00:03:31] Again, this is a very honest piece of this, where you have to be, okay, saying, I'm about 20 or 30 pounds away from what I actually want to do and who I want to be, whether I want to save a certain amount of money. I'm this far away from that goal now. It can be very debilitating or very not encouraging at all, where you could actually get really down as to how far you are from where you say you want to be. Allergies, God, crazy. But what's important about this, guys, is that if you don't determine where you are, you'll never get to where you need to go. You'll actually either overshoot it or undershoot it because you didn't clarify where you are in relation to that goal. So I'm gonna use the Bible.
[00:04:28] As you all know, the Bible is my. Is the guide for life with principles, prayers, and precepts that you can use to be able to determine how to live your life better.
[00:04:44] And in the beginning of Genesis, the book of. That's in the beginning, the first book of the Bible, Genesis, there is a very poignant question.
[00:04:54] In fact, it's the first question that God asks Adam. Now, this particular piece in Genesis chapter three, we. This is after God created the earth, and then he created Adam and formed Adam and blew into his nostrils the breath of life. And then I, he put into a deep sleep, and then he made Adam from his rib formed Eve.
[00:05:23] And, you know, Adam and Eve are in the garden. And the crazy thing about this is they are in relationship with God. They're able to eat of every tree in the garden of Eden except the tree of the knowledge of good, of good and evil. It's the only tree they're supposed to eat from. They're not supposed to eat from. Excuse me, but they have every tree, okay? And unfortunately, we find ourselves in Genesis chapter three, where they have actually disobeyed God, and Adam partook into the food or took into the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. And the Bible says that their eyes were open, okay? And that they saw their nakedness and did what they do did, too. So fig leaves together to cover up their nakedness. Okay? So let's do Genesis chapter three, and then we'll be going to verse.
[00:06:31] Let's start at verse eight. So verse eight says, and they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him, where art thou, man? That is the King James version. Let me go to the.
[00:07:02] Let me go to the new king James James version so that it can be a little bit easier for us. To digest, because there's a lot of these dows. Even though I was brought up on this, on the King James version, I think it's usually. It reads a little better than new King James.
[00:07:22] Okay, here we go. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, where are you? And he said, I heard your voice in the garden. And I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself.
[00:07:47] And he said, who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I have commanded you that you should not eat? The biggest thing that we find God doing here in this first in the scripture is after they have eaten of the tree, God and this thing. God knows something happened, okay? God is all knowing. He knows the beginning, from the end. He knows literally the insides, the outsides, the all around, the things that he knows what's happening. So when God asks a question, and we talked about this earlier, when Jesus asked, blind Bartimaeus. Blind Bartimaeus. Oh, my God.
[00:08:39] What do you want?
[00:08:42] It's not that God doesn't know. It's not that Jesus doesn't know. He wants to know if you know where you are or what you want. I should say now, in this same case, because we believe that Jesus is God made flesh, where is the first pattern of God asking questions? It's in the beginning.
[00:09:05] And the first question that God asked Adam is, do you know where you are?
[00:09:12] And God already knows the answer.
[00:09:14] He's just wanting Adam to recognize where he is. Okay. And in this case, there had been a severing of relationship between himself and God that was established but was broken because of disobedience, because of sin. Okay? So it's so important to know that you must know where you are.
[00:09:42] And God usually puts this mirror up and says, hey, do you know where you are? I know where you are, but I need you to know where you are. Not only do I need to know where you are, he the next person. Next thing he says, who told you?
[00:09:59] All of these are questions that happen when you're disconnected from where you're supposed to be if you haven't been in trouble as a child. These are the questions. Where are you? Who told you?
[00:10:14] Who told you this that you shouldn't have known because I didn't tell you. And where are you? Because your butt should be somewhere else.
[00:10:22] Shout out to everyone who did not get in the house on time when they were supposed to be when they were younger. Okay?
[00:10:31] So all of these questions, where are you?
[00:10:36] Who told you? Has everything to do with where you are and assessing your current environment, okay?
[00:10:48] Now, the thing is, you will never know how far or how close you are unless you take the time to assess where you are. Okay? And this is the thing.
[00:11:00] And this is the part that happens. The time. And unfortunately, this is the first after the, um, the fall of which is called in the Bible, the fall. There is responses to the questions that happen. Okay, where you are. Adam is able to give a very accurate description as to where he is. Right? He says, um, I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked and I hit myself. That's where I am. I'm hiding stuff. Okay? Then he says, who told you you're naked?
[00:11:43] And have you eaten from the tree, which I commanded you not to eat?
[00:11:47] And the thing is, he doesn't even answer the question.
[00:11:51] He says, the woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave of the tree. She gave me of the tree, and I ate. Okay? Now, this is the thing that is not what God asked, okay? So he asked him, who told you you were naked?
[00:12:20] He should have just said, no one did.
[00:12:23] My eyes were open.
[00:12:26] But instead of taking responsibility, the first thing we see is Adam deflecting blame on something that he should have and needed to control but allowed something to happen. Okay, and not control Eve. Let me make sure I'm clear on that. There are circumstances by which Adam was given the instruction. Therefore, he should have been able to say, you know what? God didn't say? We can eat that one. Like, why are you. Because the thing is, if he. If Eve handed it to him, that means he was right there watching the whole time. Okay? So the thing is, we have to understand the proximity, because right now, he didn't say, well, Adam walked up, and then there are just. Just be practical here. He was right there. He watched the whole thing go down. He didn't. He did not intervene at all. Okay? He did not. Correct. He did not provide any context or. Or share any insight. But instead of taking responsibility, he deflected responsibility to someone who did not have any insight as to what they should and should not be doing. Okay? And it's like when you tell your kid, and you have two kids, okay?
[00:13:49] And if it would be as if Emory, who knew not to turn the lights on in the basement to green, right? She comes downstairs, turns the lights to Green, and then Gabriel, who is my youngest, who's two, comes down, and he's just, like, walking around, enjoying the green light.
[00:14:17] And the thing is, is then it's like, I'm like, emery, why are the lights green so well, Gabriel turned the lights on. Gabriel ain't got no words.
[00:14:26] He says hi. Bye.
[00:14:28] He does that to say he loves you or kisses goodbye. He. He doesn't have the language to be able to be responsible for something that I commanded him to do. I can tell him no, but he does not have the language to articulate lights green and tell Siri to turn the lights green in the basement. He does not have that capability now that I haven't taught him is that he's not.
[00:14:58] He does not have the ability to do that yet. So my daughter's held responsible even though Gabriel's down here doing his dancing, enjoying the green light in the basement. Okay.
[00:15:11] But this is the key to today, okay, that I need to make sure everybody gets.
[00:15:18] We need to take responsibility as to where we are, because a lot of times this, we are the reason we are where we are. Okay? There's a saying that is said when we are born, we grow up looking like our parents, but when we get older, we begin to look like our decisions.
[00:15:47] Yeah.
[00:15:49] Everything that has come up to this point has been a response to the small decisions that we have made compounded over time. So if you're not where you want to be, it is because you not have, because you have not taken responsibility on certain areas. And, yes, there are circumstances, situations, and challenges that have kept you from living the thing and achieving the dream that you said that you want to have. But depends. But this is it. Let me say this piece. It depends on how bad you wanted it.
[00:16:27] How bad did you really want it, but also, how far are you from it.
[00:16:36] We have to be real with ourselves, and this is the gift that we give ourselves all the time, is how honest are we about where we are and where we want to be.
[00:16:51] And then we got to get to work.
[00:16:53] We've got to get to work.
[00:16:56] I just really challenge everyone who's going through and assessing where they are. You can really get down on yourself. Really.
[00:17:06] You can beat yourself up, because in the past, you've made decisions that have gotten you into this place. We all have done something. You mess, you may have mismanaged money, you've mismanaged relationships, you mismanaged your career, you may not have put in a lot of effort into your career or whatever. In cases, it is what it is.
[00:17:29] You are where you are. But you do, at this moment, have the ability to change trajectory, shift direction, and go a different path. Okay? So do not beat yourself up, but instead pivot yourself so that you can start making compounded decisions that get you and garner a vision and an outcome that you actually desire. But you have to be real with where you are, not just why you want it, but be honest as to where you are.
[00:18:05] And now you can see how far I am from said go and what do I need to do to get to it? And then also determine what do I need to remove out of my life because I'm getting into the next piece. Goodness gracious. Now I need to understand, what do I need to remove from my life that can expedite and get me to where I need to be.
[00:18:31] But you have to be able to take the responsibility to say, I am not going to take this in my life anymore.
[00:18:38] I can't blame anyone else for the life I'm living. It's my life. It's your life.
[00:18:46] Let's take responsibility for the life that God has given us. We only have one.
[00:18:52] So what are you going to do? Are we going to continue to blame someone for where we are? Or are we going to take responsibility for the life we are currently living and then make a decision that we're not going to live like that anymore?
[00:19:12] Okay, this one's a tough one, but it's tough love for where we want to go, because what got us here can't take us there. All right? It's the shift that we need to go to the next level. All right? If you have enjoyed this, I'm asking you to subscribe on YouTube, on Spotify, on Apple Podcasts. Share this with somebody. I truly believe that you and someone that you know really needs this message to take responsibility for the life that they want to live. God wants us to live an amazing life. He's given us that ability. But sometimes we need to be reminded that we have more power over our decisions and we have more responsibility to direct that than we really think. All right, well, until the next time, we'll catch you and we'll see you in the next pod. Peace.
