Dear Family,(Thank you Lord for the gifts you have entrusted in me. I pray those who hear this message receive it as you intended and be blessed with your favor. AMEN!)

How's the weather back home? It's been pretty decent where we are. We finally made it through a cold front and I think we're over the hump. Bek and I hate it so much.

I know we grew up in a place with four seasons. And I wonder if we'd miss it if we decided to leap and move to a town that's warm year round. I don't know. Just something we've been contemplating.

You know what? I called home a few weeks back and they said you weren't there. No worries. I talked to Auntie. Well, she talked to me. Lol you know how she is. I didn't really get a word in.

But when I did, I was telling her that Bek and I were serious about finding a new home. I named off some places. And she… well, let's just say Auntie loves us so much, and she responded with that love.

Like most of our family, anytime we have some idea to "live different," or "do something that's a potential risk" to the comfy life we currently have, they tend to only want what's best for us. So instead of being met with love, support, and encouragement, it feels like we get the worst version of the people. And they seemingly become the ceiling that so heavily weighs us down.

Seemingly.

And I say seemingly because the reality is this. The "don't do that." The "stay close." The "why would you go there." The "why would you start that business."

That's not hate.

Unfortunately, it's love. Support. And, Encouragement.

Yeah, I know. How right?

But imagine someone who doesn't want you to succeed. Someone who wants to see you hurt. They might sense the same danger from their limited view and tell you to “forge ahead”. Hoping quietly that you fail.

So what comes off as hate, discouragement, or judgment is only their fear of how far in that area of life they are capable or willing to go. They're protecting us from dangers, assuming we have the same limitations they do.

But love like that?

It can suffocate the courage it takes to break free of the fear-stricken prison that takes most of us captive.

So I say to my family: FORGE AHEAD.

I say in love, go fail. Go stumble. Make mistakes. Not because I don't want you to succeed. But because I want you to discover all God put inside of you.

And we know from the last letter that taking this advice from people like Auntie is also a vote for comfort. And we know comfort kills.

No man grows from the mountaintop. It's in the valleys and in the wars where he learns. Where he gains skill. Where he becomes the warrior and champion we tend to envy from a distance.

So here's my breadcrumb for you this week.

The love around you is real. But love that comes from fear will always try to keep you small. And the people who love you most often have the loudest voice. Loud enough to drown out God's voice if you let them.

You have to learn to honor the love without obeying the limits.

You can love your mama and still move to a city she doesn't understand.

You can love Auntie and still start the business she thinks is risky.

You can love your friends and still walk a road they're not built to walk.

Their love isn't a map. It's a hug.

Receive it. Hold it close. And then go where God told you to go.

So my question for you this week is this:

How have you allowed the love of those around you to impact the word God has given you?

Sit with that one. Pray on it. Be honest.

Because if their love is louder than His voice, something's gotta change.

I love you.

TTYL.

— Earl


P.S. Our lives are ours to live. Ours to make great. And equally ours to destroy. Your only obligation is to live a life worthwhile to Christ Jesus Himself. Not your friends. Not your dad. Not your mom or her group of church friends. And not the community they've all attached themselves to, convinced they need to impress by micromanaging yours. Dare I say, screw what they think. Because you could make the family happy, do everything the church group told you, and make Granny smile. And in the same breath, be disobedient to God because it's not what He told you to do explicitly. Don't be fooled. If God only worked one way, or called us all to be the same, well, we wouldn't need faith. And He wouldn't be God, now would He? …Think about it.