Janina B.

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Why Are You Here?

During an encounter that I had with a young person recently, I told them that things were difficult for them because there were some things that they would need to do that had never been done before. The analogy that I used to help this person understand what I was saying to them was that of a wilderness full of trees. I told this young person that they would be the first one to cut down the trees in that wilderness to create a smooth path for those coming behind them. The same is true for many of us. There are large trees that we must cut down so that those coming behind us won’t have to fight as hard as we are fighting, and they will not stumble because we are destroying everything at the root that is attempting to block us. The task of doing this may seem difficult but the testimony is worth it. You have to be able to identify the things that have hindered individuals in your lineage, know what the signs of those things are in your own life, and then eliminate it. As I was goi

Weight Lifting: Lifting Beyond the Capacity of What You Can Carry

A default mode that I have developed over the course of time is the ability to understand everyone’s perspective in a situation. This is easy for me to do because I have been doing it professionally for years but it can be physically taxing on my mindset personally. As a person who always understands, it can be difficult to feel understood. As a person who is always giving, it can be difficult to receive. As a person who pours life into the dry places of others, it can be more than easy to wither in your own personal desert if you never ask for help. A hard truth is that even when you instinctively know what is bothering others, people will not always know what is bothering you. I encourage you to speak up, and if you feel unheard, voice that feeling and refuse to shut down. Asking for help looks different for everyone. You may be able to pour your heart out to a friend, someone in your family, someone at your local church, or to a therapist. Who ever that person may be for you, re

Growing Weary in Well Doing: Acknowledging and Recovering From Burnout and Compassion Fatigue

Realistically, you can grow tired of doing well. You can get sick of showing up when no one else appears to be willing to do so and you can feel stopped up from all of the complaints that you hold in. Your own silence can become to loud and you can feel lonely because of a lack of available avenues to authentically express your emotions about everything that appears to be going well for you in the eye sight of others. It’s easy to feel alone in a wilderness that is filled with flowers because you have not carved out the space that you need to enjoy them. I understand this place. I am in it with you, and I want to encourage you as I encourage myself. “So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up”. (Galatians 6:9 NLT). It is important for me to acknowledge the feeling of desiring to isolate myself because of weariness, compassion fatigue, and burnout as a Christian because it’s so easy to feel oblig

Take Up Your Cross

God paved the way for my present and my future with the prayers that He placed into my heart many years ago. I didn’t know what new challenges I would have to overcome or what would be required of me as I uttered the sentiments of my heart into His ears. All I knew was that I wanted to serve Him. One my many heart’s desires was to not be a seat filler. I didn’t want to grow content with occupying a seat in the church and never getting out of it to go into all the world to do what God had ordained for me to do in the earth. At that time I didn’t know who God had called me to be and I didn’t understand that some of my prayers was an indication of it. Spoken from a transparent place, as life happened, the more God told me to get up the more I wanted to sit down. Tiredness and fear had gripped me on more occasions than I want to admit and I have had the audacity to whisper, “ get somebody else to do it”, on more than one occasion. I felt justified in what I was feeling and I had f

Shush, Jesus Is In The Room!

“And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha , Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her”. (Luke 10:41-42) Being stressed became more normal than abiding in grace. Being quiet became more of a necessity than crying out to God. Being mad and bitter has attempted to take over my identity as a woman of peace. It has been rough for a sista to say the least, but I was reminded recently that grace still abounds. I found myself having to guard my words to protect the feelings of others even when they didn’t do the same, and I wanted to escape thinking because it became more of a tedious task than a part of my purpose. I thought that I had reached a breaking point recently, and I was reminded of Mary and Martha. Stress and the issues of life made me forget that I can give all of these things to Jesus because He cares for me. I have been like an energizer who has no ener

I Forgot About Grace

“He answered me, “My grace is always more than enough for you, and my power finds its full expression through your weakness.” So, I will celebrate my weakness, for when I’m weak I sense more deeply the mighty power of Christ living in me.” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10 TPT) Today I read a devotional, and it reminded me that I forgot about grace. I always say that God is good, but I forget to say that God is graceful. On most days I operate in an autopilot state, and I give out of an empty cup. It’s exhausting to say the least, especially when life seemingly finds a way to knock the joy out of you through hardships. God is not just good, He is graceful. He gives us the grace to stand when our emotions make us want to fall to our knees in submission to defeat. God is graceful, and He covers us when we cry ourselves to sleep in an attempt to keep the truth of our situations hidden from the world. God is graceful! I never understood the apostle Paul until this moment. He briefly a