RELEASE ! ! !

We're all family here, right?
(Cool, that's what I thought.)
Since we're all family, I've decided to be a little transparent with this blog.

Have you ever had to deal with a certain thing that had control over your life?
This thing can be something from your past.
It can be an incident from your childhood.
It can be a past relationship.
It can be low self-esteem.
It can be an addiction.
Itr can be a number of things.
But I'm sure everyone, at some point or time in their life has had to deal with a certain thing.

About a year or so ago, I started dealing with a thing of my own.
I recognized it, and decided to deal with it.
In fact, last year when I went on vacation, I got up early one morning and released my thing into the Atlantic Ocean.
I even took the above picture to remind myself that this thing would no longer have control over my life.
Well somehow, someway this thing navigated itself back to Birmingham, Al. and found me again.
Once it found me, it began to control me-again.
It controlled my thoughts.
It controlled my decisions.
It controlled every aspect of my life.
I mean, I woke up thinking about it.
I went to work thinking about it.
And I went to bed thinking about it.
This thing hurt me, it made me angry, and it made my bitter.
And you know what's so sad about it?
I didn't even recognize that this thing was back in my life-until a few weeks ago.

A few weeks ago, I was talking to one of my very good friends (Carvice King) and she was telling me about the thing she was dealing with.
I've known about her thing for years, and we've discussed it over and over and over again.
But this time when we were discussing it, she sounded different.
She sounded like her thing didn't even exist anymore.
Then out of nowhere, she said something that literally changed my dispostion.
She said, "I turned it (her thing) over to God and He RELEASED me from it."
I paid no attention to it at the time, I just continued listening.
She said, "Once He released me from that situation, a door opened that I thought I had closed years ago.

*detour*
Never open or close a door, until GOD tells you to open or close a door. Because if you open or close a door without his permission, that door might swing back and hit you in the face-which can be very painful.
(you'll catch that later)

*back to the blog*
After we got off the phone, I continued on about my business.
Then I started hearing the word;
RELEASE!
I brushed it off, but minutes later I started hearing it again, and again, and again.
Pretty soon, it sounded like a thousand people were in my ear screaming;
RELEASE!
RELEASE!
RELEASE!
(similiar to the end of the Sunday's Praise & Inspiration video below)
Then before I knew it, I was asking God to RELEASE me from my thing.
Within seconds, He granted me my RELEASE!.
Immediately after that,  things started happening.
I started getting my focus back.
I started getting my vision back.
I started getting my swagger back.
(Well, I never lost my swagger-but you get the point.)
Things started happening to me that hadn't happened in almost 18 months.
I started to feel close to God again.
I started to feel like I was walking in my purpose again.
I started feeling like, well, I started feeling like the Chairman of the Board again.

My point is this:
Whatever you're going through...........
Whatever you're dealing with..............
Whatever your thing is, don't try to deal with it on your own.
Don't try to hide it, fight it, or ignore it.
Recognize it, confess it, and turn it over to God.
And I promise you, He will give you a RELEASE!