Becoming

0:01 Hi, hi, hi. Welcome to the Rooted podcasts. And let me first start by saying Happy New Year. Welcome to 2026. I think it still feels so you're saying it like, oh, we're in 2026, but yeah, welcome to 2026. I pray that it's a blessed year for you and I pray that the joy of the Lord is always manifest in your life all through this year, in good times and in seemingly bad times. Amen. So that aside, I want to say a big thank you to everyone who was part of the Rooted podcast last year. I started this podcast on the 7th of November last year, 2025, and I didn't know how things would be.

0:51 I wasn't sure of so many things. I was skeptical, I was scared. I was definitely scared. I was shy a lot of the time, but God didn't have me do it. So I went ahead and of course, with the support of my friends and family community, I did it. And here we are in 2026 is actually the 10th episode, the first double digit episode like Milestone Crockett. But yeah, I'm very, very happy about that. I want to say big thank you to all of you who have been listening to the episodes of you who follow, all of you who have your notifications turned on.

1:32 I've seen a big thank you to you. I'm saying a very big thank you to you. I did not take it for granted. I know time is such an important thing. You know, literally you can use 15 minutes an exam to determine whether you're going to pass or fail an exam. So in fact, that you can give me some, some minutes of your time each week. Listen to my episodes. I'm grateful. I'm grateful is what I'm trying to say. I'm really grateful. Some of you, I would see you maybe share some of the episodes. Maybe you'd say something.

2:01 Some of my friends would tell me, oh, somebody shared an episode and I'm like, oh wow, are people actually being blessed by what I'm saying? I mean, that's the goal, but it's still surprising. Someone listened to me that she was listening to an episode and after she listened to the episode, she prayed for me and I was really touched by it. There was an episode I actually wanted to see. Oh, I would love it if you all would pray for me. Whenever I come to your mind or if it comes to your mind, just say what a prayer for me.

2:29 Like, Lord, help this boy. Lord, continue to strengthen him for the work that you're using him to do and things like that. But I was too shy, so I didn't see it. But I think I'm saying it now. Please, if it comes from, I just say word of prayer for me. I mean, man at bests. So I run by the strength of God. So yes. But again, I'm really grateful to you all, to all of you, to all of you. I love you all so much. If you could see me, I'd be blushing. I'd love to meet some of you again. If you ever feel like you want to ask me something or maybe you just resonate to my episode, you can always DM me on X on IG.

3:08 You can always DM me. I'll try and like put a link to my handles in the description of this episode. I think I would do that because honestly speaking, I don't remember my handles of head. So yeah, that's that. And if you're new here, maybe you're joining us in this year. I want to say welcome to the Rooted podcast here. Timeless biblical truth is brought in a way that is real, that is clear, that is heartfelt, that's a define. And I hope that is your experience here. I want to encourage you to stick around.

3:44 10106 is loaded. There are going to be a lot of interesting things that will be talked about here. So yeah, stay around. I don't want you to miss out on that. So join us and be rooted. So anyway, today's episode or what I want to talk about South. Funnily enough, this was about two months back as well. I think around the same time when I started this podcast actually. So God made me realize that I had made comfort and idol.

4:20 It was a hard pill to swallow, but I I knew, I was sure of it that I had made comfort and idol. He was using the whole story of the exodus to just explain some things to me, which I'll explain a bit. But I want you to imagine this. I want to like explain some how to make something clear. So there's one scenario where maybe a person is an addict and they of course, they have an addiction that they're dealing with. So he's like, they know that the addiction is affecting the amount of his sudden, but they know that getting out of that addiction or dealing with that addiction will require them to leave their comfort zone.

5:01 And because that's they just stay with the addiction. So it's like they want to leave or because of the discomfort, it will 'cause they don't leave. But The thing is in that case people are around like if a person is really dealing with an addiction, eventually it will become clear to those around them that there's an issue. So in such a situation, you can say, OK, you know what? You've made comfort and idol in that situation. It's like you're so comfortable with situation that you don't care what happens.

5:28 You don't care how bad it is for you. There's that and it's quite easy, not quite easy possible. It's it's somewhat clear. You can tell that OK, you know what, this is a situation where you are allowing comfort to hurt you. Then there's another situation where you're not doing bad. You're actually not doing bad. Like if a person sees you, they'll say, oh, he's doing fine. Or maybe deep down you know that there's room for more. You know that you could actually do better. You know that there's more potential inside you.

6:01 There are expressions of you or their sides to you that have not seen the light of day, but for different reasons they haven't. One of those reasons is the discomfort that will cost. Like you just know that if you're going to have to put yourself out there, you're going to have to discomfort yourself. You're going to have to inconvenience yourself and call that you decide. I'm not doing so bad after all. In fact, some people even try and cover it up and it's like, oh, I'm trying to be content again.

6:34 There's one language where oh, some people are so ambitious or push themselves so much. It's like, oh, they want to do this, they want to do that. And really it's just their own ambition under. But then there's also the case where you know you're actually capable of more than you're doing now, or you know that you can be more than you are now, but because of the discomfort, it will 'cause you decide not to go ahead with it. There's that situation, even though you're not necessarily doing bad where you are.

7:03 And that was me. So, you know, it could be sometimes when I say comfort, comfort sometimes might be the security that you have because sometimes doing some things will require you to do it scared. So the security that you normally have where you are, you no longer have that security. You're doing something that you have not done before and all of a sudden you're scared. In fact, in some situations, it's almost like God gives you a vision. It's like you want to manage things for God. Like what if it does not happen?

7:31 It's not good. They're going to laugh at you. It's not good that they will look at somehow it's me because of that, you just you kind of close. I really hope that everything I'm saying makes sense because a part of me is like, I don't know, maybe people will not get it, but I really hope that you get it. But the point is you're just comfortable where you are. And because of that, maybe do you have something I can do? But you procrastinate. Like not every case of procrastination is really about laziness.

7:58 Sometimes it's fear. It's like, oh, I'm scared of doing this thing. I'm called that. You procrastinate. Point is comfort becomes a God. And that was what happened with me. So I I said I was going to talk about the whole Exodus, Israelites, Egyptians, promised lands and all that. Point is, the Israelites were in slavery for years, decades. They were in slavery. And so God hears a cry and he's like, I'm going to send you help. I send Moses to lead them. That's the Exodus, to lead them out of Egypt.

8:42 And so he's taking them to a promised land, the land that is filled with milk and honey to normal common terms. But never to get to that place, they have to go through a wilderness. It's tough in the wilderness. It's not comfortable. And all of a sudden, when things get tough in the wilderness, they see it was better when you were back in Egypt. I need you to kind of see the parallel I'm trying to draw. Maybe there's a better version of you ahead. But because what it would take to get that version will really discomfort you so much, you're willing to stay in Egypt.

9:21 This was what was happening with the Israelites and I think part of what makes it more difficult is the fact that you've now got into that version or you've not seen that version well enough. It's like the Israelites. I think if the Israelites had seen the promise and if maybe for example, they saw the horny or they had a sample, I don't know how better to say that the sample of what the promise and would be like. Maybe that would motivate them more to go. But I think even at that, I think they were quite an interesting bunch, human is generally, but maybe that I motivated them, but they didn't exactly have any.

9:58 All they could go for was the fact that God was leading them to a promised land in land that had milk and honey. That was all that they had. And maybe it's like that with you. There's this vision that you have, but it's not tangible enough. And so because of that, you're like, do I really want to discomfort myself for this? And so instead of going through the wilderness, you stay in Egypt. And this was what was happening to me. This is something that God was making me understand. So try and pause and think, is this you in any way?

10:32 Are there probably potentials or things or aspects to you that probably should have surfaced by now, but because of the discomfort it will require they haven't or it hasn't. So it was making me to understand. It's about how I need to leave my comfort zone. Sometimes you have to discomfort yourself. Like if we look around the world, literally the butterfly, first of all, has to, not the butterfly, sorry. The Caterpillar has to first of all. You know, I think I can run the biological team by notes who end up being in a sort of cocoon before eventually it breaks out as a butterfly.

11:14 There has to be some sort of oven that heats you up so that you come out perfect or so that you come out in a better form. So basically you have to go through the wilderness in order for you to get to the promised land. And here's The funny thing. When you think about David speaking in psalmites, well, when he says, do I walk through the value of the shadow of death, you are with me. You have to realize or we have to remind ourselves of the fact that the only reason why he can see that Jesus or God is with him in the value of the shadow of death is because he is going through the value of the shadow of death.

11:50 This is not a call or this is not me saying, oh, go and throw yourself into suffering or go through stress. But it's a thing where by virtue of the world that we live in, if we're really going to attain the good things, if we're really going to get those good things, meet those visions that we have are going to have to sort of struggle for them. People in different levels and different measures, people will have different struggles, but all together everyone will face some sort of resistance or the other.

12:20 And honestly, there's no way you will know if God is with you if you do not go through the resistance. Imagine watching a movie, for example. Imagine watching a movie. There's no conflict. Everybody just comes smiles. There's no problem at all. You just go through it. You just got to look at me like, again, this is not me trying to glorify suffering. I'm, I'm, I'm really trying not to come over as, oh, the most suffering in your life, the better the outcome of your life. I'm not trying to say that.

12:50 My point is that one of the days I make movies, basically the fact that there's a problem and then they can overcome that problem. And so there's a version of you, but in order to get to that version of you or there's a skill that you know that you have, but in order for that skill to really come out all good and nice, there's some discomfort that you have to go through. So there was a Rooted Whitney Family podcast that was sitting on the shelf, but I had to go through some discomfort in order for it to come to life.

13:21 I had to humble myself. I had to be scared. I had to learn. And I really don't like being a learner. I don't like when it's like something new. I don't know everything and I just have to start. I had to go through that. And so this was one that was making me understand that I just had to throw aside. And it was not just even, I think that's where I think even career wise, I just need AI could be doing a little better. But I was just very laid back. And why It was because I felt scared. I felt inadequate.

13:54 I felt like while I might be doing well academically, I don't know how well to translate into the workspace. So instead of me facing the problem, I tried to just stay in my comfort zone.

14:10 So basically that was it. He was he was using the I'm talking about God, he was using the Exodus to explain that to me about how these people were literally willing to leave a land flowing with milk and honey, something better than anything their descendants had or had experienced and willing to go back to a place of slavery, saying that it was better for them simply because the way comfortable it was familiar. Maybe comfort is not the word that's striking you. Maybe it's familiarity. Egypt was familiar to them.

14:46 I hate my password. Tell me she wasn't talking to me directly. She was talking to a bunch of us and she says baby steps are actually bigger than we think. When you realize that a baby's first steps are the baby actually doing something it has never done before, he or she, I think it does not sound right. Like when the baby takes his or her first steps, how is this baby doing something that they have never done before? So it's not just you doing something. This small amount is doing something you've never done before.

15:21 So that's such a courageous thing. We will have them to leave their comfort zone because while they are familiar to sitting down, while they are familiar to crawling on the floor, there's a version of them that can walk, that can run, and so they have to discomfort themselves. So what do we then do? What's the resolution in all of this? I think 1 is to embrace being a baby. Over the holiday. I was at my cousin's place. They have such a wonderful family and we have kids. One of them is 2 years old and I loved how she would just always go back to the mom.

16:01 She would always go back to the mom, always go back to the mom, always go back to the mom, even when she does something wrong that maybe the mum scolds are like, oh, wear your clothes or something like that. Maybe after she cries, she would end up going back to the mum. So he's like, whatever the case may be, whether I'm annoyed, whether I'm not annoyed, this is the person that will help me. This is the person who I will find my strength from. And he was just reminding me it was re establishing all that the word of God has already told us about how we should be childlike before God.

16:31 So it's that kind of thing where I just keep on going back to God when it's comfortable, when it's not comfortable, when he's chastising me, when He's encouraging me, when he's correcting me, when his love me. I just need to keep on going back to him because if I'm actually going to progress, he's the one that's going to help me progress. So if you're going to leave that comfort zone, if you're going to get through the wilderness, you're going to need to rely on God.

16:56 And really being in the wilderness is where you actually begin to appreciate God more. You appreciate him more when you're in the wilderness than when you're in Egypt, because it's when you're in the wilderness that you get to see him provide manner for you in such a supernatural way.

17:13 So I think that's pretty much it. Embrace the wilderness, embrace the wilderness. And I think I just want to add, pray a lot, right? Just talk to God, talk to God, talk to God, talk to God, stay in communication with him as much as possible, as frequent as possible. He doesn't have to look a setting where he does not always have to be perfect. Or just do it. Just just show up. Just show up. So I think that's what I want to see. I think it will really help you for this year, 2026. You can always come back to it.

17:47 I think it's something that's going to be relevant even six months down the line. Embrace the wilderness. That version that you know is waiting for you at the end of the wilderness can be achieved. So that's a wrap on the episode. Stay with it. Bye.