When God Has The Final Say!

“Aaaugh, what’s on my to do list today?” “How productive have I been this week with achieving my goals?” “When will I have the time to pursue my new project, instead of clocking in all this time on someone else’s project?” “How will the necessary funds and resources come together to launch this new idea I have?” The list of questions to myself go on and on! Each morning my mind immediately begins to race and spiral out of control with thoughts of my endless “To Do” list and how best to tackle my day. And then, I have to reach in my metaphoric “life toolbox” and remind myself to do the following three steps: stop, breathe and pray.

Yea, this strategy may sound familiar and reminiscent to being a child in school learning the Fire Safety rules of: stop, drop and roll. The purpose of this training was to prepare us on how best to respond to a consuming fire that we may face unexpectedly. Similarly, I have learned that our consuming thoughts require a strategy as well. And for a person like myself, whose such a planner, I had to develop a life long strategy of how to deal with life when it’s lifing’ and not going according to plan.

Being a Music Artist brings me so much joy! For a long time, I allowed it to define who I was as a person. Sadly, my identity was rooted in being this world renowned, Grammy award winning, household name Artist. Why, you may ask. Because as a little girl, it was what I saw, Ms. Whitney Elizabeth Houston demonstrating on the TV screen and in my mind that was the measure of success in m eyes! Every career milestone moment she had, I was etching it in my mind for me to do as well! From being discovered by the well respected Music Executive, Clive Davis to touring all over the world, I just knew my career would be on a similar track as hers. In short, this was THE PLAN - Sherry’s PLAN!

As life would have it, 6 months after graduating from Columbia College of Chicago in 2006, I hit a mental roadblock in my career planning goals. I reflected on how actively engaged I was around my college campus and the Chicagoland area with performing and releasing original music independently. I was checking all the boxes, and I began to question “Why haven’t I been ‘discovered’ yet like Whitney Houston?” “When will I have this “career break” happen? The line of questions around my career success continued incessantly and little did I know they would continue on until this present day.

Even after releasing 4 music projects independently, successfully fundraising $8K for my first full length album and building up a community of supporters around my music through live performances, I still have moments where I’m questioning the “success of” my music career goals and plans. It is in these moments of questioning myself (my inner critic as I like to describe it) that I am humbly reminded of when I was on the floor of my Mother’s home office in 2012 crying out and praying to God, surrendering all of my ambitious desires, because I had reached a breaking point in my life of feeling directionless. It was in that moment when I had to redefine the why behind my career pursuits. “Am I choosing to sing to impress people with the accolades or to make a positive impact on people?”

The scripture that helped me to reshape my focus is: 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 ( "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.” NIV)

Because God is loving and just, He cares enough to bring us comfort during our most difficult times. And as the scripture mentions, it is with the comfort that God extends to me, that I choose to extend to others. My life experiences are meant to bring comfort to others. I create music and moments to bring comfort, conversation and community to others. This is my why behind who I am as a person, which is reflected in what I do as a Music Artist, along with the other hats I wear.

Over the last few years, I have been challenging myself to relinquish the tight grip hold I have on my plans and truly entrusting God to have his plans unfold in his timing. I use to question God, “What’s the point in me making plans, only for them to NOT unfold as I envisioned?”. It’s a valid question, right? After the year of 2020, the pandemic taught me to plan in pencil and daily meditate on Proverbs 19:21, when I am tempted to over plan my life because of fear.

So as life continues to life, I continue to choose joy, while drinking my Pineapple Ginger Green Tea and trusting God all the while! It is my hope that you too, find comfort in knowing that it’s ok to trust God’s final say over your plans. He is a good God and worth trusting!

“Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.” - Proverbs 19:21

Musically & Joyfully Yours,

Sherry Amour