You Got This

I think how we act as kids—innocent and unaware—reveals a lot about who we really are. But as our lives unfold—and roles and responsibilities accumulate—it can be so easy to forget that “kid” part of us even exists. Can you relate?

For me, it’s always been singing. I’ve been singing into my hairbrush for as long as I can remember. My mom told me that when I was about five, she picked me up from Sunday school and asked my teacher if I was well behaved. The teacher would always reply: “She listens well until we invite the class to stand for worship time … and then Jodi instructs everyone to sit down and listen to her sing.” How embarrassing! Honestly, though, not much has changed. Instead of a hairbrush, I get to sing into a real microphone. And it’s not just my family members in the audience anymore (which is nice).

Fast forward to today. I now tour the country in a band—Love & The Outcome—with my husband, Chris, and our two boys Milo and Ziggy. But there have been a lot of experiences and detours along the journey that have certainly made me question this calling and passion of mine— and forget my why and purpose that began this path in the first place.

We started married life in separate bands, and hardly ever saw each other. When Chris’s drummer quit, I bought a drum and asked him if he wanted to join my band and luckily he said yes! We sold our condo to tour in our Jetta—because we were that crazy about each other and living our dreams together. After slogging it out for five years, we signed a record deal, moved to Nashville, had our first baby boy, eighteen months later had our second baby boy.

Instead of packing it in and getting real jobs, we decided to take them on the road and tour as a family of four in our minibus “White Neptune” (clearly, we outgrew the Jetta, thank goodness!).

We hit the road when our babies were six weeks old. I’ll never forget how real it got on our first tour as a family of four. I was backstage nursing Ziggy and trying to get ready for the show, which was scheduled to start in five minutes. I tried to put on my skinny jeans and couldn’t get them over my hips. I had this cool outfit planned, but Ziggy pooped all over it and I ended up wearing the t-shirt I slept in the night before. I was falling apart and yelled the most honest prayer I had ever prayed “God, you got this?” That night I got up on stage and even though I was far from polished, I had more purpose and passion than ever before. I let people into my real world and that changed everything. Our mess is our message, and we need to let it show!
When I sing, I can hear the Holy Spirit speak and respond in ways I can’t off stage. I feel like a kid without a care in the world—known and rejoiced over by my heavenly Father. And that’s exactly what I want to communicate to everyone listening, and to you, right now. What lights you up inside? If you’re not sure, I bet if you look back over your childhood, you’ll see glimpses of that part of yourself. That person is still there. She might just be buried under a few layers of roles and responsibilities that made her grow up and disregard her passions for other priorities. What would it take to make space for some of those things again? Our passions do not have to be our paycheck, but they do deserve a priority place in our lives. Our happiness deserves a vote. Working for the Lord is not a thing; working with the Lord is … and it should be life-giving, not life-sucking.

This book is a collection of questions and conversations with the Lord that I’ve journaled down over the past two years on the road.

Whether you read one thought each day or the whole book in one sitting, my prayer is that my journey would free you from trying to have it all together and let Him hold you together.

You got this—because He’s got you!

Jodi