"When you are going through hell...Keep going"
-Winston Churchill
#Motivation
2012...
Matt's House- StewPot Homeless Shelter- Jackson, MS
This picture brings tears to my eyes...
I took it while living in a homeless shelter with my boys...
My car had been totaled by a woman who ran a red light...and I wasn't able to make it to my five jobs..resulting in me being fired from them all and evicted from my apartment in Detroit, Michigan. I was able to get the money for a bus ticket to Jackson, Mississippi...and after staying in an extended stay hotel...I was fired from my job (Didnt have a babysitter) and was evicted from there too...leaving me and my 12 and 2 year old sons...homeless.
To my children, it was just a new adventure...(my oldest kinda knew what the deal was...but, he graciously took it in stride.)
To me...it was one of the darkest times of my life...which in turn ended up being the most blessed times of my life. I experienced so many precious God moments in that shelter with those beautiful women and their children...It would take a whole book to recount.
But, as I look at this picture...I go back...I can feel the shame...I can feel the depression, and uncertainty of what the future held. I prayed every night for God to change my circumstances...He answered my prayers in His time, but during the wait...he changed me...and though I didn't know how I would emerge...I knew somehow...and someway...I would...if I just kept going.
However, never in a million years would I have known that JUST A YEAR LATER...
I would sign my record and management deals.
Just a year later...
I would be traveling all over the world performing MY MUSIC for and telling my story to thousands of people, and my songs would be playing on commercial radio ALL over the world.
Just a year later...my album "Tell You What I Know" and the song by the same title (that I wrote in the shower only a few steps away from where this picture was taken to encourage myself) would hit Number 1 on the Billboard Hot Single Sales charts...receive numerous awards, and place me on the front covers of numerous publications all over the world.
Just a year later, my music video would be featured on BET Centric.
Just a year later, I would stand in the center of the Chesapeake Energy Arena and sing the national anthem for 18,000 fans and a televised audience.
I had no way of knowing that just a year later...I would sign to a European agent and be booked to head to France to headline a festival.
Just a year later...My album would reach Number 3 on the Blues Album charts and stay on multiple charts for 25 weeks!
When I was sitting in that homeless shelter...truly with no place to go...Trying to stay strong for my babies, often fighting back sobs while feeling that I somehow failed them...I didn't know that 3 years later...I would be standing in a beautiful luxury condo in Midtown Atlanta...with a birdseye view of the city that still brings tears to my eyes when I look at it..(I always wanted to live in a high rise with a city view) taking a break from booking a national tour...to write a letter to convince someone who's struggling to never give up...to keep pushing...to look past the hell they are going through...and to simply...keep..going. Trouble don't last always...and you truly never know what beauty tomorrow may bring...Focus on being thankful for the small things...and the big things will come.
Tell you what I know...
you can do this.
you can make it...
If I can...
so can you.
Bless!
💓jj
P.S. Thank you Victoria Hawkins (Ms. Vikki) For being one of those lights through the darkness...If I didn't have you to help guide me during that time...Not sure that I would have made it through...You have a beautiful heart, and I thank you!
#BeenThroughTheFire #EverydaysAHoliday#LifeIsButADream #HumbledAndReady#GratefulAndBlessed #AnythingIsPossible#KeepYourHeadUp #EncourageYourself#ToughTimesDontLastButToug
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