Can you think of a single song where your entire generation knows all the lyrics? As a millennial, there is only one answer.
Now this is a story all about how
My life got flipped, turned upside down...
Somehow the legendary Fresh Prince theme song stuck with all of us from childhood into our 30-somethings, and the biggest reason is right there in the first line: this is a story. In that finite storyline that spans some short number of months in Will's life, he brings us through a hip-hop voyage that explains how a streetwise Philly teenager arrived as the self-appointed heir of a Bel-Air mini-mansion that used to be ruled by Uncle Phil.
I want to begin my own arrival story for you here. With less hip-hop.

Happy Birthday to the Ground
In a month I will be 37, which tends to be an unremarkable year. There's no card on the rack that you can buy someone saying "Happy 37th birthday!"
37 is just kind of...there.
But at 37, people have expectations of what they wanted their life to be. For me, it feels like a year where I will arrive lightyears behind where I hoped to be. Because my life also got flipped, turned upside down two years ago when I was thrust out of my job of 9 years, out of my career, out of my town, out of state, at the peak of a pandemic, with a baby.
For two years I've kept my stories to myself, deliberately maintaining radio silence on social media because I saw the pain that so many people were going through since March 2020 and I didn't want to pile on more problems by opening a lens into my life. I waited, and I waited some more, hoping that soon I would have some stability, have something to show people where I could say "everything happened for this reason!" or "see how God provides!" I waited, sure that one day I could explain to everyone why all this hurt happened in my life.
And, I could explain it to myself.
Underwater
In Spring 2021, I found myself without a job, thrown into the post-apocalyptic reality of unemployment. The kind where you receive state benefits and feel embarrassed about being incapable to provide for yourself and your family.
The money comes in at a trickle the same way that your brain syphons oxygen from the air stored in your lungs at a decreasing rate when you've been thrust underneath an ocean wave. Your mind is screaming at you to claw your way back to the surface while your body is supplied with less and less fuel to get there. The diminishing clock is hammering to the beat of your heart. The salt stings your eyes and you're upside-down. Maximum urgency, a deficit of ability.
Unemployment is borrowed time that is always running out.
Yet, somewhere in this anxious and prolonged moment, there was lit a dim and persistent light that kept glowing, kept competing with the panicked desire to just find some, no, any source of stability. It was something very calming and deep within me, a question of "what do I want to do?" Deeper still, "who do I want to be?"
And I knew then that I wanted to write.
As soon as I had identified this, I was back underwater. What I wanted to do didn't solve my problem. Writing couldn't pay the bills, so it couldn't be the answer. I pushed it back and kept pressing forward out of necessity through the mud-walking wilderness of a year where I found work doing all the things I didn't love...and still didn't pay the bills!
Yet one way or another, God finds a way to give us that breath of air when we need it most. And that's where I am today. Just enough to keep my head above the water.
Breathing.
Ready to write.
Start Somewhere
In the Bible, people often come to Jesus looking for explanations. They have specific questions that want specific answers. Instead, Jesus delivers parables, or stories with a point. He knew that when people will walk through a story in search of an answer, they tap into some deeper and wider truths than they set out to find. The journey reveals as much as the destination. The answers found are less precise, more profound.
Wisdom.
The hard part about telling my story is not in revisiting dark nights of the soul, it's in knowing where to start. I often wish that I had just journaled this all out from the beginning, but 1,000 excuses got the better of me all along the way.
But I'm on a new journey now, and I want to document some of this process of becoming a writer. It hasn't happened yet, and there are 1,000 excuses tempting me to wait, to tell you how it's happened once I've arrived.
Or we could just start now.
I'd like to take a minute, just sit right there. I'll tell you how I became the prince of...
No that's right, I said no hip-hop!
What a great start to such a ministry! You are definitely poised to help others in the challenges of writing, and you "have the gift," no doubt!
You have a community of faith that is cheering you on and praying for God to continue opening the doors for you to do what you love and are called to. Congrats on taking the first step towards that!
Kory, God always seems to surprise us with some of the plans He has for our lives, doesn't He? It's great that you're following this dream and can recognize that it's a blessing. I wish you happiness in this shift in "plans" and personal success in making the dream work!
Beautifully written! Best wishes on your future endeavors.🤗
Enjoyed the message. But equally pertinent to you, I enjoyed the read! Nicely done. I wish you many blessings as you continue your journey.