The Living Room with Louis Jackson III
🎙️ Welcome to The Living Room Podcast! 🛋️
Join us for an inspiring and insightful discussion with Louis Jackson III—Author, Speaker, Social Entrepreneur, and Founder & CEO of Redefined Life, Inc., also known as The Village Anderson. Louis is a visionary leader dedicated to empowering communities through mentorship and social equity.
In addition to leading The Village Anderson, Louis is the CEO of NEXT Enterprises, LLC, where he serves as a mentor development coach, training everyday people to become life-changing mentors who transform their communities.
Through his unique blend of experience in ministry, social services, and leadership development, Louis offers practical wisdom, heartfelt stories, and actionable strategies to help you step into your purpose as a mentor and leader.
Whether you're a seasoned mentor or just starting your journey, this conversation will leave you inspired and equipped to make an impact where it matters most.
🛋️ Pull up a seat and join the conversation!
The Living Room with Louis Jackson III
Breaking Free: Trusting God
Feeling stuck in life's endless loop? You’re not alone. Join me, Louis Jackson III, in the Living Room as we tackle the monotonies of daily routines and break free from life's ruts. In this episode, I open up about my own battles with stagnation and share actionable wisdom from the scriptures that helped me turn things around. I recount my financial struggles while running a nonprofit and stress the importance of taking responsibility for our actions and seeking divine guidance. By fostering a genuine connection with God, we can navigate challenges and embrace "Next Level Living."
If you're looking for concise, impactful, and practical insights to move forward with purpose, this conversation is crafted just for you. Stay engaged with our content for more inspiration, and visit www.louisjackson3.com for additional resources to elevate your life to the next level.
Welcome to the Living Room Podcast, a podcast that helps individuals redefine their lives by tackling hard-hitting issues and providing a platform for thought-provoking conversations. Each week, life coach and entrepreneur Lewis Jackson III, who is the founder and CEO of Redefined Life Inc. Discusses relevant topics such as spirituality, relationships, social justice, entrepreneurship and much more. Are you ready to redefine your life? Come into the Living Room. What's?
Speaker 2:going down. Fam, this is your boy, louis Jackson, and I want to welcome you to the Living Room. Want to welcome you to the living room. See, the living room is a space that we can come and talk and be safe. As we're going to our next level, I hope that our time together will be a time that will be really just normal. You know, when I say the living room, I don't want it to be something that is just all formal. I really want it to be just a informal conversation, because the reality is we live in a society that we try to be everything to everybody. We try to make sure that everybody sees us as this polished version, but the reality is we're not polished. We got some stuff going on in our lives. So, when you listen to the Living Room, I want you to be able to feel comfortable in coming in here and we're going to just talk about everyday life, whether it is going to be business, entrepreneurship or just straight life coaching from a biblical perspective. Whatever it is, we want you to be able to come and feel normal coming into the living room. Before we jump into our topic for today, I want you right now if you have not liked or subscribed to this podcast. I want you to do it as we speak, because we want to make sure that this gets into the hands of as many people as possible, and so, in order for us to move up to those ranks, we need people to like and subscribe. You know what I mean, so if you could do that for me, I will, please, please, I will greatly appreciate it. And also, if you want to know more about what we do as we are progressing to help people reach their next level, I want you to go to nextcoachingcom, such as some life coaching opportunities where we can come in and coach you in person or online, or you may want to just go ahead and check out a blog that we've you know that I've wrote so that you can kind and workshops so that we can continue to move us forward in the next level, because we believe next means that we're going to go to a new era of excellence training. We don't want to stay where we are, we want to go forward, right, so enough with the preliminaries. I'm ready to jump into our topic for today.
Speaker 2:Today's topic is something that I've had to deal with, and I think that all of us at some point in our lives have had to deal with this idea of being in a rut. I don't know about you, man, but sometime life can be like, really mundane. It can actually become this type of space where you they call it you get trying to get out of the rat race, where especially in if you're listening to me in America it feels like we're always trying to get somewhere. You never really become complacent or you never really become in a space where you're content. We're always trying to do something, but because of that, we find ourselves not doing anything. I don't know about you, maybe it's just me, but sometimes I can get so overwhelmed trying to get to the next level that me being overwhelmed literally debilitates me from moving at all.
Speaker 2:And before I know it, I'm now in this space where I'm in this rut. Right, it feels like I get up. I do the same thing, I'm going to the same places, I'm talking to the same people, I'm having all of these different feelings of being in this rut, and some of us I'm pretty sure that if you're listening to me, you're probably older you know what I mean and even in our relationships they get stuck. We know what each other likes, so we do the same thing, we have sex the same way, we go to the same date night, we talk to the same. You know, it's just this rut, right. We talk to the same. You know, it's just this rut, right? And so this particular topic I'm going to probably deal with in probably like two or three segments of how do I get out of this.
Speaker 2:According to the scriptures, what are some principles that I can get out of this rut, that I can apply to my life to get me to the next level. So this is not like I'm about to give you these deep, true, sometimes the most profound things are the most simple things, right? We always trying to find these deep, meaningful things, right, and I'm one of them because I like to think deep with substance. But the reality is, man, some of this stuff you already know. We're not putting into practice what we already know. So, as you listen to the Living Room, the Living Room is, I try to stay within like 20 minutes, 20, 25, no more than 27 minutes for the whole episode.
Speaker 2:So, because I want to make sure that, you get what you need to get and then go about your business, because I'm if you're like me, you have a lot going on, so I don't have a lot of time to listen to three hour worth, three hours worth of podcasts. I don't want to be that. I want to be able to just get you know, get in, give me some principles, help me out. Maybe you know like I like to run on a treadmill and most of my time on the treadmill is about 30 minutes. So, like within my time of running on the treadmill in 30 minutes, I want to run on a treadmill and most of my time on the treadmill is about 30 minutes. So, like within my time of running on a treadmill in 30 minutes, I want to be able to get what I got to get and be done and then have some time to think about what was said. So right now I'm probably about like seven minutes. So I'm going to jump into this real quick, this particular podcast of how to get out of ruts. Out of these ruts, I'm going to be taking some scriptures out of Proverbs, out of Proverbs, man, and so we're going to deep dive into this. Because if you are at a place right now that you're dealing with stress, fatigue, lack of motivation, this particular podcast is going to be for you so that you can get to some places of growth and success, and I'm a believer. That podcast is a book of Proverbs, I'm sorry, is a book of wisdom and guidance, right, and so we want to jump into it. So today's topic we're going to talk about how do I overcome challenges when I'm in a rut? How am I going to overcome some challenges when I'm in a rut?
Speaker 2:The first scripture that I want to hip you to, even if you're not a Christian, I'm telling you it's out of this wonderful book of Proverbs, the third chapter, five and six, and it say if you are a Christian you've heard this before Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and submit to him, and he will make your path straight. Oh man, I hope y'all really heard this. This again is coming out of Proverbs 3, 5, and 6, right, proverbs 3, 5, and 6. And I'm going to read it now from a different translation called the Passion Translation. Listen to this again in Proverbs 3, 5, and 6. Trust in the Lord completely. Do not rely on your own opinions. With all of your heart, rely on him to guide you and he will lead you in every decision that you make. That is Proverbs 3, 5 in the Passion Translation. Sixth verse says this become intimate with him in whatever you do and he will lead you wherever you go.
Speaker 2:The first principle that I want to share with you on how to get out of your rut is this you have to trust God with everything. Yeah, I want you to really think about this. You have to trust God with everything. See, in Proverbs, that fifth verse, that first clause, says trust in the Lord completely. Now I want you, as you're listening to me, and some of you may be Christian and some of you may not be, but for those who are, I want you to really think about this. If I am going to really get to the next level of my life, I have to trust the creator. That brought me to this point, that brought me to this point.
Speaker 2:I cannot continue to rely on myself. Well, here's why this is hard in our Western society Because, at the end of the day, we believe we pulled our own self up by our own bootstraps, right? We think it's all about self-help. It's all about making sure that we can get ourselves into or out of anything. That's what we're all about. That's what we talk about. That is what our culture says. It actually begins to say to us you don't need to trust nobody. It's about you can handle it on your own.
Speaker 2:But here goes this wisdom of the scripture tells you here's the deal. Listen to this. Trust in the Lord completely and don't rely on your own opinion. That means in everything. Your own opinion, that means in everything. In other words, I can't rely on my own opinion. If I got myself in this rut because the reality is my opinions brought me here, so I got to ask God to get me out of it. Help me. I need your wisdom to get me out of it and with all your heart. It says, rely on him to guide you and he will lead you in every decision you make, because we don't actually want to lean on someone else, especially lean on something that we feel like we can't see. How am I going to lean on God?
Speaker 2:Some of us may be in the point where we feel like well, you know what, god, I feel like it was you that got me in this space. It was you that took me out of, took that person out of my life. It is you that made me miss this job or mess up right, so you want me to lean on you? No, I can't do that, god. I refuse to do it. What I'm here to tell you is whatever you're're dealing with, god is there with you, but I'm gonna keep it all the way, a hundred. You put yourself in this situation. You did it's hard, ain't it? You got to assume responsibility for your own actions, and that's hard. It's hard.
Speaker 2:I do counseling and father engagement with a lot of fathers who are involved in DCS when I first began working with them. The first thing that I tell them is you're going to have to settle in your mind that I will not get out of this space until I take full responsibility of being in this space. Yeah, I'm telling you today, you won't get to your next level until you take full responsibility of being where you are. Then, when you take full responsibility, you're going to have to trust God to get you out of it. You're going to have to say you know what? Because my opinions, my decisions brought me here. I need to rely on the one who created me to get me out of this. I need to rely on his wisdom and I need to rely on him to give me what is going to, what I'm going to need in order to get to this next level. And your next level can be anything, because you're going to keep hearing me say we got to get to the next, we have to get to next.
Speaker 2:But getting to next does not necessarily mean I'm trying to get to the next level of prosperity. It can be I'm trying to get to the next level in my relationship, that in my relationship right now, I don't love the way I think I should and I need to get to next. And in that case let's just say that case of you not loving the way you need to love here goes the thing you can't keep trusting in your own opinion Maybe the way that you've been loving is not what's going to help in that relationship. So I got to rely on him to guide me to that next level. Are you with me, man? Now?
Speaker 2:I know you may look like Louis, you kind of preachy and all of that stuff. I am, I am who I am, but I'm telling you that what you need to get out of this particular level, this particular podcast right now, is that you know what I can't get to my next place until I assume responsibility for my own actions. And if I assume responsibility for my own actions, I now have to look outside of me to the one who created me. Does that make sense? And here's the deal. I'm going to even go a little step further. If you are a Christian and you have put your faith in Jesus Christ, you don't even have to look fully outside of you, because God no longer dwells in a temple made with hands. He dwells on the inside of you. Yeah, I said it. He dwells on the inside of you in the person of the Holy Spirit. And so he's saying I'm already there with you. I need for you to look unto me rather than looking unto yourself. Trust me and I will help you get out of this rut. I will lead you to get you to the place where you're no longer in this rut. And here's verse six, because I only got like maybe five more minutes in this one.
Speaker 2:Verse six says this in the Passion Translation become intimate with him in whatever you do and he will lead you wherever you go. I love that translation. In other words, just like you want to get intimate with your wife or husband and you want to be able to connect with them in a deeper level. It doesn't just happen on a physical level. Yo, nah, nah, nah, nah. If you've been married or been with someone any length of time, you can have sex with them and not be connected to them. So no, I am not talking about just on a physical level. I'm talking about. True intimacy is when I'm certain that you've heard this before when you have allowed the other person to see into you. That's what true intimacy is. Verse six says become intimate with God in whatever you do. What does that mean, lewis, I want you to expose your thoughts, your deepest passions, your fears to him. He says if you do that, he will lead you wherever you go. See, here's the deal, man.
Speaker 2:I've been in some ruts in my life and most of the time those ruts came and they sparked from some deep, unresolved issues that I've probably just never even talked about with anyone. But I had to be able to get to a spot, to where, lord, I'm struggling with this. One of the ruts that I struggle with is the rut of having enough financially, because you know, I grew up in ministry and the reality was I saw ministry, that we helped a lot of people. My father and my mother started pastoring when I was 14. But we didn't always have everything we needed. It felt like we were giving so much of ourselves that we were not receiving financially, and so we were struggling to just get by while we were giving our lives away to others and for me, I ended up doing that. So me and my wife ended up starting a nonprofit, and I was giving my life to this nonprofit and still am giving my life. Let me give a shout out to the Village. You can go and learn more about what we do the village andersonorg um. But we gave our life in our giving in, in this, giving our life to the youth and families that we are mentoring and wraparound uh services.
Speaker 2:But here's the deal. It wasn't paying me a lot, and so I began to start struggling again. We were not having enough to get by right, and I felt like, oh my God, I'm in this rut, how do I get out of it? Well, one of the things I had to do was what the scripture said trust in the Lord completely and become intimate with him. I had to tell him this is where I'm at. I feel like you called me to this Lord, but I'm struggling with it. How do I get out of this? What do I do to get out of this? And here's the deal. You know what I had to find out? Here's what I found out.
Speaker 2:He started saying because you finally came to me real, instead of in this formal capacity. You came to me real. I will begin to lead you in every decision that you make. I can lead you in every uh, in everything that you need to do. I can do it, but, louis, I couldn't do it because you kept feeling like you knew what to do. But you finally came to the place, to where I'm no longer trying to do that. I want to be with you.
Speaker 2:Here's my wonderful antidote for you today, if you're going to get out of your rut. You got to trust him. Do you feel me? You got to trust God and you got to begin to take advantage of what he is wanting to give you. He wants to give you wisdom. He wants to take you to your next level. He's the one that gave you the dreams that you have.
Speaker 2:But when you find out that, you know what? Here's the great thing, here's the gospel. He said I'll never leave you nor forsake you, did he not say that? So that means, if I'm in a rut, if I'm in a ditch, he's in the ditch with me. But he's saying I know how to get out of this. Will you help me? Will you look unto me to get out of it?
Speaker 2:Family, I hope that you got something out of today's message as we begin the starting point of our series of how to get out of this rut that some of us are in. Don't shy away from the rut. Don't beat yourself up because you're in the rut. Here's the deal. Take responsibility for it, but trust God to get you out of it. Take responsibility and understand that, hey, I can't get myself out of this, so I got to go seek wisdom and trust God that he will bring me out of this. If this, again, if this helped you, do me a favor, man, go ahead and rate this like it, subscribe to it.
Speaker 2:We're going to be here every week. Every week, we're going to have something to inspire you, encourage you and help you redefine your life. We want to help you get to your next level. Peeps, if you want to get more information, I want you to go to mynextcoachingcom. Mynextcoachingcom. There you will find some of the resources that we have. We are constantly building up more resources, more podcasts, more blogs, more programs of life coaching. We're even looking at launching some workshops in some online classes. We want to do whatever it takes to get you to your next level. Even if you go there, you know what you can go buy a shirt that's going to help you, because we want you to live in the next level. Your next level is in your hands, peeps, and so until next week, we'll holler at you later Peace.
