How To Walk Away From Everything & Find Yourself

Video Transcription:

I want you to take a moment and think about your life, your lifestyle, your livelihood, your home, the people that you love to see, your schedule, and your routine.

Now, I want you to just pause for a moment, and imagine that God tells you to give it all away and leave to take off an attempt with a toddler under two on a camping trip with no foreseeable end in sight.

I'm Brooke Jones, and that is exactly what God asked us to do.

See, it was 2019, and I had been in the biggest dark night of my soul. We had been living the American dream, but like many people in America, we were one tragedy away from having it all unravel because the truth is the American dream is not really what it seems. For me it had become more of a nightmare.

I was suffering from what I now call the Modern Malady. It's where everything on the surface looks fine, and things appear to be going well, but deep within you there's this longing… this aching hole in your soul for something else… something greater. 

It's this sense that surely I was made for more than to just be here, pay bills, and die.

Surely there's a reason why God put these big, bold dreams and Visions inside what am I doing here.

Everything happened the moment that I declared out loud that I admitted this truth to God, He began a work in my life to uproot me from everything that was not true for me so that He could replant me somewhere great where I could grow, where he could nourish me, where he could take me on a journey so he could eventually flourish me into my most fruitful future.

I didn't expect it to show up the way that it did.

I'd been seeking personal development, looking after God, and growing as a person for a while. So much in my life had shifted!

God had delivered me from addiction, from divorce, and from bankruptcy. I am living proof that he can do new work in you, and he was giving me what I was asking for.

But what I was asking for was a lifestyle and a life that required me to twist myself into a pretzel, and to chop off bits and parts of me.

I was living in the city, surrounded by big, tall buildings, and they seemed to pop up all around me. I would walk out into my yard and felt like a goldfish in the bowl. The walls have been caving in around me since I was little. This was never what I wanted. I wanted wide open spaces, room to grow, something wild and unruly. I wanted adventure, play, and time with the people that mattered most to me. None of this was my life.

So, every chance we would get on weekends or vacations, we would dip out and run away. I would find this soul-satisfying fulfillment in all of these places, in all these spaces, so far away from my day-to-day reality.

But then we'd come back, dreading Monday, just to go through the motions so that we could arrive to the next weekend.

I knew that was not the life God really had for me. So when tragedy struck, and caused an earthquake throughout our whole lives, everything imploded so quickly. To our surprise, the foundation that I thought I had built turned out it was built on sand. It was not true or authentic to who God had created me to be and it crumbled with the earthquake. It was gone, and God was doing a new thing inside of me.

So when he said give it all away and go, I said “okay I'll go!” And we did. We packed up our camping gear, gave the rest of it away, and hit the road.

Now when we first took off we took off in a tent with a toddler under two, we had no idea when our situation was going to evolve or when it was going to change. The control freak in me tried to plan down to the penny where we would be, where we would go, and how we could handle it. But God laughed at my plans, and said “Brooke let go and trust me, follow me.”

Kicking and screaming a little, I did. God began to take my family on the most incredible journey!

I could tell you a million stories about how he parted seas, provided provision, and made Mana fall from Heaven. I can tell you of divine appointments of meeting the right person at the right time, and of provision sneaking in when I thought I was last in line. I can tell you a million stories about how smooth roads don't make skilled drivers.

So, God had me drive down a lot that were unsavory, but what I want to tell you most about is about the new life that he gave to me he led me through the Wilderness. He literally parted the Seas so I could leave my Egypt and exit the thing that I had been enslaved to. But as he did, he required that I face every fear, that I do the unthinkable.

It was through my faith in him guiding me that I found favor. The tent became a travel trailer and a new truck to pull it. Then an upgraded travel trailer. For two and a half years my family and I wandered to the most beautiful places; amazing places. We shared views with multi-million dollar homes. We shared the wilderness with elk, moose, and bear. We found ourselves living lakefront, and by the ocean. We found ourselves high on the mountaintops and down in the valleys soaking in 35 different Hot Springs.

We toured 17 States, and then God brought me home to this place. He brought me home to the place that I've been dreaming of since I was little. This place with rolling hills, tree tunnels, cool old Barns, and turquoise waters. He planted us here in a new community with a new chosen family, and he gave us room to grow something wild and unruly. Country roads to drive down that I've never been down before.

And he brought something new to life inside of me. When he got me here, he started to train me. Looking back, he's always been training me. He's always been teaching me. And we built our home, this cute little extra-large tiny house I've been dreaming of for so long right by the creek with the RV park on the property, the cool barn up the hill, the loving people, and all these dreams that God had placed inside of me when I was little.

See I thought I'd have to follow the world's recipes to find this success.

No, no, no. 

I had to actually be willing to walk away from the rest.

I had to be willing to leave the path of the masses so that God could put me on His plan for His purpose for my life.

If you've got a big vision… big ideas… a big dream inside of you… if there's something that feels unfulfilled, please know God has another purpose for you. 

The cure for the Modern Malady for me was to realize that the American dream is not the dream that God had for me. That there's a purpose, a power, and something special inside of me.

The Cure was to take off on a journey and to let him refine me.

So, if you've been feeling this way, I just invite you to entertain the idea that God has something bigger, bolder, and better for you today. And I dare you to take that leap out of fear and into faith, because with faith, you will always find His favor