finding purpose – Sarah Faith

why you have to do the thing

no one likes to be told what to do, but i’m telling you… you have to do the thing.

you know… that thing that won’t leave you alone. that thing that when you think about doing it, you get all sweaty and light up a little but then tell yourself all the 100 made up reasons in your head that you can’t do it, shouldn’t do it, everyone will make fun of you for it, etc.

i can rattle off all of these because i’ve said them to myself hundreds of times… but the fact still remains… you have to do the thing. because it’s not going to just magically leave you alone. it’s going to keep annoying the crap out of you until you get over the fear and take the leap.

here’s the thing you don’t understand about it… you don’t have to know why. you don’t have to know where it’s going. you don’t have to know what it looks like. you have to trust that the Author of this whole thing knows better than you do… but He can’t steer a parked car. so what you’re gonna have to first is move…

it doesn’t have to look good. it doesn’t have to be perfect. you don’t have to be ready. none of those things are qualifications for moving… you simply need to move.

do the thing. do it messy. scared. fearful. confused. doubts intact. feeling like you’re not good enough or cool enough or smart enough… whatever. your action will put all of those lies to bed. because this thing has been pestering you for so long, there are things that are bursting at the seams to happen…. waiting for you to just do one simple stupid little movement. then all the next steps can finally start falling into place… i bet they won’t wait long. they’re tired of waiting on you.

i do this with music still sometimes. i do this with my business. social media. whatever. i’ll be dreaming of something in a very “wouldn’t that be cool” kind of way, but before i can even get the good thoughts out of my brain, here comes Mrs Doubt throwing fire all over my dreams, convincing me to turn around and not take the action.

then i try to convince myself that i don’t know what to do. Chief Lie of All The Lies, right there. i always at least know of one small thing that i can do that moves the needle. we’re not looking for home runs here… although i’m pretty good at convincing myself that it’s a home run or bust… that’s just my competitive nature. you just have to move the needle. you just have to breathe a little life on the thing and the next steps will almost take care of themselves.

last thing that’s required is patience… but still taking action while practicing patience. sometimes the waiting is the hardest part, just like Tom Petty always told us, but the last thing you actually want to do is sit on your hands in these moments. an object in motion stays in motion and an object at rest stays at rest. if you had momentum going a little, don’t kill it. it took you long enough to move in the first place. don’t quit.

i’m telling you, even if the next action you see in your mind doesn’t seem to make sense, take it and find out. if it’s not 100 percent amazingly spot on, at least you’re still in motion and can pivot. isn’t it easier to turn something that’s already moving than something that’s completely sitting still? haven’t we been over this…?

anyway… these were just some quick thoughts i wanted to jot down and hit “send” before i forgot about them. i’m not ever writing these things with extra status of having figured anything out. these are always things i’m learning too. same as you. i’m just typing it instead of keeping it in my brain.

hope you’re having the best day, week, and month you could possibly be having.

♥, SF

in the quiet

November 5, 2024 by Sarah Faith

blog posts.

christian, christian blog, christian life, finding purpose, god first, how to live a peaceful life, mental health, mental peace strategies, mindset, music with purpose, musician, purpose driven, purpose driven life, self care, self-care for women

i was talking to a friend about the upcoming single. and it hit me. i should be excited. i should be pumped. i should be thrilled. i should be unable to shut up about it. but… i don’t really feel that way. i used to be so invested in getting as many people to hear it as possible, as many pre-saves as possible… just so in the rat race of forcing it on people, trying my hardest to get it in their ear canals.

do you want the truth? here it is. it is so hard to feel like you have any kind of talent whatsoever or that it even matters that you’re creating art when it doesn’t seem like the world cares about any of it — the talent i mean. it’s all vanilla to me. and i hate feeling like that. i hate saying it. i hate typing it. but it’s how i feel. then i remember feelings are liars… and feelings aren’t the truth. but it’s really hard to care. it’s really hard to push, force, assert… when this music is so not about me. it wasn’t my idea. i thought we were done. i thought it was over. but… God.

i keep asking Him why He’s calling me into this. i can’t seem to bring myself to blast this song or this album all over social media, begging people to listen, save, download, buy, like i used to. the last album, i have no idea how many people probably got sick of me and my every other sentence, because it had something to do with listening to my record. i don’t care to do that this time. for whatever reason. i mean, don’t get me wrong, i want you to listen. i think it’s well worth 4 minutes of your time. but i’m feeling like being quiet about it and just releasing it into the world without all the circus tactics.

i wrote this song and this record because after i laid down live performances, i started feeling all of these songs flooding into me. i couldn’t explain it, but i hadn’t had that kind of inspiration to write in months. literally… so i leaned into it. and what i loved about it was that it just kind of… came out. nothing was forced. nothing felt like it was fitting a square peg into a round hole. i asked Josh if he wanted to help me write this project, and he was instantly on board. so we just started writing. i had a bunch of stuff written before we started, but the flow just felt different.

the production felt different. i honestly hadn’t picked up a guitar in months, but the solos felt different. the whole structure of the recording felt different. and i’m so excited about it, but not in the same way as before. not in the same in your face, “you have to hear this, listen to this, omg did you know i recorded a song?!?!” way. i just feel… chill. calm. accepting of whatever is.

to say i know the exact purpose of this record would be a lie. it’s weird to feel like you’re giving something up and then being told to keep doing it. but i have to trust. i have to have faith. i know for a fact that i’m not interested in placing my art in an environment where it has the possibility of no longer being mine, so in true independent artist fashion, this is how it’s going to go. i’m gonna write it. i’m gonna record it. i’m gonna put it out. wash, rinse, repeat.

sometimes i find myself forgetting that fact that sometimes the best things happen in the quiet. as an artist, i’ve been “quiet” for a while. no public releases, no shows, just introspective time trying to understand what this gift is supposed to be used for. what i have to keep reminding myself is this:

the truth, the direction, the purpose… comes from a still small voice… one that cannot be heard in the loud. it can only be heard in the quiet. it doesn’t raise it’s volume above the chaos. it doesn’t try to be heard over the rest of the noise. it just sits and waits patiently to tell me the same things it’s been saying all along. whether i want to hear it or not. whether i want to believe it or not. it will just keep calmly, kindly, lovingly, and consistently saying the same thing.

you can’t miss what’s meant for you. it’ll gently follow you around until you finally get quiet enough to actually listen. and i’m guilty of “listening” but immediately doubting, writing off, and continuing with whatever i want to do. i did it for a long time with performing. until i couldn’t ignore it anymore. once i got that out of the way, then came the call to write.

listen, i don’t have it all figured out. far from it. i’m not writing this from a place of complete understanding. but, i can’t really deny the confidence that small voice possesses. it’s way more confident than some of my loudness… loud does not equal confident. don’t get it twisted. sometimes loud is nothing more than an attempt to not be found out. sometimes loud is all a cover for the times when i feel like i have no idea what i’m actually doing, or even better… when i’m trying my hardest to ignore or drown out those gentle nudges i don’t want to admit might actually be on to something.

don’t be afraid of the quiet. don’t be afraid to lean in. don’t be afraid if it doesn’t make sense. maybe it’s not supposed to. and maybe you’re wasting time trying to figure it out. these are all lessons i’m currently actively learning… do they hit home for you?

a new record

well. i didn’t really know what else to title this… nothing cryptic, no keeping the cat in the bag…. but we’re working on another record.

a few months ago, it was very clear to me that it was time for me to lay music down and i cancelled all of the live performances on my calendar. to be honest with you, i’m not still not quite sure how i did that. i was texting through tears the entire time. it made no sense to me how i could so clearly feel in my gut that this was the right thing to do. but i just knew it’s what had to be done. i knew it was time.

at the time, i had zero motivation to play one note on a guitar. not a single bit of inspiration coursed through my veins. i hadn’t recorded a note in months, probably not since i released Come Alive… i thought it was gone. i mean, i really thought…. “good goin’, kid. you taught yourself another useless skill…” after all, that’s sometimes what it feels like to have built a photography business in Michigan for five years only to shut it down completely for music. just meandering along, teaching myself random skills that i later abandon for unknown reasons…

i can really be a jerk to myself sometimes… i’m working on it.

a few weeks ago… another nudge. i started getting weird sporadic inspiration for songs, verses and choruses and chord progressions started coming randomly into my mind. i’d be doing something like laundry or taking a walk and another song would make its way into my mind… i think i probably ignored it at first because even if i did flesh out the entire song, i didn’t know what the heck i would do with it.

finally i had enough… the ideas wouldn’t leave me alone. so i started writing a couple of them in my Google Docs like i’ve always done — “idea” with the date. a few of them just stuck in my head, bouncing around and around, almost begging me to write them. eventually, the sentiment came… “write another record.” what? where is this coming from…?

“write another record, Sarah. write a Christian blues rock record.” such a clear direction. pretty hard to ignore. and crazy sounding, might i add… how on Earth am i gonna make THAT!? (from the heart… that’s how…)

so i’ve been diving in. that’s the news. i’m making another record. and it dives harder into blues, rock, some jazz and funk, more guitar, more instruments than i’ve ever experimented with… but i’m very excited to see what comes from this. i’m writing it with my buddy Josh Tobias, which, if you haven’t heard his stuff, i’d love for you to go take a listen. dude is mega talented. i’ve written some of my most favorite songs with Josh — it’s been really fun inviting him into this project.

fun short story on that: i told him i felt compelled to write another record and felt pretty strongly that he was supposed to be writing this with me. his immediate response was, “i’m in. say when.” turns out, he’s apparently been wanting to write something like this for a while so being asked to be part of this is hopefully as much of a gift to him as it is to me.

i think you’re gonna like this stuff. i know i say that every time, but if you’ve been following the evolution of my musicianship at all, this is going to be something i’m super proud of. there’s some killer emotions, themes, sentiments, and inspiration being collected and fleshed out for this one, and i’m hoping it’s going to inspire you in a bunch of ways.

i wanna write this record “in the gap” so to speak. i’m writing it for the person who’s going through it but knows there’s something more to life than their valleys. i’m not writing this from the top of the mountain. i’m not writing this about a life lived without trial or tribulation — that wouldn’t be a story i know anything about. i’m writing this for the person who, like me, finds themselves in some pretty desolate lows and knows relief is possible, but sometimes it seems like it’s far more common for others, or just out of reach. it’s for the person that needs something to hold on to and needs to figure out who this Jesus guy is because He might just be the last and only hope.

i won’t say much more right now… but i just wanted you to know. something’s coming, and i hope you’ll stick around and give it a listen.

♥, SF