Finding Hope and Faith in the Face of Adversity
In a recent conversation, Eric and Danor shared their personal journeys of perseverance, hope, and faith. Danor, reflecting on the challenges faced as an African-American, emphasized the importance of holding on to hope during the darkest of times. The belief that things can get better, that the future holds brightness, becomes a guiding light. Throughout the discussion, the theme of resilience in the face of adversity emerged as a powerful message.
Danor’s pursuit of a career in acting and directing was marked by struggles and uncertainties. Despite the lack of stability, the individual’s faith became a driving force, leading to a realization that hope and faith are intertwined. The journey was described as an act of faith, guided by the belief that God provides challenges not necessarily desired, but ultimately necessary for personal growth and development.
The conversation delved into the concept of faith as an active, ongoing process. It was highlighted that maintaining faith requires effort and action, resonating with the notion that work and dedication play a crucial role in overcoming obstacles. Danor emphasized the importance of continually prioritizing a relationship with God and finding ways to invite Him into daily experiences.
The discussion also touched on the power of love and service. Danor expressed the belief that loving others and serving them is a way of showing love to God. This perspective on faith and love as interconnected principles resonated with the idea that aligning with God’s will and embodying His love can lead to a deeper connection with one’s spirituality.
In the final moments of the conversation, Danor shared a poignant message of hope for those facing adversity. The individual emphasized that even in the darkest of hours, hope remains a tangible and resilient force. The advice to hold on to hope and to keep moving forward, one step at a time, encapsulated a universal message of perseverance and resilience in the face of life’s challenges.
It’s like God told me, don’t give up. God gives you something hard because it may not be what you want, but it is what you need. Being an African-American, having the history of what we went through, how could people survive such a tragedy? In my darkest hours, which I’ve had plenty of in life, there was always this little spark, and it was hope.
You were talking about careers and how for the first 10-15 years, and I totally relate, you’re like, Is this a real thing? How did you get into… What did you start with?
I’ve always wanted to pursue a career as an actor, and then I knew I eventually wanted to become a director and that thing. And so in my innocence and of youth, I just said, You know what? I’m going to become an actor and I’m going to spread love with my craft. And then eventually I went to college, studied theater, and went to a conservatory, and got an agent, and started doing it. But it’s not a smart career choice if you want stability and all of these things that other… It was either actor or lawyer. That was my two choices, and it never quite dawned on to me you could be an actor and a lawyer, which would have made those first 10 or 15 years a lot easier. It really was an act of faith, to be honest. God told me, don’t give up. That transcends to your faith, to your career, to your marriage, to lots of things. God gives you something hard because it may not be what you want, but it is what you need. Yes.
That’s the truth, and it sucks.
Sometimes as I move forward and found my faith, got baptized and just made a commitment. Then it was just like, Okay, let’s make this work. It’s worth it now. It was such a struggle, but it’s totally worth it now.
Yeah. I feel like I’m in a very similar spot. I’ve been doing music full-time since 2010, 12, somewhere in there. You feel like such an opposed or like an imposter. Yeah, I am getting paid, I’m getting jobs, but the struggle is real. I don’t know where the next one is, but currently I’m fine. That’s what’s crazy is I’ve always been taken care of.
When you find this faith and… I’m not trying to think what this faith is. I’m trying to think what this faith is inside of you, right? Because God knows all of us individually, that’s the thing for me. It’s so important to have a personal, spiritual relationship with God, and you can and you shouldand that’s the whole reason you’re here, right? It’s all about that. When you have the faith, you put in the work, you continually prioritize Him and His word, then you’ve developed that relationship and you communicate together. He wants to hear from you when you pray, and He wants to speak to you, and he’ll do it in whatever way he knows works best. But you got to have enough faith. And faith is like a verb, right? You got to be willing to take the actions and to not give up on it.
I love this.
It.
Sounds awesome, and I totally believe what you’re saying. What’s hard is when life gets hard and you still stick to this stuff. Between jobs before you felt established, did you at times lose? What am I doing? I have. What did you do during those times to keep it going?
Nothing can help you regain that optimism when you’re down or increase your faith like work. Just put everything else aside, find a project, find a job, and go get it. Like put your faith into your effort. It’s just one of the keys to avoiding depression and all these other things. That could be just go to the gym the next five days in a row and just work it. Even if that’s only an hour out of the day, put in some effort into something and you will start to feel hope. It’s just like this.
Weird thing. It’s almost annoying how simple it is. Yeah. Yeah. The gym, prayer, scripture, the things that are constant. They’re true principles. It’s annoying how easy they are, but you just got to do it.
Sometimes you don’t see what’s coming and it just appears. But you just have to be anxiously engaged in a good cause, so to speak. You have to be continually doing something good for the better thing to come your way.
Dude, yeah. It’s that aligning with God’s will. That alignment is there’s nothing more.
Powerful than that. This is a show about faith. That’s really what God is all about. He’s about one of the reasons to believe in God, heavenly Father, whatever you want call him, is that he’s a unifying force. That is the truth. That commonality that we’re all children of God gives us a reason to work together and to love one another. Some of the things that I’ve learned on my faith journey that I’ve felt like are very powerful and influential for me. One is that God is so merciful, so kind, so loving. I’ll get to the loving thing. That’s the second point. But it’s literally harder to get to hell than it is to get to heaven. Love that. Most people are, it’s all hell, fire, brimstone, the old-time religion. It’s all about, Yeah, you want to go to hell? You better get in that water. The fact is that he has given everybody every opportunity he can for them to find the happiest ending possible in their life. But we do have to put in some work, like we talked about earlier. Work is a part of the plan. But knowing that is a reason not to be…
Of course, we all have our ups and downs, but don’t be too discouraged. Don’t be too hard on yourself. You just keep moving forward. That’s what Christ is for. He’s about providing you that grace to make mistakes, but understanding and learning from those mistakes so you can be stronger and better. The fact is that he loves you, me, and everyone else. He loves us all more than we can stand. We’re just not ready to be in his presence. His love is completely over. They talk about people getting burnt, andt hat’s literally, it’ll burn you like the sun unless you’ve been changed from the inside out through this life. That’s what this life is for, is to change, not to follow that natural, carnal, human nature, but follow that natural, instinctive, loving, kind nature, that forgiving nature, that nature of faith to do the work of bringing good into the world. Because by doing that, you prepare yourself so that when you see him, you can handle it. That’s why he wants us back. That’s why his son did what he did because he loves us so much and we just got to hold strong.
Yeah, I feel that, dude. What are you doing each day to keep that love coming? Because it’s always there. We shut it off. We shut it off.
Oh, man, that’s such a good point. I think the best way to maintain it is to remember.
That’s always in the scriptures, by the way. It’s just, remember this. Remember what I did for your father. Remember this. I think that’s why keeping a journal is so important. Writing down and testifying like this happened, remember. Anyway, I love this.
I know I love that. I wrote that experience down in a journal and I go back to it every once in.
A while. Exactly. You remember it and you can recall it. It’s beautiful. Your kids will recall it. Your grandkids will.
Recall it. Yeah. I need to do that more often, too. I used to do it more than I do now. But then the other thing, besides just always remembering, it’s just seeking it, like moving with this purpose in your life of wanting to be close to God, invite them into the little things you do. When you’re hanging out with your kids, when you’re playing basketball, when you’re driving around the car, just find ways to invite him in to your experiences and talk with him about it, feel it. If you remember him and you think like, Okay, if I love God, what do I do? You serve his children. What did Jesus say? When you do it onto the least of one of these, you’ve done it onto me. When we love each other, we’re also showing him love. I think that’s a little bit of a literal thing because in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross, he suffered for our sins. So would you alleviate someone’s suffer? You literally alleviated his.
That’s an incredibly beautiful thought.
Thank you. Appreciate it. But the thing is, if you understand what we call the atonement of Jesus Christ or his sacrifice of suffering for our sins. It makes sense. It’s like the math is pretty solid. You know what I mean? That’s wild. Yeah. That’s how we love him. That’s how you remember that you love him by loving others. Then when you’re done helping whoever or doing whatever kind deed you did, think of him and say, I’m doing this for you. And man, he’s going to touch your heart.
I mean, how much do we just gush when our kids do something for us or for someone else? You see them serve their brother and sister and you’re like, I am so freaking proud of you. Let’s go buy you a gift. I want to give you everything right now. It’s the best. I know that I believe in the family and I believe in the patterns of the family. Just how I see and observe and love my children I know, I believe that’s how God views us, and it gives me some sympathy and empathy and hope. I really love that thought. I’m going to take that. I’ll give you credit, but I’m going to take it. All right. Man, this is so much to think about. I’m very grateful for your thoughts today. Before we go, I want to give you the last word. Okay. Just talk to our brothers out there who are struggling that might have things that they don’t think they can overcome or a lot of darkness. What would you tell them?
I would say that in my darkest hours, which I’ve had plenty of in life, there was one thought that would always help me. It boils down to one word, hope. Being a black man and an African-American, having the history of what we went through, how could people survive such tragedy? At some point, there was always this little spark in the darkest hours, and it was hope. Hope is a real thing. No matter how bad things are, there’s always the hope that they get better, that the future is a little brighter. Every night, it’s darkest before the dawn, and the sun just creeps up, and then it brings light into the world. When you feel like all is lost, even when you feel like your faith is gone because you just feel so disappointed in yourself or at someone else, or you’ve been just totally mistreated or abused, or even been mean to someone else. There’s always hope. Hope is real. It never dies. If you just capture that one thing, Well, I can just hope that things will get better. Just hold on to that hope for it and then just put one foot in front of the other.
Keep getting up. Keep putting one step in front of the other and then living every day. Then pretty soon that hope will turn to reality, faith. There’s always hope.
Always hope. Beautiful. Hey, thanks for coming. This has been awesome. Appreciate it, brother.
You too, man. Thanks for the invite.
dyejo
Guest Author
