When Clarity Becomes an Idol

because I know that you're wanting clarity before you make some moves, but a lot of times the clarity is on the other side of the moves that you're making. So, hey friends, welcome back to the podcast. This is podcast episode 039 of She's Equipped with Jennifer Allwood. I am Jennifer Wood. Thanks for being here. So, we're going to be talking today about making an idol out of clarity, and I want to kind of set up for you what I'm meaning. Okay. Um, I just got done with a prayer call for She's Equipped. And so, I do this at least once or twice a month. Um, where I'm on a call with all the women that are in my coaching program if they want to come. They don't have to, but you know, it's there. And um and inevitably every month somebody will say, "Could you pray for clarity for me? " Now maybe it will be worded slightly different, right? It could be worded as, "Hey, will you just pray that I know what you know the next step should be? " Okay, same thing. So if you're listening to the podcast right now and you're like, "Ah, Jennifer, I never actually say um you know, I need clarity. " Well, but do you say something kind of like Okay, cuz it's the same thing can be said, you know, several different ways. Um, on today's call, by the way, nobody did ask for pray for clarity. We prayed for plenty of other things. But a lot of times women are wanting like clarity around what they should launch, when they should launch, whether or not they should pivot. Actually, somebody did ask me to pray for that today. Whether or not they should hire someone. They are wanting clarity around which direction should they go in. They're wanting clarity about, you know, what God wants for them to do next. Sorry if you're watching on YouTube. I'm just adjusting my lighting, which I should have done first. And um you know, the thing is like I think that it often sounds spiritual. Um couldn't sound wise. It sounds responsible, right? Like, hey, Jennifer, would you pray for this that I have clarity? I have vision. I you know, I know what I'm doing next. But I do think that we can start making an idol out of that. We can start hitting the pause button until we feel like God has given us the next steps or we've got the one-year plan, the 5-year plan, the three-year vision, you know, the five mile vision or what have you. Because I think that we are living in a time where we just really have a constant desire around clarity. Um, and so for years when women have asked me to pray for them to have clarity, I've done it because they've asked me to. And um, Jason and I were actually getting ready to go on a trip uh, last month. Him and I were going to go to Tellide Colorado just for a getaway um, you know, parents without children for a little while. And Tellide, Colorado had been on my bucket list for quite a while. I had seen an influencer go there years ago and she made it look like it was very romantic, which it is. It didn't look like there was a ton of children there, which there were some, it was fine, but I just, you know, the idea, we go to the beach a lot because we own two properties in Florida that are both on the beach, but to go sit in the mountains just with snow and um, you know, we were not going to ski, then we ended up skiing. That's a whole thing. Um, but we were going to take like a ride on a dog sled. we decided we were going to climb um we were going to ice climb a waterfall because I'm crazy and like to do fun things like that. But anyhow, like so we're getting ready and we're um packing before we leave for Colorado. And it's literally the day we left for Colorado. I'm getting ready and I'm listening to um a snippet of a podcast um from Pastor Stephen Ferdig that is on YouTube. Okay. And um and I double checked the dates for you guys. It was from It was uh this was last month that I listened to it, but it was from January of 2026. And um his sermon was titled It's Okay Not to Have Clarity. So, if you want to go find that, you sure can. So, um he's in the middle of this sermon or I'm listening to Pastor Steven's um sermon about it's okay not to have clarity. And he shared a story with me that really stuck. And so, here's what he said. He said that he first heard this story from someone named Brennan Manning, who by the way, I don't know who that is. I believe it's an author, but don't quote me on that. Okay. So, apparently Brennan Manning had told him that there was a man who once went to visit Mother Teresa. This is not a story, by the way. This is apparently a true story. All right? That there was once a man who went to visit Mother Teresa because he was trying to figure out like what to do with the rest of his life. He felt foggy around like he was confused about the direction he should go, uncertain, you know, should I do this or should I do that? And you know, some of you that are listening to this podcast right now, you probably know exactly what that feels like. There have been times in your life

where you're like, I don't know. I don't have a or a B option. I have no options or I have lots of options or I don't even know what my options are. But regardless, this person just felt as though they didn't know what to do with the rest of their life. So went to Mother Teresa confused. And when he met Mother Teresa, she asked him, um, you know, hey, what can I do for you? And the man said to her, well, I would love for you to pray for me. Again, this is the story as Pastor Steven Ferdig is saying it that he got from Brennan Manning. And so the guy says, "Well, I would love for you to pray for me. " And Mother Teresa says, "Well, what exactly would you like for me to pray for? " And the guy says, "Um, well, I would like for you to pray that God would give me clarity. " And according to Brandon Manning, Mother Teresa said, "I won't do it. No, I will not pray that God would give you clarity. " And she said, "I won't pray that. " She said, "I've never had clarity. " And the man was very shocked because he said, "Well, Mother Teresa, you always seem to have clarity. " And she responded, "I have never had clarity. What I've always had is trust. " And she said, "So instead of praying for you to have clarity, I'm going to pray that you trust God. " And Jason could tell you that I listened to that on the way to the airport. I listened to that again when we got to Colorado. And I made him listen to it because I'm like, do you know how many years I have been praying for the women in my group to have clarity? And I'm like, "Oh my gosh, it just it totally hit me in a different way. " And what's interesting is I have always prayed that the women in my group have clarity when they ask me for that. But I have never been a person that has had clarity. I have literally said to you guys on this podcast before it was called She's Equipped Jennifer Allwood back when it was called the Jenniferwood Show. I've talked to you before, especially at the end of one year or at the beginning of another that I have never been a person with a five-year plan. You hear all these influencers talking about, you know, we're going into the new year and new year, new me, and they've got the plan 20 points on how they're going to get there. That has never been me. Yes, I've always had goals. Jason and I sit down at the beginning of every year and we have goals in five different areas. You can go back, you can find a podcast episode on that. But I've never had like a crystal clear vision of where God is taking my life or my business. I just haven't. Not when I started my painting company. Not when I moved into coaching. Not when I, you know, decided two years ago to start selling software or quit 360 software. Not when I wrote my book, Fear's Not the Boss of You. Not when I was launching programs. Like I've never had, you know, the clarity around where are we actually going, Lord? And I've just always kind of held my plans loosely like I'll set goals, I'll make the goals, and I try to take the action as I feel like God's, you know, nudging me to do. but giving God full permission to do whatever he wants with those. And I sincerely mean that. And some of the greatest opportunities I think that I've had in my business and some of the biggest growth, some of the best directions have came from the times when I had no plan. It came from things happening completely out of what I thought was going to happen. There was no clarity there. Because if I had waited for clarity, I would still be waiting. And so here's something that I really want to point out. Okay? I think when most women in business are saying, "Jennifer, would you pray that I would get some clarity? Here's what honestly they're looking for. When they're saying they want clarity, what they really mean is they want certainty. They want guarantees. They want to know that what they're about to attempt to do is going to work. They want to avoid wasting time. money. They want to avoid looking foolish in front of people on the internet that they don't even know and don't really even care about. They want to avoid failure. It's not that they want God to give them clarity. It's a guarantee. They're not just looking for direction. They're looking for a guarantee or they're looking for predictability. And this is where I think that clarity can become an idol because people refuse to move without feeling like they're clear about next steps, which God by the way never guarantees us. So then women stay stuck and they don't launch the offer and they don't start the email list and they don't hire the help and they don't begin doing Facebook ads and they don't pivot and they don't raise their prices and they don't show up online because they're still waiting and they're waiting for clarity which again sounds real religious, right? I've seen this over and over again, friends. And here's what people fail to realize is clarity often comes as a result of doing something. So women are waiting Lord here I am you know use me Jen would you pray that I have clarity so I'm praying they get clarity and they're thinking as soon as I get the clarity

then I'll act on it then I'll move on it they're thinking that they need the clarity to have the movement when the exact is actually opposite in the kingdom of god you know that it's like the upside down world right clarity is the result of movement it's not the prerequisite for it you get clarity by doing. launching. You get the clarity by making the wrong decisions sometimes, but you get the clarity by actually like doing the thing, walking in that direction. I was telling somebody the other day, like in one of my coaching groups, how do you learn best? Is it by watching somebody on YouTube make an Instagram reel with all these new bells and whistles? Or is it by you actually going to Instagram and starting to actually do the reel? How do you actually learn best? The majority of us always learn best by actually doing, right? The clarity. It's the same way. It comes by the doing. The learning, the clarity, the vision comes through the learning. You know, I've heard the analogy of it's like driving at night. Like your headlights don't show you the entire road. It shows you just enough of the road for you to continue going. And as you move, then more of the road will begin to become visible. But God rarely gives us like flood lights. He's giving us a lamp unto your feet. That's what scripture says. Not a spotlight on a 10-year business strategy. It's a lamp to your next step. And so, you know, the Bible says that we're to trust in the Lord with all of our heart and lean not on our understanding. I don't need to understand. I don't actually need to know exactly where I'm going next. And I've told the women in my coaching group this before and I'll tell you this here as well. If I knew where God was taking me all of the time, if I knew what the next season looked like, if I knew where I was headed, I know me well enough to know that I would try to step in and help God. I'm putting that in quotation marks if you're watching on YouTube or if you're not, you didn't see that. But I would try to like manufacture something just because I'm a human and in my humanness, that's so often what we do. But there's so many examples in the Bible like Abraham through faith. He didn't know where he was going. He didn't have clarity, but he did have a calling. So, he moved. And so, some of my greatest clarity or vision or whatever you want to call it in business has happened after I made the decisions to move. after I had a launch that flapped, after I hired somebody that was wrong, after I priced something too long the first or too low the first time, you know, when I said yes to something that I should have said no to. But sometimes clarity is like 2020, you know, hindsight. And so maybe instead of praying like, "Lord, would you give me clarity? " Maybe we could start just praying, "Lord, give me guts. Lord, give me courage. " You've heard me say that before. Lord, give me guts. Or would you give me the wisdom to know what to do next? Lord, would you give me the discernment to hear that still small voice? Lord, help me to trust you even when I can't see. feel unsure because I know that clarity feels safe. And I know that not being able to see things feels really risky, right? But growth is always on the other side of that risk. And honestly, most women, they're not stuck because they lack clarity. They're support. mentorship. They're stuck because they lack accountability. There's nobody to hold their feet to the fire. They're stuck because they don't have community. I talked about this on last week's podcast. If you are lacking support, mentorship, community, accountability, get into my coaching group. Go right now. You don't even have to use a software. You can go right now to she's equipped. com. You get my software or my coaching or both. But you know, when you are doing business alone, everything gets scarier. All the fear gets louder. But when you're in the right room with the right people, even if it's just a room online, like courage grows. And so if you've been waiting for like clarity to move your business forward, you don't necessarily need any more clarity. You probably need some support. Okay? We think that clarity is what we need. Sometimes we make that into the idol. If I just had clarity, no, if you just trusted God with your future, like that's what's going to transform things. because I know that you're wanting clarity before you make some moves, but a lot of times the clarity is on the other side of the moves that you're making. So my prayer for you is not is the same thing. Not that you would have clarity, but just that you would trust the Lord enough to move without it. And so I hope that um is really meaningful for someone today. I know that when I watched that Steven Ferdict video, man, that landed for me. I was like, that is so good. That's just so good. So, I wanted to share that with you guys because I think that

for some of you, you've been waiting for the wrong thing. And while you're waiting on clarity, God's waiting on you. And I know that I have been guilty of that before. I've been waiting on clarity and God's been waiting on me. And so, I just pray that you are courageous enough to do what God's asking you to do, even without knowing what's going to happen when you do it. So, God bless you. We'll see you next week. Bye-bye. Hi, Eastston. Okay, so I was really cold this morning, so I put on a sweater. Now it's 5 million° and I'm about ready to explode.