Not Every Idea Needs to be Hustled: Deprogramming Creative Urgency

Every Idea Isn’t Urgent—And the Divine Doesn’t Operate on Deadlines

He Died Trying to Rest

I remember the intense pressure to perform and the guilt for failing to do so.

I was taught that if I didn’t share the gospel—if I didn’t witness to someone—and they died without receiving Jesus, then their blood was on my hands. That was the weight. That was the wiring.

There’s so much wrong with that, but I wouldn’t dismantle it until much later.

Pressure and condemnation.
Pressure and guilt.
Pressure and fear.

These are the tools used to keep you in performance mode. To keep you relentlessly chasing because if you don’t—what? You’ll lose the blessing? Miss the window? Fail God? Let someone go to hell?

I know that sounds extreme. But many of us were raised in environments where obedience was synonymous with urgency. Where resting too long meant disobedience. Where divine abundance was preached—but scarcity ruled.

Scarcity Doesn’t Always Look Like Poverty

And here’s the hard truth:
You can be incredibly wealthy and still operating from a poverty mindset.

Lack and scarcity don’t always look like bloated bellies and flies on a UNICEF commercial. Sometimes it shows up in a Maybach. In red bottoms. In private jets, sold-out stadiums, and contracts with Pepsi.
Sometimes, scarcity wears sequins.

When Creativity Becomes a Spiritual Threat

We wrestle with two contradictory ideologies:
That God, the Universe, or Source is infinite, overflowing, all-knowing…
And at the same time, panicked.
So urgent and understaffed that if you don’t move fast enough, the whole operation falls apart.

That if you don’t act the second you get the vision, the idea will be given to someone else. Because apparently, God’s got deadlines. And you’re the bottleneck.

I saw this sentiment on Threads recently, and it triggered me.

Someone recounted how Michael Jackson believed if he didn’t record a song idea right away—if he didn’t get out of bed at 3AM—Prince would get it. He meant that literally. He believed that ideas floated above us, waiting for someone to act. That if you didn’t move fast enough, they’d move on.

And I remembered those old rapture sermons. The urgency. The fear. The pressure to act now—or else. Or else you’d be left behind. Or else someone would go to hell. Or else someone else would get the thing that was meant for you.

As if… the Divine lacks anything.

Michael Jackson and the Cost of Relentless Creativity

Let’s talk about Michael.

Michael Jackson was a genius.
He was also a child star—raised in a system that profited off his body, his voice, his time. He’d been in the industry since age five. And like so many of us who grew up performing, he never really stopped.

His father was a strict disciplinarian. Joe Jackson didn’t play about rehearsals. Michael was taught that perfection was protection. That if you didn’t get it right, you weren’t just disappointing your family—you were putting the whole operation in danger.

That mindset doesn’t just evaporate when you become famous. It morphs. It matures. Suddenly it’s not your father yelling—it’s your own inner voice. It’s the anxiety that if you don’t capture the magic now, someone else will. That you’ll lose the thread, lose the people, lose your purpose.

We lost Michael because rest eluded him.
Because his taskmaster—internalized and unrelenting—gave him no days off.
He died in pursuit of rest.
Something he could not give himself.

And that is not divine. That is inherited fear, polished up with platinum albums.

The Myth of the One Shot: What If You’re Not Too Late?

Somewhere along the way, we were taught that creativity is a one-time download. That if you don’t write the book now, start the podcast now, get out of bed at 3AM and move, the idea will vanish—and you’ll miss your only chance.

That’s the myth of the one shot.
It’s the lie that there’s only one opportunity, one calling, one window—and it’ll close without warning if you don’t hurry.

But that’s not how divine inspiration works. That’s how capitalism works.

Capitalism says if you don’t move, someone else will. That you’ve got to rush, compete, outperform, outproduce, outcreate.

Who Told You That Lie? How Capitalism Distorts Divine Timing

And somebody—trying to defend this mindset—actually said: “If Mark Zuckerberg hadn’t created Facebook, someone else would have.”

Okay.
And?

Are we implying that if he’d missed that one idea, he’d never have another? That God, the Universe, or pure creative intelligence is so limited that it only gives you one shot and after that, you’re on your own?

So the Creator of the galaxies can’t generate another idea? You don’t get another door? Another way?

Who told you that lie?

This is the theology of scarcity. The religion of urgency. The gospel of grind.

We’re told there’s not enough—so we race.
We hoard.
We gatekeep.
We panic-produce because someone else might get there first.
But where is “there” when your nervous system is shot and your joy is gone?

There is enough. It’s just bottlenecked—stuck in systems built to extract, not expand.

We need to stop treating creativity like a competition and start treating it like the sacred, generous river it is.

Source Doesn’t Panic: The Truth About Divine Inspiration

Let me tell you something I had to learn the hard way:
God doesn’t need an intern.

Source is not anxious.
The Divine is not scrambling.
Spirit is not sitting in a corner wringing its hands because you didn’t respond to an idea fast enough.

That’s projection. That’s our fear talking—not the voice of a loving, abundant, deeply resourced Creator.

We treat inspiration like a job assignment with a looming deadline: “Deliver this by midnight or it gets reassigned.”
No grace. No spaciousness. Just anxiety in a prophetic outfit.

But the Source I know is not fragile.
The Source I know doesn’t work on scarcity timelines or corporate clocks.
The Source I know is infinite—and patient.

If anything, the sacred waits for us.
It circles back.
It shows up again—in a dream, a conversation, a quiet moment at the kitchen sink.
It finds another way to reach you. Another way to love you.

And if it doesn’t come back exactly the same? Something better, more aligned, more you, will.

You haven’t failed.
You’re not late.
You’re not out of favor.

You’re just human.
And the real ones—the ones who know the cost of performance—have to unlearn the grind before they can trust the flow.

I want to challenge you.

Deconstruct your beliefs around scarcity.
Question what you’ve been told the Divine requires of you.

Ask yourself:
Is this urgency coming from Spirit…
or survival?

Not Every Idea Needs to Become a Product

Yes—there are moments when you’ll need to move quickly. There are whispers that come with fire on them, and you will need to grab the pen before the dream fades. But not every moment is a rush.
Not every idea is meant to be a product.
And honestly? Not every creative idea needs to see the light of day.

Some things are just for you.
Some ideas are for your healing, your joy, your private unfolding.

Next time you feel that push—that panic to hurry up and act—pause and ask:
“What happens if I don’t?”
What if I sit with it instead?
What if I write it down and let it breathe?

There’s balance here.
No absolutes.
Sometimes Spirit moves, and you need to move with it.
But sometimes, the most sacred thing you can do is rest, observe, and let the thing ripen.

Maybe it becomes something in a year.
Maybe it becomes nothing at all.
But either way—you are not behind.
You are not disobedient.
You are not unworthy.

Let’s Take the Pressure Off: There Is Enough

Let’s take the pressure off.

Let’s choose to believe that there is enough.
That we are enough.
That ideas are not punishments or tests, but invitations.

Let’s live, breathe, and create from that place.
Let’s keep the wheels of capitalism out of our sacred creative spaces.