Unfiltered resilience: when authenticity is the revolution we need
July 10, 2025 at 4:00 AM
by Ladi’s 1st World
If you could see my desk right now… it’s not cute. Scattered prayer journals, half-written ideas, open Bibles with scribbled notes in the margins. File folders spilling over. A coffee cup with dried caramel macchiato at the bottom. And yesterday’s lashes stuck to a sticky note that reads: “Keep going. You're called, not just capable.” This is the real me. And maybe, just maybe, that’s enough.
The radical truth is that social media doesn’t show the midnight tears before the morning study. It doesn’t show the moment you cry in your car… the pain… the deep breath you take just to center yourself before proceeding… because if one more person asks you to hold just one more thing, you might break in half. We’re out here showing up for everybody, pouring into everything and somewhere along the way, we forgot to ask ourselves: How are YOU, really? I feel like I’m failing… but still moving forward.
I’ve always loved how 2 Corinthians 4:7 puts it: “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all surpassing power is from God and not from us.” Let me tell you what I hear. God didn’t ask you to be polished. He asked you to be available. Cracks and all. He shines through the chipped parts, the tired parts, the I-don’t-have-it-together parts. But we’re too busy trying to be “strong” in public and slowly falling apart in private. Sis… bro… beloved… we were never meant to be the potter. We’re the clay.
I wanted to write about a moment when I said something raw that shifted someone else’s life. But truthfully? My mind is too clouded to recall one. Right now, I’m the one who needs the shift. Still carrying the weight, I failed to hand it over to God. Still fighting to pray and stay aligned. Still reminding myself that survival isn’t weakness, it’s proof that I’m still here. So maybe the boldest thing I can offer today is this: I showed up. Not with a solution. Not with a polished lesson. But with my full, messy presence. And if that’s where you are too you’re not alone.
You don’t need to wait until the clouds clear to testify. Just breathe. Write. Rest. Let this moment be enough. Sometimes, the boldest thing you can do is admit: “I don’t have a testimony ready. I’m still tangled in the middle of it.”
So here’s what I offer you from the fog, from the cluttered desk, from the heart that’s still figuring it out: write at your edge. One page. One prayer. One poem. Not from your healed self or your Sunday-best self. From your today self. Use color, even if it’s messy. Scribble out your anxiety, or draw your next breakthrough. Start a weekly check-in with someone who doesn’t expect you to be perfect. Just present.
Because I see a community rising. Not one shaped by performance, but purpose. Not one obsessed with appearances, but committed to alignment. Imagine a people bold enough to live unfiltered. Where vision isn’t boxed in by trauma. Where creativity disrupts every lie that says you have to be perfect to be powerful. This is the revolution: we get to be both broken and brave. We get to heal out loud. And we do it together.
🖤 With grace and grit,
Founder, Ladi’s 1st World
Founder, Ladi’s 1st World
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