A (0:01)

When I'm scrolling social media, I often come across a certain type of post that, you know, five years ago, I would have clicked liked, I would have reposted. But now I struggle with it. I struggle with it. You know, one of them that I just saw was, you won't go broke doing what God told you to do. Or another one God is about to bless you with a promotion and a mass following. Or another one God is telling me I'm about to be famous. Now you may be like, oh, man, that's. That's awesome, Heinz. That's so positive. And I agree. You know, I understand the intent, the messaging, you know, giving people security and, you know, letting them know everything's going to be all right. I mean, my motto is, in hindsight, you don't know everything is going to be all right. But where I struggle with this is when I step back and I look at the world as a whole. You know, I have traveled. You know, I have traveled through India, I've been to Africa, Brazil, all over the place, and there are still 1 billion people living in the sums on this planet. And I have visited slums. These are not like, like hoods that we have in our neighborhoods. These are shacks. These are. Sometimes your walls are fabric and cloth and the ground is mud. No access to clean water, no access to real good food, consistently no real education for the children. And the reason why I struggle with these type of posts is I feel like it's a Western thing. If we're going to believe in a God that is deeply involved in handing out life's blessings, then we have to question why would it be that he's only prioritizing people in the West? It seems like let's, like, use America. For example, is God prioritizing the Girl in Texas YouTube channel over a family in Goa or Mumbai or Nairobi having access to clean water or a meal? Is he working overtime to get Dochi a Grammy while children are starving in the Congo? Or child labor for chocolate? Now, you may be like, damn, is Heinz an atheist? No, I am not an atheist. That's not where I'm going with this. But I just struggle with these type of posts because for me, I think it's a sickness that we have. Now, today's episode may not be popular. I'm going to warn you right now, it may not be popular. It may not make you feel good. So I'm giving you permission and a license to turn me off right now. But if you're curious in what I have to say by all means, continue to listen. I think the way we rationalize these type of posts or this type of thinking, like, you won't go broke if you do what God told you to do. The way we rationalize this is, well, you know, God is going to bless me so I can be a blessing to others. And that's definitely how I have conceptualized it as well for myself. I. I still do. You know, I believe God has blessed me with a giving spirit. It's naturally in me. I. I naturally give. It's like a part of my makeup, my DNA. Anybody around me knows that, you know, even my platforms, they're all built on helping people. This podcast alone has over 11 million downloads. And guess what? Have you ever heard an ad in here, an advertisement? I have easily passed up over a half a million dollars just so you, the listeners, can have a smooth experience on this podcast. So it can feel intimate. But lately I found myself wrestling with the way God's work is framed in the modern world, especially in the West. A lot of people ask me about my personal views on God. If I'm New Age, if I. I'm religious and I don't. I don't speak much on it. Not because I don't have thoughts or I don't have belief. I do, I have faith, but because I don't fully align with this modern Western notion of how God works. And I also feel like it's a personal matter. You know, like, there's these videos on Tik Tok where this guy walks up to people in the grocery store or like, in the middle of the street, and we'll just be like, hey, do you believe in Jesus Christ? And, like, they'll just keep walking. Or if they say no, and then, like, people in the comments just kind of shame them or be like, oh, like, how could they disobey God? How could they? I'm like, bro, you're walking up to people while they are shopping, minding their own business with a camera in their face, asking to profess who they believe in. I. I truly believe that a spiritual walk and a relationship with God is personal. You do not have to share it if you do not want to. It's like, to me, it's as personal as how you engage with your partner in the bedroom, right? Nobody's walking up to you and being like, hey, what did you and your husband or you and your wife do last night? So that's my approach with God as well. It's like, it's a personal matter for me. You understand? I Have conversations with God, I wrestle with God. You know, I've, I've seen myself be blessed in so many ways that I cannot explain that Sometimes I'm just like, I must be having some type of divine ally. 100%. But I feel like in the western world or spirituality, especially in certain religious circles and online spaces, God is often painted as this divine vending machine. You know, you put in prayers and out comes a car, a house, a million followers. Oh, your kingdom marriage is soulmate. And then when it doesn't happen, well, you didn't pray hard enough, or you weren't favored enough, or it wasn't in his will. But I wish as a world, before we go online and we post about how God is going to grant us material success, or we say things like, you will never go broke if you listen to God. I wish before doing this we could talk about those living in conditions that most of us could not last a single day in. You know, again, we live on a planet with over 9 billion people. 1 billion people live in slums. 1 out of 9 people on this planet, 1 out of 9 wakes up in conditions that most of us in the west could never fathom. And yet in our digital spaces, it often seems like God is focused on making sure that we have successful YouTube channels, high paying jobs, a viral video, or again, a kingdom marriage. And this is something I struggle with and it may even seem hypocritical, you know, as I gain a following and I'm accumulating more resources. But one thing a lot of people do not know about me, and this is not to posture myself, but my goal in life isn't to be doing what I'm doing right now. This is a medium for me to develop influence and to speak to people and to help people along my way. But my real goal in life is to transform a slum. Since I was a kid, I've been attracted to broken down buildings and homes. I don't know why, but I'd always be attracted to them. When I picked up a camera, anytime I saw an abandoned home or building, I would always want to film in it. And when I was in India, I saw a slum. We stopped a car and I had to walk in. Me and my buddy, we went in there, we walked into the slum just to be met with the most beautiful faces. Mothers and their children living on the side of the street, sleeping in like dirty fabrics, hammocks, like, they didn't even have like tents. It was just fabrics as like rooms. The floor is dirt Everybody was noticeably dirty because obviously, a lack of clean water. But something was interesting. Their spirits were so warm. I felt God more in that space than I would in New York City. And then as the years gone by, I realized every time I traveled somewhere, I'd always be called to those type of areas. I wanted to experience it. When I was in Nairobi, it bothered me so much to see kids in the streets. I saw all these kids in the streets asking me for money. I'm like, why is there so many kids downtown in the streets? First thing I do when I got back to my hotel, I'm researching the issue. And then I become aware of the massive slums on the outskirts of Nairobi. I'm like, damn, I'm in the city enjoying my time here, having beautiful dinners, but right on the cusp, you know, I just went and saw lions. But there's like a whole million people right on the cusp of the city living in slums. And it bothers me. It truly bothers me because I'm like, we can send humans to the moon, but we can't solve this. And I remember last year, I went through extreme guilt. You know, I felt like God blessed me with a lot of money and influence, and I helped out so many people. And I personally helped people in my life financially. Handful of my friends, you know, the odd stranger who was panhandling. But I also realized I could have easily took 20, 25,000, $30,000 and handed it to an organization that I resonated with. But I didn't. And I still struggle with that guilt today. Now, of course, this is something I will learn from my mistakes. And I know this topic already is extremely, probably boring and feels lecturing, and I'm not trying to do that at all, right? But if something's on my heart, I'm going to say it. The bigger issue to me is when I'm scrolling online, what I see is spiritual blindness. People believe that every good thing in their life is a direct sign of divine favor. And if this is true, then we would have to believe that God somehow hates whole types of people or whole groups of people. Because if you travel the world, you will see that a lot of people are surviving on less than $1 a day. I'm not saying that God doesn't bless us. Again, I struggle with this. I wrestle with this. But if we are going to have this type of thinking in the west, then that God is intervening on a personal level every single day, trying to get us that promotion, trying to get us more followers. You Know, whatever it may be, then it would seem that he is prioritizing people in America over starving children or people trapped in generational poverty. Here's another tweet I saw today. Like this, this is just something I see all the time. God provides every time. Now that feels good. I want to hear that. I want to say that. I want to tell you that every single day as well. Just like I tell you everything is going to be all right. And I know it comes from a place of faith, but unfortunately it's just not true. In a universal sense, if God provided every time, no child would die a starvation. But during this podcast in the last few minutes, at least, at least one child somewhere in this world passed because they didn't have enough to eat. And of course in the west, we live in a system of abundance. Even those with little money have more than majority of the rest of the world. We have infrastructure, some type of access to health care, you know, maybe food banks, shelters. Even when we struggle, there is still some type of safety net that those in some other developing nations or places simply do not have. So when we say God provides every time, what we really mean is God provides for me because I live in a system that allows me to receive provision. You know, I know this conversation is uncomfortable. You know, some of you might be like, damn, hi, this the morning. You know, I just, I just want to feel good today. Just tell me God loves me and I'm going to be rich. And of course I want to do that, you understand? But I don't want to blind myself either because one thing for sure is I believe that God works our hearts, you know? Yeah, we could be like, yo, God is blessing me. And again, anything we have, I think we should be grateful for. We should give it up to the most high, to the divine. Because it's like, man, sometimes we just cannot explain the things that are happening in our lives. But we cannot forget about everybody else as well when I say you done know in hindsight, everything is going to be all right. I'm speaking to you, I'm speaking to me, but I'm also speaking about the whole planet. I'm saying that one day I believe peace is a process and one day everything will be all right for the whole planet. It's going to take time. It's going to take time. But if we all raise our heart postures and unfog ourselves from this type of spiritual blindness, I do believe that everything is going to be all right. I don't believe technically in a God that picks favorites per se. Although, again, my whole life, I have felt like I've gotten some type of special treatment. I don't believe in a God that gives one person a mansion while another person dies in a refugee camp just because one prayed harder. But I do believe in a God that set life into motion. I believe in a Creator that gave us free will, to some extent, intelligence, and the ability to create change. I don't believe in a God that banishes you to hell for simply not having the right theology. And I do believe that if we want to see God's work in the world, we have to open the palms of our own hands. We can't always look for miracles. We have to recognize that we are the miracles sometimes ourselves, we are the miracles for others. I remember one time I was in. I was in India, and I met this. I met this dude, Jason. And Jason was interesting. He was a special guy, but he was really short. He had a condition, and he had really weak bones. And, you know, we hung out for a few days on the beach, and he was extremely poor, you know, and, you know, we exchanged contacts and we would keep in touch. And, you know, another time he let me know that his family was super struggling. And I. At the time, I had no money, so I. I did, like, a GoFundMe for Jason because I actually documented his story. You know, I had images of his X rays to show, like, how he's supposed to take care of his whole family. But he has this condition, and, you know, his father's sick, and there's just so much stuff going on. And luckily, at the time, I. I had a very small community. I probably had, like 1500 followers on Instagram, but I was able to raise $2,500 and, you know, give that to Jason. And in that moment, I realized when I met Jason, Jason was constantly praying, Even when I was with him. He took me to this big Jesus statue, and he would pray, he would pray, he would pray, and he'd always send me blessings. And sometimes I'm like, man, maybe his prayers were answered. I mean, his life wasn't completely fixed, but somebody showed up and found a way to give him what he needed in that season. And I didn't have it either. I just found the means to get it and give it to him. And that is what I want. The blueprint of my work to be in the world is I don't think I could ever live comfortably for the rest of my life knowing that one in nine people on the planet live in the slums. And I have my days where I. I'm blind as well, where I'm complaining I'm not making as much money as I used to in another season, although I'm still doing better than like 90% of people. And I had to unfog those lenses as well. But I truly believe a lot of us have to open the palms of our hands and realize that we are not just here to make our lives better, but we are here to make the world better. And there's going to be seasons where we have to tune into ourselves truly and develop ourselves so we can be a blessing to others. Where we're going to have to heal ourselves so we can heal others. You know, I do believe God works through us, through our hearts. I don't believe in God being a vending machine or the lotto Max. The truth is, a lot of us were born in better countries and better systems. Systems that are designed to protect us more than other systems. And that privilege should not be forgotten. If you think about it, you have creators online who complain about them feeling like they are shadow banned, while there are kids in other countries who are hiding in the shadows as orphans. Maybe God is less about handouts and more about guidance. What we do with that guidance is up to our own free will. But I still can't help but barf in my mouth every time I see a tweet about God and materialism. You won't go broke doing what God told you. Because one thing I noticed in the poorest of poorest places that I have been, that is where I have seen the most faith, the most faith and gratitude. And I struggle with that because, yes, I want to be wealthy. I want to be wealthy. That is true. I want to take care of my mother. I want to retire her. I want my daughter to never have to worry about money. I want multiple homes. But those desires are also a part of my wrestling process. I don't want to discourage anyone from praying for their dreams. Manifestation is real. Speaking life into our visions is so important. But I think we cannot confuse manifestation with entitlement as well. Let's not mistake privilege for some type of divine favorite favoritism. If we truly believe in God, then our faith should expand beyond ourselves. It should move us to be more compassionate, more aware, more willing to see the world outside of our algorithm. And I just hope we can have a world where instead of posting about how much God is going to make us rich, we asked how we could use these resources to help others in a world Where AI is going to be able to do so much for us and it's going to take over so many industries. Can we have conversations of how can we use AI to lift up the people who are living in those slums to over 1 billion people? How can we use AI to develop better medicines? How can we use AI to Develop cheaper homes to build so we all have a roof over our head? Because I just puke in my mouth. Anytime someone makes God seem like a lottery ticket, you know he's not an atm. Some of the wickedest people in the world have the most secure material lives. So we cannot always assign material blessings and money to God's favor. If anything, if God is working in our lives again, I believe he is working in our hearts. Because when I walked into that slum in India and looked into the eyes and smiles of everybody, I saw something in them that I do not see often. I saw love. I saw hope, although there were no signs of hope around them. I saw kindness, I saw compassion. I saw gratitude. I have the footage to prove it. You can scroll down on my Instagram to like seven years ago, you will find videos of these mothers and kids on Instagram and you will see light in their eyes. And to me, that was more proof of God for me than watching an artist win a Grammy. If we believe in him, then we should believe in the responsibility that comes with that faith to be stewards of what we have, to be aware of our privilege and to uplift others, not just ourselves. Yes, first we probably have to uplift ourselves so we can be a blessing to others. But never forget that privilege. Spiritual blindness is a sickness. So I'm not going to tell you that God is about to make you rich today in this season. But I will tell you that you have purpose. And if you woke up this morning with food in your fridge, clothes on your back and access to Internet to hear this, then you are already more blessed than many other people on this planet. So what will you do with that blessing? And you're done. Now, in hindsight, I do believe everything is going to be alright one day for everybody. Probably not in my lifetime, but one day I will figure out how I can at least do the work that I feel on my heart again. My goal in life is not to sit here technically and make you feel good in the morning. I love doing this. But my goal in life is to one day at least transform a slum. I want to transform a slum somewhere in the world. I'm not sure how, not sure how it's going to get done. But that is my mission, and I've never actually said it, so I'm saying it now.