Erica Campbell on Time with God (Part 2 of 5)

Fast forward many years and marriage, kids, and travel, and ministry, and radio shows, and TV shows. Yes. What does making time for God look like now?

It means infusing him in every little thing. So if I'm on a plane, I know my phone doesn't work, I'm plugged into my Bible app or listening to worship music. Or if I am at home, I'm— I try to be fully in whatever moment I'm in. So if I'm at home You know, my assistant Misty will call and say, hey, can we look at something? I have no answer for you right now because my brain is only on Jesus.

Isn't that funny though?

Do you do that for someone?

Like when you're in your home mode, does going back and forth—

It's hard. It's really hard. So when it's my Jesus time, I just let it be my Jesus time and I don't let myself feel bad for it. Oh, I should have, oh, I should have cooked dinner. Okay, we're going to order pizza tonight because me and Jesus needed a little more time today because this is coming and that's coming and that happened and I'm functioning as if everything's fine, but really I'm kind of discombobulated in my heart. And so I know those are the times that I need to just kind of sit and be quiet and go, tell me something, Jesus. And sometimes I don't always pick up a Bible or a book. Sometimes I go, just tell me something. I was in traffic and I was going, I've been functioning on my own for far too long, and I was like, I just— would you just come now? I was literally in my car. I said, "Could you just come now?" And there was this traffic space that I don't know where it came from, but in my mind, Jesus wanted to talk to me in my car.

He came in the traffic.

He brought the traffic to create space for you. And I just cried and told him what I wanted to say, and he comforted my heart. And then I wiped the tears. The traffic eased up, and I was like, "Ah, I feel refreshed." So, you know, I'm not— I'm not as structured as I should be.

I was about to say the same thing.

I feel like there's people who wake up and they do this at a certain time, and this is my prayer hours.

You say your kids are?

5, 7, and 12. So I think you, I think giving yourself a break in this season is good.

I think so.

Because I mean, if it's not radio shows and tours and travel and all that, you've got moms who are— they went to bed at 4 AM because they had a newborn. Exactly. So you don't get up and have the nice Bible basket that you sit and have your hour quiet. That doesn't happen. So there's freedom, I think, for anyone when we realize God can meet us anywhere. We should study the Word, but he can meet us anywhere.

Absolutely.

What is the last major exchange that you and God had where he really did something in your soul?

The last one, and this is gonna seem corny, and I promise it's not it's real. Your dad had a devotional on the Bible app called Praying the 30 Names of Jesus, the names of God, and I would take a moment and pray those prayers and sneak in a corner in my house or stay in the car before I went in with groceries and just have a good old time with Jesus and pray. And some of the names I'd never heard of before, you know, it was just really refreshing for me to pray in that way because I pray all the time. You pray for your kids and your—

just with a different directive and a different—

absolutely, you What I appreciate about you is you're always—

what I've come to learn about you is that you're always gleaning from all different kinds of pastors, preachers, teachers, Bible study leaders from all different streams of the faith.

Absolutely.

That you are never just walking down this vein of teachers. You're always seeing what's there and there and there and there and there. And I think that builds a maturity. Absolutely. That folks that have marginalized themselves to just one little stream, they have a very myopic, narrow view of God.

Yeah.

Because there's a breadth. Of God that can't be experienced. Absolutely. Because you don't know everything in your one denomination or thing.

Absolutely. And you have to open up. I mean, I grew up in the Church of God in Christ, and then me and my husband got married and we went to a Baptist church.

So wait, wait, you couldn't wear pants?

No, I couldn't wear pants.

No makeup?

No makeup. Just sheer lip gloss, that was it, because it was all a sin. And so I started asking, I said, Mommy, do you think if I came, if I got to heaven's gates and I died and I had red lipstick on that day? They wouldn't let me in.

What she said?

You trying to be funny. I'm serious. I'm so serious. Like I really wanted out. I said, but if my heart— oh, and nail polish, like this glitter that I'm wearing.

So I'm trying to figure out how you got freed up.

Like you've been on some shows wearing some good leather pants. Honey, I love leather. This is how I got free. So I started singing background with Brandy, who sings R&B, right? And my girlfriends— Lil' Kim, Brandy, we just doing it all. My girlfriends, my churchy girlfriends came over and they were, "Boy, you're going to go to hell. Erica, just don't drink anything, please." I was like, "Brandy's 16 at the time, singing Best Friend like she's not gyrating." I want to be down. But they were terrified. "Oh Lord, are you sure? Oh Jesus." And so they was in my little one-bedroom studio.

Anointing you.

Oh, just praying. Absolutely. They did the whole thing. And so I started learning and growing, and my pastor, good old country pastor, you know, didn't go to college, he said, "I think you're supposed to do this." He said, "Just when you come back, just get right back in the choir." And what I started learning was, from a music perspective, was how to operate in other circles and not be preachy and judgmental, because I was one of those good old judgmental Christians, but I would do it in such a sweet way, like, "Oh, you're not I would be so sweet, like, "Oh, you're going to go to hell if you keep doing this," with the nicest smile. But I think God had to really kind of take me out of my comfort zone so I could see that he created the world, not the black church or the white church or Pentecostal or Baptist. He created the world and we should see it and see him in the different places that we go. And so I started wanting to go different places and experience different things. So I would look at a devotional by Andrew Wommack and all my black church friends would go, Andrew who? And so, you know, I, you know, I'd say, oh, have you heard of Beth Moore? And they'd be like, who's that?

What?

But you know, as you learn, you go, Jesus is not one dimension. He created the world and we're in this world. And so shouldn't we appreciate it and learn from it and grow? And I think that really, helped me to kind of embrace who I am and trust my heart for God. So whether I was wearing leather pants or a dress, I knew that I was God's girl, and that's what I would rest on, you know, whether, you know, the church people were on board with it because, you know, I was pleasing them this particular season in my life or not. I was like, I know my heart is right. I know that when I wrote this song, when I did this photo shoot, I know my aim was like, God, how can I shine for you today? Every day, and that's always my purpose. So I don't let people beat me up or vilify me, and plus I have a great village of people who go, yeah, checks and balances. Too much, you too much.

Yeah, you know, you know, there are probably 5 or 6 times in the New Testament where Paul says, um, my conscience bears witness with the Holy Spirit. Like, he would be persecuted by the religious leaders, or he was in a, just in a season where things were difficult, persecution, all that stuff. And he would say over and over and over again, especially to Timothy, as he was trying to mentor him on how to be a preacher, he Paul would say, here's how you do it. I will stand well before the Lord because my conscience has borne witness with the Holy Spirit, whether everybody else approves or not. So just to your point, just about that, the imperative way that we should be looking inward to our conscience, to the Holy Spirit, how is he directing us? And that frees us up and loosens us from everybody else's opinions of us.

Well, it was hard for me because I grew up getting— I grew up making sure everybody was okay with Erica. So even when it came to life decisions, it's hard. I wanted to know, well, Mommy, how do you feel? Aunt Teresa, who was my First Lady, how do you feel? And Sister So-and-so, and is everybody— are we all cool with this? Okay. And it was around the time I found Proverbs 3:5-6, and I hate to say that I found it, but it was like it came alive in my life. And the Lord kept going, hey, huh, hey, ask me. Not that I didn't appreciate that I shouldn't lean on the village, but he wanted me to ask him first.

You learned that in a new way. Absolutely.

Freed you up. Absolutely. And when I realized he would actually tell me and actually lead me and guide me, I could talk to them but know that this is kind of confirming what I already knew. What you already knew.

Yeah.

And so it felt different.

That it bears witness with you already. Absolutely.

I love your example. This is so good. And the reason why is because some people have the same problem in the opposite direction, meaning they so want their peers' approval. That they're addicted to this and they're in illegitimate relationships and they're doing their, you know, using their body in illegitimate ways. But you're the flip side, and I think that's also a huge portion of the body of Christ where it's you want people's approval, but that's now leading to legalism and bondage and no abundant life.

Yes.

So it's the same issue, just it leads in two different directions.

Absolutely.

And I think we don't talk about this side enough. We're always dealing with the person who's out there doing all that stuff.

There's so many unhappy church people who go because if I I'm going to get on my case. Now maybe you should have gone out to dinner with your husband. Maybe you should have taken your kids to the park. The church won't fall apart if you take a moment for yourself. And I think, you know, when the Bible says he maketh me lie down, I think God is telling you to go on vacation sometimes. You know what I mean? So, you know, I would go and go, oh, so-and-so. So I'm not going, I'm not even going to church with the heart of, oh, I can't wait to hear what the Lord has to say. I can't wait to worship. Can't wait to serve. You just got to go. I gotta go, because they're going to be on my nerves, and someone's going to call me on Monday. I don't think you should go with that spirit. I think you should reevaluate that, maybe have some conversations with people that you're in ministry with, so you can kind of figure out, how do I find my joy even in serving in the church? Some people serve and they don't have joy. They have a total different life at home. If a church person came and knocked on their door, it would take 10 minutes before they could let you in. I believe that you should just be true to who you are. As it relates to God orchestrating your comings and goings, you know?

Mm-hmm.