Be A Finisher II

"Do not plan for ventures before finishing what's at hand," the playwright Euripides says. I had come face to face with this very thing the other day in two ways. I started to clean my place and make room for new things but getting rid of some the old things that I had packed up over the years (it is very easy to get attached to certain things even at the risk of it cluttering your life but that's another story). As I was cleaning, I got tired and wanted to just do it another time even when the best time to do it is now (Ecclesiastes 9:10). Now during this time of cleaning I was also keeping score of the Falcons-Saints game the whole evening because I felt cleaning my place was more of a priority than the prime time game. Now me being a big Falcons fan, I was delighted to see the score for pretty much of the first two quarters until the last few seconds of the first half. Needless to say, the second of that game made me glad I chose to spring clean than to watch my birds get their feathers plucked in the second half. But that was very motivational and it is something that I have been hearing strongly all year, especially from sports analyst Skip Bayless, and that is you must have or develop the "clutch gene." It does not matter how well you start off, God and all of us look at the finished product. Champions, business, relationships, and other things we think of are modeled after the score after the buzzer and the product sold; they are not modeled off of first half scores and blueprints because those are the times when things should be adjusted for us finishing. Remember to be a great finisher we need patience to see it through to the end because it will not always look great at the beginning (Ecclesiastes 7:8). But we have to keep in mind that God has given us all the tools to finish the work He has put before us.

We Need To Super Size

Last night I was at church (Gospel of Faith Worship Center: http://www.gospeloffaithwc.org) and we all became a part of a transformation. We didn't have a church service but what we did do is come together for a cause to build and make where we dwell even better. All year our motto has been "a temporary discomfort for a long term success," and today I had to step back and look at some things to see that God wants us to maximize our entire land before He expands it. If you think about it, no one ever really moves out of a place if it is still spacious for them because there is still more to do in that particular place. Bringing those beams in last night reminded me of 2 Kings 6: 1-3 in a way when the people needed to upgrade from a 3G to a 4G but before they could do that they had to recognize that they were in a place that reached its full potential. See, its a cardinal rule that God puts in place that you have to take care of the little things first before you go on to the bigger things i.e. learning your ABC's before you write a novel. The other cardinal rule is unity because no matter how much we think we're moving from somewhere, in truth, its all of us moving somewhere if we share the same dream and purpose (and lets be honest, it is always better to have family and friends to help you move because when you move its like they're moving too). If you break it down, to reach that next level we have to push ourselves to make the place where we are now small and we will need to have people along side of us to help us carry those beams for the place we are building next. One more thing, along with maximizing our potential and having the spirit of unity, we also need a visionary, a leader among leaders that will give us counsel and guidance and let us know if the picture we are painting is a masterpiece or if we're painting off the easel because God never wants your good to be taken the wrong way. The next level is here and it is up to us to step up to it.

Be A Finisher

Recently in my personal life, I have been faced with this statement that seems to stare everyone everywhere in the face and that is "finish it!" Now let me give a proper applause to the Ladies of Prayer, Praise, and Purpose at Gospel of Faith Worship Center for repeating their change drive championship drive this year. It was a hard pill to swallow for the men but we were reminded by Pastor Burns (http://twitter.com/gospeloffaithwc) that its okay to start out good but if you do not follow through to the end it will do you no good. Starting is important and I would imagine that some people have a hard time starting anything they sit around talking about and we generally call those people "talkers" because that's what they are good at more than anything. But I would be willing to bet that the people that actually start something they talk about, more than half of them never finish what they start. We can just call those people "starters" because they can start one project but never see it through to the end, mainly because those people probably thought someone else's idea and thought it was good but never planned anything for themselves. But if it is one thing I'm sure God appreciates is a "finisher" because they are able to sit back and realize that what they have started can be self-sustaining. If you read Luke 14: 25-35 you will see that you have to go into whatever your dreams are prepared to start and planned out to finish and always prayerful that God will give you guidance throughout the work. Steve Jobs said you have to have a passion for what you are doing otherwise you will quit what you started working on in the first place. That's what God asks of us when He gives us a work to do: have a purpose, have preparation, have a plan, have passion, and above all be in prayer that God will give you the strength to see it through to the end.

Getting "The Job" Done

Alright, today I ran across this post on facebook from youtube entitled I Don't Need A Job from Pastor Jamal Bryant [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJuhivnGcDw&sns=fb] and curiosity led to me being doubtful until I heard what he had to say and it is very profound. To sum it up, we are wasting our abilities God gave us on jobs we should not be working because they are out of our sphere of purpose and takes us further away from what we really should be doing. Now he says a key that rings in my ear is that God calls us to work and not to get a job and for those old enough to remember Arsenio Hall's phrase, "things that make you go hmmmm." So let me give you a strange definition on the word "job" and this comes from a wrestling definition and not Webster's Dictionary which is to have a losing performance or basically to be a jobber. Now a jobber is different from a worker because a jobbers "job" is to lose to make the workers look good-let me say that again, a jobbers "job" is to lose to make the workers look good. It sounds harsh but we work our fingers to the bone to make someone else look like a million bucks and get very little reward from it if any to do performing the job. Some might say, what about stewardship (Luke 16:10) but that is speaking to people that being stewards in a cause or a purpose that God has set them on. You have to remember that "whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might" (Ecclesiastes 9:10) is talking about your destiny. So if you're supposed to be a teacher, you shouldn't be managing at a grocery store, if you're supposed to be sanitation worker figuring out how to make a cleaner environment, you shouldn't be in a cubicle crunching numbers, etc. We only have one life to live and very limited opportunities to gain talents for God's glory with the talents He gave us to use. This is something we really need to take to heart and applying it because God is giving us our opportunities right now to use the gifts He placed in us to the max of our abilities and we can not afford to miss what is coming towards us. Check out Jon Acuff's book Quitter: Closing The Gap Between Your Day Job & Your Dream Job.

Find Your Life

So in studying Matthew 10 (focusing on verse 39) and getting wisdom from Pastor Burns (twitter.com/gospeloffaithwc), it is clear that you cannot do anything without Christ. I think often times we say that and repeat that in our affirmations or have it in our cubicle or on a bumper sticker but we do not really apply it. Personally, I started to take it out of context until I got the understanding of it: if you try to find your life, you will lose it, but if you lose your life for Christ’s sake, then you’ll find out. If you notice before that statement He said you have to take up your cross and follow Him and right before that He says if you love your family more than Him then you are not even worthy of Him. It sounds harsh but notice the things we have to give up in this chapter to gain the life God has put in us that we have been seeking for our whole lives: we have to let go of having fear of people and we have to let go of fear we have of losing our family. The old saying comes to mind, the tighter you hold on to something the easier it is for it to slip through your fingers. And honestly, our natural instincts are to go with popular opinion and to love papa, mama, big bro, and baby sis above all others so that is why Jesus says you have to crucify that along with other things so that you can put it out of your mind to not seek for your own life but seek Him and He will give you an even greater life. Check this out, if Christ is not the center and the guiding force in what you do, whatever you put your hands to do will be meaningless and it will come to nothing (Psalm 127). We can do all things through Christ which strengthens us only if we are willing and obedient to do all things He leads us in.

What Is Your Cause?

So early this week I was randomly thinking about Dragonball Z, more specifically Vegeta (yeah, real random right). Anyhow, I was thinking on how he is always fighting and training just to prove how strong he is and if anyone proved to be stronger he questioned himself and self-worth. That made me think that the reason why he struggled with that throughout the series is because he did not have a real purpose outside of himself. In reading this book, Finishing Well by Bob Buford (well I haven't gotten to the end yet), he talks about having a purpose that goes beyond yourself to having a purpose that serves other people. Check this out, if your purpose in life is just for you and your goals then it will never be good enough because someone else will come along and prove to be better than you are everytime; and once that happens, you'll constantly have to keep proving yourself because you're only living for yourself. The truth is, God has given us all a purpose, a cause that is bigger and more meaningful than ourselves and it supposed to extend to other people. When David went against Goliath his brothers got mad because he was showing them (indirectly) that he was braver than them because they were only in battle for themselves not for God or the nation that was depending on them. But David asked is there not a cause (1 Samuel 17: 29) because he knew that this battle was about something bigger than him. So we have to find out what's our cause and purpose and we have to search ourselves to see if its bigger than us; that is how we can truly count ourselves strong because God put in us a purpose that will makes us strong for us and others.

Five Second Rule?

What do you do when you're eating something you really like and it slips out of your hand and drops on the floor (oh no)? Do you apply the five second rule to it? I try to think of it as the grace period between the crash landing on the ground and your reaction time to pick it up. So let's imagine it for a second (1, 2, 3, 4, and 5) and know you didn't pick it back up in time, whomp, whomp, whomp! But if we do make it and blow on the food a bit that makes it better (like our germs are any better right). Well in an episode of Food Detectives, the five second rule is no good because bacteria goes to the food immediately but I think in our mind we try to say we still have that grace period. Sometimes we try to abuse God's grace like its a five second rule because we use it as an escape for going the wrong way instead of using it when we hit a bump in the road towards our destination. Just like the five second rule for food we try to justify doing the wrong thing and then pray for God's grace and mercy immediately after but the truth is, once it hits the floor it just became dirty and asking God to blow on it won't make it better because the truth is, He won't blow on it. But the beauty of His grace is, He will start over with you because unlike the five second rule, He has a grace period that will allow you to ask for forgiveness and to start over brand new, as long as you are willing to go through that process.

Don't Get Comfortable

Not to spiritualize a Lil Wayne song, but thinking about his song Comfortable and what he is saying in it is interesting. Basically he is saying, do not get comfortable with the way things are now because change will happen eventually. It is easy to get comfortable with where we are now because that is how we have been raised, I mean nearly every human being has been raised to get comfortable: same home, same neighborhood, same people, same you in the mirror. It is when things start change that we can find it hard to adapt. Think of how hard it was starting high school or moving out of your parents, or the simple thing of buying your food with your own money that you earned on your own. But think of how it would be if we stayed in third grade or even trying to wear the same clothes we wore then too; it would be too uncomfortable and funny looking. Well that is the mindset we have to have all the time, do not get comfortable where we are in our lives right now, good or bad. Now do not take this as a way to break up with someone or quit your job, nothing like that but it should be a wake up call to improve your relationships and make yourself more valuable where you work. If you read 2 Kings 6:1-3, you see that staying in the same place when God is requiring you to grow is not helpful to you and others. So lets pick up our beams and go forward because where we are now just isn't suitable for where God is taking us to.

The Highlight Reel

Today I saw some of the movie My Best Friend's Girl and one of the characters, Tank, said something to me that really stuck out: in trying to convince his best friend Dustin, not to tell this woman his real feelings about her, Tank says to him, "you haven't shown her the real you, just a highlight reel of you, which isn't the real you at all." And again, one of those things that make you go hmmmm. Now I know we've talked about this before but it's worth going over again. What are we showing to people really, is it our best parts, the funny, smiling, nice, help an elderly person across the street, and offer our entire gourmet dinner to the homeless person. Or are we also showing people that sometimes we need a breath mint, we have a bad days, and we get mad when someone takes the last bit of orange juice in the fridge too. I know sometimes it can be difficult to show all of you to every one around you because honestly, not everyone can stick around for the extended director's cut of your movie God is putting together, but that doesn't mean we should give people only previews because that is not the whole of we are and who God made us to be and you would be surprised how people react to our responses when we show them something more than what we previewed to them. Again, we can select who gets the free private screening and who gets to buy a ticket but as long as we show people the real us instead of reels of us, at least they know what to expect from us and what God is doing in our lives.

God and You Playing at Wimbledon

Last night at church we talked about giving God His glory and used the analogy of two people playing tennis (SN: shout out to Pastor Burns http://twitter.com/GospelofFaithWC). Anyway, back to the tennis match, if we think in terms of us serving God glory, He will give it right back to us and if we show Him that we are serious about giving Him glory, He will be serious about giving us glory. For those of us who play tennis know that you have to be in shape or there is no point of you going out on the court because how can you give God your best when you're in no shape to play. And don't ask for God for glory that you are not ready to handle yet because that is called a "dropshot." So go out there and give God the glory because the world is waiting for that manifestion in youo and you better believe that He will give it right back to you because to Him, it's not a game, it is your destiny.

You Are Appreciated

I watched Monday Night Raw this past Monday and saw a very stirring and emotional promo from one CM Punk at the end of the show which had twitter and wrestling sites buzzing all week. I watched his promo again today and my thoughts on it for today is that he is "shooting" to us that he does not feel appreciated by his bosses, peers, or his fans for his work that he does. Now here I go again with the things that make you go hmmm right? But honestly, how many of us feel that way in our daily lives. With the world going so much faster and our lives are far more busy than the generations before us, we have to make personal sacrifices for our family and friends, our churches and organizations, and our jobs but at times we can feel like with all the sacrifice and effort we put in, the thanks and pats on the back do not come as often as they should; I think it is in nature to be recognized for the work that we do, especially when we do it for others when we give ourselves so much. Here are two thoughts that we should keep in mind, 1. is that we should do things as if we are doing it for God and 2. is that we should be weary in well doing because we will be rewarded if we do not stop in doing those things. The key is not to quit because even if the people you want to appreciate you do not, others will, from afar and close to you. Remember you are appreciated and loved so keep going and you will be rewarded in the end.

Rise Above Your (perceived) Reality

I think sometimes we see our surroundings plus our background and equal it up to the fact that we are supposed to be mediocre. Let me switch our thinking of mediocre, which is an eagle flocking with hens or a swan swimming ducks; mediocrity is the eagle and the swan making excuses for still staying in the environment by looking at their history instead of their pedigree. Reading Judges 6 I find that Gideon, a man of faith, had to face the same thing. But what I take from that is, none of us start out as the hero we are destined to be, God grows us into it, we just have to stop making excuses. Our reality is real but that does not mean it cannot change. Since 1999 to now, I have seen and read more rags to riches stories than I ever thought I would. It is proof that we all can use our reality's wall as a bridge if we knock it down, in our mind. Once we do that, we can rise above anything that is put in front of us.

Morning Face

We all know this but our worst enemy is the person in the mirror, well try to think of it as a person just waking up looking in the mirror-that person is no shape prepared to do anything. Yet, if you think about it, that's the person we walk out of door with and show the world our morning face. I bring this up because we have to stop blaming other people and other situations for where we are in life. We put ourselves in most of these positions. And most times we ask God to get us out of troubles and while He provides comfort and ease, He still will have to walk through the valley because we put the destination in our gps. We have to start making better decisions for ourselves or what I like to call, the afternoon face, the face full of pep, lotion, and colgate or crest; that afternoon face will make knowledgeable and wise decisions for today to ensure we have that winning smile tomorrow.

Typecasting

Today I watched an episode of Meet the Browns and I happen to see Tasha Smith on there and her part on this episode is similar to the one she played in Daddy's Little Girls. I'm thinking to myself how many times is she going to play these type of women that does not trust a man or is a horrible mom. So many others have had to play negative roles even though they are talented to do other things so why do they get stuck playing these parts. I'm not even going to get into the race card or anything like that because I want to make this more personal for those reading this and that is: do you think people put you into certain roles after they have become familiar with you? How much do we show people one way that we are that they put us in a box for the rest of our lives? Are we ready to live with that role for the rest of our lives? Now I know we should not live our lives to please others but we also should not let people put us in a box if we do not put our best foot forward. I think that when we show our real character then people can label us however they want but it should be up to us to give them the options on what they perceive. We need to always bring our A+ game, in public and in the mirror. Word Life!

Get Bigger

I like to think that God made us bigger than our bodies. If you think about it, we really are given what human beings around the world have accomplished in every generation. Even with the small things like not going crazy when times have gone from bad to worse; we are still here. With that being said, think of how much more we can do if we just took what is supposed to be our brass ring that God has put inside of us. But we should not wait on that bigger person when we pass on because that is a buried treasure that no one wants to go digging for. Is this another maximize yourself speech that we hear every full moon and stay excited about it for only two hours? I certainly hope not because we are bigger than our bodies but we just have to believe that despite what our environment says. In a world where every thing is being made to be smaller, we need to go get bigger.

Wrestlemania!

Today I was thinking about Jacob wrestling with God in Genesis 32:24 all night until the sun is about to come up. Now I know there have been sermon after sermon about this but I thought about what Seraph told Neo in Matrix: Reloaded; he says you don't really know a person till you fight them. That's pretty interesting right if you think about it; I mean you can fight a person for so long that you can know their strengths and weaknesses and beyond that you figure out their will and their character. Jacob got that very same revelation about God in their wrestling match. Jacob lost of course but a very wise promoter Paul Heyman says it's good to get your butt kick sometimes and in the end, that helped Jacob go from being a father of a lot kids to being a father of a nation. Now I know the old saying is that our arms are too short to box with God but I think we still have to have that face off with God so that He can push us to who we are destined to be; once we submit our flawed will to His perfect will.