Branded X

I was watching the show Brand X the other night and they were in the midst of an interesting social experiment. One of the audience members stated he was on the way to South Beach a.k.a. Miami, for sex to put it bluntly and the Russel Brand volunteered a backstage area as a porn shoot. (I haven't lost you yet have I? Keep following, I'm going somewhere.) So the debate came to the rest of the audience if they wanted to watch this unexpected turn of events and one woman, mature in age, stated that even though she knows the amount of pornography produced in America and around the world, she's never confronted with it publicly even though she knows it happens and it is against her morals. Now here is where we get to the heart of the matter because Russel points out that we as a society know that immorality and injustice exists and is happening all around us but as long as we are never confronted with them personally, we continually go along with the status quo. Too often we shake our heads at crimes we hear on the news and other things but when more schools are closing, communities are failing, bullying is still rising, shelters are falling apart, racism, sexism, and the list goes on but we do not take a stand on these things. God never wants us to accept things as status quo; He wants us to do justice and judgment (Proverbs 21:3) . In a world where there seem to be me more priests and Levites and less good Samaritans, people are hurting and left on the side of the road because society has said its a sad situation but it is what is. God is calling us to something higher than to accept things as is; He put in us to be different and to change situations. The first step to greatness is to not turn a blind eye but rather, extend a warm hand to those who are suffering in a cold world (Luke 10:25-37).

Willing To Wait

Recently, I mean very recently in December 2012, I saw a line begin to form one evening in front of a shoe store on Candler Rd in my hometown of Decatur, GA and the next early morning, the line got even bigger.  One can assume it was for the Jordan 4 or the D Rose 3 shoe; in any event, it was cold and the store was not going to do a midnight sale so those people had to wait.  It made me think, people can discipline themselves to wait for anything and go to any lengths if they think it is worth it.  We can hardly wait for the dinner to get done or for microwave popcorn to finish or even for a friend to hurry up so that we can get to where we are going; we have to build up patience for those things because in reality, those things are not of great value to us.  But things we really value and want to happen, we become very patient for it.  So I think that is an approach we should to take to our dreams and goals as well.  In Luke 2, Simeon was promised to see Christ before it was over and so he waited.  Abraham, in Genesis 12 and 13 was promised to have essentially, a nation of children but he had to wait on his first child with his wife, Sarah.  And there are so many other examples I could give.  The point is, we must have patience for things to happen because, like those customers that waited for about 15 hours in the cold, anything of value is not going to be given over night.  In the book, Outlier by Malcolm Gladwell, he gives us the "10, 000-Hour Rule," which is to work on your purpose, your dream, your goal, for a long period of time, working out the kinks and the wrinkles so that it and you are perfected.  It takes time + dedication (patience in other words) = to get perfection but you have to be willing to go through whatever it takes, good and bad, cold and hot, sun and rain, days and weeks, months and years.  In this smart phone and facebook/twitter/instagram society we tend to think that things should be done in a blink of an eye and that our dreams and goals should get presidential treatment (never having to wait on anything); but if you look at what it took for the person to become president, all the years of hard work plus the amount of the babies kissed, its no wonder he or eventually she, does not have to wait for an elevator or an airplane or limo.  So remember to go for your dreams and purposes but remember that it takes patience to keep going after them, and if you read Hebrews 11, you may not see the full completion of it in your lifetime but that does not mean you give it up.  Run with patience until your task is complete.

Expecting The Red Light

I am reading Justin Halpern's I Suck at Girls (who also wrote Sh*t My Dad Says) and I get to a chapter "sometimes you have to be hurled off a diving board against your will" in which Justin is retelling a story of his dad teaching him to drive. In this lesson Justin's dad would set up goals of driving from home to a place in ten minutes without breaking the law, with the pressure of having emergency scenarios. Justin stated that this type of pressure would not help him pass the driving test and his dad responded "I'm not teaching you to pass a test, I'm teaching you to drive." Justin's dad was teaching him to drive this way because his dad taught him to swim that way, which consisted of Justin being picked up by his swimming trunks and thrown off the diving board into the deep end (side note: I guess the best way to find out what is in you is to be forced to use it under extreme conditions i.e. young eagles pushed out of the nest). But back to the driving story, Justin is reaching his destination in good time before his ten minutes are up and he is noticing that one light before the street he is supposed to get to is still green. Now he begins to over think his situation and starts expecting the light to turn red. In a panic he starts slowing down while he's approaching the green and then hits the gas on yellow but by then the light turns red and Justin and his dad almost get into an accident.  Just think of what would have happened if he did not slow down at all. God gives us gifts and abilities and is right there with us, giving us wisdom and instructions and letting us know that we can go forward because we have the opportunity but we limit ourselves by over thinking and not understanding that God has put in us the ability to make the green light. Peter started walking on water but his expectation was that the wind and waves would make him sink and Jesus told him is all he had to do is have faith (Matthew 14:  22-33). We should have faith that we can walk on water and make that green light because God is right there with us every step of the way and the choice is up to us if we will go in faith or push on the breaks in fear but remember, in that decision, it will affect the destination on the other side because this is not about passing one test, this is about making the journey through life.