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Keeping it Authentic

Nothing to read today so you all have the privilege to see my handsome face for five good minutes.  Enjoy your weekend everyone.

God's Speed.

Mr. President (Poem)

Mr. President, why are you crying?

Did a gust of wind hit your eye?

Is the smoke from Sandy Hook still flying?

Or is it the air from the Windy City where the blood can't dry?

Did you see a generation with no father or sons?

Are you misty from the lullaby the pistols sing?

Do you hear names of young black men whistled by guns?

So many innocent took the bullet but you too felt the sting.

Mr. President, I see your eyes watering and your speech is choked:

He said it’s hard to breath in a land polluted by gun smoke. 

©

By Marcus G. Taylor

Say What You Say, Do What You Do

I know it has been awhile since I have written and how ironic that my first topic back would be on finishing strong.  Recently, I watched a snippet of Kevin Hart during one of his comedy specials and he was talking about an experience he had at a gym.  Kevin, in a very comedic way, described the situation of a muscled up guy on the weight bench doing some bench press reps.  Kevin then said this gentlemen started to stack more and more pounds on the barbell, grunted loudly, powdered up his hands, and paced around the bench press for the sake of drama and attention.  So as Kevin Hart observed this, Kevin actually got excited and wanted to see this guy actually bench press half a ton of steel.  But, to Kevin Hart's disappointment, the guy did not even make an attempt, the guy just simply walked away.

Now if you will allow me to go the scripture on this, Luke 14: 27-33, Jesus gives two short parables about finishing what you start.  One was of a man who had to consider if he had enough to finish building a tower, the other was of a king who had to consider if he had enough troops to send into battle.  It is interesting that it is not mentioned if either man took action, but we are told that they thought about the negative results of what could happen if they failed.  Vince McMahon said in an interview recently that the millennial generation, the Y generation, does not even try to make attempts of going for it all because they are afraid to fail because failing exposes them.  It seems lack we are afraid to even start on something because we do not want to end up being exposed..."Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, `This man began to build, and was not able to finish."

But let us tell the truth on some things, if God has called us to do a great work, which is go all in to His will and purpose, we should not have the fear of being exposed.  I say that because we should have the faith to believe that God will give us the strength to finish what He has called us to start.  Now we need to be clear, we have to see what exactly we are being called to:  if we are called to build a tower but we go out to try and build an army, we are going in the wrong direction and we will certainly get exposed. 

"I can never quit when it gets hard.  if you quit, you going backwards, if you going backwards you're dead," unknown author.  I want to leave you with this thought, and that is the thought Kobe Bryant laid on the sports world announcing his retirement.  Now, when he first started in the NBA twenty years ago, he set out to be a champion and he accomplished that goal.  Nothing was going to deter him from that:  not critics, coaches, players, off the court issues.  Other players in his draft class seemingly fell off the planet and some ask where are they now.  But Kobe endured and accomplished his goal.  With that being said, how much more are we to continue on in the faith and complete the work that God has put in our hearts to do.

Keep Shooting

So a couple of weeks ago, I was playing basketball with a group of guys and before I tell on anybody else, I have to tell on myself first, I missed some very makeable shots early on.  A buddy/co-worker of mine came to me and said "don't worry about it, just keep shooting."  As a good leader, he saw that I could have let those missed points bring down my confidence and taken me out of the game.  Knowing that I had his confidence to make those shots even when, honestly, I had some doubt, gave me some confidence to just play harder.  I kept working to get open and he gave me the opportunity to shoot and low and behold, I'm making the shots. 

Since the games were only going to 10, each shot should be a good look at the very least so whenever I would miss he would still say, "Keep shooting."  He trusted in (1) that I was listening and (2) that I could make those shots.  After the winning the first game, my friend gave me a vote of confidence with the game on the line to make the winning basket of the second game and kapow, I hit the game winner!  I was able to make that shot even when earlier, I thought I shouldn't be shooting anything because my friend told me it could be done.

If I can go to the Bible on this, Jesus told the disciples to keep fishing even though they had been fishing all night long and caught nothing and fishing while the sun was out did not make much since but they believed in what He said and ending up catching more fish than they ever caught before (Luke 5:4-7).  Now think if they would have told Jesus that He was crazy for even saying to fish in the middle of the day when all the fish can see the nets-they probably would never have become the fishers of men (Luke 5: 10).

So here is the point I want to make:  we should not get weary in well doing.  In this day and age of instant gratification and having things at the tips of our fingers, it can be so easy to give up on things when it gets difficult.  And what I want to drive home is not just giving up on a dream or a career or even a personal relationship but in a bigger picture, we should not give up in doing good to people at every turn.  We should look to be there in a time of need for a friend, for a co-worker, for a stranger, for a fellow laborer of Christ  (Galatians 6: 9-10).  If we keep in mind that we should spread love to all men and women then we can really make a difference in so many people's lives.  So lets keep fishing for those who need help and who need love and encouragement because they made end up winning the game for us.  We need to keep shooting.

Oversharing

Awhile ago, my cousin shared something with me that may stick with me for the rest of my life and that is the concept of oversharing.  Oversharing, according to urban dictionary, is providing more personal information than is absolutely necessary.  She shared this information with me on the heels of me seeing this absolutely wonderful play written by Marcus Gardley featuring Minka Wiltz and Enoch King called Every Tongue Confess, in which church and community is in turmoil because of people oversharing. (Side note, if you ever get a chance to see this play, you definitely should, it is really fantastic.)

As you have come to expect, this prompted me to think and reflect on some things that I would like to share but not overshare...lol (had to say it).  We are all living in a time, especially in America, where social media and reality tv and world star hip hop and Youtube and the list goes on and on, gives us license to share every detail about our lives publically with just one click.  Whatever we are thinking or doing at this very moment can be seen, read, and heard by all that want to peek into our lives.  But this is how we get into oversharing because we just start to provide too much of ourselves for the world to see and most of what we share is not the best.

With all of the instant access we can put out and take in, we have exposed personal relationships, private thoughts, and pictures galore all because we can.  Now one could say, that there life is an open book and has nothing to hide but the thing is, Christ said it best, "Don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing" (Matthew 6:3).  The wrong people can know too much about you and share it with others that should not the good and not so good things about you.

If you allow me to go to the Bible on this, Proverbs 2:11 says, "Discretion shall preserve you, understanding shall keep you."  See, not sharing everything protects you.  Think about how many wars have been lost, businesses went under, relationships have been destroyed because a little bird sang songs (tweeting) about what was said behind closed doors (Ecclesiastes 10:20).  We need to have an understanding that everyone cannot handle all of our being, if you will, and cannot handle all that we can share so we have to be careful of who we choose to share our lives with.  We need to start choosing secular friend and sacred friends.  Secular friends are people we just keep at a distance and only share things as needed.  Sacred friends are people you can share your heart with and can trust them not to share them with anyone else.

So, as Herman Edwards and Skip Bayless and others constantly warn, before you hit send or before you open your mouth to anyone, take to heart what you are about to share and who you are sharing it with, and just as important, why are you sharing it?

Reference: http://buzz.eewmagazine.com/eew-magazine-buzz-blog/2013/2/6/over-sharing-online-is-nothing-sacred-anymore.html

Stat Sheet Stuffer

I was talking to a close friend of mine recently about accomplishments in life.  As we have gotten older, we started to think on what we have achieved and what we have not done given our opportunities and abilities. One of the things she pointed out to me though, is that she does not want a life of just accomplishing a lot of stuff.  For her, having a lot of stuff accomplished is just as bad as doing nothing at all.

A thought:  doing a lot f stuff.

Of course, me being a modern American man, I referenced sports to frame the conversation and what came to mind is a stat sheet stuffer.  Now a stat sheet stuffer is a player that has the ability to put up impressive statistical numbers in a lot of categories in a game, i.e. a triple-double, hat-trick, hitting for the cycle, etc. Stuffing the stat sheet is an indicator that the player is highly skilled in all areas of the game and, for lack of better term, can put up video game like numbers.  That type of skill level and performance would understandably draw a lot of media attention and cause the fans to say the player is good.

But, as one of my favorite sports analyst Skip Bayless would point out, stuffing the stat sheet does not mean it will win a championship.  Having the ability to fill up all the numbers in the box score becomes fruitless if the end result is still a loss.  And while most players universally would love to have the great stats and the win, if they had to choice, they would rather have the win over scoring a gazillion points.

Which brings me to this:  in our society today, we have come to measure accomplishing a lot by doing a lot. Think about it, we have awards and give out cookies for the smallest things.  As working adults, we stuff our resume with tons of experience that we may not even remember.  Whenever we go out on dates, we stuff our dates with all of our good qualities.  We just pile on and pile on the things that we do and while it all seems impressive, nothing is really gained from them.  In Matthew 7: 15-23, Christ talks about knowing men by their fruits and highlighting that just because people appear to do a lot of good things (stuffing the stat sheet or trying to win points with God), does not mean much.  The reason why doing all of those things are meaningless in God's eyes is because they are meant to glorify ourselves and not Him.

So lets change our mindset:  the mindset of wanting to do a lot of stuff  to the mindset of doing things and living a life that is meaningful.  Living a meaningful life may not always to be glamorous or come with a lot of accolades but it does come with touching a lot of people's lives and pleasing to God.  So lets not stuff the stat sheet, lets win the game.

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.

YOLO!

YOLO! YOLO! YOLO! YOLO! Its a growing catch phrase since the song The Motto right? (Thanks Drake) But maybe its a wake up call for all of us too. You Only Live Once! Take a moment and think about it (I'll wait).  As MC Jin says (before he recorded YOGO), you only live once so never think twice, unless its to consider if its really worth the price.  So many times, we waste our time on things that really do nothing for ourselves or others. For some reason we either think we have all the time in the world or we have not counted the cost of what we put our time and effort into. It is funny how God gives us little to make much out of it and the number of days we live is no exception (Psalms 90). Here in America, its been put in our minds that our life is go to school, go to church, get a job, get married, get a house, get kids, retire as grandparents, maybe become great-grandparents, then die. Sounds ideal, but can we honestly say that we have seen and heard so many people that have regrets over the life choices they have made. How many marriages that have lasted 30 or 40 years end terribly or people become lost because of retirement or because of a lay off. Life is really an opportunity and life as a whole should not be wasted. If you love someone, family, friends, spouse, coworkers, tell them. If you are in position to help someone, help them. If there is a gift or talent that you have, use it, and use it for a purpose. If you think you do not have a special gift, help someone develop theirs. The one thing that can still sting you other than a heart break is a regret but, unlike a heart break, a regret is something you never even tried to do. You can correct choosing the wrong answer on a test but you can never correct a no answer. God has always called for us not to waste time because we only have so much of it to use and when its gone, its gone. Ask any professional athlete about time and chance; they can tell us all about it being now or never and that we should leave it all on the field, because in truth, there is only one chance, one shot, one opportunity, to fulfill your purpose.  And since all of us only lives once, we might as well give what we got and make this one shot we call life, a bulls-eye! Go for it because the kingdom of God is in you.

http://www.4regeneration.com/yolo/