Practice Love

Check out Tawny Powell's website.

Same Wounds

Nothing Personal
AllThingsCreativ
Golden Brown Homemade Cookies
NeoPhytePoets

Uniform

Nothing Personal
AllThingsCreativ
Golden Brown Cookies
NeoPhytePoets

Attachments

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

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