Struggles

*I pray that wherever this finds you, it gives you the encouragement that you need to press forward and not give up.*

We go through struggles every day. Whether it be on the job, our families, our friends etc... We struggle to get us to dig down deep, to get us to think about what it is that we need to possibly turn around; Not only with in us, but with the world around us. Sometimes we struggle because we need to struggle. If life stayed good, we wouldn't learn about who we are because we wouldn't take the time out to stop and spend time with God getting to know HIM.

He uses our struggles to teach us to place our cares on HIM. In Matthew 11:28, Jesus tells us to rest in him when we are weary. To lay all of our burdens on him... How do we learn to do this if we aren’t forced too? I don’t know about you, but I don’t remember ever doing it naturally…. It was through struggling that I began to depend on God more and more than depending on my own understanding of things.... It was through struggling that I am learning that God knows our potential and that HE wants us to live up to it 100%. It is through struggling where we learn that we are stronger than we thought.

So let us rejoice because God never puts anything on us that we cannot handle and once HE knows we can be trusted with the little things, he will start to move us into where HE needs us to be and give us more. Think about it, how can you be given more if you are not a steward over less?

Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil.... Proverbs 3:5-7

Purpose Driven People

The most dangerous thing you can do is to live with purpose. Purpose scares people.  It scars people because you have a set thing in which you are trying to achieve. It's not only this achievement that scares people,  but it's the fact that you are being driven by something greater than you.  The person being driven by purpose recognizes that it's not anything tangible that they are striving for.  You cannot touch it and it defies all humanly logic. You don't take the job because you're making more money etc... You take the job understanding that you are supposed to be there for a time,  whatever that time is. You try to justify it using human logic,  but you know deep down that those reasons fall short.

People are scared of purpose driven people because you cannot deter them from their purpose.  People try their hardest to place purpose driven people into a box to understand them.  What they fail to realize is that a purpose driven person cannot be understood because in order to understand them you have to understand their purpose and who but the Creator knows the purpose  of the creation. You cannot ask a car what its purpose is, you have to ask the one who created it. 

People are scared of a purpose driven person because that person knows who they are.  They know that at the end of the day,  their power comes from the one who created their purpose.  It doesn't come from their accomplishments or their ability.  They understand that their purpose is divine. They understand that they will always be on the outside looking in. They understand that they will never fit in and they will be OK with that.  They will be of the world yet not apart of it. They will operate by a set of rules that defy human logic because they are operating based on the directives of the Creator for it is the Creator that knows the purpose of the creation.

I challenge you as we get closer to Christmas and the start of the new year to tap into the Creator to find what your purpose is. 

It was not a mistake.

I had this whole post written about changing your mindset etc... but you know  what,  I don't really feel that its authentic. It just seemed rushed and not thought out. I felt like it would have been a disservice.  I did not feel like it was my best work. It not being my best work is not giving God the glory he deserves. I read some where, probably Facebook, a quote that says Our talent is a gift from God, what we do with it is our gift back to him. I always want to be able to give him the best gift that I can possibly give. I always want to do my best.

It is in doing my best that my light shines and everyone else is given the chance to shine as well. My life has been a series of taking chances. While the phrase goes "taking chances and making mistakes", I don't make mistakes. I make choices. Every choice has led to today... It has led to this moment. It has led to who I am today and who I am becoming. Nothing is a mistake. It's all just experiences.

We have to come to a place where we can feel it in our souls the fact that nothing is ever a mistake. We have to understand that every moment is all a part of whatever journey we are on. If it helps you heal old wounds, if it helps you better understand a situation, why should it ever be viewed as a mistake?

Why should we feel like our ''bad" decisions are bad? What makes them bad? Maybe because we feel bad about the situation after the fact? But why do we feel bad? Are we letting other people dictate to us what we should be feeling? are we letting culture, tradition dictate to us how to feel, how to act, and how to be?

My challenge to you is to examine why you feel the way you do about life and most importantly your choices. This will help you in viewing your "mistakes" as experiences. Because you like me, don't make mistakes.
         

Making No Apologies

I usually don't have a title before the post, but this is something that I have not been able to let go. It's something that comes and goes. People around us always want to give advice on our situations. They always want to look at what we are doing, and tell us what  we are doing wrong or that it is the wrong way. They never know the full story. They look at things from their experiences not knowing why you do what you do....

I am reminded of a part of King David's story. This particular day, he had been dancing with the ark of the covenant. He gets home and one of his wives tells him (not necessarily in these words) that he embarrassed her with his actions. David in turn gives the reason behind his praise and then says "And I will yet be more vile than thus, and will be base in mine own sight: and of the maidservants which thou hast spoken of, of them shall I be had in honor." (2 Samuel 6:14-22). With that last statement, he told his wife that he was making no apologies about how and why he praised. He knew the reasoning behind what he was doing and he did it unapologetic ally.

We need to get to a point where like David we make no apologies for our actions. As a person who lives/is living/is trying to live a God centered life, your directions come from a higher source. While to others it may look chaotic or even be embarrassing, it's the right thing for you to do. It's the right path for where God is taking you. He never said it would all make sense, but what he did say was that he would equip you with what you need. 

  

While it may seem chaotic, trust that God is giving you what you need to fulfill your purpose. Trust that he is equipping you with the experiences you will need to take with you as you move along your path. Because of this, you will never need to make an  apology.

Home

Happy Summer everyone.

Yeah, I know. The last time we met was in January. Since then life has been a whirlwind, but things have settled back down a bit. I have missed writing. Every time I wanted to sit and pen something, it just never felt like the right time. Today felt right. It felt like it was time to get back to penning some thoughts. As I write this, my mom is snoring in the background and there is Country music on the T.V. It's funny how being in a place of peace can help bring you back.

Being home has always centered me in a way nothing else has. My home consists of NYC, Bronx, NY, and a house that has had the same phone number for almost 40 years. Home consists of family - my mom and my siblings that are no longer just a phone call/text message/face book post away, but who are now within walking/driving/ bus distance away. While the people change and grow, home still remains home.

At one point in history people never traveled more than 33 miles away from home. Now we can travel halfway around the world. Sometimes it's for leisure, sometimes it's for work/opportunity, sometimes it's just for adventure. No matter how far we go, we always have a place to come back to that is home.

I pray that in wherever life takes you, whatever you do that you have a place to call home. Now it may not be my definition of home, but it will do the same things for you that it does for me. It'll keep you grounded. It'll allow you to safely go exploring the world and your divine purpose.

Thoughts to think of

Happy 2015.

That seems a bit presumptuous to say. The year just started, how do we know that the entire year will be Happy. Maybe it isn't that the year will be happy, but that you will have more happy moments than moments that cause you to question life and faith.

I hope this year brings deeper relationships, deeper meaning to life, and a deeper understanding of your faith no matter what it is or who it is you believe in.

I found myself thinking today about a few different things. I'm a native New Yorker, born and raised, but have been living in Florida for some time. I say this to say my experiences are a bit different from a good portion of the audience. Where my understanding of things come from may be different from where yours comes from. The thing that I find separates us is not the differences, it's that many of us forget that our understanding come from our experiences. We forget the humanity behind the dissension. We forget that when people disagree, they are disagreeing from their own experiences. I recently came across someone who has an issue with the Bible. He says the Bible is false doctrine because it is man-made. I read some of the comments that were posted in response to his video. Many people were attacking him because of what he said. Maybe I did not read further in the comments, but I did not see at any point where someone tried to engage him in a dialogue to find out why he thought the way he did. I did not see where anyone had stopped to understand his point of view and agree to disagree. I found more people attacking him. Not to compare him to Jesus, but it did make me wonder if that was why many people embraced his teachings but also why many more people rejected his teachings. It makes me wonder if people seeing the world from their point of view kept them from seeing Jesus for who he is. I wonder if people seeing the world from their point of view kept them from embracing the spirit of that which Jesus taught. I wondered further if people seeing the world from their point of view kept them and continues to keep them divided on many of the fundamentals of the teachings of Christ. Do we spend more time splitting hairs on non-essential things and not enough time on helping each other understand and even when we try to bridge the gap, are people willing to meet us halfway?

My challenge for this year and beyond is to remember that what we think is right comes from our own experience and that all we can do is explain it to someone but that we should not attack them for their difference. I challenge you to embrace another's humanity and strive to work together instead of splitting hairs on non-essential things. I bet you will find that the people who you believe have the biggest differences actually have the greatest similarities.

Happy 2015 everyone.

Forgiving yourself

We all make mistakes. No..Scratch that..We all get ourselves into situations that seemed like a good thing at the time we made the decision. We work off the information that we have at the time we make the decision. Once we realize what happened, we get down on ourselves. We get upset. We kick ourselves for being so stupid. We think about what would have happened if we had done things differently. We live in Regret. It eats at us until we just can't handle it anymore. Everyone deals with this differently. Most of us deal with it by being destructive to us and those around us...

This topic popped into my mind because I was thinking of the advice I received recently. I was on the bus talking with this gentleman in his 50s. He was telling me his life story. In the midst of the conversation, I said "I hope to have as much Wisdom as you do when I get to be your age". He responds with "The way you gain Wisdom is by learning how to forgive yourself". This may not seem like much, but it blew my mind. If you think about it, that is why most of us stay where we are. We don't ever stop and say " I messed up. I understand it comes with life and learning. I forgive myself for making that decision and I am moving on". It's simple to say, but complicated to do because once you forgive yourself, you have to stop living in that moment. You have to stop playing the tape in your mind over and over again. You have to stop being a victim. We need to treat it like we do with information we learn in School. You know what I mean. We learn it, study it to get a good grade on a test, but we forget it the minute we move on to the new topic. We need to study it to learn what we need to learn from the situation, but then move on.

We don't need to keep reminding ourselves of the unfortunate decision we made. We need to let it go and let God use it for good. Our unfortunate decision will become our testimony when we learn to forgive ourselves. Think about any one of the men and women of the bible. Every one of them made an unfortunate decision. From Abraham to Moses to David and onto Paul. But  God was able to take their unfortunate decisions and use them to not only make them better people, but to also give us some help on how to let go. Paul made the decision to persecute Christians. Paul is created with penning the majority of the New Testament. King David made the decision to have a man killed to take his wife. David is known to be a man after God's own heart. Moses killed a man, then had to go back to the scene of the crime in order to go get the Israelites. He led them out of slavery to the Promised Land. I believe that in the above situations, as well as others throughout the Bible, that if they hadn't forgiven themselves for their decisions, they wouldn't have been able to do what God destined them to do.

Are you keeping you from your destiny because you cannot forgive yourself for an unfortunate decision? Are you prolonging your pain and suffering because you can't forgive yourself? Are you replaying the tape in your mind over and over again? It was an unfortunate decision. Stop playing the tape and forgive yourself. You have too much to get done to keep dwelling on your unfortunate decision.