Battle Ready

When we hear battle we think war. What we fail to realize is that life is like war. We have our battles. We have our marching orders and we have our General...

But before we can even get into the war, we have to go through basic training or boot-camp... Now in the army of life, basic-training can take anywhere from 3 months to 10 years. We have to trust that our commanding officer knows when we are ready. He may put us out there, let us fail, but with failure comes the lesson and could very well be the thing that keeps us alive later. With failure comes the struggle, and with the struggle comes the refining.

The struggle sucks though. I'm not going to lie to you.. It sucks... It does not feel good. It does feel like you failed... But the thing you learn from the struggle is that there is always a reason for it.

A butterfly struggles to get it's wings. If it doesn't struggle to get out of the cocoon then it will never fly.... Our struggle is what helps us get our wings. It's what helps us soar...

 Are you taking your struggles and giving up or are you using them to become battle ready?

1Corinthians 14:8
For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?

Little Things in life

A clear min accomplishes much. We spend all of our time running. Running from left to right. Running around, doing stuff for other people. But when do we run to do things for ourselves? When do we take time to appreciate the little things in life? When do we take time to think about the things that we are running from. Silence is a deadly thing, but Loudness, excessive loudness is just as bad. Stopping to smell the roses is not a bad thing. It means that we are finally taking the time out to take care of ourselves.

My mind has been on a song lately: Leave This morning by Nappy Roots. It talks of how the group has to keep working to make money, to keep money and to stay relevant. There is this one part that sticks out.. The rapper says: I'm sorry there's hardly enough time for loving.. But baby the times coming... (2:05-2:09) Something as simple as spending time with our significant others and even our families get pushed to the back burner for the Grind...

I can say with the next few days- I'm going to enjoy the little things in life... Get my head clear to get back to the Grind. But this time... This time it's all for me. 

Check out the song here: Leave this Morning

Motivation

Have you ever had a day when you know there were things to gt done and no matter how hard you try you can't get started?

OR

Has there ever been a day when you start but don't know how to keep going?

It's funny because as I sit here and write this I feel myself answering yes to the second question. I always thought the hardest thing was getting started. Seems as if the the hardest part at times is staying started. Staying started on a task, on a path... Why does procrastination seem so appealing? What is it about putting things off to the last minute that has us so excited? Is it exciting to have to scramble to get things done or is it the idea of I can do it later..... and since I can do it later, I will do it later.

What happens when later comes? This is probably when we start scrambling....

Personally, to be honest, depending on the circumstance, I either answer number 2, number 1 or any of the other questions in the post. Later to me feels more appealing. I now have to get it done or suffer the consequences. But then I hate the consequences when they come up.. Guess you can't have it both ways...

It does make me wonder. I wonder what would happen if every starter of every religion put off until tomorrow what they could do today.... Would we have all the troubles that we are having?

Think about it, if they put off until tomorrow... There probably would be one less religion, one less belief for people to go to war over... One less....

Maybe that's just wishful thinking...

Can you hear me?

Can you hear me? I found myself asking that question the other day. I had made a phone call and couldn't hear the person on the other end... I wanted to know if they could hear me. They could, then I could hear them, and then we were able to talk.

This is what God has to do for us at times. We can get so busy with life and the cares of the world that we forget to sit down and talk to God. We don't stop and listen. When we don't stop and listen, just like little children, we walk off and head into a direction that we are not supposed to go in. Just like any parent, I bet, God is saying "If they had only taken the time to sit down and talk to me and to listen".

I find myself doing that. Getting so busy don't stop to listen. Where I used to talk with him all the time, I fell into not listening, not talking. I find myself making moves where I wonder if God is saying if only they were listening.... I wonder if they can hear me...

My goal for today is to sit and listen. To take time to not only talk to God, but to listen to him as well. Will you join me?

If today ye hear his voice, harden not your heart... Psalm 95:7-8

Taking Things for granted

We take things for granted. Life, family, love... We even take for granted the right to certain freedoms we have, not realizing that at any given moment it could be taken away.

We are guaranteed to the right to a fair trial, and to the right to a trial by jury. The jury is supposed to be of our peers. But how do you explain a jury of perdominantly white people for a trial where the defendant is a black man accused of killing a white cop?

How do we justify killing a man without giving him the benefit of a doubt even though there were eye-witnesses that recanted their stories.... How do we justify not letting him get a re-trial? Is it because he's black? Is it because he's convicted of killing a cop?

Or do we just take for granted that our legal system isn't as corrupt as what it seems to be?

In the midst of it all....

Bad things happen to good people. It seems as if that's the question we ask all the time... Why do bad things happen to good people. We make mistakes. We don't always do what we are supposed to do. When we do that, our actions not only affect us, but it effects those around us. We don't always see the mistake that the person made. We just ask... He/She was such a good person why did such a bad thing happen...

Bad things happen sometimes 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 bad things happen because we need them to happen. If life stayed good, we wouldn't tell someone we loved them, we would go on assuming that they knew. 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. For it's when we get to know him that we find out what our purpose is, and in finding out our purpose, we learn who we are, what we're capable of.

There have been many postings that refer to the story of David. Man did he go through some things on the way to becoming king... Through it all, he spent time and relied on God, and then wrote about it... Where do you think all of the Psalms that he's credited with came from... In the new Testament, Matthew 11:28, has Jesus telling us to rest in him when we are weary. To lay all of our burdens on him... How many of us do that? How many of us just walk around acting like things are OK instead of admitting we cannot handle it on our own? How many of us find other ways in which to deal with the hurt and end up in the process killing ourselves?

We have to get to a point where, we are depending on God more and more than we depend on ourselves and our own mind....

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

Timing

It's funny how this came about. Timing is everything. We learn that when something presents itself, when the opportunity comes... to just jump on it. But it makes you wonder why when God presents us with the perfect opportunity we don't take it. How is it that we can turn down the chance to have everlasting life, yet we can't pass up that new job... or that one-day sale. Makes you wonder doesn't it?