Real Talk

“Pride before the fall.”

- Someone who knew what they were talking about

“I am going to try living my life with the understanding that when I disobey God, I choose the lesser version of myself.”

-me, about 10 days ago

Peace and blessings,

As part of the application aspect of a bible study I attended about 10 days ago, I wrote down the above words. Since then, I have been trying to remind myself of those words, as well as what they mean for my life and for my relationship with God. Of course, He has an “interesting” way of holding me accountable for those words…

Lately, God has been working on my conception of sin, and helping me to see that for every sin we are consciously aware of committing, there may be a sin that we do not realize we are committing, “flying under the radar” so to speak. Much of my conception of sin has to do with sins pertaining to thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that we are aware of, and that we “choose” to commit. Of these, I tend to focus more on the sins that are reflected in concrete actions and words. In other words, a significant part of my understanding of sin has to do things I say and do.

However, lately I feel like God has been showing me that sometimes, not saying or doing something can be just as sinful as saying or doing something. In both cases, I am being disobedient to God. There are times when I feel like I should apologize to someone for something, or to speak up about something. During these times, I tend to go back and forth weighing the pros and cons in my head, trying to analyze the situation. Although there are times when it is best to remain quiet, there are times when I go against my better judgment and remain quiet, ultimately making a situation worse. God has recently been showing me the “ugliness” of this form of disobedience, and the importance for saying something, especially when my pride is trying to “convince me” to remain quite.

When it comes to apologizing for something I have done to someone that I know was wrong, there’s no real justification for not saying anything. No matter what my pride is telling me, I have to realize that owning up and asking for forgiveness is always better than the alternative. A similar case can be made for situations when we know we should speak up on something, but we refuse not to. Interestingly enough, the reasons for me remaining silent when it is best that I should are qualitatively different from the reasons for me remaining silent when I know I should speak up. What this tells me is that when God tells me to say something or not to say something, His direction is often very clear. It is just up to me to be obedient.

What do you think? Have you recently been silent about something or a situation that you know you should say something about? Have you recently decided to say something, despite your pride (or fear, or anything else) telling you not to? What was the outcome? How did it make you feel? Until next time, stay blessed and speekonit…

Labels: God, pride, sin

Peace and blessings,

Here are a few news links, courtesy of

K-Love:

:


(1)Obama talks about his constant need for prayer

in a recent interview:

(2)Two new iphone apps:

Purity Ring

and

A Note to God

(3)

Chicago churches host farmer's markets

and

Louisiana church holds "Christ and Creativity" conference

Any news you can find that highlights the positive and encouraging aspects of our nature, please send it this way! Until next time, stay blessed, encouraged, and speekonit...

Labels: conference, creativity, news, Obama, President, technology

"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."
- Galatians 6:9 (NIV)


Peace and blessings,

This scripture has been on the brain lately, and is one of my favorite scriptures in the bible. Take care and speekonit...

Labels: Bible, scripture

“I’m serious/how I’mma laugh at ya’ll?/my heart been broke twice plus fractured ya’ll/
I had to give to the Master ya’ll/and now, I gotta give it to the masses ya’ll/
I used to think love was blind too ya’ll/”till I put on my spiritual glasses dawg/”


-Japhia Life
“Love”
Beatmart Recordings: Best of the Submissions vol. 1



Peace and blessings,

In February, I decided to finally go and get my eyes tested. I've been meaning to do so for the past couple of years, but never got around to it. At times I would have difficulty seeing signs from a distance while driving, so I figured that the more I put it off, the higher the risk I run of reacting to something too late while behind the wheel. After getting tested it was determined that I was near-sighted, and that I need glasses to help me see things better while driving.

This post is not about my thoughts on or reactions to getting glasses. Instead, I want to talk what I observed from the optometry clinic, and how I feel that God used my time there to speak to me about what it means to be a Christian and maintain relevance in, yet be distinct from the world. First, it seems that just as the purpose of physical glasses is to help us see things more clearly, the purpose of spiritual glasses is to help us see ourselves, others, the world, and God more clearly. As Christians, we are called to live our lives by way of our spiritual glasses. I'm sure we can recall a time when God allowed us to view a situation with a certain clarity that we ourselves did not "see" before we gave that situation to God and asked Him to see us through it.

There two feature of physical glasses that I also believe are features of spiritual glasses. The first feature is that physical glasses helps us see things further down the road. Similarly, our spiritual glasses allow us to to see things "further down the road" in the sense that we can clearly see the spiritual consequences of certain decisions before they are made. The second feature is that physical glasses allow us things that are close in proximity with more clarity. When watching channels in High Definition (HD), my pops often says that the picture's so clear that "you can see the pimples on their face." Viewing things close up with physical glasses gives the same effect, as we are able to see people's facial features and features of various objects in closer detail. Similarly, spiritual glasses allow us to have a certain insight into people or situations, where we are able to view the spiritual aspect of the situations we are in. For instance, there are times when we're in a situation or social setting that on the surface seems completely normal, yet we feel something tugging on us saying "something's not right" or "I should not be here."

The second thing I noticed about the Optometry clinic was that many (and possibly all, lol) of the optometrists working there had on glasses themselves. It immediately struck me because there are not many places where the people who "treat" people (1) had experienced or is experiencing the same thing as the person they are treating and (2) are openly wearing their "treatment," as doing so allows them to better help others. What I took from that was that as Christians, we have to "wear" Christ to where we are evidence to others that Christ is real, and that he heals any problems we had, have, or may experience. By doing so, I believe that people will see how God is always working in and through our lives.

What do you think it means to have spiritual glasses? How has your spiritual glasses helped you to better deal with situations? Until next time, stay blessed and speekonit...

Labels: Christ, Christian, Japhia Life, spiritual

Peace and blessings,

When searching the internet for news, I am often jaded by most of the mainstream news outlets, because the majority of the news I come across involving people in the United States and globally is negative. I often have to do some serious searching to find news that is encouraging instead of discouraging. Thank God for

K-Love,

a radio station that focuses on finding encouraging news. Here are a few things I just found that I wanted to share:


(1) A

17-year-old becomes the youngest to sail around the world solo.

(2) A

teacher who saves a student's life.

(3) A woman recently becomes

the first female Presidential helicopter pilot.

Any news you can find that highlights the positive and encouraging aspects of our nature, please send it this way! Until next time, stay blessed, encouraged, and speekonit...

14 Like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be recovered, so we must die. But God does not take away life; instead, he devises ways so that a banished person may not remain estranged from him."

-2 Samuel 14:14 (NIV)


Peace and blessings,

I came across this verse a few days ago, and it "immediately grabbed" me. It reminds me of God's relentless love for us, whether or not we are acknowledging Him in a given situation or not. I pray that this scripture encourages you as it has me....

Labels: Bible, God, scriputres

Legacy: (Noun) Anything handed down from the past, as from an ancestor or predecessor.

"When my time comes
Forget the wrong that I've done
Help me leave behind some
Reasons to be missed

And don't resent me
And when you're feeling empty
Keep me in your memory

Leave out all the rest
Leave out all the rest"

Peace and blessings,

Wow, it's really been 6 months since the last time I posted something! Anyhow, I have noticed a common thread amongst my favorite song at the time (Linkin Park's "Leave Out All The Rest"), and two movies and three movies that I have seen recently (Death Note 1 & 2, and the Dark Knight-although I've seen the Dark Knight before). In the Death Note movies, the plot centers around a Law Student named Light who finds a notebook that gives life-taking powers to its owner. The owner of the notebook only has to write someone's name in the book, and they die. Anyhow, both movies were focused on catching this Law Student, and the task force was headed by the chief of police, who was the suspect's father. Once the identity of the suspect was revealed at the end of Death Note 2 and the suspect is killed, his father instead tells his wife and daughter that Light died trying to catch the suspect, thus protecting his son's image in the eyes of his mother and sister.

In the Dark Knight, Harvey Dent, a talented and morally grounded District Attorney tries to bring down the Joker and rid Gotham City of fear and apathy. However, once the Joker gets the best of him, kills the love of his life, and causes him to damage half of his face, Harvey becomes morally "ungrounded," and becomes criminal. Once fighting side-by-side with Batman, Harvey and Batman were now on opposite sides. Once Batman stops him and Harvey dies, Batman and the police commissioner agree to tell the media that Harvey never "went astray" and died Gotham's hero.

After playing out the Linkin Park song and watching these movies all in the same week, and hearing about the upcoming

Legacy Conference,

I came to the following conclusion: Most people, on some level or another, are concerned with (1) how they will be remembered when they die and (2) how their friends and loved ones will be remembered when they die. Furthermore, the actions of Light's father and Batman suggest that most of us also assume that others are concerned about how they will be remembered as well. Assuming for the sake of argument that this is true, why would this be the case?

I think there are two reasons for why this concern with how we and others are remembered is so inter-woven into the human experience. One reason is that we want make sure that when our family and friends think about our lives, those thoughts will be filled with happy, positive, and encouraging memories. We hope that through our lives, we have helped make the world a better place. The other reason is that on some level, we believe that there has to be "something else" to our existence after we die, and insofar as that "something else" involves us being held accountable for how we lived our lives, we want to make sure we lived our lives "the right way."

What do you think? Do you think people are generally concerned with how they will be remembered when they die? Are you? If so, why is this a concern for you? Take care, stay blessed, and speekonit...

Labels: conference, life, movies, music

Peace and blessings,

The first "Why" question of 2009 was actually brought to my attention by a friend of mine about a year ago, but I was just reminded of it:

"Why is Oprah on the cover of every issue of her 'O' magazine?"

Labels: questions, Why

Peace and blessings,

December 8th, 2008 marked three years that the blog has been running. I just wanted to thank you for reading, commenting on, and supporting the blog. I have no blog without people to share it with, so thank you. Stay blessed and continue to spread the word.

Labels: anniversary

Peace and blessings,

I want to wish everyone a blessed, and fruitful New Year. I wanted to kick off this new year with a recap of one of the most moving sports stories I have ever heard. Depending on how you look at it it may not seem like much, but to me the idea is truly revolutionary, and is a clear example of how lives can be changed when Christ's love is demonstrated in all areas of life. The story is about a Florida high-school football game between

Grapevine Faith and Gainesville State.

What makes this football story more moving than any other football story? The fans. Prior to the game, the coach for Grapevine Faith asked his players' parents if half of them would cheer for the opposing team, Gainesville State. Since Gainesville State is a correctional facility and their players play every game on the road, Grapevine's coach wanted Gainesville's players to know that they are valued and loved.

Given Obama's election, other ideas I've encountered last year, and the power of this story, I am getting the feeling that how well we progress as a people in 2009 has alot to do with out ability to "think outside the box" and "go the extra mile" for one another. In my opinion, the best way to do that is to orient our lives (e.g., relationships, everyday interactions, job, career, hobbies, gifts, knowledge, skills) towards Christ, so that we can love others (and ultimately ourselves) they way he showed us to.

Click here for video highlights of the game.

What do you think about the story? How powerful do you think it would be for everyone if sports competitions were prefaced with an understanding of mutual love between opposing fans and players? Take care and speekonit...

Labels: coaches, love, sports

"Please forgive me. Even as I write the words, they ring so hollow. My mistakes...No, my choices...they cannot be undone, much less forgiven. All I can do now is tell you what happened. How all this came to pass...and the truth about Weapon X. Had it ended there, would I be less of a monster? Or More? Would I even know the difference? Of course I don't have to tell you about monsters. Your life is defined by monsters."



"It seems so incredible to me now, that in all that time, given everything I knew...what I was doing and what the end result would bear...I didn't give it a second thought. I told myself that you weren't real. I told myself this was science...not life. I was creating a weapon...not a child. I was wrong."

-Dr. Kinney


Peace and blessings,

The opening quote comes from the Marvel comic

X-23: Innocence Lost,

which is about a girl named Laura, who like Wolverine, was created to be a weapon. The story is narrated by Laura's mother, Dr. Kinney, and is told from the perspective of a mother deeply regrets the choices she made as a parent regarding her daughter's welfare.

The story begins with Wolverine's escape from the Weapon X facility, and killing Dr. Dale Rice, the man responsible for turning him into a weapon with no sense of humanity. Years later, Dale's son, Zander Rice, under the guidance and leadership of Dr. Martin, a friend of Dale's, continued his father's research. Dr. Martin decides to bring in Dr. Kinney, the leading expert on mutant genetics. Ambitious and scientifically inclined, she set out to do what up until now has been nearly impossible: to recreate the "Weapon X formula" and create another weapon. Right when she's on the verge of accomplishing her goal, she encounters an "issue." Their goal was to "birth" another male weapon (i.e., using the X and Y chromosomes). However, the Y chromosome got damaged (or was defective) during the process, so the doctors had a choice to make: Cut their losses and start over trying to create a male weapon, or get rid of the Y chromosome and replace it with another X chromosome, thus creating a female weapon.

Martin and Dr. Kinney chose the latter, but Dr. Rice thought that making the weapon female would be a bad idea ("you're supposed to be creating a weapon, not a...barbie doll!"). Upset about the gender-shift and jealous of Dr. Kinney coming in and stealing his mojo, Zander gives Dr. Kinney a proposition: either she carry the specimen to term (i.e., be the girl's mother), or he'll see to it that the project is destroyed. As the ambition permeates her thought process, she chooses to impregnate herself and carry the child to term.

The goal of the Weapon X program is to create a machine who's only objective is to kill when told, and to never question those who give the orders. To achieve this, the weapon has to be treated like one: used only to kill and never treated like a human with individual thoughts, feelings, and beliefs. Despite the constant missions she was sent on to kill people (most of the targets she did not know, some of them she did), there were a few times within the story that it was clear that Laura was not fully a weapon, that deep down there is a little girl crying out to be recognized and treated as a human.

Now that I've explained the gist of the story (discussing the story in any more detail would take a long time, and plus I don't want to reveal too much in case someone decides to read it), I'll take this last paragraph to share a few thoughts on why I liked the story. What i like the most about the story is how vividly it depicted the experiences of childhood abuse and neglect (by the way, Laura's mother, Dr. Kinney was abused by her father as a child), and the amount of resiliency many children demonstrate in the face of such harsh circumstances. Although in the story Laura was abused and neglected in the name of science (and eventually profit), the take home message is the same: Sometimes, children begin their lives by being treated in ways that should shame us as adults, whether we have children or not. Moreover, I would argue that for a variety of reasons, children are growing up in a world where they are experiencing more "adult-type" problems and issues (some of which are the result of their own choices, temperament, and/or disposition; others are not).

What I think Laura's experiences in the Weapon X program represent (albeit loosely) is the idea that no matter what has happened to you in the past, it can never fully determine your future. There's always a part of us that reminds us that we are and have always been more than what our past struggles and setbacks tried to "tell us" we were. Although the environment is a significant factor in our lives, it can never fully define us. We weren't built like that.

What do you think? Sound like something worth reading? What role do you think our childhood experiences play in how we view ourselves? Others? The world? Until next time, stay blessed and speekonit...

Labels: children, comic book, parents, Superheroes