A few weeks ago, my wife and I had the pleasure of spending the weekend together in Washington DC. Other than dropping by to go to a concert at Constitution Hall or a play at the Warner Theatre, I really had experienced DC since the days of elementary school field trips to DC. Being born and raised in B-More we were taught at very young age to despise DC (just kidding).
During our recent trip, we were able to truly “meet” DC. We traveled on foot, on the Metro and by cab, [since a friend of the family volunteered to both drop us off at our hotel (that Friday) and to pick us up (on that Sunday) so that we could relax and avoid some of the outrageous parking fees]. Throughout the weekend, we visited some of the museums that we remembered exploring as kids, walked through the Mall, ‘refueled” (one of us did literally…and it wasn’t the writer of this piece) at Ben’s Chili Bowl and experienced some fine dining along with the nightlife that is DC,
As a gesture of appreciation, we invited the friend of the family that took us to DC to join us for dinner on Friday. As we dined, at the Utopia Bar and Grill we conversed about many different subjects. One topic that we discussed was my wife’s desire to replace our black leather furniture that is in our basement “family room” (which we hardly use). While the furniture does not show its age, it is over 12 years old and my wife said that when we replace it she wanted to go with something a little more comfortable and “cushy” like the furniture in our family room on the main floor. I agreed. I want some nice comfortable furniture just like what I already have upstairs.
After listening, the friend, who is gifted in the area of interior design, chimed in. She said something that I found intriguing. She asked about what the “function” of the downstairs family room will be. She suggested something that had a “lounge” feel or a place of totally relaxation which would address a need that is not being met by any other room in the house. She said that if we are not currently using the family-room in the basement, just replacing the furniture is not going to draw us to use that room any more than we do now. In essence she said that every room needs a function and has to meet a need or else it is essentially useless and will become an afterthought.
This conversation made me look at myself in a new light. In 1 Corinthians 12:12-27, Paul talks about believers being like the Body of Christ…each one working together with a different function, but with a single purpose, which is to carry out the will of the “Head of the Body” (which is Christ). Our primary goals are to bring glory to God and to expand the kingdom.
Similarly, we are also like rooms in a house. We each have a function and when we operate outside of what we are called to do we either create chaos or we become useless because we are trying to merely duplicate the “need meeting” function that is being carried out by someone else (just like my basement “family room” which was a mere copy of my main floor family room”). What would you think if you visited someone’s house and they had a washer machine in the kitchen where an oven and range was supposed to be and a bedroom set in the dining room instead of a table and chairs?
I believe that people who have not yet decided to follow Christ are like homebuyers who in the market to buy the “house”. They are checking out the “house”, inspecting the “rooms” (the believers) and making sure that the house is going to enhance their life experience. Some buyers are sold immediately by just checking out one room…for some it’s the kitchen…other it is the master bedroom. Some people have to be “sold” on every room before they are “sold” on the “house” as a whole. Most if not all people would be completely turned off if at the “Open House” the whole house was in disarray or if what was advertised as a 25 room house was a house with 24 bathrooms and one kitchen.
The point is this. What room are you? What is your function and are you carrying it out or have you diminished your value and your “selling” points because you are trying to be a “room” that you were not designed to be? God is the ultimate interior designer. He designed you for a purpose and you play a vital role in attracting those who are in the market for a “home”. What will you do differently today to be a part of the process of making sure that the buyer “closes the deal”?
It’s Open House.
Be Blessed and Be a Blessing,
B
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Bluetooth
One feature that I optioned for in my latest vehicle is a Bluetooth integrated radio that would allow me to receive and to make call in a safe “handsfree” manner. It is a very convenient function as it has built in caller ID and is voice activated. Whenever my vehicle is on and my phone is in range, the car automatically connects to the phone as indicated by a symbol (which resembles a phone) that appears on the central display of the dashboard. This “icon” is a reminder to me that 1… I have my phone and 2…the system is working properly. I have come to trust and rely on my “Bluetooth Radio”.
My reliance on this technology, came in handy last week as I was leaving for work. Like most people, my phone (smartphone/”celly”/lifeline/”text machine”..etc) is an essential part of my wardrobe. It is a way for me to stay connected to family, friends, co-workers and the rest of the world in general, so you can imagine the “mini-panic attack” I had when as I was sitting in my car going through my mental checklist of tasks that I needed to do or items that I needed to take with me for the day, and I could not locate my phone. All I had on my hip was an empty phone case.
I began to backtrack…mentally and physically. The bedroom, the kitchen, the family room….my “Text-Machine” was nowhere to be found. As I was giving up hope, a still voice told me to go back to the car and just go to work. I listened and to my delight, as I started the car, the Bluetooth phone connection icon appeared in my dash. “What a relief!!!” I thought, “Now I know that my phone is in the car.” Unfortunately, that was just the beginning of the saga. I spent the next 10 minutes looking in the car for the phone, but I came up empty. I decided that I had to move on with my day and that I had to rest assure that the phone was somewhere in the car and that I would eventually find it.
This experience seemed to be linked to a recent Bible study that I was a part of. The study focused on how we should not let the unexplainable get in the way of our acceptance of the undeniable. In other words, there are things that we can’t explain (and may never be able to explain), but there are also undeniable truths that we must accept and live our lives by.
This is sooooo true as it relates to our relationship with God and His will for our lives. I can not explain all the mysteries of God. Why He does what He does. What He is going to do down to the smallest of decisions. I can’t explain it (if I could then I would be God). I can however rest on the undeniable power that I have personally experienced through my undeniable relationship with Him. I can attest to His delivering power and His unconditional Love. I can’t explain all the “why’s” but their reality is undeniable.
I fight each day to not let what I don’t know, hinder my faith. For if I knew it all, there would be no need for Faith. Just as in my experience with my “lost” phone, while I could not explain exactly where my phone was, I had an “undeniable” indicator that my phone was there, so I didn’t allow my life to come to a complete and permanent standstill as a result of the “unexplainable” (not knowing exactly where the phone was).
I have a new appreciation for Hebrews 11:1:
1NOW FAITH is the assurance (the confirmation, [a]the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses].
What unexplainable truth or reality is preventing you from accepting the undeniable truths of God and His will for you? What detail are you so focused on that it has caused you to lose sight of the “big picture”? What will it take to move you from dwelling in the realm of the unexplainable into living a life confident in the undeniable?
Is your spiritual “Bluthtooth” connected or are you out of range?
Be Blessed and Be a Blessing,
B
My reliance on this technology, came in handy last week as I was leaving for work. Like most people, my phone (smartphone/”celly”/lifeline/”text machine”..etc) is an essential part of my wardrobe. It is a way for me to stay connected to family, friends, co-workers and the rest of the world in general, so you can imagine the “mini-panic attack” I had when as I was sitting in my car going through my mental checklist of tasks that I needed to do or items that I needed to take with me for the day, and I could not locate my phone. All I had on my hip was an empty phone case.
I began to backtrack…mentally and physically. The bedroom, the kitchen, the family room….my “Text-Machine” was nowhere to be found. As I was giving up hope, a still voice told me to go back to the car and just go to work. I listened and to my delight, as I started the car, the Bluetooth phone connection icon appeared in my dash. “What a relief!!!” I thought, “Now I know that my phone is in the car.” Unfortunately, that was just the beginning of the saga. I spent the next 10 minutes looking in the car for the phone, but I came up empty. I decided that I had to move on with my day and that I had to rest assure that the phone was somewhere in the car and that I would eventually find it.
This experience seemed to be linked to a recent Bible study that I was a part of. The study focused on how we should not let the unexplainable get in the way of our acceptance of the undeniable. In other words, there are things that we can’t explain (and may never be able to explain), but there are also undeniable truths that we must accept and live our lives by.
This is sooooo true as it relates to our relationship with God and His will for our lives. I can not explain all the mysteries of God. Why He does what He does. What He is going to do down to the smallest of decisions. I can’t explain it (if I could then I would be God). I can however rest on the undeniable power that I have personally experienced through my undeniable relationship with Him. I can attest to His delivering power and His unconditional Love. I can’t explain all the “why’s” but their reality is undeniable.
I fight each day to not let what I don’t know, hinder my faith. For if I knew it all, there would be no need for Faith. Just as in my experience with my “lost” phone, while I could not explain exactly where my phone was, I had an “undeniable” indicator that my phone was there, so I didn’t allow my life to come to a complete and permanent standstill as a result of the “unexplainable” (not knowing exactly where the phone was).
I have a new appreciation for Hebrews 11:1:
1NOW FAITH is the assurance (the confirmation, [a]the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses].
What unexplainable truth or reality is preventing you from accepting the undeniable truths of God and His will for you? What detail are you so focused on that it has caused you to lose sight of the “big picture”? What will it take to move you from dwelling in the realm of the unexplainable into living a life confident in the undeniable?
Is your spiritual “Bluthtooth” connected or are you out of range?
Be Blessed and Be a Blessing,
B
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Graduation Preparation
It is that season once again….Graduation season. Many of the Class of 2009 have walked across the stage already. Those who have not are preparing to walk across the stage, preparing their kids to walk across the stage or probably know someone who is participating in a graduation ceremony. Graduations are glorious times. They signify achievement and serve as landmarks in life as the graduate and the people who supported the graduate through the educational process celebrate and recognize the sacrifices that went into making the achievement possible.
Graduations are culminating events that mark the achievement of a goal that in most cases was set in years prior. Graduations are a time to reflect on a journey to pursue excellence that began as a dream. The dream began to take shape and to materialize as the graduate carefully navigated the road to reach a destination called “goal” or “success”.
In order to pursue excellence or to obtain a goal, sacrifices must be made. Clear goals and plans are the filters in which we must run our thoughts, actions, opportunities and priorities through in order to make sense of things and to “purify” or align our decisions with our pursuit of excellence. This filtering process makes the right decisions easier to make because if we are faced with two alternatives our “filtration system” will assist us in eliminating or delaying the alternative that is least aligned with our goals.
There is a potential downside to graduations. Complacency is often the sister of achievement. Too often, we achieve our goals and we stop dreaming. We stop planning for the next goal. We get arrogant and start reading and believing our own press and begin to deceive ourselves into thinking that we have “made it” and that we success is a direct result of our own “greatness”. There is something about reaching a goal that sometimes causes us to let our guard down and to sometimes forget the significance of the struggle to seek success.
In order to gain something that is important to us we must forgo something that is insignificant as compared to that “something” that we want to achieve.
In our pursuit of excellence in life, we sometimes forget about what our #1 goal should be. That goal should be a deeper relationship with God as demonstrated though our relationships with others and the selfless drive to embody the very essence of Love.
Paul summed it up so beautifully:
Philippians 3:7-8 (Amplified Bible)
7But whatever former things I had that might have been gains to me, I have come to consider as [[a]one combined] loss for Christ's sake.
8Yes, furthermore, I count everything as loss compared to the possession of the priceless privilege (the overwhelming preciousness, the surpassing worth, and supreme advantage) of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord and of progressively becoming more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him [of perceiving and recognizing and understanding Him more fully and clearly]. For His sake I have lost everything and consider it all to be mere rubbish (refuse, dregs), in order that I may win (gain) Christ (the Anointed One),
If our desire is to know God, we must be willing to discount the value of everything else when comparing it to becoming more intimate with Him. All that we accomplished on “our own”, all the material things that we have worked so hard to pursue and all the relationships that we have put 1st are all mere “rubbish” as we measure them against the knowledge of God through Christ.
We must be willing to lose and “loose” things in order to “gain” a deeper understanding of God. Just as a student who is on the journey toward graduation, sacrifices must be made in order to achieve the dream or goal. The challenge is found in letting go in order to gain.
What in your life is preventing you from obtaining a deeper understanding of God? What or who are you afraid to lose or “loose”? Has your personal success diminished your perceived need for ultimate reliance on God? What spiritual goals do you need to set in your life?
One day your name will be called…are you preparing to walk across the stage?
Be Blessed,
B
Graduations are culminating events that mark the achievement of a goal that in most cases was set in years prior. Graduations are a time to reflect on a journey to pursue excellence that began as a dream. The dream began to take shape and to materialize as the graduate carefully navigated the road to reach a destination called “goal” or “success”.
In order to pursue excellence or to obtain a goal, sacrifices must be made. Clear goals and plans are the filters in which we must run our thoughts, actions, opportunities and priorities through in order to make sense of things and to “purify” or align our decisions with our pursuit of excellence. This filtering process makes the right decisions easier to make because if we are faced with two alternatives our “filtration system” will assist us in eliminating or delaying the alternative that is least aligned with our goals.
There is a potential downside to graduations. Complacency is often the sister of achievement. Too often, we achieve our goals and we stop dreaming. We stop planning for the next goal. We get arrogant and start reading and believing our own press and begin to deceive ourselves into thinking that we have “made it” and that we success is a direct result of our own “greatness”. There is something about reaching a goal that sometimes causes us to let our guard down and to sometimes forget the significance of the struggle to seek success.
In order to gain something that is important to us we must forgo something that is insignificant as compared to that “something” that we want to achieve.
In our pursuit of excellence in life, we sometimes forget about what our #1 goal should be. That goal should be a deeper relationship with God as demonstrated though our relationships with others and the selfless drive to embody the very essence of Love.
Paul summed it up so beautifully:
Philippians 3:7-8 (Amplified Bible)
7But whatever former things I had that might have been gains to me, I have come to consider as [[a]one combined] loss for Christ's sake.
8Yes, furthermore, I count everything as loss compared to the possession of the priceless privilege (the overwhelming preciousness, the surpassing worth, and supreme advantage) of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord and of progressively becoming more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him [of perceiving and recognizing and understanding Him more fully and clearly]. For His sake I have lost everything and consider it all to be mere rubbish (refuse, dregs), in order that I may win (gain) Christ (the Anointed One),
If our desire is to know God, we must be willing to discount the value of everything else when comparing it to becoming more intimate with Him. All that we accomplished on “our own”, all the material things that we have worked so hard to pursue and all the relationships that we have put 1st are all mere “rubbish” as we measure them against the knowledge of God through Christ.
We must be willing to lose and “loose” things in order to “gain” a deeper understanding of God. Just as a student who is on the journey toward graduation, sacrifices must be made in order to achieve the dream or goal. The challenge is found in letting go in order to gain.
What in your life is preventing you from obtaining a deeper understanding of God? What or who are you afraid to lose or “loose”? Has your personal success diminished your perceived need for ultimate reliance on God? What spiritual goals do you need to set in your life?
One day your name will be called…are you preparing to walk across the stage?
Be Blessed,
B
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