In the past few weeks there have been a few funerals too many.  Its never easy to see someone leave this life and go ” On to the next one.” I think the first question people tend to ask is, WHY? Why has this happened.  We many never really know or understand why. That is possibly one of the most difficult realities to grasp. Another thing that happens is, as we hear stories about the dearly deceased, we often say, “Wow, he/she really made an impact in so many lives.” Its in those moments, that I begin to evaluate my life and wonder, what would be said at my funeral and what would be placed on my tombstone?

Recently, I was at a funeral, and I began to ask myself those very questions. Here are a few things that I realized. I realized truly how short life is. The bible calls life a vapor, here one day and gone the next. And we see that its so true. It really hit me that life is precious and tomorrow is definitely not promised. I think realizing that,  it really helped me to again appreciate the simple things in life… (fresh air, health, family, freedom, etc )

I also realized that the things that we often place so much value on; the things that we strive so hard to obtain,  that when the smoke settles and it all falls down, probably dont matter as much as we first thought. What matters to you? What are the things that you are investing your money and time into that really are not a priority to God.

When your body is laid to rest, what will you be remembered by? “He was funny” or “He was dope in Madden?” Or do you want to be remember as someone that Loved GOD with all your heart and loved others. I think if we center our lives around that, when we “cash out” our lives, the “deposits” that we made in others will be a greater legacy than the 50″ LED TV and the World War 2 Pendants we left behind.

I just want to please God. I want to hear those words, Well done good and faithful servant!!! I want to live my life for others. I want to appreciate people while they are here on earth. My grandmother always tells me, “Give me flowers now, while Im alive to smell them.”  Lets apply that to our lives, now. Tell someone you love them, thank someone for making an impact in your life, forgive someone that you have been beefin with. Do it now, cause tomorrow is not promised.

On my tombstone I want it to read, “He did it for God, He did it for others”

After numerous phone calls, texts, and posts onto my facebook wall, Ive decided to write a blog regarding the Lakers getting swept by the Mavs. As Im typing this, I still cant believe it really happened. The Lakers are considered one of sports most recognizable and winningest sports franchises. Yet this series, just showed how mortal and human they are.  I can assure the readers that I have no interest in who winsBut while watching the collapse of the Lakers dynasty, I definitely did learn a thing or two.

1. Never underestimate your opponent- The Lakers have always been the type to play to the level of their competition. Losing to teams that they should destroy.  However, regardless of your opponent, you should always give 110%.

2. Everything rises and falls with Leadership- we can speculate about who was to blame, and what did and didnt happen, but ultimately we have to remember that as the leader goes, so does the team. And if the leader fails to perform and motivate his team, then the blame cannot be shifted to anyone else but the leader.

3. We cant be (ga)-soft like Gasol- there was nobody that I was more disappointed in anyone these playoffs more that Pao Gasol. He has always been labeled as soft, I and could not agree anymore with that observation. He wasnt able to take hits. If we are going to succeed, we must be able to roll with the punches and be tough: mentally, physically and spiritually. Never back down

Losing is a comma, not a period- since the Lakers season is over, that means there will have to be some rebuilding. There will be new faces on the team next year. But although its the end of a season, theres always next year. That sounds like a cliche statement but its so true. We we fall short, as long as we are alive, we can regroup, retool, and rebuild for a better future.

Still Heartbroken

1. He loved God too much to give up

2. He didnt have anything to go back to

3. He didnt allow his past to dictate his future

And because Peter didnt give up, God used him to reach thousands. He went from addition to multiplication because he didnt die. Maybe there are things that have tried to cause division, and some things might have been subtracted from you, you might have even added somethings along the way. But if we would just stay the course, God will bring the Multiplication.

“we dont die, we multiply”

1Kings17:4-6 says, “You(Elijah) will drink from the brook, and I have ordered the ravens to feed you there. So then he (Elijah) did what the LORD had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and stayed there. The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.

This is a very interesting story that found the land of Israel in a great famine. Many people can identify with being in a famine, especially with our worlds economic downfall. And if for but only a moment, we take off our “super spiritual” hats, we will discover some humanly truth. We ,or at least I, at times ask myself, where is God in the midst of this famine? Where are the promises that he gave me? Lets keep it real, we all ask that from time to time.

I love (believe it or not) watching the Disney show, Thats so Raven. Even though the theme song is oh so corny, I still like the show. It always starts with Raven seeing a vision for the future. Her job throughout the show is to somehow prevent this “bad” vision from happening. And in the end, everything works out, every single time.

How often do our lives mirror that of Ravens in the TV show? We hear or see reports of bad news and automatically we begin to panic and worry. A man once said that, “Worrying is like a rocking chair, it gives you something to do but it gets you nowhere.” How often to we spend our days and hours worrying about a thing that has not and may not even happen. We must trust in God. Trust is not always necessary when things are going great, but the true measure of trust is when thing are not looking so promising. Nevertheless, we must continue to trust in God just like Elijah did. Although the nation was in a famine, Elijah listened to what God told him. Not the news, not the economy, not his wallet, but  to God. In verse 4 God told him that he commanded the ravens to feed him there. The raven was not the provider nor the source, but simply the vessel that God used to meet the needs of his child. We must keep our spiritual eyes open and attentive to the hand of God. Sometimes to meet our needs or speak to us, God will use illogical people and things. The raven often signifies death. But, God uses to foolish things of this world to confound the wise. God will even use the very things in our lives that we thought were put in our lives to destroy us, but have actually been put there to grow us. Have we boxed in God in our lives, thinking that God can only come through or speak in a certain manner? If so, Let God out of the box and let him use what he wants to use. When you see God “come through” in an unlikely manner, which he will, dont be surprised, just lift your hands, look up to the heavens and say, “That’s so Raven.”

Whether you are old/young, rich/poor, strong/weak, every single person faces discouragement at one time or another. A question that usually arises is “Where does discouragement come from.” Or even better, “Why does discouragement come?” Usually discouragement comes from not seeing the results that we would like to see, and we lose heart or hope for our current situation. It can be with our jobs, our weight, or even our spiritual lives. Many people believe that the source of discouragement is what other people say to us. However, more times than not, discouragement comes from ourselves rather than from others, usually because we are our own worst critics. I think that discouragement can hit us hard when we begin to measure our lives up against the lives of others. That’s a bad habit that we have all been guilty of. We shouldn’t compare ourselves to others. Because we compare, we tend to compete. And when we compete we usually see that we are not meeting the standards that we “think” we should be meeting.  But we shouldn’t compete because in Christ we are already complete. But what do we do when discouragement comes? The answer is simple, we DIS it…

D- Determine that you will continue to press forward. There is no secret formula to not getting discouraged, but even though it visits, refuse to let it live with you. Make a decision that you will continue to reach for the prize and the goal that you have set before you, despite any and all opposition. Even Michael Jordan didnt make the high school varsity team his first try. He could have stayed discouraged and never tried again. Instead he determined in his heart to continue to press forward. And he did. Now, in my book he is the 2nd best player ever. And if you know me, you know who’s 1st.

I- Include others in your life. I have noticed that the times is my life that I have struggled with discouragement the most was in my times of Isolation. In b-ball, when someone calls ISO, its because they want to take care of things on their own. Its not always good to ride solo all the time. We should surround ourselves with people that will pick us up rather than allow us to drown in our discouragement. Evaluate your circle of friends, because who they are, YOU ARE.

S- Smile. Sometime the key to getting out of discouragement is to just smile. It takes more muscles to frown than it does to smile. Try it sometimes. Even when we dont feel like smiling, do it by faith. Just know that things will eventually turn around and because of that we can smile.

The opposite of discouragement is encouragement. Be encouraged. God is on our side.

try this: instead of DIScouragement say: DIS-courage-is-MEANT to get me to where I need to be. Be encouraged. Thats why haters (haters; meaning anyone trying to stop you) try to attack our courage, because when we are full of courage, theres no stopping us.

Be Encouraged!

-Word on the Street-

OMG- A phrase often used to say Oh My Gosh and also OMG is the name of a popular gossip site. But the way we will be using this acronym from now on is: Operation My Generation. What does that mean? For me, it means that we have a dying generation that we need to win to the Lord. There has not been another time in history with so much potential and so much technology, yet still being lost. Therefore we are on a quest to reach them and win them to the Lord.

What types of people is God looking to use to reach this generation:

1. People that are GRATEFUL- grateful people dont forget where they came from. In Luke 17, there is a story of the 10 men that had leprosy. Jesus healed them, but only one of them came back to thank Jesus. I believe one of the reason he came back, was b/c he recalled all those years of turmoil and suffering and he appreciated what the Lord had done. We must be the same way. We must be grateful of what the Lord has done, and GO BACK to those place that we know people reside that are just like us.

2. People that are HARDWORKING- Proverbs 14:23 says that ALL hard work leads to profit…. its going to take blood, sweat, and tears to reach out to this generation. We may have to sacrifice sleep, money, time, and much more. But its so worth it to see the life of a young person changed.

3. People that are SOLD OUT – we may not see the results right away that we are looking for, but we must continue to fight the good fight. Because the battle that we are fighting is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities…..The call has to be our all… Some people give bits and pieces and thats ok. But in order to reach this generation, we must give our all.

TO BE CONTINUED….

Well, I want to start off by saying thank you to all you that read my blog. I hope that you can take something from them and apply it to your lives…

Today I will be talking about 24. I just recently put an update on my Facebook account about how I believe that Kobe is better than Jordan. The responses that I got were more than expected. Now, I am not about to do a whole blog about Kobe v. Jordan. But I will talk a bit about that number 24. There are 24 hours in a day. The day that I am writing this blog is the 24th. There is a popular show called 24. There are 24 seconds in a shot clock. And Kobe Bryant also wears the number 24. (Who I believe is the greatest B-BALL player ever. But thats another blog for another day) : ) Im not trying to be all mystical or anything, I just writing a blog, people… lol

There was also a popular song that many have heard, asking a question,“If you had 24 hours to live, what would you do?” WOW, what a question. I hear a lot of people say, that there is not enough time in the day. And they quote the words of Jesse Spano from Saved by the Bell , ” No time, theres never any time!!!”  Its not that people don’t have time, its that they don’t make time for things because of what many call the thief of time, BROTHER PROCRASTINATION

…. Now, I did some research and here is the top 5 things people would do with 24 hours to live. (In no particular order)

1. spend time with family        2. go to church         3. skydive

4. eat all of their favorite foods       5. travel to a place they have always wanted to go to

Pretty interesting. But the crazy thing is that people’s urgency tends to change, knowing that their lives may be cut short. But, my question is, why not live our best lives NOW? Why not do the things we have always wanted to do? Why not travel the world? Why not spend time with our families? Why not make the greatest impact, NOW? We must realize that tomorrow is not promised. Therefore we must “Carpe Diem”(seize the day.) Im not saying not to plan for the future. What I am saying is that if we live life as if there were no tomorrow, then I think our today’s would be a lot more impacting and we would get more things done. So when we see or hear that number 24, just ask yourself, what had I been putting off until tomorrow that I can do today?

-Word on the Street-

One of the most funny/interesting/drama filled talk shows on TV is, Maury. The show used to have variety: From out of control teens to family members that need to make a confession. But now, this show pays the bills through their “bread and butter” episodes; Maury revealing the results of Paternity tests. As he opens the results, he either reads, “You are the father” or “You are not the father.” Then the crowd goes crazy as either party screams, “I told you so.”

But I think that most people struggle in life because they often try to take upon a role and responsibility that was not theirs to begin with.  We often try to do things and provide things that only God can and should do. But we must come to a realization that “We are not the Father.”  God wants to be God in our life. We spend too much time worrying when we should be trusting. I heard a man once say that worrying is like a rocking chair, it gives us something to do, but it gets us nowhere. Here are some areas that we must come to grips with and understand that God is in control and not us:

“You are not the Father” when it comes to:

1. Finances- The bible states plainly that God is our provider. He asks us to trust him and believe that he will do what he said he would do. This means that we should not worry or fret, just trust. We often worry, stress, and panic about how God is going to come through. But its not for us to know how, its for us to know, WHO. And the answer is God.

2.  The Future- We often ask ourselves, what does that future hold for me? and What are the steps I have to take to get there? Well if God, is the centerpiece and cornerstone of our lives, then we dont have anything to worry about. The bible says that the steps of a righteous man are ordered by God. We simply have to walk obediently through the doors that God will open for us. Trial and error is good for a lot of things, but its not that great concerning our futures. Clear and concise direction from God will guide us to our destiny. Here are some ways God will reveal his will for our lives:

1. His word          2. His voice     3. Inner peace    4.godly counsel         5. circumstances    6. personal desire     7. common sense

3. Family- One thing that we must understand, is that God is faithful to his promises. So often we believe that God can save to world, yet we doubt at times that he could save our families. Even in times that things get worse, God is still in control. We try so many times to be the savior and the hero, but we are not the father. If God can save us, then God can save them.

This blog was not real deep or anything but I tried to relate a simple principle. “you are not the father.” If we could understand that God is in control of every area of our lives we would see that his peace will overtake us, helping relieve the stress that comes with worrying. So what has been stressing you out? Well guess what? The spiritual paternity tests just came in, and revealed that God is the Father and he WILL take care of his children.

-Word on the Street-