Monday, October 8, 2012

The Good Life

In any relationship that you are in there must be a dedication to the commitment that you have made. Relationships with spouses, family members and friends often die because one of the persons forgets the importance of forgiving the other “regardless” of their sins or how they view that they have been offended; and it often dies because one or both persons forgets that it was God that put them together they didn’t just meet by chance or happenstance. Remember your vow to be dedicated in the good and the troublesome areas of the journey that you take in any relationship because there are either spoken or unspoken covenants that when endured are honored. All of us have responsibilities to each other in all of our relationships; the responsibility is to believe in one another that the other person has the best intentions in helping you to become your full self and the conviction that you are placed in this relationship for a duty and the purpose can only be purely fulfilled by a co- existing relationship that is smothered in humility.


The most important thing to remember about any relationship that you are involved in is that you must stay mature and above reproach in order to move through the seasons of the relationship because that will help you not to focus on the immature things that the devil would put in your spirit to try and distract you. If you focus on the big picture and not try and play a role in your relationship with people you will have a greater avenue for the chance of success because you will limit your distractions. The key is not to focus on the “me” but rather the “we”. Relationships are like building and maintaining a house. Once the house is built you still have to keep up with the maintenance, so as your home continuously changes, so your relationship continues to change and it’s not going to always be perfect but as long as you keep your focus and outlook on it as “progress” then all will be well with your soul. Remember the good times and what sustained you in those moments and remind yourself and the other person of that moment to encourage them as well when things aren’t going well because the goal is not competition against the other person, the goal is team work because you want to be successful. It’s going be hard but go with the flow and you will get to where you’re going. God Bless

Monday, July 16, 2012

I Am Finally Able To Speak

On March 16, 2012 was the last time I was able to blog because the next day at 11:40am my earthly father’s soul took its step into everlasting. As I held his hand reassuring him I would be “OK” I begin to feel the walls of my heart blowing up piece by piece because the possibility of him never experiencing the pure unconditional “NEED” of love from his child was ending and for myself still on the bridge of brokenness and doubt vividly as on a movie screen I was being wrapped in the noise of heartache, pain and misery feeling like I was being aborted like an unborn child.


March 17,2012 11:40am my father died. The hope of the happy ending had dried up in a bitter stream of emptiness. My words became numb, my actions became guarded, my song lost its tune and my body just wanted to die. Deep down inside of the layers of my being and even unseen to the closest person in my life but fresh as the morning sunrise daily I had hoped that the thief would not steal him away from me too soon. The thief had already stolen the promises and the potential of the dreams in the pictures. The thief had already suffocated my hope, depleted my energy and grayed my prayers.

You would assume for someone who has studied the ends and outs of theology that in this moment I would be more than “OK”. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, you would think that promise would be like a seat belt to my soul and have me strapped in the seat of security and faith. But in my reality and in the pit of my feelings the only anthem I could hear blazing from the choir of assurance was “Death is final and my father is dead”.

He will never meet my children, he will never know my wife. I ache for my grandparents who put their child in the ground. I ache daily that he will never get a chance to be who I needed him to be on this side of heaven.

Nothing makes sense, no words can comfort. Honestly I feel like telling everyone to shut up and leave me alone. The pain of tragically losing a parent is so piercing in sting and force to the child that it should be written in the laws that everyone should sit in silence and hear the screaming breaking sound of that child’s soul. My father is dead and he is not coming back, that is not a thought that can be rationalized or explained to my soul; I just need to sit here and so I continue to sit.

I have no intelligent, intellectual, or brave words to reassure you today that over this hill of agony my heart will be made full. But what I can reassure you is that when I choose to move forward this pain will not be in vain.

3/17/12 11:40am - The day My Life Changed

Friday, March 16, 2012

At The Feet

Since I have been in social work and ministry people ask me all the time how do I deal with the anger expressed by broken people who have no hope and who have limited themselves through self destruction and show it through abusive behavior in language and actions. My answer to them is that I look in the mirror and come to grips with my own personal depraved soul. I counsel them like Jesus counsels me. I use compassion dictated by tough love, guided by extra grace and covered with mercy. I meet them at the cross because that is where I am still at. I may have been at the cross a little longer but I still need to see his broken body and see the blood gushing from his side and look at his body in agony because then it will remind me too not to complain. I still need to see the people laughing at him and feel the weight of sadness and distress he is in so it can remind me that he did it all for me and that he would do it all for me again if needed. The fact is this when we minister to people all we are doing is putting our arms around them and reassuring them that his grace is really sufficient and his mercies are new everyday because we have been at the cross and needed to stay just as they will because only when we return to him in heaven will we be made whole so until then we must stay put at the feet of Jesus.




Thursday, January 26, 2012

God Runs Toward You

Brighten your day by envisioning God running toward you.
When his patriarchs trusted, God blessed. When Peter preached or Paul wrote or Thomas believed, God smiled. But he never ran.
That verb was reserved for the story of the prodigal son. “But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.” (Luke 15:20 NKJV)
God runs when he sees the son coming home from the pig trough. When the addict steps out of the alley. When the teen walks away from the party. When the ladder-climbing executive pushes back from the desk, the spiritist turns from idols, the materialist from stuff, the atheist from disbelief, and the elitist from self-promotion…
Great Day Every DayWhen prodigals trudge up the path, God can’t sit still. Heaven’s throne room echoes with the sound of slapping sandals and pounding feet, and angels watch in silence as God embraces his child.
You turn toward God, and he runs toward you.

Saturday, January 7, 2012

"HaveHope"


Stop worrying about what you have THINK you have lost and focus on the promises that the tomorrows hold for your future. So many times in our own lives we tend to over analyze the past: Our failures, our “what ifs”, our un-forgiveness, lost relationships, bitterness and what others have done to us. What we need to do is embrace today and all the promises that today has and that each moment has. There is a saying live day by day but many times that can be just to much to ask for some of us so we must learn to live moment by moment. We can’t rely on others to help us achieve these goals but rather we have to look at ourselves and God and ask him to bless our steps. We want to be in the perfect will of God and not in the permissible will of God and he is trying to get each of his children to that perfect place and many times that requires him stepping into your life and removing things and people that don’t help lift you to a better place. It doesn’t mean that those people are bad people it just means that they aren’t meant for the long journey with you. I am the first to admit I hate change and I like to be in charge and I am sure probably everyone else does as well but here is the deal we all must recognize that were not in control of anything in the first place so we must be willing to surrender for the sake of our healthiness when it comes to our souls, minds, and physical state. We have to surrender and let go. We have to hold on to hope, prayer and Gods hand and in the end hope that he will deliver us to perfection. So today grab on to hope, stop over analyzing the past, the people in your past, the things and places in your past and embrace the promises of tomorrow. Remember there is a reason why you are at this place so learn the lesson so you don’t have to repeat it.