Faith Makes Failure

To say that faith "is" or "makes" failure would be a sad ignorant definition but allow me to elaborate on faith becoming failure. A person must know faith makes things happen. Faith creates blocks. Those blocks then build structures. Our faith has the ability to create dreams, they have the ability to make masterpieces.

Many things in life that is powerful typically has the ability to be a power for good or to be a power to do harm/evil/ugliness. Faith is one of those things. I can have faith that a good person will make a good choice but I can also have faith that a bad person can make a bad choice. Most speak positively of faith and how it brings something out form within that one may have never have seen or felt inside. However we shouldn't fool ourselves to think that faith can't also be a destructive force.

For many, the problem is that faith for them has lowered their own expectation, or I should say their low expectations has changed their faith. Now they still have faith but their faith has a new target (maybe faith is similar to a habit, never destroyed only replaced). Maybe it is you, maybe your low expectations for yourself has begin to cause you to have faith that you will fail. The problem is that some of you have faith that you can't do anything so you fulfill your expectations. You typically live to your level of faith.

If I have faith in God I will live like their is a God (imagine that life lived out). You see my life will begin to change. If I live like I can overcome then I will be a champion. Whether you believe in God/bible or not, James in the bible talks about this, he says in chapter two, "do you think you’ll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it?" He is saying that faith is lived out, what you believe is then turned into action. My best definition for faith is, "belief in action."

Check this out, a few verses later it says, "You can no more show me your works apart from your faith than I can show you my faith apart from my works. Faith and works, works and faith, fit together hand in glove." Here is the dilemma, if you have faith that you will fail, faith that you cannot overcome, faith that you will fall short then it is highly probable you will fail. James is almost willing to wager, set up a little gamble that you cannot do one without the other. True faith will cause action in your belief system.

Be careful for what you believe you will fail at, it might come true...
| but even bigger |
be aware [beware] at the world that you can change if you believe that you are a world changer!
[Maybe the world needs to beware of you]

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Simply Broaden Your Horizon! (re)Dream

There was a previous post in my blog that you will need to go read. It is kinda funny. I had people read this and comment to me that it was really good lyrics/poems. That poem was actually me writing about the absence of me writing my blogs. Poetry is the beautiful artwork that can mean one thing to the artist but is created to be interpreted by the observer. I remember that time period and it reminds me of now, I have been crazy busy/exhausted and haven't written in the last week how I should. Writing is a great escape/need of mine and always has been. It seems when there has been lengthy times that I have not been writing, that is the time that life can get a little more (in)tense.

I say all that to say this, write! Be creative, put your thoughts to words and put your words to an audience. Maybe you don't want an audience, no biggie, journal. This is such a a great asset that you can have to relieve stress, exercise your creativity and explore a new talent.

One other challenge I have for you is to read more. Pick up a book and read. I ran into one of my friends from college and I asked him what book(s) he was reading at the time. That is a general question I ask others from time to time. He laughed at my in a scoffing type of attitude and said, "Dude, I haven't read a book since college". This was about 3 years after college, I was dumbfounded. This was a pastor who is leading people and isn't a learner. I personally feel that just about every profession of life needs to have constant schooling and we need to be responsible for learning and growing. Why not?

I will be blunt: if you are not learning, educating yourself, finishing your degree that you started years ago, becoming better, then ask yourself, what is stopping you? Have you given up on your dreams, failed yourself, STOPPED!!?? Don't! Get started again, get up, enroll in classes, buy a book. Relive the moment that the dream was birthed and recount the feelings that erupted in your heart a that time in your life. I am sick and tired of seeing the greatest potential in peoples lives and them not fulfilling them. Help be my Vicks and Nyquil, help me feel better. Become!

I am done rabbit trailing. But simply broaden your horizon; begin to read:write! (re)Dream! Become!

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Sometimes I Never Feel Good Enough

Demands. Expectations. Needs. Realizations. Schedules. People. Lives. Hurts. Pains. Goals. Ambitions. Oh and a baby.
My perspective.

It seems with all the things that are demanding of my time all seem to have the need from someone else. It seems I am being pulled into every direction that is requiring my time. It seems like I can't make certain people happy. Unfortunately the people that I let down are the people that matter the most.

Unbalanced. Preoccupied. Selfish. Lazy. Blurred. Unfocused. Narrow-minded.
Their perspective.

Call me what you want. The truth is none of those are true but peoples preconceived ideas and perception unfortunately define you more then the one who knows you best... yourself. Too bad people around me can't look into my life and be able to communicate with me their thoughts and what they are thinking of you. That would help but nonetheless, this is the life that we are given and need to figure out how to work with those parameters.

Well regardless, I am going back to my demands, expectations, fulfilling needs of being unbalanced, preoccupied, selfish lazy, blurred, and narrow-minded life.

See ya.

Philippians 4:13 - I can do all things through him who gives me strength.
God will equip me and guide be to be balanced and not marginalized.

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Seven Reasons You Might Fail to Become the Best in the World

Seven Reasons You Might Fail to Become the Best in the World
by Seth Godin

1. You run out of time (and quit).
2. You run out of money (and quit).
3. You get scared (and quit).
4. You’re not serious about it (and quit).
5 You lose interest or enthusiasm or settle for being mediocre (and quit).
6. You focus on the short term instead of the long (and quit when the short term gets too hard).
7. You pick the wrong thing at which to be the best in the world (because you don’t have the talent).

By “you,” I mean your team, your company, or just plain you, the jobseeker, employee, or entrepreneur. The important thing to remember about these seven things is that you can plan for them. You can know before you start whether or not you have the resources and the will to get to the end. Most of the time, if you fail to become the best in the world, it’s either because you planned wrong or because you gave up before you reached your goal.

Even worse than quitting in the first six cases: not quitting. Settling. Sticking with it but not succeeding.

Is it possible that you’re just not good enough? That you (or your team) just don’t have enough talent to be the best in the world? Sure, it’s possible. In fact, if your chosen area is the cello, or speed skating, then I might even say it’s probable. But in just about every relevant area I can think of, no, it’s not likely. You are good enough. The question is, will you take the shortcut you need to get really good at this?

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/the_dip/2007/04/the_seven_reaso.html

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Wow, may I never decide to quit, may I never accidentally quit. If I run out of time I will reset my clock. If I run out of money I will beg. If I get scared I will turn on the lights. If I am not serious about it then I will recast my vision. If I lose enthusiasm or interst I will try a new cuisine, possibly a cultural delicacy. If I focus on the short tem goal instead of the long term goal I will look up, if that short term gets too hard I will stop take a breath, a good drink of cold water then look up and go. If I pick then wrong thing because I am not talented I will surround myself with anyhing, everything, anyone and everyone that can help strengthen that talent. I WON'T QUIT, EVER!!!!

I am, I will be a speaker, advocate, lobbyist, activist for the God I believe in, not the Christianity that has been created through ideologies but through the mere understanding of his greatness.

Do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised' Hebrews 10:35-36.

God has created me to be who he wants me to be. What ever part of the world in space and time that he wants me to affect I must fulfill. I mut be confident in who God has made me to be. I can't throw that away. Just like in the 7 reasons we fail, without perseverance we are useless. God can't use me if I am not available to be used. If I quit I have limited God and his ability to use me in this place and time to affect my world. Perseverance is in a simplified definition; continued pursuit. Will I pursue God, will I pursue his passions, will I pursue his desires, will I chase his wants? Will I? I must, I have to, I must pursue everything he has for me but not just selfishly, I must pursue him as a living sacrifice. To take up my cross daily is to sacrifice it. God's promises are coming, they are on the way to interact with us in the intersection of finishing the race and doing it with confidence and not quitting. That is the life I want to live.

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Your (you are) Genius (Genie-in-us)

Every single person has in them what it takes to be something, to be someone.

You must take courage to find your genius, when you find your genius you will see that it comes out of your environment.
Have the courage to find your environment where you rub your magic lamp and your Genie-in-us comes out. God gave you the magic. What God gives never comes back in void. God is faithful in everything he says. He has equipped us to be something someday. Our soul for being, our heartbeat for existence is not to settle with mediocrity or to simply be comfortable. Once we know our environment we can begin to take it over. We will simply begin to master it and learn its features. When we know our environment well then we begin to over come it. Michael Jordan was a beautiful genius in his environment. He was the magic to the Chicago Bulls. He was the best person to ever touch the court. Because of his ability and agility to overcome his environment, his courage gave him the MVP and the title of the best player ever.

The saddest thing is that we limit ourselves so much by not believing in ourselves. We hold back our full potential. Maybe somebody one day, one time came down on you or told you that you didn't amount to what you were up against and that took everything you thought you were and it was crushed. You never picked up the pieces and put them together. You stayed there, became stalemate and let the environment overgrow you. IF we don't master our environment the environment begins to take over. I have never in my life seen a garden keep itself weed free, I have never seen a clean house stay clean, or let alone a bedroom. Nature goes bad, our courage to overcome yields its control. We need to step up, take courage and be strong to fight for control over our environment. Then we can be the genius that has been in us the whole time. Our untapped magic is there in everyone, when we see people that are a genius over their environment we think they are a miracle, a perfect package. It is not a miracle, it was one who showed courage over their environment, then the magic comes out and we become a genius.

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God and Our Lack of Worship

Today was a good day. I began to look into some deep philosophies of worship for our youth X/perience:worship: series coming up in March. In one essence I was freaked out, in another I am very excited. God is amazing and as I studied what worship is I learned that worship is initiated with God. Yeah, crazy. He created us in His image to worship him. Him creating us in his image began that worship experience, the initiation process. I think about the students in our youth ministry and see the shallowness, my very own reflection on the shallow pond. Chris Stapley said that it used to be a narrow and a mile deep and now it's a mile wid and an inch deep. I thought about it and thought about it. It came to my mind that our students aren't getting it. They are not getting that God has created them in His image and initiated the worship experience. How/Why/Won't we go after God? What stops us from chasing, pursuing, not stopping until we have caught God and wrap our arms around him and not let go, we say, "God, I'm not letting go until I have X/perienced everything from you."

I imagine it and see it in my mind already. I am not even a father yet. Chez being 3+ months pregnant and already seing me as being a father. I can also picture a father and his young child. The child begins to chase after daddy and he steps back each time as the child is going to grab him. Of course this is an impossible reach for the young child. One step of the father is equal to ten or so steps for the child. The dad also knows that he can run away and hide and the child after a minute will most likely give up, sit down, and quickly be distracted by something and forget all about dad. WOW, is that where our teens are? Could it be that they have lost sight of God, may God have gone too far away and now they have gotten distracted? Well the father knows this and knows not to get out of sight and make the game impossible. Every once in a while the father will stop and allow the child to catch him and the child is exuberant and excited to finally catch his dad. Now I have experienced God in such a real way where he, for what ever reason has allowed me to catch him and I had such an amazing experience with Him. So has God hidden form the teens and they have missed him and found something else? I don't believe so, I believe that the difference between us and toddlers is that as Jesus said, "Suffer not the little children to come to me", then he blessed the child. As adults or even teens we are much more carnal and more self-centered. I truly believe that our reasons for not X/periencing God is because of our self-centered mindset. The psyche of our mind says my needs first before what God wants. Maybe some of us, the teens, have began to focus on themselves and forgot the need and obligation of our being is to worship the One who created us. So maybe I can begin to focus on the reason of my being.

My prayer: How do I convey to a group of teens that God is so worthy of our sacrifices?

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