Moved to Wordpress

I just wanted to let all my readers know that I changed my blog to sudirgo.wordpress.com.

Healings in a Classroom & on the Sidewalk

"I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing"

John 14:12

Believing in an invisible God can make one weary after a while. It’s not that God owes us an appearance in the sky every so often, but the journey of faith is not always an easy road. This past week, however, I had the honor of seeing a glimpse of God’s physical reality. It sure doesn’t happen all the time, but on Wednesday evening God made an appearance. Three students and I were in a dark classroom singing “I could sing of your love forever” when a girl

walked in asking if we were singing “gospel songs.” We looked at each other, shrugged our shoulders and said, “Sure, I guess you can say that.” As she took interest and joined our circle, a friend of mine noticed her limping as she came in. He asked if we could pray for her and she said “Sure!” After a short prayer, we asked her to walk around to see if anything changed. She got up, started walking, and to our amazement the pain was gone! In my doubt, I asked her three times “Are you for real?” She told us that it was better and we all went crazy, so excited to see God at work.

A few days later, after a powerful time of worship, we were on our way out of my friend’s apartment when my buddy Dave mentioned to me how how he twisted his knee the day before. After seeing such a miracle on Wednesday my faith was stirred and I asked him if we could pray for him right there on the sidewalk. We knelt down on the sidewalk, put our hands on his knee, prayed a short prayer and told him to

walk around to see if the pain was still there. To my shock once again, he was completely healed! He started jumping, hopping, and running around in circles reassuring us it was legitimate. We were all amazed and couldn’t stop laughing as we got into the car.

After dropping everyone off, I sat in my car with tears thanking the Lord for being able to experience His physical reality. I felt like I could finally exhale! After holding my breath for so long waiting to see God reveal himself in a supernatural way, I was able to finally breathe, to finally say that I could SEE the Lord! More than the amazement of seeing these people get healed, I felt so honored that God would show himself to me in this way.

Help Haiti

After watching all the stories online about the disaster in Haiti, a few friends and I decided to put together a benefit concert at a local club in Fenway. There is still much more we can do, but I think this is a great start. I encourage any of you out there to begin to take some action on this issue wherever you are.

If you're local, be sure to come out!

Boulders I Never Saw

For anyone of you who has read through the book of Ruth I'm sure you were blessed by this story of a foreign woman finding her way in a new land. While reading through this book in preparation for our wedding last year, all we kept on seeing was a picture of God through the love of Boaz. From all the sections of the book that spoke to me, this scene resonated with my life the most:

As she got up to glean, Boaz gave orders to his men, "Even if she gathers among the sheaves, don't embarrass her. Rather, pull out some stalks for her from the bundles and leave them for her to pick up, and don't rebuke her." So Ruth gleaned in the field until evening. Then she threshed the barley she had gathered, and it amounted to about an ephah. She carried it back to town, and her mother-in-law saw how much she had gathered.

Ruth 2:15-18

The word that comes to my mind in this chapter is dignity. In watching Boaz’ interaction with Ruth, I see a man who dignifies a poor foreigner in front of those who would have probably gone against her. She was a Moabite, a descendant of Moab who was born out of a woman who slept with her father to bear a child (Gen. 19). Beyond being a foreigner, the Israelites despised those who came from this incestuous nation. The beauty of this story is how Boaz honors her amidst a hostile crowd. He publicly acknowledged her sacrifice and rewarded her commitment. He recognizes an aspect of Ruth that most people would have overlooked because of her family line seeing a character and beauty in her that initiates a redemptive outflow.The part that strikes me the most is how Boaz ordered his men to “pull our some stalks for her from the bundles and leave them for her to pick up..” That image gave me a picture of how God goes before us in our journey through life.

After spending some time reviewing my life, I recently came to realize how much my parents have gone out before me. In our thank you speech at the wedding, I literally wept like a baby (cue the flattering picture) as I shared to all the guests a picture of my parents going before me, lifting off all the debris, road blocks and obstacles from my path as I race freely through life.

I can imagine that day as Ruth gleans in the field, how amazed she was at how much she had gotten. She must have gone home surprised at how much she had done and eager to show her days work to her mother. At times we all go through life bringing home awards and achievements, getting jobs, promotions and an A for one of our classes, thinking how much we have done. We receive it all and at times we take it all for granted. For me, I remember thinking back before the wedding, realizing how easy life was because of what my parents had done, how much they had set the stage for my journey. How much more must we honor a God who takes the heat and burden before we even arrive, who went before us moving the weights, boulders and stones from our path.

But often, I go home, after a good preaching or a job well done in the mission field and praise my efforts more than he who made it easy. I claim the credit, receive the recognition and pat my own shoulder as God looks back carrying aside the next obstacle from my path. Through this passage, I see God’s sovereignty and silent actions of love in the works of Boaz. I can imagine Boaz whispering these orders to his workers as Ruth exits the room, picturing how happy and empowered she may be as she goes home that night. And to think... God does that for me all the time. He leaves his bits of forgiveness on the road knowing I will fail and drops some anointing in the places he knows I’ll need an extra boost. God knows what we need and he leaves it there right in front of us.

A Thirst for Discipline

"...there's a yearning again

a thirst for discipline

a hunger for things that are deeper

Could you take me beyond

Could you carry me through

If I open my heart

Could I go there with you

For I've been here before

But I know there's still more..."

Treasure in my Pocket

Although I walk and talk as though I am completely satisfied in Him alone, at times I submit to deception and wander the world in hopes of finding what my skin is looking for. I walk around with the treasure and pearl in my pocket blindly reaching for garbage and filth. It's like I'm attempting to find what I already have - no wonder it's called deception. It's like tempting Jesus with bread he doesn't need, esteem he already has, and rulership he already holds. When your hope is in something you can't see, it's easy to unintentionally start searching for a more tangible hope, but when you strain towards the tangible your search ironically leads to emptiness.

Something in this song, for some reason, resonates with me today.

I Got This

"Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?"

Galatians 3:3

Grace is like the guy who excuses himself from the table pretending to go the restroom. He times his strides carefully and slips the waiter his visa as they cross paths. When dinners over, we realize what has been done and the battle to compensate begins. Some students in the table exhale with a sigh of relief as they put their feather weight wallets back in their pockets. Others continue the tug o'war threatening to walk out the door leaving some bills on the table. Being a recipient of a free meal can feel a little uncomfortable at times. You wonder whether you raised up the white flag too soon. You feel somewhat vulnerable and indebted to the giver.

In a way, we're trained to refrain from being the beneficiary. You work for what you have, and what you don't have, you simply work harder for. Anything you possess that was not earned puts you at unease, it seems unaccounted for and not necessarily yours yet. In fact, your bases would have been covered if you took care of the tab. You wouldn't have a care in the world. Everyone owes you and no one can say that they got the bad end of the bargain.

This is why grace is so difficult for people to receive. Before Jesus, the law gave us some kind of framework to show us whether we're on track or not. It gave us the opportunity to cover the tab if we could afford it. The law is simply a whole lot cleaner. It's a clear system where we are able to check off items from a list. Don't eat this stuff... Check! Stay away from sexual immorality... Check! Get circumcised.... ouch, but Check! Grace on the other hand is pretty messy! Think about it, how is our response to grace measured? How do I calculate my rate of success? We default back to the law after entering freely by grace because it's familiar and in our control.

Grace is about God going before us and paying the price. We can choose to leave money on the table when the tabs been covered or we can put our wallets back in our pockets and just accept the free meal. In fact we'd be better off if we just looked into our wallets before the scramble and saw for ourselves that we didn't even have enough to pay our own share. God knows we don't have enough and he's kind enough to save us the embarrassment.

How many times have we thought that a good deed rectifies a bad action? How easy it is to think that our generous or righteous actions are tipping the heavenly scales. Our purity is not dependent on how little we watch inappropriate movies, nor is our righteousness determined by how many homeless people we feed. Our freedom is not warranted by our worship and God's love for us does not increase when we become more lovable. We are pure because of his blood, righteous because God sees Jesus when he looks at us, free because Jesus conquered death and loved because we are his children. Our payment was taken care of at the cross and it only devalues and cheapens the sacrifice when we think our efforts, money or deeds can make a dent in compensating God for what he has given us.

"It was for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burden again by a yoke of slavery."

Gal. 5:1

Audio Version:

Below is a message I preached a few weeks ago on Acts 10. My preparation for this message is the inspiration for this blog post.

http://www.fenwaychurch.org/podcast/audio/acts10jesse.mp3

A Call for Courage

"All around you, people will be tiptoeing through life, just to arrive at death safely. But dear children, do not tiptoe. Run, hop, skip, or dance, just don't tiptoe."

Anonymous 

"What is, therefore, our task today? Shall I answer: "Faith, hope, and love"? That sounds beautiful. But I would say - courage. No, even that is not challenging enough to be the whole truth Out task today is recklessness. For what we Christians lack is not psychology of literature... we lack a holy rage - the recklessness which comes from the knowledge of God and humanity. The ability to rage when justice lies prostrate on the streets and when the lie rages across the face of the earth... a holy anger about the things that are wrong in the world. To rage against the ravaging of God's earth, and the destruction of God's world. To rage when little children must die of hunger, when the tables of the rich are sagging with food. To rage at the senseless killing of so many, and against the madness of militaries. To rage at the lie that calls the threat of death and the strategy of destruction peace. To rage against complacency. To restlessly seek that recklessness that will challenge and seek to change human history until in conforms to the norms of the kingdom of God. And remember the signs of the Christian Church have been the Lion, the Lamb, the Dove, and the Fish... but never the chameleon."

Kaj Munk 

(an old prayer of a Danish pastor)

"We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

 

Perfect in Weakness

“God’s emphasis in the Bible is opposite from ours: a few loaves and fishes, a pinch of salt or leaven, tiny mustard seeds, Gideon sending soldiers home, Jehoshaphat opening his city gates to the enemy, Jesus telling Peter to put away his sword. “My Strength”, he said, “is perfected in weakness.” God wants us to admit that we are a minority – and act like one – so he will be the source of our power. Instead, we think weakness is a scandal. We seek to force our way like a majority. We appear to be compensating for God’s limitations...... How can he bless that?”

Roger Dewey

First good revelation I've received in a long time.

"...where thoughts has its birth in conflict and concern..."

"By the Balcony, I do not mean the gallery of a church or theater. I mean that little platform in wood or stone that protrudes from the upper window of a Spanish home. There the family may gather of an evening to gaze spectator-wise upon the street beneath, or at the sunset or the stars beyond. The Balcony thus conceived is a classical standpoint, and so the symbol of the perfect spectator, for whom life and the universe are permanent objects of study and contemplation.... By the Road I mean the place where life is intensely lived, where thoughts has its birth in conflict and concern, where choices are made and decisions are carried out. It is a the place of action, of pilgrimage.... where concern is never absent from the wayfarer's heart."

John Mackay, Footprints of God

"God may well be with us in our mansions on the hill. I hope so. He may -- may well be with us in all manner of controversial stuff. Maybe, maybe not. But the one thing we can all agree -- all faiths, all ideologies -- is that God is with the vulnerable and poor.

God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house. God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives. God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war. God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them."

Bono, Prayer Breakfast

"...whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'"

The King, Matthew 25:40

_____________________________________________

It's amazing how easy it is to let the study of problems and solutions distant us from actively engaging in problems and implementing solutions. It has been my ongoing pursuit to never let my my mind drift too far from my body. It is extremely tempting to remain in a theoretical state where we dwell in concepts and analogies. In fact, many including myself, often assume that gaining ground theoretically can justify our physical paralysis. So we carry on in assessing cases and constructing models only to find ourselves living a life that requires no courage or faith. We sit around in our study groups, interpreting scripture, analyzing intriguing facts about biblical history, watching documentaries on genocide and poverty abroad only to sit back down to dig deeper, with no end in sight, into the issues once again. While some believe that we must be informed before taking action, I've come to think that information is grasped and embarassed most in the midst of an act.

Infinitely Aloof

"That God can be known by the soul in tender personal experience while remaining infinitely aloof from the curious eyes of reason constitutes a paradox best described as

Darkness to the intellect
But sunshine to the heart.

(Federick W. Faber)"

Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy

Self-righteous about the Self-righteous

For many of us who feel they have awakened from the matrix of institutionalized religion, there appears to be a deeper issue that has been drowned out by our loud protests for authentic, back to the roots spirituality. Yes we've made it clear time and time again that it's not religion but relationship, not buildings but people, not members but family, but I've come to realize that somewhere along the road to restoring "real", "just like the early church", "relevant" Christianity, we have ironically taken on a self-righteous legalistic attitude towards the very self-righteous legalist's we preach against. Tim Keller's book had me do a double take on a simple line "[Jesus] is not a pharisee about Pharisees...".

The root of the issue is what I would call the one up factor. Once there is an asset one receives that produces a sense of supremacy, be it a piece of good or bad, new or old philosophy, revelation or method, there is great temptation to pier down at those who have yet to attain such knowledge. This new wave of organic, simple, relevant or emerging approaches to church and theology are revolutionary and important for the mission, but if it carries with it a sense of supremacy and pride to the more traditional or reform approaches, it actually surfaces the same problems of the past. What the world needs is not a better strategy for church growth or a radical new perspective on theology, the world needs a church of humility and grace. The kind of humility which imitates that of Christ. The kind that would be willing to die for another.

Philippians 2 shows Jesus as one who was perfect, flawless, supreme and all knowing (like many of us seem to think we are), but it goes further to point out that he gave up his position of authority to be a servant, his pure beauty for the appearance of man, and traded his right to command to be one who obeys. If you ask me, there is no instant productivity or immediate advancing of the kingdom with this kind of restraint, but I guess that is what is so beautiful about the cross. It is a picture that explains how weak is strong and how poor can be rich. It signifies to us all that humility is what works, that death is what lasts.

Although I am completely behind the evolution (or rather deconstruction) of church methodology, I feel like we all need to beware of pride. It really does come before the fall.

One side note...this weekend rocked! I went to Vegas for a church planting training on the UNLV campus and received so much from those I met. I never knew I could have so much fun in Vegas without being on the strip :)

Riding the Pendulum

I heard once that it is necessary to live unbalanced in order to be balanced. Although some would say to just "trust your instincts", I find that following instincts often hinders me from tapping into qualities that those natural instincts do not trigger. I end up living somewhat lopsided in the qualities that come natural to me. If I am outgoing I will always feed my charisma and approachable quality, if I am unorganized and spontaneous I will highlight my flexibility and willingness to change. Although I see the benefit in highlighting my positive attributes I also think that is important to go the opposite way and at times overemphasize attributes that I currently lack. With some aspects in our life it is necessary to counter our destructive habits with extreme actions/inactions that go completely against our instincts. This scene with George Costanza came to mind while I was chatting with a friend about this topic yesterday.

GEORGE COSTANZA - The Opposite



I wouldn't say that this is the most healthy method in curing toxic characteristics, but we all have to admit the courage involved in this approach. It sure isn't mediocre nor is it passive, and sometimes in life we need to act now, we need to push the envelope in dealing with our pride, fears, insecurities and our need for approval.

I heard recently that psychologists have now found it harmful to cure phobias by placing individuals amidst their most fearful situations. It pretty much means that sticking a young girl who is scared of spiders in box filled with them is not the most effective remedy, and I think we can all agree with that.

However, there is a great wealth of inspiration and hope that results from viewing our fears and deficiencies from a new light. And often times the only way to change your angle is to dive into an unknown realm, a space that in most cases are uncomfortable, unnatural and for a lack of better words 'scary'. For some, who find themselves always lacking courage, that realm may force you to speak up to those you disagree with, for others, whose opinions are usually heard a mile away, that foreign realm may demand silence and restraint. Many will need to step into the deep end, some may feel the need to speak in front of the class, others might have to start dating again, whatever positions you in a place of fresh perspective will help you overcome.

I echo my friend who writes at the end of every email "Do something everyday that scares you!"or my other buddy that tells me that "If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always gotten." It could help to occasionally take moments to swing to the opposite side of the pendulum to see what we look like from the other side.

Door Prize

I had the honor and privilege of learning a new term last week. Here's the definition:

A "Door Prize" occurs when a...

CAR DOOR

intersects with a....

BICYCLE


CAR DOOR + BICYCLE = DOOR PRIZE

So last Tuesday I'm riding down Harvard Ave when out of no where this freakin door opens up in front of me. My front wheel crashes against the door bending it way back while my shoulder slams into the door frame. I was talking after to the bike expert guy and told him what had happened and he was like "chuckle chuckle..... you mean a Door Prize?". It wasn't very funny at the time :) Luckily I had no injuries, but poor Bertha suffered some severe damages to the front fork and tire.

It's now in surgery at the shop until Wednesday.

I really actually thought that I'd have the cat reflexes to dodge opening doors, but they really do come out of no where. It's a good thing Jules got me a helmet a few days before :) No need to worry mother, I'll be sure to just slow down traffic and drive in the middle of the road from now on.

Think Just Enough to Act

"In Hebrew philosophy, a belief was not a belief until it was acted on. And all beliefs affected community, because the actions they spawned affected every area of life. In Greek philosophy, belief could be separated from action. Thought and action suffered a painful divorce into upper and lower stories of existence.

Greek thinking led to dualism, a separation between the material and spiritual aspects of life. The material world -the realm of the senses and action-decline in value. The spiritual world-the realm of the mind and emotions-represented a higher plane of existence. The work of earning daily bread played second fiddle to the pursuit of philosophy. Greek thought infiltrated the early church and gave birth to a separate class of priests, clerics, and a host of monastic orders. This thinking still pervades modern society and the church in a variety of ways.

The Hebrew philosophy seems comparatively simple. No dualism. No separation. If you love someone, you will meet her need. If you meet someones need, you love her. Hebrews did not separate the heart from the mind, or belief from action. They were one and the same. What you believed affected all you did, from cooking a meal to building a city. What you did reflected what you believed. Therefore, work became an act of worship, and no vocation was viewed as more sacred or higher than another."

- The Ascent of a Leader

Currently, I am pursuing the goal of dismantling the disparity between thought and action, sympathy and physical assistance, or intention and fulfillment. It's amazing how we've come to the point where we need to reprogram our lifestyle to align the boldness of our thoughts with the courage of our hands. I've come to the conclusion that over-thinking is the cause. We predict way to often and continually remain in state of inquiry and assessment.

To tilt the scale back into a state of balance my weeks aim will be to think just enough to act.

We'll see how well I do :)

Encouraging to Note

"I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious."

Albert Einstein

Warping His Image

"The loss of the concept of majesty has come just when the forces of religion are making dramatic gains and the churches are more prosperous than at any time within the past several hundred years. But the alarming thing is that our gains are mostly external and our losses wholly internal; and since it is the quality of our religion that is affected by internal conditions, it may be that our supposed gains are but losses spread over a wider field.
The only way to recoup our spiritual losses is to go back to the cause of them and make such corrections as the truth warrants. The decline of the knowledge of the holy has brought on our troubles. A rediscovery of the majesty of God will go a long way toward curing them. It is impossible to keep our moral practices sound and our inward attitude right while our idea of God is erroneous or inadequate. If we would bring back spiritual power to our lives, we must begin to think of God more nearly as He is."

A.W. Tozer - The Knowledge of the Holy

I was reminded this week of how little justice we bring to who God is. I believe that much of the issues plaguing our minds and bodies are caused by the warped and distorted view of our Lord. It is one thing to fix our eyes on Jesus, but another thing to know what kind of Jesus we are looking at. Some of us are fixing our eyes on a self-constructed God that mirror bare fragments of who Jesus really is. The issue is not the sincerity of our pursuit, but the exactitude of the image we are pursuing.

Let the Guy Sleep

These days, I am learning that God's promise to you will always come to fact no matter how difficult our situation may be in getting there. Faith occurs between the revelation and the destination for faith is no longer required when you have arrived. When reading Mark this week, we discovered an interesting point worth identifying in the story of Jesus calming the storm (4:35-41).

The question asked was "Why did Jesus think that the disciples had no faith?" The obvious answer would be that they questioned whether Jesus would let them drown (4:38). But the faith issue in this story is not that they did not believe in the power of Jesus to save them, but that they did not trust in His original statement that indicated that they would make it to the other side.

Think about it... Why would Jesus tell them that they have no faith if the disciples themselves went to Jesus in the time of need. If I was Jesus I would have said "Good boys! In times of distress you came to me because you had faith that I could calm the storm". But that was not the issue. Jesus was not concerned with the fact that the disciples came to him in the midst of a difficult situation, he was concerned about their faith in making it to the other side.

If the disciples believed they would make it to the other side, the storm wouldn't have even initiated a fear within them to begin with. Although there is an element of faith in acknowledging that God can calm our storm, there is a greater faith in the fearless assurance that whether the sea appears calm or chaotic, God will bring you to the other side. If God instills a dream in your heart, it will come to pass no matter how hard it is for you to get there. Therefore pure faith would have no reason to wake Jesus up.

We can wake him up to talk about how uncomfortable it is row the boat with wet underwear, or to ask him which direction to go because the waves have made us go off course, but there is no need to inquire whether we will drown or make it to the other side. That question is irrelevant to one who is certain about God's original statement that they would get there.

My buddy David summed this thought up nicely by stating that it is the difference between believing that God CAN and believing that God WILL. We all know that God CAN calm the storm, CAN bless our finances, CAN heal our sickness, and CAN mend our relationships, but we need not fear that he WILL bring us across the sea, WILL give us what we need, WILL be our strength when we feel weak, WILL give us the community that fits. God is faithful and his promises in our life will never be swayed no matter what the situations.

May we trust enough to fear not, row on and let You sleep.

My New Love

It's been a few weeks since I arrived in Boston and I have concluded that I love here. Maybe it's the fact that starting new is always exciting, or that my favorite season of the year starts in September, or that ministry has started off extremely well, either way I feel confident and sure of my place here in this city for this particular time in my life.

CARLESS

For the first time since I got that precious G2, I live in a city with no personal motorized transportation. I live on the other side of town from my bestest friend, attend 6am prayer meetings in a church that is a 10 min drive away from my home, and the temperature is rapidly dropping. This may be a walk in the park for some of you, but Jesse is spoiled when it comes to getting around town. His father drove him daily to a school which would have taken 7 min to walk to, his idea of a hand-me-down was an Acura Integra from his sister, and his family always asked HIM for permission before taking out the car that THEY actually owned :) So getting to morning prayer has its drawbacks for a guy like me.

But in the midst of such a loss, I have found a new love. Her name is Bertha... A Red 2008 DRAFT racing road bike from Laundry Bicycle across Boston University. There really is no better way to get to know your new city then to ride your bike around town. Whether it is riding down the Charles River bike path, or swerving through ridiculous Boston traffic, there is a thrill in moving through the city on two wheels.

So no need to worry mother, I've found my way to get around. We'll see how I deal with the Winter, but so far the Fall has been treating me well.

MEEK: Keeping Your Head Out of Their Game and into Your Own

Meekness is a beautiful virtue. It is a characteristic that maintains a healthy rhythm to the soul. It allows us to run at a steady pace. It keeps us undisturbed by the crowds and fixated on the finish line before us. Meekness silences the gossip that is around you, and keeps your mind at ease when competitors are ahead. Meekness helps you run the race you practiced to run.

Imagine with me for a moment the start of a competition among runners.

It requires great self control to direct the emotions, built up in the frenzy of a competition, towards feeding the adrenaline needed to gain an advantage in a race. The power and intensity of emotion at the start point of a race can either be your friend or be an annoying poking inside the walls of your head. For some reason, the run we practice before the competition is rarely simulated when the gun fires at the start of the race. We often permit the environment of the competition to determine how we run, we allow it to derail and alter the race we practiced to run. The chanting crowds and the cocky stares of certain competitors beside us distract us from the strategy we practiced many times before.

Our original plan was to start the race off slow, painting a false illusion of victory to our competitors we restrain our speed in order to allow their pride to be their fall. However, as the race begins, little do we notice the trap we fall into as our own strategy becomes a whisper compared to the overwhelming sirens of our own pride that refuses to allow our competitors to think, even for a moment, that they are better than I.

Our eyes and ears, which are the worlds gateway to our mind and soul, crack open just enough to allow the wind of public opinion to alter our inner conviction. We compromise the long term plan in order to please and satisfy our momentary emotional hick ups that more often than not sways us to a race we have no idea how to run. We know how to run the race we practiced, but this race - we were never prepared for. So now our plan has been changed and we find ourselves expending our energy into reclaiming the original strategy, but we quickly realize that the former strategy was designed for a rested runner at the start of the race. Here YOU are, at the halfway point with an energy level lower then expected, in a state of chaos trying to just play the next quarter of the race by ear. You pull off making it to the last stretch where you planned to be to find out that you've got nothing left to make that amazing last sprint that was to be the crown and jewel of your race.

How easy it is to abandon our convictions and plans in a world marked with competition. We become blinded to our own convictions at the sight of those who are ahead.

Many of us, including myself, are excellent in knowing how to "pull things off". We are experts in "playing it by ear". There is a beauty in being quick on your feet, but it should not be the foundation of your life's plan. It is effective and useful in moments of the unknown, however, it is more of a complimentary element then it is a center piece. We know deep down inside that" pulling it off" was never our initial intention. It is more recovery focused then it is a proactive approach. It is the consequence of compromised strategies in the past. It started long ago at the beginning of the race when we decided to "allow our skills, talents and abilities to bring us to places where our character could not sustain us anymore" (A.R. Bernard), it began the moment we let our emotions control our power. It's when we chose to forfeit our integrity to get ahead, when we dismissed our moral convictions in order to please friends, when we began to think in our heads that...

"If they cheat, why shouldn't I"

"If she talks behind my back, shouldn't I have the right to do the same?"

"Why would I forgive someone who never asks me for forgiveness?"

This rationale is dependent, this logic is solely reliant upon our environment and bases our restraint or release of good on how well the world treats us. This simply means that our actions are enslaved to the worlds condition and treatment towards humanity. We may think that the only fair exchange would be to receive before we are to invest, but then influence would cease to exist. Influence is activated only when you take the first step. Influence is made when investment proceeds reception.

We can only "pull things off" for so long. Playing by ear can only get us so far. They are actually attributes that irresponsibly distributes power. They act as bursts of power that get the job done, but leaves you with no energy for future goals. It's like drinking Red Bull to pull off an all-nighter for tomorrows test, you basically expend tomorrows energy tonight. You compromise your state during the test to be awake long enough the night before to accumulate knowledge. You may pull off that 73%, but you must be willing to admit that you abused the power of time days before when you chose to party it up instead of studying. Red Bull is our quick fix for solutions in life, it is the last resort we cling to when we realize that there's no more steam in our tank to finish the race. The issue is not getting the job done, the issue is how wise you are in controlling the power you have. Controlling your power creates a habit that will sustain you for those times when Red Bull lacks the strength to get you through. Habits are the reliable actions that need no dependency on last resort measures.

The solution is Restraint. Restraint has been highly underestimated. It is often more powerful to withhold a right you have then to capitalize on it. Meekness is a word that describes a power that has been tamed, a power that is nurtured and matured , a power that is under control. There is no honor in one who expends power as soon as it is attained. What can be learned from a teenager who splurges his first paycheque on useless rubbish.

The problem with us today is not that we don’t have enough power, we simply just don’t know what to do with the power we already have. Many of us know what we want to say but have no idea how to say it. Admit it men, you're a smooth talker in front of the mirror, but when it comes to conversing to real life girls, you're not exactly Zack Morris (writing this reminds me of Ryan Reynolds singing "I Swear" in front of his mirror in the movie Just Friends... anyone know what I'm talking about?:)

We go on stage with this brilliant presentation or argument and yet when the spotlight comes on we freeze, the words are there, but for some reason, combining those words together doesn't seem so easy. Controlling our thoughts so that we can effectively communicate what we think is completely different then having great thoughts. Influence is not attain through having wisdom, rather it is identified in the expression of that wisdom.

In the same way, our POWER and RIGHTS is actually only of use when we have the ability to control it. When we have the ability to know when to speak and when to stay silent, when to strike and when to draw back. A powerful army doesn’t send the whole batch of soldiers at once, there is always strategy in how they dispatch.

We must question the meekness in our own lives.
What do you do with power you have? What RIGHT do you abuse? Who ever said winning every argument makes you a winner? I challenge us all to examine who determines your pace. How many times have you picked up the speed simply to catch up to those ahead of you? When did you allow the gossip of those against you rob you from trusting those for you? How many times have you waited for gifts before you gave?

Consider for a moment who you submit to. I was personally shocked to discover how much influence my enemies have on me. It's time to reclaim what was lost and raise the volume of God's standard and direction in our lives!

I end this blog with a song that fits the theme :) Enjoy!

It’s amazing how you can speak right to my heart

Without saying a word you can light up the dark

Try as I may I could never explain

What I hear when you don’t say a thing

Chorus:

The smile on your face lets me know that you need me

There’s a truth in your eyes sayin’ you’ll never leave me

The touch of your hand says you’ll catch me if ever I fall

You say it best when you say nothing at all

All day long I can hear people talking out loud

But when you hold me near, you drown out the crowd

Old mr. webster could never define

What’s being said between your heart and mine