ImNoBetterThanU

     Believing, caring, encouragement, kindness, etc.      These aforementioned actions can change the world! Do you not believe me?Have you ever complimented someone to see them immediately light up with joy and gratitude? What if we were more consistent in this. Using our words to build up rather than tear down?      I would love if anyone reading this would commit to a 30 day challenge. Heck even just do it the remaining nine days of January and tell me what you see.      Keep in mind you are encouraged and welcome to go far above and beyond what I ask of you. However, if you choose you can start small as I lay out in the forthcoming sentences.     Choose one individual and tell them something encouraging everyday. This can be in person, via text, through a phone call, Hangout (or Facetime or Skype), or however you choose. Again if you choose more than one person, go for it! Or if you choose to enc...

    You, yes you are created for greatness, but you are also built for relationship. Actually we all are, but for now let the focus be on you .     You have a calling, an intentional purpose in life. Stephen Covey says you want "to live, to love, to learn, and to leave a legacy." Your calling is what you will do in life that fuels your passions and creates an environment of true accomplishment for you. The kind of accomplishments that impact the world...your legacy.      If you look throughout history at great men and women they all had the ability to get up when knocked down. You need to do that too and the more quickly you get up the better. You ever increase your risk of further pain or suffering the longer you stay down. Just look at giraffes; at birth the newborn baby giraffe will immediately begin the ever so challenging journey to its feet. What happens next? The mother will knock the newborn baby giraffe over. Seems cruel right? Well, it is...

     So earlier today as I was checking out my feed on Google+ I ran across someone using Matthew 6:3 - 4  to be what I felt was condemning to Christians for participating in the ice bucket challenge for ALS. It also had a link attached to a blog pointing out all the things the organization does to "violate Biblical ethics".      Now I agree that it is good to educate others on practices that may not align with your values and belief system, but at the same time this challenge has raised a lot of awareness and I would bet raised millions of dollars for a disease I have had ties to in my past. There is no known cure and it always  leads to death. Family members have to watch their loved ones deteriorate physically while their mental awareness remains intact. It is a horrible disease.      I am sure not everyone will agree with my opinion on the matter, but I think we need to be careful of being so judgmental and unwilling to do b...

Words...      They are powerful. More powerful than most want to admit. All of us at one time or another have had our feelings hurt by words. All of us at some point in our lives have been hurt by words and were at that time, and many of us still to this day, in denial.      Words are far more powerful than most will admit...redundant you say? I am just trying to get my point across. Before you begin judging me just know that maybe I am writing this post to myself. As "aware" as I like to think I am of the power of my words I need help in this area. Especially in the workplace.      For those of you that know me well, you know that not only am I very  social, but I love people. Now if any of my coworkers are reading this they may be thinking that this is a failed attempt at painting a picture of myself to the world that does not truly exist. If my family is reading this they may be saying I have a strange withdrawn way of showing ...

     Why am I so stubborn?      I approached the witness stand and began to tell my side of the story. The more I talk the more you would think I was the defendant rather than a witness. The trial went on for a lengthy time, so long in fact we eventually took recess for a lunch break. Upon return from lunch I got back on the witness stand where the attorney (whom I like to call the accuser) continued to barrage me with accusations. I continued to defend myself...how did this happen where I was converted from a witness to the defendant?      It was a long and emotional day as one can imagine. Then to top things off at the end of the day the judge stated he was overruling everything I had said because he objected! WHAT! Are you kidding me?      I am sure you can all relate with how frustrated I must have felt. Asking myself why I even had to spend an entire day at court. Feeling as though I had wasted an entire day of...

     Wait what? Do you think I am indecisive now? Just yesterday I wanted to be the weaker brother. Well, I want to be both.      I too can be a mentor and pour into the lives of others. Our precious Lord fills us up so that He can then pour us out. Whereas I may have a very long way to go in my spiritual journey; I am still further along than others and it is my responsibility as a disciple to help others. The best part is, if you are living your life and dying to self daily then you do not even have to try.      By simply being  me (the me I have become through progressive sanctification)  I have been acknowledged, notified, and shown (in some interesting ways) how I have had a positive impact on the lives of many individuals.      In fact, I had a few letters of character reference written by friends for the court hearing I just had in CA and a few of those letters...

What is the difference? ...between me and everyone else you know. Many people that know me may answer that question by saying "nothing". I wholly desire that everyone  that knows me (and those that do not know me that I simply come in contact with) would answer the opposite. I realize that there is but an interstice between my alterity and me being utterly familiar to those that encounter my presence in my life. That interstice is simply the difference between radical obedience and selective obedience. I want to be radically obedient at all times. Even if this radical obedience causes non believers to call me a Bible thumper or even if it causes my friends at church to call me a super-spiritual geek. None of this matters. Assiduous attention should be paid to our actions in life. Jesus had asked that we consume Him; be preoccupied with Him day and night. That is what I want. I want to make a difference in this life. A difference in the life of my son Andrew, his m...

Do you raise your hands during worship? Do you pray out loud? Why? Why do you do these things? Is your heart in it? Often times the aforementioned actions are done to impress those around you. Or maybe you do those things to hide the lies of your "private" life and private sin from others. Or you do them just because you feel like it is what you are supposed to do. When this occurs these all become ritual idols . You spend so much time thinking about these things that they themselves become an idol.  Others may be thinking that there is no need to raise your hands during worship or no need to pray out loud. Be careful, do not let these actions become idle rituals either. There is meaning behind the lifting of our hands. It shows surrender and we are designed to worship. Just send anyone to a sporting event, concert, (or whatever it is that gets someone excited. You scream, raise your hands, jump up and down, just to name a few). Praying out loud (or e...

Easier said than done...the flesh pushes us towards being haughty consistently. It is easy as we continue on our journey of progressive sanctification that we may begin to judge others, even if it be actions that we ourselves used to commit regularly. Pride can easily be rooted and begin to grow and next thing you know we are acting as the Pharisees did thousands of years ago. Even the slightest bit of haughtiness is an ugly, ugly thing. That is why we should choose the Way. Before followers of Christ were referred to as Christians (Acts 11:26 ESV), they were called disciples of "the Way". The term, the Way, was especially used by Luke...could he foresee the future? What I mean by that is this...how many "Christians" do you know? Or have you known? (I know I used to be one). I went around and claimed to be a Christian when the topic of religion was brought up. I was saved when I was young, baptized, etc. Yet, at some point in my life someth...

Each and every one of us is a leader; we ALL touch the lives of others...no one can argue that. So in doing so should we not treat all of those whose lives we touch as sheep in our flock? Lead them, protect them, feed them, go after them when one strays, etc. Now, I know it is MUCH easier said than done, trust me, I struggle daily with the commandment of "love your enemy", but if we are not at least trying then how can we ever succeed? If you are attempting to win a marathon do you not have to try by training? If you are habitually late and you want to be early, do you not have to set an alarm? Without trying we would likely never reach any of our goals or aspirations. - Ezekial 34:2-10 Additionally, we can have an impact on each and every individual in which we come in contact with. As reading this...some of you may be thinking that you have no impact on the world. Well, it is my great pleasure to tell you that you are listening to a lie! Whether we realize it or not we ...

I have to be honest...more often than not I do. What will it take for us to learn? Personally, I believe I need another trip to a third world country as I did when I was 13 and I went to Peru. We get caught in this fictitious reality that the world is as WE see it. We have to realize that in the time you will read this post someone died from lack of clean water, someone else is waking up in their home because it is raining on them due to having no roof, someone else is being beaten (possibly to death) because they chose a religious view contradictory to what their government feels is "acceptable"... All of this being done while companies and organizations that could help to solve and/or eliminate these problems spend millions (and some billions) of dollars advertising in hopes of making more profit. It simply does not make sense to me....but some of you will say "who cares". I do... Additionally, while you are reading this there are Americans  putting their lives o...

Hello people...I realize that I have not been around here. Things are getting run down. I know. I know. Well, I am trying to get back into the mode of writing again. Not only is it therapeutic but it is thoroughly enjoyable as well. Anyway all I have is this which was shared with me by my mother. Enjoy the Ride!

many have implied or flat out stated Google is. Is it because they track a lifelong record of every search query each of its users had made, also including the IP address the query was executed from and a cookie ID to link together queries from a user's computer even if the IP address changes?  I realize that they have an inordinately large amount of information stored on individuals web surfing habits; but this is all public knowledge and is explained in Google's privacy policy .  Additionally, you are notified any time you install something like Google desktop , Picasa , latitude , Grand Central , etc. They are not trying to be secretive about it.  There are plenty of conspiracy theories out there about the what they intend to use the information for...or why? Is it to ingratiate themselves with the governments of the world when information is needed? Is it simply to get into our mind so they can send us the advertising ads with the most relevance to us? Both seem logicall...

I find it amazing how common an occurrence it is in our society today to have individuals promise to let go of the past and "start over". These same individual then stridently do the exact opposite.  In fact, I do not just see it with individuals today but also spreading into our corporate world. Look at all of these companies wanting a bailout. How do we expect these organizations to ever change if they are "bailed out"?  How do we ever expect them to truly change their business practices unless you let them fail and then be forced to restructure? Not to say that it is not possible to make the necessary changes for survival without a helping hand...but seriously....is that what we are seeing? IAG being caught on two different occasions at resorts holding so-called restructuring conferences where they spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in one weekend. You have banks getting billions in bail-out money then laying off thousands of employees, just to turn around an...

in these times we must work even harder than before. You have to think in ancient times our influence on our children was much stronger. Immense amounts of media outlets including the internet has created so much more that influences the lives of our children that it is of the utmost importance for us to focus more on our influence. Our children are so malleable and yet so many individuals let their children be influenced by whatever it is out there while they do their own thing. I am fortunate enough that the mother of my son has not faltered in her role as a parent.  I believe a lot of what has caused the nation to get where we are is not a result of the war or the credit/mortgage crisis. But rather years of neglect of our domestic education system and the faltering of assistance to American citizens. Additionally, parenting in and of itself has caused lots of issues in our society as well. We have stepped away from the fundamentals that made this nation great. Does anyone else find ...

to make a difference in this world. At what point did our society begin to believe that it was so difficult? The smallest things can make the biggest impact in our world. There is a story from someone I know about how a flight had been overbooked and the employee of the airlines responsible for getting everyone taken care of was positive, nice, and encouraging to everyone. Evidentially, once on the plane he was helping an elderly woman to her seat and once he had done so the back of the cabin erupted in applause. At that point a gentleman sitting in first class then stood up commending the young man and telling him that he was not paid enough and that he should be in management for the airlines. Now you want to know what he did that made everyone so happy? Do you want to know the secret? He was kind and joyful. Yes that is it. He was simply doing his job but being kind and joyful while doing so. That is all it takes. I believe that we all underestimate our powers as human beings. We ar...

letter. That is what I handed in to work today. Yes the opportunity I accepted less than two months ago....yeah that is the one. More to come later.

I know that many of you continue to believe that doing a little bit on your end does not make a difference on a larger scale. Well, I am here to tell you, it is this way of thinking in our (American) society that is keeping us from making a positive impact at the high levels we are capable of in this nation. I think this mya help some of you stuck in this archaic way of thinking. Visit CarbonRally.com this site makes, making a difference fun, challenging, and turns it into a game. I love their motto as well which is "Small Actions. Big impact." Anyway, go check it out and begin doing your part to make a difference. Thank you.