I think one of the most important things about us is the way we, first, view God, but also the way we view ourselves. When you think of you, what do you think? How do you view yourself? What do other people say about you?
Being a musician, I know about struggling with thinking you are what you do. We put so much effort into what we do, we begin to think that’s who we are. This is true for every facet of life whether your a football player, CEO, a mom, a preacher or a cop. The crazy thing is, this way of thinking can go both ways. The other day I was having a chat with a guy telling him about our ministry. I began to explain how we are trying to give kids living on the street a fighting chance to get off and to meet Jesus. When he realized the target group I was talking about he said “Oh, you mean the rugby boys?!” First, rugby is the drug of choice for most street kids. Second, do you see the problem there? People identify these kids as “rugby boys” or drug users. I’ve heard the kids themselves call themselves this. It so easy to catch yourself thinking you are what you do. The CEO and the kid on the needs to know they are not their situation. You are not what you do. We know situations can change in an instant, take my word for it! God sees us as His. We are reflections of God. It’s time we start viewing ourselves as Sons and Daughters of God. We aren’t what we do or what we’ve done. We’re loved and Adopted and God sees THAT.
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I remember growing up in the 90’s vividly. VCRs, Surge and Bop It were all hot commodities back then; not to mention yo yo’s, Are You Afraid of The Dark, Guts, Rugrats (I could literally write a blog just about 90’s cartoons..) and can we talk about rollerblades, slap bracelets and see through phones? Maybe 79 cents a gallon? The Big Green. (Favorite 90’s movie) That white cup with teal and purple squiggly lines on it. For those of you who aren’t old enough to know, if you didn’t rewind your movie when you took it back to blockbuster, you were charged 50 cents. I don’t wanna know how much money I wasted from being too lazy to take two minutes and rewind my movies. (Rather, my parents money) And who can forget the ever-famous “Clean your room!” I think that last one spans over generations but it was a reality for ME in the 90s! Unless, for some weird reason, I was in the mood to clean my room, I always had an excuse. I was too busy watching power rangers or gumbi. Or playing outside in the mud. Or ramping hills on my dads 4 wheeler.
I don’t know about you but when I was a kid, I had an excuse for a lot of things. I would always put things off. “Tomorrow is better because _______________.” In short, I was lazy. I didn’t want to work hard. A friend of mine in Manila who we do ministry with said he was allergic to work growing up. Sometimes, he still is! I’m afraid I’m in the same boat. I think if we are all gut level honest, none of us like work. Work is hard. Miley got it right when she said it’s the climb. That’s what anything worth having is. It’s an up hill climb. Being lazy is easy. If Natalie and I were over here being lazy, the buildings would never get built and we would never see the kids progress. If I just expected music to somehow take off without putting in hours and hours and weeks and months of hard work, I would be disappointed in the end. If you look at any story in the Bible where the star of the story was being lead to do something significant, they had to work hard and have faith. Moses, Daniel, Abraham, Noah etc. You might look at someone and say, “They are just naturally talented.” “He could dunk a basketball at age 5.” “She can sing in 4 different octaves.” “He has a 4.2 GPA and sleeps everyday in class.” (Those people weren’t my BFFs in high school although I strategically placed myself around them if you know what I’m saying)…… (I’ve repented and am sorry). The fact of the matter is, there ARE talented people out there but we don’t see the kind of work they put in behind closed doors. Something I’m working on is getting better at writing songs. I used to think songwriters just popped songs out like a candy dispenser. This un-educated assumption is far from the truth! I was able to talk to the ex-assistant of the writer and composer of songs like “Dude Looks Like a Lady”, all of Ricky Martin’s stuff and a ton of other hits around the world. To this day, he goes in at 9 in the morning, starts writing and leaves at five… with the occasional lunch break. Even people who make it to the top still have to work their tails off. I believe God meant for life to be this way. Today in church, I led a song called “I have decided” rearranged by Elevation Church. During the song, I mentioned that in Hebrews there is a verse saying Jesus continued on with the hard work set before Him because of the joy that was also set before Him! He believed, by faith, the joy was far greater than His current struggles. This is something we have to keep in the front of our minds everyday over here. The payoff will far outweigh the struggle right now. This is my encouragement to the people in the church who are struggling right now. Keep pushing. Keep fighting. If it seems like nothing is working out, that’s not the point. The point is, you’re doing what God is calling you to do. All we need to worry about is working hard, doing what we can do and the rest will take care of itself. We’ve come a long way since the 90’s, (I still buy Ouch Bubble Gum) but the progress we’ve made hasn’t come without a price: Hard Work. Church, lets Do Work. |
AuthorForgiven.. Trying to live out my purpose the best I know how, and playing music along the way! EP coming soon! Archives
January 2017
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