ClydeStyle

Category: society

  • Can you take a hint?

    One of the most embarrassing moments in life is when you have been given hints regarding something about you and it doesn’t register.

    I’m not talking about the simple things like your pants are unzipped or there is something hanging from your nose. I mean really embarrassing things like you are obnoxious or you dominate the conversation so much that people hate to talk to you. Or something worse like your kids are bad or your spouse is cheating on you.

    These things can put us in very awkward positions and it really defines our true friends. I mean after all it’s our real friends who have the responsibility for making sure we are in step. Right?

    But what is it that makes us blind to the hints we get from those around us? Why is it that others can see things about us that we cannot see?

    There is a blindness that affects our ability to reason and be self reflective. This blindness comes from our inability to keep reality during a reality check. We already dislike when we are wrong. We don’t like when people point out our faults and we really don’t like to own up to any of it. Add insecurity to the mix and we instantly create a disorder.

    This disorder I speak about blinds our conscious, not our sub conscious. In other words we know these things are true about us, but the pain of this realization is too difficult to bear. So we lash out in denial and become defensive. We get upset and participate in other destructive behavior instead of just taking the hint.

    The hint is actually our help. It helps us to quietly get the information without it being broadcasted all over the place. It’s our last shot a maintaining our dignity and correcting our trouble spots.

    Can you take a hint?

  • For His namesake

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    America needs prayer. In times of trouble and civil unrest the best thing for everyone concerned is to pray. Most people will not argue that prayer changes things. Well why is it that we don’t think to pray first?

    Jesus, when teaching his disciples to pray, wanted them to learn a little something about the God they were praying to. So in Luke 11, Jesus tells a story about a friend who would come to another friend in the midnight hour needing help. The friend in the story would not help because it was too late, everything was shutdown and the family was in bed. Jesus then gives another scenario to this story. He says that the friend in the homeß will not assist his friend in need because he’s a friend. His says he will help because of who he is.

    This is extremely significant. My friends, our father in heaven does not respond to us based on how good we think we are. He doesn’t respond because he feels sorry for us. And he definitely doesn’t respond because of the religion we claim. God responds to us because he is God. Remember the 23rd Psalm? He leads me in the paths of righteousness for HIS NAMESAKE!

    Since God responds the way he chooses, doesn’t this give us a greater reason to pray. The bible is filled with stories about God responding favorably to his people. Why would we then hesistate to approach his thrown of grace and mercy?

    It would benefit this world greatly if just a handful of true believers began to pray for our government, our greed, our peace and our undone condition. If we would stand united in prayer that God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven and if we sincerely prayed for God to heal our land, I believe he would cause a condition to happen. This condition would give the world an opportunity to repent of its sins and then healing would begin.

    I believe this. Do you?

  • The someone who is worse

    There is so much pain in this world.

    From spiritual pain to physical pain, we struggle to deal with reality. We all utilize some coping mechanism for others to judge. We can’t seem to understand that we hurt.

    You have heard people say, “no matter what you are facing, someone is going through something worse.” Well, I wonder who is on the tail end of that statement? Who is the final worse? Is it the man in  Iraq who lost his family during the bombings? We called it collateral damage. I wonder what he called it. Or is it the person whose siblings are all strung out on crack cocaine? Or maybe it’s the mother in Africa who watched seven of her 10 children die of starvation? Maybe it’s the 11-year-old boy who repeatedly got raped by his uncle. Could it be the teenager who gave herself an abortion on the bathroom floor? The gay guy who was beaten to death? The recent Black man who suffered lethal injection in Georgia for a crime that seven of his nine accusers recanted their testimony and no physical evidence connected him to?

    I know it’s difficult to read these things. All of these are actual events that appeared in a newspaper within the last 6 years. Unfortunately, there were many more. I keep wondering who would be on the tail end of that quote. Who could be doing so bad as to trump every other bad happening in the world?

    It’s gotta be the person who denies Christ.

  • Our response to the resurrection

    Speaking of the resurrection, Jesus said, “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever lives and believes in me shall never die.” And then he said, “Do you believe this?”

    This is the time of the year where there is somewhat of a unified effort among most Christians to talk about, remember, celebrate and observe Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection. It’s like the other time in the year where everyone wants to remember the “reason for the season” and celebrate peace on earth.

    I don’t have a problem with these times as much as I have a problem with how we interpret the meanings. Our beliefs should be the center of what we shape our way of life from. If we believe something then our lives should be consistent in that which we believe.

    For example, if things like compassion, integrity and excellence are things that I truly believe in, then the people that interact with me should experience these characteristics in me. I should not look down on anyone if I have compassion. I should not make it a habit to lie and cheat if I’m a man of integrity and my employer should not have to speak with me regarding my commitment if I seek excellence.

    I’m afraid that too many people celebrate Jesus as a seasonal holiday and have not made the commitment to him for life.

    Jesus ends the 26th verse of the 11th chapter in the Gospel according to John by asking the question concerning belief. He simply uses these four words that deserve a response. “Do you believe this?” If he were saying this today it would sound more like “If you believe this, then why …?”

    If we truly have been crucified with Christ and now as a result we are living by faith, our works should show what we believe. Faith without works is still dead.

  • Reaching full potential

    We have all heard the old adage of “fake it, til you make it” and of course we know what this means. This speaks directly to potential. One of the saddest states to be in is to look back at you life and realize that you did not develop to your full potential. The only scenario worse is to be at the funeral of a person who never reached their full potential.

    Potential is defined as something that can develop or become actual. It’s not automatic and it’s not always the end of the world when it doesn’t happen. I have a friend who had the opportunity to play professional basketball. He got a college education out of the deal, but every now and then he looks at his life and thinks about the what ifs. He has actually done well for himself, but he can’t see that because he’s caught up looking at what didn’t happen instead of enjoying what did.

    There are many people living like this and what’s worse here is that some of them live their lives out as failures. They carry this defeating attitude with them where ever they go. Their view of the world becomes skewed as to see everything as a negative. They are truly wounded.

    What they need to realize is the greatest thing about potential is that it’s really never too late to develop into something. The most important ingredient in this equation is our belief system. You are what you believe you are. So if you think you can, you will. If you think you can’t, you’re right!

    Often times these folks of little faith just need someone close to them to say, “you can do it!” Successful people tend to come equipped with this option already planted in their heads. They have a little voice that says “you can do it!” every time the going gets tough. For the doubters this is not so. They take every opportunity to doubt the possibilities of anything positive.

    So, for those of us who help, we need to jump at the chance to support the folks around us. We know and understand that some people really need you to literally speak possibility into their lives. In most cases they just need this little push and then they can get going. But without our encouragement, these potentials have no hope.

  • What if?

    Upon occasion I like to sit and day-dream about the world being different. I mean if we as Americans had a different way of thinking. What if we never looked to gain anything from anybody? What if the motivating factor for everything we did had to do with the betterment of humanity and not the financial gain of ourselves?

    Dr. Jonas Salk was the person credited for the discovery of the cure for polio in 1955. Two years later Dr. Albert Sabin created the oral version. As time went on and the research continued we began to learn more things about polio all in the interest of science and humanity. These two men lived good lives and neither wanted to gain financially from their work. Dr. Salk, when asked who owns the patent for the polio cure said, “the American people own it.” These two vaccines helped remove polio in many different parts of the world. Within the period of 1988 to 2007, the number of cases was trimmed down significantly from 350,000 to 1,652. 

    By 1994, polio was completely removed from the Americas. In 2000, it was erased in almost 36 countries within the Western Pacific region including Australia and China. In 2002, Europe became polio-free. By 2008, only four countries remained affected by this disease, namely Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Nigeria. Today, the transfer of poliovirus from one person to another has been widely disrupted. However, wild poliovirus transmissions are still very much possible, particularly in areas with poor sanitation as well as low vaccination coverage.

    What if this effort was repeated for heart disease, diabetes, cancer and AIDS? What if the pharmaceutical companies were all not for profits and a successful year for them would be to “break even” with their budgets and not make a profit. What if their sole drive and goal was to make themselves obsolete? What if hospitals were all not for profits with the same goal– to educate people to the point that they never needed to be hospitalized? What if as a country, it mattered to us what we ate, how we interacted with the environment and how we treated one another?

    You can’t help but wonder if we, working together, would have figured out time travel, gain the ability to move objects or even learned to fly. We would most certainly have worked out starvation and degenerative diseases. We could even eliminate rich and poor people, make education completely free and enjoy world peace.

    And then I woke up.

  • Choices — a tribute to Dr. King

    This week we honor a great man who dared to take what he knew and teach it to others. He did this with no regard for his own life, future earnings or even the safety of his family.

    He chose a way of life that would benefit the greater good. How unselfish.

    I often wonder what Martin Luther King Jr would  have done if he was selfish and had bought into the American dream?

    Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with success if that’s your thing. And there is nothing wrong with earning money or climbing the corporate ladder. I just wonder for his time, what a guy with his skills could have done?

    He was a great orator! He could have been one of the greatest spokespersons the field of marketing and advertising ever saw — especially with his popularity. The actor and former U.S. president Ronald Reagan made more money as a spokesperson than he did in all of his movies combined! As he became a household word, I wonder how that helped his presidency?

    It goes without saying that King would have been the King of televangelism. Since the likes of Creflo Dollar, TD Jakes and Joel Osteen this has become a billion dollar industry. All of these guys mentioned are multi–millionaires. Pat Robertson and Jim Baker didn’t have half of King’s ability and did alright in the financial department because of the power of TV. If Pat Robertson had the compassion, integrity and skill of King he would have had a successful bid for the white house.

    And then there was Dr. King’s leadership ability. He was a transitional leader who really knew how to build relationships, empower and motivate people and change lives. Under such leadership, I don’t believe the auto industry would have had the near collapse it was faced with a couple of years ago.

    Somewhere along the way the quality of America’s products took a dive and we were left holding the scrap metal. No one looked to blame poor management instead they blamed a struggling economy. We blamed the economy during a time when Toyota, Hyundai and Honda posted record sales. These companies didn’t need a buyout and they thrived in the same American market!

    I could go on, but the point is that when you really examine the choices Dr. King made compared to his options, he’s an even better man than we thought.

    Happy birthday and thank you for your choices Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.!

  • Why do you worship God?

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    Worshipping is woven into the fabric of our very being. Without instruction we will worship anything. Some are worshipping people, animals and things.

    It’s not hard to understand exactly why we were given the intellect and the ability to worship. Worship is paying homage to a worthy object of affection. It is an expression of the gratitude we feel for that object based on our understanding.

    God, then, would be worshipped because of what we understand about him. Our father’s grace, mercy, longsuffering, love, faithfulness and forgiveness are just a few things in a long list of attributes that should stimulate our desire to show our gratitude and worship him.

    True worship, then, would be worshipping God in spirit (that’s your spirit) and in truth (the revealed understanding of who he is). I can attempt to worship God in my flesh. This is when I respond to God based on my senses. So if it stimulates me, I will use it to worship him. Worship before Christ was done this way. There were things to touch, taste, smell, hear and see in worship. The burnt offerings, use of incense and the shewbread were all a part of the ceremonial worship. I can also attempt to worship him mentally which would be based on my own understanding — it will appear zealous, but not according to knowledge. I can attempt to worship him based on my emotions. The philosophy is that it makes me feel good so it should make God feel good.
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    Today, God calls us to a much higher worship. One that requires the use of my intellect and understanding of who he is. It requires the submission of the heart of the person worshipping and the sole use of things God created and nothing we created with our own hands.

    God now wants the sacrifice of praise, which the bible defines as the fruit of our lips praising him. Christ left us a feast to participate in and unconditional love is to be shared throughout. God wants us to have a consuming worship that pays homage to him and stimulates his love between us. It is also the start of a week that should be filled with the true worshippers offering themselves as a living sacrifice for him all week until we are united again together on the first day of the week. We are the lively stones that come together to form a spiritual house where he joins us.

    Simple, natural and authorized. God should dictate how you worship if your worship is about honoring him. The father is seeking such to worship him — now what about your worship?

  • Spread love

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    There is something that this world needs more than anything and that is love.

    There is not enough love being spread throughout our world.  Clearly we are too angry, sad, bitter, envious and covetous to allow love to even come out. The bible tells us that love never fails, but instead of failing it hopes all things; endures all things; and believes all things. Now that’s an interesting combination!

    To hope in something is not merely a wish, but it’s a great expectation that something will be a reality. So, if someone fails you, you could demonstrate love toward them that would make them successful. The hope then is not based on their ability to perform, but your ability to unconditionally love.

    Love also endures and this endurance gets stronger as time goes on, not wary. This endurance imitates God’s long suffering towards us. Therefore, love not only powers the victory, but it grants patience to those on the sidelines so that they may bear it.
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    Then, finally, love believes all things. Our failure or final attempt is always the result of disbelief. What makes a person not try again? You guessed it, disbelief! Love always says — try again because victory is coming! Love believes that any situation can be turned around. Love believes victory is always an option.

    So my friend, as the song by Take 6 says, “spread love instead of telling lies. Spread love because the truth needs no disguise.”

  • A Real Thanksgiving

    We need a national week of appreciation!

    It seems that with all the different things going on in our lives, we miss some opportunities to tell those who matter the most, how much we appreciate them.

    It’s easy to forget. But there are just too many unsung heroes who make the intangibles happen every day.

    And these folks do it without throwing it up in our faces or broadcasting it to the world. These folks really make us look good. They help us to fake being organized; appear to be really thoughtful instead of forgetful; they say things we either forgot or wouldn’t say, but we should have said; and they keep use sharp and on top of our game.

    The very best thing about these folks is that they see us at our worst and still help us. These folks are clearly in our corner and need to be recognized.

    So I deem the week of November 24th as National Appreciation and Thanksgiving week. On this week instead of celebrating a very horrible time in America’s past when many Native Americans were massacred, let’s appreciate the folks in our corner and thank the almighty God for putting them in our lives.