War of the Worlds

Orson Welles penned this wonderful sci-fi story of an invasion of earth by aliens, but it was a radio broadcast that sounded so real that those who did not know it thought the invasion was real and was taking place in their real time. I remember reading this book in school and feeling the fear and excitement for the people, and then later seeing it on television. Somehow, as much as I love seeing stories played out on the big screen, this time I liked the book better. When writers write without illustrations they leave your imagination to create the images they describe, and somehow the images you create are better than those created by others for you. LOL!!!

As I watched this story on the big screen I found myself arguing with what was happening before my eyes. I needed my copy of the book so I could refute what the director and actors were trying to get me to accept as “fact”. LOL!! There truly was a war of the worlds going on between me and not Mr. Welles mind you (for he did his job all too well, no pun intended), but with those who also used their imaginations to create what THEY saw when they read the book. I guess if I had their money and connections I could make my own movie and stop this civil war, for they didn’t even know they were in a war. :-) Memory of this book and the movie came to me the other day while I was reading and meditating and writing in my journal about “change”.

As much as we know we need to change in some ways, and as much as we desire change, how to bring it about, what to do and when are not always apparent, or easy. I find that when I read something “new”, when I’m learning from a new textbook or documentary, and yes even from the most sacred book of all books, the Holy Bible, sometimes I experience some mental and emotional turbulence as information and revelation meet what I have already stored on the bookshelves of my psyche and life. There’s not always a shaking of the hands, or bisous bisous and hugging going on. Sometimes I experience a "Westside Story" fight as I try to fathom and swallow new information. Sometimes the war is on!!! :-)

You see, there’s the world from where this new information is and is coming from, and then there’s my world – the world inside my mind, my life, my experiences – no matter how good or bad, young or old, new or ancient, cold or hot, black or white or gray/grey (comme tu veut), etc. I think you get my point. In order for me to experience change I must be willing to give up something to receive something else. I must be willing to surrender some territory, cry “uncle”, lay down my “arms” and come out with my “hands” up. Now this is easy to do when a police person is telling you to do so especially while pointing a gun at you; Most of the time it’s the safest stance to take. I find that the “war” is the hottest when I’m protecting something I truly believe in because maybe it, (or he or she) has been extraterrestrial good to me and I don’t want to live without it. Or maybe “it” has just been with me for so long, taught to me as a child by important adults that I never questioned its authenticity or its relevance for my life now, and like a child maybe I respond with “mom said” or “the church said”, as my only defense.

But when I lay down my arms and take a chance and come out of hiding with my hands up, into the illumination of information I’ve never before considered or heard of, I give myself a chance to see things differently and thus receive what might be fresh manna. Now I’m not saying I believe that all “unknown-to-me information” is good for me or others, and I’m not saying I believe all “new” information and swallow it hook, line and sinker, for I would be calling myself a liar. But what I am saying is when I release all fears I no longer have a reason to not listen and hear what is being said to me from the “other” world.

The foundational reason why we reject new information is fear of invasion. :-) We fear that others will indoctrinate us and lead us astray or deceive us, and it is very possible. However, fear doesn’t serve to keep us from being deceived and misled. As a matter of fact it does just the very opposite, at least this has been my experience. Just because we “hear” what others are saying and have to say doesn’t mean we have to obey. We can always reject what we don’t accept and believe, then there doesn’t have to be a war. But the war happens when we’re struggling to receive and accept what’s being served to us which opposes what we already “know” and believe, and live.

The war sometimes is greatest when we really want to change, but we don’t want to make a mistake or go to extremes. Other times the war is hottest when we don’t want to change and we feel like we’re being forced to do so, but if we’re going to coexist in certain circles, change is required. Or we must “depart”. War of the worlds.

The greatest change for me occurred when I finally learned to relax and release the grip on the religious beliefs that had a stronghold on me since childhood. Now don’t misunderstand me or get me wrong. I have not “divorced” my beliefs in God and His love and sacrifice for me through His Son Jesus the Christ, by no stretch of the imagination. But what I am saying is my relationship with Him has evolved and changed and has become vibrant and something I never in my life imagined it could or would, because I finally gave fear his pink slip, and I laid down my arms and came out with my hands up. I allowed my world to be invaded by the world of the Kingdom of God through His written Word and through His Spirit living inside my heart.

I am grateful for the war of our worlds for it showed me how much He loves me and how much I needed and continue to need Him. Most of the time when countries go to war they invade and destroy and set up empires for selfish reasons, not benefitting the original inhabitants. But that is not what happened when God invaded my world. He brought with Him everything that He is to benefit me on every level of my life as a human being and as a woman, spirit, soul and body. He brought with Him my original purpose for living to put me back on track so I can fulfill my destiny and experience joy and happiness at the same time, no matter what is happening in this world, and my world. From His world He brought into my world real love and peace, joy and faith, goodness and meekness, patience and humility – what the Bible calls “The fruit of the Spirit”.

Into my world He brings His character and personality to help me develop mine and heal from scars and wounds of the past, so I can experience healthy interpersonal relationships with others. Wars are not all bad, and invasions don’t always bring crazy diseases and alien worms and "Men in Black" creatures. LOL!! The Bible says about Jesus “He came to His own and His own received Him not”, meaning He entered as a man the very world He created, and His own world rejected Him. But that did not stop Him from coming, nor from loving those He created and came to reunite with. I am glad He came and I’m glad He started a war with me. I surrender all. . . :-)

Scars or Memoirs

Some things never go away like night and day, oxygen, gravity, sunshine and rain just to name a few. They may take a hiatus for a few hours each day (except for gravity and oxygen, thank God) but they make their rounds everyday somewhere on the earth for everybody. I guess lately I’ve been thinking about other things that we tend to wish had never happened, so we do what we can to make them disappear, go away. In the days of the typewriter we used erasers and "White Out" (oh how I wish I had invented the White Out). Now in the age of computers we just hit the “delete” button. Nevertheless, some things are still on somebody’s “hard drive” somewhere. Hmm. Something else I recall using are products called Nadinola and Cocoa Butter to erase scars from any part of the body.

I still have a scar from ironing my dad’s hankerchiefs and the iron falling off the board kissing my wrist on the way to the floor. Another scar is on my other wrist from where I was reaching for something in my grandmother’s closet and a nail I did not see sticking out of the shelf met my arm on the way down. These scars have not gone anywhere. They’re always with me constantly reminding me of what I was doing at the time they appeared in my life. But physical scars are not the only ones that tend to hang around, for a long time.

“Memories, like the corners of my mind. . . “ Memories of words and deeds. Sometimes they hold the strongest places in our lives reminding us of what was going on at “that time”, who we were with, what was said and done. Wow. Sometimes good and sometimes better, and sometimes wish they had happened never. I’ve been writing song lyrics here of late so bear with me if I tend to rhyme a little here and there, or become poetic in the trying. :-)

I can recall playing in the snow in the 70s with my brothers. Those were the days Archie Bunker, when the snow fell long and hard and stayed around for weeks, and not just 24 hours. Snow as high as our chests meant no school or anything else for several days. Of course depending on what they were going through, sometimes our parents did not feel the same way. Anyhoooo. I also recall chest high snow during the 90s as an adult. Wow!! Those were some fun-filled days and nights walking the streets to the grocery store and not having to go to work or church or anywhere else. Memories. Some of them you don’t want to go away, but some of them you need to help go away, otherwise they can keep you from moving forward.

Life has not been a bed of roses without thorns or gravy without lumps, but I can truly say that no matter how difficult it has been at times, and remembering those times I wanted it ALL to end, I am glad to be alive now, and I am glad to have experienced most of the events I did. Granted, some I really could have done without, but I refused to let them pass without finding out the lessons (and not just the lesions) hidden within them.

Sometimes I find that words spoken are remembered more and first, which trigger memories of events. Words seem to pack a powerful punch because they come from inside the person speaking them. At times we will apologize and say “I did not mean that”, and maybe we didn’t, but at the time it was what was inside our heart, for “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth will speak.” Maybe we didn’t mean for it to come out the way it did, or at the time it did, or we just didn’t want the other person to know how we felt, or what we were thinking, but it was “in there” nevertheless.

When we speak words they leave an impression upon the ears, mind and heart of the hearer and they reveal what is happening within the heart and mind of the speaker. Sometimes it is difficult to control what we’re feeling inside, but we always have control of what we say, and how and when we say it. I’m not saying it’s not difficult at times, but unless we’re suffering from dementia or Alzheimer’s we always have control over our thoughts and words.

One of my favorite lines to myself is “think it through”. Think it through before you say it. Think it through before you do it. Think it through before you go here or there. Think through all the possible scenarios and consider those you cannot think of, because life is not always predictable. “B” does not always come after “A”, and sometimes there is more even after we reach “Z”. Some of the best suspense stories show us this.

If I say this or do that, or go there at this point in time, :-) what may happen? What could be the result(s)? How may my actions and words affect the other person or persons? Will venting and unloading on that person solve the problem, will it change anything? Will it make him or her, or me a better person? Will any of us feel better or be more knowledgeable after I speak my mind or do the first thing that comes into my conscience to do?

Words, like deeds have the power to create scars or memoirs, things we enjoy remembering or events we would rather forget. Being a singer, songwriter, public speaker in the form of a teacher, preacher, and minister requires me to talk a lot. LOL!! Something I enjoy doing, sometimes. Other times I just want to be quiet and think and observe, and listen to others because it’s in the listening that I learn and thus accumulate more to say later!! :-) Serieusement, I now find myself taking more time to think before I speak. A few years ago I read a book by a famous author entitled Quick to Hear, Slow to Speak, which changed my life forever.

The author went deep-sea diving into the Bible to extract and write something more pocket-sized to make it easier for readers to learn to listen first and speak later. I have learned that everyone has something to say, no matter what their level of education or their background. Because we are all human beings living on this planet we all have experiences and thus we have something to share – something to talk about, as Bonnie Raitt would say. If I want others to listen to me and believe I have something worth hearing, then I must treat them the way I want to be treated, and that is with respect and sincerity. Too many times when someone is speaking we’re too busy talking, sometimes with our mouths and sometimes with our minds. The feet of our minds are running here and there, to and fro being disrespectful of the other person. We’re not really in the moment with them experiencing their experiences because we can’t wait to talk about ours. We feel that what we’ve experienced and what we have to say is more important than theirs. This is the epitome of disrespect and the greatest form of lack of attention.

When we fail to listen to the other person’s words, we many times miss their heart and what they really mean. Also we tend to say things they’ve already said not recognizing that they said it using different words and expressions than we do. Misunderstandings abound because we fail to listen with our hearts, minds and ears. Behind misunderstandings lay the potential for unnecessary words which cannot be erased once they’ve been uttered. “Misty water-colored memories, of the way we were.”

Since being in France I’ve come across a product in the stores called “Light White” or something like that. Anyway, I asked an African employee why do Africans want to use this product. He responded because they feel they are too dark and they want to be lighter. Somewhere somebody brainwashed these dark-skinned beautiful people, descendents of the richest continent on the earth that their black skin is bad. It’s something to be removed, changed, erased, a “scar” or memory if you will, to be whited out. Yet you have Caucasians risking skin cancer using bronzing machines and too much sun to become darker. Hmmmm, what’s wrong with these pictures? Even the white people want to erase their color too.

The Bible says that a leopard cannot change its spots, but it seems humans can. We will go to any lengths to undo what has been done, yet the one thing we resist doing, and which ends up being the very last thing we will do, to erase and white out scars and memories, is forgive. Forgive the brother or sister for hurting us with their words and deeds. Forgive being slighted or looked over or forgotten. Forgive that debt, no matter how large or small. I know for me, if I needed to borrow it, it’s because I didn’t have it. And if it takes me a minute to repay it, it’s because I still don’t have it. However, I know this is not the case for everyone. Some people are just chronic borrowers whether or not they ever can pay you back, for some don’t believe in paying what they owe. And others are suffering from addictions, which is a topic for another time.

This is why forgiveness is so important. It liberates the person doing the forgiving more than the one receiving forgiveness. To live in a state of unforgiveness keeps one in a state of suspended animation or suspended belief or unbelief – a state of expectation of something you may never receive. It puts a certain part of your life on hold, especially on the psychological level imprisoning you by someone who may or may not know (and may or may not care that) you’ve given them the keys to your freedom. I have experienced this in my life, and it is a painful state of being. I found that forgiveness freed me and allowed me to move forward past memories and scars from deeds and words I could not erase. I did use some products on my wrist from the iron incident, and it did lighten a little bit, but it is still with me to this day. It’s one of those inconsequential, not-life-or-death scars from which I learned the lesson to be more careful when using an iron and other appliances. It’s a good memory, not something I need to forget or forgive for the lesson stays with me all the time. Forgiveness though did more than lighten the scar, it took away the sting, the pain, the bruise. Oh, I can still remember incidences all the way back to my childhood when living in Queens New York, and that is a long time ago, but either the pain is very light, or does not exist at all.

Forgiveness opened a door for me to understand the pain of others and reminded me that in my imperfection I have hurt others too. And thus I need their forgiveness too. The Bible says if you want to be forgiven, you must first forgive. We usually say we cannot give what we don’t have. Well, forgiveness is always within our power to give because John 3:16 says “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” We have been given forgiveness before we knew we needed it and now we have what we need to give to others. It’s more powerful than White Out, Light White, Nadinola and Cocoa Butter, and it doesn’t take as long to work. The effects are immediate and everlasting and is applicable to any part of the life spirit, soul, and body. It also works for all people no matter what continent we are from or the color of our skin. It won’t cause cancer, but as a matter of fact can prevent cancer and arthritis. Forgiveness is one of the most powerful acts of love we can give ourselves and others.

There are some other mental and emotional scars I have had to actively forgive so I can “leave this place” and become the person I am destined to be. The events may come into my mind again from time to time, but I don’t have to be imprisoned by them. The memories of how I ended up in those places will be my teachers and tutors helping me in the future not to take those roads again. I want them to be able to stamp my paper with an “A” for lesson learned. Then we will dance to Earth, Wind and Fire’s kicking song September: “Do you remember. . . Ba de ah say do you remember, Ba de ah dancing in September? Ba de ah never was a cloudy day!!!!”

Write It Down

Life is so exciting in so many different ways.  There are friends to call, email, sms and meet.  Then there are other things to do, like work and make appointments here and there, but mostly there, wherever there tends to be.  Then there are the things in life that are not planned or that happen without warning and an immediate response is in order.  How do you keep up with yourself?  I mean, how do you successfully keep up with all the things you have to do?  Well I find that I have to write down everything, and I mean everything now.  I used to be able to keep those seven items in my mind which science has proven to be the limit of our short-term memory.  But now I like to keep that number down to a more reasonable three, and they still find themselves on a piece of paper somewhere in this flat, or my purse, or the pocket of my coat or slacks.

 

I recall from my first year in college being advised to log everything in a journal or a things-to-do list not only so you won’t forget it, but so you will actually DO it.  Now that’s kind of different isn’t it?  It has been scientifically proven, and we also conducted experiments in college, that if you write it down, nine times out of ten you will perform the task.  You may not always accomplish it in the time frame you desire, (especially if like me you have a things-to-do list that’s 15-20 items long.  Bien sur pas, ce n’est pas possible.  Unless you’ve itemized the dishes you must wash, then it’s doable.  :-)) but you will end up doing everything on your list because eventually you desire to do them and they become priority over other things that may and do come up.  For instance I wrote on my list “vacuum” which meant I needed to run the aspirator in my flat.  Well, even though my eyes and feelings told me I needed to do this, I would always find something else to do.  This went on for a week when I finally wrote it down.  Well, even after writing it down it took me another week to finally do it, but guess what?  It finally became the number one item to do when all the others had been done, plus I just couldn’t stand to continue seeing what I was seeing.  Hear what I’m doing?  LOL!!!

 

Sometimes at the end of the day I would find myself frustrated because an entire day would pass and I would not have accomplished anything important.  I found that I had not invested, but wasted too much time doing other things because I had not kept before me the list of things I needed to do.  You see, the list also helps to keep you on task so you don’t lose your time.  It helps you budget your time for each task and rendezvous.

 

Another good reason for writing down everything is so you can make the most of your trips from one side of Paris to the other (or whatever city or town you live in).  When you see everything on paper you can plan your day on the metro much better.  You can decide if it’s realistic to go to several different arrondissments/cartiers in one day.  (For Americans outside of Paris these words refer to zip codes, so it’s like traveling to another city within a city.)  For you have to take into consideration train delays, arrival times, walking into and out of the metro, getting lost. :-)  A day can go by quickly on the bus and metro, so writing down everything can prepare you for a realistic outing and good use of not only your time, but your cash and respiration.

 

I had a wonderful trip through the Old Testament book, Exodus, earlier this month and even though I’ve been reading this sacred text since the 5^th grade (no don’t ask me what grade I’m in now.  LoL!), each time something different than before stands out that I can somehow apply to my life in a practical way now.  See, Moses, the Israelite who was raised Egyptian, murdered somebody, ran away into the desert for 40 years, got married and had some sons, but then ran into God’s mini-forest fire in the desert which didn’t burn up anything (can you figure out that one?);  yeah him.  Anyhooo, he had a long 40-day talk (not 40 minutes, and not an internet forum) with the Almighty, all alone up on a mountain called Sinai.  God wrote His notes on some tablets and gave them to Moses to teach to the people.  But while he was away the cats and mice were playing down below and when Moses came down, in a high-fever pitched temper he threw down the tablets and they broke. 

 

After dealing with these folk and setting them straight, he returned to the mountain top and asked the Lord to please forgive these wild, immature and rebellious people, who He, God by the way, loved with all His heart and soul.  So for another 40 days Moses and God talked.  It doesn’t say that they had tea or coffee, or even hot chocolate or wine.  I wonder if Moses even had some water, but what I know about God, the Creator is that He never invites anyone to His place without providing for them what they would need.  Moses didn’t seem to have lost weight when he came down either, so all was well in that category.  This time God told Moses to write down everything.  The first 10 Commandments he broke (oops) and then some supplemental laws to deal with specific things.

 

Why did He tell Moses to write them this time?  Well when I read this as a child I thought it was because God’s hand got tired from writing them the first time.  But now I think it’s because since he broke it, it’s only right that he should fix it.  LOL!!!  Also, if he wrote it he would more than likely remember them (the first one being “thou shalt not break these ten commandments.  LOL!!) (this is scientifically proven too, that’s why taking notes by hand yields better learning and comprehension in the classroom), and also he would more than likely DO them.  You see, Moses needed to not only be the bearer of the message, but a doer too.  When you do something it shows that it’s a part of you, whether good or bad, positive or negative.  Just to read it doesn’t mean you know it, believe it or can, and will do it.  But when you write it down you imprint it upon your mind and heart.  This is why I love the “old” (not necessarily in age mind you, but someone like me) teachers and professors:  even though they must accept computers  and be progressive, most of them know the value of writing in the classroom and they still require handwritten essays and test-taking.  I say “cool”. ;-)

 

This is also why I like handwriting letters still.  They’re more personal and show the recipient how much they cannot understand your writing and that you need to return to your third grade teacher for another few lessons in penmanship.  LOL!!!!  Writing things down also allows us to be creative and it’s the first thing we learn to do in school when learning the alphabet and numbers.  It is something that no matter how technically advanced we become with computers and voice recording machines we will always need, and come back to.  When the electricity is off, or your surge protector didn’t work during that last storm and your computer got zapped, and your friend called you on a landline with the name and number of the guy who would re-hook you up for free, you will pick up paper and pen and write it down.  Oh yes!!  When you find yourself trying to get a fantastic position working for the deaf CEO of one of the most powerful companies in the world for which the recession hasn’t and cannot touch and you are the most qualified applicant and they really like you even though you don’t know sign language, you will want to have on your person a notepad and a pen, for it is not feasible to carry your laptop for having drinks just to have a social discussion which also includes consideration for a raise before your first day of work.  Hmmm, yes I think you will want to be able to “write it down”.  LOL!!  Am I having too much fun?  Yes I think so.

 

Anyhoooo, again, I just finished writing by hand the rough draft of my second book.  Well I don’t sleep too well with a laptop; I’ve tried it and decided that’s not for me.  But a notebook and pen, that’s another story (pun intended).  If I wake up from a dream, I can write it down even in the dark.  If a new set of lyrics starts to flow through my mind, I can just write them down.  If I get a call in the night with important information, I can just write it down.  If I feel like writing myself a letter, you got it, I can just write it down.

That’s all I have to write about that.  :-)

Living Outside the Boxx

Can you guess what I just finished doing?  Well I don’t want to say I’m becoming addicted to Sudoku, but I just read in the March 2009 edition of Reader’s Digest, page 35 that playing Sudoku can help you become wealthy because it (as well as some other number games, word puzzles, and brain-teasers) keeps your brain agile.  To quote the author Jean Chatzky, “they all help stimulate the growth of nerve cells, which makes your mind sharper over time.”  She goes on to say, “Having more mental clarity makes you a more flexible thinker, and that’s essential for wealth.”  She says more but that did it for me.  I find myself eyeing Sudoku everyday even when I don’t have time to play with him. :-)  Oh, but tonight I stopped everything and played a set and finished it faster than the last time not because I was trying, but because this new way of thinking is really causing me to “see” things much faster than before.

 

Somehow you knew I would take the time to explain for I’m enjoying this, truly.  I find that now my eyes look at the entire puzzle from the beginning, not just inside one box, the one or two with the most numbers, to find the easiest starting point.  Now that I’m no longer stuck inside the boxes (or boxx, my new word) my perspective has broadened and I think my brain cells are rejoicing!!  “She no longer has to ride the short bus” I heard one of them say when I finished the puzzle.  Smarty pants.    Even as I worked I could hear within my heart how “living” outside of the box allows us (at least it has done this for me in a short amount of time) not only to consider many options outside of our familiar surroundings in each area of life, but they allow us to look back inside the box too, and see things differently.  You see, we don’t have to run away from the box after we no longer live there for there are still lessons back there we can learn.

 

For instance, I know I need to start collecting boxes soon for packing up my life from this place to move to another.  I’m going to need boxes of all shapes and sizes.  I’ll even use some with wheels called suitcases (valises en Francaise).  You see, boxes are not our enemies; they are neutral and can be our friends.  It’s what we do with them, as with most things in life, which determine their positivity or negativity in our lives.  I love my parents and my upbringing in the church and specifically in the Pentecostal church, for we have a rich spiritual and musical heritage that demanded from us a level of excellence in everything we did, even when we didn’t have everything we felt we needed.  We learned to make do and make ourselves “look” and feel “rich” even when we were not. :-0  Now that’s a powerful heritage I wouldn’t give away for all the money in the world, really.  Within that heritage lies the power for me to get wealth, just like Chatzky said about Sudoku.  Oh, but guess what?  She was not the first one to say it.  Our loving Creator was/is.  Oh yes!!

 

In the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy 8:18 the Lord said through Moses to the Israelites, “And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth . . .”  And in the New Testament book III John 2 He speaks through that apostle, “Beloved, I wish above all things that you prosper and be in health even as your soul prospers.”  Now this is not just talking about money for there are many poor rich people, on the earth.  To be prosperous means you have wisdom and understanding concerning life and how to move and groove through the challenges that come your way.  I call prosperous people “Mac Gyvers”. 

 

You remember the weekly television show by the same name of the guy who would get in trouble just by being in the wrong place at the right time, or the right place at the wrong time, or the wrong place at the wrong time, and yeah, even sometimes the right place at the right time (depending on your perspective)?  See, Mac Gyvers learn to seize the moment to use their skills, and create some along the way.  When they don’t see what they need at hand, they create it.  For instance, while I was on tour in Belgium this past winter I needed a knife in my dressing room to slice a lemon for my hot tea.  Well, there were none to be found, but my road managers did find the can of peanuts I desired and guess what?  My Mac Gyver eye saw a knife!  I opened my can of nuts, and munched on some while slicing my lemon with the aluminum lid.  There were many other such events like that on my tour and my road manager Anna began calling me Mac Gyver.  (Even though she’s from Poland living in Belgium, she speaks fluent English and is very familiar with our American television shows. :-)  Thanks Anna!!)  Now she’s a true out-of-the-box person, and I found myself having to think outside of the box often in order to get by in those freezing temperatures.  LOL!!

 

So you see, my experiences have taught me that true wealth is not just about money, but it is also being able to live outside of the box and still learn from the box.  It’s being wise not to throw away the box with the baby (couldn’t think of another good one just then.) but keeping it for later, or just keeping the lessons learned from the good, the bad and the ugly that occurred in that environment.  Boxes can be limiting when we see them as our security and keep us from changing, growing, expanding, and learning.  A grasshopper in a box with a lid on it after awhile gets trained to jump only so high, so when the lid is removed, he doesn’t realize he’s free to jump outside of the box.  If you find yourself boxed in under an open sky, call somebody!! to come and cut the box from around you so you can move on.  Sometimes our relationships can be that way, on our jobs, in our homes, in our communities, churches and even our countries.  Sometimes you will have to use the items inside your box to build a ladder so you can climb out of that box and “see” that the world is larger than that box you’ve been in for a while.

 

I’m no different from anyone else.  I desire security and a nice home, family, a “job” with all the perks and quirks (NOT!), but at what cost?  What are we willing to sacrifice to live inside the box, and what are we willing to forego to live outside of the box?  There is a risk either way, and yes even living outside of the box it’s easy to create another box if “box thinking” is inside of us, like that grasshopper.  True prosperity is not only learning how to live outside of the box while keeping the good that came from inside the box, but it’s also not allowing in-the-box thinking to limit us.  Just because we change locations and time zones doesn’t mean nor guarantee that we’ve changed, or are living outside of the box.  You can still be thinking inside a square box with a round head.

:-)  

So I encourage you to take a chance, even a baby step.  Do something different, maybe drink tea instead of coffee, drink more water and cut out the sodas, really cut out those cigarettes that are puffing away your new opportunities down the line just to name a few.  Some others can be visit another country for 3-5 days, or another state.  Visit another church of a different race and denomination.  Read up on another culture.  Be willing to understand others even when you don’t agree with their philosophies.  It’s not the beliefs that are important, it’s the people and when they see your heart’s interest in them, they will be willing to hear what you have to say too.  Then you may be able to win them over to a more excellent way.  Or maybe you will be the one changing to a more excellent way.  “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.”  Thank YOU, Jesus!