Who am I?

This past weekend I was attending a church function where my girlfriend's brother was being installed as a Youth Pastor. It was a nice service but he said something that stirred me and now is the topic for this blog post. He stated that as Christian we have started to lose our identity, allowing the world to influence the ways of the Church and not the other way around. So he stated that to change this we have to figure out our identity first so that we can move forward and project this identity to the world.

This train of thought had me thinking of "who am I?" and then inspired me to share this thought with the rest of the world hopefully allowing everyone to take a look inside and see who they really are. Well who am I? I am a Christian first of foremost but that does not fully explain all of my quirks even though it influences quite a bunch of them... well I am also a son, a brother, a friend, a gamer (in the video game sense, not the player sense LOL), a singer, a youth pastor, a soon to be lawyer (as soon as I get admitted) and a confidant. But those are all titles that describe me and can be seen from the surface therefore I figured I needed to go a bit deeper to fully understand and see the purpose of this exercise. While digging deeper I discovered I was compassionate yet selfish at times, likes being alone with my thoughts at times yet needy at other times. I also realized that I was loving, kind, passionate, silly, crazy energetic, sometimes rash, but usually thinks in black and white. This being the initial look into the mirror I figured it would be clarifying and it was, but it is far from over. I plan to over the year continue to look at myself and examine myself, goals, motives, and dreams hopefully coming to a full understanding of my inner workings and solidifying my identity to the world!

Therefore, I would challenge everyone to examine themselves a few times this year. Now I don't mean just look at the surface of urself but truly dive deep and you will be surprised about what you come up with!!! And as always I leave you with a song that embodies the post. The Man in the Mirror by Michael Jackson I feel is the perfect song for this post. So move forward while evaluating. Well until we meet again GOD BLESS!!!

Let Reconnect!

Hello all, how is everyone today. First and foremost I have to say that my prayers go out to all of my Haitian friends and to anyone who has been affected by the earthquakes that devastated Haiti yesterday. Within the short time since the earthquakes though, I have come across several ppl through blogs and discussion boards that feel a disconnect to the people in Haiti since they were not there or have no family present there. Now while I can understand the disconnect I guess as a human I cannot understand the reasoning. But this seems to be the reasoning for most Americans today. We seem to have a disconnect when it comes to people who are not within our circle of family and friends. This is why people can look at the news and not feel some sort of way with the amount of violence and death that is going on around them. It like we have been desensitized from the process of caring for another human being, which personally I feel is what is wrong with today's society (which is just my opinion so you can definitely disagree). And the reason why I feel it is what is wrong with today's society because through this process we come to a place where we only care about ourselves and everyone else has to fend for themselves.

This needs to end here and now. Yes there may be many things that separate us; whether it be gender, race, economics, religion etc... (just to name a few). These ideologies may not have been initially for separation but in actuality it does, allowing us to forget that at the core of every person we are all still HUMAN. We tend to dwell so much on our differences instead of focusing on what we all have in common with this commonality binding us together when it comes to caring for one another that we may not know. All of these walls/differences need to be broken down so that when something of this magnitude happens anywhere in the world, we ALL can rally together and do ALL that we can to help. But this change starts with you, so give a smiling face to a person that may seem down, lend a hand to an ailing person, just be there when you can for people and you will see how rewarding it is!!! As children of GOD (which we all are) let us learn that we have a lot more in common and come together to show that this world of people have heart...

Well those are my thoughts on the matter but please if you can give, GIVE. If not then mobilize and be the outlet for someone else who wants to give but does not know how too. Remember to always "Love your neighbor as you love yourself" or even better "Love your neighbor as Jesus loves you" :). Wow almost forgot to add a song that goes hand and hand with this message lol. The song for this message goes to Fred Hammond "Not Just What You Say" off of the "Something bout' Love" soundtrack. Check it out! On that note GOD BLESS and enjoy until we meet again.

As a reminder; text "yele" to 501501 to donate $5 to haitian relief efforts or text "haiti" to 90999 to donate $10 to red cross for haitian relief fund, this money will be charged to your next month's cellphone bill.

FORWARD

We are now in the year of 2010 which is not just a new year but a new decade. For this reason I decided to try something alil different to start off this new decade. Usually I am not the type of guy to 1) share his feelings with the world, or 2) start off a new year with some sort of direction since I am guided and lead by my LORD Jesus. Now last year was an amazing year were I graduated law school, passed the NYS Bar and gave my second sermon at my church but I feel since this is the start of a new decade that I should try something new to further better myself. Therefore, I decided to start a blog, this way I can express my thoughts, concerns etc... possibly getting feedback from ppl out there in internet land and maybe even encourage someone out there with my words.

So lets start, this year I decided to make it the year of "moving FORWARD". Now this may seem like a novelty but I feel that it is an interesting concept that most ppl take for granted. Moving FORWARD as a concept is exactly what it sounds like, you continue to move forward in your life. Now most of the time when a person moves forward have the tendency to look back and dwell upon past decisions, accomplishments, mistakes or failures (which I have fallen prey of myself)which does not allow them to fully move FORWARD. You hinder your self when your train of thought is "if only I did this different" or "where would I be if I did it this way" since we cannot go back and change the past. Look at it this way say you are walking and your shirt gets caught on a fence without you noticing, you will continue to move forward but after a while you will get caught up and cannot move forward any longer until you free yourself from that particular obstacle. This is the same way we should treat our life as we move forward, of course taking your past into consideration but learning from it and moving on not dwelling on it, allowing it to control you.

Moving FORWARD is my new motto for this new decade and I have high hopes for what it can teach me as I continue to move forward in my goals and my life in general. So lets all move FORWARD together understanding our past but not letting it control us :)! Also check out Mali Music Forward (I provided the link in the comment section). It basically completely encompasses my motto for this year. Well to all who read this I wish you a great decade of moving FORWARD and thank you for reading. GOD BLESS you all!!!