Mojitos and Insomnia Don't Mix!

Sooo.... yeah.... this last week has been really interesting for me. For one thing, I experienced some insomnia for the first time. And I'm not talking about that I sleep 2-3 hours wake up for a few and do that over and over again! I'm talkin about some, the last night I was able to sleep was thursday and it's sunday and I still can't sleep. So I went to Dallas on the Greyhound on Friday afternoon. A busride that was supposed to take only 4 hours took more like 5.5 hours! Rain, traffic, etc. I feel that this story may best be explained through some form of timeline

1:45p- The time that the but that I'm SUPPOSED to be on leaves Houston. It was overbooked!

2:30p-The time the other bus is supposed to leave.

3:30ish- We finally start loading the bus only to find out that they don't quite have a driver for the bus yet

3:55- The driver finally shows up and we leave

4:55- still in Houston city limits thanks to rain and traffic
*some dude on the bus is coughing like he has the BLACK LUNG!!! Eeew!!!
* This couple sitting across from my smells like eurine!!

845- finally make it to Dallas

130am- decide to go to sleep

4am- wake up
6am-try to go back to sleep
6-1030- give up on trying to sleep
1030am Saturday- Sunday 11ish PM- LONG Time running together!!!
*so saturday night, I go out to eat with Friends and have a Mojito- 30minutes later, I realize, not eating+no sleep+ Mojito= REALLY SLEEPY feelings!!!!!
* Saturday night, no sleep

Sunday morning 615am- leave the house on the way to the airport
730- Plane leaves
830- Arrive in Houston
* Still no sleep

930- arrive at church
1230- Leave Church

Don't actually go to sleep until between 12 and 1 sunday night!

All of this equals the longest weekend ever!!!! Horrible. Back to sleeping normally now, thank God. So yeah, that's it!

Many ask the question, why couldn't you sleep? I realized that I was stressing about a lot of stuff. Stuff that I shouldn't have been! It snatched my sleep. And then, when I calmed down, I was able to sleep that I couldn't sleep because I wasn't resting in God and His promises. So the way that I was acting spiritually made me unable to sleep in the natural. Sucks, huh!?!?

Without a Paddle

After a week of being in the city that I grew up in (Dallas!!), I'm back in Houston. There's something different this time though. New challenges. A need for a new outlook. A need for... A couple thousand dollars!! My car is back in Dallas- unable to traverse the highways and city streets. It's my fault really. I neglected it until there was no point of return. Now, it sits there, lying dormant in wait for it's careless caretaker to bring it back to life...

I went to Dallas to spend time with my family and to attend a conference for my fraternity. It was good to see old faces and to play catch-up. Outside of the usual awkward moments and family quarrels, it was quite a decent trip. But alas, there is a new grind to be on and plans to be made. Will I win, or will the circumstances get the best of me? Only time will tell. Until next time, you stay classy, Planet Earth!

Where did the fire go?

There is a jazz standard entitled "Sophisticated Lady". The opening lines of the song are:

"They say into your early life romance came. And in this heart of yours burned a flame. A flame that flickered one day then died away. Then, with disillusion deep inside, you learned that fools in love grow wise. The years have changed you somehow. I see it now."

While this posting will not necessarily about love, the sentiments of it apply across the board. We all of us have felt passionate about something at one time or another. Whether it be music, work, growth, etc. What happens though when that passion dies? This question arises in me because there was a "thing" that I was passionate about that I'm not soo passionate about anymore. The funny thing about it is that I think on some level I was praying to not be passionate about it anymore and now that I feel that taking place, it scares me. This particular thing was the source of a lot of work, labor, and sacrifice for me. Somewhere along the way though, I didn't feel that it was meeting the needs that I had for it to meet and I got burned out. This made me want to go elsewhere to try to get those needs met. While the grass may not necessarily be greener on the other side, part of the attraction is that it's simply different grass from where I've been grazing. So then the question becomes- do I just adopt the "if it ain't broke then don't try to fix it" mentality and just stay where I am or do I go into this new territory and try to find out what the grass over there is like for myself? One of the things that comes into play is the fact that I don't like to back-track. So if I go to the other side only to realize that it doesn't hold what I think it does, am I going to be willing to say that I am wrong and try to go back to my first grazing area? Am I going to just choose to stay there? or am I going to just decide that neither of them work for me and just leave grazing alone all together? Only time and God know the answer. I do know this though, a decision needs to be made and if the grass that I am on now is where I need to be grazing, then the passion that I lost, the flame that flickered one day is going to have to be re-lit. Otherwise, let the fence crossing commence. 2.

The Convenient Application of an Inconvenient Truth

What is the truth? Once we discover something that we believe to be the truth, do we allow that truth to effect our lives and if so, how much? There's a song by India.Arie called "The Truth" and the chorus to it goes as follows:

"Cus he is the truth
Said he is so real...
And if I am a reflection of Him/ then I must be fly/ Because his light/it shines so bright/I wouldn't lie"

Then there is another song that goes "He will be there for you/ He will always come through/ Yes He's God, he is the truth."

For me, the "He" and the "God" = The Trinity: God the Father, Jesus the Christ, and the Holy Spirit. I am not not ashamed to confess that I am a Christian-not in the super-religious, judgmental, condemning kind of way as many take that to be. Moreso in the I love Jesus, I'm striving to grow from His teachings, and I want to be as real, loving and truthful as he was kind of way. That being said, my truth is the teachings of and life of Christ that are found in the Bible. This particular blog posting is my analysis of the way those that confess to be Christians handle this Truth.

It seems to me that if you feel that the truth you believe or accept is life-changing, then it should do just that: change your life. I am not speaking of performance or trying to make yourself seem as though you are something that you are not, but there should be evidence of growth (or for that matter effort towards growth) toward what it is you say you are striving to do or be. Granted, no one is going to be on it all the time and there is a guarantee that, if you are human, you are going to mess up! That's kind of a part of the game! I think that there is an issue that needs to be addressed as it relates to what we do with the truth.

I titled this post "A Convenient Application of an Inconvenient Truth" because of my belief that this is how many of us as Christians live our lives (myself included!). The fact of the matter is that the teachings of Christ and obedience to him go against our very nature. In order for us to realize the value of these truths, to allow these truths to be applied to our lives, and to see the change that these truths bring about, we have to unlearn our old way of thinking and doing things and allow God to reprogram us to see and do things his way. Instead of giving ourselves to this process whole- heartedly, many of us just decide what areas we are going to allow to be exposed to the truth and don't allow it (the truth) to go much further than our parameters. The areas that we don't necessarily want to change or fear what that change could be, we keep to ourselves. It becomes a sort of " God you handle that stuff, and I'll handle this stuff." We conveniently apply the truth to try to cater God to our lives instead of turning them (our lives) over to Him.

I will refrain from giving examples but ask yourself, am I allowing God to deal with every area of my life or am I trying to make Him fit through the rat maze that I call my life-only allowing Him to go the areas that I've set up for him to go. The only reason that Jesus was soo effective was because of how much he yielded Himself to God the Father. He learned obedience and the more He did, the more He grew and the more effective he became. Let us dare to be the frontiersmen that go into the unknown territory. Better yet, let's commit to let God go into the areas that we've sought to keep Him out of for so long. The result, we will truly be reflections of Him- fly and all. Others will be drawn to us as we submit and yield ourselves to Him and we can direct them to the truth whose presence is evident in our lives. I once saw a bumper sticker that said, "Be a revolutionary, practice your faith!" That is what I would challenge all of us do with this one addendum, practice it whole-heartedly.