Friday Freestyles

It's Friday!

And where I am, it is COLD.

It's not as cold as it was around the middle of the week. Right now it's 34 degrees in my beloved ATL.  Good and cold. But better than that 16 degrees it was during the middle of the week. COLD. That's that Chicago, Detroit, New York type temperatures... minus the snow. And ya'll can keep the snow!

Now what's on my mind right now is whatever the hell is going on over in France right now. I peruse the news in the morning, mostly one of the major news analysis networks, just to see what the major news of the day is. I can usually find this out within 5 or 10 minutes, and I can go on about my business. But over the past couple of days? This terrorism in France. This is some CRAZINESS. Wow.

And it's just awful.

Terrorism.  That is another word for FEAR-ism. Just terrible. It's not just the acts that are awful, it's the residual effects left in the minds of all of us who are watching all this unfold. Just how many seeds of fear have been sown over the past couple of days, and what will be the results of it all?  

I see this type of thing, and it's one of those times when I appreciate my issues. Correction: My high class issues. And I know these issues can be resolved. It's when they can't be resolved that there is a problem. But it makes me have a little faith. I mean, when you get to a point in life where you start murdering people because they don't have the same beliefs, religious or not, than yours... uh, my goodness.

And you know what else it makes me think of? It's a quote I heard from Andy Stanley, a local pastor here in the ATL metro area. He has an app that replays many of his episodes (he comes on after Saturday night live). I cannot stay up that late so I catch the app. (Great for when I am cleaning up).

Anyway, he was doing a series based on the following scripture... the last scripture of the last chapter of Judges:

Judges 21:25 In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes.

Hmmm.  I frowned up when I saw that. I remember a long time ago, I read the book of Judges. When I finished reading it, I thought "Dang, those people had some SERIOUS issues going on." And they did, too.

The basis of one segment of the sermon was this is basically how we live our lives these days. We do whatever the heck we want to do. And it's the truth.

And chaos tends to erupt.

But he said something interesting.

Our thoughts are along the line of (and I am paraphrasing here) "I can do what I want, when I want, and how I want to do it... as long as I'm not hurting anyone!"

True. I feel that way. I'm not hurting anyone, so step off. Leave me be. I'm good.

But what if we could turn that into...

"I can do what I want, when I want, how I want to do it... as long as I'm helping someone."

That was just frickin' PROFOUND to me.  A most befitting Quote of the Week, it is.

How much tomfoolery and drama could I cut out of my life if I asked myself that question every morning?? Because I was good with the "I can do what the heck I want as long as I ain't hurting nobody!" scenario.  That reworking of the statement, changing hurting to helping, takes it to a whole nother level. Shoot, it takes life to a whole nother level.

I think much about it already. Every morning, I spend a little time in my prayer life asking that I be used to be a blessing in some way that day. It makes me giddy to be helpful to someone during the day. With all the people around us causing us problems and drama, I wasn't in that category, but I brought some light to your day. That just makes me happy. Especially in a world like this.

I never want to cause problems, let alone terror or fear in someone's heart. That is just awful. Such an awful seed to sow.

Let's face it. It's a lot better than asking "Who can I kill today? How can I invoke terror today?"

Not too many people ask themselves that question. Thank goodness. But as you can see in the world, people ask themselves those questions. And plan accordingly.

Bad seed sown. Ugh. 

And you know how I fill about seed. I read a scripture during my time off (and I don't want to go look it up, somewhere off in II Corinthians, so ask me about the reference sometime later, please) that said once a seed is planted,  it dies in the ground, and it comes up as something much more brilliant. When you plant an apple seed, it doesn't come up out the ground as one big ol' gigantic apple seed. It comes up as something complex: a tree with branches, limbs, leaves and fruit. It was discussed as a metaphor for resurrection, which makes plenty sense, but you know how my mind works... I think about it from other directions.

Much bad seed was sowed over the past few days with these acts of terrors. Honestly, I can't tell you off the top of my tongue what good happened in the world over the past few days.

Can you?

So I look up the latest news this evening and I see that the ones who committed these acts of terror are... dead.

So we can all breathe a sigh of relief and go on with our happy lives. The terrorists who caused this are dead.

 Except... some seriously bad seed was sown. We're a little more afraid now. Fear has deepened. And fear is the reciprocal of faith. Each is a seed that produces... something.

Hmm... I could go on and on. I am done.

Something good did happen to ME though...

I got a promotion.

Ain't that something?

GLORY! 

I haven't thought much about it. The discussions in the workplace are... interesting. This whole thing didn't shake out like many expected. I've been blackballed for years, if I'm being honest with you. To the point that I don't even care anymore, man. Too much good happens to me on a daily basis. Daily. Worrying about job issues is a high class problem for me. This is the first time I didn't care one way or the other which way this went. It was a political move, and I got a couple of goals accomplished in the process in even applying for the job. My goal was to make some type of move career-wise, and this is just the beginning of it. I am thankful for it.

So we will see how it goes. Your girl will be making more money. More ballin' 'til I fall! (Yeah right).

Someone said to me "That Ph.D is finally paying off."

"Whatcha mean by that?" I replied. "My degrees have been paying off since the day I got them."

Really though.  It's the truth.

That's it for me. I would put up a song of a week, but it is a bit... ratchet. And we don't want that, do we?

No.

With that said... Have a good weekend. On purpose.