Mr. T said “I PITY THE FOOL”

Back in the 1980s, Mr. T had a famous catchphrase. He said, “I pity the fool.” This was his way of warning people of the dangers of not using common sense before doing something. This man had gold chains galore dangling from his neck. On top of all that, he had a mohawk that made one sit up and take notice when he would talk. That phrase could make a comeback with the actions some people are taking these days. It can easily be said, “I pity the fool,” when we see people arguing online instead of going offline to talk about their disagreements. How about saying, “I pity the fool,” to the person who is planning to live off of their unemployment as long as they possibly can. Or, “I pity the fool,” who is letting fear hold them back from doing the – possibly risky – right thing. 

Fools are people who don’t have common sense or don’t use it. Without common sense, we are prone to do things that have people scratching their heads. When a child is foolish, their parents might not want to take credit for them being their child. The fool’s rationale is hard to explain—or maybe I should say painful to try to explain, because it just doesn’t make sense. In the fool’s defense, I am sure they have an explanation that, to them, sounds convincing. However, what the fool doesn’t realize is that their explanations sound ridiculous to those who possess common sense. Common sense is a basic understanding of how decisions work. For example, common sense concludes: “If I work hard, I can get ahead.” Fools think they don’t have to work and can still get the same privileges and benefits as those who do. The good news is that anyone can have common sense as long as they have a conscience. The bad news is that foolishness can be contagious. Common sense tells you the company you keep will show you the future you are headed towards. Fools don’t consider their environment, nor are they willing to take personal responsibility for what they do. Do you have pity for the fool?

Wisdom should be our ultimate goal. But here is the thing: you’ll have to have common sense before you can be in the neighborhood of wisdom. Wisdom is more precious than money, or silver, or gold according to the Bible. And that should make sense if you have common sense. Wisdom is the ability to create from nothing, see the truth in ambiguity, and multiply whatever is in its hands. The value of wisdom is a magnet that will eventually attract and extract value from its surroundings. Money and riches in the hands of a fool will pass through those hands quickly, like a child holding sand. A wise person is a treasure that knows how to find and what to do with treasure, so that generations after that person are blessed. 

In conclusion, foolishness comes with a lack of awareness about how the decisions one makes creates one’s present and future. Common sense is the basic awareness that our decisions, good or bad, affect us today and tomorrow. Wisdom comes when we graduate to a place where we know what decisions to make in order to create the best future, no matter what yesterday or today looks like.

I HATE ORPHANS

The movie, Nacho Libre, is one of my favorite guilty pleasures to watch. Its quirky comedy is for random, silly people like myself. However, I want to highlight a specific comedic scene in the movie and give it a more serious spin. If you haven’t seen the movie I hope what I share is something that still makes sense. The wrestler, Esqueleto, stares in frustration at the main character of the movie and his partner in the ring, Nacho Libre. Suddenly Esqueleto angrily announces “I hate orphans!”. Nacho is shocked and this comment makes these friends instant enemies. Nacho had become a luchador (wrestler) to escape the boredom of his religious duties and to give the orphans a better life, while Esqueleto was in it for the money and only for himself. The back and forth between these two makes for an epic scene but I won’t give any of the details away. You’ll have to watch it for yourself.

However, it did have me thinking. The orphans I want to discuss are not necessarily ones who live in orphanages but are orphans because of what’s going on in their hearts. They are people who don’t know where they belong, they don’t know if they are loved, they are unsure about the future and aren’t sure of who they are. People with an orphan heart are not easy to love because of their neediness and tendency to sabotage what’s good for them. They are people who are on survival mode. Sound familiar? If it does it’s because we all have a little orphanism in all of us. Here is a twist. Esqueleto doesn’t realize that what he hates is what exists in him. He was a man with an orphan heart judging orphans. We are all missing something and feel a void. It’s only remedy is when we encounter the transformational love of our Heavenly Father found in the sacrifice of his Son Jesus Christ. The only way to come out of the “orphanage” is to be adopted into the family of God.

Most of what we hate in the world is because orphans have been running it. When that happens the way things are cared for are warped and the way to progress hurts more people than it helps. Children of God have access to the Father’s heart for themselves and the world. That effects how they live and lead. Like Nacho the Lord willingly stepped into the ring of this planet and wrestled against enemies of our destiny and true identity of being children made in the image of our Father.

Our Heavenly Fathers love is too good to never experience. If I could take you to a place where you are guaranteed to experience it I would. The truth is He makes His love available to all the spiritual orphans in the world but where we need to go to know that love is different for all of us. Some might find it on a walk where the beauty of nature tells you something about the one who created it for you. Some might find it in a place of recovery where you see that your choices have power and your choice of ignoring God is part of the problem. We all have a special place where God is not afraid of showing up and adopting us as His children.

I don’t know if my diagnosis sounds too cheesy or simplistic. If so, my excuse for the cheese is that I was using Nacho Libre as my metaphor. Nacho is for the cheese and Libre means free. The truth that sets us free is often simple to understand but difficult to live out. I’ll let you wrestle with that ;-)

PS ooxxooXoXXx

That was for all the fans of the movie

I have time for that

Normally, people comment on what they don’t have time for. It’s usually things that they are too annoyed about to specifically address. Understanding the importance of time can revamp our thinking when we come to this realization. This new way of thinking may see us make a to-do list or set goals that give us much needed direction in our daily lives in order to make the most of our time. Think about it; all of us have been given the same amount of time in our day, yet all around us people are using their time differently. Some will feel like they have wasted their day, and others will hold their arms in the air like they just bossed their day.

So, what should you have time for? Making your time count is something we should all take some time to think about. If I want to enjoy life, I don’t think wasting time is the way to go about it. A time waster could be overdoing it on the entertaining things on our digital devices. A time waster could also be responding to every urgent thing others put on you to do. Start making time to think about your time, and what you would like your life to look like a month from now. 

Time spending tips: 

You should have time to personally develop yourself in a healthy way. A good book, a podcast, an article—any intentional educational learning experience is something beneficial you can spend your time on. 

You should have time to eat the right things in your day. The right kind of diet can add to your lifespan.

You should have time for spiritual progression. Specifying a time in your day to meditate on truth and connect with God will be worth every undistracted moment you spend. 

You should have time to create something that serves others in some meaningful way. Cooking a delicious meal, doing a small house or work project, or even organizing photos. Giving your time to invest in others will come back to bless you. 

You should have time to keep your financial life in order. Paying off debts, decreasing your spending, creating a robust savings account, investing in worthwhile ventures, and so on. 

You should have time to care for your personal relationships. Being together to catch up on what’s happening in another person’s world is important in maintaining healthy relationships. 

These things that we take time for should carry strong values, ones that can be positively transferred to the next generation. Our time well spent turns the time we cherish into timeless blessings. I hope that the time you took to read this shapes how you use your time in the right way.

Are you a Sorry Person?

I had just turned around for a second to set one child down, but by the time I turned around to resume the game I was playing with them, it was too late. The other child went crashing to the ground in front of me before I could do anything. We were playing the game where I catch them as they jump from the top of the stairs into my arms. I could see in the child’s eyes as I scooped them off the floor and into my arms that they were shocked that I didn’t catch them. I felt horrible. Although the child wasn’t physically hurt, I knew it was the pain of “I trusted you and you dropped me” that I saw in their eyes. Not only did I feel horrible, but I started to think of how this could happen and what I needed to do differently if I wanted to earn their trust again. Being sorry was an understatement. I was mortified.

I’ve noticed a growing group of people in the world; that group is made up of people who are sorry a lot. They are sorry for what they said, or how they acted, or for that thing that happened to someone else -- or that they got caught. They are ‘Sorry People’. It’s rare to find people who are not sorry, but they are out there as well. I think it shows heart when people are sorry. It shows they feel bad about something. But sorry doesn’t change anything. Well, maybe I should say sorry doesn’t really change anything in the long-term.

If you want to change for the better from something that went wrong it’s going to take more. I’d like to present to you a familiar concept for the faith community, though it’s extremely rare even in the faith community to see it practiced. It’s the concept of repentance. Simply stated, it means to change one’s mind or to turn from going further in a certain direction. What may look like repentance can often be just a person feeling sorry. It can be hard to tell at first whether a person is just sorry or if they are repentant. So we just give it some time. Time allows for us to see how they sustain the actions that go into being repentant. 

Tripping your friend as they walk by you can be funny. But when that friend hurts themselves we feel bad (at least I hope we do). Saying sorry is our reaction. We learn nothing if we go right back to tripping them two days later. Repentance changes our mind about tripping our friends so much so that we keep our foot from extending itself. We change our mind about tripping being worth the risk of hurting someone we care about. We learn from our mistake by making up our mind that we don’t want to be known as Jack the Tripper (that’s a little jokey joke).

‘Sorry People’ live in a cycle of misery. They don’t understand why they keep doing what they don’t like to do, yet they only realize they don’t like to do it every time it affects them or others negatively. Prior to that, it’s almost like they forget how their sorry actions would be received. Repentance causes us to alter behavior long before we are tempted to give into that behavior. The power in repentance is that it breaks the miserable cycle. Sorry is short-term guilt. Repentance is key to long-term health and transformation from our temporary trip ups.

Wash your hands from you know what and watch your soul become refreshed

A few days into the current pandemic I found myself getting hype. I became electrified about the idea that a point of demarcation had been created by the circumstances. I know it sounds strange to find anything to be happy about in a time where the fear was fresh, and the world was on edge. Here is what you might not know. I had been experiencing fear and had been on edge before this pandemic hit. The nature of what I was experiencing had to do with numerous situations that well-intentioned people had put me in. Without going into details here, let us just say it made things weird. So, when this pandemic hit, we were distanced from people yea, but it was the distance from our normal routines that helped me. While everyone was being encouraged to wash their hands more. I started to look at what was metaphorically in my hands. You know what I found in my hands. I found what I was carrying was regret on decisions I had made, shame that I didn’t know better, the pain people have caused me, and frustration where things currently were in my life. The truth was that this stuff that was in my hands had made its way to my soul. My soul needed a serious bath. What this time did for me, is that it gave me a chance to wash my hands of all that I was carrying in my soul. How refreshing this was.

The routines of life sometimes don’t allow us the time to adequately “wash our hands” of what we are carrying in our souls. Such as relationships that had disappointing conclusions. The actions of others that are no longer around that are haunting you because you see their resemblance in others. Delayed dreams because you couldn’t find the time or energy to make them happen. 

This demarcation in time showed me that what existed before all this didn’t need to follow me to the other side. My choice to wash my hands of those situations would place them in a pre-pandemic timeline of my life and what would come after would be a clean slate of post-pandemic perspective. While others were worried about getting sick, I was embracing my soul sickness and doing what I needed to do to get better. 

Washing my hands looked like me saying I’m sorry to people. It looked like me forgiving myself. It looked like me putting together a plan of action of what I learned from my failures. It looked like me getting into a groove of new disciplines. It looked like me distancing myself from the shame and guilt that came from those actions. It looked like me re-surrendering my life to the Lord who has brought me this far and has not given up on me yet. 

I’m still on a journey but now I am refreshed as I proceed. I’m writing this to encourage you to do what I did during this pandemic. Wash your hands of those things that have contaminated your soul.