Ripples

Prophets are nothing but people that cause such a positive disturbance in the  present, that ripples carry into the future. Job is still spoken of today and he was Old Testament, King David, my favorite, was promised his fame through his deeds given to the Lord, and every Christian loves Paul and his remarkable change. The way I know that God is real is by the continuation of these ripples. When ripples slow, more people continue to disturb the stillness; Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, Billy Graham, President Jimmy Carter, Martin Luther, C. S. Lewis, and many many others.    

Blogging is an amazing way to be the ripple that delivers effective change needed, but I want to start the ripple. It requires a lot of zeal to electronically post your deepening love for Christ, and the mistakes you make in efforts to fulfill that unquenchable love. For as much faith that you can disperse by the sharing of your blog, one person can match the effectiveness of that post with a simple smile to someone who needs it. Without works the heartbeat of what we believe die. A word isn't as trustworthy if its not heard by the ear. A story is not as good if it's not in person, and  love isn't quite as fulfilling without the human being present. 

My blogs are nothing but xerox copies of ripples that have already been made,which is very important.  Yet, I am ready to begin doing rather than passing, so soon I will be a blogger no longer. Gandhi, could've been one of the best prophets for Jesus. He studied Jesus and knew his entire life better than some of the most reputable Christians. Yet he wouldn't convert because he couldn't see Jesus in Christians. He thought we sounded a  lot like him but none of our action dictated our leader. I want my actions to be remembered as something that is very significant to the progress of Christ. 
Greg Varner writes an incredible blog on government, Virginia Belt, Kari Mosbacker, and Brent Smith write amazing blogs on personal experiences, and Chris Vaughan has started one on his insight of the world. Christian blogs are strong and very present so my contributions are more than covered.

 We have a saying at my new home, Trevecca, which is Esse Quam Videri. Which is Latin for  "TO BE, RATHER THAN TO SEEM." My goal is to live every word I've ever wrote before blogging, during blogging, and way after this blog. The time for formulating my disturbance has arrived and the time for talking has ceased.

My Health and Strength

Goliath stood at 10 foot but was reduced to 6 as he kneeled on his knees to let out loud amounts of laughter. David stood at 5'7 with only 17 years of mileage on his young frame. David continued his sentence that produce the laughter that spread through the philistine camp,"Today the Lord will conquer you, and I will kill you and cut off your head." Breaking his laugh, Goliath rushed forward to mutilate the young boy. As he had done when the bears and the lions charged his position, David removes the rock from his sling but this time is different. 

 When God throws a stone from a man, its not a thing in this world that can live to tell about it. When I was a senior in High School my hormones overcame my love for God. I've always loved Jesus and I have always desired to follow him but when you are the butt of every 3rd wheel date as a teenager you tend to abandon what's important. She was a senior too and I knew what I could do, because she was known for her relationships with guys and all I want was one time. Well I'm not good at being in someone's  life for one time and before I knew it was in love with sex. 

  She had cheated on me and I knew it without actually knowing it but God was calling out to me. He was trying to break me of the hold  sex had on me. I knew I didn't love her but the sinful moments we had was what I loved. Then God used the stone that was Auburn to drop the giant but the  giant didn't fall easy. Claims of pregnancy began to reverberated as the ground shook from the giant's fall. I remember crying desperately on my knees for hours asking God not to give me a child, for I knew I wouldn't go to school just to provide for what would be my family. Then I got the call that finished the giant, "I'm not pregnant."

It was these famous thieves from Chicago that always stopped by a church to pray before they pulled a job. Someone asked them, "What did they always pray for, forgiveness?" The robbers said, We ask God for Health and Strength, and We'll steal the rest." We pray for so many things in life: God I want that girl, I want that job, I want that car but when our health come into question everything fades away. As a sophomore in college I started to notice bumps forming in place they shouldn't be, my lips and other areas without getting into specifics. I also felt very sick a lot of the time. The thought crossed my mine that maybe I escaped children but still found consequences of my sin. I've never felt so helpless as I waited for the call of Nurse Judy to give the results of what coursed through my body. I thought about all the stats she gave me, like 1 in 3 college students have an STD or that your 85% at risk of catch anything with a condom. Did I lose all my future for one time? As the phone ranged to give information that would transformed my life, I told Jesus I would steal the rest if he gave me health and strength.

 Lord I'll steal a beautiful wife that follows you, Lord I'll steal a job that puts me on a stage that glorifies you,and  Lord I'll steal children that shall be raised in you and your likeliness. I missed the call, so I called back and I've never been more happy to hear negative, negative, negative, negative, and negative. A second chance to be a father was unjustly given so like David exclaimed before God as his stones from heaven dismantled a giant. I shall proclaim God's beautiful grace that save me and gave a second chance. I pray that you may hear my story only to avoid the mistake I made. I only did it a couple times with one person but just that one time almost stole my health and strength.                     

My Father's Name

"Diane, I want you to change my son last name to Curry." That's what my dad told my moma over and over again throughout the years of my life, while he lived. It's good to still hear her tell that story even if I've heard it one more time than I needed too. I was had out of wedlock but the lock was secured soon after that and my parents never spent a day without each other until.....

 I like to tell a story of how my dad told me not to drink  right before he died, it's actually no truth to that at all. He actually died before I could visit him, but his cold hand that I held that was alive just 5 minutes ago wrapped in mine made me promise as if he was alive. I told him I would learn from his mistakes and live a life free of the thing that destroyed him and decapitated our family. For the most part every word I whispered to my father that day I have kept and honored.

We have all heard the Lord works out things for the good of those who love him and who he loves. Since November of my 5th grade year of elementary school, I have believed with all my soul that is why I am fatherless today. I still do, I am a greater extension of my father who fell to his addictions. The main reason he died is to teach me not to succumb to mine. We are all linked to what was done wrong the generation before us and in a way it's our job, life mission, purpose, and struggle to do better than what was left to us. From the garden, to the red sea, and on to the cross, it all follows us. I challenge you to find whatever your parents are ignorant too, fell short of, dropped the ball on, or didn't even care about and do it better than they did it. We all hold a piece to the broken world shattered before our time. Are you willing to join me to put this world together?

You know if the kind lady that I may one day share a marriage with allows me to name my son RJ (Ronald Junior) out of hope to fulfill my father's wish, I could die a happy man. Most importantly because he will know that he is only here because of the lessons taught by his father's father and that he is responsible for being a better man than his forefathers to this world and his family. I guess that would make dad a martyr,and he would definitely think that was worth dying for.  

A Fair Reply

I just read a column by a pretty good Journalist named Kevin Scarbinsky. Mr. Scarbinsky just ripped Auburn a new one for building fairly expensive and duplicate statues of it's Heisman Trophy winners plus one of the immortal John Heisman, for whom the trophy is named after. Coach Heisman was one of the great men that shoved the rolling stone that is Auburn Athletics down the hill that is Collegiate sports. Well this action by our athletic department apparently seems to make our celebratory statues hypocritical being that Alabama honor their National Championship coaches by bronzing them in front of Bryant-Denny stadium. Being the great Journalist that Mr. Scarbinsky is, he criticized Auburn in a similar fashion that he did Alabama after they started erecting statues to honor the living and the past. This quote did bother me just a bit;

"This is the same AD who dismissed the notion that Auburn would copy-cat Alabama by expanding Jordan-Hare Stadium."
                                -Kevin Scarbinsky

As much as this seems to be true, it's not completely that black and white. If Jay Jacobs copied anybody I would say it's Athletic Director Jeremy Foley about 5 hours southeast of the rolling plains of Alabama. The Gainesville Gators of the University of Florida just placed three statues of their Heisman winning athletes in front of the Ben Hill Griffin Stadium sky box seats entrance just this spring. The timing of the announcement that Auburn is building these statues is debatable being that Alabama is revealing Coach Saban's statue for A-Day. College football has always been a fight of money being thrown at whatever possible just to stay ahead of the next new thing. If you have a good idea, some other school is going use it, throw some make-up on it, and call it different. No better example of this is Alabama's version of the Tiger Prow,l or how every school has a cheaper version of Auburn's Tiger Walk. College football is politics, where you do whatever you can to stretch rules to stay ahead of the politician down the street; even if that means visiting something that has already been done, or releasing some information that seems to take the news cycle from your opponent. These athletic directors are attempting to win the support of boosters who write endless checks usually for the sole reason to be able to brag to their golf buddies and co workers how Cam Newton, Mark Ingram, or Tim Tebow himself destroyed your team and brought the glory of championships to their favorite team's history books. Oh but in politics you can't forget about your independents who win you the election. These wild cards are the 18 and 17 years olds who cherish the idea of a lot of Swag and the opportunity to see themselves idolized for as long as that university shall stand. I don't believe Jay copied what Alabama is doing, but rather he's trying to find a way to unite all his voters under one banner. So I don't agree with Mr. Scarbinsky when he used the example of Jacobs not blowing money to build a stadium Auburn could not possibly fill, just because Alabama's stadium is bigger. Even though this is a race to have the best facilities (in which the NCAA has rules holding the University responsible for not having facilities up to date that allows athletes to compete at same level as other schools) these directors have to have fiscal discipline to make sure they don't hurt the progress of their programs. Speaking of fiscal discipline, this is what Mr. Scarbinsky said next.


"In a state that comes up short in education, child care and so many other areas that really matter, don't we honor football players and coaches enough? How much is too much? Thanks to details Jacobs provided, we now have a measure. It's a bronze likeness 1 ½ times life-size that weighs about 1,900 pounds." - Kevin Scarbinsky 

Well that's the same argument that politicians have used to answer the lack of educational budgeting that they seem to have under their possession. The athletic programs in this state that spend big money completely stand on there own two legs. Meaning they make enough money to support themselves without the money that they have to take from the university because of laws like title 9. If anything is true it's this, that without Alabama and Auburn the state of Alabama would be Mississippi. The revenue generated by thousands of people fitting into an area that cannot hold them is what gets these small businesses through the year and these small businesses is what support the educational fund through their payment of taxes and the payroll taxes that are taken out of their employees checks, and through the many other ways that tax revenue is collected. These Athletic Departments influence spending from fans who want to be notice as affiliates with there favorite team superstar, to the coach's houndstooth hat, and even down to the truck they drive. Lets not forget the large work force employed by College Athletics that contribute money that spins the wheels of the pinto that is Alabama's economy.

Our problem with education has nothing to do with what Mal Moore and Jay Jacobs decided to do and what Dr. Jay Gouge and Dr. Robert Witt permits them to do. The problem lies at the base of the lack of incentives that teachers have to work. Especially when they have no allotted money to support their classrooms (unless designated by their school boards), and continue to have their retirement nickeled at as they are scheduled to lose 1 percent of the matched retirement system this May and another percent in October. Let's add the fact that teachers haven't had a raise since close to 2000, thats ten years of the same income during a inflationary period. Some would even go to talk about coaches salaries vs. teacher salaries, but if you can show me someone that can generate as much money as Nick Saban and Gene Chizik generated for their respected schools then I too would do whatever to keep them around also. A lot of what they bring to the table is why these schools have been able to withstand the mighty struggles that shake their foundation. The truth is that what our teachers lack in Alabama's High Schools is why Football players fail when they arrive to our Universities. When great teachers would prefer to be secretaries for businesses than use their god given ability to teach. Then you tend to have athletes and regular students that don't do so well at the next level, players who go on HBO for some money and attention, and I wouldn't be afraid to link this to the fact that some of them run into houses to rob people. If anything, these programs give these kids a chance to have a better life than the place from which they were raised. Athletics is a trick from universities to entice them to come get an education in order to play in the NFL. That's why more than anything, Alabama needs these Athletic Departments.

"Building a statue of Newton at this point borders on reckless. Isn't it wildly premature to start work on that tribute before the NCAA investigation into his recruitment is closed?" -Kevin Scarbinsky 

 I have worked within the confines of the athletic department for 4 years and I have traveled to every game with the team since 2006. Through all the frustration, joyous moments, and trials I've been through with this place, the one thing I will take with me is the fact that Auburn is uniquely consistent. The Cam situation has been no different, Coach Chizik, Jay, and Rich Mcglynn have done their homework and they have stuck with their guns throughout this entire thrashing. If they were to deviate from that consistency in anyway, there would be so much media innuendo about why Cam didn't have a statue. I would even get suspicious myself because the first thing a school does in any instance of trouble is distance themselves from the situation to protect it's prestige. Auburn uses family as the base to whatever they build and they try to be careful to what they add to that structure. Sometimes they judge right and sometimes they completely miss, but if you do the right thing in life, Auburn will support you in whatever endeavor or criticism you may face. I've gotten a couple of recommendations from Jay Jacobs and Coach Chizik for an athletic department job at a small college in Nashville, they have done more than I could ever ask as far as helping and meeting with me. Jay has extensive background as a Christian and Coach Chizik gives a lot of money to charities and his wife travels around the world as a missionary. So they believe in the christian principle of what you do not do for the least of these you do not do for Jesus. With all that said, Auburn made a decision about Cam a long time ago and I can't foresee anything that will change that. All efforts led by the NCAA have fallen short and all allegations against Auburn are from some people whose stories just don't fit no matter how you measure them. The NCAA will say that they are investigating this particular subject until the Sun turns into a white dwarf, because if they don't the fallout will be tremendous especially after the hit the they took for the Ohio State fiasco. 

I think Mr. Scarbinsky is an unbelievably, talented, fair, and tough journalist but just like everyone else has done in life. He missed on this one.
 

       

Cause

It's currently 12:48am on March 20th and after a long unexplained pause from one of the things I love to do best, write these over written blogs, I've decided to write once more. I'm even more sad to admit that an Zach Efron movie has awaken me from my writing coma. Charlie St. Cloud is a very good movie and I recommend it to anyone even though it has the guy from High School Musical in it. The movie is about losing things in life that means so much to us and having the faith to end that special relationship with that thing. One reoccurring theme that kept coming up like a floatation device that won't stay under water was this thing about St. Jude. St. Jude is a saint that is suppose to support human beings at the end of no hope, he basically is the guardian angel of lost causes. My favorite line of the movie is "there is no such thing as a lost cause." Alright get ready I'm about to get cheesy and write deeply about history and why we should love our country, 3.2.1.

We have met our demise many times, they come at us in every form possible, yet we continue to fight when there is no cause to fight. We press onward when earthquakes take the ground right out from under us, we stand in the wake of 30 foot tsunami waves when they storm our shores and for as much as we lose, we continue to find a cause to exist. As much as our lives are hard, there always seems to be someone out there thats living something we would call unbearable. Like the life of a Japanese fisherman who's boat got washed from it's Northern dock to central Japan by a fault line miles away. What about a Christian that stays in northern Libya, praying to God not only to be protected from those who hate what he believes but also hopes not to be consumed by the civil war unfolding in his backyard. There is also a farmer in Afghanistan who has no choice but to sell opium to evil groups of men with terrorist agendas, in order to pay for a child of his to rehab from opium abuse. 

If I could say anything to help them believe in a cause that doesn't seem to be there, to want to live for another day that doesn't seem like its worth living. I would say, at man's darkest hour there was a illuminating god that conquered all the things that this world could ever form against us, so no matter what torture awaits us, no matter the destruction that hides in our future, and no matter how close we are to our demise. Fight the good fight for there is no such thing as a lost cause. May God bless you, May he bless this country built from cause, and may God bless us to find a reason to give cause to those without any.

Saul, Paul, and Black History Month

At the end of Acts' chapter 7 an fearless profit by the name of stephen fell dead to the rocks of Jews that stoned him after he claimed to see Jesus at the side of the only true God. While the Jews stoned Stephen they laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul, who from that moment went on about the business of being God's enemy. At that time the evil the Jews had committed in front of this malleable young man shaped his intentions for years until a later time when Jesus intervened. This story reminds me of a situation in which I was talking to a teacher about black history month before i spoke to her class about the monthly occasion. She said that the kids thought the month was all about black people and how they over powered the white man to become free. To finish the story of Paul/Saul being molded, Stephen cried out before the last stone freed him of his earthly bounds, "Father don't hold this sin against them." Why didn't Paul or Saul at the time take that moment of godliness radiating from Stephen and changed the world for the better instead of manufacturing evil for years after? Majority Rules, the most influence on a child's life is shaped by the people that spend the majority of the time with that child. The majority always has the loudest voice and the hate that flowed from their ruckus quieted Stephen words. That often happens with teachers, their hopeful voices often gets faded out by the noise that comes from home.

Black history month is about a common purpose and a principle that a person can have the freedom to truly do whatever they want with the God given life that they have. The majority of the people that prove this to be true was African Americans but it was a minority of whites that paid the price to see the freedom of blacks also, they were slurred at, sprayed with over powering waters, they marched while dogs bit at them, and some did give their life for my and others freedom. Its not about one but about the freedom of all for when one is not free, all are not free. Rosa fought to sit in the front for all, Dr. King said he had a dream of equality for all where his child could hold hands with a white child, African Americans fought to become even not to be exalted above any race. Black history month is not about the majority or the minority it's about process of where the minority and the majority meet. It's about obstacles taken by African American leaders and White leaders to defy the majority of what they had been taught and the majority of what others believe to hold truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal. The actions of African Americans to be such examples of how a people should fight for freedom should be celebrated but not abused. We should all celebrate this month to continue efforts to push the kids of our future to the right majority, which is the story of progress of a nation of people that is different but alike at the same time. For today there are Sauls being molded when there could be Pauls molded and that divide between the two is our Slavery and our modern day segregation. I truly hope that the kids at loachapoka elementary understood my message through their present day majority.
May God bless you and May he bless this nation of immigrants, and may he give us the wisdom to create the right majorities

Where There is a Human, There is a Way

"Happy valentines day, don't be jaded there are so many people to love." That was a quote I happen to come across while rolling through my Facebook time line, from the lovely Katherine Russell. I feel as if she has always had great prospective on life every since I met her in my young days at Auburn University, as fellow students at ACF. Faith and prospective are very synonymous words, one means likely to be or become and the other means trust or confidence. Prospective is just taking a problem that is way larger than us and using our faith to make it smaller. Prospective is seeing and faith is doing, having enough belief in our abilities and our God to will ourselves through whatever storm we travel through. When we use our prospective and faith past failures, our biggest problems, and our present fears make the mountain of the uncertain future all but a pebble.

It seems as if recently the world has been burning down around me. Things just continue to get worse, as the days grow greater and as I get older. It seems as if I lost my faith in this world and the good that it can accomplish. The middle east is falling apart and no one is sure as to how it might come back together. The majority of the oil that powers the world is trapped in ports of the middle east that is worker-less because the employed is in the streets changing their governments. This has risen gas prices to new levels never seen before, effecting so many people I know who don't have a job here in Alabama from getting to job interviews, picking kids up from school, going to the grocery stores and raising those grocery prices at the same time. I also have a dear friend who has contracted cancer for the third time, and this time it's located in her brain, another friend who has a dad who fell hit his head and is now in a comma. Two friends of mine have a mother in the hospital with an unknown fever.

I don't speak of those problems to complain, but to show the faith I have in people. Age after age we as a civilization continue to rewrite the book on problem solving, we never quit, we never falter, we never stop, we never grow weary, we never lose the creativity that helps us rewrite the end of our story prolonging our journey that keeps our destruction from becoming present. The truth is that most of the time our own adversity paves the way for our success and that's having prospective. Someone once asked JFK how he became a war hero he said simply, "Somebody sunk our boat." When Chester Greenwood suffered from frost bite after a journey through the woods he went home and invented ear muffs. When Humphrey O'Sullivan got tired of his bad back aching he created the first rubber boot to support him during work. When a man shop was in poor financial position and he got his gaslight turned off due to the corrupt gas company, Thomas Edison created the light bulb. Adversity is what shapes our prospective, our faith, our battle with the unknown and our relationships with god.

Someone once said that the Brave may die young, but the cautious never live. We are the brave, we progress against all odds. Cancer may kill some of us but the rest of us WILL FIND A CURE! While oil grows short now, we will find alternatives in affordable ways. While Health care seems unsolvable, we will find a solution. While those less fortunate then us starve we will find a way to feed them. Because where there is a human there is a way! My faith in us comes from the strength god gives us, our strength to find prospective and have the faith to believe in a better tomorrow, to believe in a dawn at midnight, to know nothing but us can harm our future. For God is the same unchanging provider that gave the strength to the divide of the red sea, and the strength needed to beat cancer for the 3rd time and the strength to awake us from the grips of commas. Where there is a human god is capable of making a way.

May god bless you, May God bless this burning world in which we live, and may he continue provide the way as we follow.