Choices

“This is the life that I chose or rather the life that chose me.”
Jay-Z “December 4th”


Greetings folks! Life sucks. Not really but that’s what we like to tell ourselves. We like to tell ourselves that so much is wrong in our lives and there are so few ways (if any) to fix them. We like to throw ourselves a pity party and invite everyone in our contacts list to come. Keep your invitation, e-vite, or singing telegram because I’m not coming.

Why is self-hatred as popular a pastime as baseball? Why is fear and loathing more than just part of a movie title? Why do we wallow in our circumstances and situations more than pigs do in the mud? It’s because it’s easy and who doesn’t like easy (other than fathers of daughters). It’s much easier to whine and complain than to get up and do something about it. It’s much easier to ask others for a hand out than it is to ask for a hand up. It’s much easier to beat ourselves up than to pick ourselves up. So we do the easy thing. We do what’s convenient, what’s familiar, what’s comfortable.

No matter how terrible your job may be, no matter how rotten your kids may be, no matter how much you may pray that your significant other develops amnesia and forgets where you live, life isn’t that bad. There is nothing so terrible going on in your life that you can’t overcome. There is no obstacle that’s insurmountable. There is no mountain that’s immovable. There is no opponent that can’t be conquered. All you need is the desire to change, the will to effect that change, faith that it will happen, and make it work.

1. Where there’s a will there’s a way!
It must first start with your will. Will is the desire to want it more than anything or anyone else. It starts with a hunger, a thirst, an insatiable desire for something more. Figure out what you want, where you want to be and then set out to accomplish it. Make up in your mind that you will accomplish your goal.

2. “You gotta have faith.” Limp Bizkit/George Michael
The next step is to have faith. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stated that “Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.” When you first decide to make changes in your life and to do a new thing you may not be able to see the staircase. You may not be able to see that new job, or house, or degree, but you can’t let that stop you from taking that first step. Once you continue to walk towards your goal the staircase will come into view. Once you can see it you can jog towards it. Once you start jogging and your desire to reach the top of it grows you’ll want to run to it. But you have to have faith.

3. “Make it do what it do baby!” – Ray Charles
The last step is making it happen. Your will and faith mean nothing without action. The bible says “faith without works is dead” meaning you can believe all you want but if you don’t act on this faith than you’ve accomplished just as much the kid who never tries out for the basketball team; nothing. You have to put in the application for that first or next degree. You have to put in the application for that promotion. You have to log on to find that marriage/family therapist. You have to go to the gym to get that weight off. You have to “get up, get out and get something.”

When you combine your will, with faith and works, you’ll find that you’re much closer to your destiny, to your goal and to your purpose. Living without a purpose is like treading water in the middle of the ocean. You may survive for a while but eventually you’ll drown. Find your purpose. Find your will. Have faith. Make it work. Until next time, Stay Up and Be Blessed!