At first glance this could be a question you would ask of someone you were counting on during a difficult period of time. There is nothing worse than facing the things that life throws at us without the support of those who we feel we can count on. The tone of voice assigned to this question immediately exposes the degree of pain one has been forced to endure in what can be best described as isolation.
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My parents said, this concept was not a Christian way of living. It may be immortalized in a popular song, but it was fundamentally wrong. I didn’t place quotation marks around what they said for two reasons. First, I was too young to remember their exact words. Second, I am pretty sure my parents didn’t use words like fundamentally, immortalized or concept when explaining to a young boy why a song did not fit our belief system.
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Lots of things happen and we try to understand. Some situations are predictable and therefore easy to understand. Others we can make sense of even if it is not the outcome we would normally expect. Then there are the situations far beyond what we would expect. I can, with some degree of accuracy, predict that a child with an upbringing that encourages questioning for the purpose of understanding and involves laughing together but never laughing at the child when the answer is obvious, will do well. Power dynamics in which the person perceived to have the power explains what is not understood in terms suited to the other person’s intellectual limitations and mental capacity will lead to a well-developed adult. If this continues through the teenage years, there is a higher degree of success for the maturing individual and a stronger relationship with all who pour into their lives but…
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Warning – independent thought may lead to cancellation. There are days that I worry what others will think about my thoughts. It is these days that I choose not to think or at least not to think out loud. Other times I deem myself to have reached a plane of philosophical depth that my thoughts, when revealed, cannot be dismissed. Then there are regular days that my thoughts are pedestrian, no, really, they are about pedestrians, how not to hit them at a crosswalk, how not to become one by driving recklessly and losing my licence etc. These are the days when thought is limited to the things that present themselves throughout the day. No depth, just trying to make it to tomorrow.
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Before you applaud or unsubscribe, maybe you too should consider becoming “WOKE.” As I understand it, WOKE is a term used to describe an awakening that takes place when an individual who has not experienced life the same way another individual has experienced it due to factors such as race, socioeconomic status and historical factors, views life through the lens of the people who do not share the privileges they have simply because they were born in a different environment. While this term has become a battle cry for social Marxism (here comes the unsubscribes and the applause) this term based on the definition I have created above, can be a great way to view December 25th and Jesus’ birth.
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It’s a strange time in my life. I wrongly assumed that the things I have done and continue to do would have reached more people. Somehow, I came to the conclusion that the things I love to do like writing blogs, plays and music, my book, leading worship and preaching sermons would lead to a wider audience. I’m not saying I expected to be famous or even well known. I’m not going to lie; I dared to dream once in a while that I could be more than I am, be someone who’s name came up when people talked about this thing or that thing but now my dreams can be best described as backwards. Instead of a vision of what I want my future to be, my dreams revolve more around the past and the question, “What if?”
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