Da Word... 218! Daily

How is it that we surpass merely being good at a thing? Even natural talent can only get us so far. To surpass good and venture into great, maybe even legendary, we definitely have to put in the time. The Olympics attest to that in a major way. Gold ain't on your radar if you aren't hittin' it on the daily. Word.

"... He took the disciples with him and had discussions daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. This went on for two years, so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord."

- Acts 19:9,10

My man Paul was doing his thing, reppin' Christ. Homie is always reppin' Christ! This time he was in the synagogue for a period of time (3 months) speaking about da Christ. As typical, some peeps just grew staunch and refused to believe. Did Paul let that discourage him? HAH! Naw kid! He went on to phase two. He switched venues, took his disciples with him, and held DAILY discussions.

What's that do, hittin' things up daily? Daily action breeds perfection ;-D Heh heh. Now we'll never hit perfection, but we'll become quite legendary in any endeavor if we come at it daily, hard and heavy. Ever wonder why there seem to be a few humans who seem to be able to do the impossible? It's because they are hittin' it daily kid! Persistence, focus, and a clear goal. In whatever we pursue there is no standing still, we are either growing stronger or growing weaker. Think about that for a second....

So what can we learn from Paul? For one, if we want to get God, we gotta hit him up daily. If we really want to know who God is, what having a relationship with homie is truly like, we gotta check it out daily. If we wanna grow strong relationships with our fellow bruthaz and sistaz, we gotta engage in some real discussion... daily kid. And my friends, if we want to be effective in reaching people, we gotta hang tough and invest the time. The result? Olympic Gold! Aw yeah!

G-bless,

- patrick

Da Word... 217! Recognition

You know how some people instantly recognize when something is great and not to be missed while others fail to make that same realization? Ever wonder why that is? Is it because the latter is simply not paying attention to the subtle tell-tale hints? Or is the former just super adept at picking things up from the tiniest details? Hmmm....

Philip found Nathanael and told him, "We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote -- Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph"

- Philip (Luke 1:45)

In reading da word today, I came to Luke chapter 1. I noticed that as the first disciples were being called, it seemed each knew that my man J was the Messiah! Da Christ yo! But HOW in the world did they know? For a good portion of them, they just saw J and decided to immediately drop what they were doing and follow him. Seems absurd! But somehow they noticed something, and others of them knew that they knew our homie J was da Christ.

Peep the verse above. That is a MONSTROUS claim. Imagine being told all your life about some Messiah who is supposed to come and bring the ruckus. Imagine growing up where one of the "founding fathers" and downright PILLAR of your society spoke wrote about such a being. Oh and wait, don't forget all of the most respected and powerful members of that society also speak and write about this being. And suddenly your bro calls and is like, "Yo check this out! We've found the one Moses wrote about! And the prophets! The dude is here.... in da FLESH kid!" It would BLOW your mind and you would have to go check it out.

But how did these disciples recognize that J is da Christ, da Messiah? I don't know. But it begs the question, is it dependent on the state of mind of the individual? I'm sure it wasn't that hard to recognize that something was VERY different about this person called Jesus. I would venture to say that those who embraced that recognition were those who admitted to themselves that yes indeed, something about this person is different. They opened their minds up and didn't let themselves stand in the way of what was very obvious. It's when we ourselves don't want to accept a thing that we fail to recognize something great when it is staring us in the face. We've got some other agenda and we staunchly hold onto it despite the glaring obviousness of the thing in front of us. My friends, let's not allow our personal ambitions, vices, desires, and pride blind us from recognizing that which is great before us lest we miss out on beyond amazing realities. Word.

G-bless,

- patrick