Da Word... 233! Embracing the Zone

Ever get in the zone?  I mean, really in the zone?  Isn't it a great feeling!  I remember playing pool with some friends.  There was one game in particular where I was on fire.  I'm telling you, if there ever were a zone.. THAT was it!  I COMPLETELY ran the table on these fools!  Sinking shot after shot, one after the other, I could only hear the words from that classic NBA Jam video game echoing in my head, "He's heating up! HE'S ON FIRE!!!!"  By not getting distracted, my output blew the charts. They didn't even get to take a shot!

The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful.

- J (Matthew 13:22)

Let's set the stage a bit.  My man J (da Christ), had just told a parable about a sower who was sowing seed and as he did some some fell among different types of earth.  There were those that fell on the path, those that fell on rocky places, those that fell among thorns, and those that fell among good soil.  Later, Jesus explained the parable to his inner crew of disciples. And that's where the above verse comes into play, my man J explaining about the seeds that fell among the thorns.

In His description, the seed that falls among the thorns basically represents those individuals who lose sight of the big picture.  These are the people who get distracted, lose focus, and fall out of the zone.  But the zone is where we wanna be!  What's interesting is how this type of person loses sight of the big picture and falls out of the zone: the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth.  And whats even more interesting?  J describes these things as choking!  Thus making this person unfruitful.

It sounds to me like this type of person is one who means well, but is going about it incorrectly.  The worries of this life are always going to be present.  So sinking hours, days, and months into worries is not an effective use of our time!  If instead we focus on the bigger picture and on something greater than ourselves, the looming specter of our worries suddenly begins to diminish in size.  It's loom loses its bite and pales in comparison to the vision of the big picture.  And thus, life's worries become easier to navigate.

Wealth... now that's no adversary to take lightly!  The picture of wealth is amazingly deceptive.  It's easy to fall into notion that wealth can solve all problems.  And that's so not true!  Wealth brings along its own problems!  Check out the Dave Chappelle interview on Inside the Actors Studio.  He drops some bonafide nuggets about how people change, especially your supposed friends, when suddenly 50 mil is written next to your name.  And if money solved all problems, why do many of the rich feel devoid of the genuine nature of joy? We, as humans, always want what we don't have and think the grass is greener on the other side.  One can easily fall into the mode of chasing money, falsely thinking that acquiring wealth will catapult his/her efforts to attain the big picture.  Instead, he will find himself doing all the things to increase his wealth, and doing none of the things that would advance progress towards the big picture.  In short, he is unfruitful having been choked.

So what's da word?  Embrace the zone.  Check your trajectory from time to time.  Ask yourself, is worrying about this or chasing that bringing me closer to the big picture?  Is it allowing me to produce output that blows the charts?  Or, is it causing me to deviate from the path?  Let's get in the zone and start producing 30, 60, and 100 fold!  Let's produce genuine fruit.

G-bless,

  - patrick

Da Word... 232! What goes in will come out

I've heard some stories about people swallowing some insaaaaane things.  What they fail to remember is that if the body can't digest it..... someway or another, it's going to be coming out!  And in some cases, that coming out may not be too comfortable.... ahem..... if you know what I mean.  The point though is this, anything we take into our bodies will certainly be expressed, even if transformed, and will have a rippling impact.

 The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.

- J (Matthew 12:35)

In this passage, my man J (Jesus) is verbally whippin' some Pharisees into shape.  I mean, these guys did not know who they were trying to step in the ring with.  Here's my man J, healing some people, and in come the Pharisees attempting to attribute his good to the work of evil incarnate!  Ludicrous... so J took off the gloves and, in the process, conveyed a great truth.  What one fills himself or herself with will most certainly express itself in leaps and bounds.

It's all about perspective.  Two people can look at the same situation and interpret or act upon it in completely different ways.  And that response has to do with one's body of experience.  The verse above speaks to the extremes.  But of course we know there is always gray.  However the point is clear, we are what we eat.  Think about it, if all you ever do is ethical, humble, compassionate, encouraging, committed, and passionate, such actions will affect your thinking!  You will have trained your mind to operate in a certain way, and now it's straight muscle memory.  Like in any physical activity, you do enough reps of a certain maneuver and it becomes second nature.  You perform without even having to think about it.  In the same way, whenever something new comes around, your mind has already been trained to snap into a mode of approaching the new experience with the great perspective you've trained it to use.

Now if you always teeter on the edge, that thin line between what's right and what's not, you will soon enough train your mind to always operate in that fuzzy area.  And if you tend to step over that line, pretty soon it won't take much to push you over. It is true, bad company will most certainly corrupt good character.  Even if a person appears to be a pillar (and it only works if his or her beliefs are anchored into something much greater than he or she), if that individual's common experience 24/7 is with bad company, the probability still exists that that person's thinking could be altered for the worse.  Pretty soon, those gray areas no longer seem all that gray, and stepping over the line no longer seems like such a bad thing.  The transformation is subtle. You never know it until one day, BAM!  It hits you square in the face. But alas, you are already in too deep.

It's about perspective my friends.  And we can change our perspective.  All we gotta do is change or augment our eating habits.  Who do you wish to become?  What kind person do you want to be?  Do you wanna be the line stepper?  Or that inspiring leader?  It boils down to one question that we should ask ourselves weekly:

What am I eating?

G-bless,

  - patrick