You ever noticed how everybody seems to know somebody that “can help you with that.  Let me just give them a call for you.  Don’t worry, I’ll hook you up.”  These days everybody seems to need a hook up, want a hook up, or have a hook up.  Have you ever wondered what all that is? Well, I have and I’ve also noticed a few things:

1. Hook ups aren’t necessarily bad. All of us need one from time to time.  Some people just want to be helpful and they want to be known for helping others.  So they collect information and contacts, and they put the right people together at the right time.  Many times it’s a win-win outcome. BUT
2. Hook ups can be completely self-serving too.  Some people are simply barters, they trade one service or favor for another one.  That’s not bad, necessarily.  In fact bartering can be quite clever when done right.  I hook you up Monday morning with a paying gig.  You hook me up Friday night at the crowded hot spot in the city by becoming my guaranteed way in.  That’s cool, as long as the third person (you know the one coughing up all the money) “gets the hook up” too by receiving excellent service.  But self serving people don’t always think about everyone involved.
3. Bad hook ups can save you money in the beginning and cost you extra work, extra cash, extra stress in the end. This is the case when someone hooks you up with a company that does sloppy work or someone hooks you up with stolen goods. What if you work at a local store and all your friends have the “hook up” because you give them free items out of the store any time they want.  Well, your friends are happy because they get free goods.  And you seem to be pleased because now people fake like they care because you’ve purchased their affection with your “stolen goods.“  And the guy who actually owns the store, the one who paid the price to create the business, is loosing money.  I don’t think he feels hooked up, because it is his property to give or sale, not yours.  Stolen hook-ups always cost you in the end (eventually), especially when you’re trying to live as a man or woman of God because with God integrity is everything.

You know, Proverbs says that ”pureness of heart“ and grace in your communication shall cause the king to befriend you (PRO 22:11).  Now, that’s a real hook up: being connected to powerful people because of your integrity, discretion and conversation is the kind of connection that can stand the test of time.   A man being diligent in his work, puts him in the company of kings (PRO 22:29).   Since we all need a hook up from time to time, let’s be mindful of excellent and honest things.

MizJAI…life-styling for the King’s Company, you are welcomed to join me

Do you remember the nursery rhyme about Humpty Dumpty? It went something like this . . .

Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall,
all the King’s horses and
all the King’s men
couldn’t put Humpty back together again

He was an egg, and when eggs fall apart it seems impossible to get them back into shape. Well, the thing about us is that in a lot of ways we are equally as fragile with a hard outer shell that is far easier to crack than we like to admit. Which brings me to this: what happens in those moments when we do crack; in those situations that cause us to scatter and fall? What happens to us? Is the falling apart the end of the story? . . . It doesn’t have to be. In fact, if we handle it right it could be the beginning of something powerful.

When we discover fire in the cold, the value of that heat increases for us. When we find hope in the face of impossible heartache, then survival begins to mean something else altogether for us. When we discover strength in the wake of great weakness, then overcoming begins to take shape for us. Now, no matter what we face, with God we possess the ability to pull all the pieces back into place. In fact, in moments of true grief, great pain and overwhelming heartache we have this “opportunity” to become the beauty that emerges from ashes. We may have our frailties but we are not Humpty Dumpty. We have had great falls but we are strong enough to find hope.

Always remember that God gives beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness (Isa 61: 3).

MizJAI . . . wiping off the ashes and moving on to beauty

We traveled a-lot when I was growing up and for a season we stayed in Jacksonville, Florida near the water. Every evening my sisters and I would build sand castles, create shared adventures within our mind, and search out clams fully expecting to find pearls on the inside. We seemed to never tire of the searching and the building and the dreaming even though we never found a single pearl out there, and the water or someone’s foot always seemed to destroy what we built or steal our clams out of their sand castle home. One thing remained, the hope never died.

Every clam comes out of the elements: the water, the vegetation, the bumpy ride to the surface & God knows what else it goes through, BUT e–v–e–r–y clam does not have a pearl on the inside. In fact, agitation is required in order for pearls to form and that makes me think of us. We (humans) go through things and sometimes we arrive at places, and then ask ourselves “How did I get here?” It’s simple, one step after another followed by small and large decisions daily bring us to were we are today. And whether or not we believe that we are in complete control our past, know this, we are in complete control of today. Today I can joy. Today I can dream. Today I can start over. Today I can be aware of the agitation of my yesterdays and choose to take the steps to discover the pearls that have formed on the inside of me.

While every clam does not have a pearl, every human does. It’s just a matter of the discovering it. If you have been through anything the elements are there for the beautiful to emerge out of you. My pastor always reminds us to “reset out mind.” He says if “I’ve made it this far, and I have to start over from here, then I know I can make it from this point.”

We are going places. Let’s make the decision to go over and not under, to win in life and not loose heart, to regain focus instead of falling a part, to keep going until the life we want is the life that we live everyday.

Never, never, never give up! Just start over

1. with tears in your eyes, start over
2. with laughter choked up in your chest, start over
3. with the best of your faded dreams in the back of your mind, start over, they will come back to you
4. with the kids at your heels and the impossible as your reality, start over
5. with every painful and not so perfect step, start over.

You are not alone. You are pearl hunting, searching out the beauty on the inside of you that the agitation of your past has created. Just hold on and start over with one determined step at a time. And just for you, do something special today: walk, dance, laugh, paint, dream, write, lay on your back in the grass and watch the stars tonight or the clouds this afternoon, pray, sing, start your new beginning today . . .

MizJAI . . . still searching and building and dreaming and starting over

I used to imagine myself rounding the track, handing the baton off to Flo Jo (Florence Griffith-Joyner) herself and catching my breathe while she ran the last leg of the 4 by 400 in the Olympics. In my memory I couldn’t hear the sound of the crowd over my own excitement of just being on this team and winning the gold medal (of course). It was a beautiful reoccurring desire BUT I never did the work that it takes to make the Olympic team.

In fact, all of you would think it crazy if I were to become jealous and to complain about this seasons Olympic hopefuls. They work for it, I don’t, so there’s no reason to hate (right?). I mean don’t get me wrong, I’m not completely lazy. After all I ran track in high school and in college, so I trained but to have what they have requires a higher level of commitment and the reward is also greater.

Now, what about the faith? Have you ever looked at a dynamic man or woman of God and wished that you could be as close to God as they seem to be. Well, there are two things to consider

• 1) you never really know what is going on until you walk in another man’s shoes and
• 2) God is no respecter of person, you have as much as you choose to have from God but you have to “put the time in” so to speak.  This is the one that we are going to focus on.

Just like athletes train, the sold out woman of God trains too and her success is measured by the mess she is willing to let go of in order get closer to the Creator. The sold out man of God strengthens himself and builds muscle with every old habit that he walks away from in exchange for something more. They are lifting weights every time they choose to walk in wisdom instead of the old behaviors that were learned from a messed up pass. They condition themselves as they consume Word & tattoo it on the canvas of their mind. With every decision they are reshaping their spiritual selves into something lean and beautiful with God as the master trainer.

Now I ask you, if you do the work, won’t you reap the reward? Grown up dreams, require growing pains but it is only the pain of conditioning.  Is it worth it to you?

MizJAI . . . willing to do the work in order to live the dream

CLUB FITNESS (that’s my gym)
We pay all this money to join these health clubs. We make these plans to work our way into a bikini (or whatever you’re trying to wear with your Christian-self) and oftentimes after the excitement of the first month our commitment to the “almighty” gym begins to fade. So we tell ourselves the excuses that we can live with–
“there’s not enough time”
“I still look good though”
“the instructors ‘suck’ anyway ”
Well,
maybe they do, but where there’s a will there is always a way. And surely we meant to frequent the gym far more than the New Year workouts that we spring into in an effort to keep our new resolutions. How long does that last anyway? a month!?!

You know, the gym doesn’t care about you showing up, because they get the check anyway. So, if the gym doesn’t care, then who will–oh, that’s right, that leaves YOU. And speaking of you, I wonder how many of us have raggedy, seasonal, jacked-up relationships with our faith.

CLUB FAITH (that’s my lifestyle)
Faith in action is like a workout for sure. Without some form of pressure faith has no expression. I look at it this way, upon arrival to heaven love is what dominates, not faith, because we will see God face to face & will know the things that we did not and could not know here. And there will be no need for faith because we will have “it” all, finally seeing, touching, feeling, smelling and truly knowing all the righteous & beautiful things that we have believed and sought after. Our new home will be a place designed by Love (1 John 4:8, ) with rooms set aside for us.
But here
on this side of heaven
faith
is fundamental.
And learning how to exercise that faith is key to breaking down the junk in our lives and building up the best of “we (me & you).”

Take me for example (the resident Gospel Nerve guinea pig for now–and I know I am not the only person with a jacked up pass, but anyway) I married the wrong man once. I know, because he tried to take me out on the honey moon & violence is a good indicator to get the heck out of dodge (in case you where wondering) while you still can. That incident of abuse has created pressure in my life, in my heart, in my head. And that pressure has caused me to take the faith that I have and PUSH against the drama that I feel until I am free of nightmares and fears and foolishness. To push and believe until I am so real with myself that the only thing left is the beauty that the Spirit of Truth brings. AND I am certain that I am not the only one going through. As a matter of fact, after we quit medicating our stupidity with excuses and crutch relationships the only options for us are
(1) to fall apart or
(2) to faith our way through.

I choose number 2, club Faith all the way. And the price, the BEST & the WORST of me from my heart to God’s hands, is not to steep.
Sign me up!
What about you?

MizJAI . . . finally learning to “work-out” like a champion

You used to be so strong, so focused, so sure. Remember that, remember when you were fearless and unafraid of your future and your dreams, no matter how big they were. It was before:
1). It was before your heart was broken more than you could handle.
2). It was before you came up with this plan about being perfect and saving face.
3). It was before you closed your ears to heartache not realizing that somehow, you had closed your heart to real love instead.
4). It was before we came up with all these questionable solutions and ideas about how to “make it” in life.
We were just a little bit younger, a lot more fearless, definitely more clueless and knew we needed God a whole lot more. The beauty of the helplessness of childhood is we know we cannot make it on our own. We know we need help and that creates the atmosphere for a heart of faith that is ready to rely on something bigger than ourselves: God.

I am going back to that place in my heart when I trusted more.

I am going back to the parts of me that laughed like a child, free of worry.

I am going back to reintroduce myself to the me that took pleasure in the simple things, like a butterfly in motion or the smell of a flower in bloom.

I am going back to remember the best parts of me.

And don’t worry, I know that I am grown and that bees sting and that everyone can’t be trusted. I am simply choosing to hold on to “whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of a good report (Phil. 4:8).” I choose to trust God with my heart and my dreams and my hurts and my aches because this bitterness and fear doesn’t suite my life, nor my right to joy. And this fear doesn’t honor this life of faith and hope that I vow to live. What about you? What have you forgotten from your childhood that would serve you well today?

MizJAI . . . rediscovering her childhood moments of faith and wonder and amazement

There seems to be this cycle that circles my life. I learn to trust God for one dream, and then it’s time to trust Him for another. Yes, it’s a cycle of faith. Like the time I wanted to go to Europe, and I was so broke. Long story short God made it happened, just like I knew he would (I will tell you guys about it later).

It seems like a year had not even passed before new desires and needs emerged. I wanted a house of my own and yes, I was so broke. God made it happen.

In the course of six months both grandparents passed and I needed God. This was followed by a season of family issues which was followed by a season of friend issues which was followed by a season of work issues; and yes, I needed God.

THE LESSON

Looking back teaches me something simple: I need God in my life, even when I think I am strong enough on my own. In life, or at least in mine, there seems to be this cycle of storms that we are either
1). headed into,
2). in the middle of it, or
3). on our way out
(as my pastor puts it).
When I am fighting for my career dreams, I can take comfort in the fact that “as I delight in the law of Lord, He will give me the desires of my heart.” So I dive into the word. As I am standing for my family to be delivered from our own brand of crazy (don’t judge, I happen to know for a fact that EVERYBODY’s family is special in it’s own little-God-deliver-us-from-our-mess way ) As I stand for my family, I know that “greater is He that is in me than He that is in the world” and I take comfort that as I stand and believe God will deliver me into my best dream.

There is simply always something or someone to FAITH for. We might as well accept this reality, we need God. So when you finally arrive in your dream and walk in the life that you hoped it would bring, if you feel the prick and pain of a new desire and need–Don’t beat yourself up, go right back to the One who helped you in the first place. You are growing up by walking through another cycle of FAITH, learning to trust God everyday for everything one single moment at a time, and that is ok.

MizJAI . . . walking through another cycle of FAITH