Life isn’t always fair. Seldom does life turn out the way we hope it does. When we are young we have ideals and dreams. We believe anything is possible and the world is our frontier to conquer. As we get older, many of our hopes get dashed, our dreams become forgotten and our expectations are shattered. We can’t predict exactly how life will turn out, not for ourselves or anyone else.
Many people I know are frustrated, discouraged, depressed, hurt or bitter at life. When things in life don’t turn out the way we want them to, it’s easy to get upset and lose trust in ourselves and other people. I’ll be honest, through the years although I’ve had many ups, equally I’ve had just as many downs. I’ve had major disappointments in my relationships, my family, my pursuits and dreams, but what do you make of it all?
These past few weeks have been so busy, yet very focused. I’m amazed I’m still able to get everything I need to get done with the time that I have in each day. I’m working currently on my new music album; I am also running a media/entertainment company that produces film/TV/music, while also being a pastor locally and internationally. I don’t know how it all works together at times, but somehow I find a way to make it all happen. Trust me, I do eat, exercise and sleep, but you have to remain extremely focused.
I find it hard to stay focused the older I get because with age comes more responsibilities, more relationships and more requests from people to do more things. How do you get everything done in a day? How do we get everything done in a week? I used to find myself wanting to break down because so many people wanted my time, wanted me to do something for them, or expectations and pressures from other external forces would mount up on me. Gradually, through time I have learned how to stay focused by keeping a few disciplines in my life consistent. What I have learned in order to stay focused is to learn how to say no to the unnecessary and yes to the necessary. Second is to make sure I practice time management. Thirdly,
When I think of humility, I think of someone who listens, someone who is meek, someone who is a learner, someone who doesn’t think too highly of themselve, yet thinks more highly of others. I think of someone who is constantly serving others, championing others and living a life of selflessness. A person who is not about me, me, me! But a person who is about “you, you, you!” This person doesn’t care so much who gets the credit, as long as the greater good is achieved. Nor does this person try to show off or needs people’s attention, because this person is content with who they are and being faithful to doing what they know is right.
At the same time, I think humility has to do with honesty. I once heard someone say, “Humility is being honest with who you really are.” It’s not denying your issues, neither is it trying to be falsely humble by not acknowledging the truth of who you really are. But humility is a confidence that comes from knowing the truth and not being afraid to acknowledge it or at times even confront it. A humble person is a secure person. One who doesn’t need the praise of man, but only the quite praise of God.
To be humble means:
Ever since I started this 365 Days of Love project “to do one act of love each day for 365 days” it has really centered me. What I mean by centered is that each day I come back to appreciate what I have been given. It’s crazy, but each day I somehow manage to find some way to serve another human being. By doing this each day I am able to take the focus off of myself and on to another. Whereas before, much of my day was focused on what I needed to do, what I needed to get done, what did I need to accomplish to meet the goals I had set for myself. As you can see, there was a lot of “me” in my days before.
Yet now, even for just 5 minutes or 1 hour each day I can take time out to help somebody else in need. To do an act of kindness or a simple gesture of love and it has made all the difference in my life. I’m starting to recognize
When I got my first 52’ inch TV screen that came with a Playstation 3 console. I haven’t owned a TV or a video game console for more than 10 years. I haven’t owned one for a reason, simply because I don’t want to waste time. Well, I’m afraid I fell into PS3 temptation this past week. The night we got our big screen TV and the PS3 my room mate, a few friends and I stayed up till nearly 5am playing with the PS3 and surfing the web watching random youtube.com clips. Now, I don’t think there is anything wrong with watching TV, playing video games or randomly surfing the web, but I do believe it can become a distraction if you let these forms of entertainment get in the way of what needs to get done.
The reality was that the next day my roommate and I had to prepare early morning for an important church retreat in the mountains. We were to prepare many things the night before for the event, sadly, we never got to them. After playing around and wasting time for nearly 6 hours, at the end of our time I looked at my roommate and said, “What just happened? We totally just wasted a whole night and got nothing done!” We ended up
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