Eric Suddoth's Blog, page 39

It’s Okay if You Don’t Like Me…Or is it?

[image error]

Here’s my confession. I’m a people pleaser, so I’ve been told. I bend over backwards until I become a human pretzel to keep the peace even if it causes a hurricane inside myself. I defend the underdogs because I feel everyone deserves a chance and first impressions are not always right. Or second or third or fourth. I wander blindly into dark alleys of life thinking you just have to have faith in people. I try to see the good, even when truthful reality smacks me in the face and I once again become the victim for my lack of discernment. I have the childlike trust down to a T. It’s the other side of the coin that strangers can be dangerous is where I sometimes fail.

I don’t want to be the cynical person who never trusts in the kindness of strangers, but I need to be wide eyed to the fact that not all strangers are kind. That’s a hard pill for me to swallow.

Now, let me get this straight, I want everyone to like me, but I have learned that no matter what I do. No matter how far I bend. No matter the depths I reach, there are some people who just won’t like me. And that used to kill me. It still does.

I do not know how much time I have wasted trying to win over the unwinables while I have left the ones who love me no matter what I do on the back burner. It was hard hearing a good friend tell me that I’m a people pleaser, but as I reflect. That friend was partly right. (Looking back in my past, I’ve had various people tell me this truth). Another one of my failings is the admittance of being wrong. But after much thought, I agreed. But it was still hard for me to grasp.

That is, until driving the other day and a thought flooded my brain.

“Eric, how can you think that everyone will like you when everyone didn’t like Jesus. Are you better than Him?” That thought figuratively put a U-Turn in my thought process.

Who am I to think everyone should like me? No one person in all of history has been loved and adored by everyone. So why should I be the exception? It is still a humbling thought. I’m still grappling and wrestling with how to live my life in the coming days, weeks, months and years (I actually wrote this blog post months ago but couldn’t post it because I’m still thinking about these words) How much should I change? What should I change? Will my attitude turn negative or will it actually be better not having the excess weight of unneeded stress that I had put on myself?

Maybe I’ll figure it out. Maybe I won’t. I still wrestle with the notion.

I see what people say about me being a people pleaser, but I cannot dismiss one of my favorite verses that Paul wrote to the church in Corinth “Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible.”

So I don’t know what to think. I want people to be drawn to me so I can share my joy with them. People pleasers tend to be fake, but I hope people see my life as an authentic expression of a life. People may perceive my actions as pleasing them, but I’m just trying to do love and grace. The same Christ shows to me daily.

After further analysis I must ask myself, who do I live to please, God or man? I hope my answer is God. I hope I live to please God daily and by doing so my actions show the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Some people assume my actions are an act of people pleasing. But I feel it’s an of God pleasing. It’s like when you light a campfire to cook your supper. It’s primary purpose is to cook supper, but it also gives warmth to strangers who need a place to rest for the night. Just as my love is to please God, the people around me will feel the warmth of the flame.

So, am I a people pleaser? Probably with good intentions.

Am I a God pleaser?

I hope so. I hope He says I am.

Do I want to change?

Or should I ask, do I need to change?

Months later…I still don’t know.

I just know I like me. And I hope God likes me too.

Peace

Dreamers Wanted…If You’re Brave Enough

[image error]This last year has been a lot of firsts for me. Publishing my first mystery, Solomon’s Dreams, starting a blog of encouraging posts, and now publishing my first devotional, Dream Chasers. It’s been busy, but it’s just getting started.

I’ve been writing for over 20 years, usually secretly in my bedroom. Journaling my thoughts, ideas, songs or poems, short stories and prayers. It was an outlet. Everyone needs an outlet of one form. I tried to get some of my pieces published in college. Nothing happened. Rejected.

Well, about 12 years ago I had an idea that I played around with for over a year and I finally thought after reading other people’s books, “If they can write a book, so can I.” So I did. I wrote The Hacker. I tried to get it published and it kept getting rejected, “Interesting idea, but we are going to pass,” or “You’ve never published before so no, but good luck.” So, I tried getting a literary agent. Same result. Interesting idea, but since I had no history I also had no future.

After a year of trying to get my book published God called me to write my newest book. He was giving me examples of His faithfulness. Stories of people with their past struggles who didn’t give up. Fellow dreamers who faced opposition after opposition, but they never listened to the world. They overcame their own voices of inadequacy and listened to that still small voice whispering, “You can do it.” This devotional was written pretty quickly, in about a week or two. I took a vacation from work and worked on writing the promises God was speaking over me.

I tried getting this devotional published. Lots of rejections. Every time I got a rejection email it crushed me. I kept hoping because I felt God telling me to write it. After a year of rejections from publishers and literary agents I decided that this book was just for me. A reminder that when life gets hard, God has a good plan. A plan I may not understand. A plan that is full of hope and a future. So, I kept this book hidden for only me to read. And I was fine with this just being a tangible example of God’s words spoken over me.

A couple of years passed. Wrote another book, Intertwined. I sought out publishers and agents. Nope. Another year of rejections.

A couple of years passed. Went on a vacation to Washington D.C. that inspired Solomon’s Dreams. After I finished it, I tried to get it published. Rejected. Lots of rejections. I was discouraged, but I still knew God was faithful.

That’s when I started researching self publishing. After two years of editing, proofing, praying, I bit the bullet and released it. It was scary. The negative voices of myself telling me, “Your book is bad, who would read it,” or “You’re going to make a fool of yourself,” or “Really Eric, you can’t do that.” I had to drown out myself and lean on something other than myself. I leaned on the unknown and waited to fall. I waited to crash.

But I didn’t crash. I was caught by friends and family telling me they loved the book. I was caught by reviewers from book bloggers saying the story was well crafted, with witty dialogue and realistic characters. I was caught by God reminding me that if the book fails or succeeds that His love is constant. His love isn’t determined on the scales of man, but by grace. The good reviews were nice, but the feeling of obedience exceeded all those pats on the back.

After I published Solomon’s Dreams my devotional book saved on my computer from a decade ago came forward in my memory bank. I wanted my achievement of publishing my book to encourage other dreamers to chase after the dream God gave them to dream. So, here we are. After a year of editing, rereading it, and rereading it, I still wanted someone else to read it. I wanted the words God spoke over me in my valley to be shouted over someone in there’s. I want to be a person to shine a light for people wandering in the darkest nights. I want to point them to God’s plans for their life. So yesterday I bit the bullet and released Dream Chasers – A Journey of Faith.

I didn’t publish the book for fame or fortune. No, we live in a world of people settling and I believe God mourns for us because we are missing out on so much living. Drawing closer to Him and experiencing the life He dreamed for us to have is His plan.

So, that’s my story. I may only sell a few copies, but if it causes one person to dream a little more, lean into God a little more, open their eyes a little more, and open their hearts a little more then it will be worth it.

Following God doesn’t guarantee success, but it guarantees growing closer to Him. Isn’t that the real prize? Yes.

So Dream big and chase after the dream God is speaking over you. Don’t let that nudge of your heart be stopped by your own thoughts. A life of regret is a life not fully living.

It’s time to truly start living.

Peace

Contagious with Joy

[image error]I caught a bug about 20 years ago. It healed me from all my anxiety and stress, my self doubts and echoing defeats, my debilitating disease of depressing thoughts. I caught joy the summer before my senior year in high school. The virus wiped me clean of all the negativity that I had be harboring for years.

Looking back, I had a good life. I had a family that loved me, I was smart and gained a good education, I was physically healthy, I had all that I needed. I see that now, but at the time crippling worry and fear of hypochondria caused me to doubt my health daily. A low self esteem and self worth caused me to work harder with sleepless nights and empty stomachs trying to get the straight A’s. The restless thoughts of natural disasters kept me tense with paranoia. The shouts of strangers were louder than the weak voice inside myself. I knew all the verses. I said all the prayers. I sang the songs of God’s love, yet I didn’t feel it. I knew His love intellectually, but I didn’t faithfully. People probably didn’t know that I was suffering, because I didn’t know. I remember my mom constantly telling me to smile. I couldn’t. Looking at my photographs during this time period my smiles were usually coerced because a camera was in my face. Not because I believe I had a reason to smile.

Sad. Very sad that I wasted 4 or more years of my life with the belief that I wasn’t good enough. Years of hearing the names I was called and believing that the bullies were right. Years of not enjoying life.

Not. Anymore. More.

But what’s sadder is that people deal with these struggles all the time for decades or even lifetimes and never experience the healing of letting go and letting God. Cliche I know, but it’s true. People hide their true self from their spouses because it could get ugly. People hide their true colors from their friends and co workers because they believe they won’t care. People hide their true version of themselves from themselves. If you can’t face yourself in the mirror, how can you face the trials of tomorrow? Face it! You can!

After my awakening I was approached by someone in my church parking as the sun was going down (I remember this vividly) who said, “What happened Eric? You’ve changed.”

All I could do was smile. I knew I changed. I felt the change. And the answer I could say sounded so bizarre because I didn’t know what happened. It was just like after years and years of praying and clinging, it vanished. It finally hit me that I was clinging onto God, but I needed to fall and believe that He was clinging onto me. His hands are so much bigger than mine and my pursuit of clinging was fruitless. It’s when I fell, when I dived head first into the unknown that I felt freedom. I felt safety. I felt loved by the one who’s been holding onto me for years but I couldn’t feel it because I was focusing more on my tight grip. When I jumped, I quit focusing on my red knuckles and found myself caught into tender hands. No struggle needed. He had me. He had the whole time. He always had me.

Looking back, regrets could spring to mind of time wasted. But no regrets because I’ve had the last 20 years of a joy fueled existence. Most people can’t say that. I’ve had my share of ups and downs, long shadows and even longer nights, bouts of fear trying to take me hostage, moments when doubts smack me senseless.

But I am a warrior! I’m not strong enough to fight off my negativity, but He is! I know that I’m not an army of one. I’m not on a mission alone. I’m not climbing the mountains without a harness to catch me if my grip slips. I’m not running through the desert without a cloud of witnesses surrounding me, spurring me on. No, I am not alone and neither are you. We are in this life together. He is with, always with us! Nothing can separate us from His love…nothing but our willingness to accept it.

So, what disease do you have? The curable disease of negativity or the unquenchable contagion of JOY?

Come on, jump into His joy.

Only you can decide.

To jump or not to jump, that is the real question, sorry Macbeth.

I choose joy!

And They Lived Unhappily Ever After

[image error]

I need to preface this blog post. I don’t want to be known as the “Single Man Blogger” but tonight I met with someone for the first time and she said, “God is telling me you should blog about being single and happy, because you seem really happy and there are a lot of people out there who need to hear it.” Am I that transparent that after an hour of talking about writing books she said that? So, here I go.

Life is not a fairy tale. I think we all know that sad realization. Yet, as children that is what we believed from the movies we watched or the stories we read. We were somewhat brainwashed to believe that life should be a fairy tale. We grow up thinking that a street rat could be loved by a beautiful princess or a damsel could be rescued by her knight in shining armor. It’s a lovely idea, but not all ideas are believable or even feasible. If Aladdin and Jasmine were living in the year 2019, would they still be married after five years? Would Ariel and Eric still be walking hand in hand along the beach in the age of social media? Would Pongo and Perdita still be happy after raising 101 children? I sometimes think if the statistics are right about divorce, which Disney relationships would have stopped feeling the love tonight?

I think fairy tales get a bad rap, because life should be a fairy tale. Life is so good. Sadly, we are the culprits and we are not always good. I have seen marriages that have stood the test of time. They are the marriages that seem to radiate love and companionship. When I see the loving couples, they still seem like they like one another, let alone love each other after being together for half their life. These couples in my mind are living the good life of a blissful marriage. I know every relationship has their ups and downs, but just like in fairy tales, they got through them. They got stronger. It’s as if their vows were echoing around them, “For better and for worse.”

So why are so many relationships not like fairy tales? I think a major part is contentment. We live in a society that whenever the latest gadget comes out, we toss out our old, reliable, working gizmo for the new, trendy, sleek device. We live in the entertainment age that instead of having seven channels, we have 700. We could watch channel 4, but I wonder what is on channel 579 right now? How many relationships have ended because one party just wanted to see what someone else had over there? We tiptoe our fingers through magazines to find out what the latest fashionable threads are and throw away our favorite dress from three years ago because it is worn out by society standards. If your dress of three years is worn out in your eyes, how will your relationship of ten years hold up through the aging sands of time? I bet there are going to be more wrinkles on each of your faces that no iron could press out. Will you want to toss away that too?

Yes, I believe contentment is our issue. I remember sitting in one of my professor’s office in college and he was saying, “When you get out of school you will be making so much money when you become a CPA.” I looked at him and said, “That doesn’t interest me.” His face turned downcast by me not being interested in making boat loads of money. He looked at me as if I just ran over his dog. Yes, I have always been a strange one in this area. I have always just wanted to make enough to be happy. One of my favorite verses is 1 Timothy 6:6, “But godliness with contentment is great gain.” I remember as a kid looking at the price tags when I went back to school shopping. And my sisters relished in buying me a name brand shirt at Christmas because they knew that since they bought it I would wear it, but I would never buy it for myself. Today, I still wrestle with the notion of contentment and where is the line between over indulgence and being satisfied? I know I am not perfect in this area. I am fully aware that I have some blind spots that my friends could point out to me in my area of contentment.

But overall in life, I am blissfully happy. I am content with what I have and I am fine with what I lack because when I am content, I feel like I lack nothing. Sadly, I feel that is why life is not a fairy tale for a majority of the world because so many people are not content. They see what their brother has and envy is birthed. They glance over at their neighbor and jealousy grows into a toddler. They Facebook stalk their former friends and malice runs with the legs of an eight year old. They get so overcome with envy that they forget what they once had. They lose their youthful romance. They allow their pure intimacy to tarnish and rust through the storms they seek and find. They abandon their once treasured scrapbook of photographs and memories and walk away from their former self like it’s nothing. It’s sad to see this happen. It’s even sadder that we see it and find ourselves rummaging through their pain like it’s a rummage sale.

If you ask someone if they are living happily ever after, what do you think they will say? Instead of asking someone, maybe you should ask yourself. Are you living happily ever after?

Because I am.

If you’re not living the good life that God had planned for you, take heart, a change can happen. God is capable to mend relationships, bridge gaps, erase divides, and fill in the holes that we sometimes have purposely dug. God is bigger than any situation. But if you allow God into your relationship, He doesn’t play second fiddle. He will not smooth out each of your rough parts if you don’t give Him all your rough parts. God doesn’t barter and He doesn’t beg. He is rightly jealous and deservedly so . He doesn’t compromise His grace to bring it down to our lower standards. No, His grace is limitless and I am so thankful for His unrelenting outpouring of love. So, if you want to live happily ever after it will take some work. It may feel like a punishment, but the reward will be sweeter than honey.

So, do you want to live happily ever after or are you fine living in mediocrity?

I want my last line to always be, “And he lived happily ever after – married or single.”

What is the last line of your story?

Single – Party of ?

[image error]

Yes, I am single. Lately it seems like my relationship status has been in many of my conversations with various people. Sometimes I walk away wondering, am I really that strange? Because that person is talking to me like something is wrong with me. I don’t believe I am, but maybe I am blinded to my own oddity. It seems like many married people talk to me sympathetically or maybe that is how it sounds to me because they are really confused why I am single and if they were in my shoes and still single at my age, they may feel a twinge of sadness so sympathetic words is all they know to say because that is what they would be telling themselves if God forbid they were still single. I could be wrong, but that’s how it feels sometimes. Many times people have come up to me and asked, “Are you happy, Eric? Because I know a girl who would be perfect for you.” How many single people walk up to married people and ask, “Are you happy? Because I know a divorce attorney. Because I feel being single is better than being married.” A few times I have wanted to ask the questioner if they were happy being married. But I didn’t. To be honest I was afraid of the answer I would get. A sincere yes or a fake yes.

I have heard many times over the years from married people that they could never go to a restaurant or the movies by themselves. When you are single and you want to eat or watch a movie, sometimes going alone is the only option. I have to admit that I used to feel strange by going to places by myself, but as time went on I didn’t feel the same strangeness. I am comfortable with sitting alone in church or catching a matinee on a Sunday alone or even taking a two week trip to Italy by myself. “I could never do that,” so many people would say.

But why not? Heaven forbid if your spouse tragically dies tonight. Yes, there will be gaping hole of grieving, but would your world stop? Are you bound to your relationship status so much that you believe that is your identity? A wife of so and so or a husband of so and so. I’m not trying to belittle marriages, but so often I see two fragmented people thinking that marriage will make them whole. Well, two fragmented people still make one fragmented marriage. We all have weaknesses and strengths and that is not what I mean by saying fragmented. When I say fragmented, I mean, when someone doesn’t feel complete with themselves. So often I see people jumping from relationship to relationship because they are trying to fill a void that they believe someone else can fill. Sadly, someone cannot fill your void. They can bring community, friendship, intimacy and love to the table, but they cannot fill a void that the other person has. It may feel like their love is filling that emptiness, but one person shouldn’t rely on someone else to fill a chasm. If they do, that is just selfishness. Relationships are give and take and if one party is constantly giving to fill that pit of someone else they may eventually have a pit from all their giving. Then once again, two fragmented people are in a fragmented marriage.

I have been told many, many times. “Oh, Eric you would be a great husband and father.” And my thought is, “Shouldn’t every married man be a great husband? And shouldn’t every male who gives life be a great father?” Sadly, that is not the case. Some men are deadbeats, abusers, neglecters, workaholics, ego-maniacs that only care about themselves. I am sorry that I have to share the same gender as these men because every wife deserves a loving husband and every mother deserves a protective co-parenting father. I do feel that I would be an awesome husband and father, but that isn’t a title that I have been given. But I do feel called to be a faithful friend, a loving family member, a devoted mentor, a respected coworker and a constant shoulder to be there for anyone in my circle no matter time or place.

Once again, please hear me out. I am not bashing marriages. I respect and honor the cherished institution that the vast majority of the population adhere to. I just currently don’t feel the need to wear the members only jacket of this club. Who knows, I may next year. All I ask is for married people to treat single people like normal people. We are people just like everyone else. I know many married people who treat me like a normal person – thank you. But then I also know many people who treat me differently and those are the people that I pity. You may pity me because I am not like you, but I like myself. Can you say the same about yourself?

I don’t even know what I am expecting out of this blog post. It was not intended to upset anyone or an airing of my grievances. It’s just something that people seem to talk to me about. I just hope, single or married, whatever status you have that you search within yourself and find if you have a void. You may be married and voidless – that is okay. You may be married and have a void – that is okay. You may be single and voidless – that is okay. You may be single and have a void – that is okay.

C.S. Lewis wrote “We live with a God shaped hole in our hearts.” Blaise Pascal wrote “What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself.” Finally St. Augustine wrote, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”

If you have a void, fill it with God. He’s the only one who can fill that void. Single or married, we are a like. Whether it be a dinner and a party of one (how sad you may think – ha), or with family and a party of four, or with friends on Thursday night and a party of six. We all need community. We all need one another. We all need God. What we don’t need is sideways judgement glances because we don’t understand the other person. Just because someone is married doesn’t mean that they have it all figured out and have a perfect life. The opposite can be said for a single person. Just because someone is single, doesn’t mean that they are lost or lonely or strange or unlovable or aloof or different or weird or a hermit or someone in need of someone else to complete them. There may be some strange single people out there, but I have met many strange married people too. Incredibly strange married people.

Glad I’m not married to them.

Star or Moon

[image error]How many stars are there in our universe? Far too many to count. Scientists can only estimate and some say that there could be 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (that’s 1 billion trillion) stars in the observable universe. That is a crazy number that my mind cannot comprehend. I sometimes wonder why there are so many stars as I lay in my driveway late at night after a walk of reflection. Why did God create such a vast number of twinkling stars? I know there is a reason and I believe that we each could come up with a plausible theory. But as I look at the stars there is another light in the nighttime sky that far exceeds their flickering bursts of light. The moon.

It’s interesting how the moon is just a plain white rock spinning around the earth. Nothing special. It doesn’t create light. It doesn’t shine on its own account. It doesn’t produce its own glory. No, it merely reflects the light from the sun.

Maybe God made all the stars as a symbol of our existence? Consider your life as a star. You live your life striving to shine brighter than the kid who sits behind you in algebra class. You befriend as many people as possible to become student class president. You practice day and night at the free-throw line to become team captain. Sadly, the striving doesn’t cease on graduation day, but it starts to multiply. There is always a better coworker than you that gains the attention and promotions you desire. There is always going to be someone more good looking that will cause a second glance from the love of your life. There is always going to be someone with more accomplishments, accolades, investment portfolio, and notable status. You can live your life straining to shine a dismal light, but at the end of the day, your light will be just a dot in the Milky Way Galaxy. All the searching, pining, stretching and yearning will not cause the light to stay a continuous blazing glow. No, because tomorrow will come and the rat race will start once again. We cannot rest in our finish lines of yesterday because there is always going to be another one tomorrow. And eventually your light, like all stars, will fade away.

But consider the moon. The moon doesn’t worry about the brightness it shines because it knows it cannot control it. It doesn’t agonize over its reflection in the mirror, because its sole purpose is to reflect. It doesn’t fret over anything and yet it shines brighter than anything in the nighttime sky. So, why do we try to shine like the stars when we should just be reflecting like the moon?

When we live with the ultimate purpose to show Christ’s love, grace and mercy that takes the burden off of my shoulders to shine for my own accord and relinquish that title to the One who gives perfect light. When I realize that I was never intended to shine, I can focus more on Him and less on myself. When I focus more on Him, people will see Him more and me less. When they see Him, I’ve done my intended job. To reflect.

So, I’m fine being a worthless, unimportant, undefined person on this earth because I know God can take my nothingness and use it immensely more than I ever could. Who knows how far I will shine His light. I know it will be much brighter than me trying to shine my own.

Peace

Brothers

[image error]I had the honor and privilege of taking a group of high school guys to YoungLife camp a couple of weeks ago. The week lived up the hype as it being one of the best weeks of my life and I just went as a leader.

The food was stellar. The activities were amazing. The nightly club and messages were heartening. But the best part of the week was the nightly cabin talks where me and my friends sat on the ground between our bunk beds and shared life. We shared laughter, inside jokes (SFNC, Tragic and I don’t want breakfast, it’s 6 a.m.) and stories of the day. We unpacked some of our insecurities and saw that we all have baggage. We unloaded our flaws and saw there were no judgmental glances. We threw down some of the chains that bound us and found a band of brothers that will help carry the weight. We found that despite what we tell ourselves, we are loved beyond comprehension by the One who sees all our mess ups, regrets, shortcomings and name tags. God stands on the front porch ready to hitch up his robe disgracefully and sprint to where we are. He doesn’t wait for us to make the journey home. No, He chases after us when we turn toward Him.

You may feel worthless. You may feel unloved. You may feel that you are overlooked and easily forgotten. But you’re not.

You may feel disgraced. You may feel like a failure. You may feel alone. But you’re not.

You are fearfully and wonderfully made. You are His pride and joy. You are His craftsmanship and masterpiece. You are never alone. You are loved to death. There is nothing you can say to make Him stop loving you. There is nothing that you can do to make Him forget about you. You are amazing! You are incredible! You are a masterpiece in a broken world. Don’t let your belief in yourself silence the words He sings over you.

In this life we can walk the path alone or with someone. I prefer to walk it with someone. So, when I trip, they can help me back up. When they stumble, I can stoop down and brush off the dirt. When we get lost, we can backtrack and find our way back home. It’s better to be in a band than a solo traveler. Selfies are more fun with a few more friendlier faces.

Peace

Words

[image error]I went to a high school graduation last Friday night and realized that 20 years ago I too graduated from the same school. I sat and listened to all the speeches and noticed that even though 20 years had passed, it was the same type of message. “We are going to be the generation to change the world” or “Follow your passions” or “Keep reaching for stars!” The same speech of a bright and opportune future as I heard at my own graduation. As I listened my heart broke. These words are great words, but that is all they are. Just Words.

Words are powerful. But some words are also devastatingly harmful. Some words speak life and others dig you an early grave. It’s nice to soak up the cliche phases from the past, but unless you act upon them they are but meaningless Instagram posts. Just a chase after the poetic wind.

Millions of scholars and jocks, cheerleaders and glee club members, social elites and awkward outcasts will be walking across the stage signaling a closure of one chapter. A piece of pretty paper does not define ones worth. Hard work and determination does. Anyone can get a degree these days like a participation ribbon. But to use the degree for its intended purpose brings meaning to those words. Living your life with goals and hopes breathes life into that diploma. Dreaming and planning of the possibilities is what births purpose with that single sheet of paper.

Many words may be written. Many more words may be spoken. But if you don’t act upon what you read or hear, well those words are just as meaningless as praising a deadman at his casket. The deadman doesn’t care what people think about them after they are gone. They care about what people think about them as they are living.

May the words you read and words you hear cause a stirring in your soul to take a step uncommon. Foreign territories don’t have to remain undiscovered. It only takes one person following where the words takes them to drastically change the world.

You could be the one to change this generation.

But you won’t if you’re just reading this blog.

Let the words someone spoke over you in the past resurface and resonate like a phoenix. You may have felt it was too late, but it never is. If you’re breathing, it’s not too late.

Breathe in deep.

Take a step.

That’s all it takes.

Peace

Lecture – Life is Like Taxes

[image error]

I got the privilege of speaking to groups of students at a local high school today. My topic was on Taxes since I am a CPA and many high school students know very little on the subject – except they know that people pay taxes and don’t like it. I worked last night on my PowerPoint presentation with snazzy images, funny quotes and the boring tax forms. I thought I was going to talk only on taxes, but God had another thing in mind. It seemed like suddenly God opened my eyes this morning on how taxes is very similar to living life.

You can replace the words “taxes” or “paying taxes” with “life” pretty easily.

It’s all about perspective. If you mess up on your taxes, it is fixable. Taxes is not a life or death problem. You may have underpaid, but it’s not the end of the world. It may be hard paying off that tax debt, but you can do it. You can learn from your mistake and start withholding more taxes so you don’t make the same mistake again. You may think tax returns are hard and confusing, but we are in the same boat here. Everyone has to pay taxes. If you have questions about taxes, ask for help. Seek out help from people you trust and want the best for you. I bet they will do anything to help you. Once again, if you mess up, it is fixable. Do your taxes ethically. The IRS will find you if you lie on your return. Once again, if you mess up, it’s fixable. If you have the perspective the government is going to gouge you, you cannot see all the good that taxes do. They give us schools, parks, roads, and a bright future. If you realize that if you pay taxes that means God blessed you with earning an income – an income that many people throughout this world cannot earn. I am no better than anyone else because I can do a tax return. We all need each other. This life is all about relationships, just like taxes.

Just like in life, there are only a few things that are life and death decisions. Yes, bad decisions lead to repercussions and a hard climb, but you can get through it with hard work and determination. If you think you can do something, go for it. You are the only person who can stop you from achieving your dreams. Don’t listen to bad advice. Find a group of people who will mentor you, encourage you and do anything to help you in life. It may hurt when they correct you, but if they say it in love, they are trying to help you. Once again, if you mess up in life it’s usually fixable. You may have bombed a test, but it’s not the end of the world. Pick yourself up, study harder and you will get through it. The mountains in our way are only molehills when we look back in our memories. You can do it. It’s all about perspective. If you wake up thinking today is going to be a bad day, it will be. But if you wake up thinking it’s going to be a good day, there is a good possibility that it will turn out to be a good day!

So thank you Webster County High School for allowing me to come today. As I was teaching you, I was also teaching myself. Life is like taxes. It’s not always great paying taxes just as life can be hard, but life is so good. Just as the benefits we receive from paying taxes. So, go find a park and enjoy the beauty of your tax dollars and realize you are blessed. Blessed beyond your own understanding.

Once again – It’s all about perspective and it’s usually fixable.

Strange how similar life and taxes actually are.

Peace

Highlands

[image error]

I love this song. May you find some comfort in it as well.

“No less God within the shadows / No less faithful when the night leads me astray”

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mkbxP0rxt6E

Peace