Bryan Parady's Blog, page 41

Do What You Love

It’s really easy to get on band wagons of talking out against what we hate.  But how often do we really work towards what we love?

If you had to ask all the people you know what you are absolutely enthralled with or what you can’t stand. Which would they be able to better answer? What you love, or what you hate?

With social media like it is, it’s so easy to argue and give differing opinions about things, but how often are we really promoting things we love.

If we are only bashing what we hate what good are we really doing? Other than probably pissing some people off.

Do what you love, promote what you are passionate about.  No, everyone won’t agree with you, but you aren’t setting out to please them in the first place.

Don’t Stay Stuck

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Have you ever felt like you are stuck in life, like on one of those escalators that are really crowded, and it’s just taking you to another place and there’s not anything you can do about it?

There’s definitely been times in my life where I’ve felt like this.  Felt stuck.  Like I’m glued to something and can’t move.  But this is really all in my head.  I am never stuck.

We are  never stuck in life.  There’s no mold that we get poured into and can’t get out.  There is always a door for us to walk out.  Just because we spent eight years getting a degree we don’t care about doesn’t mean we can’t pursue our dream.

Just because we landed a good stable job doesn’t mean we can’t take a risk and move to another state to pursue and real dream.

It’s never too late, and it’s never impossible to move or go after something different. You are not stuck.  You always have a choice.  If you stay stuck, that is your decision.  Not life’s, not some other persons.  You are you.  Get unstuck and go for it.

Everything I’ve Known Is Wrong

Everything I've Known Is Wrong

One Year Ago

One year ago my wife and I went to Guatemala, I can’t believe it’s been that long ago already but it has been.

Even today I am still affected by that trip.  My thinking, my perspective, was forever changed. I saw suffering, I saw desperation, I saw humanity in a way that I never before saw it.  Still to this day it sobers me.

I saw people who would possibly never have the chance to succeed in life due to cultural rules, due to lack of financial support, due to expectations of people’s gender.

I saw people in wheel chairs, with grossly infected legs who would never receive medical aid.  They couldn’t just go to a hospital.

I saw children scavenging for food, selling anything they could find for mere pennies so they could have something to eat that night.

I saw men and women working hard labor intensive job day in and day out, with no hope of an education to a brighter tomorrow.

In short it made me feel extremely selfish.  The people I saw have problems I will never know about.

Here we freak out if our internet or cable goes down for a day.  If we break our phone and have to go without it for a few days.  If our car battery dies, and we are without a car for a day.

We have scholarships, loan programs, to better ourselves, to better our future, to receive an education.

We have hospitals that if someone walked into who was desperately sick, they would care for them.

I don’t think I have ever complained about money since going to Guatemala, and don’t ever think “we don’t have any money”, I don’t know what the true meaning of that phrase even means.

It made me grateful for the things I have.  It humbled me in a way no words ever could, and it made me what to help those who don’t have the resources available to me.

Face of a Lion

 

Have you ever heard someone say “I’ve always wanting to…(fill in the blank)”.  We all have big dreams, things we can sit back say “if this was different I’d do this or that”.  If only’s can rule our conversation.

If only’s kill our imagination and stifle our dreams.  It cuts us off from who we really are and keeps us from growing, keeps us from fulfilling our dreams and making the come true.

The truth is if you want something, I mean really want it and it’s not some passing fad, you can make a way to achieve it.  You have to set your face like that of a lion.  Unflinching, with fearlessness, tackle your problems, tackle your challenges.

If you want a different life, you won’t get it by doing the same old things you always do.  That may sound incredibly obvious and yet so many of us tend to stay stuck on that same things and we somehow expect different results to come of it.  It’s just not going to happen.

You want a different life?  Start making steps that you haven’t before.  Don’t let fear of the unknown cripple you, because all your worst case scenarios are only in your mind.  Set your face like a lion and step forth with boldness.  You can do this, and you were meant to do this.

This Will Pass

There are times we hit a season of life that is really hard.  We are hit from every side with difficulty, and we have trouble getting through the week emotionally.  It happens.  We all have those days, all have those moments.

It can be really easy to despair during those times. When your marriage is on the rocks and you have been arguing more than usual.

When your kids are mad at you.

When you’ve  had a disagreement with your family

When your job is beating you into the ground.

When that one coworker keeps making jabs at you.

When your boyfriend/girlfriend isn’t sure you are going to work out.

When God seems far away.

All these things can try our patience and will.  It is so key to remember that even though it may suck for a time, it is a temporary thing, it will pass.  Nothing is final, and nothing will completely destroy you unless you let it.

So do your best to get through the time you are in, but know that it will get better, you can make it better.

The End Is The Beginning

 

 

Sometimes we hit a dead end.  Life doesn’t take us where we thought it was going to, we run into obstacles or our plans just bomb out.

It’s not the end of the world.  It doesn’t mean you failed, it doesn’t mean you suck at life, or can’t succeed.  It means none of these things.

It just means you get a chance to start over.  It’s the chance of a new beginning.

Like a painter gets a blank canvas, a writer a blank piece of paper, a builder a smooth level lot to build on.

The end can often be the best beginning we ever had.  It shows us that something didn’t work out, and we are now more knowledgeable, better suited for hardship, and more determined.

The end doesn’t have to leave you in defeat.  Simply look at it as a chance to start over.  Change your perspective and find that the end, is really the beginning.

 

Not So Revolutionary

Something that I find somewhat ironic is the way churches views radicals in history.  The church tends to praise people like John the Baptist, Martin Luther, Joan of Arc, Jesus, and people who shook things up.  People who made radical changes.

One things I think churches forget about these people, is that at the time they went against every single thing the church stood for.  They exposed lies in the church, exposed hypocrisy, exposed all the dirty little secrets that churches have a tendency to hide.

Today if someone comes in a church and starts pointing out things that they shouldn’t be doing, the church doesn’t sit there and applaud the person.  If anything they kick them out, or at least give them the cold shoulder until they leave, then make even more rules in favor of what that person was against.

It’s ironic, the things we parade and flaunt from history we run and hide from today.  Maybe we should stop just looking at the heroes of history who pointed out huge flaws in the church of the past, and open our eyes and realize that the same problems in the church back then still thrive today and thrive even stronger.

Remember, all those heroes?  Most of them were killed….by the church. Ironic?  Maybe not.

Be Daring, Be You

So many times in life we get to the door of some big opportunity, we are faced with a challenge, with a chance, with risk, and yet we stand there at the door.  We face it with fear, with trembling, like a child who knows he has to knock on the principal’s door.

When we face these doors we have a chance, to knock boldly and go in, or turn and walk away.

The decision is ours.  Sure we might save ourselves some trouble, some fear, and some heartbreak, but we will miss out on so much more.  We will miss all the wonderful opportunity, the adventure, the chance to become a better person, make a better life.

So when you face your door, be bold. Knock. Go in.  Chase your adventure.  It’s just waiting for you to open the door.

Everything I’ve Known is Wrong

Everything I've Known Is Wrong