I Am NOT Just a Number

Today, some of you face obstacles that seem unsurmountable. Just this week, I have friends that have dealt with the hospitalization of a loved one, a marriage fall apart, an empty bank account, foreclosure, loss of a job, dysfunctional family members, change of a job, loneliness, and hopelessness. So many things around us are so uncontrollable. It is so amazing how one week can seem to change everything and everything is so broken. God came to transform the broken. We do not choose our uniqueness or flaws. We do not choose our genes or chemistry. We do not choose our circumstances. None of these things can we control. We can, however, choose our choices or how we respond to our present circumstances. We can also choose fear which is False Evidence Appearing Real. Fear is the result of not feeling connected. This choice we will pay dearly for. This path leads to depression and anxiety. We also can choose to walk into a room or a party and instead of worrying what everyone in the r...

How many of us this week have felt sometimes like we had no voice? We felt like our opinion did not matter and no one really cared about how we felt. This feeling breeds insecurity. When we were younger, we may have run away and hid somewhere. As adults, how do we handle this? Many of us lash out. When we feel as if we are losing control, our insecurity creeps up from the quiet and lashes out on many unsuspecting victims. There are 3 main sources of insecurity which are the fear of rejection, comparison, and chronic criticism. When we feel as if we cannot measure up, we take a nose dive into an empty pool of chaos. We begin to lose control of our words and hearts. Like a jumbo 747 wavering frantically in the sky, we forget to notify the control tower and desperately try to self-correct. The answer may simply be a need to call in a "mayday" before we have a dangerous crash landing. We don't like needing help. We try to have high standards for ourselves but many of us c...

For many years, I dealt with difficult people the best way I knew how. I went with the moment. In my twenties, I allowed people to walk over me and talk to me in a rude manner without getting too unglued. Over the years, my patience went out the window and my tolerance with it. I got to the point that if you looked am me wrong, you heard about it. That, I know now, is called pride. I used to define it as a proper defense mechanism as if every day I was entering a boxing ring. I had counterattacks, verbal judo, and a prowess for "low blows" long before my "rival" knew what was coming. I have found that this type of constant "defense" causes personal guilt, constant apology, and wrong "first impression assessments" on my part. This past week, Rick Warren laid out a lesson plan of sorts on how to deal with difficult people or as Warren calls them... #crazymakers. I have many in my life as I am sure everyone does. His first recommendation is to ...