As we journey through life, we are oftentimes interrupted by bumps in the roads that makes our daily travel challenging. Sometimes while we are trying to navigates around the roadblocks, we enter perilous storms that seems as if it has no end. If that was not enough to deal with, we may have people come in and out of our lives in which "drama" seems to follow whenever they are present. We become  frustrated, angry and "tied of being tired" with the chaos that may occur in lives that we may shout out in despair "If it ain't one thing, its another." 

Why do bad things happen to good people? Why is it, that when we try to do right, evil is present? What have we done, to deserve such trials and tribulations in life? To put it quite simply, we sometimes ask "Why me Lord? Many of us have asked these questions at some point in their lives. I can attest to the fact that I have asked these questions as well. But when you really look at the questions we ask God, imagine Him answering our question with another question. That question will probably be "Why not you?"

As Christians, we must understand that life will not be a cake walk. There will be times when our faith will be tested. In our secular lives, we encounter negativity that may unexpectedly show up on our jobs, homes, relationships, finances, and other aspects of our personal lives. Even in the midst of striving to do the "right thing", Satan tries even harder to knock us off track from fighting the good fight. In our spiritual lives, we must realize we will be tempted, and the reality is we will sometimes fail. But in the words of Donnie McClurkin's famous lyrics, "We fall down, but we get up," it is essential that we remain spiritually strong, despite being physically weak at times. 

I often reflect on my personal struggles and I think about the intense pain and suffering Christ endured while being flogged by the Roman soldiers before His crucifixion. It would have been easy for Christ to give up on His earthly mission. He certainly had the power to summon 12 legions of angels by command and could have easily stopped the beatings. But, because of His love for mankind, He endured suffering so we may have a chance to receive eternal life. He performed the ultimate sacrifice in order to save a dying world from the bondage of sin. One can reasonably infer that Christ did not have the "Why me" mentality. If Christ is that faithful to us in that He kept His words and gave Himself for us, then we must be faithful to God that we will strive to obey His will even in the midst of turmoil when Satan is tossing us to and fro in the storms of life and troubled waters.

By no means am I'm suggesting our battles will be easy to overcome, It is human nature to be overwelmed with anger, frustration, fear and sadness. Despite the intimidation of our problems, be encouraged that we serve a God who is more powerful than our struggles and will never put anything on us more than we can bear. There is nothing that we go through that is impossible to overcome. Victory is in knowing who God is and obeying His will. If we do that, We will always be conquerors over the "If Ain't One Thing, Its Another" mentality.

 

In this life, we are often tossed to and fro by the challenges that confront us in our physical and spiritual lives. Our faith is often tested during periods of turmoils and tragedies in which the true measure of who we are as individuals is put to the test. II Corinthians 13:5 of the King James Bible is quoted as saying  "Examine yourselves, whether ye be be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?" The term reprobate refers to one not withstanding the test. When one reflects on their life with a sense of truthfulness and transparency, a conclusion will be drawn that at some point in our Christian walk, we have been reprobate. Somewhere on our daily journey, we have strayed from the path and have been guilty of possessing a reprobate mind.by drifting from the faith like a ship without an anchor. When we are not anchored by the word of God, we fall victims to the snares of the devil in which the lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh and pride of life have managed to take its spiritual toll upon us. However, if we are honest within ourselves, we must come to the conclusion that we have missed the mark in striving towards perfection in the sight of God. By perfection, that does not mean we will be perfect. Because there is none other who is perfect except God. But if we strive for perfection, we are setting our minds on pressing towards the mark of spirtual maturity in our relationship with the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. If we are spiritually focused and we abide by the word of God, then we are marching towards a prepared place, which is heaven, as a prepared people. 

In the like manner, our physical lives must mirror our spiritual walk by preparing ourselves as individuals and communities alike. in our personal lives, we must prepare ourselves educationally, economically, politically, and socially in order to reach our desired location or prepared place. We must educate ourselves with pride and a sense of urgency in realizing that through education, knowledge is obtain and we must use such knowledge to improve ourselves, our families, and our communities. Education is the key that can free us from the chains of economic bondage. When used in an ethical manner, education unleash the slavery mentality that unfortunately holds too many of us captives in achieving self and community empowerment. Politically, we play a pivotal role in impacting policies through grass-root efforts and mobilizing one another to become involve in the political process as social agents of change. Finally, we have a social responsibility in maintaining stable families, and law-biding children, who will carry on the torch as future leaders when their time has come. It is up to us to capitalize on our responsibilities in these four major areas if we ever intend to be a prepared people heading towards a prepared place of peace and prosperity in society. Not doing so will result in us being of a reprobate mind in the physical sense. We must take the biblical lessons that speaks to our spiritual beings and apply them to our physical lives. Until this happens, we as a global community will never be a prepared people striving for a prepared place. 

I hope my blog comment has enriched your life in such a way that it has provided encouragement for you to effect change in your life. I thank you for your support and I look forward to engaging in future dialogues and exchange of ideas in the near future. May God bless you and forever keep you in His Loving Care.

Jarrod Simmons

Ph.D Candidate 

In today's society, we have become bombarded with negative images that have affected our outlook on who we are as a people and the path we are heading towards. We are faced with joblessness, which have led some to expressing emotions of hopelessness. We are crippled by a political system that has cut funding for education, yet approved budgets for incarceration of our young men who have lost their sense of identity and purpose in life.Our families have deteriorated into pebbles on a beach, rather than being a rock upon which our foundation is built upon. Our faith in the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit has become a spiritual walk of convenience for some, rather than being a spiritual walk of love, adoration and reverence towards God. As a result, our nation as a whole has been plagued with a series of crises that have caused a grim overcast on our country's future. However, despite the political, economic and social turmoil that appears to engulf our society, we must remain hopeful that goodness, equality, and fairness will prevail and ultimately glorify God.

When carefully analyzing every public policy and social problem that affects citizens and non-citizens of our nation, one must expand their perception of the problem beyond just the physical eye in determining how such issues should be resolved. Before looking at the political, and socio-economic possibilities and ramifications on how to analyze the problem, implement the solution, and evaluate the outcome of policies and laws in society, we must have a deeper insight in our approach. Our mindsets must be of a spiritual nature and we must internalize in our hearts that every individual is a spiritual being. When we recognize every human being as a spiritual being created in the image of God, only then will our treatment of one another be in the likeness of Christ and how he exemplified compassion and service to mankind through His unconditional love. It is then, and only then, will we be able to transcend our mentality to creating sound policies that reflect Christ-like teachings to ensure that every individual has equal access to education, health care, housing, protection from discrimination, employment, etc. This way of thinking, is a challenge to everyone, including myself. Nevertheless, it must be implemented in order to truly be effective in creating change in our personal lives and our domestic and global communities. When this happens, we become our brothers' keepers and the love of Christ will become abundantly evident in the hearts of mankind.

It is my hope and prayer that this message has enriched your life in such a manner to create change for the better. I am grateful that for your subscription to my blog. Feel free to comment on my postings as we engage in a series of intellectual discussions on how we can create change within ourselves and our communities. Thank youf for visiting my site and I look forward to conversing with you in the near future. May God bless you and keep you in His Loving Care!