Solving The Puzzle

My wife and I have started playing a game called Kami 2 on our mobile devices. It’s a puzzle game where the player has a predetermined number of moves to change colored segments into one, unified color. It is addicting and if you really get into it, you will become frustrated. But if you keep at it and solve the puzzle, you will be satisfied...until you start the next level and become challenged all over again!

My wife introduced the game to her friend, who fell in love with it, even though she continually cursed it out!  She would play all night.  One morning, after staying the night at our house, she woke up tired. I asked her if she was ok. She stated, “Your wife has ruined my life!” I ask, “Why? What’s wrong?” She stated, “I stayed up until 1AM playing that darn game!  I got stuck on this level.” She wanted to feel the satisfaction of advancing to the next level of the game.  

We all want to do that! Whether it is a video game or real life: It may be a challenge you are facing on your job, a bully in school, a relationship issue, an emotional struggle, a financial trial, or a physical test with your health. Whatever you are dealing with, try the following:

1. Give yourself a head start - read all you can about what you are attempting to accomplish.
2. Focus on your task. Don’t allow your surroundings to distract you.
3. Don’t stop trying. Keep plugging away. Your experience is what will prepare you for the next level.
4. Connect with someone who can help you.  Community is so helpful when you are burdened. People can comfort and encourage you. They can also offer you helpful tips that you may not have thought of previously.

Many times, in real life, we keep ourselves up at night; we get frustrated; we fuss and cuss because we have spent SO much time on this level, when we know we should be at the next level by now.  

Try the tips above and see if they help you become successful this week in whatever you are facing.

Share your positive story with us below. The more we share, the more we help each other!

Are You Feeling Stuck?

What Are You DOING?!!?!!?

Sometimes...oftentimes we get stuck in a rut. We allow years to pass as we continue doing the same thing.  Many of us get frustrated with where we are in life, because our dream hasn’t been fulfilled, or time is passing us by, or things are not turning out the way we wanted them to.

If you do not like where you are right now; if you are not satisfied with your current condition; if you are waiting for something new to happen in your life, then I would like to suggest you do the following to bring more completeness and joy into your life:

1. Do something different TODAY.  Don’t wait until tomorrow. You can change your attitude, the route you take to school or work, your wardrobe, and how you treat others. You can enroll in a class or enrich your mind with educational content on khanacademy.com, open courses at Yale or youtube.com.  
2. Think outside of the box.  Talk to a variety of people about your ideas. If they say anything negative, try not to be discouraged. Use it as a learning experience. Take it for what it is worth - someone else’s opinion. Use others ideas to help perfect and polish your ideas.  
3. Maximize every moment with your family. You may not get another opportunity.
4. Do something great for someone else this week!

Make today different and better than yesterday.  

What will you do differently today? Encourage others by informing us in the comment section below.

Can we learn from a buoy?

Buoy - an anchored float serving as a navigation mark, to show reefs or other hazards, or for mooring.

Even though it has an anchor connected to it, it never sinks. Sometimes our problems and circumstances feel like the weight of the world is on our shoulders.  Sometimes it feels like we are being pulled down and we are all alone in this ocean of life. When we make that our focus or our priority of thought, we lose focus on what we were created for. Or we never realize how we are being used in our situations. You see, a buoy was created to sit alone in an ocean.  Without its weight, it would be tossed in whatever direction the current of life moved it. A buoy was designed to be a navigation mark which warns of hazards. It actually serves others. It helps others know when danger is ahead, because it lives in the open water.  It sees danger every day. It battles the current of the ocean everyday. It is hit with waves that try to drown it and sink it daily. 

You see, you are a buoy. You have been placed in the world for a specific purpose that serves others.  You have been placed where you are,  at this very moment, for the purpose of the creator; a purpose to serve others, to help others.  That may be in seeing the dangers that you have already been through; warning of troubling circumstances; or standing still to allow others to see how you deal with adversity, troubles and trials, or actively pursuing what is right in an environment of wrong. 

The buoy is weighted. It has been anchored so that it won’t be carried away whenever it is pushed, battered or bruised.  It will move, but it will not alter. It will stand for what it was created for, no matter what it faces. And when the waves of life beat it up, it doesn’t give up!  

Don’t give up!  No matter what you have gone through, are going through or will go through, pursue your purpose, stand firm against adversity; stand firm against what you know is wrong, not just for yourself, but for everyone who crosses your path. 

God has created you for a purpose.  He has placed you where you are, right now, to accomplish what He has destined you to do or to learn and be prepared for what he is planning for your future. 

I have been called to live as an example to break down the still present walls of segregation, discrimination, misunderstanding and hate in our world. That’s so hard! God has positioned me in a situation that is not comfortable. I never intended to live in the ninth most segregated city in the United States. I didn’t know that statistic before moving here. I also am a pastor at a predominantly white church. I am black and that population is less than two percent at this church. Convincing people to move out of their comfort zone and embrace what makes them uncomfortable is a challenge, but a necessary one to make this a better world. 

What is your calling, mission or purpose?  What challenges are you facing? What are you doing, in the midst of your circumstances to serve others?  

Leave a comment and let's start a discussion that will change this world!