A Blog, A Magazine. It's JustsumInspiration!

I was talking to a professor a couple of weeks ago, he suddenly began to talk about the difference between Biology and Chemistry, Biology he stated can be memorized; it’s easy to adapt. Chemistry he stated cannot be memorized, it has to be learned. He went on to talk about a particular student he once had in his class, he stated that he noticed the student always looked angry, no matter what he taught; said or did; she always had a look of disgust on her face. She always left the class without asking questions or speaking with him, she hurriedly grab her books and stormed out every day. At this time he began to think that maybe he was either doing something wrong or this student just didn’t like him “AT ALL”.

As the last semester came to an end, he begin to ask the students to write a paper describing their year in the class, when he got this particular students paper – he then found out why she had a disgruntled look on her face for the whole semester. Her paper said. “Dr. Hobbs, I became frustrated and disgusted with your class for the entire school semester – I was angry because for the better part of my life, I sailed through classes based on my memorization which helped me to excel and succeed, it wasn’t until I came to your class that I realized that memorization would not work, I actually had to learn, study and challenge myself, something I was simply not good at. But by doing so I was able to open up a whole new world that has changed my life forever”

Sometimes in life we look to the Word of God as a memory course, we memorize certain scriptures and might breeze through others, we then use those scriptures to influence people that we are spiritual or know and/or read Gods word, It’s easy to dress up a memory verse as you can take it and use it so many ways. There was a preacher who taught on the scripture John 3:16 for 20yrs, he never reverted to any other scripture outside of this one, he used that passage of scripture in so many ways, versions and techniques. He definitely had it memorized….

Timothy 2:15 says – Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

In order to get the fullness of God and learn ALL of him, we have to buckle down and truly study the word, memorizing a scripture is Good because we can’t always take our bibles now in the workplace or other places…..but what about the alone time that we have, that could be time to truly study the Word of God, a lot of people say they fall asleep when they read the bible and trust me; it has happened to me on several occasions, I often tell people if you’re restless at night…..forget the Ambien or some other sleep aid, just read the bible; you’ll go to sleep every time…it’s proven to work.

If this happens to you, maybe you should change the time in which you actually spend time in the WORD, like maybe a lunch break or sometime during the day. God wants you to get to know him, not just some of him or a part of him but all of him, he wants to reveal things to you and about you concerning your present and your future, He died on the Cross for your Past so no need to worry about that. You know when we get into relationships weather it’s a friendship or dating and so forth, we long to get to know that individual; not just a piece of them but we want to know everything about them, so we take out time to study things about them like what makes them sad or happy, what’s their favorite food and/or color and the list goes on and on. Do you not think that’s what LEARNING the word will do for you and your relationship with God? He wants you to LEARN him, not memorize him and his works….But Learn his ways, learn to feel his presence, learn when it’s him that’s really talking to you, in this you will not only learn of him – but you might be surprised what you really begin to learn of yourself.

Learning opens up more understanding – As you learn you are able to find out better ways to perform better, talk better, listen better and treat others better. A memory can fade away, learning; can and will as the student said “Change your life Forever”

Memorization is good, but what would you rather have – Someone that has a MEMORY of you or someone that has LEARNED you.

A man of great memory without learning hath a rock and a spindle and no staff to spin.

George Herbert

When I was 12yrs old, I had a pair of shoes called Kangaroo’s; you wouldn’t remember them unless your parent or parents shopped at Payless in whom back then did not have a very nice selection of shoes, but growing up to a newly divorced/single mom – It was all she could afford, so a lot of times she wouldn’t have the funds to be able to purchase us a new pair, so we would wash up the one’s we had really good and go over them perfectly with white shoe polish. No one ever knew that they were shoes from the previous year that had just been given a new look and because she couldn’t afford us a new pair, we passed our old shoes down to the sister who’s feet was growing or had grown into that size….

My kangaroo shoes were awesome to me, I actually thought I was a real kangaroo when I wore them; I could see myself leaping like the kangaroo, leaping over objects and things that came in my path. One day my mom, her sister, myself and my other two sisters and cousins went for a ride, it wasn’t unusual for us all to be squeezed up in the back seat. My mom had some very important food stamp papers that needed to get to the welfare office before she got cut off, the place was always crowded so mama had to park across the street from the office in which had a very busy highway in between it, she asked me if I could take the papers in the office for her and give it to the receptionist. I said YES! It was an opportunity to get out of the car from the wolf pack and it would be nice to stretch my legs…

My mom gave me the paper and told me to be careful as I had to go across this big highway, in which was extremely busy that day. As I leaned against the car – I counted on my Kangaroo shoes to get me across the street – I imagined me leaping from the car to the sidewalk of the building. GO KANGAROO!! I said as I leaped across the highway really fast, I surprised myself with how quickly I ran. YESSS!! I said, Thanks Kangaroo, I uttered as I went inside the building.

As I dropped the letter off at the receptionist desk, I walked back outside to make it back across the busy highway, the traffic was heavier than it was when I went inside; as I looked back and forward to check the traffic I remember saying to myself “Okay, Kangaroo’s we’re going to have to get across this street” – Just when I thought the traffic was clear, I said “GO KANGAROO!” as I ran across the busy highway to get to my mama on the other side, the only thing I remember seeing next was the front of a car’s headlight that I had just gotten hit by; at that moment, I was knocked unconscious as I laid there in the middle of the highway..

How many times do we put our trust, hope and faith into objects, things or people? Most of us trust the alarm system to wake us up in the morning, We put faith in crosses, shamrocks, lucky rabbit feet, cars, boyfriends, girlfriends and the list goes on and on; we trust and put our faith in these things because we can touch and see those things and if we can touch and see it, there goes our attention; there goes our FAITH! But we dare not put our trust and faith in Jesus because we can’t see him, touch him and to some they feel like they can’t talk to him (because he’s not with us “physically”) some people have lost their faith in God because maybe they feel like he let them down when he didn’t come through for them, or they feel like God is responsible for all the hurt, sorrow and sadness in the world – so why should they put their faith in him. People have many reasons as to why they don’t put their Faith and trust in God….

The bible says “Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen” – Hebrews 11:1. So even though we may not see it, but we “hope” and “believe” that what we are praying, seeking and asking God for he will give it to us….at his appropriate time.

When we put our Faith in other things outside of God, that thing becomes our God; that means that we are putting our trust into that object, person or thing…we trust that they will provide for us, take care of us and ultimately soon they began to take the place that God so desires…

The bible says that “God is a Jealous God” (for you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God), Exodus 34:14 – notice the little “g” that means idol, anyone celebrated or loved more than the big “G” is considered an idol and a threat to God.

God blessed me that day to live through being hit by that car, the whole bottom of my chin was completely torn off and I was banged up a little, but God suffered me not to die nor did he suffer me to have any broken bones as I didn’t go to the hospital because we didn’t have health insurance and my mom couldn’t afford the hospital bill that was going to come afterwards so…I got back into the same car that I got out of and went home, my mom put anointing oil on my wound and my whole body, prayed for me and we went on by our day as if nothing happened, but something did happen as I learned a valuable lesson that day and that was to not put my FAITH nor TRUST into anything else but GOD almighty……I wore my Kangaroo shoes again after that day, but they were just shoes as I learned that they could no longer hold any value over the real person whom could get me in and out of situations without hurt, harm or danger. (I just want to clarify that just because God is a jealous God doesn’t mean that he causes things to happen to us, remember when we put our faith and trust into anything other than the almighty we suffer our OWN consequences behind whatever that something or thing brings because anytime you step outside of God’s will, you become a magnet for the enemy who is deceitful, conniving, cunning, a manipulator, liar and a thief and he’s waiting on you)

So who has your TRUST and where does your FAITH reside…..if it’s in any other thing outside of God then you might want to reconsider where you have it. God is the only one in whom we can put our FAITH as he won’t let us down.

Put your Faith in God, Not Objects….Faith in God keeps you, Faith in Objects Destroy you.

“Life is not about bracing for the storm, but learning how to dance in the rain”

Yesterday once I got off of work, it had begun to sprinkle a little. I was beginning to Thank God that I had gotten off early enough to beat the rain, but as I made it into town I realized that I needed to stop by the store to pick up a couple of items and by this time it had done begun to rain extremely hard, as I sat in the parking lot awaiting for the rain to ease up, I noticed other people either sitting in their cars, standing by the grocery store door and/or running out to their parked cars.

I began to ask the Lord to please slow the rain down so that I can get my umbrella out of the trunk and make it into the store, when I said that it seemed to rain even harder – needless to say the rain never let up, I finally braced myself, got out of the car, got the umbrella and rushed into the store. As I got into the store and began to walk around, I suddenly thought about how the rain plays a major part in our spiritual lives, for we like to wait on the storms of life to do what it needs to do before we deal with it, we’re idle and sit in one place until it passes. But what if the rain of life didn’t stop – do we sit and wait? A lot of times God does not allow the rain in our lives to stop when we ask for it too, this is his way of building our faith and our spiritual resume – The bible says “And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience and experience, hope. Romans 5: 3-4

The adversary wanted me to get sad because God did not do as I asked, most people would have gotten discouraged and began to think that God is not listening to them, this tends to make people question their spiritual walk because in their minds they think they did something wrong and God is now punishing them for it (just because he didn’t honor and/or answer their request when they felt like he should)……this is not so as God does not punish us “just because” he wants too, our own choices causes us to get in the predicaments that we do get into and we then suffer the consequences of our own choices. God is a God of FREEWILL (He allows you to make up your own mind)…..Sometimes God doesn’t answer our prayers right away because he wants us to become strong and move off of the milk and onto the solids…just like a baby, if it never advances to solid foods and continue to drink milk until it’s 5yrs of age, that baby will be very weak; it will not have any nourishment or sustenance to keep it going and eventually it will die, if God said YES to everything we asked him for, it would make us weak and we would never know how to do things on our own and we would not know the true meaning of FAITH. (think about it)

So the storms of life are not the end, they are just the beginning of God taking you through a trial so that you may have patience, experience and hope in the midst of your situation. All of life’s experiences are to build us, so we can turn around and build others. The bible also says “We overcome by the words of our Testimony” so all of our “rain” is actually not just for us alone, but it’s for others who may be going through the same “rain” as you and are just about to give up…until you let them know that there is HOPE!

The next time it rains, instead of waiting for it to pass or asking God to allow it to stop for you, ask him to bless you to go through it, for only then will you completely understand how to DANCE in it…

I HOPE YOU DANCE……

You know as I was walking to my car on Thursday, I was recalling an incident that happened between me and a young lady at work, to make a very long story short – I transitioned on my job and there’s a young lady (a temp) that’s working my old job now, but I go back and forward on certain days to help out and/or catch up work that I worked on prior to my departure.

The young lady has a very sarcastic tone to her, upon walking into the office (where I used to sit) she asked me “Do you think you could find somewhere else to sit?” I mean, I’m glad you’re coming back and whatever but I need this seat because now I am starting to work, there’s a lovely seat next door where you could sit.” First of all I wanted to say, there’s a lovely seat next door for you to sit at; you been at this job for 2 seconds and already making demands? Really??? Not Today….but it was merely the way she said it and the way she was looking while saying it….”Greater is he that’s within me I said to myself” – Because I was about to have a showdown on her with my mouth in full swing…….but I said…

Sure,….No problem.

All types of things were coming to my mind about that situation and I wanted to say more than what I said…..but I got to thinking as I was walking, what if God took out his frustrations on us because of something we did to him, What if he said “Well since you won’t worship me, I’m not going to wake you up this morning” There would be sooo many of us dead right now, or if he said “What?” you don’t want to obey me, okay then I’m going to cause you to have an accident. What type of God would he be if he did that to us…

Because that is what we do to people, we seek revenge – Instead of letting God fight the battle (and that’s hard to do sometimes) we fight our own battles – When someone wrongs us or our family we seek to get them back and make them hurt the way they made us hurt, we hurt people because – we hate people because – we talk and down people because – they did it to us first.

But what if God was like that towards us – Just doing us wrong because we hurt him and we do hurt him every day when we don’t forgive, when we don’t love, when we don’t help, when we cast stones on people, when we don’t try to live right, when we murder (with our tongues and our hands); but yet and despite of – He still loves us even when we don’t love him like we should. His love is unconditional so there is nothing that you can do that will make him stop loving you, he loves you in spite of how you or we ultimately treat him.

That same love is what I had to have for that young lady – a long time ago there was this sign that read WWJD (What Would Jesus Do) at the time; that phrase was so popular, everyone had some type of paraphernalia that related to the words WWJD, but did they know what they were really wearing? It was supposed to be a “conscious” sign for all of us to take account of our actions and our words towards one another by thinking What Would Jesus Do in this situation or What Would Jesus Do, if someone hated him, lied on him, misused him, abused him, chastised him, called him out of his name, talked about him and etc.

So What Would JESUS really Do? Easy, a simple 4 letter word called – L.O.V.E

I wasn’t nasty to that young lady in which to some people, I would have had every right to be and then some, but the bible tells us to “Follow peace with all men, holiness without, in which no man shall see the Lord. Hebrews 12:14

So I had to follow peace with her and I was, when she finally came to me to ask a question, I didn’t snarl up my nose and get all huff and puff with her, I answered her question and smiled – later that day through an email she thanked me for coming over between both workplaces and I thanked her as well for being so knowledgeable of the systems and working because that was a big help in me not being overloaded with two jobs.

In the end; we have to be careful how we entertain people, we will either draw them or leave an impression on them that will forever be a memory in their mind about who we are in which is not that important when it comes down to whom you say you’re representing because, The next person to give their life to Christ, just may be watching how he acts through you!

If he wouldn’t do it to us, then why should we do it to others…

–

I’m sure I am not the only one whom has let the cares of life take you by storm and the next thing you know you’re swept away into it’s waves never to be found again….this is depending on how long you decide to let those cares be the driving force in your life. It’s so easy to get “caught up” in the hype of “I’m tired of being the first to always lend a helping hand, I’m tired of always being the one whom has to smile first or I’m tired of always being the one to say “I’m sorry first……For once, I would just like to be like everybody else, doing what I want to do and saying what I want to say, so why can’t I…

Some months ago, that was me – I had let the cares of the world, my job, home, church and everything else to take the ride with me to “I don’t care-ville”. I had allowed my environment to get the best of me, people were used to seeing me smile and have a “happy-go-lucky” attitude no matter what, so much so they even wondered if I ever got mad or upset about anything, so when I was beginning to show another side of me that they had never seen, I began to get questioned about my behavior….anybody that had something to say that was negative, I quickly joined forces with them and became negative too. If someone said they hated work and how disgusted they were to be there; I joined the bandwagon with them and began to hate my work as well, I suddenly began to disassociate myself with the positive-upbeat person that people had become to know, I was now joy riding on the wings of disgust, disappointment and depression for almost 3 weeks until…..

A co-worker of mine approached me, she said Roshonda? Where’s Mary Poppins! At first I was like who? I had heard of Mary Poppins but could not readily put who she was and my association with her in my mind. Just to give you a backstory – Mary Poppins was the nanny to a couple by the name of  Mr.. and Mrs.’s Banks; whom had four children, Jane and Michael; and baby twins John and Barbara. When the children’s nanny, Katie; storms out of their lives, Mary Poppins mysteriously arrived at their home, complete with her traveling carpetbag, blown in by a very strong wind. She accepts the job, and the children soon learn that their nanny, though she is stern, vain, and usually cross, has a magical touch that makes her wonderful.  In the end, Mary Poppins is satisfied with the work she has done with the Banks family, and the West Wind carries her away

So why was my co-worker calling me Mary Poppins? Her version was this – Roshonda, I am not used to seeing you this way, I’m used to you smiling all the time and when I come to your office, it smells so sweet: it literally brightens my day and for a moment, I know that all things are good in the world, I see you as Mary Poppins because you have a joy about you all the time, like her you have an umbrella of happiness spreading it around to everyone. I have to say this shocked me because I did not know that she thought or seen me that way, when she left I began to take inventory of my behavior and simply thought, Lord I let you down. The bible says in : Matthew 5:13-16 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.

As a Christian, I was not representing God in the best light or  even in the best way, as Christians we have to realize that we are the only bible that a dying world will ever pick up to read and if our inward bible is not on point, then they will put us in a basket with everyone else, if you are proclaiming to be a Christina then you have to do your best no matter what to represent God in the best way….that’s through your giving, your smile, your warm and gentle demeanor, the way you talk, the way you respond, the way you act toward craziness or unpredictable circumstances, we are being looked at and tested in more ways than we realize….If we FAIL, then that means we have not only failed ourselves but we may have failed to lead people to God.

People today are depressed, hurt, suicidal and have the mind set that no one loves them, some even believe that there is no God, they don’t believe he exist. So, we as Christians are supposed to be the examples that he is ALIVE AND WELL! we show this by the way we live on a daily basis. I decided that day to change my mindset about my situation, yes, things get hard and Lord knows they get tough but I have a greater power at work living on the inside of me, in which I ask God daily if my attitude for  that day was pleasing in his sight, because its not about ME but about the soul that is watching me.

So where is my Mary Poppins? she’s right here ready, motivated and willing to serve –  Because greater is he that is within me than he that is within the world. 1 John 4:4

Is Mary Poppins active in your life?