Facing Fears

I have always thought that there are two kinds of people: those who do what they say; and those who just say. I am, and have always been someone who thinks and analyzes too much, so needless to say, I think about the above statement daily. Therefore, I frequently find myself rhetorically asking, which one am I?

I would assume we would all like to answer that question with "I always do what I say I will" because that is a nice way to view ourselves. I would venture to guess that this is a fallacy. Now at this point you may be thinking, maybe I'm a bit judgmental, or come on Sam everyone slips up; I agree with both reactions. However, I do not want to focus on doing what we say we will do, instead I want to focus on just doing. So I want to restate something; there are two kinds of people: those who do; those who don't.

This is where I end up, I am generally a person who tries hard to keep my word and do what I say I will do, but does this make me a doer? I have/am envious of those people who have the ability to risk failure to "do" what they say they will do. For me it has always been safe (easy) to do what I am supposed to do. What has been hard is to do what is hard, to put myself out there, to take an idea/dream and make it a reality.

We often (I think) have two reactions to those who do, from now on let's call them the "doers". We either love them, i.e. Musicians, Actors, Models, Politicians; these are the people we idolize. This applies on the micro level as well, these are the "life performers" we follow on a daily basis. I heard from a valuable, educated source, that having this kind of hierarchy in society directly relates to a successful society, so please know I consider this a positive attribute. The other type are those who don't do (remember this relates directly to the above defined as "doers"), let's refer to them as "non-doers". These are the people who don't do what they want to do. I am a believer that no idea is accidental, and should therefore be given a serious place in our daily walk. First, I want to address all of the over analytical skeptics who might read this. I am trying to leave as little ambiguity as possible, and I am trying to be as specific as possible when defining theses terms. So when I say those "who don't do what they want to do" I am not addressing our wants based on material/media related influence, but strictly imaginative.

I recently studied/practiced Yoga. While there is a lot of non-christian principles, there were some interesting perspectives on how we view life. I read about the imagination and how it is the key to creating reality. I thought about everything we see on a daily basis, man made (at least for now) and it occurred to me. Before there was any kind of car, it's design had to come from somewhere. Arguably, daily interaction with other things play into the creation of this design, but all in all it had to be thought up. What if Henry Ford had doubted his image, what if his fear of failure would have prevented his action. I'll leave that answer up to you. I could easily come up with example after example to restate the same underlying fact. We need to honor the natural ideas, whether influenced by Man or God.

Our natural intuition is a gift from God one the we have to honor. But with this notion has to come action, the doing, without the doing part it just stays as an idea. I write this brief thought because it's a struggle. But putting it down keep me accountable. I want to be a doer. I want to follow through with my ideas. And remember with the risk of extreme failure, there is always a chance of great success.

"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take." -Wayne Gretzky [Michael Scoot]

A few thoughts

In the Marine Corps one of our Leadership principles is to Know yourself and seek self improvement. We all have areas in which we struggle. That being said, to me it does not matter how we fall (or how often), but what matters more is how we get back up. I will address two things: First Perception and second Integrity.

I was once told by a superior officer that life is all about perception, how your subordinates perceive what you are doing. And I thought NO WAY! That can't be how it is. Well I guess I have two thoughts about this, one is from a Military Leadership perspective and the Second is from a Christian leadership perspective. As a leader of Marines it really only matters what your Marines see, intentions go out the window. Let' say your asking your Marines to work really hard and what not, then they see you sleeping during the middle of the day. Now if I'm that leader I know that I have had 4 hours of sleep in the last three days, but all that Marine sees is me sleeping after I just asked them to push themselves. Does that make sense? Now the way I was thinking was from the Christian perspective. As a Christian leader I need to act the same way at home as I do anywhere else I am. That's just my opinion. 

Now let's talk a little about Integrity. This is the strongest character trait that anyone can have, it will make you are break you. Let me give you my definition of Integrity: doing the right thing no matter who is watching. Let's use a biblical example Jesus was talking about prayer and the way we should pray in Matthew 6, Jesus says when you prayer do no be like those how pray out in the open so that others can see them but pray by yourself where it is between you and God. So this kind of ties my perception and integrity point. If you are able to do theright thing by praying by yourself and when people ask you if you pray or if you tell them hey I will pray for you and you do then you are showing spiritual integrity. Does this make sense? Now as far as how this will help you in your life is the more someone can say hey can you do this and you say yes and it gets done then they can always trust that you will get it done. And therefore your word will be just as good as anything else.

Let me know what you think.

Obedience

Today was a much needed day of fun. Some of my friends and I went to Six Flags New Jersey. Gotta love that Jersey air. We had fun; we rode tons of rides, ate nasty expensive food, and even stood in a line or two. It was nice to kind of let myself go after this last week. Streetreach was such a blessing, but it was physically and mentally draining. I can't imagine how Jason and Dione must feel, what a blessing those two are to our church.

I think today I can reflect on obedience. Often times we wonder why God wants us to do certain things. I think sometimes we feel like it's not in our best interest and we don't understand why, but I think in the end we figure it out. If 40 Men, Women, and Children had not been obedient to their calling last week and gone out to serve, would lives have been touch, or possibly changed?

I think not doing is the easy thing. How simple is it to just lay there and not do, but getting up and making a difference, and following our intuition to obey God's will for our life will make a difference. It is much easier to sit here and write this, but I am going to give my all into obeying God's will for my life, even if it's not what I think is time appropriate, or fun. Will you? What are some of your thoughts? Care to share?

What's your Comfort Zone?

About a week ago I heard a statement that would stick with me forever. "Let this be your comfort zone". I was in a training environment that was about to suck, and that statement was my leaders advice. Often times we have a hard time adjusting to situation, and I think I have figured out why. We are not in our comfort zone.

The typical American can pee when they want, eat when they want, and most times sleep as they please, but when these basic needs are taken away, life could get tough. This week I have the pleasure of leading small teams of youth students who have given up these comforts in exchange for an opportunity to serve others. They can't eat what they want, nor can they sleep until 1:00 in the afternoon. For this very reason I am proud to serve with these kids. They could have easily declined this opportunity, and continued on enjoying their summer, instead they serve.

It is my opinion that when we are furthest from our comforts we tend to learn the most about ourselves; our weakness and those areas that we need to improve. So where is your comfort level? Is in too low? What are some areas that could use a comfort boost? I don't think this means that we need to sleep out side and howl at the moon to realize that we watch too much TV, but maybe giving up something that makes you comfortable could help you free up some time to take care of other things. One thing that has always helped me, is to think that no matter how much I think that my situation sucks, there is someone up in the middle of the night in a desert with their M-16 making sure that my situation can suck. I would love to hear your thoughts/opinions.

First Post

So hello everyone, let me be the first one to welcome you to my head, or the thoughts that are in there anyway. The point of this blog is to kind of take the thoughts that are floating around up here and point them down to see if they will make more sense. Then you should comment; tell me whether you think it's cool or not. Disagree or put your thoughts down. I guess you could call this sort of a therapy type of session. Get as personal as you want people to read, because remember this is the World Wide Web, and it's free game. So here we go!

So the thoughts that have been distracting me as of late are those of success and failure. We live in a society that praises those who succeed and generally looks down on those who fail. I have failed before, and it sucks; I hate that feeling, you know the one where you feel like you let down all of those who believe or look up to you. But if you succeed than none of those thoughts, emotions, or feelings exists. Success feels great!

Right now I have been battling with this fear of failure. The other week I was talking with someone, and I said negative thoughts do not come from God. Then pretty much within the next few Sundays my Pastor quotes this verse: "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." 2 Timothy 1:7. Man does this verse have some power. So now I have been struggling with this thought of, God wants me to succeed, right? Yes, and to make matters even more convincing, today I read the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and how there obedience to what they knew God wanted them to do not only saved their lives, but it also took them further in life. So, I have come to the realization that God has put me where he wants me to be. He may be challenging me with something that is too much for me, but if he gave me something that I could handle myself, than where is there room for him to help? I declare that I will trust in the Lord, and despite the outcome I will trust in his will.

Thanks for stopping by, I would love to read your comments!