Die Empty

Sleeping with the Enemy

Obey Your Thirst

I'd like to take this moment to get something off my chest.
I've tried my BEST not to use scriptures in this blog in order to keep a "universal" audience. I didn't want to "offend" anyone. But, quite frankly, it is impossible! As a man of faith, my foundation and growing knowledge is based off of the scriptures that I read, and I can't help but bless people with what blesses me. The revelations from these scriptures are too deep for me to conceal! If you have an open mind and have an appetite for food for thought, you might quit your job today lol.
Whew!!! What a relief! Lets begin, shall we? :-)

FYI, In case you haven't been there in a while, or you've never been there at all...I'm taking you to church today ;-)

(1 Kings 17:2-9 NIV)
Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah: “Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan. You will drink from the brook, and I have directed the ravens to supply you with food there.” So he did what the Lord had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and stayed there. The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook. Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. Then the word of the Lord came to him: “Go at once to Zarephath in the region of Sidon and stay there. I have directed a widow there to supply you with food.”

It's very uncomfortable being at a dry place. When things aren't flowing the way would like, we're likely to become frustrated and complain.
Elijah, in this passage, was on an assignment from God. He was supplied with what was necessary for him to fulfill the assignment. But when his assignment was complete the supply ran out, and now time for him to move on to the next. Verse 6 let's us know that he was supplied with food daily, and he drank water from the brook. But there came a time, in verse 7, were the brook dried up. His water supply was cut off because of the drought that was upon the land. Because of this drought, his needs could no longer be sustained at this location. Therefore, It was time for him to move on to the next assignment.
How many of us find ourselves in a place in our lives where our resources have dried up? Our source of income becomes dry, our relationships become dry, our self-fulfillment becomes dry, and even our way of thinking becomes dry.
The problem I have is when we remain in that dry place. God uses these dry places to shift or transition us into our new assignments, but so often, we will entertain stagnation and complain continuously about the state or condition that we're in.
I remember working at a pharmacy for UC-San Diego. I was earning a decent salary but was in a dry place in terms of fulfillment. I had a job but I was not working. According to Dr. Myles Munroe, "a job is what they pay you to do, but work is what you were born to do." I had not booked an acting gig in months, partly because of the 8 hour shifts I was working Monday through Friday, and the fact that San Diego is not a major market for acting. I was overwhelmed with frustration and would complain about how much I want to be a part of a production...wether it was for theater or film, I didn't care! JUST HAND ME A SCRIPT!!! I was THIRSTY to play another role.
I was afraid to leave my job at the pharmacy because it was my only source of income at the time...and a GOOD one. But I was lacking in fulfillment. My desire was to move to L.A for more opportunities to showcase my talent, but I would be disconnecting myself from a steady paycheck and free housing. "How will I make money? Where would I live?" These were the questions I asked myself when I came to this crossroad.
After some prayer and seeking wise counsel from my Pastor at the time, Dr. Adrian Ewings, I took a leap of faith and moved to LA.
The CRAZY thing is, I had no place to stay and no means income. I planned on lodging outside of the acting studio where I studied. The same night I got there, I attended a class at the studio and met some new people. As the class concluded, I met an Australian actor who asked "where do you stay mate?" I told him that I wasn't quite sure yet. Almost immediately, he said "if you need a place to crash for the night, you can crash on my couch mate. I'm sure my roommate wouldn't mind." I was so GRATEFUL!!! Words couldn't explain! I had a flashback of when I was still contemplating on wether or not I should go. I remember hearing the scripture that says "Walk by Faith, not by sight." I didn't see any opportunities for lodging with someone at the time, but faith already prepared this moment.
Because I made the decision to OBEY MY THIRST for acting, God gave me the provision to shift from the dry place of a "job" that was lacking fulfillment, and walk right into my purpose.
The amazing part about this testimony is, not only did I have a place to crash that first night, but every night after that for the 7 months I was in LA. Fellow actors from the studio offered their couches, friends I met at networking events opened their homes to me, and at one point, my 95 Lexus ES 300 took me in (we'll talk about that some other time).

Some of you reading this right now could testify and say that you're in a dry place. It's because you're thirsty for PURPOSE! You may say "I've yet to discover my purpose" or "I don't know what my purpose is." I'm here to tell you that it is the very thing or things that quench your THIRST! Whatever it is that fulfills you to the point where you would enjoy it, even if no one paid you to do it. You go to sleep thinking about it, you dream about it, you wake up thinking about it, and even day dream about it at times.
If you've exhausted all of your options and tapped out all of your resources from your current place or position, then I encourage you to be like Elijah and leave the dry place. Your time there is up. God is ready to elevate and promote you to the next level...he's waiting on YOU! It's time to move on to the next assignment. Every complete assignment, is another step closer to fulfilling your Purpose.

It's time to leave behind that circus, and live "Life On Purpose"

Chain Game 2...The Direction of Pain

Chain Game

I was listening to a song by Deon Kipping titled "Prisonor of Christ." And the lyrics to the chorus are "Chained to his will, bound to his word....He has my life, I'm a prisoner of Christ."

The song metaphorically illustrates the believers connection to Christ. After hearing the song several times, I began to ask myself who, as a people, are we chained or connected to...both physically and spiritually. What you're connected to can cause you to progress, stagnate, or regress. Where we desire to go in life is co-dependent on who and what we're connected to.
How deep is our connection to people? I'm convinced that most of us have failed to connect with purpose because of who and what we're connected to.

We are what we repeatedly do. We are a sum total of our experience. If you're from a certain area, you're almost doomed to never make it out. Talk less of actually being significant in any capacity. People usually evolve into their surroundings, or as we like to say, "a product of your environment." You're identified by your affiliation. The Jews, according to the Bible, refused to believe that Jesus was the messiah because of his affiliation. In John 6:42 they said, "Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, 'I came down from heaven'?" Because of his affiliation to a less than "royal" family, they refused to acknowledge His significance. Where He came from did not match His significance... Most of us can relate.
Most of us come from countries, cities, towns, neighborhoods, and areas where nothing good or great has ever emerged. If we could just take a second and think about where we came from, or grew up, we probably cannot count on one hand how many successful people came from that area....
There's an attachment we have to our environment that gears us towards failure. Those attachments include family (mom and or dad, older siblings, cousins, etc.), friends from the block or same housing projects, and the number one raiser of most of our children, school.
These attachments mold and shape us into who we are today.
Our environments play significant roles in the outcome of our future.
An atmosphere, if sustained long enough, becomes a climate...a climate, if sustained long enough, becomes a culture....and a culture, if sustained long enough, becomes a stronghold or a mindset.
The first atmosphere we were ever introduced to is a delicate word called family....but we'll get to that later. (I may need to write a part 2)
This may not be the case for some of you reading, but for most of us, we were raised in atmospheres that were so hostile that our theme song is Marvin Sapps "Never Would've Made It."
I was raised in a section of Queens, NY called Far Rockaway...better known as The 6th Borough." Like most rural areas, Rockaway is flooded with young men and women of color with limitless potential to be successful in ANY capacity. But because we're chained to discord, murder, and mayhem, we have a deluxe package membership at central bookings and our own suite at the hospital to deliver baby's...while we're still baby's ourselves.
Through the selection of people that we're connected to, we're chained to a lifestyle that has warped our perception of fulfillment. To my sisters, giving IT up to anybody who says "I love you" will never bring fulfillment. IT serves a specific purpose for a specific someone of significance. When you don't know the value of IT, you'll give IT to anybody.
To my brothers, we were never created to chase after paper. We were created to chase purpose. When we're in our purpose, paper will chase after us. Cultivating our gifts and talents will always have us in demand. There is a need for the gifts that we have.

Truth is, when no one has ever looked some of us square in the eye and told us how valuable we really are. It's nearly impossible for some of us to even fathom. My brothers and my sisters that are reading this, YOU ARE SIGNIFICANT!!!

I just need you to ask yourself these questions... Would you be willing to disconnect with some friends in order to connect with your destiny?
Are you willing to burn some relationships to spark the fire of your passion?
Are you willing to spend a year or two alone (single) in order to have a divine connection with purpose?
One of the reason why we can't get things done in our lives is because we're busy trying to get things done in others....our allowing others to get things done in ours.

I challenge every reader to start looking at your chains...whatever or whoever it is you're connected to. If they are not conducive for your purpose in life, think about disconnecting one link at a time.
There's a purpose for chains in our lives to be broken ONE link at a time. If we just break the entire chain, we're liable to forget about some of the links that created the chain.
But when we break one link at a time, we get flash backs on where and who we used to be. This allows us to recognize this issue that another brother or sister may be dealing with, and be able to relate from a familiar place.
Through the pains of your experience, you can now reach your hands and pull someone out from their pit. You know their thought process the best because you've been there!

Log on next week as we discuss the mindset we developed from the Genesis of our issues. The household environment called "Home."
I'm calling it "Chain Game 2...The Direction of pain"

As always, run out of the circus, and live #LifeOnPurpose

Why...

Purpose is the original intent of a creation, or the reason WHY something was created.
Nothing in life is without purpose. Everything God created functions according to its purpose. Everything but the human race.

When mankind was created, we were created with something called choice. In the book "Journey to Excellence" by the Indianapolis Colts chaplain, Ken Johnson, he states that no one is born a winner or loser....We're all born choosers. Humans are the only creation that are born with the power of decision.
The earth never decides to just stop spinning on its axes...The sun doesn't wake up one day and decide to stop producing light....and the wildlife of the air, field and the sea can never stop hunting, gathering, and reproducing....they genuinely don't have a choice.
Mankind was created with the power of decision, and with that power comes responsibility. We're responsible for following our passions and using our natural and spiritual gifts in order to live life on purpose.

I mentioned before that nothing in life is without purpose. Our dilemma as human beings is that not every purpose is known. According to Dr. Myles Munroe, where purpose is unknown, abuse is inevitable. Abuse is abnormal use. If something is abnormally used, there's normal use for it. Our time, energy, and focus has been abused by pursuing careers that don't allow our gifts and talents to be put to use. When we neglect or haven't discovered our purpose, all we can do is experiment. Being that we have the power to choose which direction we want to go in life, we find ourselves experimenting with what we are exposed to. Our resumes are filled with experiments. We experiment with retail, fast food, customer service, administration, and a haul of other fields that put our passions and God given talents on the back burner. Although these experiments are necessary to help us as we climb the ladder of success, they are simply meant to be temporary or for a season. I compare them to layovers on a flight. The layover is never the final destination. Instead, we put time, energy and efforts into these nine to fives, and consequently miss our calling by dimming the lights on what it is that we were originally created to do.
I remember working as a clerk at a pharmacy at the University of California in San Diego a few years ago. I was making more money than I'd ever had before. It was one of my first full time jobs. My plan was to earn a decent living while pursuing a career as an actor. Although the salary I was earning was an absolute blessing at the time, I didn't have time to audition for roles. I told myself that I would request less hours in order to make time for auditions, but I was caught up in the paper chase. So caught up that, after some time, I received information about becoming a pharmacy technician. I was enticed by the increase of salary and comfortable living it was going to provide for me. I began to think about finally moving into my own place, buying furniture, owning a better car, affording suits for church, and just living a more comfortable life than the one I was living. For this brief moment I dimmed the lights on my acting career and began to experiment with this possible life of a pharmacy technician. When I snapped out of this delusional possibility, my passion for acting outweighed the quicker, easier road to becoming a pharmacy technician. I couldn't see myself working for this university for 20-30 years of my life when I understood that I have this gift to entertain. I knew at some point that I would wind up quitting to satisfy my passion for acting.
When we discover why we exist, we spark a flame that becomes almost impossible to put out.

WHY something exists is more important than WHAT it is that's in existence. WHY gives WHAT fulfillment.
So often, we have our minds on the WHAT in life as opposed to the WHY of life. We're so exhausted and worn out because we abuse or time and energy on WHAT we're chasing after. WHAT we chase after is usually what we've been exposed to, or what society trains us to pursue.
We have our minds on What relationships we want to get into, What kind of family we'd like to have, What jobs or careers earn a decent salary to just get by, What trades to pick up, What economic status' we'd like to have, What material things we want to posses, What fashion trends we want to follow, What education we'd like to have, and so on. Hip Hop artist Noreaga said it best....WHAT, WHAT, WHAT,WHAT, WHAT, WHAT, WHAT!
But rarely do we allow ourselves the opportunity to discover the WHY behind what it is we're chasing after.
There's a a reason Why you're attracted to certain types of people, Why we major in a particular field, Why we chose certain careers, Why we associate ourself with certain individuals. It's all connected to our purpose or Why we exist. The thing that we are passionate about gives us answers to WHY it is we exist. But, most of the time, we ignore them because they seem too far fetched and out of reach.
Passion is the greatest indicator of purpose. The very thing or things that drive us up the wall and can't stop thinking about, is what we were created to do. It is our responsibility to choose to stir up these gifts and get the training/education necessary in order to gain success in our respective fields.

The most fulfilled an effective people on this earth live #LifeOnPurpose.

Welcome

Happy New Year everyone...

I'm excited to finally share this blog with all of you.

The purpose of this blog is to help those of us who are not sure what we want to do or be for the rest of our lives, discover our purpose and our individual reasons for existence.

There are so many gifts and talents that have been planted within us that lie dormant due to lack of cultivation.

When a seed is planted, it needs both water AND light. Society has painted a WATERED DOWN picture of life for us to model. According to society we are to go to college, get a job, get in a union, get married, work for 20 years, and retire receiving only a gold watch for your time invested. ,

While that may be fine for most people, and may even be the purpose for some, there is a fraction of us that has a longing for more.  

We have dreams and visions on a daily basis of artistically expressing ourselves through lyrics, dance, sculpture, theater, writing, and many other forms of media and performing arts.

Although this blog may be viewed as "By the Artist, for the Artist", it is open to all who are longing for a sense if purpose.

Through "Life on Purpose" we will examine ways to discover our reason for existence! With self-examination, self-motivation and application, our goal of discovering our full potential will be met. I am excited to be part of your journey of living “ Life on Purpose”.