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