I woke up on New Year’s Day and I thought about all the different resolutions I’ve made over the years; you know them all — I’m going to lose weight. I’m going to join a gym. I’m going to eat better and here’s one so many of us say after a year of loss of family members, friends, loved ones and friends-of-friends; I’m going to start going to church.
Isn’t it deep that on January 1, so many of us do a personal inventory of our lives and for whatever reason, that’s seems to be the one day we legitimately face the truth about ourselves, society and the world. We face our shortcomings, flaws and the things we really don’t like about ourselves, this society and the world. We think about all the things we don’t like about ourselves.
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You know, those things you would get pissed off about if someone else brought them to your attention and if we’re truly honest, we only get mad because they brought to our attention what we already know to be true. And what’s crazy is once they bring it up, we try and defend that s— (remember my article Cussing, well I’m still in rehab) knowing that we can do better.
What would happen if this January we just say to ourselves, “I’m just going to try each day moving forward throughout 2024 to be a better person. I’m just going to try and be a better me.” And guess what—you can do that at your present weight, you can do that inside or outside of the church. Allow me creative license in using Dr. King’s words with my own spin on them, you don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to be and do better, you only need a heart full of grace and a soul generated by love.
Now don’t get it twisted I am in no way some utopian dreamer; this world is as sick as I’ve ever seen it in my lifetime. This is not going to be easy because we live in a world where we are served a daily diet of nonstop total madness. Let me make my disclaimer. Now I’m going to talk about a few social media outlets, streaming outlets and your basics like ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN and that zoo without a fence, FOX.
I’m not talking about all of them (except for FOX News) as being peddlers of trash, tragedy, and filth. But you know like they say, if you throw a brick in a pack of dogs, the one that hollers is the one you hit, so if this makes you uncomfortable… oh well I guess it’s like I said, you’re only feeling some type of way because I brought it to your attention, not that you didn’t know it.
Oh, did I mention the Fire Stick, which allows you to just OD on insanity! Now let’s add to this the big five streaming giants Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, MAX, and Disney; now who in the hell would have ever thought that Disney would be serving up craziness, but they do.
Please let’s not leave out coprophilia heaven, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and sites that I don’t even know the names of yet! I truly believe most of these outlets were created with good intentions, but so was the atomic bomb, and I’m pretty sure that the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki will attest to something different. So, as you can see, it’s going to take some work on our part. I’m going to start by being intentional with the things that I allow in my physical as well as my mental space, you know they say inner space is deeper than outer space.
Now this isn’t going to happen just because we say it. It’s going to take time, and just because you may have a day that’s not all that you wanted it to be does not mean that you failed. I pray each day that I’m better today than I was yesterday, and I hope to be better tomorrow, than I am today. The Bible has a saying that I love which speaks to what I’m trying to say. Proverb 3:31 “Envy not your oppressor and choose none of his ways.”
Let’s try every day moving forward to be our best selves. Lets try not to surrender what you know to be right just to be accepted by the crowd and not be labeled as old school because we happen to have principles and standards that we live by and continue to live by. And the good thing is you can start right now at your current weight.
