What’s one thing you know now that would have saved your younger self a lot of pain? I think there is a huge difference between information and knowledge. My younger self was given information about what, who, where, and when. But at the same time I not given the how and why. Information at easy to store, copies, and share. Knowledge is a hard package copy because it lives inside a persons mind and habits. I think coupled with thinking that people not caring was the recipe for disaster.
Embracing Faith In Small Beginnings
Saying yes to small beginnings means embracing modest first steps with faith, knowing that meaningful growth takes time.
God has a way of taking small beginnings and turning them into great success. Grand things often begin in obscurity. God will entrust you with more when you are faithful in a few.
God delights in modest starts because He uses quiet, faithful beginnings to build great outcomes over time. God is the one who makes us great, so we don’t have to wait until we are good enough or courageous enough. We all have struggles that may feel impossible to overcome. But, when it comes to having faith that God chose us for something great. It can be easy to become overwhelmed by the work we think it would take to get there and give up before even trying. The point isn’t to already be where we think we are supposed to be; the point is to start, no matter how small that beginning may be.
We shouldn’t underestimate small beginnings. When we believe that God put a vision on our hearts, it’s important to have faith in that vision knowing God will see it through.
Weird Movies
What’s the weirdest movie you’ve ever watched? I think the strangest movie I ever watched was called “Under the Skin with Scarlett Johansson. She plays an unnamed woman from another planet who adopts human form. And drives a white van through the rainy streets of Scotland. He prayed to only one man, using passive deportation and seduction to bring them to a strange, pitch-black void, and consumes them. In the end, the alien escapes her role as a hunter and attempts to integrate into human life by eating food and experiencing romance, but her anatomy rejects it, and she finally finds refuge and a dense forest. Then she gets brutally assaulted by a lumberjack but when he sees her true identity he douses her with gasoline and burns her alive.
It was an incredibly dark, strange movie from 2013 that was a surreal minimalist science fiction film by Jonathan Glazer.
Since then I have stopped watching science fiction and thriller movies because of their demonic feel.
When God Protects Our Doors
God has tried to guide my life and protect me throughout my life. I have survived too many accidents for Him not to be. Starting with the abuse I endured as a child, having a deep fryer falling on me at 4 years old which burned 80% of my body and only coming out with a few scars, the malnutrition I spent 3 months in the hospital from. The auto accident of a little car slamming me into the side of a mountain, along with the near drug overdoses, and even me trying to end my life myself, and the cancer that the doctors gave me about a year to live. As well as dying and waking up three days later in Intensive care, and putting myself in precarious situations due to my lack of caring about what happened to me.
It wasn’t until many years later that I began seeing that I had too many near-death experiences, and I realized God was protecting me for some kind of assignment. Every challenge I overcame was training for my calling. I believe God surrounded me with unseen strength to keep me safe until my work is done. Yet I still wonder if I would’ve accepted His guidance if I were today.
God often qualifies us for what He has called us to do. Throughout the Bible, God calls unlikely people to do big things for Him. I believe the significant reason is that if they could do it on their own, they wouldn’t need God to help them. Or even bring glory to God. God wants us to walk by faith and not by sight.
I believe everyone has an assignment from God to fulfill their purpose. And God qualifies us through our lessons of past experiences. In James 1:2-3, James wrote, “Count it all joy, my bothers, when you fall into various temptations, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. Let endurance have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
“How many accidents have to happen before we start calling it what it is -an assignment.”
The Morning Routine
Tell us about your morning routine. I am blessed; I don’t have to get up and get ready for a job. Although my house has plenty of things need to be done daily. I used to get really frustrated because I had insomnia. I will go to bed sleep for two or three hours, wake up,and stay up for hours, and then go back to bed. Then I realize there’s something called the “second sleep” or “segmented sleep.” So, I get up around 2:00 or 3:00am I read my bible, pray, and write, and then about 5:00am I return to sleep. Once I realized this is my body being completely normal I had less stress about it.
The Fruit Of The Spirit
“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Messiah have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts” -Galatians 5:22-24
- Love
- Joy
- Peace
- Patience (forbearance)
- Kindness
- Goodness
- Faithfulness
- Gentleness
- Self-control
These attributes represent the visible evidence of the Holy Spirit’s work in a follower of Jesus. The Apostle Paul emphasizes that these qualities are not just moral guidelines but are the results of humbling ourselves before God. He states that “against such things there is no law,” indicating that these virtues are universally positive and do not conflict with any moral or legal standards.
To grow these fruits, we are encouraged to abide in Jesus and allow the Holy Spirit to guide our thoughts and actions. I think this involves humbling our souls before God. It requires a daily commitment to the Spirit’s leading which can transform our character and behavior, and leads to a fruitful life and will reflect God’s nature.
Meeting New People
What’s the best way to meet new people while traveling? I usually meet new people when I stay in hotels, or going to a town event. It used to be as easy as saying “hello” to a stranger but I am very cautious to do that anymore because of safety boundaries and modern social norms as well as digital habits.
Reflecting A Mirror: The Bible As A Mirror
James 1:22-25 describes the Bible functioning as a tool that reveals our inner condition rather than our physical appearance.
“Be doers of the Word, and not only hearers, deluding your own selves. For if anyone is a hearer of the Word and not a doers, he is like a man looking at his natural face in a mirror, for he sees himself, and goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect Torah (Bible) of freedom, and continues, not being a hearer who forgets, but a doer of the work, this man will be blessed in what he does.” (Messianic)
Just as a physical mirror show dirt on our face, scripture reveals internal realities like motives, hidden sins, and character flaws.
There is truth in the saying “When you read the Bible, the Bible reads you.”
James warns us against being a ‘hearers only” who looks into the mirror, and walks away then immediately forgets what they look like. True engagement means acting on what is revealed.
Rather than using the Word as a weapon to point out others’ flaws, the Bible calls us to look inward first before judging anyone else.
When we use the Bible as a mirror we can transform ourselves into grace. The reflection is not meant to condemn or crush anyone, but to guide us toward personal renewal, repentance, and a deeper likeness to Jesus.
If Aliens Arrived Tomorrow
If aliens arrived tomorrow, what’s the first thing you’d ask them? There are many theories about aliens and there have been for years. I don’t think aliens are as they’re portrayed. My opinion is that it goes along with what Jesus told his disciples “As it was in the days of Noah, so will it be at the coming of the Son of Man. The Book of Enoch and extra-biblical texts, tell us the earth was populated by “The Watchers” or “fallen angels” as well as “The Nephilim” or “Giants” who were violent tyrants who filled the earth with lawlessness, fighting, and oppression, which ultimately triggered the “great flood” as an act of divine judgment. Since the Watchers, or fallen angels, were from heaven, they were spirits, not human. If I had to guess I would think what we call aliens is something from, the days of Noah. Of course, this is just my opinion and nothing more.
If “Aliens” arrive tomorrow I would stay as far away from this as possible. Not asking them anything.
The Journey Of Faith: Choosing God
One of the greatest abilities that separates humans from the rest of God’s creation is our ability to recognize alternatives, to weigh options, and there possible consequences and them to make an informed decision. We can look into our past and see the decisions we have made and the consequences of those decisions. They have formed us into who we are today. Some choices are having heavy consequences, and others do not.
From the beginning of creation, people have had to make decisions. And we haven’t always made wise ones. We all heard about Adam and Eve’s decision to go against the will of God. Since then we’ve all chosen foolishly. We have made choices that lead us away from God. Choices that are outside of God’s will for us. Choices that go against God’s teaching.
I believe that choosing who or what we serve is the most important choice we can make. A journey of faith -choosing God is a daily spiritual commitment to trust His voice and align our life with His Word over the noise of the world.
I won’t tell you the faith journey isn’t easy. Many think that believing is all that is needed but it’s only the first step onto the narrow pathway. Matthew 7:13-14 tells us, “Enter by the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter in by it. How narrow is the gate, and restricted is the way that leads to life! Few are those who find it.” The next steps put a believer on the road of trial and blessings as we walk out a new life with Jesus. Staying close to Jesus, requires reading the Bible, listening and obeying and sometimes personal sacrifices.This is a long, hard journey of transformation. And it’s the kind of faith that can impact the world.
Underrated Life Skill
What’s the most underrated life skill? I think my most underrated life skill is being an intuitive introvert with a subconscious mindset for pattern recognition. Since my mind constantly runs background algorithms I notice subtle shifts in body language and the tone of people’s voices. This is something I had to learn as a child to stay out of my mother’s way. I can synchronize data without even realizing it.
The Power Of Gratitude
Gratitude has a way of changing how we see things. It’s not just saying thank you when something goes right. It’s learning to recognize God’s goodness, even when life isn’t going right.
When I think about gratitude, I don’t think about an ideal life. We all have struggles whether, mental or physical and some days are humbling. But through it all there is power in the simple things. The things we take for granted. What seems ordinary to some is someone else’s gift. I think my struggles keeps me dependent on God. My weakness has a way of pulling me back to His strength.
I am reminded of Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:7-9,
Because of these surpassingly great revelations, there of given me a thorn in my flesh, a messages of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” (NIV)
Gratitude doesn’t erase the suffering, but it grows deeper from trust. It does erase the pain we endure, but it keeps pain from becoming the only thing we see.
Sometimes gratitude begins with noticing the warmth of the sunlight. The more we practice it, the more we realize gratitude isn’t just a response to blessings; it’s a doorway into peace.
