Brandelyn: Lyrical Contradiction

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"Happiness is something a person acquires for themselves with their energy and the tools of their mind. Don't say to anyone 'make me happy, please.' Make your own happiness inside yourself and, when you have enough to share, find someone to share it with. We cannot blame anyone for our misery, aloneness and impotence. If we fail, we cannot say, 'It is not my fault!" If we never have anything to give that another person might want, we cannot blame it on our parents, wives, husbands, circumstances or lack of opportunity. We, alone, are to blame. I believe you can survive anything and move on...with the right tools. Move on to seek, to find what you need....in search of satisfaction." J.California Cooper

I have always been a person who simply does what she needs to do to make things happen. I am the kind of person who will move across the country on impulse, just to see what's out there. I am the kind of person who will quit her job to persue her passion full time because i don't believe in wasting precious days here on earth, just to get a paycheck. I am the kind of person who will persue her dream relentlessly until I reach the place where I can sit back and marvel at what God is doing. 

Today is a really big day for me. In a couple of hours I have my first book signing for U.G.L.Y. outside of the bay. I have been getting all kinds of emails, calls and texts from people i haven't talked to or seen in YEARS letting me know that they are going to come out and support. I am beyond excited! I already have my pages picked out, ran over the words a few times to minimize stuttering, which apparently I do when I get nervous, and I just have this sense of peace and I know that today is going to be amazing. 

I love this quote by J. California Cooper. In life, we truly do have to create our own happiness. We have to determine for ourselves the path we will take. People won't always understand it, but that is the ultimate beauty of it, no one has to understand it but you. As an artist, I have realized that a lot of people don't understand that there is a process to the work we create. Our audiences get to see the final product, but rarely do they get to see all of the tears, struggle, thoughts, drafts, rejected work and sweat that goes into making that work. I don't know if anyone can truly understand what today means to me. There were plenty of times when I thought that U.G.L.Y. was never going to happen and now here I am having my first signing in LA. God is good. And i say that with every fiber of my being. I am walking my path to happiness and fulfilment. I am understanding this quest for satisfaction. Sometimes I may have to take steps that don't make sense to anyone else, but when I have moments when I feel like this, covered in absolute peace and excitement I know that I am definitely on the right path. 

Peace Y'all

B

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Until He perfects me


What is sin?
Sin according to webster's dictionary is defined as follows:
a. An offense against religious or moral law
b. An action that is or is felt to be highly reprehensible
c. a transgression against the law of God
d. a vitiated (to make faulty or defective often by the addition of something that impairs) human nature in which the self is estranged from God

So according to these definitions sin sounds bad but it does not necessarily explain why we should work so hard to avoid it. Now let's see what the Bible says about sin.
* Romans 6: 15-23

So according to this, sin is not just something that keeps us from God, sin is something that if we continue living in it, turning away from God and continuing forth in what we want to do, sin will eventually lead us to death.

Here is the other thing about sin. Sin is deceptive. The enemy will whisper ideas into our heads...its rarely loud and obnoxious. Instead it is subtle and quiet. Knowing this is why we must remember where our power lies. We have the power to take control of our minds and our thoughts; in fact the Bible tells us that we have to.  *2 Corinthians 10:5

We have to be sensitive to the voice to the Holy Spirit and let it guide us and move us forward toward Holiness. We have to allow it to teach us how to discern the voice of the enemy and the lies that come with it. We know the voice of the Holy Spirit because what it says brings peace and we can feel it tugging at our spirits. But in order for us to move with it we have to be OBEDIENT and YIELD to the Holy Spirit and the direction it is giving us! That is key!

One thing I learned is that the devil tries to cover up our sins, keep them hidden away so that they can fester and grow within us. When that happens we start to become desensitized to sin. Soon we start doing the same thing over and over and are able to muffle the voice of the Holy Ghost and go right over it because the sound of our sins have blocked out everything else. In almost every sin, there is an appeal, some promise of pleasure, of feeling good that comes along with it. If we could see sin for what it truly was, a path to destruction, then we would run away from it as fast as we could. But the enemy makes it look good, makes it sound appealing so we, as weak human beings, are drawn to it and find ourselves wanting more. But here is the thing, if we keep on this path, disregarding the provoking of the Holy Spirit and walking proudly down a path of sin, eventually God will give us over to that thing we refuse to give up.
*Proverbs 29:1 , *Romans 1:24-25
This is why God calls us to confess our sins and expose them to bring them to light and break the power of deception.

*James 5:16 *2 Corinthians 4:2

Take a moment and write down the things you struggle with. Be honest. Don’t be afraid to really dig deep and expose the works for the enemy. We can’t seek God and ask for repentance and expose the truths to light until we confess them and acknowledge them for what they are. There is no shame in acknowledging your sins. Once we bring them to Light, we give God room to mold us, remove them from us and keep growing with us until He Perfects us.

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Shriveled and balled up

Matthew 12:9-13

This story is like a lot of those little stories in the Bible that you read past and don’t always see the significance the first, or second, or third time around. This morning I was doing my devotion time in the book of Matthew chapter 12 and almost missed out on it until my Bible commentary said this…
“By nature, our hands are withered and we are unable to do anything good ourselves. Christ only, by the power of his grace, curse us; He heals the withered hand by putting life into the dead soul, works in us both to will and to do, for with the command, there is a promise of grace given by the word.”
I had to read this a couple of times this morning and then I got it. There have been times when I felt this nudge inside of myself to call someone, or text someone, or give someone a hug. Or I will get an idea in my head that hounds me until I write it down. There have been plenty of times when God has given me words of encouragement to give someone and I always feel that tug of conviction when I don’t do it. However, it wasn’t until this morning that I had an Ah ha! moment and realized that not only does the ability to do good works for other people come from God, but also the desire.
Think about it, when you are heavy in your spirit, and bogged down with the problems of everyday life, it is the hardest thing in the world to do something for someone else. It is hard to even pick up the phone to see what they want! But the Holy Spirit within us is what gives us the ability and desire to do good works. I know this is going to sound a little corny, but just work with me. LOL.
Spiritually we are like balloons. We start out flat, shriveled and stuffed in a bag with a whole bunch of other balloons that look just like us. But then God chooses you, out of that bunch, He begins to blow his breath of restoration, peace, kindness, joy, humility, love and all of the other good things that makes God, God, and you begin to fill up and swell. Then what happens, you begin to rise as your spirit lifts you closer to God. And then what happens, now that you are full and uplifted, you are able to serve your purpose which is to represent God who filled you with that air (His spirit) and serve other people and bring joy to them. Have you ever seen anyone receive a balloon, or even really see a balloon and not smile or comment on how they want one? They bring joy, they bring you back to your youth when your parents took care of everything and all you had to do was sit back and know that everything is taken care of. Well guess what? You still have a parent who will take care of everything, IF YOU LET HIM….
If we focus on what we are supposed to be doing, spending time with God, serving others, bringing joy to the lives of those around us, seeking His kingdom first, then He will take care of everything we need. He will take our shriveled and balled up little selves, pluck us from the bag, because He sees something special in us, fill us up and allow us to do his work. But the most important thing about that balloon is that there is a string attached to it which always keeps us connected to Him and prevents us from going off on our own. And unlike myself when I was a kid, God won't let it go.

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“Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier.” Mother Teresa

I came across this quote the other morning as I was doing my daily devotional. The chapter I was reading at that time was talking about being a servant and doing things for other people for the sheer desire to do something for someone else.

We all have down days, but we have to be very careful not to let those down days build up and start feeding off of each other and turn into depression. Depression is a sickness that is rooted in selfishness and too much idle time to think about everything you don’t like about your life. Which is why when times get hard and our cloudy days seem to run one into another we must turn ourselves into Smile Givers. We can evade depression by doing nice things for other people, by being smile givers.

            In our society technology has taken over relationships. I talk about this all the time, but one of the top five things on my pet peeves list is cell phone etiquette, or lack thereof. I can’t stand it when we are out to dinner and people are texting or on their phones or when you are trying to have a conversation with someone and they start texting or when you are in the car with someone and they are on the phone…I could go on but you get my drift. People spend so many hours on the internet, playing video games, texting that we barely know how to have relationships with each other. A friend can be really going through something, but we hardly take the time to look in each other’s eyes anymore to see what’s hiding there. There are needs all around us, and I’m not just talking about the huge needs that surround us daily, but I’m talking about simple, easily fixable needs, but we are often so busy, or so focused on our gadgets and distractions to notice.

            My challenge to you is to start being a smile giver. Do something nice for just one person every day and see how much better you feel. If you want to be happier in life, start sowing seeds by doing something nice for someone else and watch how your attitude begins to change. The key to happiness is not in how much money we make or the titles behind our names or the degrees we have or the stuff we accumulate. The key to happiness is what you pour into someone else’s life. Once more people begin to realize this, I believe our world would slowly but sure start becoming a better place.

Peace y’all

B

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