On day 9 of 2007, I got thumped upside my head and bumped out of my comfort zone before the roosters crowed. All the behind the scene tasks I finished on days 8 and 9 vanished.  Gone. My heart sank into the pit of my stomach. Despite all the unexpected setbacks, I’m still amazed by what’s already happened since launching this site January 1, 2007.  As you already know, I sure made a lot of mistakes last week.  Did you?  I also learned a lot about myself last week while attempting to employ the same technological tools I failed to take advantage of last year.  The truth that makes great men and women with great weaknesses free to become all God created us to be still hurts as much it did in 2006. No wonder one too many great women and men stopped digging deeper and, therefore, impeded our God-given ability to keep climbing higher last week.  After falling short of your goal last week, did you try to get up today only to discover that you’re now stuck in the same ditch you fell into last year?  Here. Reach up and take my hand.  There’s no way your teammates will leave your cast down soul shackled to idle hands now tied behind your back while held hostage by the same pathological behavior that arrested your development at such a critical stage and crucial age of your growth.

Does your weary soul also grow tired of taking three steps forward only to discover that the “grimacing, menacing giants from the valley of Circumstance” knocked you back two steps? Here’s my shoulder since we all need somebody to lean on as I’m reminded by the empathetic lyrics of the song, “Lean On Me,” by Mr. Bill Withers.  If you’re also an eternal optimist, you’ve already trained yourself to always see the glass of water in your hog-tied hand as “half-full.” Despite the failures and setbacks you overcame to get up and show up today, you’re still at least one step closer to achieving great things. Besides, Somebody bigger, stronger, and greater than the same super-sized gang of antagonists who backed you into a corner and stacked the odds against you last year is still watchin.’ The book, Three Steps Forwards, Two Steps Back, by Charles R. Swindoll became just one of many excellent sources of inspiration and encouragement to challenge me to get up and show up daily so I could actively participate in the spiritual chess game of life.  Despite getting thumped, bumped, and crucified, Jesus Christ finished an impossible task, thereby, eternally defeating our satanic foe over two thousand years ago when He got up and showed up when everybody, except God, least expected it. 

Here’s something for grown folk wise enough to realize the phrase, “the children are our future,” is more than a cliché to think about today as we keep walking together in peace and working together for good. When did the privilege to learn become so detrimental to one too many of our children’s health and safety?  When did “critical thinking” start becoming politically incorrect, or socially unacceptable?  When did learning start becoming detrimental to our children’s health, safety, and well-being and stop becoming just as fundamental as reading, writing, and arithmetic when our heads were still hard and our behinds still tender? After choosing to become a voracious reader, my humbled soul spent most of my free time in libraries, bookstores, and my secret place on bended knee as I struggled to keep climbing higher during an extended series of sunny-side-down days. How many of you learned for the “first time” that the weeping we endured last week only lasted for a night?  Come morning, Joy will always come despite how many times you got thumped, bumped, ridiculed, and rejected last year.

On day 9 of this “year of firsts,” I pray that each of the souls who got up and showed up today will begin to develop some new habits in 2007 to replace the bad habits you dumped in 2006. Can it be that the inability of grown folk to manage Pain is the main reason why one too many young folk don’t believe reading and learning will earn them the respect of peers who got distracted by the self-exalted illusion of the pervasive “bling-bling factor?”  Can it be that it became too painful to keep digging deeper inside the seat of our gifted soul?  For those who don’t know, the seat of our soul is the heart. Can we agree to keep encouraging each other to take the next step during such a personally rewarding season as this? I so look forward to the day when everyone who dwells under the sun can begin to imagine all the possibilities God will send our way when you least expect it.  Exciting, isn’t it? Let me know what you did after discovering you already had enough faith in God to believe you can achieve great things with God’s help.  I cried. Matters not what does or doesn’t happen after we take the next step together. Please don’t lose hope and give up.

Our eclectic team men, women, and children won’t insult your intelligence by telling you to pull yourself up by your “bootstraps” since adverse circumstances beyond your reasonable control snatched the last pair of shoes you owned. I’m sure we can find a pair of shoes to fit your feet. When time permits, look at a mustard seed to see how much faith God needs to change your less than ideal circumstances overnight.  Are you surprised to discover that it doesn’t take as much faith as you thought to get up and show up as we take one step at a time one day at a time? If you haven’t had the pleasure of listening to the lyrics of the beautiful song, IMAGINE ME, by Mr. Kirk Franklin (from the album Hero), please do so the first chance you get. Although you may have feared the worst as I did this morning, all was not lost unless you unwisely decide give up and quit before you try to beat impossible odds with God’s help. Besides, God always finishes what He started. Do you?  Gee, why not?  Think about it. Pervasive is the word of the day. May the peace of God be with you today until we meet again.

©Copyright 2007 by Roderick O. Solomon.  All Rights Reserved.