Staring the Poor and Jesus in the Face @ VCU

One of my favorite parts about going to VCU is living downtown in an urban environment. I absolutely love the city, Richmond especially, but any city for that matter. Yeah, stars are beautiful. No stars is the major downfall of city living, but the greater person per square mile number and ease of transportation totally makes up for it in my opinion. As i venture and prepare for hopefully a lifetime of ministry, i know/hope that my heart's desire is to do inner city urban ministry.

So as i'm walking from my dorm to my first class this semester, i'm crossing the street and see a familiar site in downtown VCU, a beggar. Once i saw him i said to myself: "oh boy, welcome back on-campus Jamal. You don't have any cash to spare this guy, so just avoid eye contact at all cost and keep walking.". I peaked ahead real quick to read his sign, which said "Hitting hard times, God is good, anything helps". When i actually crossed his path, i did exactly what i said i'd do and passed him with ease.

I'm doing this new thing, where every morning (and all throughout the day) i pray for God to help me love him more. And as i walked by the beggar, it hit me. Wait a second, i'm praying to love God more, right? God thoroughly loves the poor, so in turn that means i should love the poor as well, is how i acted towards that beggar how you treat people you love? Obviously not.

I hear so many people talking about how their either scared of the homeless downtown, or they don't wanna have anything to do with them. I once had a mom (from church mind you) tell me how she didn't want her child going to VCU because she was scared of the poor people and homeless that can walk through campus and endanger her kid (yes, that's a fear, but really?!?!). When i think of that perspective on the poor (or periods when i have it myself), it reminds me of these verses Jesus spoke from the Bible:

"Then these righteous ones will reply, "Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? when did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you? And the King will say "I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!"

-Matthew 25:34-36

So me ignoring that man down on his luck at the corner of Cary and Belvidere (according to Jesus) is like ignoring Jesus Christ himself...wow, i'm a jerk. So to me, that verse means that when we see the poor, or the homeless, if we love Jesus, then we should be compelled to bring some love into their lives. I understand if it's 11 at night, you're a freshmen girl walking home from a friends dorm alone, and you see a homeless man sleeping maybe you don't necessarily want to engage him fully, i get that. But in appropriate situations, we can show love in many varying ways. If you have money to give, then give it, it's not really yours anyway, it's God's (sooo hard for me to remember, btw). If you'd rather not give money, then how about buying them some food from the nearby 7-eleven, or using your dining dollars to get them some Chick-fil-a. If you're feeling so bold get a group of friends to sit down with the man and listen to their story. If you're in a rush, then at the least give them a smile, a wave, and a word of encouragement. Anything to acknowledge them and show love.

This is something that's becoming more and more a desire for me, the more and more i ask God to help me love him more. It's hard to live out, but God will definitely help us do so. Jesus is always with the less thans, the have nots, the outcasts. And if we wanna be where Jesus is, then we should be there too. Right?

~Jamal

Rethinking the Golden Rule

"So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets."
-Matthew 7:12

Aka the Golden Rule. I've always known this principle to be in the Bible, but i've most often refered to it as a societal principle. So ever since first hearing this as a young child in Sunday school class, i've resorted to it in times of uncertainty. I would say to myself:"when in doubt, think of the thing i would want somebody to do to me in this situation, and do it to them. it can't fail right?" Depending upon who you are, you've either nodded you're head at the computer in agreement or you've laughed out loud at my niavety. I would lump this principle from Jesus as a piece of traditional wisdom (similar to the principles given to us in the book of Proverbs). In a near perfect world, the Golden Rule would work 100% percent of the time; but in our fallen and sinful world, sometimes the Golden Rule doesn't easily apply.

Implimenting the Golden Rule in daily life comes with many assumptions of the person applying it and the person it's being used to deal with, mostly character traits. For example, what if you are a very blunt person, therefore desiring that those around you are brutally honest all the time. What if that person decided to apply the Golden Rule to another brotha or sistah in the faith who doesn't share that same character trait? Well, trust me, i've seen it happen before (aka, i've done it before, haha). And the scene of a well intentioned friend speaking strong words of truth in love to a more fragile homie can end up being a waterworks show filled with crushed feelings. Mix and match the different character traits, and even contexts of each conversation, and you'll probably find many situations where the Golden Rule falls short in it's real world application.

This phenomena mimics the psychological theory of enacted vs percieved support. Enacted support is the giver's perspective of helping out a friend, while percieved support is the reciever's perspective of that help. Psychologists have determined that percieved support is EVERYTHING! It doesn't matter how nice, or good, or honest, or helpful your words are gestures are, if the recipient percieves them as hurtful or dangerous, then you've officially wronged them. Another example maybe; you are cleaning up your dorm room, and while you're at it decide to clean up your roommates side as an act of kindness. But your roommate comes back and is extremely pissed that you moved their stuff around and they can't find anything they need. As you absorb their hysteria, you're wondering to yourself: "how could this be? if i were them, i would of loved the kind gesture from a friend." Enacted support vs. percieved support my brothas and sistahs

Wow, i've come to the end of my thoughts on this topic, and i really don't have much of a solution. Maybe it's the fact that it's 1:11am, or the fact that i feel as though i've written long enough. As people who love Jesus Christ and are praying for Him to begin to change our hearts to love the things He loves and desire the things He desires, how do we effectively avoid the pitfalls of poor human perception and nature to apply the Golden Rule properly in our daily lives? Anybody got any words of practical wisdom for me?

~Jamal

Well, you never asked!

Ah, these ill-fated words, haha. As a dude with a girlfriend, whenever these words come out of my mouth i know two things; 1) i'm in trouble and shouldn't of said it at all, and 2) one of us has made a basic communicating error. I feel like people nowadays (including myself) make asking for stuff so difficult. Whether we're scared of the answer we're gonna get, to proud, or feel embarassed; we ask up, down, and around the question when it really just needed to be hit straight on. When we're asking for advice, it's always "hey, umm, well, my friend is having a problem with the boy she likes..." or "well, i, er...was like...maybe could you possibly do this kinda for me?" Gosh, how often do i make things way too difficult and awkward this way?

Right now, i'm reading the book "Crazy Love" with the family life interns at WEAG, and it's absolutely rocking my world. For maybe the past year, i've just been wondering if i'm really doing this Jesus thing right, ya know? And the answer was a resounding "NO!", haha. For all that the term "doing Christianity right" could mean, i believe that if our lives show an obvious love and daring chase after the things of Jesus, that is the difference between true Christianity and 'lukewarm Christianity".

But anyway, back to my main point. I'm reading this book feeling so convicted (for the first time in a long time), and saying "yeah, i really don't love God like i should. How do i fix it?" And like any good book, the answer came on the next page:
"The fact is, I need God to help me love God, something mysterious, even supernatural must happen in order for genuine love for God to grow in our hearts. The Holy Spirit has to move in our lives"
~Francis Chan, Crazy Love

I keep reading, and Chan basically tells us that if we want to love God, all that we have to do is ask. Just say, "God, i need your help, so help me to love you more, help me want to be closer to you." WHAT?!?!? It's that simple?!?!?! I often am occused of making things more complicated then they need to be, and i'm starting to believe it myself now. For the longest time, i've just been praying in repentence, and kinda saying to God, "Lord, i know you've asked so much more from me, and i'm going to try harder to do it". Which is totally the wrong approach, in His word he says that if we ask, and it is in His will, it will be given to us. And i can't think of anything else that would be more within God's will than for me to love him more, so that means God's gonna do it! It's like we're sitting here, struggling to get rid of our addictions by ourselves, our depressions by ourselves, or hard times by ourselves, and God has the answer and solutions. He's like, "geez yo, why hasn't he just asked me for help?!? why won't he just ask!"

I'm gonna try to wake up everyday, praying diligently for God to help me. To give me more of His love and His Holy Spirit. Not only will God bring me out of my funk, but He will then use me in ways i've never imagine, or thought were possible. He's gonna give me true joy, and true love. The life of passionately follow Christ is the only real way to live, am i right? I feel so realieved and excited, cause i think once and for all, the lesson that i can't ever do it without Him has finally sunk in, haha. I hope you guys do the same :)
~Jamal

My Thoughts on World Cup Futbol

I write this blog in haste and in a mix of sadness and excitement. I'm about to leave for a missions trip to Long Island, Bahamas to put on a vacation bible school for the youth group kids of a partner church to my home church WEAG. Which i'm sure is going to be fufilling, insightful, and Holy Spirit filled; but this very trip takes me away from viewing the World Cup 2010 final live. I've been dreaming of this game since 2006 when the last final ended. i feel really good right now since part of my dream has actually come true, the Netherlands is in the final! Anybody who has talked with me about soccer at all knows that i'm in love the the Dutch national team, and that's who i'm calling to win the Cup, therefore beating the highly favored Spain. So in my (kinda) extra time, i figured i'd lay out some of my other thoughts on "futbol".

1. Why i spell it "futbol"
I spell it (and say it) this way because that's what the rest of the world calls it, and most soccer fanatics also call it this. But when talking to the average viewer, they would confuse it wtih "american football" (i still don't know why it's called that, but that's for a whole nother blog). So to help with the confusion, i spell it as the hispanics do, and give it a foreign accent, so people don't get it twisted.

2.Diving is ALWAYS cheating, but not every time a player hits the ground writhing in pain is a dive
"Diving" or "simulation" is the practice of exaggerating or making up the pain of contact to recieve a favored call from the ref. Yes, some players do this, and EVERYONE in the futbol community sees it as cheating and disgraceful to the sport. It's something that the powers that be are working hard to get rid of, but cheating is always going to be a hard thing to get rid of. Diving isn't "just part of the game", it's a disgrace and at times have robbed people of the titles and results they deserve. For example, an Italian player took an obvious dive to get a penalty kick in the dying seconds of a semi-final game in the 2006 World Cup, they scored the penalty and won the game because of it. They robbed their opponents of the opportunity to fairly play onward, especially since they were playing better. Italy went on to win the World Cup that year, but i and the rest of the futbol world i believe should be very ashamed of how they did it.

And on the contrary, sometimes a player honestly is hurt! Haha. People (especially people who don't know futbol that well) watch the games and scream foul at ever player down. Well, the more i've researched each player, find out that players come into the World Cup with injuries, and when those players are hit in their healing body parts, they go down and down hard and don't get up for a while. If you just had knee surgery the month before, and get the slightest kick to the knee, won't it hurt a little more than normal? Also, the exhaustion the players are under lends them fall and take longer to get up as well. Other sports, players get periodic rests, but not in futbol. You've been running (and hard) up and down a 100+ yard field for almost 90 minutes straight, that foot tripping you up will send you flying, and your exhaustion alone will give your body a deeper shock. there are a bunch of different scenarios and exceptions like that, so the taunting of a diver is harder to judge. And the stereotype of professional futballers as wimps and actors is very untrue.

3. The team playing the most beautiful futbol, should ALWAYS win.
This is my most charished thought, haha. With Elliot and Ese, i have this saying: "in the perfect world..." and fill in the blank. Futbol is about pretty passing, strong tackling, effective defense, and putting it all together to score goals. Futbol is NOT about diving or acting to get a call. Futbol is NOT about playing a stratedgy of 99% defense to hopefully get a lucky goal before the clock runs out. Futbol is NOT about bullying your opponent off the ball and throwing weight around. Spain and the Netherlands both play what i would consider beautiful futbol, but i personally like the Netherlands style of beautiful futbol the best. It's faster, flashier, more dangerous, and consuming. Every player on the Dutch team is determined to go forward, each player is capable of goal scoring, and each has the ability to play any position on the pitch. I really hope the Dutch pull through, especially for their long history of being WC runners up, but if they lose, i really hope that Spain played the most beautiful futbol that day. Winning doesn't always equal beautiful futbol, but i wished that beautiful futbol always equaled winning.

Those are all the points i have time for. I can't stress enough how these are all in my very humble opinion, that i totally can understand if you disagree with. But it's from the words of Eric Cantona and Joga Bonito i got my futbol education and it's on those words that i have named my blog. So in that spirit, i hope the Netherlands and Total Futbol win the World Cup 2010 trophy. And if they do, remember me. And my large negro smile :D

Purpose of Preaching?

I'm not sure how many of you know this or not, but i wanna become a pastor when i grow up. I enjoy public speaking, i love the scriptures, the study of them and pulling life application from them, and i love caring for God's people. Haha, as i read that short list, i'm not sure if i've convinced myself that i wanna be a pastor for good enough reasons, so i won't be mad if you yourself are also skeptical out there. I have gifts and talents that i believe have led me to the desire to work as a pastor. So "preaching", "speaking", and doing "talks", whatever you wanna call it, i suppose is part of the job description. I came to my realization of career path several years ago, and from then on decided i would kick start my learning and preparation on giving sermons by paying close attention to those done by the pastors or my church.

So for the past couple of years, i've browsed books on how to write sermons, how to format them, their structure, and most important of all, what a "good" sermon sounds like. So whenever i sat in a service and a sermon was given, i would sit and specifically breakdown the goods and bads of each speaker i heard. Then i came across one book, that reminded me of the purpose of preaching altogether, which is "to encourage people towards life change based on the Word of God". Life change, that is the real purpose of preaching, wouldn't you agree?

So often, i'd sit through a sermon, and instead of trying to find and act out the suggestions towards life change for Christ the speaker was trying to bring me to, i would simply critique them and leave thinking "yo, he used a three point sermon, who does those anymore?!?!" or, "his stories were tight, he kept my attention the entire time". That's messed up, i've come into a service, been challenged from the scriptures to action for my Lord that i say i love, but i hear the challenge and basically ignore it. Leaving no different than when i came in

Looking at it from the perspective of the listener, it's important for us to really bring our attention and brains to the time where one of our own shares God's Word. I believe it as our job to do whatever we can to understand the application being given by our speaker (good speakers make this part easy ;) ) then, acting upon it. Regardless of how good or bad the speaker is, it's our job to do something with whatever we hear. I've found that just because the style the speaker choses to convey their message is bad, doesn't neccesarily mean the message itself is bad also. We shouldn't be so selective maybe, only choosing to internalize and carry out the messages of good preachers, right? maybe?

And from the perspective of the preacher, if we aren't getting up there with the purpose of preaching for Christocentric life change, then maybe we should re-consider preaching at all. There are exceptions though, i believe it isn't blasphemous of me to say (PLEASE correct me if i'm wrong) that not every single verse of the Bible lends itself to life changing or challenging application.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 says:
"All scripture is God-breathed, and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the people of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."
So different scriptures lend themselves to different things, some are more useful for plain teaching (which make me think more of making you think or revelation), some are for training (which makes me think more towards life change possibly)

I spoke @ Eighteen22, and right now we're in a Psalms series. Trying to stick to the range i was given, i read through Psalms 15-35 vigourously and panic filled. In my mind and understanding, not a single one of them were capable of drawing any life change or application, they all just were for "teaching", as i would put it. So i was having a mini-meltdown, i was freaking out saying "oh my gosh! should i even speak this week? ughhh, there's not point!". Yes, there was a point, that week and with those scriptures, i was supposed to simply teach the Bible, and that's ok sometimes.

But if we're getting up there every week, and just entertaining our congregations, or just teaching them the Bible, is that the best way to lead God's people into outward good deeds and inward change? We are saved by faith and the love of God, but that faith and love should stir up in us the desire to do the good that God dreams for us to do. For us to be a part of his mission in the world, bringing it back to Him and spreading His love. Loving God like crazy, loving others just as much, and making more disciples who will do likewise.

I struggle with all of this soooo much, as an aspiring speaker myself, as a weekly listener, as a full time Christ follower. I myself and trying to let the words of my pastors and friends who sharing their insights from God's word with me, to honestly begin to change me inward and outwardly. That's how it's supposed to be, right? Cause let me know if i'm wrong, haha.
~Jamal

me and Dustin Kensrue wrote a melody together

This blog turned into more than i expected, haha. if you want just the part the title suggests to, skip down to the all caps first sentence paragraph. :)

For those of you who don't know, i really like song writing, my favorite lyric writing. I write songs for myself and others all the time. When i was in middle school, i formed a band called Alteration 64 with some good friends of mine (Peter Klemm, Matt Ingram, Beau Medas, and Tristan Dougherty) and i was the lead singer/rhythm guitarist. I got in the band because i really wanted to write songs, i absolutely love lyricism. I loved those songs, and even submitted them as a project for school! Cause i submited our songs for school we even got to play at one of my school events! All of my friends and loved ones like Keith and Joni Garrison and the Ingersoll's came! I love you guys so much for coming, i will never forget that night! Especially cause Jim reminds me monthly how horrible of a singer i was, and that i should never sing solo again, haha. Thanks Jim, i promise, i won't ;). I feel like none of the other guys really cared about or even like our band as much as i did. No, me and Peter both loved that band, Matt could care less, Beau might as well not of been in the band, and Tristan cared but was too good for us/didn't like our style. I really appreciate Tristan being in it for as long as he was, cause he helped us play a battle of the bands, i'll never forget that day. Peter's mom drove us up there in her van (cause we were too young to drive), with our little guitars, practice amps, no pedals, soooo ghetto. Gosh, Mrs. Klemm has done sooo much for me over the years, i need to send her a thank you note. So we're like 13 year olds, everybody else is 18 and up, and have such nice rigs. We were a mix of embaressed and hype all at the same time. We did the battle and were judged, and placed dead last by like 20 points! haha, man, i still have our scores you guys! Remember that! I'll never forget that day, so thanks Tristan for being in the band to make that happen for us, i really appreciate you. One of the judges's only good comments was "YOUR BASS PLAYER ROCKS!" Props Tristan. But the band definitely didn't like my singing. I'm not bitter at all, but i'm loosely quoting Matthew Ingram: "your voice is so bad Jamal, that it will be the reason people don't like our band". Haha! crazy right? i guess i was/still am a super bad singer, but i hope/think everybody liked my lyrics ok.

Lyricism is one reason why i love rap and hip-hop so much. The bests rappers are above heads and shoulders better wordsmiths and lyricists then the best rock song writers, i would say that to anybody and any band. Since i'm not in a band writing original music right now, i guess this is a good place to post all of the song lyrics i write and have no real use for.

Me and Maria both love rap, and writing rap songs. Maria Moore is a rapper yall! she even has a video out! haha, it's on youtube, i might even put it at the end of this post. Maria always thinks up clever lines, and soon we're gonna start writing them down to compilate into the greatest rap song EVAH! Hey Maria, maybe we can post and keep track of your lines on here? haha.

ANYWAY, TO WHY I NAMED THIS POST ME AND DUSTIN KENSRUE wrote a melody together. I've fallen in LOVE with this band. Props to Callie G. who handed their entire catalog, i'm loving my life right now. But anyway, i came across this one song, "Daedalus", and i hadn't even heard the lyrics yet, but the end melody struck me. So freestyled, i sang out

"Oh! These words don't mean anything to me

If all these words are real, then what's in between?"

They don't even really neccesarily make sense, but after i sang em, i wrote it down. They kinda explain how i've been feeling recently, but am in a way coming out of. A lot of the time recently, when i've sat down to read the Bible, i finish the section and have learned or realized nothing. The verses i read were just words on a page. i'll sit and think, but nothing will make sense or have any meaning. That's a problem right? If this is God's living Word, and i'm praying for guidance and his messages, then why am i not getting them? There are a million different reasons why i wouldn't, and i know that sometimes that's just what's gonna happen when you read the Bible. But it was happening so often, that it was frustrating me. After reading the bible every day for 2 weeks and got getting anything out of it, it makes me wanna just stop reading all together. Which i know is wrong, but that's just how it makes me feel. I'm pulling out of it now, which is good, God's speaking to me through his Word more and more. Which i think is a causal relation to my increased serving (which i will save for another post). But yeah, that sums up those lyrics

Here are the lyrics that Dustin is singing in that same section:

"Oh God! Why is this happening to me?

all i wanted was new life for my son to grow up free

and now you took the only thing that meant anything to me"

I promise, i didn't have a clue what he was really singing, but we kinda came upon the same concept. The story he tells on that song is heart wrenching, and beautiful. Dustin Kensrue is a top class rock lyricist, he grabs at my emotions and forces me to feel what he feels. Him, Sujfan Stevens, Jesse Lacey of Brand New, and Matthew Theissen of Relient K, and Claduio Sanchez of Coheed are my top rock lyricist. The most important thing to the Character of Dustin's song was his son, and he lost him, and now he's pissed at God. The most important thing to me are my revelations from the Bible. It has been for a long time, a little bit of that is rooted in pride, but i'm trying to tone that down. But in the same type situation, when the revelations stop coming from God, i kinda turn and get pissed at Him. Which is lame, and dumb, but that's kinda what i am at times, lame and dumb, haha.

I love God, and he's always faithful, so he does, has, and always will bring me out of those dry spells. He did for Moses, David, and Joseph, so he will for me and he will for you. Amen? Amen. thanks so much for reading!

here are the links to the Thrice song Daedalus, listen to it and try to find "our" melody refrain

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhgbOUVJbNA

Thrice is soooo good, talented instrumetalists, beautiful vocals and lyrics.

p.s., i am a HORRIBLE speller, and am way to lazy to fix them, spell check doesn't seem to be working. so i apologize for all my errors, there are many i'm sure. please no spelling edits, haha.

I invite you to be a part of my life and mind. Come on! Please!?!?!

So, for some reason the prospect of writing a blog has really on my mind. I’ve become an avid blog stalker, stalking my favorite speakers virally, especially the blogs of Michael Gungor, Andrew Ardnt, and John Wagler (all blogs you should be stalking to). And I’ve always absolutely loved writing, and weirdly enough typing in general, so this is a bandwagon that actually fits my personality and interests.

The main reason I wanna do a blog is to get feedback from my good friends and peers on the things I’m thinking of. I am a heavy believer in guided practice, and I’m always open to reprimand and correction. I’ve enjoyed keeping a personal journal for years, and there really wouldn’t be much of a point of doing it online unless my friends were a part of it ;D. So if I post a blog, and you have any opinion or advice for me at all, PLEASE COMMENT! I would love and appreciate that soooo incredibly much, honest. Please be blunt, I enjoy that. I really don’t believe in beating around the bush, if you have a problem or concern with me, please say it, and if I agree then I’ll make the proper adjustments. But even if I don’t agree, I’ll still totally take your opinion into consideration ;)

This blog is gonna be about all the things I’m passionate about, which basically equals God, music, skateboarding, soccer. The filter for all of that will be through my life experiences and thoughts. 80 percent of the stuff that makes it on here will be about God and music, and 18 percent the other two, and 2 percent random stuff. Things seem to grab my attention randomly for short periods of time, annoying things like Jersey Shore and awesome things like a historic piece of art. Things that deserve a shout-out or so. The God stuff will consist of my questions, highs, lows, experiences, and sermon ideas. The music stuff will consist of the quest and sharing of good gospel, legit hip-hop, and hype rock bands.

Anybody who knows me well knows that I struggle with pride and holier than thou-ism, so I hope this blog never becomes extensions of that. But a chance for me to fill my loved ones, friends, and some mentors in on my life and thoughts, and an avenue for those exact same people to share their wisdom with me.

So let’s do it! Imma try to stick to this and be legit, putting up a thought at least every other week, and hopefully you guys read and comment back!

much love to all my homies