Bad Apples

I love spending time with my friends, they're crazy just like me. We play a lot, laugh a lot, and encourage each other even more. However, I've noticed a phenomenon and I'm quite sure it's true for any circle of friends, especially Christians. It is very easy for one bad feeling to flow through a whole crowd and make every one bitter. Your mother wasn't lying when she said one bad apple spoils the whole bunch. Now, I'm not calling any of my friends bad apples (ok guys, so be nice to me next time we meet), however, I've noticed that it's very easy for one person's feelings or perception of a situation to flow through the group. That can be a good thing at times, but it's also a very dangerous thing. It's kind of like going with the flow of things when you were a teenager. In a group, it becomes harder to think like an individual.


You watch news everyday and the most heinous crimes are usually performed by a group of people acting together. Take for example the infamous gang rape of the young student on the bus in India. Rape on its own is violent, but a group of men acting together make it much, much worse. I think it's because each evil heart combines to make something horrible. Each person's sick ideas competes with the last until the beast they create is too hideous to look upon.

In Christianity, it is very important to think for ones self. In a crowd, lots of emotions and feels can come up that cause you to lose focus. They mess with your faith and leave you feeling so weighed down that you may even move your eyes from God for a while. Be careful the suggestions you entertain from others. Be careful what you agree with and please, don't just go with the flow. If somebody is unhappy or disgruntled, try to assess the situation from all sides. There may very well be a piece of the puzzle that you are missing.

Most importantly, don't let the bad feelings from one or two persons in your group be transferred to you. If you are in agreement with them, check your own heart and see why. Is it genuine or are you just going with the flow.

Have a blessed day.

Joana James - Author of From Redemption to Maturity, Trusting God with your Future,   Nightmare at Emerald High & Alana and Alyssa's Secret & Finding Romeo 

Dry Places

As a Christian there will be moments,  days, maybe even weeks or months where you don't quite feel like a Christian.  I call it being in a dry place.  You literally feel like the life has been sucked out of you.  You find it hard to pray and even harder to have faith. You become skeptical about everything around you and you even begin to question everything you know to be true.

It's a very scary place and a very scary prospect for any true Christian.  Are you alone? Definitely not.  When I went through it the first time, I thought I was the only one who could be so ungrateful to have experienced God and let a few challenging situations make me doubt Him,  so I hid it and I struggled with it on my own. The result of that was it lasted way longer than it should have. Later, as the years wore on, I heard friends alluding to the same things.  Their experience sounded exactly like mine.  I wasn't the only one who had tasted God, seen His greatness then fell into a slump.  I've realized now Christianity seems to have a sort of cycle.  There are moments of tremendous faith but there are also moments when you feel so discouraged it's hard to even look to God for help.  In those moments it is paramount that you recognize where you are.  That is the first step towards dealing with it.  If you don't recognize that it's a seasonal desert experience,  you will sit and be complacent and accept your lack of faith as truth.

I'm not sure why we all go through those moments, but I do know that the devil capitalizes on every second of it.  During that time, you are very vulnerable to lies, deceit and any other attack that is thrown your way. 

Always be aware of your spiritual position even when you are at a high point, it will help you recognize the low points.  Also, recognize the low points for what they are: low points. Thirdly, recognize that you do not have to stay where you are. Ask for help, call your spiritually mature friends and have them pray for you. Most importantly, look to Christ, He knows when your faith needs bolstering. I've found that He always presents a very small situation that just blows my mind (like the little bird on the wire).

The dry place doesn't have to be a bad thing. Learn from it, teach others what you've learnt but most importantly don't stay there and don't let the devil get a foothold on your mind whilst you are there.

Have a faith - filled day!

Joana James - Author of From Redemption to Maturity, Trusting God with your Future,   Nightmare at Emerald High & Alana and Alyssa's Secret & Finding Romeo 

Change

Change can be annoying, disruptive, and just plain scary. It can also be a beautiful thing. Change can herald in a new era or destroy something great. It all depends on when and how it is done. Change is not only physical, in other words, it doesn't just happen around us or in our environment. As you go through life, you'll find that often times, changes need to be made within you. It is sometimes necessary to change the way we think, feel, react, speak etc. These are always the hardest changes to make.

As Christians, we go through various phases in our walk. We start off as babies and life is a lot easier during that time. We make mistakes, but it's expected. God coddles us a little. He pushes us forward but is a bit more lenient when we are reluctant to move. As we grow older and wiser in faith, the coddling stops. Things start to change. We are required to make changes to the way we do just about everything.

Growth almost always leads to change. We must change internally if we are to survive in the world around us that is changing. I've gone through several transitions and none of them were easy. First of all, I hate change. I like to be comfortable; chilling in my own safe haven that I've created for myself. But guess what, as long as you're comfortable, you won't grow. There's nothing pushing you to desire more. Hardship has a way of making us desperately desire God. In that desperation, we seek him earnestly and we do just about whatever it is He asks so we grow much more quickly. When life gets easier, we are much more resistant to change. Now it's ten times harder for God to get our attention. We almost refuse to transition from one stage to the next.

I'm at a point that requires transition and I'm scared. It's like I'm standing on the edge of a cliff looking down and God is behind me screaming "JUMP". I know He'll catch me if necessary, but who in their right mind wants to jump off a cliff, right? This transition period requires that I change the way I think about myself. It requires that I change the way I feel about certain things. It requires that I become numb in certain areas and more sensitive in others. It's a scary change because it involves my emotions (a subject that is always taboo for me).

I know that I'm not the only one at the edge of that cliff. A discussion with close friends yesterday revealed that God is asking that of several of us. He is asking that we jump, trusting that He'll be there to take us to whatever stage in our lives is next. Jumping off the cliff is scary, but I'm beginning to learn that if you never jump, you'll never fly. If a baby eagle refuses to jump from its nest and learn to fly, it will starve. It's mother will stop bringing it food at some point and it will die. It's the same with Christianity. God will never stop providing for us, but He will require that we go to our food at some point, instead of Him bringing it to us.

It's time to grow. It's time to accept that some things about the way we do business with God needs to change. It's time to move forward and do somethings differently. Accept the changes to our lives that God requires. Take the step and jump off the cliff. I promise, you'll learn to fly.

Joana James - Author of From Redemption to Maturity, Trusting God with your Future,   Nightmare at Emerald High & Alana and Alyssa's Secret & Finding Romeo 

Land of My Birth

238 square miles of exquisite beauty

There are many like it, but none so charming

Twin peaks rising from her depths, make her unique and symbols her pride.

Proud to stand tall, among many we are one

Proud to be us, others' beauty we surpass

Proud to be Lucian, Our legacy will last! 

My island home celebrates 34 years as a sovereign state today. Our struggles have been numerous but we persevere. Saint Lucia is home to an enormous amount of talent. On only 238 square miles of beaches, rain forest and mountains, we've grown two Nobel Laureates, the most per capita in the world. Our charmed beauty makes us over and over again, the number one honeymoon destination in the world. Visitors boast of the friendly nature of our 170, 000 inhabitants, and those who migrate here find it easy to stay.

This land of my birth makes me proud to be truly Lucian. I found this tribute on You tube that bolsters my pride for this little piece of paradise!

Doing all things in Excellence - Excellence in Art

Allow me define the following words:

Excellence: The state or quality of excelling or being exceptionally good; extreme merit; superiority.
Mediocrity: of only or moderate quality; neither good nor bad; barely adequate.
(both references obtained from Dictionary.com)

Wow, which word describes you? We each would like to think that we function at a certain level of excellence, having excelled at whatever area of life we have chosen to follow. Unfortunately, laziness, procrastination and other factors have left most of us at the mediocre level, not just in our areas of talent but also with our Christian lives. Today, I'm going to deal with excellence in art.

God doesn't like mediocre. In Revelation 3:15 in reference to the Laodicean church it states: "I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other!" Wow. The word lukewarm implies a level of mediocrity. It's not hot, but it's not really cold either. Just somewhere in the middle. Have you ever had a cup of lukewarm tea? I don't know about you, but I find it disgusting. Tea tastes great as a hot beverage and just as good as cold beverage served with ice. In the middle; it's not so great. The same way we feel about cold tea is the way God feels about mediocre Christian behaviour.

Unfortunately, in many Christian churches we have begun to applaud mediocrity. We have dropped our standards and now celebrate the "just ok". The quality of what we produce is not horrible, but it's not so great either. We toe the line and our lives are just barely adequate. We use excuses like, "it's a process" to explain away our bad attitudes and ineffectiveness. We talk about being great with wishful thinking as if it's something that should happen in the distant future.

God requires excellence from us now. Today. Excellence in our art-forms  excellence on our jobs, and excellence in the way we live. We are the light of the world, i.e. we stand out. That means that the world should be able to look to us to set the standard for excellence, not the other way around. For years, the church has been lagging behind. It has gotten to the point where, when a Christian does excellently, we're surprised  "You mean a Christian wrote that?" or "A Christian painted that?" or "A Christian manages that business that is doing so well?" As Christians we are privileged children, yet we have allowed ourselves to become so comfortable with that fact that we expect our mediocre product to do well simply because we are Christians. It's an attitude of entitlement that we usually find in spoiled children. We expect our Christian brothers and sisters to support us even though our stuff isn't so great. Wow.

Would you walk into a store, examine the goods on the shelf and pick out the one that appears to do the job only half way? That's what we present to the world. Stuff that only does the job half-way, yet we complain when we don't do so great. "God, how come everybody else is selling, getting the great jobs and doing so well, yet I can't get a break." Mediocrity, that's why. It's not because we're not talented, or intelligent. It's because we approach life with the outlook of a spoiled brat, "God says it's mine, so I'm not going to do any work, I'll inherit it anyway." Yes, the earth is ours to inherit, yes the wealth of the unjust is stored up for us, yes, the cattle on a thousand hills belongs to our father. But be reminded that our father is a very just God. He gives us favour, but there are principles He has set in the earth that He will always honour.

In 2 Corinthians 9:6 it states: "Remember this - a farmer who plants only a few seeds will get a small crop. But the one who plants generously will get a generous crop."

I challenge you today to put just a little bit more effort into whatever area you have chosen to follow or serve. You may not be a writer, singer or other artiste, but you may have a job. Maybe it's not one that you like very much, but if you do it excellently, then you have a case for a promotion. Promotion will not come when we treat what we already have with a mediocre attitude. Promotion comes when we are diligent with what we have and approach it with excellence. God sees that excellence and rewards it.

Joana James - Author of From Redemption to Maturity, Trusting God with your Future,   Nightmare at Emerald High & Alana and Alyssa's Secret & Finding Romeo