Drama or Dream

You have been charged with living out your journey as a human being on this planet. Yes, you came as a divinely inspired being with a purpose, plan, and your own song to sing, but likely have lost sight of this through the process of living your life to the best of your cognizant abilities.

With every breath you take every step you make in every moment of your life it is up to you to decide to experience episodic

Drama or Dream

The Choice is Yours

Any time you feel poorly, when you feel slighted, misunderstood, shamed, ridiculed, threatened, or victimized, it is up to you whether you will see this feeling and the scene that follows play out as drama or dream, the choice is yours.

If you feel, for any reason, your life is one with consummate drama, you will respond to any ill feeling in a way which charges the impending scenario with negative energy which will play out in a dramatic scene. Your response will feel justified in the outset but will have you feeling worse once the scene has played itself out.

On the other hand, if you respond to ill feelings with love, love will find a way to turn the scenario in a more pleasing direction. The charge in the Bible’s Matthew 5:44 supports this advice divinely, “love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.”

This concept is nothing new and was previously noted in Proverbs 15:1 with, “A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” Simple social science at work, even thousands of years ago.

Let’s face it,

Life is a bitch

More like a drunk ass

Life will throw all kinds of opportunities for you to choose drama or dream, it’s a bitch, or more like a drunk who’s had one too many, who is invading your space or pushing your buttons.

If a drunk bumps into you, causing you to spill your drink (chocolate milk), it’s up to you to make a decision. Will you put a negative spin on this, or will you approach the situation with love?

Want drama?

Your initial reaction would be to push the drunk back, and no one would blame you for asserting yourself in the defense of your personal space. When you look into the drunk’s eyes, you can see a lifetime of pain welling up which turns to rage, and now you’ve got a fight on your hands. The repercussions of which could tarry on for some time depending on how the fight goes.

How about the dream?

Or, when the drunk bumps into you, you can smile, put your hand on his should and say, “Whoa, Nelly! What happened to your sea legs, sailor?” As you look into the drunk’s eye, you can see a lifetime of pain. When he looks back at you, seeing eyes filled with love and you’re smiling at him, he feels loved, even for the slightest moment, and this simple gesture, you’re showing a bit of kindness, may be the bright spot in the drunk’s day (possibly his entire life). He might even offer to buy you another chocolate milk.

Does it work every time?

Though it may look like it doesn’t, or it may look like an utter failure at the outset, your kindness is remembered. It may take time and some other kindness shown by others to break through the thick walls which people who have experienced a great deal of pain in their life have built around their hearts to protect themselves from ever being hurt again.

So, they may respond inappropriately. They may reject your kindness.

Instead of being offended, maybe you could muster enough love in you to have compassion for someone in this condition. For God’s sake, don’t point out that you are aware of the drunk’s condition. Just remember that if it weren’t for God’s grace, you might be in the same place as the drunk.

Even if you do not see the immediate rewards for your benevolent act, it does work every time. After all, he’s doing the best he can with what he has, and aren’t all of us just doing the same?

Just love him and bless him as he makes it through another day. Maybe tomorrow will be a better day for, maybe not, but we are no better than he, for in our own ways, we can be a little reckless and bump into things in life which catch us by surprise, too.

It’s on you, whether you live your life in drama or dream by simply choosing love over defense.

How to Be a Blessing

In our race to get through this life with some sense of dignity and decorum, it’s good to offer up some degree of appreciation for this life and do something good for someone. My favorite folks who have inspired me to join their ranks and support their ministries are my acts of kindness superheroes.

These unsung heroes of making the world a better place one random act of kindness at a time are changing the landscape of humanity and encouraging others to reassess their harsh opinions about our world gone sideways, in a time when there’s little goodness to be found. It helps reinvigorate or ideas maybe there’s hope for us to reach higher and spread a little cheer.

A random act of kindness endears us to our fellow man and makes us believe the world could be a better place. And it’s contagious. Once we’ve been the recipient of a random act of kindness, a desire starts to well up within us, to do something nice for someone else, unexpectedly, in effect paying it forward.

When you’re active in the flow of kindness, even though you may not see the results, everything is connected to everything else, as your simple act of kindness spreads throughout the world virally.

It was a wonderful experience for me to be the recipient of a random act of kindness from a man who paid for my gas at the service station. I had been exercising and promoting random acts of kindness for a while, and though it feels good to surprise someone with something good, unexpectedly, I was beginning to wonder if I needed to step up my game somehow? It was if God was saying, “You’re doing a good thing. Keep doing it. It’s working.” Mike had no idea how inspirational his simple act of kindness was.

So, if you’re practicing random acts of kindness, don’t stop. Keep doing it. You are doing good work and making a difference.

Still, I am challenged to step up my game. I want to be a blessing to others.

How to Be a Blessing

Being a blessing is so much more than a random act of kindness. A blessing is a premeditated, intentional and personal act of love.

Unlike random acts of kindness, blessing someone (even though, a simple act of kindness can also be a blessing) with forethought is more difficult. It takes a bit more effort on the person giving the blessing and has a greater impact on the person (or persons) receiving the blessing.

For instance, my neighbor has been intentionally blessing local disadvantaged children for years. This is his ministry. He encourages his friends and others in the community to join him in helping needy kids with school supplies, backpacks, winter coats, and summer camp sponsorships.

On the surface, haters might think, “Oh, my church does that,” or, “There are already support services for kids in need,” so why duplicate something that someone else is doing?

The difference is, Joe, my neighbor does this from his heart. He is not a faceless organization. He knows every contributor and every recipient. It’s not like dumping a bunch of school supplies on the schoolyard and allowing the kids to scramble for what they want (as if dispensed by an exploding piñata).

No, Joe meets with every child and personally dispenses what they need face to face (it’s also no surprise that he dresses up as Santa Claus and blesses children during the holidays). This is his answering his calling to bless children. Not just children in general, but specific children.

His little service of being a blessing has grown from reaching out to the kids in our local grade school to now blessing thousands of children every year throughout the county.

Yes, Joe is rewarded with every child’s happy tear of gratitude. It’s the best heart medicine of all.

Of course, you don’t have to go full-out, like Joe, you can just think about ways you can step up your game, by tweaking your random acts of kindness and moving to the next level by discovering how to be a blessing to others.

7 Steps to Be a Blessing to Others

To be a blessing to others, your blessing should have some elements, such as,

1. Start with the Heart

A blessing originates in your heart. The basis of a blessing must be motivated by your intention and/or ability to love and express that love in an outpouring benevolent display from your heart to the heart of another.

2. Specificity

A blessing is a specific act, service, or gift that matches the particular needs of a person at just the right time. This is why blessings bestowed by one person to another are often thought of as an answer to prayer, or confused as an angelic intervention.

3. Awareness

It will take some effort on your part to be aware of the opportunities which exist around you to be a blessing to someone. You must be alert to the needs of others who are in need in your circle of influence. As you increase your awareness, you will raise your ability to intuitively identify people who might be in need.

4. Invest

Their need may be apparent, or you might have to work at uncovering the details, and determining if you’re in a position to help. You may need to investigate and get to know this person better, to better help them, matching your blessing to his/her/their need.

5. Intention to Bless

When you offer your blessing (act, service, or gift) you have the full intention of blessing that person. In that moment, your efforts are infused with blessings from above, as you are benevolently acting as a good and faithful servant and compassionate fellow human being, with your heart fully engaged.

6. Personal

Bestowing a blessing on someone is not a faceless act. It is a premeditated, intentional and personal act of love. It should be delivered face to face, hand to hand, eye to eye and sealed with a touch. A hand touching a shoulder or a handshake will suffice but don’t be surprised if you receive a greater sign of gratitude, or no sign of gratitude at all.

7. Free

How to be a blessing to someone in need includes no requirement for acknowledgment, repayment, or even encouragement to have them conduct an act of kindness for someone else. Your blessing is truly a free gift and comes without any strings attached, much like an angelic intervention.

That’s how to be a blessing like an angel, and in a way, you are an angel among angels doing the good work in your human form.

May you be blessed as you bless others.

And you will.

What You Do Today Defines You

How was your day today? What did you do today?

What you did today defines who you are as a person.

There’s a TV show that examines the last 24 hours of the lives of famous celebrities called the Final 24. It’s fascinating; who doesn’t want to know what someone does, what they think in those last 24 hours. In many ways there is nothing more critically important than how they spent their last 24 hours.

These people lived their lives and then, suddenly, left this physical plane of existence nearly by choice as in the case of drug overdose or suicide, or unexpectedly by way of murder, accidental death, or sudden death due to health issues.

Thank God, you’re not dead; not yet.

But in many ways what you did in the last 24 hours defines who you are as a person. If you look at your life, as you lived it today, the things you did, the thoughts that dominated your mind, how you spent your time, where you focused your attention, what you have to show for your efforts today, depicts the kind of person you are, if it was not unlike most of the days that preceded it.

For most people, today was just another lack luster day, and they don’t have much good to show for it.

It is possible that if today was such a magnificent day, and you are so proud of how you spent your day and would like to be remembered for this day forever,

DO NOT PUT YOURSELF IN ANY POTENTIALLY LIFE-THREATENING CIRCUMSTANCE

This is not the day to take any risks, or to try to, “go out on a high note.”

Instead think of this as only being the first day in a long succession of days, maybe filling up the rest of your life with productive, meaningful and fulfilling demonstrations of your ability to keep doing more, living a better life, your best life, and making the world a better place.

And if today was the same ol’ same ol’ run of the mill day-in-day-out kind of day, guess what?

You’re still here and God willing, you have a fresh new day ahead tomorrow.

This could be the day that you decide to take charge of your life and start living it in a manner that you can be proud of. You can take an active part in being the change you would like to see in the world.

One person can make a difference.

… and you could be one of those people.

Maybe tomorrow you can try a random act of kindness, or be the light in someone’s life. You would be surprised how little it takes to make a difference. It will take action on your part, but you will be impressed how doing something significant can make you feel so exhilarated. One random act of kindness actually improves the lives of both the giver and the receiver by ramping up the body’s bio-chemistry and improving the immune systems for eight hours; great benefits for just making the effort to do something good.

And the more you do it, chances are, the more you’ll want to keep on doing it and finding new ways to make the world a better place. The people who do so are by far my favorite people, I call them Acts of Kindness Superheroes.

It doesn’t take much, and you can be that person, if you set aside a little time to do it.

You can do it.

Acts of Kindness Super Heroes

You are my favorite super heroes

I am so blessed and grateful to work with and know some of the greatest superheroes of all time. I’m not talking about cartoon representations of fanciful imaginings of nerds-hit-by-gamma-rays who turn into muscle-laden, secret crime-fighting men and women in tights. No, I’m talking about real people, like you and me, with extraordinary skills and abilities who make the world a better place as a part of their life’s work every day.

We all have special skills and abilities that if we honor and embrace them we can share these abilities with the community and/or the world. This is the givingness that we are endowed with at birth; it is where my work centers as I assist others along their journey.

But of even greater impact are those who make a point to do good n the behalf of unsuspecting others who touch my heart. They are the compassionate foot soldiers who express love in the simplest of ways.

I’m as guilty as anyone – in my high-paced, always on-the-go life – of feeling like I don’t have the time or space available to reach out and offer a simple act of kindness. Yet, while running-from-here-to-there, I often witness someone else – tending and equally frantic pace – take a moment to show someone else kindness.

In that moment I question myself, my priorities, the kind of person I’ve become. I mean, I’m polite, courteous, gentlemanly, supportive, and smile a lot, so in that respect at least I am not swinging the pendulum of kindness in the wrong direction, but the ones who take that little extra effort to reach out to another; those are my heroes.

And I see these super heroes every day; doing that little extra somethin-somethin’ that can turnaround someone’s day.

You are my favorite super heroes

Just in the last week, I witnessed superheroes egage in unsolicited acts of kindness, like buying a lottery ticket for a stranger, putting change in someone else’s parking meter, buying a coffee for the man behind him in line, pulling over to help a man replace a flat tire, tip someone else’s waitress (who was waiting on someone else that left disgruntled and refused to leave a tip due to poor service), just to name a few that come to mind.

And these acts are carried out by the unsung super heroes who go about their lives, never expecting anything in return.

While I spend my days hanging out with high-profile superheroes, I’m beginning to notice that I could do better.

That’s why my favorite super heroes are the ones who sacrifice, in some small way to make someone else’s day a little bit better.

I would be honored and blessed to join their ranks and I am committing to count myself amongst those superhuman lovers who bestow kindness when least expected.

If you are one of my favorite super heroes, or if you have been the recipient of a simple act of kindness, please leave a comment for inspiration for others who desire to help make the world a better place one act of kindness at a time.

You are the super heroes making the world a better place.

May you be blessed as you bless others.