everyone knows someone or has heard someone who talks a big game and doesn't act. it's frustrating, isn't it? i'm not talking about the jokes you have with friends. or anything like that. i'm talking about people who say think like 'yo, i'mma get my people on you.' or ' i'm perfect because i got to church.' sometimes we need to think before we speak. are you really going to get your people on me? or are you really perfect? because i'm pretty sure you've never opened a bible and i just heard you swear like a sailor back there.
and maybe these are harsh judgments that i'm not qualified to make. what i think doesn't matter. but i think if you're going to talk big you need to act big.
now, there's no beating the biggest act of all acts. (the creation of earth and humans) but you can still act. God gave you a mouth, ears, nose, legs, arms, and brain. and each of those are separate entities. yet work together. the body is a team and your mouth shouldn't do more work than your brain, arms, legs, ears, and nose.
'Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.' -1 corinthians 12: 14-26
this selection from paul's letter calls us to more than to just working together. it is open to its own interpretation. and the letter continues with what it really calls us to do. but i'm telling you back up your words. don't fight some idiot. show people that you are a real follower of Christ and that God's grace is there for everyone, anytime. the best part is that it never stops. never ends. and never stops giving.
much love and peace,
dmaloney
so it's that time. you're probably wondering what time? well, it's thursday, holy thursday, it's also time for a lovely lineup on nbc and grey's anatomy. and for some reason grey's anatomy always makes me think about huge life topics. lately the show has been focusing on topics like the choice to have children, but that's not the point. in tonight's episode a husband had to watch his wife taken off life support, not by his choice, but by his wife's choice three years prior. also in tonight's show a female police officer was wounded and lost her uterus in a surgery complication. the woman's story made me think about how often we have things that we love that hurt the people that love us most. this woman loved her police work and her husband. her husband loved her deeply, but after seven years wanted to settle down and finally have kids. unfortunately there were other plans for them. 
everyone knows someone or has heard someone who talks a big game and doesn't act. it's frustrating, isn't it? i'm not talking about the jokes you have with friends. or anything like that. i'm talking about people who say think like 'yo, i'mma get my people on you.' or ' i'm perfect because i got to church.' sometimes we need to think before we speak. are you really going to get your people on me? or are you really perfect? because i'm pretty sure you've never opened a bible and i just heard you swear like a sailor back there. 
much love and peace, dmaloney
recently in my history class we've been studying the internment of the japanese people during w.w.two. and today we read a selection from book called 'farewell to manzanar'. in the selection we read the author says something like ' the months turned to years and we began to forget about the war, we began to forget why we were in the camps in the first place.' it was interesting. i couldn't stop rereading that quote and thinking the only way to 'stay fresh' or current to to continually reevaluate our motives. our purposes for what we're doing. in a book i have been sporadically reading entitled 'my first to years in ministry' doug fields (the author) mentions that we need to always reevaluate our ministry. check up together. what works. what doesn't. and that's what keeps groups alive. he sites multiple examples that would relate to this. but the biggest one for me was the story that he told where a youth leader played a particular song. that made everyone super emotional. but did she have a purpose in it? not. really. she had used it before on a different group and it had obviously had a positive effect. yet in this instance it just left the camp with over one-hundred crying kids. we need to constantly evaluate and assess what works best for that group. maybe that sounds strange to those of us who aren't in charge of a ministry or a large group of kids. but think about school. we each have our own ways to learn and to study. i like making flash cards but if i did that in every class would i be successful. no. what about math? does memorizing the definition of an algebraic function as an expression that consists of numbers, variables, operations, and grouping symbols. also called a variable expression really help me on the test, when the problem is 2/3p*8/7-r^2-5= 19? probably not the best thing is to practice problem after problem. but for all of us it is different. i study through repetition and very often spoken word. for some of us it is through writing things out over and over again and maybe the point of all is that is that we needed to assess what we can do to succeed. what needs to be done to always know your purpose for particular tasks. so for the rest of the week avoid spending extra time on facebook. try reading a book. anything. just evaluate that situation and do something to better yourself. because you can you just to need evaluate. 
