Syncopated Hustle 1 Year Anniversary
Brian FoulksCommunity
Syncopated Hustle 1 Year Anniversary
It has been a year since I started this blog and what a year it has been. I have wrote about things that got my attention and things that angered me. I have wrestled with myself as God chiseled on my heart and my worldview was constantly rocked.
I hope that the upcoming year will continue to shape and redirect as I looked to do more insightful writing as well as go a little further.
Thanks for all that have read and encouraged me along the way.
Shalom
Father talks about son's academic success, brings him to tears
Rasan Portlock brought his 10-year-old Ryheim to tears during an emotional interview about how proud he is of his son’s academic success.
The father and son talked to NBC’s chief education correspondent Rehema Ellis about the progress they have seen in the educational system at Devonshire Elementary School in Charlotte, N.C.
Rasan said he sees an improvement in the material Ryheim is taught and explains that the school’s expectations from its students have drastically changed over the years.
A Theology Reshaped through Racism and Grace
The opportunity to experience the grace of God is an experience like no other. In this so called post-racial world, I had a run in with a racist old man. I had just let my wife out at the door of the movie theater and I was parking. As I got out of the car and was walking toward the door and older white man said, “See what happens when you give a black person a new car.” His wife turning around to see me develops this look of terror in her eyes as she tried to correct him. Now his actions did not surprise me but my reaction were the highlight of the day.
My response was a “simple grin and smile.”
There was a time I might have slapped that man or just went into his grill with the same type of racist antics. As I reached my wife she started asking me what was so funny. I said, “I have changed.” That moment was suspended in for me as recollect my thoughts about that episode.
I developed a greater definition and understanding of the grace of God. My simple overlooking of that old man’s comments allowed me to experience on simpler level how God overlooks my very own sins and errors. Yes I wanted to react but my reaction would have strengthened his warped reality of blacks.
It took a lot of restraint not to respond but the end result for displaying a characteristic that was outside of my character speaks volumes. It speaks to me being a primary participant of God’s grace. I have done the very thing that this man done but in a different manner.
It has been moment such as this which has shaped my theology of God. Yes, I have read many articles, books and the Bible that has provided profound insight into God but it is those personal moments when God makes the words real. I am by no means new to racist taunts but many times I have responded with my very own remarks to rebut words spoken to me. What happened 2 weeks ago has lead me to see that God is still chiseling away at my sinful nature.
God’s grace extended recalls the very essence of error with love. His grace shapes theology and attends to the life of his people. Experiencing the grace of God is a gift that can’t be duplicated.
I am constantly being renewed and drawn into his (Christ) suffering which results into growth.
Thinking Out Loud- Trying to make providence make sense (in my own terms)
To render your skills useless has a neurotic feeling of failure attached that has the potential to bankrupt every meager thought of hope. With every passing moment the fleeting sight of restoration appears to bypass your doorstep. The concept of success camouflages itself as a patronizing term as you wrestle with your own faith. Theology becomes useless rhetoric and prayer assimilates itself with the hot rap tune of the week-just words to hum to amuse ourselves for kicks.
Could it be that we have lost the very essence of faith and exchanged it for instant gratification?
Sunday Morning Thought for Pastors
“The gospel is preached in the ears of all men; it only comes with power to some. The power that is in the gospel does not lie in the eloquence of the preacher otherwise men would be converters of souls. Nor does it lie in the preacher’s learning; otherwise it could consists of the wisdom of men. We might preach till our tongues rotted, till we should exhaust our lungs and die, but never a soul would be converted unless there were mysterious power going with it – the Holy Ghost changing the will of man. O Sirs! We might as well preach to stone walls as preach to humanity unless the Holy Ghost be with the word, to give it power to convert the soul.” – Charles H, Spurgeon
