Oprah & Soledad on one accord

So glad I got a chance to watch the 2013 commencement speeches delivered by Oprah and Soledad O'Brien.  First off, I'm a nerd and yes, I love commencement time.  It gives me tingles up and down my spine.  There's something special about moving on to that next stage, knowing that although the stage you just completed was tremendous, the best is still yet to come.  Congrats class of 2013!

I've pasted the speeches below.  Both women spoke of using your talents to better the world, the very reason why I changed the tagline of my blog.  When I figured out that singing for a purpose stirred something deeper within me, as opposed to just singing for my own glory, I was forever changed.  Oprah said "when you start figuring out how to serve others, THAT's when your story gets good."

Your goal - "to achieve the highest, most truthful expression of yourself as a human being...Don't ask the world what it needs.  Ask yourself what makes you come alive.  Because that's what the world needs - people who are alive."

Had to capture these tidbits somewhere.  Thank you fabulous ladies of commencement 2013.  (And man, I must admit that the icing on the cake is looking up to and being inspired by these ladies that look just a little bit like me. ; )

Oprah
 


Soledad O'Brien

Feed the Spirit of Life

I was inspired today by these two verses:
"He who sins is of the devil...for this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil." = 1 John 3:8
"Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him..." = 1 Peter 5:8-9

 In both of these passages we sense that we have a choice to make. We can choose the way of the devil but that does not lead us into the benefits of a life in the Spirit. In fact, it takes us in the entirely wrong direction. But praise God, because of Jesus the work of life and redemption are within us, beseeching us to choose its path of victory, and not the other path of defeat. As we choose life daily, it gives God the room in our lives to work on our behalf. It's like eating right. When we eat right and exercise our beautiful bodies have the resources to continue to function at the highest levels. But when we feed it garbage, when we pollute it, when we don't exercise our muscles, as much as it wants to it can't function as well on our behalf. It can't give back to us because we haven't given much to it. The Spirit of life within us is similar. It wants to act positively on our behalf (it is desperate to!). But if we act out as the devil urges us to, what resource are we giving it to do its marvelous work??

Some people may not want the choice. They think "why can't God just give us all the best?" I can understand that but a choice is actually the greatest gift (just one step after the all encompassing love of Christ himself, that is still there, ready to receive us and cleanse us, regardless of the choices we make). If we were robots, would we really know, could we really taste, goodness? If you could flip a switch so that your spouse would love you and do what you say, is that real love? We have a choice so that we may truly feel and appreciate the blessings of God. It's what we do with that choice that makes all the difference. And all of our humanly choices affect each other, for better or for worse, the bad as well as the good. Too many of our bad choices have caused not only personal suffering, but the suffering of those around us.

Let's today choose to feed the Spirit of Life and give God the glory and honor due Him through our prayer life and our actions.