D-WORDSLAYER

Disruption & Praise When I go before God and pray I seek comfort or am expressing my gratitude for his faithfulness and the grace he gives me daily. Worship delivers a message. It heals and removes the barriers between me and God. He gets his time and I get mine.   There are times though when our praise to God should move beyond the norm. In fact, our praise to God should never be so comfortable that movement does not take place. Yes, I’m always feeling moved, but… Disruptive praise shakes you the worshipper. It shakes the people around you. It moves the belly, gut, the pit of your stomach, and it hurts. It hurts because something is happening. Something is moving deep within the soul, and tears may fall, voices rise, and disruption happens. We all have things to confess daily before God and he wants to hear it. He wants to relieve us of our burdens of guilt and shame, anger and fears, hurts and momentary despair, but when its locked deep inside it must come...

No one prepares us for life . From our development in the womb of a woman, whom we will be birthed from, nothing prepares us for life. Moving from the comfort or discomfort of a small space within a human body we are formed. In love or otherwise our destiny and lives begin with the one we call mother. She is our provider, and nurturer. Life is good. Even when its bad its good. The ability to feel and love is good. To breathe is good. To feel means we are alive. I did not always appreciate this. There have been bad times. Tough times are real and come in varying degrees. There have been times when fear would lead to despair and anxiety. However, from the beginning of my life I had my eldest sister. I always had my family of sisters and my mother. Every family has challenges. Some challenges are visible, and others are hidden. Eventually, perceptions are formed based on external influences, judgements are made and as a child you create your normal space. Just like in the ...

When challenges abound be grateful for their existence. The presence of adversity, can move us into opportunity or despair. Choose wisely how you wish to proceed. The next step always presents learnings which can be overlooked because of the smokescreen which appears before understanding and then clear vision. I sometimes wonder about the never-ending life changes, and their disruptive influence over my life. There was always resistance to the newness and sometimes resentment. When I looked at what appeared to be a smooth sailing life for others, my burdens and load seemed heavier than they were. As I compared my life and found it lacking, feelings of wariness and uncertainty would creep in. Then doubt, and the self-seeking for all the ‘wrong things’ and decisions. However, when I shifted my mindset, and started seeing the fullness of my life and the overflowing contents of ‘my glass’, everything changed. Suddenly, the smoke cleared, and I could see. As I embraced and welc...

I can vaguely remember a book I read during my secondary level literature class called ‘School’s Out’. I cannot recall the author but I remember the plot was one which involved the most unlikely careless people in the role of teachers. That book shed light on what happens when the education system fails children and the community. At the time I thought it was a funny satirical story about our West Indian education system which was not at all like that. Now, I think I have found an institution and society which resembles that type of attitude and embodies the dysfunction it exposed many years ago. School may be out for some, at least locally, where a lawless society is created, not from poverty and illiterate criminals, but from intellectuals who lack the discipline and commitment to be better examples. I am not sure this should be committed to paper, but it is troubling when faced with a facade which is a disgrace to an education system. The bully Bullies are breed. They are g...

Conflicting objectives Today is a new day but in business we carry over the old problems challenges and situations to the next work period. Most times it will be the next day and it probably still looks the same. When we look at what must be done to complete a task or job we can encounter conflict. What is conflict or conflicting agendas? Well conflict in business relates to disagreement or something which brings a negative or alternate reaction to the surface. A good example can be the salesman trying to close a sale and needing support, being advised that the company has made its best offer and anything else will affect his commision rate. The company is holding its minimum margin and the rep grudgingly agrees to give up a part of his percentage. So what is the bigger picture here. A) the salesman needs the sale to meet his quota to gain commission for the month maybe even an additional incentive to pay his car insurance. B) the company can't afford to go lower beca...

The following is published on Citizen4life, and is something to think about! The concept of the greater good is used to justify actions where loss affects a few/ or takes place to allow for a perceived greater benefit. There have been wars waged based on ‘the greater good’. During war it is believed that a few hundred men will sacrifice /lose their lives for their country to achieve their goal of strength or freedom. At work there are times when someone ‘takes one for the team’ because there are proposed future benefits for all. Sometimes it can be a salary to avoid layoffs, and at other times a salesman may be asked to allow another to take over a deal based on bigger benefits for the company in a bigger deal. Whatever the reason, it is considered a sacrifice for the benefit of others. As I think about this ‘rationale’ it seems that it is a double-edged sword which can be for both good or bad depending on the person using the phrase for justification of action or decision...