Before you read on, take the 3 minutes to watch the pep talk video if you haven’t already seen it.
Have you ever got up in the morning feeling a little gloomy, feeling like the day isn’t going to go well? But then you open twitter, see someone posted something that you normally never open, but decide the title is catchy enough and you feel so off that you check it out? That’s what brought me to Kid President and his Pep Talk. Feeling down, I felt like I could in fact use a pep talk, and I was inspired. Keep in mind, I rarely find any inspiration from things like this.
We’ve been in a holding pattern of transition, and the uncertainty of the unknown gets draining some days. But I know we are where God wants us, and when we find the right fit for us we’ll be ready to jump. But I was laying in bed yesterday morning, and I needed a pep talk. I also need something new to write about, so I thought I’d breakdown this pep talk.
“Boring is easy, anyone can be boring; but you’re gooder than that. Life’s not a game people, life isn’t a cereal, well it is a cereal.”
I am gooder than that. Sometimes we get stuck in routines that take away from how awesome we can be. Proverbs 3:5-6 says Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. If we’re listening to God, and taking the paths that He is showing us, life should never be boring. If God’s plans are for good, and to give us hope and purpose (Jer 29:11) we really shouldn’t ever be boring. We’re gooder than that because God created us to be gooder than boring. Life’s not a game, the things we do can have eternal impact if we would just be awesome like God created us to be. Mark Batterson recently wrote that Change of Pace+Change of place=Change of Perspective. We need to break boring routines and be uniquely awesome like God created us to be.
“And if life is a game, aren’t we all on the same team? I mean really, right? I’m on your team, be on my team. This is life people. You got air coming through your nose; your heart beats. That means it’s time to do something.”
Have we ever so much division in this country? (Well, yes. Civil rights, civil war, etc.) But our nation, and the people who make it up are so divided and polarized. Do we have different opinions and values? Yes, but why does that mean that hate and vitriol need to rule the day. Ultimately, differences can be made by finding common ground. We’re all part of the same thing. God created all people, and we are all on the same team. What would happen if people used teamwork? A collective effort by people who care could stop sex trafficking, global hunger, governmental dependance, and every other problem the world faces. What would happen if a single church rallied around a problem in a community? What would happen if every church, in every community, in every state worked together? Not only would communities be transformed, but the entire world would be. We live, I live, for me. How selfish we can sometimes get? It’s time to do something
“A poem: ‘Two roads diverged in the woods and I took the road less traveled.’ AND IT HURT MAN! Really bad. Rocks, thorns, and glass! ??????? Not cool Robert Frost.”
My favorite poem from high school was my favorite sequence of lines from this pep talk. I want to blaze my own trails, I want to forge through unknown territory in life. The poem speaks to me and how I am wired. But kid president sure sums up what it’s like to be on the road less traveled. It’s scary to step out in faith, quit the comfortable job you’ve had for 5 years, because you feel like God said your time was done. I still don’t know where this untraveled path leads, but we keep forging ahead. It hasn’t been easy, and we’ve definitely run into some thorns, and rocks, and GLASS! Actually, now that I think about it again, not cool Robert Frost.
“But what if there really were two paths? I want to be on the one that leads to awesome. It’s like that dude Journey said, ‘Don’t stop believing… unless your dream is stupid’. Then you should get a better dream. Get a better dream and keep going and going and going. What if Michael Jordan had quit? (Well he did quit, no he retired) But before that, in high school. What if he had quit when he didn’t make the team? He would have never made SpaceJam. And I love SpaceJam.”
Lets’s all start off and agree that SpaceJam was awful. Michael Jordan playing basketball with Looney Tunes to save the planet from alien monsters is a terrible movie idea. Who pitched this junk to Michael Jordan, and who were MJs handlers who said this would be a great career move? But you can make mistakes, you can fail, if the other things you do are awesome. If your dream is leading you down the path that isn’t awesome, get a God sized dream. Something you can’t accomplish on your own. Something that is so big, it seems impossible. That is the path that God sets before us. There should be so many rocks, and thorns and glass shards on the path we’re on that it seems impossible to traverse. Because if you can make it happen, then God doesn’t need to be in it. If it’s a path where you NEED God to show up, that dream is a path that leads to awesome. Sometimes you might get sidetracked by a little rabbit trail; we all will have our SpaceJams in life, but ultimately following the path God has will lead to some amazing miraculous things. That’s the path I’m on, and never want to depart from.
“What will be your SpaceJam? What will you create that will make the world awesome? Nothing if you keep sitting there! That’s why I’m talking to you today. This is your time! This is my time. This is our time. We could make everyday better for each other, if we’re on the same team, lets start acting like it. We got work to do. We can cry about it, or we can dance about it. You were made to be awesome. Let’s get out there. It’s everybody’s duty to give the world a reason to dance. So get to it.”
Romans 8:11 says The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you. Wow! With that power inside of me I NEED to create something to make the world awesome. What has God created you to do that will make this world awesome? I know I wasn’t created to just sit around and do nothing. It’s hard to follow God. Saying yes to whatever you want is easy. Anyone can follow depravity, especially in our world today. But when life gives you lemons, cut that sucker in half and take a giant bite out of it. Guaranteed the next bite won’t be so bad. We can cry about it, or we can dance about it. (If I was brave enough there would be a video clip of me dancing here) Let’s dance through the difficult times because there is a God who will always be with us.
Written by Sean
Topics: Sean's Blog