Misunderstood: A Hustler’s Tale

Driven by dreams of material things
Cant blame em; on TV that’s all he seen
Takes more than a reckless spirit
To build a crack empire
Learn the ways of the street fast
Or your life will soon expire
Fiends is clickin’ to what they got on 43rd
So you set up shop next to the woods on 45th
House in the cut you don’t want no shit

Takes more than a reckless spirit
To do what your doing
More like economics and trade agreements
In that language you’re fluent
If only Columbia or Harvard came to the hood
Maybe this young man wouldn’t be misunderstood
With these practices
You’d be a top CEO
But instead we’re relegated to the streets
It ain’t fun out here
Everybody’s packing heat

So you wholesale your product
So all the abusers come to you
Now their consumers
Are your customers
And everybody knows you
Business is good, assets and such
Be careful brother, don’t press ya luck
You got big dreams
To get ya family out the hood
Never was too flashy
But now your rims are what make you look good
Just some more attention
Before they wave ya ass goodbye
Coppers watching, enemies plottin’, snitches will end ya life

He coulda been bigger than John Rockefeller
Coulda taken his charisma
And used it for something better
The world judges you
For serving with hope with despair
The streets is watching
You cant sleep
This lovely crack house
Is surrounded by fiends
Your enemies creep with guns
With ambitions to blow holes in your dreams
Yet the cops pick you up
Putting football numbers behind this big dream
Too many keys to count
You’re on your way to the bing

Don’t get me wrong, they crooked too
You ain’t got no boats
To get all these drugs through
All them drugs they caught you with
Didn’t even make it to the precinct
They supply your competition
And our communities are still bleeding
Only if Penn State and Temple
Came to the hood
Maybe this young mans life
Wouldn’t be so misunderstood

God said to Solomon, “Since this is your heart’s desire and you have not asked for wealth, riches or honor, nor for the death of your enemies, and since you have not asked for a long life but for wisdom and knowledge to govern my people over whom I have made you king, therefore wisdom and knowledge will be given you. And I will also give you wealth, riches and honor, such as no king who was before you ever had and none after you will have.” 2 Chronicles 1: 11-12

There’s a lot that resonates with me in this one so just let me rock for a second. Seek and ye shall find, ask and you shall be given but at this moment I’m reminded of the movie I Robot. Will Smith was speaking to an illusion and he had to ask the right question to be granted with an understanding. By no means am I comparing God to the computer generated image on the movie but the lesson is still ringing true in my head. What is the question, what is it that you are asking for. Only then can we gain understanding. I guess it wouldn’t be called wisdom or understanding if it was simple and easy to grab because I am often confused. And with the world behaving in its own ignorance it almost seems as if wisdom is no longer a necessity, I know only a fool would think that but I’m not afraid to say that I can be a fool sometimes.

Sometimes, I pray and ask God for things, I noticed my prayers for other people seem to be answered very quickly. However my prayers for my own gain may take a little longer or may have not come to fruition as of yet. So I have to ask myself what am I asking for. Solomon asked for wisdom, sometimes wisdom can be a lonely place but I read once that the Lord separates us, that he takes us out of the crowd so that we can do his will. So while you’re alone, he is preparing you for something greater, but that’s another topic. Back to Solomon, his heart was pure while asking for wisdom to grow his people. Just a thought yall but maybe it is not that God does not hear us and is not answering us, its just that we have yet to begin to ask the right questions. Peace and Grace be unto you!

The teeth are smiling, but is the heart?

It is good to praise the LORD and make music to your name, O Most High, to proclaim your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night, to the music of the ten-stringed lyre and the melody of the harp. For you make me glad by your deeds, O LORD; I sing for joy at the works of your hands. How great are your works, O LORD, how profound your thoughts! The senseless man does not know, fools do not understand, that though the wicked spring up like grass and all evildoers flourish, they will be forever destroyed. But you, O LORD, are exalted forever. For surely your enemies, O LORD, surely your enemies will perish; all evildoers will be scattered. You have exalted my horn [a] like that of a wild ox; fine oils have been poured upon me. Psalm 92: 1-10

2:20 pm, this has to be a record set for the latest Pardon me. Well if I’m going to check in this late I must have some good news to share with you! You know I always have a story to tell, and the scripture represents how I feel about the Lord. How I have to praise his name because he always blesses ya boy. So this story starts somewhere during the semester, I thought i would be overseas with my homegirl Trudi enjoying Europe but God had other plans and that fell through. So needless to say I was not applying for jobs, more or less just doing my school work (sometimes less than more). But one of my other partners in crime hipped me to this fabulous program that she had attended and she thought that i would love it. It was a program teaching our youth the law and preparing them for a mock trial in front of a real Judge during the summer at St. Johns University.

Now you know Ced loves the kids, and I love anything that will allow me to talk and help teach someone something. So I sent my resume, this was the only resume I sent out this whole semester and I let the company know that I was willing to work for free. I just wanted to be apart of this movement that I saw them mobilizing. Doors were closed in my face because all the positions were filled and they could not even take me on as a volunteer. I emailed the executive director and asked him if i could shadow him, I let the man know that I would be an asset to his organization, ALL OF THIS TO NO AVAIL. Then last week I got a phone call, I thought it was the student loan people so I almost did not pick the phone up.

However, I’m glad I did, it was the same company offering me a phone interview right there on the spot. Before this I just planned to blog all summer, who knows where the wind would blow me but I was just going to fly. Today I had my second interview, where I had to do a practice lesson with adults acting as 8th graders. After the practice lesson and interview was over, the Executive Director stuck around, like he wanted to talk to me. That same home girl who first told me of him had told him of me. She let him know that I was a Christian and that I believed in the word of God. We rapped for maybe another 20 minutes just about the Lord and his Greatness and in the middle of that he said “Well, I can just tell you, you already got the job”.

God is good, and the man let me know God worked in mysterious ways on this one. Someone else had the paid position but something caused them to split ways with the gentleman. He said before they went back to the others they had interviewed he remembered that there was this persistent kid who kept emailing him. That pesky kid was me, and my buddy Maat let him know how we all know that God moves through us so he gave me a chance. So here I am, just thankful and thankful that I could share such a moment with you. Peace and Grace be unto you!

Thank you Lord for your blessings, thank the Almighty for the strength?

Misunderstood: A Hustler’s Tale

Driven by dreams of material things
Cant blame em; on TV that’s all he seen
Takes more than a reckless spirit
To build a crack empire
Learn the ways of the street fast
Or your life will soon expire
Fiends is clickin’ to what they got on 43rd
So you set up shop next to the woods on 45th
House in the cut you don’t want no shit

Takes more than a reckless spirit
To do what your doing
More like economics and trade agreements
In that language you’re fluent
If only Columbia or Harvard came to the hood
Maybe this young man wouldn’t be misunderstood
With these practices
You’d be a top CEO
But instead we’re relegated to the streets
It ain’t fun out here
Everybody’s packing heat

So you wholesale your product
So all the abusers come to you
Now their consumers
Are your customers
And everybody knows you
Business is good, assets and such
Be careful brother, don’t press ya luck
You got big dreams
To get ya family out the hood
Never was too flashy
But now your rims are what make you look good
Just some more attention
Before they wave ya ass goodbye
Coppers watching, enemies plottin’, snitches will end ya life

He coulda been bigger than John Rockefeller
Coulda taken his charisma
And used it for something better
The world judges you
For serving with hope with despair
The streets is watching
You cant sleep
This lovely crack house
Is surrounded by fiends
Your enemies creep with guns
With ambitions to blow holes in your dreams
Yet the cops pick you up
Putting football numbers behind this big dream
Too many keys to count
You’re on your way to the bing

Don’t get me wrong, they crooked too
You ain’t got no boats
To get all these drugs through
All them drugs they caught you with
Didn’t even make it to the precinct
They supply your competition
And our communities are still bleeding
Only if Penn State and Temple
Came to the hood
Maybe this young mans life
Wouldn’t be so misunderstood

A man of many companions may come to ruin,
but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. Proverbs 18:24

I read another breakdown of this scripture and it read “There are “friends” who destroy each other, but a real friend sticks closer than a brother”. Friendship was on my mind heavily this morning as I thought of the great ones that I have in my life. I thought of how fortunate I am to have good friends and I enjoyed the fact that others thought of me as such. While we are all trying to achieve some sort of success, we would be fools to only measure ourselves by monetary successes and material things. But I love how the scripture warns us, a man of many companions may come to ruin. Surrounding ourselves with people who don’t have our best interest at heart just so that we wont be lonely is not being blessed with great friends. That’s being bogged down by the celebrity of friendship rather than the true nature of building relationships.

You know its funny, after reading this scripture I think of old church songs i used to hear. I barely ever know the words but there’s one that talks about having a friend in Jesus. For years I took that song in vain and I wasn’t really getting the message from it. But now I’m wishing all that time I had been actively pursuing a friendship with Jesus, that’s a true friendship. Having a greater belief in him and knowing that he has my back; there’s nothing I cant do with a friend like that. I for one am taking the time to prayerfully build a better relationship with the Creator and to acknowledge all of the beautiful friends and family that I have in my life. Without them there would be no me and I feel that we all have those type of spirits in our lives, so today I wish to honor them. They continue to help us grow and hopefully we do the same for them. Peace and Grace be unto you!

Better a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without.

February 27, 2008

Who is he, this King of glory? The Lord Almighty — He is the king of glory! Psalm 24:10

Unto thee, O LORD, do I lift up my soul. O my God, I trust in thee: let me not be ashamed, let not mine enemies triumph over me. Yea, let none that wait on thee be ashamed: let them be ashamed which transgress without cause. Psalm 25 1:3

My thoughts are in a flurry this morning so please bear with me. I read the first verse and at first it honestly didn’t say that much to me. So I read deeper, looked for context clues, I mean the verse was so obvious, I thought there has to be more. Then I read the second verse and it clicked for me but it clicked for different reasons. So who is he, like who really is thins King of Glory? This statement is two-fold for me, at a first glance i think of it in an adversarial way as if someone is challenging my belief, challenging my faith. And to that the second part is so correct, the almighty Lord of course for he is the King of Glory. But then re read it from a  different perspective. Who is this King of Glory, God, do you know him, are yall close? Because if you know him, would you do the things you do, would you say the things you say. Well how well do you know him, do you go the extra mile to build a relationship with him or are we just praying because tradition tells us so. Like who is he, what does he mean to you, and how can he benefit from your relationship with him. These are just my thoughts but to me the verse spoke volumes. is God just this mythical figure who I believe in because my beautiful Grandmother God rest her soul said so. She knew him, she knew him well, so well that when she was sick she wasn’t concerned about doctors. SHE PUT HER FAITH IN THE LORD. Today marks 14 years since my grandmother passed away and I remember when she died I immediately had all these questions. A lot of them biblical, because I knew that she would know, because she believed! Not in a mythical figure, no, she believed in the Lord Almighty, the King of Glory and in her  belief she made sure that she got to know him so that she could answer, WHO IS HE?

I am confused by all of this, so then I read on. Once again I think of someone challenging me when I read the second verse. The word says let me not be ashamed. Why is it that nowadays to be of God is frowned upon. Have we evolved as man that much that we have now become better than the Creator. Is it because of all the scandal within churches that people have lost their faith, did they ever really have faith, did they ever really know who he is? Daily we are tested and challenged as Christians about our faith, spirituality is mocked within the media and the commercialization of Christ has become a detriment. When I speak of commercialization I am speaking of capitalism, I am speaking of the currency some business people are earning in the Lord. Not based on the word but based in finding a quick buck, and while doing so polluting the masses with false representations of what it is to be spiritual. These are the things that are turning people off and making them question our faith. But so what! The word says do not be ashamed, lift your soul up to God and do not let the ways of your enemies triumph over you. Those who believe in God who want to get to know God, we should never be ashamed. Boastful neither, let us be humble knowing that we are the epitome of imperfection striving for direction in the way of the Creator. Peace and Grace be unto you!