God’s Love Story In Lamar Odom

The story of Lamar Odom is not uncommon to each and every story we hear of regarding addiction; however, this one has a much better ending.

A life taken for granted is the sentiment that I have read online, but is his life much different than most of ours?

One more sniff, one more puff, one more pill. The odds stacking against him and on a particular night at a brothel outside of sin city, the game comes to an abrupt end. We all have our vices that seek to devour us. ‘I can tell this simple lie, I can sleep with this person and this person because it is my life, I can push, take, consume past all earthly limits, simply because I can.’ We all play the game of chance, the game of loading the gun, spinning the chamber and pointing it directly at ourselves hoping that this time we will escape with our lives but hope is not a strategy.

Why do any of us take this life for granted when some did not even make it out of their mothers wombs, some passed in their sleep, or tragically. Psychologists say that we are simply bored and caught in the monotony of life we seek things to make us feel alive. We create drama, power struggles, wars, poverty, self-destruction all to fill a void. Oh, but there is hope.

“Each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil DESIRE and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to DEATH (James 1:14-15).”

The hope I speak of will not be found in our own efforts by any means. It is not found in our partners, it is not found in a religious corporate gathering. The hope lies in a savior that set our human existence in motion. A God that created each of us and originally wanted heaven for our lives but in his infinite grace he gave us free will not to make us like robots, but for us to choose him with the very lives he created. The story of grace is a love story of epic proportions, but the summary is that we make a choice daily whether to pursue life or death and even with our ability to choose there still is grace.

Grace is what has been given to Lamar, to his family, and to the world around him witnessing the full-blown power of Jesus Christ in action. We can deny his existence or come alongside his awesome power to do a great work in the lives of people around the world, in our very lives. Grace does not mean we completely avoid the natural consequences of our decisions, it simply means that there is forgiveness and a chance at eternity with our greatest love, Christ.

Today, the story of Lamar Odom continues, not eclipsed by death, but by new challenges that await him. I pray he now believes in the depths of his being that God is for him, he has always been and always will be.

When Christ died, He died for you individually just as much as if you’d been the only man in the world. -C. S. Lewis

written by @earlinagreen

edited by April G.

My Superhero is a Police Officer

If you look around today you may ask yourself where have all the superheroes gone? The superheroes we looked up to as kids, the superheroes that fought off our ‘monsters in the closet’, our heroes that gave us courage on the first day of school and watched our back when we played make-believe crime stopper to save our own Gotham City. Well, my superhero has never left my side and to this day ‘she’ still is still fighting the good fight. She is my mother.

Where do I begin when I speak of my mother? The woman that had five kids raising them a majority of the time on her own, the woman that fought real crime on the streets of this city to provide a better life for her kids, the woman that had to buy everything in threes; including braces, backpacks and laptops to care for triplets, my sisters and I. The woman that even while being in retirement today still lends vast amounts of her time to serving at nursing homes and hospitals to care for the elderly and sick.

Mom, you are the hero the comic books spoke of and even though they don’t mention you by name not wanting to blow your cover, now, in retirement you deserve all the praise and recognition that one may receive. You are a woman fearlessly, phenomenally, and wonderfully made. God knew what he was doing when he knitted you together in his hands and I am forever grateful.

As we celebrate your birthday this month we celebrate a life lived in service to your community, your family, and for a purpose outside of yourself.

I love you mom, forever my hero.

Happy Birthday
@earlinagreen

What Will It Be?

How can we become more aware citizens?

If mass pollution of our only home is not enough then what will it be?

If mass genocide of our global neighbors is not enough then what will it be?

If mass destabilization of our morals and sanity is not enough then what will it be?

If the complete breakdown of our human existence is not enough then what will it be?

It will be what it is, what it always has been. Change begins in the soul of the human being overwhelming the beings senses and logical response, bringing him/her to greater awareness.

Awareness of the significant part each of us plays in the world.

@earlinagreen

My Open Letter To Ciara

While everyone is trying to give you and your boyfriend a hard time about abstaining from sex, you know the truth.

You know the truth because you are a woman, like most of us who have been hurt by a man. You know the outcome of giving your body, mind, emotions, and spirit to a man only to have them ungratefully returned. You know what it feels like to carry a man’s child, destroying your body and sacrificing your career to bring life into this world. You also know that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over again expecting a different result.

This time around a man will challenge your mind and pour into your soul before he is given your body. This time a man will choose to ‘lead you’ instead of misleading your emotions. This time you choose ‘you’ and the outcome is deeper love and self-worth.

You understand that no good thing comes easy and that a relationship requires commitment and self-discipline before both individuals can enjoy the true pleasures of being bound for a lifetime. This time you have a long-term goal instead of a short-term plan. Marriage is that goal and even if it is not openly spoken about now you understand that abstinence is self-denial for a period of time with a pay off far greater than imagined.

You are doing great. The Bible says that you can judge a man’s tree by the fruit it produces. You are blessed beyond measure with a beautiful son, prosperity, and a man who chooses to be a man.

You go girl!

Sincerely,
“Women Everywhere”

@earlinagreen

Use Your Freedom Wisely

My love obsession with the Message Bible stems from the books no nonsense, tell-it-like-it-is take on scriptures within the more traditional Bibles. Tonight’s reading was no different. Often times I take my God given free will as an opportunity to do whatever my heart and flesh desires. It is reminders like this that jolt me back to reality, I am not here to live for myself and my pursuit of all things Earlina ultimately leads to my pain and destruction. I pray you can relate.

19-21 It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on.

This isn’t the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God’s kingdom. (Galatians 2:19-21 MSG)

Love is the motive,
Earlina

A People With No King: America

In those days Israel had no king; all the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes.  (Judges 17:6)

In the days before Christ, over and over we see through the reading of the Bible that the people of Israel had a hard time remaining faithful to God who rescued them from bondage. Throughout the Old Testament the people of Israel need to be reminded that they were once slaves freed by a loving God.

In todays culture we mirror the people of Israel in our apathy towards injustice and immorality. We have forgotten our true King in Christ and exist now doing only what seems right in our own eyes.

Where are we headed if we continue on this course? If the scriptures are true, and they are, we are headed for destruction and devastation. We cannot continue on this road and at the rate our culture is declining we will be there before we even realize it. Where is there? A total loss in understanding truth, what is right and what is wrong?  Complete separation from Christ our maker in the most perverse way. Whatever seems right in my eyes will be the only truth, meaning I can self-justify my wrong doings, hate, and lack of empathy.

How can we not see the collision ahead or are we too far down the road to turn back now? It is never too late. We must try hard to push past all the noise and remember what Jesus did, what He wants to do in your life, and what He has already done.

@earlinagreen