Upgrade Yourself

How I live my life today at age 60 is very different from my past. I don’t think the same way, my needs are different and I don’t respond to situations in the same way. Responding to various life situations, in different ways, has produced outcomes different from my past. Money, marriage, health, and religion are for example, handled differently than 40 years ago. My marriage has improved dramatically compared to how we interacted with one another in 1989 when we first met.

Had my behaviors remained the same today as in 1989 the same struggles and problems also would remain. At each cross road, along the way I appealed to the spirit, to whom I saw as someone greater than myself and someone who can help me think differently.

As life happens, such as having my first born, I had to change. I had zero experience with a little person running around the house. When he got sick, I knew what I’d do for myself, but was that the right thing for the little guy? What was my pathwalk. Remember a pathwalk is fueled by a need. This pathwalk was about the best life I can give to my wife and children.

But along the way as I learned new things and improved upon that knowledge, more newer path’s emerged. Acting on a single need created new paths for me. As I improved my life, home ownership became possible. As my knowledge of technology increased, a high tech job emerged. From them came cars, motorcycles, money and more children. All which created more needs and different choices.

Had I remained the same at any given point in time; the effects of that area of my life would draw more of my attention leaving the other paths to eventually wither away. For example, when I first came to the apostolic church I was young and homeless. I left my parents’ home at 18, had a minimum wage job paying around $2 an hour and I wanted to get married. I thought to myself, I’ll never grow up if I stay here. So I left.

I felt, as long as I stayed in my parents home I was living in a situation that I didn’t create myself. Once I got out into the world, I realized how much knowledge I was missing. For most people I grew up with, things happen for them gradually. Leaving my parents home and getting out there was a dramatic move. Which meant needs were immediate.

How I thought about life was from the perspective of a child. Entering adulthood as a high school drop out reading at an 8th grade reading level and barely understanding basic math made entering adulthood challenging. The lack of these skills shaped everything about my life and the situations I encountered during this pathwalk.

Finding a good paying job wasn’t something that could happen for me immediately. I was smart, creative and could do lots of things with my hands. I could repair electronics, gasoline motors, home appliances, handy-man, artist, do certain calculations and measurements in my head and build things from them. Because I had this big imagination I learned extremely fast. However, convincing an employer that I was a good fit was not easy. I wasn’t confident when asked questions or taking a test. I felt stuck.

I was young, lacked many things needed to create change and knew very little about what experiences await me in the future. The church played a very important role for me. I believe it could help me create the life I wanted and to overcome shortcomings. Because of my life situations, the words I heard preached over the pulpit was like fuel to me. It gave me a reason to try, to keep pressing forward. Every single word I heard preached I took it out there and put it to a test.

If you told me I would have the blessing I wanted tomorrow if I took a piece of red thread and posted it over my bedroom door. I’d grab two if it were possible. I was open to any solution from the church to finding a way out of this life.

I would challenge any clergy today to take the message they preach to a single person living on the streets and use that interaction to nurture the person. When I say nurture, I mean feed them, to spend time with them as their mentor. The needs of a homeless person are very different from people who entered adulthood fluidly, meaning had help arriving.

But some people are thrown into life situations but don’t have the mind to overcome what they are facing. People in power decide through legislation what the standards of a good life are and the rules to get there. For me, entering adulthood, I didn’t have the skills necessary to have those skills, let alone know what those rules were and how to gain the skills needed to meet the requirements.

When I learned to engage Jesus Christ in my life situations, it was then that the bible began to make sense. I knew the word of God not through reading and comprehension. I learned about Jesus Christ by hearing and doing.