Heart line..

'I put my heart on the line for you, My heart on the line for you...'  

                                                   - Craig David

Once again, back is the incredible.. Lol.
Hey people :). I wanted to talk about love..

Now this is not one of those soppy emotionally driven posts about finding the one (lol though I know some of y'all wouldn't mind that). This is mainly a post to share what's been on my mind. About a week and a half back I put up a status on my facebook asking 'How do you know if you love someone?'. 

Fresh from a trip to go see a friend I was taken aback when they told me they loved me and I was trying to figure it out. I mean this person was someone I'd known for a while, but in certain ways we hardly knew each other. So this made me think, can that profession be legitimate? Can I love someone I'm in the early stages of really getting to know?

Now most of the people who really know me, and even those that don't, know I get my direction from my faith and that I try to walk inspired by the words God gives. As I've been reading I've been noticing a lot lately that in the Bible there's more than one occasion where someone 'loved' someone within minutes of meeting them. 

Now love at first sight.. is that a thing?
Well I think it may well be possible.

When I asked this question last week someone described the symptoms of love in the following manner..

...you have a connection based on shared experience, you feel like 'you get them' and want to see them thrive, you have empathy and compassion for them, affection, kindness, respect, etc. It's cultivated over time if there's a mutual willingness to be authentic and to grow together...

In the end I realised it was not so in the case with the friend mentioned, though on my part I think a seed of love was there. I mean, I genuinely did sense all of those things and sought growth for this potential partner. I think love is greater than romantic feelings, but all true romantic feelings that will last will be built on a foundation of true love, as long as it is present. Love grows, but the truth is, the seed of it must always be present beforehand.

With God's help, we can grow and mature into all we're meant to be. But as we do, let us not forget to mature in love..

Unleashing the voice..

So, I'm back.
Funny this is the second time in a month. Wonder what's happening to me. It's beautiful I guess when the writing bug comes to say hello..

I have been all over the place in the last week, both physically and internally. Busking and freestyling have become parts of the 'things that I do', and since starting I've been steadily progressing with my new found passions. This has brought me to Ladbroke Grove, Harlesden and Shepherd's Bush, attempting to share some of what I've been gifted with.

To be honest, the feeling is quite liberating. The last time I did anything like this was when I used to do street preaching a good 7 years back. I feel the gift I have seems to have been repackaged, but the heart remains the same.

From early, God has placed in me a desire to connect with the human heart and so now I use my music to fulfill that desire. Everything I do and study tends to come from that place of connecting.

Today I was watching some clips from the last of Obama's white house correspondent dinners. This was interesting as I tend not to watch Obama talk so often. When he was president I never watched a speech, never read an article he wrote and the only thing I remember hearing from him was that address he made after they killed Bin Laden.

Not that I wasn't interested but, to put it plainly in hearing the general overview and seeing some of the things he said while on the election trail, I had no respect for the man and didn't really wanna get caught up in the hype..

I know.. shocking.. :-o

But anyway, in watching this I learned a lot, simply through seeing the charisma the man speaks and moves with. I mean it's documented, but I feel you can do a lot with charisma, with lightheartedness, and with a thirst to see things change.

At the moment I'm learning a lot about  what is needed for my own voice to break through. I'm learning from people I can get with and people I can't really get with, because the truth is, no matter who you are, people draw to people often because of something they have.

Whether that thing be charisma, freestyle ability, the ability to dream big or outright confidence, attraction is the key, and these things often open up the door for conversation.

And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings 

(Luke 16 vs 9) 

We all have things which will only serve us in this world. Things which we can use to build relationships

Let's work with and work on what we've been given. Even if it's not for ourselves it's worth the trouble, as you never know. Someone's future may depend on it..

Taking stock..

Hey guys,

Really don't know if anyone is following anymore. I've been ghost for a minute.
Today also may be more a bible study than anything else but I need to go through..

The last piece I wrote on here was a poem after my cousin died. Something that helped me get through it. You see, writing helps me get through. Sometimes I forget that.

Writing helps me to resolve issues of the mind that are perplexing me. It helps me make sense of life. For some understanding comes through speaking things out. For me it's more writing them down.

Many things have challenged me, and I often think how much have I grown in the time since I last wrote. Sure I've moved higher and further on in my music and grown in my barbering skills but spiritually I wonder honestly how far I've advanced.

In ways I guess spiritual growth is similar to physical growth. Often by looking at ourselves in the now, we can't tell if we've grown and can get discouraged. But when looking at old pictures or talking to people who knew us in a previous stage of life, we can begin to understand where we are now compared to where we used to be. With God levels are different also, as he measures growth in a totally different way to us.

In the Bible, when speaking of growth God often talks about virtue. In the process of spiritual growth, becoming virtuous is important. But what is virtue?

In the dictionary, virtue is behaviour showing high moral standards. 

Yesterday I was speaking with someone I know about friends with faith who don't seem to live this faith out. A cognitive dissonance of sorts. Where we profess one thing, yet live to a standard which can seem quite out of line with our beliefs.

Sure faith is the foundation but once we have grown in faith, our moral standard must begin to match up.

'For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge..' - 2 Peter 1:5

Our moral excellence must then be added to by a knowledge that is based on experience. In other words to cement virtue, we have to gain some practical experience in living it out.

Through this, our faith begins to be built on deeper foundations. Through choosing to be virtuous in normal and testing times we begin to live a life of moral excellence, by it being ingrained into us through our constant practice of it. We also start to know what virtue is for real, because we experience a God who constantly lives it out toward us.

So in terms of this, have I seen spiritual growth since I've last written? Have I begun to exercise virtue more or am I still at the same place?

Being honest, I'm unsure..

Maybe it's time to take stock..