What does it mean to give up on life?

    I remember about two years ago sitting in my bed very ill not knowing if I would live or die. My health had been on a steady decline nothing like I had ever experienced before and I did not share much of what I was experiencing with my wife. The only effective treatment that I had found to help me with my condition which I thought was connected to a heart murmur, was much more than I could afford and many times it was a choice between bills and medicine. With me being a husband and father of course I would choose the bills.

    My choices were hard and I had to think on how I would prepare my family for the inevitable, as I thought at that time.  I understood that my passing would present a great trial for my family in many ways, especially financially. And having just a short time before, witnessed a very close friend and mentor pass away, I knew first hand how much of a struggle my family would suffer monetarily. I decided to take out two life insurance policies on myself, unbeknownst to my wife and the first would cover death by natural causes and the other would cover accidental death both were pretty sizable, but the policy covering natural death was denied because of my preexisting condition leaving me only with the accidental death policy.

    So there I was sitting in bed alone in my thoughts trying to figure out what direction I would go then it dawned on me. We had just moved to a new home and out back was a swimming pool, some nights  I would go out and sit in the pool and just look up at the stars and think. But what if I had an accident, I knew that I did not have the strength to swim so if I happened to swim out to the deep end then tire out and drown then my family would be secured after all I was going to die anyways. So there I had it, my ultimate plan my family would be secure. So one night when everyone was asleep, I put on my trunks, walked out to the pool got in and sat there on the steps for a minute to have what was to be my final conversation with God. We talked about my sons and my wife, my friends and family, all those that would be left behind but I had made my decision. Then he showed me my body faced down in that water floating and my poor family finding me like that and I thought what if my wife out of her love and pain decides to jump in and get me, she cant swim so maybe she would drown and with that thought I knew this was a bad idea. So I just stayed there, eventually I got up went back into the house took a shower and get back in bed. The next morning when I awoke life at our home was still the same. My children were still playing and laughing, my wife was cooking breakfast and I was still sick.

    Sometimes life gives us hard choices and there are things, we will suffer through that don't seem fair and maybe it's not. But we have to endure. A few months after that night my wife gathered my sons and came up with the idea of a online fundraiser that helped to raise money for my holistic treatment and the friends and family that I was willing to leave behind gave what they had to help and then about a year later I was blessed with a patron who paid all of the cost of my treatment. Now everyday I am getting stronger and stronger and returning to my life's work of helping others and inspiring others.

    Never give up on life. Keep your faith, no matter what is in front of you whether it is the everyday struggle of life or even death itself. The purpose for which all of us were born into this world is far beyond what we have imagined. We cannot fathom the depth of God and all that has gone into the production of you. Your beginning is in the mind of God and all the forces of this universe that we live in throughout time as culminated into your birth and all these trials and struggles that we suffer I designed to bring out of us the best of what is hidden in us. As we mentioned in earlier blogs all birth is accompanied with pain but the new life that is borne out of you makes you forget the pain, then we heal and life starts over again.

   
   My life is starting over again it would have been shameful to end it that night. In the end I decided to push on through my struggles and if you decide to do the same you will be rewarded. It's not easy, but truthfully the consequences of quitting and giving in aren't easier so you might as well accept the challenge of life and fight for your victory.

PUSH ON THROUGH THE STRUGGLE
Brother Tremikus.



  

The Awesome Reward in Overcoming Struggle Part 1

    A friend said to me the other day "It seems to me that every time I try to do right that Satan throws something in my way. So why even go through the struggle in the first place?" I believe that the answer to this statement can be found through a study of the Book of Daniel. I am going to attempt to make sense of this question and answer it using the words found in this story. This will be the first part of a three part series involving the parsing of this scripture to bring light to this age old question.

    I am only referencing the verses here that we are studying. This was done to keep from turning this blog into a book (smile). So it is very important that you read the verses yourself in order to better understand my explanations. Now let's begin! 

Part 1
Daniel Chapter 1 verses 1-21

Verses 1-2

   We start this story with the chosen people of God being defeated by Gods permission, captured and brought into a foreign land and forced to serve the king of that land. Please pay attention to the emphasis being placed on the "VESSELS OF THE HOUSE OF GOD," in these two verses.  

    I see in this the story of the Black people of America we were conquered by Gods permission and brought into America, which was foreign for us, to serve the rulers of this land. Also contained in these verses is the description of our own individual lives. We were and are the VESSELS of the house of God. These vessels can not be material objects, because why would God be so concerned with cups and vases and things of that nature. One of the definitions of vessel is "a person considered as a receptacle or agent of some quality."  The the vessels of the house of God are a people made special by God to carry His spirit as a reminder, His chosen people. But these "vessels" are now in an unfamiliar place not the comfort zone they had grown accustomed to. This will make even more sense once we read chapter 2. Next...

Verses 3-7

    Now this is very key to understand. The kings plan is to find the best in his kingdom, the smartest,  wisest and most attractive and teach them his way of life and language that means that everyone didn't know this way of life. What was the kings overall plan?  He wanted to use these that he taught to teach the masses. He wanted to train them for 3 years even changed their names. So he took from them their names, their religion, their culture and their language. And replaced it with his with a special focus on "the children of Judah." The same as what happened to us. And really it's still happening. But yet again we can find deeper spiritual meaning in this. There are times in our struggles we become completely lost. And we start reaching for whatever we can hold on to that makes us feel stable and secure. sometimes even to point that we no longer even recognize ourselves and what we have become. But in everyone of us there is a light that remains. Sometimes just a small part that refuses to go out. This we will see in the next verses. We will call it the "The Daniel Principle."

Verses 8-16

    Daniel refused to take up the kings training, he refused the way of life of the king and only took on vegetables and water. Now in the book of Genesis the only thing that God gave us to eat was the fruits and vegetables of the garden but not meat. No I am not trying to get you to become a vegetarian. But if you look meat only came into our diet, according to scripture after the fall of man in the book of Leviticus. So Daniel not eating the meat, but instead taking only vegetables means he kept to the natural ways of God staying in obedience and water here represents the word. He obeyed God over the world and fed off the word. This made him and the others "fatter and fairer" then all the rest. Can you stay true to yourself? Or do you shrink under the pressure of struggle and become what you are not. Can you hold fast to right and true principle even if it means more difficulty in your life? Sometimes it's easier to accept the unfamiliar if it means less pain. But the question is what do we become when we give in to pain and struggle? And What will be our reward once we face and overcome our opposition?

Verses 16-21

    Because they chose to obey God over the king then God taught them and made them wiser than the others and placed them in a more favored position with the king, because of the wisdom they displayed when it was time for them to be tested. But the King thought they were under his study and teaching following the way of his world but they were not. They rejected it, so now we are looking at how God in His wisdom begins to interfere with the plans of the world of the wicked to save His people and then use them to destroy the world and set up a new kingdom. All of us need to set a new King in our Dome. This starts with the decision to face our struggles and the refusal to give in to the pressure of opposition internally and externally. We will cover more of this in Part 2 of this blog subject...

Answering the Call

I've tried to keep this blog "Non-Religious", but in dealing with this next subject it is unavoidable. This is because the very root of the term Calling, in the sense of one’s "Vocation", is found in Christianity. According to Wikipedia: Vocation (Latin vocātiō―a call, summons) is an occupation to which a person is specially drawn or for which he or she is suited, trained, or qualified. There are many different types of calls. But the one that we want to focus on in this writing involves the full development of a man or woman into that which makes their life make more meaningful and fits their purpose for being.

YOUR PASSION

When we hear the word passion, we normally associate it with sex or romance or even sports. We say “she was passionate in bed or he has a passion for football, we could feel the passion of the movie”. But true passion is beyond lust or material things. It is what drives our being and every day existence to achieve our goals in life. Laziness is a sure fire way to lead a life void of the God-given passion we are born with. This is because that passion has to be accessed and in order for a person to truly access their passion they have to struggle against their own self and the weaknesses of self. It is an uphill road in a world that has trained us to take the easy way out. Talking books take away from us the desire to read, fast food restaurants replace the desire to learn to cook good healthy meals and the list goes on and on. We have been robbed of our desire. And this has led to the loss of our passion. Many of us have no idea why we have come into the world and very little desire to find out. So we find ourselves always searching for happiness in things, people, drugs and sex. When true and permanent joy can only be found when we know what we are born in the world to do and are doing it. Now in finding "our" passion and responding to our calling.. We have to know that The Call is not something that comes from without but it comes from within.

How do we fit in the world? What is our place? Why am I here? The answer to these questions are found within ourselves, in every one of us is our "fit." But it is buried underneath everything that has happened to us and things we may have done to make us believe we are unfit for anything above an average existence. It is what allows us to call ourselves "a ratchet," "a bad bitch," "a nigga," "a beast." instead of our true identity, which is the manifestation of God and the best of His creation. We are made to reflect on the wisdom of His creation and advance it. We are not born to eat, sleep, have babies and simply die. If we live our lives like this it is no wonder we are on a constant search for happiness because it does not feed the soul. We must desire to do better. Where there is Will Power there is a way.

What is the Will?

Will: "The faculty of conscious and especially of deliberate action" - Minister Louis Farrakhan The Free Online Dictionary by Farflex says: fac•ul•ty (f k l-t )n. pl. fac•ul•ties 1. An inherent power or ability. 2. Any of the powers or capacities possessed by the human mind. See Synonyms atability. 3. The ability to perform or act. The "Will" is the power of God hidden within every human being that drives us to achieve our goals and it reveals to us in this process why we were born into the world. The stronger our wills become the closer we are to our own Creative Force and the Source of Our Life which will bring us into harmony with our purpose for living. It is internal not external. "Desire feeds the will" - Minister Louis Farrakhan Passion and desire are twins, both involve suffering and longing for something or wanting something. The more we desire something the stronger our passion becomes to get it. We become more willing to meet our goal and answer our calling no matter the difficulty. Try it. Focus on something that you desire of good, start small then build your desire and watch yourself bring it into fruition. When it becomes real in your life it will bring you joy and happiness. Then move on to a larger goal. This is how we build our will and reconnect to our purpose. Step by Step.

What do you want out of life that will benefit all of humanity? What are you willing to go through to prove your birth into this world was no accident? Well prove your worth! Strengthen your will then show the world the extreme power locked away in you that we are all waiting to witness.

Just remember to keep pushing on through the struggle!

Brother Tremikus

New Blood Creates New Life

    I hear many people say these words "I need a change in my life" Including myself. The question is How can you began a new life without new blood? What is blood? In a nutshell, Blood is the river of life and the way that  all cells of our body get both nutrients and oxygen. So it is safe to say blood is the fuel of life. Now think of this blood on a higher level, imagine your thoughts and ideas as the river of life for your current situation. This includes everything you have ever learned and believed and ultimately what we have done based on these ideas. Our lives have become the direct result of our thinking.

Insanity is defined as doing the same thing repeatedly but expecting different results.

Photo: myfertilitychoices.com

   When we want a change in our lives it means that we have to CHANGE OUR LIVES. So to change our lives we will have to change our thoughts. This becomes the hard part, because it involves every relationship we have ever had and the change of that relationship based on the new direction we want to go. Imagine a drug addict wanting to kick their addiction but attempting to do so while still hanging out with other drug addicts in the dope house. We would not expect that person to be successful unless they left that environment and found sober individuals in a sober environment.

What are you feeding your mind with? What kind of people are you interacting with? What is the bases of your relationships past and present? Your answers to these questions will give you a window into your future. Doctors don't go to school with mechanics and intern at body shops and vice versa. If you want to be a doctor then you must go to medical school and intern at a hospital. I do not intend to over simplify what I am writing, but instead to make the reader consider the path we should take for the change we are wanting to achieve.

Photo:transfusionfree.usc.edu

Every step towards change is difficult there is now easy route. Those around us will misunderstand and judge us based on their misunderstanding of us. But this is the necessary pain of change. No new life comes into the world without pain. Any mother knows the pain of labor and when we are trying to change to a new life it is like giving birth and the pain is the same, the child goes through pain being born the same as the new idea itself has its own pain tied to it. Even the old you dying goes through pain. These are three stages of change we experience when we want a "New Life" all fueled by a new idea, that intern produces a new thought then a total change. Do you accept the challenge?

Just remember we have to Push on through Struggle.

Brother Tremikus

The Best in You...

    I was having a conversation the other day with a friend concerning how we see people when she said to me "Tremikus I know you see the best in everybody, but me, I see the real person."  But I must disagree with her and this is why.

    I don not believe that the "worst" in a person is necessarily the real person.There is a popular song by gospel artist Marvin Sapp which contains these words:

"He saw the best in me, when everyone else around saw the worst in me..."

What is the best in you?

    It is what you do uniquely, it is what you do better than anyone else, it is what you were born in the world to do that leads to your purpose. Many of us are confused on the question of our purpose and some even die having never fulfilled it, not knowing we are guided to it through trial and error, mistakes, pains, lessons, and experience. These are not always negative circumstances instead they can and should be seen as positives because they lead us to our purpose.

    We can not know or judge the real person without knowing the REAL history of the ones we judge. Everyone one of us has experienced things in our lives that have changed our outlook forever,but what me not realize is that what has happened to us is not who we are. It sometimes covers who we really are

    For example when we go to the circus we see lions in a cage with the ringmaster. The ringmaster has a chair and a whip and he is commanding the lion to perform tricks. The lion is jumping through hoops, standing on his hind legs holding up a ball some lions even allow the ringmaster to put his head in their mouth and we watch in amazement. Why? Because we know this is not the real lion we are watching. Something has happened to this lion to make him this way. But every so often we hear a news story about one of these lions attacking and killing their trainers. That's the real lion and he is the best at what he does.

Real:
1.a. Being or occurring in fact or actuality; having verifiable existence: real objects; a real illness.b. True and actual; not imaginary, alleged, or ideal: real people, not ghost
And also
2. Genuine and authentic; not artificial or spurious: real mink; real humility.

    We all need someone around that sees the best in us and encourages that part of us. Who cares about the worst part of you except the negative and weak minded ones? They are like the circus ringmasters of our lives; holding us captive in their little cage, making us perform tricks to amuse them. Until we bite them, they remain in our lives. We have to remove them and then surround ourselves with the ones who will care for and nurture and grow the best in us.

And if all else fails and everyone else around you only sees the worst in you then you must believe in yourself and see the best in you.You will win  as long as you keep pushing through the struggle.

Brother Tremikus

No Pain=No Growth

    If we are honest all of us will admit that some of the hardest things for us to do in life involve continuing to push through pain, disappointment, and hardship, though these are common elements in all of our lives. At no time in the past can we find any demonstration of gain  that did not involve pain of some sort. As a student of The Honorable Elijah Muhammad under the guidance of Minister Louis Farrakhan I have been taught that struggle is ordained. Now does this then mean that this is a divine principle, if so then life and struggle are not enemies but companions, like two twins.

    All of us have heard the saying "No Pain, No Gain. The question then is how do we gain through pain. When we place strain on our muscles through resistance training we injure the muscles, once that happens, then your muscles starts to repair  themselves and in this process they become larger, stronger,and even better able to resist the stress and strain that the body was just under. No pain, No gain.

    If this happens with the body then what happens to the mind when it comes under stress and faces resistance. The more we face difficult situations and push on through the pain the stronger our minds become and better able to handle not just the situation at hand but even more able to handle struggles we will face in the future.

    We are born to face opposition. And we are also born with the power to overcome that same opposition. We just have to learn to push on though struggle.

Brother Tremikus

The Butterfly Effect

    Life is filled with struggle and we are filled with the ability to overcome every struggle we face. No human being wants to struggle, but the truth is the easy road keeps us stagnant and dependent on others, not just for our everyday needs, but for the advancement of our future goals and accomplishments.

    I read a story once about a man who was watching a butterfly struggling to come out of it's cocoon, he decided to help by taking a small blade and cutting the cocoon open and of course this helped the butterfly to emerge much quicker. The man smiled at his great accomplishment of helping this struggling creature emerge. But the butterfly never flew away, it's wings never fully unfolded and it just crawled around for a while and eventually died. The poor man didn't realize that the process of struggling to come out of the cocoon was needed for the little butterfly to strengthen his wings and begin his new life after it's transformation from a lowly crawling creature to something more beautiful that would soar above it's former life.

    The struggles that we face in our lives are designed to give us the strength to soar above our past into greater success. We are born in this world not just to eat, sleep, work 9 to 5 and die. We were all born to produce greatness to make manifest our great gifts and inspire the world to be a better place. But struggle is necessary if we are going to reach or great purpose of our lives.

Push on through the struggle.
Brother Tremikus