It’s a Cover-Up

It’s a Cover-Up

 Elevation Church: It's a Cover-Up

            When we describe the world, Earth is our surrounding body. We are encircled by people, buildings, bodies of water, and space that no one has ever explored. We live a life on a human scale. When I say that, our problems are on a scale that we can relate to. When breaking that down into the view God has, our problems are on a scale of a garden with plants and flowers. When we come across an issue, we identify whether it is large or small and whether we should take flight or fight the problem. In God's view, our problems are comparable to plants that are growing. We can observe the process of a plant growing just as we can observe the process of an argument building up between two people. God created us to tend the Earth and be gardeners; pulling the small, destructive plants up before they can override us and become a larger issue. Why wait for harmful things to grow so big when they can just be conquered while they are small dilemmas. We must communicate and find a solution to small problems before they grow too big. It is as simple as speaking, acknowledging, and solving.

            God acknowledges that the greatest cover-ups are the ones that are planned in advance. God knew that there would be evil in this world and he planned ahead for the benefit of us. His plan was sending Jesus to cover our sins, guilt, and shame because He loves us and forgives us.

            God can only cover what you uncover. You must be able to admit your flaws, wrongdoings, and sins to yourself. Nobody in this world is perfect and we must acknowledge that we should not strive to be perfect because it will only bring upon more ill-reality. You must live a lifestyle uncovered. You must be able to admit your sins to God and be able to confess. You must be able to admit your sins to someone else that you committed a wrongdoing and let those around you love and pray for you.

God:

• Calls you.
• Comes to you.
• Covers you.

  

           We all sin, find ourselves in feelings of guilt and shame, but if we admit our wrongdoings and sins to God and those around us, we will be covered and forgiven.  God calls us to follow His message. He calls us in new directions to learn. He comes to us when we are in trouble. He comes to us to teach us that perfection is not achievable. He covers us when we sin, and when we pray for forgiveness. But, we must understand that like a relationship or marriage, the road travels two-ways and the effort put forth must be equally represented by both parties. Therefore, we must be able to admit to our sins if we expect God to forgive us. We must communicate with our friends on issues-at-hand before they become too destructive. Essentially, we must be open with ourselves, open with God, and open with those around us. We must accept our imperfections. We must not dwell on our mistakes. We must admit to our flaws and pray for direction and learning, so that we can continue to grow and live a life we love with the people we love.

-Austin McClain Baker

Austin Baker 

Twitter/Instagram: @ABakerPresident

DreamsDriveDetermination@gmail.com

Austin.Baker25@yahoo.com

Life is Unpredictable

Life is Unpredictable

            We live our lives every day, not knowing what is going to happen next. We live each second in the moment, riding along the roller-coaster of life as it takes us up and down. To an extent we have control over situations, but essentially, there are too many outside forces that control what happens to us. However, we do have the ability to control how we react to life's curveballs and the attitude that we emit to the world and public eye. 

            Because we do not know what will happen next in our lives, we sometimes get lucky, we sometimes fail, and we sometimes succeed beyond measures. We prepare ourselves for obstacles by practicing and learning. We grow through our failures if we make changes after making poor decisions. We fail to grow if we believe in making the same mistake again or fail to realize something was a poor decision. Growing means that you are experiencing and then learning from those moments.

            We are going to fail. We are going to make poor decisions. We are going to live a life that is not perfect. What we must understand is that God does not need us to be perfect because He knows that nobody is. The more we strive to be perfect, the more we will not be. The more you try to be something you are not, the farther off the path you stray. If we admit to our flaws and accept our imperfections, we are illustrating a sign of maturity. If we can admit that we have failed and acknowledge that we will continue to educate ourselves and devote ourselves to growing, we will grow. If we fail to announce our flaws, then we will stay in a hallucinated, unrealistic world of thinking we are perfect and never changing. 

            Life is full of surprises and full of conflict. We will find ourselves in good situations and we will find ourselves in tough situations. The question that needs to be answered is, 'how can you learn from this and how can you become a better person, while helping those around you become better as well'. The first step in any situation is identifying if it is good or bad. Then, you must take initiative and analyze how the situation happened. Next, you must determine how to make the situation better. Finally, you must be able to tell yourself that the situation happened, and you must continue to live as the person you truly are, but know that changes need to be made to become a better person. We are always coming into new situations, new experiences, and new discoveries...so how can we not learn then? You will always learn if you are living. What separates those that learn more than others is that those who learn experience more, fail more, and live more, and are open to changing who they are for the benefit of not just themselves, but for the people around them. Those who are willing to change for someone are the ones you want to be with because they are illustrating their love and commitment, showing you that they will give up themselves and their lifestyle to meet you halfway.

            Life is unpredictable and we have to respect that. We are on a journey that will have both high and low moments, but we must realize that just because we may be in a low moment does not mean that life is worthless. I say this because a couple hours ago, life could have been at its highest for you, and a couple hours later, it could be at its lowest for you. But, does that low moment take all the good moments away...No, it does not. You cannot let one situation determine the end result for you or the direction in life you take. 

            If you truly want something in life you will not let a situation take that away from you. Life does not end for you when you make a mistake, so why give up on life? God gives you another day. God gives you another chance. God gives you your character and the person you are in strength, so that you can withstand the pain life has, but overcome the obstacles thrown at you if you care enough to do so.

            Nothing in life is what we expect, and life is unpredictable, but you must understand that it is all a test; A test to help you discover what and who you care about, the degree to which you care, and how devoted you are to learning, growing, and sharing the world with those who you care about.

-Austin McClain Baker

Austin Baker 

Twitter/Instagram: @ABakerPresident

DreamsDriveDetermination@gmail.com

Austin.Baker25@yahoo.com

Being Fortunate & Finding Your Reality

Being Fortunate & Finding Your Reality

High up in the sky, not in control. Giving Mother Nature my life in whole. What can you do as a person when you are 32,000 feet off the ground? You put your Faith in God and fear not. You realize that in a blink of an eye, your life could be over.

Just as it is on ground level, your life is in your hands, but too often, we get familiar with every day practices and routines that we forget about how fortunate we are to be breathing, hearing, seeing, walking, and more. Therefore, worrying over the things we commonly do is unnecessary. Truly, what will worrying do other than create more stress and cause more tension in our lives with those who we interact with. If we considered how fortunate we are of EVERY thing, we'd be too grateful to even worry about the greatest of problems that in our worried minds, would cause a 'terrible' effect to our lives, reputation, salary, or future.

Our outlook on life is our own opinion. Deciding on what is right and what is wrong is also our own opinion to an extent. We, as American citizens believe that we know it all and can use our name as a way of living our life and as an answer to every problem. We see one percent of the world in our own world, therefore; we are seeing a mere .01% of the world beyond us. We make judgments off others prejudgments that have been passed down through generations over the years. We never make our own decisions based off our own knowledge because we have already been advised by media, government, and others on how to go about solving problems and reasoning. Additionally, we cannot always listen to our parents because they too, have been educated by a predecessor who was told what to do and how to do it. It is about time we begin thinking about what is right for not only our individual self, but the body of people in this world, not just our community or not just our country. To some people and to my family at times, I am considered as one who does not understand the setup that has been created for us or that I am unaware of how ‘dreamy’ my thoughts are and that I do not live in reality. But what is reality? What is the way of life for us all? Who is to determine such a question? The way of living is to be discovered by each individual who is brought into this world and our life is a journey that we are living in and growing in, in order to understand what OUR purpose was for this world and what difference we were to make.

I am waiting for something to happen, but I do not know what it will be. I am done living the way we have been told to live and that is..."You can be whoever you want to be, just keep chasing your dreams." Well anyone can say words to motivate you, but we say great things, but where are the great things? We talk the talk, but never walk the walk. We as a society have yet to realize that we are not living in the moment, but rather just riding along for the ride as a spectator. It is those who do not watch and those who are not satisfied that become the leaders of our world.

I myself make the mistake of saying so much and planning to accomplish the most, but then I fall short of some tasks. However, I have discovered that striving for the best and falling short sometimes is similar to wanting to learn new things by taking new courses and not receiving the highest grade. If you are learning new things or motivating yourself in any form or fashion, then you are growing. Striving for greatness is a sign of someone who is not satisfied and one who is not only determined, but passionate. And taking a course and not doing well is still not a waste of time if you can tell yourself something new that you took from the course. The world is constantly offering new hints, knowledge, and insight for us to access, but it is up to us to discover it, capture it, and store it in our minds. Find your reality. Find your passion. Accomplish your purpose.

-Austin McClain Baker

Austin Baker 

Twitter/Instagram: @ABakerPresident

DreamsDriveDetermination@gmail.com

Austin.Baker25@yahoo.com