I’m back! Did you miss me? I truly missed being able to share my thoughts. Today’s blog post won’t be long; I want to share some thoughts after overcoming COVID.

COVID is a real virus, an invisible enemy that affects everyone differently. I have known people that have been a-symptomatic and others that have lost their lives. Thankfully for me, although I had gotten sick, I survived. I overcame COVID.

I must begin by saying that I am thankful to be on this side of COVID. Knowing how dangerous this virus can be, yet I was able to overcome it! I thank God for keeping His hand upon my family and me.

Secondly, it is easy to let your guard down but don’t. We must continue to do our part to keep ourselves safe. You can take every step necessary to protect yourself, but that one time you let your guard down can be the very moment that you get the virus.

Finally, get healthy; stay healthy! After reading several articles about COVID, I have learned that our health has much to do with how we overcome this virus. Thankfully, years ago, I made drastic changes to both my eating and exercise habits. I believe that because I made those changes years ago, I was able to overcome this could-be deadly virus.

What lessons did I learn after COVID? Be thankful, don’t let your guard down and get healthy; stay healthy!

Losing hurts! Losing a game hurts your pride, losing a job hurts your finances, and losing a loved one hurts your heart. For me, the most painful loss of my life was losing my father to cancer. I wasn’t even thirty-years-old when I lost my father. Losing him hurt me deeply.

Although losing does hurt, it also leaves an opportunity to gain. Losing a game reveals to you your weaknesses and helps you become a better player and teaches you humility. Losing a job shows you how precious it is to be employed. Losing a loved one teaches you to appreciate those loved ones you still have today. To lose: is to gain.

When you lose something, you let go. I want to invite you to do something with me. I want you to grab two large glasses of water, and put one in each hand. Got it? Good. Now imagine I walk in and place a neatly folded one-hundred-dollar bill on your table for you to keep, but you have ten seconds to grab it; what would you do? You would most likely let go of one glass of water to collect your one-hundred-dollar bill. You would lose to gain.

²⁴ Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to follow Me [as My disciple], he must deny himself [set aside selfish interests], and take up his cross [expressing a willingness to endure whatever may come] and follow Me [believing in Me, conforming to My example in living and, if need be, suffering or perhaps dying because of faith in Me]. ²⁵ For whoever wishes to save his life [in this world] will [eventually] lose it [through death], but whoever loses his life [in this world] for My sake will find it [that is, life with Me for all eternity]. ²⁶ For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world [wealth, fame, success], but forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? – Matthew 16:24-26 AMP

Twenty years ago, when I came back to faith, I knew that I needed to let go of my sinful lifestyle. Twenty years later, I realize that what I let go of, does not even compare to what I have gained. I have so much; my salvation, sobriety, a wife, children, friends, and purpose. What I thought I had lost, was not worthy to be compared to what I had gained.

“… To me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” Philippians 1:21 NIV

What did you lose that currently has you vexed? Don’t waste your time, thoughts, emotions, and energy on what you have lost; instead, look at what all the new possibilities and all you are now able to gain! Remember, to lose, is to gain!

Do you know a hoarder? You know, someone who collects a bunch of stuff and never throws old stuff away. Someone who has old food in the refrigerator and boxes upon boxes in their hallway? They hold on to things that keep them in the past and can’t seem to move forward.

Let’s be honest; many of us are hoarders. We hold on to things such as anger, jealousy, rejection, hurt, guilt, and even to our past mistakes. If we hold on to them too long, they will hold us back.

In Joshua 7:13, God advised the people of Israel by telling them: “you will never defeat your enemies until you remove these things from among you.” 

We all face very-real challenges in life. Our ability to overcome those challenges depends on whether or not we are willing to let go of those things that we have hoarded for so long. We will never overcome specific challenges until we remove the anger, jealousy, rejection, hurt, guilt, and our past mistakes from our lives. They are weights that slow us down and will eventually stop us from overcoming challenges.

The author of Hebrews wrote: “… Let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.” – Hebrews 12:1

Don’t continue to hold on to those things that hold you back. Let go of those weights that slow you down. Remove all those things from among you so that you will overcome every challenge that you face!

Have you ever tried to lose weight, so you started to diet and exercise, then a week later, you jumped on the scale only to see your results were insignificant? Yeah, maybe you dropped a pound or two but, after all of the amazing-meals you passed up, and the time you wasted going to the gym when you could’ve been doing something more meaningful like sitting on the couch, scrolling through social media, but here you are, a week later with no real change. So we give up!

I can almost bet we all have started something and stuck to it for a short period-of-time but, because we did not see the results we wanted to see right away, we quit!

In 2018, I started my weight loss journey. I needed to get into shape because I had a wedding ceremony to perform up a mountain; the only way up was to hike. I failed my first attempt hiking; I had to train. It took time. I needed to change my diet and needed to start exercising. I kept working at it with my only goal being to hike it at a decent time without feeling like I was going to die. I went to the gym daily. I walked the treadmill with the highest incline every day. Then came the wedding day and I was able to hike up the mountain without a problem. I was so motivated by how good I felt that I continued and ended up losing over 30lbs.

I wish I could tell you that I have kept off those 30lbs. but I can’t. I have gained some of the weight back and, this shelter-in-place has not helped much either. I have tried a few days here and there to diet and exercise but, when I look in the mirror or step on the scale or even attempt to put on a shirt from when I was at my lowest weight, I see that it isn’t working. Why? Because I haven’t been consistent!

Consistency is the key to success. It is not enough to do something once and expect great results; it takes time, effort, but most importantly, consistency! Success is available to those who will work every day to get what they want. Great examples of this are YouTubers, bloggers, business owners, bodybuilders, super smart people, great speakers, etc. Youtubers and bloggers did not begin with a mass following; they were just consistent. They created every day. Business people are not successful overnight; they work hard every day. Smart people aren’t just born smart; they study and read every day. A great speaker doesn’t speak magnificently on his or her first time; they work hard by practicing as much as they can. Every success story is a story of someone who was and is consistent.

What does success look like for you? Healthier, smarter, wealthier, famous? Whatever success is to you, you will never reach it until you start and remain consistent.

“Succes doesn’t come from what you do occasionally; it comes from what you do consistently.” – Marie Forleo

Have you ever been rejected? How did that rejection make you feel? I’m sure you must have felt both angry and hurt, and that’s natural. We can’t control rejection nor the feelings that accompany rejection, but we can control our response to rejection.

In the Bible, a farmer, Cain, who had given a portion of his harvest, had his gift rejected. Meanwhile, his younger brother, Abel, a shepherd, gave lambs as a gift and his gift accepted! Cain was both angry and hurt. Then, God let him know that if he did not master his feelings, his feelings would master him. Unfortunately, Cain did not heed the advice given to him. While Cain and Abel were out in the field, Cain attacked his brother which lead to Cain killing Abel.

Rejection is a fact of life. Sooner or later, we will face rejection. What we do when we’re rejected is what matters. We cant control what happens to us but we can control how we respond to what happens to us. Cain’s anger and hurt led him to hurt his brother and ended up causing more damage than he intended, He killed Abel.

How can we better respond to rejection? The apostle Paul tells us;

Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior. Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you. – Ephesians 4:31-32 NLT

The secret is to not dwell on the rejection but to get rid of the anger and hurt by being kind, tenderhearted and willing to forgive.

Words are powerful! What we say can impact those people around us. Our word choice has the power to bring death or life!

“Death and life are in the power of the tongue…” – Proverbs 18:21

The words we speak, matter! We must be wise in our language. Along with choosing the right words to speak, we should be careful with how we say the words we speak. Not only do the words that we speak carrying weight, so does our tone. In-other-words, it’s not just what you say but HOW YOU SAY IT!

Have you ever received an email or a text with ALL CAPITAL LETTERS? Did that bother you? Why? Because all-caps is equivalent to yelling. It could have been a great message, but all you can focus on was their tone. Have you ever seen kids fight with one another? Then the parent gets involved and makes them apologize? When they say, “sorry,” you hear in their tone that they don’t mean it!

How would you feel if someone you loved said, “I love you” with a sarcastic tone? It would hurt! Saying, sorry, or I love you should make you feel better. These words, and many others, if spoken in the wrong tone, can and will lose the positive impact they can make.

Today, when you speak to someone, be mindful of your words! Speak life. Speak positively. Don’t just be mindful of “what you say,” but also be mindful of “how you say it!”

I will never forget the day when my mother and I were crossing Clinton avenue on a busy afternoon. Traffic was moving fast and we were far from the crossing lane. We were late for my after school program and I wanted to get there as fast as I could. I thought if I can just run across the street and make it to the other side, I can make it on time. As I was about to run, my mother yelled out, stop, but in Spanish. I stopped and told my mother, “we’re late” and that’s when she told me, “mejor tarde que nunca” or “better late than never.”

Although I agree with the point she was making; it’s better to take the long route even if it makes us late rather than to try to go through the shortcut and die trying to get there on time, I don’t necessarily agree with the notion that that is the way we should view and live life. 

Late can lead to never.

I have seen many people wait until situations get out-of-hand, then it’s too late to-right their wrongs. In the medical field, I saw patients who waited too long to change their lifestyles and paid a heavy price for waiting. Maybe they were smokers and were told by their doctors to quit smoking. Perhaps they were alcoholics and told to stop drinking or overweight and told to change their diet. Some of these patients failed to listen with the thought; I’ll quit later because late is better than never. For some, late meant lung cancer, for others, liver failure, and others, diabetes. For these patients, late means severe sickness and no possible way to return to a healthy life. Late means death. Death equals never.

Don’t wait for later to make things right, because later is not guaranteed. If you put it off for later, later may never come! So ask yourself these questions.

What do I need to change?

Who do you need to forgive?

Identify it! Forgive! Don’t wait for later, do it NOW! Late is not better than never!

Some of today’s war zones are found in our hands or on our desks. These wars are not fought with guns and tanks, but with a keyboard. We live in a society where everyone has an opinion, and if you disagree, you may feel the right to make your opinion known. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always end there. There will be a rebuttal. What’s worse, is when it turns into name-calling, shaming, and flat out disrespect. We have forgotten the art of respect.

When I look at Twitter or Facebook, I see posts that make me cringe. Then, when you read the comments, whoa! Sometimes, it’ll look like there are people who dedicate their time to fight every post that opposes their point of view! I have learned that fighting every “post” will lead to your audience shrinking along with your influence.

“Choose your battles wisely. Afterall, life isn’t measured by how many times you stood up to fight. It’s not winning battles that make you happy, but it’s how many times you turned away and chose to look into a better direction. Life is too short to spend it warring. Fight only the most, most, most important ones, let the rest go.” – C. Joybell C.

As you get on Facebook or Twitter, don’t get caught up in the warring going on. Figure out what matters and fight those battles. Don’t bother fighting ones that don’t profit you anything. Remember, “choose your battles wisely.”