INSANITY at the Heart of American Politics!

1 in 3 children are overweight or obese. For the first time in hundreds of years, children are not expected to outlive their parents in the United States and the primary reason is obesity. It is unarguable that the US statistically is getting more and more overweight and the health problems/deaths associated with obesity and unhealthy eating are at an all time high…

We MUST do something about this! At the heart of this heated debate is the necessity of the four and five prong fork… Statistically each household in the US contains 12 four or five prong forks! This is more than 3 four or five prong forks for every member of the average American family.

With such easy access to high food capacity forks it’s no wonder that children and adults alike are becoming more and more gluttonous every year. To put this in perspective, each person in an american family can eat 3 ample meals, with an average of two to three 2 prong fork bites on each four to five prong fork before even having to WASH a single fork! With such readily available instruments of rapid body mass index increase-ability how is one to deny the urge to over eat or even realize that they are full when the stomach doesn’t even have time to notify the brain before over consumption!

I’m asking you to join and forward this message from “We the people against 4 and 5 prong forks” demanding president obama institute an executive order banning the use and sale of forks with more than one bite capacity!

I know what you are thinking, “if you ban forks, people will just use spoons to accomplish the same thing” but we’re not talking about spoons, we are talking about FORKS and not just any fork, but four and five prong forks! Not to mention, there is no statistical proof that once the use of four and five prong forks are eliminated that people will continue to commit gluttony with a spoon…

In truth, 87.98% of all meals eaten in the united states are consumed with four and five prong fork and of those meals, 72.6 percent of those eating those meals, over consume. THIS IS AN ALARMING STATISTIC! If we compare our statistics to say the chinese who eat with matching one prong forks, and also compare the BMI (body mass index) of the chinese to we americans, you will see that there is a MARKED difference in weight, obesity and BMI with the chinese averaging 20+ lbs less and with 15% less body fat than the average american of the same height!

If this doesn’t prove to you that Prong control works, I don’t know what will!

So join with me in our mission to ELIMINATE THE FOUR AND FIVE PRONG FORK from our society and see obesity and gluttony struck from our borders!

Please sign the attached petition and God Bless America!

My name is Aaron Davis…and I approve this message…

Philosophy in Christianity

Philosophy in Christianity

In a recent conversation, a Christian friend came back from a college philosophy class a bit puzzled and questioning some issues of faith.

“Aaron, I’ve read the bible through, and yet I find some of what is quoted in the bible is nearly VERBATIM what some “pre-Christ” philosophers expressed in their writings…This has me a bit thrown and put off as I am questioning some aspects of faith as a result…”

I will say right up front, I’m not a Christian “Apologist”.  Actually, in most cases, I refuse to debate Christianity with people because most of the time they are just looking for an argument, and I LIKE TO WIN too much!  I’ve realized over the years that one of my greatest pitfalls is Pride and I would argue in the name of “debate” to prove that I was right, they were wrong, and then sit back and bask in the glory of the “win” feeling so proud of myself and how smart I am and “how I really made that guy look stupid for picking a fight with me”… and it hit me… At what cost…?  I’m not better for it, in their eyes i’m the jerk who made them look stupid and they are no closer to seeing things from my point of view because we both believe that our perspective is right and neither of us was intent on changing anyone’s perspective, but simply proving that we could win… TDFS! (Thumbs down, fart sound) So, anyone reading this that wants to pick a fight and debate… don’t waste your time… I won’t respond… This is just me weighing what seems very logical to me…

Back to the Philosophy…

Any time you read ANYTHING in literature, you have to consider a few things… Who wrote it, when was it written, who were they writing to and are there any examples, idioms, phrases, or figures of speech that would be understood by the audience that may not translate directly to us reading it today?

I think that analyzing the bible from that perspective  may be a possible explanation for my friend’s faith quandary and I wanted to share it briefly with you today for the sake of personal consideration in the event that you are ever posed the same question.

There are likely 40 different people who helped pen the words written in the bible.  So the first question “Who wrote it” can be a very lengthy description.  Suffice to say, most of the writers were learned men of their day.  In the new testament, Luke was a Doctor and Paul was among the most elite scholars in his society as a Pharisee who was also the son of a Pharisee- an EXTREMELY educated sect.

Much of what my friend questioned was taken from the New Testament, which covers “when it was written” and of course if you have studied the bible, you know most of the books of the new testament are named after “who it was written to” (so we have those bases covered).

So the next step in the analysis is, are there any examples, idioms, phrases, or figures of speech that would be understood by the audience that may not translate directly to us reading it today?

I feel like this answer is a logical thought to process considering the question he raised to me about these philosophical quotes in the bible.   Rome was a SUPER POWER in this day and occupied most of the known world in the time of Christ.  Libraries were built throughout much of the Roman empire and the teachings of the esteemed Greek and Roman philosophers would likely be as commonly taught then as they are now (if not more).

If we look at the bible through the lens of who it is written to and the time it was written, one could logically deduce that it would be no more uncommon for an educated individual to quote something that would be commonly understood by the people he was writing to for the sake of making an intended point as it would for a pastor today to make an intended parallel by quoting a famous speech or author , “I have a dream”,  “Four score and seven years ago”, “Friends, Romans, countrymen lend me your ear…”, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”, etc… Or perhaps quoting a famous song by a musical legend, “I did it my way”, “Let it be, let it be…”, “We are the champions…”, or the one I’ve heard far too many baby boomer pastors quote still 20 years later- “U Can’t touch this…”

The point is, I think it actually makes sense to quote the respected philosopher in that day if you are intending to gain the respect and acceptance of the audience who would understand the intended parallel and may not have been educated in your (the authors) Hebrew culture.

Recognizing that most of the world would have been educated in Roman culture and much of the new testament was written to individuals in those Roman provinces, by people who were raised under Roman rule and occupied by Rome.  I don’t believe that it cheapens or brings into question the validity of what was written, but maybe the opposite, making what was written MORE relevant to those of that day and even to todays student of history  that would like to understand the relevance of the bible from a historical perspective… I think understanding the relevance “then”, actually makes it logically more relevant today if we understand the intent of the author (and possibly even the educational level) of the one making the parallel when he wrote it.

Those are just my thoughts… I just wonder…Is it possible…?

As-sume or Ass-u-me?

It’s amazing how much a word, perspective or idea can change when you put the emphasis on the right syllable.

As most of you know, this past year I accepted an opportunity to be a founding member in a new company – a Cell Phone Service Provider named Solavei.

As with anything new, my involvement with the company was met with mixed emotions, perspectives and even criticism from others.  Some loved the idea, some early on concerned that Solavei was a scam, others who didn’t understand the structure of the compensation plan concerned that “the compensation plan couldn’t be sustained by the low price point”.  Still a few others had a concern that I was attempting to “Get rich quick” and was losing sight of my ministry aspirations, while a few others simply didn’t like something about the company (substantiated or not) and as a result suddenly had a problem with me simply because I was now involved in it…

It was definitely interesting to see and hear all of the different input from different people… to be fair, for the most part, people were happy for me even if at the time they didn’t see a fit for themselves in the company, but there were a handful who were very vocal about their disapproval, interestingly enough though, not one “vocal” person asked me why I was doing it… It was as if there was an expectation for me to explain myself or justify my decision to all of them, but I was absolutely amazed that amongst all the opinions and even judgments by some, so many assumed to know what the score was, yet none asked why… And had they asked, the answer I’m certain, would have challenged what most assumed…

For the record, the company has been a huge blessing for me and my family, and proved to be a “Godsend” in my circumstances, I did the right thing, and I believed that it was God’s leading from the beginning after much prayer and consideration…but that is a diversion from where I’m going with this writing…

There is a huge lesson in this one example.  Especially with Christians, there is this prevailing mindset that I think borders on some kind of an insanity that they just “think they know” everything about everything.  I’ve seen so many pass judgments on people who are walking through circumstances that they could never even come close to understanding, or maybe they do understand in part, but could not possibly understand all that the person is going through but they assume to know why and how people feel the way they do, and what “They should do in the circumstance” while never asking, yet seemingly ever assuming… and it’s a huge miss.

I’ve been that guy too, like Paul said, “I’m chief amongst them” and probably still am in many regards, but not as much as I used to be.  My goodness, when I think about being a “know-it-all” I can remember when my picture was listed amongst the the top 10 on en-Wikipedia…

However, I learned this lesson and saw my own fault in it over the course of the past several years as I experienced my own very “dark time” for a very long time after being forced into medical retirement following an attempt on my life in the line of duty and I’d like to share a little with you…

Throughout the course of a single year, I lost my income (I’m in a right to work state with no police union so no pension or monetary compensation), I lost my insurance, I lost my side business (Because I could no longer continue to manage it while going through physical therapy and recovering emotionally w/PTSD), I lost my strength, I lost my confidence, I lost feeling significant… yet there were still two areas where I found a sense of worth, I still had a lot of influence with people through my online “Tattooed Preacher” ministry that I had been doing for several years and I still was able to complete a thought in writing.

So I continued to blog about what I knew was true, and I continued to share what I knew about the Love of Jesus with people who contacted me online.  It was wild because, many times, I was struggling with the very things that the people who contacted me were struggling with, but I was able to share with them what I knew was truth, even when in my own life I was having to work through the very issue they were talking to me about… and somehow, God used me to encourage them and myself at the same time… I guess that if God can use an Ass to talk through (See the story of Balaam), He could use me but admittedly, I spent a lot of nights in tears.

During that time someone contacted me online that I assumed was a God ordained set-up so that I could help them through their hard time or that God would use me to teach them in some way… but what I found later is that God intended to use them to teach me as much or more from that relationship than I could offer them…

This person was so bold and direct that initially I was turned off and didn’t care to even associate with them, but as time went on, their boldness and direct confrontation gave me occasion to actually see beyond my own perspectives and actually challenged me to think and see others outside the box of my own experiences.

I found myself on many occasions being directly challenged when I conveyed a thought with a response of “See, that’s exactly what I’m talking about, you answer with a cliché’ like you think you know but you have no idea!”  Every assumption I made was challenged and eventually I found myself questioning what was painfully obvious to them “why I thought I knew so much about things that I could not possibly identify with or know about”.  In that season, I learned that it’s ok to say “I don’t know”… and that I don’t have to know everything about everything… Go figure huh?

During that time, when I was going through so much difficulty of my own, I remember asking God “Don’t you think I’ve been in this season a long time” and the response that I heard in that “still, small voice” leveled me… “Aaron, you had a lot to unlearn”…

Don’t we all…

I’m thankful for that bold “punk”, willing to challenge me and stand up to my dominant, self-righteous, know-it-all personality and teach me what I needed to know and unlearn in order to be a more effective leader even when I just wanted to flick them in the head…I’m better for having known them and I would like to challenge you today with the same scenario that they challenged me with… learn to ask the one word question “why” before assuming to know… because the truth of the matter is, you probably don’t… and the answer to what you don’t know may very well be a catalyst to your own development…

I Was Smart Once…

In a recent conversation, I had a friend argumentatively tell me, “I’ve read the bible all the way through, cover to cover…I know what it says…”

I was a little taken aback at her thought process. Now, I do realize that someone who has “read about” a subject may have a certain level of understanding, but there is almost always a deeper perspective afforded to the person who has “Studied” a subject, as opposed to just reading it through once… that’s not to imply that because I’ve studied more that somehow I know everything…on the contrary, because i’ve studied more, i realize that I DON’T know everything… but I was kind of surprised at how much she assumed to know based upon her limited experience…

For instance, I once read an American history book, cover to cover. However, for me to attempt to discredit the learned history professor teaching the class based upon my “reading” a history book would be a bit delusional considering the obvious fact that, after his spending the multiples of hundreds of hours studying history, my single read would not qualify me to have equal perspective.

God is far more vast than our human minds can remotely fathom. If we as Christians (theologians or new believers) think that we can rationalize God into some sort of form or box then we have already lost the ability to comprehend anything greater about Him… There are certainly “things “that can be learned and understood but those “things” do not equate to “EVERY-thing”.

We know limitedly what God has revealed to us about Himself through the bible and personal experiences… but do not fool yourself into thinking you “know God” because of what has been written in a 66 chapter book. And don’t be so arrogant to assume that because you have read those 66 chapters(once or hundreds of times) that you don’t need to understand any more… My goodness, if God is who the Bible says He is, then eternity could be spent learning to understand the vastness of His complexities and a world full of books written about Him could not articulate that level of understanding…

So, suffice to say, just because your grandmother took you to Sunday school, or you grew up in church, or you attended a bible study, or you have a doctorate in theology does not mean you have “arrived”.

There is a quote from the end of the 19th century (1899) attributed to Charles H. Duell, who at the time was the commissioner of the US Patent office where he reportedly stated, “Everything that can be invented has been invented”…

I think many times Christians have a similar mentality about God where they believe that because they have “read about it” or “heard it before” that there is nothing more to be understood.

I have to say, that to me is a frightening perspective yet an all too common human characteristic, (particularly as it pertains to religious perspectives) because if we believe there is nothing more to know, then there will be nothing more pursued… and so many (especially christians) think they “know” and as a result become stagnate in their personal growth.

Imagine if the Write brothers had stopped pursuing flight in 1899, just 4 years before being the first to fly because “Everything that was going to be invented had been invented”. Imagine all of the 20th century breakthroughs that would have never been had we adopted the philosophy of “aborted pursuit” because we “thought we knew all we needed to know”.

As a parallel thought for the church, I believe there is a place of “flight” just around the corner for those who are willing to pursue more and not be content to “think they already know”… because i just believe that God is big enough to do something more impressive than our previous experience…

The moral of the story here I think is an obvious one as it pertains to God and is quickly summarized with this final thought, “When we assume (ass-u-me) to know all we need to know about God, it makes an ass of u & me…” (Citing the 1611 King James interpretation of the word of course)

Embracing Today…

Well, this is definitely the shortest blog i’ve ever written but I think it says as much as chapters in a book…

I was watching a couple yesterday at a restaurant with a 3 month old little boy… he looked a lot like my son at his age… I found myself wishing for some of those times back when he was so little… but the crazy thing was, when he was that little, all I can remember is wishing he would get bigger because spending all those hours feeding him, changing him, holding him when he cried were difficult for me. I didn’t fully appreciate the season because I was spending so much time looking forward to the next season… If I had it to do over again… I think I would just smell the roses (or dirty diapers) and appreciate it for what it was… Live in the moment if you will… there is a scripture that says, “Worry not what tomorrow brings for tomorrow will have enough worries of it’s own”… I kind of get that now… There is something to be said for “making memories” today… Just being intentional and thanking God for the good opportunities that living today affords and realizing that, Tomorrow, will have it’s own experiences, I’m here today, I can influence today, I can make today count… So I’m doing my best to live in today…

Unlearning…

In the last year I’ve finally come out of a very long season of pain and frustration as a direct result of something I didn’t deserve…2006 was my last year in law enforcement… I was a Detective Sergeant and a SWAT team member… I was awarded officer of the year a few years before and had a reputation for being a cop with a heart for people…then, that December, I was trying to help a couple of guys who had gotten themselves in some trouble and out of nowhere these guys tried to kill me…

Their actions sent me down a very painful road of mandatory medical retirement, physical therapy and PTSD…at times I wondered if I would ever be normal again…

A little over 2 years ago, I was praying to God feeling very frustrated with my current condition 3 years after the attack and I said to God, “Don’t you think I’ve been in this season a long time?!”

I expected a response like, “Yes son, thy father seeth thee and thou shalt be a pillar of strength for my people…” or something encouraging like that…but what I got took me so by surprise that I laughed out loud… I heard God in that still small voice say, “Aaron, you had a lot to unlearn…”

It’s funny how we as human beings seem to take on the persona of KNOWING things that in all actuality we have no idea about!

Before going through that experience I had NO idea what it really meant to hurt… I judged other peoples pain but had no idea what it felt like to have to confront something like PTSD! In my ignorance, I simply judged people who were hurting and assumed that they were “weaker” than I was…Until I WAS that guy!

In my lifetime of religious indoctrination I had formulated a lot of perspectives and judgements as it pertained to people, their lifestyles and their belief systems because that was what was “taught” to me…and then I had an experience that revealed to me that all that I had been taught was not necessarily right… and I had to unlearn some things in order to be able to lead in the capacity that God has intended for me in this season.

Now, I’m not necessarily saying that I believe that God PUT the pain on me… But I AM convinced that he used it and worked it together for my good and strangely, the most difficult thing I have ever had to go through has also been the catalyst for my most significant growth…

As much as I would never want to go through that again, now, being on the other side of it…I’m glad that I did… I think sometimes the most difficult thing to do is continue to Trust God when nothing seems to make sense… but if you will run TO him instead of running FROM him in those seasons… I’m confident that he will work your pain around for your good as well… pressing in has its own challenges as it pertains to thinking differently but in the long run, you will be glad you did!

I Was Tired Once…

When People tell me that they are tired, I often respond…”I was tired once…”  Of course it’s a joke, but in truth, being one who is motivated and affirmed by progress, often times I find myself more tired than not…

Well today is labor day… and like many of you, I’m thinking about work! A lot of really significant doors have been opening for me in the past year, I have been writing again after finishing my last book (not yet published), I’m pastoring, I’m working with some people to build my brand, I’m working to build my business, I’m designing an ebook layout for my first (already published) book, I’m traveling as an itinerate speaker, while also filling the shoes of “Daddy” and “Husband”…

Don’t get me wrong I LOVE IT! I’m one who really excels when it’s crunch time and as long as I see the ball moving down the field, I WANT THE BALL! But, I have to admit, I’ve been balancing so many spinning plates lately that I find myself even dreaming about keeping the plates spinning after I go to bed!

Welcome to life right?! We all go through these seasons where we see how diligence and attention to detail can pay off and we have to step up our game to get to the next level. I’ve spent years “being still and trusting God” and now that doors are opening and God is leading me through them, I’m following His leading…

No one ever said it would be easy, on the contrary Jesus even said that we would have really significant opposition in this world but to “rejoice because He has overcome the opposition”…

So, regardless of where you are on this Labor Day, I’d like to encourage you with a scripture that I have been meditating on for the past few weeks…

Galatians 6:9
New Life Version (NLV)
9 Do not let yourselves get tired of doing good. If we do not give up, we will get what is coming to us at the right time.

Another version says, “We will reap IF WE FAINT NOT”…

Be encouraged today, if you are in a season of planting, plant with the excitement of knowing that God is faithful and a harvest is coming. If you are in a season of harvesting, harvest with the diligence of knowing that you planted and watered the seed and now is the time to put your rear in gear and go out and bring in the fruit of your labor…

But in all of it, remember, it is God who is faithful to complete what HE began in you… Your job is not to “make things happen” your job is to discern the season you are in and respond to God’s leading as HE PRODUCES the harvest, opens doors (or shuts them) and guides you into your next season!  and His word promises that HE will renew our strength…