STALLING CRAZY

Some people have the almost magical ability to turn their bad day into everybody’s bad day.

King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon was one of those people. 

In Daniel chapter 2, Nebuchadnezzar had a recurring nightmare.   The dreams  were so bad that he started staying awake all night.  On top of that, he either couldn’t remember what happened in the dreams or he didn’t want to tell anybody.  Either way, anxiety and sleep deprivation accumulated until the head of the Babylonian empire just sorta snapped.

He called for all of the the magicians, astrologers, sorcerers, and Chaldeans.  These were the Ivy Leaguers and think tank fellows of the day.

Nebuchadnezzar assembled them as an imperial task force an said, “I have had a dream, and my spirit is anxious to know the dream.” (Daniel 2:2, 3)

They replied, “Tell your servants the dream, and we will give the interpretation.”  (Daniel 2:4)

King Nebuchadnezzer said, “No. You tell ME the dream and what the dream means or I’m gonna chop you up into little pieces, kill your family, burn your house to the ground, and use the pile of smoldering ash as a garbage dump.”  (Daniel 2:5, paraphrased)

Well now EVERYBODY’S having a bad day.

The academics were shocked.  They explained that his request was unreasonable and impossible to comply with. (They would’ve said “with which to comply.”) 

The king accused them of stalling. “I know for certain that you would gain time.”  (verse 8)  

They were  stalling so they could stay and explain very calmly and rationally that it was highly irregular to threaten the leading minds of the nation with death under those conditions.

“There is not a man on earth who can tell the king’s matter; therefore no king, lord, or ruler has ever asked such things of any magician, astrologer, or Chaldean.” (Daniel 2: 10)

And that’s where the “wise men” messed up.  You don’t tell crazy people that they’re acting crazy.  That just makes them act crazier.

Jesus said, “Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.” (Matthew 7:6)

They called King Nebuchadnezzar unreasonable and he responded by having them killed and ordering the deaths of all their colleagues, co-workers, and employees. 

When you’re dealing with crazy, like everybody’s-about-to-have-a-bad-day crazy, you don’t stall to stay.    You stall to leave.

A young Jewish academic named Daniel worked in the magicians, astrologers, sorcerers, and Chaldeans industry.  When Arioch, the head of the king’s hit squad, came to kill him, Daniel stalled. 

“Why is the decree from the king so urgent?” Daniel asked (verse 15)

Daniel talked his way into an audience with the king.  The king who hadn’t slept in days except to doze off into a nightmare he couldn’t remember, and these guys he pays to know stuff don’t know anything, but, yeah, they paid for that, they’re all gonna pay, bwahahaha, who are you--- that king.

Daniel did NOT tell Nebuchadnezzar to calm down.  He did NOT appeal to Nebuchadnezzar’s sense of mercy or reason.   Daniel stalled so he could leave.

Daniel went in and asked the king to give him time, that he might tell the king the interpretation. (verse 16)

Basically, Daniel said, “Sure I’ll tell you what you dreamed that you don’t even remember.  Sure, but first I need to run home real quick.”

Sometimes, you have to put some distance between you and the crazy, so you can draw closer to God.  Otherwise, you’ll get drawn into their crazy.  Why do you think Jesus kept wandering off from the disciples? (Luke 5: 16)

"Wait here while I go there and pray."

Stall……. to leave. 

If you can’t  physically get away from crazy, you can create mental and spiritual distance.

In August 2013, a mentally troubled man with an AK-47 charged into an Atlanta elementary school and pointed the gun at school clerk Antoinette Tuff.  Physically, she had nowhere to go, but she still managed to stall and leave. 

In her mind, Miss Tuff went back to her pastor’s last sermon when he’d talked about showing compassion for people in grief.   She took the gunman away from his problems and plans by talking about her family and her past struggles with suicide.  In that office, Miss Tuff prayed with the crazy man who had come to kill her.  She responded to the threat in the most Divinely insane way.  She called the man with the gun, “baby,” and she loved him.

The gunman surrendered.  No children were hurt.  (Read more about Antoinette Tuff here.)

Daniel left the king’s audience, went home, and called his friends. Together they prayed until God gave Daniel the impossible answer to the king’s insane request.

Then Daniel went back to minister to crazy King Nebuchadnezzar (cause crazy needs Jesus, too).  

Daniel went to Nebuchadnezzar and said, “There is a God in heaven who reveals secrets, and He has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days. Your dream, and the visions of your head upon your bed, were these…” (Daniel 2: 27, 28)

In the end, the king rewarded Daniel, rescinded the execution order, and said, “Truly your God is the God of gods, the Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, since you could reveal this secret.” (Daniel 2:47)

You can’t reason with crazy, but God can.  But it takes time, God’s time.  So stall.  Move yourself and the conversation away from crazy to what God wants to say.  Then leave the rest up to God.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama;  executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO);  and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Subscribe to my personal blog  www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com .

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Follow me on twitter @AndersonTGraves 

You can help support this ministry with a donation to Miles Chapel CME Church.

You can help support Rev. Graves’ work by visiting his personal blog and clicking the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, Al 35064

FATHERS OF THE FUTURE

Old school or modern: which kind of father is best?  There actually is a Biblical answer.  God commands us to be a certain kind of father----- but don’t assume you know which kind just yet.  Find out what kind of father, God has called men to be in a Father’s Day message is called:  FATHERS OF THE FUTURE

Listen well.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer, and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church and the executive director of SAYNO (Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization) in Montgomery, Alabama.

Call  334-288-0577
Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Subscribe to my personal blog  www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com .

You can help support this Rev. Graves’ work by visiting his personal blog and clicking the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Or send a donation of any amount by check or money order.
Mail should be addressed to:
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116

A LAMENT FOR MY GRANDFATHERS' WORLD

Only in the last decade of my life have I begun to fully realize what phenomenal men my grandfathers were.  

They were the sole bread-winners of their families, but both of them lived and died without credit cards, payday loans, or second mortgages. (Grandpa Anderson never even had a 1^st mortgage.)  To their combined 16 children, my grandfathers both left land, not debt. 

They bought property, built homes, raised children, and sent many of those kids off to college.  And they, Black men, accomplished all of this in south Mississippi during the years of overt, violent segregation.

Neither of my grandfathers had any specialized skills, professional certificates, degrees, or even a high school diploma.  They weren’t inventors, investors, financial geniuses, or marketing gurus. 

They were honest, strong men who worked hard and didn’t do a lot of stupid stuff with their money.

That’s it.  They worked----- hard and they didn’t do a lot of stupid stuff with their money. 

I had two epiphanies about my grandpas’ financial lives:

1st. What they did in their time was totally--- ORDINARY.  Most of the men (the Black men) of their generation in my hometown whom I knew had similar educational levels and left similar inheritances to their children.

2^nd. What they did, they could not do today.

Barring an oil strike in one’s backyard, a winning lottery ticket, or a highly successful lawsuit; what are the chances that a 8^th grade dropout with no investment portfolio and no specialized could acquire a 16 lot subdivision and keep it ---debt-free.

Wait.  Don’t just repeat that American dream stuff about hard work and dedication.  Stop and think through the scenario of an uneducated man, a regular guy, starting off right now in this economy.  Run the scenarios in your head and tell me how he ends up.  I’ll wait.

……..Well?

Exactly. 

He’ll end up homeless, addicted, imprisoned, indebted, dependent on charity, and/ or dead at a very young age.

Here’s the reality:  It’s not enough anymore to just be an honest, hard-working man who won’t do stupid stuff with his money.

And that means that most of the approximately 39 million adult American citizens who don’t have a high school diploma ARE SCREWED ---- unless they get some other educational or professional credential.

Yeah, yeah.  They should’ve stayed in school.  Too late.  They didn’t.

Riightt.  They ought to go get their GED’s.    I teach GED classes.  It’s harder than standard high school graduation exams.

And really, the fact that when you think of a “solution” it involves acquiring some new educational credential is pretty much my point.

It’s not enough to be an honest, hard-working citizen who doesn’t do stupid stuff with his/her money.

But that’s what tens of millions of Americans are.  They couldn’t (or didn’t) succeed in our educational institutions but they are decent, honorable people who just want to work. 

40-50% (depending on the study) of college graduates can’t are unemployed.  And as of 2012, 284,000 college graduates were working at or below the minimum wage.

So, who’s going to hire someone with an 8^th grade education when they can hire somebody with a master’s degree for the same pay?

The Bible says that If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat.  (2 Thessalonians 3: 10)

But what about those who will work, but can’t?

You can’t just walk off into the woods with an ax and a rifle and start clearing land and hunting game.   All of the land in America is either privately owned, municipally zoned, or protected by the office of something or other.

You can’t just walk into a store with a help wanted sign, give the owner a firm handshake and good eye contact, and start working.    The manager has to do a background check, a drug screen, and e-verify your citizenship; and that's only after you complete the application online and IF you make it through the automated screening process.

And if you have any of the following items on your record, it doesn’t much matter how much you’ve matured, changed, paid your debts, or proven yourself---- you’re screwed and burned.

·         felony conviction

·         revoked/ suspended driver’s license

·         drug use in the last 14-90 days (depending on the sensitivity of the screening instrument)

·         no current permanent address

·         no email address

·         bad credit report

·         no credit report

·         any conviction for “any offense other than a minor traffic violation”

·         less than 3 verifiable references

·         absent or spotty past job history

Doesn’t matter how hard you WILL work.  If you have to check “Yes” to any of the above boxes, you probably CAN’T work.

Contrary to the opinion of many, the chronically unemployed can’t just “get a job.”  And when the economy improves it won’t improve or the people whose resumes look like the resumes my grandfathers never had to write.

My grandfathers were decent, dignified, and dedicated men.  They went to church. They were married to the same woman all of their lives.  They owned guns and they paid their taxes.  They were all that an American is supposed to have to be.

But if they started off today, my grandfathers would be unemployed, or homeless, or criminals.

Now, this is the place where I tell you my solution.

This post is not a solution.  It is a lament.

Woe!  Woe unto the American who is JUST honest, hard-working, and won’t do stupid stuff with his money.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, Alabama, executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO) and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

To hear sermons, read devotions, and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme.blogspot.com .

You can read more on Pastor Graves's personal blog at www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com  .

If this message helps or touches you, please help support this ministry. Send a donation of any amount by check or money order.

Mail all contributions to :

Hall Memorial CME Church

541 Seibles Road

Montgomery, AL 36116

5 WEEKS OF FREE FUN AND LEARNING FOR 4TH GRADERS

Download the application at http://media40.podbean.com/pb/272119ec5786e64345577608e7599230/51bcb665/data2/blogs30/46502/uploads/BrainForestSummerLearningExperience.pdf

 

 

 

BLESSING AT THE SCHOOL INTERSECTION

At certain times in my life, God has positioned me with a particularly gifted group of people who are only together in a certain place for a limited time.  Those intersections of person, place, and anointing teach you things about your work and yourself that you could not have learned any other way.
 
I like to think that those intersections happen for all of us.  I know that when they happen we often don’t realize how special the moment was until it’s passed.

This past Friday night I realized that I had been at such an intersection, ironically in a context that supposedly excludes God.

Friday night, the youth praise dance team of the church I pastor performed before a packed house at the most powerful youth worship service I’ve ever been a part of.  The worship was at Anointed Remnant International Ministries, which is pastored by Rev. Willie Bradley.  I worked with Pastor Bradley/ Lt. Col. Bradley  when he was commander of the JROTC unit at Stanhope Elmore High School.

The youth conference was sponsored by the Gateway Youth Initiative, a ministry of the church pastored by Rev. Emmett Johnson.  I worked with Rev. Johnson/ Sgt. Major Johnson when he was JROTC instructor at SEHS prior to Pastor Bradley.

The M.C. for the youth conference was a young brother named Jhae Ray.  Brother Ray was my office aid while I was assistant principal at Stanhope Elmore High School.

The offering was blessed by a young minister named Damian Williams, who was a student while I was A.P. at SEHS.

The praise team that led devotion included 2 other graduates from my time as A.P. at SEHS.

The adult praise team of the host church was led by a man my wife taught at Carver High School.  His wife, one of the lead singers of the praise group, was my student at Carver Jr. High School. 

As youth choirs, soloists, praise teams, and youth preachers came forward to minister in an evening of mind blowing praise, prayer, and petition, I saw student after student and graduate after graduate who love Jesus with all their hearts and are deeply and dynamically engaged in the work of their churches.

We complain sometimes about the government taking God out of the schools, but I don’t think God ever actually left.  

I think that a lot of people in our schools stopped talking to God, but He never stopped being there.  

All the while some of us have been acting as if God was gone from public education, God has continued to work with and work on those of us who still seek him at school.  All the while God has continued to save, anoint, call, and commission students and educators to serve Him in magnificent ways.

I realize now how blessed I have been to walk the educational halls I’ve walked.  I see a little more clearly that Holy Spirit filled Christians in the public school system are not the powerless, nearly extinct species that we thought they were. 

I don’t quite understand it all yet, but I do see that those intersections inside the public school were more than progressions in a professional career.  They were Divine appointments as part of an eternal agenda. 

It’s not “just” school.  It’s an intersection of God’s people involved in God’s agenda.

I’ll remember that.

You, remember that.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a pastor, writer, community organizer and consultant for education and ministry.

Call him at 334-288-0577
Email him at atgravestwo2@aol.com
Friend Anderson at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

To hear sermons, read devotions, and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme@blogspotcom If you want to be a blessing to this ministry, contributions may be made by check or money order.

Mail all contributions to :
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116