I love T.D. Jakes and I cannot give a higher recommendation for T.D. Jakes. If you haven’t been truly blessed to listen to him, please go to youtube and listen to him. I am going to use his “CHANGE HAS COME” sermon to help me share this blog with you. I am going to spend time sharing with you what I heard / started learning on my walk on Super Bowl Sunday.
Now, those new to my blogs, my theme is FAMILY & EDUCATION. I will do what I can to be brief. Those who know me – JUST LAUGHED. Please take note, as well, that I do not mention where I teach and I am purposely vague on when / where these events happen.
FROM TD JAKES’ SERMON:
He cannot just use your friends. He must use your enemies. When Judas betrayed Jesus, He called Judas friend. Because Jesus needed Judas more than he needed Peter. Because in order to bring your greatness out of you, you can’t just run with your friends. You got to deal with your enemies! What I am trying to tell you is, he sent Pharaoh as a secret agent to show Israel what they had.
These are secret agents. If I ever get a chance to meet the journalist who sandblasted my name in the Charleston Gazette and put my house on the front page of the paper and ridiculed me and called me Jim Jones for a week — and if I ever — if you come to Dallas, I will take you out to dinner! THANK YOU SO MUCH! I will take you out to dinner anywhere in Dallas. I SO APPRECIATE YOU!
I would have never known that all of this (TD JAKES points to his congregation / church family) was in me until YOU HATED ME LIKE YOU DID! (TD JAKES then bows..) I am not bitter! I am not angry! I am not sad! You helped me more than any of my friends did.
Look back over your own life. Aren’t you glad for the folk that hated you?! For if they hadn’t hated you, it wouldn’t have pushed you into to your purpose. These are not bad people!
These are secret agents. They are agents of change sent into your life to push you into your purpose and destiny. God, I was being loyal to my congregation and to my church. I wasn’t being loyal. I was being late for my appointment in Dallas. Listen. You may be trying to hold onto something that God wants you to let go of. You are trying to preserve a family. GOD is trying to produce a nation. So, HE has to put you in discomfort TEMPORARLY. So that your latter day would be greater than your former day. This is the trouble that is going to break the pattern in your life. You will never be who you were again. When this process is over, it will change you for life and you will never go back to being who you were before.
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Because I have taken enough of your time, TIME TO WRAP IT UP. In twenty-seven years of teaching, I have had more than my fair share of enemies. One of my friend’s nicknames for me (forgive the language) is: SHIT-MAGNET. I feel like that. There are students on campus who call me “incredible” names and make salacious allegations. There are parents who have tried to get me fired and end my career. In the future, there will be blogs and books where I will share more stories of those students and their parents, as well as, administrators and instructors who are really behaving towards me as enemies.
Now, thanks to TD JAKES’ words I share with you, I can have a new perception of every single mean thing ever said about me and done to me (that includes, my car window being shot out in my driveway). Those who have been enemies — and to this day continue to be enemies — I need to be like TD JAKES and offer to take them out to dinner. Those folks – folks who would consider to be an enemy – are very good people! Really. THEY ARE GOOD PEOPLE. They have friends and families who love them. They just don’t like me. They just want to see me be more like them – which isn’t going to happen and that frustrates them. They want me to change for them. No, I will change for GOD. Again, my enemies are GOOD PEOPLE.
Here is a “rose story” amongst the thorns. During a school year, there was a “movement” to establish a local OFF-CAMPUS high school jazz band because there were parents who had heard and believed awful things said about me (WITHOUT EVER MEETING ME). I was furious (STILL AM) that people who don’t know me would start a jazz band because they don’t like me. MUCH IN THE SAME WAY THE JOURNALIST TREATED TD JAKES, how dare this mom be so selfish and frankly mean to say such awful things about me and want to start a jazz band to take students out of the music program. I need to offer to thank her for what she says about me / what she does to me.
But, after my students – students who worked were their BUTTS-OFF – received UNANIMOUS STRAIGHT ONES or what is also referred to as UNANIMOUS SUPERIOR, not at one jazz festival, but at the two jazz festivals they are participated in this year —- I not only thank those wonderful and VERY STRONG / TALENTED students for their work, thanks to TD JAKES’ MESSAGE – I need to thank those parents / students who say and do mean things to me! I need to thank those parents / students for pushing me to continue my passion and purpose, which includes helping create some amazing people; people who are going to be the next amazing husband / wife / father / mother and all around KICK-ASS HUMAN BEING!! Thank you! THANK YOU to friends and enemies. I do offer special thanks to those who are friends / family because they allow me to be me!!
Hope you – friend and enemy – enjoyed your SUPER BOWL SUNDAY as much as I did.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOEZbdSGuJA