Be Honest

Justin's Opinion

Can I give a Shoutout to who inspired this post? Rev. Dr. William Buchannan. He has been such an amazing Pastor in my Journey of Ministry since he and I first met over the Summer. Currently I am serving at the 15th Avenue Baptist church for my Field Education while a Student here at Vanderbilt. Milwaukee, Breonus Mitchell taught me how to preach exegetically for a year and Is continuing to do so, Pastor Buchannan is challenging me all the More when it comes to Pastoral Praxis. So Yall just wait till I preach at home over Christmas Break. I ain’t scared of NONE of yall. So Before I start…Shout Out to Breonus Mitchell and William Buchannan. I gotta give props to Dr. Buchannan for this post.

At My internship we just recently finished walking through the book of James. James is a POWERFUL book when it comes to Ministry. James teaches us to Count it all Joy when we fall into various Temptations because the Trying and tempting of our faith teaches us how to have Patience. And patience then leads to Maturity all because our faith has been worked in the various trials and temptations that God sent our way. To make that plain and simple on one Sunday in his sermon dealing with the maturity within faith Dr. Buchannan said, “When we aren’t honest with ourselves, we are lying to ourselves.” And well that confronted me on ALL fronts….one of the major ones it hit me…consistency biblically and practically. Got that? Ok…let’s do this. (I am a preacher people)

When one knows their gift, talent and what God has called them to be, you travel into the unknown instead of treading in the easy waters of life. Habits are made because of consistency, Good and Bad. I choose to focus on the possibility within Consistency objectively good healthy practices. Consistent Faith gives way to Maturity. A lack of consistency…is not active…dysfunctional…bastardized faith. Consistency…powerful. Inconsistency….dysfunctional. Now…It is not easy to be consistent because consistency requires us to confront ourselves, push ourselves over the verge and be the person that God loves and the people that we Love. It is easy to fall into the trap of inconsistency because it is fun to be inconsistent.

In our relationship, it requires us to be consistent, no matter how uncomfortable…and at times…inconvenient that may be. Consistency is what keeps our bond there. Consistent Love, practice, conversation and emotions. Therefore, it is easy for the other to know what while they say “I had a good day” that truthfully they didn’t. Consistency has allowed us to know ourselves and individuals as well as who we are together. Honest true objectively good consistency will give you strength that you always had…you just didn’t want to deal with.

Courtney’s Opinion

Daughter, girlfriend, friend, niece, coworker, Regional Program Manager, yoga partner, workout buddy, blogger, ministry leader, Big sister, Little sister, email responder, a DIY-er, and a vegetarian (really social pescatarian). These are few things that make up who I am and in some way consume my day. Many of you can relate to this type of life. However through it all I found that the key in being successful is to be consistent.

At the beginning of summer I started to take a serious look at my life in terms of my body, my food consumption, and the products I put on or in my body. I decided to become a vegetarian and drastically changed my eating habits of eating clean real food. I began to work out avidly. I put my all into my new lifestyle change; I invested in healthier foods, I got all the appropriate equipment and clothes for working out. For the first month I was totally committed, the second month still committed, by the 3rd month I started questioning is this even working. The 4th month I was just going through the motions not really present in the moment, my frequency changed, my outlook changed. But despite all my preparedness, investment, initial commitment the key ingredient was consistency when it got hard. Although I lost 24lbs in this process, that was not enough to ensure my success. Consistency is one of the hardest things to obtain; yet it is so worth it because the reward is incomparable. A dear friend once told me “Courtney, it’s not eating right or going to work out that’s the challenging but its continuing to change your mindset when it gets hard. If you can master the art of consistency you can master anything.” In that one sentence she ministered volumes to me.

Your intentions might be amazing in life, you prepare yourself, you invest time, money and energy but without the mindset of staying the course with things get hard you will die to whatever goal you have set. So what leads to inconsistency? It is the idea of not being honest with our selves in each step of our development. As we grow, mature, and step out of our comfort zone we become comfortable. We start lying to ourselves that we can make it without doing this (like reading our word) or that (constantly communicating with God). We lose focus and die to our renewal.

Consistency is not natural but an exercise. This world is rigged with distractions, but we must exercise our consistent mindset, we must be honest with ourselves.

Our Opinion

So…What did Dr. Buchannan do for us? “When you aren’t honest with yourself, you are lying to yourself.” When we testify that his statement strengthened our relationship in a way that we NEVER knew through a storm that should have killed (and has killed other) our relationships…its true. When we became honest it forced us to consistently read our Bibles, pray together, show love and a plethora of other tasks that may seem mundane, it enhanced us individually and collectively. We challenge you today to start doing something you love…consistently. Maybe that’s reading your bible, working out, talking to your parents…whatever it is. This week do it once a day and watch your life change and get enhanced just a little bit. Then…think of us…were praying for you.

Consistency my friends. It will force you to be honest with yourself and stop lying to yourself. Talk to us!

 Justin and Courtney