An Original Thought

If you made it this far, that means you have taken the time to follow the link, search for the article or open the email. You might think this article will be about my original thought or thoughts. Keep reading and you might find out that this article is about all of us. This article is about me and it is about you. This article is about our current culture and a culture that has lost the ability to think for themselves.

Many of you might remember the movie, “A Christmas Story.” The 1983 movie about a nine-year-old boy named Ralphie Parker. The story was about the young boy during the Christmas season as he tried to convince everyone that he needed a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas. Throughout the story, he navigates schoolyard bullies, family mishaps, and the constant warning from adults that he will “shoot his eye out.”

This holiday classic brings back memories for many of us as we recall our own family mishaps, the toy we wanted so badly as a child, or even the bullies we faced growing up. If you remember the movie, what memory did it bring you back to?

I was reminded of this movie this morning as I contemplated yet another negative comment on one of my social media posts. The comment accused me of posting nothing but complaints about Republican candidates and promoting “shit coin” cryptocurrencies. (Those were his words. Not mine.)

Recently, I wrote an article titled “Silence Speaks Louder Than Surrender.” In this article, I was highlighting the fact that sometimes your silence says more than just falling in line with what we are told is “the right thing to do.”

The purpose of the article was not only to share my thoughts and my opinion on the upcoming midterm election in Colorado, but also to highlight where we are as a nation. We often hear people say that if we don’t stand up and fight, then we will lose our nation or we will lose our state. Or worse, our freedom.

I highlight this article because there has not been an article I have written yet that has gotten more negative feedback from good people. People who I respect as individuals. People that I respect as Christians, and those who, outside of a political race, we might have many things in common.

Things like our faith, the Christian leaders that we follow, or the conservative values that we all promote. Much of the negative feedback has come from people who would otherwise be able to sit with me and have coffee and share all of the good things God has done for each of us.

I have been accused of giving up. I have been called just about every name under the sun. I have been unfriended on social media, and I have been blocked, lied about, slandered, and accused of being a pedophile-worshipping fanboy.

For many years, I kept my mouth shut. I stayed silent. Not because I had nothing to say, but because, for a long time, I let those words hurt me. I remember calling a pastor friend of mine and asking him how he dealt with the hurtful things people would say about him after an article came out in an extremely liberal publication, painting me as an extremist and a criminal for protesting the 2020 election results at the Capitol on January 6.

If you know anything about me, you would know that I care deeply about people, and I care about their eternal destination. I also care deeply about seeing people succeed in this life. Financially, socially, spiritually, and in everything they do. I have spent my entire adult life doing my best to be a blessing to others. Teaching, training, developing others. I have been to every inhabited continent sharing the gospel, spreading the love of Jesus, bringing hope to the less fortunate, and pouring myself out to those who might need a word of encouragement, or a meal, or help building a home. My life mission from the age of 19 has been Matthew 28:19, to go into all the world.

I have found myself in the presence of kings and leaders, but I have also sat on the dirt floors with poor families where running water was a pipe dream. No pun intended.

I have intentionally put myself into war zones with the threat of missile attacks and the smell of gunpowder still on the clothes of those who just came from the front lines, and I have walked through the wreckage where flooding has wiped out entire neighborhoods.

So Michael, what is your point?

I want you to see the side of me that does not stand on top of the mountain and brag, “Look what I have done,” or “Look where I have been.”

Most people wouldn’t know these things about me unless they dug deep enough or they took the time to get to know me. I don’t say these things to bring attention to me, but to bring attention to the road I have traveled.

This traveled road has never been about me. This traveled road has always been about something that I care about. People.

When I have conversations with people or I interact with different individuals in business, or on the mission field, I always do my best to see the good in people. I always want for others to succeed and be the best version of themselves. I want for people to become who God put them on this earth to be and to accomplish everything they were meant to do. I want everyone that I come in contact with to have everything they ever wanted and to be everything they wanted to be. So much so that there have been times where I have been accused of caring about others more than I care about my own family.

I have a firm, long-standing belief that every individual has a unique gift that God put on the inside of them. A unique gift that only they can give. I believe that each and every one of us has something on the inside of us that is so valuable that, if and when we see this gift, we would do everything within us to find a way to give this gift to others.

Too often, we have a tendency to see a gift as something that is ours because we were given this gift by God; and while it may be true that God did give us the gift, I really do believe that this gift was given to us, not so that we could hold on to it, but so that we could give that gift to others.

Our gifts are not for us.

This brings me to the title of this article. “An Original Thought.”

Many times, when I read a negative thought or a hateful or hurtful comment about something I have written or said, I have a habit of visiting that person’s social media page to find out where I know them from, or even where they might be coming from with their opinion.

I have noticed a trend. Most of the negative comments have a tendency to come from people who have very few, if any, original thoughts. If you scroll through their pages, most of what you see is shares and reposts. A lot of “yeah, what he said.”

As I have continued to post, and I have continued to write articles and op-eds with my thoughts and opinions, I have noticed something. People are afraid to speak up.

Maybe we have become too lazy to take the time to share what we think and it has become easier just to echo someone else’s opinion or repost their meme.

Maybe we are afraid, like I was only a few short years ago, because of what might be said about me.

Or maybe we would rather just sit on the sidelines and watch as others are slandered, ridiculed, and accused of giving up the fight because we made a decision to leave a ballot spot blank.

My question to those who would think that I have given up is this. Do you think I would put myself out in the public eye, only to be called every name in the book, if I had given up? Do you think I would willingly subject myself to the attacks and, at times, even the threats if I have given up?

I share my “original thoughts” not because I need attention. Believe me. I would rather live a quiet life, spend time with my family, and travel the world helping others. I share my original thoughts in hopes that people would take the time to dive deeper into why they believe what they believe. This is not to say that I know everything. This is not to say that my opinion is always right.

This is to say that when I publicly express my thoughts, they have been meditated on, contemplated, and thought through so that I am careful not to just give an emotional outburst or uneducated opinion.

My hope is that if you have read this far, if you don’t already, that you will take the time to form your own thoughts, not just share and repost the opinions of others.

Instead of echoing the voice of others, be a voice of your own.

Your voice matters.

The echo makes the point stronger, but your voice speaks louder!