Uniqueness and gifts

Shakespeare said it best when he stated "All the world is a stage and everyone has his part to play.."
But when we think about it, do we not all have a post or a part to play in lifes grand scheme?  Having stated this, does it not reason to also state that we all are endowed with unique talents for the betterment of ourselves and those around us?

Simply put, without overstating what others have said: you are special and unique. We are all created equal, but not all are equal in all things.  For instance, a person may be gifted in athletics but not academics.  Another person may be gifted in science but have no social skills whatsoever.

It has been my observation that many people in society follow the group and not always for the best. And in so doing, they deny the person who they really are.  Ultimately, you cannot hide the real "You"
I have had the opportunity to meet and talk with many people in my short life time and I notice that even when a person is successful and well off the real person still comes out.

I worked as a plumbing installer for a few years and had to go to a lawyers office to drop off a permit.  The Lawyer I talked to was one of the most churlish people I have ever met... Meanwhile, at the same store I worked with a salesman named John who would politely, but harshly criticize this company- yet he seemed out of place for his demeanor.  He carried himself like a man who was something more than he appeared, or may have been.  It was a puzzle I never had much time to solve, until the day he need some plumbing work at his house.  it was then that I discovered elderly but polite old "John" was a retired Navy Pilot who taught the Saudi Air Force how to fly fighter jets!

A persons true self and character will always come out in the end.
How do I prove this?

If you will indulge me, gentle reader, I submit Matthew 26:73  (Specifically 26:69-75)





For Peter it was his accent and mode of speech.  He could not deny who he was!  Look later at Acts 4:13
Both John and Peter spoke in such a tone and with authority that men knew that ". . . they had been with Jesus".

It is my observation that people can tell where we have been and what we do by our actions.  Shouldn't they be good actions that inspire others to greater heights?  It's all too often in my job that I run into people with bad attitudes about everything.  Life is too short to not grow daily into something better than what we previously were.

We are unique and different, like the colors of the rainbow.  Lets show others something good, pleasant and inspiring daily.

We all have gifts and we all have callings in life!

Fred Phelps, Easy E and Young Goodman Brown

Within the last few weeks we heard about the death of the "reverend" Fred Phelps, pastor of Westboro Baptist church in Topeka, Kansas.  Just as he was ignominious in his life, so in his passing he has stayed so.  Now, it is not with glee or derision I make this statement, but let us consider the Word of God. Proverbs 10:7    . . . The name of the wicked shall rot.  and another proverb "If a mans ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.  For example, if I say the name "Mother Theresa" an image and vision of a life of love, giving and service comes to mind.  Even in our internet age, if I said "Billy Sunday"  someone could get a great deal of information about him and determine that he was a great voice for God.  Now, what if I said the name "Joseph Gobels" ?  It also wouldn't take long to determine a name that sitll has a rotten stench many decades later.


I find it a real tragedy when a person claims Christianity yet makes his church and presence odious before the general population.  Consider the story of I Samuel and the sons of Eli the priest, who were such hypocrites that people hated going to the tabernacle and worshiping God. I Samuel 2:11-17
True light will scatter the darkness of sin.  Even if a person has a correct doctrine and is hated by society, he or she will still have some peace and a following of members. For the most part, they will even garner respect. ( Proverbs 16:7)

Such is not the case with the late Mr Phelps. 

He was a prophet, but not a prophet for good and righteousness.  As I pondered the media circus that were  his last few hours, I also thought of another figure that I wondered about back in 1995.  the singer / rapper Eric Easy E wright.  he was also a prophet like Fred.  they were both prophets of the devil.  they each had a message and the message was of destruction, division and derision.These two men were from opposite social economic and ideological backgrounds, but preached a similar message: confusion.

Easy E glorified a life of sex, drugs and crime. He is considered to be the godfather of gangster rap, was hugely popular with the young in the 1990's.  He  lived a short  life in the fast lane and died of AIDS related pneumonia.
Fred Phelps claimed to be a christian, pastored a church and spent a great deal of time misrepresenting Christianity and spread hate by bashing the military, gays and anything related to his idea of sin.

Now it's true, God hates sin, but hypocrisy is sin too. isn't it?
Furthermore, do we preach Christ to the unbelievers or try to treat the symptoms of sin??

The last I remember, Jesus is the Great Physician!

Easy E lived and preached what he believed, and at least had happiness in his chosen life style!

My question I wondered was this: Who cries for Easy E? 

Now I ask the question again:

Who cries for Fred Phelps?

The time of funerals and mourning finds many that cry, but several weeks, months or years later, who cries for the wicked?  Is their memory so quickly extinguished, like a candle snuffed out in a dark room?

When I considered Phelps' death I thought of the Nathaniel Hawthorne story Young Goodman Brown.  he was a young married man who journeyed out of his small new England village and met the Devil on the way.  He had found out that the entire village had made a pact / or sinned and paid homage to the Devil.  Upon his return he was cold, hard, critical, unfriendly and uncaring.  When he died not a person had a good word to scribe on his tombstone.  Will that be the case with Phelps?