Help!

Funny how you wake up some days and there is a certain topic on your brain.  Sometimes it's because you watched or read something before you went to sleep, others it's because you have a difficult situation you are struggling with, and occasionally it is something that just pops in there and you have no idea where it came from.  This morning I woke up with a topic in my head, and as the morning has gone forward it is amazing the illustrations that just keep driving this point home.

Before I went to bed last night I read one of my guilty pleasures, G.Q. magazine.  (Go ahead, make all the little snide marks you want about the magazine and the type of people who read it.  I'll take your manhood challenge any day :) haha)  I like the magazine because, of all the "Men's Interest" magazines that are on shelves right now it actually does a decent job of covering fashion, politics, and "men's interest".  It does still have half of the magazine filled with adds, but for the most part it has decent content.  This month on the cover were Lil Wayne, Eminem and Keith Richards.  I am a huge Lil Wayne and Eminem fan, indifferent to Keith Richards, but I had to have the magazine.  It had two of my favorites on the cover and I wanted to read the articles (no lie, crazy huh?).  As I am laying in bed last night letting my doctor prescribed combination of anxiety medicines kick in, and I have my amazing, Beats by Dr. Dre, headphones on (product placement, notice that), I read the two articles about Lil Wayne and Eminem. 

I don't know what your music tastes are, and honestly it isn't important to this article.  The artists are names that people recognize currently, but their story is the same that has been told by musicians for years.  I am just using them to get my point across and since I write the blog I get to pick the illustrations, right? 

The first article I read was about Eminem, it was short to the point, but informative.  It explained his battle with addiction, one he says he fights everyday.  His rise to the top of the rap game, his fall back down, and then his climb to the top again.  The underlying tone of the article was that he knew he had great talent, but talent alone did not make him a success.  His success came from trial and error, a desire not to fail and a talent he was given to use words to express his feelings.  The article ended with him talking about coming to grips with his addiction that, while used as a coping mechanism to handle the fame he was achieving also destroyed his career, he eventually had to trust in his talent and what got him to the point of success to begin with.  Good article.  Point taken by me, hard work pays off, never quit trying, and don't do drugs.

Lil Wayne was up next.  This article started off different than the Eminem article.  If you read enough you can tell the difference between a male and a female writing about the rap industry and for specifically for a "men's interest" magazine.  I felt the tone at first, but didn't realize my theory was true till I got to the end and it gave the author's name and background (no this is not sexist, just an observation).  The article was still good.  It covered much of the same things the Eminem article did...Wayne's rise to fame at a young age with the group "Hot Boys" his continued success through the release of his many album's and mixed tapes, and then his fall, with the most recent being him spending eight months in prison on a weapons charge.  It discussed his drug use and whether or not he was "clean" from Syrup (combination of Codeine cough syrup and Sprite, just in case you don't know the term) and Marijuana.  His statements in response were to the effect, he hasn't used Syrup since 2009, but still talks about it to pay homage to the culture he came from (back story, Syrup is something that originated out of the Houston rap scene and the late D.J. Screw who O.D. on the stuff.  Lil Wayne being out of New Orleans and the closeness of Houston and New Orleans music worlds feels by throwing out references to the drug, he pays "respect" to his roots)  I'll let you make sense of that one, it isn't relevant to my topic, but wanted to give the tie in in case you were interested in doing your own research later.  His comment on Marijuana was, "I can't wait to be off probation".  I'll also let you make your own call about what that one means.  Back to the reason of including this long narrative.  Lil Wayne reached success, lost it, and then hit it again, despite his MANY self induced issues.  He put in work, but he had something that others just don't have, and that is a specific talent, and he has to trust in his talent when he performs. 

This morning I check my Gmail account like I always do and there is a blog I subscribe to with the title "The Most Dangerous Belief In America".  I sometimes read this blog I sometimes don't.  It is written by a former pastor of mine here in Dallas and his stuff is always good, it's just I don't always take the time to read what he writes (crazy admission coming from another blogger right? haha)  The title of his piece grabbed my attention because this guy is not some right-wing extreme conservative.  If he was I wouldn't subscribe to his blog, ha.  So for him to call something "The Most Dangerous Belief In America" I wanted to see what he was talking about.  Marketing people...even preacher's know how to do it!  So I open the blog and read, and what he is writing about was a statement made by President Obama yesterday in which Obama said " I trust in God, but God wants to see us help ourselves by putting people back to work."  This statement was made in response to the House of Representatives reaffirming the official United States motto as "In God We Trust".  Obama's quote was further clarified by White House Press Secretary Jay Carney saying, "I believe that phrase in the Bible is 'the Lord helps those who help themselves.'"

This was where Jim Denison took his stance, and honestly until he explained it, I had never thought about what he wrote in the way he wrote it.  I'll give you the basics here, and then provide a link to the blog so you can read the whole thing for yourself if you choose.  The statement "The Lord helps those who help themselves" is not in the Bible.  Honestly I wouldn't have known one way or another if it was, but I had heard people say it before.  Denison said that the fact we as a country believe it is, and have taken it on as a mantra for our recovering society is why he calls this ideology the most Dangerous Belief in America.  His point was this thought process creates a society who, and I quote "We baptize our self-reliance in the belief that the more we do, the more God will bless us."  This in his words takes God out of the equation and puts all the possibility of success on our own shoulders.  A pretty interesting theory for a country that just voted to maintain our national motto as "In God We Trust".  Is it really God we trust, or ourselves? 

Denison's Blog: http://us1.campaign-archive1.com/?u=5369bb601ac44bfdda928110b&id=08a1e57534&e=428cc3bd14

Finally I end with this and will tie up all this massive randomness into a point.  I wake up with the topic of "Help" on my mind, partly because I read two articles last night about guys who achieved success, lost it because of their own self destructive devices, and then managed to regain it.  I click on my email and find a blog that talks about "In God We Trust" as a country, but warns against the dangers of not trusting God, but trusting in ourselves. 

I will be the first to admit I struggle with trust.  I am not good at it.  I am not confident in it.  I want fact, not faith.  In my thoughts though it seems to me there is something greater here then just "what can I do myself?"  I am not saying do not work hard, or put out effort.  Please do not take that from this blog.  Nothing happens from just sitting and scratching, but if we as a country need help, and I believe we do. We must find something or someone to place our Trust in, because left to our own self devices we will never defeat the pattern of self destruction, that is civilization history 101.  As my brother Sammy B likes to ask so many questions, I pose one for you today:  What do you Trust in, and is it greater than just yourself? 

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