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Building A Dream Life

We All Need Grace, and Getting It Comes Down to a Choice

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This Is True for All Life’s Important Decisions

Our whole life is made up of decisions. It’s up to us to make the right choices.

Too often we don’t.

Sometimes it’s because our life situation is all we’ve ever known.

This was the case for Johnny Lee Clary. He grew up in a family full of hate and fear. His family was racist and full of aggression.

“There was a lot of alcoholism in our home and fighting all the time. My mother was constantly cheating on my father. My mother drove my father into bankruptcy, and then my father was faced with losing everything he had worked hard for.

I watched my father, one night, take a pistol and put it to his head and blow his brains out.”

Johnny was only 11 years old when his father died. Immediately after the funeral, his mother put him on a bus and sent me out to California to go live with his sister.

“That just made me hate that much more. So, I was hating everyone. At 14 years old, I felt like committing suicide myself.  I was thinking seriously about ending my life so I could go be with my dad.”

Then he saw David Duke, head of the Ku Lux Klan on television telling everybody that the White people needed to stick together. This made him feel some kind of a weird connection to his dad.

Johnny wrote Duke a letter telling him his life story. Before long, there was a knock on the door.

“I opened up the door, he shook my hand and said, ‘I’m a friend of David Duke’s.  We’re here to protect you, son.  What you need is a family.’”

The Klansmen taught Johnny the ways of the KKK. When he was 18, he returned to Oklahoma to start his own Klan chapter. Eventually he rose to the rank of Imperial Wizard, the Klan’s top leadership position.

“I finally felt like I’d found something that I could amount to in life.

The FBI opened an investigation on Johnny. He knew it was just a matter of time before he was going to end up getting arrested.

Johnny decided his only shot of staying out of prison was to step down as Imperial Wizard. But when he did, the Klan turned on him, fearing that he was an FBI informant.

Once again, he became a person without any friends. He started drinking, and the fear and hate consumed him.

“I thought of my daddy and I thought Daddy had the right idea. I sat down and was looking at the gun and there was a Bible sitting there. I thought that there is no possible way that the good Lord can forgive somebody like me, because I had been so full of hate. I had all the violence and lived such a bad life.”

He flipped open the Bible and it opened to Luke 15, the story of the prodigal son.

Johnny read Jesus’ parable of the young man who demanded his inheritance from his father, then squandered it all. He returned home to the father remorseful. His father did not chastise him, instead he celebrated his return.

“I finally got on my knees and said, ‘God, my life is screwed up.  God, I’m in a mess.  I need Your help.’”

He went to a nearby church. What he saw there amazed him: Blacks and Whites sitting together.  This moved Johnny’s heart, and at the end of the service, he gave his life to Christ.

“I felt like a new person, brand new creation.  I felt like I had had a weight lifted off my shoulders.”

Johnny wanted to share this with others but didn’t know how to get started, so he called on the Rev. Wade Watts, Minister of an African-American church that the Klan harassed.

“The Klan had set fire to his church and did everything under the sun to harass this man. I remember he debated me at a radio station one time. He looked right at me, and he goes, ‘You can’t do enough to me to make me hate you.  I’m going to love you. I’m going to pray for you whether you like it or not.’”

Johnny went to Rev. Wade Watts and they became good friends.

Johnny learned how to love and live in unity with all people.

“Not only has He given me a good wife to stand by my side, but He’s given me good friends. He’s given me a good life here on earth.  He’s given me hope, gave me the gift of love. Taught me what love’s all about. Isn’t that what God is? 

God is love. 

I’m not that mixed up kid looking for a family anymore.  I’ve got a family. I’ve got a relationship with my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

More of Johnny’s story

Most of our have not experienced or done the things that Johnny did, but we all need grace. If he can receive it, so can you.

Receiving grace is a choice and available to anyone who asks for it.

How Do You Know the Best Way to Take and Store Your Notes

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The Hidden Secret to “Note Taking” Success is in the Word YOUR

Note taking is a complex challenge that’s been around for a long time. It’s the practice of recording information from a variety of sources including classes, discussions, meetings, podcasts, books, etc.

What’s the best system or method? How and where should notes be stored? How do you find them later when you’re looking for them? How should they be organized? And on and on and on…

Taking, storing and finding notes can be overwhelming.

The number of processes, systems and products that are out there is evidence of this. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could just pick one and the work would be done.

These “note taking” questions arose in a recent conversation, and I can’t seem to quit thinking about it. So, my therapy is to write about it.

Like a lot of life’s struggles…we just want a quick simple fix.

I would say, note taking is a lot like life, in that we are all different. We have different purposes. We have different personalities. Who I am, isn’t who you are.  What works for me, won’t work for you.

Like life, note taking is a journey that will constantly be changing. There will be new ideas, thoughts, products and people showing us new ways.

Note taking, like life, is not a plug and play one time thing. It will need constant review and updating to keep us moving toward our best.

I never was much of a note taker in school. This probably explains my grades. Now I’m obsessed with note taking. But like everything, there’s still room for improvement.

Here are some of the common “note taking” questions –

  1. Should I write my notes on paper or type them digitally?
  2. How can I store my notes in such a way that I can find them later?
  3. How should my notes be organized?

These are important questions that can be hard to answer. The key to answering them, is to ask the why questions first.

Before how, you need to determine WHY…why am I taking notes? –

  • Is it part of the learning process? A way to record the information being presented in a lecture, a class, a webinar, a podcast, a book, etc.
  • Are these notes something that I’m going to want to refer back to? If so, why and how would I use them?
  • Is it just that the process of taking these notes will help me comprehend the content? The act of note taking has been shown to improve comprehension.
  • Am I taking notes as a process of sorting through my thoughts to make them clearer?
  • Are these notes a form of preparing for a future presentation, speech, blog post, podcast, book, etc.

The note taking process will vary, depending on the reasons that you’re taking them. After you’ve determined the why, we can discuss a variety of how’s.

Ultimately, YOUR best note taking and storing is going to be specific to YOU.

This doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Or that there isn’t help available for answering both your why and how questions.

Check back next week when we’ll look at my note taking system and how one can be designed to fit your specific needs.

Be thinking about your WHYs for taking notes so that you’ll be ready to go.

Competition Is a Part of Life, But Not the One and Only Thing

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When Everything is Just a Competition There’s No Room Left for Celebration

Competition is a problem when it’s the thing that gets all our attention. When no matter what we’re doing we’re trying to be better than them, whoever them are. This won’t end in a true celebration.

“Keeping up with the Joneses” was a popular saying when I was growing up. It refers to comparing yourself to your neighbor. It was a benchmark for how you measured up in social class or the accumulation of stuff.

When some of the super-rich throw parties it becomes a competition to see who can spend the most. It’s all about doing it bigger and better. There are times when these events will exceed one million dollars for a one-night party.

This seems like taking competition a little bit too far.

It’s the level of importance we give to it, whatever it is. If in everything we do, we want to beat everyone…everyone becomes the enemy. Making everyone the enemy is not a good plan.

In Luke 14:1-14, Jesus tells a group of people who are having dinner at a Pharisee’s home, to be careful to not set yourself at the head table, presuming that you’re the most important. This is a problem when someone more important comes in and you are moved to a lower place.

We need to keep our egos in check and not let them rule us.

When competition becomes our one and only focus things get out of balance. Everything else begins to take a back seat to our being first and best.

Being competitive isn’t a bad thing in and of itself.

Healthy competition helps us grow and be better. Competition in the right way helps us grow past mediocrity.

Why are we competing? Who are we competing against? Where is our focus? What is the cost?

There was a couple whose life dream it was to own and run a restaurant. After years of working and dreaming, it was coming true…they were just days from the grand opening of their new restaurant.

And then everything changed when a hurricane came through town.

Their building was still intact, but there was a lot of devastation and damage in the area.

One of the existing restaurants, one of their competitors began taking advantage of the situation and raised their prices.

The couple saw this and were shocked. They decided to compete in a different way. They had a freezer full of food and no electricity, so they started sharing it with their neighbors.

Then a strange thing happened. Those neighbors began bringing food and giving it to the couple. The restaurant was full of people. Then neighbors began cleaning tables and helping out.

Who do you think was the winner in the competition between these two restaurants?

Too often competition comes from the perspective there is a limited amount to go around and if we don’t take what’s ours, someone else will get it.

This is the wrong perspective. There is plenty to go around. If we approach things from a scarcity mentality, we will never win. We will always be battling to take. This will leave us feeling empty.

If our focus is always on winning, we will never have time to celebrate the things in life that are truly important.

Don’t Go Through Life Angry at the World…There’s a Better Way

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Regardless of Your Situation, Being Angry Will Only Make It Worse

We all find ourselves in situations that make us mad. The question is what are you going to do about it?

Gary Christian took his first step straight into his own dark, cold, hellish hole on Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2007. 

That’s when law enforcement told his family that his daughter Channon’s body had been found.

Family and friends had been searching for her for two days,

What happened to Channon Christian and her boyfriend, was one of Knoxville’s most horrific crimes. The young couple was ambushed and carjacked on Jan. 6, 2007.

Both were beaten, tortured and raped.

The anguish never leaves Gary Christian’s voice when he remembers being told his daughter was murdered. 

“That was my baby,” he says.

After being told what had happened, he walked to the far edge of the police parking lot, away from anyone, and looked toward heaven. 

He screamed at God. Then he turned away from Him. 

“I told Him I am done with You. I don’t want You in my life. I don’t need You in my life, and I don’t trust You with anything.”

This was a dramatic turn, a first step into his hell on earth.

Saved at age 8, Christian had grown up in church. If the doors were open, he was there. He went on mission trips, played drums in a Christian band and witnessed for Christ. “I loved the Lord,” he says emphatically.

As a parent, every morning, he prayed. In every prayer, he asked God to watch over Channon and her older brother Chase.

Then God failed him.

“All I asked Him to do for my kids was to protect them. And He didn’t.”

That anger, mixed with deep hate and a desire for vengeance, was all he felt for years. He existed in a cold, dark abyss. Even in a crowd, he felt alone. 

“I couldn’t depend on nobody; I didn’t trust anybody,” he said. “Alone had a lot to do with everything.”

About a year after the initial trials, Christian found a way to keep Channon’s memory alive. He bought a motorcycle and started the Shepherds RC riding club.

The club hosts an annual Channon and Chris Memorial Ride to raise money for charity. 

The ride is one way the families remember their children while helping others.

Then, the Shepherds rode Christian back to a place he didn’t want to go. 

Some club members asked him to attend their church. Come to Easter service, they said. It was almost like a dare. He didn’t want to go. But he did, mostly just to shut them all up. 

“I never denied God. I just didn’t want to have anything to do with him,” he says.

He knew Easter service would be about the crucifixion. But the Rev. Jim Cummings first preached about Peter, the disciple who denied Jesus and whom Jesus restored. Then he talked about Christ on the cross.  

Two weeks after Easter, Christian was back at the church. “I got convinced to go again,” he says with a wry smile.

That Sunday was the day of the Shepherds’ club-only ride to remember Channon’s April 29 birthday. Before the ride, Christian and other Shepherds went to church.

The sermon was different than the Easter message. But Christian felt it was directed right at him. “I couldn’t shake what this guy said the first time, and he’s doing it again.” 

It’s about 24 miles up Pellissippi Parkway from the church to the cemetery. The whole ride that last April Sunday, Christian says, “the Lord was tearing me up.” 

When he got off his bike at Channon’s grave, “I was just so tired. I just couldn’t do it anymore.

“I went down on my knee, and I asked him, ‘Just like you did with Peter, restore me.’ And he did.”

When he got to his feet, he realized the Shepherds around him “were all Christians … Everybody in the club then, some longer than others, had been praying that one day I would find my way back.

“I hadn’t done that when I started the club. Never once did I ask a man about his faith. But all I knew that day, all the ones standing there with me were Christians.” 

He knows now how it happened. 

“When I turned my back on God, he never left me. He never stopped loving me. He never stopped protecting me. He never left my side. And I didn’t even know it.”

Amy McRary, Knox News

Restoration and healing aren’t always easy. For Gary this means revisiting and talking about death, loss and anger.

Anger causes a lot of unnecessary pain. To be healed from that pain we need to ask for help…both from God and others.

In Luke 13:10-17 Jesus healed a woman who had been suffering with a crippling spirit for eighteen years. She came to Jesus and he healed her.

Jesus can heal us too.

Sometimes the healing is different than what we’re looking for, but God knows better what we need. The key to this healing is to ask.

Don’t waste your life being angry.

Faith Is Better Than Magic… Magic Only Goes So Far

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It Requires Action from Us for Faith to Do Its Magic

Faith’s magic is different than magician magic. It’s not a slide of hand, distract you over here while they do the “magic” over there.

There were two boys that were always trying to out prank each other.

One of them stole three candy bars and showed his friend. The friend told him that was no big deal, he could get the store clerk to give him three candy bars.

The first boy didn’t believe him. He had no faith.

The second boy went to the clerk and asked to show him a magic trick. The boy said he would need three candy bars and he would give them back when he was done. The clerk agreed.

The boy took the candy bars. He unwrapped the first one and ate it. The clerk was puzzled. The boy took the second and did the same thing. Now the clerk was getting concerned. The boy now repeated the process again and ate the third one. The concerned clerk says, “Okay, where are the candy bars?”

The boy says, “They’re in my friend’s pocket.”

God’s magic isn’t magician magic. It’s faith.

Faith requires action. In Hebrews 11:1-12 there are examples of people of faith taking action. Noah had faith and built a boat, even though it had never rained. Abraham had faith and went to a country where he had never been that became the promised land. Sarah in her old age believed and had a son.

Faith is like a staircase. You know there’s another floor up there. But if you don’t climb the stairs…you’ll never experience it. Faith without works is dead.

Faith is more than just believing. Faith is where the rubber meets the road. Even the demons believe.

If we don’t act on our faith, it’s useless.

Faith is more than knowledge. To become a musician, it requires more than just learning how to read music or knowing how to play an instrument. It requires practice. This is true for faith too.

Faith is not about information…it’s about transformation. God tells us in Jeremiah, that His plans are for us to prosper. He has plans for our hope and future. To0 much of life is spent doubting beliefs and believing doubts.

When a trapeze artist lets go of the trapeze and reaches out for the catcher, they must believe that they will be caught. The flyer simply stretches out their arms and trusts that the catcher will catch them. This is faith. We need to stretch out our arms to God and trust that He will catch us.

We all experience faith daily in varying degrees. The more we believe, practice and climb the stronger it becomes.

Faith is a better guide than reason. Reason can only go so far…faith has no limits. I will expect miracles in my life because faith produces them every day. I will believe in the future that I do not see. That is faith. The reward of this faith is to see the future that I believed.

Andy Andrews, Seventh Decision

How Can We Be Prepared for Unexpected Situations?

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We Can’t Know Everything That’s Going to Happen, But We Can Still Be Prepared

Getting ready for things that we weren’t expecting or wanting can be hard.

Like a kid that’s told to get ready. What they hear when they’re told, “We’ll be leaving in five minutes.” is… Get undressed, start a finger painting and lose at least one shoe.

It’s reasonable that young kids don’t fully understand the concept of getting ready. It’s less tolerable when we’re adults.  

In Luke 12:32-40 Jesus is trying to prepare His disciples for their mission going forward after His death. He’s trying to help them see the bigger picture.

He tells them to get ready for eternity and not get sidetracked with things of this world. He tells them to be ready like a servant waiting for his master to come home. We don’t know when our lives will end, so we need to get ready now, so that we will be ready when the time comes.

Being prepared is making a decision and taking action before you need to. If you wait until it’s time…it’s too late.

Being prepared requires work. It’s not something that just happens. This is why a lot of people don’t want to be prepared for things. It requires study and training to get prepared for anything.

If it’s worth doing, it’s worth the effort.

We can’t just show up and expect to perform at our best.

Preparation is the difference between success and failure. People who are good at what they do, don’t perform at that level without putting in time and energy to get that way. Preparation is an advantage.

Being prepared requires willingness to put others ahead of ourselves.

At Texas A&M they have a tradition of the 12th Man. This dates back to 1922 when the Aggies were facing a top-ranked team in a football game.

An Aggie by the name of E. King Gill, a squad player for Texas A&M’s football team, was up in the press box helping reporters identify players on the field below — and what was happening on the field wasn’t pretty.

The Aggies found themselves plagued by injuries, with their reserves seemingly dwindling with every play. As Texas A&M Coach Dana X. Bible looked across his rapidly emptying bench, he suddenly remembered Gill’s presence in the stands. Bible waved Gill down to the sideline and told him to suit up. Gill ran under the bleachers and put on the uniform of injured running back Heine Weir, who had been knocked out of the game in the first quarter.

Gill returned to the sideline, where he stood ready to play for the entirety of the game. When the last play was run, the Aggies found that they had pulled off one of the greatest upsets in college football history, winning the game 22-14.

And Gill remained standing, the only player left on the team’s bench.

Gill’s willingness to serve his team in 1922 has passed down from generation to generation of Aggies for nearly one hundred years, as Texas A&M’s student section stands together during entire football and basketball games, a symbol of the 12th Man on the team.

The power of the 12th Man is echoed in the unity, the loyalty, and the willingness of Aggies to serve when called to do so.

And it is the reason that Texas A&M has earned a name that embraces Gill’s simple gesture of service: Home of the 12th Man.

Preparation is a choice. It requires willingness, sacrifice, learning and training. Are you prepared?

A Successful Life Is More Than Just a Big Pile of Stuff

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Where Your Heart is…That’s Where You’ll Find Your Treasure

Success looks different to each of us. We need to remember that success is so much more than just accumulating things. Not that there is anything wrong with having nice stuff.

Real success comes from where our focus is. Is it on the stuff or fulfilling our God given purpose?

We need to be careful to not get sucked into the commercialism of the world.

If we’re honest with ourselves we’re spoiled. Things that we call problems, really aren’t problems…they’re inconveniences. Things like:

  • I have company coming over and my house is a mess
  • My walk-in closet isn’t big enough
  • I can’t get my Wi-Fi to reach everywhere in my house
  • My air conditioning in my truck quit and its hot outside

Compared to a hundred years ago or someone living in a 3rd world country…these aren’t problems, they’re inconveniences.

We live in an overwhelmingly marketed to world. Advertising is all about creating the want of stuff. Desire is contagious. We need to be careful to not be sucked into desiring the wrong things.

Stuff in and of itself isn’t bad. It’s about where your focus is.

In Matthew 6:19-21 we’re told to be careful where we’re storing up treasures. Earthly treasures don’t last forever while heavenly ones do.

Jesus tells us in Luke 12:13-21 about a man whose farm produced such a big crop that he didn’t have enough room to store it all. The man decided to tear down his barns and build bigger ones. This would allow him to eat, drink and enjoy himself for years to come. This didn’t work so well…that night the man died.

This is what happens when people store up everything for themselves, but are poor in the sight of God.

I used to struggle with this Scripture. It seemed to me to be saying that we shouldn’t work hard or be productive or save for the future.

This isn’t what it’s saying. It is saying…it’s not all about me.

If we focus our energy into fulfilling our God given mission, we will be successful…whatever that looks like for each of us.

How Do You Know If Your Servant’s Heart is Focused in the Right Place?

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It’s Pretty Simple Really…It’s All About What Your Focus Is On

If you have siblings or children, you know how things typically progress with each new child. With the first there is a level of inexperience that leads to caution and overzealous instruction. With each following, things seem to relax.

A woman with five siblings (three sisters and two brothers) told a story about one night talking with her mother. They were talking about how the mother had changed from the first kid to the last. Her mother agreed that she had mellowed a lot. “When your oldest sister coughed or sneezed, I called the ambulance. When your youngest brother swallowed a dime, I just told him it was coming out of his allowance.”

Experience is a good teacher.

Most of us are familiar with the story of Mary and Martha. Luke 10:38-42 In this story Martha welcomes Jesus and His disciples into her home. Doing this kicks her servant’s heart into full swing. Hosting people is a lot of work.

While Martha was working to get things ready…Mary went in and sat down with Jesus and the disciples and was listening to Jesus. This upset Martha.

We all know people who excel at hosting. Some of this comes naturally, some is from experience.

A few weeks ago, we had my wife’s family in for the weekend. Debby fixed enough food for three meals a day for twenty-five. (There were only six of us) It’s not that any of us needed that much to eat…it was about her showing her love for them. It’s what her grandma would have done.

Serving others is a good thing…if we don’t lose sight of why we’re doing it.

Mary and Martha were different. All of us are different. These differences lead us to do different things. What’s important to one person isn’t to another.

We don’t know exactly why Martha or Mary were doing what they were in that moment. What we do know, is that in a few days after Jesus was with them, He would be dead.

This is why it is critical that we do what we do with our focus in the right place.

Serving others for the wrong reasons is no better than not serving them.

We need to be careful to focus on the right thing at the right time. Three things we know about focus –

  1. Our time is limited, the demands are endless – We can choose where we spend our time. Don’t let demands have control.
  2. Focusing on the right thing is living with no regret – We don’t know the future so focus on the most important thing now.
  3. You will never have enough time for everything, focus on the right thing – There will always be too much to do and we can’t do it all. We can choose what to neglect.

Make sure to focus on Jesus and what He wants. If we do this…we will be serving in the right way.

Asking Questions is Often the Best Way to Answer Questions

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How Can I Help You? is a Good One to Start With

Asking questions is a great way for us to learn and expand our thinking. This is pretty uncommon in today’s world. People tend to be set in their ways and not interested in hearing different thoughts.

In the Bible Jesus asks a lot more questions than He answers. He asked 307 questions. He was asked 183 questions of which he only gave three answers. Jesus had (has) all the answers, but he asked a lot more than He answered.

Answers provide certainty, but questions prompt growth.

Most of us are familiar with the story of the Good Samaritan.

This story from Luke 10:25-37 is full of questions.

It starts with an expert in the Law, asking Jesus a question. “What must I do to have eternal life?”

Jesus answers him with a question, “What is written in the Scriptures?”

The man replied, “The Scriptures say, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind.’ They also say, ‘Love your neighbors as much as you love yourself.’ ”

Jesus said, “You have given the right answer. If you do this, you will have eternal life.”

Then comes another question. “Who are my neighbors?”

Jesus then tells the story of the Good Samaritan, answering the man’s question with another question.

“Which one of the three people in the story was a neighbor to the man who was beaten and robbed?”

The man answers, “The one who showed pity.”

Jesus said, “Go and do the same.”

It’s nice to have clear answers to questions, but most of the time, the answers aren’t clear.

Questions cause us to think and grow. Questions encourage all involved to consider other answers. Questions lead to expanded thinking.

Asking questions is what Jesus did. Asking questions is what we should do.

What Is It That You Want to Be Remembered For?

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It’s Better to Answer This Question Sooner Rather Than Later

Too often the driving force behind our actions is selfish and inward focused. Even when we’re doing good work that helps others, we turn that around to being about us.

In Luke 10:1-20, Jesus sent people out to share His message. When they came back, they were excited about what they had accomplished. They said, “Lord, even the demons obeyed when we spoke in your name!”

Jesus told them, “Don’t be happy because evil spirits obey you. Be happy that your names are written in heaven!

We need to think about why we do what we do.

We shouldn’t do good things for the wrong reason.

Satan started out as an angel but lost his direction and fell from God’s grace. He could have done great things but instead….it became all about him.

Some missionaries were in a country where one day they found a big snake in their house. They went and got one of the local’s, who came and cut the snake’s head off with a machete.

He went back outside and told them to wait before they went back inside, because the snake’s body is still squirming and they could be hurt.

As he was thinking about this, one of the missionaries realized that this is like Satan. Even though God has already cut his head off, he is still causing damage to anyone who gets too close.

Be sure to keep your distance.

A few months prior to his death Martin Luther King Jr. preached “The Drum Major Instinct”. He told his congregation what he would like said at his funeral: “I’d like for somebody to say that day that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to love somebody.”

King’s sermon was an adaptation of the 1952 homily “Drum-Major Instincts” by J. Wallace Hamilton. Both men tell the biblical story of James and John, who ask Jesus for the most prominent seats in heaven. At the core of their desire was a “drum major instinct—a desire to be out front, a desire to lead the parade”.

King warned his congregation that this desire for importance can lead to people feeling superior. Conversely, King preached that when Jesus responded to the request by James and John, he did not rebuke them for their ambition, but taught that greatness comes from humble servitude.

As King put it, Jesus “reordered priorities.”

King concluded the sermon by imagining his own funeral. Urging the congregation not to dwell on his life’s achievements. He asked to be remembered as one who “tried to give his life serving others”. He implored his congregation to remember his attempts to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and comfort prisoners. “Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter”

It’s important that we do good for the right reason.