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And when I say basics, I mean the fundamentals. I’m such a sucker for foundations… for fallbacks… for safety nets. It’s not because I’m afraid, but because we all make mistakes. We all takes risks and get hurt sometimes. I couldn’t sleep very well tonight so I decided to write. What on earth am I talking about? I’m talking about the fundamentals of your life, your basic life skill sets. Things that you don’t have to think about doing but you do them because it’s something you fall back on no matter what. We all learn what the new thing is… the new technique… the new something, but new tips and tricks don’t sustain us. They make life interesting, but never last in the long run. It’s especially true when we run into hard times. When we face trials and problems in life, we don’t think of the new tip or trick we just learned. We go back to our comfort zone. What if your comfort zone involves, for example, eating a whole quart of ice cream? Obviously we wouldn’t be able to sustain that in our entire lifetime (it would be a rather short and painful life if you did). But what if we could teach ourselves good fundamentals? And what if the fundamentals became a cornerstone… a foundation… a “comfort zone” for good thoughts and behavior? Well.. as I’ve said in previous posts.. it would end our bad season sooner. We wouldn’t sabotage ourselves during the rough seasons of our life. We would continue to stand tall and upright, looking forward towards our goals and aspirations. So what are my fundamentals?

If you’ve read this far, I commend you. My first paragraph was disgustingly vague. Here’s my first fundamental that I live by and it’s this… this is and will always be the shaded glasses that I wear: God loves me and I could do nothing to make Him stop loving me. If you know this, I don’t think you could ever live a mediocre life. A life consumed with love is a life envied by most people and rarely displayed. People who are loved and know they are loved go on to do incredible things in their lives. In the past 7 years of knowing I’m loved, I’ve seen and done more than my previous 20. Enough said.

My second fundamental is another lens I choose to see the world in: God can only do good. Before I get stoned by Old Testament junkies… I have one thing to say… God gave His only Son to die for our sins and to remove judgment from our sin-riddled lives. His message was, is, and will always be forgiveness… which means that if we ever see something good happen, He most likely had His hand in it. Sickness, disease, earthquakes, disasters, hurricanes are not good. Your head is pretty twisted if you ever believed that those were good. If you have any questions, read the Bible and notice that Jesus said, “it is finished.”… interpreted as… forgiveness has been given. It is done. No more punishment/judgment.

My third and final fundamental that I live by (it’s not through a lens this time): it’s living to make the world a better place. If I ever have an option… I’ll always try to pick the one that leaves a better mark on the world. I actually believe in transformation of cultures, businesses, and societies. But it has to start somewhere. It starts with doing the right thing… with choosing to bless people when they don’t ask… to say nice things about people randomly… it’s all granular but I believe that leaving your mark starts with the little things we get handed. There are opportunities all around us to make the world a better place. That’s a fundamental I have. Now you know.