Giving is living

John Bunyan said, “You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you.”

What have you done today to better someone else’s day? Did you buy someone’s gas? Donate clothes to your local charity? Only ate half a tub of your roommate’s ice cream? Big or small it still makes a difference no matter who you are or what you do. Giving opens the door for a person to receive. Why? Here’s why: though you might not get back what you put in, you will receive ten times as much love and gratitude that comes with giving. I am a strong believer in paying it forward, I was in the position where I reached out to people to help me gain my feet after I fell, or I needed a hand in a certain area where I was lacking and somebody came through. Now I would like to give back and give somebody else a hand and pick them up from their fall.

St. Francis of Assisi said, “It is in giving that we receive.”

But do you actually believe that? It isn’t until we actually experience the true joy of giving that we believe giving is actually that, a joy. I don’t know about you but seeing a person smile makes me smile, it’s contagious. It’s impossible to look at another smiling person and say “Well they are having a terrible day.” No we don’t say that, rather we are attracted to that person and want to smile at what they are smiling at or laugh why their laughing. Laughter, smiles and joy are just so easy to spread, and one of the easiest ways to get yourself to smile is to make somebody else smile.

When it comes to giving most people think it means money, like giving your money to a charity or to a church program. Yeah giving your money is a part of living a generous life but giving can be so much more than that.

“Money is not the only commodity that is fun to give. We can give time, we can give our expertise, we can give our love or simply give a smile. What does that cost? The point is, none of us can ever run out of something worthwhile to give.”― Steve Goodier

My siblings and I used to host the classic lemonade stands outside our house on scorching hot summer days. We went through the whole process of getting the cups and making the gallons of lemonade, and making the sign and setting up the table, all for just a few bucks worth of quarters. As a kid a quarter was kind of a lot, because if you had four of them you had a dollar, and if you had a dollar, holy cow you were flippin rich! One time we were going about the regular sitting and yelling at the top of our lungs at every car that drove by when one guy stopped and bought a glass of lemonade that costed only one quarter and paid one dollar and said these famous words “Keep the change” We were pumped, no more clankity quarters we had a dollar! Paper money! We were jaw dropped and then ecstatic and jumping around. We were rich! What we didn’t really care to notice was the ear to ear grin that man had on his face as he walked away. He might have lost 75 cents but the joy of seeing a couple 5 year olds lose their minds over those 75 cents was all worth it.

If you don’t have money, give your time, love, service, heck give a smile. There is always something to give and the amount is NEVER too little. So give and watch your life turn around. But your attitude should not be “I’m going to give this thing to this person because I know I will get something in return.” First off if that’s your attitude then your generosity is void because you are doing it out of selfish ambition. It says “give and it shall be given to you” In Luke 6:38 in the Bible. Same story here, you will receive no blessing for the blessing you give for the blessing you gave was only set out for your own blessing in return.

So just give, whatever you have, because no matter how big or small, it still makes a difference. Give out of love and joy. Give someone a smile or a big fat check to send that kid to college or get that struggling family out of bankruptcy. The point is your giving will not go unnoticed and you will reap what you sow. So go sow a bountiful harvest and give out of the joyous love in your heart. Trust me, people will catch on and follow your lead. To make a difference you have to be the difference. Go give and live.

Go ahead and share this with your most giving friend/family member, show them some love and then go do something for them that’s out of the ordinary.

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Your dreams are stupid

Well they are, or at least they should be. “My dreams aren’t stupid Bryant, your stupid.” First off it’s you’re, get it right, and secondly if your dreams aren’t stupid then you are doing something wrong. You might think you are doing something right but you are so wrong.

What is a dream? A fantasy? Wish? Hope? Goal? Desire? Yes it is all of those things, but you cannot just limit a dream to one of those things. Webster says a dream is a strongly desired goal. Not just a desire but a desire of a goal. “But why is my dream stupid?” I am not saying your dream is stupid in the sense that I think you are stupid for dreaming such a thing. Like wanting to one day have enough money to be happy. That is legitimately stupid and nobody cares. What I am actually saying is rather your dream SHOULD be stupid. It should be outlandish and silly and crazy and childish and borderline impossible, but that is exactly why you should be dreaming it!

Your dream should be guided by your gifts and talents not by what the world says you are good at. Your dream should be something you aspire to be not something you aspire to have. “I want to be the president one day,” “I want to create technology to help the elderly get up and down stairs.” “I want to bring clean water to those who do not have access to any.” Those are all great dreams. Not “I want enough money to have a Lamborghini and a mansion in the sky and have 100 girlfriends and have a talking robot that makes me sandwiches, oh and I also want to drink those really expensive juices so I can look good for when I look at myself in the mirror…” When dreaming up your dream you should not have the feeling of entitlement of achieving that dream, like “I should be the president because I worked hard and do politics and things.” Yeah but you’re not entitled. You cannot say “good enough.” Because good enough is not good enough when there is room to be great. You don’t achieve your dream until you achieve your dream. And even then you keep on dreaming.

Why is your dream stupid? Because you are smart enough to not dream up some logical thing that you can achieve without giving your best effort. Your dream is stupid because you know it is outside your comfort zone, you know that your 100% best effort will not get you there. That’s why the saying 110% exists, when you don’t think you can give anymore, when you think you are spent and that’s it, keep going and then you will see greatness. You will see your dream. Your stupid dream is now your life. So go live it.

So go ahead, dream a stupid dream and wear your “I’m with stupid” shirt, because I’ll be standing right next to you.

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Think like a kid

Have you ever taken a family vacation? I have. One specifically was when my family and I went to Branson Missouri. We had a great week at a resort going to shows and exploring the City and chilling by the pool. Wow great story… This story begins at the end of our trip.

On our way back from Branson Missouri the Left front wheel to our trusted steed of a van, Bessie, completely popped off. We were in Iowa, where all bad stories start… No offense if you’re from Iowa, but seriously, what’s wrong with you? But we were on the home stretch back to Minnesota just watching The Lord of the Rings, Fellowship of the Ring on a small TV that plugged into the Van’s cigarette lighter and only took VHS’s… Some of you are like “What’s a VHS?” some of you are like “What’s a Van?” and “Who’s Bessie?”

Anyway we are at the part where Gandalf gathers the fellowship and they are about to start off on their journey and boom! Sparks spray up from the tar as Our van sinks into the highway, my Dad had a heck of a time wrestling old Bessie to the side of the highway, but after a few screams the van came to a halt on the side of the highway with the hazards flashing. We called “911” and the highway patrol and tow truck were there in no time flat. Since Bessie couldn’t be driven, the two oldest boys (me and my brother Douglas) rode in the tow truck with my dad and the tow truck driver, We’ll call him Earl, to drop off the van at Earl’s Auto shop, which was a shed in his back yard. My mom and the rest of my siblings rode in the highway patrol car to the nearest place to sleep, which was a 5 room motel with slanty floors and crawling with black cats. But it did have pool, so I guess that was cool. Earl dropped “The men” off at the motel and we all got settled in for bed. I took my spot on the slanty floor and we watched the trampoline basketball game “Slam ball” until we fell asleep. When we woke we knew Bessie wasn’t going to be ready for a while so we needed to find a way to kill some time at this motel in the middle of nowhere USA (or Iowa.) And Just when you’d think it couldn’t get any worse, after losing our wheel, and sleeping on a slanty floor at a sketchy motel owned by Cat Woman, after all that we thought we might as well swim in the pool and relax. But there wasn’t any swimming in that pool, because their wasn’t any water in that pool… Instead there was a wall of ivy and pile of greasy brown and green leaves and probably more cats. Right at that moment, my dad yelled to us while holding a giant box of Krispy Kreme donuts “Hey guys, I got donuts!” Turns out that’s all there was to eat for miles around so we piled donuts in our mouths as we piled into the tow truck back to Earl’s Shop, I mean his shed in his back yard. Their wasn’t much to Earl’s back yard besides his shed full of rusty pieces of metal and old tow truck parts, but way off in the distance, about 20 feet away was a trampoline, we were ecstatic because we spent all last night watching slam ball. So while My parents and Earl figured out how to fix old Bessie, us kids figured out how to turn this trampoline into a slam ball court. We played slam ball until Bessie was ready for the road again. At which point us kids were bummed we had to leave. We wanted to keep playing and hanging out in Earl’s back yard. “What do you mean Bessie is fixed? I don’t want to leave!”

For my parents our time in Iowa was a nightmare… like most time spent in Iowa, but our Van broke and we had to sleep at a crappy motel and pay some random guy who barely knew what he was doing to fix our vehicle after a vacation and just wanting to go home, that just screams no fun, but to my siblings and I it felt like a vacation extension.

“You’re telling me the wheel to our van is going to fly off while we’re going 70 miles an hour on the highway and sparks are going to fly all over the road? Awesome! and we get to ride in a cop car and a tow truck, cool! And watch slam ball and have a slumber party all together, and in the morning we’re having krispy kreme donuts for breakfast? Are you kidding me?!!! Then we’re going to our new friend Earl’s house and playing slam ball on his trampoline? Whoa That sounds like the best day ever!”

Looking back my parents laugh about it but when this happened they weren’t enjoying themselves, while the kids had an opposite view of the situation. Instead of focusing on the bad things, we focused on the good and fun things. We were thankful to ride in a cop car and tow truck, and spend another night in a new place and eat donuts and play slam ball at Earl’s house, we were thankful for the good things and because of that it felt like our vacation was extended a whole extra day.

Moral of the story: think like a kid. I don’t mean to laugh at fart jokes or run away from girls because they have cooties, but I do mean to not worry. Don’t worry about things of this world and focus on the good in your life because you will see that the good far outweighs the bad.

Why drinking mysterious bottles is good

Imagine a bottle. It’s a green glass bottle. Bigger and heftier on the bottom to hold all the good stuff inside and then smoothly thins out as you go to the top right up to the mouth of the bottle where your lips meet it to get at all the good stuff inside.

What does bottled up mean? It means everything is still inside the bottle, it’s not released, it hasn’t been tipped and spilled into the world or poured into a glass to be enjoyed by an interested entity. Sometimes this bottle has many friends (we call that a six pack, or twelve pack) And they just hang out and wait to be enjoyed. The truth is, nobody is going to want to enjoy you if you keep all of your good stuff bottled up. How will anyone know what you are capable of? How will you know what you are capable of? Someone once said “He who doesn’t dream, doesn’t.” I actually might have just made that up… Does that make me Someone?

Sometimes these bottles are still capped, and never have had the chance to be cracked open because nobody has come along to see what they’re made of. That bottle could then take it into their own hands to pop their top and see what’s inside or never try because they think nobody wants what’s inside them anyway. What do I taste like? Are you asking yourself that question? You probably aren’t because it’s weird and a little gross. But what are you made of? What are you bottling up? Whatever it is, just let it out.

At first it might be ugly. Maybe you pop your cap off and spill a little or a lot. Maybe you try to pour your thoughts, emotions, feelings, passions, dreams, into a glass and you completely miss and it goes every where. That will happen, so is life. Ever watch a little kid pour a glass of milk from a completely full jug? It’s quite entertaining and very messy. But over time that kid gets older and wiser and has practiced enough to splash all the milk inside the safe boundaries of that small clear glass cup. Same with us, we might miss, we might misinterpret emotions we might feel empty, like we don’t have anything to pour. But we always do.

What you need to find is the thing you can reveal your bottled-up-ness to. Find a creative or non creative way to express your inner self. Let the whole world get a taste of what your made of. Like they say (who is they? Nobody knows) “You don’t know until you try it”

Go try it.