I was awakened this morning, and when I looked at the clock it was 3:12am. I keep sermons on my computer of Bishop Dale Bronner, listening to them nightly that helps me go to sleep. This particular message was entitled Navigating the Challenges of Life and at and I was awake enough to hear the following:

• “Don’t make your age a problem.” Artist Grandma Moses (who did not sell her first painting until she was 90), Benjamin Franklin was 78 when he invented bifocals, Winston Churchill was 78 when he wrote his first book that won the Nobel Peace Prize in literature, Nelson Mandela was 75 years old when he was inaugurated president of South Africa after being incarcerated for 27 years. Michelangelo did not start his work on the Basilica until he was 72 years old. At age 95 Nola Oaks graduated from college with a degree in history. “Don’t limit God by your age…your best days are ahead!”
• “Quiet your ego, soften your heart, and open your mind.” Change your trajectory by following the guide of the Holy Ghost (God Positioning System), who will guide you unto all truth.
• Examples of events are losing a job or experiencing  the death of a loved one. Transition is the processing of the event, and involves the emotional, psychological, intellectual, relational and financial processing of change. Oftentimes it is not the event so much as it is the transition of the event, which fosters change.
• Why would God confine you to one little corner? He has so much more, which includes   potential, possibilities and opportunities.
  • What is potential?  It is the ability to do something.  Can you imagine yourself doing something you thought was impossible? The more you see yourself doing that, and the more frequent you envision it, the more clearer it becomes……It very well may be that imagination (root word is image) is more important than knowledge, for knowledge is limited to all we know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world in all there ever will be or understand (Einstein). Dream in vivid color as much as you can!
  • Opportunity it is all around us. It means simply the chance to do something.  Why do many not take advantage of opportunities? Be prepared to seize the portal of opportunity!
  • Possibilities…Inventions have one thing in common: they all started with an idea, and their inventors saw the idea as a possibility. Impossible is I’m possible. Be a possibility thinker, as Robert Schuler used to say.

In the next few hours I will be walking down the aisle of Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church to receive my Masters degree in Theological Studies from Palmer Theological Seminary. A journey I thought was impossible is becoming possible today. To my Professor I say thanks for your teaching. To my classmates I say thank you for your friendship and comradery. To God I say thanks for honoring your Word that with you all things are possible.

What an amazing day this is for me.