THE SAME IS NOT ENOUGH

By: Johnny Robinson

Sometimes we find ourselves living with the impression that everything should remain the same. We should be in the same place, doing the same things and getting the same results. Even to the point of meeting the same types of people, content with the same types of challenges, worrying about the same worries and fighting the same fights. We somehow want everything to always end up the same.  I once heard someone say, “Everything must change, and nothing remains the same”. 

We may even say, “I want things to change”.  Then do nothing to change them; what are we really saying? That we unconsciously want more of the same; or that we want others to be responsible for the changes?  With more of the same, we know what to expect; with more of the same, we’re secured in our comfort zones. With more of the same, there is no right or wrong, good or bad, it’s just the same.  It’s been this way all the time, why bother? 

            And then…and then…. and then, along comes a man with a dream for America.  That dream was, “That one day sons and daughters of slaves and former slave owners would be able to sit down at the table in fellowship and harmony; That little black boys and little black girls would one day be able to play with little white boys and little white girls; That one day….” (Dr. Martin L. King, Jr. August 1963).  Nothing has been quite the same since.  But some of us live under the impression that everything always will be the same.  Some have stopped looking for anything else.  It’s called mental stagnation or lack of energetic innovation.  We stopped using our creative imagination to make the dream a reality.  If I believe that all things are the same and now, I find they have changed, it leaves me in a state of confusion and bewilderment.

            I am reminded of an email that I received (Cup of Coffee); A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life. Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups – porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some very plain looking, some very exquisite – telling them to help themselves to the coffee. When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: “If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink.”

“What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups… And then you began eyeing each other’s cups. Now consider this: Life is the coffee; the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, and the type of cup we have does not define, nor change the quality of Life that we live. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee God has provided us.” God brews the coffee, not the cups… So enjoy your coffee! “The happiest people don’t have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything.”  They live simply. They love generously. They care deeply. They speak kindly and they leave the rest to God.

We are not the same.  Today is a new day, I have a dream, and you should have a dream as well.  My dream is similar to Dr. King’s that one day little black boys and little black girls will be able to play together with each other and that black men and black women will get along together. I have a dream that one day black men will get along with other black men and black women will get along with other black women.  That one day, Young blacks and not so young blacks will get along together.  I have a dream that one day, the light-skinned will be able to get along with the dark-skinned, that we will trust and not distrust each other.  I have a dream that one day black businesses and black churches will work together for a cause, and that our people will spend at least 30% to 50% of our income with other black businesses.  I have a dream that we will overcome our conditioning (Willie Chip) of yesterday and know that things are not the same because I have chosen to make a difference.      

            There is a story in the Bible (Chapter 3 of Acts) where a Lame Man was healed. Every morning he waited for someone to carry him to the gate to beg for money, from those going into the Temple. Every night he waited for someone to carry him home. His Condition made him helpless, his Expectations kept him there. They were (The same) just to receive a few coins from those passing. Peter and John told him that they did not have what he wanted, but they had what he needed. Upon receiving what he needed, he immediately began Walking, Leaping and Praising God. Our wants and needs are very different. Our wants are for the same; our needs have to be activated through the power of belief. “All things are possible to you, only if you develop the ability to believe.”

As John F. Kennedy once said, “Those who make peaceful evolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable.” As we take a look at the year 2008, Politics for sure is not the same. America may end this year with a woman or a black man moving into the White House. While at the same time, black men representing approximately 6.5% of the black population (in the USA.), are accounting for nearly a million men in prison and a million and a half on parole or awaiting sentencing. “Black men in prison in America have become as American as apple pie. The rest of the world is watching and following the lead of America. This is leading to a world-wide catastrophe. But still, there is no adequate response from the American or global Black community” (Phillip Jackson – America Has Lost a Generation of Black Boys).

It is now time for others to ask the question, “Is this the same man, the same woman, or the same people?”  No, No, No, we choose not to be the same anymore.  Nothing will ever be the same, when the power of God that’s within each of us, is activated. 

            Give me a call and let’s talk about the same is Not Good Enough. (910-574-7035).