Character Tests

Your personality and talent can open doors for you but only character can keep the doors open for you. You can find out a lot about a person by who their friends are. "You are who you hang around."

Tests continue throughout our life just like in school to go to the next grade, the next educational year. So it is in life, that is why people feel stuck in life. What test have I not passed? Why am I not where I thought I would be at this point in my life? The life you are living, there are Character tests. The reason you are not there yet is because you have not passed the character test that God has put upon you. The test of character is the most crucial because this is the test that God has destined you TO BE. The person you ARE to become. The bigger your dream, the bigger the character test. "Character" a Greek word that was a mark impressed upon a coin. Think of the mark upon a coin then think about the word character. The mark is what determines the value. The result of character is the mark or impression of what we make upon the lives of others. What kind of mark are you leaving?

To see a man's true nature, give him complete unadulterated power to think, judge and execute another human being. Character is much easier kept than recovered.

Examine and test and evaluate your own selves to see whether you are holding to your faith and showing the proper fruit of life. Test and prove yourself.

We are in a continuous test in our life. Godspeed

A Second Impression

Ghost Ballet combines elements representing the heritage of Nashville’s east bank as well as the momentum and energy associated with Nashville today. Components of the structure are reminiscent of the industries that dominated the east side of the river from the mid-1800s until the Coliseum was completed in 1999, By artist Alice Aycock (the second photo, taken by Mike Byrd).

For two years I lived downtown Nashville and would sit at the Riverfront Parkway across from the "Ghost Ballet" and wondered all of those years what a strange sculpture that was and what the meaning was behind it. Until recently my friend, Kerry Woo, took a picture of it and told me what his interpretation was. For me, Kerry's interpretation resonates with me. A second impression.

"For me it symbolizes broken dreams because of the heart shape yet one can get off the ride of roller coaster emotions and rise above it", says Kerry Woo, a friend and the photographer of the first picture of "Ghost Ballet".

I always saw the angle of the sculpture that Kerry had taken. Never the other. And friends that visited would ask me what it meant and I just told them it was some type modern art.

I like that interpretation. We all have broken dreams, that of love, of friendship, of family or that of a job. How true that we do not have to continue the vicious cycle of a roller coaster of broken dreams or of disastrous emotions that never end and will probably never end. "Yet one can get off the ride of roller coaster emotions and rise above it".

God helps me to do that today. He saved me from the continuous roller coaster of addiction that I could not get myself out of, saved me from a toxic marriage, and once I got sober I can actually see when I need to get off that roller coaster rather than riding it to no end. Godspeed