Breaking The Cycle

Yesterday, our Pastor (Dharius Daniels) began a new sermon series entitled Breaking the Cycle. The concept of breaking any cycle is very interesting. If you do a Google image search on the word "cycle," you'll see a particular depiction that shows a circular image which contains arrows to indicate continuous flow of the cycle.

There are great benefits to cycles. Cycles by nature present a generally well-defined, refined, repeatable process that provides simplicity in the midst of a complex environment. For example, many of us create a morning cycle to ensure we do the necessary activities such as brush our teeth, wash our face, and put on ALL of our clothes...lol. I still have that nightmare of sleepily going outside without pants on...but I digress. haha. But there are times when we develop cycles that aren't necessarily good for us.

Sometimes we develop cycles that physically harm us (such as smoking, drugs, or alcoholism). Sometimes we develop cycles that impact us emotionally (depression, fear). Sometimes we develop cycles that impact our spirituality (lack of prayer and meditation time, habits of sin). Sometimes cycles are a product of our environment...and we know we don't choose how we grow up. The church mostly refers to this particular type of cycle as generational curses.

I appreciate Pastor Daniels because he's seen the difficultly of breaking these harmful cycles, and has shared practical (Biblical-based) steps to guide us in breaking these cycles. Allow me to share:
•  Acknowledge the Cycle – As we all know, the first step to making a change is acknowledging that something needs to change.
•  Identify the Contributors – Who or What is the trigger that sets me off? Really take some time here. Ask yourself if the issue you are dealing with is, in fact, really a result of a deeper issue. For example: you get angry every time you see someone in a happy relationship. You don’t necessarily have an anger issue here. Your issue is possibly residual hurt from a previous relationship, and anger is just your response to that hurt.
•  Identify What You Control – Once you list out the contributors to your issue, identify which ones you control and which you do not control. You can’t change other people. But you can change the people you surround yourself with.
•  Adjust Your Perspective – Things will come to break you.  Things will come to remind you of what you are trying to break. But you must develop a Philippians 4:8-9 mentality. Commit to thinking on the things that are good and right. Perspective is everything.
•  Retrain the Brain – The battle is mostly mental. You can put on new clothes and move to a new neighborhood, but if your mind is still back where you were, that is how you will respond. Retrain your brain to think differently. Romans 12:2.
•  Eliminate the Unnecessary – Get your best Donald Trump on and FIRE! those people or things who do NOT belong with the new YOU.

I hope these points bless you!  I will definitely be using this as a guide as I break certain cycles in my life.  

Bless you fam,

Marc
www.marcdanyell.com

The NEW Marc Danyell Experience

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Clean My Heart Lord...

Psalm 51:10-11Create in me a clean heart, O God,And renew a steadfast spirit within me.Do not cast me away from Your presence,And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.

Give Me  Clean Heart - Fred Hammond
[Verse 1]
Give me a clean heart
To see You like I should, hey
To walk the path that's right
To do the thing You would
Give me a clean heart and I will serve nobody, but You

Do You Know How to Sit Down?

Psalm 5:3 (NLT) “Listen to my voice in the morning, LORD. Each morning I bring my requests to you and wait expectantly.”

Friend to Friend

I had a list of things to get done. Yes, my back was killing me and I was tired, but that list kept me hurrying around the house like the proverbial Energizer Bunny. When my husband walked in from work, I gave him a quick hug and resumed my almost frantic pace. “What are you doing, honey?” Dan asked. With one of my famous sighs, I responded, “I just need to get a few things done.” “How is your back?” Dan persisted. With growing irritation, I answered, “It hurts!” Dan watched me for a few minutes and then calmly stated, “You don’t know how to sit down, do you?” My first response was irritation which quickly escalated into anger – until I heard the unmistakable prompting of the Holy Spirit affirming the truth Dan had spoken. I needed to learn how to stop and sit down – and rest. But that list held me captive to unrealistic expectations in a ridiculous effort to prove my worth through what I did. It is an ongoing battle in my life. And I am not alone.

Thank You For My Life

So this upcoming weekend, I will be a part of the Stage Play entitled "In Praise" at Newark Symphony Hall (SHAMELESS PLUG).  One of the songs I was requested to sing for this event is Smokie Norful's Dear God.  Now I'll admit, prior to this time, I had never heard of this song before in my life.  But when I did listen to it for the first time (in a mad haste to cram the song in my brain), I fell INSTANTLY in love with it.  I could relate to almost every single word in this song.

He Leads Me From The Chaos

I was/am a huge fan of cartoons.  I particularly love when there was a big fight scene that occurred.  You know, the one where there is a big cloud of fight smoke, and all you see is flailing arms and legs outside the fight cloud.  I especially thought it was funny when you saw the main character, or the protagonist, slide out of the chaos, only to look back and see that the fight cloud is still there. Little did the fight cloud know that they were fighting nothingness...lol.  As I sat in meditation this morning, the visual in my mind of that scene actually gave me such a great word.  I'm going to share with you what I got out of it.

Unexpected Blessing: Casting Crowns Concert (3-16-12)

Greetings Family,

I pray that this reaches you refreshed and blessed.  This past friday, I had the opportunity to check out the Casting Crowns concert at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ.  The concert featured Lindsay McCaul, Royal Tailor, Matthew West, and Casting Crowns...none of which I had heard of prior to last night. I tell you this...i was SOOOO unexpectedly blessed by this experience.

First, I had the privilege to meet all of these guys backstage.  Their spirits just warmed me (and I got some great pictures...lol).  Then I had the chance to watch them work.  For the purpose of this blog, I'll share some of the quotes and pictures that really blessed me.  That said, lets dive right in!!

While on the topic of the trials we face: "We try so hard to manage the symptoms, but only Christ can cure the disease" ~ Royal Tailor

"We were created to lean on Him" ~ Matthew West

While on the topic of how God and his mercy works: "We don't have to come close to God for him to save us....He will come to us, where ever we are" ~ Matthew West

"You can't go to the world to fulfill your thirst" ~ Casting Crowns
continued in lyrics...
"The world will try, but they can not fill...leave it all behind and come to the well" ~ Casting Crowns

"We are not blessed so we can have.  We're blessed so we can give!!" ~ Casting Crowns

I pray that you meditate on these things...seek to engrain these thoughts into YOUR faith.  I may expound on these in future blogs.  But until then, be blessed by some of the pictures from last night.  God Bless!!

- MD

Finding My Foundation

What's up my friends and family!

Thought: You never truly know how the pins will fall after you make a big decision.  Here I stand at the end of February...I'm finally feeling the impacts of the the decisions I made towards the end of 2011.  If you remember, going into 2012 I made a decision to start a new job, leave my current church, AND move to a completely different city.  Not only that, but I was dealing with the pains of no longer being engaged.  In hindsight, I realized that I had experienced a MAJOR upheaval at the root of my foundation; so much so, that today I stand in...well...instability.  Everything I've worked for in the past 5 years...almost everything I've known and loved just seemed to be restarted...with mostly new characters and new faces.  My relationships with many of the old characters in my life were drastically altered as well.

Now I can't say that this is the first time this has happened in my life.  I've experienced this two times before. Once when I graduated high school and moved to Indiana to attend Notre Dame.  The other time was when I graduated from Notre Dame and moved to New Jersey to work.  But what makes this time different is there was a seemingly forced closure period that led me to make the change.  In both high school and college, there was a sense of a permanent and physical end to that stage in my life...and the requirement to move forward with my next journey.  This time, it was my Spirit that led me to change.  That said, I'm really not that familiar with the territory that I'm in.

I find it funny, too.  It's in these times when we're in our season of change (or how we as Christians usually say it...our Wilderness) that the enemy brings on the all out assault.  I see him bringing up past demons in my life.  That particular past demon for me is weight gain.  At the end of 2006, I made a commitment to gain control of my weight.  By the end of 2007, I had lost 70lbs!  And I successfully kept it off until 2011...when my world began to shift.  With weight gain comes emotional and physical aches and pains that I thought I had moved past.  It's just a mess.

I also see the enemy hitting me in another weak spot of mine: my desire to be supported and to support others.  Because there is so much change in my life, I feel like I have a completely new set of hands are hitting me with the "I need" line. Anybody who knows me, knows that I am wired to give.  So its hard for me to accept that my answer is mostly "NO" these days.  It also doesn't help that I'm experiencing constant (and sometimes illogical) rifts with my current support system.  But I've always believed that when there are issues in your relationships, it's always spiritual (Eph 6:12).  I just know that God placed family and other loved ones in your life to be the one example of His undying love for us...and when that is attacked, its the enemy ripping at our core.

But God spoke to me this morning in His sweet, still voice.  He gave me one scripture: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all of its righteousness, and all of these things will be added unto you" ~ Matthew 6:33. He reminded me to stop stressing over my stresses.  He reminded me that while the world that I THOUGHT I had collapses around me, to just stay focused on Him.  He'll provide my stability...He'll provide my peace...He'll provide anything that I need at the time I need them.

So today, I'm striving to stop trying to FIX my problems, and pushing to FIX my eyes on Him.

Thanks for reading...

MD

2011 Year In Review

Greetings Family,

Its that time of the year again.  A time to reflect on my past and realize where I am today.  I'm going to do it a little different this time around.  Check out my blog from the past two years:

2010 (the 2009 reflection): http://marcdanyellblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/totally-un-focused.html#more

2011 (the initial 2010 reflection): http://marcdanyellblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/one-year-laterprogess.html#more

All I can say is wow.  In retrospect, I should have noticed a pattern that was leading me to an eventual eruption, but I was so young-minded.  I felt like I could take on the world.  Boy is hindsight 20/20.  Much of 2011 can easily be the breakdown from two years of just GOING.  My stress level was at its peak, I was diagnosed with High Blood Pressure, I wasnt sleeping, and things around me started crumbling.  Not only did I hate my job, but I wound up dealing with a broken engagement. To top it off, I wasn't being fed at church.  I was just an all around mess.  

Let me stop here.  2011 wasn't an all-out catastrophe. I was blessed enough to release my debut Gospel album entitled "Close To You." I had a OUTSTANDING vacation in St. Kitts.  I even had the chance to sing for (and record with) the great John P. Kee.  I had a great team supporting me (shouts to my ex and my manager.  I wouldnt be where i am without you two).  I had a very successful year.  But I wasn't able to truly celebrate and appreciate due to the dark cloud my stressers created over me.  I really felt that although I was "successful" on paper, I was at my lowest of lows in life.

It's in your trials that God reveals the beauty and perfection in life.  I can truly say that at the start of 2012, I'm not in the place I was in during the start of both 2010 and 2011.  I am loved greater than I've ever experienced in life.  I am not stressed.  I will have a new worship experience, new job, new apartment (in a great neighborhood) all by the end of January of this year.  I've learned what it means to slow down and to take care of myself.  Sometimes it takes you hitting the brink of insanity to see these things.  I can say I'm a better person today.

I'm excited for 2012.  I know God has a great plan for my ministry, my personal life, and my professional life.  So I stand, rejuvenated and focused.  Ready for what God has for me!!

Be blessed, my friends.

MD