To my former classmates

It’s been a little over 4 years since we were all in the same room, throwing off our red caps and toasting to the new adventure ahead. On that day, I had the honor of sharing with you a bit of wisdom that I was fortunate enough to receive at an early age. Since then, some of you have graduated, some of you took a break from studies, some of you never pursued further education. Whichever category you fall into… the message I delivered was, and still is for you. Here it is again… in case you forgot it, or in case you didn’t really hear it the first time (I’m not offended–I wanted to get out of that hot gym myself). We have six years until our reunion. I hope that when we see each other again we will all be “solid chocolate bunnies,” full of “essence.” Oh, you forgot what I’m talking about? Now you HAVE to read on… Make sure to watch the video at the end. It Goes along with it. enJOY.

Good afternoon Class of 2004,

Thirteen years and we’ve finally made it. For most of us, the majority of the past thirteen years of our lives has boiled down to this one day. Graduation day; the only known cure to senioritis. It’s so exciting isn’t it? In a few moments we are going to get that diploma, flip our tassels, and walk out those doors, possibly for the last time. And when we get out there we’ll realize…. Oh my gosh, my life begins now! Now what? Well let me give you a head start on that. What is expected is that you take what you learned from here over the years, go out and do whatever it is that you love to do and be a success. But, you see, success is a word that people misuse everyday. In today’s society we have defined the word with money, big houses, fancy cars, and for those who are “down” with today’s slang, bling bling, and ice and rims. Mr. Webster defines success as a favorable or desirable outcome. You see, although we all may look good with the bling, that doesn’t fit my definition of success. I don’t know about you but the favorable outcome that I desire for my life is not to be fancy or famous, it’s to be fulfilled.

There have been thousands, maybe even millions of “successful” people who have lived and died miserable because they did not know how to measure success. They did not know what they were really living for, and they were never fulfilled. Let me tell you about a man named Solomon. Solomon had everything that you would think that a man could hope for. He was the king of an entire nation for 40 years, and he had acquired riches untold. He had not just one palace, not just two palaces. In fact, he had so many palaces they aren’t even sure how many palaces he had. As the writer of the entire book of Proverbs, Solomon is known by many as the wisest man to have ever lived. How about this one, guys? Solomon had about a thousand wives and concubines. (I always think it’s funny to see how the guys react to that. It always seems that all of the young guys are dreaming of what it would be like, while the married men are thinking one’s enough, thank you.–[pause for old people laughter]) But getting back to the point, Solomon had everything his heart desired. So he thought. Because as his time on Earth came to a close, this is what he had to say about everything he had worked to achieve.

“Meaningless! Meaningless! Utterly meaningless! EVERYTHING is meaningless! What does a man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun? All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing. My heart took delight in all my work and this was the reward for all my labor. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.”
—-Ecclesiastes 1:2,3,8 & 2:10b-11

Might I remind you that this was the wisest, and probably the richest, man to have ever lived? He had everything that we all dream of. And if Solomon was not content with what he had, I can tell you right now that you can spend you life chasing everything that the world has to offer, but you will never catch enough of it. We spend our entire lives collecting things to fill our homes, but the fullest rooms in our houses are closets, attics, and storage rooms. You adults know what I’m talking about. When will we realize that our lives can be so much more than stuff?!

By a show of hands, how many of you remember getting candy every Easter when you were little? Do you remember that first time you got one of those giant chocolate bunnies? Oh yeah, I remember my first one. I remember thinking “Mom has lost her mind! Seven kids with seven giant chocolate bars… What does she think is going to happen?” Well, she knew what she was doing, as usual. I unwrapped the thing, held in out in front of me with my eyes wide and a huge grin on my face thinking “this is gonna be the best thing that I have ever tasted.” So I finally bring it to my mouth, take a huge bite into it and my mouth is still empty. I turn it over and nothing drips out. I look inside and… It was HOLLOW! I felt so cheated. That was the first and last giant chocolate bunny that I had ever tasted. You see, that company spends so much time and effort building up that bunny so that it is appealing, but it’s worthless because it has no cream filling, no caramel, no marshmallow, no nougat, nothing! It has no essence.

Friends, our lives can be the same way. Many of you will still figure it out the hard way. You will spend all of your time building yourself up. You may be rich, you may be popular, you may be powerful, but in the end, you will feel like have accomplished nothing, unless you have found that essence. I know that there are adults out there that can testify to this, and please do! This is something that we always need to be reminded of. What is it that we live for? At the end of his life, Solomon realized that there were only two things worth living for. 1.)Serving God and 2.)Serving his people. Why is that? Because both of these purposes produce eternal results. Service to the people around you leaves a legacy. Not only do people remember those who serve them, they strive to serve like them. It produces a ripple effect that will go on for ages. I think we all realized that in November of 2002 (the people present at her funeral were a testimony that my mother actually lived. Service like hers never ceases to produce results.) We are just tiny dots on a timeline, but in your short lifetime on earth, you can make an impact that will last forever. And tell me, is there any better way to produce eternal results that to serve an eternal being? People come and people go. Money is spent as quickly as it is earned. Games are retired as quickly as they are begun. But God was, is, and will always be. And that is why I have chosen to make my life his.

I believe that every single one of us has what it takes to be successful. But can you really be successful without ever truly being fulfilled? We can spend the rest of our lives building up whatever it is in this world that we think that we want, but without the right purpose, we are just empty chocolate bunnies. Friends, if you want to live a life to the fullest, live for a purpose that is greater than yourselves. Live for a purpose greater than yourselves. It is in this that we find a reason for today and the hope for a future. Thank you, and may God bless you in whatever you do.

The Search for Relevance: Misty Edwards

Short Version:

Long Version:

Search for Misty Edwards on YouTube.

Insight on Friendship, from C.S. Lewis

“Lamb says somewhere that if, of three friends (A, B, and C), A should die, then B loses not only A but ‘A’s part in C,’ while C loses not only A but ‘A’s part in B.’ In each of my friends there is something that only some other friend can fully bring out. By myself I am not large enough to call the whole man into activity; I want other lights than my own to show all his facets. Now that Charles is dead, I shall never again see Ronald’s reaction to a specifically Caroline joke. Far from having more of Ronald, having him “to myself.” Now that Charles is away, I have less of Ronald. Hence true Friendship is the least jealous of loves.”

From C.S. Lewis’s “The Four Loves“
Really, how true is this? To all of my friends whom I have not seen in ages… There is a part of me that I have not seen since you’ve (or I’ve) been gone. I’ve felt it for a long time, but now have words to put to the feeling. It makes me wanna jump on a plane to visit everyone I ever knew, but I’d have to see you all at the same time to be my “whole” self. (maybe that’s part of what heaven is all about). Separating from some of you was like losing some of the best of me. I only hope that the feeling is mutual in your thoughts toward me. Honestly, I love you with all my spleen and always will because I left part of it with you. (since I dont know what the spleen really does, I figured I could make good use of it here. i’ve decided to save my heart for some girl.)
love,
Junior Bataille.

Just Like Old Times… In a New Place

You know what I miss from Duke… praying and worshiping together with my friends till 2am. I miss the group that can’t seem to hang out like normal 20+ year olds without breaking into prayer, worship, and intercession. (Irina… hold back the tears, there’s a hopeful message coming). But what I found out in the last couple weeks, is that such a passion for God is contagious. You carry it wherever you go. It breaks through all cultural and language barriers to ignite little flames in the hearts of people whom you decide to open yourself up to. That is if you open up.

About two weeks ago I was on the roof one night with my guitar, praying and worshiping, when Amos decided to interrupt me. Honestly, I was a little upset at first because I had come up to be alone with God. He couldn’t have known that though, because I was singing in English. We talked for awhile about me teaching him how to play the guitar and teaching him some songs in English and then it hit me. That morning, God put it on my heart to translate some of my favorite songs into Kreyol. I knew that he and Paul love to sing so I told him to get Paul so we could pray and worship together. I don’t have words to describe how great the presence of God felt that night as we sang “Glorify Your Name” (Glorifye Nom Ou).

We continued to do this off and on over the next week and God put it on my heart to talk to them about the burden that I felt to pray for Haiti, specifically our region (Petite Place Cazeau). We spoke about it, then I showed them the Transformations video (www.sentinelgroup.org) to build their faith about what God can do when we unite in prayer and they were ready to jump in with me. That video is amazing–watch it!. I explained to them a vision that God gave to me. In it I saw the three of us praying and worshiping together on the rooftop. As we were doing so, someone came and knocked at the gate. They came to pray with us. This continued until the roof was covered. They were all young people like us. To keep the fire going, we decided to plant a “satellite” prayer group on another rooftop.

That night we decided to begin working toward that vision. We outlined a few things that we want to see changed in our area and in the church of Haiti and we began to pray together. We don’t know when or how, but we are standing to believe that God will transform this area and this nation. After last night’s session I realized that its just like old times… just new faces in a new place.

On another note, the annual revival began Sunday Night and will end on August 26. The theme is “Lord, we need your fire.” Showing that desperation for God, the congregation is also meeting every morning at 5am for prayer. Thinking that we would only see a few people there, my dad and I arrived a few minutes late to find that we couldn’t find a place to sit… we could barely stand. God is moving…