Dare to be Different - Mahl Kita

Used by Permission by www.GoodJobNotes.com

The biggest problem with being different is that you, just by being different, fly in the face of what everyone thinks is right and what they expect from you.  Most of the time, being different is considered being wrong, and causes overt and direct attacks as well word of mouth and rumor attacks.  It almost never causes success in the world, unless it answers the question, "What's in it for Me."

In the west, what's in it for me means $$$ most of the time.  Nothing wrong with $$$, but if that is not your goal, your mission, your calling from God, then whatever your calling is, is not going to go over so well with the population at large most of the time.

This is my story about being different.

In the early 80's, which you might know already if you have read Dark Well of Despair - Light of Hope, I fell off a bicycle and sustained a Traumatic Brain Injury.  Up unto that point, I was 3 credit hours from getting my Masters in Physics, though I had temporarily abandoned that path, I was a fairly successful life insurance sales person in a team with my wife, and I had a 2 year old daughter.  Life was good, and I was rolling in money.


That stopped when I hit my head.  I nearly lost my house, with one of those can't get if from anyone else emergency mortgages.  If just so happened that the bank I had originally borrowed from was being bought out, and the loan officer was attending the same church we were attending.  I knew there was a God, and that it was important to be seen going to Church in our community, but I had not idea who God was.  Seems he knew who I was though. The load officer called my wife, and said my credit rating was horrible, since I had not paid any bills since my injury, at least 6 months earlier.  He was going to rewrite the loan anyway, and pay for the second mortgage, the water pump that just blew up, and the unpaid mortgage, because "it was going to be the last good thing the bank would do, before it went under."  At the time, I had no idea that was God.  I was so drugged out on pain pills, and well over 100lbs heavier than I was 6 months earlier, I was only aware of my own pain.  I did not really know we were losing our house.  My wife was dealing with that.  Seems God was helping her.

I was told that I could sue the state, since they mis-aligned the sewer grate that flipped me over, but I was also told that I was possibly partially responsible.  I was on the bike.  So I would only get $200,000.  Never entered our minds after that though.  Why?  Because my wife was different.  If I was responsible, then I would pay for it.  So we did.

We owed over a 1/4 of a million in debt, not counting the house, which a year earlier was not an issue, but now that I was messed up, could not think, was in pain, and was never going to come out the other end, all that debt was oppressive.

My house was falling apart.

My income had fallen apart.

I was going down, and I was not born for failure.  I tried to kill myself. That was a call out to God, though I would have denied that at the time. I was reaching out of my despair and he reached out and grabbed ..... no, not my hand.  That would have been too freaking easy.

My daughter was found by God when she was 8ish, and by the time she was 15ish, God had found me too.  Turns out he had found my wife decades before. Anyway, that changed everything.  Everything.

Now, getting rid of the debt, anyway we could, was not the priority.   Paying the debt was.  I borrowed it, so I was going to pay it back.  Different.  But that is what the spirit told us to do.  So we did it.  It took us until my daughter graduated from college.

Eventually my Disability Insurance agreed to pay.  My doctor told me to learn karate.  I broke every window in my house in anger.  Life was just getting weird.  The neurologist was right though, but for a reason he never would have predicted.  Turns out I am a gifted teacher.  Since we were now following the Spirit when ever we knew what was being asked of us, we discovered I could give back to the community by helping others defeat their issues.  After all, I was never going to work again, but I could teach karate.  We tried to pay me, but every time we even talked about it, I got ill, so the doctor, my wife decided they were right.  I would never work again, yet I could give back.

We were different.  We teach karate not to make money, but to help others.  We always have, since we started.

What was the reward from the world?  My insurance company stole my insurance payments from me, and two years of my life, as they tied to steal much more.

Some students, though a small percentage, can't understand what's in it for me, so they vocally accuse us for all sorts of strange stuff.  Why?  Because we are different.  I have never been paid, and never will be.  I don't do it for the money.  I could not do it for the money if I wanted to.  I do it for the students, because that is what I do for God.  I use his gifts to give to his people.

The worldly reward have not yet arrived.  Only more difficulty, but God's rewards have been outstanding.  Let me list a few.

1)  I am not supposed to be married anymore.  No one with my injury is.  I am.  God 1 Point. (Well, ok, 1,000,000 points, but no one would understand that scoring.)

2) I get to teach karate and at the same time, all the values that God has taught me.  The Bible is a living book, and I get to pass it on, to everyone.  God gets another point.

3) I get to teach Sunday School, when crowds in stores, outside, or anywhere near me make me ill, but he has again surrounded me with people, like at karate, that understand, and help me help others.  God gets another point.

4) I Lost all my physics.  I can't even add 2 digit numbers.  I gained teaching.  God gets another point.

5) I have had financial set back after financial set back, and the people around me and my family for the most part have stepped in and helped us help others.  God gets another point.

6) I got to go on a mission trip with my family and a few close friends.  We taught karate and God in the Philippians.  God gets another point.

7) As dumb as it sounds, I have 5 cats.  They love me.

6) I have the best adult daughter in the world.  Period.  I will fight you over that.

My wife, my daughter and I dare to be different.  Why, because it takes different this day and age to follow the Lord, but Love is Love.  We have it. We share it.

So, I beg you, Be like the apple at the front of this blog.  Be Different for the Lord.

Mahal kita.

I Didn't Do It, or the 12 Points to Fight off Rumors and Accusations

Psalm 26 - A Psalm of David (NLT)

Old Faithful 
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1 "Declare me innocent, O Lord, for I have acted with integrity; I have trusted in the Lord without wavering."

Point 1: If you are being accused or hounded by people (or a victim of rumors), and you didn't do it, Tell God.  If you can't,  then your heart probably thinks you are guilty.

If you believe that the Bible is accurate, inerrant, and the Word of God, you can trust it.  If you do not believe that, then reading this probably will only make you more confused.  Let me put it this way; if you trust the bible, then this will be awesome.  If you think the bible lies, then go play angry birds, cause this will make you angry.


So we start with David, who is innocent.  That is what the Bible says, but of what is he innocent?  


According to Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible, it is likely that David wrote this psalm when he was being chased by Saul. If you remember, Saul was the Supreme Judge or King of Israel at the time. So David could submit himself to Saul for judgement or to God. But what was he being Judged for? 

It can not be for his sinless behavior toward God, since David knew he sinned and we know that no one is righteous before God. For example, Psalm 51:3:(NKJV) "For I acknowledge my transgressions, And my sin is always before me."

So that only leaves the "sins" against Saul, for which he was being pursued, harassed, and killed if he were caught. Even when his men suggested he kill Saul, he would not kill God's anointed. 1 Samuel 24:6-7 "And he said to his men, “The LORD forbid that I should do this thing to my master, the LORD’s anointed, to stretch out my hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the LORD.” So David restrained his servants with these words, and did not allow them to rise against Saul. And Saul got up from the cave and went on his way."

I don't know about you, but I have been pursued by friends and companies alike who accused me of doing all sorts of things from lying through stealing.  They were wrong, did not understand what was really going on, looked at things through their own perspective without asking enough questions, and launched to verbal, emotional and at time legal redress.  I have felt like this many times, and in the last 5 years, during the worst of it, I have begun to behave like David.  I try not to attack them with word or deed.  In fact, I try to honor their vision, rather than my own, under the verse above - that they, like me, are God's.  Not easy.  Especially since my injury magnifies stress to the point of illness, but David was looking at death, not illness, and yet he followed the Lord.  So will I.

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2 Put me on trial, Lord, and cross-examine me. Test my motives and
my heart.

Point 2: If you believe in your cause strongly enough to appeal to the Lord. Ask him to judge you NOW. If you are right, he is the most powerful advocate against whom no one can stand.  If you are wrong, fixing it now will help your life immeasurably. 

There is no Jury with God.  He knows everything.  Everything.  This is how strong David felt about his actions toward Saul and God.  There is only one penalty for transgressing against the Lord, and he just asked for it to be invoked for sins against Saul, if he had committed any. Wow. That's faith.

3 For I am always aware of your unfailing love, and I have lived according to your truth.

Point 3: If you defense is "I have not sinned against God," you have already lost.  If your defense is "I didn't do it, and I am following you Truth and Love," you are right! 

What's his defense?  Not, "I never harmed Saul," though that is true. Rather, he says, I know you love me and I live my your word.  Try me on my behavior and my faith.  No wonder God says he is close to the heart of God.  Again, Wow!


I have learned in the last 6 weeks that I must live in the world, so I will be judged by the people in it.  That hurts.  I am hard to understand, and very few really care.  Their lives are hard too, and they are trying to pay their bills, climb their mountains, enjoy their lives and what I am doing really does not matter all that much to them.  They don't care that my Mother in Law almost died from Lyme disease 8 weeks ago, and we have spent the whole of the summer helping her.  They don't know that I don't get paid at all, since I am as messed up mentally as you can be and not be in a hospital.  Not their concern.  So some of them judge me harshly.  Can't change that.  But I have learned to appeal to the Lord. At the end of the day, it is in his court, not the worlds, and David did it too.

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4 I do not spend time with liars or go along with hypocrites.

Point 4:  It really does matter who you call friend.

It really does matter who you hang out with.  I spend time with hypocrites and liars all the time.  I live in the world.  I am one of them.  Yet, I go to those who Love the Lord for advice and friendship.  The others are the mission field we walk in.  Jesus showed us how.  He commanded us to go. Mark 16:15 (NLT) "And then He told them, "Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone."

So, hang with those who belong to Christ, but go into the world. 

The Heart of Darkness
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5 I hate the gatherings of those who do evil, and I refuse to join in with the wicked.

Point 5:  Evil Feels Wrong.  If you do not Feel the wrongness, you need to get closer to God.

I have begun to feel evil now.  Scares me.  I can tell if I am in the wrong place with the wrong people.  It is not always their language, their activity or even their attitude.  It is more like something is missing.  You can feel the absence of the Lord.  I leave when I feel that.  It scares me.


When we visited China, we went to an active Buddhist Temple. Painted wooden statues everywhere.  I though it would not bother me, but when we say people prostrate before wood, it made me ill.  Evil is real.

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6 I wash my hands to declare my innocence. I come to your altar, O Lord,

Point 6:  Before you come before the Lord with your grievance, make sure you are clean of sin.

He washes his hands to remove sin before he comes before the Lord.  This is not arrogance, like saying, "hey, you.  You know I am clean."  Rather, he knows he is NOT CLEAN before the Lord, only before Saul.  He never forgets he is a sinner, even when pleading the unjust treatment he is getting from God's own king.

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7 singing a song of thanksgiving and telling of all your wonders.

Point 7:  Be Thankful, and tell people about it.  God is NOT private.

Oddly, that is what I am doing with this article right now.  I feel I am being unjustly treated.  My wife is being harrased for doing what normal people could never do.  Our mistakes are being viewed as either stupidity or immorality. I am tired of the weight that I have to see her carry. It has always been so. 


I don't know when I turned the corner, but Anne has always been around the other side.  She can't wait to go to church, to pray before we eat, to pray just because she can.  That is new to me.  I have learned to see the wonders of the Lord within the darkness of the world.  Praise the Lord.

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8 I love your sanctuary, Lord, the place where your glorious presence dwells.

Point 8:  Remember whose you are!

Think about this for a second.  Where is the Lord's sanctuary NOW?
.....

.....

Your Body.  Love yourself and take care of your body, because it is where the glorious presence of the the Lord dwells.

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9 Don’t let me suffer the fate of sinners. Don’t condemn me along with murderers.

Point 9:  Be Sure of Yourself!

David is being bold.  He is telling the Lord not to equate what is happening with Saul with Sin. Two things strike me about this, that I have never noticed before.  First, he must believe in himself quite a lot if he makes a statement that bold to the God of everything.  Second, he is talking like that to God, and God says it is Good. ... 

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10 Their hands are dirty with evil schemes, and they constantly take bribes.

Point 10:  Express your outrage at you, a follower of Christ, being treated like those who do not follow.

He draws a line in the sand about his moral behavior with people.  He points out that God's anointed is not playing fair, and is not treating him or others as he should.  David is outraged that Saul can get away with it, when he, David, follows the Lord.

He is proving Point 9.

11 But I am not like that; I live with integrity. So redeem me and show me mercy.

Point 11:  Ask for Mercy.

He states, with certainty, he is not like that.  So he asks for the Grace of God to sustain him, and rescue him.  

Point 12 Now I stand on solid ground, and I will publicly praise the Lord.

Point 12: Again, Tell People about how Awesome the Lord is!

And when he is done, does he wait for something to change, like Saul to die or send a message?  NO.  He gets us, stand up, and not only praises the Lord, but does it in front of others.  That takes faith. He dives right into the rest of his life with the faith that God will not let him falter.  Click Diving In, for more on how I have dived into my life since I have learned the truth of God's word.