Black in America...Black in America...Black in America! Does anyone know what it's like to be Black in America? Apparently CNN didn't think so. Perhaps we don't know---maybe that's why we have been bombarded with programs, documentaries, talks, books, etc. about being Black and the issues that plague the Black race.

On one hand, I'm thinking CNN has done a good job of exposing the poverty, disease, promiscuity, paternal abandonment, deteriorating families, unemployment, racism and the widening academic achievement gap that have all plagued the Black community. It's good for those who don't know what it's like to be Black in this country and for Blacks who aren't aware. Perhaps we all need to get a clearer picture of today's harsh reality.

Twenty-five percent of Blacks live in poverty. Blacks represent fifty percent of people living with the HIV/AIDS virus. Nearly sixty percent of Black males will not graduate. Seventy percent of Black children are born in single-parent homes. One in nine black males are in prison. The statistics are alarming!

What is the problem? As I've pondered over these stats, my mind wandered back over the last 140 years, even over the last 40 years and the thought keeps running through my mind: What have we become? As a nation of Black Americans, what have we become? Have we become a product of the injustices in government and society? Or have we become a product of our own lack of personal responsibility and refusal to rise above today's perceived governmental and societal threat against our culture?

Waist Watcher!

This weekend, I felt miserable. It was FRIGID outside and I was inside with a stuffed nose, aching body and aching motivation. In fact, I was barely motivated to get out of bed! Working out was the least of my "to-dos" because I was stuck in bed, stuck under the covers, stuck into the feelings of misery---stuck, stuck, STUCK! Finally, I made it outside for one workout and as hard as it was, it was worth it. Have you ever been there? Maybe you were there this weekend as well. LIFE HAPPENS! It happens everyday. It happens in our professional lives, our personal lives, our workout lives. Our task is to make sure we don't allow the happenings of life to get us stuck. It's easy to get stuck though...very easy. That's the time when we need the most support and encouragement; the time when we need to dig down deep into our hearts and find the goals that we have hidden there. Remember--A goal written on paper is great, but even better is the goal that's been written on your heart because there it will ever be, reminding you to PRESS ON...even when it hurts and life is "happening" to you. So, did you do at least one workout this weekend? Don't give up! You've only just begun! Make it a great day!

What can one do?

Today as my belly grows fat from all of the food at my disposal, three and a half million people, including babies, in Niger are at risk of starving to DEATH. As my stomach burns with satisfaction, a mother's milk dries from her breasts. My eyes will search the menus of several restaurants over the coming days and a thousand babies will fall from their heritage, stolen by their destiny of starvation. Who will remember their names? Who will remember their faces? Who will remember their wide eyes begging to suckle one last time? Who will hear the cries of their hearts, the distant cries too faint for the fed? What tears will we cry as we glance at their swollen bellies, then pat our own bellies swollen with the fruit of our labor? They will labor too, but as their brows are stained with sweat, no hope of fruit remains.

Holy is the Lord and the earth is filled with His glory. Where is the glory in their suffering? Where is the glory in their dying? Where is the glory in a baby's bloodied flesh as it peels from his body? Where is the glory when we turn our eyes and hang our heads in shame for only one minute while in that same minute, a child has starved to DEATH? What glory is given to the Lord in their suffering?