SHAKEN, NOT STIRRED!!!

 

As much as I think Daniel Craig is a good actor, in my opinion, he doesn’t just cut it in his role as the new James Bond. Aside from being blond, the brother, can be brutish, bleeds, lacks finesse and rarely uses special gadgets. In Casino Royale he was toting a submachine gun (totally unlike Bond) and when asked for his name, he doesn’t say “my name is Bond….James Bond”.  Special rides are not part of his repertoire and the one that nearly made me pass out was when he was asked how he likes his martini and the dude responded “who gives a damn”.  The guy doesn’t brush off his suits after a brawl; surmise it to say, he falls pretty short in the suave and debonair department.

I long for the good old days of the traditional Bond. You might call me a stick in the mud but in as much as change is inevitable, why change a good thing or a winning formula.

As we go through life every day, we find ourselves in a few skirmishes where negative punches are thrown at us, insults are hurled at our persona, failure tries to stain us with grimy fingers and the labels of funny monikers are stuck on the suits of who we are but the question is, how do we handle this? We have to learn to be like Mr. Bond. After each and every melee, he dusts off his suits, downs a drink for the road, gives a punch line and moves on still looking impeccably groomed. The past is promptly forgotten for the purpose of his future and his mission. Paul was stoned almost to death but after his tormentors left, he shook himself up, dusted his clothes, and moved on with his life’s mission. The missionary said none of the things he suffered moved him. He learnt to shake things off the way he shook off a venomous asp off his hand into the fire on the island of Malta, instead of allowing the snake’s toxin stir his blood into a corrosive stream of poison.

I have been thinking that maybe that is why James likes his martini shaken, not stirred. Thing is in life things will shake us up but do we allow them to stir us? For example, when we are hurt, do we feel the pain and let go or do we allow it to stir up hatred and animosity. Stephen was stoned and killed unjustly. The agony and the pain meted out to him shook him to the foundation of his life but he still prayed for his killers and forgave them. Jesus’ story was similar too. He did not allow the shaking and ripping his body took diminish his love for his tormentors and mankind. His persistent love enabled him overcome.

Do the ashes of events gone awry stick to you beyond rattling your cage, do they stir up destructive feelings of failure and defeat within. Were you hit by the blow of a big loss? Are you pining away in the cold of a summer gone by?  In the hearth where the roaring flames of love used to be, are there only charred embers left? Did a doctor give you a doomed medical report? Yes, I know any human being with flesh and blood will be shaken, but do you allow these temporary hitches to stir up depression, hopelessness, despondency and suicidal tendencies. Bro/sis, dust it off and move forward, the future beckons. Never give up, toast yourself to victory. As Fred Hammond sang “in the armor of the Lord we are standing strong and even if we take a hit, we are moving on”.

Don’t allow your boat to be rocked until it becomes a wreck submerged in the raging seas of life. MAINTAIN YOUR EQUANIMITY; THIS IS THE ROAD TO THE PEAKS OF TRIUMPH!!!

For us to rise above the “bars” of life, we would have to be like Mr. Bonds martini, SHAKEN BUT NOT STIRRED!!!