Any Given Sunday

A man without ambition is dead. A man with ambition but no love is dead. A man with ambition and love for his blessings here on earth is ever so alive. Having been alive, it won't be so hard in the end to lie down and rest. --Pearl Bailey


Have you ever wondered what would happen if the world ended on a weekday? Wait, don’t answer that yet. We’ll come back to that. I've noticed that many city streets in Anytown, USA are fairly empty from 7am-1pm on Sundays. There are probably several reasons for that fact. Here are a few non-litmus reasons that I observed:

A) The club-hoppers are pooped and are sleeping off the alcoholic reminisce of the night before.

B) Most criminals—because Saturdays are such busy days for them—are sleeping late on Sundays, probably plotting next week’s strategy sessions.

C) The rest of the nation, particularly the Christian congregation is posted up, repenting in a mega-plex near you. And, this is where life gets real quizzical.


At this point I want to suggest… if your pastor drives an automobile named after a white character on the Jefferson’s, you may want to exit this page now. Go on, I’ll wait. For those still reading....…

The church, ah, the Church…, the worship hall for the flawed and mortal…, the temple to avoid the doom. The sin-less social scene where the congregation gathers to be seen. The Holy Land for the Heavenly band. Just think, if only 144,000 are slated to make it Home, that means three-quarters of the people attending TD Jakes’ annual Mega Fest will be left holding T-shirts that say: … "My friends went to Heaven and all I got was this lousy t-shirt."

On many given Sundays I've sat (window-stationed) at a neighboring eatery and watched Officer Friendly direct thousands of congregational cars, steering them into the secular world that they just spent two hours cleansing themselves from. It is truly an interesting sight. One day a lady stopped in this eatery for a snack and she still had last night’s armband on from Club Underground. I wonder if she’ll “get in" the eternal Home or will she be left with the “in” crowd here on earth? I went to Lithonia, Georgia's Club New Birth once and an actual service broke out!! A good service too, unfortunately most of the so-called “regulars” missed a good word because they saw The Bishop was not preaching that day, so they ran the Ushers over heading for the exits. I don’t think they’ll "get in" with that attitude.

I am sure Martin Luther King Jr. is "in," although he may want to come back and break up the fights that are going down on the mean city streets bearing his name. I know my mom is "in", despite the fact that her son is writing this. One thing I know for sure is, if I don’t make it, it will not be her fault. I hope Mike Tyson makes it "in", he really seems like a nice guy (hardly the criteria)—but his life on earth seems almost JOB-like. Tyson's entire boxing career just seems to be trapped in that on-going church traffic. You see, if just one of the mega-members pulled Iron Mike aside, and told him how much God loves him, instead of feeding him the conditional love the world feeds on, he’d probably "get in." In fact, he still might. How cool would Heaven be if Denzel is there? I’d train for that day. One day, on Meet The Press, Rick Warren (The Purpose Driven Life), said: “It’s not a sin to be rich, the real sin is to die rich.” that quote cannot make the Hilton sisters comfortable. If George Bush "gets in," that simply means that someone adjusted that 144,000 number. I’d love to be on line after him.

I have been studying the difference between "being religious" and "being spiritual." And, from what you've observed above, you can plainly see that I don’t have many good answers—just interesting questions. This only makes my life that much more purposeful. My mission on earth (which is condensed and captured here) is to show how ignorance bubbles when you pass judgment.

Let’s all make a pack today; a pack to help each other make it to Judgment Day, even if it falls on a Wednesday.

1 love,

Ray Lewis