The 411 with Marvin James: Can We Just Enjoy the Holiday?

The 411 with Marvin James: Can We Just Enjoy the Holiday?: If you’re Jewish, feel free to wish me “ Happy Hanukkah !” If you’re Christian, you can wish me “ Merry Christmas !” If you’r...

Can We Just Enjoy the Holiday?

If you’re Jewish, feel free to wish me “Happy Hanukkah!”

If you’re Christian, you can wish me “Merry Christmas!”

If you’re African-American, wish me “A Joyous Kwanzaa!”

If you have no affiliation, you can still wish me “Happy Holidays!”

I promise not to be offended!

I will be thankful that you cared enough to wish me well!

The 411 with Marvin James: House of Cards

The 411 with Marvin James: House of Cards: It would be expected for me to take a swipe at Kevin Spacey; the actor from the hit series House of Cards, but that would be a trem...

House of Cards

It would be expected for me to take a swipe at Kevin Spacey; the actor from the hit series House of Cards, but that would be a tremendous waste of time. I can remember being about 9 yrs old and building a house out of playing cards with my brother. It took some serious hand and eye coordination just to get the cards to stay in place; not to mention the fights that occurred between my brother and I. It never ceased to amaze me how people would always come sit at the table, knowing full well that we were building our house and could not afford the slightest movement. It never really mattered how careful we were to protect the house of cards, the same outcome would arise; cards all over the floor and our little cardboard mansion utterly destroyed!

Three decades later and I find myself still building houses; although the material to build has changed, I’m still building. You see, you and I wake up every morning with lofty aims of finding security in a relationship, a career, financial status, social acceptance and recognition. Build as we may, the objects that we attempt to erect are never strong enough to retain our needs and human expectations. The wealthy would exchange money for health. The healthy would exchange a kidney for wealth. The single will lie to obtain a spouse, while the married will lie to have an affair with a single person.

We could learn a lot from a tax collector who had a history of taking from others; he stated, “Don’t hoard treasure down here where it gets eaten by moths and corroded by rust- worst!- stolen by burglars. Stockpile treasure in heaven, where it’s safe from moth and rust and burglars. It’s obvious, isn’t it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.” (Matthew 6:19-21)