Kingdom Swagger

Okay so this was all one long blog, but I broke it up into two different ones because it was just too long. lol And also because although they are connected, they are somehow very different. I leave you to decide the differences.....

After I wrote the first part I began wondering about Christianity..... Where is our swagger? God is on OUR side! And God holds the power of the world in His hands. Greater is He that's in us, than he that's in the world. No weapon formed against us shall prosper. Where is our swagger?

When we praise God, we halt the advance of the enemy. When we pray we affect changes in the supernatural realm. God's NEW mercy greets us every morning. And His grace pursues us. Where is our swagger?

Philipians 1:6 says: "...being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." That means that He's constantly developing us! Even as we mess up.... Even as we try to follow His Will..... Even when we have no intention of following His Will..... Even when we repent and come back to Him..... Where is our swagger?

On our school campuses. On our jobs. With our roommates. Heck, just walking to your car (or - bus stop)!! You hear people cussin, and gettin down with their sin swag. You see half naked people boldly gettin' down with their lust swag. You see people just living, gettin down with their fake reality swag. The most recent one was Prop 8 where TONS of people BOLDLY got down with their sexual crossfire swag.... And tried to take the country with them! THAT stirred people. Christians, and non-Christians alike. But - although that was good, and praise God that we won this time..... Why did it come to that before the Christians were open? Before the Christians were bold? Before the Christians abandoned the "nice" terminology? Where in God's Creation is our swagger?

Not being fully unashamed of who we are. Keeping our Christian status on the low, not as a tactic to infiltrate particular people's lives and THEN reveal who we are, but just cuz it's comfortable. Believing the lie that either you're a quiet Christian or a brow beating Christian. Is our God not a God of balance? Is He not both the Lion AND the Lamb? The Grace Giver AND the Judge? The fork in your road - one choice leading to Heaven and the other choice leading to Hell? Where is our swagger?

We are ROYALTY. Friends of God. Children of God. What Prince or Princess of a vast nation walks around as anything less than who he/she is? Dialing your status down or altering it for ministry's sake only works if you recognize who you are. Then you can dial down and do what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9:22 - "I have become all things to all men, so that by all means possible I might save some." Paul probably had the most swag out of anyone in the whole New Testament (excepting Jesus of course - lol). He learned to be content with much and with little. He talked with kings and with beggars. Taught Jews and Gentiles. NEVER ABANDONING WHO HE WAS. Swag. Paul had that Kingdom Swagger we all need to emulate. And only emulate that as a model to discovering and developing our own individual measure of Kingdom Swagger that is in each of us.

C'mon people. Christians. Where's our swagger? Non-Christians - be bold enough to approach Christianity with your own thoughts and logic. Your own swagger. No one elses.

Cuz you know what matters in the end?

What will give us that "stuff" that the Bible heroes had?

You know what will take our pursuit of Christ to the next level?

Kingdom Swagger.

And Kingdom Swagger can only be achieved through rebelling against the "norm" of the world. Of the "norm" of a stagnant, Christian life. Where's our swagger?


"Jesus was a rebel, a renegade, outlaw/ A sanctified troublemaker but He never sinned, naw/ And He lived His life by a different set of Rules/ The culture ain't approve/So you know they had they had to bruise em/ That's the way they do/ Man, they swear they so gangsta but everyones the same/ Everybody do the same stuff/ Tattoos, piercing/ Smokin' up and drinking/ Money and sex plus them extravagant weekends/"

~ Lecrae - Rebel, "Rebel Intro"

"Hung on the cross for hours while still in his prime/ We don't call him heir for nothing, he showing us hang time/ He is holy, he is perfect, he is God/ God is like three in one, man its so odd/ Because of all this, your boy gotta keep running/ 99 wont do it gotta keep it 100/"

~Sho Baraka - Turn My Life Up, "100"

I'll do me. You do you.

Okay so this is a topic I've been dying to write about. The thoughts about it have been in my mind for a while, but I've really been wanting to put it down on paper (using that word loosely - lol)

Swagger. Such a complicated word.

But let me tell you where it all began.........


As you guys know, a couple months ago I was in a dance for my church. We danced to the song Victory by Ty Tribbett. However - prior to the dance (kind of a segway so that the audience could grasp the full concept of what we were doing) we did a skit. Now - oddly enough the character that I was asked to portray I actually had difficulty with. I was supposed to be a hood rat. A gangster. Gangsters don't really smile. So - of course that was my constant inclination. I had to put myself in a mindstate of anger to get by and do it properly...... Anyway - my name was Traffik. My bro was Ego (which got changed to Hollywood when we did it a second time). The other guy was Baby-T. And the two girls where Erin and Holly (from the movie ATL). I didn't know where they had gotten the name Traffik from. All the others make sense if you know us. My bro is definitely Hollywood. The girls fit the Erin/Holly profile. And Baby-T is a derivative of Traffik. I just didn't understand the name. They said "Cuz when you walk in, traffic stops." I had the concept after that. I reworded it to "Traffic stops (conversations slow, heads turn, people's focus is shifted) when I walk in the room."

Okay so I had a workable name. But a name is only half the battle. I still had to BE Traffik. He's a state of mind, and somewhat a lifestyle. I didn't know it then, but I was looking for swag. That natural cockiness that some people have, and others emulate. I could talk it, but I always burst out laughing or smiling, or otherwise betraying the nature of the character. So it was about this time that T.I. came into my life. I'm sure EVERYBODY knows that T.I. is the King (get it? :p) of swag. And it's very real. He's not faking. I had the good fortune to come in at the most recent stage of his life. Where he's really trying to get it together (somewhat). I'm prayin the jail time drives him all the way to God........ :-) Anyway, the first song I heard was "No Matter What." The first verse goes:

"Hey never have you seen your lifetime/ A more divine southern rapper with a swagger like mine/ Facin all kinda time, but smile like I'm fine/ Brag with such passion, and shine without tryin/ Believe me, pain's a small thang to a giant/ I was born without a dime/ Out the gutter I climbed/ Spoke my mind and didn't stutter one time/ Ali say even the greatest gotta suffer sometimes/"

I loved that song. I still do. But that was my initiation to authentic swagger. I didn't know what to do with it at first. It was bold. It was kinda cocky. It's very - out there with who you are. I wasn't ready for all that, yet that's what I was looking for (still hadn't recognized it yet). So that was about three-four months before we danced. About a month to a month and a half before we did the dance, the idea of swag began to haunt me. What is it? How do I quantify it? How do I find my OWN? Is anybody's swag greater than anybody else's? I listened to a little more T.I. "Whatever You Like" was his next big one. Very good example of outstanding confidence in oneself. I then looked into a few of his other songs.... My picture was forming. I listened to songs on his new album... My picture began to clarify.

True swag is not completely able to be defined - but you can recognize it when you see it. It leaves it's own trail.

It's being you - well. Taking your strengths and bench pressing the world with them. Taking your weaknessess, and attempting bench press the world with them. Treating your weakness like a strength in order to strengthen it. And yes, I admit it involves some cockiness. Like "Yeah this is me - and it's pretty darn good!" Being real about yourself. No fakeness. No billyappleness (inside joke - lol). Imitating swag can help you find your own swag - but only if you're looking for it. Imitated swag for it's own sake results in complications with your already active insecurities. Then you'll end up worse off than before. Because you are not being YOU. You are attempting to be somebody else. But they are already themselves, and nobody does themself like themself. Which means you're out of a job. I also learned this, when I realized that as much as I like T.I. - I wasn't and could never be, him. That was a tough nut to swallow, because being me wasn't going to allow me to do the skit properly. So - what then? I couldn't be fake. It needed to be authentic. And maybe it wouldn't have mattered so much had I not felt the need to truly get this swag thing down. I was still insecure about me (and still have residue of that left over) and so as a result I wanted to find my swag and let that come through the skit. I had to - evolve. I was still me, but it was time to elevate above that plateau of existence I'd been resting on. The old me wouldn't cut it. That was fine because I had an identity to embody. Traffik. I was he. He was I. Traffik has no meaning without me. So I began to work on that.

I'm proud to say I discovered some measure of my own swag in time for the dance and Traffik lived and breathed beautifully. ;-)

But after the dance...... Did Traffik die? Did I go back to the old me? I don't think so. Traffik is who I need to be at this point in my life - and I only kept the name so I could differentiate behaviors in my mind. What would I do/say/think? And what would Traffik (the me I needed to grow into) do/say/think? More T.I. To get the feel of swag. This led into Ludicrous (who's got a peculiar swag, but swag nonetheless). And then me observing artists (not necessarily listening to all their music) and people and seeing to had their own swag. Who was comfortable, confident, and bold with themselves, and could be somewhat cocky about it. Traffik's persona developed even more. And now - present day. Through being Traffik, I'm probably more in tune with who I am than I have been in a while. I admit it was somewhat of a relief. Nobody knew Traffik, and thus no real expectations. I was able to develop him and flesh out his lifestyle in relative peace. The hard part was being both people. Similar to T.I.'s album "T.I. vs T.I.P." There was Me. And there was Traffik. Traffik is who I needed to fully be. Me needed to get with the program. Both of 'em are stubborn. However - I crossed that bridge and now I am Traffik. I've found my own style of swag. Now I'm developing and fine tuning it.

This leads me to James Bond. I saw Casino Royale, and Quantum of Solace in the same night. That 007 swag is on a whole 'nother level!! Which is what he's known for (I realized in retrospect). He's bold. Confident. Cocky. But - we didn't really know him, cuz he was so cold. In these last to installments of the 007 franchise, they gave us a window into his character. His swagger is so heavy it's not even funny. He really tried to bench press the world with his weaknesses. And he was real about it.

The quote I heard on Fresh Prince (which turns out to be a quote from Ali, and who knows where he got it from - lol) is this:

"I'm the greatest!!! I'm the king!! And I'm pretty!"

Every person I've observed (and some that I've researched) who I identified as having legitimate swagger pretty much lived by this saying. Even in a short interview with Will Smith, he said that his character Ali kept saying that to himself - even though he didn't believe it. He kept saying it UNTIL he believed it.


"Never mind what haters say/ Ignore 'em 'til they fade away...../"

"You're gonna be/ A shining star. Fancy clothes. Fancy ca-ar/ Then you'll see/ You're gonna go far/ Cuz everyone knows/ Just who you a-are/ So live your life/"

~ T.I. & Rihanna "Live Your Life"

Nature of Love

I've been thinking about this concept of love for a while now (and actually wrote this a couple months back), and God recently gave me something concrete.

The reason we love - the reason it is such a powerful emotion is because it is perhaps the closest we get to God's love. It is a window into the heart of the father. So when you love a woman with all your heart, and she permeates the air you breathe.... Thank God. It is because of Him that you can love her so. Seeing her, and experiencing her is like being in God's presence. And loving her (despite flaws) is you reflecting God's love back at her. Loving her glorifies God, because God is love. Even heathens and nonbelievers can experience the awe inspiring love of God. C.S. Lewis said (in one of his books) that a man will swim across a wide channel of water to be with the woman he loves. Love is that strong. God is love. Because He loves, we love. And when we love the woman, we recognize that we are blessed. God is showing His love for us by treasuring us with this woman who triggers that deepest love inside of us! So by loving her, we wind up loving God even MORE because we recognize a little more the depth and purity of His love for us.

This also keeps us in check, and can help us aid others..... How can we possibly love the Gift more than the Giver? Even Jesus went to lengths to explain this. Repeatedly in the Gospels we hear Him say "Not I, but the Father who sent me." He also tells us that He abides in the Father, and the Father in Him. It's not about the Gift!! The Gift is to be enjoyed (thoroughly) but ultimately lead us back to glorifying the Father.