John Hope Bryant on Love & Spirituality

Quote of the Day

"There are no atheist in fox holes."

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke

Spiritual Quote of the Day

"We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, we are spiritual beings, having a human experience."

Deepak Chopra, author

Quote of the Day

"If you are going to pray, why worry. If you are going to worry, why pray."

Quote of the Day

"Men learn to love re women they are attracted to and women become attracted to the men that they love."

From my iPhone.

Quote of the Day

"Men learn to love the women they are attracted to, and woman become attracted to the women that they love."

Seven Secrets of Stress Management

May 2, 2008

Then Jesus said, “Let’s get away from the crowds for a while and rest.” There were so many people coming and going that Jesus and his apostles didn’t even have time to eat. Mark 6:31 (NLT)

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Something to Think About...

" Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is
that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that
most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous,
talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking
so that other people won't feel insecure about you. We were born to
manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's
in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give
other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our
presence automatically liberates others." ---

As spoken (but not authored by) Nelson Mandela---

Something to think about....

"God never gave anyone else, anything He wanted me to have..."

Something to Think About...

"...The more you give, the more you get. The more you open up, the more He becomes present. The more faith you claim, the more hope you get. No rainbows, without storms first.”

Inspired by Mampe Ntsedi, a friend from South Africa

Love is....

...A five second compliment

...A 10 second kiss.

...A 30 second hug

45 seconds a day will manage any marriage work

Something to Think About...

Everyday love is decision.....

DIGNITY PIECE WITH JOHN HOPE BRYANT AS PRODUCED FOR THE DOCUMENTARY "ONE" BY PETER BISANZ

A Note From God (By Messenger)

Today I received a message from a friend, whose love-mate was just struggling with not one death of parent, but two. They were very, very close, and obviously, this loss hurt a great deal. Sometimes -- no -- most times, we don't know how to deal with death; we fail to find significant meaning in our lives, and even less in death. As a result, we are overly harsh on ourselves, and even worse on God.

In the end, we can lose hope, and focus on what is really important in our daily lives. Maybe that is why God made sure that we call the "present," a gift. Well, here is a version of what I said to my friend, in hopes that it may also serve as healing for others going through something similar, in a world filled it seems with more information, but less answers...

As we grow up, we learn that even the one person that wasn't supposed to ever let you down probably will. You will have your heart broken probably more than once and it's harder every time. You'll break hearts too, so remember how it felt when yours was broken. You'll fight with your best friend. You'll blame a new love for things an old one did. You'll cry because time is passing too fast, and you'll eventually lose someone you love.

So take too many pictures, laugh too much, and love like you've never been hurt because every sixty seconds you spend upset is a minute of happiness you'll never get back.

Don't be afraid that your life will end

Be afraid you never allowed it to begin....

 

Something to Think About...

"What God does for us, He does in us."

C.S. Lewis

Something to Think About...

"As St. Paul writes, to have died for valuable men would have been not devine but merely heroic; but God died for sinners. He loved us not because we were lovable, but because He is love."

Something to Think About...

"From courtesy to competition to hostility. This is the naked ambition and trend of man without God."

John Hope Bryant, inspired by C. S. Lewis

Something to Think About...

"I came of age at a time largely devoid of anguish and hardship; I never witnessed a war; few of my friends had suffered from personal tragedy. Instead, the hallmarks of my life were the emblems of America at the peak of its prosperity: opportunity, possibility, reinvention. Mine was the generation that could have it all. Our ethos was built on the belief that we could control everything: our bodies, our minds, our bank accounts. Got a problem? Change channels, switch jobs, take a pill, go to the gym. Our bibles were our Day-Timers. Our god was self-reliance."

From the book "Walking the Bible"

Something to Think About...

"Intentions are most powerful when they are positive and creative. Merely wanting bad things to stop isn't enough. You must intend something new to replace the old. A peace movement that is only anti-war has never succeeded. We must envision an entirely new order based on peace, and then unseen forces will start to gestate that reality."

Deepak Chopra from Peace is the Way

Something to Think About...

"...A man is playing chess. The board represents his world. There are pieces to be moved, bishops to be won and lost, an objective to be gained. The game can be won or lost, but not the player himself. If he has worked hard, he has improved his game and indeed his faculties; this happens in defeat fully as much as in victory."

Huston Smith from "The World's Religions"

Something to Think About...

"Lucifer is a fallen Angel from God's own being, as even hate cannot exist without love being there to give it life first. Badness, is simply spoiled goodness. You must first be good, or at least know good, before you can know what it is like to be bad."

John Hope Bryant

Something to Think About...

"A man learns to love the woman he is attracted too, while the woman becomes attracted to the man that she loves..."

Why I Do What I Do

Raised in Compton, California, and South Central Los Angeles, by two divorced yet almost perfect parents to me, and then homeless by age 18 (the direct result of bad business decisions based on my ego, not good business sense), by age 25 I was blessed by God to turn my life around, soon thereafter - after many, many fits and starts - ultimately growing a private banking business, from zero to $24 million, over 4 years time.

14 years ago I was seemingly a successful businessman in Los Angeles, but secretely in search of a larger and over riding purpose in my life. Making money, was simply not enough. And so, I decided that I wanted to not only "do well" for myself, but moreover to prove that it was possible, and indeed preferable, to “do well by doing good” too. On May 5th, 1992, immediately following the worse riot in U.S. history in Los Angeles, California, the Rodney King riots, I founded Operation HOPE as America’s first non-profit investment banking organization – with a mission statement of literally “banking on the poor.” Since that time, with a lot of help from my friends and a fine staff - from Rachael Doff, my long time chief of staff and confidant, to Lance Triggs, my long time leader of programs on the ground, in the community, to my sweetie, Mrs. Sheila Kennedy Bryant, always my chief cheerleader, encouragement and supporter, Operation HOPE has today developed into a premier, on-the-ground delivery mechanism of and for empowerment, and “silver rights” (a literal battering ram against poverty) operating in 25 U.S. cities and soon, in Africa too.

The Art of Caring: It All Starts With You

By John Hope Bryant

Written between age 18-20

Through my experiences in life I learned that at any given moment in life, any one you choose to stop and pick, there never seems to be enough (time that is) to allow us to make mistakes, experience and adjust to others, or to readjust to our ever changing and new found selves. There are so many experiences, feelings, hurts, heals and changes in self during a period of growth, that sometimes it hurts to do nothing else but to sit back and reflect for a while. “Concentrate on not concentrating,” as I like to put it. And if we are truly lucky, and if we are willing to learn from our mistakes, our memories of the past will give us some kind of foresight for what’s to come, and insight as to what’s happening and where we are right now in our lives.  This retooling of my thinking process has led me down a path that not only enlightened me, but made me sensitive and aware of the real beauty and value in people, relationships, and myself. In my journey into “the art of caring,” I was forced to confront many things in my life that were not necessarily joyful or admirable. I only hope that in my travels down that path, I have helped, through the reading and comprehension of the following few pages, to smooth out some of the hard and painful bumps for the next person, who dares to also travel.

Quote of the Day

"Personally, I think we all should go back to school and enroll in classes “Caring 1A,” and “Love, Advanced Level 1B.” We, as individuals can change our own destiny, simply by taking responsibility for our own decisions, by fighting our petty resistances against change and fear, by learning more about our hearts and our minds. By practicing to see and hear and touch and feel as we have never before used these senses, by creating something with our own hands without demanding perfection, by listening to the words we utter to our wives, our kids, and our friends, by listening to the words and looking into the eyes of those who speak to us, by learning to respect the process of our own creative encounters, and by having the faith that they will get us somewhere soon. We must face our own shortcomings, mistakes, and transgressions. And we must decide to leave our beds and live again. And if we fail, we don’t have the comfort of blaming others or life or God."

John Hope Bryant

Age 18-20