THE WORD IS…

AND…

More than a decade ago, I attended the Miller Coors Urban Entrepreneur Series (MUES)/Chicago Urban League workshop, where Dr. Randal Pinkett, The Apprentice 4, was the keynote speaker.  

Nearly 16 years later, I still remember the wisdom he imparted to eager would-be entrepreneurs about how to succeed in growing our own businesses.   

One of the jewels Dr. Pinkett dropped during the 2007/08 MUES talk was his belief “in the Power of AND.

At the time, I hadn’t realized how much of an impression it left on me until one night while watching The Reaping (2007), I had an epiphany because there again was that Word:

AND…

Not verbatim but in the film’s message…

The Reaping is a film about a Christian missionary turned miracle debunker.  The former missionary lost faith when some African tribesmen sacrificed her daughter to their god.

Fast forward to when she is summoned to this Bayou town, experiencing the ten plagues of Egypt.  Of course, she has a scientific explanation of each of the occurrences – and I didn’t have a problem with her explanation being of a science mind myself…but as I was watching the movie, I thought – but you are dismissing the Power of AND.  

Just because a phenomenon has a scientific explanation doesn’t mean its source is not supernatural.

There’s a joke about a teacher telling a third grader that Hebrews crossing the Red Sea was no big feat – because, at the time, the sea may have been about 2 feet deep…The third grader said, “It sure was a miracle that a little bit of water drowned Pharoah’s army. (If I’m telling it wrong, I hope you get it)

SPOILER ALERT

The townspeople believe that a neighbor’s young daughter is the source of the plague. So, of course, the missionary-turned-scientist figures out near the end of the film that the girl could be at the center of the atrocities. The scientist realizes this because now her life and the pubescent girls’ lives are at stake. 

AND…

the girl just might be the reason for the plagues. But it is the source of her power that’s in question. Could her power come from The Most High God or Lucifer? In this case it could be

AND…

the only way the Hilary Swank character can determine who to save and destroy is if she goes into manual mode to discern the truth. She is currently operating on AUTO-PILOT so she can cope with the pain of losing her daughter.  But once she flips the manual switch, she lets her heart become her guide.

As I was watching this movie, I thought about the theme in religious and inspirational texts, and many of the stories are not or but:

AND…

Think of the message like this:

69

which may be interpreted as a sexual position?

AND…

It is. But 69 also looks a lot like the symbol of Pisces

which seeks balance.

It is reported that Jesus was heralded in the age of Pisces, which is why you will also see the fish symbol as representing Christianity. My point is although we make choices over this or that –

AND…

 

Exists in the scriptures and its predecessor, Ma’at, the ancient African spiritual practice of Balance and Harmony. In nature, balance must exist before creation. Further, you can never know one thing without knowing its counterpart.

For example, I know when I’m operating out of fear or out of love. “Ego operates in Fear. Love operates without Fear.”  I could only know how to temper myself if I knew both.

Knowing both sides of the spectrum allows for balance.  Balance to stand in the face of doubt *(James 1:6), and that is “the Power of

AND…

This brings me back to Dr. Pinkett.

A young entrepreneur asked how a person with many talents and desires can do more than one thing in life and not be accused of being a “jack of all trades and master of none… “

Dr. Pinkett answered he believed in doing one thing exceptionally well first.  He said he was an engineer first and mastered it. Dr. Pinkett then went on to become an entrepreneur. He said winning The Apprentice was the pinnacle.

AND…  

When he mastered entrepreneurship, he added on the next thing – Speaker, Author, AND Community Servant AND that is- 

THE POWER OF AND.

 

*James 1:6 But he must ask in faith, without any doubts, for the one who has doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.

Originally published in 2016. Updated today.