Although I work, serve, live in and love Los Angeles, I am not a native. As many of you already know, my parents are from South Carolina. I was born in New York, spent my formative years in cities up and down the East Coast (Atlanta, Washington DC, and Boston) and led a church in St Louis before relocating to Los Angeles in 2005.

Distance brings perspective—and since I am not from Los Angeles, I see things that native born Angelenos may have a hard time seeing—just as someone who isn’t from New York may see things that I don’t always see. For example, my wife regularly reminds me that I have tendency to invade people’s personal space. LOL. Anyone who ever rode a train in New York will appreciate that characteristic. There ain’t too much space in New York ( almost 30,000 people per square mile!). Everything is close together. New York is very much an “in your face” kind of city—so sometimes I unknowingly and sometimes knowingly cross the line of what most may think is appropriate. The point is that distance brings perspective. When you aren’t from somewhere, you see things that people from there don’t always see.

That is why for the past few years, I could see that the Lakers weren’t going to be that good. LOL. Everyone knows that I regularly make jokes about the Los Angeles Lakers—which is as close to heresy as you can come in our dear city. I even coined a nickname—the Fakers—that I use as often as I can. A few years back, we had ugly sweater Sunday and you guessed it—I wore an ugly sweater with Laker colors. My dislike of the Lakers really isn’t that strong. As I constantly remind people, I am not so much a fan of sports as I am a student of sports. I enjoy studying the strategy of how teams compete and win, and extracting the lessons that you can learn from world class athletes about improving my own performance. Beyond that, I could really care less. But alas! To joke about the Lakers in Los Angeles rubs some the wrong way.

This past Sunday, I made a joke about the Fakers (I mean the Lakers), and I got an email yesterday from a member of our church who was there. Let’s call her GG. Although GG is definitely in on the joke, what she said was so dope, I thought it was worth sharing. This is what she wrote:

I was watching an interview with " Lil Wayne".

( My disclaimer: I prefer watching interviews because you can see body language, you can see what makes their face light up, what makes them frown, and most importantly, how they answer questions or how they avoid questions and steer the conversation in a different direction.)

The two things that stood out in the interview to me:

1. He said the one thing he knew for sure; " B" (Beyonce) would always look out for him. ( That could mean a lot of things, I'm thinking she can walk in doors he can't, she can represent on his behalf)

2. The person interviewing him said people say this and that about you or people are calling you this and that. Lil Wayne's response was, "I don't care what they call me just make sure they add Grammy Award Winner in front of it"

This brings me to YOU... :)

You can call the Lakers the Flakers, Fakers, Breakers or Candlestick makers, just make sure you put "World Champions" in front of them. They have 17 NBA titles; more than any other franchise other than the Boston Celtics who they are tied with.

and just in case: The Los Angeles Sparks - Champions

The Los Angeles Dodgers - World Champions

The Los Angeles Rams - Super Bowl Champions

The Los Angeles Lakers - World Champions

Los Angeles has two; NBA teams, two NFL teams and two MLB teams. Notice I did not say California because Northern Cali is different from Southern Cali on so many levels. Southern California is just like LeBron said " We are the sun, we always on" or one of my favorite sayings "Get your sunshades out because we just that bright!"

This is why I love Los Angeles!!! And this is why I love our church. We have a ton of highly intelligent, opinionated, and feisty believers. GG said you can call them the “Lakers, the Fakers, or the Candlestick makers. Just make sure you put 17x World Champions in front of their name.” This is the Gospel According To GG.

What GG was saying is that it doesn’t matter if I like the Lakers or not. Like them or not, they are champions— 17 times over.

I think GG is on to something here. Far too many of us care far too much about whether people like us or not. Being liked has become an unholy obsession. Being liked has become an unhealthy aspiration. Being liked has become more important that being holy, being intelligent, being happy, or being successful. Someone once asked the world renowned performer Liberace how he felt that a critic did not like his music. Liberace’s response is one for the ages. He said he cried all the way to the bank.

Forget about being liked.

Handle your business.

Do your work.

Win some championships.

Proverbs 12:9 puts it this way:

Better to be lightly esteemed (disliked) yet have a servant, than to be self-important but lack food.