Monday, December 9, 2013
Life's Little "Rayelity Checks": Shifting The World
Life's Little "Rayelity Checks": Shifting The World: We lost one of our lifetime's "World Shifters" this week: Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela. T...
Shifting The World
We lost one of our lifetime's "World Shifters" this week:
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela.
Those of us who share this "Boomer" generation have witnessed the belly of the beast, and its evolution, through South African apartheid and American segregation.
The dismantling of each system marked, in part, by the ending of President Mandela's 27 year incarceration and The Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Now, here we stand, at the close of 2013, presumably the "apex" of our lives, witnessing the passing of many of those who fought, and gave, so generously, so painfully, so sacrificially for freedoms we are now witnessing being taken away-- most notably, The Civil Rights Act of 1964, which our Supreme Court stripped down significantly, just a few months ago on the grounds of being "unconstitutional".
What is important to realize, is that what kept segregation, slavery, and indeed, ALL of the "quasi-slave" systems intact, was the freedom given individual states to abide by Federal Law or not. Thus, the South, could debunk any challenges to its tyranny with immunity.
In June, when The Supreme Court, overturned Sections 4 & 5 of The Civil Rights Act, they gave 9 Southern States that right back. The right to re-write electoral laws without Federal approval-- a step so far backward as to almost undo the entire struggle... Destroy perhaps its most crucial gains. A move akin to reversing the lynchpin that made apartheid illegal.
This weeks' death of Nelson Mandela, marks more than just the end of an era. It's the death of yet one more guard at the gate of justice. And with each death...
C. Delores Tucker, Civil Rights Leader and former Chair of The Black Caucus of The National Democratic Committee...
Constance Baker Motley, The first Black female Federal Judge...
Thurgood Marshall, who served on The Supreme Court from 1967 to 1991, and who, as a lawyer won the pivotal Brown vs. The Board of Education case which integrated America's public schools...
August Wilson, Pulitzer Prize winning Playwright who chronicled important aspects of the American experience...
John Tweedle, Pulitzer Prize winning Photographer, who cemented in our hearts and minds all of the iconic images of Dr. King and the Civil Rights struggle...
Johnny Cochran, top Attorney who, beyond leading O.J's defense, was a prominent, early advocate of police brutality victims and was, at the time of his death, leading a legal charge against the holocaust of Christians in the Sudan...
Lee Thompson Young (The Amazing Jet Jackson), who shared the distinction, with Raven Simone, as one of only two Black actors to carry a Disney television series, in the title role...
John & Eunice Johnson, the founders of Johnson Publications, which for many years were the only magazines bringing the triumphs and rallying cries of Black America, and indeed, the world, into our living rooms...
Hans Massaquoi, former Managing Editor of Ebony Magazine, who also penned his experience growing up in Nazi Germany, reminding us that world history is indeed ALL of our history...
Don Cornelius, who helped validate our "groove"...
And then there were Hadiya Pendleton and Trayvon Martin, who represent the rivers of young, Black blood coursing the sidewalks of the world, calling out, like Abel, for vindication and all of our salvation.
These are just a tiny few of those gatekeepers and symbols we lost in recent years. And, with each loss, if no one steps up to take their shift, the gate becomes more and more unprotected. Our gains, more and more vulnerable to raid.
The Civil Rights movement got us into "The Promise land". It was a faith-based movement led by the REVEREND Dr. Martin Luther King, the REVEREND, Andrew Young, the REVEREND Ralph Abernathy... And so on and so on. Even the role of the Nation of Islam placed Spiritual principles at its core.
We cannot exclusively complete, in the flesh, what began in the Spirit.
God led the Hebrews out of slavery, through the wilderness, and into the Promise land. And once there, they said, "We've got it from here, God!" As a result, they got carted off to Babylon.
WE are being carted off to Babylon as we speak. As we drive. As we go about our day to day lives apart from God... thinking we're "in" now and "we've got it from here".
The Hebrews had to fight to keep what was given to them, but they could not do it apart from The One who gave it.
We are living in very slippery times and the ONLY way to keep our footing is with regular time on our knees and teaching our children to. Teaching our children the legacy of our history AND how God brought us through it, empowering us to be the best we could be and parting the sea when we reached the end of our abilities. Being living examples of compassion and assistance to others, discipline, tenacity and prayer.
Does that mean no harm will ever come to them? Sadly no. Every single person remembered here was somebody's child, including Nelson Mandela, who spent 27 years in prison for trying to help others, in fact, a NATION! And even God gave His only begotten Son so we might be redeemed.
But neither if them did it in their own strength-- but rather by complete reliance on God-- for their direction, endurance, and absolutely for their courage. That is the key to the only lasting revolution.
If each of us do that, and look to God to direct our steps, we will be effectively led to do our part as a "World Shifter". He will strengthen us to do our part to "Protect The Gate", because as evidenced by the virtual repeal of the Civil Rights movement, the devil never gives up. We fought him with The Word, unity and tenacity in 1964, but just like he fled Jesus in the wilderness, he only "left until a more opportune time". (Luke 4:13)
One thing that is clear is the UNITY of the enemy's camp. God's people need, once again, the UNITY that got us over... the UNITY of the Bus Boycott, the March on Washington, and more. If we get back on our watch with regular time with God, teach our children to, and dismantle all these manmade church separations, we can gain direction on how to repair the many breaches our gates have sustained.
We've tried it "our way". It's time for ALL of us, regardless of race, class, or geography to get back on our watch for the preservation of our Souls! And injustice to ANYONE ANYWHERE, injures the SOUL of not only the victims, not only the perpetrators, but all of those who look away and say, "Oh well".
The world is suffering more than a financial collapse, more than a moral lapse, but a "soul sickness". It is time to get back on our post to get the strength and direction to fight. To get off the defense and get AHEAD of the battle.
"If My People, who are Called by My name, would humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from Heaven, and forgive their sins, and heal their land." (2 Chron. 7:14)
What do YOU think?
...Be love... and love will follow.
-Rayel
Saturday, October 12, 2013
WHEN IT HITS HOME (or Why You Haven't Heard From Me)
Why did I come "home"? Why have I felt so much pain and worked so passionately on behalf of our youth? What have I learned ultimately? I wrote this back then when "it" happened, and maybe sharing it now, will help build your faith in your own prayers.
God IS.
He's always, "right now". He didn't drop back and let you get ahead of Him. He didn't speed up and leave you behind. He didn't go away with plans to come back "one day". He's right now. He's right here. God IS.
...........and don't you forget it!
Love you all!
WHEN
IT HITS HOME
Over
the 14 years I was in California
Sometimes,
I’d get so worked up and frightened, I’d hop on a plane, delaying paying my
rent for a last minute flight to Chicago Chicago
About
six years ago, I even got a 13 page letter from my sister begging me to “come
home” because I was badly needed and her son was out of control. I packed up my place, gave notice, then when
I asked her if she had done the three simple things I needed her to do to get
the ball rolling on getting him into the awesome high school I went to, she
went flip mode. “We don’t need you. He needs his mother!” When I reminded her of the 13 page letter she
wrote, she retorted, “I was emotional then.
And, emotions change. Get over
it!”
He
eventually didn’t go to ANY high school and dropped out of school in the 8th
grade. He’ll be 19 next month with only
an 8th grade diploma.
Now,
I hear you. That should have been the
end of it. I SHOULD have finally learned
my lesson. But I love her son. And, because he was once reading at the 9th
grade level in THE SECOND GRADE, and was only given an eighth grade diploma
because his national test scores were high enough to go straight to college, it
was breaking my heart to see him lose all that potential and be even more
solidly placed on track to become a statistic.
I just couldn’t give up.
So,
I redirected my efforts to bringing him to Cali
Two
years later I did, but he’d been groomed by a lifetime of watching his mom and
grandmom call me when they need me, then kick me in the teeth, that he cursed
me AND my prayer partner out the first day he arrived. Why not?
He’d watched THEM do it all his life?
I
sent him back to Chi and things just got worse and worse.
So,
six months ago, I came back home --to try “one more time” to pull him out of
the fire, and also offer my Youth Program (born of this heart to give our kids
emotional tools to create a better life), to the other at risk kids out
here. In my first blog, you read how
that initially turned out. Got cursed
out royally and he got on a bus to Iowa
But,
needless to say, that didn’t last a good month.
He was determined to get back to Chicago
But
by then, I had backed off. However, I
got another call from my mom Saturday night.
Just two days ago.
He
was in surgery. Stabbed in the chest.
I
thought about it. Texted some close
friends to pray and got down on my knees to join them.
Didn’t
want to talk to anybody because if I started talking, I would cry and I just
didn’t want to cry. I wanted to
think. I wanted to hear from God. I prayed in the Spirit.
Though
it was raining and my windshield wipers had stopped working, I decided to drive
the long distance to the hospital he was in after the surgery was over. He was in ICU.
I
walked in and he looked like he did in the emergency room at 4. All hooked up to tubes and machines. He’d spent a lot of time in emergency rooms
as a child from neglect. I took him then
back with me to California but the lack of
support (from my family, and the fact that I had just arrived in California
But,
it was too hard, my faith wasn’t strong, and I sent him back.
That was when he was 5. And now on this day, fourteen years later, he lays there unconscious at 19. The
doctor said his lung and the tip of his heart was punctured but he was young
and would pull through.
I
looked down on his unconscious, skinny little body. I’d recently learned that over the years,
he’d already been shot in the chest AND in the head. But he kept on going and going like a ghetto
Energizer Bunny, which would be funny except there he was with this tube down
his throat now.
I
asked for privacy so I could pray over him and I did. I prayed and prayed. I laid delicate hands on him, spoke life and
God’s Calling for his life into his ear.
I finally wept and I sat at his bedside for a couple of hours until I
decided to just go home. But I still couldn’t
sleep. At home, I surfed the web til
5am, realizing now that’s what I do when I’m agitated and want to avoid my
feelings.
The
next day, yesterday, I went to church, then came home, changed, ate, walked the
dogs and went BACK way up there, again in the rain, to see him.
I
was stunned to see him sitting straight up in his bed, arguing with the
security guard about his property which they were returning to him. “I’m not signing this!” he was
declaring. “This says I can only regain
my belongings between 8am and 5pm Monday through Saturday. This isn’t Saturday!”
“But
you already have your things,” the officer was trying to explain, referring to
his money, cellphone and keys on his lap.
“No! This says…”
The
officer was exasperated. I was almost speechless. This child had his chest ripped open less
than 24 hours earlier and he was sitting up here, inventorying his property and
arguing with the guard like NOTHING had ever happened! He turned to me. “Ma!
Read this! See if this is right!”
He thrust the bag toward me. Gently, I
urged, “You’ve already got your things.
That is just to acknowledge that you’ve received them. You can sign it.” He read it again and signed it. The frustrated guard walked out.
My
nephew commenced to grilling me. “Did
you leave that stuff for me?”
You
mean the scripture? (I’d written out some
scriptures and left them under his pillow the night before). “Yeah”.
“How
did you know I was here?” he demanded.
Apparently, I didn’t answer fast enough.
“How did you know I was here?!” he demanded more loudly. I told him my mother told me. He then commented about the person who
stabbed him and commenced to recounting his money and checking his text
messages like I wasn’t even there.
“Well,” I said, “apparently, I drove all the way up here, in the rain,
without windshield wipers for nothing.”
He
started yelling. He stays amped up, but
to be amped up RIGHT AFTER SURGERY ON YOUR LUNG AND HEART DEFIED MY
IMAGINATION. “You always takin stuff
personal! I just got stabbed in the
chest! And I…”
“That’s why I drove up here today AND
yesterday,” I tried to cut him off but that’s pointless.
“I
love you!” he suddenly barked from a totally stone face. His intense dark eyes, staring directly into
mine.
I
put my purse back down and walked over to him, leaning over to kiss his face--
the face that looks so much like mine-- over and over. “I love you too.” He kissed me back. I fought back the tears.
That
tender moment was short lived. “My phone
isn’t on! Let me use your phone!” Everything he says comes out as a
command. He called my mother and
basically ordered her to turn his phone back on. “I ain’t gonna let nobody take my phone
away.” It was a quarter to four and he
told her they close at 5. In other
words, get up and get over there NOW. She
asked about her other car (She has two).
He assured her that it was safe with one of his friends and wouldn’t
entertain a conversation about giving her back her keys. Over the years, I’d warned my mother that you
have to train a Rottweiler when it is a PUPPY.
You can’t wait until it’s a 180 pound mass of muscle and teeth and THEN
try to train it. As usual, I got cursed
out back then. Now, she was running out
the door to follow THIS Rottweiler’s orders.
After
that call, he said, “let me make one more call.” I took my phone back. “Who you gonna call?” I asked. He was gonna call the person who stabbed him
(of course, most folk know the people they get shot or stabbed by). “Nope.
I said. Not with my phone. I’m not getting in it.”
He
had rung the nurse. She walked in. “Can I get something to drink? I’m feeling really dehydrated. My mouth is all dry…” I noticed there was a cup of ice water beside
him. He didn’t want water. He wanted what HE wanted. The nurse tried to explain that though his
MOUTH might want something to drink, his BODY might not handle it because he
has fresh internal injuries. She went to
the lengthy trouble of EXPLAINING to him that he could aspirate, etc. and in
his condition, throwing up would be extremely unpleasant and even dangerous.
He
ignored her. She wasn’t saying what he
wanted to hear. She asked if he’d been
using his swabs to swab his mouth and walked over reaching for one of the
swabs. “I don’t want that!” he
snapped. She threw her hands up as if to
say, “forget it then”. I
commiserated. “I hear you,” I said.
“You
know, you might want to be kinder and more courteous to the people who saved
your life,” I said. “I ain’t bout to
die!” he snapped and kept scrolling his text.
And, true enough, this boy wasn’t even REMOTELY acting like he had just
had major surgery. He had all the
strength, energy and focus and attitude he had BEFORE the whole incident!
Now,
God has brought me a long way from my OWN temper so I resisted the urge to just
walk out. I sat there forcing myself to
keep him company. Then, he piped up,
“You ain’t got to be all fake about your phone!” Whaat?? I asked. “Sayin you don’t want to be in it. You just fake!” “Look,” I forced myself, like the nurse, to
give him an undeserved explanation. “I
am not trying to get in the middle of you guys’ mess.”
Astonishingly,
he sat there in a hospital bed, hooked up to all manner of machines and tubes,
chest all patched up, and asked, “What mess?”
Crazy
makes crazy. And for a second, I
wondered if I was the one out of sync.
Then, I found some words. “THIS
mess,” I said, gesturing to the accoutrements around him. “You are sitting in a
hospital bed after being stabbed in the lung and in the heart. THIS mess.”
Was I really explaining this?
Well,
that made no sense to him. I was the one
that was wrong. He started balling me
out. Loudly. The entire nurses station looked up with
their mouths hanging open. I walked
out. He kept yelling after me. “You didn’t need to come here! And you don’t need to come back!”
Maybe,
what he was saying, in actuality, in his own, hurt, twisted way, was, “Please
don’t leave. I’m a f’d up mess that was
raised this way and you should have never left me with them!” but at almost 19,
he’s gonna need to learn to say just that.
I
love that boy/man/mess. Always
will. And I’ll always keep him in my
prayers. I still believe God has a great
Calling on his life which is why God keeps preserving him over and over, and
healing him, literally, supernaturally. And,
despite not being in school for the last five years, he STILL recently scored
college level on one of the standardized tests.
But, I’m letting him go his path the way he needs to go it… no matter
how rough. He can handle it. Like I said in my earlier blog, I’ve put in
enough years trying to fight through the flames for not only HIS life, but his
mother’s before him. Now I see that God
wouldn’t let me get in because the process He has for THEM isn’t the process He
had for ME. God knows I tried to bust
down the door. My love for them is
extraordinary. But God kept it locked
for a reason.
But
this one thing is clear: “the fervent, effective prayers of the righteous
availeth much” (James 5:16). Even when you need to detach from your family
with love, place them in your FAITH IN GOD.
Don’t be like MY relatives. “Humble yourselves and PRAY!” (2
Chron. 7:14) AND don’t let the enemy
use them to piss you off so much that you stop praying for them! Samuel told the Hebrews after they kept going
against what God told them, that “far be
it from me that I should sin against The Lord and cease praying for you.” (1 Samuel 12:23).
The
enemy knows my gifting is intercession and people have sought my prayers from
all over. My prayers have sent supernatural
healing to friends across the country!
Satan would like nothing better than to stick his hand up my nephew’s
butt and work his mouth like a puppet to piss me off so much that I just say,
“forget it!” And, the enemy would like
to do that in YOUR family too! But don’t
let him. Jesus is LORD and God is
sovereign. “The blessing is very near to you; it is in your mouth and in your
heart,” (Deut. 30:14)
DON’T
LET SATAN SNATCH THE BLESSINGS OF GOD OUT OF YOUR MOUTH or worse, OUT OF YOUR
HEART! The POWER of life and death
lives in your tongue! (Proverbs 3:1-12) Not just over YOUR life, but those around
you! I am CONVINCED that my nephew is
still here because I have had a battalion of Prayer warriors praying for him
consistently over the years. And, I am
equally aware that there are strong demonic forces that have taken ground in
his life because of his family’s rebellion.
I know it’s not even him talking which is why I don’t even feel
particularly upset when he goes off.
He’s being used. And, I know
that. But, GREATER is God in me than
ANYTHING in this world. NOTHING shall
befall that child that is beyond the reach and will of my Heavenly Father! NOTHING!
And,
if you walk in holiness and commit your prayers to The Lord (because you can’t
activate change in the world while still holding onto your sin), you can
CONFIDENTLY bring your petitions before the throne of God.
Where my nephew is concerned I didn’t always
have COMPLETE confidence. My HEART
wouldn’t let me take my HANDS off the situation. My HEART wouldn’t let me completely believe
that my prayers, which sent healing to friends across the country, would be
sufficient to uphold and deliver the person I love most in the world: This knuckleheaded boy. I always felt I had
to don my cape and literally fly across the country to help God out.
But,
one of the scriptures I left under his pillow was this:
1 John 5:14-15
New International Version (NIV)
14 This is the confidence we have in
approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15
And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we
asked of him.
How
about that?! When I was in Cali
Don’t
be a doubting Thomas. How about all of
us FINALLY having confidence in God and not in our own strength? Finally BELIEVING in the Power of our
Prayers?! The Bible tells us “when we pray, we are to BELIEVE and not
doubt because those who doubt are like waves of sea, blown and tossed by the
wind. ” (James 1:6) Do we really want our faith like a little
dingy in the ocean or do we want it unmovable, on a rock?
And
unlike what my nephew told me, I DON’T take everything personally. If I did, I would have stopped praying for
all of them years ago, and I SURE as heck wouldn’t have come back here. But when the Hebrews went against Samuel, God
assured him, “They’re not rejecting you, they’re rejecting Me…” Nothing’s changed.
You
stay on your watch! Keep praying for
those crazy people! And don’t attach to
outcomes… Because your prayers might not insure you get the results YOU want,
but have CONFIDENCE that “if (you) ask anything ACCORDING TO HIS WILL… (you) have what (you) ask of Him.”
Jesus
IS Lord!
Love
you ALL!
What
do you think?
*Oct.
12, 2013 P.S…. Not long after that, God
used yet another tragedy to begin to line my nephew up in his will. Ofcourse, I warned them all, but, as usual,
my mother advised him to ignore anything I have to say. Naturally, when the other shoe dropped, rather
than looking at themselves, my mother directed them to all blame me. My observation is this is the pervasive
mindset and dynamic in Chicago which keeps it
firmly established as the “dysfunctional family capital of America
But
this was a true blessing for me! Not
only did it mean they were not going to call me with their drama anymore
(yippee!), but this was God’s way of FINALLY wrenching my hands off their lives
so that He could finally get a “clear shot”.
They are still dealing with the consequences of their actions, but things
are getting better, I hear. My nephew is
growing in the midst of it and the situation has given him a catalyst to
exercise his true nature—a brave heart with a TON of love and determination.
And,
as for me, it showed me in yet another tangible demonstration, that it’s ok to “Let
go… and Let God.”
Jesus
IS Lord.
Not
me.
Love
you all!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)