The joy of a gratitude audit

You’re probably thinking, “What’s that?” Smiling, because I just dubbed it, and I highly recommend doing a gratitude audit, fam. Old school pen in a journal. Talk to text or keyboard note on your devices. Anything—just take inventory of a few of the remarkable things G-d’s done in you for you. I can’t stop this morning.

As always, timing’s everything. I’m 60 Wednesday, so I’ve been reflecting back to my birth since the one who birthed me died, but only on one of my life’s major threads. Reflection and epiphanies have been ongoing since we buried my sweet Mummy last year (at 100!), and I entered a new season. This wasn’t for obvious natural reasons. I only know because He told me I would right before He ushered me in. It’s been a supernatural season with a peace I’ve never met before. Started even before my grieving became a less disruptive ambush and just integral—like breathing. I thought I’d feel like an orphan with both parents gone. Instead, G-d’s been bathing me by revealing every secret that’s impacted my life! For someone who loves transparency it’s been crazy. Straight blessing.

My pause to audit allows me to see new, amazing things He’s been doing for me since the moment she birthed me. How He’s protected me from the first broken system I entered (my beloved parents’ family) and preserved what He breathed into me despite being born imperfect and shaped with imperfection all around me.

When we pause for Him, He gets to show us what He’s had for us all along. It’s priceless. He’s always waiting, hands full!

So, I see how He’s preserved my joy and my endlessly loving heart…through all of it. Amazingly? No bitterness. No anger. Just joy. Rich peace. Gratitude that leaves me caught in a happy cycle. The more I gasp in gratitude, the more He reveals…and the longer my audit takes. And it’s all Him. I get no credit—this could’ve turned out as badly as it seemed it would while going through! This is why we can’t catch Him in praise and thankfulness.

I know it’ll take eternity for me to not be done worshiping Him for all the saves He’s squeezed into my lifetime to date—and He’s not done! And THIS…is why we need to keep spare praise on hand! You just never know when you’re going to need it. Deep wells of it! Why praise waits for You, Papa, and why I’m way past grateful.

So, yes. I def recommend a written gratitude audit. Go back with the mindset to find stuff. Keep a record that reassures you of what He’s capable of in your life. Make the time to pause with Him, and stay grateful.

There’s a lifetime of evidence that proves…just how much…You. Are. Loved.

 

It’s still love from a freeing distance

While G-d orchestrates everything that happens in our lives, He doesn’t intend that we stay stuck in any unhealthy patterns in our lives. He wants us to be free of them. To grow and change. Be healthy. Happy. Free to live life more abundantly. Until we get there, He carefully preserves His own, so I am among the blessed who don’t look or love like what I’ve been through, especially while I didn’t know a thing about boundaries and remained on the continuum of familiar hurt and pain patterns because I gave those broken vessels access and permission to keep me, “going through”. That’s a mouthful! Like so many, He’s preserved me to smile like I’ve never known every kind of pain. Kept me open to love like someone who’s never experienced love AND rejection as equals on the same spectrum. Given me stability and peace at home after overcoming displacement and homelessness as a direct result of loving the broken without boundaries in place to protect me.

I live and love from a safe place now, always making conscious decisions about who does and does not get “in”. Without fail, those firm, consistent boundaries keep me safe from toxic relationships with every kind of stability in my life. I’ve never been happier or enjoyed more peace. Let me share a story. I was supposed to die, become a quad- or paraplegic, the night G-d saved me. That traumatic injury and amazing orthopedic rebuild ultimately left me with metal parts, less than 100% function and a body now disabled. Couldn’t work or drive. Relearned all daily functions from getting out of bed to bathing to meal prep without injury. Benefits I paid for all my life took years when I needed them right away. Meanwhile? Displaced, followed by the literal trauma of homelessness, but that’s for another day. The beauty from ashes is that G-d uses everrrrything! Once back in Mass, I received excellent medical care. He kept me sane, safe from harm, speaking of His goodness, trusting Him, loving others and wrapped in His peace like I wasn’t moving through the horror of it all. He showed up disguised as friends who ensured there was a roof over my head and a bed under my broken body every night and day. To this day, I hold each one in such sacred places in my heart.

I found the perfect place online. Scrolled through the pics as The Spirit in my belly and every cell in my body immediately knew this one was mine! Because someone had inadvertently locked an additional lock, my broker and I couldn’t get inside for our first two tries to tour the place. Because we kept coming back, I got 3 opportunities to experience the peace that welcomed me every time we turned onto that tree-lined drive. Peace settled over the property, permeating the atmosphere and resonating with my every breath there. The sky seemed bluer above the snow-covered greenery and I felt a healing calm. Even in the middle of our worst winter, I knew this was where I was supposed to be. Why was it so quiet, and was like this all the time? I told my broker someone had to have spoken a blessing of peace over this land.

With a window in between non-stop snowstorms, the movers arrived. At the last minute, the listing broker forwarded the past due condo docs. I told my movers to load my desk, chair and printer last as I printed and reviewed the equivalent of closing docs. Buried in them, answers appeared on more than a page of clearly defined noise restrictions. “If your windows are closed during the day and your neighbors can hear your conversations or your television…If it’s after 10pm at night and your neighbors can hear…”, you get the drift. To move in, I had to sign a commitment to maintain the quiet…and that communal peace. I smiled, willing to adjust all my sometimes loudness (laughter, friends, dinner parties, occasional Spirited bursts of singing and love of playing music) to protect OUR peace! I couldn’t sign fast enough!

Boundaries maintain the peace in this slice of heaven, and boundaries will maintain the peace in yours. We have it because we are like-minded in how we want to live. We have peace because we ALL want peace. What I do for my neighbor, my neighbor does for me. If one of us isn’t on the same page, there’s no peace for any of us. Somebody’s hearing me today. Listen, your space is precious. Two will never have peace if only one of you wants it! If you love a vessel of strife with all your heart, your love won’t keep their war from invading your peace! To enjoy peace, you’ve got share your life with similar spirits who can, already practice peace and will bring theirs into your space. Not strife. Not war. If they can’t or won’t…Set. Up. Boundaries.

I’ve spent decades learning about setting boundaries in love. The more mistakes I’ve made, the better I’ve become at defining and maintaining them. What’s key has been learning to love Kena enough to abide by my agreements with and for myself. You don’t have to agree with any of my boundaries for me to sweetly enforce them. G-d believes in boundaries, and He loves ALL of us. I’m with Him. I need them to navigate sin’s dysfunction down here, and you do, too.

We’re all imperfect and have some measure of narcissism. Our first enemy is SELF. But when brokenness and self-absorption keep us from seeing anyone else, disrespect and disregard can become abuse. And we’re not roadkill, but royalty, loves. Any kind of abuse is simply unacceptable. Any noise that tears you down, doesn’t see you, or is outright violent physically, emotionally, sexually, financially or to your spirit? Time for boundaries to protect your health and your peace. Set them just like G-d does with us in His mitzvahs and commands. They look and sound like this:

You can’t abuse me for any reason. Not because I love you. Not because I’m loyal to you. Not because we’re in relationship. Not because we’re family. Not because we work together. No because we live together. Not because you sign my paycheck. Not because we’re neighbors. Not because we’re married.

It’s never acceptable, loves. Be like G-d: set loving boundaries. Let’s use the authority Yeshua gave us to bind up on earth what is not allowed and loose on earth only what will be allowed in heaven. Lovingly bind up relationships gone wrong, and lose, embrace and nurture relationships gone right…even when they don’t look like we thought they would.

Trust your gut: Maya’s right. The first time someone shows you who they really are, BELIEVE them. You are not beholden to them, to me…or anyone else down here: only to  G-d. And be confident that you will never lose anything, because we serve a G-d who owns everything and is constantly orchestrating and providing what you need!

When we walk away from the noise that is not of Him, that robs our peace, we free ourselves from chains and prisons. We walk away from stress and inflammation, the root of all disease. We experience life more lavishly. Sometimes He requires we leave before He’ll release His next blessing. That’s to protect us. Ask me. I know.

Without the blows of toxic behaviors, the peace is amazing in the safe spaces created by boundaries! Just change the access from always or frequently to occasionally or rarely, and still care and pray for them while you enjoy your health, stability, peace and a more abundant life. Love doesn’t mean ongoing exposure or access to harm. Love is just love, and distance doesn’t stop it.

Now I relax with my ankles crossed and flex my toes, because the less is so much more! I certainly still love them once my boundaries are in place…just from a freeing distance.

It’s why children are happiest when parents put them in place: boundaries feel amazing!

If your heart is telling you to grieve,

then grieve.

I encourage all of us who are awake, black and white and every beautiful hue in between…not to bottle up or brush away the pain, the loss, the tears, the trauma.

It’s not healthy. If you’re heartbroken and grieving as so many of us are, you need to go ahead and grieve. Let it out. Talk about it. Deal with it head on. Second hand trauma is a very real thing. That we have such graphic video of our brother’s death has had a very real impact on our hearts and minds and body systems.

This is a real stressor. If you don’t have someone to grieve with at home, I’m here. Find me here or on Facebook. Just don’t suffer in silence or pretend you’re ok if you know you’re not.

We need each other now. May G-d have mercy on all of us in our brokenness, on Alton’s wife, his children and family in their unspeakable pain…on the community who loved this man who’d never hurt an officer or anyone…on this man who had put his past behind him and was doing all he could with what was in his hands.

May G-d have mercy on us all. Innocent blood soaks this land, and it cries out for justice!

We just join in.

#AltonSterling #HowManyMore #WeWeep #WeMourn

 

What is your first response?

The more the world hurts, the more we must determine to only love.

If your first response to someone’s death or someone’s grief is anything other than love, something’s wrong. Check yourself in silence, go deep within, and find out. Your response means you’re broken and need healing.

If your first response when any of us faces harm, danger or injury is anything but compassion, something’s wrong. Check yourself in silence. Go deep within, find out why…and begin address it.

Broken people are not to be stepped on. They are to be loved and lifted up. If you are inclined to do anything else, please…don’t respond or react. Say nothing. Do nothing. Now is not the time. You’ll only hurt them further.

If you can’t hold your tongue, then respond to me, ok? I’d rather you direct it to me than cause the hurting any more pain.

It’s only time to love.

Why we should pray more after Orlando

On June 4, 2016, the Orlando shooter bought a SIG MCX rifle.  It’s manufacturer, Sig Sauer, designed it for use by America’s special forces.  Bookmark what I’m about to say.  It ties in with what is to come in this blog:  Sig Sauer is an NRA corporate donor and sponsor of the NRA News series “Defending Our America.”

Eight days later after purchase, the shooter used this semi-automatic weapon of war to erase 49 innocent lives off the face of the earth and wound 53 more.  The shooter should have never had access to it in the first place.  It was designed for America’s special forces.  In the hands of the disturb it is not going to be used to, “defend America,” but to kill Americans…and THAT is the problem, America.

I understand the frustration we all feel in the surreal, painful, senseless, and unacceptable loss of 50 more precious lives, but as a kingdom kid and His royal daughter, you have got to know that I’m not feeling this push back against prayer. Prayer is not the problem. Want to know our problems?  I’m not beholden to either political party, so I call it as it is and without bias.  Let me name the obstacles that have allowed for innocent lives to continue to be taken, and you do the math.

Here’s a short list, loves:

* The Supreme Court

* The Citizens United decision

* Super PACs and their lobbyists

* Congress, specifically, our

* Republican controlled Congress, and

* the Dems who vote with them, owned and aligned with the

* NRA, who receives Sig Sauer corporate donations, the

* NRA, who owns a majority of Congress,

the * NRA–and did I mention,

the * NRA?!!

More to pray for, against and about:

* The removal of the Republicans (and some Dems) in Congress who are essentially and consistently bribed by NRA with the millions they spend on their election campaigns. These are the ones who refuse to pass even the most compromising bill for improved gun control.

* The end to special interest bullies like the NRA that have the ability to buy our elected leaders in the first place.

* The demise of the NRA, Monsanto and other powerful corporate monster special interest groups and their lobbyists who actually DRAFT the legislation that is often passed to protect not us, but their profits.  And this at tremendous harm to us as citizens and consumers.

* An overturn of the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United.  This is the more recent and sad reality that allows for and essentially created these Super PACs (political action committees) that buy our elected leaders’ voices through removing the limits to what they can, “donate”.

* A subsequent end to the power (that Super PACs yield through the millions they spend on Congressional election campaigns) that corrupts these politicians, rendering those who benefit from them self-serving and useless to their constituents.

* A reversal of the sad truth that the democratic process is now sold to the highest bidder.

* An end to these reigns of terror:  House Speaker Ryan, Senate Majority Leader McConnell, and their fellow Constitution-defying obstructionists.  Under McConnell, the Senate’s refusal to move forward with President Obama’s surprisingly moderate choice for SCOTUS justice nominee Judge Merrick B. Garland continues to leave the late Justice Scalia’s seat unfilled.

The Constitution is not theirs to rewrite.  A sitting President’s SCOTUS nominee should have long since had a timely hearing before the Senate.

Why is filling this SCOTUS vacancy so important?  The Supreme Court’s decision in Citizen’s United is what gave the power the NRA the financial power it wields over Congress today in their failure to act to protect us from the weapons used in these endless massacres!  To fill it with a moderate is critical for all of the cases to be decided that will continue to impact our lives in the way the Citizen’s United decision directly led to the corruption that now allows for the killing of our children and citizens to go unanswered by Congress.

So, my response to those who are tired of praying is this:  Let’s remove the obstacles!

Don’t stop praying, just get more specific!  Do not be discouraged.  G-d is neither deaf nor blind to our cries, nor to the innocent voices crying out from this blood-soaked land!  Do not grow weary in well-doing, loves. PRAY MORE!

Pray G-d intervenes with the above lists.  Pray over them, item by item.

Pray G-d removes every Congressional obstacle to passing the legislature we need to tighten the screening process for acquiring guns, to close loopholes, to address a myriad of related issues and cause these laws to be uniform in all 50 states.

Pray G-d moves so we can get military style automatic weapons of warfare off our streets. Magazines? Semi-automatics? These are the kill toys that are consistently used in these massacres. There’s no need for ordinary citizens to be so heavily armed except to take lives!

Pray G-d opens the eyes of those who manipulate the 2nd Amendment and misuse it to block legislation that would put protections in place that make it more difficult for the disturbed or the lawless to continue these kill sprees.

Pray He hushes the nonsense cries that we’re trying to take away guns from law-abiding citizens.

That’s just for starters. Don’t mind the push back; folk don’t know who we serve! They’re tired of us praying? Ok. That might just be our wake up call to pray MORE SPECIFICALLY and narrow our focus where our prayers will have the most impact.

Don’t just pray for peace in America, fam. G-d loves when we ask for exactly what we want, especially when it’s not for self, but for the greater good. So, GO BELIEVERS!!! PRAY!!! PRAY MORE!!

And let’s be honest.  Just as it’s futile to pray for peace in your home instead of focusing on the problem when you know that it is in fact your teenage daughters who are causing daily outbreaks of war, I encourage you to focus your prayers and pray specifically against every known evil and obstacle TO our peace in America.

(I could add presidential candidates to this list, but that’s a given, right?!!)

I want to encourage you that while this is all very temporary; that even so, He expects us to occupy and finish the good that He started until He comes.  We are here to speak the truth in love, and…love is still the most powerful weapon we have.  Let’s love more, stop the hate and SPECIFICALLY pray, pray, PRAY!

I speak His perfect shalom over you all, and I love you!

After Orlando? Pray MORE!!!

Why?  Because this weapon should not be on the streets of America.

This is a picture of a SIG MCX.  Law enforcement officials report that it is manufactured by Sig Sauer, an NRA corporate donor and sponsor of the NRA News series “Defending Our America.”  The shooter bought it on June the 4th.  Eight days later, this is what he used to erase 49 innocent lives off the face of the earth and wound 53 more that Sunday morning.  The shooter should have never had access to it in the first place.  And THAT is the problem, America.

I understand the frustration we all feel in the surreal, painful, senseless, and unacceptable loss of 50 more precious lives, but as a kingdom kid and His royal daughter, you have got to know that I’m not feeling this push back against prayer. Prayer is not the problem. Want to know our problems?  I’m not beholden to either political party, so I call it as it is and without bias.  Let me name the obstacles that have allowed for innocent lives to continue to be taken, and you do the math.

Here’s a short list, loves:

* The Supreme Court

* The Citizens United decision

* Super PACs and their lobbyists

* Congress, specifically, our

* Republican controlled Congress, and

* the Dems who vote with them, owned and aligned with the

* NRA, the

* NRA, the

* NRA–and did I mention, the
* NRA?!!

More to pray for, against and about:

* The removal of the Republicans (and some Dems) in Congress who are essentially and consistently bribed by NRA with the millions they spend on their election campaigns. These are the ones who refuse to pass even the most compromising bill for improved gun control.

* The end to special interests bullies like the NRA that have the ability to buy our elected leaders in the first place.

* The demise of the NRA, Monsanto and other powerful corporate monster special interest groups and their lobbyists who actually DRAFT the legislation that is often passed to protect not us, but their profits.  And this at tremendous harm to us as citizens and consumers.

* An overturn of the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United.  This is the more recent and sad reality that allows for and essentially created these Super PACs (political action committees) that buy our elected leaders’ voices through removing the limits to what they can, “donate”.

* A subsequent end to the power (that SuperPacs yield and the money they spend on Congressional election campaigns) that corrupts these politicians, rendering those who benefit from them self-serving and useless to their constituents.

* A reversal of the sad truth that the democratic process is now sold to the highest bidder.

* The end of the reign of terror of House Speaker Ryan, and Senate Majority Leader McConnell, and their fellow Constitution-defying obstructionists.  Under McConnell, the Senate’s refusal to move forward with President Obama’s surprisingly moderate choice for SCOTUS justice nominee Judge Merrick B. Garland leaves the late Justice Scalia’s seat unfilled.  The Constitution is not theirs to rewrite.  A sitting President’s SCOTUS nominee should have a timely hearing before the Senate.

Why is filling this SCOTUS vacancy so important?  The Supreme Court’s decision in Citizen’s United leads us to the power the NRA wields over Congress today in their failure to act to protect us from the weapons used in these endless massacres!

So, my response to those who are tired of praying is this:  Let’s remove the obstacles. Don’t stop praying, just get more specific ! Do not be discouraged!  G-d is neither deaf nor blind to our cries, or to the innocent voices crying out from this blood-soaked land!  Do not grow weary in well-doing, loves!

PRAY MORE!

Pray G-d intervenes with the above lists.  Pray over them, item by item.

Pray G-d removes every Congressional obstacle to passing the legislature we need to tighten the screening process for acquiring guns, to close loopholes, to address a myriad of related issues and cause these laws to be uniform in all 50 states.

Pray G-d moves so we can get military style automatic weapons of warfare off our streets. Magazines? Semi automatics? These are the kill toys that are consistently used in these massacres. There’s no need for ordinary citizens to be so heavily armed except to take lives!

Pray G-d opens the eyes of those who manipulate the 2nd Amendment and misuse it to block legislation that would put protections in place that make it more difficult for the disturbed or the lawless to continue these kill sprees.  Pray He hushes the nonsense cries that we’re trying to take away guns from law-abiding citizens.

That’s just for starters. Don’t mind the push back. Folk don’t know who we serve! They’re tired of us praying? Ok. That might just be our wake up call to pray MORE SPECIFICALLY and narrow our focus where our prayers will have the most impact.

Don’t just pray for peace in America, fam. G-d loves when we ask for exactly what we want, especially when it’s not for self, but for the greater good. So, GO BELIEVERS!!! PRAY!!! PRAY MORE!!

And let’s be honest.  Just as it’s futile to pray for peace in your home instead of focusing on the problem when you know that it is in fact your teenage daughters who are causing daily outbreaks of war, I encourage you to focus your prayers and pray specifically against every known evil and obstacle TO our peace in America.

(I could add presidential candidates to this list, but that’s a given, right?!!)

We are here to speak the truth in love, and…love is STILL love. Let’s love more, stop the hate and SPECIFICALLY pray, pray, PRAY!

I want to encourage you that this is all very temporary; that even so, He expects us to occupy and finish the good that He started until He comes.  I speak His perfect shalom over you all, and I love you!

Dear Republican Leadership: You’ve missed your moment to shine

We’ve had 7, going on 8 years to have a shining moment here in America, but some of us have blown it.

We’ve gone from being a country built on the backs and blood of African royalty brought here as slaves…to twice electing an African American to the serve as President in the White House that was built by slaves. Take a moment with this:  President Barack Hussein Obama lives in The House that his enslaved ancestors and ours may well have built.

We who have been a part of this are all living history.

When we re-elected our President in 2012, we raised 5 million voices that the Republican leaders in Congress have refused to hear.  They’ve chosen to ignore us, the democratic process and to disrespect both the man and The Office of the Presidency.

And this in a way unprecedented in American history.

We, the people, had our shining moment.  We cried together, black and white that November night in 2008 when he, Michelle, Sasha and Malia took the stage for his victory speech in that park in Chicago.  We had proved that as a country we could come together and vote character over skin color.

We had come just that far since Dr. King’s voice rang out, leading us in, “We Shall Overcome”. But not all of us were crying. Some vacant ones were angry. Far too many of these empty souls fill far too many seats in Congress.  Seven years later, and like spoiled children, they still refuse to join us in respecting and working with who the American majority choose to be our President.

We’ve watched too many of these vacant Republican leaders plot and carry out some shameful things. In fact, they have become the kind of non-leaders that inspire the fruit we see in the GOP candidates now running for president. That fruit has not fallen far from the tree. It’s bitter, it’s ignorant, it does not speak the truth, it misleads the masses, and it has freed people to boldly vocalize their ignorance and hate and engage in acts of violence against Americans who don’t look like them, or believe like them, or share their faith or lifestyle. They have brought out the worst instead of the best in this country. They have ruined their own legacy, their own place in American history and have made a mockery of the 2-party, democratic process. They have become fodder we’d rather not have on display. They’ve become the subject of tremendous ridicule and disrespect from those who are watching us…from Canada to Africa.

Now, none of us are perfect. Not a single Democrat or Republican voter or elected official and not a single unenrolled voter like myself. But we’re not talking about the usual political differences in the typical political process here. What we’ve seen is a national disaster and disgrace. And that’s what this cancer has caused–we’ve watched an entire party’s leaders–governors and state level leaders, too–become anything but leaders and examples of what we want our people to aspire to. Instead, they’ve become embarrassments. We’re ashamed of them. They are a disgrace, but not because of party differences or platforms. We expect diversity and differences. It’s because they don’t, won’t, can’t respect, embrace, come to the table, go to work. They have failed. Completely. They’ve hurt us economically–wasted millions and millions of taxpayer dollars voting 50, 60, 70 or more times to overthrow just one thing. Fixated. Immature. Infantile. Irresponsible. So not worthy of the offices they hold. They don’t know how to play fair or to apply the same rules to everyone, including themselves.

We don’t respect them anymore, and we’ve moved past embarrassment and shame to a total disconnect from them, save their occasional leaders and former leaders who bravely step away from the pack, raise their voices, tell the truth, and declare that what is wrong–IS wrong.

For the past 7 years in our country’s history, this present Republican leadership has more than missed their moment to prove that they are able to look past color, past race and see a highly intelligent, highly cerebral, proactive, compassionate leader whose heart is for the people. There was nothing and there is nothing about our President that they couldn’t have worked with if they had ever tried. But his blackness and nothing he has said or done has always been their obstacle. Simply the fact that he is a black man that sits above them in the highest office of the land has evoked all the hatred that’s been running through their veins all along. They were never going to work with him because to do so would mean they’d have to submit to his authority and office AS President. They’d have to be humble and willing to acknowledge that this black man IS President and to convene in his Oval Office. To dignify and respect a black man that they consider themselves far superior to? Not this group. They’ve shown us what their intent was all along, and who they really are. The color of his skin is why they met before he began his first term and agreed to be 100% obstructionist.

That’s the only thing they’ve been faithful to. Certainly not the American people. Certainly not the Constitution. They use it to manipulate, but not for equality.

The old white boys network and the young ones alike have refused to fulfill their commitment to the people and do their jobs for the people they represent.  They missed the opportunity to move past political differences, past the color of his skin, past all the naysayers…and respect who we voted in to lead this country. They missed their moment in time to shine and be leaders…to move us away from what divides us and unite us instead. They’ve proven they can do nothing but further divide us.

Division’s running in their veins.

History will forever record that only we, the majority of the American voters, moved forward and made history in our shining moment. History will forever record that they missed theirs.

Well, this American refuses to share her legacy with them. There’s a complete disconnect. Instead, I stand with those in this country who don’t switch the Constitutional playbook based on color. I stand with those who don’t obstruct The Office based on the color of the man elected to sit in that chair.

I stand with those who are working and fighting to ensure that the democratic system applies to and works…for all of us. And I don’t care what color they are, or what party they belong to! That’s just pigment and labels.

Dear Republican leadership:  You have brought shame to a nation. You have made history for all the wrong reasons.

You have missed your moment to shine.

What’s in your hands?

Reflections on, “Selma,” and Dr. King

Watched the last hour of Selma again tonight.

Dr. King’s words are always a call to action for us, black, white and otherwise. We are all responsible to act to end injustice.

I thought about what I can do and what…well, not so much. Marching? The physical stuff. Not so much. My activism is born of the gifts He gave me: words.

Writing is my most dominant kingdom gift, followed by speaking. Singing is last, but they’re all word gifts. All prophetic gifts. I was here for 40 years before they were identified this way.

I’m so grateful for the tools that come with living now. The internet is indispensable. We’re so blessed to connect and reconnect with each other all over our communities, our countries, and the world now.

What activates the way I use my gifts is my heart, and His Voice. I’m a 911 responder. A white blood cell. I respond to pain. Dispatched to wherever The Body is hurting. And in response to some of those piercing, convicting words I heard Dr. King speak as he led the movement that pushed a reluctant, non-heroic, straight up politician LBJ towards the Voting Act?

We’re all responsible. Black, white and otherwise. To do nothing is to be responsible, to have your hand on the trigger that the trooper pulled that killed a mother’s son as he fought for justice. MLK said we all pull the trigger, because whatever we do is never enough as long as there is injustice.

Pretty powerful. Pretty all-inclusive. So, I self-examined, and his words are a personal call to action for me. Again and today. Because it’s getting hard to tell 1965 from 2015 and 1960 from 2016. We’re still living Selma over and over and over again. This country has a wide base of folk still determined to make it damn near impossible for blacks to vote, and they present new obstacles every year.

If you’re not aware, you’re either asleep or not exposed because of privilege. Wake up and join the cause, my friend. It’s rampant and it’s real.

So, excuse me if I’m not on the streets with signs, but it doesn’t mean I’m not, “active”. There are all kinds of foot soldiers. I am the way He sent me here. I’m just breathing out what He breathed into me, and using what I’ve been given. I fight the war against hatred with the weapons He gave me: a heart of flesh that will break over injustice…

..The words…and a keyboard. Pretty soon, I’ll be back at the mic again, too. This activist is armed with His heart and His words. And I feel every blow. That’s it, because that’s how He sent me. That’s what’s in my hands.

What’s in yours? What did He breathe into you? What are your weapons and tools and gifts? How did He send and equip you, my friend?

Because we’re all responsible. All of us, as long as just one of us experiences injustice.