As I become more and more attentive to current events and the horrors of marginalized communities, I’ve needed to reach back to my roots more. Those roots deeply seated in God and the Bible. The truth seeker in me understands the weaponization of Christianity against Black people. I know the lies of a white Jesus. I absorb the teachings of the Bible as a whole, even when specific passages about owning slaves and the treatment of women point me to ask my father (God) difficult questions in the aim to get an understanding. However, the importance of strengthening my relationship with God has never become more evident. I know I’m not the only one that’s gone to a revival, got hell scared, and then wanted to stop drinking, smoking, or having sex abruptly. But this time, I’m not trying to change my ways to avoid sin, I’m just trying to change the depth of my relationship.
This morning, my bible app pointed me to 1 Corinthians chapter 12. I started a plan months ago called “getting to know the real you.” Due to my lack of disciple and not setting aside time specifically for God, that plan remains unfinished. However, I needed to read what I did today, so thank God for his perfect timing. The text talks about the body of Christ needing people that are of different gifts and talents. And how each part is equally essential for the body to function. The separate devotional compared picking up an item with your feet to doing so with your hands. It’s POSSIBLE to pick something up with your feet. BUT, feet were created for balance, not fine motor skills.
In the same way in the revolution, you may be ABLE to organize a protest. But, you might have been made to pray, uplift, challenge systems, donate, do the emotional labor of having hard conversations with loved ones, etc. (for context, I put things after prayer because prayer always is first, but we must always put action behind our prayers). As a body of change seeking peoples, we must find our callings. Most importantly, we must honor that everyone’s is not the same.
During this revolution, I’ve been feeling overwhelmed. The more information I take in, the more I begin to think about everything going on in the world critically. The closer I get to God, the more I seek to see things through his eyes. As a spiritual being living a human experience, I feel all spectrums of emotions altogether. Sometimes the logic, spiritual, and emotional brains are all fighting in my body at equal intensities. As I’m sure you can imagine, this is difficult to navigate. I overthink, feel all pain, empathize with others, love hard, have faith in God dispute it all, but also feel anger, depression, hatred, and unforgiveness.
Knowledge of self has pointed me to understand what parts of the revolution cause me more harm than benefit. Observing others has increased my ability to acknowledge their gifts. And as we see the gifts in others, it’s imperative to point them out, because they may not even notice. These past few weeks have educated and matured me in ways a four year college education failed to.
As we continue to fight for systemic changes in our world. I pray you to get in touch with your creator so that you may also see how you can effectively contribute to the revolution. The bible, as improperly used as it often is, is an AMAZING tool to not only remind you who are are, but WHO’S you are.
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