“…We refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we’ve come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice…
…But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.”
~ Martin Luther King Jr ‘I have a Dream’ speech 28th August 1963.
Sometimes in our pursuit of freedom and justice (whatever form that is, be it racial/social/religious) we often feel blinded by our bitterness of injustice led to commit acts of violence or perpetuate violent voices that promote these feelings; and by so doing, we negate out message and undermine the cause that is meant to unite rather than divide. I know I have done this myself and I acknowledge my flaw within that. However, in the same breath, I have often sought to share both sides of the coin with the view of waking people up from ignorance rather than just promote attack. However, this perspective hasn’t always come across in the things I post.
This morning, I woke up with the song freedom on my heart and somehow these words from MLK came to mind and I realised it served as a great reminder for my people and my enemies and friends that in our pursuit of justice, and freedom, to also pursue Peace and pursue LOVE. 1 Cor 14:1 exhorts us to “Pursue LOVE“. I wonder, in all of our pursuits that if we had this cause as our foundation, whether it would change the format in which we pursue justice and freedom and dance upon injustice? I don’t know, but I’d sure like to find out…
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I came across a story yesterday that has resonated loudly in the silence of my heart and I don’t know how I missed it! I discovered it on searching through Child Prodigy Akiane Kramarik’s paintings. For a long time now I’ve not been able to articulate the thousand musings of different topics that have constantly raged through my thoughts; and have dominated my moods of expression on paper for fear of being judged by those very feelings and thoughts, and the people that read them. Thia is why this story means so much. In fact, reading this story on one of Akiane’s paintings stunned me and vibrated a deep truth yet simple illustrated in the best way I know how in the form of storytelling which has started to open me up again and prepare my tongue as ‘a pen of a ready writer’. Storytelling is a most beloved childhood favourite. Therefore, I thought it only best to share this story with you. I just couldn’t keep it to myself and let facebook have it alone!
Let it bless you as it has me! Oh and a…Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays!
Akiane Kramarik shares the story as follows…:
“Once upon a time, in an island there lived six feelings and emotions: Happiness, Knowledge, Love, Sadness, Richness and Vanity. One day they discovered that the island began sinking! So all of them built boats and canoes and left, one by one. Except for Love. Love wanted to delay abandoning her beloved island as long as possible.
When the island had almost sunk, Love decided to ask for help.
Akiane Kramarik’s Time
Richness was passing by Love in a boat. Love asked, “Richness, can you take me with you?”
Richness answered, “Sorry, Love, I can’t. There is a lot of gold and silver in my boat, so there is no place here for you. With both of us in here we will sink for sure.”
Love next asked Vanity who was also sailing by, but Vanity offered the same answer. “I can’t help you, Love. You are all wet and might damage my boat,” Vanity answered.
Sadness was close by, so Love asked, “Sadness, take me along with you.” “Oh . . . Love, I am so sad that I need to be by myself!”, sadness said in a gloomy voice.
Happiness passed by Love, too, but she was so preoccupied with her happiness that she did not even hear when Love called her.
Suddenly, there was a voice, “Come, Love, I will take you.”
It was an elder with a tattered head scarf. An overjoyed Love jumped into the boat. When they arrived at a dry land, the elder went her own way. Love looked around and saw the Knowledge who was the first to have landed there a while ago.
“Who Helped me?” Love asked. “It was Time,” Knowledge answered. “Time? Why time?” Love was surprised.
“Because only Time is capable of understanding how valuable Love is.” The Knowledge smiled. “
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How y’all doing? I’m in process on the road to recovery so I trust you’ve kept yourself amused in the meantime! 🙂 It’s been a while and now is the time I feel I have something to share that has been marinating in my thoughts today.
Sometimes, when we’re on the verge of breakthrough we often give up and while it’s a cliche many know this to be a fact and have even given many motivational speeches on it. So I thought I’d share some of my inner musings, here are my thoughts…humor me a few moments:
One of the major reasons we often dont see or experience breakthrough in our lives or in our situations has often got anything to do with (well most of the time) the size of our bank account; the devil; our background; or even how hard or easy, or lazy we’ve worked, or even the advice or counsel we’ve listened to… These options are merely only partial contributions. Yup. I called the devil a partial contribution. Here’s why…
One of the biggest reasons why we do not see, is because so often we’re asleep inside. We’re not awake to the potential that lays dormant within or lays untapped because we can’t see it. Moreover, we disqualify ourselves before the jury can even say we’re guilty or not. How? We do this by the way we condemn ourselves in the name of “humility” and “killing the flesh” and “break down your pride!” (which by the way is false and its a form of pride in itself – There is no glory in self-condemnation as it still elevates self where negatively or positively).
We often cancel out our breakthrough by what we speak over our own selves, and consequently becomes slaves to our own perceptions which are already distorted and self-limiting and for that, the devil doesn’t need a helping hand for we go do it all by our self. By this, we insult our true identities and our true Value that God has placed on the inside of us by adopting lies and lesser views of who we are out of fear that we are overstepping the mark…
We condemn ourselves over the tiniest mistake in our quest for perfection and find ourselves falling short of the unattainable mark, even when it is in our ability to do so. We even strive in excess to the detriment, of our soul which is left in shattered pieces… Pieces. Pieces of your life that we’d rather hide and bury in shame and like Adam – carrying the “fig-leaf syndrome” of trying to fix it ourselves.
If we got rid of self-condemning words and lies and just got back to knowing who we really are in Jesus, and got to know our true potential and valued as loved treasure and a precious human being whether created or not, we would hear clearly that voice tell you “why are you condemning yourself? Do I condemn you?” and you can respond appropriately. This was what happened to me this evening. I heard these very words and found myself repenting and had to forgive myself whilst I sought forgiveness for thinking ill of me just because I dialed the number of a guy I wanted to speak to who was going through stuff, whilst I was going through the Mill of recovery myself in tandem.
You see, the reality is Self-condemnation is not cool. It is destructive. No matter how glamorous it is dressed, it is fake and it destroys our confidence in not just ourselves, but in the One who Created us for GLORY, LOVE and Good Works. By deconstructing its ability to work in our lives by recognising how condemnation speaks, then we can stop it at the door before it can even gain entry and begin to unlock our keys to our breakthrough. Breakthrough is on the way no matter how small. Elijah just need a fist of cloud. How much more you?
Thanks for taking the time to read. As ever, Keeping it real…
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For the past 27 daysI’ve been declaring things I am thankful for and
Charlie & Snoopy in Thanksgiving mode!
looking for something everyday to be grateful for. And I decided that for all those who don’t quite get all this thanksgiving I’m giving, here’s a quick brief overview.
Usually everyday, we all have something to complain about. There’s always something going wrong and if its not our life, its the weather or its the government or etc. And I realised that with some of the challenges that I’m currently facing that if I kept this ever growing cycle of complaining or moaning and grumbling (even though I have the right to) that I would become more miserable and the energy I release will be half the output I receive and it will kill the strength for me to pull through.
So I’ve known that the key usually to breakthrough is by thanksgiving, and seeing that this is the season of Thanksgiving (for mainly The United States of America) I felt it right that I should start a 14day challenge of saying thank you. But, as I continued with this challenge, I grew so use to it and it’s slowly but surely been changing my attitude towards each day! Although, it was hard at first! As a result of this realisation, I decided to increase it to 40-days and noticed that one of my favourite musicians and worship leaders from IHOP aka Jaye Thomas was doing the same thing and it provoked me to join in the battle for a WAR ON GRUMBLING.
You see the goal is to cultivate a culture of “Thanksgiving” which we’ve apparently seemed to have lost in this ‘god-forsaken’ world we live in currently. If we cultivate such a culture, imagine what it would be like…! Imagine the shift and transformation. The was I see it is as I commented on my friend’s comment on Facebook saying, ” jump on the band wagon. the more we get cultivating a culture of thanksgiving, the better [wecreate] the atmosphere [we live in], and the likely hood for us seeing greater miracles and experiencing personal transformation!”
So Why not join in on this war on grumbling? At least if it doesn’t change anything else, it will certainly change your attitude and your outlook on life Pain or Not! Thanks for taking the time to read! Peace! xx#warongrumbling
Keeping it Real,
The Elected Lady xx
A good ol’ Thanksgiving Meal! What are you thankful for? #Thanksgiving2013
Tim Ferriss's 4-Hour Workweek and Lifestyle Design Blog. Tim is an author of 5 #1 NYT/WSJ bestsellers, investor (FB, Uber, Twitter, 50+ more), and host of The Tim Ferriss Show podcast (400M+ downloads)