Spoiler alert: this is a lil lengthy post.
Dear, ALian. 💜
How are you? Take a moment to breathe deeply. Inhale. Exhale. Be present in this moment. I want to share an experience with you.
Okay, do you have any persons in your immediate environment who you know are in need of the Saviour? People struggling with their humanity, people who you can barely stand their presence?
Keep them in front of your mind as you read the next part of this entry.
Yesterday, I listened to Intro by Lecrae on the Juneteenth album. I just knew I had to share with you.
Would you do me the favor of reading every line? I highlighted the parts I felt more emotionally connected to.
“Side A: Juneteenth Intro”
(feat. Lecrae)
Juneteenth: I know many people don’t know what Juneteenth is so let me give you a second so you can understand what Juneteenth is, and June nineteenth.
Alright, in-in-in 1865 everybody was supposed to be free, but there was a, some people who didn’t know they were free. In Texas, the people of Texas, they-they didn’t know that slavery was over so if everybody’s not free than nobody’s free, amen?
And so on July fourth, there were certain people who could not celebrate independence. Their independence came on June nineteenth.
And so we can sit here and say, “Man, we love the freedom that we get to experience as believers,” but there’s certain people out there that-that don’t have the freedom we get to experience and we want them to experience that as well.
Well, in 1865 everybody need to experience the freedom that they should have gotten and they didn’t get that. And so in this day and age, we wanna celebrate everyone’s freedom.
We wanna celebrate the reality that God created us equal, that we are all humanity, that we are all God’s children and we all deserve to enjoy, to taste and see that God is good. Nobody should have that deprived of them.
And so that’s why we’re here today. We’re here to celebrate that, man, God’s people were set free. They were set free. Goodness and mercy pursued them and they were set free.
They were liberated, and that’s something that we celebrate.
If we can celebrate July fourth, we got to celebrate Juneteenth. And so, y’all, it-it’s so much bigger than that. Because we’re not just celebrating days, we’re celebrating that image-bearers, people made in the image of God, could now now taste and see how good God is, could now dance in the streets together, hold hands.
And it-it wasn’t complete freedom. It-it obviously takes a minute. But we’re still here today to work toward that reality. We’re here today to celebrate what our ancestors couldn’t celebrate, right? And we’re here today to celebrate a-a bigger reality that even though some of us have been removed from slavery in an instant, that sometimes it takes a lifetime to get the slavery out of us.
Sometimes that mentality still has to be removed from us. And-and-and there are people here today, black and brown faces, who need to believe that they are free. That they, that they have the same rights, the same liberty that God has given everybody.
You know how they experience that? By-by love being demonstrated, by empathy being demonstrated, by graciousness being demonstrated, by everyone being treated as God’s image-bearers.
And, so, my darling this is the crux of our affirmation this week:
I love, respect and honor every one; including my enemies. I choose to connect men to the Father by love.
Say it every morning, every afternoon, every evening. Let’s reunite the tribes. Let’s restore the sons.
Remember, you can do all things, because God’s power is at work in you. 🤍
Have a productive week.
Emem ye ifure. 💜
Cc: Your GJ. ✌️
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