RESOLVE

Enough already about foolish arguments and endless  speculations—that's too... .My desire is to shift the focus of my lens outward and directly into the world—a world that is quickly changing around us. People are running in mass states of confusion, frustration, and pandemonium not knowing how to bring a calm and order to it all. To all our shame, black men and women are being slaughtered in the street, as if for sport, and the year is 2016. Conversely, here I sit in a beauty salon, so far removed from the reality of brutality as my daughter is being pampered with a relaxing mani-pedi. It's a lovely, 80 degree day, the sky's a jordy blue, and ever since we stepped into the place it's been all smiles. A warm, Vietnamese couple simultaneously work on my baby's adolescent hands and feet while I wonder where all the time went. She is no longer small, I realize, as I admire her long, shapely, mahogany legs that will soon be poised behind the wheel of a car, independent of me. This thought  suddenly grips my heart with fear as I digress from the salon and find myself riding shotgun with  Sandra Bland, opening the door with Yvette Smith, outside with Tamir Rice, in the back of a van with Freddie Gray and in the middle of the road with Terence Crutcher.  The list goes on and on as I observe the confrontation between my sisters, my brothers and the thugs, who've been perpetrating as officers of the law.  These thugs, enticed and lured into a false sense of superiority, make a mockery of the law. They do not see that they have become the perpetrators, dissolving into the very thing that they hate: the criminal mind. As the tension rises, I drift again, not far, to a black woman in handcuffs. She has legs like my daughter. She is the same age as my daughter. She has black skin like my daughter. 

The wide shot in my mind reveals an aqua blue pool where a white palm is smashing a black face to the ground, shattering my lens. Through the broken pieces of glass, I see the girl in a bikini who has now made headline news. She's being assaulted by an officer of the law—a man who took an oath to "protect and serve." I feel a lump rising in my throat, and I can barely breath or see through the tears. A sigh of relief comes as I find myself back in the present, back in my comfy seat at the salon and gazing at my daughter's cinnamon skin. However, as much as I want to disconnect, I wonder how do I protect her? These anxious thoughts begin binding me up like vines, pinning me to the trunk of a large oak.  My own mind has quickly made me prey, and I have allowed it. I knew better than to let it wander without spiritual supervision or without apprehending these renegade thoughts.  For many months now, the media has been bombarding us with images and sounds of black men and women being murdered in the streets.  Those images linger and circle around us like wolves, waiting to seize our imagination and destroy us between the vines.This mother-daughter outing, initially so beautiful, has been suddenly sabotaged by fear.  However, I refuse to make it feel at home within me, and I refuse to return evil for evil, adopting an eye for an eye, tooth for tooth mentality. Instead, I start thumbing through my daughter's summer reading material and try to guide my mind back towards peace. Then, lo and behold, out of that jordy blue, I see these words: "Fondly do we hope-fervently do we pray- that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away...With malice toward none; with charity for all." These words lifted off the page and formed a sharp blade, which began cutting through the vines that had me bound only moments before. Suddenly, I was set free and the fear was no longer present.  It never ceases to amaze me how quickly we forget...NOTHING is stronger than LOVE...NOTHING; loving words, loving thoughts, loving actions. With that moment of truth, I closed my daughter's book and resolved to fight this war with the wisdom and the love of God. Nothing else is strong enough to keep the wolves away. Nothing else is sharp enough to cut through the vines. Therefore, "fondly do [I] hope, fervently do  [I] pray-that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away."

REMEMBER THE PUZZLE

God is the mender of broken dreams & like the fragments of bread that He asked the apostles to gather into baskets, God is asking us to REMEMBER our broken & delayed dreams. He is gathering all of our shattered pieces from the ground & putting them back together again. It's like the puzzle that we never completed as a child because we became so frustrated at the difficulty and the duration of the process. The picture on the box only showed the glory of the completed puzzle. Nowhere was it explained how long it might take to complete or the level of difficulty involved, and no one thinks to ask because starting the puzzle is always so much fun.  To embark upon a new adventure is a delight to the courageous soul. There is so much hope to achieve what you've seen on the cover of the box. However, with each passing day, impatience begins to creep in, frustration builds, and the process drags on. Eventually, hope begins to wane. Before you know it, the picture on the cover of the box has lost its luster and completing the puzzle feels virtually impossible. With every passing day, we go less often to the table where the unfinished puzzle remains.  Finally, we stop going to the table altogether.  What follows?  We're off to a new dream, pursuing a new vision - even if that means someone else's vision for our lives.

So, as we prepare to enter into 2016, Don't abandon your dreams...Recapture the vision God gave  YOU!!! and Never abort the mission.

Merry Christmas friends! Jesus is still the reason!!!

Patrolling Your Heart

Like an old, dear friend who remained absent for awhile but never forgot the relationship...I'm back. It has been a long year of silence - a year since my last letter to you, and it's time that we rekindle the fire. My voice is eager to reach your ears and deposit some excellent things into your heart. Are you ready? I've said before, "keep your candles lit and STAY ALERT...until we meet again." As I understand the power of the Law that governs our hearts, I know that whatever is stored within it, in abundance, will certainly flow from our lips. Beyond our lips, our words pour forth and swiftly become actions. Armed with this knowledge, I am compelled to share with you how IMPERATIVE it is to keep your heart cleansed. Purify and purge it, daily, from every toxic thought, for out of it flow the issues of life. Too many unsuspecting souls have not yet grasped the power that lies within their very own tongues, although they use it everyday. I pray that you understand the influence and weight of your words and begin to establish boundaries for your heart, understanding that "out of an abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks." Whatever lays heavily on your heart, the things you've done - however long past they are, confess them quickly and be set free. There is no amount of earthly treasure that can satisfy like a pure heart... one that's been cleansed of guilt and demons of the past. Pour your confessions out to God as deliberately and as quickly as you would empty out a dirty cup before putting it to your lips. Confessing is cleansing. Admitting is redeeming. It is TRUTH, flowing from our hearts and falling from our lips, in all sincerity, that ushers in the Lord's warm water. God stands waiting to wash you clean, from the inside out, to deliver you from all that's hidden and all that you thought could never be redeemed. Behold, He makes ALL THINGS NEW. Lay your shame at His feet. He's been waiting for you.

A Note to the Dreamer:

Whenever a goal takes residence in your heart, it lies there, beckoning to one day be realized...and like anything in life that requires nourishment, this goal is no different; it must be kindled and fed...initially, by desire and after desire, active pursuit - not waiting for something to be handed down, but going after, with diligence all that is required to fulfill this goal.  And in our pursuing, we must grasp onto FAITH to endure the journey - thereby forgetting what lies behind and reaching toward what lies ahead, pressing toward the goal.  No matter what obstacles arise, whether external or internal, the goal that one day took residence in your heart shall not rest until it is finally achieved. 

Thee King is Coming

Chase after The Risen Christ with all of your heart, soul, and mind...now...and  until                                                                 He comes for you... 
He is soon to come. 
Get Ready, Be Ready, and Stay Ready. 
Let us prepare to GATHER UPON THE SHORES OF THE LORD to celebrate HIS RETURN!!! 

Our King is coming!!! Put on your wedding attire!!!

Love, 
        
     Liberty Dawn, 1/1/2014 AD

STAY ALERT

As I open up "my doors" to you, each time I am challenged to go deeper - knowing that my humanity is intrinsically linked to yours.  I pray that your deliverance, your joy, your growth & triumph as a human being, as a CHILD OF GOD will flow from this blog.  In fact, before I go any further, I'm breaking the status quo right here, right now with the name, "BLOG." From this point forward, please know that I'm no longer "BLOGGING." Know that I'm WRITING LOVE LETTERS TO YOUR SOUL... That just sounds right to me:) I hope you're feelin' this thing too:) 

If I have not made it to your home yet with my letters, believe me, I will.  I am committed to this mission and look forward to speaking with you again. My next love letter will post soon.  In the meantime, keep your candles lit and STAY ALERT.

Until we meet again...

LDx

Before The Takeover: A Warm Wind

It feels like yesterday
and yet it's been eight years since you knocked upon my door.
So many times before I thought I might have heard something -
a gentle rap followed by a soft voice.  But I chose to keep moving, keep busy -
preoccupy myself with people and things and dreams -
bitter realities, false senses of security, illusions of perfection, procrastination,   disingenuous love
and bottled solutions taking me only so high.
I was living the life of a fictitious woman -
the woman I had become.

Finally, the day came -
a beautiful summer day, when I walked into the sanctuary BROKEN,
but not admitting it -
Still smiling at the crowd, still posing in the mirror, still conversing with friends
about incremental and monumental gains in my life -
All the while my tongue feeling thick and heavy -
incessant throbbing between my ears as if my mind was angry at the thought of sending me words to spew out for no reason and piercing no one.
I was so tired, but still fighting my sleep -
so conscious of time, which I had concluded was my enemy.

It was a little after 2 o'clock and I sat within the first pews, waiting for the crowd to leave. I was waiting for something to happen -
wanting something to overcome me and bring me to a place where peace
would finally prevail and cast a glow about me,
inviting others to inquire about the freedom in my life
or about the ability to lay hold of peace in the middle of a storm,
experiencing the blessing of closing my eyes and truly resting -
not worrying about tomorrow or anything that happened "today."

So I began to pray softly, silently to myself as I heard others being prayed for
about sickness and substance abuse, finances and forgiveness.
The hard oak pews had begun to make my thighs and behind ache for sitting so long,
but I continued to dig deeper for answers about deliverance.
I wanted freedom from all the years of putting on a jovial face
while I was dying inside -
so many years of "living" life where lies abounded so I could hide.

At last,
it was as if something began to divide within me -
the separation of lies from truth, dark from light, clean from tainted, pretense vs. reality of who I was and what I had become.  As this was shown to me,
I began to cry as if I had had tears stored up in what were  freshly punctured barrels. Then, I felt someone take my hand as I continued to cry out to God and thank Him
for His mercy and His forgiveness, His LOVE and PROTECTION,
especially throughout all the years that I chose to ignore His Knock -
ignore His Voice, calling me from the only life I knew.
Here He was offering me THE BEST LIFE -
silencing that persistent question in my mind: "Is this all there is?!?"
Boyfriends with empty promises, pockets with holes,
momentary highs upon sexual plateaus??? Lying out at the beach,
shopping, eating, drinking, dreaming -
my moods changing by the hour, sometimes by the minute...

I opened my eyes to see the woman who had begun to lead me up to the front of the altar.  She stopped at the first pew and released my hand.  Then, she stepped in front of me and began to pray with her hand raised above my forehead.  I stared at her moist palm as she prayed for me and as I prayed quietly for myself.

Suddenly, I felt this warm wind blow inside my body.
I had no idea what was happening to me.  

All I knew was that the sensation was
gentle and yet powerful at the same time -
So amazingly gentle that all I could do was envision my body falling onto a bed of billowy, white clouds -
So powerful that it blew me down, but I had no desire to break my fall -
No desire to reach out for support. It was as if I floated there, peacefully , feeling the contrast of my warm body against the cold floor as tears flowed from my eyes into my hair.

It felt like LOVE, itself, had actually stepped outside of our intellectual definitions;
it was no longer simply a word we toss around in poems or sing about in music -
For Love, in that moment, had wrapped HIMSELF around my body and come to dwell within me.