Uncommon

There is a mighty move of God happening. It's been going on for a while but it is growing in momentum! God is sending people to the very doors of his sanctuary all over this country. However, attachment to tradition my cause the church to miss a Golden Opportunity to show Christ’s love to those who seek it. It’s not the first time that the church has almost missed God being stuck in tradition. I am reminded of the Apostle Peter, a chief Apostle of the early church who would have missed the move of the Beloved if not for direct intervention from the Divine.

As Peter was on his roof in time of prayer, there were Gentiles on their way to see him to ask assistance of God and to hear the good tidings of Christ. Let us not forget this expression we now refer to as Christianity was initially another sect of Judaism. Also, the custom of the time did not allow for Jews to engage with gentiles. However there was a divine plan at work to smash through previous traditions and open up the gift of God to all. In response to the approaching Gentiles desire to be accepted and heard by the Divine. God set about preparing Peter’s heart to hear their request and fulfil his duty as an ambassador of the Anointed One.

God presented to Peter, while in an altered state of prayer, things that were prohibited for him to eat as a good observant Jew and encouraged him to eat. Peter refused. This was repeated 3 times with Peter refusing each time. Finally God said to Peter one of the MOST profound statements in the bible in my opinion, “…What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common….” Very shortly after this experience while Peter still pondered its meaning, the gentile men sent to seek him by their employer arrived and asked Peter to come with them to their employer’s city and home. Because God had prepared Peter for this break from traditional Jewish regulations, He was ready to share the compassion and love of God to those who needed and desired it. So integral was his transformation that he had to declare it out loud and said to the Owner of the house he entered “…Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of another nation; but God hath shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean.” 
 
Peter had a moment of clarity on that roof when he was brought face to face with the sovereignty of God. God who imposed laws to keep his people safe in times of transition could himself when he saw fit change those very laws to serve the greater good. Peter now understood that. This sentiment is later reflected by the Apostle Paul who would in a letter to the Corinthians said, “Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.

Dearly beloveds, we are presented in our own time an opportunity to let God’s sovereignty reign. Hundreds, yay Thousands in the LGBT community seek a place to connect with the Holy One. They seek to lead godly lives and have their unions blessed by a creator who fearfully and wonderfully made them and require only that they come. Will the church continue to turn its backs on them? Will they call common that which God has cleansed? He has shown us the sheet full of those things once unlawful and bidden us to partake. Peter refused 3 times before he got the message. How long will the church refuse before they realize that these beautiful souls are being sent by God as not only the answer to the prayers of the sent but also the prayers of the churches across this country who pray that God send people into his house? I know change can be difficult. It was difficult for Peter as a church leader to go against the established norms based on a personal experience he had with the Divine, but eventually he knew that if he did not he would become one of those “religious” that the Beloved admonished served with their lips but not their heart.

There is a mighty move of God happening. It's been going on for a while but it is growing in momentum! God is sending people to the very doors of his sanctuary all over this country. You may not believe its God. I most certainly do. In the end who among us knows the “mind of God?” For that cause I choose to error on the side of love and compassion. It is the ONE identifier Jesus left for us to recognize those who belong to him. God is Love and in the end love always wins!

The Season for Seasons

When I was 7 yrs. old it was brought to my attention by my songstress big sister that all that singing I was doing ACTUALLY sounded pretty good. I've loved to sing since I've known what it was. To be a professional singer was the very first of my artistic dreams. It was soon followed by writing, acting and fashion... But music, she was my first love and I've never given up hope that one day she and I would ride off into the sunset with writing in tow. It is the dream that has kept and still keeps me going.

This desire to be an artist was probably the first real personal proclamation I set out into the universe only following "I love you Mommy," "I love you Daddy," and "God is Great. God is Good. Let us thank him for our food. Amen." Lol! It has directed my path through many an alley and I've navigated many a byway in pursuit of it... But regardless the disappointments that have arisen and because of the pure joy it has produced I have always hoped, even in the years I was life worn and too weary to work.

In 2011 after collecting a bit of funds I thought. "Finally, I have the money to at least self-produce." The world of the internet made it possible to find an audience and market directly to them. I called on my brother and longtime friend Aaron "Pillow Jones" Luster to rally his forces and tap his contacts to help me get this done. I gave him a date and declared "It’s on!" However, life threw me yet another one of those curves that always seem to materialize right when I'm on the brink of breaking through. I had to use the money for something else, “a survival thing” and sadly I had to tell Aaron to call off the troops. I was heartbroken, though I'd have never let it show on the outside.

Then In 2012 I said (to myself only) "if I'm ever going to do it... Then I better do. This could very well be my last chance." I had no idea how. I had no money and truthfully no resources. I wasn’t going to pull another false alarm with my friends, especially when I did not know where the money was coming from. Then one day in July 2012, out of the blue, my brother Aaron called me and asked “Are you still trying to do your project? I want to help you get it done.” I knew it was divine acknowledgment for me to move ahead. You see, that is how it’s been for me in the pursuit of this dream. Every time I am about to give up or my faith falters there in some type of intervention propelling me forward.  

So, Aaron asked me how much I could pay and then charged me $100 less than that. I did one song at a time gathering money between each song for the next. He enlisted the excellent Greg Anderson and they added their flavor to my lyrics and melodies. It was going slowly but it was happening. I found myself loving all the arrangements the fellas were giving me but acutely critiquing my vocal performance. It’s true, I have done some amazing thing with my voice in my lifetime and I found myself wondering if this was a good representation of what I could do. I found myself in a state of pause… 

Then in the summer of 2013 I fell ill. I hovered at deaths door and was brought back from the very brink. After healing, more accurately during healing, I realized that life really is too short to keep putting things off in hopes of an elusive perfection. I had to admit to myself that even though I could always do better work, that was not the reason for my hesitation. It was my fear of rejection. “What if I make this offering to the world and they reject me. What would become of that dream then?” And with that revelation I committed myself to getting it done.  I finished the last 2 songs for the project and also paid to get it mastered. By February on 2014 I had a complete project, but now the next hurdle was reproducing it. 

2014 was wrought with financial difficulties for me. Added medical expenses in light of the new condition I had to care for wreaked havoc on my budget. I had NO idea of where the money would come from to mass produce this completed project. Then one day last winter I was talking to my mother. She had known of my project and asked of it completion. She wanted to know when she would hear it. I explained to her that the project was complete but I was a little short on money to mass produce it and put it into the world. She asked what I needed to complete it. I told her but also told her she didn’t need to trouble herself about it though. I’d figure something out. But as she has done since I was young, she plotted a way to assist me in reaching my goals, even after I told her she needn’t do so, and in February she gave her financial assistance to my cause. 

On May 1st I offered to the world the EP recording “Seasons.” It is a testament to the enduring nature of hope and I pray a work that speaks to the heart all who hear it. And though I have appeared on compilations over the years, It is my very first offering to the world that is completely mine. I write songs daily to ensure it won’t be the last. It is my desire to produce increasingly better music from the heart that speaks to the heart of humanity and elevates us all. But even as I look to the future, I wanted to take this time, this moment in the now to offer gratitude to Spirit and all the earth angels in his/her employ who help make this dream a reality. It is truly the season for “Seasons.” And for this I am eternally grateful.

“To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven..” ~Ecclesiastes 3

***If you haven’t yet had a chance to do so, please check out the EP Seasons on:

iTunes, Amazon  and CDBaby

The Passion

I wrote this "Holy Week" 2013. As we once again approach the commemoration of his death, It is my prayer that HIS love abound in spite of those who use his name to promote hate! His message was ALWAYS love. So I post here today as a reminder:

The Passion

There is something about Holy Week that always brings to heart the intimacy of my Christian relationship. On first glance by outsiders my life would hardly seem that of the devout disciple, but on closer examination one will find the heart of one fully engaged in a love affair with the person, principle, passion and concept of Jesus "The anointed."

Ours is a long lived relationship that started in my teens. It was then that I was able to see him through my own eyes, pass the interpretation fed to me by a dogmatic doctrine that fostered more fear than love. It was then in those tenuous teen years that I found a compassionate outsider that never quite fit in with the norms of his day. I was able to see his blatant rejection of the spiritual status quo held as sacrosanct by the religious elite of his time. It was then that I realized I was already more like Jesus than I had previously seen.

During those early years I began a practice that I continue to this day, of having conversations with The Most Beloved. Back then it was usually at bed time while looking out my window at the night sky. As I grew older it evolved to small conversation throughout the day when brought to mind. These conversations served as little breaks in an always overfilled day that allowed me to connect to this ensign of love that he had become for me and thus to love itself.

The more I read scripture I was able to divine the beauty of this person we know as Jesus and my affection for him grew. How could I not love this being who was so easily and readily moved to action by his compassion? How could I, the visionary that I was, not embrace the excellence of his pursuit of a destiny he was sure was his own. And who could not love a man whose heart of compassion & length of vision caused him to say a pray for those of us who had yet to populate the planet as he prepared to cross his final threshold into immortal notoriety.

Yes, I acknowledge that accounts could have been exaggerated when being recounted. I will acquiesce that some things get lost in translation and that context could reveal other strains to the story. What does hold true however, is the impeccable tale of unselfish love that lead a man, clearly having a human experience on this planet, to give up his life to serve the greater good. A man, who while he lived, gave to all who came for help. It is the story of unwavering faith that allowed him to offer this sacrifice trusting that what he knew in his heart about his divine destiny was true. It is the epic of triumph over the naysayers that could not believe the impossible. And at the very heart of it all is me (and you):

"Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us... And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one..." John 17:20-22

WE are the true passion of Jesus "The Anointed" It is a desire for us to know the true intimacy & oneness of divinity that inspired him to take that last agonizing step into glory instead of asking for reprieve. By doing so he became an example of the beauty, wonder & magic that lives in that space where humanity & divinity meet. It is this understanding that fuels my adoration. And if I never called myself a Christian again, I'd always admit my love for this gorgeous being & the concept of selfless love that he exemplifies.

So, I invite you this week, no matter what your religious affiliation, to look at the story of Jesus through different eyes. See the beauty of his gesture of sacrifice. Contemplate the depth of his commitment to global change. And consider that you, individually & we collectively were at the heart of his cause and thus are his true passion.

"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." ~John 15:13

Safe Space

It’s been almost 13 years since my father transitioned to the other side. It was years after he died before I felt somewhat whole again. I say somewhat because that kind of loss is life altering and you are never the same as you were before it happened. But I did finally get to a place where I could think of him or say his name and not fall apart. Even now if I say too many sentences in a row about my dear daddy I feel the knot begin to form in my throat and the tears start to well in my eyes. I know the length of my grieving was in direct relation to the amount of safety I felt to engage my feelings. There seemed to be no space to have the meltdown that I think everyone is entitled to when they lose people they truly love. Society allows 7-10 days tops and then you are expected to go back to “normal.” But there is very little acknowledgement of the fact that for the grieving there is a new normal to which we must adjust. Friends try to be supportive but they must go back to their own lives and responsibilities. And let’s face it, unless they too have lost a close loved one like a parent, they really aren’t equipped to help anyway.

I cried every day for a year and no one knew. I’m not one who asks for help easily. So, I put on my brave face and went on about my daily activities. But I would lay in my bed at night when the world was silent enough to allow me to hear my grieving soul and cry because I’d never hear his voice again, because I would never see that smile that could light up the world again, because I’d never hear him say he believed in me again. I’d cry for the conversations that only we could have that we’d never get to have now. Mostly, I’d cry because my constant, dependable, reliable safe space was gone. No matter his imperfection, he was daddy and the world was not so big and bad with him in it.

I’m thinking of this tonight as I think of Bobbi Kristina and her fight for life. Her situation is just the most recent that has caused me to contemplate how our consumptive nature as a society has crossed over from mere material to actual emotions. The advent of reality television has given rise to a culture that consumes drama and grief like Sunday supper and leaves not space for the very real people who live public lives to safely experience their emotions. Actually we prefer they not deal with things in a healthy way because a Kanye West mindlessly acting out his grief is far more entertaining than him taking time to truly process his loss and come out on the other side of it.   

This young woman lost her mother, whom we all laid claim to as our own. So, even in those initial moments when most of us would be dealing with the reality of what happened and letting it sink in she was floating through a world wind of tributes that kept the lonely at bay for a while. But after all the tributes were through and the last songs sung, where was her safe place to grieve. The same public who claimed to share in her grief in the beginning, made her the butt of their jokes and she became just another public figure for our consumption.

Tonight I pray for her, her father and her family. May the God of peace be with them through this trying time and may they find love and a safe space in each others presence. 

I also pray that we as a society increase our compassion and decrease our need to feed on people’s emotions as a form of entertainment. I pray we learn to view people who live public lives as the people that they are and allow them the space that we all deserve to experience their private emotions. 

Selah…