Thursday, December 09, 2004

You Don't Have to Front to Kick It

You Don't Have To Front to Kick It - Thur, December 9, 2004


One of the most common questions I get from servinemup readers is,



“How do you determine what each post is going to be about?”



Unfortunately, there is no exact science to this answer. I move with the Spirit. Sometimes the Spirit is running high within me and it’s reflected in the words that I write. Other times I might just be in a goofy mood and ready to clown and it shows up. But more often than not, I try to stay abreast of the current events of the day, social, political, educational, health, family values, there’s always a hot topic or discussion to serve up for other’s to consider from a Southside Houston Texan perspective.



Now what I usually do is start off with the Bible School lesson for the week and then try to find an ecumenical topic that follows the same discussion pattern. (ring-ring) Excuse me one moment, my phone is ringing…



Hello?



Holeup now there D! I know you all Mr. Stanford and all..but errbody don’t know all those big words you be using. What the hell does eckemanic mean??



It’s not ‘eckemanic’, it’s ecumenical, ‘ek-you-men’i-kal’..it means general or universal.



Oh..aiight then. Keep servin em up!!




Already! (click)



See what um tawkin bout? I mean. Do you see what I’m talking about? I have a wide array of friends that encompasses the entire spectrum from completely illiterate to professional highly educated folks and everything in between and the best part about it all, is that I don’t have to front to kick it with nairn one of em..(ring ring) Uh-oh..I think I just threw somebody else off...excuse me while I answer this..



Hello?



Okay I was doing okay, but that part you put in about how you don’t have to ‘front to kick it with nairn one of em’?? What does THAT mean??




We haven’t had a good ebonic breakdown on servinemup since Hittin’ Licks, so let me gone and break down what I mean by not having to ‘front to kick it’ cuz this is an IMPORTANT topic from the hood all the way to executive boardrooms on the highest level of business.



'Front to kick it' – (ebonic phrase commonly used on the Southside) front (verb) in this case referring to a false façade or affront, that purposely conceals the true character or reality of a person’s status. Example: When you see somebody at the club flashing a big roll of bills, only to examine it more closely and notice that it’s actually one 20 wrapped around a whole bunch of ones..that’s a front. kick it’ whenever you’re just hanging out with friends or co-workers in a relaxed environment, that’s ‘kicking it’, Example: “Ya’ll need to holla at me whenever you’re ready to go kick it.”



Do ya feel me know? A lot of Christians are accused of ‘fronting’ once they get saved and in the church, because some people KNOW that what these same Christians profess with their mouth on Sundays is entirely different from what they actually DO Monday through Saturday. I have friends who have given me this same questioning glance, trying to see if I’m ‘fronting’ with my conviction for the Christ. A lot of this has to do with my past, being known as a brother that’s always ready to kick it and have fun makes some folks step back and wonder if it’s real. I know that the Lord has blessed me to have a wide audience of folks who are attentive to my voice. They listen to what I say and respect me as a person. Not just those in the church, but those out there in the world also. Everybody doesn’t kick it like I kick it, but nobody can say that I’m fronting, because they can see what it do.



There are some non-believers, who try to use my personal experience to discredit my testimony that Jesus is Lord:



Oh well..Jesus is good and all D..but you grew up going to church, I didn’t. I mean, both of your parents are Sunday School teachers! My momma and daddy NEVER go to church..that’s why I don’t get all off into that religion and stuff.



When they pull that, ‘You’re Christian just cuz your family is Christian’ card out on me, I’m quick to throw up those brakes on em..scurrrrrrrrrrr!! Holeup cuz! Now granted, it IS a blessing to grow up within a family of believers. People who acknowledge the Holy Scriptures of the Bible and use it as a guide and foundation for their life. But even though I grew up in a Christian household, I’ve spent a significant portion of my adult life as an agnostic. I didn’t believe all of the Christian claims to salvation..Jesus may be A way, but I didn’t believe that He was the ONLY way. My common lament was against the structure of organized religion with all it’s divergent faiths (Judaism, Christianity, Muslims, etc.), so instead I set off on a path of isolationism. Everybody just do what they feel, it was all good to me.



But once I became a father and a husband, I knew that I had to go deeper into my spiritual journey, because I had so many questions on how to raise my kids, how to be a good father, how to live a rewarding and fulfilling life and of course the capper that we all must face, when I take my last breath on this earth, is my soul prepared for eternity?



So I stopped ‘playing’ with the Lord and I got down on my knees and prayed prayers for understanding and direction.



Please Lord…I feel like I’m on a raft drifting at sea without a sail, oar or motor, please direct the steps on my path so that I may grow closer to You.



My grandmother used to ALWAYS tell us,


“Trust in the Lord, with all thine heart, and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways, acknowledge Him and He will direct your path.”


So although I wasn’t convinced of the Light, I knew that the Lord Is. So I put all of my learned misconceptions of the Bible to the side, you know those misconceptions that the world throws out there to trip you up..



The Bible is okay..but it’s written by man. So it’s not ALL the Word of God.



Rich white men are controlling everything! They changed the Bible to say what helps their mission to keep control of the masses!




But once I started reading the Bible and reading it searching for understanding instead of searching for ‘errors’, that raft I was on out at sea started to move. And it wasn’t a motor or oar that made it move, but rather faith. Faith is the belief in things unseen. It is through faith and faith only that we are saved from the storms of life. When you examine the 3 major religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam), you’ll see that they all share the same patriarch, Abram (later changed to Abraham), the father of faith.



Our Sunday school lesson this week was about Abram and it detailed his journey from Ur of the Chaldees (in what is today’s Southern Iraq) to Haran and then Canaan, which is modern day Israel, the Promised Land for God’s chosen people.



1 Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will show thee. 2 And I will make thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great and thou shalt be a blessing. Genesis 12:1-2



The Lord called Abram out of his comfort zone and bid him to go out on faith to a land unseen. Of course some naysayers may scoff and say, “Of course Abram obeyed and left! If God told me to do something, I’d be sure to do it to!” So many people look for miracles and burning bushes for direction, but yet they fail to read and study their Bible to learn more about the essence of God. Even at 75 years of age, with no children and a barren wife, Abram stepped out there on faith and heeded the call of the Lord. Folks can’t even say that he ‘got it from his daddy’ because Abram’s father Terah’s faith in the Lord (or lack thereof) is illuminated in Joshua 24:2



And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor; and they served other gods.



You see..Abram didn’t come from a Jewish family. The 12 tribes of Israel descended from Abraham through Isaac and Jacob. So the faith that Abram showed in the Lord was not something Abram’s family practiced at home as he was growing up. Abram developed his own intimate and personal relationship with the Lord, as we all are bid to do today. Instead of expecting some kind of spectacular sign from the Lord (which DO happen from time to time), most people overlook the most powerful and longstanding sign that we all have today, the Bible.

Some of my friends try to discredit the Scriptures as fiction or ‘partly-true’, but then when I ask them what part of the Bible they believe is false or changed or added, they can’t answer. All the doubts and suspicions that I had about the authenticity of the Bible being the inerrant Word of God were erased when I read it in it’s entirety. That 1-2 combo punch of the Old and New Testament made a believer out of me. I believe the report that Jesus Christ is the Lord and Savior of us all that the prophets ‘shot called’ throughout the Old Testament, beginning in Genesis. Some folks consider this faith as a ‘cop-out’ or for the ‘weak minded masses’. I try to do what I can to explain the reason for my faith for them to understand, but no matter what they think, I’mma praise God anyway and keep on doing what I do. When you believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord, you never have to front to kick it.