Using Your Gift

As I was preparing the latest post for servinemup, I happened to start scrolling through my archives of past posts and I ran across The Reason for My Hope - April 11, 2004. Not too long after I posted it, one of my childhood friends sent me an email…

D! Will you PLEASE give me at least a 2 week notice beforehand so that I can get my plane ticket to come see you preach your first sermon!!

Of course, when I received that note, it kinda ‘freaked’ me out a bit, because I’d never considered myself as a ‘preacher’. But the part that really started freaking me out, was when other family members and friends started saying the same thing..

You know preachers run in the family…you got in in the blood honest D..on BOTH sides!

I knew that God has His ways of talking to us, sometimes it’s through the wind and sometimes it’s through other people around us. Was God telling me He wanted me to be a preacher??
For those who don’t meditate on the Word, I know this all may sound kinda..crazy.. me wondering if God was talking to me or not. But I believe that we all reach a point in our lives when we realize that God IS trying to tell us something. It’s kinda like that song that Shug broke into the church singing in the Color Purple…maybe..God is..trying..to tell you somethin! GOD is trying to tell you somethin’!! Right now!

And although I had already had my preconceived notions of what it meant to be a preacher..getting up before the congregation, sweating and screaming behind a pulpit, as I grew stronger in the Word, I realized that preaching the gospel of Christ was never meant to be confined to a dais or sanctuary. There are church leaders who are called to perform different duties for the church body, but ALL who believe will receive the call to discipleship at some point in their lives. Because once you truly believe and have the joy and peace and love that can ONLY be found through Christ, then you’re going to have to adhere to the conduct of the gospel. Which John MacArthur lays out in 10 traits. If you believe the gospel of Christ, you will:

1. Proclaim It Matt 4:23

2. Defend It Jude 3

3. Demonstrate It Phil 1:27

4. Share It Phil 1:5

5. Suffer for It 2 Tim 1:8

6. Don’t Hinder It I Cor 9:12

7. Be not Ashamed Rom 1:16

8. Preach It I Cor. 9:16

9. Be Empowered I Thess 1:5

10. Guard It Gal 1:6-8

So when I read that list, I studied and meditated on all of those Scriptures, because just like Jonah when he was trapped in the belly of that great fish after blatantly disobeying God’s call for him to go preach in Nineveh, I knew that, ‘woe is me if I do not preach the gospel’. I knew that if I didn’t open my voice to uplift the name of the Lord through my works, that I might be swallowed up by a great fish also.

Once you get out there on faith, it’s like nothing else you’ve ever done before. It’s like taking a ride through life with your eyes closed and being led by the Spirit of the Lord. Sounds kinda spooky huh? Well, one things for sure, if I don’t..or if YOU don’t, praise the Lord, those rocks will start crying out instead of us..and I don’t know about YOU, but I don’t want no rocks crying out to the Lord in MY place. I’m too competitive for that..I ain’t about to let no ROCKS beat D!!! Ya’ll betta praise the Lord! Ya feel me?

So anyway..after several close friends and family members had started looking at me with that ‘you preaching yet??’ eyeball sideways glance, and after I had spent many hours praying and meditating on the Lord’s will..He came through and answered my thirst for understanding and direction…like He ALWAYS does. After taking the Proverbial Challenge and talking to men who have been ‘called’ into the ministry, the first answer the Lord sent me came from one of my uncles who pastors a church in Port Arthur. I had asked him about when God calls a man to preach and he looked at me and said..

“I’ll tell you like Pastor W.D. Richardson used to say..”It’s the same, and it’s different’.

What does that mean??

It’s the same, in that ALL callings come from the Holy Spirit…and it’s different in that everyone gets their calling in a different manner. It’s a personal thing that everybody is hit with in their own personal way.

So I thought about that for a minute and not too long after that, I started receiving several emails and comments from various people around the globe who read www.servinemup.com, and the majority of them were actually words of appreciation, because by reading my work, they had all felt that they had a better understanding and a stronger thirst to grow stronger in the Word. And not too long after that, that same childhood friend who had jammed me up about announcing my first sermon at least 2 weeks in advance came right back with…

You know what D? I say that I want to be there for your first sermon to hear you preach, but really when I think about what you’re doing…you already are.

That’s when I started getting that feeling of peace, because I think we all must challenge ourselves daily to be all we can be. Or as my uncle told me, ‘Any faith that is not tested, can not be trusted.’ The Lord has His way of sending us messengers and angels to help guide us along our path in life. Despite all of the wicked and evil forces in high places in this world, God is STILL in control of it all. And there is no greater guide and direction of life, than that found in the Word of the Lord. Because in the 12th chapter of I Corinthians, Paul breaks down everything that I had experienced:

4 Now there are various kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5 And there are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. 6 And there are various kinds of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all things in. – I Cor. 12:4-6

Didja get that? Some of ya’ll are go be called to preach, some to teach, some to write, some to sing, some to account, some to usher, some to deacon, some to be parking lot attendants at the church, whatever it is that you CAN do for the Lord..but it’s the same Spirit that worketh in all. Hopefully I’m not the only one that has asked the Lord for direction..because until you bow down and start serving Him, then you won’t be able to reach your full potential in life. It’s a truth to spiritual maturity that brother Edward P. Jones laid out so eloquently in his Pulitzer prize winning novel, The Known World-

“He was a handsome man,” she said of Augustus. “ I never leaned toward exaggeration,” she said to Anderson. “So when I say he was a handsome man, he was indeed. Henry was too, but he never got old enough to lose that boyish façade colored men have before they settle into being handsome and unafraid, before they learn that their death is as near as a shadow and go about living their lives accordingly. When they learn that, they become more beautiful than even God would imagine, Mr. Frazier.”

Once you realize that your death is as near as a shadow, then you will get on your hustle and live your life accordingly. At least, that’s how the Spirit hit ME! It’ll come to you in a different way, but it’s the same thang mane.

I'm a Lot Like Shrek

Sometimes I almost feel like I want to apologize to everybody. I wish I could be a more ‘normal’ blogger. Checking in with a new post everyday, sometimes several times a day, posting up to date minutes of circumstances along my daily routine..



It snowed today, I don’t like it when it snows, it makes my toes feel cold.



And all that ol kinda ‘Thoughts in my head’, Sex In the City, N’ga Wonder Years type stuff. Well, actually I guess servinemup IS kinda like that..the only thing is that there is no regular time or place on when to come check it out. Hell, even I don’t know when the next post is coming up and I’m the one who WRITES this stuff. You see, the problem is, I’ve always been pretty weird. Even as a child growing up, there was rarely a normal or average day with me. No sir…I was always good for the spectacular, like the time I came home from school with only one shoe on….

What the---?? Boy?!! Where is your other shoe???!!!



I shrugged my shoulders and tried to look as pitiful as I could as I gazed down at the floor hoping and praying that an earthquake or some major catastrophe would happen to get this heat off of ME!!



I don’t understand what that means!! OPEN YO MOUF!! Where is your other shoe??!!



I don’t know mama.



It was true too..I REALLY didn’t know where my other shoe was or what had happened to it. All I knew was that I went to school with 2 shoes and a pair of socks on, and by the time the afternoon came around, I still had on the pair of socks, but somehow I only had on one shoe. Go figure! I mean, who can REALLY tell what happens with these things??? Of course my mom and then my dad gave me the blues about how utterly ridiculous it was for a 9 year old boy to be coming home with only one shoe on and not being able to explain what happened..okay, you can stop laughing, that story isn’t COMPLETELY true..I ‘gonzoed’ it a bit, but it sure makes for a funny story written that way don’t it?? Of course, my parents and my sister are probably shaking their head going, ‘There he go, trying to be slick AGAIN..cuz he was really 12 when that happened!!”..Well, if ya’ll think ya’ll know so much more about the ‘exact’ historical events and timeline, then get you a blog and start writing something for it everyday, maybe call it the ‘Behind the Scenes w/Servinemup’ or maybe make it like a reality show or something.



Nahh..they ain’t ready for that from OUR family yet, cuz if they THINK Tyler Perry’s Madea is off the hook, then when they meet Miss Gladys, they’re going to really feel what off tha CHAIN really means!! Everybody that knows my grandmother or Miss Gladys as so many people call her, know that I ain’t even exaggerating, cuz I’ll tell ya’ll right now..Michael Jackson could step on Miss Glady’s porch today, and she’d let him have it…

Michael? Are you REALLY Michael Jackson?



Yes ma’am..eh-HEE-HEE-HEE!!



Now holeup now! Don’t start ALL that screaming and hollering junk on my porch, cuz you’ll give me the headache with all that and I’ll have to get me some BC powders.So just sit down somewhere and let’s have us a good talk. You been doing alright?



Yes ma’am..I’m doing okay.



You don’t be looking like you doing okay everytime I see you on TV and they talking about you done touched another one of them lil boys. Youse a grown man..you ain’t got no bizness laying up there in bed with no lil boys..or lil girls!! You need to find you a nice good woman with Christ in her heart and ya’ll have a nice family together.



I’ve already been married Miss Gladys.



You have?? Oh that’s right!! You married one of Elvis Pressley’s girls!! I remember that..you shole did!! If you love her, ya’ll should try and make the family work, but if you go leave it alone, then you just need to gone and get yo divoce and move on and ask God to forgive ya..cuz Jesus will. You just can’t be one of them people that get’s a whole bunch of divorces over and over..that’s what’s called being an unrepentant sinner right there..that’s in the Bible..shole is…shole is..heh-heh..Michael Jackson..imagine that..I got Michael Jackson on my poich right here and you just a lil cute nice something..why you do that stuff to your face tho? You was such a handsome lil boy with that cute lil brown wide nose..yo nose was so wide I could drive a Cadillac through there and not touch nairn side!! (laughing) I’m just playing wit ya Michael..but I’m serious tho’..you need to learn to love yo self for the person that God made you to be..stop trying to change your hair or change you face or change yo skin to look more like them white folks. Don’t you know them white folks don’t care nuthin about you?? All they want is yo money. That’s why you need to put yo trust in the Lawd with ALL of yo heart, lean not to your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge HIM..you know who ‘HE’ is don’tcha?? I said do you know MY Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ??



Yes ma’am.



Good..(ha-haa) I’m shole glad to hear that..that means we brothers and sisters together in Christ.,we may be spiritual brothers and sisters, but if I wasn’t married, then I’d marry you Michael..I’d take care of you, cook you some supper and keep yo clothes washed and ironed and looking nice…(heh-heh)..but you got to bring ME the money tho!!! Put my hands on that check!! Holeup! I know you like me and everything Michael, but I don’t allow people to kiss me on my cheek, cuz I don’t know where yo lips been. Here..you can kiss me on my hand tho…

____________



Okay..see I completely made that up!! Michael Jackson ain’t NEVA been on my grandmother (Miss Glady’s) porch..at least, not that I know of. But the point is that when I come to servinemup, I like to serve up some good soul food. Maybe it will be a laugh, or a word of encouragement, maybe some interesting or helpful information to help you tighten up your ‘game’. But now matter what it is you get from reading the offings of D.E. Washington, I’m just glad you’re here kinfolk. Cuz right here is when you can see me work on my hands. I’m in training ya’ll..or as they say in pit language, I’m in my ‘keep’. So when you see me step out, I’m stepping out with the intent of working out my skills for the public and letting ya’ll know that I’m another Southern brother that can write a lil bit. And I’m trying to make it to heaven ya’ll. So if you’ve never considered your salvation..and where your soul will rest when you take that last breath, then keep riding with D. Wash and I’ll make sure you know everything I know about what that good Book says about eschatology (last things). Because as many people who may discredit or dismiss the ‘Jesus’ content of my writing, the dividing line of faith is what happened on Resurrection Sunday..what most of the world refers to as Easter Sunday now.

For those who didn’t know, we are currently in the midst of Passion week. Starting with last Sunday (Palm Sunday), which began with the Messiah’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem riding on a colt (Matt. 21:1-17, Mark 11:1-11, Like 19:29-44, John 12:12-19), as prophesied by the prophet Zechariah over 500 years before (Zech 9:9). In just that short week, Jesus went from arriving into town praised as a King, to being betrayed, arrested, scourged, crucified..and ya’ll know what happened next right? There’s 3 Biblical accounts of people being raised from the dead, Lazarus (John 11:1-44), Jairus’ daughter (Luke 8:40-56) and the widow’s son in Nain (Luke 7:11-16). Some people may think it should be 4 if you include Jesus, but you see, Jesus wasn’t just ‘raised from the dead’, He was resurrected. When a person is raised from the dead, the implied result is that that person will die again another day. But when a person is resurrected, death is conquered never to have power again.



That’s the cornerstone of the Christian faith, because if Jesus wasn’t really resurrected and He didn’t really arise from that grave with the keys to death in His hand..then all that I believe and expound is pretty much worthless. True Believers worship Christ because of His deity, He is more than worthy to be worshipped and praised. But if the resurrection was a ‘hoax’ or some kind of ‘okey doke’ move that the disciples pulled off and then started spreading the Word through the Gospels and Epistles about a fictitious event? Then the jokes on D..cuz I would be a d’mn fool along with millions of other Believers in Christ today and throughout history.

And to be all the way real with ya’ll..I haven’t always been a Believer. There was a time in my life where I kept Christ and all His claims of being God at arms length. But once that Spirit pricks your heart and you start studying the Scriptures, starting back with the Law and the Prophets, through the testimony of the full Gospel..then your faith and conviction will start growing stronger and stronger. It’s definitely a leap of faith to make, especially in this day of age of ‘bait and switch’ moves, the world has it’s way of making us all feel like a doubting Thomas. But once you get that conviction in your heart, you make that leap of faith with a full jump of confidence. Just like Neo in the Matrix, few people make it over on that first jump..but as you keep living and keep experiencing life as we know it. Going through pains and the passing of loved ones, then your eyes start focusing more on what’s real and you’ll start leaving that bullsh’t to the side and you'll get down in the pit and be the Gladiator that the Lord always meant for you to be.



So once I finally made it to the side of Believers, I was just so happy to be there that I clung to my new found joy like a treasured prize that I really didn’t even want to share with anybody..I wanted to keep it all to myself and revel in my personal walk with the Lord. Kinda like how Shrek preferred to stay to himself, in his own world, doing his own thang without having to be bothered by all the ‘weird’ folks in the world. But as that Light continues to shine in your heart, the glow it let’s out will continue to grow and pretty soon it will be too glaring to keep to yourself. Or as Shrek always says, ‘Better out than in!” When you have that conviction, you won’t be able to keep it to yourself, you’re going to have to tell somebody about it. God doesn’t want to change who you are, He just wants to change who you serve.



I actually would probably have a lot larger audience here at servinemup.com if I had stayed silent about my faith in Christ. Keep it as general as possible and don’t start talking that ‘Jesus is God’ madness..that’s what got Christ in trouble in the first place!! But the weird thing is, is that once you truly believe, you won’t be able to keep it to yourself. The Lord wants to use our testimony to strengthen other Believers along their walk and to ultimately draw in more souls who didn’t have anyone to minister to them about the amazing Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. The late Rev. Paul Jones used to sing this song called ‘Don’t want no rocks’, who’s main chorus went..



If I don’t, Praise the Lord

The rocks are.going to cry out

I don’t want..I don’t want no rocks

No rocks crying.. out in my place.

Halleluia. Praise the Lord.



That song comes from what Jesus told the Pharisees who wanted Jesus to stop the people who were singing Him praises in the name of the Lord as He entered into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday (Luke 19:28-44).



And some of the Pharisees called to Him from the crowd, “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples. But He answered and said to them, “I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out.” – Luke 19:39-40



I don’t want no rocks or stones crying out in my place ya’ll..I gotta tell somebody that Jesus lives, that’s why you’re reading what you’re reading right now. Jesus is the Vine and once you become a branch of the Vine, then your ultimate goal is to bear fruit. Now some folks are doing good enough just to be a branch of the vine that bears no fruit. But that isn’t what Jesus meant for His disciples to do. He wants all Believers to be good and faithful servants. Whatever it is you do..whether it’s write, teach, preach, sing, dance..when you do it to uplift His name, that’s when you become a real player in the game. And when I consider my walk in life, from Sugar Valley in the Southside of Houston, Texas, to Jelly Roll Street in Calion, Arkansas, to Booker T. Washington High School over in Studewood (Mike Jones!) on that Noufside, to my family of Bruhs at Stanford University, to my fraternity of golfers around the world, to my life now as a husband and father and devout Believer..well it became plain to me awhile ago that God made me to be a major player. I can talk to a lot of different people of different social and economic backgrounds and make em feel me. Cuz it’s just like my boy Shrek always says, “It’s better out than in!!”

Ya’ll hold tight and make sure you come back soon so we can get down about Resurrection Sunday and why we celebrate it on the date that we do and also why all that Easter bunny, Easter eggs, Easter baskets, etc. is a bunch of bullsh’t that ain’t got NUTHIN to do with the Bible! Real Believers rise up! This Sunday is the most important day in the history of mankind, it’s where the rubber meets the road ya’ll…the gospel of Christ is better out than in...you betta tell somebody!!!



www.servinemup.com

Copyright 2003, 2004, 2005 © All Rights Reserved

I Was Gone for a Minute...

How that song go?

What song?

“Don’t look no further..baby I’m back yeah..and dedicated to youuu”

Uhhh..I don’t think I know that song…who sings it?

I don’t know their name, I just heard it on the radio the other day..it sounded kinda catchy..especially that lil hook they got in there that says, “I was gone for a minute.”

Yeah..you should like that hook, cuz yo az been ‘gone for a minute’ on http://www.servinemup.com/. You been kinda stingy lately..you ain’t serving it up as often as you used to.

Well, the quantity may have decreased, but I think the quality is better than ever.

I’ll give you that..everything you drop has been tight..my only complaint is that you don’t drop enough..I check in witcha everyday when I get on the internet..just to see. Cuz sometimes you do some of that crazy sh’t and put a picture up for a couple of days and just have n’gaz waiting to see what the hell you about to talk about next.

Yeah..that’s the way most visitors check in..but it’s not like there’s not material to read. If I published everything I’ve written here on the website as a Best of Servinemup book, it would be a pretty thick book.

I guess you’re right..I never thought about it like that, cuz I was go print out your recent article page and it was so long I had to turn off my printer..plus it wasn’t printing out right anyway.

I know, I don’t format my web pages in a printable format, but I know a lot of people like to print them on paper instead of reading it directly from the computer screen.

Why don’t you do that? I dunno, a combination of things, truth be told, I’m a much better writer at this point than I am a web page designer.

You programmed your website yourself?

Kinda..this current web page is hosted by this company called http://www.1and1.com/, you just go in and pick out templates and it allows you to change background colors, insert pictures, and stuff like that. The biggest problem is that a lot of the editing with the pictures and moving stuff around can be a bit cumbersome. But when I first started blogging, I used this service call http://www.blogspot.com/, it was free and it let me have comments and webcounters and even photos, but it started crashing a lot and giving me days of a lot of down time when people couldn’t access my website, so I switched to a web hoster that was a bit more reliable and gave me the opportunity to add sound.

Sound? I don’t hear anything??

Not on this page you don’t, but I have the capability of adding sound on http://www.servinemup-ink.com/, I did one post entitled I Love the Lord, He Heard My Cry with Yolanda Adams singing in the background..it was jammin. I programmed that using this software called NetObjects Fusion, which gives me a lot more power and control over everything you see on the webpage. If you’ve ever been interested in creating your own webpage, you should check out one of those spots, or maybe http://www.movabletype.org/, all you gotta do is do a web hosting search and hundreds of those different companies will come up.

Is it hard to do?

Nah, not at all. With most of those, ‘Start your webpage TODAY!’ web hosters, all you need is internet access and all the other programming and stuff is taken care of, you just pick your template, which is like a blank form that you fill in with your own words or whatever..voila! You’ve got a website!

How do you know what to call it?

That’s up to you, you just have to submit the URL address that you want and they’ll check to make sure it’s not already registered in the database. Before I bought the web address http://www.servinemup.com/, I tried to get http://www.servin.com/, but somebody had already taken it, so I had to change it and resubmit.

That sounds simple enough.

It’s a great tool for anyone that ever wanted to start their own online journal to explore the writer in them. It’s a lot of in the closet writers that ain’t came on ‘out there’ yet, but blogging is a wonderful tool to step up to that microphone under the spotlight and push your work to a public audience.

I guess I never thought about it like that..the internet is like a big crowd that stops in to check out your work.

Yep..and I know everytime I drop, I’m addressing my largest crowd ever because servinemup is continually growing everyday.

I can just imagine, cuz you damn near be having me mad when you go a long time without dropping.

(smiling) You be fiending huh?

Yeah..I guess I do.

That’s good, that means I’m servin’ it up like a player is supposed to do. I know I’m kinda country and negrofied, but hey, I can only be D. I know that there are a lot of boundaries that have been historically drawn amongst different groups of people, men and women, Christian and Gentile, Player and Haters, Pimps and Hoz, but I know that I have a chance to transcend and touch all sides. The largest tool that a writer has is his experiences, cuz like my fellow Southside writer/rapper Z-Ro puts it, “I can’t teach a mf how to fly a plane, if I ain’t neva been up in the cockpit, ya feeling me mane?” That’s just how I feel, when I write, I gotta keep it real as possible, cuz it’s how I live and I’ve gotta be true to my Lord and I’ve gotta be true to me. So many people look at me with a cocked head, trying to understand the difference between the out of the closet, publicly proclaimed Christian, D.E. Washington from the n’ga they knew from back in the day.

Mane..I didn’t know D was all religious and stuff? Do you read some of that stuff he writes? He putting that Bible out there on them fools.

A lot of people have questioned me about my journey, did I see a flaming bush? Was I visited by an angel in the middle of the night? My common reply is that God definitely convicted me with a miracle before my eyes, but the miracle I witnessed didn’t just miraculously appear one day, it had always been there. It’s just that I finally reached a point in my spiritual maturity when I could finally open my eyes and see the Lord’s amazing Grace and Mercy present in my life. God didn’t just get here, He’s always been there with me, kinda like that Footprints poem, it’s just that I’m kinda hard headed and it took my black az over 30 years of living for me to finally heed the call of my Lord.

A lot of religious folks will try to tell you that if you don’t go to church or participate in some form of organized worship service, then you’re a heathen and you’re going straight to hell. I’ve never believed that. Although I was born into a Protestant family, a Southern Baptist Protestant family to be more exact. The kind of folks that if yo black az go live under THIS roof and eating THIS food, you’re getting up going to chuch evra Sunday mo’nin.

I rarely got much out of the church service, I always thought that it was rather boring, save those occasions when somebody ‘caught the spirit’ and started doing something wild and out of this world.

Did you see Sis. Jankins start shouting during the service this morning??

Yess Lawd!! She started jumping so high and screaming so loud that the pastor stopped preaching and was staring at her.

Do you REALLY think that was the Spirit in her..or do you think she was faking it just trying to put on a show??

I dunno..I hadn’t even thought about it like that..but I tell you what, if she was at herself, I couldn’t see her wig coming off without her stopping to put it back on.

Yeah..I guess you’re right..she was flopping all out her clothes too..I know she didn’t want everybody to know what them raggedy draws she had on looked like.

When you look at my religious bloodline, my father was born into a long standing line of Southern Baptist, but my mother grew up in one of those sanctified churches of the Holiness persuasion. For those unfamiliar, I’m talking about them folks that’s go make a joyful noise until the Lord all day and all night long, playing every instrument they can get their hands on, dancing, catching that Spirit and talking in tongues..giving their testimony..

Bishop Scott, I just want to say one thang to the chuch..cuz the Lord has been SOOOO good to me.

AMEN! GO HEAD NOW!!

Yes –suhh..I KNOW the Lawd has been good to ME!!!

Talk now!! HALLELUIA!!!

Cuz I steal somethin’ EVRA day…and I ain’t been caught yet!!!

(pause for audience laughter) Yeah mane, my family has a treasure trove of ‘church stories’ just like that..people clowning, ladies falling out and not having on no draws, men in church talking crazy on the microphone, whenever you start worshipping with other folks, you’re subjected to their own reality of fellowshipping with the Lord as well as all the other gods out there in the world that people worship. So I guess you can say my walk as an agnostic began at an early age. I saw so many janky and phony people in the church, from the pulpit,through the choir stand, through the deacon board, the ushers, I saw so many people IN the church who seemed to be demon possessed that it made me back up and become wary of all ‘organized’ religion. So instead, I kinda got into that transcendental thang..God was in ALL of us.

Now the path it took from me to go from being a solo spiritual soul, picking up on all the other folks with good energy and staying away from folks with all the negative energy is a bit of peculiar sprinkled on to a whole lot of ordinary. How I got from being kinda like my man Kung Fu and just roaming the globe as a singular soul that was unplugged from the matrix and able to discern others who had swallowed the red pill of truth from those who were still blinded in ignorance is a wild story in itself. But for all ya’ll who don’t believe that our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ didn’t get up out that grave..well, even if you don’t believe that Jesus is God, then obviously you haven’t seen the agents of evil that I’ve seen. Some of ya’ll may not believe in Jesus, but you d’mn shole know that Satan is real, we’ll see where you run to when them walls start calling your name. The world can be a very cold and lonely place mane..you betta find you a Rock to hold on to..the storm is coming and that’s fa sho.

Since I’m a convicted Christian that upholds the full gospel of Christ, I believe that this world is not going to last forever. There will be a new Heaven and a new Earth, now whether that happens in my life time or maybe when that trump blows it will awake me from my rest in the presence of the Father, no matter WHEN it is, I know that the King is coming back. Some of ya’ll don’t believe the Bible to be the complete and inerrant Word of God, don’t let your pride and laziness keep you from pursuing Him. How can you disagree with something you haven’t even read? How can you discredit a walk that you have never tried? Some have problems with the exclusive claims to salvation and ‘life eternal’ that the Christian path proclaims, but why are you letting something that’s worrying you about OTHER folks restrain YOUR thirst to grow closer to God? When judgemant day comes, He ain’t go be asking you about what other folks did, He’s going to be talking about YOU ng’a.! Hmph. Ya’ll n’gaz tripping. I was gone for a minute.
__________________________

So..what do you think of that?

Mane…yo az is WILD D!!!

What do you mean?

The church lady didn’t have no draws on mane?? (laughing) Sis. Jankins!!?! Is she related to Rev. Janky???

See, that’s what I’m talking about right there. Everybody is ready to start laughing and clownin, but as soon as you read some of that real, ‘anchor your soul in the Lord’, your eyes get blurry and you act like you didn’t see it.

Naww..I saw that. You had a nice lil flow going on there, breaking down blogging and web hosting and stuff, then you opened the crowd up with a few good church jokes, then you flipped gears and went evangelical knocking on n’gaz hearts, I see ya mane..but you already know, everybody ain’t trying to face that soul in the mirror..some folks are still hiding in their own world, acting like they go live forever, not even beginning to prepare themselves for that last ride..I FEEL ya D, you’re definitely keeping it real (smiling) but you still be having them JOKES mane..it’s all good. That’s why a n’ga be ready to get ‘served’, you gotta keep feeding the audience mane..you’ve got some good soul food here!

Well, you know, I try to get down focused on my purpose. Whenever I pick up my pen and write for my Lord, I know that He has a calling for me. And being able to feel and KNOW what your purpose is in life, knowing what the Master has commanded you to do..it’s the most liberating feeling in the world to be set free through Christ. Serving Him.

Kinda like some of that Blues Brothers, ‘Mission from God’ type stuff huh?

Already.

Well..I can honestly say that I’m just glad to be a part of all this D. Seeing how you’ve grown as a writer through your blog these past years has been a wonderful ride and I for one thoroughly enjoy everything you put down on paper. I’m really looking forward to reading your first book and hopefully many more.

Yeah..I’m eagerly looking forward too, cuz my purpose is starting to crash into my present reality and I’m starting to have some problems.

What do you mean?

Well, I’m still pretty much a ‘moonlighting writer’, I have a full time job that I have to go to everyday. And we’re in the middle of a huge power move, expanding our name through the industry, so I’ve been spending a lot of time on the road lately, taking care of the business with all of our new distributors and stuff, so my time has really gotten crunched lately.

So..when do you normally write?

Usually at night, after the children have gone to bed. But the life of a writer is split, you don’t just write, I actually find that I spend a lot more time reading. Besides my daily walk, getting into that Word, I also read other authors and writers that have put it down over the years..I read and I learn. I learn different ways to express myself and different forms of literary devices that can aid the effect on the reader.

Yeah..that little thing you did on Ray was right on point, you’ve got your own unique flavor that’s 100% .D.E. Washington.

Yeah..but you know the ultimate goal is strive to be 100% Jesus. D must decrease while He increases.

Aw c’mon now, ain’t NOBODY go be 100% like HIM!! That’s impossible.

Realistically it’s impossible, but that doesn’t mean we should ever give up in our pursuit..the Scripture says we move from glory to glory. No matter how righteous you THINK you are, you still have room to grow.

I see what you mean. So is your book gonna be like one of those Christian Self-Help- Motivational type things?

I’m not going to promote it like that..I’m going to push it for the street..with some of them thangs that will make a street n’ga stop and hopefully read what D. Washington is talking about…. ”I got that HOT sh’t in my hand!! Right here..getcho some Real Game in yo life!!..book brother?

Huh? What’s that you got??

It’s a book! Gone and get this book so that you can catch up on your game mane!!

Game? What kinda game??

See..that’s just it right there podna..the game is to be SOLD, not told! This book was written by a n’ga born and raised right here on the Southside! One of them real n’gaz that know how to pimp that pen..gone and buy you some game mane..cuz if you don’t stay up on your game, you betta believe yo gal is go be up on hers!

My gal??

Yeah mane! These books sell the hottest in the beauty shops and nail shops and places like that, where them women be sitting around under hair dryers with nothing to do BUT read, while they wait. We can’t keep them stocked enough they be fiending so hard for that D. Don’t let yo gal have some game that you don’t know nothing about..tighten yo sh’t up player..gone and buy one of em and see! He’s got this one in here called Lock Like A Pit…it’ll make yo spine start tingling n’ga this sh’t is so real. You sitting up there paying $20 for lap dances and ain’t coming away with nothing but a hard on..gone and put less than that on some game and you go be able to get them lap dances for FREE after you read this n’ga here!!

Gone and let me get one of em then.

Just one? You ain’t got no nephews or brothers or cousins or somebody like that that need some direction in their life? Maybe somebody that’s ‘out there’ a bit that may need to be steered toward some of that real that can only be found in the Lord? Don’t be selfish mane, once you get the game, you gotta make sure n’gaz who don’t know know. Cuz only a hater would find something fresh and not let their homeboys in on it. Snoop wasn’t lying mane, it ain’t no fun if the homies can’t have none…wazzup?

Alright, let me get 3 of em then.

(smiling) Shiiii….MY n’ga!!! That’s what um tawkin bout!! Three is the magic number! True players ALWAYS know what it do...cuz if you ain’t servin’ Him? Then you don’t know what’s UP!!

That little street corner marketing pitch basically sums up my plan of attack for distributing my books. I’ve got one of my childhood Southside podnas managing all of my distribution on the street, beauty shops, barber shops, hustling on the sidewalk pushing books out the trunk like DJ Screw used to push his tapes. Those who are true to that Screw know that his post-mortem success was advented by a daily grind while he was here on this earth. Seemed like every real n’ga on the Southside was always fiending for the next new Screw tape to drop. So I ‘jacked’ Screw’s and Fat Pat’s distribution model and I’m applying it to the realm of the written word. Like Pat says, ‘A n’ga got a million dollar function’..I know what I am, and I know the task that the Lord has set before me here in my life on this earth. I don’t know if I’m gonna go platinum in the first year or if it will take me 10 books just to reach gold. But what I DO know is that I’m dead game and no matter the reward that the Lord has in store for D, I know ultimately I have already received the greatest blessing, and that is my salvation through Christ which I treasure more than any commodity or status that the world could ever give me.

Ray

A couple of days after I posted Aunt C- January 15, 2005, she contacted me and we talked on the phone for a bit. I was telling her how I’d love to sit down and find out more about her experiences being one of Ray Charles backup singers, a Raelette. She quickly asked me..

You’ve seen the movie Ray..right?

Uhhh…no, I haven’t seen it yet.

Ohhh nephew! You’ve GOT to see it..it’s a wonderful story.

I was a bit embarrassed by my cinema ignorance. My wife and I rarely get a chance to go out to the movies and when we do, it’s usually with the kids. Of all the movies nominated for Academy Awards, I had only seen 3..The Passion of the Christ, which I happened to fall asleep on. This may sound strange, especially with me being a Christian and all..but it was kinda late in the evening when we went to see it and since I already knew how it was going to end, I kinda drifted off. Zzzzzz. My wife has actually come to expect me going to sleep in movies, but if I start snoring too loudly, she’ll give me that elbow to the side. I had also already seen the Incredibles, which I THOROUGHLY enjoyed, so much so, that I didn’t even begin to nod off, not even once! That in itself is a feat with me in movies. Sometimes me and my wife have this little game we play..I get in my Mr. Incredible suit and she gets in her Elastigirl-Ms. Incredible suit and we kinda…uhh..well, I guess our fetishes really aren’t appropriate for this post..but you get the picture..we still keep that spice going in our life!

This past weekend we ventured to Beaumont, Texas to spend Saturday night with some of our relatives so that we could attend church with them Sunday morning. Since everyone was all abuzz about Jamie Foxx being the favorite to win Best Actor for his performance and they happened to have the movie on DVD (not bootleg either!), we all settled down Saturday night to watch the movie. I realize that everyone hasn’t seen the movie and I’m not one to play movie spoiler, cuz I hate when people tell me stuff like..”Oh there’s this one part when the guy is hiding out in the bathroom..” before I’ve seen the movie, cuz I like to watch movies with an unbiased and unexpectant mind, waiting for the writer/directors art to unfold as they intended. But if a movie is already out on DVD, you can’t be tripping, that spoiler moratorium is over.

I’m sure when most Southside brothers watch the movie and if you asked them to explain what it was about, they’d probably say it was about a blind guy from Florida, who could play the piano, sing, did drugs and had a lot of women on the side and became very famous and successful. But my assessment of the movie goes a lot deeper than the topical observation, because I’m at a point in my life where I thirst to FEEL the experience. When I was at the E.K. Bailey Ministry Conference in Dallas this past summer, one of the ministers who was preaching said that EVERYONE should be able to ‘find YOURSELF in the Bible’. Of course this doesn’t mean you should start thinking that you’re Jesus or anything like that, but we all should strive to identify our personal lives with Scripture. Even beyond God’s Word, I can see the value of this morphing trait with life, people, music and movies. So as I was watching Ray, I found myself identifying to many of the life experiences that he was going through. Of course, I can’t FEEL what it’s like to be blind or even what it’s like to be able to play the piano or shoot heroin, but I could feel the struggle that Ray was desperately determined to overcome, when it came to finding himself through his God given talents.

Since Ray was not born blind and he had over 7 years of being able to see stored in his memory bank, a lot of his talents were based on his ability to listen with his ears and recreate in his mind with amazing levels of mimicry. So when you combine all of the wonderful musicians and singers that he grew up listening to, Ray had an uncanny ability to play or sound just like them. Of course, this ability to imitate will only take you so far, to really stretch the limits and be all you can be, you have to dig even deeper and find your true voice.

There’s this one particular part of the movie where Ray is in a struggle between the church folks who had outcries about him mixing God’s music, gospel, with the up-tempo, get up and shake your booty in the club jazz-R&B lyrics. When Ray is at his point of frustration, not knowing WHO to please, and even questioning if what he was doing was ‘wrong’ in the eyes of the Lord, his wife came over to him and consoled him and let him know that the Lord does not bless that which he does not approve…and Ray’s talents were definitely a God given blessing, no one could deny that fact. Now of course the hard line Bible thumpers will be quick to point out that the powers of Satan are very much at work in the world today, and a lot of things that we may conceive as blessings from God may actually be the work of the evil one. But we have this saying on the Southside which always rings true, “It ain’t what it say, it’s what it DO.”. The Bible is very descript, false prophets will always be revealed by the fruit that they bear (Matt 7:15-20). And when you see the legacy and the outpouring of love and happiness that Ray Charles has brought into this world, you know that his gift is anointed of God.

Now aside from Ray’s actually life, close attention has to be brought to the BRILLIANT job that Jamie Foxx did in making us all forget that we weren’t watching Ray Charles himself on the screen. From his mannerisms, tone and demeanor, Jamie nailed this one right on the head. It’s almost downright spooky, that this same gift of mimicry that was a part of Ray Charles life, is so evident in the spirit of Jamie Foxx.

Jamie surprised a lot of people, because so many had typecast him as a comedic actor, which goes back to his days on In Living Color as the disgustingly ghetto hood rat Wanda…”I GOTCHU!!” But my experience with Jamie goes even further back to 1989, when he was a contestant at the Bay Area Black Comedy Competition in Oakland, CA. At the time, Jamie was an up and coming standup comic and he was competing against the likes of D.L. Hughely and Yvette..I can’t remember her last name, but she's the chick that played the girl who claimed to look like Janet Jackson in the movie Friday that Smokey rebutted.."Man..that girl don’t look like no Janet Jackson! She look more like FREDDY Jackson!” The show was hosted by the late Robin Harris and wouldn’t you know, Jamie went on to win! One of his key pieces in his routine, was when he sang and mimicked a gospel minister so much so that you knew he already had some serious musical ability. Those who have followed his career may even know that he attended a college in San Diego on a classical piano scholarship, so you know, that boy got some SKILLS. But all in all, Jamie gave a killer performance in the movie, the script, as my Aunt C says, was very generous in it’s depiction of Ray and a lot of his ‘addictions’.

But through it all, we all can learn a wonderful story about a black boy growing up in abject poverty in rural Florida (he was actually born in Georgia though), being subjected to some early childhood trauma, having a mother who wouldn’t let him be comfortable living life as a ‘cripple’ and going out putting in DILIGENT work to augment and fruitfully multiply the talents that God had naturally blessed him with. Ray’s story reminds us that the only limits to the heights we can attain are self-imposed. He didn’t just sit on his musical talents and expect to be paid, Ray got out there and hustled, doing gigs, getting on the road, traveling that ‘chitlin circuit’, practicing..constantly grinding to be the best that he could be. And when you sit back and look at all the different people that his music has touched, from country rednecks, to down home blues black folks and all the different countries and cultures across the globe who have felt his music, we can see that Ray’s gift, was an undeniable blessing from the Lord. I’m sure if he could read this now, (if it was in Braille of course), he’d give one of his well known smiles, shake his head and say, “HELLO!”