When we were in our Young Adult’s Bible School class this past Sunday, our teacher had us all give an example of our testimony towards God’s goodness that we have had in our lives. We went around our small knit class, (there was about 6 students in class this week) and we all gave a personal account as to how we know God has kept us and blessed us in our lives. The key here is that when we pray, it’s so easy to pray for the blessings that we WANT, but we must never forget to go before the Lord and just tell Him thank you for all the blessings that He has allowed to be a part of our lives. I was watching the presidential debate last night (between flipping from the Astros-Cardinals game..GO ‘STROS!!) and after the debate, they had Tavis Smiley from NPR/PBS on ABC and Dan Rather (or is it Peter Jennings? I get them confused) asked him a few questions about the debate. Tavis brought up 2 major points. One was that Kerry was the first one to bring up the issue of religion and prayer and openly state his own personal faith during this particular debate. This was quite an oddity, because to date the Democrats had criticized Bush for catering to the religious groups with his frequent references to his spiritual life and being a born again Christian. I say this, because as a Christian living in America, I know that I often give favor and the benefit of the doubt, towards a person who I believe has Christ in their heart over a person who does not believe in God. And as much as Bush has done some things during his term that made me feel that he is very much a part of the spiritual wickedness in high places that Paul says we wrestle against everyday (Eph 6:12), I know that Bush’s strongest backing is still the rich and/or Christian voter.
I guess my core problem with the Bush administration, is that as a black married working class man, with 2 kids living here on the Southside of Houston, Texas, I really don’t feel that the Bush administration really gives a damn about what is going on in the hood. In our communities, with our children. I listen as he touts his policies and all the good things his administration has accomplished, but then I look outside on the streets of the Southside everyday and I see people teetering on the brink of a total depression. A lot of folks don’t have jobs; a lot of folks that have jobs are still living from paycheck to paycheck. They’re one layoff and unemployment benefit denial away from having to go live with relatives or in a shelter. Senior citizens are having to sacrifice things such as running their air conditioner or the quality of their food just so that they can get their prescription medicine that they need. It’s tight out here in George Bush’s America 2004 ya’ll..fo-real.
Of course, it’s not like George Bush and his administration caused all of the problems that our poor and working class communities are dealing with either. A lot of the problems that we have in the hood are caused by our own laziness, selfishness and neglect. As any true God fearing man will realize, you can’t make anything happen in your life ‘jus chillin’ all day. You’ve got to get up and hustle and strive if you want to make it work, so as dismal as the outlook may be in the working sector of America, that does not excuse lazy hands.
6 Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways and be wise: 7 Which having no guide, overseer or ruler, 8 Provideth her meat in the summer and gathereth her food in the harvest. 9 How long will thou sleep O sluggard? When will thou arise out of thy sleep; 11 So shall thy poverty come as a prowler and they want as an armed man. – Proverbs 6:6-11 KJV
Arise from your slumber O sluggard! You’ve got to get up, get out and DO something. That is every man’s responsibility to his family. At least, that’s how I was raised. Which brings me back to my testimony.
I’ve made reference and spoken of my maternal grandfather here on servinemup.com many times, my Big Daddy, the late Bishop Sam Scott, Sr. This is a man who never matriculated out of grade school, all he knew was work. He had his own plumbing/carpentry business, he was a landlord of several low-income houses in the poor black neighborhoods in El Dorado, Arkansas and he was a bishop that spent many hours on the road traveling to churches throughout Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi preaching. You could say a lot of things about Big Daddy, but NO ONE could call him a sluggard. At Big Daddy’s funeral, 3 of his sons (my uncles) delivered sermons to the congregation. When my uncle Lloyd (Pastor of Eastern Star Baptist Church in Port Arthur Texas, all ya’ll golden triangle folks looking for a church home should check him out..he’s a real n’ga!) got up to the pulpit, he told everybody about how the doctors came to Big Daddy and Big Mama on 3 different occasions and told them they should begin making arrangements for the burial of one of their children. And each time the doctors told them this most disturbing news for any parent to hear, the first thing Big Daddy and Big Mama did was get down on their knees and start praying.
The first time was when one of their daughters was in a serious home fire that caused her to suffer 3rd degree burns on a large part of her body. Another time was when one of their sons was in another of his numerous street fights and he was shot and wounded to the point of critical condition. Another time was when one of their sons was involved in a serious car accident. Each time, after the doctors gave their prognosis, their advice was to prepare for the worst, and each time man and all rational thinking said no, they got down on their knees and God said yes.
So often when life throws us these seemingly defeating and devastating blows, that is when we are humbled and our prayer life gets real frequent. Even folks who never go to worship God in any form or fashion know when they need to get down on their knees and go before the Almighty for help. The bad part is, so often when the Lord hears our cry and sustains us and brings us out of that pit to see a brighter day, we forget about Him and all the good things He’s brought us through, and we go back to doing whatever it is we want to do and our prayer life and fellowship with God becomes more distant.
So when my time came to give my testimony as to how good God has been to me in my life, the first thing I said was that God let me see a miracle everyday when I was growing up. Because, that same daughter that Big Daddy used to pray for every week over the radio when she was recovering at the burn hospital in Little Rock….well, that daughter is an integral part of my testimony. You see, my Sunday school teacher is that same daughter of Bishop Scott that was burned and she’s also my mother. So when you look at all the people that go around complaining about everything, the economy, the election, the weather, their dating life, their finances, pimples on their face whatever, I let them go ahead and make it, but I can’t join them. I can’t complain ya’ll, because I know I’m wonderfully blessed, we have a risen Savior that can pull us through the darkest of times of distress and woe..kinda like where we are now with our leadership situation in America.
The 2nd point that Tavis Smiley brought up was the fact that through the 4 debates (3 presidential, 1 Vice-president) so far, there have only been 2 topics (total) that specifically was addressed towards the black community. The first time was in the vice-presidential debate when the topic of the AIDS/HIV reaching epidemic levels in the African-American community was brought up. Neither candidate had a clue that this was a problem in America. The 2nd time was last night when the question of affirmative action was brought up. Once again, I listened to both of these candidates’ answers and I realized that they are both very much disconnected from the reality that most black/poor/working class folks live.
So as I was sitting there thinking about the election, I realized that the main thing that had caused me to waiver on deciding who to vote for, was the fact that I don’t particularly care for either candidate. Of course, I’ve GOT to vote, because I honestly believe any black person in America who doesn’t get out and vote, especially after all the sacrifices our parents and grandparents made just so that we could have the OPPORTUNITY to vote..basically any eligible black person that doesn’t vote is a sorry nigga as far as I’m concerned. It don’t matter what precinct you live in, get out there and DO something mane..voting for black folks ain’t free, it was paid for with a price that started with the blood of those African slaves who were killed or thrown overboard and fed to the sharks during the Middle Passage to the Americas. It was paid for when our grandparents were hung from trees for saying or doing the wrong thing around the wrong white person. It was paid when they put dogs and hoses on our parents who just wanted equal privileges for their kids.
Don’t be like one of them ignant n’gas that vote for Nader or the Libertarian party either, cuz that’s a big reason how Bush got in this past election. All those no-votes add up, cuz you can best believe them rich white folks are at the polls baby. Not to say being rich and white is a bad thing, Kerry's got a lot of rich white folks in his camp also..we’d all like to experience it for at least one day I’m sure! :) But everybody who’s so ready to break Bush off needs to realize that it takes more than complaining to make something happen.
On the other hand, some black folks think that they’re only allowed to be Democrat, and that ain’t cool either. It’s too bad we can’t pick and choose different agendas.traits of each campaign and make a custom president, kinda like a Mr. Potato Head..Energy policy from this guy, education from that one, defense from that one…there! But what we can do is continue to write letters to our senators, state representatives and congressmen. Continue to vote and play an active part in our community and continue to do all the things possible to make sure our voice is heard. Personally, I’m eagerly looking forward to the day I can vote for the soon to be Senator of Illinois, Barrack Obama (Whoop Keyes az!!) to be our President..but we’ve got a ways to go before that day. Make sure you pray before you vote ya’ll…America needs it!
