December 20, 2004
Rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated. Isn't that a great opening line? Of course, that's not a D.E. Washington original, I 'jacked' that from a very famous literary piece, I just can't remember who wrote it right now.. maybe Shakespeare? I dunno..I get a lot of that stuff confused. �I'm an engineer by education and training ya know? The only thing I ever wrote were the things they MADE me write in school,�writing isn't�something I ever did in my spare time or anything like that. Besides essays, papers and creative writing exercises�that we had to write at Poe Elementary School, Lanier Middle School, Booker T. Washington Senior High School or at Stanford University, I never picked up my pen for independent expression until I started writing letters to those girls..ya'll know what I'm talking about right?
Dear Locreashia,
Do you like me?
Circle: yes or no.
If no, I didn't really like you fo real anyway
If yes, I'm going to pull that tongue after school.
Love, D.
Huh? No? Ya'll never seen nothing like that before?? My bad, it's�just me then, I've always had a vivid imagination and a very twisted sense of humor. Combine that with the many hours I spent sneaking and listening to my father's entire Richard Pryor collection of LP's, then you can have a better understanding of why I relate to the world on that plane in which I do. Because we're all on our own seperate levels of awareness, it's just a matter of how much we're in tune to the other souls that are sharing this life in which we all are blessed to live. I know there are a lot of bitter people in the world, who are walking around�in a�Holiday-'aggravated and depressed' mode, unhappy with the hand that they've been dealt. People that are in pain, people that are indigent, people that are handicapped, people that are surrounded by people out to do them harm.
So how do you handle moving around in a world full of people that are living on the quiet edge of desperation? There's a lot of folks that are on the verge of a nervous breakdown..they're dealing with some thangs and they just don't know how they're going to make it through. All I can say to ya'll folks worried and looking all crazy because you're more broke this Christmas than you've ever been before in your life..I'm just telling ya'll to hold on baby. Don't trip on all that Christmas�presents junk anyway, cuz them kids already are spoiled beyond reason with all the things they have AND Christmas ain't about no Santa Claus, Christmas tree or presents ANYWAY. When you meditate on that reason we're celebrating, it's really a birthday party for that One who came down and laid it down so that we all could share in the full grace and glory of the Lord. Jesus is the reason for the season ya'll, you gotta feel that.
Since I've been writing on www.servinemup.com, I've had several close friends and family members to pass away from this world.� One of the big 'pushes' I got to go public with my writing was from the emotions I felt at my grandfather's funeral. I know that there's some readers who are related and close to these deceased and it may give them a little twinge of pain to have their memories of them refreshed. I know I'm not the only one that misses Big Daddy, or Aunt Pearlie Mae. I know that there are others still hurting over the loss of brother Okon and grieving the loss of Uncle Elga, and most recently the sudden passing of brother C.A. Simmons. I miss them too, all of em, because they all touched my life in special ways that I will always hold dear to my heart. But the blunt truth is that no matter who passes, life still goes on. God even understands how we all must mourn in our own ways, but there are times when He will let us know that enough is enough, it's time to get back to that work which He has called all of us to do:
And the LORD said unto Samuel, How long wilt thou mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over israel? fill thine horn with oil and go, I will send thee to Jesse the Bethlemite: for I have provided me a king among his sons. - I Samuel 16:1
Samuel was feeling a bit throwed off, because Saul was a disobedient king that God removed from the throne, but since Saul was Samuel's 'boy' that he annointed, of course he was a bit mournful. But God let His prophet Samuel know, the purpose doesn't stop, we all must keep moving on toward the glory. So God sent Samuel to the town of Bethelehem and told him to seek out the man named Jesse who had 8 sons. Samuel was a bit afraid at first, because Saul was still the king in power over the land and if Saul found out that Samuel was going to annoint the new king, Saul would have Samuel killed. It sounds ruthless, but that's just how power hungry men are.
God told Samuel to take a heifer as a sacrifice, which wasn't a lie, because they were going to use that heifer for a sacrifice to the Lord. When Samuel got to the Bethelehem and the people saw him, they started tripping. Because normally when God's prophet showed up out the blue, SOMEBODY, if not the whole town, was about to FEEL IT. But Samuel found Jesse and had Jesse present all of his sons before him. When Samuel saw the oldest son, Eliab, a tall, strong and handsome young man, Samuel was sure that this was the new king.
But the Lord said unto Samuel, look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as a man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. - I Samuel 16:7
Eliab may have had all of the outward qualities that you'd expect in a 'king', but his heart wasn't what God wanted for His new king. So 7 of Jesse's sons passed in front of Samuel and none of them where who the Lord wanted. And finally they sent for Jesse's youngest son David, who was out in the field tending to the sheep, and they brought David in before the prophet Samuel:
And he sent, and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, and withal of a beautiful counteance, and goodly to look to And the Lord said, Arise, anoint him, for this is he. Then Samuel took the horn of oil and annointed him in the midst of his bretheren; and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward. - I Samuel 16:12
Didja get all that? Saul didn't obey, so God removed His spirit from Saul and annointed David to be the new king. Of course, everybody didn't know this, and Saul wasn't about to just say, 'Okay, David can be king now'. David's rise to the throne is detailed further in I & 2nd Samuel and 1 & 2nd Kings. But the point to remember for now is that David's lineage was from the tribe of Judah and he was from Bethlehem. Remember that now, David was of the tribe of Judah and from Bethlehem...it's an important point to remember mane.
