Category Archives: Barack Obama

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Synchronicity Speaks…

Hello World!!!

Somes friends and I have decided that this year we are going to hold each other accountable for our resolutions, dreams, goals, etc. for 2009. I have yet to decide upon mine for this year. It usually takes me the whole month of January to come up with a reasonable list. I know many people think that coming up with yearly resolutions is pointless, but I think if you consult God and ask for His guidance, you stand half a chance of actually achieving them. God’s word states that “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”  Philipians 4:13

So how do you know that God is guiding you to a specific resolution, goal, dream, etc.? An anonymous commenter on my last post “,Doubt,” said that one way that he or she knows that God is real is through coincidence. I think I know what this commenter means. Sometimes a string of mysterious events happen that seem to magically point to a certain result. I call this synchronicity aka magic! I first learned about synchronicity in an “The Artist’s Way” class I took one summer. It a class designed to “discover and recover your creative self.”  Taking that class was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had in life! I cannot begin to tell you all that I learned.

But I will share one life-altering realization I had as a result of taking that class. I realized that I wanted to pursue a freelance writing/book writing business. I named this endeavor Selah Communications. Selah means to pause. Since I lost my job earlier that year, I had a lot of time to pause. I also decided that my business would be based on the Psalm 4: 4-5. “When you are on your beds, search your hearts and be silent. Offer right sacrifices and trust in the Lord.”  That year, I spent many hours lying on my bed pondering my future. (So dramatic, I swear.) I determined that I would try to live a righteous life and trust the Lord was leading me in spite of my circumstances.

So I am getting to the point. I am…for real. That New Year’s Eve, the pastor actually preached on the same verses that I decided would be my guiding force for Selah Communications. Out of all of the verses in the Bible, the pastor chose the same two that I chose earlier that summer. Synchronicity at its best! And since then, I’ve been able to pursue freelance writing/book writing. (Aside: I do wonder when or if my book, “After the Altar Call,” will be published, but I’m still yet holding on and trusting in the Lord.  🙂 )

The following quote perfectly sums up the synchronicity principle:

Evoking the Soul

Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too.

All sorts of things occur to help one that would otherwise never have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of incidents and meetings and material assistance which no person would have believed would have come their way. Whatever you think you can do or believe you can do, begin it.  Action has magic, grace and power in it.

                                                                                    Goethe

Great quote, huh? I first read it in the “The Artist’s Way” book by Julia Cameron.  I have a sign with this quote on it in my office. I think synchronicity is one of the ways that God’s leads us to the right dream, resolution, goal, person, etc.  I have described one example in this post, but I’ve experience synchronicity countless times in my life. If if my book is published, you can read about more of my synchronistic experiences…

Have you experienced synchronicity in your life? One of the reasons that I love blogging is because it gives people a forum to share their experiences. So please tell me about your personal magic… (Also, here is a great article about synchronicity that explains it even better than I have, I think.)

Any thoughts?

P.S. You must  know that is was synchronistic that President-Elect Barack Obama offically accepted the Democratic party nomination on the same day that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech 45 years earlier. Don’t tell me that God isn’t real, as father likes to say…

 

 

 

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Christianity Obama Style…

Hello World!!!

What it do? In just over a month, you know what it is…Barack Obama will officially become the 44th president of the United States!!! Yes, it’s another post about Barack Obama. No, I’m not over it…So read on if you’re an Obama fan!!! Here’s the thing…As I mentioned in another post, many Christians are convinced that President-elect Obama is not a Christian although he has publicly professed faith in Jesus Christ many times. It seems these same Christians believe that President Bush, aka Iraqi shoe dodger (crazy huh?), is a devout Christian entrusted with the sacred duty of leading our nation to the Promised Land where all secular music is of the devil and legalized abortion is worse than starting an ill-advised war.

But check it…Was anyone watching President Bush’s interview with ABC Nightline’s Cynthia McFadden on Dec. 8?  According to a Baptist Press article, Bush said he believes there are multiple ways to God.  He also said that he believes that Christians and Muslims pray to the same God.

“I do believe there is an Almighty that is broad and big enough, loving enough, that can encompass a lot of people. I don’t think God is a narrow concept. I think it’s a broad concept. I just happen to believe the way to God is through Christ, and others have different avenues toward God, and I believe we pray to the same Almighty — I do.”

And Bush may or may not believe that humanity started in the Garden of Eden.

Asked if the Bible is “literally true,” Bush said, “Probably not. No, I’m not a literalist. But I think you can learn a lot from it.”

Now, y’all know if Bush had voiced these same words about eight years ago, many evangelical Christians wouldn’t have voted for him. But here is the response of Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.

“I am very grateful that we have a president who is a person of personal and deeply committed faith in Jesus Christ, but statements like these remind us that he is indeed commander-in-chief, not theologian-in-chief,” Land told Baptist Press. “I know the president, and he is a person of strong faith and has sort of a C.S. Lewis Basic Christianity kind of faith that is very deep and profound in his personal life, but he is not a theologian. In this particular instance, he is wrong. The Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is not Allah, and there are not many paths to God.”

Now if Bush can be seen as as “a person of personal and deeply committed faith in Jesus Christ” in spite of his controversial beliefs, can these evangelicals also support Barack Obama, who also is a Christian?

Andre C. Willis, an assistant professor of the philosophy of religion at Yale Divinity School, explored how Obama’s brand of Christianity may influence his leadership in an article on TheRoot.com.

First of all, this is what Obama said about his faith in Jesus Christ to Rick Warren, pastor and author of the best-selling book, ” The Purpose Driven Life,” during the campaign.

“Well, as a starting point, it means I believe in—that Jesus Christ died for my sins, and that I am redeemed through him. That is a source of strength and sustenance on a daily basis. Yes, I know that I don’t walk alone. And I know that if I can get myself out of the way that, you know, I can maybe carry out in some small way what he intends. And it means that those sins that I have, on a fairly regular basis, hopefully will be washed away.”

And for the record, Obama is also an evangelical Christian although some evangelicals may not know this or choose not to believe this truth.

All forms of evangelicalism share core tenets: a belief in the importance of personal conversion through Jesus Christ (salvation); the commitment to biblical activism (authority of the Bible, not reason or experience); and an investment in public morality (public witness). Where they differ is in their emphasis: progressive evangelicals strongly emphasize the suffering of Jesus and his political struggles against the social order, while conservative evangelicals are preoccupied with imposing “biblical” morality.

According to the article, Obama’s style of Christianity will be more progressive rather than conservative. Rather than focus on the rules and regulations brand of Christianity (a Pharisaical type if you ask me), he will focus on empowering the poor and disenfranchised.

So what do you think? Do you believe that Bush and Obama worship the same God? Do you believe that it is possible for both Bush and Obama to be Christians? Do you think the evangelicals that support Bush will also support Obama? What role do you think Obama’s faith will play in his leadership? Do you think that Jesus loves both George W. Bush and Barack H. Obama?

Any thoughts?
 

 

 

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Making Friends With White People

tess7Hello World,

Brrrrrr! It’s getting cold out there. And for an island girl via Kansas via the A, that just ain’t cool…Plus in my townhouse, it can feel like hell upstairs while downstairs feels like me and Sarah Palin should be rubbing noses in Alaska. (At some point, I will stop using Sarah Palin as the butt of my jokes. It’s not the Christian thing to do. 🙂 )

Anywho, the cold weather and Sarah Palin are not the focus of this post. Since my last post about some Christians and their lack of support of President-Elect Barack Obama caused a vigorous discussion about the whole black-white issue in this country, I decided to further explore that topic personally and otherwise. Also, NBC is developing a new comedy,  “Making Friends With Black People,” “a buddy comedy that will focus on the state of race relations in the U.S.” Apparently Obama’s election is even inspiring change in TV programming! (I could have written the treatment for this show by the way. Hollywood, what’s up?)

So let me dive in…I grew up in white schools. I went to a white elementary school and a white middle school. (I went to a black elementary school in fourth grade, but I got into so much trouble, my parents sent me right back to the white school.) When it was time to go to high school, I cajoled my parents into allowing me to attend the neighborhood black high school. I went there for all four years, but when I graduated, I went to to the University of Georgia where I was awash in white people. So you would think that after spending all of that time with white people, I would have made some really close friends with somebody white…Uhh no. I was the “Black Daisy” when we played “The Dukes of Hazzard” in first grade.  I explained to them why my mama wouldn’t let me wear my hair down in the third grade. In the sixth grade, I explained why I couldn’t rap although I was black. But when I left those school buildings each day, I didn’t talk to them again until the next day. Even in college, when I lived among white people in the dorm, I managed to have a social life that didn’t include any white people. Really sad, huh?

In fact, it wasn’t until I joined a spiritual community (No, I am not a Moonie) a few years back that I began to explore friendships with white people. And after building some close friendships with white people in that group, I decided that maybe white people in the general population couldn’t be that bad. It wasn’t much longer after I had that thought that I met my girl, Tess.

It was kismet how we met! In September 2006, I went to this Christian convention at this local United Methodist church.  Anne Lamott , one of my favorite authors, was the featured speaker! (Since elementary school, I was always obsessed with white pop culture, white books – even white music but that never translated into my friendships. 🙁 ) My plan was to slip Anne Lamott an excerpt of my book. She, in turn, would be so enthralled with my writing prowess that she would immediately invite me out to her home in California where I would meet her agent, ectera, ectera. But alas, she apparently did not read the script in my mind…

So after Lamott signed my book and complimented my dreads and I slipped the contraband to her, I decided to walk out of the church. It was lunch time but I didn’t feel like eating alone. I decided that I would ask the next person that walked by to have lunch with me. I swear to you it was Tess. As we ate lunch, she revealed that she, too, had slipped an excerpt of her book to Lamott. And we weren’t even at a writers’ conference! What sly devils we were! And from then we’ve been like “peas and carrots.”

Since then, I have stayed at her house in Charlotte. (She has moved away now though.) While there, I convinced her to get a ghetto pedicure with me. Yep, that’s right, she got the designs on the big toes. I don’t care what y’all say! She has visited me at my townhouse in the A. And we have discussed for hours on end, boys, boys and more boys! (Why are they so hard to understand?) It’s a passion we share – aside from our love of books, music, pop culture and God! Plus, she is as gung ho about Barack Obama as I am. What’s not to love? (She even designed this blog!!!)

So now that Barack Obama is president -elect, let’s enact a little change of our own. Make friends with white people. You’ll be glad that you did! (Okay, my Dad thinks that I should start dating white guys to expand my dating pool, but I’m still holding out for just one just good brother… 🙂  )

By the way, in this post, I have included one of my favorite white songs, “If You Leave,” from one of my favorite white movies,  “Pretty in Pink!” (I think I wanted to be Molly Ringwald at one point!) Tess kinda looks like Molly Ringwald back in the day, huh?

Any thoughts?