Day 188

There’s a musical artist who goes by the name John Legend. In 2013 he released the song entitled “All of Me.” In the music video, he sings the song with his wife present as his “muse.” The song is a very romantic type ballad that focuses on each individual party giving their all to the other. So it had me thinking, have you ever loved someone so much that you were willing to give them yourself, or give up anything it took to be with them? I mean anything. Would you be willing to give up your independence? I ask, because when you enter into a relationship with someone, and the goal is to be faithful, you close yourself off from others in order to be with just one. This is one way in which you show your love. So within the freedom to love someone, there are limitations that are self-imposed, because love without action does not exist.

We know that God gave because He loved us. And He gave all. Essentially He sang “I give My all to you” as the lyrics of John Legend’s song states. But the other half of that verse is: You give your all to me.” And I think that is where we stumble in our relationships. Of course, God gives His all to us! We know this through the sacrifice of Jesus. But for us to give our all to Him? We usually have stipulations. Now it really shouldn’t be that way, because He is the One that has more to lose by attaching Himself to creaturs that are fickle and filled with sinful and lustful desires. That say we love Him but hate our brethren. How can the two reconcile? The Bible says that it cannot: If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?” 1 John 4:20.

Can you imagine someone sitting in church listening to a sermon and the Reverend is quoting from Matthew 22: Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” Matthew 22:36-40. That you say “Amen” to that verse, say goodbye to the church members and then go home and whip or rape your neighbour, who you happen to “own” on your plantation. I mean the ideology is absolutely insane!

But you consider yourself a good Christian, an apt follower of Christ? How is that possible? How could you sit in your church pew that was probably built by slaves and think that somehow God would be okay with you dismantling the lives of others in order to remain comfortable in yours? The chickens of America’s past are coming come to roost, and they are angry and fed up. And what many people do not know, is that in order to keep people enslaved, meant you had to destroy an idea of freedom. In 1804 the once enslaved people of Haiti had become the ONLY successful slave rebellion in history in the western hemisphere. When the people of Haiti proved that Black people could unite and demand and fight for their freedom, America stepped in to punish them for their attempt to be seen as human: Western policies have been punishing Haiti ever since for winning its independence” (Cinicinnati.com).

And you may ask yourself, why? Why punish people for wanting to be free? When the colonists cried out “Taxation without Representation” to England as a high crime, they still had a country where they limited all freedoms to other human beings who cried for “Freedom”. Listen to what Professor Bogues states was the central problem for the White Western world when the Haitians gained their independence: “The problem was not politics or commerce. The central issue was the not to have the specter of blacks ruling themselves,” said Barrymore Bogues, professor of Africana Studies and director of the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice at Brown University. “The fragile example of ex-slaves ruling themselves, the Western powers had to make sure it failed.” (Cinicinnati.com).

I won’t get into how the United States illegally aided the French into bankrupting the newly formed country of freed people and has stifled its growth since it’s inception, you can look that up for yourself. But it was important for me to share with you that it was a “Christian” nation that did all these terrible things to others. And just because you claim to be one thing, if you do not act like it, you are a liar. Also, the government of mankind looks nothing like the government of God. The God of love, who gave ALL of Himself for you and for me. He created ALL people free and from one blood (Acts 17) and He shed His blood for ALL people. When we think that we can continue to live life unbothered by the pain surrounding us, we cannot have an honest relationship with the Creator and giver of Life. You cannot call yourself a Christian. Jesus gave up His life so that you and I would be free from the chains of death which enslave us to sin. What are you willing to give up for Him? Can you give some of your time to help those in need? Can you give your money to aid those who have been systematically oppressed? Can you give your voice to those who have been silenced? Can you give your love, which requires action, to the least of these; and in turn give your all to Him? I’m sure you can, but will you?