Be Vocal

You have not because you ask not. Ask and it shall be given. Speak it until you see it. You've all heard these sayings. There is some truth to all of them. Creative power lies in speech. Negative speech creates negative environments. Even how you engage your plants affects how they grow. How you speak to your children determines alot about how they interact with the world around them. You have the power to be vocal. You can change your life by how you speak to yourself and your environment. You can affirm yourself. You can speak life or death. The choice is yours. Be vocal.

Speak Up!

Our voices are a gift. We have the ability to speak our desires into existence. We also have the abilities to speak our fears into existence. We can change our reality. We can change our thoughts. We can change our lives when we speak. We have become complacent and comfortable. We are muted. If you are not content with your life its time to speak up!

Decree

Back in the day, kings would decree things. They would set laws. They would call corporate fasts. They would give mandates. They would exert their authority publicly through decrees. God has given us this same power to speak, to declare, and to decree things. Most of us do not utilize this power. We speak lack. We speak illness. We speak ill-will into our lives everyday. (I’m sick. I’m broke.) We accept our circumstances and deny our power within. I challenge you to decree life, health and wisdom into your life and those around around you. I challenge you to reiterate God’s mandate for your life in this season. I challenge you to decree wealth and opportunities and blessings to overtake you. I challenge you to decree God’s perfect will be done in your life.

Get Up!

"You need to git up, git out and git something
Don't spend all your time trying to get high
You need git up, git out and git something
How will you make it if you never even try
You need to git up, git out and git something
'Cause you and I got to do for you and I."-Outkast
 

I think Monday mornings are the hardest. Sometimes, it's a struggle to find the motivation to leave my warm bed. I'm not a morning person and having kids has killed all chances of sleeping late. Music helps to motivate me. My "to-do" list helps to motivate me. The never ending laundry helps to motivate me. Expectation motivates me. I wake up expecting God to do something great because his mercies are new every morning. I expect good news. I expect a good report. I expect unmerited favor. I expect manifestation of what I have spoken, but I gotta get up! I have to be found working, seeking, doing, speaking. I have to do something. I have to get up!

Contribution

I sat in church yesterday and listened to the guest speaker, Sam Collier say, "there's a difference between a moment and a movement." He spoke about the conversion of Paul being a moment that led to a movement. I began to think about all the moments in my life that could have led to a movement. I thought about the moments when fear and doubt paralyzed me. Then, I thought about all the times I moved. I thought about all the times I finished. I finished starting the business. I threw that show. I wrote those books. I sold those t-shirts. I made those cards. I wrote those poems. Those are my contributions. Those are my movements. It's easy to focus on what you didn't do, but what have you finished? What did you accomplish? What's your contribution? Maybe it's that little boy or little girl you are raising. Maybe it's that overtime you are putting in at your job. Maybe it's those ideas that are keeping you up at night. Whatever it is, you have something the world needs.

Lamentations

First, they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out— 
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— 
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

- Martin Niemöller

This was poem was written by Martin Niemöller, a German pastor who did not immediately speak out against the Nazi regime and eventually found himself in a Nazi concentration camp. The above words can be substituted with immigrant, African American, Hispanic, Muslim, and LGBTQ. Being silent is being complicit. We need to stand with one another because our turn is coming. This administration is targeting everything that is different. They are targeting immigrants, black and brown people, and anything that does not fit into their Euro-centric America. Just because the mob has not knocked on your door, or burnt a cross on your lawn doesn't mean that they will not eventually come for you as well. Be sober. Be vigilant. Stay woke.