The past few months have been crazy for me.
I haven’t been entirely sure of how to register the changes happening around me and within me, in my immediate world and in the world at large.
I’ve prayed prayers for years – literally – and maybe it is my lack of faith (I don’t know), but as I see those prayers coming increasingly true, it scares the living daylights out of me. I guess it’s because I’ve always had to wait such a long time for things to actually come true, that I didn’t really expect them to become a reality – no matter how desperate I felt (and I sure felt desperate).
With every blessing comes a new lesson. I do realise that that may sound like a cliché, but it’s true.
Firstly, it was a prayer of mine to have both a heart and a voice to speak out against equality and justice.
Heart. And voice.
It started at home in my small town, where it seemed the noble thing to do, and my heart burned for what I saw. Admittedly, it took a while for me to wrap my head around the concept of “justice”. I’m not sure why, but in my head I’d separated the fact that loving God meant loving and longing for justice in the world, as well. This means fighting for the poor and the weak – those who do not have a voice, whose voices have been taken away from them, and those who haven’t been given the opportunity to decide and speak. Jesus came for those, to restore peace to them:
“But now for the good news: God’s restorative justice has entered the world, independent of the law. Both the law and the prophets told us that this day would come. This redeeming justice comes through the Anointed One, the Liberating King, who makes salvation a reality for all those who believe – without the slightest partiality… This expression of God’s restorative justice displays in the present that He is just and righteous and that He makes right those who trust and commit themselves to Jesus.” Romans 3:21-26 (The Voice)
Over the last year, there has been a rise in awareness around the world. In my paper and on my social networks, I see a lot of race ordeals (murder and abuse), strikes (#FeesMustFall), and corruption. Sixteen-year-old girls are using terms like racial/cultural appropriation and then subsequently deciding that they need the freedom to not be discriminated against in their pursuit of life and bisexually – I don’t know about you, but I’ve felt pretty overwhelmed.
I’ve had to go and research what a lot of these terms even mean and then, after that, I’ve taken forever to formulate an opinion of sorts. Normally, I would just allow my ignorance on the subjects above to rule my attitude towards them. Basically, I’d carry on with life like nothing ever happened because it was so much easier that way. It’s easier not to care about others if it doesn’t very directly affect my life. It’s easier not to care about the state of my nation. But now, even in my overwhelmed state, I’ve made a point to put my heart into action. Practically, this means that I read up on the stuff that’s happening in my country (and the world), I write it in my prayer journal, and pray.
In the second part of my prayer I asked God for a voice. Many of us are familiar with the story of Moses approaching Pharaoh to set the Israelites free. Before he even does so, God asks him about using what he has in his hand already (if you don’t know this story, you can read about it in the Bible in Exodus 4:2).
Well, in 2010, Jesus spoke to me clearly about that, and so I decided that my music is what I had in my hand. To me that meant that my voice was my music and that I had to use it as best I can to speak for justice. It has been a long journey, and I feel like I have sometimes gone astray. Sometimes I focused so much on developing the gift in my hand, that I didn’t use it properly – eish! Recently, God has opened up a platform for me to have a voice that reaches many more people, and suddenly I was reminded of the importance of the mission – the importance of not selling out stylistically and in my message to gain greater popularity. I remembered why I always had to take the long and hard way.
So, what to do with all of this “awareness” once we have a heart and a voice? Where to go next?
I believe that we need to start “crying out” in the darkness. Crying out the testimony of Jesus Christ in whatever sphere we find ourselves in, in whatever way we can. God, deliver us from the love of self and its comforts.
“Everyone who trusts Jesus as the long-awaited Anointed One is a child of God, and everyone who loves the Father cannot help but love the child fathered by Him. Then how do we know if we truly love God’s children? We love them if we love God and keep His commands. You see, to love God means that we keep his commands, and His commands don’t weigh us down. Everything that has been fathered by God overcomes this corrupt world. This is the victory that has conquered the world: our faith. Who is the person conquering the world? It is the one who truly trusts that Jesus is the Son of God, that Jesus the Anointed One who came by Water and blood – not by water only, but by the water and the blood… If we accept the testimonies of people, then we must realise that the testimony of God is greater than that of any person…” 1 John 1-9 (The Voice)
We find victory in our faith! If you need victory in your life and want a heart and a voice in your sphere of influence, then friend, today I encourage you to look to Jesus. You can learn more about Him by clicking on the banner below.