Faith

 

There was a story about a man who was traveling down a path that was very close to the edge of a steep cliff. As the man drew closer to the edge of the cliff, he underestimated the end of the ledge of the cliff and fell off it nearly costing him his life. As he fell from the cliff, he was able to grab hold of a large branch which kept him from one hundred feet to his possible death. The branch that the man hung from was not close enough for him to get back to the top of the ledge he had fallen from. The branch was also too still high for the man to reach the bottom of the cliff safely without him hurting himself severely or possibly costing him his life.

My Journey of Faith

 

Over twenty-five years ago, I made the decision to leave my hometown in Detroit Michigan. When I considered leaving back then, I was faced with the decision to either move to the west or east coast of the country. During 1992 what a young black male mostly heard from the media, the streets and others was that the average black male would not live past the age of twenty-five. Some young men were involved with a life of drugs, a life of crime or could possibly be killed by black on black crime. My mindset was that if I am going to possibly die before age twenty-five, I wanted to find out what I was good at before it happens. I first considered moving to Los Angeles, California, but because of the clothes that I wore, I had concerns that my life would be at risk. The types of clothes that I wore were Oakland Raiders jerseys similar to the rap group NWA. It was important to me that I did not present the wrong image about who I was and find myself constantly harassed by the police. I listened to rap music and I had even made a rap record called Running in Fear. On the other hand, if I moved to the east coast of New York, there were the issues of racism, homelessness, and poverty in the Big Apple. However, after much prayer, I made my decision to begin my journey of faith by purchasing a one-way bus ticket to New York.

Fear Not

Back in the mid-nineties I experience one of my darkest days of my life one spring afternoon. I received a phone call from my sister that my grandmother had a suffered a major heart, She had been taken to the hospital by mother and family and was not doing well. Shortly after receiving that call, my sister call back a few hours later to tell me some additional news that made things go from bad to worse. Our mother while at the hospital concerned about our grandmother’s health condition had suddenly suffered a brain aneurysm.