I’m back y’all! I can’t wait to share more of what this little 6 week break has done for my tender bloggy heart, but I am definitely not going anywhere. For now, I’m guest posting over at my friend Micah’s blog, Redemption Pictures. Today, I’m sharing my own picture of redemption. More like a glimpse actually on some things I’ve never shared before. (ay ay ay) Hope it’s an encouragement to you because there is always redemption available for you & I. Always. See you
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[Image Credit]
I was on my way home from a day of court in Downtown Detroit. It was 1995. I was 18.
I had been in court for a family thing. Those were the worst court days. I’d rather have been in court for something I did, than face the fact that everyone in my family seemed to be a screw-up. It wasn’t just that. It’s that I didn’t want to keep facing the ongoing legal battles my family members seemed to be facing, the ones I was consistently snatched into. It meant something for me for to be entangled with these sexual and law abusers. It meant I was from the losing family. The family whose brother AND father was in prison. The family whose house was in foreclosure. The family who couldn’t keep an animal – let alone its people – fed.
It meant I was lost.
So I’m cruising home down Woodward Ave. and there’s a guy selling Gospel cassette tapes out of his trunk on the side of the road for $5.
Okay, Jesus. Let’s buy some gospel music.
For no particular reason, I landed on Rev. James Moore with the Mississippi Gospel Choir LIVE at Jackson State University. I bought the tape, pushed it in, and drove home.
Almost immediately, peace began to wash over me. I’d always had an affinity for Gospel music, scarce as it was in my life at the time. I’d always loved the repetition of ideas, the lyrics drenched in emotions, the giant sounds of 200 voices in unison. Gospel music spoke to me. Still does.
As I listened to those lyrics I tried like hell to believe the truths they sang so passionately about.
“He’s a shelter in the time of the storm. Put your trust in Him today, he will be your shelter in the time of a storm.”
God, can you do that?
“Shelter in the stoooooorm….”
What does that look like?
“…shelter in the your-your-your-your stooooooorm…”
I do not understand what I need to do, but help.
“Shelter, shelter, shelter, he will be your, shelter, shelter, shelter…..”
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Come on over to Micah’s place and read the rest
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