Afraid to live.
Organized religion tells you all the things
you can’t do but none of what you can do.
“Don’t wear the color red, you’ll be mistaken for a harlot” they say.
“Do wear your stockings or pantyhose no matter how hot it is. Remember, you’re suffering for the Lord’s sake” they say.
“Don’t forgo paying your tithes and offerings. It’s going to the church building fund” they say.
“Don’t praise or worship God so loud, it doesn’t take all that” they say!
When has this “rule” of silent worship been instituted?
And why am I the last to know?
“Don’t testify about the goodness of God too long, we’re on the clock” they say.
God is set to a stopwatch?
I’ve had enough of taking orders!
Who are they to tell me to hush my praise and worship?
To be a good and quiet member with no opinions or choice?
Not to think for myself?
I’ve dressed myself twenty-five years and I’ll wear red in memorial of sacrifice;
white for purity; blue for royalty.
“Don’t align yourself with sinners. God doesn’t hear their prayers” they say.
Really?
So, God only hears His own?
That’s funny. Weren’t you a sinner once?
If not organized religion, what of our educational system?
“You must take Philosophy” the advisor laments. “Denounce your God and let us indoctrinate you with our lies. It’s okay to drink our kool-aid”.
What of when you’re the tender age of 8, sitting in your pint-sized desk and chair,
raise your hand to ask a question but quickly received a sermon on not asking “stupid” questions?
Isn’t this the perfect place to ask questions and receive answers?
“Traitor” they shout, pumping their fists at me!
Some scowling,
while others grind bitterly through their teeth, “Another sista lost to the white man” and “what a waste of a good black woman”.
Not just a woman?
A black woman?
Is that all you see?
Fear is the basis for misunderstandings, and misunderstandings, hatred.
Is that what we want? To hate what we don’t even try to understand?
Fear stalls progress.
It hinders us from trying new things.
We forget to remember to live.
Living is the freedom to praise and worship as loud and as passionately as the Spirit gives you free reign to.
Living is being comfortable and secure in who you are and in the person you’re dating.
There’s a new kind of war going on here: the fight of conformity.
You don’t conform to the worlds standards.
Don’t bend or break under the pressure.
Love hard, fight harder!
Wear that red dress you know that he’s going to like.
Speak to his heart,
let him touch yours.
Living is the ability to sit quietly yet speak volumes.
Living is suddenly smiling then laughing in the open when no one has told a joke.
Living is falling in love with the same person over and over.
Living is evil spelled backwards. You’re live on stage,
now go out and show the world what its really been missing.
©privatethoughtsmadepublic
Quiet Corner 