Rethinking “Higher Power “

I had to be clear in my mind aboutHigher Power AND sanity relative to this social construct called race. Based upon my individual experience, AND my experience as someone having been subjected to racism, and from a people whose entire journey on this continent has been riddled with racism; what is this higher power?

This week I have been going back to my ancestors. Did they have a higher power before they came here, to this continent? If so, did this higher power betray them by allowing them to be captured and sold, stripped from their land, their people, their foods, their culture, from their Higher power? How did they make sense of it all?

What I am uncovering is the faith of my ancestors which had been covered over but not destroyed. They knew who they were and never allowed their true identity to be totally taken away or destroyed. I had heard that they worshipped the moon, the sun and the stars; but no, they were in awe of what their Higher power, their source had created. They knew how to acknowledge the benefits and messages of the moon, the sun and the stars. They loved the earth because they understood the source created it and all that source creates is good. They understood how to use the fruit of the earth for food, medicine, decorating, housing, music and yes even makeup.

They acknowledged the mystery of blood. People of the West called it voodoo yet within Christianity “blood” is special, yet not voodoo. Pleading the “blood of Christ” was not a European thing, but an African practice my ancestors brought to this land and incorporated into this new thing they were being taught “Christianity” to save their souls (actually to ease the colonizers conscious as they enslaved fellow human beings).

What I am recovering is the truth of my ancestors souls; they were not lost. They had a close reverence for Source and found a way for this western religion called Christianity to make sense. I can hear it in the songs they sang to soothe their souls, to connect with source, and to communicate with others. Songs that conveyed their understanding of the cosmos. Songs like,

· Swing low sweet chariot, coming for to carry me home.

· Go down Moses, way down in Egypt land, tell oh Pharaoh to let my people go

· Follow the drinking gourd.

· Steal away

· Let Us Break Bread Together

· Wade in the Water

They did not accept the fact that their God, their Source was ok with them being enslaved and beaten. They were given a version of the Bible that told them to obey their masters - for this is right. They never accepted that nor did they accept that God. I know this because of their rebellions of that system, their insurrections, AND even their empathy for those who enslaved them

So for me I continue my journey of trying to better understand this Source that my ancestors clung to, depended upon, found solace in and prayed to. This Higher Power, this Source, that was disguised by pictures of, faces of white bodies.

a) What are the attributes of this higher power?

b) Does this higher power see me?

c) Does this higher power care about me?

d) Is this higher power capable of restoring me to sanity?

So for me I continue to meditate, pray, read the words of the ancestors and sages, and listen to the spirit of love, especially when it comes to racism, justice, equity, righteousness.

Restoring ME to sanity relative to racism, is restoring me to God’s intent, day 1 of my birth or perhaps my conception, or before I was sent to or chose to come to planet earth, before that moment I experienced the message that my melanated body was”bad” and unacceptable but for labor, humiliation, abuse . . .Such insanity.

Restoring me to sanity :

1. Question - What is that? What does that look like? Today, for me, it is a lived shared humanity. You are just like me; all of me AND beautifully different from me and that difference is for the sake of the whole – humanity complete.

b. Restoring me to my rightful state mentally, a child of the most high within a shared humanity. So as I journey with my ancestors, with the God of my fathers and my mothers, this God who was with them in the midst of their struggle, never leaving them alone, strengthening them, teaching them, and allowing their suffering to teach even the oppressor(s) who were willing to learn – His children are known by name, are endowed with an energy that cannot be contained, a spirit that May at times be depressed but never suppressed or broken.

The trouble that my ancestors endured and we continue to endure today, was not and is not the will of the God, the higher power, The Source of my ancestors, but the free will of man, of the oppressors. And, though my ancestors suffered in their bodies and even in their minds, their souls were not lost. It is the souls of the oppressors that need saving. Now I can breathe, offer empathy, and trust the God of my ancestors and place my will and my life into the care of their God, their source . . . My God, my Source . . .As my ancestor and prophet, Isaiah said, “Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, . . . Immanuel . . .God with Us”. This is the Source of our shared humanity.