<p>When I was a kid, I had a bully. Most of us had the same bully, unfortunately. It was a girl called ‘Metris—short for Demetrius. She was in a grade higher than me and was bigger than all of us because she developed early. She was also unwashed most of the time. On a school [&hellip;]</p>

<p>I’ve been thrown in Facebook jail before—many times, who am I kidding? I had one page that would get 3–7 days every other week, then they went to 90 days at a time. I had never been banned until now. A ban hurts a little more because it feels so final. You can’t even see [&hellip;]</p>

<p>I watched Monster’s Ball years ago, and back then I didn’t really get the depth of the movie because I hadn’t lived long enough to know that sometimes, you gotta just let yourself be loved. Last night, it was on—so I watched it—and it clicked. It’s kinda beautiful when you think about it. Two people [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Peter said, “Silver and gold have I none, but what I do have I give to you: rise up and walk.” That is drastically different than how we speak to sickness today—or even how we behave. You were not told to pray for sickness! You SPEAK to it! It’s false humility to walk around acting [&hellip;]</p>

<p>What’s cool about Moses is that he is a historical figure, not just biblical. His life is documented in secular history but the layer that makes it so beautiful to me is his relationship with the Living God. Imagine God in the form of a cloud standing in your doorway just talking with you. Don’t [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Saturday night, I ran a bath before bed. I sleep better after being lightly boiled for about 30 minutes. Don’t y’all just love a good hot bath after a long work week? For me, it serves two purposes: it helps me sleep in a bit and relaxes my overworked muscles. Before I got into the [&hellip;]</p>

<p>It’s programming. All my life, I have lived from hand to mouth. I remember as a child, the end of the month was brutal. Food stamps came on the first of every month, so the week leading to the first was famine. We ate whatever was left or given to us by the neighborhood food [&hellip;]</p>

<p>How many of us want a visit from God? That would be great, right? Imagine—God drops by, we exchange pleasantries, hugs, stories, a few tears, and then He leaves. This is what most want. We don’t want the Lord to actually live with us. That’s why Jesus had to sleep in the mountains. Folk wanted [&hellip;]</p>

<p>I will be fifty in 241 days. I will have lived half a century with the belief that life was happening to me and not through me. This limiting belief caused me to sometimes pity myself. I would look at how things in my life were going and believe—erroneously—that I had no control. Imagine that. [&hellip;]</p>

<p>You cannot live walking on eggshells. The closer I get to 50, the freer I get. I used to try to be accepted and loved by everyone—who doesn’t want that? Then I got born again, and the scales fell from my eyes. I realized that I was now in a war I had never seen [&hellip;]</p>

<p>A hug vs. a punch in the face—which one would you want? If you are being challenged in the arena of your mind by the enemy and you cry out for help, would you want a hug or a punch in the face? This is something we need to work on as the Body of [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Yesterday, I took some time to just sit in silence—to quiet the voices in my head and the hurt in my heart. My apologies; I took no calls because I needed to watch my words and not wallow any longer in the heaviness. I couldn’t pray. I couldn’t even physically open my mouth. But I [&hellip;]</p>

<p>I quiet quit life a few days ago. I have nothing—no desire to do anything about anything. As I sit and think about the many disappointments and failed ventures, I decided, that’s it. The towel is thrown. I’ve done something wrong, or I am not who I think I am. I face this grim reality [&hellip;]</p>

<p>You free. Ya BEEN free. The only thing holding you back is YOU. You’re not waiting on God, He’s done all He’s gonna do and is now SEATED. Now RECEIVE the FINISHED work of Christ by faith. Whatever you’re facing in life has an answer, and that answer is found in the word. Find what [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Sadly, at the age of 49, I am only just now learning to slow down, live in the moment, and truly enjoy life. I’m beginning to understand that it’s okay to live on my own terms and to embrace my full, authentic self. For most of my life, I was merely surviving—never thriving. I had [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Can y’all imagine back in Jesus’ day how many people discounted Him? Isn’t this Mary and Joes boy? Didn’t he just make us a table? Didn’t he break my water pot a few years ago? Isn’t he friends with lil John up the road? 😂 they wanted to find a reason to not listen to [&hellip;]</p>

<p>The lease for my suite was signed, and the supplies were flowing in. I was all set, except for the fact that I had to give the spa my two weeks’ notice. That was the worst part of everything. I hated to let anyone down, and I felt like I would be letting Anne Marie [&hellip;]</p>

<p>I took the letters with me to work that following day. After I finished the service, I would discreetly take the letter from my apron pocket, give it to them, and tell them to read it when they got home. After all the letters were distributed to the 20 names, there was nothing left to [&hellip;]</p>

<p>A few days later, Tam called and said, “I have something to tell you.” I said, “Okay, spit it out.” She said, “While you were dating so-and-so, he was dating three other women at the church—well, three that I know of.” Even though I wasn’t with him anymore, I was suddenly disgusted at the thought [&hellip;]</p>

<p>I sat in church, trying to choke back hot tears, as he sat there with another woman in that same dingy sport coat. When I was briefly dating him, I thought he was a great catch because he was a minister and physically attractive. The problem was, I had created a fictional character in my [&hellip;]</p>