Lucking Out

Originally posted as a Facebook note on six years ago today. It's as timely--or timeless--as ever. Slightly edited.

Two people have recommended The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene to me. So I did what seemed logical when two are in agreement about a book: I went ahead and ordered it from Amazon yesterday [sic] and it shipped a few hours after I did so. (I had read the book partially but I had checked the book out of the library. And because I’m usually reading a minimum of two books simultaneously, I didn’t get to read it before I had to take the book back.)

One of my Facebook friends--a proponent of the book--called the following law ‘the most memorable’ for him: “Avoid the unhappy and the unlucky.” Am I intrigued by this caution? You bet. But, at the same time, the admonition seems almost redundant.

As a Christian, I try to stay away from certain words; words that indicate a life ruled by chance; words which imply that that any force has power over the power of God—words like ‘lucky,’ ‘fortunate’ ‘unfortunate,’ even words like ‘coincidence.’ I stay away from those words because they indicate disbelief, doubt and/or non-belief in the identity and character of the God of the Bible.

But thinking about the word unlucky and joining it to the concept of unhappiness, those who are “unlucky” seem to be those who believe that nothing good will happen to them. As a result, usually, nothing does and even when they "luck up" and something good does happen to them, they find some flaw in that good thing and complain about it.

There are those who believe that things will never turn out all right. In other words, there are those who have little to no faith in God and, therefore, such people don’t believe that God loves them, wants them to be happy and has the power to make that happen.

Now I’m not saying that God is going to let even those who consistently have faith in Him have anything and everything that they want, because God knows that not everything that an individual wants is necessarily going to be good for that individual. But those who are “unlucky” can’t even take pleasure in "getting lucky" (if you’ll pardon the expression). No. The "unlucky" will remain under that dark cloud, refuse to be moved and, as a result, the unholy union of unluckiness and unhappiness is joined together.

Further, the "unlucky" often have removed themselves from the Providence of God, either by omission or commission. Rather than being “unlucky” what such people are subject to are the forces of Chaos. They are outside of the Order that God provides which means, as the saying goes, feces will happen to that person. So this leads us back to the law which my friend found so remarkable: if you know an Unhappy-Unlucky person, you want to stay far away from said person because you don’t want feces to happen to you merely because of proximity.

Conversely, those of us who believe in God’s Providence, who believe in the Bible’s promises, who believe in the power of God, are always “lucky,” are always “fortunate” and are, therefore, always happy even in sorrow, because the one thing that we know and are always happy about is that our souls are saved—that everything will come out alright in the end for us. We have our Blessed Assurance in Jesus Christ.

And ultimately, if we have faith, things are going to turn out alright not just in the end but while we are trying to get to the end.

My pastor, learned in the languages of the Bible—ancient Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic--taught us that the word used for ‘power’ in Greek when discussing God’s power is ‘dynamis,’ obviously the origin of the words ‘dynamite’ and ‘dynamic’—the agent and description of radical change. It is the type of change that certain earthly politicians can’t begin to fathom. God can change things; like your “luck”—but only if you ask and believe that it will happen.

(‘Power’ Reference: Strongest Strong's Concordance 1411)

Please contribute to Juliette’s Projects: A Roof Over My Head, my Book Site Domain names, my Storage Facility, my new novel, this blog, and my Internet--to keep them going and to the COFFEE fund to keep me going!

Please Help Me Keep What's Left of What I Own (UPDATED : GOAL!!!)

UPDATE (2:52 PM PT): GOAL REACHED!!! Thank God for good friends. Like this one.
UPDATE (1:45 PM PT): $145 so far--and I'm very grateful for that. Remember, after today, my stuff will be sold.

ORIGINAL: Since I haven't been writing for months I felt a shy about doing this. But desperate times...

I need $700 to hold onto my belongings at Public Storage. else they will be sold off. I've received a few donations and I'm grateful for them, but PS won't take anything unless it's the full amount.

Please help me do this. Losing the house and the car was bad enough, but I don't want to lose things like my great-aunt's wedding ring or my old paper writings in need of transcribing.

Juliette’s Projects: A Roof Over My Head, my Book Site Domain names, my Storage Facility, my new novel, this blog, and my Internet--to keep them going and to the COFFEE fund to keep me going!

Yes, I'm Still Homeless

But the end is near.

Down my hallway

I'm planning on doing anonymous interviews with some of the people who live in the temporary homeless facility with me. So far, I have about 18 questions to ask. Do you have any questions you would like to ask?

As you can imagine, being in such a state has radically altered my perspective on homelessness, not to mention my emotional state. (Thank God for Himself!) I hope to project all of that in these interviews. In the meantime...

Please contribute to Juliette’s Projects: A Roof Over My Head, my Book Site Domain names, my Storage Facility, my new novel, this blog, and my Internet--to keep them going and to the COFFEE fund to keep me going!

Repost: Scarred Souls

Originally posted on July 6, 2010 at my old blog. One of my old blog friends, One Fine Jay, says that he occasionally has passed it along to close friends whom he thinks need to hear it. This touched me greatly; however, as always, when God inspires me, He gets the credit.

The Confession I posted on June 9, 2010 couldn't just stand as is was, mainly since it was an answer to a specific question, "Should Black Women Stop Getting Abortions."

Of course all women should stop having abortions.  But since the question singled out black women, and since that conversation is between two black American women, myself and Jessica Ann Mitchell, and since we find the state of the black American family in near death, I felt it necessary to tailor my further response to black Americans.

The first part of my response has already been publicized here [sic], but I posted the following originally in a Facebook note. For that reason, I will only post here what I deem to be the second part of the answer.  There might be a little preaching.  That's an essential part of me.  He's a part of me.

---

It’s obvious that my comment is not just about abortion but about the behavior from where it usually stems: fornication.  Even when I tried to ensure that the circumstances which surrounded my abortion would never occur again—by taking the pill—I still suffered from my past behavior and so did my subsequent offspring.  Because of what I had done before she even existed, my second child could not live.

The question whether black women—or any women—should stop getting abortions is an incomplete one.  Of course the answer is ‘yes’ because abortion is murder, the premeditated taking of an innocent life.  (Moreover, let me state for the record: not all killing is murder.)

However, let me answer more fully: all women should stop creating the exterior and--more importantly--the interior conditions under which abortion is an option.  And by that I mean that all women should stop giving themselves to men who they are not sure will love, cherish and protect them and any prospective offspring they may create by having sex with each other.

Have I always behaved morally since the horrific conditions stated happened in my life? No.  But while I haven’t had a repeat of the same catastrophes via giving myself to a man who had not committed to me, my soul has greatly suffered from the giving and from the parting afterward. 

You see, there’s this thing about women, a thing that makes us different from men, aside from the physical aspects.  When we lay down with a man, we are giving him more than physical pleasure and doing more than gaining physical pleasure for ourselves.

When a woman has sex with a man, she joins her soul with him.

I’ve been telling my men friends this over and over again.  Some get it; others don’t.  However, women are the part of the population who need to get this--especially black women for reasons I will get into directly.  Ladies, you are destroying yourselves spiritually and emotionally when you give yourselves to a man who has not taken you under his spiritual protection--and by that, I mean marriage. And when that man to whom you gave that special part of yourself leaves, your soul and spirit cry out in pain from being cleaved.

“NO!!!!”

Because he’s taking a part of you with him when he leaves—a part which is not meant to be separated from the rest of yourself.  He’s cutting off a piece of you, and the worst thing is: you allowed it to happen.  It’s worse than a physical mutilation—it’s a mutilation of your soul.

If you do this enough times, ladies, you’ll stop caring about your spirit and your soul.  In fact, the two become comatose from the continuous injury, if not dead.  Think I’m exaggerating? 

Think about all the illegitimate black children there are in America and think about the fact that black women have the highest rate of abortion of any women in America.  That statistic says that there are very many black women who are giving themselves to men who don’t care about them.

Now think about all the black women you know or whom you have observed who are spiritual and emotional wrecks.  They are that way because they feel worthless and have allowed men to treat them as if they are worthless.  After a while, women who continue to behave this way take it to heart. 

Think these things through.  It’s a vicious cycle.

Now from that bit of cutting, it’s an easy and short road toward murdering that whom is a part of self—to cutting one’s child to pieces.

Yes, I know some will say “well, I did what you did and my life hasn’t turned out the way yours has.” Well, of course not; we are individual beings and our outer life circumstances are unique to our individual selves.  But I’m willing to bet that nearly all women have suffered some adverse effect(s) from giving themselves to men who don’t care about them.  (I may be one of the “lucky” ones.)  And almost all of those effects are internal—a penalty within one’s soul. 

And, on top of that, we can take these effects and mirror them onto black men, too many of whom are angry at the world, angry at black women, and angry at themselves (black-on-black crime). [i]  That anger almost always stems from observing or experiencing the spiritual, moral and worldly failure of their mothers.

When people who know that I’m a Christian ask me my opinion about why I think God sets certain rules for us to follow, I usually say “for our benefit; to keep us from harm.”  Sometimes I’m unable to articulate the details of those benefits and that harm, but not in this case.  Sexual immorality and the results there from have nearly destroyed black Americans—and, in the case of abortion, literally so.

So, in answer to Jessica Ann’s question, “Should Black Women Stop Getting Abortions,” I give a resounding ‘yes.’ It’s time to stop it and to pull it out of the ground by its root.  Our spirits and souls are the ground and the root consists of self-hatred and worthlessness.   It’s from the Source of Evil.

The tiller is immorality—sin.  Let’s make an end to that; not to ourselves and to our children.

___________

[i] When I mentioned this part of the essay to my mother, she said, "Black-on-black crime is their method of abortion." Just so.

Please contribute to Juliette’s Projects: A Roof Over My Head, my Book Site Domain names, my new novel, this blog, and my Internet--to keep them going and to the COFFEE fund to keep me going!