by Sam | Feb 20, 2018 | Inspiration, Reflection
One of the greatest joys and highest honors I have is being able to travel and speak. I’ll never forget the first time I got to preach at a Gospel camp for youth. It was the summer of 2007 in Upstate NY. My pastor was invited as the main speaker, and I accompanied him to help in anyway I could. To my surprise (and that youth ministry’s dismay) he said he wanted me to preach at couple of the main sessions. It was truly humbling, and the beginning of what God would do in the years to come. Fast forward to this past summer, and I received an invitation to speak at a youth conference out of the blue. The opportunity came because of what happened almost ten years ago at that very first camp. I hadn’t really stayed in touch with anyone from there, and I don’t remember what I preached either (and probably for the better!). Not long after that, another invitation came because I helped a high school’s Christian club years earlier as well. Within a matter of days, invitations to speak came that could be traced back to those moments I chose to be steadfast and to serve without an agenda. God’s 'suddenlies' are always predicated by perseverance. Click To Tweet Being faithful and available over the LONG HAUL has opened more doors than networking and self-promoting. Faithfulness might seem painful in the moment, but it always comes with greater returns when you don’t quit. If you’re looking for quick breakthroughs and doors opening suddenly, this isn’t for you. But newsflash, there are no such...
by Sam | Feb 13, 2018 | Guest Blogger, Inspiration
The first time I felt proud to be a black woman was when I lived with three other black suitemates during my sophomore year in college who celebrated and shared their West Indian and Nigerian culture, food, and heritage with me. As sisters in Christ, we would worship, sing praise songs, and discuss theology on the same night we would joyfully dance to Caribbean and African beats, share hair products, and talk about the latest rap song. It was a beautiful marrying of cultures and experiences that made me feel like I had returned home to a forgotten motherland. I felt proud to say that I was black, female, and created in the image of God; for the first time in my life, I had real sisterhood. Yet in that same season, I was reminded that every aspect of who I am as person was still dishonored, ignored, or disbelieved in our society. That semester, we wept when we heard the news about Tamir Rice being killed while playing in a park and worried about the future of our brothers and children; we were heartbroken at the ignorance and casual racism within our fellowship we had experienced from our white and Asian American brothers and sisters in Christ; we joined in solidarity with those who marched after Eric Garner’s killer wasn’t indicted; we shared stories of the sexism and misogynoir we experienced from those who claimed to be our brothers in Christ. We were bonded by our sisterhood and our pain, and that is at the core of how it feels to be black in America, especially as a...
