Pastor Bell's Words To Live By

The inability to have long term vision will blight the future of an individual or of a community. This is why it is so important for any individual to be able to dream. This is the ability to see yourself in a situation of honour and importance even though you may currently be in the throes of despair and regret. By jettisoning the though process that came with double consciousness and by knowing who you are and where you are going, the individual is able to live a full and purposeful life. Let me highlight this a little. Dr Martin Luther King Jr. Only became a civil rights leader when he stood up and spoke out against the Jim Crow laws that blighted his people. He preached and argued for equality of opportunity for all human beings, not just for those whose skin tone was of a paler hue. It was in his famous speech delivered on the 28^th August 1963 at the Lincoln Memorial that Dr King exemplified the need for all oppressed people to dream. Dreams become reality as we have witnessed in our lifetime with the emergence and succession to the White House of Barack Obama, a present day civil rights campaigner (Barak in Hebrew means bless). We forget too easily that it was the Jin Crow law that gave us ‘take away’ dinners, now widely used by McDonalds and others, because restaurants and public eating places would not allow Black people to sit and eat in them. And it was the African America slaves and ex-slaves who invented a vast majority of the implements we use today to make their plight of working long hard days easier.

As Christians we too can live the dream. We are called to be true to ourselves by knowing who we are and by being able to work together for the benefit of the wider community.  We need to continue to dream of a time when we will be able to live our lives free from the dichotomy that double consciousness and Jim Crow brought. At this time we will celebrate our elders, nurture our youngsters and train our people. And those who are a part of the ‘New Liberated Community’ will learn to live for others, just as our model Jesus Christ did. For now please read Colossians 3 and reflect on the road to Golgotha and freedom that is ahead of us.