Dear ones,
I have a confession to make. Yes, a confession to you. You see, many of you do not really know me. And, I know that most of you may never really get to know me, and that’s ok. But, today I want to tell you a little bit about myself.
As of today, I am a thirty-something-year-old young black woman who has seen a lot, loved a lot and lived a lot.
I am someone who is strong in faith. Someone filled with hope.
I am someone who is completely sold out and devoted to God.
I am someone whose laugh is loud and who is so full of joy and love and life that no matter what I see on my journey, it is always worth it in the end.
I am someone who has faced a lot of difficult and trying times.
I have been judged, wrongly and I have my own fair share of misconceptions. I have people who can’t stand me and I have people who have loved me regardless of the defects they know abound.
I am indeed a blessed young woman and my life is a never-ending, upward story of grace and favour.
But, this is not my confession.
Today, I want to tell you that I have people in my life that are thieves, fraudsters, conmen and dishonest people.
I know people who are lazy, and liars and cheats.
I know people who are not trustworthy, not reliable and do not keep to their words.
I know people who are mean, and mischievous and some who are even considered evil.
I have people who are fornicators, adulterers and adulteresses.
I know people who do not share my faith and people who believe in different things.
I know people who are atheist.
I know people who are gay and bisexual, and there’s even someone who I think might be transgender.
I know people that are alcoholics and workaholics and shopaholics.
I know people who are or have been addicts.
I know people who have done some terrible things.
And, I love them.
Yes, I love them and I don’t judge them.
Some of these people have openly shared their worst parts. Some of them have not openly disclosed the extent of their bad ways.
But, I don’t care. I know that no matter how unlike me people are, I would never have any difficulty in loving them. I know that I am also guilty of some “sins” myself. Yes, I have lied and cheated and stolen. I have been mean and mischievous. I have done some not very nice things and there are people who know all that and still love me.
I know that there will be people who will not share my values and my beliefs and my faith, and I know that it’s ok not. And that makes it easy not to judge or to hate.
And though there is a place in the Bible where it is said not to “unequally yoked with unbelievers”, I know that there is no place it said to judge or hate or segregate. And though it is said that birds of the same feather flock together, I also know that the Golden eagle flies to everywhere it damn well please, and no other bird can corrupt it.
And part of my confession is that God and love has brought me to a point in my life where I know that I am not the one who defines good and bad. I am not to be the one who punishes or despises or ostracises people with ideas or ways different from what I have been taught. It is not my place to declare anyone worse than me or beneath me. I have been taught to understand difference and diversity. And, I’ve been taught to gently and loving live as a light in a world that filled with voices, loud voices. And I have been taught to let my light so shine that people who so wish will be drawn to it and ignite their own light from it. I have learnt to be naked and not ashamed, for that’s the only way to get myself covered in the right clothing. I have been taught to kind to myself and to people around me. I have been taught to be real and true. And, I have been taught never to judge.
That, dear ones, is my confession. Now you know that even though I have been surrounded by such wonderful and amazing people, there are also amongst them people who struggle with what some might call “sin”. The truth is that the concept of “sin” is now something I have been learnt to handle differently, because the same God who we know does not push anyone away from him, no matter how repulsive other people might find them. I learnt that God loves everyone, unconditionally, irrespective of gender, race, orientation, beliefs or sin. Now, with my confession, you know that I love these people equally the same God loves them.
And today, I beg you to give the world around you a chance to be loved just the way God has loved you and accepeted you and is helping you.
And, even if you don’t believe in God
