THE JOURNEY VICTORIOUS

I read daily devotionals from the Bible app and recently I selected a devotional by “Mandisa.” I did not know she was a Christian recording artist when I began the devotional.

As those of you may remember from my first blog post, I was off my Jesus path for some time and did not focus on Christian anything, so I am now discovering a world of amazing music and talent.

As of this writing, I still have one more day of the devotional. I enjoy Mandisa’s style, as it is more like my style. There is a “pastor” voice, a “worship” voice and then there is a girl on the street voice, like Mandisa, like me, who speaketh homegirl talk … or in my case also, “hippiegirl talk.”

Homegirl

“Homegirl” is what this very good friend used to call me when I lived in Southern California. Being a homegirl is being connected to the people around you and it is what allowed me to walk the streets of the Rodney King riots two days after the fires started. I was on my Jesus path at that time and I was welcomed into the neighborhood … because I was a homegirl.

I did not go to the riots just to looky-loo. I had worked a number of years in South Central L.A. I worked with a school photography company and I visited a large number of local schools. I never wanted to work the rich, white areas of town. No thank you. I loved the kids (7^th grade and up) in South Central. They were the most fun and most polite of all the kids I ever worked with.

So, I had a vested interest in South Central and the King riots. I went, I walked, I saw, I winked and I was given a loaf of bread from a black man I had never met. It made my day. It made my year. It is an event that makes my life.

Incredible music

Anyway, I searched for some Mandisa music after I started reading her devotional and she is fabulous. I am going to post three links. One is an interview where she speaks of a day when people were knocking at her door and she was not answering.

I had that day … I felt what she was saying and I am going to bet many if not all of you have felt that way before. Leave me alone.

Thankfully, people do no listen to me or to Mandisa. Your friends and family will never let you just sink … and never will Jesus Christ. Every day, no matter how hard, say out loud “God is Good; thank you Father for breathing life into me.”

The next two links are two of her songs. Listen to them both … more than once.

You Rock

Thank you again, Mandisa, for a lovely devotional, a wonderful and faithful heart and amazing music. You rock, homegirl!

(I think you will need to copy and paste this first link before the songs. It is from ABC and not YouTube)

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/mandisa-reveals-deep-depression-led-suicide/story?id=47025988