Do you pray? Mindful that I’ll be stepping on a number of sensitive Black toes, let me remind you that prayer is NOT a free-pass you cry out on bended knee, asking for divine intervention because the challenge you face is too overwhelming. To pray is to acknowledge that you are a reflection of a higher entity, but it is also your commitment to devote your life to something meaningful. Prayer is not the last resort. It is not a solution in crisis. It is a daily consciousness, a world view, a platform for action. It is to always put your foot forward. Always raise your hand. So, instead of shaping prayer into a chill-zone of human apathy, insist on prayer being a victorious attitude, the constant waking up of the God/ess in you. Real prayer leaves a track record of a warrior’s footsteps.
If you don’t want to fight, then DON’T pray. Praying is to go from “take this load off me” to “let me handle this”. To stop whining, and start pushing. And continue, despite tears, wounds, doubt and fatigue.
Revolutionise your prayer; Dismantle the image of an old Roman wrinkle-man (that you’ve been brainwashed to call “god”). Explode the painful vision of a European man with long blond hair and a lamb on his shoulder (who you’ve been fooled into thinking is your “christ”). Remove those pale-skinned baby-girls in night-gowns and wings (that you’ve been instructed to call “angels”). How do you expect your prayers to be spiritually powerful when the images in your mind represent your own destruction and powerlessness? Extinguish the missionary legacy which has been pushed on you since your grand-grandmother was enslaved. Reclaim the spiritual sanity and might that once used to define our people, before Euro- and Arab invasions.
Prayer is a declaration of war, your most confident voice against oppressive earth forces. Afrikan Woman, Afrikan Man, Afrikan Child; Revolutionise your prayer and remember that it is not an intervention. It is the preparation for one. The follow-up is on you.
