As we remember the lives of those who were lost some 7 years agon on the fatefu day of 9/11. Let their memory live though song, while it is a tough time for many and the country as a whole I chose a few Hip-Hop songs for us to listn to and journey through the joy and the pain of such an atrocity.
If you didn’t already know I am a student of Tupac Shakur. I don’t love words like fan because if I ever met one of these brothers I would be far from a groupie. I would rather engage brothers in a conversation and learn from them and hopefully they would learn from me.
With that said, Tupac is one of the most phenomenal men of our time. Not because he was a self proclaimed “thug”. Not because he is this huge hip-hop icon or his Hollywood appeal in movies. No Tupac represents the good and bad of the black male. He represents the struggle between street life and intellect, he couples the two together because they are not far from one another. He showed us love and respect for black women while also showing but also launched many contradictory attacks on black women. The complexities of this Revolutionary soldier go on and on but I found a great video with him discussing then in 1995 the woes that we are facing here in America in 2008. Check it out!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61qKf8MJon8&hl=en]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QS3rher4_2E&hl=en]
Here is a young man showing love for single black mothers and most of all his mother. It’s such a beautiful sight to see a young man saluting the mother of his understanding: Women!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DyXkB3OaAw&hl=en]
We talk a lot about Malcom X and Martin Luther King JR, but It’s time to be like them, as strong as them. They were mortal men like us and everyone of us can be like them. - Tupac Shakur
I’m not saying I’m gonna change the world, but I guarantee that I will spark the brain that will change the world. - Tupac Shakur
For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. Jeremiah 29: 11-12
While riding to school today I was bumping (playing loudly) Tupac’s “Only God can Judge me”! Deep words, that’s a deep statement, it means we are only letting God be in control of our lives and not allowing anyone else such power over us. Then I looked to the scripture and the Lord says “for I know the plans I have for you”. I may have no idea where I will be, what type of situation I will be in within the next 3 days but the Lord does. He knows the plan he has for me, he knows the path that he has set forth for me. So I can not be bothered with the judgments and thoughts of other people because they do not have my best interest at heart. What I need to be worried about is building a closer relationship with God so that i can understand the plans that he has for me. Understanding that there will be highs and lows but ultimately he is just trying to prepare me for my greatest good.
The Lord says in this scripture that his plans are for us to prosper not harm us, that he has plans to give us hope and a future. That’s the type of company I would like to keep, a superior being who is watching out for me, watching my back at all times. So we have to give glory to God, we can all think about situations that clearly could have went a completely different way for us. We are not that great that we change our destiny through the universe, instead we have been blessed by a God who protects and cares for us unconditionally. Then you will call upon me and I will listen to you. I have learned that prayer is not just when you lay down and go to sleep. Throughout our day we must communicate with God, I mean we communicate with everyone else. Today I look forward to surrendering my issues to the Lord and knowing that it is only he that can judge me. I don’t mind his judgment because I know that he has my best interest in mind. Peace and Grace be unto you.
That which does not kill me can only make me stronger
