God

last night

destiniesramblings:

after carpet suckles my knees
for five minutes
i realize i do not have words to pray—
someone advised just say Jesus
but what if i’m afraid
when i say His name
every demon inside me will bust flesh
like budding flowers leaving root around my ribcage,
me open and eyes exposed to the blackness I let cement my heart—
simply put, i have been my own god—a bad god.
when i prayed to myself,
ears clogged to my needs with dead, mahogany lusts—
i try to swab the blockage away
but only push the filth farther in
and these scales and planks
in the shape of everything
i have stacked above Him
keep my tongue wet.
no fingers dipped in clay can remove these blinders
driven into my eyes like pyramids

8 minutes now—the ground swaddles leg and knee
without a word upward.
silence
convinces me to give up and go my own way
and about the 9th minute?…9th…9th…hour
i cry out with a loud voice, saying,
“Eli, Eli lama sabachthani”
that is to say
My God, My God why hast thou forsaken me?

but who has forsaken whom?
the girl-god spine-cracked into submission—
herself
El above
Eli, Eli lama sabachthani she repeats
My God, My God…
i am earth
You are God, above—The God
come, comet crumbed chest
destroying root and branch
bludgeoning my cove
a hole large enough to carry You
a planned falling out
passionless to where the pieces land
knowing they will be wholly replaced
by the holy God.
Amen.

prayed for

This week at church we’re having a youth week of prayer. As a part of that, tonight our leader asked for an older adult and a young person to pair off, and the older person was to pray for the younger. It’s a wonderful thing to be prayed for by an older person–a wiser person person in general. My person has one of the warmest, deliberate voices I’ve ever heard, and her hands were so soft as they wrapped themselves around mine. I can still smell her perfume between my fingers. 

To hear someone ask God to bless you and keep you safe, and guide you and show you what to do, is an awesome feeling. I don’t think we pray for each other enough though. Do we know how to pray for others? I once had a friend who said she felt so inadequate while she was doing her nightly prayers. She felt that there were so many things and people to pray for, that she could never get them all in, so after a while of praying, she’d just say, “You know the rest." 

I agree that sometimes it seems like the prayer list can seem so long. You have to pray for all the stuff going on in your life, and all the stuff going on in others’ lives who have asked you to pray for them, and even those who haven’t asked. I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t fallen asleep during my own prayers before. But why does prayer seem so tedious sometimes? We should feel privileged to come before the Creator of the universe and everything in it, who has allowed us to come before Him with boldness, but we waste it sometimes. 

So I guess my final question is: how can we get past ourselves to pray?

no fear

It’s been a long time since I blogged, and that has to change.

Since December I’ve been working on a double project: I will write two poems and one song per week until the end of May (six months). By June I will have at least 50 poems and 25 songs to edit and add to my collection. I hope to compile enough poems for a manuscript, and to record I’m not sure what yet (EP or album or something in between). I feel the tugging at my heart, even more now than at any other time, to get to work; it’s time I satisfied the pull. Or, perhaps not satisfy it, to keep me on toes with a constant hunger? Who knows? I just have to start, and discard all of those things I have apprehensions about, doubts and fears. I thank those of you out there who have supported me.

More original content from destinie flooding your interwebs soon.

I do this all out of a Godly love: “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.” 1 John 4:18

-destinie (4LJ)

 

 

1 like = 1 prayer

I’m tired of seeing this everywhere. Have we been tricked into believing a prayer is sent up every time someone likes a picture, reducing communication with God to the click of a mouse or a trackpad? Just because someone likes something, doesn’t mean they’re going to pray about it, or that a prayer miraculously reaches heaven.

distractions, distractions

Satan provides so many distractions that make it so easy for us to fall away from God, preventing us from purposely taking time out of our day to even say a simple “thank you.”

Does anyone else struggle with this? I started the year so well, but not even two weeks in, I find myself saying, “I’ll do it later,” knowing good and well later will never come. I have to try harder not to slink into laziness and the “there’s always tomorrow” attitude, and this is with everything.

Since December, I’ve been working on a project that I hope to have completed and ready for the public eye and ear by August or September, and it’s going to be awesome. I need your prayers and thoughts to be that I will keep God first and constant in my life so I can stay on the right path to resist the enemy, and keep being led by His spirit to claim that which is for me. Thank you

– destinie

Winter Jam recap and some thoughts on Christian music

I went to Winter Jam last night, and it was pretty awesome. I always enjoy hearing NewSongas the host band. My favorites from this year were Lecrae, Tenth Avenue North, and the relatively new husband and wife duo Love & the Outcome. Though I must say, Skillet’s performance two years ago is still at the very top of my list. 

I had a great time. However, something bothered me, and my friends also; one group (who shall remain nameless) played the track to a secular song, that has no spiritual connotation what so ever, as the song that they came out to before they started to play. What was the point of this? Doesn’t doing that kind of defeat the purpose of coming together to worship God, to offer an alternative to the world? I’m not condemning all non-Christian music, but at a gathering such as this, to play music that is the dead opposite of Jesus and what he represents seems a little like straddling the fence to me. 

I also think this kind of thing can get tricky for some people who aren’t really Christians yet, or who are new to the faith. They may think, “Well, they have the same thing going on in here as out there, so there’s really no point in me getting too involved with this. I might as well stay where I am.” Also, said band’s lyrics were kind of hard to understand, mainly because of the volume of the music, but what little we did understand (my friends and I) didn’t seem to have too much to do with Jesus. The lyrics of theirs that I looked up when I got home were very…..bleak in terms of spirituality.

Am I reading too much into this? I don’t like ambiguous lyrics, especially not coming from those who are claiming to represent Jesus. What do y’all think? Leave your thoughts and questions below. 

P.S. Stay tuned for a huge load of pictures. You can also watch the rest of the videos, here  😀

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thank you for my life

I feel like I should have something profound to say since it’s a new year; but I don’t. I’m just glad it’s over. This past year has been trying, to say the least. I lost a friend to the grave, many other ‘friends’ walked away when I needed them most, family bickering over simple things…but in the end, I have nothing to say but thank You for my life. I could been dead like so many other people, but for some reason I’m still here. I hate that I’ve been wasting life on trivial things and causing so much anxiety and stress on myself, but I can’t help it. I pray that this year, I will really just let go and give it all to God, my prayer is happiness and love, which I feel has been lacking in my life: giving and receiving. Satan has tried to destroy me so many times this year, and put doubt in my heart about the power of the God that I serve, but I can’t do that. I thank you for my life….

Here’s my song for the new year. Please take a listen, and a moment to thank God.

break every chain

Sunday I played a song at a fundraising rally that my aunt organizes for her church every year. I sang, “All I Can Say” by the David Crowder*Band in memory of my deceased friend. She had come with me the previous year. When I told the audience her story I heard a unified, “awwww,” which made me feel weird—like I was being pitied. After this I began the opening chords. As the song progressed I really felt it, it wasn’t the best I’d ever performed, but it was my best at the time. And like the song says, that’s all I could give at that moment.  But it went well, and on the second verse I heard the bluesy wah of the lead join in with me and the drums followed, lightly tapping the snare and cymbal. When I finished,everyone gave me a standing ovation; at least most everyone. It’s kind of a blur since I tend to look away when I finish a performance, somehow not looking into the audiences faces after a performance means they can’t see me (I hate being in the spotlight. I know, I know…why am I doing this then?).

After I sat, it was time for the choir sing. The lead singer started singing with the most powerful, melodic voice you’d ever want to hear. She dug deep, yet made it look and sound so effortless. As “Break Every Chain” echoed though the walls of the building some called out—amens, hallelujahs, clapping—but I just sat. I sat and I thought. I thought about my friend. I realized that her death, even though it happened a while ago is still a chain on my life that needs to be broken. I miss her a lot. Sitting there, having this realization, I was about to cry, but I stopped myself—foolish pride. I thought,If I let myself cry right now, I know I’ll feel better. But I hate crying—especially in front of people. So I resolved to just sit and listen and hold it in. I wish I could have let go at that moment; let go of every burden on my life that I keep saying I want to give to God, that I keep praying I want to give up, but still hold on to when it’s all said and done. It all comes down to pride. Right now, pride must cease. Things would be so much better if pride were a thing that sin never brought into existence. 

—destinie