In a recent Minneapolis incident, a woman was fatally shot by an ICE agent after she interfered with a federal enforcement operation.
She drove into an active law-enforcement situation, refused to comply with commands to stop, and obstructed officers from doing their job.
That is noncompliance. That is obstruction of justice. That part is not debatable. She was wrong.
Her choices put herself, officers, and others in danger, her actions also left 3 children without their mother. Actions have consequences.
Now here’s the part we still have to get right.
Acknowledging that she was wrong does not mean we celebrate her death. Because death is not a victory. And God does not rejoice in destruction.
The Ethiopian Scriptures, the oldest preserved Biblical canon, make God’s heart toward life very clear. “God did not create death, and He does not delight in the destruction of the living.” Wisdom of Solomon 1:13 Ethiopian Canon
God is not in the business of cheering when someone dies. He is the God of life, mercy, and restoration. The Ethiopian Scriptures also tell us how to treat others, even when we strongly disagree with their actions. “Do not do to anyone what you yourself hate.” Tobit 4:15 Ethiopian Canon
If we would not want our own loved one mocked after a tragedy, we should not mock someone else’s.
The Western Bible later echoes that same ancient wisdom. “Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and do not let your heart be glad when they stumble.” Proverbs 24:17 Not your enemy. Not someone you disagree with. Not someone who made a reckless choice.
You can hold people accountable without celebrating their death. You can support law enforcement without cheering a fatal outcome. You can stand for the law without losing your humanity.
When someone on the right is murdered, people on the left mock it, that’s wrong. When this woman was killed and people on the right mocked it, that is wrong too. Different politics. Same lack of compassion.
God does not want His people clapping over coffins.
The Ethiopian Scriptures teach us that grief is sacred, because every life belongs to God, not to public opinion. Mourning honors the seriousness of life and the weight of loss.
The Western Bible echoes that truth. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” Matthew 5:4
Not blessed are those who mock. Not blessed are those who celebrate. Not blessed are those who turn tragedy into a talking point. Children are grieving. Families are hurting. Lives have been permanently changed. This is not the time for jokes. This is not the time for applause. This is the time for restraint, reflection, and compassion.
God calls us to be firm in truth but gentle in spirit, strong in principle but soft toward suffering. Because if we lose compassion, we lose our witness. And no political victory is worth that.
Christmas has always mattered to me. The time with family. The traditions passed down. The intentional pause that draws our attention toward Christ. None of that is wrong. None of it needs to be discarded. What matters is understanding what we are actually celebrating. The Bible does not give us a specific date for Jesus’ birth, and it never tried to. Scripture tells us the story, the setting, the purpose, and the fulfillment. The absence of a date was intentional, because the focus was never meant to be a calendar day. It was meant to be the arrival of Christ. Historically, December already held significance in the Roman world. Several festivals took place during that season, including celebrations centered on light, renewal, and the turning of the year. As Christianity spread under Roman influence, existing traditions were often repurposed rather than erased. The birth of Christ came to be associated with December in part because Jesus was understood as the Light coming into the world, and aligning His remembrance with a season already focused on light made the transition easier for new believers. This was not about altering who Jesus was, but about how His coming was introduced within an existing cultural framework. The story of Jesus’ birth appears in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke in both the Western canon and the Ethiopian canon. The accounts are the same. The difference is not what is told, but how much context is preserved. The Ethiopian Bible, which is older and more expansive, retains surrounding historical and cultural details that the Western Bible mirrors the Ethiopian Bible but presents in a more condensed form. Not a different Jesus. Not a different message. The same story, told more fully in the Ethiopian Bible. Shepherds were in the fields at night, tending their flocks. Travel was active and ongoing. The environment described does not reflect winter conditions. These details are present in Scripture and preserved more clearly when read through the broader Ethiopian canon. The Western Bible retains the story, but in a more condensed form. That difference does not weaken Scripture. It strengthens our understanding of it. Knowing the season of Jesus’ birth does not change who He is. It does not diminish Christmas. It does not strip meaning from tradition. It simply reminds us that December 25 is a chosen day of remembrance, not a documented birthday. And that’s okay. People should continue celebrating Christmas. Family matters. Traditions matter. Shared moments matter. None of that is wrong, and none of it dishonors Christ. But Jesus was never meant to be honored only once a year. Christmas gives us a collective moment to pause and remember His coming, but Jesus calls us to recognize Him, follow Him, and celebrate Him throughout the entire year. His life, His teachings, and His presence were never confined to a season. Understanding that doesn’t take anything away from Christmas. It puts Christmas in its proper place. We are not celebrating a date. We are celebrating the arrival of our Lord and Savior. And that arrival is worthy of remembrance every single day.
Being Strong Isn’t the Same as Being Called to Everything
There’s a kind of tired that sleep doesn’t fix.
Not physical tired. Not even emotional tired.
It’s the exhaustion that comes from constantly engaging. Constantly responding. Constantly explaining. Constantly standing in fights that don’t actually move your life forward.
Lately, I’ve been sitting with a quiet realization. I’m not tired because I lack strength. I’m tired because I’ve been spending strength where it was never assigned.
And that hits different.
Because strong people are expected to handle everything. We become the voice of reason. The truth-teller. The fixer. The educator. The one who can “take it.”
So we jump into arguments. We correct misinformation. We absorb people’s projections. We carry conversations that were never meant to be ours.
And slowly, our spirit starts to dim.
What makes it heavier is this question I keep turning over in my heart:
If I stop engaging, will people think I’m weak Or scared Or avoiding truth Or backing down
But here’s the truth I’m learning.
Silence is not surrender. Boundaries are not fear. And disengaging from chaos is not the same as abandoning purpose.
When I look at Scripture, I don’t see God applauding constant engagement. I see Him honoring focus.
Nehemiah understood this long before we had comment sections and social media timelines. He had one assignment. Build the wall.
And while he was doing exactly what God called him to do, the noise showed up. Mockery. Distraction. False urgency. Invitations to argue. Invitations to explain. Invitations to come down and address people who had no intention of helping him build anything.
Nehemiah didn’t insult them. He didn’t defend himself. He didn’t debate motives.
He simply said he couldn’t come down because he was doing a great work.
That one sentence carries so much wisdom for today.
Because the moment you step into what God has called you to do, the distractions come dressed as responsibility. As righteousness. As “speaking up.” As “educating.” As “standing your ground.”
But not every fight is a calling.
The Ethiopian texts echo this same truth quietly but powerfully. Baruch, who walked closely with Jeremiah, wasn’t assigned to fix the people’s rebellion or convince everyone to change. His responsibility was to preserve the word. To protect what God placed in his hands.
When Baruch carried that responsibility alone, he grew weary. Not because the assignment was wrong, but because the weight around it was heavy.
And that feels familiar.
We are living in a time where outrage is rewarded. Reaction is expected. And disengagement is misunderstood.
People want your energy on demand. They want you to explain history, politics, race, faith, and morality in a comment box. They want access to your emotional labor without offering respect, curiosity, or growth in return.
And strong people keep showing up.
Until they burn out.
I’ve started to recognize when I’m outside my assignment.
It shows up as constant irritation. A heaviness before I even open an app. The feeling that I’m responding more than creating. That I’m explaining more than building. That I’m defending instead of resting.
That’s not weakness. That’s misalignment.
Purpose energizes. Distraction drains.
Here’s the part that’s uncomfortable but freeing at the same time.
Some people are not meant to understand you in this season. Some conversations are not meant to be resolved. Some arguments are not meant to be won. And some battles exist solely to pull you away from what you’re actually called to do.
Strong people burn out when they fight outside their assignment.
Not because they aren’t strong enough. But because strength was never meant to be used everywhere.
I’m learning that my peace is not optional. My focus is not negotiable. And my assignment deserves protection.
I don’t owe everyone my voice. I don’t need to attend every argument I’m invited to. And I don’t have to prove truth to people who are committed to misunderstanding it.
This isn’t avoidance. It’s wisdom.
This isn’t silence. It’s discernment.
This isn’t stepping back from truth. It’s stepping deeper into purpose.
When I stay in my lane, my strength returns. When I stop fighting unnecessary battles, my clarity sharpens. And when I honor my assignment, exhaustion no longer has the final word.
Strong people don’t burn out because they’re weak. They burn out because they’ve been carrying what was never theirs.
And I’m choosing, intentionally, to stay where I’m assigned.
A friend made a comment that stuck with me. He said, “We need to stop giving money to any university”. I could have kept scrolling, but something in me paused. It bothered me because it made me ask a question I had never asked before. How much money is actually being poured into these institutions. And why is the federal government even involved. His comment sent me down a rabbit hole.
So I started digging.
The deeper I went, the more the picture shifted. Everything we think we know about higher education starts to fall apart once you pull the curtain back.
We assume federal dollars help students. We assume federal dollars support education. We assume federal dollars pay for classrooms, professors, and learning.
That is not the story.
When the federal government first started funding universities, it had nothing to do with student education. It had everything to do with what the government needed. Not what students needed.
During the early 1900s, the government wanted to strengthen agriculture and industrial development, so money went to land grant colleges. After World War Two, the government wanted to reintegrate millions of soldiers, so the GI Bill opened college doors. Then came the Cold War. Suddenly the government needed scientists, engineers, weapons experts, aerospace innovators, medical researchers, and technology creators. So the federal money exploded. Universities were not chosen because of students. Universities were chosen because they had the ability to build what the government wanted.
And just like that, colleges became research partners, government contractors, and innovation hubs. Federal dollars did not go to lower tuition. They did not go to reduce debt. They did not go to help families. They went into research labs, medical centers, engineering buildings, and private industry partnerships.
The entire structure of federal funding was built for national needs, not student needs.
And here is where my perspective shifted. Based on my research and everything I am learning, I now see exactly what my friend meant. No federal dollars should be going to colleges and universities. Pell Grants made sense because tuition was already so high that students needed help. But the moment the federal government started loaning the money directly to students, everything changed. Colleges raised their prices because they knew the government would cover it. Students signed loans they could not escape. And the federal government created a cycle where students spend years paying back money that should never have been borrowed in the first place. This was not a gift. This was a financial trap. A revolving door of money flowing from the government to the universities and from the students back to the government with interest. But I digress. Let’s get back to education.
Once you understand the true purpose of federal funding, the next question is impossible to ignore. If the federal dollars were never meant for students, then what does that say about how this system truly operates. Because while universities were being built into national research engines, Black people were not even allowed into most Predominantly White Institutions. Our ancestors created Historically Black Colleges and Universities because they had no other choice. The doors were closed everywhere else.
And here is the truth that cannot be softened. The government built this divide. The government funded this divide. And the government still protects this divide.
This is why the comment from my friend was so important. When he said that no federal dollars should be funding education, he was one hundred percent correct. If the federal government had never taken control of higher education funding, they would have never been able to create this split to begin with. The opposition, which is the federal government, would never have been able to pit HBCUs against Predominantly White Institutions. This is part of a much larger pattern. Divide people by ethnicity. Divide them by pigmentation. Divide them by who receives access and who receives leftovers.
And look at how they did it. They shut Black people out of the well funded universities, then told us to go build our own. But even when we built HBCUs with brilliance and grit, the federal government refused to level the playing field. They fed money into the institutions we were excluded from and delivered only a fraction to the schools we created. They undereducated our children in elementary, middle, and high school. They withheld equal classroom resources. They controlled which history was taught and which history was erased. And then people wonder why more students from predominantly Black communities don’t attend these heavily funded white institutions even though the doors are now legally open.
Because the divide was never just financial. It was cultural. It was educational. And it was intentional.
So when I look at the money, the access, the curriculum, and the outcomes, the truth becomes impossible to ignore. The system was not built to be fair. It was built to maintain advantage. And it did exactly that.
Why I Will Not Shrink for White Liberals or Black Liberals Who Want to Think for Me
Every time I open my mouth as a Black conservative woman, somebody thinks they need to correct me. And let me be clear about something from the jump. Nine times out of ten, the ones trying to “educate” me, shame me, or drag me back into the mental basement are White liberals and Black liberals who have bought into the same script written for them by the Democratic Party.
And here is what people do not want to talk about.
White liberals love to act like they are the referees of Black thought. They want to decide which Black voice is authentic and which one needs “saving.” They show up with their savior complex, convinced I need them to explain my experience to me. They think my beliefs, my convictions, and my political stance must have been handed to me by a White conservative puppet master. Meanwhile they are the ones being spoon fed by mainstream media, hollywierd, the education system, and the politicians on the left telling them what to think about Black people every single day.
And yes, I have had Black liberals come at me too. But overwhelmingly, the racism I have personally experienced throughout my life came from White liberals. In boardrooms. In leadership roles. In committee meetings. In classrooms. The ones who smiled while saying, “You’re one of the good ones.” The ones who told me, “You are not like the others.” The ones who said, “We do not expect people like you to be able to do that.” The ones who insisted that getting an ID or a driver’s license is too hard for Black people, but not for them or their children.
That is racism. Do not sugarcoat it. Do not spiritualize it. Do not dress it up in “progressive language.” It is the same mindset from the plantation, wrapped in a softer tone and marketed as compassion.
Today they are not whipping our backs. They are whipping our minds.
And here is where I need you to think.
During slavery, White liberals controlled Black people through physical force. Today the Democratic Party tries to control us through dependency. They are not selling our children to different plantations anymore, but they are still destroying our families by encouraging a lifestyle that weakens our structure from the inside out. Many having a bunch of babies by many different men. This destroys the Black family structure. They are still lowering the bar, still pushing a curriculum in predominantly Black communities that keeps our children academically behind. They are still normalizing behavior they would never tolerate in their own neighborhoods or from their own children.
They keep pushing this lie that all Black women should care about is being sexy. They act like spirituality is outdated, that being the woman of the house is old fashioned, that marriage is oppression, and motherhood is settling. They want Black women loud, exposed, sexualized, and disconnected from everything that once made us powerful. Because a grounded Black woman is harder to control than a distracted one. A spiritually anchored Black woman will not bow to anyone’s narrative. A Black woman who knows her worth in God cannot be manipulated. They do not want that. They want the version of us they can manage. But a woman who honors her home, her purpose, and her God is unstoppable.
There is no difference in the mindset. Only the method.
So, ask yourself why they work so hard to keep the bar low for us. Why do they celebrate struggle for us but excellence for themselves. Why do they fight so aggressively to maintain the idea that we are incapable unless they step in.
And while we are asking the hard questions, let us ask this one too.
Why were we the only enslaved people in world history who were forbidden to keep our original culture?
Every other enslaved group throughout history kept their identity. Their language. Their names. Their customs. Their spiritual heritage. Their food. Their family lineage.
We are the only people whose culture was systematically erased. That should tell you something. That should make a light come on in your spirit.
Why was it so important to stop us from knowing who we were before slavery?
What were they afraid of?
Because here is the truth that the Democratic Party does not want you to uncover.
We were powerful before the ships. We were brilliant before the chains. We were builders, thinkers, warriors, inventors, scholars, farmers, navigators, mathematicians, spiritual leaders, and architects before anyone ever laid eyes on us. That was who we were in Alkebulan, the original name for the land today called Africa, the cradle of civilization.
And that greatness was not only across the ocean. Many of our ancestors were already here, long before colonization and long before slavery began. That is part of the truth they do not want you to find. Because once you know that not all Black Americans came here chained in the bottom of ships, and that some were already on this land with skills, culture, and civilization, the whole story changes, and you start to wonder, what else did they lie about.
The Democratic Party cannot survive if Black people wake up to who we really are. They need the victim narrative. They need the dependency. They need the power. They need the bar low, so we never look up. They need us stuck on the hamster wheel they built. Because if we ever rise to our original identity, we would leave their plantation of thought overnight, and slavery would truly be over.
And here is what Black people MUST take accountability for.
We got comfortable. We accepted the handouts. We accepted the lowered expectations. We accepted their version of who we are. We let them dictate our worth, our struggle, our future, and our place in this country.
And we forgot that our greatness existed before slavery, before politics, before the Democratic Party existed, before America even became a nation.
So let me say this clearly.
Stop letting people who do not know your history tell you how to think. Stop letting the same people who rewrote your history tell you how to think. Stop letting people who do not want the truth dictate what truth is. Stop letting people who fear your awakening convince you to avoid researching the real history.
Because once you see the truth, you cannot unsee it. Once you know the fullness of our history, you cannot stay in the box they built for you. Once you understand the power in your lineage, you cannot remain dependent on people who benefit from your dependency.
Once you know your true identity, you stop shrinking to fit the expectations of people who do not even know their own identity. You stop letting politics define your worth. You stop lowering yourself to meet the limits someone else placed on you. You stop apologizing for thinking freely. You stop bowing to narratives built to keep you dependent. You stop being afraid of rejection from people who were never rooting for you anyway.
And let me make this clear for everyone reading.
For ALL my brothers and sisters out there regardless of race, Black, White, Hispanic, Asian, Native, and everyone in between. You are not who the Democratic Party says you are. You are not the stereotype they push. You are not the limitations they place on you. You are not the narrative they need you to play out so they can continue to feel superior, powerful, and morally elevated at your expense.
You have a God given identity. You have a God given mind. You have a God given purpose.
And if you do not take the time to research your true history, someone else will hand you a counterfeit version and expect you to live by it.
I am a Christian Black Conservative woman and I am unbothered. Not because everybody agrees with me. Not because I expect them to. But because I refuse to be mentally enslaved by a party that needs me to stay dependent, resentful, uninformed, and small.
I said what I said. And I will keep saying it until we stop living under a story that was never ours to begin with.
Western Bible: King Josiah, 2 Kings Chapters 22 and 23 The people had forgotten who they were. They were living under a story that was not theirs anymore. Their identity had been rewritten. Their faith was mixed with lies. Their history had been hidden. Their truth was buried. Then Josiah found the Book of the Law and said, we will no longer live by someone else’s version of us. He tore down false altars. He restored truth. He restored identity. He restored the foundation that had been lost. He did not shrink back. He rose up.
Ethiopian Canon: Book of Jubilees, Chapters 10 through 15 God reminds the descendants of Abraham who they are, where they came from, and what covenant runs through their bloodline. God brings them back to their roots. He restores what was forgotten. He reclaims what they did not even realize had been lost. That message speaks today. God is calling us to rediscover the truth beneath the lies.
I refuse to be small. And I refuse to let anyone else shrink me. Not White liberals. Not Black liberals. Not anyone who thinks they get to think for me.
I keep seeing our community defend a version of ourselves that is so far beneath who we actually are. A version the Democratic Party keeps pushing. A version the Democratic Party needs us to believe. A version that shrinks us, limits us, and keeps us mentally stuck at the bottom.
And too many of us have accepted it without questioning a thing.
Let me tell the truth clearly. We did not begin in chains. We did not begin on plantations. We did not begin at the bottom. Our story did not start in pain.
Our story began in Alkebulan, the ancient name for Africa. A name that means Mother of Humanity. A name connected to wealth, brilliance, and spiritual depth long before colonizers renamed everything.
We come from builders, rulers, mathematicians, traders, warriors, and scholars. We come from nations that shaped global trade and influenced entire civilizations. We come from people who mapped stars while others struggled to understand seasons.
Western Bible
The lands of Cush and Ethiopia, Sheba and Ophir, are mentioned with honor. These were wealthy, respected nations. Not poor. Not weak. Not broken.
Ethiopian Canon
Books like Jubilees and Enoch describe the descendants of Cush and Sheba as builders, leaders, and keepers of wisdom. They were foundational people, not forgotten ones.
So do not let the Democratic Party tell you we began in chains. Do not let the Democratic Party tell you our history starts in cotton fields. Do not let the Democratic Party convince you that slavery is the full story of who we are.
And now let me talk to us. Because this part is ours to own.
We also have to be honest about how comfortable we became. We got comfortable with the handouts. We got comfortable with the “we will take care of you” promises. We got comfortable with lowered expectations. We got comfortable defending survival instead of demanding elevation.
That comfort cost us our identity. That comfort cost us our confidence. That comfort cost us our future.
We let the Democratic Party strip us of our greatness because settling felt easier than rising. We let their narrative become our identity and forgot that God already placed royalty in our DNA.
Here is the truth that hurts and heals at the same time.
We are not a defeated people. We are not a delayed people.
We are a people who forgot what was already inside of us.
We built Black Wall Street. We built inventions that shaped American industry. We built communities that thrived even under oppression. We built this country. We built legacies. We built families with strength and dignity.
We forgot because the Democratic Party needed us to forget. But forgetting is not the same as losing. And remembering is the beginning of rising.
Western Bible
John chapter 8 says the truth will set us free. Truth frees the mind before it frees anything else.
Ethiopian Canon
Jubilees chapter 1 verse 25 says God will send His angels before us to keep us in all our ways and bring us into the land of truth and righteousness. Truth and righteousness are identity. Truth and righteousness anchor us back to who we were created to be.
Once you see the truth, you cannot unsee it. Once you remember our greatness, you cannot pretend we were meant for the bottom. Once you understand the power God put in us, you cannot defend chains that are not even locked.
Because of our greatness Because of our ancestors who built and fought before us Because of the royalty that runs through our blood We have a responsibility to rise.
We owe our children elevation. We owe our grandchildren legacy. We owe ourselves a future that honors all we were before the Democratic Party rewrote us.
We were never meant to live small. We were never meant to survive at the bottom. We were meant to rise.
Let me go on and tell you the truth of what happened in those quiet hours of the morning. God caught me. Not in a bad way, but in that gentle but powerful way He deals with me when I am finally still enough to hear Him.
I had to face something in myself. Something I did not even realize I was doing.
I have been holding back from God.
Not because I do not love Him. Not because I do not trust Him. But because surrender requires exposure. It requires honesty. It requires letting God touch the parts of you that you do not have language for.
And if we want to be real, I am not the only one who does this.
So many of us want God to stay small and familiar. We want the God we already understand. The God who fits inside a verse we already memorized. The God who behaves like the sermons we already heard growing up. A God who will not stretch us, push us, mature us, or challenge the small view we have been holding.
We want God to fit inside our box, instead of realizing we were created to fit inside His vision.
Look at Moses. He is the perfect example.
Moses questioned everything. Moses doubted himself. Moses straight up asked God why He would pick somebody like him. He did not feel qualified. He did not feel capable. He did not feel confident.
But God did not shrink Himself to Moses. God expanded Moses to match the calling.
Western Bible. Exodus chapter 3, especially verses 11 and 12.
Ethiopian Canon. The same story appears with even more depth in the Book of Jubilees where Moses’ purpose is described long before he is born.
And let me pause to say this, because I know it makes some people uncomfortable.
When I bring up the Ethiopian Bible, folks start thinking I am trying to replace scripture or introduce something strange. No. I am not adding anything. I am uncovering what was already there.
The Ethiopian Bible came before the Western one. That is historical fact.
If the earliest followers of God used it, taught from it, and preserved it, why would learning from it be considered dangerous now. If it deepens my understanding of the same God and the same Word, why would I ignore it.
Western Bible. Isaiah chapter 55 verses 8 and 9 remind us that God’s ways and God’s thoughts are higher than ours.
Ethiopian Canon. In First Enoch chapters 93 and 94, God reveals to the prophet a timeline so wide and so detailed that it shows humanity’s story through ages, not just moments. It is a reminder that God has been thinking far ahead of us long before we were even here.
I am not abandoning the Western Bible. That is my foundation. That is where I began. That is the Word I grew up on. I will always learn from it.
What I am doing now is expanding. Comparing. Studying. Listening. And being humble enough to admit that God is bigger than the limited version of Him I used to carry.
The interesting thing is this. The same Jesus. The same God. The same truth runs through both canons. The difference is that one did not take anything out.
So when I post a Western scripture without mentioning the Ethiopian one, it is because the message matches. When I reference the Ethiopian canon it is because it adds insight without changing the truth. I am not doing this to argue or to stir controversy. I am doing it because I want to grow. I want to stretch. I want to stop pretending that God fits inside the borders we drew for Him.
Look at Peter.
Jesus did not call Peter to walk on water while he was standing in certainty. Jesus called him while everything around him was unfamiliar and uncomfortable. Peter did not sink because of the storm. He sank because he looked back to the familiar instead of staying focused on the One who was stretching him forward.
Western Bible. Matthew chapter 14 verses 22 through 33.
Ethiopian Canon. The Book of Clement references the same Peter and reminds the early church that true faith will always require stepping out of what feels safe.
I do not want a small God. I do not want a small life. I do not want a small calling.
I want the God who spoke galaxies into position. The God who breathes on things I cannot see yet. The God who moves in dimensions beyond human logic. The God who has been trying to expand me while I have been trying to shrink Him to my comfort level.
So today I am surrendering.
I am done holding back. I am done playing safe spiritually. I am done acting like God is only allowed to move in the ways I already understand.
I want His fullness. I want His depth. I want His scale. I want every corner of who He is.
Break every box I put You in, Lord. Break every box that was handed to me by religion fear comfort or tradition. Break the boxes in me and break the boxes around me.
I am ready. Expand me. Stretch me. Lead me where You want me to go. I will not apologize for wanting more of the God who made me.
Let me tell you what set this whole thing off. I was scrolling through one of those so called Black Excellence or Black First pages I troll every now and then, and somebody tried to clap back at a post about food stamp statistics by saying something that made me stop mid scroll.
“Well more white people get food stamps than blacks.”
And the person said it like they just dropped a mic. Like that was the moment I was supposed to sit back and say, “You know what, you are right. Let me hush.”
No ma’am. No sir. That is not the victory some people think it is.
I do not know when surviving became something to defend. I do not know when being trapped in a cycle became something to brag about. I do not know when we started matching our struggle to someone else’s struggle so we do not have to face what is keeping us stuck.
I am not fighting for us to be equal at the bottom. I want us to rise from the bottom entirely.
Let us talk about the real numbers
Here are the current Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participation numbers based on the latest reports:
• Around 35 to 37 percent of SNAP participants are white • Around 25 to 27 percent are Black • Around 15 to 16 percent are Hispanic • Around 3 to 4 percent are Asian • Around 1 to 2 percent are Native American • The remainder falls into the unreported or unknown category
Yes white people make up the largest group on food stamps. They should. They are the largest share of the population.
But here is the part people love skipping. Black households are nearly twice as likely to need assistance. That is not a bragging point. That is a warning sign.
It is like saying, “Well other folks are drowning too.” Okay. But why are we still in the water when we should be building boats.
What frustrates me is not the struggle. Everybody goes through struggle. What frustrates me is when we protect the struggle and defend the struggle and call it normal because we are used to it.
Some of us want to lower the bar so far that anything counts as winning. I want the bar raised so high we have to stretch to reach it.
And here is the truth. If you know deep down that something is not good for your community, the answer is not to justify it by pointing fingers at who else is suffering. The answer is to break the cycle. The answer is to climb.
Do not tell me “white people do it too.” That is not the point. It never was.
The deeper issue: Why do we defend the basement
What is happening is simple. When people are tired of fighting, they start settling. And when they start settling, they start defending what hurts them.
“White people are on it too” is not empowerment. It is a coping mechanism.
It is a way to avoid asking the hard question. Why have we accepted being under the bar for so long that we now measure progress by who else is struggling with us.
That is not liberation. That is bondage dressed up as equality.
Western Scripture: Hosea 4:6
“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”
You cannot heal what you refuse to see. You cannot rise from what you refuse to confront. You cannot break a cycle that you are busy defending.
Knowledge breaks chains. Truth breaks cycles. Accountability opens doors.
Ethiopian Scripture: Jubilees 1:25
“And I will send my angels before you, and they shall keep you in all my ways, and bring you into the land of truth and righteousness.”
Truth and righteousness. Not excuses. Not cycles. Not generational patterns we have decided to normalize.
God brings us into truth. The question is whether we will live in it or run from it.
A reflection for 2025
We are at a moment where some Black folks are choosing comfort over clarity. Memes over math. Feelings over facts.
I am not interested in defending the basement. I am interested in building the exit.
And I will keep saying it loud. Poverty is not our culture. Struggle is not our identity. Government dependency is not our destiny.
We are not meant to survive forever. We are meant to rise.
If you are tired of living under the bar, stop lowering it and start climbing over it.
I said what I said. And I will keep saying it until we stop normalizing what we are meant to overcome.
The Israelites were finally out of Egypt, free from Pharaoh’s system, but discomfort showed up, and suddenly freedom didn’t feel like freedom.
We don’t always talk about this part of the Exodus story. We celebrate the miracle of the Red Sea, the confrontation with Pharaoh, the plagues, all the dramatic parts. But we skip over the moment after freedom came, when the same people who prayed for deliverance started complaining about what freedom required.
“If only we had died by the LORD’s hand in Egypt. There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.”(Exodus 16:3)
They were willing to trade freedom for comfort. They were willing to return to slavery because slavery was familiar. That is not just ancient history. That is a human tendency. Sometimes we choose bondage because bondage comes with certainty. It is predictable. It does not require growth or trust. It does not ask us to walk by faith.
Mental Chains Today
The Western Bible shows us the external rebellion. The Ethiopian Bible, one of the oldest surviving biblical records, shows us the same, but goes deeper. The focus is not just that Israel complained. It is that God was exposing that their minds were still enslaved, even though their bodies had been released. They did not just need a new location. They needed a new mindset. That is deliverance on a different level.
Some Black people in America today are doing the same thing. They march and protest and shout about freedom but still cling to the very political party that benefits from keeping Black people mentally enslaved. Some of us hold on to the Democratic Party the same way the Israelites held on to Egypt, even though the whole system feeds dependency instead of empowerment. Handouts instead of ownership. Narratives of victimhood instead of victory. Chains of the mind disguised as charity.
It is not a physical plantation now. It is a mental one.
The Digital Plantation
There are overseers today, but the whips look different.
The overseer with the whip now is the Democratic Party that demands loyalty in exchange for crumbs of progress.
The overseer with the whip now is the self-proclaimed Black leaders and influencers who are still mentally enslaved and try to drag the rest of us back onto the mental plantation when we start thinking for ourselves.
The overseer with the whip now is the mainstream media and social media that constantly tells us we are oppressed, powerless, and dependent on government systems to survive.
And let’s be real. Some of these “pro-Black” Facebook pages and TikTok accounts that stir up racial anger and political outrage are not even run by Black people. They are run by white liberals pretending to care, pumping out emotional bait to keep us angry and easy to manipulate. That is not empowerment; that is strategic slavery, updated for a digital world.
Until we see it for what it is, we will keep defending Egypt and calling it freedom. We will keep voting for chains and calling them rights. We will keep blaming God for deliverance that does not feel like comfort.
The Wilderness Choice
You can be free and still love the comfort of captivity. You can pray for breakthroughs and still beg to go back to the moment life requires responsibility. You can vote against your own liberation because you have been trained to believe you are powerless without permission.
But God is still saying the same thing He told Moses and Israel:
“You were not born to die in Egypt.”
So here is the real question:
Are you willing to leave the system that keeps you fed but not free?
Are you willing to walk into the wilderness even when you do not know every detail, but you trust God to lead?
Because freedom will always feel hard when you have been conditioned to love the cage.
Call to Action
Ask God to expose every place in your life where you have accepted the chains just because they look like comfort. Freedom does not come from a political party or a social system. Freedom starts in the mind and finishes in the spirit. When Freedom Feels Hard: Why Comfort Can Be a Cage
Pam's Pulse 