jesus

When Death Becomes a Punchline, We’ve Lost the Plot

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Let’s start with the facts.

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.

We Did Not Begin in Chains

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A Wake Up Call to Remember Who We Are

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.

Breaking the Box We Put God In

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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.

When We Keep Lowering the Bar: Why “White People Get Food Stamps Too” Is Not the Flex People Think It Is

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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.

When Freedom Feels Hard: Why Comfort Can Be a Cage 

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Freedom vs. Comfort 

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