If I truly believe that whenever I pray I am granting the most powerful force in the universe permission to intervene in every aspect of my life, knowing that He will do only what’s in my best interest, then why in the world would I ever use prayer merely as a last resort?

—Charles A. Tapp, “When All You Can Do Is Pray”
Message November December 2010

fter a painstaking search in the dusty records of an Kentucky recorder’s office, my friend Jacqueline Palmer found her ancestor Franklin Dale. Palmer and her cousins scanned large volumes to find clues and signs of life. All that remains are the legal entries in a book, and that’s where they discovered a ledger that indicated the portion of shares investors held on each enslaved soul. She tells the story in a Dayton Tedx video due out this month. Palmer’s great-grandfather and other family members had been reduced to commodities, with investors holding shares of their black bodies. Astonishingly, the portfolio of one self-styled entrepreneur included a 1/144th share of a human being.

Disgusted, but not surprised, Palmer remembered the prevailing thinking at that time caused a nation to apportion congressional representation by recognizing and counting African Americans, but only 3/5ths of each of them.

ome of the best things to do to manage these times involve making choices that support a healthy immune system and healthier outcomes:

ho would have thunk it that when we began to write this column under the caption LifeTalk—with the January/February 2000 issue of Message—we would do so for 21 uninterrupted years? We didn’t!

What started as a conversation over lunch—in the fall of 1999 with Dwain Neilson Esmond at that time the associate editor of Message—has led us to this point. Dozens of columns, three editors—Ron Smith, Washington Johnson, and Carmela Monk Crawford—thousands of interactions with interested, captivating and gratified readers of questions posed, have filled our lives with blessings beyond measure.

“Then why are you leaving?” Glad you asked. Because we thought it prudent to choose a time of departure while there was still a degree of interest in what we have to say about relationships in general and intimate relationships in particular. We also consider that we have enjoyed the privilege of sharing through this modality in the public square long enough, and the time has come for other voices to be given an opportunity to be heard as they grapple with the weighty concerns of your lives.

Truth be told, at some level we feel like the Apostle Paul when he expressed his straightforward, sober and sincere sentiments about the reality of his circumstances when he announced in 2 Timothy 4:7; “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” As he writes to Timothy, his younger missionary associate, Paul is in prison in Rome and can read the proverbial handwriting on the wall. While Paul knew his time of departure was just around the corner and looked forward to his heavenly reward as final vindication for his work on earth, we are more in tune—at this juncture—with his declaration of keeping the faith.

ronically, the Slave Food journey began at a meal among old college friends. The conversation was filled with laughter and stories from the past, when out of the blue, one friend asked an honest yet probing question: “What’s the deal with black people?”

As the words left his mouth, the table conversation quieted, and all eyes darted in his direction. “Why are we sicker?”

Our friend explained that he was urged to have a prostate check and a colon cancer screening at an earlier age than his white colleagues and when he asked his doctor the reason for the recommendation, the doctor said it was “because he was black.”

ome of the polemics from the Senate race in the state of Georgia included the, resurrected and misappropriated statement that the Reverend Doctor Raphael Warnock made in a sermon 10 years ago.

At the crescendo of his sermon, Warnock said “You can’t serve God and the military…” . That statement has been used as the catapult to launch assertions that he is not patriotic and should not be elected to represent the state of Georgia as a Senator.

He did say those words, but, context still matters. The larger point that he was making in that sermon was that divided loyalty is idolatry. Misplaced priorities displace integrity. When principles and policy conflict, the principle should take precedence.

Bowens’ research discovered citations of Paul’s work in early American legal pleadings where enslaved Africans appealed to colonial courts for relief and freedom from bondage. Literacy, at that point however, was a serious bar to the use of the scripture for enslaved African Americans who were new to the language and the land, prohibited from learning to read and write. Illiteracy, of the scriptures in particular, enabled enslavers to teach and preach a gospel corrupted by their self-interest. Their teachings included everything from racial differences, superiority or inferiority, whether they had souls, and even different origin stories—as though black people were not created by God. It was a common motif to persuade the enslaved that they had no god but their enslaver. Or, they asserted that enslavement was somehow uplifting.

God asserts that all the words of the Bible are His words, when he asserts: “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God . . .” (2 Timothy 3:16, NKJV), and that they are entirely sufficient to give us everything we need to live our best life—both now and for eternity:

the people sat upon the green hillside, awaiting the words of the divine Teacher, their hearts were filled with thoughts of future glory. There were scribes and Pharisees who looked forward to the day when they should have dominion over the hated Romans, and possess the riches and splendor of the world’s great empire.

The poor peasants and fishermen hoped to hear the assurance that their wretched hovels, the scanty food, the life of toil, and fear of want were to be exchanged for mansions of plenty and days of ease. In place of the one coarse garment which was their covering by day, and their blanket at night, they hoped that Christ would give them the rich and costly robes of their conquerors. All hearts thrilled with the proud hope that Israel was soon to be honored before the nations as the chosen of the Lord, and Jerusalem exalted as the head of a universal kingdom.

here’s one thing we can all agree on about 2020––it certainly will be remembered as one of the most challenging and grief-stricken years in the history of our nation. With more than 300,000 Americans dead from COVID-19 at the time of this writing, and new infections daily, millions ravaged by huge waves of financial problems from the impact of the pandemic recession (which is disproportionately high for families of color), and the nightmare of racial injustice and police use of deadly force against Black people and other minorities, is it time to “flee to the mountains” as instructed in Matthew 24:16?

This question was posed to me shortly after the coronavirus pandemic began. As governments and business abruptly close around the world due to the unknowns of this deadly invisible disease, many people, especially believers, recognized this crisis from Jesus’ list of signs indicating that the Second Coming is near. This connection between COVID-19 and the end of the world is certainly reasonable. After all, Jesus Himself did include “pestilences” or “diseases” along with the other warnings of religious, political, and environmental turmoil in Matthew 24:6. So does the Lord Jesus want us now, in a global health pandemic, literally looking for lodges in mountains? Well, let’s briefly examine the context of Matthew 25:15-20 to understand what Jesus was saying to His original audience and what it means for our lives today.