Is There A Leader in You?

It has been a while since I blogged here. I missed my own Soul Food 4 The Soul! 🙂 I want to talk briefly about the current events that are at the forefront of our nation. There is a huge divide of racism currently. As a life coach this is always such a sensitive topic – how do I convey my truth without alienating my readers, clients and followers who exist throughout the spectrum? Well maybe I just have to go out on a limb and tell it as it is in this moment for me. What has taken my attention most of all are the conversations – the debates that are going on currently between people about the issue of police brutality. I don’t need to detail the degree of acrimony that you can find anywhere you look on social media. I do want to applaud all the people who are really studying the facts and can intelligently respond and contribute to the ignorant, uninformed conversations that swarm the net. This is not a time to feel powerless. This is a time to dig your heels in even deeper and commit to live the best life that you can. All of the victims were human beings like you and me. Their personality, how they made their living or their general disposition doesn’t matter. They didn’t wake up and decide “today I’m going to make the headlines.” Something happened to each of them – that they didn’t expect. We can debate about the specific choices, responses etc that they made all day. But my point is that the nature of life is fleeting. The color of your skin does not protect you from the hands of fate. Funeral directors will confirm that. No one gets out alive. We need to stop playing the role of Sunday armchair football experts stuck in playback mode- “if he had not done this or had not done that, then this would not have happened” and instead play the role that we were born to play – human beings. What does it take to offer words of compassion to our nation, with no BUTS. Anytime you lend compassion with a modifier – such as “But if he hadn’t..” it all becomes null and void. Our nation needs healing, not referees. There are no teams – because teams have a common goal – but who wins when it comes to hate? Why is it that our country could grieve together on 9/11 when innocent people of all nationalities were struck unaware. Our country can grieve together when innocent children are the victims of mass shootings but we can’t grieve together for victims of excessive brutality? Why can’t we all grieve together when the victims are all just one color – black? When blacks grieve over a tragedy such as 9/11 – they weren’t just grieving for the blacks that died but for all of the victims. Separateness is the living death of all of us. So if there is a leader within you –  please speak to the greater picture of equality when faced with ignorance.  Please listen with your ears and your heart. We need to be bigger than the smallest voice amongst us.

It’s scary to speak up – especially when you know you might not be the popular opinion. But how many times have you wished someone might speak up for you when you were scared too, because you just didn’t want to make waves. There are a lot of people who don’t want to be the voice of dissension but they are not in agreement with the majority. It takes a leader to have the courage to speak and defy the majority. You’ll be surprised how many people may actually end up following you. God doesn’t put the truth in our heart for it to die there. Speak the truth and allow the leader to emerge. We have an overflow of followers. Our nation needs leaders with a vision for doing what’s right and for identifying wrong when it’s just wrong. We need voices of all colors to be heard by all colors. No – this isn’t a black and white subject.  This is a human matter because ALL lives matter EQUALLY.