I despise the fact that you make me necessary And yet I love you because I’m here But I am pained by watching you on your path Knowing I’m powerless to interfere In your weakness I find my strength Though it is the last thing on my mind Your emptiness gives me a place to fill But this too will end with time In this place we are often seen as enemies In Truth, together we express the One Because you’re insecure, I must show I’m not Just as darkness creates a need for Sun You are my partner that I cannot work with Bound together by what keeps us apart Although we’ll never occupy each other’s space We’ve been together from the start.
I hide Myself From Myself To protect Myself From Myself Because when the fear comes From Myself I try to pretend As if there’s someone else Who wants to steal From Myself So I hide Myself In the one place I’d never look Within
In an ocean of sound I lose myself In the cacophony of my Silence My mind is lost among the many more And it feels like I’ll never find it I’ve been me so long that I was convinced That my reality can’t be threatened But all this noise has choked my joys Making the Voice inside seem deafened I forgot what it was I was thinking When your words invaded my space Now whatever it was has slipped my mind And I have completely lost my place I know many people are fine with this They accept the status quo “Don’t question the narrative written for you Because that’s the way it goes” But for as long as I can remember I’ve just been the way that I’m created Seeing only the good in all I can So that my soul is elevated Of course at times I do get tempted These illusions can be convincing People weaving temporal spells With the words that they are mincing I start wondering if I’m too stubborn Maybe I should play the role Let the conformers off the hook And do what I am told Then suddenly it hits me I have no right to disappear Being me is all I can be It’s the very reason why I’m here
For 28 days More people pay attention To stories less told Or that hardly get mentioned Some get repeated Just as before About bridges and buses And who’s here no more For 28 days We acknowledge the challenge That healing can’t happen If we ignore the damage And for 28 days We try to do better By telling ourselves That we’re in this together But on the 29th day Or on a leap year it’s thirty Some forget once again And stop getting hands dirty Then for 337 days Their memories fade Until a tragedy happens And we go into rage Then we’re back to day one Wondering how did this happen Repeating the stories We’re perpetually trapped in
I am grateful that after more than a 4 year journey, Take This Life has finally made its way out into the world. It has been a blessing to me. I hope it blesses everyone it comes in contact with because you are made to shine. #makeitlight
To see this song on other online platforms click here.
I’m using Take This Life to create a #makeitlight challenge to highlight good being done in the world. If you happen to decide to share it online, can you use the #makeitlight tag?
(When you shine your Light it isn’t just for you. It’s for everybody else that’s been watching what you do.)
Take this life Make it right Take this life Make it Light To see…
You ever had those thoughts that wouldn’t go away? They’re runnin’ though your mind like every single day. Wake up in the mornin’ Get on your knees and pray Don’t believe it works But you do it anyway That’s what it’s like when you feelin’ hopeless Lookin’ at your life and you’ve got no focus You say, “It gets better.” Swear to God you know this But you caught up in the mix Don’t where your flow is This is the way of the American dream We think we see clearly But it isn’t what it seems Addicted to consumption So we livin’ like we fiends Only find meaning When we get a bunch of things Sooo…
Take this life Make it right Take this life Make it Light To see…
You know the Way That’s what they say That’s why I pray To shine like the Day Sooo…
Take this life Make it right Take this life Make it Light To see…
Here’s a little something I’m getting off my chest It’s been a long time Since last I confessed I denied you Thinking I’d get the rest But life without you Is a life that’s a mess
The best of me Is messin’ with the rest of me It’s testin’ me At least until I get to see I’m blessed to be Livin’ with you next to me ‘Cause life within you Is for X to see You see
They say you know the Way I’m inclined to believe it Though never in my life Have I seen one to achieve it You told us how to do it I’ll be shocked If we gon’ heed it Then we looking all surprised By the fact that we defeated Soo…
Take this life Make it right Take this life Make it Light To see
You know the Way That’s what they say That’s why I pray To shine like the Day Sooo…
Take this life Make it right Take this life Make it Light To see…
When you shine your light It isn’t just for you It’s for everybody else That’s been watchin’ what you do You can talk that talk But the walk shows what is true Are you a hypocrite Or the proud and the few? That’s the kind of question I ask myself daily Trying to get back to my roots As if my name was Alex Haley You don’t like my style But never will you play me ‘Cause I’m gon’ shine my light Till the day that they take me
You say I know the way ‘Cause if you do, I’m supposed to I’m glad you chose me Even when I hadn’t chose you The world is out of order And everybody knows it How’s a nation under you When all you are, it opposes If they gon’ be that Pharaoh Then I’m gon’ be that Moses They don’t want to see us shine ‘Cause when we do it exposes So I’m gon’ keep speaking Til everybody knows this It’s when we turn to you That we see where the flow is
You know the Way That’s what they say That’s why I pray To shine like the Day Sooo…
Take this life Make it right Take this life Make it Light To see…
Matthew 5:15
No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house.
Below is the original performance of the song that I did as a pastor.
Below is my final sermon as a pastor where in my farewell, I remind the community that, as the song Take This Life says, “YOU KNOW THE WAY”. The message ends with Asha singing, Change Gonna Come by Sam Cooke.
It's All In Me - Poetry Blog 