Speak Life...

On pondering my subject for today's post, I realised tonight is the Oscars and the red carpet looks were glamourous and sophisticated.

Anyone who's read certain previous posts know that I love that kind of look. You also know I am trained in fashion design - albeit at junior college level. I got the chance to do fashion writing for a time. I really miss that. So, from time to time I'll feature fashion.

I also saw The Black Panther this weekend and was enraptured by the costume design. I thought of writing about that too. 

But I wanted to share this young man's testimony. This is the song that catapulted him to worldwide acclaim, in which he affirms that "all things are working for my good":  

                     Travis Greene, Intentional (Source: TGreeneVEVO, 2015)

I heard he'd fallen from a building as a child, which was confirmed by this testimony.

                        

Then he came with another inspirational song, "Made A Way", which emerged in the midst of all of the angst being experienced across the United States last year given the rising racial tensions.

 

 Travis Greene, Made A Way (Source: TGreeneVEVO, 2017)

Honestly, I don't know which one I prefer.  Hopefully, someone will be inspired by these songs and his testimony. 

For the sceptics, my Dad said when he was 5 years old, he almost drowned. He recalled feeling like he was floating 20 feet up and he said he sensed that if he floated another five feet it would be too late to reconnect to his body in the water. Then he was plucked out of the water by a teenaged girl - not Christ, unlike Travis. He too lived to tell the tale. If he had died, I would not be here to post this today.

Last year I awoke after about an hour sleeping in bed. I heard my Mother, who lives with me, moving around in the corridor but I couldn't move. I've had a couple of episodes of sleep paralysis before, so I wasn't bothered. Until I began to feel disembodied. Then I went cold all over. My memory verse a couple of weeks before was Psalm 91: 16, "With long life I will satisfy them,/ and show them my salvation." Of course, I replaced "them" and "they" with "me" - but the only version I recalled was one line from Israel Houghton & New Breed's song, "With Long Life" so I recited that alternating with "The Lord is my shepherd" from Psalm 23, the rest of which I also could not remember. Eventually the feeling passed and I've lived to tell that tale. If that was the end of the line for me, I would not have had the chance to share this, in this media. Although it was the month of May and about 24 degrees Celsius (75.2F), after I felt myself again I was so cold I had to wrap myself in a sheet, like a mummy is wrapped up - but with my face out of course.

Here is a lyric version of the Israel & New Breed song that inspired me to speak life into my cold body and there is a link to a live performance.  

 

       Israel & New Breed, "With Long Life" lyric video (Source: The7Meek, 2011)

So there are some of us, who have these unusual experiences. A few live to testify. We can't tell anyone what to believe, but given my firsthand experience I believe there is a part of us that will live on after our physical bodies return to dust or become ashes if cremated. How prepared are you for that?