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Back
in my late twenties, I was confronted with
a dilemma that placed me at a life-altering
crossroads. As an associate minister at a
Marietta, Georgia Pentecostal church, I labored
under the weight of a religious ideology
that proclaimed itself the absolute source
for the truth of God's will for our lives.
Over the years, there arose occasions when
I mustered the courage to voice my discontent
with the glaring inconsistencies in the message.
For me, one aspect of that message - that
of God's love and Grace, reflected through
our own humanity - seemed overshadowed by our
judgment of how others lived their lives,
as well as by an isolationist view of who
was and was not "saved." My questioning
was met with a backlash so unexpected and
severe that it shook the depths of my
soul. After struggling to reconcile what
I felt in my heart with what I was allowing
to penetrate and permeate my consciousness,
I could take no more. I decided to listen to my
heart and embark the "road less traveled"...or
the path that can only be embarked by those
willing to identify and listen to the voice of
the "God of their own soul." This
is the long and, often, lonely road that
leads to a blessed encounter with the innermost
truth of our reason for being.
The
process of liberating myself from my
prior indoctrination was an arduous
one. Along with surrendering a substantial
part of my ministerial identity and
belief system, which were reinforced
by a minimal of four church services
a week, I had to ward off the ghosts
of doom or the programming that predicted
failure as the result of my leaving this
ministry. After undergoing a process
that is best described as de-hypnotization,
I was clear that I was no longer a candidate
for having someone else tell me how to live
my life. I was just as committed to honoring
those who felt the same. Therefore, from
the traditional purview, I
wanted nothing more to do with ministry. That
declaration left me with the dilemma
of what to do with the clear "call
to service" that has always invested my life.
After spending years plumbing my depths
to flush out my inherent gifts and talents and
hone them for their best and highest
use, I was brought to peace with the idea of ministry.
This peace fostered the
establishment of I AM Unlimited Ministries.
The
vision I hold for this work is simple.
Honoring the fact that you and I have
unique paths, purposes and callings for
our lives, I commit to deploy my wisdom,
intuitive insight, talents, humanity,
and other resources to serve your quest
to know your soul's intent; and to,
thereby, love
yourself enough to embrace this inner
truth as your sponsor and guide to a
fulfilling existence.
As when led to freely distribute
more than 1000 copies of our musical
message in Littleton, Colorado, in the
aftermath of the Columbine shootings,
our call is to nurture and uplift our
collective humanity in ways
that demonstrate the indelible connection
we share as individualized reflections
and various aspects of the source of all that
is. In surrendering to this call to
ministry, I unabashedly decree that "I AM U."
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