Author Archives: LaShawnda Jones

Portrait: Hidden Light

“You are the light that gives light to the world. A city that is built on a hill cannot be hidden. And people don’t hide a light under a bowl. They put it on a lampstand so the light shines for all the people in the house. In the same way, you should be a light for other people. Live so that they will see the good things you do and will praise your Father in heaven.” Matthew 5:14-16

Final Salute: Housing for Homeless Female Vets

Homeless Female Veterans: A former Army captain opened a house for homeless women veterans. “We are still not getting it as a country, and we’re making a poor effort as a society to take care of all our veterans…We can liberate other countries and clear up their natural disasters. Women veterans are now America’s natural disaster,” says Final Salute founder Jaspen Boothe.

Eulogy for Reverend Clementa Pinckney by President Barack Obama

Justice grows out of recognition… of ourselves in each other… then my liberty depends on you being free too. History can’t be a sword to justify injustice. Or a shield against progress. It must be a manual for how to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past. How to break the cycle. A roadway for a better world. He knew that the path of grace involves an open mind, but more importantly an open heart.

Sermon: IN SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH – A Lesson in the Nature of Worship by Nik Godshall

Worship is a process. There are some things that you have to learn to surrender. Coming to Jesus is the most freeing, wonderful privilege we get to enjoy as Christians. This type of worship takes honestly. Honesty is the birthplace of genuine worship. The natural reaction to vulnerability is put up walls and wear a mask.

Exhibit: MARVELS AND MIRAGES OF ORIENTALISM

Why is she so special? Because most of the women in this exhibit of North African art, culture and people primarily portrayed white women as bejeweled favorites of the African rulers and as the recipients of services from “lower” black female co-servants. The majority of brown and black women were portrayed mostly as hard laborers (evidenced by muscled arms kneading the smooth supple skin of the lounging white women) or entertainers. The Tangerian Beauty is the one black woman in the WHOLE exhibit who was not depicted in a sexually exploitative manner, or in a physically unattractive way (i.e. as a dismissive curiosity) or as a servant. The bias of most of the works on display was so oppressive, I grew angrier throughout the exhibit. This got me to thinking of how black women have been portrayed in fine art throughout the ages around the world. Why is she so special? Because most of the women in this exhibit of North African art, culture and people primarily portrayed white women as bejeweled favorites of the African rulers and as the recipients of services from “lower” black female co-servants. The majority of brown and black women were portrayed mostly as hard laborers (evidenced by muscled arms kneading the smooth supple skin of the lounging white women) or entertainers. The Tangerian Beauty is the one black woman in the WHOLE exhibit who was not depicted in a sexually exploitative manner, or in a physically unattractive way (i.e. as a dismissive curiosity) or as a servant. The bias of most of the works on display was so oppressive, I grew angrier throughout the exhibit. This got me to thinking of how black women have been portrayed in fine art throughout the ages around the world….

How Does Forgiveness Work?

Forgiveness is a new way of looking at others. It is a radical and countercultural perspective on life. If you believe in forgiveness—that God forgives even though he is not obligated to, and that we’ll have the best kind of life if we hold other people in our lives with a loose grip—then you will see people for what they can be and what they were intended to be, rather than simply as they are.

Forgiveness means looking at people who have wronged you and deciding that you’d like to set things right—but in the end, you’re not going to play God.

Forgiveness is a decision and a process. You can release someone from obligation to you personally, even though the smoldering fires of resentment may keep burning in you for some time to come. {Click to read more.}