By Ashleigh Fields
“The hardest test I ever faced in my life was praying.”
“Picking a lock to rob someone’s house was the only way my knees had ever been bent before. I had to force myself to bend my knees. And waves of shame and embarrassment would force me back up. For evil to bend its knees, admitting its guilt, to implore the forgiveness of God, is the hardest thing in the world.”
— Malcolm X
Stripped of our innocence, barren in image and beholden to our creator. Being our most authentic self is the ultimate form of freedom. It is where we find truth. It is where we find the onus to grow. It’s where we find the courage to weep; for our mistakes and the mistakes of others.
What a world of evil we are in. What a time for bloodshed and slaughter. Over 29,000 people have been murdered in the Israeli airstrikes. Approximately 85 of those bodies were journalists. The media would have you break them down by nationality, ethnic backgrounds and terrorist groups but it’s all the same when lives are lost.
Each death is a loss of someone’s loved one– a brother’s sister and a mother’s child.
As a journalist and an activist, for so long, I’ve wondered about how you expose the injustices of the world without combating them.
As a human, it’s impossible to observe and disconnect what you see from what you say, think and do. However, I learned that words are the strongest tool in activism. They mobilize. They challenge. They express harsh truths, while showcasing candor and valor. Every interview we conduct and every story we print is a small but mighty gesture of activism. The same is true of prayer whether as an individual or collective reckoning.
The power in prayer is a strength often forgotten by the leaders of today’s world. But in the muslim faith, believers pray five times a day. Not standing up, but on their hands and knees. Shoulders touching their brethren, chest out reciting scripture in an open stance ready to receive God’s daily grace.
For the Qu’ran says, “Believers are brothers in faith.”
Faith being the substance of things hoped for yet not seen. An awaiting achievement, a deferred dream or a desired goal can still ring true in our hearts. It’s our job to not let go.
Our entire relationship with God encompasses what we feel instead of what we know. In the power dynamic, we are asked to trust the path on which we are led and deliver the messages we are called on to proclaim. It’s a part of finding the confidence to pursue our unique purpose in life.
“Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear,” reads the Bible.
Oftentimes instead of believing in what God has placed inside us, we find ourselves doing what we like or better yet that which will make us be liked, hoping life will come at us easy.
Nonetheless, in pursuit of our passions, I find it important to ask ourselves if we can remember the last time we did something hard? If you can venture even further to remember when you prayed about it?
Take time today. Ask God to reveal your greatness. Pray for him to show you your strengths and your weakness. Pray for the ability to heal and understand so that you may do the same for others.
“There is no better than adversity. Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance next time,” wrote Malcolm X.
His life was and is a living testimony that helped others notice you have to be radical in your pursuit of excellence. Today is the day to take your first step. Fortune favors the bold. Let Easter serve as the launching pad for your endeavor to be not just the “first” but “first in faith.”
Let the word be a lamp unto your feet and a light unto your path. Lead in humility, grace and reverence.
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