Saturday, February 14, 2009

Random Life Lesson #33 Fear Is A Killer Of Faith

In The Shadow of Cancer?

I’m just about done recording my second CD, it’s been really hard work. Who ever thinks that being gospel singer is glamorous and easy is sadly mistaken, I work harder at my ministry then I did getting my PhD! Really, it’s true. I’m excited about my new music, but still want to share my old music with the world. Every song I’ve written has a story and although the songs are old to me, there are many who have not heard them and perhaps the songs might bless someone else. So I’d like to send you a free MP3 of my song, “In Your Shadow.” Just send an email to naimasbrokenbox@yahoo.com asking for your free MP3 from the Blog Spot Offer. Here is the story that birthed that song:

I’m a New Yorker – born and raised in the Bronx, my family still resides there, but up until October of this year the Lord had me living in Ohio. On September 11, 2001, before I went into fulltime music ministry, I went to work and every person in my office was huddled around the big screen TV in the lounge. My secretary Viki gently told me what was happening, she knew that my entire family was in a four-mile radius of the Twin Towers. As I watched the towers fall I was in shock, and the fact that I couldn’t get a phone to ring on the East Coast made the moment all the more terrifying.

My brother wound up having to walk miles and cross a huge NYC bridge to get home. My cousin was outside when the tower fell; she sustained cuts but was ok. My brother’s girlfriend at the time worked at the World Trade Center, she just happened to be late for work that morning. My mother was stranded about 15 miles from home, with a river between her and home she uttered a prayer to the Lord and a woman she met for the first time earlier that morning in our massive 35 building, 33 floors to a building, 12 apartments to a floor, housing development saw her standing on the side of the road and took her home. And my dad… my dad was diagnosed with Cancer.

Some remember that right after the towers fell, Anthrax was being sent through the mail, my father worked at the post office where the anthrax was first found and had to be put on Anthrax medication as well. And even fewer people remember that several weeks after 9-11 another plane crashed in a Queens neighborhood for reasons that still have yet to be determined. That neighborhood was the one my father lived in and on the day the plane fell from the sky, my father and I were at the airport waiting for him to catch a flight home after visiting me in Ohio.

I was petrified, 600 miles from home and my world was upside down. I remember crying and praying and asking the Lord for peace. And something my grandmother said came to me, that whenever I was afraid I should read the 91st Psalm. I got up from prayer and picked up my Bible and read: “He that dwelled in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.”

The song poured out, like an offering to the Lord, letting Him know that even though I was I was afraid I’d trust Him and believe that I was under His shadow. Not under the shadow of cancer or terrorists, or sickness, or crashing planes.

Random Life Lesson # 32, Fear is a killer of Faith. Even in the shadow of the things we most fear, God will lead us along the best pathways for our lives, He is with us, even till the end of the age! Today if there is something that you fear, remember that the Lord is with you and you can run into His arms and find peace and safety in the shadow of His wings.

Send me an email, I’d love to bless you with the song.