Heart4kidsadvocacyforum's Blog

Well, I woke up this morning and could not stop singing this song- “I’ve Decided to Make Jesus My Choice”.  I have not thought about that song in maybe 20 years, but obviously it is embedded in my soul essence.  During my childhood, my parents had to go across country to conferences in New York during the summer.  It was a long trip in a station wagon filled with 5 kids and a wheelchair for my brother Lloyd.  No easy feat that I now know as an adult, how brave and courageous my parents were.  We the tribe, all 5 of us would stay with my grandparents and my aunt.  Our grandfather was a fisherman, and our grandmother was a mid-wife, so their lives were quite busy to say the least.  There are so many memories that have stayed with me from being cared for by our grandparents.  One of the treasures that has lingered in my memory treasure box was granddaddy coming home with Maryland Blue Crabs for grandmother to make crab cakes. 

WE learned how to get the meat out so that she could season the meat with her secret sacred ingredients and make crab cakes that would send people to heaven and back.  Nobody could make those cakes taste anything like hers!  The part of this experience that was more precious than gold, was listening to her sing as she rolled the crab into a ball and formed it into a cake.  Her voice would fill the room that on Sundays in church would take the congregation into the “Holy Spirit”.  The church would explode with joy and a renewal of “Faith”! 

This particular song must be meant for today’s message, because I feel in her status as  “Ancestor”, she has sent it to me to share.  To share in this moment when we are being called to “Make a choice”. They are calling us to remind each of us, wrapped up in this time of disregard for human life and the dignity of each person’s soul, that the journey of “Faith” is not always smooth, but it is sure.  The ancestors are telling us what they have seen and heard and what they know is necessary for us to wade ourselves through these tumultuous tyrannical times. 

WE need the “Faith”, “Courage”, and “Discernment” that got our ancestors through the darkest of times.  WE are being asked to choose that which is eternal over that which is material.  WE are being asked to choose righteousness over self-interest and injustice.  WE are being asked to choose love over hate.  WE are being told that in making the choice to choose to be in alignment with “Great Spirit” we are choosing to our soul over the temporal world of the flesh.  Why?  Because we are more that “flesh’ we are “Eternal Souls”. Thank you, grandmama!  Thank you!

“I’ve Decided to Make Jesus My Choice”

Some folks would rather have houses and land

Some folks choose silver and gold

These things they treasure and forget about their soul

I’ve decided to make Jesus my choice

The road is rough and the going gets tough

And the hills are hard to climb

I started out a long time ago

There is no doubt in my mind

I’ve decided to make Jesus my choice

Written by Harrison Johnson