We Be BaRack-in' It!

We are experiencing history before your eyes.

Senator Barack Obama has excited within the soul of the nation a spark that is becoming a wildfire of hope! The audacity of a mixed-raced, Harvard educated, United States Junior Senator, whose mom died of cancer to run for the Presidency of the United States and whip-up on the presumed self entitled and super entrenched nominee-to-be, is simply exciting.

With all due respect, in times past, the 'black man's' run for the Oval Office was a sitcom at best, a run with a story-line but ultimately nothing more than a 'laugh track.' However, it did plant the seeds and set the stage and state for what has been a long time coming and is long overdue. What makes Obama's run plausible and legitimate, is that he is the right candidate in the right climate of a nation primed and desperate, ripe for change.

Throughout the Word of God and modern day history, circumstances ushered the most unlikely into positions of honored liberators and revered deliverers. As a matter of fact, the people we respect the most in history never sought platforms or positions for personal gain or individual accomplishment, but were urged, even ushered by the circumstances that tornadoed around them and propelled them into the history books. Kate Zernike says in her New York Times article, 'The Charisma Mandate', that "It is in these special moments that true leaders emerge at a time of crisis or national yearning." There are Biblical examples like Moses, against the demoralizing enslavement of an Egyptian Pharoh and David against the Philistines and the leader of its insepid armym, Goliath in the Old Testament and of course quite naturally Jesus against the establishment in the New Testament. There is the famous modern-day example such as our own Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who was initially a resistant participant in heeding calls to leadership in the Civil Rights movement. However, each gave in to the 'inner call' of self realization of purpose and the 'outer call' of self confirmation of the people. I like to refer to this 'inner/outer call' as the 'clarion call' to leadership, which then in turn morphs into leadership with hope, which is a movement, when it is now greater than the leader.

Obedience to the 'clarion call' of circumstances, even in our own lives. has forced us individually to get up, face our circumstances and do something constructive about them. History has a way of making us who we become. As a nation, we stand on the brink of the balance of quintessential change. This race is already historic if for no other reasons than race and gender. Can you believe it, there is no 'white middle aged man' as contender for nonimee of the Democratic party for President of the United States. I asked my father, if he ever thought he would have seen this in his lifetime and he had to admit, no. It is an exciting time to be alive.

As I participated in an Obama conference call for the ObamaTexas onslaught of the campaign on last night, the air of excitement, momentum and expectancy was electric. The commraderie between people who normally would choose sides was amazing. The efficency and efficacy of the Obama leadership in explaining the processes, and the processes themselves, was astounding. The plan is solid. The people are sure. The purpose is clear and the pursuit is relentless. I am excited to be privileged to see the winds of history blow as agents of change in a world, nation and mindset that so desperately needs it. We have been held hostage by a simple mind in the presidents seat, a greedy mind in the vice-presidents seat and limp, lame, yes-men and women in cabinet seats for far too long. It is time for a change.

Regardless of the outcome, what Senator Obama has managed to awaken in the hearts and minds of many Americans, and dare I say around the world, is of the ultimate value. That is, no circumstance can chain your calling and no situation can saddle your dreams, if you have the 'audacity to hope!' I must return to the now infamous quote of the other famous Black man who ran for the Presidency in 1984, pf whom Obama himself said, "It is because people like Jesse ran that I have this opportunity to run for President today," Jesse Jackson, founder of Operation Push whose refrain is heard ubiquitously today, "Keep hope alive!"

First comes hope, then comes help, then comes healing. Our country is in desperate need of healing and Senatro Barack Obama may just be the prescription this nation needs.

I encourage everyone, regardless of your choice, to become an active participant in this election process and vote. Yes, you've heard it to many times before but it is true, especially in this tightly contested race, you're vote counts. Your vote is needed so that we do not experience another 4 to 8 years of a presidency without a cerebral cortex attached to the brain.

This blog is not an advocacay of who I am voting for, but it is a brief expose on my hearts happiness to see a nation electrified, history in the making and change inevitable. Hopefully, this is not only a run for the history books but also a run for the future articles to be written in the lives of Americans.

See ya' at the polls!

AGAPE,
Pastor P
Making It Great In '08!