Pastor's Weekly Message January 22, 2017
"Their Eyes Were Watching God"
While this week many of us have been focused on the White House and the antics of President Donald J. Trump, an important festival, ZORA! has been going on down in Florida. ZORA! is a multi-day, multi-disciplinary event celebrating the life and work of 20th century Harlem Renaissance writer, folklorist, and anthropologist, Zora Neale Hurston, and her hometown Eatonville, Florida.
It was Hurston who brought attention to the historic role that Eatonville played in uplifting African American people in her heralded novel "Their Eyes Were Watching God." The novel was written during a time a great persecution of African American people including racism, lynching and economic injustice, but the people of Eatonville were-able-to make it because "their eyes were watching God."
In much the same way, we live in troubled times. We live in a time when the US President is pursuing an agenda that is alarming to many of us including dismantling the Affordable Health Care Act, blocking immigration, freezing federal workers and putting in place a cabinet of bankers and billionaires - some of whom have an agenda counter to the agencies that they've been asked to lead.
To deal with these and many other pressing issues we must be like the historic people of Eatonville and not fixate on our problems, but instead keep our eyes focused on God. As we fix our eyes on God, he will keep our hearts in peace and instruct us on what actions we need to undertake to ensure the well-being of all of God's children. Indeed, David said, "One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD..." (Psalm 27:4).
If we keep our eyes and hearts fixated on God, then we'll also be able to say like David "in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock" (Psalm 27:5).
Peace and Blessings,
Pastor Kip Banks, Sr.
