Yea Though I Walk.....

Warm From the Dryer
April 22 2010
Yea Though I Walk
*Scripture References



Good Afternoon Children Of God!

When I was a child, less than twelve years old , I loved attending church more than
most children. I didnt find it to be a chore or boring, because I loved the lessons, the preaching, the teaching and the atmosphere. Sometimes, I wished that church would never end and that the whole world was like our congregation, singing praises to God and feeling safe and secure among those who were like-minded and filled with love and peace! Of course, that was my little world.

It was about then that my mother began reminding me of an incident that had happened when I was eight years of age, that for some of you is a repeated story.
We were living in a lovely apartment on the west side of Chicago. I had already
been double promoted and I was a straight "E" student, which in those days was
the equivalent of straight "A"s because E stood for EXCELLENT~ You would think
that just about everyone might be proud of me and happy for my success!

My parents, especially my mother, never tired of bragging about how well I was
doing in school, and sometimes I caught the bored expressions on the faces of
her friends. They had heard it all before, and were sick and tired of hearing about
how Zenobia had aced the local spelling bee, or was doing "so well" in her piano
lessons because as I learned later, everyone is not happy for you at the same time.

To this day, I cannot understand this but I guess it has something to do with
the shortcomings of the other person. The smile pasted on the lips of those who
congratulate and pat you on the back, often hides a dislike so strong that if you
could see it uncovered and in it's real state, you would run away as quickly as
you can! In fact, when I was younger, I would go to the trouble of taking a real
quick look at those who were smiling one moment and when I walked away could
no longer hold their happy expression and the "real" face would be un-masked.
Nothing they could do would re-build that nasty look as they tried to pick the false
face up off the floor. I wanted to holler, "Too late, already saw your REAL face".

Let's go back to that memory that mother gave to me first, because I expressed
to her that I wished the whole world was like our church and by then, she had
slowed down on telling people how great I was! She said, "No you don't want
everything to be like church, because it can be one of the craziest places in the
world if you are not careful to go to seek God, and not the love of people.
"You will find some love, but everybody is not in love with you". I wondered
how she had come to that conclusion and why she had not known it when she
was going on about how smart I was, some years before.

The incident happened as I was leaving our apartment and heading for my walk
to school. I had two "best" friends who lived up the block, so I always joined
them and we had such fun talking and giggling our way along the four or five
blocks to school. We lived in Chicago, so the spaces between the buildings were
known as gangways, supposedly because the mafia guys used them to duck from
each other and the police. Whether this was reality or legend, you could see
between the brick buildings and most of the time, it was just alley activities.
Kids learning to smoke or kiss, or some one "relieving themselves" against the
garbage cans that were lined against the wall of the alley.

One particular day, I was walking along and I can tell you that it was God
Himself who brought my attention to the gangways, and I know it even more
because He didn't allow me to call out to Beverly and Edwina, two straight E
girls like myself, who lived in pretty apartments like me, and who were impeccably
clean and proper, like me. So, what were they digging into a garbage can for?
I watched them, without their knowledge, and a dread came over me such as I
had never known, as they fished something out of the garbage, wrapped it up
and headed towards an area where they would catch up to me.

When the girls caught up to me, they exchanged the usual pleasantries, and I still
didn't ask what they were up to. Along our walk, they kept taking sidelong glances
at each other and seemed ready to burst with laughter. Finally, one of them, I
do not remember which, asked in a guileless voice, "Zenobia, do you want a donut"?
As she said this, the other one produced a wrinkled wax papered piece of pastry
that had been bitten into. As I looked at it, unable to answer, the other one assured
me that she had only taken one bite out of it, and it was perfectly good! Something
in me knew right away that this was the item they had taken from the garbage.
"No thank you" I said, and my throat tightened with the horrid realization that
the two girls I loved the most, had invited and been invited to birthday parties
and who made sherbet with me and jumped Double-Dutch rope and shared
whispered secrets, had been setting me up to eat something from the garbage!

You are probably asking yourself, why would they do that? Was I hungry? Had I
asked them for food in the past? The answer to both of these questions is no.
Were they just mean and evil girls? Well, I guess they were, which is why my mother
reminded me that no matter how much someone smiles at you and pumps you up,
they can be as the bible says, "Wolves in sheep's clothing...ravening and seeking your
destruction". Again, the "why" of it comes to even my sixty two year old mind.

Speaking of that church thing, I used to love playing scripture games with other children in the time spent between Sunday School and 11:00 AM service. Sometimes the grown ups would line us up in front of the church and ask simple questions like, "What is the shortest verse in the bible" or they would play Bible tag with us. I played along until
near the time when my mother began writing a column for the Chicago Crusader and
she became more visible in our church as a speaker and leader. The scriptures remained
the same for the other children, but mine usually began with these words, "We know you're smart, because you are Sister Williams' daughter" and I kid you not, I have had to recite The Beatitudes, the Lord's prayer and the Ten Commandments in order to win the little prize for Bible Tag, which was usually a juicy fruit gum, that you couldn't
chew until you left church anyway! I soon gave up and began to sniff the air for
tricks and traps, but I realized that these old folks were not jealous of me. They
were jealous of my mother, and I paid a dear price.

Right now I am facing a betrayal of monumental status, but I am moving
along in spite of it. I know what God says will happen to evil-doers and those who
seek to "do me in". I serve a BIG, BIG God who will not allow my foot to stumble and He that keepeth Israel, (and me) will not sleep or slumber. He is covering my going out and my coming in, because He SEES little Zenobia, duped and done wrong so many times, that He simply tells me to "be still" and know that He is God~

How will I tie this in with the beginning of this devotional? I will put the crepe paper and bow on it right now.

Allow God to fight your battles. He already sees the scenario and knows how to
handle anyone who would try to do you harm. I am, as always...praying for all of
you in sincerity and asking that you would keep on the whole armor of God. We
may never uncover the reasoning behind the things that people do against us, but
we know that God will never leave or forsake us. That's enough to make us shout
to His glory all the more! Humans will always fail, disappoint and misdirect us.
It is part of human nature, as unfortunate as that may seem. Pray continuously
for you enemies. If your enemy is a professed Christian, pray for them all the more
that they would remember their motivation and their promise to God before any
other ulterior and "back alley" activities that they might want to practice. Knowing
God and doing anything against Him is something I would not want to involve
myself with.

Whatever you are going through right now, where the enemy is showing you that
you have been wronged once again, or been made to feel stupid, please do not buy
it for ONE MOMENT! You are not stupid, you are a child of THE MOST HIGH!
God is ironing it out, fixing it up and if it remains unresolved, will expose the
plot. He has done it in the Bible, and He has not forgotten how!

Love and Blessings to you!

*Psalm 23:4
Psalm 121:4




The gift of writing is the special ability that God gives to certain members of the body of Christ to formulate thoughts and ideas into interesting and meaningful written forms so that the reader will find courage, guidance, knowledge, or edification through the words shared with them.



Amazon.com: Jessie's House (9780982490914): Zenobia L Silas-Carson, Sharon Sun