Everything and everyone in this life has a story to tell. Some are more gruesome than others while some are more docile. Can we understand them all? Not if they aren't shared. Reluctance to tell the truth stifles the pursuit of edification. Many of us today sit on a testimony we're too afraid to tell. We're afraid of remembering the dark past God brought us out of. We're ashamed of the story our present was birthed out of. We are not the same though we doubt the shift that has been made. A story is vital to our engagement with one another. We need it. Though I may not have been through as much as the next man, my story still matters. Somebody relates to Something and it's our job especially as Christians to tell the story. We're born to help one another, cherish each other's lives, and to grow with one another.
One thing I learned while writing Freedom is that you have to be real with yourself. I didn't write all of the stories. I had Mike, Daniel, Sarai, and Destiny all write their own stories out on paper for me to work with and edit (which there barely were.) but the first round wasn't real enough. When I read the stories the first time around I knew that we were all still hiding crucial events and moments in our lives out of fear of being judged. Yes, we're young. Yes, we're saved. Yes, we're still standing; but we have a past, a story to tell that can greatly affect and encourage our fellow youth. Every journey starts somewhere and when you read through Freedom you will see that although we all grew up in the same environment, we all went through different trials and troubles in our lives. We all battled to get to where we are today but thank God he gave us a chance to answer this one question: What do you really want?
We had to make this life-changing decision. would we stay the way we were, heading into the abyss of eternal darkness; or would we choose to live for God and receive life more abundantly? Everything I talk about in my books is about choice. Choice is the one superpower God gave us. How will you use it is the question.
