Life #9 - Life is a Redemption Song

Makapu`u Trail to Lighthouse, 2011

In October 1937, Marcus Garvey gave a speech that urged his listeners to emancipate themselves from “mental slavery” and to “free our minds”. He stressed that “none but ourselves” could do it. Later, Bob Marley included Garvey’s phrases into his popular “Redemption Song”.

Our minds create our reality based on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Yes, that’s the tree we’re not supposed to eat of, but still do, eh? Like Garvey said, we are slaves to our minds. All of our interactions with others are based upon what we let our minds construct using lower-grade timber from that tree!

Do our minds fabricate lies about ourselves and others? Do our mental-emotions cause us to “hate” the very people whose blood we share? Do we let our minds perseverate on how others have offended us or caused us pain? Are our minds persuaded we must punish “them” by withholding our love? Have our minds concluded that we are justified in not forgiving anybody?

These are the very reasons why Jesus commanded us to love, agapaō from our mind (Matthew 5: 43, 44). It isn’t for “their” sake that we love. It isn’t for “their” sake that we forgive. It’s for ours! If we don’t diffuse the mind through love and forgiveness, then we remain prisoners for the rest of our mental lives.

Until we emancipate ourselves from the dungeons of our mind, life for us can never rise higher than a Redemption Song.

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Scripture quotations from New King James Version (NKJV) unless otherwise noted; Greek definition from Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible: love - #25; Source on Garvey and Marley from Wikipedia; Excerpts from our book to be released next year.