I Wonder if the Lighthouse Will Shine on Me?

To know me is to know how much I love God and how much I value my relationship with Him. I was fortunate and blessed enough to be raised in a household where God was and still is the center of our lives. Growing up, I went to New Hope Baptist Church in Baton Rouge, LA and it was my home away from home. I have older parents so we went to a church whose congregation was a little bit older and our pastor was very old-school, but in a good way. One of the things I appreciate so much about my church was our dedication to not stray away from what has got us here. Now some people may be wondering what exactly do I mean by that? At New Hope, my pastor and choir made it a point to sing at least one hymnal or negro spiritual every single Sunday. For those of you who don’t know, when Africans were first enslaved, they took everything away from them. But, something they couldn’t do was take away their faith in God. Negro spirituals were the songs that were sung in the field to get the slaves through the day. It was a constant reminder that even though we were in captivity, God was and will always be there with us. It was these hymns and negro spirituals that kept our faith strong through so much torture and chaos and it’s these very same songs that has been passed down to this very day.

Sadly, I don’t think many people from my generation know too much about Negro Spirituals because a lot of churches began to stray away from them. Many people began to start considering them old, and outdated. But, when you really sit down and look at the lyrics of these songs, they can’t be any more relevant.

One negro spiritual in particular that I remember singing often in church was “Shine on Me.” Almost every time I hear or sing this song, I am moved to tears because you can just feel the raw emotion that was put into this song and I can feel how this song, amongst many others got my ancestors through the worst of days.

I heard the voice of Jesus say,

“Come unto me and rest;

lay down, O weary one, lay down

your head upon my breast.”

I came to Jesus as I was,

so weary, worn, and sad;

I found in him a resting place,

and he has made me glad.

Our ancestors were physically pushed past their limits each and every day. Many of them died out there doing work for their masters in the field. Despite that, however, they knew they could find refuge in Jesus. Even though their physical bodies were weak and weary, their spirits were strong in The Lord. I find myself humming this to myself often because to simply put it, it’s hard being black in America; even still in 2017. It’s mentally, physically and emotionally exhausting having to still experience discrimination, seeing a different brother or sister killed by police nearly every week—to know that I have to work twice as hard in a system that’s built for me to fail. But despite all of that, I know that God only sends his toughest battles to his toughest soldiers.

Shine on me

Shine on me

I wonder, if the lighthouse

Will shine on me?

Shine on me

Shine on me

Let the light from the lighthouse

Shine on me

Our ancestors couldn’t do much, but one thing they could do was look forward to a better future. Even though I’m sure to them, it didn’t seem like it was possible, they know that God was going to bring them and their people out eventually. That’s the same mindset I have today. Even though we still aren’t where we should be in achieving truly equality, I know that one day, somehow some way, we will.

Here's another great rendition of "Shine on Me":

#David