Day 13
Thursday November 18, 2010
I am American!
Only because God conceived of this in His mind and planned it for His purposes do I find that TODAY I AM A CITIZEN OF THE USA! I can hardly write it it is so amazing to me! Returning, as it were to my roots, I am a citizen of both Canada and the US - a true North American :)
Grandpa William Andrew White made the trek to Nova Scotia from Virginia in 1899 to attend school. Only the 2nd black student at Acadia University, he was treated so well by his peers that he stayed and became a citizen of Canada.
During WWI he became the 1st black officer in the British Empire as chaplain of the No. 2 Construction Battalion, an all black segregated unit serving in World War I. He continued after the war to fight for the civil rights of Blacks in Nova Scotia, and was the 1st preacher to have a national radio broadcast. (You can read more about him here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_A._White, and there is a short clip of a documentary that was made about him here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SWlbITXSEU).
I love Canada, my home and native land, true north strong and free, but today, I felt the Lord calling me back to Captain White's native land to stand for truth and righteousness here, as a citizen, just as Rev White did in Canada, to help us become once again, "One Nation under God".
I can feel the Lord begining to do a work in my heart, helping me to understand why I had to become a citizen.
I always felt my Grandpa White was part of me. His fierce Freedman heart, and his jovial smile and racus laugh. He just seems so real to me and I have been aware of him for most of my life, which is interesting since he died when my Dad was 7, so I obvivously never met him! But I could feel him inside me. It seems somehow that I have been brought back to the US to take up for him what he couldn't do because he was "on assignment" in Canada.
The Lord told me before we came to the US in 2000 that He was adding the US to Canada in me. So in a way, I knew this day would come. I just had no idea how hard it would be to do what it would take to become a citizen. The renouncing of Canada was heart-wrenching to me. Not the actual saying the words during the swearing in, but the process to get to the place where I could say the words!
I am deeply Canadian, and my identity is Canadian. But I am willing, as Paul was, to be all things to all men that I might win some. The Apostle Paul was a Roman citizen when he needed to be, and a Jew when it suited the Lord's purposes better. He was legitimately both, and used that to further the Kingdom of God. That is what I am, a dual citizen, who really is just an Ambassador from the Kingdom of God. I can be a Canadian when I need to be, and an American when I need to be.
God is funny! He really has set me up because I am already not just "one thing"! I am Black and White and Red; I am Canadian, Italian, German, Russian, Micmac, British, American, African and who knows what else! I am a citizen of the earth and a citizen of Heaven. My only real allegiance is to God most High, and no earthly power that stands against Him can have my allegiance, no matter what I said today! THAT is my 1st place of loyalty.
So Lord, I am here at Your service. An ambassador for Christ. I want to serve you well and with a pure heart of love for those You send me to. Please let me be like Jesus. He loved who He was with and it didn't matter the country that He "belonged to" because He didn't belong to any country. He was, and still is, the Captain of the Hosts, and Ruler of All.
Please show me the path You have for me to walk in. I want to be faithful to this calling. Don't let the emeny find me an easy target but a Dread Champion in Your army of Lovers. Let me win souls for You both young and old by loving them into Your Kingdom.
xoxoxo
Your Canadian-American :)
