Transcript:
Greetings, beloved in Christ. I mentioned in a previous video that my intention for 2025 was to be an encourager. As I have heard from many people, both yesterday and today, it seems like we could all use a little encouragement. And so for my video this week, I’m going to share with you one of my favorite poems by Maya Angelou.
My wish for you is that you continue. Continue to be who and how you are to astonish a mean world with your kindness. Continue to allow humor to lighten the burden of your tender heart. Continue in a society dark with cruelty to let people hear the grander of God in your peals of laughter. Continue to let your eloquence elevate the people to heights they had only imagined. Continue to remind people that each is as good as the other, and that no one is beneath nor above you. Continue to remember your own young years and to look with favor upon the lost and the least, and the lonely. Continue to put the mantle of your protection around the bodies of the young and defenseless.
Continue to take the hand of the despised and the diseased and to walk proudly with them in the high street, some might see you and be encouraged to do likewise. Continue to plant a public kiss of concern on the cheek of the sick and the aged and the infirmed, and count that as a natural action to be expected. Continue to let gratitude be the pillow upon which you kneel to say your nightly prayers, and let faith be the bridge you build to overcome evil and welcome good. Continue to ignore no vision, which comes to enlarge your range and increase your spirit. Continue to dare to love deeply and to risk everything for the good thing. Continue to float happily in the sea of infinite substance, which set aside riches for you before you had a name. Continue and by doing so, you and your work will be able to continue eternally.
Let us all continue to be the people we’ve promised to be, to be the people God calls us to be. Blessings.