I have a stock account, meager though
it may be, I definitely have a stock account ( two actually). One of
the reasons I started buying stock is because I have a dream...
possibly a delusion of granduer... I don't know, of being able to do
something that people call “Living on the Interest ”meaning that
you have enough stock in your porfolio, enough savings put away, that
the interest alone will take care of you. It's part of my retirement
plan.
I'm working on it. Right now I have a
total of maybe oh... seven stock, only one of which is actually
profitable, but that 's the goal. And hopefully, that will change for
the better. And I'll keep putting a little bit extra away to make
sure that I'm able to continue to build that account.
But I began to realize as I was sitting
here... actually lying awake in bed at 4 o'clock in the morning...
after having had a couple of surgeries and preparing for another one,
that I have a different account and that that account is important,
because with that account, I am currently living on the interest...
and it's not interest on a treasure I've accumulated, but the
interest earned by those who deposited before me. People, men and
women in my family who have gone before me who made covenant with
God... who have served Him, who have loved Him... who have received
promises from Him and although they may be long gone, I am living on
the interest of their deeds.
One was Charles Kirkman-Bey. He was my
maternal great-great grandfather... my maternal grandfather's
maternal grandfather. He was a leader of the Moorish
Science Temple of America, a group started by the same founder as
the Nation of Islam and he ran it in Chicago for almost 30 years.
Kirkman-Bey was a man that believed
that truth transcended culture and religion and that there was truth
in all of the major faiths. He took parts of Taoism, Buddhism, early
Christianity, Freemansonry Islam and Gnostism. He looked at all of
these faiths and saw truth in them all and combined them and helped
to create the Moorish Science Temple of America, and lead the Chicago
temple from 1929 to 1959. From all accounts, when he died in 1959,
he left a legacy... a legacy that still exists ... a legacy of honor
and compassion that exists to this day, and not just in the city of
Chicago.
Another person in my family was my Aunt
Willie. She was known on the northside of Chicago for feeding
people during the Depression. She had a gift for talking to people,
especially young men, and leading people into right action... to be
an asset to their communiity instead of deficit. She had no official
training, was not an official priest of any denomination, but she had
the heart of one, and hated to see decent people suffer. She was
single-handedly responsible for bringing our family to Chicago and
she was able to do this on a cleaning woman's meager pay. When she
died in 1977, there were so many cars in the funeral procession, you
couldn't see the end, and these were not family members, but people
in the community, black and white, rich and poor, who came to pay
their respects. She left such a strong legacy in Chicago so that
when I moved back to Chicago in 2007, there were still people that
remembered her and because of her deeds, looked after me... I lived
on her interest.
Another is my fraternal grandmother,
Luna Gaddis, who was known for praying for people. Again, not in a
denomination that honored women ministers, but who ministered. No
title necessary. I didn't know her well, but when I went to her
funeral, there was standing room only in the church and people
overflowed out into the street and it wasn't just family. It was the
people she had loved and prayed for and counselled who were in tears
and weeped heavily at the loss of someone who had poured so much into
their lives. I had the opportunity to hear person after person talk
about how she had counselled them, how she had prayed for them, how
she had helped them see that there was a call on their life. I live
on her interest.
My great grandmother, ... my maternal
grandmother's mother, Sophie Virginia Howard (her maiden name)... was
the “family elder”. On my mother's side of the family, we have a
designated family elder who is the head of the family and it's
normally one woman. She was known for being a “holy woman” and
not just by members of the family, but by the people in the
community. She died before my mother was born, so I never got a
chance to meet her, but I did get a chance to speak with my last
“family elder”, Alene Matthews, Sophie's granddaughter, before
she passed, who imparted some knowledge about Sophie Virginia, who
I'm named after (Virginia's my middle name) and I understand that I'm
living on her interest as well. Sophie Virginia was not just a woman
of prayer, she was a healer. She was of Cherokee, English and African
ancestry and although she attended a Baptist church, her faith was
closer to Cherokee/Christian practices. She was known for being a
godly and decent woman... and today I live on the interest.
Now I personally, have done some things
to deposit into this account. I haven't just completely relied on
the interest acrued by others deeds. I've attempted in my actions
in my life, to make deposits myself, but I know that the reason I
exist isn't necessarily just because of the deposits I've made, but
because of the deposits that were made long before me... long before I was born... long before I was even thought
of. Those deposits are covenant with God, made by members of my
family for the care and well being of their bloodline... That “their
seed shall remain [Ecclesiaticus 44:13] and God keeps His word. I
live, because of their interest. I live because of those covenants.
I live and move and have my being this day, because God honor's His
word... because “God magnifies His word above His name” [138:21].
Long after the bodies are gone, long
after the deeds are done, long after all this is said and done, what
remains is what we have with our heavenly Father, what remains is
that interest, that deposit that we made in faith, that deposit that
we made knowing that we served a God that would never leave nor
forsake us [Deut. 31:6] that God is true and cannot lie... that
heaven and earth shall pass away before his word returns unto him
void. [Matt. 24:35] Even when it seems like things aren't going well,
the fact that we remain is evidence of that covenant, and we live on
the interest.
