Finding Your Purpose Through God

In “Going against the Grain” by Jacqueline Jones Royster, the writing vividly express the strength of Black women and their fight to strengthen their race’s and gender’s literacy. In particularity she titles a piece of her work, “Coming to Voice: Maria W. Stewart, a Case in Point,” in which it explains how Maria Steward became a political and economic activist speaker.  Maria Steward became such a prominent pioneer in public speaking for black women all because of her obedience to God and her gift of encouraging women and blacks to take a stand for their equality. Before becoming a public speaker, Maria Steward lost her husband along with everything that he possessed.  Because she was black and a woman, she was not given justice in turns of what belonged to her. Her husband’s white business colleagues took everything that she owned and left her with nothing.  In the text it states, “She chose to cling to her spiritual beliefs, finding a strength and solace that compelled her to confess publicly her faith in Christ. . . Stewart had the desire to speak out publicly about discrimination and injustice and about the need for political and economic activism.” In this quote, we discover that Steward found out who she really was and her purpose by finding God.  In learning about her life I found it amazingly beautiful that beyond all that she went through she found someone who has always been there for her: God.  She began to realize that all that she is and is capable of doing is all due to God’s purpose for her. As a Christian and reflecting on this the first question that comes to mind is: Why is it that we forget who God is and that he is the created of all that is and all that will come?  I feel that for some people just was with Maria, we will begin to recognize God’s presence when we lose something that we admire or love that blocks out everything else. When that opaque object, that blocks our vision, is gone or lost out vision begins to increase. We are now able to see the things that were there in the beginning. When Stewart began to see God, she began to see herself and what she was able to do. She was no longer living in her husband’s shadow but she began to make her own footprints. She began to understand that without God, she wouldn’t have the strength that she possessed to not only make her better but to make the lives of others better!