The New Year
As I look back over 2023, I smile at the life God has blessed my family and me with!! I traveled, I fellowshipped with family and friends, I started a new job from which I will retire and I was part of a life changing movement in the city of Springfield.
When I think about this movement, the one I believed was full of hope, new perspectives, faith, positivity, clarity, and belief that we could change the direction of a city in need of a desperate reboot, this made me smile, laugh, and, at times, shed a few tears. It was an election of a lifetime here in this simple city of Springfield.
I had watched Justin Hurst for quite some time over the past eight to ten years. I noticed his character and his intelligence, how he moved, how he encouraged, how he spoke out, how he stood up when something just wasn’t right, how he encouraged the residents of this city to come together and how he showed up to the many events which took place throughout our city. When he finally decided to place his hat into the 2023 Mayoral election, I was 110% in. Why, because of all the things I mentioned above. I believed he was the right man for the job…I still believe.
When the city of Springfield voted on November 7, 2023 to have four more years of the incumbent Mayor, I was crushed, hurt and angry. I literally didn’t want to speak to anyone, because I was so disappointed. But God! I am a praying woman, and throughout the whole campaign, I prayed with Justin, I prayed over Justin and I quoted scripture to Justin. Many others on his campaign did the same. We came together, not just as a community fighting for change, but a community drawing closer to the Lord.
We lost this election. However, when I heard Justin say this election had drawn him closer to the Lord, I knew we had won. We lost an election, but we won Christ.
We will continue to stay prayed up and we will continue to fight for injustices that are continuing to plague our city, specifically our people of color. I had the pleasure of hearing and meeting the phenomenal Congresswoman Ayanna Presley on January 13th and she said, “We can’t just sit at the table, we need to shake it!”
When we get there, we need to do more than just follow the crowd, bite our tongues and be content with a small handout. We need to shake things up. 2024, look out! ■
