IMANI - 7th Day of KWANZAA

The Seventh and final day of the Kwanzaa observance is Imani or Faith. This reflects faith in higher powers, faith in ourselves, families and communities. Why do you do what you do? What do you believe in? What motivates and drives your actions? I have a friend who's a Buddhist and her favorite sayings is that, "faith is to fear nothing." 

Often times, we allow fear to keep us from dreaming or doing things: fear of failure, fear of rejection, fear of losing. On the other hand we have people who resign themselves to blind faith, which in reality is not faith at all, but simply putting things up to chance.

All great social and religious movements of the Black communities in America have been the result of the faith of it's leadership in the vision and the faith of the followers and workers in the vision of their leaders; whether it's the AME Church, the Prince Hall Masons, the Nation of Islam, the NAACP, or the Black Panther Party, it's all the result of great faith.

True faith is never the result of chance as much as it is rooted in observation and contemplation. Taking the time to consider what you believe in and why is the basis of faith. Faith can be based in logic. However, the bottom line of all progression is rooted in faith, and without it we are lost.