WALK LIKE YOU GOT A RIGHT TO!

In the movie Harriet, there is a scene that sticks out to me. It’s when Harriet (the Moses of her day) finally makes it to Philadelphia after walking hundreds of miles from Maryland. She’s wandering around the streets looking for the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society, looking lost, scared and distraught. She likely feared being caught by slave catchers and returned to her master. Finally, she stops at a vendor in the market to get directions, and he tells her, “Don’t be afraid. There are plenty of us here in Philadelphia. Walk like you got a right to…” This quote in particular stays with me because I think it is so fitting to our everyday lives. 

Many of us struggle with impostor syndrome, especially as black women. It can be hard to believe that we deserve to be where we are, that we have earned the right to be happy and free and at a place in our lives where we can enjoy that. We may feel like someone has made a mistake in believing in us, in allowing us to get this far or that we're not the ones that should experience such joy. We can also experience anxiety, feeling like someone is going to discover that we are a fraud. Although the term impostor syndrome often applies to accomplishments, I believe that it can also apply to our salvation. 

When God rescues us out of sin and bondage, it can be hard to free ourselves from the mental shackles of what we've been through. Especially if we have been in that situation for a long time. It is sometimes hard to get rid of a mindset that no longer serves us. When we haven’t fully renewed our minds, we can become mentally stuck in old, familiar, sinful cycles. Old insecurities can creep up and have us believing that we don’t deserve to be liberated. But God says in Isaiah 43:1, “Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you. I have called you by name; you are mine.” When God saves us, (from sin, a lifestyle, a bad relationship or situation) He literally calls us by our name and claims us as His own.  That is freeing in and of itself!

Salvation makes us an entirely new creation in God, and that includes all of the things we have been rescued from. We don’t have to walk in the shame of old mistakes because we have been made new. God redeems us and calls us to walk out of what has had us bound. Walk out of depression, walk out of fear and worry, walk out of addictions, walk out of being enslaved by anything and anyone! Similarly to Harriet, we are rid of our chains, and we can walk in the freedom that God provides. All we have to do is embrace that freedom by "walking like we got a right to!" Even if we don't feel it right away! When God frees us from slavery, we shouldn’t walk like we’re still there. We shouldn't walk like we're afraid. And we shouldn't walk like we don't belong! Because we do! It can be hard to believe that we are really walking in a new season and that we deserve to be there, but we need to silence the lying voices in our heads, so that we can hold our head high, know that He's called us by name, fully step out of our shackles and "walk like we got a right to."

~Nia Roberts