Episode 430: Nikki Lerner Breaks Up With Herself

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Welcome to Voices in My Head, the official podcast of me, Rick Lee James. I'm a recording artist, a singer, a songwriter, an author, a worship leader, and an ordained minister in the Church of the Nazarene. The Voices in My Head podcast is where I discuss music, movies, books, pop culture, theology, and more with friends, colleagues, and sometimes just by myself. Now make sure to let me know what you think of today's episode by leaving me a review on iTunes or by tweeting at me @RickLeeJames on Twitter. And please join my mailing list at RickLeeJames.com where you can receive an email every time a new episode is released. And by the way, in case you're interested in a daily dose of kindness and encouragement beyond this podcast, I also run the Twitter account @MrRyder 'What Did Fred Rogers Say?' where I post daily quotes from Fred Rogers, one of the voices in my head. Well, I guess that's it for the intro, so sit back, relax, and listen to the latest episode of Voices in My Head.

Welcome back to Voices in My Head. As always, I'm your host, Rick Lee James, and I am so glad that you're back with us for what I know is going to be another great conversation. Nikki Lerner is a talented singer and songwriter. She's a gifted worship leader. She is an author who has a transformative way with her words. She's a culture coach who is a pioneer in the field of multicultural worship leading. She's also a friend and a mentor to me, and I'm so glad to have a chance to speak with her here today about some of her new music, her podcasts, and some of her many creative endeavors in the short time that we have together today. So we're going to get right to it. Nikki Lerner, welcome back to Voices in My Head.

Hey Rick, thank you so much, and thank you for that intro because I feel like if I could just— I think what I might do is have that just on my phone every morning and just have you explain what I'm doing every day just so I can start my day like that.

Well, that's fine with me. You feel free to, to do that. That's— you're more than welcome. Well, it's so good to have you back together, and you, you know, you're, you're like so many of the guests that I have on the show. You're so talented in, in so many different arenas. But I think you're different than a lot of the guests on my show in that the arenas that you are involved in, they stretch so far and so wide and into so many different avenues, because I just feel like God has given you that kind of a voice that you are speaking in so many different arenas right now. And I'm so grateful for that because it just seems like God is using you. And so it's kind of hard to nail down where to start when we're talking about some of the many endeavors that you're going with. So what I think I want to start with today. You're such a good singer and songwriter, so talented in those areas. Let's start first of all, because this podcast focuses a lot on songwriting, and we actually just were voted, uh, one of the top 20 singer-songwriter podcasts. So we're going to start out with songwriting today, okay? Um, so we're going to dive right into that. You've got a fairly recent song that you just released called Strength. And I love the story behind the song Strength. It's on an album that you recently released, and it's called Human 2. That's your latest record, and you released that in 2020. But this song Strength, it's got such a great vibe to it. It's really like, uh, it's almost like a throwback to disco in some ways when I hear it. But the story behind the song, other than it being a great tune with a great feel lyrically written well. Let's start there today. Give us a little bit of behind the music because it really has a great story to it and I love the concept.

Yeah, well, I, I love this song as well.

Um, and, and let me just say this for the people listening, uh, today is that, uh, learn to love the music that you write. It's really okay for you to be in love with the things that you create, the melodies that God gives you, the inspiration that God gives you. And so for about 3 years, maybe 4 years, I had the opportunity to be a part of a songwriting circle that we had formed at our church through the worship ministry. And it was cool because as the leader of the ministry at the time, I didn't have to lead the songwriting group.

Uh, there was a volunteer who was excellent at songwriting.

He led the group. I got to just be a part of it. And it was a group of about 12 people, all different skill levels. One of the things that would happen every week when we would gather is, uh, the leader, he would give us a songwriting prompt.

And so this particular week he said, I want you to write a song about a bad breakup that you had, you know, over the course of your life or something like that.

Now let me tell you, Rick, I've been married for 22 years now. I'm like, geez, I gotta remember, like, that's been a really long time, right, since I've had a bad breakup. So I was sitting around and I was thinking, I was like, what am I supposed to write about? Like, Gosh, nothing really hit me that hard. There was nothing in my kind of my younger years that I would— that just broke me up, you know? And so after sitting there for a while, I thought to myself, you know what? I am going to write a breakup song about, uh, breaking up with my old pattern of thinking. And that is where Strength came from. So it really was taking this old pattern right, the old patterns, uh, that were really kind of keeping me down and disempowering me as a person, and putting those characteristics onto this figure, right, and writing a song that was directed toward this figure of an old way of thinking.

Uh, and so that's where some of the words came out of.

The chorus of the song, or the pre-chorus of the song, says, I've come to my senses. I don't need you anymore. Strength is in your place and will kindly show you out the door. Beauty, purpose, it's what I've been created for. I'm moving on.

And what a great concept to think about. And so listeners will know, by the way, we're going to play that song at the end of the show. So don't leave because the end of the episode So we're going to actually play the song Strength, and I want you to hear that. But there's a really cool lyric video that you have on YouTube as well where people can find that. So I want to encourage everybody, first of all, that's listening, when you go out wherever you stream music, whether it be Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, there's so many places, it's hard to name them all off. If you subscribe to all those, go to all of them, click that little heart, do whatever it is, go to Strength and find it and stream it. That really does help the artist. But whenever you can to find a way to support the artist, buy their music, and all these songs are great. But I really love that concept of breaking up with your old ways of thinking. I think you have put something that is so hard to do into the lyrics of one song, and you've made it into a breakup song, which is a really interesting thing to do that I don't think a lot of people have thought to do. And that's actually something that you're actually doing with your life and with your ministry. You're teaching people like me to do that in so many ways. So we're going to kind of go from this whole concept of what you just did in this song, which is amazing, by the way. The song is so catchy. I've listened to it about 3 times this morning, actually. And I wouldn't even try to sing it because your voice is amazing. And it's just, it's, it's just, it makes me— it has such a throwback feel to it. But what you're singing about there, it's something that I think all of us as humans have such a hard time doing, breaking away from these old ways of thinking that are holding us back and really are sometimes keeping us in places that we should not be, keeping us away from maybe the new frontiers that God wants to take us into. Old ways of thinking. And with your ministry in multicultural multiculturalism, which is so important, and ways that you are teaching others, the ways that you've taught me specifically. Um, I want to get into talking about some of the things that, that you helped me experience just a few months ago through the Multicultural Worship Leading Network with this intensive that we had. So how's that for a transition? Is that a good transition?

I love it.

All right, uh, because you wrote this great song about breaking up with your old self, and a lot of this intensive was in many ways helping churches, helping worship leaders, helping those in ministries sort of break up with their old ways of thinking. How do we break the mold of this old ways of being a monocultural church into moving into new ways of exploring multicultural ministries? What does that mean? What does that look like? How does that work? So I was so privileged to be a part of this group of a handful of people. I don't know. I don't know exactly how many there were in this first group that we did, maybe 15 to 20 of us, I think, that were together. But it was so fruitful and so wonderful for a couple hours every Wednesday night when we got together and you led us in some new ways of thinking and helping us to do that. I wonder if you could maybe first kind of summarize that work that you're doing and some of the ways that you are working as a culture coach, for one thing. And then let's, let's get in and discuss some of the things that we did together during that intensive. And then maybe I can give you kind of an update on how things are going, which maybe I hope will be helpful to you and in some of the ways of maybe seeing a little bit of the fruit of some of your ministry, I hope.

Hmm.

Well, thanks for that. Yeah, I probably the first half of the year out of everything that I was involved with, The intensive that we did for 4 weeks online together was probably one of my most favorite things. Um, you know, I love leaders, Rick. Um, I love, I love leaders just in general. I love people who are trying to actively make a difference no matter where they are. They're trying to use their platform, their influence, their power to make the world more beautiful, to make their, their businesses more beautiful, to make their family life more beautiful, to make their ministry more beautiful. I love leaders, and I love that leaders have the power, particularly in a church community, to help people feel seen in a way that maybe they don't feel seen or haven't felt seen outside of the walls of the church. And so my background is I've spent over 20 years in intentional multicultural ministry. It's one of the reasons my husband and I— we're in an interracial marriage— one of the reasons my husband and I stayed at the church that we've been at for over 20 years. But having this intentional ministry to say, let's build a church that is really for all people, not just one that we just say it. And we kind of hope sometimes that people will just be more like us, whatever us is. But that people, when they arrive in our church communities, will be able to, as a friend of mine used to say, you know, come in and change the thermostat. Right?

Right, exactly.

Right.

I mean, if you go into a place where you're not welcome, you're not touching the thermostat. Right? You're not opening the fridge, grabbing your own drink, you know, you're not doing any of that. You feel like a guest when you have to come into a place and essentially conform. And so with the Multicultural Worship Leaders Network, what we're trying to do is to equip— first, trying to equip leaders who are in diverse churches or are in diverse communities get better But also, uh, the second piece is to make room for a safe learning environment, a non-judgmental but challenging, uh, learning environment for, for leaders who have primarily been in monocultural environments to start to try to explore what could this look like in our context. And so that's really what the network is about. And really for our intensive, what that, what that time together was for. And hopefully, even if you guys in the group walked away with 2 things that you could practice for the next 6 to 12 months, then it was a success.

Yeah.

Well, and I just found myself each time that we got together, I would find myself for the next several days just kind of mulling over things that I hadn't thought about before, which to me is the sign of a very good— I don't know if I'd say very good seminar or workshop or fellowship or whatever, but whatever it was, I think I want to call it a fellowship, you know, together of what we were experiencing because I was getting a lot from you, but I was really trying to listen and hear from other ministry leaders too, from a lot of different contexts. And I was hearing a lot of things from all of us, I think, that I just wasn't used to experiencing together.

You know what's interesting, Rick Lee James? Let me just say what I kept hearing from this group, which is one of those things that, you know, you can't put it on an Eventbrite site or a ticketing thing, right? It's like this intangible thing of people coming together in community.

Right?

But what I kept hearing from the group was, this is the only place I have been able to talk about these things without getting pushback.

Yeah, that's exactly right.

Right? I mean, that was an outcome that I didn't even know or could have put words into even as the teacher. I didn't know that, you know, I wouldn't have known that most of the people on that call don't have anywhere to wrestle with and ask good questions about this topic.

Yeah, well, and that actually should tell us something about the state of— I mean, we were, we were largely evangelical group, if not entirely, I would say, on that call. And that should sadly tell us something about the state of evangelicalism. And we weren't We weren't all Americans on that call, but most of us were serving in the United States. And I was thinking back just a moment ago as you were talking, I was at a meeting with a group of pastors a while back and someone asked the question and they said, "You know, we want to ask you as pastors, you know, what does it look like for people if they worship at your church, if they worship with you for 10?" 15 years, what difference does it make in their lives? What kind of people are they going to be as a result of that after worshiping with you for 10 or 15 years? And I think a lot of us in that room, when we heard that question asked, we kind of had a chill and maybe fear in that moment because we were kind of looking around at the evangelical church and thinking, oh my goodness, have we just failed completely. And when I think about what you just said about no one having a safe place to have these conversations about a multicultural church, that kind of makes me sad because I actually understand that and feel that because I've tried to have that conversation many times, not just with people in my church, but oftentimes with other ministry leaders and have been met many times with a lot of opposition. Even told many times that if I even want to have a discussion about multiculturalism, that makes me a racist. And I think, how is that?

You know? Yeah, and let me be clear, Rick, for your listeners. To have a conversation that is centered around how do we include as many different kinds of people as possible is the antithesis of racism. Racism keeps people out because of their difference. What we are talking about, inclusion, invites people in because of their culture and their come from.

Yes, exactly. Exactly. And I thought that was so wonderful the way that you kept reminding us of that again and again and again. And so I think as we begin speaking that into our context, to, it does begin to make a difference. And so I've been trying to kind of keep that in mind and speak that, you know, we need to keep in mind who we're inviting in, who are we missing, who's not with us. You know, this whole idea is not just a matter of we need to go out and find this person that's not here, but keep asking that question, you know, those good questions about look all around us and Let's ask, who isn't here today? Who are we missing? What part of the family are we not seeing? You know, and I loved how in the group together we kept going back to Revelation 7:9 again and again together as a group about the great multitude that no one could count from every nation, tribe, and tongue, and people, and language. And we decided together we're deficient on that, and we've got a long way to go in our mission. There's a lot of people that we still are not meeting with together and we want to see that happen. But if, but if I could share just something that I think is kind of cool, that's kind of happening on my end with you that I hope will be encouraging to you. I was feeling kind of discouraged when I started that time with, with our group together, and I had been trying to have those conversations with people in my church. With family members, and it seemed like just everywhere I was trying to have the conversation, even I was being constantly met with opposition and walls, and we don't even want to talk about it, you know. And so I decided maybe I should just be praying for God to be opening doors and ways, you know, for me to maybe even not so much with words, but maybe opportunities for people to just start walking through the doors, you know, for it to happen. And I, I've started to see that a little bit happening little by little, and there's been some new families that have been coming in. Interestingly enough, as we talked about in the group together, you know, as, as the pandemic has happened, the walls are gone, you know, and you, you had said that a couple of times that now that we're kind of a church of, of meeting online, we're seeing different people start to come through and we're reaching different people and in different ways. As a result of coming back in together, we've started discovering that new people are coming in person now that maybe hadn't been coming before. And there's been a couple of families that I've actually started to encounter and fellowship with that are not part of our monocultural church. For one thing, there's a couple of mixed-race marriages that have come in. And it's not just that. It's interestingly enough, these are people that have actually been very active ministering to the Haitian community that's in our city. And they've been asking, like, I wonder if people at our church would be interested in ministering to the Haitians in the area and, you know, things like that. And started— came to me specifically quickly to start talking about, like, I wonder if there's ways that, you know, could I invite some of our Haitian friends to start coming? And I was thinking, can you? Like, like, how, how fast could we ask them, you know? Like, where could we do it, you know? Um, so we're— all that is to say, we're not there yet. But as we've been asking, you know, and praying together, at least on my end, with Lord, can you help us in these areas And as we're asking these questions of how can we reach these people, it's also led to conversations among the staff with like, you know, we may not be able to do music as new people come from other cultures the way that they want it. But I remembered things that you had said to us in that group, like, guess what? Now that we have all these online tools, maybe we could use a YouTube video this week, you know, to use some songs and some other words that maybe we aren't comfortable I'm not comfortable singing in that language, but guess what? There's so many resources online and things. So little by little, I feel like there's been some encouraging elements happening, you know, on my end of things that I don't feel as discouraged as I once was. And I'm starting to see some walls crumble where I thought they maybe wouldn't have before. And I'm starting to see some hearts open up. And, and some ministry taking, um, taking bloom, I guess, for lack of a better term. Um, and I feel like that's a result of, of some of the fellowship that was encountered through this intensive. So I'm, I'm wanting to see it grow more. I'm wanting to see it continue to where it's going. But I'm so grateful for the tools and some of the things that I've learned about and I'm continuing to learn that was started at that intensive. It so good for me. And, and even on other podcasts and things that I've been invited to be a part of now, um, I've been able to use words that you taught us about talking about, you know, what it means to be a monocultural person versus a multicultural person, and what it means to, um, to see the world as, as an elective when you're a monocultural person, you know. And I thought that was so helpful, and I've been able to explain that at a few different places where I've been invited, and it's almost like light bulbs have been coming on, you know, the way it came on for me when you explained it. So all that is awesome. So I'm—

thank you.

Yeah, sure. I just, I just wanted to say thank you. I'm grateful for the ministry that you're offering and grateful to continue it, uh, seeing it happen.

Well, thank you so much. And that's really why, I mean, me personally, I keep doing this work and also as a network that we keep trying to equip leaders to do these things. You know, some of the challenge, I think, particularly when it comes to this space of multicultural worship is, you know, I think in certain pockets within the church, the big C church. Um, I think there is a real fear.

Um, and some of that is just the environment that we live in, uh, these days, uh, from outward sources. Um, but there's such a fear to even, um, think about or consider the lived experience of another person, uh, in particularly in our country, um, and, and it's somehow like if it's different than my experience or your experience, and therefore it must not be worthy, uh, to be listened to or considered. I mean, if, if we in the church— just a little challenge to put out there— can you imagine If in the church we would make the same statements around things such as sex trafficking or abortion or all these things that the church seems to care about, or, you know, global missions. I mean, can you imagine starting a program at your local church somewhere and you want to, quote, minister to victims of sex trafficking, but you don't want to hear about their lived experience.

Yeah.

I mean, I mean, how awful of a ministry would that be?

Terrible. Yeah.

Like if you just said, you know, you met up with a person who had come out of that life and all you wanted to do was essentially tell them about your experience which had nothing to do with sex trafficking. And when they tried to explain how they have seen the world, you tell them they're wrong when you haven't even walked or lived in that experience, right? I don't— I hope as Christian people in particular, we would never think of that as a strategy, right, to minister to people who are in that life. Or, you know, again, I think having a lack of empathy or mercy for people who— couples who are— who have made a choice about abortion or those sorts of things. All of these, you know, global missions. Can you imagine the local— a local church saying, we're going to go— let's go minister to the people of Guatemala, but you don't want to learn anything about their history, nothing about their language. In fact, you want to go to Guatemala and demand that people speak English. I mean, if you think about it, that's at times, that's really how we're trying to have this conversation in the US around lived experience with regards to culture. And I think if we could start to see some of these things through that lens, there's really no reason to fear. I mean, as Jesus followers, we need to be open to the lived experiences of the people that we are trying to reach. What we're not trying to do is to go and, and say, this is how you have to live. This is how your experience should have been. Here's where all the places where you're not doing it right.

Right.

Right.

I don't think, I don't want to believe that that is the missional strategy of a local church. But right now, in my opinion, it's just a blind spot. And I feel like that because of the environment and the rhetoric and the extremes of conversation— we're not even calling them conversations. They're not conversations. They're messages. Messages from extremes. That the people in what I call the majority middle, who are really longing to learn about each other and do life together, are getting suffocated.

Yeah. That's an excellent point. Yeah. And in the church, if we can't be a place where we can hear those stories and be a safe place, you know, even to hear those stories, you know, I don't know how we can be a place to offer redemption and freedom and salvation either.

You know, it's That's wow. Well, and too, Rick, honestly, I mean, we really have to wrestle with this as church leaders because I mean, I worked with one of my clients, a local church. You know, one of their problems was, you know, last summer when everything was going on with protests and some of the issues with law enforcement and things as such. When that was going on, some of the people in this one church I was working with, were saying that when they went to their small groups, people that they had trusted and loved, and they were in these racially diverse small groups, that essentially their groups were telling them, "Don't bring that here. We don't want to talk about that." And so as church leaders, we need to wrestle with how are we supposed to tell people that, you know, the church family, it's safe to bring your sin. It's safe to bring where you're struggling with God. It's safe to bring your questions about who God is. But wait, wait, wait, you can do that as long as you don't bring up these three issues. Yeah, I want to talk about that, right? It's like we can't, we can't pick and choose. I mean, this is the problem just in Christendom in general. We can't pick and choose what we bring to Jesus, bring to God, bring to our worshiping community. We need to be able to bring our whole self. That's what Jesus wants, right? He wants us to bring our whole self to him. He doesn't want us to like keep some of the stuff we're struggling with in a dark corner somewhere, you know, so that there's no light there and have to deal with it ourself. You know, bring 80%, but the 20%, good luck. Right? I mean, that's essentially what, what as church leaders we can tell people without even realizing it, just because we may feel uncomfortable. About the conversation. Just because we are uncomfortable about a conversation doesn't mean that the conversation doesn't need to be had.

Yeah.

And I would say for your listeners as well, you know, don't fear the discomfort no matter what it is you're talking about. I'm just talking— not talking about just one people group, by the way. This is for all people groups, right? Don't fear the discomfort that you feel in your body or in your mind when there is a subject or a topic or a lived experience that you personally haven't had, allow that feeling to be a signal for you that you just need more information. You may need a bit more exposure to that particular issue. Like, I think that's really the way to start to turn some of these things around, that feeling we feel. Let it be a signal that we need more information in order to serve people better.

It just occurred to me as you were sharing that too, I thought, you know, how would it be if we went to the doctor and the doctor said, you know, I'm here to help you in any way that we can. Just make sure that, you know, you don't tell me about any ailments in your back and your shoulders or in your foot. Other than that, I'm here to take care of you. Today. And you said, but I'm only here because my back hurts. Well, we're not going to talk about that. So, uh, yeah, but the rest of your body is fine.

Yeah, I've shared this with you before, Rick, that, you know, I think sometimes where we miss each other, I think particularly between— I mean, there's several different issues. There's issue between, uh, some white Americans and some Black Americans, right? And then there are issues between Americans and people who have immigrated from all kinds of countries, right? So there's different issues that are happening under the surface. But, you know, a lot of times what people in the majority culture don't always understand is that when you are not part of the majority culture, particularly in the United States, You are racially socialized. I mean, I am, I'm almost 45. And there's never ever been a time in my life where I've not had this awareness of my ethnic come from. Now, thankfully, I grew up in a family that nobody ever told me that that was a liability. Nobody ever told me that there was a, that was a detriment. To who I could become as a person, or, you know, what was available to me, or those kinds of things. However, along with that message of everything that we all believe, right, um, as Christ followers, was also, and by the way, just be sure you look out for this and be aware when you're in this community because, you know, you just— people might look at you this way, right? And that was all around my ethnic come from. And so it's not easy for people in the non-majority, and this is, this is really important for majority culture to understand, it's not easy for Americans in the, in the non-majority to just all of a sudden not think about their ethnic come from, because the time we are born Uh, we are racially socialized.

Yeah.

Wow.

And it's really important for people to understand it. You don't have to get it. You don't have to agree with it like that. That's, that's not even possible. You just have to understand it because then that informs a statement that you may make, that informs a belief system you may have to understand that. Particularly about non-majority folks that grow up in the U.S. Yeah, people who immigrate, they have a different, uh, a different thing, which is you may have heard the term model minority before, um, where people from other countries come over to the U.S. and a lot of times they already assume that they're going to have to assimilate into American culture. Now, as, as, um, as Americans me as a Black American, you have that a little bit anyway because you all— minority cultures always have to do some sort of assimilation with majority culture in order to thrive in the world and to thrive in the country. That's just how it is. Um, I wish that wasn't true, by the way, but that's just how it is. People who come from other countries, um, they already have an understanding that they're gonna have to assimilate into American culture, which is also sort of translated white American culture, right? So they're not gonna want to express their language, right, in, in mixed circles. They're not going to want to necessarily, um, you know, fight for their space and, you know, uh, their assertion into the culture. They kind of do that in their own families, in their own community. But when you grow up in the U.S., it's different, uh, because you have a different expectation, right?

And that is, that is so helpful. And what I was just thinking about too, and I know we're running out of time here this morning, but I think the only time that I was aware of that and that I can, can relate to what you're saying, um, was on, on a trip that I took, um, to Kenya, and I found myself being like the only white man among, among very, very dark black-skinned people all around me. And especially when I found myself in a marketplace where for them, they automatically equated white man, rich man, you know. And, and to, and to be perfectly honest, compared to any of them around there, I'm, I'm sure I was, uh, I can— I'm sure I was, you know, by the standard of what they live by. Um, but I became very aware in the weeks that I was there in that part of the world. Um, I couldn't go anywhere without being, as you said, very aware of who I was, you know, in the midst of all the people together. And that's such a really powerful illustration. If, if you aren't used to living that way, you don't know. And that was— that's a really important thing For those of us that have grown up here in a monocultural environment, as you've been talking about today, it's very important for us to remember and to just understand in having these conversations that that's— I just can't say anything else, I guess, other than how helpful that is. Thank you for helping us understand that even more, and especially in our context of ministry as people walk through our doors. If we're going to minister in a multicultural way, it's It's so important to remember that those people who are walking through the door are also coming from those contexts too. So, well, I feel like we could go on and on forever, and there's— there we have just barely even scratched the surface of, of, uh, how much there is to do in this arena of ministry. And you truly are a pioneer in this. I'm so grateful for you and what you are continuing to teach us I'm sure that you are continuing to learn more all the time.

And every day.

And I'm grateful for the ways that you are doing the hard work and the ways that you are digging in. And you're not just keeping it to yourself. You have been doing so much to help share this with people like me who just admittedly, I am so ignorant of so many things and I'm trying to learn more. Um, but you're so patient and so kind and so willing to teach. And, and every time that I've been, um, whether it be in this intensive or whether I've had a chance at different, um, places, whether it be in Cedarville or Worship Leader Conferences or different things like that, where I've had a chance to, to eat with you or sit in one of your workshops, I've just always sensed the nearness of the Lord in our fellowship. And I'm so grateful for you. And the ministry that God's doing through you. So we're going to end the podcast today. I'm going to let everybody know again about your website, nikkilearner.com. That's spelled N-I-K-K-I-L-E-R-N-E-R.com. And I hope I didn't misspell that while I was spelling it out today. Uh, man, it's amazing. The pressure's on when you're on the mic, and sometimes I know, right, things when you're doing it off the top of your head. But I'll make sure and have links to your website, links to your video for Strength on YouTube. But also, we're going to play your song Strength at the end of the show today. And I want to make sure that our listeners do all they can to support you. But thank you so much for taking the time today to be here on Voices in My Head. And as I say to my listeners every week, thank you for being one of the voices in my head. This week.

Thanks, Rick Lee James.

You were the source of opposition to who this magnificent beauty could be. Imagine when truth took me by surprise. It's always been here, just behind the guise. Choosing to hold on to the vision. Through the tears, I will fight and press on. I've come to my senses. I don't need you anymore. Strength's in your place, and we're gonna show you I've got a beauty purpose. It's what I've been created for. I'm moving on now, moving on now. Hey, you're moving on now. Rejecting the lies you spoke over me, refusing to cave to the pressure. Stifle a voice that's found its power in word. Releasing my body and my mind, resisting your pull just in the nick of time. No more fear, slowly kill me. Don't need your presence. Aye! I'm moving on now. I'm moving on now. Moving on now. I'm moving on down—down. I'm moving on now. Aye! I'm moving on now. Yeah! Purpose. I, I have been created. My strength, my strength.

Thank you for joining me here this week on Voices in My Head. I hope you'll visit me on my website at rickleejames.com where you can find out more about me, get my music on vinyl and CD, follow my blog, and even schedule me for a concert or a speaking engagement. Better yet, even a book signing in your neighborhood. You can find all that and more at rickleejames.com. Also, it would mean a great deal to me if you could write a review of this podcast on iTunes. The more positive reviews that we receive, the more visible this podcast will be online. And now for the benediction. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. God bless you and thank you for listening to Voices in My Head.