I have known too many people who are stuck in their life because of something that occurred in their past. I have grown tired of watching others and myself go around the same tree in life because we refuse to confront the trauma that we have experienced in life.
One thing about people of color is that we know how to survive things. Through oppression, depression, suppression, and trauma, we become determined to make it to the other side. The problem becomes when we make it through to the other side, we often have been changed and lost some things along the way that are necessities to moving forward in life and in wholeness. At some point, we realize that we have made it, but we are broken, we are wounded, and we are leaking out what we have been through. We must decide whether we are going to try to keep it moving or if we are brave enough to confront the past to not just survive, but to thrive.
In order to thrive, we have to backtrack and have conversations with people, not for their sake, but for ours. We can’t build new homes or new lives on top of the graveyards of traumatic experiences. Those experiences have to be confronted and uncovered to regain our power and freedom.
The first book Hard Conversations: Book 1 Breadcrumbs to the Past is the first book in my new urban fiction series that begins to unpack the stories of fictional characters that have obtained a lot of things yet are still just as unhappy and unfulfilled as when they had nothing. It isn’t the acquiring of things or experiences that can make them free, it is truly addressing the deep-seated pain they keep living from though they try to ignore it.
The book is a way for people to locate themselves and then start the process of actively pursuing their wholeness so that they really can become the person that many of us desire to be or pretend to be. It’s not until we really clear up the inner turmoil that we can have successful relationships: business, personal, romantic, familial, etc.
Breadcrumbs to the Past: Book 1
Publication Date: June 22, 2021
Sometimes it’s the conversations not had that do the most damage to the people in our lives. Hard Conversations is a collection of short stories detailing the lives of five urban people who are standing at the intersection of their past and their potential. Sensing that something is still off in the lives that they have built, each has to make the crucial decision whether to address their secrets long buried or to continue living in the uncomfortable matrix they created. Only they can decide what their future will bring.
BJ Communicates, aka Dr. Brad Johnson, LSSBB, CSM, is a Kingdom writer, a communication practitioner, and an influential Bible teacher. Given the assignments of assisting urban believers in articulating their stories, finding resolution, and gaining the language of the Kingdom, BJ continually creates and releases inspirational media content that highlights their stories and experiences. “The Holy Spirit is constantly giving me things to write; sometimes it’s a book, sometimes it’s an article for a Christian publication, sometimes it’s something for my blog site or social media, and sometimes it’s a song for me or another recording artist, I’m just the pen in His hand,” says BJ. In addition to faith-based media creator, he is the owner of Communic8 Life Consulting, a communication consulting firm that specializes in assisting couples, families, and business teams in improving their interpersonal communication skills; and is the co-pastor of the urban cafe church Transformed City in Richmond, VA.
