We've heard national voices question us. We've watched political fights divide us. We've listened to people describe our city by our struggles instead of our soul. The truth is, Memphis has never been defined by what outsiders say about us. Memphis is defined by what we believe about ourselves. The city has always risen, because ordinary people decided to keep loving it, serving it, building it, and believing in it.
We are a city that has buried pain and still found a song to sing the next day, and maybe there's even a lesson in the NBA draft lottery. Sometimes people count you out. Sometimes they think your best days are behind you, but suddenly hope arrives, opportunity arrives, and you realize you were never powerless in the first place.
The future belongs to people who believe they can still rise. Memphis can rise, not because somebody rescues us, not because outsiders approve of us, but because we remember who we are. And that, my friend, is why life matters. This is Dr. Scott Morris for Church Health.
