Sho Baraka
13 min read ⭑
“How do I know what God calls me to? Oftentimes, I ask if there’s a need. If there is a need and it’s obvious that the Lord is pushing me toward it, then that’s what I’m supposed to be doing.”
QUESTION #1: ACQUAINT
There’s much more to a meal than palate and preference. How does your go-to order at your favorite hometown restaurant reveal the true you behind the web bio?
Here’s what I often tell people: My skin is black and my heart is British, but my stomach is quite international. I love Asian food. I love South Asian food. I love Mexican food or South American food. So some of my favorite restaurants serve South Asian, Mexican, or Cuban.
I love learning about other people’s cultures through food. If I’m back home in California, I might go to an authentic Mexican taco truck to get some street tacos. Or maybe I’ll get some Thai food that I probably shouldn’t eat—food that’s way too spicy for my soul. And I love Cuban food, so anytime I’m in Florida, I’ll get that.
There’s something about eating food from other cultures and learning about people that brings a great sense of connection that I appreciate. I love learning and traveling. I think that’s kind of what my belly tells me and teaches me. I’m such a diverse person when it comes to food. There’s really no food that I don’t like. I eat it all, but my favorite is probably some Mexican or Cuban restaurant—or maybe even some Thai, Vietnamese, or Japanese restaurant.
Compared to Los Angeles, Atlanta’s food scene has a lot of grease and butter. Nearly everything is deep fried—so there’s a lot of diabetes and high cholesterol. But it’s amazing.
L.A., on the other hand, is very conscious, so everything’s farm to table, vegan, good for your body, and sometimes even tastes good. But Atlanta is like, “Look, we’re not here for your health. We’re here for your stomach and your stomach is going to leave pleased today.” It’s a lot of Southern comfort food, which is great, but you also have a good hodgepodge of different cultures because Atlanta is very diverse. You have one particular street, Buford Highway, that has a slew of different types of authentic Korean, Vietnamese, and Malaysian food—it’s beautiful. Atlanta knows how to eat—let’s just say that. Plus, you got your soul food as well. It’s definitely a good place.
Here’s another secret about me. I’m also all in for the gentrification of food. I know that sounds terrible, but I am one person who loves when cultures take a particular style and put their own flavor on it. So I admit that I’m terrible when it comes to the appropriation of food, but I love it. I love when people take Korean food and turn it into a hipster dish or take tacos and transform them into street tacos with shrimp, mango, and other similar ingredients. I must admit, that is one thing I’m a sucker for.
Dave Photoz; Unsplash
QUESTION #2: REVEAL
We’ve all got quirky proclivities and out-of-the-way interests, but we tend to hide them. What do you love doing that might surprise (or shock) people?
My quirk is not only a quirk in the sense that it can be seen as very secular, but it’s also a quirk culturally in that, if someone saw me walking down the street, they would never assume that I was the type of person who loved board games, Dungeons and Dragons, and fantasy novels.
I grew up playing Dungeons and Dragons, and I love it. That led me to read books like The Chronicles of Narnia, The Lord of the Rings, and The Hobbit. So I’m all in on the fantasy work. I love board games like Settlers of Catan and Ticket to Ride.
These things are rarely thought of as related to spiritual work. But I think respite and rest are beautiful—resting is a spiritual work. I don’t want to disappear and I don’t want to detach from reality, but I do want to engage the imagination.
I think these are things that God gives us to explore, to see the vastness of what he does and his duty.
To think of how he creates animals, even some of the weird animals we see—it’s almost like God is performing in his art or working on his own kind of fantasy novel if you will. He gives us the opportunity to do the same thing—to imagine certain animals, creatures, and human beings.
I love using my imagination to explore worlds that people create because I think that’s a spiritual gift that people have. To think that J.R.R. Tolkien created a language and a world that so many people are enamored with—that, to me, is spiritual work.
I can see how some people might think those games and activities aren’t spiritual, but it’s a quirk that I love, and it’s one that I often engage in. I used to be ashamed to admit it, but now I’m a grown man and I really don’t have any shame in admitting that I love these kinds of things. And in a way, my daughter is now taking up the mantle.
QUESTION #3: CONFESS
Every superhero has a weakness. Every human, too. We’re just good at faking it. But who are we kidding? We’re broken and in this thing together. So what’s your kryptonite and how do you hide it?
Recently, I’ve come to understand that my superpower in a lot of ways is also my kryptonite, and that’s performance. I do a great job of communicating and performing. I can even do a great job of serving people. But oftentimes, I do that to mask not only the hurt and pain but also the sin that I’m operating in.
It’s very, very dangerous to live in sin. But what’s even more dangerous to me is to be living in sin and yet still operating in a performative way so that people can’t really tell. They still applaud you for performing while you’re living a life that’s contrary to what you may be saying or outwardly proclaiming.
To get even more vulnerable, this was my life for about a year and a half. I had engaged in activities that I knew were wrong. That wasn’t my life. I knew those activities weren’t becoming of an individual who loved the Lord. Praise God that I ran back to the church during this period. The Lord led me to some positions in the church that actually sanctified me and caused me to confess, deal with, and address some things. It also allowed me to get counseling, which helped me with my anxious disposition.
My anxiety often led me to seek approval or performance. So one of the most beautiful things that I’ve been exploring in this last year is the gift of silence and solitude and simply not feeling the need to perform.
QUESTION #4: FIRE UP
Tell us about your toil. How are you investing your professional time right now? What’s your obsession? And why should it be ours?
I’m doing a lot of creative writing. I’m writing a musical, and I’m really excited about this work. But I also do a lot of video production work, which involves writing for short films, for screenplays, and also for corporate work, including shooting, producing, and editing.
One of my obsessions in both those areas is the idea of composition, framing, and symmetry. Although those three things may seem like they don’t connect or relate, to me, they do. After all, it’s all about how you set something up, how something looks, or how it’s presented. For some reason, we can all tell when we hear a bad story, but not all of us know what a good story is. We all can look at an image and think there’s something off with it, but not all of us can agree on what exactly a great image is.
We can all look at the landscape and say, “This is beautiful” or “This is terrible,” but we may not all agree on what the most exceptional landscape is.
I think the same thing is true of writing and film production. There’s something about the symmetry and the composition of a scene. There’s something about writing in that all stories have components that make them strong or that make them weak. I’ve been obsessed with listening to other people, reading, and just trying to figure out the one thing that most people can agree upon—the factors that people can agree make a story great, a film wonderful, or a visual piece compelling. I’m taking components from all of these different things and making my own treaty about how I want to create and work.
QUESTION #5: BOOST
Cashiers, CEOs, contractors, or customer service reps, we all need grace flowing into us and back out into the world. How does the Holy Spirit invigorate your work? And how do you know it’s God when it happens?
I often see in Scripture how there are often people God calls to particular positions, activities, or journeys—even when they desire to do something different. I love this quote from G.K. Chesterton in which he talks about contentment. Some people are cashiers, some people are executive directors, and some people are pastors or engineers, and all of them probably have moments of contentment and discontent. But when the Lord places you or calls you to a thing, your goal is to find the beauty in that thing and all that it offers. Your goal is to serve as unto the Lord and to work as if God himself said, “If you do not do this thing, the kingdom will fall apart.”
How do I know what God calls me to? Oftentimes, I ask if there’s a need. If there is a need and it’s obvious that the Lord is pushing me toward it, then that’s what I’m supposed to be doing. And I have somewhat of a sojourner’s view on vocation and calling—that some people may be settled at a place for a lifetime, but I believe that the Lord calls some of us to be sojourners as we go to and fro as the Lord moves us into new places and uses us. That could be in any place. It can be in any culture. It can be in any situation or scenario because you’re working as unto the Lord.
Genesis 1 talks about the Lord looking over a blank canvas and then creating. And I think that as we walk into our vocations, as we enter into our days, we should see the same thing. You and I have an opportunity to change the culture for the glory of God in this particular place. So no matter who you are or where you are, that is your call.
I think some people can ask, “Do I have the skill set? Do I have the capacity? Do I have all of these different elements that make me the right candidate for this particular call?” And granted, with certain positions, you must have a particular skill set in order to fulfill them. But other things don’t require much. Sometimes there’s a need and it doesn’t take a lot of skill to meet it. It just takes compassion, willingness, initiative, and desire, and that’s enough.
We often see in Scripture people trying to get out of things. They say, “Lord, I’m not qualified.” And God says, “Don’t worry about the qualifications. I am calling you. I will give you the words, I’ll give you the skills, I’ll give you the people, and I’ll give you the resources.” Too many of us are thinking about all the resources, all the people, and all of the skills we might need, but God is saying, “If you’re a willing vessel, I’ll figure out the rest. Don’t worry.”
That is oftentimes how I view calling. Is there a need and do you feel that the Lord is pushing you in that direction? The best place to be is where you feel inadequate because then you learn to trust in the Lord. The moment you start feeling, Oh, I’m adequate, and not only am I adequate, but I’m overly qualified, then you begin to trust in your own power and your own skills. I’m not saying that people shouldn’t be qualified, but the moment we start to get overly confident in our qualifications and skills is when we begin to operate in our own flesh and power.
QUESTION #6: inspire
Some people divide things sacred and things secular. But you know, God can surprise us in unlikely places. How do you find spiritual renewal in so-called “nonspiritual” activities?
Silence. Silence and solitude, to retreat, to go away, and to pray. To not always feel like I have to answer every question. To have the courage to say that I may not be your person. Social media has given us this entitlement in which we feel like everybody should hear our thoughts all the time, every day. Even if we know we have no idea of what to say on a particular issue, we feel like people want to hear from us.
It’s wonderful to see that Jesus took time to get away. Paul took time to get away. The Bible is replete with examples of people who knew that they needed to get away. Not get away to excuse themselves from responsibility but get away in order to be better at the responsibility when they come back. Retreating should involve seeking the faith of the Lord, praying, and meditating. I think our culture needs a lot of silence and retreating.
QUESTION #7: FOCUS
Our email subscribers get free ebooks featuring our favorite resources—lots of things that have truly impacted our faith. But you know about some really great stuff, too. What are three of your favorite resources?
There’s a very old hip-hop album that changed my life. It’s called “Christology“ by The Ambassador, who was from The Cross Movement. That album was revolutionary for a young black man who loved hip-hop and hip-hop culture but felt like Christianity was pushing him away from the culture—mainly because they believed that it couldn’t be redeemed. But The Cross Movement and The Ambassador were pivotal in showing me that, not only can you be authentically hip-hop, but you can also love the Lord with all your heart, mind, body, and soul. And not only do they love the Lord with their hearts, minds, bodies, and souls, but the things they communicated on that album were deep and theologically pithy.
There are so many great books, but one of the best is Narrative of The Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave by Frederick Douglass. The reason I picked that book is that it’s a practical resource on faith in action. Frederick Douglass offered a lot of critique of the Christian church of that time. There were a lot of challenges. But we also get to see a man live his faith out in action. He had the courage not only to challenge the injustices of his day but also to trust the God of the Bible and not the God of the culture.
It really gave me a different perspective on individuals like Frederick Douglass because, oftentimes when we talk about him, Harriet Tubman, and a lot of African-American heroes in history, we don’t talk about their faith. We don’t consider them to be theologians, but they put faith into practice, and that’s what I love.
The creative and theological works of C.S. Lewis are another great resource. I say this because in 2010, I went to see The Screwtape Letters off Broadway, and it truly changed my view on how to do ministry in the context of the marketplace. I was sitting off Broadway with about 300 people, and about 70% of the people in the audience did not believe in God. The actor did a Q&A afterward with the audience and asked them very pointed questions about what they believed and whether they were familiar with the work. And at that moment, I realized that this Christian author from 70 years earlier wrote a work that was so excellent that people who don’t even believe in the God he believed in would come and enjoy his writings about spiritual life.
So I encourage creativity. I encourage people who are not in the vocational arts, people who work in the marketplace among folks who aren’t believers, to see the works of C.S. Lewis as inspiration on how to engage the culture and to be excellent—because excellence is wonderful evangelism.
We all have things we cling to in order to survive (or thrive) in tough times. Name one resource you’ve found indispensable in this current season—and tell us what it’s done for you.
Catholic Theologian Henri Nouwen has given me life. Between The Spirituality for the Wounded and Here and Now: Living in the Spirit, his work has been a blessing to me. It’s helped me understand how I am a beloved, broken human being, but the Lord still loves me. And it’s helping me capture joy and pain, joy and sorrow.
I also love funny stuff, and I love English football, so Ted Lasso brings me joy. The new season is coming out, so I’ll be definitely watching that. I think what our world needs is just a little more humor and slapstick.
I also enjoy nature outside. Just looking at trees, trying not to be enslaved to my phone and technology. Just engaging nature.
It’s funny, the cherry blossom tree on my street—which I’ve never noticed before—blossomed recently. It died rather quickly, but it was a beauty to behold for the short period of time it was there. So little things like that energize me.
QUESTION #8: dream
God is continually stirring new things in each of us. So give us the scoop! What’s beginning to stir in you but not yet fully awakened? What can we expect from you in the future?
I hate to say it because it sounds so trite, but the Lord is giving me a burden for a revival of the church. That doesn’t mean I will be the one to spark it in any way, but I’ve been burdened for the church and burdened for so many of my friends who’ve walked away from the faith. I carry a burden for a real, honest, authentic Christian faith. Where people don’t have to perform; where they just abide in Jesus, confess sin, and love one another; where they extend grace; and where they trust in God. Our faith shouldn’t be transactional or about rightness in the sense of proving how right we are but rather about how much love and grace we can extend to one another.
Have you ever met a believer with a different theological viewpoint than you and wanted to prove that your view was right? It’s easy to turn our faith into a competition—even with other Christians.
But God calls us to a faith that looks at Jesus, not ourselves. A faith that relies on his righteousness, not our own understanding. A faith that protects the truth but also willingly extends radical mercy. As Paul told the Ephesians:
“Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work” (Ephesians 4:15-16, NIV).
Raised in Southern California during the height of gangsta rap, Sho Baraka formed a rap group that toured with major recording artists. Seeing so many close friends killed and incarcerated, though, he followed his father’s advice and went to college. At Tuskegee University, he met Lecrae and Tedashii and eventually formed 116 Clique. Since then, he’s founded a record label, released six solo albums, and written He Saw That It Was Good: Reimagining Your Creative Life to Repair a Broken World.
