Created Noble Experience – Home Page
‘Created Noble’ is my 5th Baha’i-inspired, spiritually focused hip hop album, named after my first born son, Noble. The album focuses on nobility, fatherhood, and contributing to the betterment of the world.
Track 3 – “Strive. Work. Pray.” 🙏🏽
🎧 Listen 🎧
Use the player below to stream “Strive. Work. Pray.” on this webpage:
⬇️ Download ⬇️
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✍🏼 Song Inspiration ✍🏼
Below is a quote from the Baha’i Writings that inspired this song:
“Take courage! God never forsakes His children who strive and work and pray!”
✍🏼 The Lyrics ✍🏼
[Chorus]
Yeah! Strive, work, pray
Strive, work, pray
Strive, work, pray
All day, all day
[Verse 1]
Eyes open up see a ray a light,
Feeling rested look around see beauty to every side,
See my beautiful wife, see my beautiful son,
I reflect on my life, see it’s a beautiful one,
Then I turn to the One that gave it all to me,
Offer up a prayer that I can heed the Will of God,
The way it’s supposed to be!
Then I speak my praise and gratitude, “Thank you Lord!”
Ask for joy and happiness, to master my moods, yeah,
Not dwelling on the unpleasant things of life,
Powers illumined, my spirit is gladdened,
With God as the refuge, anxiety passing,
God never forsakes his servants who strive, work, pray,
So I take courage, as I…
[Chorus]
Strive, work, pray
Strive, work, pray
Strive, work, pray
All day, all day, as I…yeah
[Verse 2]
Yeah, now I’m diving into the Word a boundless ocean,
Inexhaustible riches the more I’m devoted the more I’m benefiting,
But all these gems that I’m finding aint just for me,
I recite ‘em, memorize ‘em,
Then I put in work to translate ‘em into deeds,
See me striving when I’m out in the streets,
I pray to God to guide my spirit to a soul I could teach,
So I can build peace,
Make friends outta strangers that I meet NO ENEMIES!
Only looking for what’s worthy of praise,
That’s the way I’m making friends with the entire human race, yeah,
But I can’t just do one, can’t do some, I gotta do the sum,
Strive + work + pray soon as sun up, see me…
[Chorus]
Strive, work, pray
Strive, work, pray
Strive, work, pray
All day, all day, see me… yeah,
[Verse 3]
Yeah, nothing sweeter than the state of prayer,
When life has got me overwhelmed I throw my hands in the air,
And I let go, then you know,
That I get that energy like glucose,
That inner peace cuz God and I,
We grew close, as He shows,
That eternal flow to people when we conversate,
He will change a gnat into eagle when we strive, work, pray,
So we strive to be the light,
And we seek always to do what’s right,
And we work, put our feet to the dirt,
And the greatest effort we exert,
And we pray, to attain that heavenly state,
Burn away all the veils so no shade,
But just grace, we do it for your glory, that’s the Greatest name,
You see my action’s like a prayer when it’s service,
When you put in work for God, that’s the highest form of worship, amen,
That’s all I do…
[Chorus]
Strive, work, pray
Strive, work, pray
Strive, work, pray
All day, all day, yeah!
[Outro]
Ayo, this goes out to all the young ones in the community.
“Take courage! God never forsakes His children who strive and work and pray!” – Abdu’l Baha
Woo! Allah’u’Abha
📖 The Story 📖
Song inspiration is something that can come in a flash! Whenever I come up with an idea, I like to write it down (so I don’t forget it later!) and then when the time comes to get creative, I start the writing process. One day, I had the idea to create a song that tells the story of a day of living a positive, spiritual life. Or in my case, striving to live the true life of a Baha’i!
I started by jotting down some of the things that I felt I should be doing on the daily as a member of the Baha’i Faith: prayer, reading the Baha’i Writings, serving my family and community, striving to be a joyful spirit, and ultimately yielding my will for the Will of God!
As is typical in my song writing process, the song idea was dormant for a while, when a couple other key ingredients came into place…
1) The BEAT! Normally I search up beats online that match the mood of the song I’m writing, however, with this song there is a WAY cooler story! Back in the summer of 2017, I was invited to spend a week at International School Manila in the Philippines with my dear friend and musical collaborator, AWU. We spent time with students, shared our passion of changing the world through music, and also got to perform our song “Change The World” with the school orchestra!! It was supremely EPIC!
Well a couple of years later, in 2019, one of those students (my dude Jaree!) reached out to me asking if I’d like to use one of his beats to create a song. He emailed me a few beats, and I immediately was drawn to one of them. It was that beat that is the instrumental for “Strive. Work. Pray.” 🔥
2) I then turned to one of my favorite quotes from the Baha’i Writings (the one shared above) as inspiration for the chorus of the song and got to writing the verses. And the rest is history!
🎁 Bonus Content 🎁
Building off of the story behind the song, here are a couple of the performances AWU and I had the bounty of doing on our amazing trip to International School Manila! 🇵🇭
Performing “Change The World” with ISM Orchestra
Performing “Change The World” with ISM Sing
🤔 Noble Reflection & Discussion 💬
👑 ➡️ What happens with something is missing from the spiritual formula “STRIVE + WORK + PLAY = GOD’S CONFIRMATION”? For example…
STRIVE + WORK – PRAY = ? | STRIVE + PRAY – WORK = ? | PRAY + WORK – STRIVE = ?
I would truly LOVE to hear from you! Please take a moment to share your thoughts below! 👇🏽
1st of all watching Change the World at ISM brought tears to my eyes. 2nd if you don’t have all 3 in the formula it is like saying 1 + 1= 3. It just doesn’t add up.
So happy to hear the ‘Change The World’ performance was so moving! Definitely one of my favorite performances in my music journey!
And yes, that’s one of my favorite parts of this quote! It truly “adds” up!