From Black History Month to Lent

To hear Brandi read this week’s essay, click here: https://youtu.be/B7bo6jGEauk

As Black History Month closes out, I am speaking up again. I didn’t write during February because sometimes being an ally means shutting my mouth and making space for my own heart to pay attention to the wisdom in those around me. (To that end, let me interrupt myself to recommend some incredible Black writers from the last 2 years. Read one and give me a call!

Non-Fiction

Dante Stewart, Shoutin’ in the Fire*

Esau McCaulley, Reading While Black*

Ibram Kendi, How to be an AntiRacist

Jemar Tisby, How to Fight Racism*

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Notes on Grief

*From an overtly Christian perspective

Fiction

Colson Whitehead, Harlem Shuffle

James McBride, Deacon King Kong

Yaa Gyasi, Transcendent Kingdom

Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Water Dancer

Brit Bennett, The Vanishing Half

This concludes our interruption).

Maybe the void I left created room for another voice to rise. It certainly created room to teach me new things about myself and my approach to pursuing justice and reform in the systems in which I participate. One of the things I learned this month is that I often approach the need for equity from a scarcity mindset. I mistakenly believe if I don’t do the work then the work won’t get done. That I care and know more than the average white woman in my world, so it is my job to draw attention to the wrong around us. Like a costumed teenager flipping signs selling subs on a street corner, I think no one will pay attention unless I raise my voice.

My active hushing led me to see the vanity in thinking I’m the only one. I now see the narcissism, sadness and stress I carried when I thought the appetite for change and discomfort are lacking in those around me. My voice is simply one of many, and all of us actively pursue justice for those around us in some small way. My voice and my role matter, but I am wrong to think courage and compassion are scarce. I now see that we live in abundance. We live in hope.

Most of us do love comfort, but all of us easily give it up for people we love. Most of us think our ideas are the best ideas, but we shift and imagine anew when we are at a table of mutual trust. Most of us do think we work harder for less than anyone ever sees, but we find deep wells of compassion when we are moved by the hard work of another. Most of us instinctively center our own experience, but we inconvenience ourselves and step aside when something in us sees the dignity and humanity in a person often pushed aside.

We know how to care for each other sacrificially. We know how to admit we didn’t know as much as thought we did. We know how to challenge the stereotypes that drive us. We know how to apologize and commit to do better. We know how to give second and third chances with no expectation of total reform. We know how to do hard things just to show up for someone else. We do it all the time. We do it for the people we claim as ours.

What would it take to claim more people as worthy of our care? What would it take to see the value in people we usually don’t see? What would it take to expand our us?

For people who find hope in the life and witness of Christ, Lent begins this week. I think Lent is a wonderful time to take inventory of our lives. How do we live, who do we value, where do we find hope, how do we invest in the restoration of our community to the One who made us all to belong? Each week I’ll send daily readings that I hope remind you that the incarnation of God into the body of Jesus is the ultimate gesture of embodied solidarity. God expanded God’s us through the person of Jesus Christ. Join me as I try to go and do likewise…

Remember friends, God’s kindness leads us to repentance, and God’s mercy is sufficient to meet us in every hard place. Silence trains you to listen to God, to find your own voice and to value the voices of others. Stillness reminds you that you are limited (and loved!), and that you are a human being, not fully measured by your productivity or impression on others. Solitude teaches you to know and love the image of God in you, and to embrace the process of each day, seeing every interaction as a gift. Begin a daily practice of silence, stillness and solitude, and embrace Lent to find a new rhythm of grace.

Week One: Commune with God in silence

“God is that way with us, He wants to hold us still with Him in silence…They cannot all be brilliant or rich or beautiful. They cannot all even dream beautiful dreams like God gives some of us. They cannot all enjoy music. Their hearts do not all burn with love. But everybody can learn to hold God…We shall not become like Christ until we give Him more time.”                                                    -Brother Lawrence

“We enter into a patient dialogue trusting that such a discussion is good for our souls.” –Esau McCaulley

“Maybe you search for understanding, but find only one thing for sure, which is that truth comes in small moments and visions, not galaxies and canyons; not the crash of ocean waves and cymbals. Most traditions teach that truth is in these small holy moments.”                                                  -Anne Lamott

3/2 Matthew 5:1-12

3/3 Proverbs 2:1-15

3/4 Ps 94:12-22

3/5 Micah 6:6-8; Mark 7:5-8

3/6 Luke 7:18-23

3/7 Ps 90:12-17; 91:1-2

3/8 Ps 95:1-8