Race

The only way to survive the waves is to keep the beat of your heart in rhythm with the One who walks on water.  - Ann Voskamp 

Perspective is everything.  It changes what we see.  You can't see what you're not looking for, and the vantage point from which you see something can determine your perspective.  When it comes to our experience of God, the eyes of faith are capable of seeing an entirely different world than the same et of eyes looking at the same thing.  - Syd Hielema and Aaron Baart

Editor's Note: The following post reflects on the concept of 'whiteness' - not a skin colour or race, but as an ideology that equates lighter skinned people with spiritual maturity and civilization, and then uses this ideology to harm both creation and other humans. We invite you to read it and reflect on how this kind of ideology may be present in your own life and community.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.  In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.  There was a man sent from God whose name was John.  He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe.  He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. (John 1:1-18, NIV) 

In a world where xenophobia is intensifying, God calls us to practice philoxenia, love toward strangers, which in Greek means hospitality. The hospitality that we are talking about is a hospitality that Jesus embodied. From my perspective, I think there are at least three recognizable stages: common, widening, and mutual hospitality.

The Lord makes poor and makes rich;
    he brings low; he also exalts.- 1 Samuel 2:7

When COVID happened and all our meetings went virtual, many of us got to see what we look like when we talked. We were unfamiliar with our facial expressions and the different message it was conveying when we spoke. As a result, we started to stare at our own faces during those virtual meetings to make sure they were not betraying our emotions or conveying what we don’t mean. The camera became a tool which unveiled this blind spot. 

“Who despises the day of small things” (Zechariah 4:10)

Last December 2022, my wife Sharon and I attended dinner at her parents for our birthdays. This had been a tradition for years.  We arrived expecting a few hours of eating good, conversation about family, and playing cards. Everything was going as planned as we dined on pot roast with steamed potatoes and carrots along with garlic rolls, and a salad. 

Dylan Roof wanted to start a war. On June 17, 2015, Roof felt his white race was losing the battle in maintaining white Southerner’s way of life where black people knew their place. He had to find a way to wake up the rest of white America about this growing threat. He had to find a target that would trigger the race war he wanted and begin taking America back from the people unworthy in his eyes.  Author Jennifer Berry Hawes described Charleston, South Carolina was the perfect place to start the new war between the races.

"Now, for good friends to cheer us, for seasonal weather to envelop us, for good work to engage us, we give You thanks."  - An Evening Prayer Neal Plantinga