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Tag: race

Forced on a Journey

June 24, 2015 /

empty roadway

Dear Friends,

Over the last few months, I have been on a spiritual journey producing a struggle in my own faith.

I, like you, watched the media reports of rioting in Ferguson, Missouri following the shooting of Michael Brown by a police officer.

I listened to the reports of Eric Garner being choked to death while being arrested by officers of the NYPD.

I attempted to comprehend what could have happened for Freddie Gray to suffer injuries leading to his death in the back of a Baltimore police van.

Over and over again I watched the video of Walter Scott being shot in the back as he ran away from a North Charleston, SC police officer

I was stunned by the images from a Texas pool party of an out of control police officer rapidly escalating an already tense situation.

I wanted to see each incident as unique. I wanted to say that this is not what law enforcement is like. And I don’t think it is, but I cannot deny that these events have happened and our nation reels because of them.

I wanted to process and look at each of these events in isolation from the other. But I couldn’t. I couldn’t do it because I saw and read the responses to the events from colleagues and church leaders. Men and women who have much more experience than I. Individuals far smarter than me. I saw these people standing in solidarity with the African American community as they demanded justice. The presence of these men and women, whom I greatly respected, standing on a different side of the debate gave me great pause. I began to question if I was not in fact wrong.

So I started to listen to myself. What I heard myself saying sounded an awful lot like the words of my white predecessors who spoke against the civil rights movement of the past and any efforts to change the status quo.

I knew then that I was wrong. But I did not know how or understand why. This realization was when my journey began.

Many of us are quick to quote Martin Luther King Jr. but would we have been so quick to quote him and stand beside him if we had lived through our nation seemingly being torn apart by the civil rights movement? What about today, as we watch our nation appears to be taking a journey down this path again?

I have been on a spiritual journey these past few months and in the next several posts I want to take you on that journey with me. I have many questions and very few answers.

Let’s walk together,
Pastor Stephen

Hyperactive Rabbits

February 23, 2013 /

We all want to be hyperactive rabbits lacing up our red lightning bolt jogging shoes, taking our place on the starting line waiting for the moment when the starter’s pistol fires and we can careen ahead to claim the glory of victory.

When that first vision of what could be, what should be, begins to become clear in our souls it can be like the sound of a starter’s pistol in our minds and bodies. We surge ahead to claim our destiny. But, as we all know, when the smoke clears it will not be the wild rabbit who wins the race but the steady, slow, tortoise.

Rabbit and TurtleBuilding Block #2: A vision does not necessarily require immediate action.

“A vision rarely requires immediate action. It always requires patience” (20). Charging out of the starting gate too early to fulfill, even a God-ordained vision, will always result in failure, discouragement, and disillusionment. While we will talk more about the specifics of what takes place while we wait when we discuss other building blocks, for now I will say that three things happen while we wait for the vision:

First, the vision matures in us. “For a vision to survive it must be mature and healthy before being exposed to the cynical, critical, stubborn environment in which it is expected to survive” (21).

Second, we mature in preparation for the vision. Think about the story of David. He had been anointed the King of Israel. He knew his vision. He knew God’s purposes for his life. Yet he still had many years of preparation and maturing before the vision would be.

Third, God is at work behind the scenes to prepare the way. “Ultimately we are taking part in a massive assault that began one dark afternoon on a hill just outside Jerusalem. God’s vision for your life is much bigger than you. Apart from his intervention and preparation, you and I are incapable of pulling off even our small part of the operation” (24). While the Hebrew people were in slavery in Egypt they cried out to God and it appeared that he was not listening. But with the birth of a baby to be named Moses and even his being sent away for 40 years to the land of Midian, we see that God was at work all the time, behind the scenes, to fulfill a vision for saving his people. For much of the time, though, it appeared as though God was not doing anything.

Blessings,
Pastor Stephen

 

Quotations taken from:
Stanley, Andy. Visioneering. Sisters, Or: Multnomah Publishers, 2005.

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