Ethnicity, Reconciliation, and Justice

At Thanksgiving we are guests at God’s table of healing and grace. As good guests, we receive his grace and forgiveness and carry it out into the world to be agents of healing, even in the places where we have brought the brokenness.

Sometimes God displaces us and sometimes we choose displacement to survive, thrive, or walk in obedience to God. However we end up being displaced, whether through persecution, a natural disaster, or by choice, such as taking a specific job, God uses displacement to shape us and draw us closer to him. 

As the hashtag #MeToo floods our social media outlets to raise awareness for sexual harassment, we need to ask how we got to the point where almost every woman has experienced some type of it. How did our world become a place where so many women are treated with such little respect?

Do I really believe that change would come if I stopped my “actions” and “just” prayed for reconciliation and justice and provision for those in need? And do I really believe, when I am working for justice, that it’s actually God who brings about the change, and not me? Most of the time, I’m not sure I do.

If there’s one thing that’s helped to keep me rooted and growing, it’s been paying attention to place.

How should we think about serving? If we love doing it, are we fulfilling Jesus’ call to give up our lives? And how can we learn to love sacrificially, in ways that cost us something?

“What is this you have done?”

These words from God to Eve in Genesis 3:13 are always heart-wrenching to me when I read them. I imagine so much anguish in his voice.

I had just walked into Chipotle when one of my Asian American colleagues pulled me aside.

Simplicity and minimalism are buzzwords that come and go, attracting a lot of attention and then fading away again.

What does it mean to be American?