2020 has taught me how much I love neat and tidy and this year has proven messy and uncertain. I’ve learned that neat and tidy is my outward facade and messy and uncertain is what I am on the inside. I’m faced with the hard truth that the work to be done is inside of me.

And there’s only One who knocks on my heart’s door desiring to come in. He’s the One Who made us, breathed purpose into us, and has the power to remove the mess and give us hope for the future. That’s Who I want to listen to. Who I want to learn from. I’m learning God is not a snippet God. I can’t find Him in my social media feed or tucked in just one verse in Scripture. God is an all-encompassing God. He takes up all the air we breath. He’s present in all the conversations we have out loud and in our head. He speaks through His people and through history.

We've got to see this. We’ve got to be shocked. This is our shared land. We are God’s people created in His image, every single one of us. We do this best when God the Father of us all is our guide in the midst of our learnings and conversations.

Dr. Lucretia Berry, my teacher and friend, teaches me that this is a journey. We’re not here to check off the box that we’ve learned a little of this and a little of that and it’s time to get back to normal, the way things used to be.

Nehemiah, the Old Testament prophet who rebuilt the wall in Jerusalem with much favor and support from the government and religious leaders, teaches me that 6 months is a good timeline; not to complete, but to unlearn and learn new things as a firm foundation. 

I’ve entered into this learning as Ahmad Aubery took his last breathe and I will build this new foundation through December and evaluate where I’m at as I engage more and more in conversations with friends of color and most definitely and most often with the God and Father of us all.

Dr. Lucretia challenges us to learn the facts, figures, and patterns then apply them to life. Finding common ground is the goal. Dialogue leads to connectivity to our community. She writes in her study, What Lies Between Us, “it takes time to unravel and disconnect ourselves from a centuries-old, widely accepted, catastrophic lie, and begin the process of renewing our heats and minds.” (Pg. 19)

“WE WILL BE CREATORS of safe spaces where people can be transparent and vulnerable. Inspired and sustained by love, such spaces cultivate healing and change that overflow into the lives of those around us. And that’s what we are going for. Because when race/ism is addressed in the context of love, it loses its power.” (Dr. Lucretia Berry, brownicity.com 2015)

Some people make cutting remarks, but the words of the wise bring healing.” Proverbs 12:18 (NLT)

I challenge you to write down the information you are learning that is new to you. Create a google doc. This will be the very document you add to your family history, to your conversations, to your education. What you learn becomes a part of who you are. 

This is wrapped up and around as we love where we live! As we live sent, we do so as learners and lovers and listeners. Learn the culture. Love the people. Listen to the historical narratives. So much of this is in my book. I’m working on future posts about this too!

Here are some things I’m learning:

• Race isn’t natural. By definition it isn’t biologically real. It is socially and politically constructed via law, public policy, and social practices. Racism is a system. It is different from hatred and prejudice. 

• Whites brought their English culture with them. “Blacks had been torn from their land and their culture.” (Pg 26, A Young People’s History of the United States) If our teachers were from Europe, it was from their perspective. Immigrants and blacks weren’t writing the history books.

• People are in prison for crimes they didn’t commit and receiving little to no rehabilitation, released with no way to succeed.(13th documentary)

• From the documentary, Race - The Power of an Illusion, I understand that America created a story, a story of race. America wrote certain people out of the human family.  What do we do when we see people in military uniforms? “Thank you.” We salute them. We pause and show respect. What do we do when we see black people? We have opinions and stereotypes written into our subconscious. We need to say, “I want to help you build a different America. Is there anything you need from me?”

• Learn one another’s names. Say one another’s names. This is basic human dignity.

• I was raised colorblind. I was raised to love all people. I’ve proclaimed all lives matter, the unborn matter, but it’s not until I woke up recently, that I see a few people groups have lived oppressed in America for centuries and I’ve been reading a different narrative for over 40 years. Not until black lives matter will all lives matter. “We wouldn’t have to have black lives matter if we hand’t had 300 years of black lives don’t matter.” (Jane Elliott)

Personally, God is taking this beyond race/ism and into other areas of my thinking and doing. Isn’t that how God works? We open ourselves to Him and let His Word be a lamp to our feet and a light to our path and He gently sheds light on more than one area. 

One easy example to share - I see what is on Instagram and follow and covet and reproduce and compare and sulk. But when I let God change the way I think, I spend more time in prayer and can see obedience more clearly and how satisfying it is to have simply an audience of One. 

I have to shut down social media a bit and ramp up prayer and fasting. I take captive past thoughts and behaviors and align them with God. (2 Corinthians 10) “God, destroy my past beliefs and behaviors. If it’s ever been against You, I take it captive and make it obedient to You. In Jesus’ Name. Amen. 

Let’s learn together. Share in one sentence something new you’ve learned. Include site or author if applicable.