Pay attention to the news. Choose one thing that provokes you. We all saw these instructions for our blog prompt for this module. Personally, it made me want to cry. Because it would be a welcome reprieve if there was only 1 thing in the news which has provoked me, on any given day, for too long now. Pick a topic, pick an oppressive system, pick an evil which seems to be prevailing. Can I just tell you how tired I am of being provoked? SO. VERY. TIRED!
But can I also tell you how God is faithfully attending to me right now? Let me share the ways:
- bringing me to this cohort, these conversations, this learning, this equipping.
- inviting me into lament for this season of Lent to sacrifice the anger and anguish.
- providing me with the tools from our last gathering to take in news through the framework of belovedness.
- challenging me to hold both lament and belovedness simultaneously as equally necessary responses.
- having a conversation with a preschooler on Sunday whose “childlike” confidence in knowing that he is truly and wholly loved by God, reminded me that I, along with every other human being can live in this confidence.
With all of these aligning together, I feel seen and loved by God and strengthened in my capacity to see belovedness in those who have “provoked” me. May God who began this good work in me carry it on to completion in the day of Christ Jesus!