Events in the past weeks have brought the discussion of racism, white privilege, injustice, and more, to the forefront.
As followers of Jesus we have committed to the journey of formation and transformation as Christ’s disciples. The journey of transformation is complex. Spiritual transformation involves learning. Spiritual transformation also involves un-learning and re-learning.
Glennon Doyle in her latest book “Untamed” writes, “In America, there are not two kinds of people, racists and nonracists. There are three kinds of people: those poisoned by racism and actively choosing to spread it; those poisoned by racism and actively trying to detox: and those poisoned by racism who deny its very existence inside them.”
Spiritual transformation is the ongoing journey of growing in awareness of the unredeemed parts that reside deep within. May the Spirit’s gentle presence abide with you/us as we listen, learn, examine, recognize,repent, and are transformed through the power of God’s Spirit….
Let us pray,
I have only a few words
in this feeble prayer.
I am listening.
I am learning.
I am examining myself.
I am trying to recognize
how the system of racism
lives in and through me.
It’s like a tangled up ball of yarn.
I untangle one layer only to encounter another.
Until it’s all untangled, the yarn cannot
be knit, the potential of the yarn
is compromised.
(Prayer by Rev. Terri C. Pilarski)