readiness

Sixteen years ago, I was a youth director at a church in East Waterloo. It was a white commuter church located in a neighborhood that was mixed race, but predominately African American. One of our church members was a woman who was white, who lived in East Waterloo, and who was passionate about racial reconciliation. She had started a non-profit organization aimed to bridge blacks and whites, and at various times, she'd come by my office to share thoughts and ideas with me. I distinctly remember trying hard to listen politely but being generally disinterested. I was basically predetermined to dismiss her and thought of her work as "her thing" that had little to do with me.

Four years ago I picked up the book Divided by Faith because I had some friends who were reading and talking about it. I skimmed through parts in it and called it good as I placed it back on my bookshelves and went on to refer it to people because I knew of the impact the book had had on others.

Six months ago, I went to a two and a half day "Undoing Racism" workshop. For some reason, that workshop was a new awakening for me in regards to systemic racism and my place in it. Helping pave the way for this readiness was the book discussion I was in over The New Jim Crow , the learning I had been doing within CCDA over the past four years, and most certainly, the interracial relationships that have been deepening in my life over the past four years.

I recently just finished critically reading Divided by Faith where I hung on almost every word as if this textbook-type piece of writing was a gripping pageturner. On vacation, I reread through Martin King Luther Jr.'s "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" with tears pouring down my face and something happening deeper in my bones.

All of this has me considering the readiness factor. We cannot predict when and how the Spirit of God will choose to move in our own spirit, awakening us to His truth, causing scales to fall from our eyes, challenging us to transformation, massaging convictions deeper into our beings.

Yet, though I cannot predict, I can prepare. I can continue to learn and listen in Scripture, in prayer, in reading, in relationship and experiences with people, and through mentors who are further along the journey. I can be open and expectant and responsive as the Spirit decides and directs movement in my life.

And though we cannot predict a timeline for God's movement in others, or even whom He will tap in the Spirit, we can continue to offer an environment, information, and experiences for others' journeys. And we can disciple people to learn and to listen to the active Spirit of God in all of our lives.