Walk With Me in the Middle.

Sometimes we have to dig for kindling. This is week is one of those times – when it all seems wrong – when justice seems far off…

 

 

I am somewhere in the middle.

I am no longer there. I am here.

I can look back and see that progress has been made, because there is distance between there and here, where I stand

Somewhere in the middle.

We all are here, in the middle.

Or most of us anyway.

Some of us are handcuffed to what we’ve always known, unaware or unwilling to see that the key is within our grasp.

There are some still there.

Stuck.

Chained to the past.

Chained to ignorance.

Chained to unkindness and lies.

Chained to the way its always been. It is hard to walk away from that – even if it is what is holding you hostage.

They choose chains because it works well for them, it ‘keeps people in their place’. And who knows what is out there beyond what is known. For them, it is better to stay chained to ignorance by ignorance.

I am in the middle. There are people several paces behind me and I am following the people ahead of me. We are all unique, as all masterpieces are, each one bearing the fingerprints of the Creator. We are from varying backgrounds, we may have different view points and we look different from each other; but we find ourselves in the same place –

In the middle.

I am here. Moving from what I thought I knew. Listening, striving to understand; this requires that I acknowledge there are things I don’t understand. I walk beside my fellow masterpieces who fight for things I take for granted. My voice joins theirs. I join the fight.

In the middle we grieve and sit in the pain. The repercussions of inequality are pervasive, warping all areas of life and so there are gaping wounds, the pain is pervasive. Here in the middle, our tears mingle; we cry because of the struggle of the past and because of the tense present.

The middle is progress. The middle means recognizing systemic injustice and calling it out. The middle means bearing burdens for each other, it means putting on the pain and carrying it. It means suffering. It means having tough conversations. It means walking together.

In the middle.

We walk towards the day when all things will be made new and sin will be no more. We travel towards a time when all things will be restored and made right. That is what we travel towards.

This is our hope.

But we aren’t there yet.

We are in the middle.

Let’s walk toward the hope that we have never forgetting that hope is also with us,

Here in the middle.

Let’s walk together.

The middle is not a desolate place of pain.

Healing can happen in the middle because hope is here.

There can be restoration, there can be understanding, there can be healing, there can be redemption here in the middle, but we have to be willing to pursue it.

We need to pursue love, hope and grace on our way to love, hope and grace. It’s the only way to life, to flourishing for all. When we pursue flourishing it means that we are headed in the right direction and that the kingdom of God is happening within our midst:

Here, in the middle.

Walk with me.

I will walk with you –

Here, in the middle.