I’ve been thinking about how lives are restored. How do we become a fertile place for grace to do its reconciling work?
I think it begins with conversations.
A colleague and mentor calls them “courageous” conversations. These are conversations that allow room for difference, for the ways each of us is experiencing God in our lives, and for the ways that our life story keeps us from growing in God’s love.
We are blessed that we have been known as a place where difference is part of our identity. We have lived in this middle place since we began 22 years ago. Being in this position is itself a gift from God, challenging, but a gift.
Our differences provide fertile ground for our growth in God’s love. Spaces of mutual accountability where we encounter each other in vulnerable ways are a witness to our desire to live into God’s kingdom. It makes our call to restored lives incarnate as create places for grace to be made evident among us as a diverse people.
We live in a culture and a time where our public conversations are not constructive and differences are used to divide us. We are truly in a desert place, a dry and desolate place, in a cultural atmosphere that desperately needs the church to live into its ministry of reconciliation.
What will it look like for our community to become a place that models holy conversations among a diverse community? How can this become the cornerstone of our call to restored lives that go from seeking to serving, from wanderers to missionaries?
This weekend we have an opportunity to hear about God’s insistence that the way needs to be paved for our healing, salvation, and reconciliation. Join us as we “make a desert highway,” as we make space for all people to see “the glory of the Lord.”
