Listen and Love
It was Pentecost Sunday and the wind was sweeping our words away as we walked and talked.
She is a black Canadian. I am white.
“I’m so tired” she said.
She told me about the constant conversation swirling in her head and her home regarding the racial unrest in the United States as the violence and the vengeance builds on opposing sides of a growing chasm of hurt and hate.
“I’m so tired” she said.
I asked how her teen boys are feeling…
“They are so tired” she said.
I asked her what her teen boys need in order to navigate this season with resiliency.
“They need to know who they are in Christ. That is the only answer” she said.
I spoke with another women this week from a First Nation community, as she desperately described the death and trauma ripping apart their hearts.
“I’m so tired” she said.
“What can we do?” I asked.
“Listen and love” she said.
My Nigerian friend told me we need to build trust.
How do you rebuild busted up walls?
Together.
When one is overwhelmed and exhausted, another comes to support.
When we take this humble posture of serving one another, we expose ourselves to winds of deep change. Whether we belong to a minority or majority group, our biases and blinders sink when we serve, listen and love.
Jesus didn’t come to conform us into any one mould, but to restore us uniquely. The wonder and vastness of cultural expression that emerges when people encounter Christ is remarkable because the Gospel is relevant to every nation, and sets us free to express our truest identity.
It was Pentecost Sunday two thousand years ago… a fierce wind swept through a room in Jerusalem and various languages erupted from the people inside out into the streets. The reason for the wind was to empower the speech of each person, so they could convey the message of the Gospel… to the Nations.
The message of love.
Perhaps if we listen long enough to another perspective, we will find ourselves acting in love while we are speaking it. And only then will we collectively rise to see the world changed… with every chance we get to listen and love.
