Embrace Your Path

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. ~ John 13:34

The command is love. Yet, looking at the world around me and the voices that seem to rage like crashing waves in the middle of a storm, even from within the Church, love is overwhelmed by the voices of fear and anger, especially when it comes to race and what it means to walk with those in the communities where God has placed his people. Even still, perfect love casts out fear. Embracing love though means first confronting the truth about ourselves--that our hearts are steeped in sin, that our recognition of this makes us want to run and hide like Adam and Even in the Garden after committing the first sin. One difference is that their sin is named. Yet, even within churches today, we stand afraid to mention the name of the elephant in the room. Racism isn't something that's just "out there" in the world. It's also within churches. But God calls us out of this sin and toward his grace. He calls us out of hiding and into the light. He calls communities out of brokenness and into wholeness in him as we walk together through all of the highs and lows in life. He calls us to embrace diversity and to be reconciled to each other under the One Light that has the power to bring about reconciliation even as we truthfully engage with the reasons, first and foremost spiritually but also physically that have led to the need for that reconciliation. As the Founder and Executive Director of Voice of the Middle Ground, God has called me to be a part of this process.

~ Ruth Jefferson, Executive Director