Good morning…
“As I read devotions and pray, Riley soaks in God’s shining light,” texted a dear friend from the Friday morning class which used to meet in our living room before COVID.
“What a beautifully peaceful picture!” I responded. “I love it. How is your heart feeling this morning?”
“My heart is thankful for true friends and wonderful family who reflect God’s love,” she replied. “I am also grateful for hiking and kayaking in His amazing creation in Blue Ridge this week. My heart is also heavy watching the news and preparing for my last week as a facilitator for the discussion of the book Caste and “what to do about dismantling caste.”
“Thankfulness and heaviness grow together in our hearts as we witness how much healing work God still needs to do,” I texted back. “The beauty is this: it is God’s work to do, not ours. If we can wake each morning seeking our daily directives from God, following the Spirit where God is actively at work, then we can be good witnesses to the God who is in the process of making everything new. I so love our friendship bond. We see God all around us every day in dogs and nature and people and light mixed with shadows. I love your photos and the way God expands in and through us every single day.”
“Thanks,” she concluded our text string. “I so appreciate our friendship and connectedness as well. Pastor John Vaughn of Ebenezer’s refrain these past few weeks has been ‘with God, all things are possible,’ which goes along with your thoughts about the heaviness I feel about the cost of caste and racism. Much to pray for and also much joy to savor.”
Our text string coaxed me into researching the book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. I google my way to a book summary provided by eNotes.com which explains: “Caste is a 2020 nonfiction book in which prize-winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson argues that the United States operates under a caste system based on race.”
- Wilkerson compares the United States to India and Nazi Germany, examining the similarities and differences between each nation’s caste system.
- Through her “Eight Pillars of Caste,” Wilkerson explains what a caste system entails and how caste perpetuates itself through dehumanization and division.
- Drawing on history, research, and personal anecdotes, Wilkerson explores the dire consequences of caste and proposes “radical empathy” as the solution.
“Radical empathy” steps forward to lead us. In researching the phrase, I fall in love with the concept. “Radical empathy is actively striving to better understand and share the feelings of others,” says one definition. “To fundamentally change our perspectives from judgmental to accepting, in an attempt to more authentically connect with ourselves and others. Our radically empathetic community places this at the root of everything we do.”
Isn’t that why God zipped up his only son in skin, allowed him to walk and talk with us humans for a short season on earth, before clearing a powerful pathway through death to resurrection so that God’s Spirit can expand in human hearts? Radical empathy is the the gift designed to coarse through the veins of our hearts as heaviness takes our left hand and thankfulness takes our right, shepherding us into the holistic healing the LORD is orchestrating within and among us.
Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that (Ephesians 5:1-2, MSG).
Together, beside Riley, let us read devotions and pray, soaking in the LORD’s shining light as we witness our Re-creator transforming everything.
…Sue…
