Be The Bridge: A 5-Day YouVersion Plan By Latasha Morrisonنموونە

Glimpses of the Kingdom

Reconciliation work is difficult. That is why so many people of color remain silent and why our white friends hold back instead of coming alongside us. It’s messy. It requires vulnerability, humility, and courage. 

For many people, this kind of work represents death to the belief systems they’ve held since childhood. For others, it feels like an inward uprooting, a deconstructing. For some, the history of their own oppression brings shame. 

I know the sacrifices this work requires. I know that with every word I speak in this highly charged racial environment, I run the risk of becoming “that girl” or, worse yet, “that angry black girl.” As a result of my commitment to truth and reconciliation, I have dealt with people, family members, and associates who have rejected me. 

Many of my white brothers and sisters have also felt the sting of others’ pushback against their bridge building. They’ve entered into the hard work of acknowledging their own systemic privileges, repenting of them, righting wrongs, and moving into restorative reconciliation. In doing so, they’ve taken heat from their white friends. They’ve been told there’s no reason to repent from wrongs so far back in history, no reason to stir up the past. Still, they’ve continued to press into the work for the sake of unity. 

The difficulties of this work can’t be brushed aside. But as I’ve continued in this work with people of color and white friends alike, I’ve seen the results. I’ve watched healing and wholeness come. I’ve watched “justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream” (Amos 5:24, NIV). I’m convinced that the Spirit is active in the middle of this work. 

In the kingdom of God, all are children. In the kingdom of God, all are invited to the table. In the kingdom of God, all are invited to receive healing. And it’s these glimpses of the kingdom around the table—the moments of kingdom healing, kingdom wholeness, kingdom multiplication—that make all the pain and sacrifice worth it. 

So press in. The healing has just begun.

Lord, open my heart and mind to recognize how You are calling me to be a bridge toward racial reconciliation. Amen.