This month, as we have considered how we put our values into ACTION, I find myself hovering between inspired anticipation and exhaustion. Emails, Facebook posts, and newsletter announcements urge me to act and compel me to learn more about countless urgent needs. Between affirming that Black Lives Matter, promoting Climate Justice, expanding awareness of Transgender Rights and Gender Fluidity, and renewing the commitment to End Homelessness, I feel drawn in many directions. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by competing demands on our time, energy and compassion. But our action doesn’t have to be a reaction to the never-ending demands on our attention. It can come from nourished roots that are connected just beneath the surface.
One of the things I took away from the Economic Inequality Conference we hosted last month is that growing justice requires an understanding of how the issues are inter-related. To address the huge, intractable problems of our times, we have to find ways to nourish the root system of growth rather than dividing our attention, the issues, and ourselves. Economic Inequality is related to Environmental Justice in that our poorest neighborhoods are those most environmentally degraded and without sustainable resources. A large percentage of youth experiencing homelessness identify as LGBTQ, because they are forced to leave a home where they are not accepted. Multiple concerns demand our attention NOW and addressing them means seeing the big, connected picture. It means understanding that the work will take a lifetime. To cultivate justice in a way that sustains us, allows us to thrive and make progress, we can look to our values statement.
Being spiritually aware, intellectually excited, community building, and diverse in belief can help us to act for justice. Be mindful of your need for spiritual nourishment. Look for opportunities to take in and be uplifted by beauty, wonder and the natural world. We can continue to challenge ourselves to remain open to learning, growing in our capacity to hold life’s complexity and to think before we act. We can nurture our community, reaching out to build relationships of mutual support around the issues we care most deeply about. We can listen and try to understand what matters to one other. We can value diverse perspectives and world views, remaining open to the possibilities that emerge when we move beyond our assumptions. These values can be the building blocks upon which we build a more just world. Through loving, intentional, informed engagement with the challenges we face, we can be a bold people of action.
In Faith,
Eileen
Practicing Beloved Community at UCE 