Run with me a bit in Jacksonville MS, affectionately known as "The Sip." I will be spending 10 weeks here for my first feild education experience in Divinity School. I have entitled the blog Gulpping The Sip because of the feverish pace my schedule will maintain until the end of my time here. There are so many things to see here, from pig ear sandwiches, which no lie I encountered this afternoon for just 1.05, communities, rich and poor, black and white and the answers to what happens when a community steeped in racisim decides to put down their rocks and play nice.
My goals here are to learn as much as I can about this beautiful city, to explore how current programs toward reconciliation have been effective, and to identify those things that are not working. most importantly, I am hoping to be used as an instrument by the Lord Almighty and allow these experiences to shape my future ministries by illuminating the ways in which I fall short when it comes to being willing to put down the past and engage in reconciliation, and by replicating the many amazing things that are happening as Jackson continues the difficult task of building bridges to the community God intended for it to be.
I warn you, I am a pretty opinionated person, and you won't agree with everything I write, but if this blog inspires you to think just a little bit, I will feel like it has served its intended purpose. I look forward to you sharing your thoughts and journing with me into a strange land. its in these kinds of places that we become most aqcuantined with who we truly are.
I am running with you, on a parallel journey. Interestingly enough, I am in a community in Gallatin, TN of folks who have put down their rocks, but haven't yet decided to play with each other yet, nice or otherwise.
ReplyDeleteI pray for you, and with you, this prayer attributed to St. Francis of Assisi:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
when there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand,
to be loved as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying [to ourselves] that we are born to eternal life.