Journeying Toward God’s Heart for Reconciliation

Written By Milbrey Heard

It was the murders of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, and Breonna Taylor for me that broke open my heart in a way that it hasn’t recovered. I pray it never will. The spark had been there for several years thanks to lessons from pulpits, friends’ personal stories of racial discrimination, and a growing awareness of our racial divide. Suddenly, in the midst of the worst days of the pandemic at a time when we were all isolated, it hit me. I could no longer un-see what I was seeing, or un-hear what I was hearing. Like countless others, I felt like an awkward beginner who realized I had a lot to learn, wondering what I should do next.  

I dug in to learning and listening with tears in my eyes as I walked our neighborhood daily listening to the Seeing White podcast (https://www.sceneonradio.org/seeing-white/), moving on to All Souls’ Be the Bridge book study [a study that was offered during the pandemic–please contact eveie@allsoulsfellowship.org if you would like to be a part of a study like this] and later landing on the Race and Biblical Justice team. It’s often been uncomfortable and definitely hard, but as I just heard said today: “If it’s not hard, it’s not working. And hard is what grows us. Hard is what changes us. And hard is what transforms us into who God created us to be.” (Jeanne Stevens, Soul City Church).

For those who don’t know me, I’m a white 50-something woman who grew up privileged (I didn’t have a clue just how privileged until recently) in Memphis, Tennessee. Like so many white evangelicals growing up in the late ‘60s through ‘80s, the focus at church was on individual salvation…the vertical relationship with God. It was only in the last couple of years that I began to realize just how much the Bible has to say about our horizontal relationships with each other. 

Seems I needed to be reminded of the “love thy neighbor” part of the great commandment (Matthew 22:36-40) and the great requirement to “do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8). As Derwin Gray puts it, “Racial justice and reconciliation are not distractions from the gospel but a central theme of Jesus’ call to repentance and life together.”

If “we are what we eat,” then perhaps we’re also what we hear. So, this podcast junkie leaves you with a few recommendations on what I’m listening to these days.  

Milbrey Heard
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