How Walking Can Be Viewed As A Spiritual Metaphor

Photo Credit: pedrosimoes7

From April Yamasaki's book, Sacred Pauses: Spiritual Practices for Personal Renewal:

"In Scripture, walking is often used as a metaphor for spiritual living. The Law repeatedly reminded the people to walk in God’s ways: “Therefore, keep the commandments of the LORD your God, by walking in his ways and by fearing him.”  

This is echoed by the prophets: “He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” The letters to the early church are filled with references to walking in love, walking by faith, walking in truth, walking in darkness or light — all references not to the physical act of putting one foot in front of another, but to the spiritual life of faith.  

One of the things I love about this metaphor of walking is that it’s drawn from everyday life. Walking is not like running the Boston Marathon, or swimming across the English Channel, or climbing Mount Everest, or performing some other great feat. I walk to the grocery store, I walk for fitness and to visit a friend, I walk outside to enjoy nature. Walking is something ordinary that I can do at any time.  

And yet, as Arthur Paul Boers points out, walking is also “an act of dissent; it is countercultural.” In North America, the automobile is still the preferred mode of transportation for many. In the city where I live, the installation of more bike lanes has been the cause of some controversy. Most drive to school, work, or church. Even I usually drive the three minutes from home to church instead of walking— it’s ten times faster, I have too much to carry, I need to go across town later anyway, I’m not wearing the right shoes, I have to pick up someone else, it’s raining. As a child of my culture, I always seem to have a reason to drive instead of walk, to go faster instead of slower. So for me, walking is both an ordinary, everyday activity and yet challenges me as countercultural. 

So too walking as metaphor for spiritual living. The spiritual life is something we can practice any day. I can take it one step at a time, not looking too far back or too far forward, focusing on the present moment. I can slow down. I can become quiet before God. I can pray. I can read Scripture.  

Just like walking down my street, these are ordinary things that I can do without any special training or skill. And yet they also go against the grain of my culture that tells me to do more and do it faster, a culture that values speaking up instead of being quiet, that sees prayer as unnecessary and Scripture as out of date. As a countercultural activity, walking is an apt metaphor for living a life of faith."

Yamasaki, April (2013-02-01). Sacred Pauses: Spiritual Practices for Personal Renewal (Kindle Locations 866-890). Herald Press. Kindle Edition.

(HT: @CSCleve for the recommendation of the book.)

What Is True For The College Freshmen Of 2015?

Photo Credit: US Department of Education

Each year at the start of the new school year, Beloit College releases what they call the Mindset List -- a list of important facts and events which influence the worldview and perspective that this year's college freshmen class brings with them.

This year's list, which is made up for the graduating class of 2019, represents those students who were born in 1997. As you can see, this year's list highlights advances in technology, significant world events, and the many ways that today's college students experience the world differently from their parents.

You can read the complete list here but I've included some entries below that I found particularly interesting:

• Princess Diana, Notorious B.I.G., Jacques Cousteau, and Mother Teresa have never been alive in their lifetimes.
• Google has always been there, in its founding words, “to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible.”
• They have never licked a postage stamp.
• Email has become the new “formal” communication, while texts and tweets remain enclaves for the casual.
• They have grown up treating Wi-Fi as an entitlement.
• The NCAA has always had a precise means to determine a national champion in college football.
• Cell phones have become so ubiquitous in class that teachers don’t know which students are using them to take notes and which ones are planning a party.
• They have avidly joined Harry Potter, Ron, and Hermione as they built their reading skills through all seven volumes.
• Playhouse Disney was a place where they could play growing up.
• TV has always been in such high definition that they could see the pores of actors and the grimaces of quarterbacks. 
• The proud parents recorded their first steps on camcorders, mounted on their shoulders like bazookas.

Please remember to pray for the 22 million U.S. college students that are starting classes over the next few weeks. They are part of a changing world...and they also have the opportunity to influence how the world changes.

Embracing Our Ethnicity: A Lesson For Each Of Us

Photo Credit: YouTube

A bizarre story out of Washington state hit the news this weekend when it was revealed that the leader of the Spokane chapter of the NAACP, Rachel Dolezal, is actually white. While it's not odd that a leader within the NAACP would be white, what makes this story interesting is that Dolezal has been "passing" as an African American woman for at least most of the past decade.

Based on the reporting that has been done on her background, it appears that the 37-year-old Dolezal developed a strong connection to African Americans and black culture over the course of her life. Her parents had several adopted black siblings and she studied at Howard University, one of the premier historically black colleges within the United States. She went onto marry a black man and began darkening her skin, as well as wearing her hair in what most would consider more traditional African American styles.

What is Ethnic Identity?

So what is ethnic identity exactly? In its simplest sense, ethnicity refers to a group of people who identify with each other (and are identified by others) because of common factors like a shared history, physical appearance, cultural values, beliefs, customs, language, religion, national origin and other factors. In light of this, one's ethnic identity refers to the degree that one identifies with and belongs to a certain ethnic group or groups. When the Bible refers to ethnos -- a race or nation of people -- this is to which it is referring.

Because of our troubled history in the United States when it comes to ethnicity (e.g. the near genocide of Native Americans, the horrors of slavery, the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII, etc.), there are strong feelings when it comes to this issue.

In the example of Dolezal, at some point in her life, she chose to move from simply identifying WITH black people to identifying AS a black person. Her case raises serious questions about how we identify ourselves ethnically, how others identify us and why this is important.

Authenticity

The story of Rachel Dolezal is of particular interest to me because of some of the commonalities that I appear to have with her. I, too, developed a strong interest in black culture at a young age and have developed strong relationships with African Americans over the course of my life. Like Dolezal, I have held a leadership role in a predominately black organization, The Impact Movement, that serves the needs of the black community.

In my early years of ministry, I sensed that God was leading me into a ministry focus of black college students. Fortunately, I had several African American mentors that cautioned me to resist the temptation to try to become something that I was not in order to gain approval in black social circles. They shared with me how they knew of well-meaning white people that would attempt to prove how "down" they were with black folks by changing the way they dressed and or fumbling through feeble attempts at incorporating black slang into their conversation.

I'm grateful that this advice was afforded me early on in my journey of cross-cultural ministry. I learned long ago that no matter how much I loved my African American friends or how much I cared about issues that were important to the black community, I would never be black. God had made me a white man and if I was going to truly build relationships with those different than me, I needed to learn to become comfortable in my own skin.

Acceptance Within the Black Community

What I have learned over time is that being myself is all that anyone asks of me. If they're asking for more than that, it's not something I need to worry about. Granted, there have been challenges as a white man seeking to cross cultural lines where I've had to work hard to build trust and credibility. This, of course, is understandable. Because of the strained relations between the white and black communities throughout our country's history, there can be initial skepticism when I enter into predominately black environments.

But you know what I've found? I've learned that once most Africans Americans see that I care about them as individuals and about the issues that are important to them, then I've often experienced a high level of acceptance. I've learned that if I operate from a place of love and authenticity, then I'll be welcomed more times than not.

This is something that I wished Rachel Dolezal had learned earlier on in life. In reading about her story, it appears that she genuinely respects black culture and cares about black people. She's been a true advocate that has spent significant time in bringing attention to issues of concern to the black community. But she doesn't have to present herself with false claims about her ethnic heritage or upbringing in order to do so. According to my experiences, a white person that works tirelessly for African Americans will likely be embraced within that community.

God's Grace in Christ

Beyond the view that others may have of her, I hope that Rachel gains a greater understanding of God's love for her and His sovereign wisdom in choosing to make her a white woman. I believe that God has given each of us our ethnicity for His glory and to accomplish His purposes in the world. He can use who we truly are to make a true impact on the lives of others.

It appears that God has given Rachel Dolezal a genuine love for the African American community. This is a good thing. When we advocate for and identify with those that are ethnically different than us, the world is given an example of what it means to live out the gospel of God's grace. Just as Jesus left his heavenly home to identify with and live among us, we too can identify with others in a way that demonstrates our love for them.

However, we don't have to pretend we are something we are not. Even during His time on earth, Jesus never stopped being God. His divinity was not dependent upon his humanity. We, on the other hand, do need each other to grow in our humanness. And one of the most profound ways we can grow as people is to develop relationships with those different than us. I applaud Rachel Dolezal in her efforts to identify with African Americans, but I wish she would have not been deceptive in the process.

Author Brennan Manning refers to "the Imposter" as the false self that we make known to others for fear that our true self won't be accepted. We present an image that we think others will like rather than who we really are. I wonder if this is what happened with Rachel. I wonder if she thought that black people would never fully accept her if it was known that she was white. And that saddens me because I don't think it's based in reality.

But, even if it were true, there's a God that created her and fully embraces her within her ethnicity. Fortunately, I believe this applies to all of us. So whatever your God-given ethnicity might be, don't waste it. Embrace your ethnic identity as a gift from God to be used for His glory and your good. The world will be better for it.