“So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your [sibling] has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your [sibling], and then come and offer your gift.”
I have been pondering reconciliation and community healing recently. We don’t have a template for how to stay in the conversation with people, despite differing beliefs. We don’t know how to find restitution and restoration after harm. So, often I see our communities choosing between pushing people out entirely or ignoring the harm altogether.*
Boundaries are important in many instances where abuse and continued harm is taking place, but we often push people out in our disagreements, feeling righteous in our beliefs.
The scriptures remind me that the rifts in our community relationships causes a rift in our spiritual relationship as well.
This week, I was watching an interview with Alok Vaid Menon in which they said, “In order to know yourself, you have to heal. And in order to heal, you have to hurt.”
I see in myself that I am so afraid of the hurt, vulnerability and humility that is required in the healing of relationships that it often feels easier to throw the relationship away. Perhaps you have felt that, too. Lately, I have had the opportunity to face those hard conversations, and I have gotten to see that God is there, in the midst of them.
Where do you feel called to foster healing in your relationships and communities this week?
--Theo Isoz
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