liadanslyre

every valley

so i know i've been talking politics and issues on this here blog of mine.
maybe it's a tired subject that i need to put to bed.
but- these things have been on my mind a lot lately.

they have been on my mind b/c it seems
i've been confronted with how wacked out our country is.
don't get me wrong-

i'm glad i'm a u.s. citizen.
i'm grateful i suppose that i was born w/ white skin.
into a middle class family.
with access to a primary care doc
and not just the emergency room.
i'm grateful that police don't profile me
or that employers level correction or worse relieve me from a job b/c i have a foriegn accent.

i mean- sure- we have laws to protect 'outsiders'.
we have some level of senstivity to not proverbially kick the weak to the curb.

but it doesn't work.
and i'm wondering what i can do about it.

then i came across this entry. granted, it was written specifically about women's role in society and the church in particular. i have really latched onto the ideas he outlines and wondered how they might apply more broadly. might it be beneficial to surrender my priveledge/power to abide- in the truest sense of the word- with those that are marginalized? we see it modeled in Jesus' life. i want to pray that God would show me how to do this- and that i would have the cahoonas to do it.

what are your thoughts on this?

and don't write me hate mail asking if i'm proposing that you feel guilty for being born into priveledge.

"symbolically i am the old-guard - i am a western, white, educated, middle-class, male and as such part of my calling is to surrender my "power" (as best as i am able and aware), to hear and really listen to the stories of the "other," and to choose "us," by stepping into relationship."

"the way of Christ is to leave the center and step into the margin. By moving into the margin the marginalized no longer are . . . how do we shape the ethos of a community . . . by our presence."

these quotes are taken from a post by dwight friessen- some guy i've never met. on occassion- i read his blog.

chewable vitamin
"3 A voice of one calling:
"In the desert prepare
the way for the LORD;
make straight in the wilderness
a highway for our God.
4 Every valley shall be raised up,
every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
the rugged places a plain.
5 And the glory of the LORD will be revealed,
and all mankind together will see it.
For the mouth of the LORD has spoken."
~ isaiah 40.3-5