Long Way Here

Judith Herman in her work, Trauma and Recovery, says, “No intervention that takes power away from the survivor can possibly foster her recovery, no matter how much it appears to be in her immediate best interest.”

This is why listening to another person’s story or experience of trauma without judging it is important. Sometimes the first expression of a survivor’s power is the strength and courage to give their experience a voice. When we demean, dismiss, or devalue another’s voiced-experience we take their power away and perpetuate their trauma.

So whether it be racial trauma, or other forms of societal trauma, or personal/individual trauma, let’s commit to listening well.

De-center yourself. Resist the urge to justify another person’s experience. Resist the urge to pacify or qualify their story. Just listen. Be with them in their story. Consider it an honor to read it (if social media) or hear it (if across the table). Hold it close. Don’t feel the need to “identify” with it. Just hold it. If on social media, don’t even feel the need to comment beyond, “Thank you for sharing.”

In doing so, you are creating space where healing becomes just a little more possible for them–for all of us.

And for the record I am still learning to how to listen, too.

There is much that can be said about William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963). He was an American sociologist, historian, civil rights activist, and Pan-Africanist. You can read more about his life’s work here and here.

What I will say about Du Bois is that his writings have opened me up to a world I never really knew. Whether it is The Souls of Black Folk, Black Reconstruction in America, or his short stories and essays, Du Bois has something to say to us today. It’s what makes this prayer a powerful expression of resilient faith. His time, context, and work made him acutely aware of his need for grace for the moment. We need grace for ours.

Now to his prayer.

Give us grace, O God, to dare to do the deed which we well know cries to be done. Let us not hesitate because of ease, or the words of [other’s] mouths, or our own lives. Mighty causes are calling us–the freedom of women, the training of children, the putting down of hate and murder and poverty–all these and more. But they call with voices that mean work and sacrifice and death. Mercifully grant us, O God the spirit of esther, that we say: I will go unto the King and if I perish, I perish. Amen.

Sojourner Truth, named Isabella by her master, escaped from slavery to freedom in 1826 and worked for several years as a domestic in New York City. But when she heard a call to travel, going “up and down the land, showing the -people their sins and being a sign unto them,” Isabella changed her name and became an itinerant evangelist for the causes of abolition and women’s rights. In 1864, she traveled to Washington, D.C., to encourage Abraham Lincoln in his struggle against the Confederacy, staying on to minister to the ex-slaves who had gathered in refugee camps. She was still there on December 12, 1865, when Congress ratified its thirteenth amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery in the United States.

Common Book of Prayer for Ordinary Radicals, p.532

Sojourner Truth (1797-1883) was a no-nonsense woman who spoke to God in a no-nonsense way. Given her context, state of life, and the society she lived in, along with her work, it is no wonder she prayed prayers like this. The one I share with us today is short, simple, and to the point. It is almost as if she prayed as she worked with only a few seconds to spare. If you’ve ever read the Hebrew prophets you will notice a similar no-nonsense tone of confidence and desperation. Sojourner Truth believed what they believed: if she was to do God’s work on earth midst all the evil, hatred and opposition, then Divine Providence should follow her each step of the way. Here’s her prayer:

Oh, God, you know I have no money, but you can make the people do for me, and you must make the people do for me. I will never give you peace till you do, God.

“There is a difference of digging deep into scripture, and dangerously picking out random words or verses that fit your worldview.

If you’re reading or proclaiming a new view that no one is seeing or has seen before, it’s probably not a good one. We have 2000 years of church history to help guide us. We have hundreds of reputable commentaries and commentators to walk beside. We have councils and creeds and wisdom from generations before and up to present day.

We tend to be drawn to the fantastical, the cryptic; we love the codes and conspiracy. We chase after the gnostic secret knowledge that God has revealed to only a select few. This is dangerous. It’s foolhardy. And It will leave us titling at windmills and searching for “treasure” that doesn’t exist.”

Aaron Duvall

I read this the other day and shared it on Facebook. There is great wisdom in this post. When it comes to the Christian faith we must remember one of the greatest claims we hold: God’s Spirit has long been at work in the life of God’s imperfect people for the sake of God’s world and God’s dream to bring all things together in Christ.

As we work out our faith in a 2021 North American context (or wherever you are), it’s important to remember that we stand on the shoulders of 2000 years of faith filled with people who adored the Lord. Some have been faithful, some have been unfaithful, but God was always working to redeem all beliefs, doctrines, and actions along the way. In the end, and in every moment in-between, God is faithful. As Paul once said to the young pastor Timothy:

11 This is a trustworthy saying:

For if we died with him,
we will also live with him;
12 if we endure, we will also reign with him;
if we deny him, he will also deny us;
13 if we are faithless, he remains faithful,
for he cannot deny himself.

2 Timothy 2:11-13

As we live in what some call a post-truth age and seek to faithfully bear witness to the love of God in the reign of Christ, let Paul’s “trustworthy saying” bring us hope.

We press on.

Many of us have heard of Mother Teresa, but have we heard of Mother Dabney. Not much is known about her life outside of her ministry. What we do know is that in 1925, she and her husband went to work for a mission in a North Philadelphia neighborhood. God had called her husband to preach. God had called Mother Dabney to pray. But she didn’t just pray, she prayed through. She believed that if God’s people prayed “through” it, whatever “it” could be, God will break “through” it, revealing God’s wonder-working presence. Over the life of her prayer ministry it is reported that thousands came to know Jesus as Lord.

Mother Dabney’s prayer legacy may have been forgotten were it not for one headline. In 1941 The Pentecostal Evangel published her testimony as an African American prayer warrior under the title, “What It Means to Pray Through.” That one article sparked a prayer movement all around the world. Mother Dabney received more than 3 million letters from people who wanted to know how to pray through. It has been said that she dedicated her life to prayer and fasting until her knees bled and were constantly raw.

This is a prayer written by Elizabeth J. Dabney in 1945 entitled, “Dear God, Thank you for the Morning Light.”

Dear God, thank you for the morning light
This day I have lived to see.
Guide my speech, order my steps aright,
As I leave this place, to meet Thee.
I praise you for your training school,
The teaching you do impart,
Make me one of your praying tools:
Abide within my heart.
As I leave this home you gave;
Dear God, protect it for me.
Let the blood of Jesus save.
My prayers ascend to Thee.
If it pleases you to call me home
Before my covenant ends today,
Let me rest in Thine arms;
Accept this prayer I pray.
Bless all the leaders of the land;
Bless everybody everywhere.
The time has come. I must be on my way.
Look for me I shall meet you there. Amen.

Source: Conversation with God: Two Centuries of Prayers by African Americans, 173