Are You Willing to go to the Outsider?
Are you willing to go to the outsider?
Our unwillingness to go to the one who is different than us makes sense; it’s uncomfortable; it’s awkward. So what do we do? We pretend to know ‘them’. Not only that, but I’ve even found myself brainstorming solutions to their problems without first consulting the actual people that it would affect!
“I don’t think my neighbors are naive about the existence of poverty, but I do believe they are often in the dark when it comes to imagining and understanding poverty as a way of life, especially among poor communities of color that are culturally isolated”
As Christians, we have to be able to go to the poor and powerless and seek first to understand and then to be understood. Our way isn’t always better. We have to be willing to face the differing reality of someone else and not run from the dialogue but accept it.
