Part 1 of a 2 Part Series on Listening as a Spiritual Discipline by Tonya Stanfield  Photo Credit: Lia Filles (https://liafillies.blogspot.com) “Listen to the voice of the Land; to the voice of the minority; to the voice of the creative ones; to all our relations. Listen twice as much as you speak. Speak life and beauty.” – Joel Calabrese It was an accident… an unexpected stumbling into a modern-day New Testament church. Sort of. It was actually a converted warehouse in a dodgy Cape Town suburb. I was attending a workshop on Christian nonviolent activism when the peace-award-winning speaker was cut short by black pain spilling out of its floodgates.
For the next two hours, we white people listened (squirming, uncomfortable, some looking toward the exits) while 400+ years of historic hurt was voiced with anger and tears. (Twenty-five years after Apartheid, South Africa still has the greatest economic disparity between the races on the planet.) At one point, a young man from a township raised his shirt and compared the scars on his side to Jesus’. His were a result of a blade and gang violence. Another eloquent and enraged young woman described the daily violence her mother endures: Her shack has no running water, so she makes do with a bucket bath and communal outhouse. Yet, she cleans a white woman’s grand bathroom … Every day. She cares for white children in safe neighborhoods while her own are often left unattended in her township. Year after year. Then, the angry, articulate young woman stated, “And, my mother doesn’t steal from them, doesn’t kill them! That’s nonviolence!” Do you feel uncomfortable? Or empowered? The answer would depend on the story inside you... Part 2 of a 2 part series on Listening as a Spiritual Discipline by Tonya Stanfield  Photo Credit: Ruth Smith Photography Do you know what the neurological polar opposite of love is? Neurosciences have discovered the opposing reaction to love in the human brain… and it’s not hate or fear, as you might think. It’s disgust! That’s right, the neurological polar opposite of love is disgust..   A Prayerful Way to Weather a Pandemic... (Originally written for the Centre for Christian Formation and Discipleship.) From the beginning of time, chaos has not been feared by God, but is rather the element from which the Spirit created… and still does. As never before, we are in the midst of a pandemic of uncertainty, a shared fear of global chaos.
We need to be anchored. I need to be anchored. I need to be anchored to the One who will hold me firm, lest the chaos of current events sweep away my peace and goodwill toward humankind. Perhaps you feel the same? |
Tonya...also has a teaching, writing, and speaking ministry. Her heart is to raise, deepen, and challenge disciples of Jesus. She's part of the Center for Christian Formation and Discipleship and lectures at both a Masters and Undergraduate level for YWAM's University of the Nations. She's also training to be a spiritual director and is an enneagram coach. We thought you might enjoy some of her blogs... Archives
June 2021
Categories |
RSS Feed