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Showing posts from July, 2016

One white guy's toughts

I don’t have many black friends.  Perhaps that it is just a snapshot, a microcosm, of the problem we have in America today.  We haven’t sought to trust, to understand, to build relationships, to break bread or to extend hospitality to one another.  Doing that requires going into some messy and awkward places.  “Doing life” with someone allows you to walk in their shoes and see things that might make you uncomfortable – things that might change your heart. Over the past few years of being in Kansas City, God has put me in places to start building relationships with a few African American people.  Doing this requires intentionality.  It requires me listen way more than I speak.  It requires me to understand the cultural differences and historical framework that make us feel like we are speaking different languages sometimes.  It requires grace and patience on both sides for us to get past the road blocks that come up when we converse.  It would be far easier to give up and sl