Proactive Choices

Imagining new horizons

I’m really struggling right now as a pastor. And I know lots of my friends and colleagues are, too. One of the things we’re struggling with is how to offer spiritual leadership in times like these. I know that I feel like I’m saying the same thing every Sunday, trying to reassure, even to comfort, and that is feeling like increasingly weak tea in the face of such jarring realities.

I’m investing myself in reading other voices, particularly ones that have lived through apocalyptic times, and I’m geographically situated for such material. Here, two 110-year-old survivors of the Tulsa Race Massacre share their stories of not only trauma but resilience and renewal alongside the constant presence of the tribes brought here by the Trail of Tears. They are living examples of native nations that have not only survived, but grown stronger.

As Bishop Steven Charleston writes in his book, We Survived the End of the World, “Do we simply endure moments of apocalyptic change, trying to survive the best we can? Or do we engage the apocalypse, using our insight to navigate it or perhaps even avoid it altogether?” He is writing about an impending environmental apocalypse, but our political one feels just as threatening.

Words that that help me wonder if what we are working towards is not just survival or endurance, but, in fact, flourishing in times of turmoil? What might the stresses of the moment reveal in us, both individually and collectively? What new alliances and communities may need to be formed out of such trauma and how might we create brand new kinds of gardens in which to grow?

I’m not there yet, still in the early stages of grieving what has come to be. But I can imagine new possibilities, new horizons. Hey, it’s better than doomscrolling.