{"id":23035,"date":"2023-10-20T10:50:19","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:50:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=23035"},"modified":"2023-10-20T10:55:04","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:55:04","slug":"moving-outside-our-comfort-zones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=23035","title":{"rendered":"Moving Outside Our Comfort Zones"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Speak life ~ Tobymac (lyrics) | Open Heaven Music\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/LBCj83H3bWk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Pastor and \u201cbeloved community\u201d organizer Leroy Barber explains the importance of overcoming barriers to healthy relationships with people whom we perceive as different from us.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We humans \u2026 are made in the image of that triune God. <strong>And while the <em>imago Dei<\/em> in us has many aspects, it\u2019s clear that we are relational beings\u2026. We cannot help but function in community, and when we\u2019re not in community, we suffer consequences. <\/strong>We were made to be together, and that\u2019s by God\u2019s design. <strong>Human flourishing requires that we establish, mend, and maintain relationships with other people.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jesus exemplified and taught that those loving relationships ought to cross culture\u2019s artificial boundaries of politics, ethnicity, nationality, gender, and socioeconomic status. But in our world today, we have become adept at erecting and fortifying these barriers.<\/strong> We live in the most individualistic society in history, and <strong>when we do interact with others, we do our best to make sure that those people look, talk, think, and behave just as we do.<\/strong> These tendencies may keep us in our comfort zones, but they are antithetical to God\u2019s will for us. <strong>They are the enemy of God\u2019s plan of redemption and relationship, and they keep us distant from one another and ultimately from the one who created us.<\/strong> [1]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>CAC teacher Brian McLaren identifies how \u201ccontact bias\u201d causes us to distance ourselves from people who don\u2019t look, think, or act as we do.&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>When I don\u2019t have intense and sustained personal contact with \u201cthe other,\u201d my prejudices and false assumptions go unchallenged.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Think of the child who is told by people [they trust] that people of another race, religion, culture, sexual orientation, or class are dirty and dangerous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can immediately see the self-reinforcing cycle: those people are dirty or dangerous, so I will distrust and avoid them, which means I will never have sustained and respectful interactive contact with them, which means I will never discover that they are actually wonderful people\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On page after page of the gospels, J<strong>esus doesn\u2019t dominate the other, avoid the other, colonize the other, intimidate the other, demonize the other, or marginalize the other. Instead, he incarnates into the other, joins the other in solidarity, protects the other, listens to the other, serves the other, and even lays down his life for the other. [2]<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Barber concludes:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Is it possible for us to see each other the way God sees us instead of through our biases? The truth is that God doesn\u2019t see people the way we do, no matter how much we try to convince ourselves and others that our way is the Creator\u2019s way. In God\u2019s eyes, each and every person is a bearer of [God\u2019s] image. Each is a special creation, each is loved, each is in need of God\u2019s love and forgiveness\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As ambassadors for the kingdom of God, <strong>we need to begin to see others as Christ does\u2014as people in need of the same divine love, mercy, and grace that has been extended to us. [3]<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>______________________________________________________________<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>When Grief Grows and Loss Lingers<\/strong><br><a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/proverbs31.org\/read\/devotions\/our-writers\/rachel-marie-kang&amp;source=gmail-html&amp;ust=1697756073922000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3mK3tVBuTgxUrVL2cJl2h3\">RACHEL MARIE KANG<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cThen they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy.\u201d&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblestudytools.com\/luke\/24-52.html\">Luke 24:52<\/a>&nbsp;(NIV)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Not too long ago, I found myself working through a few questions for self-reflection. They prompted me to think about my joys and my dreams, my friends and my family. Of these questions, two came in the form of charts with columns. The blank boxes beckoned me to name my wins and list my losses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So I did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I typed out my wins: finding a chiropractor, publishing my book, traveling to Mexico, growing stronger relationships with a few friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then I also made a list of my losses: my diagnosis of Hashimoto\u2019s disease, changes in my career path, the loss of my grandfather, the loss of many dreams. There are also the losses I wrote down with invisible ink \u2014 how I\u2019ve lost more friends than I can count, how I wake every day with the same ache in my heart, missing my hometown and grieving the million little losses that come with moving to a new place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s been said that time takes away the tears in our eyes, but this is not always true. Sometimes loss lingers long and loud. Sometimes grief grows thick with thorns. <strong>Sometimes we cannot escape our grief, cannot outrun those memories we still mourn. Sometimes we see their faces in framed photographs.<br>Sometimes we drive past the place where we watched our dreams die \u2014 the office, the church, the courtroom that ruined our lives with its ruling.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After I spent some time tallying up my losses, I studied&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblestudytools.com\/luke\/24.html\"><strong>Luke 24<\/strong><\/a>, which records what happened when Jesus returned to His disciples after His resurrection. He spent time with them, unfolding the mysteries of Scripture and breaking bread. Later, He led the disciples out of Jerusalem and into Bethany, where He blessed them before ascending into heaven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019ve found myself pondering these two verses over and over again:&nbsp;<strong><em>\u201cWhile he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven. Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy\u201d<\/em>&nbsp;(<a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblestudytools.com\/luke\/passage\/?q=luke+24:51-52\">Luke 24:51-52<\/a>, NIV).<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Is it possible? <strong>Jesus\u2019 disciples returned to Jerusalem with&nbsp;<em>joy<\/em>? Jerusalem held the memory of their greatest grief: Jesus\u2019 death. They returned to this place laced with the memory of their loss \u2014 and they rejoiced.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I am astonished, amazed and awed by the truth and the timeline of this. <strong>Jesus resurrected and then returned to the ones He loved, walked with them in the midst of their loss, broke bread with them, listened to their every&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.crosswalk.com\/faith\/bible-study\/what-is-a-lament-in-the-bible.html\">lament<\/a>&nbsp;and complaint \u2026 Then Jesus blessed them right in the middle of their brokenness. He calmed their confusion, dispelled their doubts and promised them power \u2014 so much so that they were able to return to Jerusalem with joy.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pastor and \u201cbeloved community\u201d organizer Leroy Barber explains the importance of overcoming barriers to healthy relationships with people whom we perceive as different from us. We humans \u2026 are made in the image of that triune God. And while the imago Dei in us has many aspects, it\u2019s clear that we are relational beings\u2026. We [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23035"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23035"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23037,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23035\/revisions\/23037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}