{"id":24788,"date":"2025-02-18T10:24:11","date_gmt":"2025-02-18T15:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=24788"},"modified":"2025-02-18T10:40:24","modified_gmt":"2025-02-18T15:40:24","slug":"24788","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=24788","title":{"rendered":"The Impact of Our Story on Others"},"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=\"My Story - Big Daddy Weave - Worship Video - with lyrics\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/da64vJ5mGto?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Using the language of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/email.cac.org\/t\/d-l-strhka-tlkrdrec-r\/\">the cosmic egg<\/a>, author Felicia Murrell shares her experience of growing up with a strong sense of&nbsp;<\/em>our story<em>&nbsp;that was limited by the power of&nbsp;<\/em>other stories<em>:<\/em>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I never questioned the world in which I grew up. I followed the rhythms set for me by those around me, understanding the world and how to situate myself in it through the lenses and lives of those in authority over me.\u2026 In the small rural North Carolina town of my youth, Blacks lived on one side of the tracks and Whites on the other\u2026. Nothing about this life seemed abnormal. This was&nbsp;<em>our story<\/em>.\u2026&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>No one talked about race. No one expressed discontent or named things aloud. No one mentioned the way things were. We didn\u2019t buck the system. We kept our heads down and did what we were supposed to do. Success and advancement were&nbsp;<em>others\u2019 stories<\/em>, for people across town on the other side of the tracks. We were to stay in our place and <strong>follow the natural order of things, which I did until I no longer could.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Like matryoshka dolls nesting within one another,&nbsp;<em>my story<\/em>&nbsp;as a small child was a fragmented, compartmentalized part of&nbsp;<em>our story<\/em>. In the shadow of dominant voices,&nbsp;<em>my story<\/em>&nbsp;felt less essential, even unnecessary. Without a clear understanding of the whole,&nbsp;<em>my story<\/em>&nbsp;was incomplete. But&nbsp;<strong><em>my story<\/em>&nbsp;was all I knew until I was exposed to&nbsp;<em>other stories<\/em>.&nbsp;<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Murrell highlights the importance of<\/em><strong><em> allowing&nbsp;<\/em>other stories<em>&nbsp;to draw us into intimacy with one another and into the union of&nbsp;<\/em>the<em>&nbsp;<\/em>story<em>.<\/em><\/strong><em>&nbsp;<\/em>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When we remain stuck in the loop of&nbsp;<em>our story<\/em>&nbsp;without consideration of&nbsp;<em>other stories<\/em>, particularly when \u201cour\u201d is framed in (or lived in response to) a Eurocentric, patriarchal, dominant paradigm as the standard of measurement for all&nbsp;<em>other stories<\/em>, we are left with an incomplete model. <strong>Exposure to&nbsp;<em>other stories<\/em>&nbsp;is an invitation, a gateway to knowing<\/strong>. But it\u2019s merely that\u2014an opportunity to know. A welcoming and acceptance of diversity may create familiarity, but it\u2019s not the same as knowing. Deep, intimate knowing empowers agency, offers reciprocity, and, through mutuality, affords us the opportunity to be the custodians of our own story without being othered as an aside or a concession to dissent\u2026.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>How do we move toward each other in love, the truth of our authentic power? Perhaps, we welcome change instead of resisting it. To expand my worldview beyond the paradigm of Southern, Christian, rural or working poor to a <strong>larger cosmic frame that is inclusive, universal, affirming, and accepting, I needed to see the parts and the whole in all their majestic splendor and their messy complexity.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Transcendence is not a denial or detachment from&nbsp;<em>my story<\/em>&nbsp;or&nbsp;<em>our story<\/em>. It is an arduous commitment to truth-telling; to fully seeing; to empathetic listening <\/strong>that requires the work of living and<em>&nbsp;be<\/em>-ing in the world; of deep, intimate knowing; of moving beyond our theories and maps into relationship building.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/email.cac.org\/t\/d-l-strhka-tlkrdrec-y\/\">Read this meditation on cac.org.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A few Shards from our friend Chris Green<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Job took a potsherd with which to scrape himself, and sat among the ashes.&#8221;&nbsp;<br>Job 2.8<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Christ is a shard of glass in your gut.&#8221;&nbsp;<br>Christian Wiman<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u2020<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p>The opposite of powerlessness is not power but playfulness.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u2020<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p>Psalm 19.10: God\u2019s words are honey not only because they are sweet but also because they are slow and sticky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u2020<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p>Difficult passages of Scripture are like gastroliths\u2014the gizzard stones toothless birds need to digest what they\u2019ve eaten. If we cannot stomach the hard words in the Bible, we will get no nutrition even from the chewable ones.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u2020<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p>Jer. 23.29: God\u2019s word is the hammer and you are the rock it shatters\u2014into bread.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u2020<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p>Jesus lets his father die. The Father lets Jesus die. That \u201cletting\u201d is the room created by the infinite love of God so we can grow up into the fulness of Christ.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u2020<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s tempting to think God wants us to be Christians and that he wants us to make other people Christians\u2014as many as possible, as quickly as possible. It\u2019s tempting to believe God wants us to be Christian, believing as we should, living as we should. But no, what God wants is for us to be Christ\u2019s, not just devoted students but dear friends and confidants, his nearest co-conspirators. And God wants something infinitely more even than that\u2014for us to be Christ, bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u2020<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p>The boundaries of our understanding are never the same as the borders of the faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u2020<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p>It is better to have received mercy than never to have needed it.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u2020<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p>The opposite of powerlessness is not power but playfulness.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u2020<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p>Finally, a house blessing:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-preformatted\">Sweet Jesus, the Spirit who made all things \nwas at home in your body \nas you were at home in your Mother\u2019s.  \nBless us with your presence \nand make this house a sanctuary \nfor us and for anyone \nwho shares the road with you. \nAmen. <\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p>Keep praying for me!&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Using the language of&nbsp;the cosmic egg, author Felicia Murrell shares her experience of growing up with a strong sense of&nbsp;our story&nbsp;that was limited by the power of&nbsp;other stories:&nbsp; I never questioned the world in which I grew up. I followed the rhythms set for me by those around me, understanding the world and how to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"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\/24788"}],"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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24788"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24788\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24794,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24788\/revisions\/24794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}