Reflections on grief & #WakandaForever (spoiler free):

When someone you love deeply passes, it feels that it’s the end of the story or, at least, should be. We can’t picture life w/o that person; so when they’re gone, what is life? How is this supposed to work w/o them?
It all seems wrong. The story is supposed to end here. I’m not supposed to see beyond the pages of the last chapter.

One of the hardest things in mourning is how the world keeps turning. The nerve of the sun to shine when the world ends.
People shopping, laughing, eating, living life w/ no regard to the nuclear holocaust we’re walking through.

A seven-gun solute is insufficient.

Here’s what the movie got exceptionally correct regarding ⚫️ trauma: the feeling that we’re not allowed to mourn.
The coordinated efforts to erase everything this nation forced our grandparents, parents, & us to endure; Every law passed limiting the space we are free to move about; Every slur & stereotype eagerly consumed by our ⚪️ acquaintances
The way society rushes to the rescue of ⚪️ women but ignores that 🟤 folks have been saying the same thing; The *recorded* lynchings at the hands of law enforcement that some have the audacity to relativize - we are CONSTANTLY told: “Just move on”.
“No one wants to hear what you have to say, 🟤 people - so stop talking about it. Stop complaining, stop preaching, stop singing, stop kneeling, stop wearing t-shirts, stop marching, stop teaching about it in schools, stop, Stop, STOP. Shut up. YOU DON’T GET TO MOURN.”
So the idea of taking time to expose weakness? Impossible.

This is why so many 🟤 folks don’t do therapy. Our families have taught us that society isn’t going to give us time to mourn (they’re right) & so we have to be hardened. Let the pain make you stronger. Colder.
The only hope that we have been allowed is seeing ourselves in the Israelites of the Old Testament. A people in the captivity of Egypt, waiting for our savior to come rescue us. Singing We Shall Overcome w/ no earthly idea of when.
Trading slang like secret codes to freedom only to see even our language co-opted by those outside our community.

We have never been given permission to pause, to mourn, to heal, to grow again. So when we have to face our pain, it’s truly devastating.
I felt all of this so closely while watching the movie. Yet again, Ryan Coogler & Marvel penned such a powerful love letter to 🟤 folks - taking us through this process.

Stoping to mourn is resistance. Tears are an act of worship.

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More from @RCallahanWaco

Nov 10
It’s not just you.

If you’re enraged by the betrayal of those you loved & admired, who taught the word to you & somehow now have no regard for what it says, it’s not just you.
If you find it difficult to read the Bible because every page screams about God’s sense of Justice, love of neighbor, the poor, the widow, & the orphan, & you can’t help wondering what bible they’re reading it’s because they’re not reading the Bible. It’s not just you.
If you feel like you have to start over b/c you’re learning that your westernized white-washed understanding of scripture was wrong & that you’ve been teaching others accordingly, & now you see how the agendas of those who taught you colored your interpretation, It’s not just you
Read 7 tweets
Sep 30
What enabled me to definitively cut all ties to ⚪️evangelicalism & it’s people was the revelation that there are only 3 possible explanations as to why WECs didn’t change or seem to care:
🧵

1. They don’t have the information;
2. They have the information but don’t see the importance of it; or

3. They don’t care.
——
As to (1): In the Information Age there is no excuse for ignorance. Especially when the best resource they could have had was you, their friend /family member, & didn’t listen to you.
As to (2): They can believe everything you said but feel like, “Yeah, that’s just not an important issue to me. This is lack of empathy. It’s watching a bombing in the Middle East thinking, “Sad. I’m so glad I don’t live there” & moving on. Your problem doesn’t effect them so 🤷‍♂️.
Read 7 tweets
Aug 25
“And forgive us 10% of our gross unsecured debt maturing at 3% per annum, as we...as we...whew! Hot in here; can I get some water? As we forgive the unsecured debt maturing at 3% per annum of...of...really, God?! *drinks full glass*...of others”
Republicans out here reading like, “10th Amendment...okay, reserved to the states, sure sure. 11th, pfft! 12th, dilution, uh huh. 13th...*spit take* ...YOU WANT TO FREE THE WHAT????”
Debt, Forgiveness, & the Believer🧵:

Some of us, called to look like Christ, are absolutely unrecognizable out here on this student loan debt forgiveness thing. Forgiveness, both of sin & financial debt is so biblical it shows up multiple times in scripture. 1/14
Read 21 tweets
Aug 23
NO, SEE, BEARD THING IS FUNNY BECAUSE - Image
What is the DesiringGod except The Council on Biblical Manhood & Womanhood metastasizing?
Balding, middle-aged ⚪️ men w/ receding hairlines & comb-overs trying to lumberjack their way into the Kingdom of Heaven w/ beards. 😅
Read 4 tweets
Jul 28
Having one pastor of a church packing in 4K people weekly ask me, “what can we do?” about racism showed me we didn’t get here by ignorance but by intentional indifference. In 2022, no one’s so lacking imagination that they don’t recognize their influence or how to steward it.
What can I do? I’m just a pastor overseeing the spiritual formation of hundreds or thousands of people.

What can I do? I’m just a teacher shaping 20 minds @ a time per period every day.

What can I do? I’m just a parent raising a future generation.
What can I do? I’m just a neighbor to 30 people who could start a book club.

What can I do? I’m just a book store employee that chooses what books we purchase, shelve, & recommend to people.

What can I do? I’m just a person on social media sharing articles to friends.
Read 4 tweets
Jul 27
There are no flamingos in the Bible.
Try as hard as you will to contort scripture but the fact remains, flamingos never show up. Not in the original text, not in any translation. There’s a reason for that.
God didn’t make birds to be flamingos. They aren’t natural. He...(?)...created two legs for a reason. It’s not natural to stand on one or to be pink.
Read 4 tweets

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