A Light Not Shaken

A Light Not Shaken

Have you ever had a time where you were just so shaken up?

Something unpleasant simply shocked or upset you.

Each one of us wants to love and be loved.

Last Sunday my son and I attended the Interfaith Vigil against Racist Violence a call by Alamance County faith leaders to speak and act out against racist violence and white supremacy.

As we entered, we received a handout that read, “As leaders of diverse faith traditions, we stand together on the common ground of shared humanity. Our varied faith traditions each teach us to be humble servants for humanity and instruct all of us to cooperate in doing good and rejecting bad, evil, and hate in every form.

With this firm belief, we stand tall together to affirm to ourselves, our neighbors, and the wider community these shared beliefs. We invite everyone regardless of color, race, ethnicity or religion, to join us in rejecting the culture of hate and violence. We reject and condemn all forms of white supremacy and the harmful ideology of white nationalism, together with all forms of racism, xenophobia, and prejudice. We invite our neighbors and friends, our leaders, our faith communities, and all people of good will to join us in doing the same.

While we are unique and may not agree on everything with everyone, we share this core of common values which bring us together. Let us all respond to the hateful killings that are happening here in the United States of America and around the world by coming together and joining our hands and voices to do more positive things together. Let us work to empower our communities to be stronger and our youth to be spearheading a path of togetherness for the future founded on compassion, fairness, love of neighbor, service and respect for human dignity. Let us not give into rising tides of evil around us, nor simply be ones who curse the evil, but stand together as candles who by our actions shed that light which can extinguish the evils of hatred, indifference, oppression, and violence we see around us.” - Author Unknown

During the two-hour interfaith vigil against racist violence, we heard from various faith leaders and leaders in our county. A time dedicated to prayer and steps of action.

Our faith not shaken.

We don’t always have the ability to choose what we go through but our faith gives us the ability to do what we are called to do.

We can’t always control a situation and perhaps the exact experience that feels like a disappointment or a road block is exactly what is supposed to happen so that we can actually meet up with our purpose and join hands with others to collaborate on issues that are important to all of us such as social justice.
​
Our ability to engage in interfaith dialogue gives us the strength to be a bridge of collaboration and strength, to be a light not shaken, and to be a champion for humanity.

How will we choose to work our own sphere of influence?

How will we choose to act in our communities?

How will we choose to lead out of love?

How will we choose to open our hearts and mind without creating a culture of us versus them?

How will we choose to break bread with those who are different?

When our love is strong our light’s faith is not shaken, we can come together to build a bridge of unity and sustain hope through action.

True interfaith dialogue can lead to effective collaboration with the moral issues facing our world today.

Our light will not shake if we choose to:

• Share our traditions and focus on oneness with love and compassion
• Share the realities of racism, exclusivity, violence, and inequalities
• Share unconditional love
• Get to know others and connect heart to heart
• Serve others with love

“Whenever I groan within myself and think how hard it is to keep writing about love in these times of tension and strife which may, at any moment, become for us all a time of terror, I think to myself: What else is the world interested in? What else do we all want, each one of us, except to love and be loved, in our families, in our work, in all our relationships?” --Dorothy Day