A Place to Be

A Place to Be

When I was a teenager I remember the wonderful world that was opened to me through journaling. Perhaps not unlike most, adolescence was an awkward time for me. The world was big and my place in it seemed uncertain. All sorts of things were happening around me and I felt like there was no one I could really talk to or confide. And then one day in the 10th grade the teacher announced we were going to start journaling. Each day she would give us an incomplete sentence as a way to help us talk about our feelings. For example one day she put up on the board, if I had one wish.

All of a sudden in an uncertain world it was as if someone had put a microphone up to my mouth and said in the most welcoming voice share. The journal was like a friend. I could write in it whatever I wanted. It was really my space. It was a place to be. At the end of each month we would turn our journals in so that our teacher could check them off as homework completed. She would write in our journals generally affirming positive feedback.

Journaling would be something I continued to do for a while. At times I would journal with more consistency than at other times but it would remain a haven for a couple of decades; there for me, when I needed it. And so it has been alarming to note in the last ten years of my life I have almost but all drifted from the discipline of processing situations in my life through journaling. At times I have tried to return to this haven but it just didn’t work. And then I realized I did not need a journal to find my voice anymore. The need was not there. This caged bird was free.

It is important for all of us to find places to be. For me at one point in time the only place that was safe was on the pages of my journal and even that was a risk because adults violated my boundaries. I am glad that the world is no longer the big scary place it was when I was a child. I am glad that I have other spaces in which I can unfold. It is important for all of us to have spaces and places where we can be our whole selves.

A member at my church this past Sunday reminded me of this need in us. He is a white gay male and has experienced being marginalized because of his particularities. Some spaces and places are not kind to people like him. But in an uncanny conversation with blacks on his job he/they found a common ground in discussing their experiences in life as “other.” He was amazed at how alike some of their experiences had been. Whereas “other” can often put distance between “us and them” it had drawn his coworkers and he closer.

I start this new year clearer about my sense of call – to create and participate in spaces that allow people to be who they are. Over at my church, Good News Community Church, we sit with people who are different from us and we are countercultural to the sentiment that 11am on Sunday morning in most churches is the most segregated hour. We come to hear good news about our situation and ourselves. We are different but we come together many because we are looking for a place that will not judge us for where we’ve been , what we’ve done, and who we are. And it’s amazing that in this space you have Korean man who addresses leadership as “the most honorable” and you have the Pentecostal brother banging the tambourine. It’s amazing to watch the Baptist sisters caught up in the spirit and then look across the pew at the former Catholic member stoic who still cannot take communion with us. Diversity flows at our church. My friend jokingly calls us the circus with real live entertainment. But as for me I call Good News Community Church a place to be.