"I have been deeply hurt by a family member. I know I’m not alone on this. Family is an odd ball and chain. Friends come and go but family is forever. Your connection is literally woven in your DNA. Which is why family can be so wonderful and yet so hard at the same time." ... continue reading the story behind the piece here >>>
I have been deeply hurt by a family member. I know I’m not alone on this. Family is an odd ball and chain. Friends come and go but family is forever. Your connection is literally woven in your DNA. Which is why family can be so wonderful and yet so hard at the same time.
In my own faith tradition, there is an invitation to love your neighbor. Basically everyone around you. But the teaching goes even farther… and it asks us to even love our enemies. Love those who are against us. Love those who hurt us. This is not easy invitation. In fact it is seemingly grounds for dismissal. But I have discovered that at the end of my understanding is usually where I experience the Divine.
I am a visual learner, so I asked for an image to help me with this work of forgiving one whom I have been deeply hurt by. This is what I saw. It honors the injury. But it invites us forward into the healing and restoring work of that come only come in forgiving. With so much hurt, anger, and despair currently… and so much healing and restoring work that our world is crying out for… I wonder if the invitation to forgive those who are enemies could be the beginning steps of the restoration? I give you this image to ponder.
Thursday, December 14th at
11:00am PT/ 2:00pm ET
on Global Immersion's Facebook page
ALSO COMING UP THIS WEEK...
The news of President Trump's decision to move the US Embassy and recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel has led to riots and celebrations.
What does Jerusalem mean to Jews, Muslims, and Christians?Why has America’s declaration destabilized the region? How has this declaration interrupted the peace process and what can we do about it?
Join us as we discuss and discover from 3 unique perspectives.
Friday, December 15th
11am PT/ 2pm ET
FREE REGISTRATION HERE
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"RESPONSE to US embassy and the status of Jerusalem as capitol" from The Global Immersion Project
Having been deeply invested not only in Israel/Palestine, but in relationships with those who inhabit it over the past decade, this is a moment when silence is not an option. As We’ve said many times, peacemaking isn’t a passive withdrawal from conflict, it’s an intentional movement toward it with tools to understand, heal and transform.
We know there is a lot of confusion and complexity around this and, for the sake of our friends (Jews, Christians and Muslims) in the region, as well as our collective well being, we feel compelled to offer a few brief thoughts/observations on today’s announcement by President Trump on the US embassy and the status of Jerusalem as the capitol.
1. This decision/action virtually ends the US role in a diplomatic peace process between Israel/Palestine. Even if only symbolic, the embassy being moved to Jerusalem is making the statement that Jerusalem is Israel’s capitol. One of the primary hurdles toward a lasting (political) peace is the final status of Jerusalem in the case of a two-state-solution or other solution. This needs to be negotiated and agreed upon by Israelis and Palestinians, not unilaterally announced (again, symbolically) by the US President. There is a reason for the decades of US bi-partisan support of staying out of Jerusalem's final status. In this act, the US has lost trust with the Palestinian leadership (and virtually the whole world who disagrees with this act) and won’t be an objective broker of a lasting political peace.
2. We need a diplomacy of deescalation. This is opposite. Diplomacy can be used as a tool to move us away from violence or a tool to send us more directly into it. This decision further destabilizes the region, grows distrust in US leadership and provokes generations of past hurt, trauma and pain in one of the most sacred pieces of land in the world.
3. The status of Jerusalem is not only central to the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians, it is central to international relationships between Jews, Christians and Muslims. Jerusalem is the most holy site in all of Judaism (Western Wall), the third most holy site in all of Islam (Al Aqsa Mosque) and deeply significant within Christianity. Jerusalem can be a model of constructive, mutually beneficial relationships (which it has a long history of) or it can be the epicenter of religious war. This decision contributes to the potential of the latter.
4. Finally, and most importantly, decisions like these distract us from the real pain and plight of the people on the ground. Our friend and Israeli peace builder, Liel, lives in Jerusalem and just texted me this reflection on the situation: "The world should care more about the voices of the people living in Jerusalem than those who live in Washington D.C.” He went on to say, “We are asking the wrong questions and are focusing on the wrong issues. Instead of talking about the fact that 40% of the population of Jerusalem (Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem known as “Jerusalemites”) is stateless with no official passport or a functioning embassy to approach when they are abroad, we are focusing only on the implications of the declaration on international diplomacy. Instead of talking about the reality of Jerusalem today, which is considered one of the poorest in the country and one of the highest in economic inequality, we are talking about the historical right of specific people to live in this city. Furthermore, instead of discussing the over 120,000 residents do not receive basic municipal services and are totally marginalized and walled off, we are debating the location of the new American embassy. It's about time that we will care more about the voices of the people who are effected directly by the political reality than the voice of the American president.”
We're no expert on this conflict, but we're extremely aware of the ways our theology, politics and practices can either contribute to the violence or grow hope for healing. More than that, we love and stand by out friends who are tirelessly living and working for peace in some of the most compelling, subversive and costly ways we've ever seen.
Jesus talked about our call to be salt and light and to take seriously our vocation to peacemaking amid a world in need of restoration. These friends are on the front lines and we hope we can learn from them, weep with them and follow their lead in our life and practice at home and abroad.
May we continue to get creative in love,
The Global Immersion Team
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Healing Hope - Music by Brad Davis & Hailey Mitsui-Davis from The Global Immersion Project
WEEK ONE "HEALING HOPE" Brad Davis & Hailey Mitsui-Davis
In this week's PEACE(making) on EARTH video, Brad Davis and his wife Hailey Mitsui-Davis perform "Healing Hope". A song about the invitation to be changed by the heart of God and seeking to see people the way God sees them.
Brad started writing music about God so that those who hadn't grown up in the church could experience worship music that wasn't full of Christian "insider language".
What he discovered in that process was an endlessly knowable, describable and loving God.
may this piece of art refresh and inspre,
The Global Immersion Teami
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"This Advent - art inspired by peacemaking (video inside)" The Global Immersion Project
Advent is a moment of reflection and anticipation.
We reflect on the hard reality that things are not as they should be and we anticipate God’s promise to make all things new. God has invited us to make peace real, and while this is the invitation of a lifetime, it’s not always easy. In fact it is often heartbreaking and exhausting.
We sit in advent, not with the expectation of a King who will conquer with violence, but knowing that our King has conquered through suffering and self-sacrifice.
As we’ve done the work of peacemaking throughout the world, we’ve discovered that there is one tool more than anything else that calls us to rest in the faithfulness, the creativity and the compassion of God. It’s art.
This Advent season we’re launching a restorative campaign that’s oriented around art. It’s called PEACE(making) on EARTH. Throughout Advent we’ll be releasing songs, spoken word and visual art that have been inspired by peace and forged in the trenches of Everyday Peacemaking.
Join us as we use these tools for personal reflection, in our churches and among our families. But ultimately we hope you draw inspiration from these artifacts and that they pull you closer to a good God with a restorative wingspan.
Watch Video
Watch Video
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The Global Immersion Project
2801 B Street#22
Our mailing address is:
The Global Immersion Project
2801 B Street#22
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