Laurel Elisabeth Stevens

I am sharing this week and in posts to follow, a few influences--videos, books, people, places, stories--that have helped me notice my blindspots with regard to racial justice. The story is ever growing. In fact, sometimes the more I learn, the harder it is to write. So I'll just start here, hoping that if I tell one or two stories, it could be a way forward to you reading or telling one or two more stories, and that could be a way forward for all of us.  I remember sitting on the couch with my seven-year old daughter and reading to her The Story of Ruby Bridges . Ruby, a brave black girl whose parents were perhaps even braver, to agree to let her integrate the William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans in 1960. My daughter studied the watercolor illustrations of the angry white parents yelling at Ruby as she walked into the school protected by federal marshals.  I remember uncomfortable shock at the teacher who criticized Ruby for talking back to the mob, when in fact Ru...

I wrote the following litany of repentance two weeks after George Floyd's death--during the maddening, unending isolation of COVID-19, watching online church services after hot Sunday morning walks with the family. I'm grateful for those who have spoken into my life and helped me see the need for lament and confession, for that is what this is. I believe the Holy Spirit uses diverse means to do this and for me it's primarily been through relationships and stories. We cannot lament and grieve until we have started to see the extent of our sin, both corporate and individual. We learn by taking a hard look at our history and listening to those whose lived experiences are different from ours.  Scripture is replete with examples of grief, lament and repentance surrounding an awareness of sin, both corporate and individual (to name a few: Psalm 51, Nehemiah 1:5-7, 9:2, Daniel 9, I John 1:8-10).    While God calls all to repentance, I believe that my position in the...