Getting arrested isn’t my preferred way to preach the gospel. I’d much rather be preaching from the pulpit or talking to the children on the church steps. But after months of ongoing bombardment, bearing witness to starvation’s effects on Gazan bodies, marching in the streets, and offering prayers, this seemed the next logical step.
Death interrupts life in sometimes shockingly abrupt ways and our hearts fall within us. But grace also interrupts the ordinary in extraordinary ways. In such moments we are caught off guard, not expecting the goodness and sorrow that brush past us.
With the expulsion of Fern Creek Baptist and Saddleback Church, labeled as not fit for “friendly cooperation,” I’m confident that I don’t need to be in friendly cooperation with the Southern Baptist Convention or those that would suppress a woman’s call to preach and pastor.
None of us are quite the same after the last several years of life on planet Earth. We don’t know what’s ahead. But we can trust that God will journey with us as we “go forward!” It’s the only thing to do.
If the Kingdom of God means anything, it is that my life matters. It is that the lives of transgender people are worth protecting.
Wherever we find ourselves to be, together as settlers, refugees, and sojourners, we can become contributing members and citizens of our new home.