With God’s help

I was never an angry person by nature. My anger hardly ever makes it past my throat before it’s caught and swallowed down again. But last year it sat there in my stomach, just south of my heart.

I was suddenly angry that people would pledge money to help rebuild an old French cathedral, in a world where sometimes my students in Madagascar didn’t have enough to eat. I was angry because my college education cost more money than any of my friends in Madagascar will probably make in a lifetime. I was angry when, by watching and listening to my friends, I saw how gender, blindness or the shade of one’s skin often plays a role in how a person is treated. I was (and still am) mad about all of it.

While I can’t close the chasm of systemic injustice by myself, I can close other distances. I can learn a language. I can love by listening, learning, working, singing, and praying alongside friends, family and people from all walks of life. I can’t reverse all the oppressive, systemic sin in this world, but with God’s help, I can try.

This message is an excerpt from “Sewing lessons” by Annika Johnson in the March 2020 issue of Gather magazine.

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