Learn

Learn

Intelligent people are always ready to learn.

ON TODAY’S DATE IN 1865, US General Gordon Granger stood on Texas soil and read General Order No. 3: “The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.”

In other words, it was a full two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation formally ended slavery in the United States that roughly 250,000 men, women, and children enslaved in Texas finally learned that they were free. That day is celebrated as Juneteenth and is also known as Freedom Day, Liberation Day, Jubilee Day, and Emancipation Day.

Until recently, I. Did. Not. Know. This.

How did I not know about this until I was a forty-something-year-old? I’ve asked this question of myself more than once as I’ve confronted uncomfortable truths these past months about race, racism, and our country’s complicated history that was ignored in my glossy school textbooks.

I’ve confessed my regret before God, seemingly continually convicted in new ways of my obliviousness to the deep hurts inflicted on fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, on fellow countrymen, on people I call friends. My response to the gentle conviction of the Holy Spirit around this particularly large blind spot in my life has been to learn and then honor, in every way I can, the voices of those who are teaching me.

I cannot undo my past ignorance, but I can learn. I can read and watch and listen as I prayerfully consider what needs to change about my interactions with BIPOCs (Black, Indigenous, Persons of Color) when they are in the room and, perhaps most importantly, when they are not. I can listen to another’s experience and not diminish it when it doesn’t match my own. I can admit that I got it terribly wrong, vow to do better, and then do it better. I can make mistakes, ask for forgiveness, and then try again. I can seek truth, even when it is uncomfortable and hard and then ask God what he would have me do with it.

Lord, thank you for Juneteenth. Thank you for true freedom. Thank you for the ability to learn, no matter our background. Amen.

-Julie

One Good Step: Spend time reflecting on the legacy of Juneteenth and celebrating the voices who are engaged in the work of anti-racism. Be the Bridge by Latasha Morrison and I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown are two books to get you started.