Breathe and Push

My chaplain colleague Erin and I are preparing to lead a candle-lighting service of remembrance on Queen’s campus – igniting flames of hope in a time of darkness. We’ve been thinking about the terms darkness and light and how we use them. Adele Halliday, the Anti-Racism and Equity lead at the General Office of the United Church of Canada, wrote an article about use of this language during Advent (when we do a lot of candle lighting in the darkness):

Our ingrained – and at times binary – notions of black/white and darkness/light as inherently good and evil can guide how we treat each other. At times, we move beyond the association of colors as good and evil, and impose that onto people who represent those colors. Just as blackness personifies evil and impurity, so Black people are evil and White people are good. The prejudices and racism in our language can also guide our prejudice and racism in our treatment of one another, however unintentional and subconscious this treatment may be.

Halliday does not recommend ridding ourselves completely of the metaphors of darkness and light. They are certainly biblical. Rather, she suggests complexifying our understanding of darkness and light and finding ways to talk about the gifts of darkness or the harms of light. I immediately think of Isaiah 45:3 “I will give you the treasures of darkness and riches hidden in secret places, so that you may know that it is I, the Lord, the God of Israel, who call you by your name.”

I also think of Valarie Kaur, lawyer and activist and founder of the Revolutionary Love movement. In her TED talk she asks this question:

What if this darkness is not the darkness of the tomb but the darkness of the womb? What if our future is not dead, but still waiting to be born. What if this is our great transition? Remember the wisdom of the midwife: Breathe, and then push. Because if we don’t push we will die. If we don’t breathe we will die. Breathe and push.

The Reformed Journal certainly casts light for you as our readers, but we also give you treasures of darkness, riches from secret places. We are a midwife of sorts – sometimes inviting you to breathe and sometimes challenging you to push.

The work we do as writers and readers of the Reformed Journal is a labor of love. And this labor of love requires an annual push. Perhaps you will feel challenged to give a one-time gift, but I – as one of the midwives of the Reformed Journal am inviting you to push a little harder this year. Would you consider a monthly gift – a regular push – of $10 or $20 a month?

Or perhaps you’ll take on our But Wait, There’s More, and in return you will receive the treasures of three Reformed Journal Books in 2025, by Christy Berghoef, Doug Brouwer, and Dave Larsen. The book covers are still riches hidden in secret places, but we promise that they will help you to breathe and push in the midst of the darkness and light of this present time.

Thank you for your support.

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