As I revisit the final pages of The Dangerous Act of Loving Your Neighbor and as we enter this holiday season, I am reminded again of our need to pause and rest.
The rhythm of sustainable Christian action comes from rest: from living in the rest or Sabbath of God whose actions create and re-create us. We love because God first loved us. It’s true, faith must be walked to be faith. Grace does not make action optional. It makes action compelling and possible. But we know that our acts are neither themselves the source of grace nor ever adequate enough as an expression of our own gratitude, let alone as a response to human need. We need to drink in God’s grace and take the long view precisely so we can sustain our action by remembering who we are and who we are not, and by remembering that our acts are framed by God’s supreme act of hope in Christ (211).
Let us remember this grace and give thanks. Let us remember our need for rest. Let us draw near to the one who sustains us on this just journey of hope.
Blessings, © Natasha Sistrunk Robinson 2013
The Dangerous Act of Loving your Neighbor Summary
Introduction: Dangerous Act and a Heart Like the Grinch
Chapter 1: Stop Rubbernecking, It’s Dangerous
Chapter 2: WE See No Evil
Chapter 3: Injustice and the Problem of Misperceiving
Chapter 4: Learning to See
Chapter 5: Looking in the Mirror
Chapter 6: God Help Us
Chapter 7: Choosing to Name
Chapter 8: Why Naming Matters
Chapter 9: The Power of a Name
Chapter 10: Distorted Names
Chapter 11: Changing Names
Chapter 12: Living and Bankrupt
Chapter 13: Hoarding the Grace of God
Chapter 14: When Comfort Blinds
Chapter 15: Worship is God’s Language
A SISTA'S JOURNEY 