February 26th, 2025

From those we otherize and judge…
The Rev. Jennifer Gregg
 
“Come closer to me.” [1]
I am not your enemy. 
Stop otherizing me
and thinking of yourself as better or different.
This is where it begins,
where hate starts,
where friends or strangers slowly turn into enemies,
through what we “think” we know.
 
It’s not the big things. 
It’s in the little things.
Mustard seeds of misconceptions:
the judgment about my weight,
the clothes I wear,
my addiction,
how I got to this place in my life.
 
My story is complicated.
Yours is too.
I didn’t always ask for the things that shaped me. 
Your aloofness, 
the subtle things that tell me,
“We are different”
hold me at a distance and
help me build this wall around my heart.
It cements the wall around your heart too.
You don’t have to tell me how you feel. 
I can see it. 
I can feel it.
There are many parts of me that are broken.
My actions that infuriate you are a sign of healing,
 I often don’t even know I need.
What I do know is this: 
I want to be seen.
I want to be heard.
 
You know me now, don’t you? 
You know my name even when it’s said with irritation,
makes your blood boil and
gets under your skin.
So, bring me closer,
maybe not physically, 
not yet. 
We both need to feel safe.
Start with your prayers. 
Start here.
 
Prayer is like the warmth of the sun.
It begins to melt the calcified layers within.
Something within you and within me needs to be loosened, 
softened,
made more malleable.
Hearts of stone to hearts of flesh. 
So, Spirit can breathe into the spaces of anger and ill intent.
 
Begin simply by saying my name.
Even if it is done under your breath,
with pursed lips,
and a clenched jaw.
It’s a start.
 
Let your jaw loosen first. 
Your breath expand around my name.
Then, when you are ready, ask:
What do you want in your life for your family and friends?[2]
 
Might you imagine I want it too?
To know myself as beloved.
To be able to be brought to my blind spots.
To be forgiven for them.
 
May this be the place we begin,
together,
and
let God do God’s work from there.


[1] Genesis 45:3-11, 15
[2] Grateful to The Rev. Francie Hills and our conversations in the last months of her life around this question as we wrestled with how to pray for those whose decisions and ways of being in the world we do not agree with.