New acts of terror strike our world daily. Radical groups like ISIS take center stage in media and conversation any time devastation hits home or foreign soil. With fear and tensions mounting since 9/11, a disabling stereotype has built higher and higher walls around those of Islamic faith. No one is safe from its crippling whispers, "They are all terrorist. They are all jihadist." No one - not even the Church.
For several years I've watched as my own brothers and sisters in Christ have struggled with bitterness against an entire people because of the acts of a small percentage of them. In spite of repeated assurances from Islamic officials stating that ISIS does not speak for the mass Muslim populous, the Church often both fears and shuns the thought of taking the Gospel to them.
But this pattern is being broken. Slowly, yes, but broken nonetheless. Christian Millennials - who grew up under the Reign of Terror, who were children when the Twin Towers fell - are beginning to take a stand for understanding. For forgiveness. For love, and the grace of Christ. One of these Millennials is Grace.
Grace didn't have to travel far this summer to find a Muslim community to minister in. Working with Nehemiah Teams through the P52 division in Nashville, Tennessee, Grace served for 52 days as a social worker in a Muslim Refugee camp. Her days passed calmly, for the most part, as she picked up clients to take them to work, interviews, stores, school, or wherever else they might need to go. She worked to build relationships with them as one human to another, knowing that was the missing key to unlock the Church's mission of love: humanity.
After weeks of building up these relationships, and investing in new found friends - tragedy struck the community. Baghdad was bombed, killing and injuring many family members and friends of those in the Refugee Community. It was in the wake of this suffering that Grace saw God work the most. A young Muslim teen from their youth outreach program came to Grace's team and invited them to join the community for a candlelight vigil that night, in honor of those lost and injured in the bombing.
"Come mourn with us," she said.
That is how, on one summer night in Nashville, a handful of Southern Christians found themselves surrounded by 50 or 60 Muslim Refugees - crying with them, praying for them. Grace shared her reflections on the experience with me mixed with both excitement and a deep longing to see change in the community, saying: "They were all so excited we were just there. We had the opportunity to share the Truth with them, in their grief. We got to hold them up, let them know that we don't agree with terrorism - and we don't agree with hatred between us. We agree that love should cover all - and in the end, love comes from Yahweh God."
There is a bridge being built between our two worlds. One of love - not of perfect agreement, or of compromise - but of Godly love. The Church needs to wake up, look - open our eyes and see that there is an entire world, broken and bleeding. It needs to be healed, and Love is the answer.
Anyone who does not love, does not know God - for God is love. 1 John 4:8
