My city does power. I stepped out of my building today frustrated by the yellow tape blocking my path to lunch. The well dressed man in front of me attempted to cross regardless of the yellow tape and cop cars, but was told off. Yes, even congressmen must walk around the barricade if they would like to eat lunch. After being redirected, grabbing food, and then redirected some more, I asked a guard what was going on, and if the motorcade got lost. He pointed to the Russell Senate Building, and I saw a pile of unopened boxes. Constitution was closed due to a bomb scare. This sort of thing happens here, and unless you are on security, you don't blink at protocol, it's all routine.
My office also does power. Our kind of power comes from the Martin Luther King Jr. legacy, when rows upon rows of people used to march for social justice and human rights. I have loved being active in our office, and I have a lot to unpack from my brain's filing cabinets. One adventure I have a lot to think about is the definition of the word public.
An inside-out approach to public justice goes deeper and does not have the same kind of restraints as advocacy work. When grace is understood, advocacy loses its walls and its restriction to Washington DC and Sundays. We must lose the definition of advocacy to public life, and instead of attempting to shove a sphere to fit a certain way, we must act as agents within the sphere, allowing the sphere to flow freely towards God, and not away from Him.
Today I made the mistake of mashing two very different public definitions together, and I walked out to get my lunch feeling heavy with the weight of the world. Let us rejoice that the King of the Universe cannot be compartmentalized.
-CK
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