How Will You Show Up?

“Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and don’t do what I say?” (Luke 6:46).
– Jesus of Nazareth 

It’s disconcerting when our discovery of God’s everywhere-present grace leads us to inaction in that grace, rather than motivating and mobilizing us to be instruments of grace in our world. "Revolutionary Love" activist Valarie Kaur calls us to find our way to “showing up.” Kaur relates what it is to "show up" through stories and lessons in her profound must-read book, See No Stranger: A Memoir and Manifesto of Revolutionary Love. It expands on the teachings she conveys on her site and in her talks. She summarizes the call to "show up" as follows:      

The only way we will survive as a people is if we show up… I believe that you are the midwives in this time of great transition, tasked with birthing a new future for all of us.

So I’ve come to ask you, how will you show up? How will you let bravery lead you? And how will you show up with love?… the greatest social reformers in history have built and sustained entire non-violent movements to change the world that were rooted, that were grounded in love; love as a wellspring for courage, not love as a rush of feeling, but love as sweet labor, fierce and demanding and imperfect and life-giving, love as a choice that we make over and over again.

Revolutionary love is the choice to enter into labor, for others, for our opponents, and for ourselves. The first practice: See no stranger. All the great wisdom traditions of the world carry a vision of oneness; the idea that we are interconnected and interdependent, that we can look upon the face of anyone or anything and say as a spiritual declaration and a biological fact, “You are a part of me I do not yet know.ⁱ

Valarie is an American Sikh who champions the transforming power of love in the traditions of Jesus, Guru Nanak, Gandhi, and MLK. I share the bare bones of her vision here because when it comes time to reconstructing or reorientating our lives, our faith, and our practice toward the Light of Love, her voice and her mission draw me deep into the heart of the Jesus Way. 

Christians and ex-Christians alike would do well to sit at her feet for a season. Kaur’s learning hubⁱⁱ guides readers and educators into the practice of “revolutionary love.” Here she develops a three-fold strategy for “showing up” around the words (1) wonder, (2) grieve, and (3) fight.

To wonder is to cultivate a sense of awe and openness to others’ thoughts and experiences, their pain, their wants and needs. It is to look upon the face of anyone or anything and say: You are a part of me I do not yet know. Wonder is an orientation to humility: recognizing that others are as complex and infinite to themselves as we are to ourselves. Wondering about a person gives us information for how to love them. You can practice wonder for all others – animals, trees, living beings, and the earth. Wonder gives you information for how to care for them. Wonder is the wellspring of love.

To grieve with others is to share their pain, without trying to minimize or erase it. Grieving with others requires a willingness to be transformed by their experiences, especially those who have suffered trauma and violence. Grieving collectively and in community gives us the information to build solidarity, to fight for justice, and even to share in one another’s joy.

To fight is to choose to protect those in harm’s way. To fight with revolutionary love is to fight against injustice alongside those most impacted by harm, in a way that preserves our opponents’ humanity as well as our own. When we fight for those outside our immediate circle, our love becomes revolutionary.

If the fog deconstruction has left you feeling lost and vulnerable, I commend Kaur’s story, life, and training as a compass for the disoriented. As a teaser, I've embedded one of her inspiring talks here:     

i. Valarie Kaur, Keynote talk: “Valarie Kaur: Breath! Push! The Labor of Revolutionary Love,” Bioneers (Nov. 13, 2019). <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIrl_Ob0jvg>.

ii. https://valariekaur.com/learninghub/