Leadership, The Black Messiah, Racial Justice and a Sacred Vow

In my office there is a print of Jon Onye Lockard’s The Black Messiah. It was given to my father and mother by a Black parishioner in the Detroit church where my father did his vicarship and my mom was a teacher in the 1960s. It was in his office at every church he served in and when he passed away it came to me. 

This artifact is, in part, a symbol of where racial justice is rooted in me, and why I see racial justice tied to the deeper natural state of all living beings’ longing to be happy and free from suffering. I am a white man, born to freedom seeking lineages who have sought to understand and work not only toward their own happiness and freedom, but also for those around them as healers, clergy, academics and activists. I am proud of that lineage, but more than that I am thankful that they raised me as I raise my daughter, to go to work in the world in a way that would find meaning and purpose in this good work.

I have an informal version of a sacred vow I have taken, and shared openly with some. It is not from my own native wisdom tradition of Christianity, but from Buddhism. While I would not call myself a full on Buddhist, I have learned much from this tradition both its highly evolved meditation practices as well as its way to practice our values and ideas in daily life. This vow leapt out to me as soon as I encountered it as one of supreme generosity and service, using the fullness of what you have from a place of grace and gratitude. Technically, it is a vow taken by enlightened practitioners to return again and again until all others receive that same awakening to a liberated state of being.

In more secular terms, I see it as a good starting place for anyone who has privilege, or by good fortune has some measure of freedom or happiness where others do not. So whatever awareness I have about the freedom and happiness I have in my own life, I use it to expand the freedom and happiness of others. 

In some cases, this vow means changing systems I have influence in. In other cases it is with individuals who I ask or am invited to serve. In either case, it is endless work that I find joy in the struggle of. I sift the world for new approaches to this work. I build relationships with those I can learn from or teach this work to. I look for everyday opportunities to practice what I know, and to apply what wisdom I have found. I am not without self in this work. I have learned that like most people, the finest moments of my life have been when I made a difference in someone else's.

We live in such a historic time and today marks a special event in the expansion of freedom work, where this work is both called for in a volume and mass never before experienced. Today, again, our Black brothers and sisters with allies of every color, march again. These days, we can tune in to many channels of experience and information to hear not only our fellow human brothers and sisters calling out, but all life and the living systems we are a part of. The opportunities to serve as leaders, as colleagues, as community members, family and friends are limitless. Never before has the question of “what can I do for freedom and happiness?” been as alive and tip of tongue in the day to day as it is now.

The answers are both simple and complex. This duality is confusing as long as we wish it to be otherwise, so I offer that the simple is available to all now. Simply vow to use what you have to lift others up or move something out of the way. Use your vote. Use your money. Use your voice. Use social media. Use your career. Use your attitude and mood. Use your smile, your hug your body language. Use all you have to lift others up, to open doors, to create possibilities for others happiness and freedom from suffering. 

The complex is also available now, but must be seen in the context of past, present and future. I am alive. I have what freedom I have. I have what happiness I have. Those around me are in a similar state - they have what they have in whatever measure. We all are moving from and to somewhere. Our present actions, how we balance service to others with service to ourselves in the moment is the sum of our worth in life. Each action big or small will ripple in some way. Will we move violently into the lives of others pushing others down to grab more for ourselves, or will we make our way peacefully and with caring to feel the genuine freedom from suffering that comes only from actions that prove, again and again, how we are all connected and how true happiness and freedom comes only through the joyful struggle of doing the good work.

With this peaceful path comes added complexity in that the work is never ending but each moment is its own end. Each act is like a finished painting, that the artist reflects on, admires and simultaneously knows the next can be even better. Living this way is a creative act, and some might find inspiration in whatever Creation story they love - that we are made in that Creator’s image to continuously unfold better and better expressions of living in a state of grace and making a better world.

So in this moment, another moment where those with less freedom and happiness than I have are being assaulted or killed in my society, I am ok with my discomfort. I see it as a call to work on my next moment and create something better. I know that this work will continue and shape and give meaning and purpose to my life. I am ok with the heartbreak and struggle I feel, and even the sense of powerlessness, because it will lead me to do the next good thing I can do. It is the neverending perpetual momentum of being involved and aware of Life - to express my measure of worth to it. When I give myself to this, I am part of a flow that has existed forever in us, the empathic, social impulse to trust and give and the joy from seeing someone else feel better in any way from my actions.

The vow continues - may all beings be happy and free from suffering, and may we return each moment to this good work.