Today is March 13, 2026. A week ago I was at a meeting with Anjali, and the day had been so full of everything good — including conflict resolution that ended with acceptance. I asked her to take a picture of me. And then as I looked at this picture of little me which is on my phone screen to remind to me to be as gentle with myself as I would have been gentle with her…

I felt so at peace. I felt as if every version of me, at every stage, was safely comforted and accepted by the me I am today.

I recognized that I have always been assertive and unafraid to engage with people because I have always seen us all as beautiful little people who belong here.

For a while I struggled with fear about whether or not we all really belong. I struggled to believe that I belonged. And one day several years ago as I was meditating, I saw a vision of my little self lying terrified in the dark. As I looked at baby me, the Spirit said: “You know exactly what to do with that baby.” All of me smiled as I recognized that I absolutely knew. I picked her up and hugged her.

That is how I see us. I see the terrified little one in all of us, and in my heart I do pick us up and hug us.

And as I continue to observe the world I realize that we have been immersed in some ideas that have affected our ability to be together in real love.

I have heard it said that the enemy of one’s enemy is one’s friend.

This idea has shaped many of our alliances, our politics, and even our relationships. We often bond through shared opposition rather than through shared love.

But Jesus said something very different.

Love your enemies.

Bless those that hurt you.

Pray for those who despitefully use you.

At first this teaching seemed almost impossible. How could anyone genuinely love those who cause harm?

Over time, however, I began to notice something difficult and humbling.

I have learned that I hurt myself and despitefully use myself more than anyone else ever has—and God keeps guiding me through accountability with myself for this.

And it was on that gentle journey of accountability that I began to learn to love.

This growing me forgave and gave grace and comfort to all the younger versions of myself—from birth to this present day.

I learned that more than anything else I needed to forgive myself for the ways that I had harmed the younger versions of myself.

I needed to give myself the grace to continue to belong, because now I know that I did not know then what I know now.

It was on that gentle journey that I began to see that defensive-loyalty had been very often misrepresented as love.

I learned that love does not pretend that harm did not happen.

Love protects with wisdom.

I learned that love does not turn away from injustice.

Love gently and boldly speaks the truth.

I learned that love is the willingness to look honestly at oneself without feeling shame.

I learned that love knows, embraces, and welcomes the opportunity to emerge as a new creation with truth learned and justice installed as often as is needed — seventy times seven.

Because on that journey the Holy Spirit taught me two primary skills:

1. To accept being wrong.

2. To accept being perceived as wrong.

Learning both of these skills was difficult, because accepting that I might be wrong required courage and openness. I had to consent to allowing God to prune aggression from assertiveness.

Accepting that I might be perceived as wrong required something even deeper. I had to learn to remain open and peaceful even when misunderstood.

Then the Spirit taught me something even more freeing.

They taught me how to listen.

To listen I had to choose to stay in — rather than run away from uncomfortable conversations and processes.

Through listening, I began to learn what was right—not through shame, but through curiosity and grace.

For much of my life I had believed that accountability would lead to condemnation. Instead, it led to something completely different.

As I experienced God’s grace and forgiveness through the process of accountability, God gained my trust, and became my best friend.

And that is where I began to understand what it means to love the Lord my God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength.

There I learned to love myself.

And from there I began to learn to love my neighbour as myself.

Because when shame, defensiveness, anxiety, fear and similar emotions and states of being are filtered out of our lived experiences and replaced with awareness, clarity, hope, discernment and similar emotions and states of being we become open to learning. And when we become open to learning the growth of love in and between us becomes possible.

And it was there that I began to understand the difference between being a co-shepherd and being a hireling who is unconsciously focused on personal glory and reward instead of on the good way of mutual profit and care.

A hireling protects reputation.

A co-shepherd protects people.

A hireling invests in being right.

A co-shepherd invests in healing.

And in that realization I finally understood something that had once confused me.

I understood how deeply damaging it is for us as fallible human beings, as individuals, as countries, systems, or organizations—to claim to be the truth or claim to know all truth.

Truth is something we grow toward together through humility, listening, correction, and grace.

Anyone who claims ownership of truth will eventually begin protecting their authority instead of protecting people.

But when we approach truth as learners—when we allow ourselves to be corrected without shame—we become something else entirely.

We become neighbours.

We become friends.

We become co-shepherds who hold space for others to join us on the journey to the green pastures of love.

And along that journey may we begin to see what we may have forgotten before. Inside of each of us is still a small child who only needs someone to pick them up and assure them that they belong here.

We’ve got this. We know exactly what those little ones need.

We need to allow the One who is all love to pick us up and welcome us with a hug.

So yesterday I was processing some realizations about love, and when I’m processing what feels like a moment of clarity, my whole being vibrates with joy and I get so excited about sharing. But then usually there will pop up this little monster that asks, “Who do you think you are to speak like this?” And fear creeps in. Who do I think I am to ask questions, see patterns and perspectives, see what seems like light?

And as I said yesterday, fear turns into wondering if sharing is inviting pain and possibly death to my door.

Because I still believe that in some realm that we don’t understand there is warfare. And I believe that the enemy of love attacks people who are committed to growing in love. Not because we’re perfect, but because the light of love is transformative. That light shows that there is infinite space for all living things, infinite value in all living things. It banishes scarcity and its partner, greed. It eliminates the need for war. It invites peace. It uncovers the power that was being hidden by the shadow of fear.

And without fear, the enemy of love loses control of the slaves that they have been hoarding, as people recognize that they have long been declared free.

And yet I can’t hide the moments of clarity because that is neither integrity nor love. Leaving us in the dark because I am afraid is selfish. And I love you, all of us, too much to be constrained by fear.

I believe that even though I may experience pain, God will take my pain away. And from my pain more love seems to grow. I don’t enjoy the pain, but I have come to accept that it will be. And so I am sharing this summary of my recent thoughts and observations about why I value love and its role in our lives.

And more importantly who am I not to share?

My heart and mind are transformed from fear to openness in relationship. Everything that I have ever learned has been because of us, and this is no different.

It is so consistent across all relationships.

The characters in the stories may change, but the elements that lead to peace and reconciliation are always the same.

We only experience love when we allow grace and forgiveness to come together.

It seems that these two states are made up of similar parts with distinct differences, meant to relate interdependently to create love as a regenerative, creative, expansive, resilient, diverse state.

Grace can stand alone without forgiveness.

And forgiveness can stand alone without grace.

And it seems that the equation that produces love is something like this:

grace + forgiveness = love

It feels like supernatural math.

Like 1 + 1 = 3.

Grace opens the space.

Forgiveness releases what was held.

Grace says we still belong together, and no punishment is needed for that to be true.

Forgiveness says we don’t have to carry the pain or fear of being harmed anymore.

And when those two states meet and are joined together, something new appears.

Love.

Love isn’t only grace.

Love isn’t only forgiveness.

Love carries both of them and becomes more.

It is as if grace and forgiveness recognize and accept each other.

And when they come together, they create something larger than either one alone.

Love.

And love does something else.

It multiplies.

Grace makes space for forgiveness.

Forgiveness welcomes grace.

Together they create love.

And love begins to create a resilient, diverse community of belonging.

Belonging plus love creates peace.

Peace plus love and belonging creates freedom.

Freedom creates patience, kindness, gentleness, self-control, and more.

And suddenly the equation keeps expanding as more states that support resilience emerge.

Love creates a unified community. Love creates unity.

And unity does not erase difference.

Unity protects freedom.

Unity holds everyone inside belonging.

And when I look at that pattern, it starts to look familiar.

It starts to look like the mystery we see in God.

Father.

Son.

Spirit.

Different.

And yet the same.

Three.

And yet one.

Not competing.

Not controlling.

Not excluding.

Just existing in perfect relationship.

And when relationship is whole like that, something beautiful happens.

Love keeps multiplying.

Maybe this is what it means that humans are created in the image of God.

Beings unique and so similar.

Not to control each other.

Not to rank each other.

But to learn how to live inside that same kind of relationship.

Grace making space.

Forgiveness releasing harm.

Love multiplying belonging.

Peace holding it all together.

And because peace sits at the foundation of it all, it has remained very good.

Even when we forget.

Even when we fall back into the old patterns.

Grace is still there.

Forgiveness is still possible.

Love is still multiplying.

So perhaps the most important thing we can do is the simplest thing.

Trust the process.

Grace makes space.

Forgiveness releases what was held.

And when grace and forgiveness meet, love appears.

Grace + forgiveness = love.

And love keeps expanding.

Love creates belonging.

Belonging creates peace.

Peace creates freedom.

And freedom allows something beautiful to happen.

Difference no longer needs to compete or dominate to survive.

Difference becomes part of a resilient, living community.

Maybe this is part of what it means that humanity reflects the image of God, life that is generative, relational, and creative beyond anything we could fully imagine.

Perhaps every new life, every new person, every new expression of humanity is another glimpse of that mystery unfolding.

And maybe the point is not to compare forms of generativity at all.

The point is simply to recognize the wonder of it.

To recognize that life keeps creating new expressions of itself.

That diversity is not a threat to unity. It is part of its beauty.

Comparison is truly the thief of joy, and a waste of good energy.

Appreciating the diversity of all things, and being grateful that everything serves a purpose and has a place in the ecosystem of life, is what really matters.

Value the diversity.
Our ecosystem would not be so wonderfully complex and beautiful without it all.

Although Jesus’ whole life on Earth was a clear unfolding of God’s way of dialogue, patience, provision, and peace, God-followers have continued to use death, oppression, and supremacy as the way of security.

I recently read a scathing critique of Hegseth. And while I understand the outrage, scapegoating one person will not move us forward effectively.

Hegseth’s position—that violence and domination secure peace—is not new. It is a position deeply embedded in human culture and history.

If Jesus shows us God’s character what does that mean for the violent stories we celebrate?

The question is not simply whether Hegseth is wrong.The question is whether we are willing to look honestly at ourselves.

Because the reliance on violence as a strategy for security has been endemic throughout human history, from ancient times to modern ones.

And if Jesus shows us God’s character, what does that mean for the violent stories we celebrate?

The Pattern in Scripture

1 Samuel 30 reflects this tension clearly.

David returned home to find his village burned to the ground and the women and children taken captive by the Amalekites. Yet not one person had been killed.

David asked God if he should pursue them and recover the people. God said yes.

But David did not go in peace, with dialogue and gifts, as Jacob did with Esau, and as Abigail did with David.

And it is not that David did not know kindness or mercy.

At other times he showed compassion. On the way to confront the Amalekites he stopped to nurse a dying man back to health. Earlier in his life, when he had the opportunity to kill King Saul, he chose restraint and dialogue instead.

Yet when David reached the Amalekite camp, he spent days slaughtering Amalekites in retribution, as if destroying them would eliminate the problem once and for all.

That remained his strategy even to the end of his life, when he advised his son, who was ascending the throne, to secure his kingdom by eliminating opponents.

This pattern appears again and again: Moses and the slaughter following the golden calf; Joshua and the destruction of Jericho; the punishment of Achan.

God-followers have a long history of ordering and celebrating the killing of thousands and tens of thousands and declaring that this is divine intervention.

The thing is that this is not God’s way. It is human culture. It is a very human strategy for dealing with fear and uncertainty.

And yet God keeps showing us something different.

From Cain to Peter, and Saul who became Paul, we see again and again that slaughter, oppression, and persecution are not the way.

Abigail understood God’s way.

Jacob understood it when he approached Esau with humility, dialogue, and gifts.

Solomon understood it to a large degree as well, though influenced by the traditions of his father and by the culture around him.

The prophets understood it.

Hosea.

Micah.

And others.

They told us that grace, forgiveness, love, justice that cares for others, and peace are the way.

Jesus shows us the way. Jesus demonstrated this same truth as God in human form.

His life was a clear unfolding of God’s way of dialogue, patience, provision, and peace.

And yet when he showed us this way, we tortured him, killed him, and betrayed him.

In that moment we even declared that we were willing to carry his blood on our heads and on our children’s heads in order to secure wealth, control, and national security through brutality.

But Jesus showed us that death is not a winning strategy.

Violence does not solve violence. Violence begets violence.

When violence becomes the strategy, victory is shallow and short-lived. We must remain ready to kill again, because someone will always seek to respond with violence in return.

🦋

Evangelical Christianity is not less aggressive than the violent strategies it often condemns.

There are many ways to destroy human beings besides physical death.

If Evangelical Christianity pauses and looks honestly into the mirror of Christ’s love, example, and teaching, we would see the logs of violence protruding from our own eyes.

We preach, teach, and practice supremacy, hierarchy, oppression, and control in parenting, in marriage, in employment, in education, in leadership, and in justice systems.

My hope is that we will face that mirror of love. That we will see the log. That we will work with God, individually and together, to remove it.

That we will accept the offer of healing with new eyes, new hearts, and new ideologies that embrace grace, forgiveness, love, and peace.

Because perfect love casts out fear.

And without fear we would not need to hoard massive war chests in defense of freedom.

We could all be prosperous, peaceful, and free.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”
— John 3:16–17

In the beginning God clothed Adam and Eve and gave them the space they needed to experience the knowledge of good and evil that they chose.

And through the peaceful life of Jesus God crushed the serpent’s idea that shame, blame, and death were necessary to gain knowledge or control. And we know that shame and blame and death were the serpent’s way: because as soon as Adam and Eve chose that experience, they immediately felt shame. They began to cast blame, and then they taught their children that a sacrifice of blood was needed for freedom.

The text does not describe God killing an animal. That is nowhere described in the interaction between them. What it shows is God clothing them and caring for them.

God made them clothes that were better than the leaves that they had chosen. He created clothes for them just as He had created the world—without violence.

God showed them what some prophets showed us too:

Grace.

Forgiveness.

Love.

Justice that cares for others.

Peace.

This is the way.

May we finally begin to lean toward peace.

May we each finally say,

“Let there be peace on Earth, and let it begin with me.”

https://youtu.be/_AMvzan3EKM?si=ipfMC9PhGg7aNuJW

The realizations I am sharing here came together cohesively after watching the documentary Bearing Witness: The Case of Robert Coley-Donohue, and after a meaningful conversation with a peer who has been working to optimize their mental health through the process of therapy with a clinician.

From the time I was very young, I carried a knowing in my heart and mind that all people need compassion, and that none of us is better than another.

We are all ordinary people with an extraordinary capacity for compassionate growth together.

Because so many of our systems are built on power-over and supremacy, what lived in me often appeared as stubbornness on the outside.

What I understand now is that it was not stubbornness.

It was a refusal to collapse into hierarchical conditioning — conditioning that claimed some people had the right to control others, or to hold dominant positions within relationships.

It was a consistent refusal to agree that worth could be ranked.

A consistent refusal to trade connection for control.

For most of my life, I did not have the language to express this knowing. I struggled to articulate a truth that nevertheless lived resolutely within me.

What I did have was a deep, steady sense that love does not organize itself by dominance — and a shadowy awareness that we were being conditioned into a counterintuitive framework of control. A framework that generates rebellion, dehumanization, and rupture as people struggle to live with freedom, dignity, and abundance.

So I resisted.

Not gracefully.

Not skillfully.

And always faithfully to that early knowing.

Most of the time I refused to take sides. I could almost always see the why—and I wrestled hard not to dive into hate where harm was being done. That inner battle sometimes looked like defiance, or dominance, or disruption.

And now I can see that what once looked like defiance was devotion — devotion to dignity, mine and everyone else’s, and devotion to freedom, abundance, and accountability.

As so often happens, this clarity arrived through relationship — the sum of lived experience finally filtering through the lens of the pure love of the higher power that sustains us all.

So I will offer a specific example and invite us to apply this lens to every relationship within our global framework. I’ll begin with the relationship between therapists and the people with whom they work.

Therapists are people with professional-level knowledge of current best-practice tools and approaches that support trauma processing and integration, helping people make sense of their experiences and move forward with meaning.

Remembering that therapists are people — with the same struggles as all people — releases them from the pressure to have every answer, to never get triggered, to always say the exact right thing, or to live above the messiness the rest of us inhabit.

Therapists learn frameworks, patterns, nervous-system science, attachment theory, communication tools — all of that can be taught.

But being regulated while your own fear is activated…

staying present when something touches your own wound…

choosing humility instead of defensiveness…that part is lived, not memorized.

Therapists are people doing highly skilled work — not enlightened beings floating above the human condition. Remembering this creates peace, compassion, progress, and emotional safety within the therapeutic relationship.

Because therapy was never meant to be “The Expert Fixes Me.”

It is more like:

“Two humans sit together looking for a treasure, and one has specialized training in how to hold the flashlight.”

The therapist knows where to point the light — and still has their own dark corners at home. They are spiritual beings having a human experience, as we all are. Ordinary people.

And the other truth is this: we all hold a flashlight. Not the same one — but a flashlight no one else can hold in quite the way we do.

Returning to therapists:

Seeing therapists as people

🦋reduces pedestal pressure

🦋allows for repair when mistakes happen

🦋makes therapy more collaborative

🦋keeps power dynamics healthy

🦋reminds us that growth is a shared process, not a one-sided performance

This does not lower the standard of professionalism.

It grounds professionalism in reality — and gives us all the freedom to be ordinary people with an extraordinary capacity for compassionate growth together.

To repeat this for emphasis — because this clarity is deeply dignifying:

When I say therapists are people with professional-level knowledge, I mean exactly that.

They carry tools.

They carry training.

They carry responsibility.

And they are still human beings walking through their own healing, their own triggers, their own growth edges — just like everyone else.

Remembering this does not diminish the profession.

It restores the humanity inside it.

It releases therapists from the impossible burden of being perfect, all-knowing, or emotionally invulnerable.

And it releases clients from the belief that healing comes from being fixed by someone “above” them.

This echoes the wisdom of Yeshua M’shīkhā — also called Jesus Christ — who warned against confusing good teachings with flawless teachers. Not don’t learn from them, but don’t put the pressure of idealism on them. Stay awake. Stay grounded. Stay relational. Stay compassionate. Our helpers lead us to dignity; they are not the way.

Therapy, like faith, was never meant to be a hierarchy.

It was not meant to be education through dominance. It was meant to be a relationship.

Two humans sitting together.

One trained to help hold their flashlight.

Both still learning how to live in the light.

And this — this levelling of false pedestals — is part of a much older seed in me:

Compassion over comparison. 

Collaboration over control.

Shared humanity over hierarchical worth.

That seed is what makes real conflict resolution possible. Because when no one is trying to be above, we can finally be with. We can listen without defensiveness. Repair without humiliation. Grow without domination.

That is how communities of true belonging are built — not by perfect leaders, but by ordinary people, brave enough to stay human together, supported by regulations and processes that protect health, freedom, dignity, abundance, and accountability from the beginning to the end of our lives.

We do all this holding fast to the abiding truth: every child matters, and every part of the world we inhabit matters too.

Now apply this idea to every person in leadership in every position in our lives, parents; teachers; spiritual advisors; doctors; builders; managers; stylists etc. etc. etc. —including ourselves as the ultimate leader of our own choices.

How does this sit in your nervous system? Does it feel like we might finally able to move towards building and sustaining a thriving home together?

The “Being With, Not Over” Relational Framework

Eight Pillars

1. Inherent Dignity

Every person holds equal human worth, regardless of role, age, status, education, or capacity.

In practice:

• No shaming as a behaviour-control tool
• No using expertise to diminish someone’s voice
• No ranking whose feelings “matter more”

Dignity is not earned. It is recognized.

2. Shared Humanity

Expertise does not erase humanness. Leadership does not remove vulnerability.

In practice:

• Therapists can acknowledge mistakes
• Parents can repair after misattunement
• Leaders can say “I don’t know”
• We allow imperfection without collapsing accountability

This replaces pedestal dynamics with relational presence.

3. Power With, Not Power Over

Power is used to support safety, growth, and agency — not dominance or control.

In practice:

• Clear boundaries without humiliation
• Structure without dehumanization
• Authority that protects, not suppresses

Power becomes a stabilizing force, not a threat.

4. Mutual Influence

Even in asymmetrical roles (therapist/client, parent/child, teacher/student), both people affect the relationship.

In practice:

• Feedback is welcomed
• Repair is collaborative
• Listening flows both directions (within appropriate boundaries)

No one is treated as an object to be managed.

5. Repair Over Perfection

Relationships grow through rupture and repair, not flawless performance.

In practice:

• We name harm without shame
• We apologize without defensiveness
• We allow learning instead of exile

Repair builds trust more deeply than pretending nothing happened.

6. Regulation Before Resolution

Safety and nervous system settling come before problem-solving.

In practice:

• Slow the conversation when emotions escalate
• Co-regulate before correcting
• Recognize survival responses as signals, not moral failures

Connection restores capacity for collaboration.

7. Accountability Without Dehumanization

People are responsible for their impact — and still worthy of dignity.

In practice:

• Behaviour is addressed without attacking identity
• Consequences are protective, not punitive
• Growth is expected, not demanded through fear

Accountability becomes a path back into belonging, not a door out.

 

8. Distributed Wisdom

No one holds all the light. Every person carries perspective, insight, and lived knowledge.

In practice:

• Professionals respect lived experience
• Leaders consult those affected
• Families include children’s voices appropriately amplified

We all hold a flashlight.

What This Framework Creates

When these principles guide relationships, we get:

• Less defensiveness
• More repair
• Safer conflict
• Stronger trust
• Real belonging
• Sustainable collaboration

This is how homes, therapy rooms, classrooms, and communities become places where people can grow with dignity, without fear of being ranked, shamed, or dominated.

Freedom and Dignity: Being With, Not Over

A Relational Manifesto

We believe every person holds inherent dignity.

No role, title, age, education, or status makes one human being more valuable than another.

We reject systems built on domination, ranking, and control.

We choose relationships built on compassion, presence, accountability, and shared humanity.

We believe expertise is real — and humanness remains.

Teachers, therapists, parents, leaders — al helpers carry knowledge and responsibility,

and they are still people — learning, healing, and growing alongside everyone else.

We refuse pedestals.

We refuse dehumanization.

We refuse the lie that power must mean “over.”

We choose power with —

power that protects without humiliating,

guides without controlling,

and leads without erasing the voices of others.

We believe growth comes through repair, not perfection.

Through listening, not silencing.

Through regulation, not reactivity.

Through accountability that restores dignity rather than removing it.

We believe every person carries light.

Not the same light —

but a light no one else can hold in quite the same way.

When we stop trying to be above one another,

we can finally be with one another.

And from that place, conflict becomes conversation.

Difference becomes learning.

Responsibility becomes shared.

Belonging becomes possible.

This is how homes heal.

This is how communities grow.

This is how leadership becomes trustworthy.

Not through dominance —

but through dignity.

Not through control —

but through connection.

We are ordinary people

with an extraordinary capacity

to support dignity together.

AND; not but, AND.

So how to AND here? This is very hella real. How can one possibly take no shit when often the turds of constipated emotional backup or the flood of crap caused by irritable brain syndrome comes gushing at you with turbo speed?

Let me sell us a masterclass in creating a consistently perfect shit to gold shield.

Psalm 121 NLT
I look up toward the hills.
From where does my help come?
2 My help comes from the Lord,
the Creator of heaven and earth.
3 May they not allow your foot to slip.
May your Protector not sleep.
4 Look! Israel’s Protector
does not sleep or slumber.
5 The Lord is your protector;
the Lord is the shade at your right hand.
6 The sun will not harm you by day,
or the moon by night.
7 The Lord will protect you from all harm;
They will protect your life.
8 The Lord will protect you in all you do,
now and forevermore.

⬆️ That up there. Best teacher, best coach. God will protect our right hand AND the rest of us WHILE we learn how to SUIT up in the WHOLE armour of God. Legit.

Ephesians 6:13-18
13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

May we learn to invoke God’s blessing of loving-kindness with such consistent speed that shit turns to pure harmless liquid gold as soon as a shitter even thinks about us.

Yesterday the POTUS posted publicly in the spirit of the reality of the history that surrounds North American Thanksgiving celebrations in both countries.

And my heart and the hearts of all of us in innocence remains in the elevation of peace and healing. This prayer stays in our hearts – consciously or unconsciously. May we all become actively conscious of it.

A Prayer for All Leaders

For world leaders, spiritual leaders, and healing leaders: in the name of Yeshua M’shikha

Baba Ndiri – our Father in heaven, in the name of Yeshua M’shikha,
I lift every leader on this earth before You.

Those who mold nations, those who guide churches and temples, those who seek to inspire in schools, hospitals, healing organizations, and communities in their care.

You alone see the truth behind every public mask.
You see the wounds that created defensiveness, the fears that hardened their instincts,
the longing they still carry
to be safe, to be worthy,
to be seen,
to be loved.

Baba, with lovingkindness we affirm the childlike innocence that You placed in every soul and we are thankful that it can rise again within us.

May we remember that we need more than naïveté that ignores wisdom,
We welcome the purity that recognizes truth without manipulation, that sees humanity before politics, that responds with curiosity instead of pride, and gentleness instead of force.

Let peace, not dominance and superiority
become the operating system of every leader’s heart.

We thank you for sifting the tares from the wheat in our leaders’ hearts.

Sift away fear so that courage remains.
Sift away ego and retain humility.
Where power has been misused, we invoke the power of repentance and repair.
Where trauma has shaped leadership, plant integration, healing, and nervous systems at rest.

May the leaders of nations remember the weight and worth of every human life.

May the leaders of religious communities
remember that no doctrine is ever more sacred than the people who stand before them.

May the leaders of healing organizations
remember the tenderness towards people that makes their calling holy.

Baba, teach us all to lead as Yeshua led,
not through domination, but with presence and peace, with truth that frees, and with love that does not fear complexity.

Let their decisions be guided by compassion, by the wellbeing of those
they have been entrusted to serve.

And may Your Spirit whisper
into the quiet places of all of our hearts, reminding us that strength is not control,
but alignment with Love.

That is power.

May innocence rise above agenda.
May peace rise above pride.
May wisdom rise above noise.
And may we all be transformed into living instruments of restoration, liberation, and healing peace.

May we remember the powerful intellect of our inner child.

May we align with Your kingdom of Love on Earth, as it is in heaven.

Forever and ever. Asé and amen.

We’re good. The shit is real, and we have the ability to turn it into gold together in this one-diversely-full world.

Peace to you.

With love and solidarity from Saran, the Queen of Joy.

By Saran A.N. Lewis

Two men stand together in a formal room marked by symbols of national leadership. One is seated at a wooden desk, looking upward with a wide, genuine smile that softens the whole atmosphere. The other stands beside him with a calm, steady presence, shoulders relaxed, expression gentle, posture grounded and at ease.

The moment between them feels unexpectedly peaceful.
Not staged.
Not guarded.
Just human.

There is warmth in the eyes of the man standing.
There is openness in the smile of the man seated.
And between them, there is a sense of dignity, quiet respect, and shared possibility.

It is a picture of two people meeting each other without the armor that usually surrounds power. A moment where defenses seem lowered. A moment where humanity feels visible again.

This image reminds us that peace is possible even in places shaped by tension.
That connection can appear in unexpected ways.
That leadership, at its best, carries a pulse of humility and hope.

These are powerfully beautiful moments where people choose presence over posturing, warmth over walls, softness over spectacle.

This moment deserves to be seen for what it is: a glimpse of what could be when peace is allowed to breathe.

Why did so many of us make fun of it?

Why is the spirit of division and bullying so prevalent among us?

What are we afraid of?

We took unfamiliar peace and turned it into familiar chaos.

Why do we feel that we must pick sides? Why can’t we just elevate and appreciate peace? This was such a beautiful and powerful moment.

Being in industry Trump had genuine concerns about his nation’s profit. He might have been uniquely positioned to understand inequity in progress with awareness of other nations’ attempts to undermine US economic stability so that other countries could emerge as superpowers, in a world where being powerful meant being colonized.

Wanting to avert that is not wrong. What shapes the methodology is important.

Being shaped by a life lived across communities and systems, Mamdani developed a different but equally compelling concern, one rooted in understanding how policy and progress affect those without automatic access. His lived experience seems to have taught him what inequity looks like from the ground up, not as theory but as reality. From that vantage point, his ambition may be guided by a desire to widen opportunity, reshape systems, and bring fairness into spaces that once overlooked people like him. This kind of perspective can fuel a drive not only to succeed personally, but to ensure that others coming after him meet fewer barriers and more open pathways.

Both men aspire to address legitimate concerns, can we pause to understand what shapes their methodology so that we can move forward with informed compassion and wisdom together?

Can we seek accountability which leads to global progress, understanding that “words fitly spoken are like apples of gold in settings of silver”.

A Prayer for All Leaders

For world leaders, spiritual leaders, and healing leaders: in the name of Yeshua M’shikha

Baba Ndiri – our Father in heaven, in the name of Yeshua M’shikha,
I lift every leader on this earth before You.

Those who mold nations, those who guide churches and temples, those who seek to inspire in schools, hospitals, healing organizations, and communities in their care.

You alone see the truth behind every public mask.
You see the wounds that created defensiveness, the fears that hardened their instincts,
the longing they still carry
to be safe, to be worthy,
to be seen,
to be loved.

Baba, with lovingkindness we affirm the childlike innocence that You placed in every soul and we are thankful that it can rise again within us.

May we remember that we need more than naïveté that ignores wisdom,
We welcome the purity that recognizes truth without manipulation, that sees humanity before politics, that responds with curiosity instead of pride, and gentleness instead of force.

Let peace, not dominance and superiority
become the operating system of every leader’s heart.

We thank you for sifting the tares from the wheat in our leaders’ hearts.

Sift away fear so that courage remains.
Sift away ego and retain humility.
Where power has been misused, we invoke the power of repentance and repair.
Where trauma has shaped leadership, plant integration, healing, and nervous systems at rest.

May the leaders of nations remember the weight and worth of every human life.

May the leaders of religious communities
remember that no doctrine is ever more sacred than the people who stand before them.

May the leaders of healing organizations
remember the tenderness towards people that makes their calling holy.

Baba, teach us all to lead as Yeshua led,
not through domination, but with presence and peace, with truth that frees, and with love that does not fear complexity.

Let their decisions be guided by compassion, by the wellbeing of those
they have been entrusted to serve.

And may Your Spirit whisper
into the quiet places of all of our hearts, reminding us that strength is not control,
but alignment with Love.

That is power.

May innocence rise above agenda.
May peace rise above pride.
May wisdom rise above noise.
And may we all be transformed into living instruments of restoration, liberation, and healing peace.

May we remember the powerful intellect of our inner child.

May we align with Your kingdom of Love on Earth, as it is in heaven.

Forever and ever. Asé and amen.

By Saran A. N. Lewis

Every painful moment of my life was worth it for the conception and delivery of these thoughts.

This week, my whole self was filled with tears and sadness as I read Paul J. Henderson’s article about Chantelle Ruhl’s profoundly unfair and tragic death.

It gives me great joy and peace to know that God did not—and would never—orchestrate pain to teach us. He has been with us through the pain caused by human choice, so that we could survive, heal, learn, grow, and eventually thrive.

God keeps hoping that we will mine deeply to find the treasure of grief.

Chantelle Ruhl didn’t have to die this way, and David Dalton Knox could have chosen to lean into love instead of continuing to recklessly harm others.

Read the article here.

And what about us?

How are we learning to live profitably together?

🦋

The Call to Grieve

The Spirit of Love persistently tries to calm our anxieties and challenge our judgments so that we can sit and discuss the issues that cause us pain. The Spirit of Love persistently invites us to lean into connection and conflict resolution so that we can reach peace and acceptance, which are so much closer than we think.

As I read this article, my whole self filled with tears as I thought of the factors that create the version of each person who shows up in the world. Seeing that at the core of every person is innocence yearning to be known, loved, respected, and connected productively with all others—it is devastating to witness how fractures in connection create such monstrous outcomes, where one person becomes so accustomed to caring only for their own survival that they could knowingly destroy, negatively affect, or end other lives.

It is heartbreaking to see this pattern play out in relationships all around us—as families, friendships, tribes, communities, countries, and potential partnerships are repeatedly broken by ego.

🥺

The Lament of Love

I understand Jesus’ tears as He wept over Jerusalem and said:

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God’s messengers! How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn’t let me.”

— Matthew 23:37

This verse was part of Jesus’ final message in person to Israel. It was a lament—a deep grief that we refuse to be gathered together to learn how to move forward as one in love.

Dear ones, to get there we must learn how to grieve and set aside ego so that we can listen to each other, and heal, grow, and live together—with our differences and similarities creating the one-diversely-full world that God intended to inhabit with us.

Not one drop of rain, not one snowflake, not one bird, fish, or flower is identical to another, and yet together they form the most infinitely amazing tapestry of life.

What about us?

🥰

The Process of Returning to Love

I once said to a friend that people who rape people don’t rape everyone. Painful experience has taught me this.

Moving through the process of healing attached to that and other sources of pain has taught me these things:

My interactions with a person do not define their interactions with everyone else.

I have learned to think this way about all of us as human beings and to be open to the idea that people who do very wonderful things are also capable of doing very horrible things—all people. Every single one of us.

I’ve learned to assume that there is always some underlying factor that causes people to choose to harm others.

I have learned that the version I hold in my mind of each person either cleanses my soul or erodes both my life and theirs. 

Therefore I am learning to take care of my own healing with God, while letting God take care of the healing of those who harm me—instead of seeking vengeance.

As a part of that process, I have moved through these phases with deep gratitude to Elizabeth Kubler-Ross for her work on grief, and as I grieved I seem to have found more:

1. Being frozen in denial — literally.

2. Unconsciously bargaining with them to be safer or better through positive engagement.

3. Disgust and contempt

(a) Wishing that they would shrivel up and die because of how they’ve harmed me.

(b) Ruminating on ways to punish them so that they also feel pain.

(c) Attempting to initiate a process of punishment.

(d) Resolving that I am better than they and will leave them to God.

4. Depression — recognizing that punishment does not alleviate pain; slowing down and feeling the deep emotional wound as my brain shuts down all processes that are not needed to survive, so that I can rest.

5. Sadness — recognizing that punishment is not really what I want. I am mourning the pain and injustice of the situation.

6. Anger — realizing that action needs to be taken to put safeguards in place to protect myself and others.

7. Conferring — avoiding direct engagement with the offender, instead seeking conference (also known as gossip) with others to perform a forensic autopsy of the situation.

But Jesus redirected me from avoidance to engagement in one to three steps in Matthew 18:

“If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you.

If they listen to you, you have won them over.

But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.

If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.”

— Matthew 18:15–17

The steps to healthy conferring are:

I. With the offender, if they are safe and willing. (If they are not safe, leave and heal with God, as Jesus did when He left Nazareth.)

II. Intervention with the offender and one or two significant others—people who love and respect both parties—if they are willing.

III. Community reflection with a larger group of people who love and respect both, to examine facts and invite the offender into a supported process of healing and accountability so that they will not re-offend.

8. Acceptance — I have done everything I can do.

9. Finding meaning — discovering what new value can be brought to the community from the lessons learned.

10. Coming home to wholeness, and the fullness of myself in connection with all, which leads to 

11. Creation — building a whole new dimension of community engagement with the tools and resources acquired throughout the process.

In this way, the kingdom of love is built, inhabited, and infinitely expanded on Earth as it is in heaven.

And if we wonder how often we should move through this process, Jesus also answered that question:

“Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”

Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.”

— Matthew 18:21–22

If we’re wondering whether it is worth it, look around us at the pain and suffering—and find the answer.

🤯

The Nature of God Revealed

This experience of being guided through forgiveness is also what led me to recognize that God wants us to know that He is not whom we thought He was.

He never harms.

Never kills.

Never punishes.

And never will.

He is always with us—encouraging, comforting, and providing for us as we move through the often painful consequences of our own choices and the agony of being harmed by others.

Jesus was willing to die to help us understand that when we connect to conflict resolution through Him, love wins. And as we grow we become lovingly competent at leaning in to the paradox of peaceful leadership. 

🫶🏾

The Paradox of Peaceful Leadership

I have observed that people often become confused and tense when they encounter a leader who will not boss them around, micromanage them, punish them for inaction, or actively or passively exclude anyone.

This confusion can arise even when that leader is clear about the vision and consistently supports the success of the team with well-defined boundaries and collaboration that welcomes conflict resolution and shared struggle.

And yet, when leaders do the opposite—when they micromanage, rely on systems of punishment and reward, or foster triangulation and competition—followers often perform with what appears to be efficiency.

The wonderful irony is that being supported without dominance, punishment, or exclusion ultimately has the deepest and most lasting impact. Love and kindness have a way of calming dissonant nervous systems and restoring trust—eventually.

Although initially being loved may create panic as the nervous system reacts to unfamiliar safety, over time, as recipients process safety and belonging at their own pace, growth and innovation begin to flourish.

A true community is formed—one built on the foundation of genuine freedom, compassion, and mutual respect.

Conversely, while fear-based systems may appear to flourish for a season, the underlying anxiety they produce inevitably leads to stagnation, burnout, and the quiet erosion of community.

The treasured truth I have mined from this observation is that, against all odds, love wins.

I hold hope that we will awaken to this reality and begin to lead, follow, and consistently engage more comfortably with love.

Jesus lives as a beacon of light to testify of this.

Viva the Loveolution.

I LOVE THIS!! https://youtube.com/shorts/y_Y_EbzAzjk?si=YAoP-arkuOJf8eUH.

Carney apologized to Trump because as a responsible leader he recognizes that protecting reputation and doubling down on rightness has never been the way to pave the path to peace and collaboration.

I love this because as a recovered gossiper – ten years in recovery, and as a new keeper of the space and hearts – as a nurturer who has done the very hard and very expensive work of learning to listen from my heart I know exactly how difficult it is to apologize and to hold space, while making space for grief – my grief- and the grief and fear of all others to flow.

I know how excruciatingly difficult it is to get to this place.

I know how excruciatingly painful it is to accept persecution and injustice, and still stay in, and/or circle back to love.

Maturity and wisdom begin to recognize that seeking accountability and building a way forward isn’t made better by grandstanding even if one is right.

An apology given because an apology is craved fills a need. It builds space. It’s not about being right or wrong. Perception – experience is everything. Therefore, instead of fighting and right defending, I have found that accepting the idea that my good intentions were not clearly communicated, and that some sharp edge which I missed in the humanness of expression and interaction caused harm.

Offering an apology creates space for all involved to process from grace and healing. It says, I see you. I value you. I wounded you.

This knowing gained as God has accompanied me on an Emmaus walk through life has helped me to be patient with life that very often feels like a fiery furnace. And when I flow out of peace my Baba Ndiri’s coaching helps me to circle back to peace, and to extend peace in spirit to those whom I would have previously cut flat down with my fiery tongue, and whose opportunity to connect I would have burnt to ash in the incinerator of forgetfulness.

To do this, I had to learn how to cry again.

Vulnerability matters.

This past summer as I watched the days go by, Camp-meeting approached, and the administration of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church remained silent, regarding the concern about convicted sex offenders attending Camp-meeting, I came to social media hoping that it would spark conversation and progressive momentum to protect children and create space for connection and rehabilitation for known and convicted sex offenders who would usually attend.

I’ve been praying that some positive action is being made even though fear and survival mode flight, freeze, fawn, fright, faint, or flock kept the administration from acknowledging my expressed concerns.

I had already apologized a few weeks earlier for not communicating as clearly as I thought I had. My words had caused them to feel afraid — afraid that I was threatening them with public exposure — when in truth, I was seeking accountability and discussion, in the loving process of truth and reconciliation, for something which they feared would ruin their reputation.

And that is an understandable fear because they are human. In general human interactions survival mode driven by fear is real. Blame and scapegoating driven by shame are real. Gossip is real — and we all fear the sting of gossip as much as we fear the bite of a venomous snake. Gossip has long been used as a weapon of war, wielded against opponents in a right-fight. Yes, war. A right-fight with reputations deliberately left shredded on the battlefield.

And there is a profound difference between a right-fight and a focused, private invitation to the table of truth and reconciliation.

We rarely acknowledge that when we tell our version of a story — with all parties deliberately individually identified — to people who are not at the table to facilitate reconciliation, our intention, whether we are conscious of it or not, is to gather an army. And that army’s mission is not healing. It is the social assassination of the other.

I recognized long ago that there has likely been a campaign of disinformation set in motion to discredit and alienate me in order to protect their reputation.

I just keep singing glory over it all, because my job is to nurture and encourage growth in integrity, while holding space for connection and healing someday.

“Glory” is the song that God began to sing with me in victory which is already certain.

I shared this song and prayers with them throughout the communication process which began on February 6, 2024 when I made the first step towards seeking restitution and reconciliation.

And as I have processed with God, and waited until the fullness of it all dropped back down to my heart, as I moved through Jesus’ prescribed accountability process I have been able to tell the story publicly to the general population to help facilitate restitution while I wait for the victory of reconciliation.

Victory will be to see relationships restored, healthy forums to wrestle with truth and reconciliation created, with grace, hope and love at the core, so that the truest profit of healing and wholeness as it is in heaven can be experienced here and now on Earth.

“…The biggest weapon is to stay peaceful
We sing, our music is the cuts that we bleed through
Somewhere in the dream we had an epiphany
Now we right the wrongs in history
No one can win the war individually
It takes the wisdom of the elders and young people’s energy
Welcome to the story we call victory
The comin’ of the Lord, my eyes have seen the glory
One day when the glory comes
It will be ours, it will be ours…(Common and John Legend, Glory)

We are not interested in exclusion, or in public executions with children seated to watch.

That kind of culture is what allowed children to stand, posing, smiling, beside the dangling, charred bodies of lynched and tortured men and women as if the gruesomeness was an acceptable norm.

We seek healing, transparency, and transformation now, on Earth as it is in heaven.

We are here. Diverse. Equal. Included.

Glory.

https://youtu.be/HUZOKvYcx_o?si=c3S7C9C22JVOCgg4

For the last fifty years and especially these last five I have been on a forgiveness journey. But I did not know that it was a forgiveness journey until I knew.

Until I saw it with my own eyes, not once, but again and again, and finally experienced it for myself, I would not believe that it was what it truly was.

So I have learned to forgive, and to extend my hand to one person at a time, like the little girl on the shore who kept throwing starfish back into the sea, even though hundreds lay stranded. One starfish at a time, with irrepressible faith and hope in God’s resurrection power.

Church made me realize this.
Church succeeds because church is religion’s gathering place, and religion does what crime does.

It does what God asked community to do, but we do not do.

And I saw that religion also does the things which crime does which God asked us not to do.

I learned that religious leaders will discard you in the blink of an eye to protect their profit, without discrimination, no matter who you are.

They will gossip, scheme, and smear those who threaten the system that feeds them.

I learned that religious leaders will ignore children being harmed until it directly affects their image – which affects their profit. I learned that religion really does not care what happens to the children. When I cried and reached out to them about how children were being harmed by sexual predators in our religious community they remained silent.

See Oprah’s interview below with child sex predators to understand why I have such deep concern about the Seventh-Day Adventist Church’s lack of response about child sex offenders attending camp-meeting.

There seems to be no real plan to protect and empower children, inform and empower parents, and safely rehabilitate offenders.

https://youtu.be/vmwQd3mw5pw?si=SNov2glvTi4S4DJi

Until I saw and experienced it for myself, I thought that the Church was a caring entity – the real way.

But Jesus shows us the true Way, and reminds us that this Way is already within us.

We have forgotten it.

And so I began to look around the world at all the places that religion had told me were false and dangerous. And I found that in many of those places the real way was alive and well.

At first I was livid. I felt betrayed. And I had been. We all have been.

But then I sat with God and asked why? And as the science of the why unfolded more and more, day after day I began to forgive us for being so harmful.

Yes. Us. Not them.

I began to see that like a broken clock we are all right at least twice per day. Every day. Daily.

And in many other ways we are so very broken and misinformed.

We. Yes. We. Not them.

And as God kept assuring me that They are with us all on our journeys of healing and discovery I began to explore more courageously. I began not to look just at “them” but to look at me.

And as I looked at me I understood why Yeshua asked us to first love the Lord our God with all our heart – because in the shelter of that love we can finally face ourselves without shame.

And as we face ourselves without shame we completely lose the need to blame

And as we lose the need to blame we begin to see ourselves through the science of being human, and we understand why we do the things that we do.

As we understand why, we find better ways of meeting our needs. And as we meet our needs we begin to love ourselves again.

And then when we love ourselves we can finally love others with the same kind of robust hope and encouragement with which we love ourselves.

And as we begin to love ourselves, we begin to find more and more golden threads of informed compassion, purified through the fire of courageous examination.

Then we finally begin to repair the broken fabric of our oneness in community with the golden threads of informed compassion.

And together, we can return to the Way of thriving, truthful community, because we finally remember whom we really are.

That is why I share what I have seen and learned in scripture, as I have experienced it through the life of Jesus.

God is calling us to remember.
To awaken.
To be loved. 🥰

Viva the Loveolution.
I remember, and I forgive us for not knowing what we have been doing.