Usually when I realize that I have an upcoming turn to contribute something for the Reformed Journal blog, I like to dig in almost immediately and get an idea or two simmering. This time around, though, I felt like my brain and my soul were unsure and unsettled. In the last, I don’t know, let’s say 64 days or so, checking the news each day has felt like stepping onto a tightrope blindfolded. What now? What fresh hell is this? 

I was ruminating about my unsettled mind yesterday, and thinking about Paul’s admonition to the Philippians to let their minds be settled on things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy. Not for the first time was I feeling a little frustrated with Brother Paul. 

Lovely? Praiseworthy? If you could see the headlines these days, Paul, you’d be saying something different. True? What IS truth? Feeling more Pilate-ish than Pauline, I wasn’t in the headspace to write about something that felt comfy and detached from current events, but I also felt unable to react well and thoughtfully to current events when the tightrope seems more precarious day by day. It’s paralyzing.

But as I reflected, I realized that Paul did not include the words “comfy” or “detached” in his list. Sometimes the most right thing we can do is to protest. Sometimes the most true thing to acknowledge is that we are worried. Sometimes the most excellent thing is to carry on regardless.

A few years ago I was having a great conversation with a dear friend who is doing noble, right, admirable work in a city thousands of kilometres from me. We lamented the social challenges that were going on at that time, which in truth were the same flavor as they are today. “I wish you and your family lived closer,” he said. “We would definitely get into good trouble together.”

Good trouble. What a fascinating term. Having been raised very much with the view that the ideal Christian (especially the ideal Christian woman) should “be good and not get into trouble,” these words jostle against each other in my mind, like two magnet-ends of the same pole being forced to sit side by side. The phrase comes from a quote by a brilliant congressman from Georgia, the late John Lewis, who tweeted this in 2018:

“Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month, or a year, it is the struggle of a lifetime. Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble.”

This little piece of wisdom flows so seamlessly from Paul’s that one could easily believe that it had been written to the church at Philippi as part of the same letter. The resonance that Paul’s letter to the Philippians was written while he was in prison is not lost on me. Lewis was also beaten and imprisoned, in his case for being part of the Freedom Riders, a group of non-violent protesters against racial segregation. Good trouble has a long and storied history for the people of God.

Like Paul, Lewis blended the hope and the encouragement that we need in times like these with an acknowledgement that there is no quick fix. We’re in this for the long haul. But neither Paul nor Lewis was paralyzed by the immensity of the struggle, because they both knew that good trouble isn’t about individuals. We resist in community. We support and encourage in community. We protect the oppressed in community. 

Lewis followed up his assertion that we’re in the struggle of a lifetime with the reminder to never, ever be afraid. And Paul penned one of his most famous lines just a few sentences later in Philippians, but these days it’s the one that comes right after that hits my heart the most. “I can do all this through him who gives me strength. Yet it was good of you to share in my troubles.”

My hope for all of us right in this moment, no matter what today’s news or tomorrow’s news may bring, is exactly what both of these saints said in their own seasons. In our current era of fear and uncertainty, let’s not get lost in a sea of despair. Let’s do the admirable, excellent, noble work of making noise and getting into good trouble. Let’s share in each other’s troubles and draw strength from each other’s optimism.

And the God of Peace will be with us.

PS – Shameless plug for my friend Jamie Arpin-Ricci’s excellent online resource, The Rainbow Well, supporting learning and discussions on faith, gender, and sexuality. Keep getting into good trouble, Jamie.