As people of faith, we are called to recognize injustice and work to change it. We move toward suffering and come alongside it. Religion is also attention and openness to the totality of being human together in community. When it feels like the world is on fire, I sometimes struggle to pay attention to joy. How about you? What does our Unitarian Universalist faith teach us about holding this tension? How can we tell the truth about suffering and make room for beauty? Can joy be just? Let’s give our attention to meeting the holy in just joy.
Jessica James, MDiv, is a candidate for the Unitarian Universalist ministry. She serves on the board of the Church of the Larger Fellowship and is pursuing a master’s degree in restorative justice at the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding of Eastern Mennonite University. She graduated from Andover Newton Theological School in May 2018 and served as the Ministerial Intern for UUAC First Parish in Sherborn, MA from September 2017-June 2019. Jessica and her husband Royce live in Dayton with their four children.
