No Strangers: Opting in to Revolutionary Love

Welcome to 2021. We have come through a remarkable year of turmoil, inequity, reckoning, and loss. We have made strangers of each other and even, perhaps, become strange to ourselves. How are you? In this new year what is not only worthy of your opting into, but also possible? That’s where Valarie Kaur’s (See No Stranger) Revolutionary Love comes in. It reverberates with Jesus’ calls to love our neighbors as ourselves - and even our opponents - in a way that not only changes the game but helps us stay in it with our whole selves. (Episodes 2-6 have a Spotify Playlist generated during out Zoom Music Breakout sessions.)

Episode 1: Opting in Together (aired 1/1). Our reflections brought us to this 2019 message about dealing with the people around us as a starting point for the world we’re imagining-- a world with no strangers.

Episode 2: Opting in to The Labor of Love (aired 1/8). When Jesus said “love your neighbor as yourself” he named something big, and hard! Revolutionary love is a way to orient yourself for all of your labors of love close to home and in the world. Spotify Playlist.

Episode 3: Opting in to Wonder, Return to Love (aired 1/14). Wondering reminds us that we don’t know it all, and gives us information for how to love when it gets hard. Spotify Playlist.

Episode 4: Opting in to Grief, the Price of Love (aired 1/22). Grief translates into deeper connections and builds our determination and ability to fight for ourselves and others. Spotify Playlist.

Episode 5: Opting in to Anger, Protect What You Love (aired 1/28). How can we express our raw anger without hurting ourselves or others so it can be harnessed for good? Spotify Playlist.

Episode 6: Opting in to Joy, the Gift of Love (aired 2/5). Letting in joy is perhaps the most revolutionary way we can opt into love in 2021! Let’s do it. Spotify Playlist.