Week Two- DAy 1

Solidarity- Sickness, nakedness, and shame.

Refer to your list from last week's Matthew 25 exercise.

Who in your immediate reach is, "naked?"

Have you noticed someone trapped in cycles of poverty who needs clothing? Do you have clothing to share?

Identify someone you know who lives a life of being ashamed, "uncovered," abused, or controlled.

Make space for someone, offering your presence to counter the power of shame in their life.
What can you speak into their isolation?

Who is sick?

Is there someone in direct reach of your life who suffers from sickness, terminal illness, or mental health concerns?

Sickness comes in all types of forms; physical, spiritual, mental.

Chronic illness produces anxiety, depression, shame and discouragement.
Think about how your presence can counter this powerful force.

Write the name of a person(s) fitting these categories down in your journal, pray for them, plan to act.

day 2

Action- Do something

Take someone some clothing; socks to a person living a life without shelter, shoes- look for and notice what the practical need is and see if you're able to meet it.
If this person lives in the shame of poverty, addiction, or other type of brokenness, look for ways you can be an encourager to them.
Listening goes a long way. Share your own story. Set up an atmosphere of mutuality.
Be present with someone who is sick. Listen to them in their suffering. Avoid making suggestions about how to "get through it" or alternative treatment options and listen with your heart.
Allow your presence with someone who suffers from mental health concerns to be a disruption of their isolation, a rebuke to the forces that work to further alienate them.

How can your presence in their life interrupt a destructive narrative?

We are all a picture of the stories that shape us. Follow the link below for more.

Everybody's got a story

daY 3

Compassion

Allow the compassion you experienced by initial engagement to “move” you, change your mindset, produce ongoing action, further spark your creativity into:

Resistance initiatives:

Demonstrate ways that you are “with” this person and “against” whatever forces are causing isolation, poverty, or oppression in their lives
Engage your creativity toward continuity of relational and practical support
Share a meal with someone you've started a relationship with, stepping out beyond your own comfortable sphere

Follow the link below to learn more about active, compassion-driven resistance.

Here

Day 5

Liberation

Continuation of Relational Solidarity
Be a “good neighbor” to person/people you’ve connected with.
Remain in contact and conversation, connecting to what causes them pain, relate to it with your own experience.
Make contact again- Connect in some relational, supportive way.
Participate in the continued, conscious action of inviting/freeing others.
Advocate for those who are labeled, misrepresented, and cast out.
Do this through invitational conversations with others, sharing what you’re learning about how to see “the other.”

Over time, justice work and serving others can become exhausting. Follow the link below for help and perspective.

Best practice and boundaries

Day 6

Rest and Spiritual Disciplines

Rest is a holy gift. Make space for it; active, designated rest as a resolve toward worship and restorative wholeness.

Spiritual disciplines: Prayer, fasting, meditation, visualization, mindfulness. Tap into resources provided for how to begin.

Throughout the day, Meditate on Jesus' love and compassion while doing everyday things: eating, cooking, mowing, cleaning, exercising, etc.
Cultivate a prayerful consciousness concerning the poor, developing an awareness of everything being spiritual- Find beauty within the mundane and the routine.
Allow God’s presence to meet you in your intercession, your soul-repair, sorrow, and concern for the poor.

Follow the link below for a variety of resources to begin spiritual disciplines on your own, making worship and restoration habitual.

spiritual disciplines

Justiceformation