Discernment In The Midst of Rage
I was going to write but instead I healed
I was going to write but instead I chose to heal and quietly share my rage with the Lord.
For about 2 weeks I’ve had plans to write about Jordan Neely and how some really well known Christians with big platforms spoke about his murder and his murderer.
I was going to talk about how exhausted I am at how fruitless and demonic some Christians are.
I was going to talk about how dignity is such an afterthought in the mind of some Christians.
I was going to talk about how racist some Christians are and how acceptable that has become.
I was going to write a lot about a lot of this, but instead I chose to heal and lean into Immanuel.
Writing, for me, has included healing but this time it just didn’t seem like the healing thing to do. That’s the thing about healing, one of the things that’s essential for the path of healing is discernment. Figuring out what will be good for our mind, heart, body, and soul as we navigate disappointment, grief, dehumanization, exhaustion, suffering, pain, and discrimination. We need discernment to know when to speak up and when to be silent. Discernment to know who to share our feelings with and who not to share it with. Discernment in what to read and when and when to just skip that article, post, or even passage (for now). Discernment to run to Jesus when we rather run to something that will numb us, temporarily give us happiness, or provide us with a distraction big enough to count us fools as if we would actually forget how or what we are feeling. Discernment to clear our minds to remember that this isn’t ALL evangelicals and Christians (which is why I said ‘some’ above - every single time).
Discernment is essential for healing.
So as I navigated a full month of caring for sick ones in my home, wrapping up a seminary semester, and celebrating my 35th birthday - discernment helped me choose prayer, healing, and self-love instead of writing about my rage.
Although my rage is righteous, my exhaustion is expected, and my hunger for righteousness is humbly received by God - my public silence is necessary and my verbal words to God are held well and tightly in His mind.
And that’s all I need for now to move into 2025 hoping for change, repentance, and a dismantling of unGodly platforms.
My prayer for you is that you would discern what you would need as you read about another school shooting and see people try to hold tight to their guns or you hear about a white man who killed a Black man and that white man not going to jail for it or you enter January knowing the inauguration day is coming and how it’ll coincide with Martin Luther King Jr. Day and how wildly ironic that is. My prayer is that you shout it, cry it out, whisper it, or sigh it out unto the God who is with us in all of this.
This year, I started off with my ‘word of the year’ being ‘SANCTUARY’ and it was meant to guide me as I choose to be a sanctuary (live out the words I wrote in my new book ‘Being a Sanctuary’), create spaces that are sanctuaries for others that were both online and in person - from my home to my annual conference, and to SEE God as my sanctuary. And as I reflect on and wrap up this year with these thoughts written out on this substack, I realize how important it is for me to see God as sanctuary. To see Jesus and Holy Spirit as my sanctuaries. To see how much of as safe and holy space they are that would allow me to be my full self in their presence but also to be brutally honest with this beautiful triune God.
So my words about Jordan Neely, school shootings, and the inauguration will live in my prayer time with the Lord for now. I invite you, too, to bring your righteous rage to the Lord as you lament, mourn, and grieve what has been and will be and ask the Father of Lights to give you hope for the days to come.
Amen and Happy Holidays!
your fellow sanctuary, Pricelis Dominguez
Announcement - I’m starting a new cohort in February and registration opens in January. If you are subscribed to this substack, then this is the kind of thing that I created with you in mind. More information on it will come soon but for now here’s the flyer and the waitlist link.
So wise.
It's been a heavy month in a heavy year