Horrifying. Saddening. A light shed on the atrocities committed.
This news has continued to come over the last couple months. The horrors of children ripped from their homes, and ultimately being buried in unmarked graves. Missing the dignity of a proper burial and a chance for family and friends to say good-bye. The terrible reality of things done in the name of country and in the name of God.
Things that never should have been allowed. Things we quickly condemn when we hear about them happening in other places. Things that break the heart of God and should break the hearts of those who claim His Name today.
As I've watched this unfold. Heard the news. Read the reactions. I've wrestled with how to respond myself. With how to even try to make sense of any of this. How do I respond? What can and should I do?
To be honest, it's only in the last few years that I've become more clearly aware of this lengthy part of Canada's story. I wasn't trying to ignore it, but I'd never heard much about it.
It's unfortunately easier than I thought to come up with explanations and reasons. To keep it at a distance that means I don't have to do anything.
But, I don't want to do that. I don't want to continue in the patterns of the past. It doesn't do any good for anyone.
While I would never compare what my family went through leaving everything behind when they fled the persecution they were facing and came to Canada. But, I did learn an important lesson from stories my great-grandparents told about their experiences or the experiences of their parents.
I learned how important it is to really listen and care about another's story. Not listening to confirm your opinion or understanding. Listening to hear the other person and what they're saying.
I had a quote from Beth Moore come up again recently that explains what I'm trying to say better than I can:
"We cannot have compassion if we don't go sit with people and enter in to how they see it."
As we grapple with what has been discovered - as a country, as a church, as individuals - we have to learn to sit with people and enter in to their experiences of this part of history. Not to analyze, or argue, or convince them of something. But to learn what it was and is like for the other person.
This isn't easy. It takes hard work. It's hard to hear. As Danielle Strickland writes:
"Presencing yourself to enter into the other person's experience. To be part of the joy and the pain. This is the most transformative part of listening and the hardest one to allow yourself to do."
But it is exactly what we need to do. We need to really listen to those who are still living with this. To those who still deal with the results of this terrible part of Canada's story. To those who live with the pain.
We cannot ignore this. Or try to pretend it didn't happen or it wasn't that bad.
It's only in really listening that we can begin to heal. That we can begin to move forward.
