Pilgrim’s Progress Chapter 4

WEEK FOUR

“Like a bridge over troubled water”

Bridges played an important part in the pilgrimage to Selma and Montgomery. For me, bridge building began with the van ride. I only knew a handful of people and in the nine hours we built bridges with laughter, stories, and songs. Lisa’s reading aloud built a visceral bridge to the past, to the monuments to Jonathan Daniel and the many people whose names we cannot carry across the bridge of remembrance but whose souls we can carry. The Edmund Pettus bridge was our literal crossing, a chance to walk in the footsteps of the heroes and martyrs across that bridge of sorrows and hope.

The food ways we experienced were also bridges into the lives of people in the Deep South. Along with Mary and David, we received an invitation to share a part of their lives.

The three centers of EJI we’re powerful bridges, inviting us to touch pain, to reach into the wound of God. This is Christ in action.

Kate’s beautiful prayer beads slip gently in my pocket to help me remember the bridges to the past and the hope to the future.

Liz Smith