Leaning into Discomfort | Josh Tomiak ‘26

In early December the Horizons Fellows set aside couple hours to shut out the cold and the looming exams.  We loaded up with donuts and drinks from the Kindness Café and sat around a table in the TH office, chatting and laughing.

At the finale of the semester, there was a wide range of feelings in the room.  Some of us expressed trepidation, others joy – and most everyone voiced stress and a desire to make it to break.  Hearing and sharing these things was good, though not always easy.

There was a definite change in atmosphere as we moved to discuss our topic for the month: racial injustice in America and its intersection with faith.  I'll admit that, while the topic was not new to me, the practice of addressing it openly was.  I grew up in overwhelmingly white churches where conversations about race were considered irrelevant, unnecessary, and troublesome.  And since coming to UVA, even the racially diverse faith spaces I've been blessed with are often unwilling to directly approach the wrongs done by the church.

Like his namesake, Martin Luther King, Jr. was unabashed in naming the flaws of the church.  We read a few of King's grievances with the white American church in "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" and reflected on our own grievances – and complicity.  For even as I feel such anger and disappointment with the church's past and present sanctioning of violence, racism, and oppression, I wonder whether I, an aspiring minister, will not merely fall in line.  What does it look like to be Christians who are antiracist, who are actively opposed to evil and not just passively hopeful?

At the very least, I'm hungry for more conversations.  I recognize a need in myself to learn more, to listen, and to grow – as uncomfortable as this practice will certainly be.

I'm dearly thankful for Theological Horizons: a space where hard conversations can be had.  I'm deeply thankful for this cohort of Horizons Fellows, folks who aren't only fun and lovable – they're also wise and passionate, eager to do this hard work.

And most of all, I'm thankful for the God who does not disregard our injustice.  Rather, He frees us from it that we may seek His justice all the more.

May we never grow tired of doing good.  Amen.