Living in the Tensions | Maggie Ferguson ‘26

Out of our December 10th Horizons Fellows brunch discussion of Calling Out & Calling In and in response to the community that has developed among the Fellows this Fall already, I am particularly thankful for racial diversity in our group. In our cohort of 9, I am one of 3 white students – a racial minority for one of the few times in my life – while the rest of our peers are the children of Asian and African immigrants. Earlier this month we read MLK Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, Taylor Harris’s “Talking to my daughter about Charlottesville”, and Osheta Moore’s “Selections from “Come to the Table” in Dear White Peacemakers as we grappled with racism in the United States and inside the Church and how it affects our lives, futures, and vocations. Even when discussing articles such as these, the differences in our skin tones, parental heritages, and lived experiences are never the focus of our conversations. As embodied children of God, they inform the way we relate and understand each other, but they do not define us. They allow us to be honest about our discomforts and confront our own misunderstandings as well as acknowledge the ways we have hurt and are hurting those around us. They can lead us to have hard-hitting conversations about white guilt and black history without compromising our fellowship with and goodwill toward each other. Our differing backgrounds have only strengthened our connections, not limited them.

Our discussion kept circling and coming back to tension – tension between guilt and responsibility, between identity and unity, judgement and mercy – and how following God often means living with this tension. Living lives that can so often be fraught with racial and ethnic tension, our foundation as Christians must be grace. With grace for each other, our Fellows community has flourished, walking alongside one another and providing a listening ear. This diverse community has helped me to understand even more clearly that our differences can at the same time mean everything and nothing. I hope that all can one day experience such a community as mine.