Dear Telos friends,
It was such a gift to spend time with so many of you at the Telos Leaders’ Gathering in DC. I left encouraged by the people I met and grateful to be reminded that peacemaking isn’t something any of us does alone. We each return home to different communities, responsibilities, and opportunities, but each of us has a role to play in God’s work of reconciliation.
My own journey into this work began several years ago when I started listening to Palestinian Christians and allowing their stories to challenge many of my assumptions. As a pastor at The District Church in Washington, D.C., I began inviting our church to learn, to listen, and to travel with us to Israel and Palestine. Since October 7, I’ve returned to the region several times, walking alongside friends who have been greatly impacted by the conflict. I still have so much to learn, but I wanted to share a few things the Lord has been teaching me as I’ve sought to follow Him in this work.
One of the first things I’ve realized is that while the world is full of worthy causes, none of us has the capacity to carry them all.
We can care about many issues, but we can usually only invest deeply in one or two. Rather than feeling guilty for everything we aren’t doing, I think it’s more helpful to ask where God is specifically inviting us to be faithful, and then lean into that calling.
I’ve also learned to pay attention to both my limitations and my access. I’m not Palestinian, and I don’t live in Palestine. There is much I don’t know and many things I can’t do. But I do live in Washington, D.C., and I pastor a church filled with people who serve throughout government and public life. During the previous U.S. administration, I had regular conversations with the official overseeing sanctions policy. While there was little he could do to stop the devastation in Gaza, he was able to sanction violent Israeli settlers in the West Bank, and those sanctions significantly reduced attacks. When the sanctions were later lifted, violence increased again. It was a reminder that using whatever access God has given us can have a real impact, even when it feels small.
That lesson became even more personal when a friend in Bethlehem asked me to pray for relatives in Gaza who had visas and were trying to leave.
Prayer was our first response, but not our only response.
Through relationships in our church and with people serving at the State Department, as well as with officials at the U.S. embassies in Israel and the UAE, the Australian government, and others, we’ve been able to help move their case forward. They’re not safely out yet, but we’re very hopeful and working daily to help evacuate them. It has reminded me that God often works through ordinary people who are simply willing to use the relationships, influence, and opportunities they’ve been given on behalf of someone else.
Perhaps more than anything, this journey has convinced me that relationships matter more than agendas. The friendships I’ve built with people living the realities of this conflict have changed me in ways that books, articles, and podcasts never could. Friends who have become like family. They have deepened my compassion, taught me more than any classroom, challenged my assumptions, and reminded me that these are not issues to debate as much as they are people to love. Showing up, listening well, and standing in solidarity are not secondary to the work of peacemaking; they are the work.
Finally, I’ve become increasingly convinced that my role is not to build a platform for my own voice, but to help elevate the voices of those who live with these realities every day.
Whenever possible, I’ve tried to use whatever influence I have to create space for Palestinian peacemakers, theologians, and everyday people to tell their own stories. Their lived experience carries a wisdom that I simply don’t have, and I’ve found that when people hear those voices directly, hearts often begin to change.
As you focus on your communities and engage in the work you’re called to, my encouragement is simply to begin where you are. Ask God where He has given you influence, access, and responsibility. Listen well. Build relationships. Be humble and willing to learn. And don’t underestimate what God can do through ordinary acts of faithfulness. None of us can do everything, but each of us can do something. As we each steward what God has entrusted to us, I believe He can use us, together, to bear witness to the reconciling love of Christ in a deeply divided world.
Much love,
