Dear Kaleid Ladies,
At Kaleid, we like to lift up our eyes and look more closely. At God. At the face staring back at us in the mirror. At the bigger stories going on in this complicated world. At our changing communities. At what it means to be human.
There’s an invisible undercurrent affecting how we see all of it. It’s power. How we understand power affects how we regard each of the above-mentioned transcendent mysteries and commonplace curiosities.
So that we can see better, we are going to spend the next few weeks talking about power. Our Kaleid Circle called “Power, Patriarchy, Women, and the Church” has provided a wonderful and painful place of reflection on this topic, and we want to share some of the conversations we have been having here, with you.
Each week, we’ll share a prompt to help you notice power in a particular way. We hope they help you navigate some of the beautiful but hard realities of power.
Here is your first one: When you hear the word “power,” what comes to mind? What is associated with that word for you?
Our English word “power” comes from the Latin word posse, which means “to be able.” Before discussing any distortions or abuses of power, it’s helpful to remember that, “Power is inherent in being human. Even the most vulnerable among us have power. How we use it or withhold it determines our impact on others.” (Langberg, Redeeming Power, p. 3)
So, power isn’t inherently good or bad. Humans have power and what we do with it impacts the people we know and love (and those we don’t).
Over the next few weeks, we are going to lean into a statement and see if it holds. Take it in and see how it lands with you...
Love is expressed in the world through our power. To be able to love and be loved is to have both power and vulnerability. Love happens in the spaces where those two things meet.
We hope you’ll join us as we unpack some dynamics of power at work in a world that is simultaneously broken and being mended. This week, we hope that you will consider how power and vulnerability are both an important part of your dynamic experiences of love. May we all start to see power through new lenses and allow God to heal bruised and hardened places that derive from this one big word.
In the meantime, girl power to you!
We appreciate you!
Gratefully,
The Kaleid Team
P.S. The resource that has guided us in our Circle is a book by Diane Langberg called Redeeming Power. It is very worth the read. Using Dr. Langberg’s frameworks as a guide, we will also invite you to a new habit of noticing power and its outworking in your life and loves in the coming weeks. We will quote her often!
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