Wrestling for Truth in Our Past

In Derek Walcott’s poem “Midsummer, Tobago” he recalls a “summer-sleeping house / drowsing through August.” At Sojourners we are savoring family vacations, relaxing, welcoming new babies — and telling stories about our history and our becoming.

Sojourners assistant editor Josina Guess interviewed actor Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor about her recent films Origin and Exhibiting Forgiveness. Their deep conversation releases transformative power, an example of what narrative theologian James McClendon Jr. called “biography as theology.” What happens when we wrestle for truth in our personal and social histories, and open that struggle to God? As “Living the Word” writer Raj Nadella warns, “distorted memories of the past may misdirect our future; they may cause us to miss the way God is leading.”

“Drowsing through August” also includes reading books (such as Percival Everett’s novel James, which Josiah R. Daniels describes as “a spiritual successor and corrective companion” to the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn); watching films (Abby Olcese commends the first Guardians of the Galaxy); and even practicing church potluck recipes (Jenna Barnett ranks them in “H’rumphs”). Hold each precious summer day, as Walcott says, “like daughters” who will quickly outgrow our “harbouring arms.”