Debbie W. Wilson

Refreshing Faith

Types of Masks You Need to Stop Wearing

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We recently celebrated a friend’s birthday with a zoom dress-up party. It’s fun to take on different personas with zany costumes, but as COVID-19 has shown us, masks can be limiting and suffocating.

Physical masks protect us from airborne pollutants. But wearing figurative masks to protect our image or hide our insecurities puts distance between us and others—including God.

Certain situations and people draw out our sense of inadequacy. When surrounded by people who are more successful, better informed, or more polished, we reach for a mask to fit in. Let’s look at some common types of masks.

Types of Masks

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What You Can Do to Heal Our Land

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As believers we want to be part of the solution, not the problem. To solve a problem, we need to understand it. I asked my friend Tara Kenchen to help us have a better understanding of how we can be part of the solution in healing the racial divide in our land. I hope you’ll read and share Tara’s wisdom.

Healing Our Land

My youngest daughter Briya was not yet 2 years old when she started pounding her tiny fists against her father’s chin. He appeared to be both stunned and confused. She had been trying to explain something to him that he didn’t understand. She repeated herself a few times before succumbing to anger and frustration getting his attention in a different way.

From her perspective, she was talking and he either was not listening or didn’t understand. And truthfully, at the time, whatever was evidently very important to her was probably not as important to him (or me for that matter).

I intervened, picking her up, calming her down, and providing a little instruction of “Baby, you can’t hit daddy.” And though I didn’t advocate her “hitting daddy” I did understand. I understood what it meant to talk and be unheard and to be in the presence of people who even when they heard, did not understand. I understood then and I understand now.

Just like Briya, right now people are pounding the chin of our nation forcing themselves to be heard—screaming about the injustice they feel they’ve tried to communicate many times before.Continue Reading

How Do You Fight Injustice?

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I grew up in the deep South. As a youngster, I remember boarding a city bus and heading for the long back seat that stretched across the aisle. Mama caught my arm as she dropped into the front side seat and told me to sit. Her abruptness startled me. I looked back and noticed only dark-skinned faces in the back half of the bus and white ones in the front.

“Why can’t we sit there?” I said. She signaled to be quiet.

Another time I ran to a water fountain as we exited the public library. Mama stopped me again. “Debbie, use that fountain,” she pointed to another one.

“This one’s closer,” I balked.

She told me not to argue. I looked back at the dark-skinned children near the forbidden fountain.Continue Reading

Do You Need Help with Your Messy Emotions?

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Do you ever battle messy emotions? Emotions become messy when they rule us instead of us ruling them. Maybe you can relate to Jody.

Jody pulled into the parking lot. Where had all the cars come from? Was she late? Usually the lot was empty. Jody loved meeting with her small group but felt self-conscious walking in last. A familiar battle warred in the pit of her stomach.

She put the car in reverse and drove home. She promised to arrive earlier next week.Continue Reading

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