We are the Answer to our Ancestors’ Prayers

Saturday, November 1, 2025 - All Saints Day

The Rev. Dr. Christopher Carter (he/him)

Associate Professor of Theology, Ecology, and Race, Methodist Theological School in Ohio

Lead Pastor, The Loft Faith Community (Westwood, CA)

Allied Christian

I’m grateful to God, whom I serve with a good conscience as my ancestors did. I constantly remember you in my prayers day and night. When I remember your tears, I long to see you so that I can be filled with happiness. I’m reminded of your authentic faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice. I’m sure that this faith is also inside you. Because of this, I’m reminding you to revive God’s gift that is in you through the laying on of my hands. God didn’t give us a spirit that is timid but one that is powerful, loving, and self controlled.

(2 Timothy 1:3-7 CEV)

All ten of us gathered in the hospital to be with my grandmother, Yvonne Martin. She had a seizure early that morning, and my grandfather rushed her to the hospital. I was standing among my siblings, my mother, aunt, uncles, and grandfather as we surrounded her hospital bed. She was smiling and laughing, and everything seemed ok. Yvonne had suffered a stroke when she was forty-four years old and had only regained

partial ability to speak. Still, she communicated in nods, facial expressions, and various sounds that we learned to interpret. When it was time for us to leave the room so she could rest, she made a sound, uttered the word “pray” – and pointed to me.

In hindsight, I understand this prayer as a moment of transition and transformation. It was the last prayer my grandmother heard me pray because she was beginning her transition from this life to the next. She was also affirming the spiritual transformation she saw taking place within me, affirming my call to ministry and as a spiritual leader within our family.

My grandmother was born in 1942 in Hammond, Louisiana. Her parents were sharecroppers, and her grandparents had been enslaved on a plantation near her birthplace. She and my grandfather were solidly middle class, a far cry from their impoverished upbringing. Their lives were full of struggle and strife, joy and celebration. My grandmother was grateful because she knew she was standing on the prayers of her enslaved ancestors.

All Saints Day is an opportunity to remember our ancestors, or as the old folk say in my tradition, to “remember who we are, and whose we are.” This expression carries a double meaning. It is an invitation to remember that we are beloved children of the Divine and that despite the dehumanizing narratives that exist within a racist, sexist, ableist, and queerphobic society, we are worthy of love. The expression is also an invitation to remember the stories of our ancestors, not just to laud them for their courage and resilience. Instead, we

remember their stories so that we know how to place ourselves in the collective story of liberation, freedom, and self-determination. When they transition from this world to the next, their story is woven into the tapestry of our familial and cultural narratives. With bated breath, the thread of their story waits and listens as our life story unfolds. We are the answer to our ancestors’ prayer. We are the future ancestors who must continue to pray.

Reflection

We all carry deep stories within us. Deep stories are stories that are told over and over, reframed, and recast to uphold an interpretation of history that helps us understand who we are and who we are becoming. What are one or two deep stories from your family? How are those stories influencing you today?

Underemployment in a Time Such as This

Monday, October 27, 2025

Happy Monday, my friends! If you’ve been following along with developments in the life of our LOVEboldly community, you know that financial constraints, many the secondary and tertiary fruits of the present moment in our history, have required me to reduce my hours and have affected our overall capacity to keep all operations the same as before. One sign of this was the lack of Monday Moment last week when I simply didn’t have the time to write it. It’s a sad and troubling position to be in, but we are also, unfortunately, not unique. Other organizations, many LGBTQIA+ serving, have had to reduce staff and programs in order to make ends meet. In many cases, those reductions have come as part of the elimination of federal and state programs or the embargo on programs supporting nonprofits which fall under the nebulous title of DEI. While some private philanthropy and other private giving has stepped up to support programs focused on basic necessities like housing, food, clothing, and health care, that funding reorientation has caused money that in other times would have supported advocacy and faith organizations like LOVEboldly to be limited or to dry up entirely.

I now find myself in a period of underemployment, an area which is not well understood by many people. We often focus on employment and unemployment with a special category for full time students who may or may not be employed in addition to their studies. The idea of underemployment, though rarely discussed, is often seen as privileged because “you still have a job.” That’s true. I might be underemployed, but I still have jobs, and I still have money coming in. However, underemployment, particularly for people living paycheck-to-paycheck, can cause significant problems for people to meet their expenses particularly if their continued employment excludes them from (remaining) government programs or other relief.

In trying to stay positive, I’m counting the blessings I have. I’m trying to look at what this time can provide: more time to focus on school and learning; more time to work on church-related projects; and time to consider what’s next for me both in terms of my professional life and what I hope is still a long term engagement with LOVEboldly (Yep! You’re not getting rid of me that easily.). That said, none of us should have to be in positions where we need to “stay positive” because staying positive is exhausting. It can lead to all types of burnout.

How do you respond to underemployment or unemployment? How do you “stay positive” without emotionally exhausting yourself?

Let us pray: God, we pray for everyone making their way through unemployment and underemployment. We ask you to grant them grace as they move through this season and empower them to persist in searching and finding new or expanded employment. Hold them closely when they experience rejection and celebrate with them when new opportunities become realized. We ask this through Jesus, our savior and liberator. Amen.

Blessings on your weeks, my friends! Please let me know if there is anything I can do for you.

Faithfully,

Ben +

Customer Service Christian

Sunday, October 26, 2025

Eli Shiltz (he/him)

Member, Blue Ocean Faith Columbus

Queer Christian

I want to share with you something I really struggled with when I started a new position in February 2024. Overcoming that obstacle not only helped me to become successful but also taught me an important lesson that I am now trying to apply to more areas of my life.

One major aspect of the job is providing guidance to people who are often worried. After a few weeks of studying, I felt fully prepared to provide people with the solution to their problem while letting them know that everything would be ok. I am not ashamed to admit that it was really a struggle. I had all the information and tools to give them, but I was having a hard time figuring out how to provide help without sounding cold. I needed to find my “customer service voice” but didn’t know where to look.

It was around this time that I started occasionally listening to sermons on the way to work. It is funny how God sends you a message when you need to hear it. This particular message focused on Luke 3:21-22: When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too.

And as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” The pastor spoke about how we have all been blessed by God’s love and we should pass this blessing on to others. We can do this by letting them know that there is someone who cares about them and they are loved. This made something click for me and I finally found my “customer service” voice. I need to approach every call/email with the mindset that I will show them compassion and make sure they know that I truly care about their problem and want them to get the help they need rather than just simply giving them the information.

Reflection and Action

I would like to encourage you to become a “Customer Service Christian” as well. Try looking for ways to share God’s love with everyone you meet. Ask yourself how you can let them know that they are beloved and deserving of care and compassion.