Empowered to Repair

Does it seem to you that the world is falling apart? I’m not actually a big believer in such defeatism, but you hear people talking about it all the time. Wars abound, democracy is threatened, climate change is unsolvable, and the systems that hold our society together are fraying at the edges.

There is obviously a great deal of good happening too. It is often hidden by a flurry of bad news being blasted at us through a megaphone of media platforms, but good things are happening.

The problems might not be as bad as we think, but we all sense something is amiss. We will argue about what that is and how it happened. And of course we will really argue about how to fix it! But we all seem to have some level of discontent.

Into this steps my friend Brenda Salter McNeil. Her new book, Empowered to Repair, uses one of my favorite bible stories (Nehemiah) to look at how repair and healing can happen. I love the subtitle of this book: Becoming People Who Mend Broken Systems and Heal Our Communities. Wow, do we need more of that these days.

Brenda has written about reconciliation and healing for decades. Her speaking, teaching, and advocacy are legendary. What I love about her work is the emphasis on doing something. It’s not just academic theory, it’s not just kumbaya feel good stuff. It’s practical steps that all of us can practice.

My wife and I had the honor of spending a few evenings with Brenda as she was shaping the focus of the book. It was so fun to hear how her mind was thinking. And even more fun to see the results. This book seems to pull all of her experience, wisdom, and talent into a compact 160 pages of powerful lessons and storytelling.

Get a copy and check it out. You’ll see what I mean.