“Hi everyone, my name is Lily and I am one of the Inclusive Collective interns this year. I’m originally from the Milwaukee area and have been in Chicago for three years now- working, studying and performing improv, building community, and playing music.
At this point, I am just about one year into my journey with the Inclusive Collective. This is wild to me, considering it has felt like a home for such a long time! Looking back in my journals I can see how excited I was to be sitting down, building community, and unpacking so much of my faith throughout the year. Here’s a little thing I wrote a year ago. This is a piece of a poem/ song lyric/ something that reflects where my head was at, I think especially when it came to my faith:
From a young age I was told the world was black and white
But I’ve always danced in color
It’s funny, I usually felt extra ‘messy’ showing up to Inclusive Collective community groups. Having so much to unpack and try to better understand made me stutter and say things like “Does that make sense,” or “You know what I mean?" pretty frequently. My answers to questions in group usually felt like more questions. I still have so many questions, but I think that’s the beauty of faith. There’s so much to discover and unearth about God and God’s character. I see God in music, people, the city, jokes, art- in most things. This is more than enough for me right now.
I especially see God in the Inclusive Collective. The fact that I showed up to group each week feeling unsure and introverted and new and vulnerable, but then I was seen as someone who could lead in this group, is incredible. When I was able to bring my entire self to the table, I developed some of the most authentic relationships of my life.”
“Church has always been a place of pain for me. Identity has always been first and foremost in my life. Black men living in a racialized society cannot help but think about their black identity. On the other hand, in the predominantly white church I grew up attending, they were keen on saying that we should find our identity in Christ. Which is important, but when you use that to cover up the real hurts of minority identities it leads to self-doubt, anger, and complacency.
All that to say, I have now found a home in Christ. A home that allows me to explore the weight of identity in the 21st century without sweeping it under the rug and covering it up. I found a home in Christ because I found a community of people who finally understood the God wants the whole of me and not just the parts deemed “worthy” by few.”