I think so many folks want to turn the corner *here* but really don’t know how to and are also afraid. https://twitter.com/amandadannielle/status/1306319595897262080

I grew up hearing things like "God's got to get the glory out of XYZ in my life" and, for a long time, I really believed that.

But God is God and God doesn't *have* to get glory *out* of anything. It all already belongs to God. Full stop.

What I came to understand was I'd been taught to believe the more I suffer, the more pain I was in, the closer God is to me. And some of this is a function of Black people trying to make sense of life in America and I totally get that. But the slippery slope was death-dealing.

God getting the glory out of me suffering made God a man to me and God is not a man at all.

God doesn't need for us to experience suffering and pain to get anything *out* of us.

The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, right?!

So I had to shift my language and perspective.

God does not get the glory out of my suffering. Rather, it is suffering that creates the space for me to draw a bit closer to a loving, compassionate, empathetic God who is as brokenhearted at my experience as I am.

I am so clear that suffering isn't required for that kind of closeness. I've felt it in still, quiet moments and in communal moments with my beloveds.

I think it's the tender spaces, however they show up, that are ripe with opportunities to discover God anew.