Even Just Love Has a Story
If you’ve been following along with The Sacred Thread series, you know we’ve spent the last few months talking about how stories shape us...the ones we inherit, the ones we tell, and the ones we’re still writing. So, as we wrap up this chapter (and because I apparently don’t know how to not tell stories), I thought it might be time to tell ours...the story of Just Love – Greater New Orleans..or at least part of it. This newsletter we’ll focus on the Past.
Past
Like any good New Orleans story, it starts with people coming together around a table, with most of us rooted in the (Christian) church world. Some of us were clergy, some of us were lay folks, but all of us were...a little bruised...by our experiences, but all of us convinced that there had to be a better way to follow Jesus, connect with the divine, and care for our neighbors better. We were a ragtag mix...not completely sure what we were doing, but we did know we were curious...and we did know we were hungry....so we brought food, this stubborn sense that there had to be more., and we started asking questions and really listening to those responses. The idea was simple, maybe even naïve: what if we actually loved our neighbors—body, mind, and soul—until healing and wholeness became contagious? No secret formula. No twelve-step growth plan. Just Love… period.
Because if we’re going to Just Love people, we can’t drag folks into our framework. Love doesn’t start with answers; it starts with attention. So we asked: Are we even invited here? Are we needed? And if the answer was yes, we showed up—practically, humbly, at the speed of trust—so neighbors could experience healing and wholeness in body, mind, and soul.
So...before we did anything clever or “strategic,” we listened...to people, to other faith communities, and to the city itself. We listened for what was missing, what was hurting, and what was still alive. Listening led us to the unhoused in our city, where unhoused neighbors told us what wholeness could look like today: a hot meal, a path to shelter, clean clothes that actually fit. We also heard that New Orleans actually was doing GREAT in terms of resources and paths to wholeness for the unhoused. We listened and found an amazing group of churches in Central City that were a small (but important part) of that puzzle, and joined in to support them.
We also heard about our city’s book deserts...blocks and neighborhoods where kids and adults have little to no access to books at home. New Orleans as an AMAZING public library system, but there was a gap in specific neighborhoods that needed some additional support. So we started Little Free Libraries and stocked them like it mattered (because it does).
And over and over we heard this: people weren’t craving more answers so much as better questions. Space to wonder about life, the universe, God, and everything without getting graded for it. Folks yearned for a community where you can bring your real self, ask honest questions, and get honest responses that allowed for space and room for the soul to grow.
So this is where we started. Next time we’ll talk about where we are in the Present.
On to the next chapter....
Sam
