Cover image for Dancing in the darkness : spiritual lessons for thriving in turbulent times
Dancing in the darkness : spiritual lessons for thriving in turbulent times
Title:
Dancing in the darkness : spiritual lessons for thriving in turbulent times
Author:
Moss, Otis, III, 1970- author.
ISBN:
9781501177699
Edition:
First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition.
Physical Description:
xii, 130 pages ; 22 cm
Contents:
Foreword: Black coffee spirituality / by Michael Eric Dyson -- Link love and justice: learn to slay your spiritual dragons -- Consecrate your chaos: pause to discover possibility -- Redirect your rage: harness your power -- Beat bias: practice liberation listening -- Rework your origin story: become a spiritual hero -- Practice prophetic grief: forgive to build spiritual resistance -- Pardon our dust: meet failing with grace -- Dance in the darkness: face your fears with love -- Epilogue: America and amazing grace: white rage and the colors of hope.
Abstract:
A guide to uplift our spirits as we work for justice in these politically turbulent times--from Reverend Otis Moss, III, Senior Pastor at Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ and one of the country's most renowned and beloved spiritual and civil rights leaders. Once again, as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. first observed in the 1960s, it is midnight in America--a dark time of division and anxiety, with threats of violence looming in the shadows. In 2008, the Trinity United Church in Chicago received threats when one of its parishioners, Senator Barack Obama, ran for president. "We're going to kill you" rang in Reverend Otis Moss's ears when he suddenly heard a noise in the middle of the night. He grabbed a baseball bat to confront the intruder in his home. When he opened the door to his daughter's room, he found that the source of the noise was his own little girl, dancing. She was simply practicing for her ballet recital. In that moment, Pastor Moss saw that the real intruder was within him. Caught in a cycle of worry and anger, he had allowed the darkness inside. But seeing his daughter evoked Psalm 30: "You have turned my mourning into dancing." He set out to write the sermon that became this inspiring and transformative book. Dancing in the Darkness is a life-affirming guide to the practical, political, and spiritual challenges of our day. Drawing on the teachings of Dr. King, Howard Thurman, sacred scripture, southern wisdom, global spiritual traditions, Black culture, and his own personal experiences, Dr. Moss instructs you on how to practice spiritual resistance by combining justice and love. This collection helps us tap the spiritual reserves we all possess but too often overlook, so we can slay our personal demon, confront our civic challenges, and reach our highest goals.

Once again it is a dark time of division and anxiety, with threats of violence looming in the shadows. In 2008, the Trinity United Church in Chicago received threats when one of its parishioners, Senator Barack Obama, ran for president. Hearing a noise in the middle of the night, Pastor Moss grabbed a baseball bat, expecting to confront an intruder in his home. He found that the source of the noise was his own little girl, dancing, practicing for her ballet recital. In that moment, Pastor Moss saw that the real intruder was within him. In answer to facing the darkness he had found inside himself, he wrote this inspiring and transformative book: a life-affirming guide to the practical, political, and spiritual challenges of our day. -- adapted from jacket
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