Today’s post is the first in a listening series, where I get the amazing opportunity to amplify the voices of my black and African brothers and sisters. Each post will demonstrate an array of viewpoints that will help us be in true community.

My fellow writer and Orthodox Christian Annalisa Boyd has allowed me to share a reflection on current events that she has shared on her Facebook page. Read and be blessed.

by Annalisa Boyd

We have a common enemy and it is not a race or a religion or class.

The enemy is a chameleon. Where it can destroy because of race it does. Where it can destroy because of class, it does. Where it can destroy because of religion or region or accent, it does. But it is the same enemy. If we stop long enough we can turn and stand together and fight together against the common enemy, Satan.

“The Great Reconciliation,” an imaginative icon of St. Stephen and St. Paul by Annie Africa Claudius

Where God brings love, he brings hatred. Where God brings unity, he brings division. Where God brings hope, Satan brings hopelessness and despondency. God call us sons and daughters…co heirs, Satan calls us illegitimate.

Where God focuses on oneness in Him, Satan encourages us to focus on our differences and to categorize the value of a man or woman or child in any way that breaks us away from the truth and isolates us from love.

We can NOT remain silent but we must make sure we are fighting the right enemy. If we fight each other we will not have the strength to stand in the end.

May God give us courage like those who have left the world behind to follow Him in hope and love.

May God make us like the saints amd martyrs who had hope in the resurrection and the world to come.

May God remove the scales from our eyes like he did for Saint Paul who held the coats of those who murdered Saint Stephen and then united Jew and Greek into one faith.

May God have mercy on us all!

Annalisa Boyd is an Orthodox Christian wife, mom to 10, bread baker, self proclaimed soul, accidental midwife and the author of The Ascetic Lives of Mothers: A Prayer Book for Orthodox Moms, Hear Me: A Prayer Book for Young Orthodox Adults, and Special Agents of Christ: A Prayer Book for Young Orthodox Saints. Her greatest desire is to help mamas and children to understand and embrace the joy and hope found in the Orthodox Christian faith.