Holy. Human. Honest!

Peace That Surpasses All... Politics?

• Jazmyn Nichols • Season 1 • Episode 4

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Political changes are creating ripples in our community and personal lives, leaving many feeling overwhelmed and divided. Through personal anecdotes and reflections, we discuss navigating these challenging times by advocating for peace, community support, and the importance of embracing our shared humanity.

• Exploring the emotional aftermath of recent political changes 
• Personal stories reflecting the impact on career and family life 
• Balancing discussions about race and identity in the workplace 
• The importance of advocacy and active participation in societal change 
• Addressing the commercialization of DEI efforts and their implications 
• Highlighting the role of faith and community in maintaining peace 
• Encouragement to serve others and foster genuine connections

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Speaker 1:

Hello, hello, hello and welcome to the Holy Human Honest Podcast. I am your host, jasmine B Nichols, and I am so glad that you are here with me today, so y'all listen. Look, there has been a lot going on since the last podcast that I made, okay. So the last podcast that we had it was right before the inauguration, okay. So since then, the United States of America has a new president, president Donald Trump.

Speaker 1:

Many, many things have happened, has happened. Many, many things have has many, many things have happened since he has come into office. Many, many changes and people are feeling the effects pretty immediately. Oftentimes, when there's a new president, it may feel like you don't feel the effects of it, but I think the entire world is feeling so many effects of our new president right now and, regardless of how you feel about it, there is no denying that there has just been a lot of you feel about it. There is no denying that there has just been a lot of change. There are a lot of emotions, a lot of fears, a lot of people that are happy about this change, a lot of people that are devastated by these changes, but in the midst of it all, I think there is so much opportunity to begin to fret. There is so much opportunity for even more division. I mean, I just think about so many things that have happened. So I mean many, many executive orders have gone through sort of the dismantling of DEI legislation and programming. Federal workers. Many have resigned from their positions, with remote work being revoked from people that had been using that privilege for a really long time. We're seeing plane crashes left and right and people are wondering if that has to do with some workers you know that have now been fired or let go. There's just a lot.

Speaker 1:

Then y'all, I'm not even going to get on a Super Bowl, or should I get on that Kendrick Lamar's halftime performance? As I was watching it, I just knew the next day that there were going to be people that woke up and felt extremely proud and like that was amazing. That was the best Super Bowl halftime show I've ever seen. And then I also knew that there were going to be people that wake up, going to work and talking about how confused they were and how it was one of the worst performances ever, and it really just shows how our country there's just such a divide and there's such a disconnect. You have a disconnect between generations. You have a disconnect between cultures and a disconnect with what Americans really want right now and it's a lot. It's a lot I'm going to talk about how I have personally felt some of these effects in my life.

Speaker 1:

So my husband he works remotely and with a lot of the changes you know, as everyone else is feeling right now, his situation doesn't so much have to do with a change in government but at the same time it does um, and yeah, he might have to go back to work full time in person. Now his job is located, you know, hours and hours and miles away from where we're located right now. So that's a whole situation. Right now, let me tell you, your girl has not been super trusting of God in the process. And well, let me not say I haven't been trusting God. I think that my thing is that I trust that God is not always going to give me the easy way out. I trust that God. You know he believes that I can do hard things and he will allow us to go through challenges, and so it's not that I haven't been trusting the Lord. I know that the Lord is going to take care of me and my family, but I think just the unknowns. There have been many, many, many unknowns for me and my family right now and we're still in the middle of a lot of transition right now, and we're still in the middle of a lot of transition. We're still looking for a home to purchase, um, you know, there's just, there's just a lot um that that is happening around us right now, and, I think, especially just the topics of dei.

Speaker 1:

Now I I work in higher education, but my job is not a DEI job. I wasn't a DEI hire. However, I am seeing the effects of these things immediately. Like, we have an office of inclusion and belonging where I work and pretty much the week that we had all of these governmental changes, that entire website went down and my coworkers that work for that department. It was really tough. Nobody knew what was next. A lot of my students get federal aid, you know. So, with things being talked about about the Department of Education and things like this, it's just a lot y'all that we like. What's really going on, what's really next, and so I'm feeling the effects at work on top of that. Hmm, okay, I gotta be honest on top of that, and you know different transitions that my own home is going through and different things that we have to think about. Already.

Speaker 1:

There are so many conversations about race relations right now and being unified, and I feel like I'm constantly in the middle of two worlds. And so I have my white friends who, you know, are seeing everything, seeing everything, experiencing everything, and then I have my black friends that are seeing everything and experiencing everything and I feel like I am in the middle of these worlds. You know I'm I work at a place where I am the only black person right now on my entire team of 37 people. Now there are other um other marginalized people groups represented while work in that team, but I'm the only black person. Ok, so I have found myself being very, very exhausted of conversations that have to do with race, conversations that have to do with the everything and almost quite emotional as well, and almost quite emotional as well, not because I'm new to the conversation, but it takes a different type of strength to be the only person that is a part of your group, to be the only person represented in those conversations, and that has been challenging. There's been so many conversations at work.

Speaker 1:

I think another thing that makes that really hard is, you know, for me. These conversations just they aren't just professional development. This is my life, this is a community. We're talking about a very integral part of my identity that feels as though it is constantly being dissected and I don't actually have relationship with these people, okay. And so I think that there was just a big part of me that started to just really feel overwhelmed by the weight of it all.

Speaker 1:

And at the beginning of everything y'all, I'm like I'm trusting God, like I'm just a person where it's like I'm going to trust the Lord. I'm going to trust the Lord, you know, no matter what. And so I was almost a little bit, maybe even ashamed or embarrassed to say, whoa, I'm struggling a little bit. There are things that are happening so fast and moving so quickly all around me and I'm having a hard time keeping up. You know. You mind you, I work full-time, my husband works full-time and we have four children and we volunteer with multiple organizations, so it can be a lot.

Speaker 1:

And I felt myself get into my wits end and there was one night where I was just up all night, and that's something your girl just don't do. I don't stay up all night tossing and turning and flipping around and wondering what's gonna happen. I lay my head down, I pray and I trust God, and I have peaceful sleep. But these past couple weeks, y'all, I found myself tossing and turning do you hear me? And that's when I knew, okay, something, something is not right here. It's time for me to realign my faith and trust God, and I thought about one of the first scriptures that my father ever taught me. I was in high school and it was Isaiah 26 3. You will keep in perfect peace. All whose minds are steadfast on you because they trust in you. You will keep in perfect peace. So I don't have to try to make myself have peace. I just have to focus on the Lord. I just have to keep my eyes fixed on him, and that's what I'm just doing in this season. Now.

Speaker 1:

Let me also say that choosing peace does not mean choosing passivity. Okay, that does not mean being passive. There is still space for advocacy. If you see things that you don't like, if you see things that just aren't right, advocate, okay. These are the times where we can be the peacemakers. You don't have to just be a peacekeeper keeping the peace, keeping the peace but this is the time where the Bible talks about the peacemakers. We can be peacemakers, we can, we can be advocates, okay, and so one of the things that I am doing, you know, because these, a lot of these policies are affecting a lot of people, one of the things that I'm doing is still making sure I volunteer with a bible study, and this bible study is specifically designed for students in the African diaspora so they are able to come and get support, get wisdom, find community. Anybody can necessarily come, but it is specifically created for this group, because there aren't many spaces where this group can just be, not where we are, and know that they're coming to a space where their struggles are spoken without ever being spoken. Nobody has to say a word and you just kind of already know what it is. You can come, you can have discourse, you can pray, you can be encouraged, you can get the word. So that's one of the things that I'm doing Now.

Speaker 1:

With that, I'm going to share a little bit about me. I have never been one To expect certain things, things from certain entities and, if I'm totally honest, yo, I've always felt like DEI was a trend and I always felt like it was going to go away someday, but that doesn't mean that the boots on the ground that the people really doing the work they will never go away. That group is never going to disappear. What I more so mean is the commercialization and big companies backing DEI efforts. Let me tell you something I just know at the end of the day, we are part of a capitalization, okay, and the minute that it did not seem beneficial for companies bottom line and it wasn't, you know, it was going to get in the way to their dollar I knew the DE efforts were going to go away. This is something I've said for quite a few years. The minute I saw big companies really getting on board with DEI this and DEI that, and I just kind of knew, like, because I felt like the whole reason why they were doing it in the first place was to make money anyway, was to garner, you know, to make it seem like they were supporting whatever the mass move was you started to see a huge, you know uproar about dei after 2020. Okay, you started to see that during the black lives matter movement and these different movements, and then it was like everybody was like oh, this is the trend, this is the trend, this is the trend, let's move that way. And I always felt that if the trend moves to the other direction, companies will too. So that does not come as a surprise to me.

Speaker 1:

But I want to encourage those of you out there that are advocates for your particular group, okay, because my thing is people will still need hope in this season. People are still going to need comfort, people are still going to need allies, people are still going to need to be loved, and this is an opportunity for those in the body to love those that Jesus loves. And you don't even always have to necessarily agree, you don't even have to necessarily understand in order to still show love, to feed somebody when they're hungry, give somebody that cup of water when they're thirsty, give that bit of encouragement, share your home, create relationship with people so that you can understand where they're coming from. There is so much space to do so much good, and we don't have to wait for people to do it for us. What are the ways that we can have peace, no matter which way the tide turns? No matter which way the tide turns, what are the ways that we can bring peace and bring shalom to spaces where it might be lacking? And again, this is beyond politics, okay. How can we love people and meet them where they are.

Speaker 1:

And, again, a mature mind knows that you do not have to agree with everything or understand everything in order to show love, in order to have compassion, to weep when people weep, to feel what people are feeling. Okay, I just think about God, how good he was. To feel what people are feeling. Okay, I just think about God, how good he was. He may not have always agreed with everybody's politics, but he still had so much compassion On people. He had compassion On people. He had compassion On people, people that were like sheep Without a shepherd. And so I just want to encourage you today To have peace and knowing that God is still in control. God is still in control and you still have a part to play. What are you going to do? What are you going to do to be a difference and to make a difference in people's lives?

Speaker 1:

Again, regardless of your politics, regardless of your politics and I want to be very clear right now. I am not saying that I agree or disagree with anything that is happening right now, and I say that very firmly because I don't want this to be about politics. I don't want this to be about what side I'm on and this, and that you know whose side I'm on God's. You know who I have faith in to do the right thing at all times. God, you know who I have faith in to do the right thing at all times Times. God, you know who I believe is going to always have the last word. God, you know who I believe is going to make all things work together for the good of those that love him and are called according to his purpose. God, that's it. That's where my hope lies, and that doesn't mean I just sit on my laurels and lay on my back and expect God to just do all the work. I believe all the more that I have a part to play, to be a conduit of justice, to be a temple of prayer and a witness to what God can do.

Speaker 1:

Even when there is so much division in our nation, I want to tap into that peace that surpasses all politics. There's something greater. There's something bigger, and I too was beginning to really get distracted, discouraged, sad, frustrated, angry. Ooh Lord, but God is good, god is faithful, and he will keep in perfect peace All whose minds are steadfast on him because they trust in him. The peace comes from trust. That is where the peace comes from. So, lord, we trust you. Lord, and look. That is where the peace comes from. So, lord, we trust you.

Speaker 1:

Lord, and love. I believe, but help me with my unbelief, lord, in the moments where I'm wavering, where my faith is wavering. Father, I thank you for the many ways that you come To remind me of who you are, that you come to remind me of what you said and remind me of who I am. And you remind me of who you are, lord, I ask that you would help me not to be passive in my pursuit of peace, lord, that I would be a peacemaker, that we would be peacemakers and not just try to figure out ways to keep the peace. Lord, give us boldness in the ways that it may rub people wrong, lord. Truth and goodness and justice it is so counter-cultural, lord, but, lord, give us boldness to speak your truth in love. Lord, give us boldness to speak your truth in love. Keep us. May we keep our eyes fixed on you. No-transcript.