A robbery, a lynching, and a mourning mother shake up the Yada Yadas.
I had never felt so violated! The Yada Yada Prayer Group was "gettin' down" with God in prayer and praise one night when a heroin-crazed woman barged into my house, demanded our valuables, and threatened us with a 10-inch knife--a knife that drew blood.
We wondered if we'd ever get back to normal after this terrifying experience. I assumed we would. After all, we'd started praying together at the Chicago Women's Conference last spring, and we'd been through a lot already as spiritual sisters. This was just one more hurdle to conquer, right?
But then a well-meaning gesture suddenly incited a backlash of anger in the group, forcing us to confront generations of racial division, pain, and distrust--and stretching our friendship to the limit. And a shocking confrontation in my third-grade classroom forced me to face my own accountability and learn what true forgiveness really is. Neta Jackson Yada Yada #2 Gets Down
Neta Jackson Yada Yada #3 Get Real
The Yada Yadas thought they had a handle on forgiveness, but it seems God has them on a crash-course to an even deeper level.
After everything the Yada Yadas had been through in the past eight months, I told God I could sure use a little "dull and boring" in the new year! But that was before Leslie "Stu" Stuart moved in upstairs. Ms. Perfect herself and me--Jodi Baxter--living in the same two-flat? A recipe for collision. Then Delores Enriquez's son Jose wanted to throw my Amanda a quinceanera--a coming-out party, Mexican style--and they're only fifteen!
At least Bandana Woman, who held up our Yada Yada Prayer Group at knifepoint last fall, was safely locked up in prison . . . or so I thought. We visited her, like the Bible says; even sent her something for Christmas. But then she ends up back in our face. I mean, how far is forgiveness supposed to go?
I guess I should have realized that with eleven Yada Yada sisters as diverse as a bag of Jelly Bellies, life would always be unpredictable. All I know is that the longer we Yada Yadas pray together, the more "real" things are getting, not only with each other but with God. Dull and boring? Not a chance.
Neta Jackson Yada Yada #3 Get Real
Neta Jackson Yada Yada #4 Get Tough
The Yada Yadas got tight in the past year, but they're about to learn the real meaning of togetherness.
We'd done it: we'd taken a mismatched, diverse group of women and cobbled together a prayer group that really worked for all of us. Now that spring was here, we were celebrating our one-year anniversary--and a wedding, an early parole, and two baptisms in the lake! Everything was feeling pretty great.
But it's when we're in our comfort zone that we're most likely to let our guard down. Without warning, lots of little things seemed to become big problems. With a white supremacy hate group targeting a local university, our very diversity almost became a liability. It took a vicious attack on Nony's husband to make us see that we had to get tough--and fight back together.
Neta Jackson Yada Yada #4 Get Tough
Neta Jackson Yada Yada #5 Get Caught
For the Yada Yadas, gettin' caught up in troubles isn't the problem; it's how to get free.
Only weeks ago, we Yadas toughened our prayer knees when one of our own was the victim of a vicious racial attack. Now it seems each household is being thrown into even bigger and badder circumstances. It especially worries me, Jodi Baxter, because I'm a fixer by nature, and the prayer list is getting out of control . . .
Ruth and Ben are caught up in an unplanned pregnancy--in their fifties! Chanda is deluded by the glitter of her lottery dream come true. Florida wants to move her family, hoping to leave trouble behind, but it looks like it may catch up to her anyway. And I'm finding that even good things like the prayer group can consume me in no time flat.
If there is an upside, it's that all this trouble is revealing the subtle lies we Yadas believe about God, ourselves, each other, and life. Maybe our best hope is to catch on to what God's doing--and catch on quick!--before the enemy can take any prisoners. That'd be a freedom worth celebrating. And celebrating is what my spiritual sisters and I do best.
Neta Jackson Yada Yada #5 Get Caught
Neta Jackson Yada Yada #6 Gets Rolling
A devastating fire wakes up the Yadas to a new reality: God is on the move. In spite of MaDear's failing health. In spite of the breakup of a teenage love. In spite of the curse of HIV. In spite of prison time hanging over the head of a beloved child. In spite of a startling wedding. Out of the ashes, God is doing a new thing. As the prayer group heads into a new year fraught with change, Jodi Baxter and her Yada sisters are realizing it is either hunker down with the safe and stagnant, or get rolling with God -- even if it means letting go of the old and embracing the new. Neta Jackson Yada Yada #6 Gets Rolling
No comments:
Post a Comment