With many issues in life, we have a choice. We can stay on the sidelines, we can engage symbolically or at a surface-level, or we can wholeheartedly commit to playing our part in bringing real change.

This year’s National Reconciliation Week theme “All In – Reciprocity as Reconciliation” – invites us to step off the sidelines and play our part in the ongoing journey of reconciliation in Australia. The theme reminds us that reconciliation isn’t the responsibility of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples alone – it belongs to all of us. Reciprocity is something we need to reclaim in so many places and spaces today. Reciprocity is about mutual respect, giving and receiving, listening and learning, facing hard truths and moving forward in new ways. It highlights relationship remains at the heart of the reconciliation journey.

Weeks like this come and go, but we can choose to use times like this to re-engage. To embrace anew the invitation to walk alongside First Nations people towards a better and more just Australia. If you’re like me, it means holding on to hope, not becoming cynical or overwhelmed and not choosing the comfort [or ignorance] of the sidelines.

What can we do this week? We can sit with First Nations people and hear their stories and aspirations. We can read, watch and learn more about Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander people’s history and their hopes and dreams today. We can celebrate all that First Nations people bring to our nation. We can pray. We can weep and lament as we acknowledge ongoing injustice and choose to embrace truth-telling. We can courageously acknowledge bias, or even blindness. We can say “things should be different” and choose to play our small part in the big story of reconciliation. We can give to support practical reconciliation initiatives.

This week I’m renewing my commitment to being “all in”. So much has been achieved in our country, but there is still a long way to go on the road to genuine reconciliation. And I’m challenged again to come humbly with a desire to keep listening and learning. We’re challenged to leave the sidelines and pursue the loving, compassionate and just ways of Jesus.