When I became a follower of Jesus, everything changed. My citizenship, my allegiance, my purpose. I no longer belonged to the kingdoms of this world. I was transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. A kingdom that doesn’t operate by the rules of power or control or violence. A kingdom that looks like Jesus. But I’ll be honest. The more I advocate for Palestinians, the more I speak out against injustice, the easier it is for me to lose sight of Jesus. I get angry. I get bitter. I feel rage. And if I’m not careful, I stop reflecting the kingdom of Jesus and start reflecting the kingdoms of this world.

And that’s not the path I want to be on.

I’ve been thinking about the Western craving for what I sometimes call a Disneyland ending—a curated, comforting wrap-up to hard stories. I'm in one of these moments. Bear with me as I try to unpack what it feels like when people abandon the ones we care about—or the work we do to stand alongside them.

“Deconstruction” has become a bit of a buzzword in Christian circles, but it is in fact not an exclusively “Christian” phenomenon. Deconstruction is a very normal and natural process of unlearning and relearning, which all people all over the world experience at one time or another to various degrees throughout their lives. It is a natural part of human development. As peacebuilders and as Christians, we should embrace this process as an opportunity to mature.