A Note from Tracy Hipps: Changing Eyesight

I have just celebrated 58 years of life, and reading glasses are now a normal part of life. I need them to read the words on a page. I need the people of my past to help me see things better for the future. Last weekend I attended my 40th Hillcrest High School reunion in Sumter, S.C. It was truly an amazing experience and healing for my soul. I walked into my old high school and felt like I was walking back in time. There have been changes through the years, but the people in the room had only aged… and they were beautiful to my eyes. You see, my sight has changed after 40 years. Most of the people in attendance were black, but more than anything, they were my classmates of time and change. I was moved deeply by my friends of the past. I could see that there really is hope for the future and was so aware of how much I had changed since the fall of 1971— the first year of forced integration in South Carolina when I was bused 12 miles to school.

Those were hard years, beginning at 11 years old; going through adolescence, violent times, loss of family and a father serving a year in Vietnam. But I learned so much last week from my classmates about all they had gone through during those times. It was not easy for anyone. Forced integration brought communities of people together that were so different. We talked about rural blacks and white, military blacks and whites, and the Turkish people in the community at that time. I was told that the riots and fights were black-on-black as much as they were white and black. I was educated as to the struggles that went on, and still go on, in this school system and surrounding communities. It was not until 2010 that the rural and city school system merged. The current School Superintendent, a teacher in 1974 when I was there as a high school student, spoke at the reunion of the history and journey of the system through these years. There have been a lot of positive changes since 1971, though there are many more needed.

The glasses I see the world with are clearer now. My past is catching up with my future, so to know God and to make Him known are the eyes through which I see HOPE. I have so much hope just knowing God has called me to make His impact on a city known as the birth place of the Civil Rights Movement. Every year here in Birmingham, we remember and commemorate the the tragic loss of the four innocent little girls in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church on September 15th. God placed me in Birmingham to love this city, to help heal and influence people with the values of the Kingdom. Now I have lived here for over 30 years, so Birmingham is home for me now. I know I have been called here, and have SO MUCH HOPE because CSM is positioned to be a bridge of culture, understanding, relationship and equity. We can see our community with the eyes of Christ who created culture, gives understanding, desires relationship and gives everyone the opportunity to see His people with changed eyes.

“If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” II Chronicles 7:14

Take some time this week of September 15th to seek the Lord, find healing for your soul and pray for change.