He has told you, O man, what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justice, to love kindness,
And to walk humbly with your God?
Micah 6:8
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Praying, pondering, walking a lot has filled my days all week since I heard about the terrible death of George Floyd. What a devastatingly sad tragedy. I have realized that I wanted to be intentional about what message I communicate publicly. I want to honor the precious hearts and feelings and ethos of my dear friends who are in the Black Community. Joel and Joy helped me gather thoughts as I pondered. what to write and speak.
And then, since I wrote this post and recorded this podcast, so much more has happened. Anger has erupted into destructive violence, fear is filling the hearts and minds of ourselves and our children. I come to you today with fear and trembling, praying, praying, praying. I want to be a touch of the Spirit of Christ. What would He say? How would He comfort us? How would he, the Prince of Peace, ask us to move forward? How to carry His peace and light into a world so dark at this moment in history?
The word justice has filled my thoughts and often been a study of mine through these days. Jesus is a God of just love—equitable generosity and care for all people, all created in His image. As Christ followers, we are to exhibit Him in every relationship. The world is to know we are His disciples by our love: love expressed, love through forgiveness, love through generosity of heart and through all of our actions, as we seek to bring His reality to bear even in this time of darkness.
Jesus humbled himself to give us everything. So, we owe all people His love, forgiveness, redemption, grace and friendship. And so, choosing to pass on racism as a legacy of our lives is not acceptable, ever—not before this moment, not in it or ever if we have given our lives to serve Jesus. Yet we do see hate, small mindedness, and violence everywhere.
At the heart of the gospel is the willingness to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God. All those things go together and all are actions. We can’t walk humbly with our God if we ignore the injustice around us, if we don’t have mercy on those who are suffering, if we don’t treasure forgiveness and peace-making in our hearts and do something about them.
Right now, in America, our black brothers and sisters are experiencing a lot of suffering. And it’s not just because of one incident; it’s because in America, there’s been a long history of devaluing Black lives. As uncomfortable as it may make us, this history continues today, and we see it over and over again in stories on the news.
It broke my heart the first time I had a black friend who told me they had to teach their boys how to react if they have an encounter with a police officer, so as to save their lives. I’ve had numerous friends share that exact same story. I would never have had to have considered this with my boys.
A Bible story came to my mind that has stayed in my heart. In the gospels, there’s a story of a man named Lazarus, who eats the crumbs from the table of a rich man. After the rich man and Lazarus both die, the rich man finds himself in hell, and pleads with Abraham to send Lazarus to warn his brothers to live a better life.
29"Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.'
30"'No, father Abraham,' he said, 'but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.'
31"He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'"
Lazarus is at our gates. We’ve had Moses and the prophets, and we’ve had the gospels and the whole Bible to convict us, to lead us, to show us the heart of God. We have far too long looked away from the suffering of those at our gates. As a mother, and as a teacher of mothers, I was particularly grieved by George Floyd’s calling out to his mother just before his death. If we as mothers don’t soften our hearts, and the hearts of our family, who will? If we don’t teach our children to respect the image of God in every person, who will?
I hope and pray that you will join me in grieving this; and even more, I hope you will join me in asking how, as a mother and a Christian, you can be an agent of justice and mercy in this pressing gospel issue. And I encourage you—and I hope to do the same—to speak less, to listen more to my black friends on this issue, and learn from the testimony of their stories, of their faithful lives in the midst of suffering. And then to pray God will bring His Spirit’s wisdom, love and light through me, every day, through all the years, until I see the Prince of peace face to face. Blessings to each of you.
Here is an article about the gentle, generous, faith side of George.
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