Anyone else weary?

My heart is heavy, my mind is distracted, and my soul aches. These weeks of quarantine and protests have stripped away the pretense in our lives and have revealed things about our nation that are downright ugly.

Those who hoarded toilet paper or scooped up all the hand sanitizer and Clorox wipes to profit from a global pandemic demonstrated that some of us value personal profit over the needs of others.

Those who refuse to wear masks show us all that for some, personal liberty is more important than protecting the vulnerable.

And those who continue to insist #alllivesmatter demonstrate a heartbreaking unwillingness to accept that it’s the victims that get to define what abuse looks like, not the abuser.

This isn’t a Part 2 to my last post. Black people don’t need another middle-aged, middle-class white lady lecturing the world about the #blacklivesmatter movement or what we should be doing. They don’t need me to be their Saviour; they need me to be their advocate. They don’t need me to virtue signal on social media or my blog when police brutality hits the news, they need me to be an ally when we’re distracted by <insert current event here>, and others have stopped paying attention.

I don’t know what to say anyway, and posting for the sake of posting is just contributing to the noise – it doesn’t elevate the conversation. That doesn’t mean I won’t continue to speak up or have hard conversations – it means I understand that I’ve had the mic long enough, and it’s time to hand it off and listen. 

This country is at a turning point – perhaps even a tipping point – and hopefully will drive millions more to the polls than have bothered to show up for past elections. If you believe what you’ve posted on your social media platforms, get out, elect the leader that supports your values, and make a difference on the national level. The legislation that resulted from the civil rights movement was essential to improving the lives of those who battled immoral yet legalized discrimination for centuries.

But legislation isn’t enough because hate isn’t an action; it’s an attitude. You can’t change someone’s mind unless you can change their heart.  Luke 6:45 warns us, “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.”

Legislation isn’t enough because hate isn’t an action; it’s an attitude.

No law is powerful enough to change the human heart – only the Holy Spirit can do that. Just as sin separates us from God, racism divides us from one another. Until we’re all willing to admit we live in a broken world and that some have experienced bias and prejudice that others may never fully understand, debating a racist is about as effective as charging the gates of hell with a squirt gun.

Christian, change needs to begin with us.

In an article for the Washinton Post, Dr. Tony Evans said, “One of the real tragedies today is that the Church as a whole has not furthered God’s light, equity, love and principles in our land in order to be a positive influence and impact for good in the midst of darkness, fear and hate.”

Dr. Evans challenged American churches to come together in a “solemn assembly” so that we can fast, pray, and train our people to be the hands and feet of Jesus as we reach into our community by serving others.  This is our “God-given role of influencing the conscience of our culture.” Otherwise, “our country will keep spiraling downward into the depths of fear and hate.”

It’s time to check our hearts – all of us. Those who are angry and those who are indifferent, the weary, and the emboldened. Going forward, ^“Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone” (Colossians 4:6) and “may you have ears to hear.” (Mark 4:8-10)