Our country has a gaping racial wound that is not healing. We cannot pretend that it does not exist.
Yesterday in Kenosha, Wisconsin, a 29 year old Black man, Jacob Blake, was shot in the back by police officers as he calmly entered a car that his three sons were in. As I am writing this, Blake is reportedly in serious condition at a Milwaukee hospital.
It can be easy to remove ourselves from this situation. You might not live in Kenosha. You might not be a police officer. You might not be a Black man.
But each of us has a gaping racial wound that is not healing within us. We cannot pretend that it does not exist.
If we continue to say, “what a broken world we are living in right now.” Or, “times sure are crazy these days.” We are becoming passive as we associate problems as outside of ourselves.
My hope for anyone reading this post is that you would become active in doing personal work of racial righteousness and reconciliation today.
My invitation for you is this:
#1 Acknowledge that our country has a gaping racial wound that is not healing and that you have a gaping racial wound inside you that is not healing. Feel free to reach out to me, if you would like to have a conversation about this, I would be honored to talk with any of you.
#2 Reflect on the ways that this racial wound has manifested itself in our country and within you. Feel free to reach out to me, if you would like to have a conversation about this, I would be honored to talk with any of you.
#3 Pray to God for discernment and direction for where our Creator might be calling you towards. Feel free to reach out to me, if you would like to have a conversation about this, I would be honored to talk with any of you.
You probably noticed that I ended each of the three points with the same sentence. That is because I believe the only way for us to stop pretending these wounds do not exist is to talk about them. The only way forward is to turn to our Lord for guidance and strength for this journey together.
I encourage you to not stop here with my words. Sit on a couch, open up your Bible (not your Bible app, but the physical book) and read Proverbs 3. See where the Holy Spirit guides you. Pray fervently. Seek God’s presence and follow that with all you have today and forevermore. Amen.
-Pastor Joel
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