It's early morning two days before Thanksgiving. Last night the announcement was made not to indict the police officer in Ferguson, MO. Riots ensued there and across the nation. Looting, shooting and burning seem like a crazy way to complain about perceived injustice. Where is the justice to law-abiding citizens and business owners?
As I scratch my head and pray for solutions that will bring peace, I am reminded of the Scripture that says Satan came to kill, steal, and destroy. Anti-semitism, racism, neo-naziism, sexism are all fancy names for hatred. It started when Cain killed his brother Abel. As long as humans have inhabited this earth, people have felt hatred toward each other.
What causes this hatred? I heard yesterday something I have heard many times before. The opposite of love is not hate but fear. This really makes sense doesn't it? When anyone acts in self-defense, they fear what they might lose if they don't defend themselves. I am afraid to walk alone at night. I am afraid of certain neighborhoods where I know my presence is unwelcome because of my race. As an older woman, I am an "easy" target. This is a fact that causes me to take certain precautions that others might not feel the need to take.
A pastor friend of mine, who is a middle-aged black man, was lamenting the fact that as a black man in the USA, he is not safe. He posted on Facebook that the problem is with "the system" where "it is legal and acceptable to shoot and kill African Americans in this country." He and I have served in prison ministry together, reaching out to incarcerated youth, most of whom are black males. It grieves me to see him voicing these thoughts publicly.
As long as he believes this to be true, for him it is true. By declaring it publicly and in writing, he is perpetuating this. The spoken word has the power to heal and the power to kill. So rather than helping people to give and receive love, he has watered the seeds of fear and hate.
I certainly do not have any easy solutions. But I do know that "the prover proves what the thinker thinks." If we look for good, we will find it. If we look for people who care, we will find them. Conversely, if we look for injustice, we will find it. The truth is there. The question is, do we really want to know the truth and be set free, or do we want to persist in living in bondage to fear and its accompanying hatred?
Every day each of us has a choice to make. Are we going out expecting to be mistreated because we have been conditioned to feel like a victim because of our race, sex, religious beliefs, or nationality? Or will we approach each day prayerfully seeking to be a light in a very dark world. To live in fear means submission to the one who came to kill, steal, and destroy. To live in love means submission to the one who gave His life so that we might have life and have it more abundantly.
Is it safe out there? Of course not. But I'm going out there anyway because I was created specifically for such a time as this. There is a poem I have claimed as my own since I was in high school. Its author is Emily Dickinson and it reads: "If I can stop one heart from breaking, or cool one pain, or help one fainting robin into its nest again, I shall not live in vain."
Shalom
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