That is truly the sad part about the death of George Floyd, my brother in the Kingdom of God. We can accept a death when it has a purpose, when there is some greater good involved, but when it is pointless and preventable we are left angry. This was a wasted death like so many before it. There is no higher purpose here. There is no great change about to happen.
There are marches, protests, speeches, even riots but nothing will change. How many times have we seen this? If there had ever been an opportunity to see things shift it was when evil showed up and killed all those kids at that school in the US a number of years ago. But if society is not going to make the change after such a heart wrenching and horrifying scene, why would it shift over yet another death of a black man?
Are we shocked? We shouldn't be, not if we have been paying attention. Are we horrified? I hope so. The death of any innocent person should be horrifying to us but even more so when it is another innocent man taken from the Black community. They have faced too much already.
Yesterday I expressed my heart felt sorrow to the black members of my church family. They are my family by birth in the Spirit and I mourn with them. I sit in the public square with them and I bitterly weep because my heart is broken. But I can't feel what they feel. I can't know what they know because I have not faced what they face.
I can walk through my neighbourhood without being looked on with suspicion. I don't have people crossing the street to avoid me from fear. I don't have store security following me around the stores I shop in. I am not randomly stopped and questioned by the police just because I am alive. I don't have to educate my sons on what to do when they are stopped by the police. I don't have to watch my kids leave my house and have that nagging thought in the back of my head, will I ever see them again.
Saying that "I am not prejudice" is not making me part of the solution. In fact., it is saying that this has nothing to do with me. I am a product of my society and so are you. We have been taught prejudices even if we are not willing to admit it or aware of it. Instead I need to decide to become aware of how I see the world and why. All is not hopeless and there is a better way.
Anger and vengeance is often the result of a feeling of hopelessness and lack of power to be able to change anything. But George Floyd was not powerless and he knew the solution and from what I understand, he was working with the right people to see change brought to his beloved community. There are many more people out there just like him who are working the solution for their neighbourhood.
The solution is not found in laws, police, education, food banks and make work projects. These things can help but they are not the solution. The only thing that can change the heart of humanity, transform the minds of people is reconciliation with the One who designed us and created us with a great capacity to love.
Certainly love is the solution but humanity is broken. We have all kinds of books, teachings, wise sayings, seminars and great schools of thought but we have a problem with application. The reason is because we need a love that we are not capable of generating in our brokenness. We need a love that manifests in forgiveness, redemption, mercy, grace, compassion; a love that applies all these even in the face of hate.
Jesus gave his life for the sake of the redemption of humanity because only such a sacrifice could provide the reconciliation and transformation that was needed. The humanity our Father created is broken and almost unrecognizable from his design. George Floyd knew this powerful transforming love and he desired to see his community transformed by it as well. But then the always destroying hatred and prejudice reared its ugly head in the form of the authority that is meant to serve and protect. That authority, twisted by hate, snuffed out a bearer of hope in a very dark world.
The Kingdom that George and I belong to is a Kingdom of honour and respect. Because of the great foundation of love, each life is valued and cherished, be it friend or foe. We belong to a Kingdom that holds out hope for every heart knowing that nothing is impossible for our Father. We belong to a Kingdom that, out of honour, loves our enemies and prays for those who persecute us. We belong to the Kingdom that tells us to do to others what we want to see them do to us (be the change you want to see). We belong to any awesome Kingdom that is governed by an awesome King, who remains the hope of this world; the only hope.
Transformation is possible.
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