George Floyd.
Breonna Taylor.
Tony McDade.
James Scurlock.
These four people are only the most recent of a long list of individuals, God’s own beloved ones, who have died violently because of their race. Because they were black.
Arguments about the specifics of how each died are simply distractions from the reality of racism and its consequences. Their race contributed directly to their deaths.
As I watch protests in the media I see expressions of grief, rage, frustration, and despair. I also see and hear and feel those same intense expressions as I listen to people I know, to friends, to people I care about, who because of the color of their skin have lived with the reality of racism all their lives. And who are exhausted in their wait for change.
As a white man with a very privileged existence, I can’t pretend to know their experience, their pain, their frustration. I know only that it’s real and I know I cannot ignore it. The time for words alone has passed. It passed a long time ago. Now is the time for honesty and for action.
My honesty is in confessing how ill-equipped I am for such work, how overwhelmed I am when I acknowledge the pain I see in the streets and in the faces of people I care about. My action—my action is to step into the pain, ill-equipped but trusting God will get me, get us, where we need to go.
I don’t know what form that action will take. I am seeking the help of others in determining what it will be, so that it is not yet another half-step that lets us pretend we’ve done something. My commitment is to doing something soon.
In the meantime, I ask for your prayers. Pray for those victimized by racism. Pray for those whose lives and communities are torn by its consequences. Pray for the protestors and the police and for all who strive to stand as one with those who are suffering. Pray by name for the loved ones of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and James Scurlock. And pray that our church seizes this moment to confront the reality of racism, ready for the hard, hard work that that’s going to be.