I haven’t been watching the news for a whole now. It’s just too sad and disappointing. I do get alerts and I have read articles on Charlottesville and I have to confess, I’m numb to it.
It’s overwhelming. It’s too much, and I’d rather go back to sleep. The young lady who was killed in Charlottesville had dreams, goals, desires. She was someone’s daughter, friend, and employee. Her final words on Facebook were
“If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention”
We, the Church, should be outraged but not unhinged. Our response to this tragedy should look more like a laser beam than dynamite. We need to have the same energy but a different response. We should be surgical, rather than explosive, in our response to racism. This This surgery must begin with our own hearts.
We must first pay attention to our own lives and ask Christ to shine a light in our dark hearts and, what ever is revealed, repent of it.
I’m reminded of the verse
But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for everything that is illuminated becomes a light itself. So it is said: “Wake up, O sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” Pay careful attention, then, to how you walk, not as unwise but as wise,… Ephesians 5:13-15
Going back to sleep, in light of any death by racism, should not be the response of the church. The church has been asleep for far too long.
We must, as the scripture says, wake up, rise up and pay careful attention to how we walk as believers, calling out racism and bigotry where we see it.
It will be upon those who wake up, speak out, and stand firm Christ that Christ will shine and thereby illuminate the darkness. Do not suppose that shining once will chase the darkness away, but we must shine always so that the darkness never returns.