"He's a human"

Watching the video gone viral of George Floyd I heard an unseen young man plead with the officer “He is human”.

It is with a saddened heart that I want to share with you my thoughts on the ongoing racial tension and human injustice that is happening around us.

Why are these events and others like it are heart-rending and horrifying to us? 

Because when the people assigned to help us seem to be the ones out to hurt us we are left confused. Compounded on that is when the decision to hurt us seems to be connected to our ethnic differences leaving us to feel like we are wearing a target that we can never remove. 

Much has been said but it hasn’t brought the change they were hoping for. Although we are experiencing it on a human level I don’t believe we can solve it at a human level. We cannot let this injustice of George Floyd or others be hijacked by a political agenda. This might be hard to see or understand but we must move it beyond even making it solely about race. If we are going to champion change we must recognize the only race is the Human race. If our perspective and language only focuses on our differences we have left out a diversity of people who want to be a part of the solution.

What do we do? 

We must begin with the heart. The emotions of grief should not be moved past too quickly. The sin of killing another human life is traumatizing. No matter what ethnicity, that person is one of our brothers who was helpless, pleading for his life. We feel it because we are human, because he is human. 

During or after the initial grief I think it is of vital importance that we turn towards heaven. We cry out to our heavenly Father who also happened to be a righteous judge. We look to the Lord for guidance, comfort, and justice when it appears to be missing from our earthly situation. We get specific and real with what we are hurt by and now let Him enter into our pain. And He will.

I believe the Lord will hear our cry and begin to put things in place. Either He will use your sincere hearted prayer to raise someone up or He will call on you to rise up. I believe part of that rising up means engaging the powers that be in the land and the invisible enemies as well. 

Don’t let yourself be taken advantage of by fear and anger. All that does is create more division.  Suspicion and feelings of guilt cause greater chasms and instead of working together to bring about significant change, those who seek to harm another person for any reason goes unseen and undealt with because division makes our efforts ultimately powerless.  

I understand that people are vexed and want to make their frustration public. While it might not be beneficial in the long run this is still their cry for help. This cycle is something I don’t believe people can break without God. 

Many attempts are made to bring societal change or justice. When the attempts are guided by the Lord they have the whole of humanity in mind and reach the generations yet to come. There isn’t a political solution we should be seeking but one that comes from heaven. A biblical solution that heals and shapes policies that can, yes, be orchestrated through political means. The source of mending what is torn is as important as what we are mending. If our source is heaven the promise is that our land will be healed.  

William Wilberforce and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. are two key figures that are historical examples of reforming culture in the worst of times. What they had in common was that their conviction came from the word of God and their source of wisdom and strength came from the Lord. 

George Floyd was a person and so much more. He was someone’s son, someone’s brother, someone’s mentor, someone’s friend, and someone’s father.

I end with this. Let your tears flow. Let your tears be shared with one another. Let heaven mingle all of our tears together with our Lord. God has given the earth to man but let’s let Him know that we cannot do this without Him. We’ve tried everything and everyone else now is the time to find out why Jesus Christ is called Savior.

Although my heart is saddened I am hopeful that together we can find a way.