I have this blog, and I hope that when I write I can do some good with it. Maybe I strike a chord with people, maybe I can help someone want to help someone else. Maybe I can relate to another mom. Maybe you want to make whatever the recipe was that I just made. Whatever.
But I have this blog.
Six women and three men died in South Carolina this week. Six women and three men who were just trying to meet and talk about Jesus. Six women and three men who welcomed a new person into their bible study. Six women and three men who were then shot and killed by that same new person.
Six women and three men that were black. They were sisters, brothers, wives, husbands, sons, daughters. People. Were killed. By another person. Who was white.
A white person who told authorities today that he was looking to start a race war. He confessed. He wanted to start a race war.
I don't often talk current events on this blog. Maybe I should more often. I don't know.
Here's what I know: I'm white. I live in a bubble. I have and have had friends of other races but I never thought about it - because they're people. They're just people. God made Man, God made women, and we're all just people.
But... I stopped living in that bubble when it became personal. My sister gave birth to my nephews who are mixed-race. My cousin married an awesome black man who she loves with all her heart. Now it's my family too.
But... I should have stopped living in that bubble a long time ago. Because - we're all. just. people. We're all family. We are all God's children.
I wish that I knew the answers to change the minds of people who can blindly hate another person just because of how they look. I wish I knew how to make us all stop judging - because we all judge one another - and just let people prove who they are. I wish I knew how to make more people choose the side of love and to let love win.
Here's what I do know.
I know that Jesus is weeping.
Regardless of your beliefs, a man had evil and hatred in his heart for other people. My beliefs say that the Devil won that heart from God - he is more powerful than we as people give him credit for - and filled it with that hatred.
Jesus wept when that heart was lost.
That man then took that hatred and - if you believe that a church is a house of God - essentially walked into Jesus' own house and lured nine of His children into a false sense of comfort. And then killed them. Six women and three men. Dead. Because of hate.
He admitted to police that he wanted to start a race war.
Jesus... Jesus is weeping...
We should be too.
Let it be clear - this should not be viewed as a gun issue. That's not the problem.
This is a heart issue. There are people who live in this country that feel that they are better than others - so much better, in fact, that they feel the others don't deserve to live. There are people so full of hatred...
I'm not a big "Daily Show" fan. I'm just not, and it saddens me that a lot of people get their news from that show. But today I saw a clip from Jon Stewart's show last night and he really hits it on the head.
We pour all this money into sending our people to other countries to fight terrorism, when we are just imploding on ourselves with the hatred that's still in our own borders.
What are we going to do about it?
I don't know the answer. I don't.
But... I have this blog.
So I am going to make a plea.
If you pray - pray for the hearts of those who are filled with hate. Pray that they can be softened, that they can work to dissolve that hatred that has filled their core and let love begin to take over. Pray that God can prevail over the Enemy in the battle for God's children, that God can win.
Do what you can to dissolve race lines from where you are. If you even have the smallest shred or ounce of racism in your heart - and let's admit it please, WE ALL DO, the denial of that hurts us more than we care to admit - pray that God can take it away. Work to see others as God does - just as people.
People. We're all people. We're all sons, daughters, husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, friends, neighbors, coworkers.
Pray that folks of all races can be able to hold their heads high and to walk without fear. We cannot let fear win the battle of our hearts; when we do, we are letting the enemy attack.
Our generation is in desperate need of a real and true Martin Luther King, Jr. A real revolutionary. We've become too complacent. Or maybe a whole lot of "one person" to stand up and say that it's ridiculous. If love comes in numbers... don't they say there's strength in numbers?
Anyway... I have this blog. I have my prayers. I have love. And I have work to do.
What do you have?
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