Seek Justice, Correct Oppression
A system of injustice has been on my mind a lot, racism. It should not take the murders of so many people for us to stop trying to gaslight an entire people group that this inheritance of suffering hasn't been given to them. This oppressive inheritance has not ended. George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor- so many countless more- it should not have had to come to this.
Different details just keep coming to my mind unbidden. How George begged and pleaded for his life- knew defending himself or trying to shift for a breath of air could mean an even swifter death- would give this man casually killing him the chance to put a bullet in his back. What were his last thoughts as he died breathless, face pressed into the hot asphalt? This man that loved his children, called a gentle giant. There's an image of his youngest daughter finding out that her father was killed, needlessly, mercilessly, this new reality at six years old. She will always know that his skin color condemned him to die and now she will live the rest of her life without her daddy. I can't stop crying about it.
This breaks my heart, as it should. But I don't know what to do about it and feel trapped in my own unwillingness and complacency. My tendency to let slowly fade what is painful but important for ignorant peace.
“Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, and please the widow's cause,”
-Isaiah 1:17
“He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
-Micah 6:8
God cares about this, and I pray He will make true change- in my heart, in all of our hearts, in the justice system. This world can be so broken, but there can be healing and change. We should care about this.
Different details just keep coming to my mind unbidden. How George begged and pleaded for his life- knew defending himself or trying to shift for a breath of air could mean an even swifter death- would give this man casually killing him the chance to put a bullet in his back. What were his last thoughts as he died breathless, face pressed into the hot asphalt? This man that loved his children, called a gentle giant. There's an image of his youngest daughter finding out that her father was killed, needlessly, mercilessly, this new reality at six years old. She will always know that his skin color condemned him to die and now she will live the rest of her life without her daddy. I can't stop crying about it.
This breaks my heart, as it should. But I don't know what to do about it and feel trapped in my own unwillingness and complacency. My tendency to let slowly fade what is painful but important for ignorant peace.
“Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, and please the widow's cause,”
-Isaiah 1:17
“He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
-Micah 6:8
God cares about this, and I pray He will make true change- in my heart, in all of our hearts, in the justice system. This world can be so broken, but there can be healing and change. We should care about this.
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