Words don't always come easily to me as I try to express myself. But I'm choosing to depend on God to give me the words to pass along these stories and ideas. I pray I will bring Him glory.
During the summer of 2009 I participated in a leadership training program at the YMCA of the Rocky Mountains in Estes Park, Colorado. Some friends and I occasionally visited another city called Boulder to chat with people on the street and share the gospel. This story is about a particularly amazing evening in Boulder. I was in a group with two friends and we were excited to meet people and share God's love even though we were nervous and didn't really know how to get started. We decided to pray before pursuing a conversation. During our prayer, I felt very strongly that God was telling me we should remain where we were standing. It was a pretty weird idea so I hesitated to tell my friends about it. But one of them asked if we should get going so I replied saying, "I think we should just stay here for now." One of them asked why. Knowing that people freak out if I ever say I heard from God, I just insisted that it was a good location to scope out the area and find...
Dear God, You've given me stories. Thanks! Help me to share them with others that they might be encouraged, inspired, and pointed to you. Give me words to express your beauty to the masses. Be glorified.
These are my thoughts in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd. Everything hurts. Seeing the image of Derek Chauvin kneeling on George Floyd's neck hurts. Seeing the same image with George's face blurred out hurts. Seeing people lash out in anger at police officers hurts. Seeing police officers abuse their power hurts too. The unreasonable angry statements made on social media platforms out of an overflow of pain hurt my heart, but I appreciate them. It hurts when well-meaning people check on me, their black friend, because it reminds me that I'm "other" to them. But I thank God that they care to check in. It hurts when people are silent and it hurts when they speak. Nothing about this situation feels good. However, acknowledgement helps. I've found that it hurts differently when church leaders, community leaders, politicians, law enforcement officers, and friends of all races have acknowledged systemic racism and the lack of justice for black people in...
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