This week we will be sharing our own reflections on how the events over the last week have affected us and our acknowledgment of our need to confess and learn together. I am thankful for the writers’ willingness to be vulnerable and share their thoughts. We are not experts when it comes to talking about race and anti-racism, we are learners on this journey with you. I hope that you read our articles with grace and see them as an invitation to a conversation with me or any of us.
Pastor Joanna Mitchell
Please pray with me: Holy Spirit, you stir up the winds of change around us and lift up the voices of all people. We hear the cries of your people today, especially people of color who cry out about injustice. Help us to listen with curious ears and give us curious hearts so that we might learn and be transformed together. We pray this in the name of your Holy Spirit, who is guiding us forward. Amen
As I sit down to write this devotion, I find myself looking for words to describe how and what I’m feeling. Our days are filled with the latest news of terror, fear, anger, disgust. But there is also love, hope, community, yet we don’t hear of those as much. Today’s world is very different from the one we, our parents and grandparents grew up in. I remember playing outdoors until the sun went down, asking my grandpa for ice cream money when the ice cream truck went down the street, riding bicycles or roller skating with friends. All without a care in the world. The news would come on at 6PM and we would maybe watch together in the one TV in the home or maybe we would do our homework while the adults watched the news. Now we have kids (and adults) holding on to their mobile phones 24/7. Looking at them first thing in the morning and last thing at night. It’s too much information to handle at times. Now instead of reading what happened the day before on the morning newspaper or waiting for the 6 o’clock news, we see it instantly as bystanders record and upload to platforms for the entire world to see and opine. The entire world – including kids who may not be able to comprehend what they’re seeing or reading, who may be afraid or who may be asked to give their own opinion to a subject matter they do not fully comprehend or know the history of.
It is difficult to talk to children about what is happening in our society, no matter their age. We may fear ruining their precious innocence that comes only for a brief few years during their childhood, or we may fear our own loss of innocence – of a world we were supposed to “prepare” for our children to grow up in safety, yet it is now burning. Literally. This year’s events remind me of Billy Joel’s song “We Didn’t Start the Fire”. His lyrics are powerful, and although his song was released back in 1989 it truly resonates to today:
We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world’s been turning
We didn’t start the fire
No we didn’t light it
But we tried to fight it
But what are we trying to fight? Are we trying hard enough? Today we have information overload at our fingertips with our mobile phones and computers. From TikToks, Insta’s, Facebook to LinkedIn. Comments, opinions, pictures, videos, news, articles. What to believe? What to follow? Do we jump in the bandwagon of commenting without taking a moment to discern the truth? Do we take action? What is the truth? Do we discuss with our children, whether young or teenaged what is happening in the world? Do we talk about what we can do? I do think as you ask if we should talk about these things with our kids – that we land on the answer of yes – because while life is hard – it is only in talking to our children about what is happening that we can make the change we need to.
In Mark 12:31, Jesus reminded his disciples of our second commandment, “Love your neighbor as yourself”. Just 5 words. Do we? Do we truly love our neighbors are ourselves? For millennia, this commandment has been taught, yet we continue to struggle. When young, our children play with one another, without regard to race, sex or place of origin. At what point, do we teach them to fear, dislike, hate. At what point did we allow social media to take over how we teach our children see the world?
All lives matter. However, and unfortunately, we need to remember that our colors dictate how we matter in our society. As a woman of color and of Hispanic origin, I know what it feels to be looked down on, to be profiled, to be passed on for a promotion. As parents, we have tried to teach courage, strength, resilience and love to our daughters, so they don’t have to go through what I’ve gone through, yet the reality is that they too continue to go through that discrimination. Yet their voices want to be heard. Their voices are saying: enough.
As we remember all who have died due to the color of their skin, black, yellow, brown, white or due to their job, police officers, etc. and as we remember George Floyd, let us remember to love one another, love our neighbors, have love, teach love, give love, share love.
Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things…And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love. Corinthians 13
