When it comes to the racial divide, we must commit to fighting for the big rocks. To enter in, I’m trying to read and listen to all sorts of voices. Listening with a desire to understand could be one of the first steps toward coming together. I wonder if talking about it is a close second. What I see on the news is fighting, and what I hear in real life is a lot of silence.
There may be fear of saying the wrong thing or not knowing what to do, and I’m finding myself in both of those places at times, but not saying or doing anything seems like sitting out, and sitting out seems to have perpetuated the problem.
Fighting for the big rocks means just that. It means that we keep the main things the main things, but it would also mean that we fight to engage.
I wasn’t so sure that monuments were the place to start, and as we drove by a statue taken down over the weekend in Chicago, with the base left wrapped in what looked like plastic trash bags, it made me wonder if that was healing. Yet as I hear silence at times from other perspectives in the conversation, it left me wondering if, for someone else, that monument coming down feels like finally being heard.
When you have a family issue, if you care enough, you will come to the table and fight to figure it out. As children of God, we have a family issue. Let’s ask God to break our hearts for what breaks His.
This may start with awareness and then ignite a willingness to listen and learn from each other. Honestly, I am not sure what the big rocks are, but family issues aren’t solved with silence. As we start to know each other and the heart of God, the next steps will be made together as a reflection of that heart change. To get to that point, we will have to ask God for eyes to see, and as we see, we must follow up by entering in, all the time keeping our eyes on the big rocks, the things that matter to God.
Let’s get to the table and start to listen, learn to love each other. Let’s fight for the big rocks.
HLLF,
