Black Lives Matter

My friends, I am honestly at a loss for words.  No.

My friends, I have so many things that I want to say, so many tears that I want to cry, and so many ways I want to scream out loud from the top of my lungs of the injustices in this world.

I am white,  I am privileged, I am successful, I am wealthy, I live in a gorgeous neighborhood, my life is NOT hard.  I don't even know hard.  I have every opportunity available to me, my kids have every opportunity available to them. I, we, have no idea what it is to live on in the margins of our country.

But Black people do, black children do.  Social injustice is real and Systemic Racism is rampant in this country.  It is.  Here is a video that helped me understand......https://youtu.be/YrHIQIO_bdQ

My girls elementary has less than 5 black children in it.  THIS IS REAL and REALITY.

In the past 2 weeks 2 black men have been killed mercilessly.

I struggle to join this conversation because there are two sides to every story.......fine, but you cannot shoot a black man in the back, or keep your knee on a black man's neck until he dies. This is NOT OKAY.

I sat in my car a week ago after watching the video of George Floyd's death.  I sat completely astounded.  Before engaging in the conversation I have given myself some time.  There are riots, looters, murders, and mayhem breaking out everywhere.  We are answering pain with pain, and I wanted to take the time to listen, and learn, and engage out of justice and mercy.

Not out of my white girl privilege.

I am here speaking out that BLACK LIVES MATTER because I sat for a week and tried to remember the last time I heard of a white man being shot in the back, or held down until they couldn't breathe.  I looked, and thought, and tried to remember.  Not one came to mind.

And I could think of at least 5 black men.........and I don't watch the news guys.  Racism, prejudice, and profiling, is happening, it is prevalent, and real, and no longer something I, or we as Christians, can be silent about.

The fight that Martin Luther King Jr. started is far from over.  We must do better.  Black lives need us to do better!  We are ALL made in the image of Christ.

So my black brothers and sisters, FORGIVE ME, I have remained silent for too long believing it wasn't as you said it was.  I was wrong.

Forgive me.

I promise to do better, I promise to speak up, I promise to speak out, I promise to be a part of the solution and not a proliferation of the problem.

I hear you

I see you

I am with you.

Help me, teach me, educate me, and help me raise my girls to see you.  Forgive me for far to often living safely in my privilege while assuming its not "really that bad" or even worse that I somehow "know what you deal with."  I don't.

I can't be at every protest, I can't sit and post memes and photos all day, I honestly struggle with the social media platform for public discourse.  Its ugly out there, and dark, and vicious.  But we need change, we need a revolution, we need the Kingdom and I will do my part to ensure you are not in the margins any longer.

I am here, and I am listening, I am your ally, and my family stands with you.  I am no longer timid.