I sit at the kitchen table across from my mom, tears rolling down my cheeks. We’ve been talking about the Michael Brown Grand Jury decision. Nothing is more heartbreaking to me than the events that are occurring right now in St. Louis. It’s especially hard because I can’t be there to comfort and grieve with our community. I have so many thoughts and so many feelings toward the whole situation. The problem is, I don’t really know what to think or what to believe; there are so many stories circulating. What I do know is that Michael Brown, 18, was shot by Darren Wilson seven times; that Trayvon Martin, 17, was killed because George Zimmerman thought he looked “suspicious”; Renisha McBride, 19, was killed on the front porch by Theodore Wafer and there are so many more. The ultimate problem isn’t really that Darren Wilson was acquitted of the charges against him, but that racism is alive and well in too many homes. I don’t know who was wrong in the Michael Brown case, but I do know that it isn’t a simple right/wrong issue. I want to know so badly what actually happened on that street in Ferguson, but I don’t and sadly, I might never know. I long so much for Jesus to come and restore true justice, righteousness and equality right now.
What made today so tough is that this injustice happens all the time, not just in St. Louis, but everywhere around the world. It’s been going on for years, and still nothing’s been done. There is evil everywhere: you see it all over the news from Michael Brown to Jillian McCabe who threw her autistic 6 year old son off a bridge. Jesus needs to come soon or the church needs to start working together to break down these barriers, because we have lived far too long in a world where the color of your skin can determine so much about your life. Our job as the Church is to bring that now, to start bringing His kingdom here now. We need to get up, get out there and show God’s love for all races and people. This is part of restoring the earth to God’s original perfect world. When we do this, we are working towards the way things were meant to be, the way God intended! We are taking one more step in Jesus’ footsteps!
