So To the Black Lives that All Matter:
Thank you for being you. Thank you for being here even when the world treats you like a criminal or less that human. Thank you for being light even when I can only imagine the air is thick and anger rises. Thank you for fighting for change when it seems like you are on your own. Thank you for making our country a better place just by being in it, not to mention the thousands of ways you enrich it. If you hear nothing but this THANK YOU FOR STAYING.
You’ve heard “I’m so sorry” a thousand times, and I am so so sorry, and I wish those words were enough to hold change. I wish those simple moments breathed peace and rest into your lives, but they don’t. It’s a simple (and honestly too easy of a) place to start but it doesn’t insight change. I desperately wish that Thanos could come snap his finger in the best way and set everything to how it “should be”. You feeling free to walk down the street, or simply get pulled over for running that four way stop without fearing for your life. Especially for the women that have to fear for their husbands every day, I wish I could dissolve that fear for you. I wish Police Departments would take louder and louder stands to not only state that they are with you, but they are so diligently and actively snuffing out anyone who tries to smother your freedom, voice, and life. I wish that black leadership would inundate our nation so that voices were balanced and that they system would not only change, but be reborn. I wish people would simply give you the chance to be. Be the light, be free, be tone setters in our culture.
I hope white people work towards education and boldness to stand firm and fight well. That you don’t have to carry responsibility or burdens for us to try to “get it”, I hope this inspires white people to take the initiative and personal responsibility to not only seek justice but to simply do what is right. I pray the excuses away, as I cannot actively take a 10 week old on in this heat + humidity yet to stand that doesn’t give anyone a pass regardless of circumstance to simple do nothing or “wait”. This isn’t something that we can just wait on, it will be another dead man (or woman) on the street.
I pray that love grows in this season, that you feel loved and valuable more and more every single day. Because you are. You are so valuable, you are beautiful, you are such a stunning example of God himself. You deserve a voice, freedom, and leadership that you actually feel like protects you. I am SO sorry that our leaders look quite the opposite. I hope that white peoples eyes are opened to the true colors of the current leadership and vote in different and better ways. I pray that we don’t fizzle out because we get busy, distracted, or state we are “too tired”, I am trying to be diligent to realize that you all do not get that luxury and I don’t want to get caught in the trap of the enemy when my brothers and sisters lives are at stake.
I love you, I don’t always get it right, but every day I will try to stand and love better and better.
I read a quote yesterday that said, “if your life in any way connects to others, you are an influencer”. It means we all have a voice and it means no one has an excuse to not stand beside our black brothers and sisters, AND some of this starts with actually using your area to create a conversation to bring about awareness to simply start the process.
We were created for connection, in simple terms as individual connected to our Creator in which we were created in imago Dei. I will never understand the feeling of being scared on the streets every day, when I simply feel unsafe to run I simply don’t have to and can remove myself from any given situation. Likewise, the idea that I could simply turn a blind eye and ignore these moments in our nation are a privilege that as white people we should be wary of and do our best to push past. But what could I do? I have a diverse friend group, live in a diverse neighborhood, I have been to conversations and talk about racial tensions and reconciliation in Atlanta and the country as a whole, and try to ask questions and listen, but its not enough I still see the passivity growing in me even though I say I love all the people in my life.
So maybe it doesn’t have to be so complicated to take a stand. I have a blog site it has created a following and a voice and if I failed to use it that would be a disaster, and maybe it’s just one action a day that keeps the momentum high and a disciplined move towards fighting for justice. A book, a documentary, and IGTV conversation with church leaders and black leaders across the country, maybe its just something every single day that keeps you moving forward.
These seem like enough words for now, because words are only words. Maybe I will have more later, but before there can be more words there must be standing and educating.
Until then friends.
Fueling Her Forward 