The names of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd are all over social media. For good reason. Cities in America are burning. For good reason. Another innocent black man loses his life. Another black mother grieves a heartbreaking loss. For no good reason.
And my heart is heavy. I cry out, "How long, O Lord?"
The sheer weight of it all drove my to my knees this morning.
Seeing my African-American brothers and sisters exhausted and mourning. Seeing the pure evil of systemic racism, present not only in America but everywhere in this broken world.
I'm not even American but the issue of racism is one with which I am well-acquainted. As someone who grew up in South Africa the conversation around race is one that is often entered into. But today I don't want to enter into a conversation. Not because it is uncomfortable but because I want to listen. I want to lament the injustice. I want to weep with those who weep and mourn with those who mourn. I want to do the hard, uncomfortable work of confronting the seeds of racism in my own heart, for we are all affected.
O Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted; you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more.Psalm 10:17-18