Over the last several days I have read and listen to a lot of rhetoric about Ferguson. Some of it moved me, some of it didn’t. I am sorry for the Brown family’s loss, but I am also sad for Darren Wilson’s heart. Here’s my take.
People are crying out for justice, but what they really want is vengeance. They want the other side to be punished because they feel that would be the right thing to do. They believe the other side has suffered enough consequences.
I have spent the last couple of months in a bible study looking at the children of Israel as they were suffering under the hands of the Egyptians. Their oppression caught the eye of God. He delivered them, but it cost Israel something.
Israel lost the secure comfort of the only world they had ever known for the unknown. As bad as it had been in Egypt, there were times in the desert they longed to go back.
I believe the folks crying out for justice need to take a look inside themselves. Do you really want justice, cause God is not going to just give justice to some. He will deliver it to all. When God allows sin to reign in a family, it can run to the thousandth generation. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have to look back that far.
Ten percent of my DNA comes from Europe and Asia. Most likely, my ancestors were slave traders. They caravanned from India and Afghanistan into the African continent meeting up with the Europeans and other greedy Africans and sold people into slavery. I am living out the punishment for that hell.
When they was making money and living the good life in this new found industry they had no idea their children’s children would live in poverty in an unknown land as slaves. Do you think they knew their great granddaughters would be raped over and over to produce more workers?
If you think those little sins you do now don’t have broader implications, think again. Knowing my people, all we probably did was hold the camel, while someone else chase the future slaves. We are setting our future generations up for a hellish living situation, and trying to blame someone else for it.
I love the United States of America and the principles it was founded on. I don’t believe that we as a people have carried out these principles well. I believe throughout our history we have had the opportunity to grow and enhance those founding principles as our culture has changed, sometimes we have risen to the occasion. Lately, we have floundered and allowed greed and hatred to be our banner. We won’t win again until we all find that selfless love that this country was built on.
When God reigns down justice on us for our current situation, it won’t just be for Mike Brown and the other African American young men who have been oppressed. He will come in the name of ALL of the oppressed, not just the ones who have been in the news. What about the Latinos and Asians? Have you played a part in their oppression? How is your family and your coworkers? What side of the line will you be on then?
When Justice comes in like a rushing wind, it will probably leave us all just like the children of Israel. We will celebrate the punishment of the oppressor, but be very frightened by the unknowns it will leave. Keep praying for justice. It is coming. You better be ready.
