RUF Fam,
I miss you all! Watching the events of the last few weeks unfold has my heart very heavy. I have felt a lot of pain, sadness, and confusion. I imagine you have too. As I have watched all that has transpired and have processed all that I have felt, I have found a few things to be helpful. I share them with you in hopes they are helpful for you too.
Lament. The evil and injustice we have seen should break our hearts. You should feel sad. And you should feel anger. But what do we do with that sadness and anger? We take them to the Lord. This is what it means to lament. We come and bring our sadness, pain, anger, and confusion to Jesus. Lament is a God-given vehicle for bringing and offloading these burdens onto the Lord. There is no secret code or language of lamentation. Just come and cry out to Jesus with your sorrow. He will bear your burdens. And when you run out of words, go to the Psalms and you will find help there. There are Psalms of lament that will give language and voice to some of what you are feeling (see Psalm 42, 43, 13).
Repent. The evil and injustice are not just "out there". We have it in our own hearts. We ought to be just as outraged by the sin in our own hearts as we are by the sin of others. Every evil I have seen over the past few weeks I am both capable of and have committed in my own heart. I have hated. I have demeaned. I have neglected. I have cursed. Change always starts in our own hearts. And change will only come as we repent. In repentance, we simply name and confess our sin before God, and then we actively turn from it. Jesus died on the cross to forgive our sin. We have nothing to fear or be ashamed of. He died for it all. If we want to see change, it has to start at home in our own hearts.
Pray. This is not a meaningless step. God is in control. And He is ruling this universe. None of this has taken Him by surprise. He is not wringing His hands over all of this chaos. He is strong and mighty, and He is faithful and merciful. Let's regularly get on our knees and cry out to the only One who can effect real change. God can change individual hearts, He can change cultures, and He can change nations. Let's ask Him to do that. We are often tempted to think something like "The least I can do is pray." I would suggest that this is the first and most important thing we should do.
Act.
a) Check in on your friends who are minorities or marginalized. I assure you they are feeling this deeply and what they feel is pain. Move toward them and stand with them in their pain. All it takes is a phone call or a text to let them know you are with them. And if you don't have any friends in the minority/marginalized categories, fix that. You should be. There is no more critical a time to love and be a friend to any of these.
b) Speak up. Don't be silent. Where you have opportunity and a voice, use it. You don't need to be an everyday poster on Facebook or Instagram. You can use your voice in conversations, in a Bible study, or in prayer.
c) Listen. Get educated. Take time to learn how we got here. Read a book. Be in a book study (Carolyn, one of our RUF leaders just started one, email me if you want in on that) where you are learning and talking about these things.
d) Love your neighbor. Whatever their race, educational level, economic level, or personality type, Move toward them in love. Passivity and love do not go together. Love requires action.
I hope this helps. I really do love you all. If you need to talk about some of this, do not hesitate to reach out to Christian, Emily, Cayla, or me. We are here to love you and to care for you.
Find rest in these words of Psalm 125, "Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion which cannot be shaken, but endures forever. As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds His people forevermore."
May you know His surrounding love today!!!
-Joe