Who is my neighbor?

Kirk Franklin's song Imagine Me. (2009, junior year of college)

Phillip LaRue's Window. (2011, just out of college)

The McClurkin Project's Healing Grace. (2013, a few years living in Jacksonville)

Maverick City Music's (ft. Dante Bowe) Take Me Back. (May 14th, 2020).

These are the only times in my life where I can recall a particular song moving me to tears. In every case, it was the first time hearing those songs, not knowing what it was about, and God moving in my heart to hit me unexpectedly, reminding me that he knew exactly where I was, who I was, and what I was going through. Tears are healing. Two weeks ago, I was hit by Take Me Back. At the time, I was going for a long long walk in our big local cemetery contemplating the aging process, seeing the dates of thousands of births, the dates of thousands of death, when this song came up randomly in my youtube auto-play.

I remember when I was young

And your voice, shouting loud my name

And since that moment, I haven't heard it quite that way

Well, now that I'm older,

Could you say it again?

It was at that last line I lost it and knew I needed to hear every single word of the rest of the song. The times I feel God's presence most have been in these unexpected times of just waiting and listening. There is nothing I can do to conjure up those feelings or tears, it is completely at God's will to move.

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Not exactly sure why I felt the need to share the above, maybe just to document my humanity and God's existence for a later time when I'm discouraged and reading these blogs back for direction.

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Mother's Day 2020. I love my mom a lot. I love that my wife is a mom a lot. But I couldn't get Ahmaud Arbery's mom out of my mind. I prayed for her even though I didn't really even know how. There has to be so much confusion, anger, frustration, and perhaps hatred surrounding that situation. As I was trying to find an interview I watched a few weeks ago, I see now that an arrested man was killed by a cop in Minneapolis with a knee to his neck, begging for air. If you were of the African American community, you'd have a tough time trusting cops when you hear stuff like this happen all too often. I'm having a hard time continuing my typing. The interview I was trying to find had to do with the idea that in these days, blackness is being criminalized. When we live in fear, in generalizations and prejudice, it has so many unseen negative ripple effects. I love where I live. I love this neighborhood. People here have been through so much pain and injustice and want to live in a safe place just like the rest of the world. I love hearing distant hip hop beats during cookouts and celebrations. I love hearing nearby fireworks (not necessarily the noise, but knowing those people are having a good time). I love how people stay out on their porches, and greet walkers as they go by. Life is a shared gift. Although we all have our own individual selves and will have a birth date and a death date on our gravestones when this is all said and done, life is given to us for two reasons--to love, honor, and give glory to God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves.

If your definition of neighbor is who lives to your immediate left and right, you wrong. In response to this question, Jesus answers with the good Samaritan parable. Be kind to those who are getting unfairly treated. Either stand up for an individual you meet, or speak up for a people who have been dealt with unfairly for centuries and continue to be.

I'm not so good with conveying exactly the feelings I have about all that I experience, learn, and know, but I hope this blog is not just another source to read and consume and remain unchanged and unconvicted. Pray for my black neighbors, my black brothers and sisters every single time you see something in the news regarding racial injustice. Imagine the emotions you'd be going through if that man was your son, or your brother, or your best friend, or your dad.

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We are meant to engage injustice as Christians because justice is near to God's heart. We are not meant to be like Pontius Pilate who washed his hands "clean" of any blame for Jesus's crucifixion. Stepping aside from the chaos does not make it go away, it just keeps us from experiencing more of Christ's redeeming work.

Take a listen.