The murder of George Floyd is a herald for social unrest. This modern day lynching is stirring our country to stop resting from the fear of catching Covid-19. When is just resting the ideal norm when marching for justice is the reason to be tired and resting is only to get on with marching again?
Being lockdown has given us an artificial state of life when fewer cars are on the road, students are not in classes, and people are out of work. It’s an eerily restful. Some of us even found quarantined restful. But as our world begins to reopen, our personal unrest returns.
In the past week, I have been struggling on what to say about the sanctity of Black lives in America, police brutality, pent-up rage leading to violence, and systemic change. Many more articulate and informed leaders have spoken up. Many American Baptists have reaffirmed our heritage of civil rights, Dr. King, and historical policy statements.
My unrest is wondering what I can do. My unrest is to confess that I have privileges that many others don’t. My unrest is to encourage Asian Americans to realize our racial prejudice of African Americans needs to be unmasked, casting away our fears in order to create a new humanity. My unrest is to speak to my sphere of influence that George Floyd and all the others who have died will not be forgotten. My prayer of unrest is that what I do and what we may do will be on the right side of history.
“Let the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. (Ps. 19:14)