A Year Later

August 9, 2014.

It’s been a year now since Michael Brown was killed by Darren Wilson.

How vivid, how gut wrenching are the memories of that day, that week, the many weeks that would follow.

How many marches have there been since then? How many protest signs? How many prayer vigils?

So much bravery, so much comradery, so much frustration, so much pain, so much….Just so much.

It has been such a hard year. Of lament, sorrow, despair. There have been times we’ve screamed at God, or wondered if God is even there. There have been times we’ve believed that evil would triumph and that the righteous would be destroyed.

But it has also been a year of hope. Of struggle. Of re-awakening. Of energy. The long-obscured realities of oppression are being forced into the light. We struggle because we hope. In hope’s absence there is no reason to struggle, no reason to press forward in the long work that has been thrust upon a new generation of justice-seekers. Yet press on we do.

Since Mike Brown's there have been more deaths.
More videos. More first-hand testimonies.
More so now than before he was killed? No. But maybe, hopefully, more awareness of them. More action in response to them. More capacity to thread them together into the larger narrative of systems at work.
And more meaningful change because of them. Maybe.

This week, I am reflecting on all of these things. Reflecting on what it all means for me, for my Church, for my neighborhood, for  my country.
I invite you to reflect with me as well.

In this past year, we have been inundated with tweets, and think pieces, and talking heads, and opinion polls. This week, set these things aside. I invite you to quietly, prayerfully reflect on what God has been revealing in the year that has gone by. Reflect on the work that God has been doing in each of us, as individuals and as a society. Reflect, process, wrestle, and then put into practice whatever it is that God has been nudging you toward through it all.

May you draw nearer this week to God’s will for God’s people and to the just, redeemed Kingdom lived out on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.

What has God been revealing to you this year? How have you been changed and how are you continuing to change as a result? Share in the comments and let’s journey together.