Like everyone else, I have been trying to make sense of the numerous high profile shootings this week. First, there were the shootings in Minnesota and Louisiana. The story is too familiar. There is an encounter between a police officer and an African American citizen. One thing leads to another and one person is dead at the hands of another. I understand that there are some upsetting videos of these encounters. I have not seen them and I definitely was not there, so I will not be weighing in on the appropriateness of the citizen's actions or the officer's response. Others will do that. But as I think over these events, one word keeps coming to mind.
Tragedy
These shootings are tragedies, no matter what the official reports end up saying. I didn't know the victims, but I am sure that they were important people to those around them. Their families grieve the loss and will soon be trying to fathom life without that person in it. Sudden loss can be the hardest to get over. There are the things that were left unsaid and the fences that were never mended.
Tragedy.
And these events aren't just tragic for the victims and their families. They are tragedies for the officers involved as well. Officers will speak of the personal cost of taking another's life. I have no idea if the investigations will come back that the shootings were justified by the circumstances, but I do believe that when the officer pulled the trigger, he thought that it was justified at the time. I imagine that the public outcry, and the fact that much of your city and country have already condemned you, has to make this even harder.
Tragedy.
And then the week was followed up by another mass shooting in Dallas with police officers as the targets. Six dead. Many more injured. Each with family, friends and a circle of the Dallas community that was ripped apart.
Tragedy times six.
There seems to be a narrative in the news where we are expected to pick sides on this. Are we supporting the black community or are we supporting the police. It's as if these were the two sides in a war and not both citizens of the same country.
Police officers are doing a tough job and deserve our support and African Americans overwhelmingly see the police and the judicial system as working against them. We can say that both of these are true. Acknowledging one does not negate the other.
Last week we celebrated our independence. In the our pledge of allegiance we claim to be "One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." We are a nation under God. God is god of all. Christ died for the victims and the officers and the shooters and their families and their communities. Christ died for all of them. The redemption offered through His Grace is free for everyone. It is the acknowledgement that our problems are beyond us and only through that Grace can healing begin. We accept the Grace and strive to do better in the future.
And we must do better.
We must acknowledge that there are deep racial divisions in our country. We must acknowledge that in some communities there is significant tension between the police and the citizens, and that tension often exists along racial lines. We must acknowledge it. We must be slow to blame and quick to take responsibility. We must seek forgiveness for our actions and extend forgiveness to others. We must be willing to extend the grace to others that God has extended to us.
We must be ready to admit that it isn't THEIR problem it is ALL OF OUR problem. We must accept the forgiveness and grace of God and try to make things better,
And we must do better.
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