Headline after headline opened back up deep and hurtful wounds. Phrases like:
"Entirely sinister." "Eerily dark." "Despicably evil." "Demonstratively hateful.” "Blatantly racist." “Unthinkably criminal." "Unjustly Privileged."
Just looking at their juxtaposition evokes old deep hurts, repressed anxieties, and relentlessly forced my mind forward into visceral heartrending gut wrenching reactions. Not just emotionally, but from my soul, already saturated by decades of first hand experiences, and centuries of historical and generation altering stories of loss and victimization.
After another video, another news story, another post, another outlandish and insensitive (make that ignorant) response from someone living in blinded comfort, blissful ignorance and perhaps just hateful disdain for the sufferings of "others", I asked myself, "Now what?” Now, what is my response to all this hate, to all this malice, racism, bitterness, privilege, injustice, misery, and demonic behavior from seemingly the heights of leadership all the way down going to be?" My response came from the words attributed to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.:
"I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear."
Yes, the actions streamed on screens, forwarded to me in email, witnessed and lived through daily first hand, are entirely sinful, sinister, dark, despicable, hateful, blatant, unjust, unthinkable, and reek of privilege at the expense of the poor, marginalized, disenfranchised, and people (humans) of color. I am not ignoring them, not denying the demand for justice or failing to also cry out with those who mourn and groan for humanity to be truly human. But, I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too heavy for me. Hate is too great a burden for me to bear! Actually, for all of us. Hate, as much as in the moment, seems most justified and natural it can never win. Hate can never undo hate, only love can do that. So, as best I can... as best as I can lean into Him who is love and first loved us and commanded that we love one another, as best I can I have decided on love. It is decision time. What will you choose?
May the unjustified and undeserved love of God so permanently and completely infuse and fill my heart, even all our hearts, that light will overtake this darkness, and that love will conquer the hate around us and within us. May perfect love transform me, and all of us, on the inside so that it might bring forth radical lifesaving, life honoring transformation to the heights of leadership and beyond. May the right decision have a wonderful new beginning in my own heart— and perhaps yours too if your reading this!
Grace and peace to you, with love unending—Cassius
——
“For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,”
“For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,”
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