Good morning…
“The course of true love never did run smooth,” says the Shakespeare-quoting sign above. True love is bumpy, up-and-down, back-and-forth, uncomfortably stretching for all committed to the course of compassion.
“Good morning, Sue,” she wrote after our impassioned post, A Mother’s Perspective. “I understand that the woman who wrote this is a relative of policeman but, in my opinion, her response shows exactly how much policing needs to change.” She went on to explain her personal perspective on the recent Atlanta shooting, which left one black man dead and two white officers facing criminal charges.
“It’s very easy to say ‘don’t run’ when you are white and don’t have any concept at all of what being black and in the presence of the police feels like,” she wrote. “As Mayor Bottoms said, Rayshard Brooks kept talking about his daughter’s birthday. He had had too much to drink, he probably didn’t want to miss it, and made the stupid decision to run. That stupid decision, despite being illegal, should not have cost him his life. That officer could easily have let him go. However the police are not trained to de-escalate and let a suspect go (this man was not a danger to anyone without his car), they are apparently trained to stop at all costs no matter how small the infraction and another family of children have lost their father.”
She went on to share with me three links to informative articles, one a black person’s experience in America, the next piece written by a white male with lots of power and privilege, and the final article written by an ex-policeman who has a perspective from the inside of the challenge of policing. “I think everyone needs to put themselves in the shoes of the other,” she encouraged. “It has not been easy for me to do that with either Rayshard Brooks or the police officer but I am doing my best. They were both scared and it didn’t need to happen like this. But unfortunately our police have been trained to stop at all costs.”
I explained myself more deeply to her: “I am a ‘stay under the radar’ NINE on the enneagram, The Peacemaker. I really love peace. I really hate conflict. But I think God is calling me toward something deeper and wider than my own personal sense of peace. I think somehow God is asking me to stand in the cloudy middle in a time of great unrest, which means not pitting one side against the other, resting on our common fertile ground, focusing my full attention on God who created all of us uniquely and loves us all fervently. I don’t know how all of these differing perspectives will play out on our blog, but I trust God to get into the marrow of our being, making deep transformation within and among us. Our blog will be a microphone for God as long as God wants to use our private, personalized platform. Thank you for walking with me through these diverse perspectives and challenging tensions.”
Her return words came beside me: “God is asking all of us to stretch in ways we haven’t before. I have had a hard time listening to some of what my kids are saying but I’m trying to be open. I watched the challenging movie 13th with them while we were in Florida. I highly recommend but it’s not easy to do. And, I am a bridge person so I see both sides and therefore I’m always unpopular with someone. In this case though, a grave injustice is part of our society’s fabric and it needs to be undone. The police need to be guardians not warriors, and as my kids tell me we are all racist. Or recovering racist. According to them these are the only two options.”
Finally she encouraged me: “Sue, this may be some of the hardest work you have ever done, but God wouldn’t have called you to it if it wasn’t yours to do. To grow inside yourself and help others to do the same. That’s what enneagram work is all about, taking us out of our preferred mode of coping and growing in the ways of God. God loves and weeps for Rayshard Brooks and the officer that killed him. Thanks for not shying away from this difficult work.”
Soon after our lengthy email exchange I received from another reader the touching video below paying tribute to police officers, much like the many moving videos honoring essential workers during this powerful period of pandemic. Being stretched by our honest email exchange, with its life-giving links, and watching with gratitude the vivid video below, I feel drawn to hold it all lightly, embracing each fascinating facet, moving beyond my preferred way of coping and growing gradually in the ways of God.
Now I surrender all of these passionate perspectives into the wide arms of our loving LORD, praying for our deeper understanding, [that He would] show you (and I) the secrets of wisdom! For sound wisdom has two sides (Job 11:6a, AMP).
…Sue…
P.S. Photo courtesy of Unsplash.com.
