God created us equal

You gotta have your priorities right even in a pandemic, so I went to Lowe’s and bought a new charcoal grill last week.

I went old school and bought a Weber. I was so well covered in my PPE I could have done surgery. Totally protected. Ain’t no virus going to get me. Enough about that.

While I was sitting in the parking lot waiting for the rain to stop so I could put the top down on the Mini Cooper in order to load the grill (still in the box) into the back seat, my friend Pastor Royal Johnson called me.

I love Pastor Royal probably because he loves Jesus so much. Here’s what he said to me, “Ken, what do you think about what is going on?” This was in reference to the killing of yet another black man while in police custody. I told him, “I just want to cry.”

Solomon wrote about life when he told us, “Vanity of vanities! All is vanity” (Ecclesiastes 1:2). Then he wrote, “People come and people go and no one remembers them” (verse 4). And finally in verse 9 we see that “…there is nothing new under the sun.”

It seems like what King Solomon said is true that there is nothing new under the sun.

The fear and the anxiety black men continue to experience daily is, sadly, not new but rather just another day in t h e o f fi c e .

Last time I checked our constitution said, “all men are created equal.”

Not only that but a higher authority tells us that man is created in God’s image (Genesis 1:27) and that the Lord is the giver of life (1st Samuel 2:6). So who are we to be so random and racist to think that black lives don’t matter? I hope George Floyd’s

I hope George Floyd’s death is not in vain or meaningless. I hope his life is one we remember for a long time. I hope his life and his death are the catalyst for us to agree things have to change.

We don’t change culture, we have to create culture and we need to create a culture that acknowledges 400 years of oppression, fear and a general lack of dignity is not given to some people because of the color of their skin.

Underneath that pigmentation is the same blood (Acts 17:26), so what’s our problem?

Someone told me recently “respect” is earned, that’s just not true.

Everyone, regardless of who they are, deserve sa fundamental respect, a preservation of their dignity and an expectation of help being rendered when it is requested.

I hope what’s happening in our country is something new under the sun (not the riots and the looting). My hope is that like we have seen over the weekend that more protests can become parades.

Didn’t we used to sing, “Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world.” What happened to that?

I’m praying for the next Dr. King to step up and bring us together peacefully. I’m praying for us to start dreaming together again.

Dr. King told us, “I have a dream today…I have a dream that one day, every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low. The rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh all see it together. This is our hope.” Amen! Amen!

God told Moses to stop praying and to get moving, if you do your part, I will do my part (Exodus 14:15-21).

I hear God telling us that same thing today. We are in a season of doing, a season of reimagining.

Solomon finished his book by telling us the secret to life is to, “Fear God and do what He tells you to do” (Ecclesiastes 12:13). Not really a secret, it just requires us to be faithful and see people the way He sees people.

He told me to tell you that.