This Is Our Story: Rising Through InjusticeSample

This moment in time 

By Liz Muir, Head of Diversity and Inclusion for Tearfund.

Lament. Reflection. Repentance. These are words I have heard often during the last year, more often than normal. But these words were not added to the lexicon recently, they are not newly invented or the product of an evolutionary process where the meanings have changed. I’ve heard these words more and more this past year since the world witnessed countless racially-fuelled injustices, and I wonder why they weren’t acted upon before we had to endure so many unjust deaths. 

I know that it has been hard for you, I’ve felt it too. I have felt like it’s too little, too late. But then I remember that Mary and Martha thought it was too late for Lazarus, and the disciples thought it was too late for Jesus, when in fact it was just the right time. 

I know you are tired. I know your heart hurts. I know that if you have to defend your divine right for equality one more time, it will feel like groundhog day, where the juxtaposition of justice hits your heart. 

But I want you to know that you were born for this. This moment in time could not exist without you in it. For we will rise.

Prayer

Dear Jesus, 

I am tired. Tired of my brothers and sisters being killed for being in the ebony skin you made them in. Tired of justice appearing to be out of reach when you call your church to be the commanders of it. Tired of feeling like I do not matter, like my life does not matter.

Help me to root myself in the promise that you will never leave me or forsake me, and that even though I feel hopeless, 

You. Are. Hope. 

Amen.