To Kneel or Not to Kneel: That is the Question

Ok Friends, so here is the deal.  I am not going to sit here and type that I agree or disagree with whether or not to kneel during the national anthem.  I think that this topic is extremely controversial, and there is hurt on both sides.  What I am asking everyone to do is take a deep breath and take 1... maybe 15 steps back.

When all of this started I found the entire thing repugnant like many.  However, God has really been working on my heart this year in the realm of race.  These realizations started upon rewatching The Help on TV as silly as that may sound.  The Help was based in the 1960s.  My mother was born in 1955, which is the same year as the Montgomery Bus Boycott.  My mother can remember feeling nervous upon seeing the KKK walking around in hoods during the daytime in Freeport, IL as a teen.  The Jim Crow law ended in 1965. MLK Jr was assassinated in 1968.  The point here is that this was not that long ago.  My mother cannot even qualify for social security.

This month one of these football players, who is a black man, had a gun pulled on him following the Maywhether-McGregor fight.  As people were leaving they believed they heard shots fired.  He, along with everyone else in the area, ran.  He had officers pull a gun on him.  Again, not wanting to debate this heavily, but do you all want to know what the probability that that would have happened to me is?  I would say 0%.

I am a young, white, typically dressed, ginger, female.  I am in a demographic that strangers will ask me to take photos of their families next to pumpkins with their $1000 cell phones, without fear of me stealing it.  If I walk behind someone and startle them and they turn around with fear, it melts to relief, because I do not in any way look threatening to them.

I have not one time in my life been a victim of a racist comment or action, other than the fact that I dance quite Caucasian.  Never in my life has someone looked at me and grabbed their purses tighter or locked their doors in fear.  No one has ever looked at my white husband and I in disgust as we walked down the street holding hands.

What is the point of this?  It is that 1) Almost universal racism was not that long ago.  2) Most of us do not fully understand this issue, because we have never been in the shoes of the men who kneel.

I understand that there is hurt behind this topic, which is why I do not have a firm stance on the mode of protest, but just remember that there is hurt on both sides.  This is a peaceful protest.  No one is burning down a city or smashing in windows.  It is a statement that there is a problem in this country whether or not the mode is correct.

So to kneel or not to kneel is NOT the question.  The question is what can we do to combat this hurt and this crisis in our day?

#1 First AND Always: PRAY!  Pray for our own hearts.  Pray that we will not judge anyone based on color.  Pray for the hurt on every side of this issue
#2: Put your love for God and for people above the issues.  We are never going to agree on everything, but we can love people. So often we look at the issues over the people.  
#3: Seek that understanding.  Talk to people who have experienced racism first hand.  Talk with those who have a different perspective.  
#4: Change the narrative.  If someone says something racist or something narrow minded, state that you do not resonate with that.  
#5: Take 1... maybe 15 steps back and a few deep breaths.