By: Pastor Dan Osborn, Park Community Church Forest Glen
January 7th, 2021
After a few hours to pray and process yesterday, I have collected some thoughts.
First thing: seeing pictures of the confederate flag proudly waved by some in the nation’s capital has been sickening. I can only imagine that what I feel is amplified exponentially by my friends of color. I’m devastated and horrified with you as we continue to watch this unfold.
I’m disappointed, shocked, angered, and yet unsurprised by the events in our nation’s capital yesterday. What’s more, I fear, they were (not just) the first of more to come. We’ve all ‘seen this movie’ before and know our nation will rage in response. What lays ahead is a barrage of blaming, name-calling, and undoubtedly violence.
Idolatry is and will be on full display in the actions and responses to D.C.
As a Christian, I believe my responsibility now is twofold.
First, I must be one who prays fervently. Praying for peace is not inaction, and it’s not indifference. It is the recognition that the issues are clearly beyond our abilities. So I pray for President-Elect Biden as he has now the seemingly impossible task of bringing a nation together; Godspeed. I pray for unity in the church; that Believers would stand together in the Gospel, practice peace, and lament injustice.
Second, I must commit to methodically and ruthlessly root out idols in my own life. Before I point the finger at the other side’s issues and blindness, I need to see my own. To what have I ‘bent the knee’? A Political party? Nationalism? Comfort and Security? Or perhaps the god of Status Quo?
God, help us.
–
