George Floyd and the Kingdom of God

The brutal killing of George Floyd last month was heart wrenching for me.  I hesitate to include the words, “for me,” in that sentence, because I don’t want to trivialize the tragedy by only speaking about it in the context of my own personal experience.  But I think that one small way God is redeeming the horrific manslaughter of His image bearer, George Floyd, is in the way video footage has allowed and even called each individual to FEEL the brutality and OWN the grief personally. 

As I watched the minute by minute account of George Floyd’s murder, I accepted the waves of heartache and anger which are the natural response God has put in each of us to such perversion of His plan for humanity.  In the days that followed, God led me to NOT distract myself from lament, but to take time to cry out to Him and beg for things to be made right in the world.  I felt overcome by the heaviness of pain in the world as I walked with Peter out onto deep water sustained only by the gaze of my loving savior who stood before me in it.  God assured me that taking on that kind of grief and continuing on is only possible until we look away from Him (Matthew 14:27-31).

As the Psalmists so often remind us, however, while we grieve and bear the weight of all that is wrong in our world, we must also look for the light of how God is moving in the world.  Though the darkness continues to grow darker, we are called also to look for evidences of His kingdom, for Jesus says, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field.  It is the smallest of seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.” (Matthew 13:31-32)

Take heart, brothers and sisters, HIS KINGDOM IS COMING!

“In this world you will have trouble.  But take heart!  I have overcome the world.”  John 16:33

The evil one may have gained a great victory in downtown Minneapolis on May 25, but look at what God started doing there 20 YEARS AGO!  God planted a beacon of hope just down the street from the site of that homicide.  I’m not even going to try to summarize it because this video is SO powerful:  

Lives are being changed, hope is growing, and the kingdom is coming!!

On the very evening that riots in Minneapolis were devolving into chaos and mass destruction was growing all around the Phillips neighborhood, the faculty of Hope Academy were pronouncing blessings over each of their 2020 graduates and commissioning them to be agents of change in their city, washing their feet, and then passing the towels to them, to go and do likewise.

Look at this beautiful song that the faculty were putting together for their seniors the week of George’s death:

“I remain confident of this:
    I will see the goodness of the Lord
    in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord;
    be strong and take heart
    and wait for the Lord.”

Psalm 27:13-14

- Laura