Perspective

There are so many things that I could write here from so many perspectives. I have lived in 63135 zip for almost all of my life. I am a white guy. I am middle class. I am a husband and father. But, my foremost identity is a follower of Christ. As such, this is what is pressing on me in regard to this mess.

4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 

Rejoice always. That is hard. As the decision gets closer and the situation is getting more bleak by the day, it is really hard. We need grace to get to the place where we rejoice in situations like these. I am praying for that grace.

Be reasonable. This is hard too. It is hard to listen. It is hard to be heard. It is hard to articulate what I think and feel about all of these issues. I wish I were more reasonable and I wish everyone were more reasonable.

Do not be anxious. Even harder. I have been calm through this process. But when I read the headline that a decision had been reached (maybe it has and maybe this is another case of misinformation), there is a pain in my throat and shoulders and fear is in the front of brain for my city, my kids, the world we will know in a few hours, my home in Ferguson, my church, my heart.

Pray. You do not have to be an expert, just talk to God about whatever is in your heart. When you pray, try to have an element of thankfulness; this is from verse 6 above. I am not even sure what that looks like here. I wish that I did and I wish I could articulate it really well for you. But I can't.

Think about...things that are true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, worthy of praise. I am not sure why we are told to do this aside from speculating that God is all of those things and put himself into our situations. It does us good to see that there are these sorts of things around us even in awful times.

Remember these two things:

THE LORD IS AT HAND.

YOUR HEART IS GUARDED WITH THE PEACE OF GOD. 

Please pray for these things...
1. Peace
2. The gospel to go out
3. Eternal perspective