Out of Many One People
I will admit that I didn’t know all the history of slavery in America. Maybe it was because I grew up mostly in Jamaica and my world created by my mother, family and friends was one of equality and love. Maybe it was because when we teach any part of history, we sugarcoat it and make it seem not as bad as it was. Maybe because it was not something that specifically affected me.
We are now even trying to erase parts of history completely by removing monuments and symbols that remind us of a time we aren’t proud of. Instead of facing them, repenting of them and vowing for them to never happen again. We do this with many different topics, whether the Holocaust, Slavery or any other genocide. Now we are doing it even while the genocide continues in our abortion industry.
Out of Many One People
Our Jamaican national motto says, “Out of Many One People.”
This is the motto that was engrained into my brain. I never thought anything else and that value was solidified in the truth of the Bible.
Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
Mark 12:29-31
As a good pastor friend always says, “Love God and love people.”
I have realized
I have realized even more in the past few days how important it is for us to educate ourselves, teach our children, mourn and repent within our own hearts, about the hardest parts of our past and present.
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” - George Santayana
I have also realized that in my own grief, no one can truly understand unless they are walking that road and even then, each journey is different.
I have realized that there are triggers for me that seem irrational to another person. There are times that I can move from sadness of what has happened into suffering of how unfair this is and how it will always be a debilitating pain.
I have realized that in my own life I look for ways that I’m missing Jonathan instead of seeing the joy of experiencing Alayna and Katie.
Trauma can do this to you, it can make you see through a lens of defeat, despair and doom. It can make you feel like everyone around you is thriving, happy, moving on, more appreciated or seen and you will forever have this area that debilitates you. These are the lies of the devil. BUT God
Today is Pentecost Sunday, the day we celebrate when the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples of Jesus.
Acts 2:1-2 And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.A day that brought peace and comfort to all that had committed their life to Jesus as a disciple, a helper to guide us on how to live. A day of hope in walking with the Holy Spirit here on earth until reuniting with Jesus in heaven.
Also remembered today, 99 years ago Greenwood district outside Tulsa, Oklahoma was one of the first black communities post-slavery. They were thriving on such a level that they were affectionately called "black wall street".
In response to a young black man entering an elevator in a corporate building in downtown Tulsa, the entire city was burned to the ground. The riot was led and almost exclusively carried out by white men, some of whom were deputized by city officials to do so.
1,256 houses were burned; 215 others were looted but not torched. Two newspapers, a school, a library, a hospital, churches, hotels, stores and many other black-owned businesses were among the buildings destroyed or damaged by fire.
And you likely don't know this happened because newspapers retracted their records of ever reporting it. It isn't in the history books. And this is the beginning of the problem.
The convergence of these 2 events on this day this year is not a coincidence and I think it speaks volumes to how 1 day, 1 story, 1 look, 1 word can mean so many different things to 2 people.
I am thankful for a God that meets us right where we are. Whether that's in a state of being uneducated, denial, apathy, hurt to the core of our being, vengeful, erratic, broken, at a point of desperation and any other emotion and sin we are battling. 
Next Steps
Our first step needs to be crying out to God and asking Him to fill us with the Holy Spirit, renew our minds, create in us a clean heart and cast all our cares on Him. Our next step needs to be having conversations with our families and teaching them the principles of the Bible.
But equally important is examining what we are laying on them that they do not need to own, are we projecting our hurts, fears or biases on them. Are we creating a lens that is not actual reality but how we interpret things on both sides? Do we need to break chains in our minds and hearts before we can see true freedom from the past and find freedom in God?
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