Crazy Jesus Love: 3 Ways White People Can Love Our Black Friends

Can We Love One Another?

This song was written by my friend Bart Dyer, of life and singing duo Bart + Tricia. These guys are two of my favoritest people in the whole world, with crazy-Jesus-kind-of-love hearts. Bart sat down and wrote this song in response to all that’s happened in the past week and half, and I love the raw emotion of it, the real pain that I think all of humanity is feeling at the state of the world today.

The simple song moved me deeply the first time I heard it, and I’ve listened almost every morning as part of my prayer and meditation. I haven’t shared it here until now because, quite frankly, I’ve heard from some of my Black friends, who quite literally have said, “I don’t want to hear white people singing kumbaya right now. I want space to be angry and to grieve.” And I wanted to honor that.

And as I started to think about how we can truly start loving one another, how I could start truly loving my Black friends through these tragic times, I started to commune with Bart’s song in a different way. Rather than a lament, I started to think of it as a call to action — a trumpet blast of sorts to love in a more active way. The result was this post, and a more conscious way of walking through life with my Black friends.

I hope you’ll consider these thoughts as you listen to Bart’s simple yet powerful song.