{"id":4796,"date":"2014-12-10T12:33:49","date_gmt":"2014-12-10T12:33:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oshetablogs.wordpress.com\/?p=2956"},"modified":"2014-12-10T12:33:49","modified_gmt":"2014-12-10T12:33:49","slug":"when-i-cant-breathe-i-will-listen-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/shalominthecity\/2014\/12\/when-i-cant-breathe-i-will-listen-2\/","title":{"rendered":"When I Can’t Breathe, I Will Listen"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

My son came home and told me that on his walk from school in our middle-class neighborhood, a police officer slowed down and tailed him and his two friends.\u00a0 His friends, one black, the other white nervously chuckled and joked that if they got stopped only one of them would end up dead.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t my biracial son. It wasn\u2019t the white boy.\u00a0 It was the black child, a boy who has sat around my table too many times to count.<\/p>\n

\"Danger-stretch-640x427\"<\/a>
Source: Belt Magazine<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This is so unfair, y\u2019all.\u00a0 When my boy\u2019s first response to me when checking my phone for texts at a stop light is, \u201cPut your phone away, Mama.\u00a0 If a cop sees you-he\u2019ll shoot you.\u201d, the world is surely broken\u00a0 It\u2019s unfair that I\u2019ve had to warn him to similarly mind his manners.\u00a0 Now it\u2019s come full circle\u2013 the child worries for the mama.<\/p>\n

Actually, this is more than unfair- it\u2019s hell on earth to worry that my son may not be safe and it\u2019s all my fault.\u00a0 It\u2019s my<\/em> African-American DNA and a heritage of terror that leaves a mantle of hateful prejudices upon his shoulders. Sometimes, I feel like the Israelite mamas when they issue a Hebrew boy begging the midwives to lie to the Pharaoh that they had a girl. I wish I could fashion a basket of tar and pitch and send my babies someplace safer, better, more just.\u00a0 It\u2019s as if the story of oppression has woven into their psyche like a never ending, unsettling bedtime story.\u00a0 They, no we, can\u2019t find our rest, so we toss and turn under this blanket of racism.<\/p>\n

\"Source:<\/a>
Source: Commercial Appeal Memphis<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Then some how I remembered that we\u2019re called to be agents of Shalom, peace-makers, reconcilers.<\/p>\n

When the quiet racism that creeps into our systems and our minds, causes mamas to once again\u00a0 weep in the streets of\u00a0 America, it\u2019s time to put aside my self-indulgent, angry words, my indignation and\u00a0 seek God for his heart towards the suffering. So, I spent the week after the #EricGarner decision quiet. I wanted to find God and his heart.<\/p>\n

I did.\u00a0 I found hope and encouragement and calling during my reading Exodus last week.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always loved the story of the burning bush. I loved the calling of a normal, flawed, insecure man to partner with God to redeem his community.\u00a0 I loved the mystery of a burning bush and the Emmanuel, God with us, nature of him showing up on earth to commission his servant to action when his people were suffering.\u00a0 I love the wisdom of God that there will be some obstacles towards freedom, but nevertheless, he is present and will respond on their behalf.\u00a0 I love it all.\u00a0 I loved it when I was a little girl in Sunday School making bright orange and red crafts to remember this story and I loved it as a mama with my babies curled into me while watching \u201d The Prince of Egypt\u201d.<\/p>\n

After I posted to Facebook that I would share my thoughts, I sat with my tender heart and watched the burning bush scene.<\/p>\n