Help Me to See More Fully

“We each see the world differently from where we stand,” Rev. Dr. Dwayne Walker of Little Rock AME Zion Church shared earlier tonight as we sat as a small circle of interfaith clergy and Charlotte-Mecklenburg police in prayer and song.

God, help me to see more fully.

Help me to see from the eyes of those who are black and brown skinned
who fear for their own lives
and their children’s lives
and who feel targeted
and profiled
and victimized,
who fear being the next car pulled over
or the next name
on the list of names
that goes on
and on
seemingly without end.
Who think constantly,
“It could be me.”

God, help me to see more fully.

From the eyes of those
in blue uniforms –
whose aim is to protect
and whose fear at times
leads them to shoot
whose biases lead them to misjudge and mistrust
and take fathers
from sons and daughters
and sons
from fathers and mothers.

And who struggle to keep our city safe
When chaos and unrest reign.

Help us to see,
as Chief Johnny at Queens said,
that there are more police officers
who do the right thing
than who do the wrong thing

Tonight we add another name
to the litany of names
of those who have died
at the hands of police –
Keith Lamont Scott.
Two narratives:
“He was holding a book.”
“He was holding a gun.”
Two narratives:
polarized and polarizing,
creating rifts that grow larger
and larger.

God, help me to hear more fully
the voice of the other
speaking their truth,
their pain, their life.

God, help me to love more deeply.
And out of that love
help me to keep working
and walking
for justice —
a justice that leads to peace.

[image above by Sara Bryan Markiewitz]