My son is a football player.
According to him, a pretty good one.
He is playing not because I am for it... (after he came home with a HUGE
bruise on his left side) but between him and his father… he is playing
football.
Don’t get me wrong, I have
nothing against the game. I just can’t
wrap my mind around him getting hit that hard.
I got the movie “Concussion” hoping he would watch it with me and change his mind,...he didn't. So now I am the only
one with those images in my mind.
One day
he came home and told me about a player who was injured and how all the team “took
a knee” during the game. I know they do this at the end of a game to run the clock down, but he explained that it also was done
out of respect for the injured player. That made me think about Kaepernick.
Colin Kaepernick is an NFL quarterback who has decided to ‘take a knee’ during the playing of the National Anthem before his games. His decision to sit is troubling to many and bold to others. I for one will always stand, that is how I was
raised. But I also know that he has the
RIGHT to sit. We all do. Service men and women have died to give him that right so I won't say he is wrong but I do have another problem with it.
The main problem I have with him sitting during the National Anthem, is the
socks.
The bible talks about “A little leaven (yeast) leavens the
whole lump” Meaning if you put even a
little bit of yeast in bread dough, you have yeast in bread dough. The yeast will do what the yeast will do. Here is why I have a problem with the socks:
A little bit of hate changes your cause. A little bit of racism changes your
cause. A little bit of controversy can taint your cause. The cause in itself may be right and pure, but a
little bit of impurity, changes it.
How
many of you would love to drink the purest water in the world with just a touch of
cyanide? None of us! Even if it was not enough to kill us, over a
period of time we would feel the effects of the poison and it could eventually kill us. That is how I feel about Kaepernick’s
socks. His socks depict a pig wearing a police officer's cap. It is supposed to be in protest of police brutality. You have the right to sit out, you
have a rightful cause that you are sitting for, but if you put even a little
bit of hate, or division, you have just changed your cause. Not everyone wants to drink with you, unless
they too have already been poisoned and feel they have nothing to lose.
IT IS BIGGER THAN SOCKS
I keep reminding people, the police officers are not the
enemy any more than the black community or any other community is.
If we (either side) put everyone in a ‘lump’ and call them poison, we
have just done to them what we are asking them to NOT do. There has to be a better way to make our
point and focus on the real problem if we want to solve it.
There is a lot going on in America right
now. Good and bad, we have an election that
is simply ‘scary’ on both sides. We have the threat of terrorism and a generation that does not respond to authority. We still have poverty and hunger in the
greatest nation and many have goals in life that involve making more money instead of creating
more opportunities.
TAKING A KNEE FOR AMERICA
America is injured. It
seems we need to ‘take a knee’. But
honestly, how we ‘take a knee’ will
determine whether or not we see change.
Think about it... If everyone took
a knee during the National Anthem, for all the things that they felt were wrong
in America or in their personal lives, who would be left standing? What do you feel is a real problem in America right now? Now ask yourself, is that the ONLY
problem? It might be most important to
you, but someone else has another issue that they believe needs attention as
well. If we waited for every problem in America to be fixed, we would never
stand.
IT IS TIME TO STAND
“If you don’t stand for something you can fall for anything.” I heard this saying many years ago, and have
used it over the years. It deals with
standing up for what you believe, doing something or you might be subject to anything. There
comes a time that instead of sitting, we need to stand. Standing takes more courage, it takes more
work and it causes you rise above other things.
It is time for us to rise, to do what we can to see change instead of
just protesting. There is a mutual responsibility we all share for seeing
change because protesting is good to bring attention to a problem, but if we
keep acting like there is no problem, we get more protests. In the same sense, if all we do is protest, we
never work to solve the problem.
So it was, from that time on, that half of my servants
worked at construction, while the other half held the spears, the shields, the
bows, and wore armor; and the leaders were behind all the house of Judah. Those
who built on the wall, and those who carried burdens, loaded themselves so that
with one hand they worked at construction, and with the other held a
weapon. Every one of the builders had his sword girded
at his side as he built. And the one who sounded the trumpet was beside me. Then I said to the nobles, the rulers, and
the rest of the people, "The work is great and extensive, and we are
separated far from one another on the wall.
Wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet, rally to us there. Our God
will fight for us." Nehemiah 4:16-20
This is an account in the bible that talks about how Nehemiah
sought to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.
(Not referencing building THAT wall!) It talks about
how he protested (silently) before the king and received legal permission to
rebuild the walls. Just because the change
was approved didn’t mean it was going to be easy, because he still had to deal
with enemies and issues from those who didn’t want the wall built.
The part I love the most is when he said as the builders began
to work, they held a weapon in one hand and tools in the other. They
learned how to be ready to fight and build.
Not just fighting. Not just building.
There is a place to protest, to make your requests known and
then do something about it. Sometimes
we have to be prepared to battle for the cause (not physically) and build at
the same time. If you protest by tearing
down your community, you are fighting against yourselves, and you will not be
able to stand. It will take much longer
to build again and that type of protest is tainted with poison.
If we really want to see change, we can sit. We have the right to protest. But after we draw
attention to the cause, it is time to stand, to work, to fight and build. Be aware of how you protest, because a little leavening leavens the whole lump- so even a little bit of poison in good bread corrupts it all. So if you are going to make a change, consider the whole loaf, not just the part you are eating, because even if your cause starts
out pure, no one is eating your bread.
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