Three Years Ago...

Hello, friends!

I remember it like it was yesterday. Megan and I were just about to go to bed and she was checking the news on her phone like she used to do. I was reading up on the Cardinals (they had lost to the Orioles 10-3 that day) when she turned to me and said, "There was a shooting in St. Louis."

My first reaction was, "OK. Those happen all the time," but before I could say a word, she continued. "It looks like there are protests." In an instant, everything was different.

A lot has happened, a lot has changed, and a lot has stayed the same since August 9, 2014, when Michael Brown was shot and killed by Officer Darren Wilson and his body was left on the street for 4.5 hours. The #BlackLivesMatter movement began with the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin but for me, it really started with Ferguson. During the protests, Police used the parking lot of the Target just a mile up the street from Meg and my first apartment as a staging ground. I lived in St. Louis. I love St. Louis. St. Louis was my first home away from home.

When Ferguson went down, a lot of things happened for me. I got in a lot of arguments, face to face, through email, and via social media, about things like systemic racism, White privilege, and social justice. I've made a whole host of mistakes and hurt a lot of people very close to me. I've had to repent many times for things that I learned later were culturally insensitive. I've been hurt and had to extend forgiveness. People have questioned my leadership, my commitment to the Gospel, and threatened to pull their support for the work that I do with InterVarsity.

But it hasn't been bad. I've also had amazing conversations with amazing people who have opened my eyes to a lot of things. I've developed my ethnic identity in an intentional way that I hadn't done before. I went to my first protest. I was able to minister to Black Students at Mizzou in a real tangible way. I've deepened my friendship with some folk in beautiful ways. I've seen changes around me too, in people, in structures, and in systems. I've been blessed to be able to help in implementing some of those changes. It's been a hard, beautiful thing.

One of the questions that I've been asked a lot in the past 3 years as I've gotten more and more involved in issues of race and justice is, "what does this have to do with the work I'm doing on campus?" The answer is that it has everything to do with the work that I'm doing on campus. Black students needs to know that Jesus sees them, even in the midst of injustice and pain. Asian and LatinX students need to know that Jesus is calling them to fight for justice and that this isn't a "black and white" issue. White students need to know that God created them with a culture, an ethnicity, and have put them in a place of privilege and power in the US at this time to affect real change in the world. International Students need to know that the same Jesus who can heal brokenness in the US can also heal brokenness in their home countries.

Things are progressing, I really believe that, but the work is not finished. The deaths of Sandra Bland, Freddy Gray, Philando Castile, Eric Garner, and other unarmed Black men and women since Ferguson are to be mourned and remembered. Unintentionally or not, many systems of power put in place in the US are disproportionately harming people of color. There are still conversations to be had. There are still changes to be made. There is still work to be done.

So, I'm going to keep at it. Whether it be for the next 3 years, the next 30 years, or until the day I breathe my last, I will continue to follow Jesus into the hard conversations, the mourning of lost life, and the empowerment of students. I've learned so much from men and women like Howie Meloch, Michelle Higgins, Jon Nelson, Chioma Chukwu, and my dear wife, Megan. I'll continue to learn from them and others, to repent, and to forgive. I'll continue to pursue the Gospel and continue to believe that social justice and racial reconciliation and integral parts and fruit of that pursuit. I will continue to pray and I will continue to engage. Won't you join me?

Have an excellent day!

~Adam