My doctor is old school. He doesn’t text. He may or may not read his email. He won’t give you a prescription over the phone. Like I said, he’s old school. He believes he has to exam you, and no matter what you go in for, he always gives you the same exam. He starts at the top of your head and goes to the bottom of your feet.

Every time. He never changes his practice. Sometimes, I feel like I have to remind him that I’ve turned my ankle and he really doesn’t have to listen to my lungs, look in my eyes and ears, and thump on my chest. But he never listens. He just keeps on working through his exam.

When you ask him why he works like this, he says it’s because he doesn’t want to just treat symptoms. He wants to be sure he’s treating the cause of my symptoms. If I have a cough, he wants to know what’s causing the cough. Is it in my throat or my lungs? Those are two different problems that produce the same symptom, and the symptom can’t be cured until the source of the illness is diagnosed and treated.

I thought about my doctor while I was watching the recent unrest in our country prompted by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis – actually, Mr. Floyd was one of several deaths of African Americans that enraged the country and pushed many into the streets to protest. Ahmaud Arbery was shot by two men who thought he had robbed a nearby construction site. Breonna Taylor was killed when police officers burst into her house unannounced to serve a warrant and shot her in the process.

For the last several days, we’ve heard politicians talk about how they are against racism. We’ve heard other politicians point to the looting and cry out for the National Guard to restore “law and order”. Everyone, it seems, has a plan, a suggestion, a new law or policy…this time, we’re told, it’s going to be different.

It won’t be. Why? Because we’re treating symptoms and not the illness that’s causing the symptoms.

Do you remember the story of the four friends who let their crippled friend down through the roof in front of Jesus? Do you remember how disappointed everyone was when Jesus forgave the man’s sin? The religious leaders huffed that Jesus wasn’t God so how could he forgive sins? The friends were disappointed because they wanted their friend to walk. Jesus, however, focused on the cause. The man was a sinner who needed to be forgiven. To show the people around Him that He did indeed have the power to forgive sins, Jesus healed the man and told him to pick up his bed and walk.

We want our schools opened back up. We want the broken glass swept up and the fires put out. We want businesses to re-open so we can go shopping again. We know some bad things have happened, and we’re sad, we really are…but we really want to get back to our lives as we knew them.

What we don’t want to do is sit with our African American brothers and sisters and weep for all that’s been lost. We need to grieve the three lives that were lost for no reason. We need to hear the stories of those lives that have been wounded and lost because our country can’t deal with our racial differences.

What we don’t want to do is sit with our African American brothers and sisters and weep for all that’s been lost. We need to grieve the three lives that were lost for no reason. We need to hear the stories of those lives that have been wounded and lost because our country can’t deal with our racial differences.

We don’t want to think about how systematized our racism has become. We don’t want to think about how complicit we are in this evil. Like the man in front of Jesus, we just want to get up and walk home. We don’t want to deal with our sin.

But Jesus won’t heal the symptom. He deals with the problem. For our country to begin to heal, for our churches to begin to heal, we must face the reality that we are part of the problem.

Every one of us.

I grew up in Alabama during the sixties and seventies. Racism was in the air I breathed. I remember when the first black athlete was put on scholarship by Bear Bryant. I remember when blacks were asked to leave certain white churches and told to go to their own church.

This wasn’t that long ago.

So, what’s going to be different this time?

That’s still unanswered, but here’s what I’m seeing.

There’s a solemn recognition of guilt – especially the guilt of silence – in the white churches. There’s a confession of sin and complicity I haven’t seen before.

Lastly, there is a determination to act. There is a growing awareness that the church has failed to bear witness to the truth, failed to demand justice and hold those in power accountable for their actions.

We are enduring the consequences of a previous generation’s failure to redemptively address racial inequality. We are determined not to pass this burden on to the next generation.

God help us if we fail those who follow us.