Our Best is not Good Enough

Photo by Hello I'm Nik
on Unsplash

This post was born in a comment I made in response to an excellent post by my friend Mark Nicklas on his blog Jacob’s Brook in response to the Zimmerman verdict and a post I wrote on my regular Psalms-Honest2God blog yesterday based on Psalm 108.

If taken at his best, George Zimmerman was a community builder who wanted to make the neighborhood a better place to live…but he was not willing to die for it. If taken at his best, Trayvon Martin was a young man frustrated by being treated like he didn’t belong, like just by being present he had done something wrong…but he was not willing to work for reconciliation. Their best was not good enough. 

Both Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman were the same in that neither was willing to lay down their rights for a greater cause. As a result, they gave up more than they would have imagined. Another point of similarity is that neither listened to the sound advice that was given to disengage before the conflict erupted. I wonder why the community’s input (whether 911 operator or friend) was insufficient to change their trajectory. I hypothesize that both were fed up with the status quo and were determined to do something about it…walking away wasn’t an option for either of them.

In confrontations, we would do well to tone down the rhetoric and not back our opponents into a corner. Why not give them room to change their mind without losing face? It won’t happen when we speak or act from a position of control. If we are not willing to lay down our rights, and even to lay down our very lives then we will end up taking, or trying to take, that of another. I am saddened at any loss of life…though sometimes it may be necessary to protect the defenseless. This was not one of those times. I am grieved that this confrontation has been used disingenuously to incite further divisions in our country.

The questions remain for us, those who would work for community development and social justice as a holistic part of the Kingdom of God:

• What is our motivation for not walking away? And,
• In a confrontation are we more prone to shout down, beat down, shoot down the other, or will we lay down our pride in order to listen (and perhaps die) that others may live in light of the Gospel?
• Is our trust in our efforts to bring change, or in God?

If we defend ourselves by fighting and tearing others down, we die even though we live. If we lift up others as the image of God deserving of respect we live even though we die.

Borrowing from something I wrote yesterday on my Psalms blog, we should note that Psalm 108:11-12 says,

^“Oh, grant us help against the foe,

for vain is the salvation of man!

With God we shall do valiantly;

it is he who will tread down our foes.”

I wonder if George prayed and sought God’s wisdom before following Trayvon, or if Trayvon took a moment to consecrate himself before escalating the event. I doubt it...because I too, to my shame. have often failed to pray before going into tense situations from which only God could bring deliverance. Jesus prayed each morning remaining in constant fellowship with His Father and empowered by the Holy Spirit so that it could be said that he only did what the Father was doing, and only said what he heard the Father say. Even more intensely, Jesus prayed in the Garden as he awaited his arrest and the greatest confrontation of all time. He chose to die in order that his oppressors might experience forgiveness. Jesus’ best was enough for us.

Back to Psalm 108 for a moment. It was written to the post-exilic Jews and taken from two much older psalms of David. The faithful remnant had returned to the land, called by God and sent with the King's blessing, to do "Community Development", to rebuild the Temple and Jerusalem. Yet they were surrounded by scornful mockers who worked to undermine or ambush them every step of the way. They were at the crossroads where they had to decide where to place their trust…in the salvation of man or in the help of God.

So what can we glean from this psalm for our situation today? Are we surrounded by people who despise the ways of God? Or by those who mock us for trusting Christ Jesus to establish and deliver us and one day to return to judge the world? I think probably so. We then are faced with the same question as post-exilic Israel, will we fight to regain control by our own hands or will we choose to keep working while defending each other and trust God to take care of the treading down of foes part? Perhaps our “doing valiantly” with God has nothing to do with power but rather following Christ into the valley of humiliation and suffering. As it is written, “…the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly,” (2 Cor. 10:4) but they are powerful nonetheless.

Another thing I find encouraging about Psalm 108 is that those who had returned to rebuild the city of God found a new encouragement, a new voice by which to express their need honestly to God, in the old scriptures. May we find that voice of trust and hope in God’s word as well…and may we become so convinced of God’s love for us, and in the glory of Heaven, that we will no longer fight the wrong enemy for the wrong reasons (Eph. 6:12).