I pray we get it right. ‘Mississippi Burning' and the struggle that defines us all
By barbara w green
I just finished watching an old movie called “Mississippi Burning”. Although it was released in 1988, this award-winning movie is the dramatization of the FBIs true investigation in the murders of three civil rights worker by the Klu Klux Klan in the '60s.
When I first saw it, and as I watch it again, two different things come to mind: the resiliency of the “colored,” now called AFRICAN Americans, and the incredibility of demonstration of hatred when there is lack of understanding. Now, I won’t give you a history lesson of how, by divine intervention, it is apparent that the “darker skinned” people were meant to come to this country called America. But the journey of arrival has been dark, dismal, violent, and hard.
This is not a submission of lamentation; rather, it is a post of hope and OVERCOMING. No doubt, the African American can truly be called The Comeback Kid! But, we are not the only ones. There were the Jews, the American Indians, and others. And, Jesus.
So, what is my point? Struggle defines!
All of us are defined by tradition and trauma. In many cases, neither of which we could have prevented. Our parents were who they were, and the pain we have experienced could have been some one else’s fault--or our own. Your tradition and my tradition were neither of our faults. Your trauma and my trauma, while it may have resulted in something we did, bears its own outcome. The only way either of us can (and we truly can) make “all things work together for our good” is by FAITH. Forsaking All, I Trust Him! It is then that we reconcile our differences, drop the shackles of vengeance, and move forward in moving on.
While writing this, I pause. I refuse to allow the politics of the day to cloud my judgement. Today IS a new day, presenting a NEW opportunity to get myself--ourselves--right beyond traditions and traumas. This is what it means by the statement, “working out my soul’s salvation." In the day of judgement, every judgement that I made incorrectly will cause me to stand to be judged. In that moment, it won’t matter what you did to me whether it is in the outbursts of a burning Mississippi or in the private vestiges of our hearts. What shall matter is what I did in response.
I ask God to help me get it right no matter how many others got it wrong. I must first remove the glint in my own eye, before I remove the PLANK in somebody else’s.
It is part of the struggle that defines us all.
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From her Inner Reflections’ office in Baton Rouge, BARBARA W. GREENcounsels individuals, families, and groups in person and virtually. She is a certified counselor, minister, and author of The Parent Anointing, The Great One, anda charge to keep.
