Proverbs Daily Devotional: Day 29
“Mockers stir up a city, but wise men turn away anger.”
Proverbs 29:8
Our nation has been divided by issues of racial injustice for a long time, but 2020 has been worse than recent years. Black Lives, Blue Lives, All Lives. Choose your mantra. The saddest thing is, rather than standing together, many people feel that if you pick one of the above, you do so at the expense of the others. I saw yet another riot on the news, in response to calls for justice after yet another black man was shot and killed by police. A white man was being beaten by the crowd, when a black man stepped in, stopped the beating, picked up the white man over his shoulder, and carried him to safety. In the video, not only was the burden bearer protecting the beaten man, but several other black men were surrounding him, their hands protectively shielding him as he was carried through the crowd. The news caught this story and highlighted it, interviewing the man who stepped in to protect another. I don’t remember what all he said, but I remember that at its core, he did it because it was the right thing to do.
I long for a world where we choose to act, not based on race, but on what’s right. That man, that day, demonstrated Proverbs 29:8. He also demonstrated Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan. He modeled the teachings of the Bible and of Jesus in a powerful way. His example challenges me to do the same. Will you join those who are stirring up a city, or will you join the wise ones who bring peace?
