“Let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions.” (1 John 3:18)
PERHAPS IN a prelude to the activist race protests that have swelled in the last few months across the globe (highlighted by the #BlacklivesMatter movement which followed the death of George Floyd), US Grammy winning artist and producer John Legend released a song called “Preach” in February 2019 amid myriad social issues that were affecting marginalized communities.
The powerfully moving music video opens up with with Legend lying awake in bed beside his wife before taking a distressing look at a various issues taking root in the US today including; school shootings, children being separated from parents at the border, law enforcement’s aggressive tactics toward African-Americans during traffic stops and much much more.
“The idea behind the song is that sometimes we can get so frustrated by the news and what’s going on and there’s this scatter going on in ourselves,” the singer said. “Do we become apathetic? Do we become engaged? Do we just talk about it, or do we do something?” Indeed, in the song, Legend sings, “Heaven knows I’m not helpless/But I’m only human/Can’t see the use in me crying/If I’m not even trying to make the change I want to see…I can’t just preach, baby, preach”.
In other words, we can cry out about the injustices that are happening – in fact we can protest and march day after day – but its time to take action. Hence why the Bible says, “let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions” (1 John 3:18). And so if we see that our brothers and sisters are in need and deserve justice – lets not just protest and talk (not to say these are bad) but let’s go the extra mile and do something about it.
You may think that you may not be able to start off an initiative like Legend in which he hopes to raise $50,000 to end mass incarceration. But you can start something wherever you are – whether its in your local community, local church or university group because beloved it’s time to stop preaching that we love our neighbour – and now its high time that we start taking action and putting feet to our preaching!
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