Bryan Stevenson. Proximity. And Hope.

Last night, I had the privilege of hearing from Bryan Stevenson, author of Just Mercy (MUST READ), not once but twice.  Bryan is the leading voice on criminal justice reform in the United States.  Desmond Tutu calls him, “America’s Nelson Mandela.”  A Harvard Law graduate, Bryan spends his time defending the rejected, marginalized and forgotten people of our society. His first great challenge to us: “You’ve got to get close to the problems you want to change.”  He talked about the “power in proximity” and how we cannot change the false narrative around so many of the issues plaguing our society because we are not close enough to them to know the truth, to garner the empathy needed for real connection.  Bryan encouraged us to move towards pain and suffering instead of away from it in our safe, homogeneous neighborhoods and schools.  I was painfully challenged.

At the two separate talks I sat next to dear friends, both attorneys.  One a criminal defense lawyer working for justice inside the system.  And the other, a lawyer who left her corporate job to defend and free incarcerated men and women with unjust sentences.  I’m in awe of these ladies and their commitment and sacrifice for a people group who must of us would prefer to just forget about, and in fact have forgotten about, in spite of our gospel.  

Bryan made me think about philanthropy and ministry and how our good intentions can go awry because we aren’t really close enough to the people we are hoping to serve to understand how we can best serve them.   It made me ask myself, are the people we invite to sit on our boards and lead our committees really close to the problems we are trying to solve or are they people with influence and resources?  The same could be said for our elected officials.  

Bryan also challenged us to keep hope.  He so interestingly phrased that certain things, “challenge his hope dynamic.”  What a concept.  He named confederate flags, the exhaustion of his own experience with presumed guilt or danger as a black man, people saying the 1940’s and 1950’s were the “good old days.”  

I realized my hope dynamic has been incredibly challenged lately and if I’m being honest, I’m tempted (in good part because my privilege allows me to be) to throw in the towel. I’m challenged by:

• Being a highly sensitive person who can’t stop caring and feeling all the damn time.  
• Living in a white, conservative neighborhood.  
• All things politics 2016.  
• Feeling like my drop in the bucket contribution just keeps splashing out.
• Seeing pain in every corner and wanting to retreat.
• Hearing Jesus name get used as a pawn by BOTH political parties and people with agendas.
• Everything in my newsfeed being about the election.
• Too few things in my news feed about love or justice.
• Seeing past my privilege.
• The fear for being rejected again.
• Philanthropy that’s really about high society and being seen.
• Myself. My brokenness.  My need.

But Bryan, who has served justice and freed many, has also defended many who were executed despite his efforts.  And he’s the guy who picks up the phone to say, “I’m so sorry. We lost.  They are going to kill you.”  He is the last phone call, the final friend for so many.  He stands with the person standing alone even to their last breath.  

And despite how hopeless that sounds, today I’m feeling hopeful.  I believe love wins when love gets invited to the dance.  I believe my drop in the bucket is all I have so I have to keep giving it. I believe our offering is small acts of kindness.  I believe love experiences the multiplier effect like nothing else.  Thank you, God, for the life of Bryan Stevenson and may your justice and mercy continue to be made known through his life.

“We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America that the fierce urgency is now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our Nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.” -Martin Luther King Jr.