Why Do I Witness?

Why Do I Witness?
by Ryan Klinck

The Witness section of the Missional Wisdom Rule of Life calls for us to practice racial and gender reconciliation, to resist evil and injustice, and to pursue peace with justice. This story describes the efforts of one of our employees to live into that commitment…

Saturday, January 28th, a couple thousand strangers spontaneously gathered together at the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport to protest the detainment of nine human beings as a result of President Trump's executive order. While eating dinner that night, some friends and I received an invitation. We knew we had to go, what choice did we have?

Thirty minutes later, we found ourselves following a couple with a sign who seemed to know where they were going. Then we walked through the sliding door of Terminal D, and out spilled a holy ruckus. Chanting, yelling, and singing with great power and hope filled the air. Underneath it all, was that a hint a joy that I heard? Joy because many different people from many different places had united and come together to stand for a just cause? Yes, I believe so...

The Holy Spirit moved in a remarkable way that evening, drawing thousands across the country to various airports in protest of the ban of peoples from certain countries. Not since Pentecost had such a diversity of people gathered to speak the same language for such a noble cause. "Free them, free them!" we all chanted within DFW Terminal D, and in unison with those in the other airports across the country.

Jesus says in the Beatitudes, "Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth." In the unified chorus, I believe God was fulfilling these words, raising up the meek and those with little power. God used the meek, the Muslim, the atheist, the immigrant, the women, the disabled, the least of us - all who were listening and willing to speak prophetically through the collective voice, God's voice. "Free them, free them!" This voice is the cry of the meek who will inherit the earth, not the voice of those in power. God's voice, the voice of the meek, builds bridges that are inconceivable and unimaginable for us. But there we were, the meek together in our incredible diversity, together in Terminal D, speaking with an authority and power beyond our finite capacity. God's voice draws our diversity into a unity beyond our comprehension.

God is speaking to the world through the meek. "Free them, free them!" Can you hear it?