I stared in disbelief at the notification that popped up on my iPad on Sunday morning...it was morning because I was in California. My heart pounded because the headline included that 9 people were dead. "Who were they?" I immediately thought. Some of the people I love most in this life live in Waco and I've lived there longer than anywhere else in the world, although I do not right now. Chances are, in a town the size of Waco, if nine random people were invovled, I probably knew one of them.
"Oh, it was a biker gang."
Sigh of relief....
I went about my day. We flew home to Texas and the news kept rolling in. Hundreds of arrests...cops involved...some racial accusations...
The location was named and I stopped in my tracks.
No, I've never stepped foot into a Twin Peaks in any city on this planet. But guess where I have been? The restaurant that is literally a stones throw away from the site of the deadly brawl. We go there a lot. We meet my parents there for lunch when we're driving through town because it's right on the highway. Wanna see?
I don't use this blog to post pictures of my family, because I want to protect them at all costs. But right here is a picture taken on Sunday, May 3, 2015...two weeks prior (almost to the minute) to the May 20 biker shooting.
We were within walking distance of that now deadly site.
We were driving home from Dallas to Austin, and Waco was the perfect stopping point for everyone and it was lunch time (bonus!) My parents met us after their church service and it was just like any other lunch. We sat on the patio...the kids made a huge mess with their lunches...one of them required an outfit change...and I had a bottle warmer with me but couldn't find an outlet to use. My baby literally has one absolute demand...warm bottles. She is relaxed about pretty much everything else in life. So it was like, kind of a thing, that there was no outlet anywhere. My sandwich was delicious, but I had to eat it fast because after the outlet search, I spent a few minutes inside talking to the parents of one of my good friends. They still live in Waco and I hadn't seen them in years.
If our California trip and Dallas trips had been reversed, we literally would have been there. We would have heard the shots fired. We would have heard the yelling. These babies...my whole precious world, would have been there.
When I came back across this photo, I shivered in the pit of my stomach. I realized that sigh of relief is just not appropriate. Because I didn't know any of the men who were killed, I had distanced myself from empathizing, feeling and mourning what is actually an incredible tragedy. God, in his Sovereignty, protected my family from even being present that day. But others were there. Others were present...living their lives right next door and suddenly they weren't. Suddenly they were in a real and present danger that they in no way asked to be a part of.
I can't help thinking that Waco, as a city, is under attack. It may sound a bit outlandish, but think of the history. I'm not going to Google search anything...just simply fall back on my own knowledge. In the 1950's, a tornado ravaged the city, and is called one of the deadliest in Texas. I believe over 100 people died. As a teenager, I knew the statistic that Waco has the highest crime rate per capita in the country. (I KNOW, RIGHT!) I have no idea if that's still true...or if it ever really was...but people said it, and I definitely believed it. There's an incredibly large part of the city living in extreme poverty, so petty crime and drug use are realities. Oh, and that little incident in the early '90's called the Waco Seige. That whole mess put the town on the map and unfortunately, recovery has never been realized. Ten years later, when I was a college student at Baylor, I was walking though London Heathrow airport, and I saw a newspaper with the headline "Murder in Waco". Awesome. A Baylor basketball player had been found dead and his teammate was indicted and then convicted of his murder.
There's more...but I'll just stop.
Because I've made my point, yes?
From that last paragraph, why in the WORLD would any sane person want to live in a place like that? What good could ever come from there? Tornadoes, crime, poverty, drug abuse, cults, murder, and now biker gang shoot outs...
All of these things could have happened anywhere on the map but for some reason, they have all materialized in Waco. Many of them don't even involve Waco residents...the people who live and breathe and work and sleep within the city limits. Waco is under attack from a greater evil than any human being with harmful intentions.
But why?
I think it's because Jesus is doing really powerful things in that city. I think he has been for years. He is raising up generations of people who know and love him deeply. Then some of those people move away and they end up living in random places all over the world. When people ask them where they are from and they say Waco, well, there's a distraction. There's a misunderstanding. There's an assumption made. I know this because I've been the recipient of those assumptions and misunderstandings. How can anyone take a person from Waco seriously? Surely they lived in the compound! (sarcasm) The reputation precedes you so damage control must be done. This is not reaching...you should hear some of the conversations I've had.
Actual convos:
"Texas is great...as long as you're not from somewhere like Brownwood or Waco...Oh you're from Waco?"
"So do you know any of the Davidians?"
"Weren't you scared to grow up there?"
um...no.
My guess is that Satan, who is our real and true enemy, thinks that he can negate or distract from the powerful things that God is doing there...and doing in the lives of His people there. People like Louie Giglio and David Crowder. People like Robert Griffin III and Joana Gaines. People like me and the girls I grew up with.
The truth is that Waco is full of incredibly loving and generous people, many (not all) of whom have put their trust in the saving grace of Jesus. The university in town is one of the largest that still affiliates with a religion...and they actually utilize much of the Biblical doctrine in their day to day. There are ministries, churches, outreaches, volunteer organizations, even a church that meets under the bridge for the homeless population. People are friends, neighbors, co-workers. You know your waiters, you see familiar faces in the grocery store. Even though I haven't lived there in over 10 years, I still find these things to be true.
So now that all eyes are on Waco (again), I hope and pray that what the world will actually see is a community of people who love well. Who respond gracefully. Who mourn with those who are hurting. Who support the men and women who serve and protect them. Who break down barriers to protect one another. Who squelch out racism and hatred and violence. Who will display to the world that there is more than what the headlines say.
Prayers to you all y'all.
