To say “I support Black Lives Matter” requires no courage. It is the safest thing you can say, for who will fault you for making this claim?

To post in favor of Black Lives Matter requires no courage. It hides behind a screen and soothes a guilty conscience in dire need of validation.

To wear a “Black Lives Matter” T-shirt requires no courage. It does nothing to solve the perception of systemic racism, but rather incites even more division.

To invite someone outside your culture, class, or race to share a meal requires great courage. It fights all fear, obliterates inhibitions, breaks social morays, dispels myths. It is how healing and understanding happen. It puts skin and flesh on social justice.

Jesus invited a tax collector to follow Him. He shared company with a prostitute. He befriended a foreign divorcee. He ate dinner with a Pharisee. Here is our example of courage, the epitome of love and goodwill.

So shut up already with the rhetoric. I’m tired of the self-righteous, self-serving babel. Let’s have fewer words, fewer posts, and fewer BLM T-shirts. Let’s do the courageous thing and do what love actually is. Let’s hang out, or share a meal, with someone different than us.