In the spirit of George Floyd
America is once again reeling in pain and anger, resulting from its long history of systematic racism and the racist attitudes toward the black or African American community.
The results of this history of racism has recently been exposed in the health care disaster which the black community and other minorities are now suffering of disproportionally high numbers by the COVID-19 Coronavirus Pandemic.
Blacks, Latinos, and other minorities such as American Indians have largely been effected by the Coronavirus, due largely to overcrowded living conditions, poor healthcare situation, and poor health conditions.
But America is now reeling from another symptom of racism in America, that of police brutality or abuse on blacks and other minorities.
In the middle of the Coronavirus Pandemic where emotions were already high from being social distanced in self isolation, and a time when many millions of Americans are unemployed fearful of their survival, or the next payment they have to make, all that pent up energy has been unleashed by the event of the murder of a man by police officers in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25th, solely because he was big and he was black.
The arrest and murder of 46 year old George Floyd was caught on video by bystanders who watched as Floyd was arrested and then manhandled to the ground where one officer knelt on his neck for a full eight minutes and 46 seconds.
The viral video revealed that Floyd was pleading for his life, gasping that he could not breathe, as the white officer kept continuous pressure kneeling down on his neck.
The video showed Floyd losing consciousness. At no time did the three other police officers present appear to intervene, to stop the officer who continued kneeling on Floyd’s neck, a full minute after Floyd was unconscious and the paramedics were arriving.
One officer is heard to say Floyd had no sign of a pulse. Floyd was later pronounced dead after taken by the paramedics.
There have been many incidents across America in recently years of police situations involving the shooting or abuse of police officers on unarmed black men and women, but this act was clearly an abuse of police conduct and police policies, and was an act of murder.
George Floyd was accused of trying to buy cigarettes with a counterfeit 20 dollar bill. The store owner called the police who arrived on the scene and began arresting Floyd.
The video footage shows no resistance from Floyd. Despite this fact, Floyd was forced down and pinned on the ground, and then murdered by the officer who knelt down on Floyd.
Floyd was treated in this abusive fashion and killed for no other reason it would seem than he was a black man.
It took several days for the authorities to finally arrest the guilty police officer, charging him with third degree murder. However, the other officers present, who did nothing to stop him, while fired from the police force, were not charged with any crime.
Once the video got out to the news and spread viral around the world, protests and violent rioting later ensued as businesses and buildings were witnessed burning. Soon the protests began to spread around the country.
There have been nationwide protests in cities across America and local riots and even looting at night.
Tempers are high across America’s black and minority communities and people of all groups have been coming out in peaceful demonstrations and angry protests across America, despite the pandemic.
After viewing the video I was distraught, I was saddened, I was upset, and I was frustrated.
I am angry.
In all this time of anger over the death of George Floyd, even with my anger and frustration of the situation, I am reminded that as one in Christ, I am to preach Christ and try to reach those in pain, anguish, and in anger, to bring them to the knowledge of Jesus Christ, much like in the spirit of George Floyd.
George Floyd was not just a murdered black man, he was sincere believer in Jesus Christ, who through his faith reached and touched many lives in his community.
Like many of us before we came to Christ, all of us sinners, we came from a background, each with his own failings.
George Floyd was no different and had his own failing before he came to the truth of Jesus Christ.
George Perry Floyd was born in North Carolina, but his mother moved him and his siblings to Houston, Texas, where Floyd would grow up in Cuney Homes housing project, in the Third Ward.
Floyd grew up with aspirations and future goals, but largely lived as most young people in his day, interested in rap music, basketball, and other activities of his young peers.
In 1998 he was arrested and charged with theft, and later with drug possession. In 2009 Floyd went to prison after pleading to aggravated robbery with deadly weapon in 2007. He was paroled in 2013 after four years in the East Texas, Diboll Unit.
After release, he went back to his community with his girlfriend and had a daughter. It was there, some things began to change in Floyd’s life.
Floyd had somehow, somewhere, found Jesus Christ.
Floyd was reached out to by Pastor Patrick “PT” Ngwolo of the church Resurrection Houston which went out into the community looking for disciples. Pastor Ngwolo recalled the first time he met George Floyd as one big man in the crowd of a Christian rap concert stood out, “it was Big Floyd” or “OG,” as his ministry friends refer to him, meaning Original Gangster. Floyd was described as a “man of peace.”
As OG of the neighborhood, Floyd was instrumental in helping the church operate in his local community.
Floyd soon joined the Resurrection Houston church ministry, becoming a central figure in the church’s outreach program. He often helped to set up and tear down items for church ministry events on a local basketball court which became a holy ground, or the “Church in the Bricks” as it was known.
One ministry friend recalled Floyd enthusiastically setting up a large pool filled with water for a baptism service on the basketball court.
Floyd’s friend Nijalon Dunn who was baptized by the church's outreach program in 2015 said of Floyd.
“We talk about Big Floyd being OG, a person of peace, a gatekeeper. He empowered us. He was someone from the community who empowered brothers and sisters from outside to usher the gospel in. To be able to be baptized in a place like Cuney Homes, it was a sign of hope.”
Up until his death, Floyd was a man of faith and outreach toward the people of his community, encouraging in online videos young men to turn away from drugs and lawlessness.
In 2018, Floyd moved to Minnesota and worked as a security guard for the Salvation Army. Later he drove a truck, and worked as bouncer for a local club/restaurant until being let go from the coronavirus shut down of businesses.
Floyd will be remembered as a man of faith, and a man of peace, and that is why it is particularly painful to see the angry violent actions of some who have used this tragedy to incite more violent behavior, destructive rioting, and criminal looting of stores and businesses caught up in the rage from Floyd’s death.
George Floyd was a man who was changed in Jesus Christ, and a man who by faith in Christ did, and tried to make a real difference in his community.
George Floyd was a new creature in Christ, a man of faith, a man of peace, and a man who wanted to help others find Jesus Christ, as he had.
This is the true lesson of all this tragedy; the Gospel of Jesus Christ can change a man like George Floyd into a new man for God— into a vessel for God to use.
In that spirt of George Floyd’s faith and activism, with that faith we as Christians must continue to actively preach the Gospel and reach as many as we can with the truth of Jesus Christ.
Maybe someone right now has been accidently brought to this webpage from looking for stories on George Floyd’s tragic death, being angry from his death, and maybe God wants that person to come to him.
That’s why we plant our seed, or cast out our nets in the hope of catching just one fish, one person for Jesus Christ to make a new man or a new woman, to reach a fallen sinner just like George Floyd, just like I was once. That through their faith in God, they can become a vessel God can use to work as harvester for souls and bring others to the truth as witnessed by the late life of Mr. Floyd.
Let us remember during this trying time to hold up the spirit of George Floyd, not by angry protests, but by bringing others to the truth in knowing Jesus the Christ.
I leave you with the words of Floyd’s ministry friend Nijalon Dunn who encouraged people to listen first to the voices closest to the matter and avoid doing things (violence, rioting and looting) that are not actually “in the spirit of Big Floyd.”
Dunn told Religion News reporter:
“Churches need to sit back and listen to other pastors ... who are actually toiling the soil ... If you want to operate in the spirit of Big Floyd, empower us to continue the work that we’re doing,”
Pastor Ngwolo in stating he understood why people are angry said it perfectly.
“I not only understand it, I have some of it. We all need Jesus, and we all need hope, and we all need help.”
Do you know Jesus?
Learn about the man/God who changed George Floyd’s life.
Do you know the one who can change you into a new person with a new mission for your life?
If you do know Jesus, then read this article on the blood of the Lamb.
Have you been baptized in the only baptism that can save and change you?
If you have not been baptized then learn here what you shall do to be saved?