My daughter’s school bus passed by the apartments where Trayvon Martin was killed. She observed a crowd gathered with signs, she saw the flowers, pictures and crosses left at the gate.

Later that day she asked me, “Is that for that boy, Trayvon, who was shot?”

As a local pastor, I asked myself whether I should get involved in the situation. There is a part of me that wants to stay out of it. But with my daughter’s question, it hit home. God has placed me in this community to be a witness to the gospel.

When contemplating his looming death on the cross, Jesus faced the choice of whether to get involved in the mess of human sin and struggle when he asked, “What shall I say? ‘Father save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason that I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!” (John 12:27-28, NIV)

Jesus could have remained uninvolved, but that is not what He came to do. Like Jesus, we have a choice. What shall we say, “Father save us from this mess, or is it for this very moment that we are called to be a light for Jesus in the very midst of community’s pain and struggle?”

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