Knowledge.

On Monday afternoon, our couch birthed a snake. True story.

Now this couch is not in our house, but it is on our screened-in porch and when the weather is as delightful as it is right now, we more or less live out there. We read on the couch. We sit and talk to one another on the couch. Sometimes, on a Monday, I doze off and nap on that couch. And unbeknownst to any of us, for a duration of time we can’t possibly know, while we went about our everyday lives – debriefing our days, watching the boy shoot baskets, sipping a drink and reading the paper –  there was a snake (a 5 ft. long snake) lurking beneath the cushions, right inside that very couch.

If your heart is racing thinking about it, well, so are ours!

Fast forward just a couple of hours and, on Monday night, we joined over 400 members from the participating congregations of the Charleston Area Justice Ministry (CAJM) for our annual Community Problems Assembly at New Tabernacle Fourth Baptist Church. We heard about three issues of injustice that had been raised time and time again in the over 100 house meetings that had taken place in 27 congregations throughout the Charleston area: racial profiling, inadequate healthcare, and the lack of a fair and living wage. With each issue, members of the community bravely shared their personal testimonies – each one more powerful, upsetting and compelling than the next. So much injustice, and the truth is – for the most part – I go about my comfortable life unaware that it lurks beneath the surface, around the corner, front-and-center for so many less fortunate than I.

It was a snake who eventually caused the eyes of humankind to be opened to their surroundings in the Garden of Eden. My eyes were opened wide on Monday. I don’t believe I can ever be comfortable on our couch again, and I don’t want to be comfortable with an unjust status quo. The couch is going out the curb; and, along with CAJM’s many other dedicated team and network members, I’m rolling up my sleeves and getting to work.