Building Walls of Protection

By: Leroy Barber

I, like many of you, find myself in the eye of what I am calling a social hurricane. The winds of injustice are raging, social systems are under the pressure of inequality and communities are battered by forces seeking to divide and destroy. This is no ordinary storm. It is a moment of reckoning, a time that demands courage, strategy, and faith.

Isaiah 59:19 reminds us that when the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against it. We are living in that flood. The enemy of unchecked power, racism, supremacy, and disconnection is rising like stormwaters. God is not silent, but is calling us to be the standard raised against the storm.

The question before us is this: How will we lead in the hurricane? Will we react in fear, or will we act with vision? This is not a time to hunker down and wait for calm. It is a time to build, to reimagine, and to lead our communities with boldness and faith, and to erect walls of protection against the flood of evil.

And what must we build?

We must build walls of protection for those most vulnerable to the storm. If free lunch programs are halted, we must create ways for our children to eat. If daycare subsidies disappear, we must support working families. If housing assistance is slashed, we must invest in shelter and security for those who need it most. If wages remain stagnant while the cost of living soars, we must fight for economic dignity. How do we enact justice without the accountability of the board of education?

These are not abstract issues. They are foundational in so many of our communities. And when the systems in place are terminated we need to have alternatives in place that hold economically challenged communities together, we cannot wait for another rescue. We must build new structures of justice and provision that withstand the storm.

Just as first responders and city planners don’t wait until after a hurricane to prepare, we too must act now, strengthening relationships, investing in sustainable solutions, and ensuring that no one is left behind unfortunately the storm is already upon us and we are forced to act in bad weather. The bad weather of supremacy, power, and hatred is swirling, the winds will settle, but we don’t have the privilege to wait. The Spirit of God is calling us to rise, to stand, and to build the future with hope.

We cannot afford to be passive. The standard God is lifting will not be built by words alone, it will be forged in action. Now is the time to move with purpose, to anchor ourselves in justice, and to step forward as those who will not be swept away by the flood but who will shape what comes after it.

Let us stand together in this moment. Let us build in the middle of the storm.

Grace and strength,

Leroy Barber