Bishop T.D. Jakes, whose world renowned church The Potter’s House is based in Dallas, Texas, was one of the many speakers at Friday’s vigil in honor of the five slain officers.
Delivering a powerful speech, Jakes’s words resonated with the crowd as he ended his speech with a prayer:
” Today is a very solemn occasion, and yet it is a hopeful occasion. It is a time that the eyes of the nation and the eyes of the world have turned their gaze toward our city. We are being tested down to the core. Not just to see – can we survive the atrocities that have confronted us last night, but to see if we will rebound and reinvigorate ourselves in such a way that we come up a better city than we were before. What we faced in Dallas did not start in Dallas. It is a reflection of our country, of our times, of cities around the world and around our country…are in peril. I’ve been asked to pray for the nation, but before I do I just want to tell you that like many of you, I have been up most of the night. I found it very difficult to rest in my own bed, almost impossible to sleep on my own pillow. About 2:30 in the morning I text a friend of mine and I said: I am sleepless in Dallas. But then I realized that they were sleepless in Ferguson, that they were sleepless in Baltimore, that they are sleepless in Louisiana, that they are sleepless in Milwaukee. Then I had to confess to the fact that many of us do not recognize pain until it’s on our front porch. As we come together today we cannot be oblivious to the plight of this nation. We cannot turn our head the other way when tragedy strikes someone who votes differently, or dresses differently, or speaks differently or even believes differently. For the tragedy that we ignore today will be on our doorstep tomorrow. We must pray for our nation.”
Watch WFAA‘s footage above.
Like BlackAmericaWeb.com on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter.
SOURCE: WFAA
