Get on your knees and pray

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Dear Belle,

Last week I attended the special meeting of the Belle Board of Alderman to discuss whether or not they will contract with the Maries County Sheriff to start providing police coverage for our community.

I didn’t show up to speak. I showed up to listen. I showed up to sit in a chair and pray. Because sometimes our prayers are more powerful than any opinion we could ever have.

I left that meeting realizing we have a town that is divided and it breaks my heart because I love my community.

There was a time in my life, honestly, I couldn’t wait to get the (expletive deleted) out of here. But, I’m a different person now than I was then. Many of us are.

And if we don’t rise up and love our community well, we won’t have a community.

Belle, we don’t want that – we don’t want that.

I’m not writing this because I’m pro-Joe. I’m not writing this because I’m pro-Heitman.

I’m writing this because I’m pro-Belle. Because, I love my community, despite its flaws. Because I believe it’s our duty as citizens of Belle to care for our community – to build it up and to love it back to health when it’s sick.

When we create messes, we clean them up. Let’s clean them up together. Let’s not point fingers. Let’s not gossip all over Facebook. Let’s get some brooms and start cleaning up some messes together.

You know one of the things I love most about being from Belle? I’ve never seen a community come together so fast when someone is in need.

Someone’s house burns down and they have clothes on their back within hours.

Someone gets cancer and they’ve got money in their pocket to drive back and forth to get chemotherapy, no questions asked.

A pillar of the community dies and their family can’t figure out where to store all the casseroles.

I could keep going.

Man… I love Belle.

But, most importantly, when is the last time you got on our knees and prayed for your town? When is the last time you circled the streets of Belle and interceded on behalf of your community?

I promise you this… your prayers are far more powerful than any opinion you’ll ever have (preaching this to myself).

Tomorrow, December 10th, is the regular session meeting of the Belle Board of Alderman. Tomorrow they make their decision on whether or not they contract with the Maries County Sheriff’s Department to become the sole provider of police force in Belle. The meeting starts at 6:30 p.m.

Here’s what I’m asking of you, Belle…

1) Get on your knees and pray for unity in our community.

Pray for our council members. They have a lot of decisions to make and despite what you believe about them, they’ve endured more disrespect than any one person should have to.

Pray for our Marshall, Joe Turnbough. There isn’t a leader in this world who doesn’t need prayer. And I’ll say the same about him as I will the council members. He’s endured more disrespect than any one person should have to.

Pray for the Maries County Sheriff’s Office and Chris Heitman. He’s undergone his fair share of scrutiny as well. Leadership can really suck sometimes.

2) Show up. The meeting is open to the public. This is your community.

3) Don’t share your opinion if you’re not willing to show up.

If I don’t see you at that meeting tomorrow night, but I see your Facebook feed blowing up with disrespectful nonsense, I’m egging your house. Okay, I’m kidding. Or am I?

Let me say this as nicely as I can… Show up or shut up.

4) Get on your knees and pray.

Belle isn’t perfect. No family is perfect, either. But when times get hard, we’re called to come together and figure out a way to make it better. Let’s do that. Ya, let’s do that.

Let’s bring unity to our community, not discord. I dare ya.

This letter to the editor was originally published on Facebook, prior to the date of the meeting.