I would say this… It was Fourth Of July week 2016. On the fifth of July, there was a shooting of a black man by police. On the sixth of July, there was another shooting of a black man by police. And on the seventh of July, there was a shooting in Dallas of policemen by a black man. I just remember feeling like the world was falling apart.

I’m just going to put it out there… I am one of very few black women in contemporary Christian music, and I have black nephews and I have black brothers. One of my brothers is a police officer. Honestly, I didn’t know what to say in those moments. I knew I would offend somebody, no matter what I would say.

I did a lot of talking to God that week. I was scared to say something, and at the same time, I was concerned about my nephews and brothers. If they had gotten pulled-over by police, I wanted to make sure they said and did the right things so nothing would happen to them. And at the same time, I was concerned about my brother who’s a police officer—about his protection and safety.

I remember writing “Bleed The Same” that week because I really wanted a song that would help us to realize we look different on the outside, and that’s pretty much it. As believers in Christ, we should look different than the rest of the world when it comes to how we talk about things like this.

In my opinion, our differences are what make us so beautiful. When I look at how God created me and how God created TobyMac, for example, I think, “How awesome of God to make us so intricately and look so different?” All these different cultures in every tribe and every language and every nation will come together, and it’s Jesus who unites us.

That’s something to be celebrated and not something we should be scared of—not something that should make us color blind. I don’t want to be color blind—I actually want to celebrate it and rejoice about it.

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