DAILY DOSE OF HOPE – BLOG – NAIMA LETT
Adventures in Dallas: Do We Look Like Criminals?
© NaimaLett.com/blog



© Janay McDonald Wilborn, Naima Lett, Reese Witherspoon & husband Jim Toth

“Do I look like a criminal?”

Have you ever heard yourself talking and wanted to stop but couldn’t (ummm, wouldn’t)?

That was Saturday night. How did we go from mini-Seminary-reunion to police interrogation? That’s the million dollar question.

Family Reunion

There’s nothing like family reunions. The last 2 weeks of ministry in NJ/NY and now Dallas have been just that: an awesome time of connecting with some of my most precious sister-friends.

And Saturday night was icing on the cake. 3 of my incredible friends and fellow Dallas Seminary alum met me for dinner: Janay McDonald Wilborn, Sharifa Stevens and Dieula Previlon.

I’ll share more about them in an upcoming post, but what you need to know is that all 3 ladies are powerful, skilled communicators of God’s Word as well as down-to-earth, authentic, full of life women/wives/mothers/friends. We caught up, shared, laughed and laughed. Good times!

Pregnant & Criminal Minded?

Big hugs as we parted ways, and I jumped in Janay’s SUV, as she was going to drop me back at my hotel. We were still talking a mile a minute when we saw a couple of police cars. They had pulled somebody over. “Umph, umph, umph,” I thought.

Then, those red and blue police lights were behind us. Why? OK, Janay is almost 7 months pregnant and had to be going only 30 mph on a feeder road. She pulled into a parking lot. Neither one of us was on a cell phone. We both had on seat belts. What was really going on?

Flashlights in the backseat. Flashlights on Janay. Flashlights on me.

Look like a Criminal?

“Neither of your tail lights are on,” I think the officer said. Janay will have to correct me. I was half-way hearing as I was trying to figure out if we were being profiled.

“Oh! I got my car washed today and they always mess with my lights. I don’t know why they do that,” Janay offered. Then, she flipped on the lights. Working! Great!

“License and Registration, please.” Janay gave hers.

“I need to see yours too,” Oh, the officer was talking to me.

“Why?” I heard myself say.

“I need to ID all persons in the vehicle.”

“Why?”

“I need to make sure there are no criminals.”

“Do I look like a criminal to you?”

For the sake of brevity, I won’t replay the entire conversation, but the gist of his explanation had to do with criminals coming in all shapes and sizes, even ministers and pastors. He needed to see everybody’s ID. Is that legal? I have never been asked to show my ID as a passenger. NEVER!!!! And I’ve lived all over these United States of America. Oh Plano, TX!

Does Reese Witherspoon look like a criminal?

I wanted to fight, but I don’t think my beautiful, pregnant friend or her wonderful husband would’ve ever forgiven me if I had gotten us arrested that night. I am also constantly reminded by my own husband Kevin that if I’m ever arrested, for something other than fighting for human rights or suffering for Jesus, then he is not going to bail me out. That’s a strong deterrent, right?

Turns out we weren’t the only ones interacting with the Five-O this weekend. My entertainment news feed burst open this morning with mug shots of Academy Award winner Reese Witherspoon and super-agent husband Jim Toth. DRAMA! Does America’s Sweetheart look like a criminal? Unfortunately, now she does. Apparently, Reese did go off and was arrested. All I could think was… that could’ve been me. Oh!

I was reminded of Hebrews 13:17-8: “Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you. Pray for us: for we trust we have a good conscience, in all things willing to live honestly.”

Prayer

It is NOT OK to be profiled, but our lights were not on, so that gave the officers cause for concern and reason to pull us over. It is also NOT OK for celebs to go off on police and disobey. There are jail cells awaiting. Our country has been through a lot in the last week. I think everybody’s on high alert. I’ll choose today to pray for our officers, even the ones who pulled us over.

And I’m going to ask you to pray for your girl as I continue my adventures in the Big D!
We’re not in LaLa Land this week, Toto!
Naima

Rev. Naima Lett, D.MIN, ABD
Author of coming release Confessions of a Hollywood Christian

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