A Word About Today's Race Relations...

“Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’^[a] ³⁸This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself” – Matthew 22:37-39

With friends on all sides, this is an issue near and dear to my heart. And I have been afraid to write about it, less someone be offended :). But “race relations” have deteriorated and continue to do so. This is not of God and we need to make some changes.

Another question to ask ourselves is, “who wins when we hate each other?” “Who benefits?” Not us!

One has only to turn on the news to see photos of African Americans rioting. or school Board meetings in which CRT is debated and parents are threatened. But it’s important to notice that there are plenty of people of ALL RACES speaking against CRT being taught in schools. And as for the riots, there are plenty of white people there too!

There are so many African Americans who truly love the Lord and all God’s people regardless of race. Regardless of color, we are one family-Christ’s family 🙂 And the truth is that we do not have to agree with one another in order to love each another! For a great example of this, we need only look at Jesus and His great love for us 🙂

And we know that the media shows us the worst of everyone-black and white. Because that is what gets them ratings. But there are plenty of good people, of ALL colors, who are truly good people and care about each other. They would never injure another. And they would never be unkind! Black, white, Asian, Afrian, Latino…-as Christians we ALL need each other and Jesus’s command to love one another has not changed just because our country’s leadership has!

Think for a moment just how difficult it must be to be African American and to Follow Christ right now. To be the person who speaks up and says all violence is wrong. I saw one video that showed a young African American girl picking up chairs that had been turned over in a protest. I saw another video in which a number of African Americans at a protest worked together to help an elderly man who had been knocked down. They helped him up, made sure he was okay and protected him. No matter what the media shows, African Americans are not all alike-just like white people are not all alike!

And take a moment, and think about how difficult it is to be a person of non-color these days. The news screams headlines that everyone of color hates you, is willing to hurt or kill you and blames you for just about everything. White people struggle with poverty, health issues, and worry about their children. In other words, we all have some of the same problems. And we all share some of the same dreams! We love our children and want them to grow up and be educated enough to one day sucessfully go in pursuit of their own dreams..But the media never mentions that!

We share the same faith in Jesus Christ and the same desire to go to Heaven with all whom we love. We read the same Bible. We pray for those we care about. And as the song goes, “we all bleed the same”.

My mother always taught us that prejudice is how we feel about someone and racism is how we act towards someone. I don’t know how I feel about the statement that “racism is growing”; I don’t know anyone who is racist. But I do feel that prejudice is growing. And if we allow prejudice to grow; it can lead to racism. And it is many of those in the government and the media who are causing prejudice to grow, but we don’t have to let them!

So what can we do to stop it? We can reach out to each other in Christ and in love. We can make sure that everything we do and say is loving and kind! We can “walk a mile in each others’ shoes”. In other words, we can take a moment and remember how difficult the lives of another must be sometimes!

We can turn off the news! We don’t need reminders that there are human beings of all colors that act badly; we already know that. Instead, we can take a moment to focus on how wonderful good people of all colors can be!

And perhaps most important, we can Pray for ourselves and each other! We can ask God to renew our hearts and empty them of anger, and help us to love each other well 🙂

Jesus commanded us to love God and to love each other, regardless of color. And regardess of the many ways we may divide ourselves. We are all Followers of Jesus and because we are, we are all going to Heaven 🙂