Most of my writings are aimed at Christians with others in mind, too. Today, this is for “the family.”
Like you, I’m watching the news and information regarding the death of George Floyd and the reactions.
I hurt. I hurt for our nation. I hurt for states and communities just coming out from Covid-shutdowns only to face riots and looting.
I hurt that we’re it’s happened again.
I hurt for our communities who feel like their pain is overshadowed by how the story is covered.
Like you, I hurt.
And I want to say something that can help be part of the solution. I don’t want my silence to be taken as approval. It’s not approval. So I’m saying all I know to say.
It’s easy to speak or write, “God doesn’t see color,” but that’s not true. It minimizes the beauty of the mosaic of humanity.
In a sense, it betrays the Lord’s heart for the people of world. If you say that phrase, I know you don’t mean it to sound bad, but to most communities who are not white (which is most of the world!), it’s a painful expression.
Consider what John the Apostle described in Heaven in Revelation 7:9-10:
After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”
Revelation 7:9-10
New International Version
Did you catch it? “Every nation, tribe, people and language…” These are brothers and sisters in Jesus. This is the unified Church in Heaven declaring the praises of the Lord.
It means our “color” and our ethnicity are part of Heaven. It means God doesn’t wipe away our color or culture.
Our Lord redeems everything He touches, even cultures. Ever since Genesis 3, humanity has been broken by sin.
While we can pass laws to legislate behaviors, only the Lord can redeem hearts.
Only the Holy Spirit can descend into the darkness of our souls and redeem us.
Only the redemption offered by Jesus is able to teach us to love people as He loves them.
It’s easy to let our conversation about ethnicity descend into political statements, but as the people of God, we should keep our place as the conscience of the nation.
It’s very easy to reduce “the problem” to be about skin, but the problem is sin. When we reduce “the problem” to skin, we become guilty of virtue signaling and simply doing things for the sake of looking the part. But we know what happens about three months after it “calms down.” I had to ask myself multiple times across multiple days if that’s all I’m doing by even writing this.
The problem is not skin; it’s sin.
The problem is the part of our hearts still not surrendered to the Lord. It’s the segregation too many congregations still have. We don’t reflect Heaven nearly enough.
How we behave towards each other (on all sides) reflects who we are (or are not) in Jesus.
Do we mourn with those who mourn?
Does our heart grieve over the sin of our nation?
Do we grieve over lawlessness overshadowing the problem?
Do we work to listen before we speak?
Do we let media tell us what to think instead of Scripture?
Do we recognize that WE are the light shining into the darkness of our cultures?
Do we shine the light of Heaven?
Life Meets Theology 