Confessions of a Christian Racist
rac·ist [rey-sist]
Noun:
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1. A person that believes that his race is
superior to another’s
|
|
Beginnings –
Sitting around the confession circle, I realize that it is my
turn. “My name is Glenn and I am a
Christian Racist.” I am not sure when it
started. As any addict will tell you, it
begins one episode at a time, and soon you are in deeper than you realized.
I was born in 1952 into a white working class family in
Annapolis, Maryland. We lived in a mostly
segregated neighborhood with a couple of exceptions over the years. The neighbors were kind, loving, hardworking
folks that came from various ethnic backgrounds, but all “white”. My father grew up in the same neighborhood,
the next street over from ours. The
diversity of the neighborhood was the same as when he was a child growing up
there in the 1920’s. I never remember my
parents ever being prejudiced to any other ethnicities in speech or
action.
My dad worked as a salesman and my
mother was a stay at home mom, like most of my other friends. We led a simple childhood there in “Cedar
Park”, playing sand lot ball, cowboys and indians, cars in the dirt under the
shade tree, it was innocence at its protected best. In retrospect, it seems to be somewhat of a fairy
tale existence compared to today’s children’s experiences. We had the routine squabbles that sent us
home to mom but she always reasoned with me to make up and move on.
Upon entering elementary school I
had my first encounter with “colored” kids.
One particular girl, Sheila Johnson, was my classmate for my whole
elementary school experience. Looking
back, I never recall any animosity or feeling of dislike for her or any of the
other “colored kids”. We played together
on the school yard, worked together on assignments and never once do I remember
having any negative feelings about them.
I attribute this to my parents and the way we were raised, having
respect for everyone. I know now that
the school system was in the process of being de-segregated at that time but I
don’t think kids in my school thought much about it.
My fourth grade teacher was Mrs.
Holland. She was colored and had moved
into our neighborhood, just a few blocks from our house. Again, there were no issues with the
Holland’s living in our “white” neighborhood.
It all seemed normal to me. Mrs.
Holland was very strict and did not take any foolishness from us. My second grade teacher, Mrs. Brewer was just
as strict so I made out all right. I
don’t recall having any colored boys as friends though there were some in my
school, just none in my neighborhood.
As I passed from elementary school
to junior high the same mindset continued, and though the diversity increased,
my response to it was the same. I guess
it just wasn’t a big deal and we just accepted one another without thinking
about it. I have to admit that I am not
sure what the other kid’s experiences were.
Somewhere along the path the colored kids became African American, then
black. I was never sure what the proper
term should be and tended to stick with African American since it sounded less
abrasive.
My high school days were centered on
fast cars and cruising the path from McDonald’s on one end of town and Burger Chef
on the other. Even the cruising culture
was of a different ethnicity. I never
thought about it before, but the black kids weren’t around my world much in
those days. That was not by design on my
part. I guess we just had different
interests and experiences. I wasn’t
involved in activities at school, and was never interested in sports and
definitely not in academics. Just cars
and hanging out at the gas station owned by the father of my best friend
Freddie.
In 1968 there were intense racial
divides in America and our town was no exception. Somehow I was shielded from the tensions and
don’t ever recall witnessing any altercations.
There was an older black guy that worked as a mechanic at the gas
station, who was from the Eastern Shore of Maryland, the town of
Cambridge. I remember Everett talking
about the riots that were happening there.
Many years later I learned that our town was a tinder box for riots and
they were averted by a black man and his white friend who the Lord enabled to
reason with folks and avert the kind of conflicts that occurred in many parts
of our land.
I remember at that time seeing blacks on television being
abused while marching peacefully for equal rights, and having dogs turned loose
on them and fire hoses unleashing torrents of water, knocking them down. It was that sight that defined what a “racist”
was to me, someone who hated a black person so much, that they would harm them
in that way. I was appalled, but that
was happening somewhere else, not in my experience.
Upon graduating from High School, I secured a mailroom job
with a Naval Research laboratory in our town.
My experience there was similar to my life up to that point. There was a professional atmosphere and the
racial differences did not stand out to me.
Again, I am sure that they existed, because as a nation we had a long
way to go to achieve Dr. King’s dream of a man being judged by his character
versus the color of his skin. I was
privileged to be accepted into an upward mobility program that allowed me to
move into a technical position that enabled me to learn while “on the
job”. There was a black girl by the name
of Marsha that was selected along with me for two engineering technician positions
in the same group. We became good
friends and grew in our respect for one another.
Some years later our group had the privilege of hiring
Ricardo, a black high school student, as an engineering aid. He came with us full time upon graduation and
began his career. As colleagues, we
became very close as I was able to mentor him.
Our work took us to many parts of the US and foreign ports as well. While at sea we lived in close quarters and
worked around the clock. We would sleep
in shifts and Ricardo and I would routinely share the same “rack” for
sleeping. He would get up and come on
shift and I would crawl in for my rest time.
I never once thought anything about the fact that he was black. Again, my perspective on racism was defined
by those images from the past that I had seen on the nightly news.
I was not naive to the plight of blacks in America, but it
didn’t come from me, and my surroundings didn’t reinforce the realities that my
fellow black citizens were experiencing in their part of our society. Ricardo did inform me that there were certain
places that he knew were off limits to him because of his color and we would
steer clear of those establishments. He
had a second sense about where not to go and I deferred to his judgment.
It was during this time that I
committed my life to Jesus Christ.
Becoming a Christian did not have a great impact on my racial views
since the teachings of Christ regarding the issue were in harmony with my
own. In Christ there is no Jew or Greek,
rich or poor, but all ground is level at the foot of the Cross. We may have differing worship styles and
preferences that our African American brothers, but we serve a God who reaches
the nations for His praise and glory.
For some reason
though, the matter of interracial dating and marriage was an exception. I found myself bristling at the sight of a
white person with a black person and it had never before occurred to me that it
was wrong. That belief would be
challenged with time and I would grow to understand that it was wrong and put
the issue behind me. The odd thing is that seeing other ethnicities inter
relating did not conjure up the same emotion.
Anton and
Jasmine –
Fast forward to around 2004 and we
are living in a different day and time.
The racial injustices I witnessed on the evening news in my youth had,
for the most part, settled down and much progress had been made in our
country. I will grant that these issues
are always viewed from different perspectives but my racial bias was pretty
much controlled and informed by my understanding of the Bible and how Jesus
prods us to look at life from a heavenly, Godward perspective and those
teachings are clear.
Our church was conducting a search
for a youth pastor and we were expecting a candidate couple to come for a
covert visit. They were coming to check
out the congregation before being formally introduced. This visit would allow them to assess the
church family and get a feel for how they interacted with one another. When I found out that Anton and Jasmine were
coming, I immediately sensed that they were a bi-racial couple. I was sure that Anton was white and Jasmine
was black. I was looking forward to
seeing how the families of the church would embrace them, as they would be
introducing the bi-racial issue to a white congregation and their
children. Having struggled with the
issue in the past, I knew it might be a stumbling block for some who had not
matured in this area.
Anton and Jasmine enjoyed a cordial
welcome and returned for a meeting with the parents and members of the youth
program. I forgot to mention that while
my intuition was right regarding their being bi-racial, I was wrong in that
Jasmine was white and Anton was black.
Our South Carolina pastor calls that “Face Taking” after the teaching in
the book of James regarding our treatment of people based on our blind
assessment of them.
Anton and Jasmine were a big hit
with the youth and their parents, and a spirit of great anticipation for their
potential ministry at our church permeated the meeting. On our way out of the church parking lot I
remarked to my wife that I hoped that the rest of the congregation would
embrace them in the same manner. The
comment brought a startled response from our teenage daughter in the back
seat. “What are you talking about?” I had made reference to their being bi-racial
and that some might have a problem. Her
response was “do people really think that way?”
I was pleased to hear that she was appalled at the idea that something
was wrong with a bi-racial relationship.
I was ecstatic to think that the chain of discrimination was being broken
and progress in the next generation would be on a higher plane as a
result. Praise God!
My friend
Corey –
In 2004 our next to the youngest
daughter Maribeth set off to attend college at Charleston Southern University,
a Christian college located near Charleston, South Carolina. I was serving on the board of a missionary
care ministry located in Columbia, South Carolina, and while there for a
meeting, took the opportunity to go down to visit Maribeth at school. She invited a couple of friends to join us
for dinner and informed me that her friend Corey would join us as well. When everyone arrived at the restaurant Maribeth
introduced me to Corey. My “Face Take”
on him was that he was much older than Maribeth, probably in his early
thirties. I wondered what their
relationship was, but the setting was not conducive to probing. Did I mention that he is black?
We had a nice dinner and Corey
shared with me his experiences from a recent trip to Israel. It turned out that Corey was a Residence Life
Coordinator at the University and had helped Maribeth with some car problems
and that is how their friendship came to be.
Over the ensuing years I had other opportunities to see Corey during
visits to the campus.
We’re moving
to South Carolina with Maribeth –
When our youngest daughter Rachel
was nearing graduation from High School, she informed us that she did not have
any desire to attend college and was planning to move to South Carolina to live
with her sister Maribeth. Maribeth was
living in an apartment with five other girls and would be entering her senior
year that fall. Two of the girls were
graduating soon and that would leave a slot for Rachel to move into. She would get a job and make a new life for
herself in Charleston. Her plan was to
move at the end of the summer.
Our oldest daughter Rebecca was living
on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, working for a company that manufactured
engineered structural wall panels and roof trusses for homes and apartment
buildings. As the date came for Rachel
to relocate to Charleston, Rebecca made the decision to leave her job and move
to Charleston as well. Both girls were
drawn by the quality of Christian friends that Maribeth had established during
her time at Charleston Southern University and the opportunity to establish new
lives for themselves in Charleston.
Rebecca and
Corey are friends -
In late August, we packed up Rachel
and Rebecca’s cars with all of their earthly possessions and they headed for
South Carolina. It was a bittersweet
sendoff but we knew that they would have great opportunities to meet Christian
friends and grow in their walk with God.
Maribeth’s friends had been praying for both girls and looked forward to
sharing life with them.
One of those friends was Corey. He and Rebecca hit it off immediately since
both were active and enjoyed the same kinds of outdoor activities. The “face taking” that led me to believe that
Corey was much older proved to be incorrect.
He was in fact in his upper-twenties, around the same age as Rebecca.
Needless to say they became good friends right from the start. As we got word of their deepening friendship
an old feeling began to creep into my heart.
In October, Rebecca volunteered to go to New Orleans to serve as a coordinator
for a short term mission project that was rehabilitating houses destroyed by
hurricane Katrina. We heard that Corey
had sent her flowers while she was in New Orleans. Was our daughter falling in love with a black
man?
My wife had never met Corey but she
shared my same sentiments. We would take
a wait and see strategy and let this run its course. As the old saying goes, I want you for my
brother but not my brother in law! We would
keep our feelings to ourselves for now.
Maybe the relationship would pass.
God smiles –
During the period from Rebecca’s
arrival in Charleston and the end of November, God brought across my path two
movies that I am confident caused Him to chuckle. The first was a movie made in the late
sixties about a white daughter who brings her black fiancé home to meet her
liberal minded parents. Guess Who’s
Coming to Dinner was a hit comedy starring Sidney Poitier as the congenial
fiancé and Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy as the alarmed parents. One of the many lines that God used to prick
my heart occurred as Spencer Tracy was perplexed and forlorn about their
predicament. His wife began to laugh at
him, and he inquired as to the source of her amusement. She replied, “why should we be surprised,
didn’t we raise her that way?” The words
struck home to me. We had raised our
children to be color blind and now I was fretting over Rebecca turning out just
the way we had taught her.
The second movie was a more recent
version of the same concept that starred comedian Bernie Mack. This movie had a twist in that the family is
black and the boyfriend is white. The
consternation that Bernie experienced was used of the Lord to expose the poorly
hidden thoughts of my own heart. God was
revealing that I still had that sinful way of thinking that I had assumed was
long ago confessed and overcome.
My worst
fear comes true –
In early December we got a phone call
from Rebecca. “Corey and I want to begin
dating and he wanted me to get your blessing before we start.” She shared that she had assured him that it
was not necessary but he had insisted.
She could detect my apprehension immediately. My wife Jane was standing near me and picked
up on the tenor of our conversation. I
told Rebecca that my apprehension about a bi-racial relationship had to do with
the fact that our extended family would need to be considered. She countered that there was no Biblical
reason that she should not date Corey.
He was a Godly man and their racial differences were not the issue.
From her perspective the problem was that I was a
Racist. “Oh, I’m not a racist!” I said. My mind returned to the nightly news clips
and the horrific way the black marchers were treated there. That’s racism. I am not a racist. She gently disagreed and challenged me to
think about her assessment. I tried to
dissuade her conclusion based on the premise that, though all things are lawful,
not all things are expedient, according to the apostle Paul. “There are doors to the Gospel that will be
closed to you as a couple because of being bi-racial” I countered. She responded that, though that was possible,
there would also be doors opened because of it.
We left the conversation with the
promise that her mother and I would pray about the matter and get back to
her. As Jane and I talked about the
situation we both agreed that the main issue was our parents and how they would
react to the news. But inside I knew
better. It was my own heart that was
being challenged by the Holy Spirit, but my flesh was confident that I was on
solid ground with the Pauline teaching on expedience. Didn’t Paul preach forcibly to the Galatian
church about the issue of circumcision not being necessary for salvation, as
the Jewish believers were teaching? But
then later he had the young Greek, Timothy, circumcised to allay racial
problems with the church in Jerusalem. I
rationalized that Paul’s was a racial decision based on taking steps not to
offend for the sake of the Gospel. Not
good exegesis but a good excuse for my feelings.
What exactly did it mean to be a
racist? I turned to the dictionary for
clarification. The answer was very simple. A racist is someone who thinks that their
race is superior to another’s. Wow! When I boiled this thing down, my problem was
just that. I thought that being white
skinned was superior to being black skinned.
There was no simpler way to cut it.
The Lord was asking me, what about you is superior to Corey, or God
forbid, Ricardo and Marsha or Sheila Johnson?
Is it the texture of my hair? Is
it the mannerisms that I have? Is it the
neighborhood that I grew up in? Is it
the kind of clothes that I wear? Is it my
manner of speech? Just what about me is
superior?
The Battle
of the Heart –
I knew in my heart that I was on
slippery ground but on the chance that I was onto something with this Pauline expedience
thing, I went to see my Pastor. I was
sure he would have some insights for me.
I laid out my dilemma and how my daughter had concluded that I was a
racist. I explained the example I had
from Paul’s experience with Timothy. As
I fully expected, he shared that the only exhortation in the scriptures
regarding relationships is that the couple not be unequally yoked, a believing
Christian with an unbeliever.
His response took away my only
crutch. Though Paul had considered the
issue of race in his handling of the Jerusalem church, my issue had more to do
with my racism than the Gospel. The
problem was that I thought my race was superior to Corey’s and that was the sum
of it.
Victory in
Jesus… after conviction and confession –
If we confess our Sin, He is
faithful and righteous to forgive our Sin and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness. That is the promise we
have in Christ Jesus.
1st
John 1; 9
As I began to honestly assess the
feelings my wife and I shared, we came to the clear conclusion that Rebecca was
right. We are racists. I can’t put my finger on the exact area that
caused me to think that my race was superior, but in my heart of hearts, I knew
that the accusation is true. My only
response needed to be confession of the sin and asking the Lord to forgive us
and help us gain victory. I was finally
getting to the place where I would be able to judge Corey by the content of his
character and not the color of his skin.
As I put off the sin, I began to put on a spirit of acceptance that
would soon lead to an embrace of this man of God and his growing love for my
daughter.
The meeting
–
Maribeth would be graduating from
Charleston Southern in mid-December and we would be going down for the
ceremony. Corey requested that Jane and
I meet with him during our visit to discuss his and Rebecca’s request for our
blessing of their dating relationship. We
had put the race issue behind us and were looking forward to meeting with him
and sharing about our journey thus far and extending our blessing on them. We decided to let the bi-racial issue unveil itself
to our extended family rather than make it a point of attention. I think that was a good decision since it has
not seemed to be troublesome to them.
Corey is a wise man and his demeanor
is cordial and sensitive to the issue.
He won the hearts of our extended family with his friendly smile and his
Godly character. His embrace by our
other children was facilitated by the training that they had received growing
up, the same training that somehow Jane and I had missed, or dismissed along
the way.
Winter would give way to spring then summer,
and soon Corey would be asking us for Rebecca’s hand in marriage. We enthusiastically granted our blessing and
they were engaged that fall. With great
fanfare they were united in Holy Matrimony the following March, the day before
our wedding anniversary. God healed my
heart, and my racist feelings dissipated with time. I soon found myself judging others when I
sensed their uneasiness with my new son’s color. My how easily we forget where God has brought
us from!
Fred and
Sue, a similar situation for us to “fix” -
We heard of a situation similar to
ours that friends of our daughter Rachel were experiencing. Rachel and Mark had befriended a couple who
were bi-racial and the girl’s parents were not embracing the concept at
all. We felt an immediate connection
with the parents, having struggled with the issue of racism ourselves. Jane and I discussed how we would love to be
able to share our own journey with them, with the expectation that they would
get victory over their racism as well, and be able to experience the freedom
that we enjoyed.
Before we were able to offer them
the benefit of our counsel, the girl decided to honor her parent’s wishes and
break off the relationship. We were
saddened by the turn of events and the fact that the underlying racism would
continue on in the lives of her parents.
The Move –
In the fall of 2010, Jane and I came
to the realization that God had put a desire in our hearts to relocate from our
home state of Maryland to be near the girls in South Carolina. Rachel and Rebecca had married and
established themselves in the Charleston area.
After years of taking a few courses per semester, our daughter Julie had
graduated from community college in 2008 and decided to complete her Elementary
Education degree at Charleston Southern University as well. Maribeth, who was the first to head off to
Charleston, was due to be married in December.
So all four of our daughters were living there and it seemed like a new
season was upon us.
We were not sure how long all of
them would be in one place and we were drawn to live close to them as adults
and anticipated that grandchildren would be coming along at some point as
well.
We purchased a home in Summerville
SC that November, anticipating a move after the New Year. Maribeth and Benjamin were married in
December and we celebrated the occasion by taking a family cruise after the
wedding, without the newlyweds of course.
Much to our surprise, Rebecca and Corey announced at dinner on the first
night of the cruise that they had a stowaway with them. Our first grandchild would be born the
following June!
At the end of January, 2011, we made the move to
Summerville. Our son decided to make the
move as well and joined us the following May.
May was a big month for us as both Julie and Rebecca graduated from Charleston
Southern University; Julie, with a
degree in Elementary Education, and Rebecca with a degree in Business
Administration. By this time Rebecca was
very robust with our first grandbaby, which she was due to deliver in early
June.
At a family gathering after the
graduation ceremony, we were introduced by Julie to her friend Eli. Eli and Julie graduated together and,
surprising to us, it appeared that a relationship was developing. Eli was a communication major and I asked him
how he would use his new degree. He
responded that he intended to use it to talk to people. As I would later learn, it turns out that Eli
is quite a communicator. He is well
known on the campus at Charleston Southern, having played quarterback for the
football team during his first years at the school. He gave up the position when the Lord planted
a deep desire in his heart to use his life to reach and disciple the lost for
Jesus Christ.
He had responded to the call and
immersed himself into becoming a man after God’s heart. What great character to be found in a young
man. By the way, did I mention that Eli
is black?
The Fall –
Sin rears its ugly head, again
Be careful when you think you have
arrived victorious over a sin issue that has plagued you in the past. Proverbs 16:18 says that Pride goes before
destruction and a Haughty Spirit before a fall!
Out of nowhere, or so it seemed, my racist sin came flooding back full
force.
Wasn’t it enough to have one son in law who was black? How many families have two?
Confession,
again –
Where did these thoughts come from? I was sure that I had dealt with the issue of
racism. Hadn’t we embraced Corey and his
family? I was certain that we had grown
in Christ likeness in the matter of racism and were even equipped to help
others plagued by the same wrong thinking.
I quickly reasoned that this was different. We don’t know anything about this guy. But again, I realized that, though it was
true that we didn’t know Eli, the color of his skin was the issue. How would I confront
the racist feelings I had towards Eli?
The path
forward -
My first inclination was to talk to
one of my son in laws who worked closely with Eli and knew him personally. “Tell me about his character, what kind of
person is he, what is his story?” Mark
told me of his great respect for Eli. He informed me about Eli’s star football
career and how he had given it up. Mark
said that he would be blessed to have his sister marry a guy with such
excellent character. I was on the right
track, gaining the information I needed to judge him on the content of his
character and not his skin color, understanding Eli’s personhood, his heart for
God, and his calling in life.
Graciously, Eli visited with my wife
and me and acquainted us with his life’s story.
He shared about his childhood in Florida, his parents and how they
guided his development, his athletic prowess and how God had used it to
ultimately bring him to salvation and growth in Godliness. He told of his sense of calling to be a man
that impacts the phenomena of absentee fatherhood in the black family. His visit allowed me to see God at work in
the life of a man of vision, while at the same time working in my own heart,
breaking down wrong thinking and replacing it with right thinking.
We were delighted to give our
blessing on their growing relationship and were blessed a second time having
been able to overcome sinful hearts and grow in Christ likeness.
Julie, Peru,
and Steven –
Eli asked me to meet with a student
from Charleston Southern named Steven. I
wasn’t sure of the reason but am always delighted to talk to students about any
subject. It turned out that Steven had
accompanied our daughter Julie on a church mission trip to Peru. After initial introductions, Steven asked me
to tell him about my journey regarding inter-racial dating.
Steven is black and has found it
troubling that the issue of race has continued to plague most white Christians. In discussions with Christian students on campus
he was disturbed to find that many white students readily defend their belief
that inter-racial dating is wrong, a belief that he kindly assessed as
racism.
In our discussions I was surprised
to learn that, from his perspective, most black people do not find the issue of
inter-racial relationships a problem. I
envy that they do not see themselves superior to others because of their skin
color.
God’s Heart
My Heart
Racism, though easy to describe, one
who thinks his race is superior to another’s, is much harder to eradicate in
the recesses of the human heart. Jeremiah
17:9 says that the heart is desperately wicked, who can know it? Only God can, and he has graciously given his
Holy Spirit to indwell every true follower of Christ to point out our innermost
thoughts. He is the third member of the
Trinity, who convicts us of sin, righteousness, and judgment. God has also given us His Word, the Bible,
which according to Hebrews 4:12, is a living book, active and sharper than any
two edged sword, piercing, able to judge the thoughts and intents of the heart.
God is faithful to point out the
true thoughts and intentions of the heart that lie hidden from others, and, oftentimes,
from ourselves. Growing in Christ
likeness is a process of facing our faults head on, confessing them as sin, and
structuring for change that will produce the fruit of God in our lives. Lasting fruit, fruit that those who don’t
know Christ long for. A fragrance, that
is not only sweet to the world around us, but is especially sweet to our
Heavenly Father.
You see, ultimately it is God’s Glory that is the issue of
our lives. We were saved to be
ambassadors of God, reflecting all of his attributes to a lost world. He is building a Kingdom of Worshippers from
every nation under heaven that will eternally enjoy His presence and the eternal
unfolding of His love. Our task here in
this life is to be Christ to others so that He can reveal Himself in and
through the character of our lives.
The
continual struggle…
So what thoughts have I put off and
what structures for change have I put on in their place in this matter of
racism? First, I needed to engraft the
teaching of James 2 regarding prejudice or “face taking”, that tendency to
quickly assess a person based on first impressions. James says do not hold your faith in our
glorious Lord Jesus with an attitude of personal favoritism. If you show partiality you are committing
sin. I had to come to grips with the
fact that I am doing just that whenever I “face take”. Engrafting is the process of memorizing and
meditating on a truth from God’s word until it becomes a part of our thought
life, producing change that reflects God’s way of thinking and acting versus our
natural tendencies.
This racism issue is no easy matter to overcome. Face taking happens the moment I encounter
someone. They can be walking down the
street, as I pass by in the car, in a restaurant, talking to friends on campus,
passing in the grocery store, everywhere that I encounter people that are
different than me. I judge them based on
the neighborhood they are in, or what they are wearing, or what they are
carrying. What their children are doing
or not doing. The kind of car they have
or the shape it is in. The indictment
list seems endless and is so easy to instantly establish.
In addition, it is not limited to my response to black
folks. I have the same response to other
races, ethnicities, and for that matter socioeconomic status as well. I view the externals and make my case for
superiority. My daughters Maribeth and
Rebecca live in a socially diverse area of Charleston. They have taught me much about living in
community with diversity. Since I visit
them often I have many opportunities to put the teaching of James into
practice.
Confess the sin to God.
“Father, I am wrong to think that I am superior to that person”. Please forgive me.
In place of instant judgment, I think about their lives
before God. Do they know Christ, what is
their life situation? Do they have a
family? I pray for them that Christ will
make himself known to them and bring them into a love relationship that is real
and personal. What act of kindness can I
do for them? Oftentimes it is just a
smile and a friendly greeting that will give blessing to a person and I find it
blesses me just as much. Little acts
like these tend to open a gateway for God’s love that would not be possible
otherwise.
As I put these things into practice I am gaining
victory. The experiences have humbled me
and as I encounter people dealing with the multitude of life’s struggles, I
find I have a new attitude toward them.
We are all in the process of “becoming”.
None of us has arrived but we all press on toward the goal for the prize
of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Onward and
upward we go –
Eli came to ask us for Julie’s hand
in marriage. As we talked he shared
about his deep love for her. How her
attributes dovetail with his weaknesses as well as his strengths completing her
shortcomings and how God will use their love for each other to minister to a
cross spectrum of people experiencing the struggles of life in a fallen world. My wife and I are grateful that God has
brought us Corey and Eli, two black sons that love our daughters enough to
challenge us to biblical Christian thinking.
How about you? Is
racism present in your life? Remember it
is simply the belief that your race is superior to another’s. I hope it won’t take as long for you to
recognize it in your heart as it did me.
God will be faithful to point it out, and upon confession, will forgive
your sin and work in you to make you like Jesus. In a perfect world there will be no racism
present. That world will not come to
pass until Jesus, the Prince of Peace, comes and sets up his Kingdom. Until then, the Christian’s victory in this
area will go a long way to showing God’s heart to the nations. For that is the hope of glory, Jesus Christ
living in you!
If you do not have a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus, the path is quite simple. God is a magnificent God, worthy of our worship and love. He is also Holy and cannot allow sin in His presence. Knowing that all people are born with a sin nature, Jesus became a human being, lived a sinless life, and died on a rugged cross and rose from the dead, to purchase salvation for anyone who would put their trust in Him. He suffered the wrath of God in your place. Recognize you are a sinner and need salvation. Ask Jesus to be your Savior. The Bible promises that anyone who puts their faith in Christ will become a new creature, the old things will pass away and all things will become new. Won't you trust Him today?
Godspeed, Glenn
July 2014
