Charisa Stories

Tag: unity

  • EVERY Day is Sacred

    EVERY Day is Sacred

    Please forgive me because this week’s musing is directed at a very specific target audience.

    Me.

    Feel free to eavesdrop.

    Last week I watched Monday Night Football with great interest because my Fantasy Football championship was at stake. A few minutes into the game that became the most meaningless thing in the world. I witnessed along with millions the terrifying collapse of Buffalo Bill defensive back Damar Hamlin. It was obvious from the players reactions on the field that this was not a typical injury situation. We learned that CPR was being administered to restore Hamlin’s heartbeat. Millions united in prayer as he was rushed to the hospital in critical condition.

    I was encouraged by the unity shown by people around the world as they joined in prayer and support for Damar and his family. As I write this the prognosis for Damar Hamlin is very encouraging.

    I was once again reminded of the uncertainty of my days on earth. I may have 20 years or 20 minutes and only God knows that number. Time and time again over the years I have had similar moments where I determined to be more aware of how precious life is and to live out of that mindset.

    But I always forget and allow myself to fall back into reacting to meaningless annoyances and worthless distractions. Here is my take away from the incident on the field in Cincinnati last week.

    Every day is sacred. Today is sacred.

    I started running that through my mind each morning this this week and throughout the day. I was driving Friday when a car cut me off and I had my normal not kind initial reaction. That momentary reaction is not necessarily sin. Dwelling on that feeling and allowing it to change your spirit is sin. I remembered my morning emphasis.

    Every day is sacred. Today is sacred.

    That allowed me to change focus to the bigger picture. I am healthy and able to drive. God protected me from an accident. I don’t know what that driver’s story might be. So I simply breathed a prayer for that driver’s safety and those around them. I asked that God would be present in their life. What a difference that awareness made.

    This journey is full of frustrating situations and frustrating people. But I believe with all of my heart that there are sacred moments to be found in even the most mundane of days. Those moments don’t come up and tap you on the shoulder. You have to be in tune with the Holy Spirit to receive those sacred moments. Let me disclaim that I am not accomplished in this practice but I am praying that the Spirit of God will allow me to recognize these sacred events.

    Psalm 139 clearly and poetically proclaims that God is the middle of everything I do. I suspect that every day I am stubbing my toe on something sacred even as I complain about something insignificant.

    This week’s mental post-note is very simple.

    Today Is Sacred.

    David wrote about the constant presence of God in Psalm 139.

    You go before me and follow me.
        You place your hand of blessing on my head.
    Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
        too great for me to understand! (Psalm 139:5-6, NLT)

    If I believe that to be true then I have to believe there are daily sacred moments to be received and given away. They don’t have to be earth shaking in their scope. Just a simple act of love, kindness, service, or concern can be a sacred moment.

    I don’t want to live in a world of frustration, angst, and division. We witnessed with the reaction to Damar Hamlin’s crisis how empowering unity can be. Why can’t we as the body of Christ do better? I want to focus on who unites us.

    Jesus.

    I want to focus on what gives me strength and courage.

    God’s constant presence.

    I want to pray for open eyes to see and enjoy the sacred moments in every day.

    David concludes Psalm 139 with this amazing request.

    Search me, O God, and know my heart;
        test me and know my anxious thoughts.
    Point out anything in me that offends you,
        and lead me along the path of everlasting life. (Psalm 139:23-24, NLT)

    Thank you for this day dear Lord. Remind me through your Spirit that today and everyday is sacred. Please use me as an instrument to show your love and grace today.

  • The Devastating Cost of Division

    The Devastating Cost of Division

    I am deeply saddened by the division in our nation. But I am even more heartbroken by the division in the church. How have we forgotten to focus on the thing that should unite us?

    My head explodes when I allow myself to wade into some of the social media discourse happening between followers of Jesus Christ and non-believers. There are important cultural issues that Christians need to prayerfully and gracefully address. What I see is rarely graceful and that makes me wonder how prayerful the messengers have been before hitting the send button. 

    Because of the nature of social media a topic that should be thoughtfully debated instead becomes an us versus them war. The conversation easily drifts toward broad brushing of others with often unfair assignation of motives. 

    These judgements of motives and personal attacks are so damaging to the message of grace that I hold so dear. Sometimes I try to imagine myself as a skeptical seeker looking to explore this Christianity thing. I am pretty sure if I stumbled on some of these mean-spirited threads I would run straight for the secular hills.

    The irony of this need to “win” the argument at the expense of Christian charity and love may be one more profoundly effective tactic of the enemy. The moment the Church is divided by culture instead of united in Christ is the moment our light is extinguished.

    My dear friend Ed Underwood heads up a ministry called Recentered that helps struggling churches recognize where they need to refocus. He made this comment to me recently.

    “I think the worst sin a Christian can commit is to create disunity in the body of Christ.”

    Don’t lose his point. Of course there are worse things some might do but he is talking about the daily living out of our faith in the church community. The ripples of disunity spread across the entire body with devastating effects.

    I wish followers of Jesus would proclaim what we are FOR more passionately than what we are against. What if we decided to spend all of our energy proclaiming the Good News of the Gospel and the amazing gift of grace? I heard an amazing insight about how we should view sharing our faith in love with others.

    “We are often unsure if we should share the Gospel with others. But the truth is we are simply joining in a conversation that the Holy Spirit has already started.”

    What if we decided to be a little kinder, give a little more, serve a little more often, and commit to unity in our ranks? There is no more powerful community than a group of believers who live in unity. Nothing levels the playing field like genuinely following Jesus. 

    Famous preacher D.L. Moody had this warning. “I have never yet known the Spirit of God to work where the Lord’s people were divided.”

    Even as Jesus faced the agony of His betrayal and crucifixion this was his selfless prayer.

    May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me. (John 17:23, NLT)

    We can do so much better in showing the culture what love, unity, and grace looks like. The One that unites us is so much more important than the things that divide us. Can we commit to pray for unity in the body of Christ? Satan does not want our church to proceed in unity. The choice is ours.

  • The Lessons of Team Unity

    The Lessons of Team Unity

    It looked shaky for a bit but we learned this week that baseball will be back. I love the joy of spring training. I love the hope of Opening Day. On that day every team is undefeated and united by the common goal of winning. Perhaps the church can learn a thing or two that winning baseball teams understand. The first thing that winning teams understand is that every teammate brings strengths and weaknesses to the team. A great team celebrates the strengths of each player and works together to offset the weaknesses. I pondered this as I was reading about the career of Joe Gordon. In 1942 Gordon led the American League in strikeouts. He made more errors that year than any other second baseman. He hit into more double plays than anyone in the league. By dwelling on those stats we could surmise that the New York Yankees were looking for a new second baseman for the following year. But there was one mitigating factor.

    Gordon won the American League Most Valuable Player for that season.

    In spite of the flaws mentioned above Joe Gordon had a great season. He batted .322, fourth in the AL, with 18 homers and 103 runs batted in. Gordon teamed with Phil Rizzuto to lead the league in double plays turned defensively. In 1942 Joe Gordon was deemed to be the MVP of the league despite some weaknesses in his game. Great managers and good teammates know that every player has strengths and every player has weaknesses.

    And that is the lesson I was thinking about for the church. Too often we dwell on the weakness and not the gifts that God has given others. Or we acknowledge the gifts but make sure to note the weaknesses. All of us are a mix of gifts and flaws. The first mention of spiritual gifts is in Paul’s letter to the Roman church.

    I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong— that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith. (Romans 1:11)

    Commentators note that the translation here might be a bit confusing. The text might sound as if Paul’s giving away spiritual gifts to the first ten callers. A better translation might be that Paul wants to use his spiritual gifts to strengthen and encourage others. I believe that every single Christian is given spiritual gifts. We are given those gifts for many reasons but two of the primary ones are to glorify God and strengthen one another. But I wonder if we sometimes look at our spiritual gifts as something that we exercise for our personal fulfillment. I am sure Joe Gordon often struck out when his team needed a hit. But his teammates (and the rest of the league) saw his gifts. Base runners batted in and key home runs hit. A vital double play turned and great range at his position. That is what made him valuable to a winning team. His strengths were vital to the team winning. His flaws were compensated by the team working in unity toward the goal of the World Series.

    Do we do that in the church? Or do we choose to focus on the flaws of others? The World Series is a wonderful goal but it pales in comparison to the goal that Jesus challenged us to pursue.  Do we understand what it means to be unified for the common goal expressed so succinctly in the Gospel of Matthew?

    Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age. (Matthew 28:19-20)

    That is the game plan. Each of us has been given gifts to contribute. Each of us has flaws. Can we pray that we will be mature enough to focus on Who unites us instead of what divides us? Even the MVP of the American League had shortcomings. So will the pastor, elder, committee member, and volunteer chairman as we pursue the Great Commission of Christ. Another thing that winning teams understand. You don’t have to be best friends with everyone on the team but you do have to be united for the common goal of the team. Jesus prayed for unity for those who follow Him.

    May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me. (John 17:23, NLT)

    My prayer is simple.

    God give us the grace to be unified as a team for your glory. Teach us to use our gifts to strengthen one another and glorify you. Give us the strength to be a good teammate  and the humility to believe that it cannot be about me for the team to succeed. Give me the desire to be a good teammate in the body of Christ. Teach me to see and exalt the gifts of my brothers and sisters even if they compete with my own talents. And especially teach me to be graceful with the flaws of others. We are all gifted and we are all flawed. A team understands that truth. Help us to do the same for the sake of the body of Christ.

    Amen.

    Parts of this blog were excerpted from Stay: Lessons My Dogs Taught Me about Life, Loss, and Grace

  • Please Play This Song BEFORE Posting or Tweeting

    Please Play This Song BEFORE Posting or Tweeting

    I have teased for years that I want to develop an app that asks you to pause and pray before you hit send. Failing that, maybe I can convince you instead to play a song recorded by Glen Campbell. The lyrics are from a poem written by Edgar Albert Guest in 1914. Guest immigrated from England in 1891 at the age of 10. He was a newspaper reporter for the Detroit Free Press before becoming a syndicated author of poetry. He became known as the “Peoples Poet” and was said to have published a new poem everyday for 30 years. His works were not critically acclaimed but they connected with the public. Fifty-one years after Guest published “A Creed” the words were put to music by Glen Campbell in a song titled “Less of Me”. (Click on the link to hear it)

    Let me be a little kinder,
    Let me be a little blinder
    To the faults of those around me,
    Let me praise a little more.

    Just implementing that stanza alone would change the tenor of Twitter immeasurably. I have been thinking a lot about how Americans have allowed social media to divide us. It is especially disappointing that followers of Jesus demonize people over social media posts. Allow me to make my point before canceling me. I know that outrageous and often mean things are posted on social media. Sometimes they are posted by people that I consider to be acquaintances or even friends. Here is the strategy that I am proposing to deal with such posts.

    1. Pray for the person posting it. A social media post is an unfortunately permanent reminder of a moment in time. It could be something said in a moment of anger, sadness, frustration, or hurt that doesn’t represent the heart of the poster.
    2. Snooze a friend instead of lose a friend. Facebook allows you to snooze a friend for 30 days. You won’t see their posts for that period of time. I snooze them because I do not want to unfriend someone over a post I don’t like.
    3. Remember that person is created in the image of God. Maybe they are saying and acting in a way that is disappointing but they are loved by their Creator.

    Those on the other side of angry social media discourse are not unlike us. When we fight the cultural war we need to remember that the whole purpose of Jesus invading our space and time was to love and ultimately die for those on both sides of the battle. God’s grace is available to everyone and every single person reading this blog today has thought, said, or posted something that they regret (or should regret).

    Perhaps the biggest lesson for Christians should be how the power of a unified focus on Jesus can unite even bitter enemies. My heart aches as I see Christians splitting ranks over things that don’t amount to a hill of beans on an eternal scale. I picture Jesus weeping over the churches of America like He wept over Jerusalem. I picture Him weeping over how Christians in this country divide over non-essentials and fail to communicate the joy and life-changing power of the good news of the Gospel. The culture war is important but temporal. The war for our soul is eternal. I sometimes wish I could excise this passage from Scripture but here it is and I can’t ignore it.

    ““You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. 44 But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! 45 In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. (Matthew 5:43-45, NLT)

    How is that even possible? It is not possible in my own power. I must trust God for that to occur. I must believe that He is working in the heart of those I disagree with, in my heart, or maybe both of us to focus on what matters. I need to trust that God will ultimately see that justice prevails. I am called to love and be a light for the Gospel.

    If Paul were writing to the church today he might change this verse a bit from the original version to the Galatians.

    For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes. 28 There is no longer Jew or Gentile, progressive or conservative, complementarian or egalitarian. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.

    The point is that our only unity is in Christ. The hill that Jesus died on was the hill of salvation by grace. He allowed Himself to be put there to accomplish God’s plan for salvation. That is the hill worth dying on.

    The poem continues with these words.

    Let me be a little meeker
    With the brother that is weaker,
    Let me think more of my neighbor
    And a little less of me.

    C.S.Lewis wisely said this about humility.

    “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.”

    The poem finishes with this stanza.

    Let me toil, without complaining,
    Not a humble task disdaining,
    Let me face the summons calmly
    When death beckons me away.

    When death beckons me away I pray that my legacy will be proclaiming grace and displaying grace. My final lap mission statement agrees with Paul in the book of Acts.

    But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God. (Acts 20:24, NLT)

    Want to join me?

  • Can Followers of Jesus Disagree with Grace?

    Can Followers of Jesus Disagree with Grace?

    Recently I wrote that the lack of unity is the single biggest problem in the universal church and, of course, in our individual fellowships.

    After posting that article I received a note from high school friend Lona Jo Pierson Bowman. “I agree. Can you go on to describe what unity looks like when we sincerely disagree with each other?”

    Uhhhh….thanks a lot Lona! I have been wrestling with that homework assignment for a couple of weeks. I made a conscious decision a few years ago to focus on communicating the message of grace and identity in Christ. With that I decided to avoid the polarizing path of politics. Some have told me that is cowardly but I can honestly say there is no message more important to me than the liberating freedom of grace. I want to share the joy of living out of what Jesus has already accomplished and God says true about me. That I am a saint. A new creation. A beloved child of God. I relate to the mission statement of Paul when he wrote these words.

    But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God. (Acts 20:24, NLT)

    I feel called to be a messenger of hope and grace. Plus I feel like the negative team has a pretty full roster of contributors.

    I still believe that is my calling with these humble ramblings. But my friend’s question is a fair one. What does it look like to have sincere disagreements over cultural and political issues?

    It is fascinating how two people can look at the same information and reach completely opposite conclusions. So I am going to offer the “Grace Rules of Engagement” as a roadmap for civil discussion.

    • Sincere followers of Jesus can look at cultural or political issues and have very different opinions. Jesus loves His children on both sides of the argument.

    I know I have changed my views on some cultural issues over my years of walking with Jesus. I was a child in the era when divorce was a mortal sin. I absolutely am committed to the idea of a husband and wife taking their vows seriously. But I learned that the cultural shame of divorce caused many Christian women to feel trapped in relationships of abuse. Clearly that was not the desire of a loving Heavenly Father who ordained marriage. In those sad situations it is necessary to divorce an abusive spouse. In the pulpits of my youth the message was no divorce outside of adultery was ever justified. I had a blind spot about how a declaration that appeared Biblical could foster abuse. So many issues we discuss have similar and complex nuances. We need to discuss, not demonize.

    • The goal of a discussion should not be to win.

    Thoughtful discourse is impossible when one of the participants only cares about winning the debate. The goal of any conversation should be graceful exchange of ideas without rude interruptions, condescending gestures, or angry exchanges. I would rather have a goal of being winsome instead of winning. That attitude fosters conversation.

    • People of different viewpoints should commit to listen. Nothing shows respect more than carefully listening to the arguments of those with whom you disagree and then gently offering thoughtful responses.

    Listen to talking heads on television news shows as they “discuss” different points of view. As soon as one side starts talking the other shakes their head, smirks, and then interrupts and talks over the other person. How is that going to persuade anyone? Yet we tend to do the same thing when we have significant disagreements with people of faith. Listen. Really listen. Let them finish their point. Then respond in grace.

    • Ask questions.

    You will not influence another person by arguing. The way to connect is to ask questions and try to understand why they feel the way they do. I have found that many times people I talk with don’t have a solid reason for their feelings. That can be a opening to honestly discuss difficult topics.

    • Climb out of your bubble

    Find out what the other person is reading and watching. Expose yourself to different points of view and encourage those you have disagreements with to do the same. If you are confident in your beliefs there should be no fear in being exposed to differing viewpoints.

    • All of us are a work in process.

    Every child of God is in process. I am a very different Christian than I was 20, 10, or even 5 years ago. I am growing (hopefully) in grace and truth. I strongly believed and said things years ago that I am grieved about today. Thankfully God was patiently working with my heart and gently shining the light of the Holy Spirit on my blind spots. I need to give that grace to others.

    • Pray for wisdom and grace then leave the results to God.

    So what is the goal when you have sincere disagreements with another believer over cultural issues? Use the “Grace Guidelines” and relax. God may be using you to plant seeds in the heart of the other person. Maybe you have a blind spot that needs the refining work of the Holy Spirit. Share your heart with love and kindness and be open to the possibility that you may be the one who needs to change your heart.

    • Grace never cancels

    Grace does not “cancel”. Grace does not shame. Grace does not answer anger with anger. The person you totally disagree with may be crying out of pain and deep wounding. Perhaps a gentle answer will give hope. Grace does not lash out when challenged. Grace is kind and gentle.

    Being graceful can be a pain in the hind regions but it is what we are called to offer to others. Paul addresses this to the church at Colossae.

    Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful.

    Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts. And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.

    Colossians 3:12-17, NLT

    Perhaps the most important thing all of us can do to further the unity in the body of Christ is to memorize that passage and try to implement those words for 30 days. By the grace of God it could become a habit.

    Be kind to those who disagree and remember the words of author Alexander MacLaren. “Kindness makes a person attractive. If you would win the world, melt it, do not hammer it.”

  • A House Divided Cannot Stand. Will We Let It Fall?

    A House Divided Cannot Stand. Will We Let It Fall?

    I used to joke that it is hard to find a good Evangelical math teacher because the only thing they completely understand is division. I am not sure I think that is humorous anymore as I watch the heartbreaking division in the body of believers that I love and call family.

    My head explodes when I allow myself to wade into the discourse between followers of Jesus Christ on Twitter and other social media. There are important cultural issues that Christians need to prayerfully and gracefully seek God’s wisdom to address. What I see is rarely graceful and that makes me wonder how prayerful the messengers have been before hitting the send button.

    Because of the nature of social media a topic that should be thoughtfully debated instead becomes an us versus them war. The discourse easily drifts toward broad brushing of large segments of the body of Christ with unfair assignation of motives.

    These judgements of motives and personal attacks are so damaging to the message of grace that I hold so dear. Sometimes I try to imagine myself as a skeptical seeker looking to explore this Christianity thing. I am pretty sure if I stumbled on some of these mean-spirited threads I would run straight for the secular hills.

    The irony of this need to “win” the argument at the expense of Christian charity and love may be one more profoundly effective tactic of the enemy. The moment the Church is divided by culture instead of united in Christ is the moment our light is extinguished. Paul noted that God’s sovereignty can take any proclamation of the Gospel and use it for His glory.

    It’s true that some are preaching out of jealousy and rivalry. But others preach about Christ with pure motives. 16 They preach because they love me, for they know I have been appointed to defend the Good News. 17 Those others do not have pure motives as they preach about Christ. They preach with selfish ambition, not sincerely, intending to make my chains more painful to me. 18 But that doesn’t matter. Whether their motives are false or genuine, the message about Christ is being preached either way, so I rejoice. And I will continue to rejoice. Phillipians 1:15-18

    I hope that most of us wish to communicate the incredibly liberating forgiveness of the Gospel. I hope that most of us wish to be accurate in that communication. But I also hope that most of us wish to be gracious, kind, loving, and thoughtful toward all in the body who desire to celebrate Jesus.

    When asked what the most important commandment was Jesus replied without hesitation.

    “And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.”

    And he added a second part…”Be accurate and angrily make sure others are accurate at all costs.”

    Hardly. His convicting command is well known.

    The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. No other commandment is greater than these.”

    Don’t hijack my point. Accuracy is important but you cannot love your neighbor as yourself with condescension, assigning of bad motives, and smug righteousness.

    I wish followers of Jesus would proclaim what we are FOR more passionately than what we are against. What if we decided to spend all of our energy proclaiming that the Son of God came to earth as a human, lived a sinless life, was crucified as a sacrifice for my sin and yours and then was resurrected to show the ultimate victory over sin and death.

    What if we decided to be a little kinder, give a little more, serve a little more often, and commit to unity in our ranks. Joni Erickson Tada has been a quadriplegic for over fifty years yet her joy exceeds most of us when we have a hangnail. She had this to say about unity.

    “Believers are never told to become one; we already are one and are expected to act like it.”

    I have reached the conclusion that lack of unity is the single biggest problem in the universal church and, of course, in our individual fellowships. When a major league baseball team starts to lose games regularly, it is said to have “bad clubhouse chemistry.” That’s a fancy way of saying, “This team doesn’t get along, and the players don’t work well together.” How sad that “congregational chemistry” has the same effect on winning…only our losses are eternal.

    There is no more powerful community than a group of believers who live in unity. Nothing levels the playing field like genuinely following Jesus.

    Famous preacher D.L. Moody had this warning. “I have never yet known the Spirit of God to work where the Lord’s people were divided.”

    The One that unites us is so much more important than the things that divide us. Can we commit to pray for unity in the body of Christ? The choice is ours.

  • ENOUGH! What Can I Do?

    ENOUGH! What Can I Do?

    I am saddened, sickened, and heartbroken as I keep hearing stories like the murder of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia. I have reached the point where I believe that feeling outrage and dismay is no longer enough for followers of Jesus. I want to do something. Today I yield my space to two black brothers in Christ. Montagne McDonald is the teaching pastor at the historic King Solomon Missionary Baptist Church in Nashville, Tennessee. Duke Barnett is a respected leader and educator in Garland. I asked these two good and thoughtful men an important question. What can I do as a white brother in Christ to make a difference in our culture? Duke and Montagne, the forum is yours.

    Duke Barnett:

    For me, I wrestle with this topic because so many of my White brothers and sisters recognize the rampant inequalities, racism, and disrespect for people of color. They also recognize God’s love for people of color. However, there are many Whites (and Blacks) who call themselves Christian but are merely wolves in sheep’s clothing. So, that’s a challenge for me.

    Here is my humble opinion with some life-lived experiences sprinkled in.

    1) White people must recognize they have a members of their race/culture who despise people of color and are simply racists. Some of them are wolves in sheep’s clothing as well. They must stop making excuses for them and really just call it like it is. It’s like the old phrase, I must fix my own house before trying to fix someone else’s house.

    2) People of color must come to the realization that we are not innocent either. We often contribute to the oppression of each other. Even some of us in higher tax brackets who may not experience racism at high level, contribute to our oppression by doing things that promotes our own interests and not those of the greater good. After we make it, we sometimes tell our people to “pull yourself up by your bootstraps like I did”. That’s hard for our people when the majority has dealt with systematic racism all of our lives and we can’t buy boots. We people of color have to do better as well with taking care of our own house, race/culture No one else will do it for us.

    We have to speak truth to power and call it like it is. Not just to the other races/cultures, but mainly to our own.

    Montagne McDonald:

    Thank you for having a heart for your brothers and sisters that go beyond lip-service and church-speak. Many of our white brothers and sisters have said they hate racism and love people of color yet remain silent in times like these. It is sometimes hard to know if you have an ally when you cannot find them when they are needed. Silence says more than people think. However, beyond that it is important that our Christian brothers and sisters make an effort to also understand the theological issue of racism and injustice as well. I have heard many times from my white brothers and sisters in ministry that social justice is not of God and is in fact an enemy to Christianity. I believe there is either a misunderstanding of what social justice is, or an unwillingness to accept that there is a need for social justice. When the society we live in has police procedures and laws that make it easier for those who do not see black people as human to perpetrate violence against them, that is an injustice. When we have a judicial system that encourages stacking the deck against the poor as they await sometimes years for a “fair trial” sitting in a prison that is publicly traded, that is an injustice. Our voices should speak against it. Our votes should speak against it. You asked, “What can I do as a white brother or sister in Christ to make a difference in our culture?” You are on the right track. Using your platform to expose the weak spots of our society. Yet, beyond exposure we must seek to actively fight against the systems that continue to victimize the poor and people of color. And we must hold our brothers, sisters, judges, teachers, politicians, and pastors to a higher standard. Our country has the most morally sound ideals the world has ever seen. It is time we hold one another accountable to achieve those lofty standards: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

    Duke Barnett:

    Prayer is an amazing connection between us and God. It’s our “intentional communication” with God! As grandma always told me…prayer changes things. But you know, many of the slaves prayed faithfully…they also took actions. Actions that were rooted in those prayers. The poor and the people of color want and need more than prayer from of White brothers and sisters. We need positive and influential action. #OneLove

    Thank you Duke and Montagne. I know I am a small fish in this social media ocean but I agree with Edward Everett Hale on this issue.

    “I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.”

    I want to be a voice for those without a voice. I want to call sin by it’s name and I want to offer something better. That something better is the color blind love of Jesus.

    When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. (Romans 5:6-8, NLT)

    He died for us.

    All of us.

    It is time for all of us to unite in that truth and stop being silent about hate and prejudice towards our brothers and sisters.