The national conversation about race continues to intensify. Have you engaged in the conversation? Not the debate about right and wrong…but the conversation about healing and hope.
Many times hardships are hidden opportunities. The scriptures tell of a moment in Samson’s life when he wanted to marry a Philistine woman. His parents could not understand why their Israelite son couldn’t find a good Israelite woman. (Many interracial couples have heard something similar). To these parents this drastic disappointment foreshadowed a dark future. But there is a simple verse that immediately takes the readers eyes from a human perspective to a heavenly perspective.
His parents did not know that this was from the Lord,
who was seeking an occasion to confront the Philistines;
for at that time they were ruling over Israel.
-Judges 14:4
I know that the racial tension in our country is hard. But I believe that through this turmoil God is seeking an opportunity to confront the content of our hearts. Many of us who follow Jesus still harbor bitterness, anger, hatred, and resentment in our hearts. We have even resulted to dehumanizing people (whether white, black, asian, latin, indian, etc) who have been created in the image of God. The acts captured on video and the thoughts expressed in our posts all display the hidden contents of our hearts. It’s ugly but it’s true. And true, deep, genuine reconciliation takes place when we press into the true, deep, brokenness in our society. History has handed us pain and division whose roots run deep. Our greatest responsibility is what will we do with it? Will we pass this pain on to the next generation? Or will we press into the pain in search of healing?
This conversation isn’t going away. And that is good. We don’t want the conversation to go away. We want the racism, the bitterness, the anger, the hatred, the misunderstanding, and the division in our hearts to go away.
So I encourage you to press in. Press into the discomfort of the moment.
If you are ignorant of the experience of others…press in to understand.
If you’ve been hated…press in and love
If you have hated others…press in for forgiveness
If you have grown hopeless…press in with hope
If you think you have nothing to say…press in and listen
If you are overwhelmed by the present moment…press in for the future.
The future of restored, redefined, and reinforced relationships is too valuable for us to shrink back now.
Reckless Abandon 