Love Your Neighbor as Yourself
Last night was a time of great sadness and anxiety for our country. Sadness for those who have had to endure racism, sadness for police officers that are judged for a few bad apples, sadness for the politicizing of every single thing that happens right now, sadness for the evil that is running rampant all over the world, sadness for a virus that is killing our elderly and compromised, and even sadness over a man that would have so much hate in his heart that he would not have compassion on a dying man. It would SEEM that is all that is happening across this great country of ours right now, but if you put down your cell phone, turn off your TV, and get out your Bible, you will discover that there is nothing new under the sun. Evil is as old as time, as old as the devil wanting to be greater than God, as old as Eve taking that first bite. Evil will be here until Jesus's return. If this world is all you think there is, it is no wonder there is such hopelessness. Praise be to God, this world is just a blip for those who believe in Christ. I have argued over and over again that politics won't save us, the economy won't save us, science and medicine won't save us! We are too far gone, all of us. Only the blood of a risen Savior can save us. But just like the Israelites, our hearts are too stubborn to listen, we all think we have the answers, and we are turning to everything but God.
Last night we ventured out for dinner. We were having a great night, everything seemed to be getting back to normal. We had just left Slick's and were on our way to take Cole back to his apartment which took us through downtown. Nothing new for us as we do this every weekend. We love our city, and every weekend we drive around downtown after supper. Dudley and I both love to people watch. So, we were quite surprised when we accidentally drove up to a protest happening right outside the court building. We were driving along, and didn't notice in time, that protestors were running out into the middle of the road to stop traffic or to get away from the courthouse. All of a sudden, there was a super angry white guy facing our car making crude gestures straight in our face, yelling F... Y.... , and then a black girl threw either a can or a bottle toward our car. I was yelling at Dudley to turn around, and he was trying to and getting mad at me for yelling, and Cole seemed to be aggravated at both of us. We quickly turned around and drove off, but the faces of those in the protest stayed with me all night. Such anger and it seemed directed at all of us in the cars, as people drove off, we had made our way to the ramp, and in the confusion, a young man accidentally hit us from behind. He was clearly shaken, and Dudley assured him it was ok, and we were on our way back home. All of that probably happened in 5 minutes time, but it stayed with me all night. This incident was absolutely nothing to what the people in Minneapolis, Seattle, Atlanta, New York, Dallas, and Los Angeles have experienced the last 3 or 4 nights, so I can't imagine how all of the people involved in these protests, riots, and looting are feeling. So, I thought what can I do with all this anxiety and sadness? So, after I downed a couple of brownies, watched hours of the riots, looked at Facebook posts, I finally went to bed and prayed. This morning, I woke up thinking what can I do with all my thoughts, and so I decided to do what I always do, I decided to write....
How on earth did we get to this moment in history? With the Corona Virus, I definitely felt God was allowing this evil to give us a moment to get off the hamster wheel of life and take a look at our many idols that we had put before Him, a time to repent of materialism, narcissism, hedonism, and the list goes on and on... I felt He was giving us a moment to turn back to Him, back to spending time with our families, and to taking time to love each other. For a moment, I felt that was happening, but last night I felt like all hell was breaking loose. I started thinking in my little mind, "God, wasn't the virus enough?" But maybe it wasn't enough, after all, aren't we still fighting over which doctor is right, who should and should not be president, to go out or to stay in, and now mask or no mask. Really? What good does that do any of us? Instead, I feel like I need to take a good close look at how I am contributing to this madness, and repent. So, that's what I did. I started taking a hard look at myself to see if there is any racism in my heart. I didn't know many black people until I started teaching at 24 years old. I vividly remember one black girl at our elementary school, and she wasn't in any of my classes because she was deaf (back then special ed was totally isolated out of the mainstream). I remember her to be very sweet and funny. Then when I was about in 4th or 5th grade a black family moved into our apartment complex. They were a military family. They had strict parents, or what I considered to be strict, and we all quickly became friends with their son and daughter. That was my first friendships with anybody of a different race than mine. I know that I had no racist thoughts about that family, but I did, out of ignorance, say something really racist one day to my friend, Sophia. I had gone with another friend to Smallwood, a school for students with behavioral disorders (my friend's mother worked there). When I got back, I had had a real education to say the least, and Sophia had asked me about it. I said, "You would have hated it, it was just a bunch of N....... running around." I will never forget the look on her face. I had truly hurt her. In my defense, I don't know where I had heard that word before, but in my thinking it was used for black kids that were bad, just like back then the word "redneck" was used for whites that were bad. I didn't understand that that word was evil and would be demeaning to a good girl like Sophia. I shouldn't have used it for the other kids either, but once I did, and once I saw the pain in her face, I never used it again. Sophia and James and I remained friends until they moved out of our neighborhood, as most military families do, but I never forgot that incident. This was in the 70's. I never wanted to hurt another person like that again, and I pray that I haven't. So, I don't feel like I have ever struggled with racism, but I think I do struggle with people who mock God. People that don't have the reverence for Him that I think they should. I have to pray hard to control my anger about people that treat God flippantly, even though I have done the same thing. People say you hate in others what you hate in yourself. I do hate that part of me that rebelled against God in my teen years, and so I'm not very tolerant of that in other people. I don't know what to do with that anger, because I feel like I have a right to be angry about that. But do I? Shouldn't I have the love of Christ flowing out of me, wanting to love these people where they are, prayerfully hoping that they too will turn to Christ? When I see their nameless faces, screaming and twisted in anger, saying things like, "Prayer didn't flatten the curve, we did." I don't feel love, I feel anger. When I see someone bragging about having an abortion or bragging about how the abortion industry is a billion dollar business, I feel anger. I don't feel anger over my friends that have had abortions. I know their hearts, and they wouldn't have done it if they hadn't felt there was any alternative. But it is different when someone is bragging about it, and throwing it in your face, and trying to make you feel like you don't respect women if you don't believe in abortion. So, I just pray for God to take my anger away, but even Jesus felt anger when he threw the money changers out of His house of Worship, right? I feel like we are in a war against evil. I know we are in a war against evil, and right now it seems to have heightened. But we are not without hope. Those who believe and obey Christ will never be put to shame. That is a promise of God. We may lose tiny battles, but ultimately we win. We must always choose obedience, choose life, choose peace, choose Christ, and pray that the Holy Spirit will give you the power to make those choices, because we cannot do it on our own. That one thing is very obvious. But do not despair, be anxious for nothing, and in everything present your prayers and requests before God with thanksgiving for He cares for you. What two commandments did He leave us with? To love God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and to LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF!
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