Clanging Cymbals

Today, during my morning Bible reading, I read 1 Corinthians Chapter 13.  As soon as I started reading, the verses reminded me of the current discourse in the USA.  

“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.”

1 Corinthians 13:1-3 ESV

In these first three verses, Paul lays it out flat.  If we, believers, want to reach people, everyone else, we are going to have to do so with love.  

What is love? Baby don't hurt me, baby don't hurt me, no more... Oh, sorry, I got distracted.  Love is opening your heart.  Love is gentle, but can also be tough. Love tells the truth and doesn't lie.  Love is honest, but not harsh.  

Love is looking at another person, black, white, brown, yellow, or purple, and seeing the Imago Dei (image of God) in them.  

Quick history lesson, we all originated from two people, Adam and Eve.  Through them sin was ushered into the world and Creation suffered.  Men began to smell themselves and thought they were better than God, their Creator.  So they went about doing all kids of destable things, and finally God had enough.  He flooded the entire world and saved one man and his family.  From that family the repels kind of had a bit of a restart.  The world multiplied and man, this time, built a tower to overthrow God.  God, in his wisdom, through the world into turmoil and separated people by language and spread them across the Earth.  

So essentially, that's the beginning point of where we've gotten ourselves to now. We are all descended from these same people I've just spoken about. I've got light skin, you may have dark skin.  But, we share the same ancestors and the same beginnings.  

So where am I going?

It's disappointing for me to turn on the TV or to look at Facebook, Twitter, or IG, and see all people berating each other.  I see our politicians doing it.  In particular, a man who I voted for, expecting him to represent me, calling the Dallas protesters cowards for running away from gunfire.  Uncalled for!  

What's the answer to the question of "What do we do now? How do we heal? How do we fix this?"

First of all, it's time for the church to be about the Bible and to start spreading the love of Jesus and sharing His message.  We are too caught up in being uncomfortable about this or that, that we are so unfocused.  We've taken our eyes off Jesus and put our eyes on some attendance goal or something that in the end won't matter.  We've got to open our doors to EVERYBODY.  Not just the people we are comfortable with.  

We've got to start seeing people for who they are, a picture of the Imago Dei.  Praise God that He doesn't judge us like we judge each other.  (Please note that I continually say "we" in my posts.  It's because I need to hear all this too.) 

Any sort of change in this country can and will probably start when the people of the country, specifically the believers, stand up. Our politicians aren't going to do much, we are going to have to do it.  We have to lead out!  We must love!

What's Going On?

I wrote this post and titled it Every Life Matters.  However, as a white man, I did not realize the implications of such a title. After reading a post from Lecrae, a Christian and hip-hop artist I feels admire, I was convicted (and had been all day yesterday), by God to change the title of this post.  Every life matters is like spitting in the face to black people, because at this point, they don't feel like theirs does. I'd be inclined to feel the same way they do, it looks as though some (mind you, not all) in our country do not value the life of our black citizens.  It's the truth, and if we continue to deny that, what happened to Alton Sterling and Philando Castille is going to happen over and over again.  So as you read this post, keep that in mind.  Every life does matter, but there are those around us who feel as though there's does not.  Are they blaming you? No, they're blaming a system that has crushed them for a long time.  I pray this post speaks to you.

Okay people, here's the deal. I try not to get involved in the all the hubbub that occurs when major things happen in our country, but I feel it's important to address today. 

We just celebrated the 240th "birthday" of our nation.  We've seen violence followed by violence, murder upon murder, the deterioration of our country is happening before our very eyes. 

Just since Monday, a 38 year old man was pinned down by police and shot in the chest multiple times.   There are around 3,000 or more babies aborted on a daily basis in the US.  There have been well over 10,000 murders in the US already this year.  We live in a society that is spinning out of control.  

Well, what do we do?  

I honestly have no idea.  Well, actually I have a couple of thoughts.  

First of all, for my readers that are believers out there, it's time to wake up and get to doing what you're called to do.  "But, I'm called to be a teacher," well of course you were but as part of that callings, you're called to share Jesus.  Our calling is not just to whatever career, but to spread the Word of God in whichever avenue we've chosen for our lives.  Wherever you are, it's time to start talking about Jesus.  And not this "rules-to-follow" Christianity that we've all come to know, but the true Jesus that we see in the Bible.  The One who asks for our whole life, not just a couple of hours on the weekend.  He's the only true way this country and this world is going to change.  

The second thing we all, myself included, need to do is get off our Twitter and Instagram and stop hash tagging and start doing something.  You can sit in a coffee shop on your cell phone and post all you want, but until you out the foot to the pavement and start moving, nothing is going to get done.  And before you start making picket signs and getting your riot clothes together, rethink that too.  

I feel like our generation read the 1st amendment in junior high and really remember that we have the "right to" "assemble".  But what they've forgotten is that pesky little word in there, "peacably."  

Burning down buildings and looting stores is the last thing you need to be doing if you're trying to get something done.  There are ways to get attention that don't involve destroying things.  

We've also got to stop this grouping of everyone into a particular subset based on what they do. 

 In simple terms, stereotyping.  "All cops are out to kill.  All African-Americans are thugs.  The cops killed him? Well he must have been a criminal.  All white people hate African Americans.  All Christians hate everyone.  All Muslims hate America." Do you catch my drift?  

We keep piling these stereotypes up and using them when it's uncomfortable for us, or when we aren't feeling that actually talking stuff out would do any good.  

NEWSFLASH:  White, black, red, yellow, purple, or green, WE ARE ALL THE SAME!  We have different pigments and probably different cultures and lifestyles, but we were created by the same God and for the same purpose, whether that's what you like to hear or not.  

So what is this all about? I'm close to the end, I promise.  

When bad things happen, like what has happened in Baton Rouge, we need to rally with each other.  I've spent a couple hours today looking through Twitter and every five or six tweets, I see somebody who's spewing hate...and it's not just from one side or the other it's both.  

I've come to the realization that my skin is Caucasian, yes, but that doesn't make me any better or any worse than someone whose skin is black or brown.  We were all created in the Imago Dei, the image of God!  Yes, everyone.  

We've got to come together, plain and simple, and go to Jesus.  We just think our country is bad now, let's continue to walk lives away from the will of God, then let's see where we stand.