Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
John 3:36 ESV
It our culture of division, the inclusiveness of Christianity stands out like a bright light or refreshing breeze. And while the church may not currently fulfill this ideal perfectly or even very well in some places, thankfully that is not what Christianity is based off.
I follow a few amazing, passionate women of colour from all over the world and as I’ve been reading their stuff and listening to their podcasts, I’ve been thinking about this topic, and I was struck by two main thoughts.
These are just some musings, some thoughts so please forgive me if I have spoken out of turn!
One, healing never comes through victimisation. All of these women, in different ways, make this point very clear. It is impossible to bring healing and reconciliation with a victim mentality. Healing, instead, comes from moving forward, building new bridges and teaching people about the problems facing valuable parts of our society today.
Secondly, until we realise there is a problem it is very hard to fix it. I am beginning to realise the problem may not be what we have been portrayed over the years. For centuries we have blamed differences in skin colours, gender concepts and cultures on all of the problems facing society, particularly coming back to racism or sexism. But when we look at the world around us today, it becomes very clear that our differences are not the problem, rather our hearts are. We are all evil at our core, we all have a sin problem. Without the grace of God, all of us are prone to either becoming the perpetrators or victim mentalities if we don’t love God and the people around us (the two greatest commandments). This leaves us with broken relationships where people are broken and hurting. We end up hurting the people around us, from our families right out into our communities.
The last thing, I guess I want to say on this issue is that no one is perfect. We look back on history and expect every person to be perfect. We look around us and expect people to be perfect. We draw lines in the sand and start to take sides because of our differences. We want everyone else to be perfect but for them to have grace on us. The only way to solve this issue (and frankly all problems) is to turn to God. A heart fully in submission to Christ and over flowing with His love does not have room for hatred, or anger or defensiveness. I’ve seen this hugely from my own life, when I am not walking closely with God, I sin, I think and say terrible, hurtful, things. But by Gods grace and love, when I am walking filled by His spirit and obeying His commandments, I am free to love each and every single person around me regardless of anything else. This is because its not me, it is the perfect love which looks at every single person as treasures from God.
♡
Musings by Tee 