"Don’t bad-mouth each
other, friends. It’s God’s Word, his Message, his Royal Rule,
that takes a beating in that kind of talk. You’re supposed to be
honoring the Message, not writing graffiti all over it. God is in
charge of deciding human destiny. Who do you think you are to meddle
in the destiny of others?" (James 4:11-12)
I've spent much of my
morning reading about death and my heart is hurting over it all.
Deaths in Dallas, Texas as police officers were killed. Death in
Minnesota as a man was killed in front of his girlfriend and her
child. Death in Louisiana as a man was killed in a convenience store
parking lot. Death of a newborn baby whose mother used heroin during
her pregnancy. Death as abortion is chosen over life again and again.
So much death. I honestly am at a loss for words over what to say
about it all, but I'm obviously going to try to find the words here.
I read today's verses for
our study of James and my mind just went right back to all the videos
I watched this morning and the articles I read. I cannot shake the
feeling that I need to say some things about it all. James says that
"God is in charge of deciding human destiny," so why are we
constantly trying to do his job for him? That's what all of this
feels like to me. A group of people decided that those officers were
wrong to take the lives of the men in Louisiana and Minnesota (and I
am not disagreeing), so they decided to shoot officers completely
unrelated to the incident in Texas in response? How does that make
any sense at all? How does taking more lives, shooting more people,
causing more death and division help anything? Do these people who
have committed this latest act of violence truly feel any better
about all that is happening in our country now that they've done
this? I can't imagine they do.
God's word, his Message, his
Royal Rule are absolutely taking a beating here in our country
lately. People aren't loving one another as we are called to do in
God's Royal Rule. We aren't spreading God's message of Jesus's love.
We are resorting to killing each other! My heart isn't the only one
broken here. God's is too. We are quickly becoming a country divided
against itself in so many ways- Christians vs non-Christians, Muslims
vs non-Muslims, immigrants vs non-immigrants, rich vs poor, homeless
vs homed, white vs black. The list goes on and on.
#blacklivesmatter has been
circulating social media a lot recently. And it has everyone up in
arms. #blacklivesmatter doesn't exist in order to say that other
lives don't matter. #blacklivesmatter is here because we are losing
so many black lives for no good reason right now. As a country, we
are slowly circling back to isolating a group of people and acting
like they don't matter, like we don't care about them. And guess
what? Black lives do matter. They matter to Jesus. They matter to me.
They matter to my family and my friends. They should matter to you
too. Because Jesus made those lives. He put those souls into those
bodies. He breathed life into them and placed a purpose in their
hearts. They are here for a reason, just as we all are. We should be
embracing one another, not in spite of our differences, but almost
because of our differences.
Those differences are what
make this world spin around and around. God wanted us all to be
different. He made us colorful on purpose. He gave us personalities
on purpose. He gave us passions on purpose. He gave us idiosyncrasies
on purpose. He gave us talents on purpose. When God made us, he
stepped back and said we were very good work. Not just mediocre, not
"eh, I could do better." No! Very good (Genesis 1:31). And
you cannot convince me that he doesn't put in every effort, every bit
of his sweat, love, and tears into each and every life that he
creates.
The Bible tells us that we
are all "fearfully and wonderfully made" (Psalms 139:14).
He has carefully crafted each of us for his good purpose here on
earth. We have no right to snatch the lives of others away in a
moment of anger. No right at all. I long to see our country unite as
one again, or maybe I should say for the first time.
Today I want to do something
a little different. I want to issue a challenge to anyone reading
this. I don't know if I'll have one person read this or a thousand,
but here's my challenge: Reach out to those you don't agree with in
your life today. Tell them that you love them and that you are so
glad that God made them so uniquely different. Find something that
you love about them and tell them. Embrace the things that make you
different from everyone else. The world needs you exactly as you are.
God only made one of you, so be the best you that you can be. Don't
cave to the pressures of the world. Don't conform and try to become
everyone else. We already have everyone else. We need you.
I also want to challenge you
to step outside of your perfect little box. There's an entire world
outside of that box that you haven't even seen yet! Go somewhere
different. Order food at a restaurant you haven't tried before. Visit
Goodwill in a different city (because come on, Goodwill is quite
possibly the best store ever, seriously). Gather up canned goods and
take them to a new food pantry in the "scarier part of town."
Offer up your services at a soup kitchen or a homeless shelter. The
only way that we can see the kind of love that God calls us to in the
world today is if we step up as a group and start showing it.
I pray today that God can
heal the hurts in our hearts, that he can come alongside us so
completely that we feel his presence throughout the day. I pray that
he can help us to pick up the broken pieces and rebuild them into
something so beautiful for his glory. More than anything, I pray that
we can all come together and realize that every single life matters
to God. And I pray that we will start showing God's love to everyone
around us beginning today.
Just as we are called to do
in Ephesians 5:2, let's go forward "and walk in the way of love,
just as Christ loved us" today.
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