Colorblind Love

There are hundreds of touchy subjects that the world hates talking about. There's abortion, welfare, guns, oh and then if you go to church there is tithing! "How do they expect me to give a tenth of my income??" But that's a different post for a different time! 

Whether you are Christian or not, there is one issue that is familiar to all of us, and it personally keeps coming up in my life. One that I cannot escape. An issue that has followed me for my entire life and will continue to do so until I depart from this life. That issue is race. And it's because I'm black.

Okay, I know you're thinking, can't I take my three day weekend off without hearing about this? I hope that if you're reading this, that you can sit back on this beautiful Martin Luther King Jr day and reflect on how this subject has affected your life, whether your skin is white, brown, or anywhere else in between. This is for the world because, even globes are blue and green.

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I grew up in New Orleans, and now that I look back I can't remember having any white friends. There was one in elementary but, I'm pretty sure he only attended for one year. I was a smart kid so I went to a nice magnet school that required entrance tests to get in. All of the other students were black. All I knew was black. There was no interracial couples or marriages in my family. Just black on black. 

After we moved to Texas, a minor culture shock had taken place and our whole family's perspective had to change. All of my teachers were white. I took Pre Advanced Placement classes and the vast majority of the kids were white. It doesn't seem like a big deal but, when a black kid from the homicide ridden downtown of New Orleans steps into the halls of a middle school in Wichita Falls, I had some very interesting experiences. I was followed around in a Maurice's once trying to find my mom a birthday present. I have been pulled over because I "looked like the suspect the police had been looking for." I have even been asked if I could handle certain classes. Blame it on the melanin!

I am a first generation college student. My mother worked two jobs to help me get through high school. We lived in what most would call the "ghetto." I was convinced that people would just label the ghetto as where the most black people and hispanics lived. I can't stand the word. And instead of helping that impoverished part of the city most nice cars would detour around it.

Upon graduating from high school, my closest friends were white. These are friends that I keep up with to this day. Their families know me and it feels like I'm apart of their home. And as I look back, they never defined me by the color of my skin. In fact, I'm convinced that they would think that such a thing is silly.

I never had to become another person for them to see me as equal. I never had to stop brushing my hair or change the way I talked when I got around them. There were also teachers and academic counselors that took the time to get to know the real me. Not many people would take time out of their lives to hear stories anymore, due to the "business" of our own lives filled with facebook novels and twitter quotes. But they did, and many of those faithful people are the reason why I decided to go to college. Because of where I'm from, college is not a promise or even a goal; graduating high school is.

And now I am a junior at Texas Tech University where I pledged a black fraternity where the black people are actually a minority number. One of my best friends is a white guy with a beard that looks like he belongs in the mountains on beef jerky commercials. He along with two other white guys are my roommates. 

If I weren't pushing the limit yet, here it goes. I am dating a white girl. The most beautiful girl in the world. Though I cherish our relationship, there are a few extra hoops that we have to jump through because of our different colors. For example, one time we ate at a diner in town, and an old woman stared at us as we walked out. I've gotten that stare many times now that I think about it. Our families aren't used to another color entering the circle. That has been hard at times, and it has been the most recent issue related to color that I have experienced. For years, society has put labels on us. It's not my fault that I'm black, God made me this way.

That is true. And God alone has the power to make any newborn any color He desires, even green! And here's another true statement: I am black, for God's glory! Just as you may be white, hispanic, asian, or whatever else, you have been made BY God. Color does not make us "unequally yoked." Color does not lock down our "election by God." Color does not guarantee us a ticket to a good or heavenward life. 

In fact, color has nothing to do with anything. Before my friends, my girlfriend, and I knew Jesus, God only saw one thing in us: Our sin. 

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He for sure didn't take me being black into consideration before making a decision to send me to hell or not. And I don't think that He does that for anyone else. He made us.  In Ephesians 1:4 Paul says that even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. So God knew that I would be black, He knows everything. He made everything. However, that's not how he judges me. I did not keep His law. So in His eyes, I am known as a law-breaker.

Not black, not anything else but a law-breaker. So if God looks at us in this way, there's a lot of different races who I know will not be with Jesus because, nobody can keep His law. Not one. Not one Jew or Gentile. Not one white or black. Not one. 

We are all black. Let me explain. I remember last year's Spring Break where my church served in inner-city Arlington. One of our last projects with the kids we were ministering to were the gospel beads. I'm sure most are familiar with these! These beads formed a bracelet that explained the gospel in such a simple yet amazing way. The first bead is black, and it represented our sin. 

God does not judge me on terms of my color but He does have to find a way to punish the darkness of the sin that is in me. The way to punish that is with eternal wrath, separated from God in that place called Hell. At this point, we cannot do anything about it. We are all sinners, and thats what God sees us as. And God cannot be with sin.

So in order for God to save us from the sin that separates us from Him, He has to look down and see us as something other than black (our sin). God cannot stand it. He has to look at us as Himself; unblemished and perfect. How did He do that?

This is the best discovery in Civil Rights history. This is larger than the story of Dr. King. This is better than any social-injustice movement in history. God left His home to do something about it. What did He do?

He sent Jesus to die for us and to cover those who put their trust in Him with His blood. He initiated the push for racial unity. By God sending His Son to cover us with His red blood, we who follow Jesus are now deemed spotless! For the first time in a long time we can be with God! He doesn't look at us as dark, black, and sinful once we put our trust in Jesus!

--because Jesus covered us, that's who He sees. Himself.

That's the kind of love that we replicate. A love that isn't biased of color, or party, or anything else we can filter. A love that looks at a person as a person. Not a color. This is colorblind love.

Cheyenne

A group of friends and I recently went to a missions conference and afterwards we spent New Year's Eve in Nashville, TN. We had so much fun! 

Two of my roommates and I were walking down Broadway Avenue, downtown to where the big bash would be around 3 in the afternoon. We passed by many people, bars, and more people. I had never been to a place like this (probably because I don't get out much). As we were heading downtown we passed a store with what looked like a little boy sitting with a backpack and a sign that read "Homeless & Hungry."

So many people were walking by so fast, I only got a glimpse of the scene but just like everyone else, I kept walking. My roommates didn't notice it, and I'm sure that 98% of pedestrians didn't either. Most of it nobody's fault, the kid was sitting very low on the ground, right in front of an abandoned store.  A regular person would have missed it. For some reason I saw him.

We get to a candy shop further down and all I can do is think about that kid. Thinking about how I just passed him. I have served in several unique homeless ministries for the past couple of years but that didn't have anything to do with it. I passed him up. I was convicted. I shut my mouth for a good ten minutes as my roommates and I walked around the candy shop, along with dozens of other people who could contribute something to help that kid out. I was thinking about what I could bring him, the last thing I think he'd want was candy! Then I soon remembered that I had left over chicken strips and French fries from Chilis, back in our car near the hotel we stayed in not too far away.

After a bit of silence & thinking, one of my roommates asked me if I was going to get anything. I said that I didn't know and asked him for the keys to the car we drove to Tennessee with. It seemed as if it was a random request, but then I explained that I had to give that kid some food. They understood and I power walked back to the hotel.

On my way to the hotel, I passed up the boy. I took off my sunglasses and him if he wanted some food. It seemed as if he was getting ready to leave and he turned around as if he saw Jesus and said with a convincing voice, "Yes!" However, it didn't sound like a man yes, it was most certainly a woman yes. I asked for her name and she told me Cheyenne. She apparently buzzed her hair a few weeks ago. I explained to her that I had food for her, and it would take me about ten minutes to get it to her. She told me that she would stay there as I walked to our hotel parking lot to take the food out of the car.

I walked so fast and hard that my shins were blazing as I walked back to Cheyenne. I passed the same views that I passed earlier that day: bars and pedestrians. I prayed to God for words to say to her, because I didn't know her story at all. I didn't want to come off as offensive and I really wanted to hear her story. It sounds cheesy but, I sang the words "I trust in you" as I approached her. I really hoped to talk to her about Jesus.

Her face lit up as I returned with the little food that I had for her. I'm pretty sure that she expected me to leave after doing a "good deed" however, I talked with her as she ate. It has to be lonely on the streets, and I love eating with people. I couldn't imagine being homeless and eating alone. So I took off my sun glasses and began told have conversation with her. 

"So how'd you get out here?," I asked her. She explained that she had ran away from her home where she was abused and exposed to drugs. "It was a really bad situation," she said,"I had really crappy parents." 

"I'm sorry to hear that," I said. "How old are you?" She told me that she was 24. She looked like she was 16.

She asked me if I went to school and I told her that I go to Texas Tech, in Texas. LOL
She followed that question with my least favorite question of all time. "So what's your major?"

So then I begin the spill that I am a Human Sciences General Studies major concentrating in Human Development & Family Studies, Personal Financial Planning, & Addictive Disorder Recovery Studies. "I want to do ministry after college is over," I explained. 

"Oh well since you study addictions, you can tell them that you met an addict in Nashville when you return!"

It was saddening to hear that. I paused for a moment. In the most awkward way I told her, "Well, I'm a Christian.." And before I could say anything else, her eyes widened and said, "Me too!" She began to pull out crosses and a bible out of her small backpack. 

Trying to clarify what she meant, I asked, "So you follow Jesus?" And she said, "Yes, He is everywhere I go."

Overjoyed, I told her that there is hope. He hasn't left her. He never will. But through her struggle in life, she already knew that. I asked her if I could pray over her her as people passed, and she let me. I explained that I had to get back to my roommates but, I wished her a happy New Years. With a huge smile on her face, she told me, "You too! Have a great semester at school!"

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I can think of several ways to waste this new year, and the rest of my life. I know that I will waste it if I do not wake up. Look at what's happened to us. 

I do not think that we are aware of what is going on in the world, I know that most of the time, I am not. We walk and drive past the homeless every day, probably on our way to get ourselves some food. We have company with community but cannot stay off of our smart phones. We complain about what we don't have, when we have more than 90% of the world. What has happened to us? 

When you love others you see the face of God. -Donald miller

It's not our depravity that makes us sad but our lack of material things. 

Why have we fallen so far? Its all due to our sinfulness. Moral perfection apart from Jesus is impossible so social injustice movements eternally fail. Saving women from trafficking is beautiful, but there is so much more to freedom. Being free is an illusion apart from Jesus. You are not truly free until you are free from eternal judgement.

In America we are fast paced. Walking like the people of Nashville on NYE, not noticing what is happening around us. We are looking at the latest fashions and complementing each other on how good we look and ask questions on how much each other's scarves were. We are figuring out the next way to earn our next check. We eat lunch and plan our dinner. We shop until we drop with no regard to the truth of what is really happening around us.

The world is going down with everything in it. Our money, possessions, loved ones, favorite restaurants , and pets are all going down with it. Jesus was perfectly aware of the hurt going on due to the sin in the world that He had come to abolish. 

So what is the point of these momentary idols compared to eternal joy? I think that should be one of the biggest questions we ask ourselves and are challenged with this new year. How can Jesus become more and I become less?