Neighbors

I have been avoiding the race issues lately,  but they are beyond the point of ignoring anymore. They are obnoxiously present, and overly exhausted. But they are not the problem. Racism is not THE problem. It is a symptom, like a headache. And like a headache, it won't disappear until the underlying issue is addressed. People think they are addressing it by protesting in the streets, erasing history and monuments, burning cities, creating lawlessness in place of civility. This is not only asinine, its counterproductive. 

Racism isn't an American thing, it's not a white thing, it's not a privileged thing. It's a human thing. It's in every culture, in every race group, in every country, on every continent on the planet. It's always been in all of those places and peoples for the existence of civilization.

Right now the world is treating this headache by yelling at it, and drawing more attention to it. Over analyzing and relabelling it, as if defining it as a tension headache will somehow cure it. But like most headaches, the issue is a deficiency. The root cause is invisible, and requires deeper and entirely different treatment than the world is willing to accept. 

Racism is a specific form of prejudice. Prejudice is preference mixed with ignorance. The topical cure is humility: recognizing your own personal flaws, failures, and shortcomings; then seeing that they are no different than the person you look down on. The antithesis of humility is pride. You cannot be proud and humble at the same time. Pride can only divide where humility brings healing. This is Pride month. It's a masquerade of false unity that only further separates people. Its another symptom being used to disctract from the cause. 

The deep seeded issue, the root of the problem, and the topic avoided by all media, leadership, movement, and individual on the Frontline of this headache: SIN.

"For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places."

Ephesians 6:12 ESV

ALL people are made in the image of God. ALL people are corrupted by sin. ALL sin is equally deplorable in the eyes of God. ALL of us fall short of the glory. If you think your struggle is greater, your choices superior, your DNA less corrupted by the darkness that claims ownership of this present world, then you are as much a part of the problem as the person you choose to blame. 

“You have heard that it was said,   ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’  But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,

Matthew 5:43‭-‬44 ESV

This is a heart issue. This is an issue of global Godlessness. Christ is the only equalizer. Humbled hearts are the cure to the viral darkness that infects all of humanity. 

Please stop fighting over who is right and who is wrong, who is Woke and who is blind, who is oppressed and who oppresses. We are all oppressed by darkness, and we all need to rise to the light of Christ. Satan wants to divide and conquer, the powers that be want the same. They do not want peace or equality. They want us at eachother's throats. And everyone is falling right into it in the name of "progress". 

"Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me."

Psalm 23:4 ESV

We are all neighbors in the valley. Let's start acting like it.