What's the Answer?

Breaking news! We are experiencing a disease that is taking over America and is detrimental to the ability for the country and our communities to flourish. Go get tested immediately…do you have a case of “analysis paralysis”? Really!?! I was expecting something so much more interesting than that! Well, let me tell you, every good thing is connected to some form of action. Inaction is the #1 thing that gets in the way of progress, positive change, and purpose.

It has been said that we have two ears and one mouth for a reason. So that we can listen twice as much as we talk. Similarly, maybe God gave us four limbs and one brain for a reason, so we can promptly act on what we think about. Granted, careful thought and prayer should be given to ideas and desires. However, our reality is not over-acting and under-thinking in most cases. Our reality is too much talking and contemplating about things without enough action to back those thoughts.

What does this have to do with reconciliation you may ask?

Well, we are bombarded with messages all day long that may spur conversations with neighbors, family or the local church. We see streams and streams of social media content in which people are distraught or discouraged over the racism, lack of love, and ignorance towards people’s realities based on things such as skin tone.

Where do these “liked” Facebook messages or “re-tweeted” links lead? True, there may be some re-education, learning and unlearning alike. However, transformation takes place when these thoughts turn into action.

Becoming a community where there is no hierarchy favoring any one race will take hard work!

Becoming a society where racism is squashed will not happen without intentional action!

Becoming a world where race no longer exists and it's just one humanity with different hues all on an equal playing field will take miracles. But I believe in miracles. They do happen!

Becoming a world of equity and equality among all humanity will take a ton of people agreeing to make small changes in their daily life to establish the just society God so desires and so do many of us!

I could go on and on about race, or I should say the illusion of race, and systemic injustice connected to racial hierarchies. But, my goal with this post is to encourage action. Read more of Seeing Color to gather small actions you can embrace to contribute to the positive force of people believing in positive change, righteousness, and justice.

In Dr. Lucretia Carter Berry’s guide, What Lies Between Us, she quotes Reverend James C. Howell, “I can’t know how God feels about our ‘thoughts and prayers’. But I am positive God would be far more pleased if we would open our eyes, lift up our heads, get up off our knees, and go and do something.”

One of my daily reminders to myself comes from Mark Batterson’s book, Chase the Lion, “We must pray like it is up to God, but work like it is up to us.”

Lets follow every “Let us Pray” with a resounding and intentional “Now LET US WORK”!

Work for justice, work for righteousness, work for anti-racism, work for peace, work for truth, work for unconditional love, the same unconditional love only represented and demonstrated through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Drew Hart, author of The Trouble I’ve Seen says it perfectly, “Ultimately, it is Jesus who identified with and sought to restore the Samaritans, poor people, and vulnerable women who compels us to renounce these hierarchies in our everyday Christian labors of love. In following Jesus and centralizing Him in the church, God’s people will find an alternative response to radicalized hierarchy. And from that Jesus-shaped solidarity, a prophetic movement that is a light to the corners of the world. Jesus-shaped communities should be the visible communities where lording over others is renounced, in all its forms, whether in regard to racial, gendered, or classed hierarchy. Only Jesus is Lord.”