Growing up in the South, I witnessed racism first hand, heard racist jokes, and was even myself attacked for being the race I was born.  Frankly, I didn’t understand it.  So, what if people have different skin colors? In all my reading, hadn’t we as a country come so far that color shouldn’t matter anymore – shouldn’t it be what was inside that mattered?  Yet, there were still the fights at school, the pushing and shoving and the very real picture of segregation splayed out during the lunch hour.  Yet, during this time, I was also pseudo-adopted by an Asian family, a Puerto Rican family, and an African American family.  I was mesmerized by how their houses were slightly decorated differently than mine, how their food was sometimes different, and spicier, and even how the parents treated their children differently in regards to expectation and affection.

Fast-forward years later and I am no longer a teenager, confused by racism, but a woman who has witnessed for herself when living in Colorado that things like age, race, and background are no issues when it comes to the Holy Spirit.  Through the Spirit, we all connected in eternity, through the blood of Christ, where miniscule Earthly things fall away and only our Spiritual hearts are speaking to each other out of honesty and love.  

However, back home in South Carolina where, with the exception of a few churches, they remain mostly segregated.  And if I am honest, it hurts my heart.  But recently I was able to see something that gave me encouragement.  Our Pastor Craig from Redeemer Presbyterian Downtown and Pastor Willie Hill from St. John’s Reformed Episcopal were talking one day, hoping to bring our people together for church services.  The choirs would sing some songs together and the Pastors would preach at the other’s respective churches.  But the point was…togetherness, merging together a predominately white church with an African American one.

As soon as the events were planned, members of each church felt led to pray with a sense of urgency, knowing the enemy would want nothing more than to hinder the plans that God had ordained.  On Sunday, January 29, 2017, Pastor Hill and his congregation came to our church and I have not been the same since.  Neither church was performing for the other either, no, we all just there to praise God. Naturally, I cannot speak for all the hearts there but God was glorified.  How could he not be?  The plan was his.  The leaders of the churches followed his plan.  The prayer warriors of the churches prayed.  The choir members gave their talents to him.  The members of the churches came with open hearts.  But more than all that, the Word of God was heard and taught and received.    In that time of praise in song, Word, and deed, we were all One in Spirit.

To me, we were all the church, one church, praising the One God, bonded together through One heart because of the Holy Spirit.  On that Sunday, there was no black, white, mixed, or Hispanic person in that church – we were all children of God.  When God looked upon us, He saw the Christ in each of us, our forever Savior. 

This got me thinking some more.  Turn on the news today, and you will see racial hurt, scars and dissension, all which cut deep across our nation and affects everyone on some level.  It is heart breaking and feels too large to heal.  Tears form in my eyes as I write this.  We, as churches on the whole, can set an example to our nation.  We can show them what oneness looks like as we come up with more and more ideas to bring people into churches and bring churches together to show God’s power.  While the enemy seeks to destroy God’s creation by dividing us by our differences, and reminding of reasons for hatred to be piled on top of our former piles of hurt and discord, we can be the light – we ARE the light!  It felt like we were “One” in church that day because we were.  With all us there on Sunday, there was a newness that can only come from Christ.  That freshness of Spirit that comes from drinking of the everlasting water!

What an awesome God we serve who can bring together so many people from so many walks of life to be unified by his Holy Spirit (Matthew 18:20) – just as His word promises.   It gave me just a miniscule conceptualized idea of what life in heaven would be like, and I desired more of it here on Earth. 

That is why it is our responsibility as followers of Christ to let him lead us in regards to the whole body of Christ, thinking beyond our individual church Sunday experience.  Thankfully, the Pastors obeyed God’s leading because what I experienced brought innate joy and with it a burden upon my heart, while others experienced goose bumps to their flesh and tears of joy and conviction to their spiritual hearts.

The message that Rev. Hill taught from Philippians 4: 4-7could not have been more appropriate considering the days and times we live in – days of uncertainty and days when Christianity is sometimes equated to hatred and antiquity.  But we know the truth.  Christianity is joy and freedom – that is why we never quit sharing and that is why we hold our hope in Christ! We have reasons to rejoice always because we KNOW, intimately know who God is and all he has done for us.  And with that knowledge comes peace.

This peace doesn’t simply come to us like the dew comes in the morning sometimes – fresh but staying only for a while.  No, it is a staying gift!

I don’t know about y’all but I am rejoicing for the strife in our nation.  Why?  Because maybe now, we, as believers, are ripe and ready to step up –  perhaps a call to step up for the first time or to step up even more!   We can get our nation to look around and let them see that Christians aren’t who they thought they are.  We have the heart of Christ in us and a call to be unified.  NOW is the time to fully open our eyes, ears, hearts, minds, and arms and love like Christ – to love on the front lines.

Love where it is uncomfortable – Christ did.  Love where there is hurt – Christ did.  Depend on God always – Christ did.   Love the untouchables – Christ did.  Love those that hate Christ, and as a result, us – Christ did.

Start thinking about what your heart is heavy for, and start asking God how you can show love there.  Me, it is about how the church (or Godly organizations) can be more geared to diversity and unifying individuals.  After that Sunday, it was like a fire ignited in my soul.  Is there a fire that you have for a specific injustice or hurt in our nation or world?  Ask God now to start preparing you for what you can do on the front line.  It does not have to be something big like selling your home and moving but it could mean offering up your guest bedroom as a shelter sometimes, or tithing above what you usually give or offering time to an organization.

This isn’t, and shouldn’t be about politics, it’s about Lordship and who is Lord in your life.  There is truly power in our God and we have the responsibility to use this power to show hope in magnificent ways to a dark world that needs it. The church doesn’t need dreamers or excuse-makers, it needs men and women of action – faces to go out and be the front line of God’s love.