Isaiah 60:1-3 NKJV
1 Arise, shine; For your light has come! And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you. 2 For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, And deep darkness the people; But the Lord will arise over you, And His glory will be seen upon you. 3 The Gentiles shall come to your light, And kings to the brightness of your rising.
In the midst of dark or trying times, it is easy to slip into a practice of retreating or hiding. But we have to remember that light shines brightest in the midst of darkness. Amid coronavirus, racial injustice, economic crises, division, and strife—the Church has a great opportunity to be “a city that is set upon a hill” (Matthew 5:14). This is not the time for us to shrink back, but rather for us to come to the forefront and to shine brightly for all to see as we glorify and exemplify that character, nature and will of our Heavenly Father.
As we come forth and demonstrate healing, unity, and righteousness, others will be drawn to the Lord. But we have to be willing to do the work to get there. Unfortunately, healing is seldom a pretty process. Often to come to a place of wholeness, we have to address the issues—wounds and pains—that lead to us being broken in the first place. That means addressing painful experiences, horrible mistakes, deep disappointments, and even intense anger and frustrations. To put a small bandage on a gaping wound is not only ineffective, but it can create further damage—physically as well as emotionally as it feels like neglect to the injured party. Healing and deliverance are often messy, but still necessary!
The healing of our nation and world—will not come through politics, although politics is necessary. True racial healing should come through a unified Body of Christ that has walked through and addressed the nastiness of prejudice, discrimination, unconscious bias, racism, hatred, and stereotypical thought patterns and practices in its ranks and come out on the other side operating in TRUTH as well as love.
According to research, racism tends to operate on a continuum ranging from the subtle versions at one end, which are possibly unconscious and often ambiguous in appearance to the more blatant versions at the other end of the spectrum, which are typically readily visible. What if we each searched our hearts and allowed God to show us where we are on the spectrum? What if we each asked God to give us a heart of compassion for someone whose experiences may be different than our own? What if we stopped looking at racism as someone else’s problem and started seeing it as our own problem? What if we sought the Lord as to what our specific individual assignment is to help eradicate it? What if we each took it upon ourselves to help be the solution and not a part of the problem? How much good could we do then?
It will take hard work to heal our land, and it is not work that we delegate to some other entity—it is work that we must do individually and collectively that we can shine for HIM!
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