“Get the Ugly Out” By Steven Grace
Micah 6:8 (NIV)
8 He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
Isaiah 1:16-17 (NIV)
16 Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong. 17 Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.
Some days I sit and wonder how we have gotten to this point? It seems like every time I scroll through my social media, I see hate-filled posts littering my timelines. And it pains me that it comes from a wide variety of sources. (Here are some hypotheticals: Whites/Blacks/Christians/Muslims/any ethnicity are bad because ________; Liberals/Conservatives/Libertarians are buffoons/ignorant/racist/etc.). That pretty much sums up a lot of the links that get shared. Are these topics 100% right or wrong? Not anywhere close. But that’s not the debate here.
I truly feel that if we all take a step back, take a deep breath, and take the time to listen and learn about the issues, we would be in a much better place. Are there racial tensions in our country? Absolutely. But rather than lump one group of people together and label them as good/bad/ignorant, why can’t we look for the root of the problem. Why is there racial tension? Why can’t we see that all people are God’s children, and we’re all the same? Why is our political climate so contentious? Why can’t we realize that as citizens of the same country, we should have similar goals that should make this country better, even if we can’t agree on the exact way to do that?
The scriptures I chose remind us that God wants us to take care of our neighbors. The Greatest Commandment: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart…and love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:37, 39) No matter our political leanings or race or profession or whatever qualifier you want to put on someone, we need to love our neighbors. Even if we disagree with them, we love them. Even if they say something we don’t like, we love them. When we can spread that love, a lot more of the ugly in the world will disappear, and then we all will be much better off.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank you for the love you have shared with us, in Your Son, Jesus Christ. Guide us to spread that love to our neighbors to get the ugly out of our world. AMEN.
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