Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Racism and My Filthy Heart

Give grace, give grace, give grace.


I have to breathe this in and out, out and in, this morning.


I didn't post on Martin Luther King Jr. Day yesterday.
Partially because there were so many out there doing it so much more beautifully and well than I could ever hope to.
The other reason was because Michael was home, and we were enjoying a day as a family, trying new whole-food recipes.


I went to sleep filled with good thoughts about racial harmony.
I woke up and was fairly immediately confronted with (barely) passive aggressive racism in written form.


It angered me, but even more than that, it saddened me.  I was reading this morning in the Bible about how things that come out of a person's mouth (fingers) actually come from the heart.  (Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.) 


I suddenly felt sad for this person to have such a filthy heart.
I pitied them.
Then I started to feel twinges of pride in my heart.
And I thought it would be wise to take a moment to examine my own heart.

What filthy overflow does my mouth speak---if not racism?

It speaks perfectionism.  It speaks a lack of grace when others are wrong.  It speaks judgement.  It speaks  words to please man and not God.

I started this morning angry and saddened by racism spoken from the heart of an acquaintance.
I continue this morning aware of the filth in my own heart, but in the knowledge that my Savior has forgiven me.
Lord, continue your refining work on me!

2 comments:

  1. This is spot on. When one sin is being killed, another is moving in behind it to take its place (uh, usually pride!) We need to retain a sense that racism is wrong without being proud of however far we have come in confronting it ourselves.

    It's a neverending struggle for me, that one. Thanks for this post.

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