Take off the Mask

Greetings Commissioners,

I pray that this blog finds you well. My heart is a bit heavy tonight.

There are a number of things that break my heart but seeing injustice has to be in the top five. Growing up, I have seen a lot of injustice and I’m not just talking about police brutality. Sure, I’ve seen my share of people being discriminated against because of the color of their skin, but I’ve also seen people discriminate against others due to their social class, nationality, level of education, medical condition, you name it, I’ve seen it. That’s why I’ve never been so title crazy (Dr. this and that...) The Bible tells me that mans heart is so wicked. “Who can understand the human heart? There is nothing else so deceitful; it is too sick to be healed.” —Jeremiah‬ ‭17:9.

At the core of injustice, is the wickedness of mans heart. When I saw the officer kneel on George Floyd’s neck and adjusted his knee even after the crowd pleaded with him to stop and his response was to reposition his knee, no one can convince me that this is not pure evil. But we know that our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

As Christians, we sometimes have a tendency to hide behind the title but don't produce fruit. We are guilty of protecting those we should be openly rebuking. There is a lot of injustice/hypocrisy that goes on in the church. Yes, I’m going there because it needs to be addressed. The body of Christ is not exempt from Jeremiah 17:9. Man’s heart is wicked and that includes church folks. And because we know that, we have to examine our lives daily and ask God to uproot any and everything that wages war against our soul. One day, we will stand before God and give account for EVERY deed—good and bad—2 Corinthians 5:10. On that day, we can’t hide behind our gift of tongues. The Bible says, “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.” We can’t hide behind faith. “If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.” We can’t hide behind good works. “If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.” 1 Corinthians 13:1-3

MY STORY

Growing up in church, I’ve seen a lot of the “do as I say, and not as I do. “ {The hypocrisy of it all}. We had somehow led people to believe that because of our titles and position of leadership that we can treat God’s people any kind of way. I have watched people be marginalized and counted as less than in the house of God. I am not perfect by far but God has always given me strong sensibilities towards those who are hurting or being mistreated. Throughout my life, I have advocated and used my voice to stand up for a lot of people. Seeing others in pain grieves my spirit. Some people call it a burden, some a calling. For me, it’s both. So as I sat in my room after a long day of studying, I couldn’t help but think of how hypocritical we all can be sometimes. Right now, the world is grieving the loss of yet another black man murdered for nothing more than the color of his skin but then I think of the many times that we have judged and crucified people based on what we saw as their imperfections.

How many times have we hurt someone with our words and conduct? How many times have we lied on someone? Gossiped about them? As believers, we must come to the realization that God is multifaceted. God is LOVE but he is also a God of JUSTICE. We must use our voice to do the work of the kingdom, not to tear down one another.

2 Corinthians 13:5, reads “Examine yourselves to see if your faith is genuine. Test yourselves. Surely you know that Jesus Christ is among you; if not, you have failed the test of genuine faith. If you can cry for the mistreatment of those killed senselessly by police and yet you treat your brother or sister with contempt, what makes you different than them? How many people have spent nights crying about the things that we’ve said and done to them? We must not be hypocrites. Let us not forget the purpose of the church. It is to build up, not to tear down, to teach others about the goodness of Jesus and lead them to repentance. It is not our job to be harsh, judgmental, mean spirited, manipulative, and critical of those we don’t agree with. Let us take the speck out of our own eyes before we judge the speck in another.

The Bible tells us to love one another for: “Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen—1 John 4:20. This is the what the Bible says, those are not my words. If you can’t love the brother or sister next to you, how can you say you love God?

Remember that God does not categorize sin. “Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant.” Galatians 6:7. So let’s check our hearts and motives in ALL things. The " I’m better than you," mentality needs to stop. None of us are better than anyone else. It’s is only by the grace of God that anyone of us are able to live to see a new day. Let us use our voice In this short time we have here on this earth to build each other up and not tear one another down. Don’t grieve for one and ignore the other. Let’s rid ourselves of the “mean girl” and “jocks only” mentality.

My dad has always instilled in me that every experience that we go though or watch someone else go through is an opportunity to learn from that experience and become more wise. How we treat one another is a reflection of the evilness in our hearts. #Heart check

So, today as we read this, I pray you take the time to examine your own life and let’s do better in the way we treat each other. Let's extend grace to those who need and be a bit more compassionate towards our brothers and sisters.

And if you are one of those people (we all are) then we must repent and do better. Take off the mask of hypocrisy and let’s love one another❤️ God bless you all!