Unify!

26 You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. (NIV)

Galatians 3:26-28

 

I can't tell you how many times this verse has gone through my head today as I continue to hear anger, pain and hurt from both sides of the Zimmerman / Martin controversy.  People are in pain, families are hurting, and of course the media is right there spreading the hate around.  Why?  Why do we do this to each other?  What is wrong with us as a country when the federal government involves itself in a situation just because the verdict was not guilty?  Are we really so petty?  Apparently we are.  It makes me sad and disappointed in my fellow Americans. 

 

It's times like this that I can just picture the devil rubbing his hands in glee.  We are letting ourselves get drawn into the "race" arguments and hard feelings and ignoring the needs of people all around us.  Are you going to fix anything by stoking the fire?  How can we expect anyone to heal if we constantly shove this in peoples' faces?  We've got to get it together my friends!  Wake up and realize that pointing fingers and judging people you don't know will set you right into Satan's palm. 

 

What does Paul tell the Galatians?  "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus."  I think God would allow me to add "black or white" to this verse to make my point.  We're all the same in Christ Jesus.  Men, women, African, Asian, Indian, or Caucasian, and the list goes on.  If we're all children of God these differences we have don't matter.  Skin color especially - do you realize skin color is all about the amount of melanin in your skin?  More melanin = darker skin; less melanin = lighter skin.  It's such a silly thing to judge each other over!  I'm not saying we aren't all different, but culture plays a bigger part in our differences than skin color ever will. 

 

In this time of uncertainty and negativity I challenge you to be better.  Don't get mired in the controversy.  Hold on to God while others are holding on to the hate and anger.  Let God in so He can heal your hurts.  And pray that those at the heart of this very sad situation will do the same thing.