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The Heart of the Problem

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God is faithful to grant his people both grace and wisdom in dark and difficult times. One of the things that makes times of difficulty bearable is knowing the way forward. 

Evaluating the public’s response to current events in America, it seems as if we’re not sure how to move forward. We lack clarity on where to go from here, or how to resolve our problems. This makes things even more difficult because adding human opinions only further polarizes and villanizes those who don’t share our opinions, thereby contributing to the ethnocentricity problem to begin with. 

There certainly are a lot of opinions plastered all over social media that suggest how to move forward. There is one thing that we can be sure of, and that is that the way out of this darkness won’t be found on Facebook or Twitter. The only place that we will find our roadmap (just like in any of life’s circumstances) is in the Living Word of God. We can put our confidence there. 

Race, oppression, and injustice are not at the heart of the problem that plagues America. Sin is. All of the corruption, dysfunction, and brokenness of the world is a sin problem, period. Furthermore, there is only One who has made provision for sin. Jesus has made perfect provision for the heart of humanity’s problems. Only He can redeem the injustices and prejudices of the world. The death and life of Jesus is the only solution. 

The same was true in the first century. There was a serious ethnocentricity problem. The Romans propagated that any culture or people different from them was inferior. The Jews thought the same. People who were different should to be treated differently. 

When Jesus came along and demonstrated that he had all power and authority (healing people, calming storms, casting out demons, and raising people from the dead) the Jews thought this meant that he would lead an army that would defeat the Romans. What they didn’t understand was that the Romans weren’t the problem. What the Romans didn’t understand was that the Jewish rebels weren’t the problem. Humanity is the problem. It was no army, no sword, no fleet of tanks that would bring healing and (true) peace. Jesus understood this. 

Today, it is by no human army, or armies marked off by this opinion or that opinion that will redeem us. It is by the blood of Jesus alone that healing will come to America and the world. 

Who would have thought that submitting to injustice by way of suffering and death was the solution to life’s most heated problems during Jesus’s day? This was a transcendental solution. A solution that no one would have thought of. We need a transcendental solution for today.

If we attempt to muster up a solution using the same broken worldview that has created categories and emotions of prejudice to begin with, all we will end up with is more structures of oppression and corruption. We need a solution that comes from outside of ourselves. We need to reach outside of our normal worldview and framework for Divine wisdom that can give us guidance and lead us out of the darkness and into healing. 

2 comments
  • Nothing could be truer and so eloquently spoken.
    You explained the root of the challenge we face today direct and to the point.
    Hopefully enough people realize this and accept that it’s the only way out of the darkness we face.
    Unfortunately however those that claim to be our leaders are steeped in hyperbole and misguided philosophy aimed at making giving themselves more power.
    The solution you speak of is simply that every person has to accept that we are all equal and children under god who will provide the answers if we all just ask and listen.

    Thanks so much!!!

  • Nothing could be truer and so eloquently spoken.
    You explained the root of the challenge we face today direct and to the point.
    Hopefully enough people realize this and accept that it’s the only way out of the darkness we face.
    Unfortunately however those that claim to be our leaders are steeped in hyperbole and misguided philosophy aimed at giving themselves more power.
    The solution you speak of is simply that every person has to accept that we are all equal and children under god who will provide the answers if we all just ask and listen.

    Thanks so much!!!

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