Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Babies, Babies, Babies
In Christ Alone
What a great devotional time I have enjoyed this morning. I have been so encouraged by the declaration of this mighty hymn. I don’t know how much of its effect is lost without the melody, but I trust that the words will ignite a spark of victory and assurance in you as it does in me. It is one of my favorites.
IN CHRIST ALONE (Avalon)
In Christ alone my hope is found
He is my light, my strength, my song
This Cornerstone, this solid ground
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm
What heights of love, what depths of peace
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease
My Comforter, my All in All
Here in the love of Christ I stand
In Christ alone, who took on flesh
Fullness of God in helpless babe
This gift of love and righteousness
Scorned by the ones He came to save
‘Til on that cross as Jesus died
The wrath of God was satisfied
For every sin on Him was laid
Here in the death of Christ I live
There in the ground His body lay
Light of the world by darkness slain
Then bursting forth in glorious Day
Up from the grave He rose again
And as He stands in victory
Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me
For I am His and He is mine
Bought with the precious blood of Christ
No guilt in life, no fear in death
This is the power of Christ in me
From life’s first cry to final breath
Jesus commands my destiny
No power of hell, no scheme of man
Can ever pluck me from His hand
‘Til He returns or calls me home
Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
On Friendship
“That is very interesting that you should say that,” she said. “A gentleman in the store asked me if I work for you. I told him, ‘No.’ He then asked what I was doing with you, and I told him that you are my friend. His response: ‘Your friend? Can a black person and a white person be friends?’”
There it was again – white. That statement served as an exclamation point to my feelings. Because the color of my skin is white, and the color of hers is not, the assumption by many is that we cannot be friends.
How can that be? When I am laughing with a friend at a silly happening, celebrating the wedding of a friend on her special day, rejoicing with a friend at the birth of her child, embracing a friend who has just lost a loved one, receiving news of a terminal illness with a friend, laboring together with a friend to develop ministries to impact her community, or praying with a friend for a miracle that only God can perform – am I then white, while she is not? At those moments and almost every other, I don’t see skin color. I don’t pause to wonder if our differences dictate our level of relationship. I simply choose to be a friend, and she likewise.
I suppose that for many, skin color will always be a barrier to true friendship. I suppose there will always be those who resist the notion that who we are on the inside, is who we really are.
Perhaps my view that we can be friends is slanted by the fact that my older brother was a Jewish carpenter, my other brothers and sisters are multi-ethnic, and I am not even sure that my Father bears any racial affiliation. We are the family of God, and that alone affords us the luxury of friendships based on love, not skin pigmentation. How I wish that all could see that.