Today's Devotional
June 30, 2009
Subject: What Men See
1 John 5:9-10 "If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son."
There are a million different issues to deal with concerning the passing of Michael Jackson and I think the viewpoint of some people leave a telling story on the state of our society as it deals with race. I have a personal history of racial neutrality because I understand God's view on the matter, but some of the events concerning Michael cause me to present some secular points on the matter.
Two nights ago the Black Entertainment Television station held an annual awards show which was changed to honor the passing of Michael Jackson. I was saddened to hear the suggestion from a friend that more people would be watching because of that, specifically, more Caucasians. Any stereotypes they had of African Americans/Black people were solidly reinforced. The forty minutes or so that I watched of the show had people spewing profanities, singing about promiscuity (that's a clean way of saying what they were really doing) and they went on to joke and act out a drunkard with a "40" in a bag as he said a few "ugly" things. However, all of that is a side note to the point I want to make about the awards.
The host of the awards show was Jamie Foxx, the comedian. I listened as he went on in a tirade about how "Michael was black and we let "you all" (I guess he was talking to the non-blacks) borrow him." He continued in each sentence to emphasis that Michael was "a black man." How sad!
This is what I call "the descent into blackness." I think of all of the great accomplishments of mankind and many of them done by people who happened to be black. For someone like Michael, who sang repeatedly, "it doesn't matter if you're black or white," and who was renowned worldwide for his abilities as an entertainer and attempted to bring world unity, it has to be most insulting to have all of your works minimized as you become simply, "a black man." I guess in the world, that's "what men see."
There are still black people who feel that their being black is more valuable than their white neighbor's value in being white. Our society makes excuses why black people can say things and white people can't and it's just really ugly. That's just "what men see."
The bottom line is that God created us all and the greatest thing that any of us could ever be is a man or woman of God. That's what God sees. Of course that's spiritual, but on the secular side when you have departed this place, the world should remember the things that you did to make the world a better place. If they only remember and hold high the fact of your skin color which was something given you at birth, either they are misguided people or you have done little for humanity.
Today, lets not minimize people by making them black or white or any other color. Our first objective is to live that they might believe in the "One" who determines the shade of our skin. Because to add a new line to Mike's song, "if you want to see my Jesus, it doesn't matter if you're black or white."
Carlen
