The Clarion Call- Reconciliation- WEDNESDAY
The Clarion Call
by
Rocky Fleming
Wednesday - Reconciliation
As I continue a look at our house (our family in Christ), I need to share with you my experience with a family who was in turmoil. The house I speak of was the one I grew up in. I had the best and the worst of families. The best was because of the way my father and mother loved me and nurtured me. They weren't perfect. But they sure were good to me and it created a deep love in me for both of them. The worst was because of the way they treated each other. The late night battles that woke me up trembling with fear that someone would get hurt, come to mind. The meals that often erupted into a fight, making nausea a part of my dread of evening meals. I was a little guy. But the scars from that time are still with me as a reminder of God's intervention. Note I said scars and not wounds, for God did an amazing thing with bringing healing to us all, and healing my wounds in the process.
Before the reconciliation of my parents, the conflict I felt was not knowing who to hate or who to blame for the mixed emotions and fear I felt from their conflict. I loved both my parents for they had both won my heart. As a result of this conflict within me, I did like many children do and took the blame on myself thinking that in some way and for some reason I was the one creating the problems. Ever heard of this kind of thing before? Perhaps I am writing your story? Parents, this is a way a child processes this internal turmoil we bring on them when we battle with each other and they see it. They will default to either hating one of you or both of you, or they will hate themselves, for that is how a root of bitterness is fostered. When they grow up, this root of bitterness will reproduce and the same violent behavior and words will escape their lips that escaped yours. It is the same way with a root of bitterness in God's family. It pulls all of God's family into someone's pain and into what someone feels, and I will tell you first hand, if it is not corrected it will get worse. This bitterness will reproduce and all one has to do is look at the racial conflicts within the Body of Christ in America to see the truth of this. When we have people in God's family with pain and wounds in their life from things that victimized them, the rest of the family should hurt as well. We must understand that this is the way a family works. This is the way God's family should work.
As a child, the most fervent prayers I prayed each night was that my parents would quit fighting with each other and would love each other. It was a simple, selfish prayer of a confused child. But I stayed with it every night. The first big prayer I saw answered in my life was to see a process of reconciliation with my parents occur. Then peace entered our home and it made its way into my heart. The wounds that I had experienced from this troubled house that I grew up in, and likely would have continued to have all of my life, were healed. That is why I said I have scars and not wounds. Those scars now serve God's purpose in my life as they help me understand God's view of what He feels when His family hurts one another. I feel His pain when we wound each other. I feel His pain with what I am seeing today in our family. I also feel God's joy when emotional wounds are healed and scared over as a reminder of another victory for our King.
But this devotional is not about me, or about my home, or about a typical family relationship. It is about the wounds that need to be healed in the Body of Christ and what the family must do to bring about this healing, for I feel our Father's pain because of these hurts within our family. I feel His pain, and it weighs me down. Please, please listen to me as I seek champions who will join with me to help heal this conflict going on. There are things that need to be done and I believe Influencers are God's men for doing it.
Men, if you are a Caucasian as I am, I ask you to consider the place you have with healing a man of color's pain and wounds. There are open wounds that we are seeing in some of these brothers and they need to be healed. Until they are healed, there will be conflict and bitterness that will continue in God's family. Many of these men have a root of bitterness that has been instilled in them since their youth and has been perpetuated in their life by things that have been done against them, or family members, or forefathers. They have hurt and anger that was created around them just like when I was a child, and it has been fostered over several generations for it has not found resolution. You may not be the one who hurt a person of color, but you carry a sacred responsibility to enter their pain and help in their healing. We cannot leave this alone. We cannot walk away from this and say it is not my concern for I did nothing wrong. Fixing blame is not the issue. Creating healing in our family is the issue.
If you think only a victimizer should serve his victim, I will remind you that Jesus did nothing wrong, but He stepped in and took the blows Himself that you and I deserve. He took up His cross for you and me and He looks us in the face and says, "Take up your cross and follow Me." If we profess to follow Him as His disciple, then we must do as He did and wash some feet and lay down our life for a brother. When we humbly get on our knees and serve someone at their point of need, especially with an unresolved emotional hurt, we do this service for Jesus and to Jesus. Men, when we serve God's child in his hurt, we live it out to our world around us. It is time that we understand the need and the opportunity within our family that needs to be addressed. We can wait no longer. Will you join me in this mission to remove this pain from our brothers of color?
For my brothers of color, I ask you to not allow any root of bitterness to remain in you. There are people in Jesus' family, like me, who are more concerned about your pain than you might imagine. God is working in our hearts to understand the pain you and your race has endured. There is ignorance. There is neglect. But there is hope if we all work together. Let's pull together and let Jesus win this for His family. As surely as there is a responsibility with my race to reconcile with any issues you have, your race must also play your part in this reconciliation. We will not bridge this gap between our races by rhetoric or the efforts of man. We need God's help. He will help us if we seek to please Him as His children. Here is what scripture says about it:
"How good and pleasant it is when God's people live together in unity! It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard, running down on Aaron's beard, down on the collar of his robe. It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion. For there the Lord bestows his blessing, even life forevermore." Psalm 133: 1-3 NIV
Brothers, perhaps we can lock arms and understand that with just you and me, or just a few other guys who understand the issues, and who are willing to do each of their part with reconciliation, we can bring healing to God's family, and get our house in order? There is so much for us to do jointly. But we must start at this point of healing to be the Church this Country needs in this desperate hour. Brothers, will you join me in this?