A Makeup Entry!
I failed to write my blog entry yesterday. I plan on writing an entry every day Mon-Fri if it all possible. I was gone for the morning and the evening and I got home late. It was a good day. In the morning I was in Lake Charles with several preachers from TX and LA for a time of prayer and encouragement. It was really a great time for all those involved. I am continually convinced that preachers go crazy when surrounded by other preachers. We goof off more, we let loose so to speak. Maybe it is because it is one of the few times that some feel free to do so. For me I have no problem being goofy all of the time but it was fun yesterday. Also yesterday Ruth and I went out with a couple from our church for dinner and a movie. Good food, great times. Fun all around. The movie though prompted my mind to think about all kinds of things. We saw the movie Glory Road. It is about the Texas Western team that won the NCAA championship against all odds. Texas Western (The University of Texas El Paso as we now know it) was the first school to start all black players in the NCAA tournament. This happened in 1966 which blows my mind. I guess it is a reminder to me that very strong racism is such recent history. Not that I had never learned that but I just forget that so often. In my generation it truly was never much of an issue. I grew up in Houston which is very much a muti-cultural place to live. I always was around kids of all races and I never thought anything of it. I am very grateful for my upbringing as I was never taught to "see color." I am aware of racism that still goes on today. Yet I think of how far we have come as a country as a whole is such a short time. We still have a long way to go and yet I feel that the future looks bright. Will racism ever cease to exist ? I say no way. People of all colors everywhere will always carry some sort of racism whether it be simple stereotypes or hatred that is some how passed on from generation to generation. This is not an excuse and yet I believe that it is reality. My hope is that the body of Christ will never excuse racism as it has done in the past. That we will always focus on the common bond of Jesus Christ and never allow ourselves to be caught up more in the culture that we live in then the God that we serve.
Yeah but we're not there yet. We have in our congregation both African Americans AND actual African immigrants and while both will tell you that they feel discriminated against daily, the Liberians don't take it as personally as the African Americans do. There is a LOT of hurt feelings out there that are still going to take SEVERAL generations of the way you and I were raised to ease that tension.
I LOVE our youth ministers meetings up here, but I HATE it when our minister makes me go to the preachers meetings. Nothin personal against you, because I would LOVE going to a ministers meeting with you brother, but up here it is essentially a group of middle-old aged guys who ramble on forEVER about every little detail about their ministries. They're preachers so they are used to having the spotlight and they don't seem to understand that when you have a room of about 15 preachers you don't get 30 minutes each to give us your sermon or soap-box.
Anyway sorry for the rant - like I said it sounds like your meetings are WAY more fun than ours are. In fact your preachers meetings sound much more like our youth ministers meetings! :)
Posted by
Demosthenes |
9:33 AM