Pardon me, your epidermis is showing ! Is it really so black & white?

So, I am having the time of my life down in Brentwood (one of the 'high stats' for not so good stuff kinda neighborhoods) serving at 2nd Mile Ministries Summer Day Camp. I am also getting my butt kicked, it is wearing me out, and challenging me..in a good way. I am hanging out each day with about 60-80 of my new BF's (that's Best Friends for those of you who have forgotten).

Last night I had the privilege of attending the Ascension Recollect Tour. ( A night of worshiping God and hearing some Truth)  And this is what has prompted me to write today.

 At this event Boyd (the teacher for the night) shared on this verse:

1 Peter 2

But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God’s OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were NOT A PEOPLE, but now you are THE PEOPLE OF GOD; you had NOT RECEIVED MERCY, but now you have RECEIVED MERCY.   Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul. Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they see them, glorify God when He comes.

The following will be my usual jumble so read on at your own risk of sheer confusion :)

I am looking at this verse last night and thinking WOW, a chosen race. I do not pretend to have a clue what the people of this country must feel inside that have had their forefathers and even their own selves treated as sub-human because of their 'race'. I am thinking of Indians (the one's we took America from) & Darker skinned people (otherwise known to some as black or African American and so on) It is very hard for me to refer to anyone by their supposed skin color. When I hold a piece of paper up to my arm I am quite obviously NOT white. I am not a fan of classifying people by colors and especially colors we are not... ANYWAYS, when I see this verse and read 'a CHOSEN race'  I wonder what these people who have been so ill treated at times through out our history solely based on RACE think at times or all the time... I think 'do they ever feel like they are CHOSEN as a race? Do they feel the feeling that one feels when they KNOW they have been chosen?? I am picturing an afternoon recess where the kickball game is about to begin. You know certain people will automatically be chosen. And if you were like me you know you probly' aren't at the top of the list! Oh that feeling of 'please don't pick me last, please see some redeeming quality in me that would allow me to be chosen before the last round'. Do you remember that feeling, whichever end of the spectrum you were on??

To be chosen based on 'things' or not chosen because you lacked 'something'. Ugghhhhh....not fun!

So, as I pondered this verse last night and thought about ALL these kids I am with every day at camp (and yes, my kids and the other volunteers kids are the only 'white' kids there) my heart hurt to think we still live in a time where the color of our skin matters. I couldn't help but hurt for the fact that they will still have certain odds stacked against them JUST because their epidermis is a few shades darker than mine. (OH PLEASE do not comment to me about reverse prejudice or any of that mumbo jumbo--and NO, I am  not an expert on Race, it's really not the point---I have grown up in a very racial family and I still see it and hear it all around me all the time, I know ....) I thought about how we (as God followers) have a chance, a privilege, a duty to tell these kids THEY ARE CHOSEN when they make a decision to surrender to God! They can know the deep abiding feeling of joy and hope and peace and security that comes with KNOWING  'You are a chosen Race'!!!..I have talked to them all week about how no one can take away their choice to be a God follower (aka Christian) and no one can deny that our God says "we" --His followers--- are a chosen race!! I want these kids to know their value is not in their color but in their identity.. they are not good or bad based on color. They are not less or more than me just because our skin is a few shades a part. I want these kids to internalize that the TRUEST things about them are the things GOD says about them!

Then my mind shifted last night to us, the believers, the ones who make up this 'CHOSEN RACE'. Boyd was challenging us to live this verse out. The Big C Church, to be known by our LOVE in ACTION. He wants us to proclaim the Truth. We have been called out of darkness into His marvelous Light. We, who were not a people, are now HIS people. Should we not want this for EVERYONE regardless of race or socioeconomic status? There was time when we had not received His mercy, but now we have. Do we not remember the wicked depraved people we were --'BG', --before God?...Think about this..you had no choice in your race, or your family etc...what if you had been born the exact opposite (as if there really were one) of what race you are now? Would you not have wanted someone to love you with God's love and reach out and share His Truth with you? (by the way, sshhhhh, Jesus is NOT white, he was far from Honky status!)  What is the verse, there is neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female... The Bible is RICH in Truth that Jesus came for ALL, that God is not partial, that His mercy is for everyone who will receive... I know in America it is hard to not be somewhat prejudice one way or the other, we have had it ingrained in us for sooooo long, too long....it is a work of the  Holy Spirit of God to change us into lovers of ALL people! Just like some marriages that get broken and only God can change the heart of a spouse who wants to leave---we MUST beg Him for a changed heart, one that is fervently wanting ALL to know Him. When God truly gets a grip on your life, your desires match up with HIS! He very clearly states that one CAN NOT hate his fellow man and say he loves God. The two go hand in hand. It is God's Spirit that allows us to love Him and others.

So, you say, 'well, I don't hate the 'black' or the 'white' person I just think we are s'posed to keep our people with our people and theirs with theirs'. OR 'I'm not prejudice I just have seen how 'those ' people act and I'm just not gonna be puttin up with it'..Whatever your sentence is-----REALLY? REALLY? wow, what must we do to the heart of God when we say we accept His love and mercy and grace but we do not accept His people? (HE created everyone, He is the great artist :), He makes the colors, He blends the colors..we are the HUMAN RACE, not A RACE, and when we KNOW God because we've heard Him call us by name (not by color) we are part of a CHOSEN RACE. (and we should not be prideful about that either, if we understand anything about God that should humble us not puff us up!)  

Anyways, even bigger broader strokes now...as I think about the Human Race, I think of people with AIDS, elderly, single moms, orphans, widows, homeless people..our next door neighbors....our co- worker. Folks, we have a mission to fulfill. Our lives are not our own IF we've been bought with a price!! You exchanged the old you for a new you and the new you is part of the only Kingdom that can not be shaken. You have a calling...you have a purpose....you are 'on mission' by virtue of the fact that you chose God back when He chose you! So, when you read the rest of the verses they talk about the fact that YOU are now the 'foreigner'....hmmmmmm....

So, we, this chosen race by God are now the 'foreigner', we are the odd ones, the different ones, the strangers, the ALIENS!!!! The FREAKS!!! Our lives, our behavior, our actions..everything about us should STAND OUT!   OUR LIVES SHOULD SHOUT --- And they should shout GREAT AND MIGHTY THINGS ABOUT GOD!!!! We should no longer be known by our hatred, our meanness, our prejudices, our stinginess, our SIN....we should be known by the OPPOSITE things. If the world loves something we should probably hate it, if the world accepts something , we should probably not..MOSTLY we should be seeing ourselves as HOLY vessels that the One True God wants to pour Himself into and out of to reveal Himself to the world!!!!   I have challenged the kids in camp this week to count the cost. To not just take it lightly that they have a choice to make. Choosing a life for Christ does not get you into an elite country club full of  all the 'good stuff'. Have you read about Jesus's life? If we are to walk as He did that does not equal the 'good life'.

Song time:

This is the good life
I've lost everything
I could ever want
And ever dream of
This is the good life
I found everything
I could ever need
Here in Your arms

Loneliness has left me searching
For someone to love
Poverty has changed my view
Of what true riches are
Sorrow's opened up my eyes
To see what real joy is
Pain has been the catalyst
To my heart's happiness 

Ahhh, old school Audio Adrenaline. For real brothers and sisters ... are you living like an ALIEN? Do you fit right in? Are you sooo consumed with mimicking the world for your family that you have allowed the world to be forgotten? ie, Are you  at the country club aka church building 5 times a week doing some great program for your kids there that you never actually give thought to the kid who would love an hour of your time? Your love, your hug, your smile?  What about the bazillion other people that NEED to know about our God and His lavish love???? There is a ministry available on every block that you could get plugged into..there is a need on every corner waiting to be filled...I will not even begin to name all the ways we can and should be being His hands n feet? What are we (Christians) known for right now? Our heroic acts of self sacrifice and love? I don't think so..(and if you think I'm not preaching to myself, while I have one finger pointed at you, there are several pointing back at me!!...I repulse myself for my lack of willingness to do WHATEVER He asks..ugghhh..I am praying for more and more of the Spirit's equipping to be bold enough, brave enough, crazy enough to live as HE would desire!)

So, I couldn't help but feel cynical as I looked around this room filled with hundreds of, yes, mostly white people, last night that were furiously fist pumping or hand raising in their worship of our God and wonder who here will actually go out and BE the CHURCH? Not just attend it??? We are a sleeping giant, it is true..imagine what we could do if we tapped into the Spirit' s power and surrendered everything to HIM???? What if we took God at His word and just lived every day in ways that we would stand out as the ALIENS He says we are?

As I think about camp & how tiring it is to be a part of, how hard it is to get my own kids motivated and there each day... I beg God to burn these kid's faces into my mind and heart. I want to be so burdened for their souls that I lose sleep over them. I want to be bone tired because I've given something away each day that was never meant to be kept! I can not hoard His love!! Not any comparison at all but I think of Kate/Amazima and her quote about getting tired and how she said something to the effect of..'face down in the dirt is where I meet Jesus'. I want to meet Jesus where He is! In each of our lives that will be a different place....where should you be meeting Him? Where is He waiting for you to join Him? What prejudices and barriers does He want to break down in your life?

I will leave you with this, this week we did a little activity at camp, the 'I AM' page:

I am..... I need... I want..... and so on...

What would you fill in the blanks with? For me it might be...I am Kim, I need a some sleep my kids kept me up all night, I want some Starbucks, I like thrift store shopping and so on...

This is a sampling of the answers I got---- 

I am_____ I need my Dad, or my dad to get out of prison, or my mom to stop being so mean, I want a child of my own or my mom to marry her boyfriend, I want to go to church or I want to be a cop , I like being here at camp, I'd like you to be my mom Mrs. Kim, I love you......

There are hurting, hopeless people all around us..in all shades, all income brackets, all different homes or no homes, all kinds of illnesses or in perfect health. They need to have their God shaped hole filled and then they need you to walk alongside them...Think about it this week..has God really intersected your life? Would you know it by your actions? Do you want to lay down your life or just have a 'good life'...do you truly believe there is a war for the souls of ALL mankind going on or is God just another part of your neat compartmentalized life???..(again, shouting loudest to myself!!) We are either bringing glory to or stealing it away from our great God....

"I want to see miracles, to see the world change"..Go read Radical or the Whole in our Gospel or something that illuminates how our Faith with out works is DEAD! I do not want a dead faith! 

Father--wake us up, let us SEE people as You see them, worthy God, not worthless, let us see how we have been crippled Lord or cripple ourselves with our prejudices, let us be broken over the things that break Your heart, let us run with reckless abandon to do the works You put us here for, let us beg You for more of Your Spirit so we can GO and do what needs to be done, Father forgive us for getting so caught up in the programs that we have forgotten the people, Father let us WAKE UP and put aside EVERYTHING that hinders....fill the empty places in us, let us be over-flowing with the fruit of Your Spirit so we can be world changers, and by our deeds and our LOVE let us be known!!!..Give us orphans and widows to rescue, slaves to set free, people in chains to unloose, YOU burden us God and do not allow us to be at peace until we are sharing YOUR story of Hope with a lost and dying world!~ Let us live as children of the Light, to come out and be separate, to stand in the truth that we are NOW CHOSEN people who were once walking in our depravity...Do not let us forget where we have come from and be so filled with HOPE at where we are going we want to take everyone we can!!!! Let us redeem the time we have wasted ...wake us up Father, wake us up....we need You more than we know and we need Your love and mercy....God help us! Praise Your name alone....

Thanks for reading if you made it this far :) One final song:

There are many prodigal sons
On our city streets they run
Searching for shelter
There are homes broken down
People's hopes have fallen to the ground
From failures

This is an emergency!

There are tears from the saints
For the lost and unsaved
We're crying for them come back home
We're crying for them come back home
And all your children will stretch out their hands
And pick up the crippled man
Father, we will lead them home
Father, we will lead them home

There are

schools full of hatred Even churches have forsaken Love and mercy May we see this generation In it's state of desperation For Your glory This is an emergency! Sinner, reach out your hands! Children in Christ you stand! Sinner, reach out your hands! Children in Christ you stand! And all Your children will stretch out their hands And pick up the crippled man Father, we will lead them home Father, we will lead them home

S