Week 19 2013 Free at last!

There are many people who are in bondage today, slaves of their own making.  Some are in bondage to their own bigotry, while others are in bondage to their own bitterness.  Hatred is the chain that binds.  Love is the key to unlock the chains of bondage.  I have known people of various races who are racist toward others who are not of their particular race.  This sort is often based on ignorance, but is sometimes grounded in hatred.  Either way, the racist views only enslave the one who holds them.  This person has willingly deprived themselves of sharing in the brotherhood of mankind.  Freedom from racism allows love to reign supreme and joy to enter in.  While we cannot change the attitudes of others, we can work on our own.  Some are so eaten up with bitterness they are blind to loving relationships that are being offered up to them.  These are generally lonely creatures, stuck in a prison of their own making.  Instead of looking for opportunities to share the love of Christ, these often seek out ways to destroy another person’s character, saying hurtful things and severing ties.  Their world is a dark dungeon, shut off from the world of reality.  While there may be a basis for the bitterness, the only result coming from harboring bitterness is enslavement of the worst order.

Some are under the wrong impression that bondage through bigotry is confined to the white races.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  I have known bigoted people from nearly every race.  In fact, I would venture to say that bigotry is part of the human condition.  We inherited it at the fall.  Satan appealed to Adam and Eve’s bigotry in the temptation.  He told them that they could be elevated above others if they were to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  Instead of being content with the station in life God had given them, they were tempted to desire more, to become something they were not intended to be, elevated above God.  And, this elevation came at the expense of damaging their relationship with God.  After succumbing to the temptation, Adam and Eve found themselves in bondage.  This was dramatically demonstrated when their son, Cain, sought to elevate himself above his brother, Abel.  His bigotry resulted in the murder of his brother, and the murder has continued on throughout all generations.  Jesus equated calling your brother a derogatory name with murder in the Sermon on the Mount.

So, since we are afflicted to some degree with this bondage, how can we be set free?  The answer is simple – not easy, but simple.  We put into practice to two most important commandments, love God and love each other.  We make a conscious decision to love God unconditionally, and then do the same for all humans.  We love because He first loved us.  We love because we choose to love.  No one can take that from us.  It is ours to give, regardless of what the other person is or does.  Their wrong attitudes or beliefs can have no power over us, because we are free at last!  My grandfather was one of the most bigoted people I have known.  He was born and raised in Texas in the early part of the twentieth century.  His racist views came from ignorance.  When I was a teenager, we would have red-faced, shouting matches over racism.  I hated his racist views, but I loved him.  There was nothing I could do to free him from his bondage, but I did not have to join him in that bondage.  Am I totally free from bigotry?  I would like to think so.  However, as with every aspect of my life, I am not perfect.  But, I am choosing to love others, whether or not they love me.  Martin Luther King, Jr. looked forward to a day when all of God’s children would be free at last.  He knew that we had not yet attained that lofty goal, but he knew which road we must travel if we are ever to reach it.  His message was one of love and peace.  I pray that we all share his goal.