One of my prayers and hopes for Harbor Community Church folks, as we pursue diversity in our relationships, is that we would be a people quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. I ripped that off from the book of James, chapter 1, FYI. As a white person (although technically I am 1/32 Cherokee and my kids are 1/8 Pamunkey Indian) I really believe that we have the moral responsibility to listen more carefully to the African-American, or any other minority’s experience. But as Christians, we ought to be the first people who consider the cries of the minority instead of blowing them off as though there just couldn’t be a problem. I mean, we’ve had integrated schools in our county since 1969 for crying out loud! We’ve moved past that, now that Obama has served two terms as president of the United States.

Martin Fennelly, Tampa area sports reporter, recently shared former Buccaneer Coach Tony Dungy’s experience of targeted racism, simply for driving in the “wrong” neighborhood (even though he actually was in the “right” neighborhood). Unfortunately the link doesn’t work at this moment.

And unfortunately his experience was far from unique. I read of more and more Black folks having to tell their children, the need to take all kinds of safety precautions, even when innocent, should they find themselves pulled over. My Dad never told me such things. He never needed to.

So I want to share my quite different experience of being pulled over while a senior in high school. My blue Volvo 240 DL (the ultimate box on wheels) puttered along with a full compliment of passengers one Friday morning. We were normally pretty close to being late each day and I had made up my mind that I was going to beat that upcoming red light or go down swinging. I sorely underestimated the speed of my car and ran through quite a “stale” red light.

The red from the light soon blended into the flashing white and red on top of a police car. So I decided to make one the dumber decisions of my life. Let’s lose him! I tried to evade the cop, taking an immediate right turn, then left, then right, and so forth. Again I had misjudged either my driving skills or the speed of my car-probably a little of both-and those lights appeared right behind me in no time.

At this point, I was freaked out. Big time. I pulled over, and when I stopped the car, I proceeded to open the door. The officer yelled, “Stay in your car!” So I stayed, and up he walked towards an aghast and most likely unrecognizable version of myself.

“You wanted for anything?”

“Ummmm……no sir.”

Honestly I can’t remember what he said after that. I didn’t know if I was going to jail; I’m not sure what protocol is on that. I was definitely not in route to my high school, so there went that excuse of missing a turn or other semi acceptable justification.

And then he wrote me a ticket for running a red light. That was it.

It was one of those “that, just, happened” Ricky Bobby type moments. I continue to read and hear stories of ordinary traffic stops gone bad. And I wonder why I didn’t get into more trouble. I can’t prove that I didn’t have a worse experience because I was a white, upper-middle class private school senior. And it was a black cop. But, in light of what I read, listen to, and conversations I’ve had, would this “car chase” have ended differently if I were black? I do wonder.

Nothing can be proved by proposing a hypothetical. That’s not my point. But it’s not abnormal for a black person who has done no wrong, or simply “matches the description” to have an experience far different from mine, whereas I was guilty, and he or she, innocent.

I fear a nation more divided than ever, not just politically, but by race. Not simply those racist and those not, but even by those who would deny any form of racism (because they haven’t personally experienced it) and those who have legitimately been hurt by it. I fear that by refusal to acknowledge that systemic racism can coexist even with a black president, we might just be widening the gap instead of bridging the gap. And Christians have the privilege to act as agents of reconciliation.

Does listening really make a difference? Don’t you enjoy being heard when you experience something unfair? I know I do. I know I don’t like, “Well yeah but, statistically,” or “This person didn’t experience that, so it must not really be a problem.” That response does more damage than we realize.

By the way, I am thankful for law enforcement, recognize their job is one of the hardest, and assume most don’t operate in an unjust way. I just wanted to share how my story ended quite differently and encourage those of us civilians to have a listen-first mentality (not defend-first as is my normal immediate response).

May we listen, learn, and love. I do believe it eventually will make some sort of a difference.

I felt it was time to take my kids through the Back to the Future movies 1-3, so we spent our family movie nights the last month going through these flicks. Of course, time travel necessitated many questions from my 8 and 6 year old boys so we did have to stop, explain, and discuss other issues raised during the films.

During the Back to the Future II, Marty and Doc head to the future in 2015. If you’re not familiar with it, the future looks completely different than our present 2016. Cars are flying, hover-boards are  actually hovering (not rolling like the “hover-boards” we have now), and pizza in a small ball can be zapped into a full pie in seconds.

Now I know that to appear as though one has traveled to the future, he or she must create a future which looks far different than the present: a world where a flying Deloreon blends in with other flying cars.

But I wonder the director at that time, expected a world so much different, so much better than the world we live in today. Or if he just wanted to depict a world much different, better than what he might have expected. A world we have progressed so far much. Was he too optimistic about progress?

I don’t know which is which. If you think about it, we did fly in the early 1900’s and then went to space in the 60’s. That’s quite a bit of progress in a short amount of time.

But I think more and more people would do well to at least consider Blaise Pascal’s greatness and wretchedness principle. He postulates that Christianity gives the most accurate depiction of humanity, based upon the extreme knowledge and public good man is capable of, and yet also the extreme depravity and evil of which he is capable. Great and wretched.

In humanity, we see amazing technology and medical advances, as well as catastrophic evil perpetrated by even the most “civilized.” In a world where social media is so pervasive (I was even able to connect with Cade Carney a Christian running back from Wake Forest on twitter), we struggle to have an honest conversation, much less a relationship, with people who differ from us and actually listen to each other. Wasn’t WWII good enough to extinguish this narrative of progress that we are simply getting better and better, and the world with us?

Whether or not you believe Pascal’s conclusions in regards to Jesus, I do think it wouldn’t hurt to consider that we haven’t progressed nearly as far as we’d have liked.

Why not? Both sides of the aisle would point fingers at each other. One side wants to return to greatness (although I believe we’d do well to consider racism not just in individual terms but in systems). Another side believes we are heading toward an even greater reality, but that we need to embrace secular humanism, and move beyond the shackles of religious dogma-even though it was first through religion that people agreed folks did have rights. Backwards thinkers….

If Obama just years ago opposed gay marriage, and yet now celebrates the Supreme Court decision to legislate it, what freedoms or oppression will we see in 30 years? Is that not a concern from those embracing this narrative of progress?  Will it be flying cars type change or the difference in cars from 1985 to now?

In a period of such divisiveness, maybe a little more critique and affirmation would do us all some good. In my opinion, Americans would do well to be more critical of their past instead of simply “making it great again.” In the same light, I think we’d do well to be more appreciate of it’s past, and not ignore the fact that the notion of human rights came to us from “religious” folks, and not Darwin. According to leaked emails from Clinton aides, what progress actually looks like to them, is eradicating any religious, or specifically Catholic thought from leaders.

Regardless of what happens in the next 30 years-whether the future is as different than Back to the Future II or looks more similar to where we are now-as a Christian, I’m not fearful that anything has taken God by surprise. His power and goodness have made sure that His promise to build His church stands sure. If I care more about His Kingdom, than my own, then I’ll be just fine. You will too.

A woman in our church just bought a new house. As soon as my son caught word of this new purchase, his first question (and I’ve never met a child or adult who asks more questions than my 8 year old) was, “So when are you going to host a community group?”

How cool is that? He has associated home ownership with hosting a community group. It’s kind of like the GEICO commercials: “It’s what you do.” You have a home, so the question is not “if,” but “When, are you going to host?”

But unlike a GEICO motivation: “it’s what you do,” we see a different motivation from scripture: the gospel. When God calls Abram in Genesis 12, he very clearly claims that He will bless Abram. But what is often lost (particularly by those who know it’s there) is the purpose for that blessing. There’s a “so that” I often ignore practically, despite recognizing it’s presence and theological importance. Abraham, as he later became known, was blessed SO THAT he would be a blessing to others, and that all the families of the Earth would be blessed through Him. So Israel was designed to be a blessing for the nations. It failed, but Jesus did what Israel did not do, and now by faith in Him, that blessing comes to us.

⁷ Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. ⁸ And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify^[c] the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” ⁹ So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

So blessing others is not just what we do, but it’s who we are, and why we do we what we do. Because of Jesus, Christians are a blessed people. But we are blessed for a purpose. The blessing of faith in Christ-along with any blessing that comes down from above- is not an ends but a means to an end: to bring praise to God and love/bless others. So if we consider our identity as a blessed people of God, then that becomes the lens through which we view our physical blessings such as houses, apartments, boats, cars, computers, or any kind of skill.

I’m not saying that everyone (who has room) has to host a community group. Some are more gifted in hospitality than others. And I’m not painting myself as a model of hospitality. We had neighbors over to play and swim this Sunday, and one stayed to watch football. But I didn’t want to share my pizza (I don’t mind sharing the pool), so my first reaction was to scold my younger son for inviting his friend to stay for dinner without first asking me. That was my first reaction, when my kid wanted to bless another. So I’ve got a ways to go!

But if your identity is truly in Christ, you’re going to begin to ask yourself (or ask others to help you discern), how may I use any blessing God has bestowed upon me for the blessing of others?  The cool part is that a blessing shared, brings joy in Christ, while a blessing hoarded often indicates that we’ve been seeking a vain idol and not Jesus.