A Matter of the Heart

The subject of White Supremacy, Racism, and the events from Charlottesville have been a huge topic on social media the last week or so. On Friday my husband and I went to our state fair which of all things for me to see was good ol' country boys walking around in Confederate flag shirts, and or a stars and bars bandanna around their cowboy hat. Seeing that symbol took me back to the years I lived in southern Virginia and the hate people would spew at colored men, women, and children using the stars and bars.
Since Friday night I've been wrestling with the thought that as a country we can remove the statues such as General Lee, ban the Confederate flag, call the horse that USC uses at their football games racist because the name of the horse is the same as General Lee's horse. We can do all of that, however, will that change anything? Will that stop small minded people from being hateful to another because they are different whether in race, who they love, beliefs, and anything else a small minded person disagrees with. After some serious soul searching, I've come to the conclusion that we can remove everything that represents a painful time in American history, but sadly it won't keep anyone from being cruel. Treating another human being with respect and dignity is a matter of the heart, not of the mind. What I think about someone or something usually comes from my experiences and how I was raised. Realizing that another person deserves the same respect, and human decency comes from my heart, and until people receive a heart transplant they will continue to be self-centered, and hateful to anyone different, which in my opinion is sad.

God has a few things to say about our heart.

Proverbs 27:19
As water reflects the face,
so one’s life reflects the heart.

Jeremiah 17:9-10
The heart is deceitful above all things
and beyond cure.
Who can understand it? “I the Lord search the heart
and examine the mind,
to reward each person according to their conduct,
according to what their deeds deserve.”

Proverbs 4:23
Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.

Romans 12:2
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

From the beginning of time God knew that our humanness would desire to control our own lives and outcome. He also knew that in our humanness we would be hurtful and mean. Which is why he talks about our heart and uses examples like David, Abraham, Jacob, Sarah, and a slew of others to show us how horrible the human spirit can be, and how only He can change the heart to see your neighbor as a person regardless of the differences.

Mark 12:30-31
30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”