Inadequate? Yes I am!

I just finished reading John Perkins' amazing autobiography "Let Justice Roll Down." Here is the description on the front of the book:

"His brother died in his arms, shot by a deputy marshal. He was beaten and tortured by the sheriff and state police. But through it all he returned good for evil, love for hate, progress for prejudice and brought hope to black and white alike."

As he explains in the book, God has filled the hole that our flesh wants to fill with bitterness: "Ours is not a story of bitterness -- it is a story of love and the triumphs of the God of love. But it is a story carved out of the realities of violence and poverty, ending not in some sugarcoated sense of brotherly love but the deep conviction that only the power of Christ's crucifixion on the cross and the glory of His resurrection can heal the deep racial wounds in both black and white people in America."

What he experienced, not only in being falsely arrested and beaten, but growing up in a sharecropping family in the rural south, is simply amazing. I am assuming that much of his story is actually similar to the struggles many other blacks had to deal with growing up in the deep south, his reaction to that hate and prejudice is what is extraordinary. My own level of experience with different cultures, which is nearly nothing, makes me feel completely inadequate in my ability to reach out to African-Americans during our journey. Coming from a mono-racial, and mono-linguistic community, what do I have to offer? In many people's eyes -- nothing.

But that is exactly the point - I don't have anything to offer. It is "Christ in me" who offers something by the way of my flesh. I don't have to do anything except be obedient to his calling and reach out my hand to those in need. The crucified Christ will dole out the mercy and grace. I've never spoken to John Perkins, but I'm pretty sure he would admit that the feelings of forgiveness and grace he expressed to the Mississippi State Police after his beating at the hands of these men didn't come from some really nice place in his heart, rather they came from Christ, they welled up inside of his soul from the overflow of Christ's love.

Don't get me wrong; I know that I need to continue to learn about other people and cultures. I need to be sensitive to the hurt that white America has contributed to others in this nation. I need to keep reading and processing the thoughts and perspectives of African-Americans like Perkins, but building relationships with people who might happen to have a different skin pigmentation is only going to be effective if I let "Christ in me" overcome the power of hatred, and prejudice, and heal the wounds of racism by showing His love, and His grace through me. That's it, the simple Gospel. Am I, in all my whiteness, inadequate to bridge the racial divide and make meaningful relationships with others? Yes, thankfully, I am!