LEVEL PLAYING FIELD

Last week we were in Little Rock and got to take a grandgirl to her soccer game.  When we arrived on the hill, the area was working alive with kids running in every direction on a myriad of fields.

Caroline's parents had given us a piece of essential information:  FIELD #3.

In life, it's also important to know which field we play on.  Lately the news is chocked full of hateful racism.  That demeaning meanness makes everyone WEARY.  It is bone-tiring to hear, especially when we thought it had been dealt with in the last election.  Progress, smogress.

As a reaction, Facebook posts are popping up of sweet babies captioned with statements that say children have to be taught to hate.  Is that what God says?

Perhaps it is helpful to begin by remembering our playing field.  We all (every living, breathing soul on Planet Earth) is on a level field called SIN.

It might be unpopular to say, but if a baby was not taught to hate, the baby would still exalt himself over others.

People (and babies) may not be a "Sterling" example, but when we prefer ourselves over others, we are showing one of the faces belonging to pride.  Pride exalts and racism is just an exaggerated category of pride.

Babies don't have to be taught to assert their will or prefer themselves.  That comes naturally.  Ever see a baby take a toy?  Want it...take it...MINE!  Babies are precious and cuddly, but they do remind us of our fallen condition that prefers self.

The antitoxin for that is Jesus.  He neutralizes my need to make more of myself, and gives me the "energy to AND want to" to make more of Him and less of me.  He gives me a regard for others simply because they are made in His image.  Some days that works better than others...not because He is lacking, but because my cooperation is sketchy.

So when the Clippers owner degrades others, which law could we write to keep him from doing that?  We have punitive laws that dissuade, but there is no law which overrides human will.  Now you're talking about God's business.  He's the only One who is able to change Donald Sterling's heart.  Or mine.

But have you noticed how the world jumps in?  Everyone loves to point and cluck about how awful the other guy is.  He's such a racist!  Yes.  But so am I.

Do I think of myself as better than others?  I have preferred myself before and I will in the future...no matter how repugnant it looks to me in my rational moment.  Preferring self just keeps popping up.  Undealt with, it grows.  Dealing with my selfishness means remembering that Christ died for the one who cuts me off in traffic, the person whose needs sap your patience, the one with body odor you must sit next to @the Revenue office, and the person under-educated but over-opinionated.  Sometimes they are one at a time and sometimes they are clumped together in a group, but when I regard myself as better or cleaner or more empathetic or smarter...that is self-exaltation which pushes another down.  God abhors pride by the teaspoon or by the boatload.

So would all the NBA players who bravely now complain about their owner, please tell me...is this the first inkling you had of Sterling's belief system?  Did you trust him after the 2009 NAACP Lifetime Achievement Award?  (The NAACP quickly cancelled the same award they were about to give him for 2014.)  Surely you knew of his court conviction as a slum lord, so did you play for a racist knowingly?  Then you prove money talks and your standards are lacking.  If you were truly interested in cleaning up the NBA, there are plenty of lifestyle issues that also cry for attention in your own backyard.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was wise when he helped us aspire to the day when all men would be judged by the content of their character.  Those heavenly words lift our heads to a better place now, but ultimately to a future day.  

In THAT DAY, pride will no longer have sway over anyone.  And in the meantime, He gives us our time on Earth so the sanctified can "work" at hearing the soft voice of the Spirit wooing them back into fellowship.  That way, there won't be as much changing for the Lord to do in us when we see Him.

The administration of that "program" isn't sourced out of Washington.

Remember the Bible story about the woman caught in adultery who was about to be stoned?  Whatever Jesus said to her accusers, one at a time they dropped their stones and meekly walked away.  Before you pick up a stone for Donald Sterling, examine your heart carefully for pride.  You might just squash the notion that only others are self-exalters.

We cannot legislate racism away...or just "wait for the old guys to die".  Pride will always be on Earth as part of the curse.  We deal with it through the antidote for pride, the Heart Changer who offers a future and a hope, one heart at a time.  Thank you, Lord, that Jesus saves us from ourselves.