What’s good people? This blog will be a lil different partly because it’ll be in two parts. The second will be released next week and we will touch on a few different things in it, so let’s dive into it!
Last week my discipler went out into the hood with me to share Christ. This was his first real experience with the ghetto and it was one that we will never forget! Now, this was a profound thing on a number of levels, 1.) my disciple is white! And he’s not just a regular white person he’s as white as it gets! Suburban, proper, man he’s just white! 2.) I have been praying that people (specifically whites as I am in a predominantly white church) would be given the heart and desire to want to understand the hood and to share the love of Christ in the hood.
Well, we hit the block for about 2 1/2 or 3 hours by foot in one of the worst neighborhoods in the city. And my discipler was astounded by the condition of the houses, the cars, the people just loitering and doing nothing. And he asked me if the way things were, (in disarray) were normal. And I answered him yes, in the hood this is normal. For one who lives in a wealthy neighborhood this was humbling and a shocker.
During our time out we had numerous conversations with people that showed him a world he never saw before. One dude we were talking to looked at my discipler as I was talking to him and said to him, “what you smiling at? You happy or something? Is something funny?” And honestly ya’ll I thought he was going to pop off on him, I told him that he was cool he wasn’t the police or anything he was my peoples. Real quick my discipler got to see the hate and tension in the hood towards whites.
Another convo we had with this character was something that’s normal for me, but not for my discipler. The guy kept telling me how I was brain washed by the white man and how Jesus wasn’t my God but the white man’s god. And that we were lost and how sorry he felt for us. And he went into further detail smashing the “white man” in front of my discipler who didn’t take offense. He was cursing him and saying all kinds of racist remarks towards him and my discipler did something that blessed me. He asked the character to help him understand why he felt that way. That was humbling and it was a sign that he cared. Something that is not common from whites in the hood.
Now, I wasn’t glad that he got cursed out or was the target of racist comments but I was glad that he got to experience all of these things. He got to get a better understanding of the hood and this has changed him. You see there is a underlying racism in my city (and America), blacks feel as if the “white man” is out to get them and he owes them something for 400 years of slavery. Whereas whites feel as if blacks are inferior to them and they are lazy and need to get up off of their lazy butts and work and get off the system. I have heard more than one (white) Christian (even a leader!) makes statements about people with food stamps or ones who are on welfare or receive medicaid.
Some remarks were made right in front of me and me feeling ashamed of my circumstance (I do receive food stamps and am no longer ashamed of it!) I didn’t say anything but it offended me. That was nothing but arrogance for one to speak of others in such a way, not having ever walked in their shoes. The thing is this there is pride and arrogance on both sides. But who will be the bigger person and make the first move to humble themselves and reach out.
Certainly not the unbeliever. God forbid! God has given us that responsibility as Christians. We are to go to them with the love and gospel of Jesus Christ. Which is what my discipler was seeking to do, this alone brought a measure of healing to me because all too often I feel as if no one (whites in particular) cares about the hood. They just judge the hood and look down upon the hood.
Well, my discipler told me that God has changed him since then, that when he drives down the road and sees kids from the hood he sees them in a totally different way. And that God has broken his heart for the city. This has been only one of the answers of prayers that I have been praying to God for.
And it has been a sign of hope, that Greater things are yet to come and still to be done in my city!
Stay tuned for part 2 next week.
God is Dope,
Israel
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