#whatmatters

#whatmatters

Thursday, July 14, 2016
Megann Graf

What if all these hashtags are all wrong. 

What if everyone is focusing on the wrong thing. 

#blacklivesmatter, #copsmatter, #alllivesmatter…

What about #Jesusmatters?

I suppose that might be the most scandalous one of all.  Many would like us to leave God out of it.  Why can’t we just be civil human beings?  Why can’t we just learn to love and respect others?  Why can’t we listen to each other, really listen, and not judge or debate back?

Why?  Well, maybe because our focus is all on us.  Maybe because we want to think all of us matter more than the One who created us.  Maybe we have two ridiculous candidates for president because we have lost sight of what really matters.  (sidebar, sorry).  I see so many people searching to make sense out of this violence in our country, looking for an answer to all of the senseless acts of hatred.  But, we keep looking for this answer, this solution, to come from a person.  The problem is, that we don’t want to even mention the name of the only person who can give us that answer.  Jesus.

We open our eyes up to watch horrific things on television and to follow disheartening and disgusting things on social media.  We open our ears to listen to debates and choose sides, podcasts on injustice, and music that speaks lies.  When will we decide to open our hearts to the One who sees all this, hears all this and knows everything?  When will we listen to the One who tells us that there will surely be troubles in this world, but to take heart, for He has overcome the world.  (John 16.33b) When will we trust the One who tells us that He does not condemn us, and that we should not condemn others?  When will we look to the One who gives us the definition of love?  The One who sacrificed His life to atone for all of our sins.  Everyone’s sins.  Whether black or white, Indian or Hispanic, Muslim or Jew.  It’s not easy to hear that your eternity with Jesus may be spent walking alongside a horrific murderer who turned his life over to Jesus.  There won’t be any segregation in heaven.  We will all be there, sinners saved by grace, none of us deserving of our new home.  Living in a new heaven and a new earth no longer ruled by darkness, but ruled by Light. 

Jesus is the only answer.  He is the only solution.  He is the only one who loves us all the same.  No bias, no slant, no agenda. 

#Jesusmatters