When will all the hate stop and the praying for healing begin?

It seems like every day in every city in America there is tragedy as the breaking headline. Our country has become so racially divided that there seems to no longer be any gray. Media outlets and now even your home based bloggers take to the internet to sensationalize a hurting nation. We see headlines like “Charleston church shooting: Without gun control, racism will keep killing black people” and “Obama joins Twitter. Racism quickly follows.” and even more ridiculous headlines than that.

Now I don’t want to be misunderstood, are there racial tensions in this country? Absolutely. Does it have anything to do with gun control, the President, the economy, our school systems and whatever flavor of the week is being sold to justify it? No!

Our schools are full of children that are being raised by the teachers not their parents. Grandparents fill in when the parents disappear on their own accord, are in jail or worse. The teachers are limited by lawyers, unions and the government where they simply teach to the test rather than educate our youth. While they are babysitting our next generation, our current generation is falling apart.

Every time something happens, people are quick to play judge, jury and at times executioner. We label tragedies as ‘hate crimes’ or racist’ without knowing the full story. Just this morning I wept as I read the hate mongering headlines and comments about the shooting in Charleston last night.

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Everyone that is a Christian understands the Cross …right? Since Pentecostal Sunday there has been a journey towards the Cross that has shaken my core into a new brokenness.  We, as Christians make the sign of the cross at church, when we pray all without thinking of its power.  The Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the Spirit that crosses our hearts and sets us on fire. Spending a few days in the hills of Georgia serving thousands of other Christians spreading His love and word at our annual trip to AtlantaFest at Stone Mountain can bring anyone to their knees.  Between the Christian artists, speakers and guests there were moments of profound brokenness and healing that all were directed toward the Cross.  Through pain, joy, tears and repenting, lives were changed and redemption found. Starting with singer Matt Maher on opening night describing how broken people can be saved by the healing power of Christ and how broken hearts can be mended by taking our sins to the Cross.  The theme continued throughout the festival, from artist like R3D, Thousand Foot Krutch, Rhett Walker Band to Kari Jobe there were four days of phenomenal worship and testimonies of healing. Professor and Apologist Ergun Caner broke it all down in a real ‘honest’ way describing how a Muslim was saved by one person that showed him the way to the Cross.

There is no end to amazing grace… how simple words can calm an anxious heart. It is amazing how the words of one song that many people hear and dismiss as just another song can have such an incredible impact on someone else’s life. For the past few weeks I have been going through an undisclosed health complication that has required weekly visits to a doctor across town. Knowing what I do about the music industry specifically the rotations that radio stations use when playing their A,B, and C’s the odds that I would hear the same song about the same time during the same trip each week are well pretty phenomenal. In the middle of the storm I am holding on Click To Tweet Granted there are certain songs that get heavier rotation due to popularity, ratings, etc. but for the song to land in the same five-minute window  of each weekly journey when the appointments may have been the same time but my arrival differed is proof that even in the era of pre-programmed air play there are bigger controls being used.