I want to share with you something a friend posted on Face Book. “Trying to bring up my past to harm me is like trying to burglarize my old home. I don’t live there anymore.” All of us have things in our past that we regret and things we remember fondly. My personal history, and the history of our nation for that matter, cannot be changed or erased; but we need to use them wisely.
Personally, I concentrate on the good things in my past for encouragement and use the bad things to remind me of what to avoid. As a Christian, the Holy Spirit helps me with that process. He reminds me of those things for which I have been forgiven so I don’t continue to beat myself up about them. Then He encourages me to do better with His help. The emphasis is on using my past experiences to make my present and future brighter and more pleasing to God.
Nationally, however, some people are “offended” by parts of our nation’s history and want to tear down statues and monuments and erase them from history books. Ironically, some of those same people favor teaching Critical Race Theory in our public schools, which highlights all of the offenses in our nation’s past that were racially motivated. I’ve seen a photo that was labeled “CRT Lesson #1”. It was an actual photo of a lunch counter in the 1950s or early 1960s with a teenage girl with dark skin seated at the counter surrounded by teens with lighter skin shouting at her. One teenage boy was pouring a drink on her. It obviously happened and might be a topic of discussion; but the lesson for the students was this; “Your grandparents identify with one of these two groups, and have handed down their values. Take all the time you need with this.”
Being 78 years old, I’m labeled with those grandparents who identify with one side in the photo. The problem is the assumption that my skin color means I must identify with the teen mob. I never even thought of participating in such horrible behavior and I actually supported the Civil Rights Movement as a teenager myself from the mid-1950s to early 1960s. I actually identify with the victim and so would my grandchildren, if I had been blessed with any. Will that be allowed in that classroom? The course is obviously designed to divide the students by race with the lighter skinned student as oppressor and the darker skinned student as victim. False on both counts in most cases today!
If I were discussing that photo with students today, I would point out how far we have come in the right direction since that photo was taken. We can all peacefully eat in the same restaurant together; no oppressors or victims involved. Even the skin color of our server doesn’t really matter. Isn’t that wonderful? Isn’t that the way it should be? Christians should never judge or be judged by the past. We don’t live there anymore. We are each who we are today – children of God. We must not allow misuse of the past to harm or divide us. Let’s work together using our past, good and bad, to make our present and future brighter and more pleasing to God.