We should probably tie up some loose ends from the last day or so. My blog posting has been fast and furious since Monday. My youngest is home with the upper respiratory infection. He is snoozing now but he just does not feel good. He starts antibiotics tomorrow. The bad part of this is my work is juggled between watching him or talking to doctors. The good part of it is that I totally cleaned house on two rooms that were in dire need. At least there is some sense of accomplishment with this.

My thoughts keep returning to both MLK day and the Inauguration. Whatever follows now is completely my view. This post speaks for no one but myself. These ideas are the result of my experience and my education. Perhaps there is no better way to say it than to just say it. Racism still runs rampant in our world. That is no great breakthrough for you but do we really grasp what that means? Racism is not just a southern issue. It resides in every state of our union. The question is who is racist and why. It is not merely a black/white problem. In our country it involves all the ethnic groups that make up our great land. Do not let anyone tell you that it doesn't happen up north or out west or on the east coast. It does happen everywhere.

My main idea is that it is still part of the whole outcome of when Adam and Eve blew it. It takes only a few chapters of Genesis before the seed of the Jewish/Arab conflict is displayed. Today we throw out the term racism to cover almost anything. It is my belief that because of this we will lose the sense of how ugly a sin it is. Please don't even imagine that I am immune to this sin. There are no doubt dark corners of my heart where it resides. Yet I am grateful for having experienced great friendships with people with a different color than mine. My one hope is that neither of my children will deal with this ugliness in their life. Racism makes us no better than anyone else. It does put us in the need for forgiveness.

I spent much of my growing up years in the company of African-Americans. Most of my teammates on sports teams were black. I sat next to more than a few in high school that were black. Many afternoons after football practice I would drive a truckload of my teammates to their homes way back in the woods of Cass County. Here is where I witnessed the huge difference between their homes and mine. My very first sermon was delivered in the Damascus Baptist Church of Lodi, Texas. As I recalled on Monday, I also spoke one rainy Sunday in one of the historic black congregations of Shreveport. None of this qualifies me to know tons about how it is to be black. It simply lets you know some about my experience there.

It took 100 years after the Civil War for there to be Civil Rights in the United States. Barely sixty years ago a solitary man named Jackie Robinson broke the race barrier in Major League Baseball. Only thirty years ago did black athletes find a welcome in the southern colleges to play football. Yes, I now racism works two ways. But I cannot help but come back to the idea that the cross of our Lord makes us all equal in God's sight. We are all sinners in desperate need of grace. That grace is free to all who respond. Why? Because whether red or yellow or black or white, they are eternally precious in His sight.

Bro. Trey