Today's devotion is not one of political correctness, or even one of encouragement... instead today we need to take a serious look at our own views, and how we perceive others. While racism is not something we like to talk about, or even think about, it is something that we can ALL fall victim to... regardless of the color of our skin... we all can find ourselves falling to irrational stereotypes or our fears of those things that appear to be different.

What becomes even more dangerous than allowing ourselves to fall victim to these irrational feelings however, is when we try to justify them... when we try to tell ourselves we are right for feeling anger or hatred towards another person simply because of their affiliation with a group, if only by race.

One of my favorite subjects is history, and so today I would like to look back on the facts. I would like to look back and remember the unjust abuse, the physical abuse such as beatings and whippings along with the psychological abuse and humiliation. I would like to look back and remember the abuse we caused, beating to near death... ripping and tearing skin away with each strike of a whip. How we unfairly persecuted, jailed, and even killed the most innocent out of our own prejudice.

I would like to look back, and remember how we nailed this man to the cross, nearly 2000 years ago. How we took God's only son, and mocked Him as we pierced His side or burrowed His head with the crown of thorns... as we cursed Him while ripping the hairs from His beard.

Jesus suffered one of the most inhumane and most merciless punishments of all time for our sin... an innocent man who did nothing wrong except to teach us about God's love. And yet, despite doing all of this, Christ left us with a message of forgiveness. Despite doing this to God, He gave us eternal life with Him. While nailed to the cross, Christ called for our forgiveness.

Today think about how you feel about others, and why you feel that way. Do not limit yourself to race, but think about those who have persecuted you, hurt you... and ask yourself if Christ has forgiven us, should we also forgive them? Should we put aside our pain and anger, to live with the joy and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ?

And above all, we must remember that Christ died for the forgiveness of all, and in Christ there is not race, social status, gender, etc... we are all of one body, one that we are all guilty of betraying. (Galatians 3:28)