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On Sunday evening, I had an opportunity to take part in something that I truly believe will be life changing. An area young adult ministry called Merge, which combines young adults from different churches into one group built around Christ held a “Unity for Peace” service. It was the idea of a young man named Andrew Fink, who was s heartbroken by what he sees in the world that he felt pushed to do his part. He talked to the leader of this group, Sonny Johnson, who told him that feeling bad was good, but urged him to put his feelings into positive actions.

What came out of this was a service filled with people of all color, and police officers. There was high energy praise, intimate worship, and in between, community leaders spoke on different things, and there was also a short panel discussion with community law enforcement officers and Andrew, as a young African American man, who recounted his own instance of police harassment. In that, there was no accusation made. It was just honest talk, and the picture above is one of my favorite parts of that night. As a community of believers, we surrounded those police officers and their families and prayed for them. There was no division. No pretense. We simply wanted to cover these men and women in prayer, speak blessing, wisdom, knowledge, and favor over their lives.

An area Pastor, Chris Jones, spoke on reconciliation.

2 Corinthians 5:18-20- “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has  committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors…”

Something that Pastor Chris said has haunted my heart since that moment. I didn’t write it down just as he said it, but here is the gist of it.

“Before God made you Black, White, Asian, or Hispanic, he made you His son or daughter. Before He made you a teacher, police officer, businessman, or trash collector, He made you a son or daughter. Before He made you an American, Italian, African, or Brazilian, He made you a son or daughter. He made us His first, and then added those secondary things. We have to quit identifying by our secondary characteristic, and identify first by who God made us. HIS!”

He also said one other thing. He said that reconciliation hurts, but it is the recognition that even while people have hurt us, the Father’s love compels us to move past that, because God doesn’t intend for us to live life apart from those He places around us. So basically, I have to understand that while my brother or sister has wounded me deeply, I can’t possibly every hope to live a life of fulfillment WITHOUT having that person in my life! I have to LOVE.

Reconciliation is not pretty. It hurts. It is uncomfortable. It always holds a beautiful outcome. Also, reconciliation is not simply a horizontal process. We must be reconciled vertically, that is, to God, first, before we can ever hope to be fully reconciled to our brothers and sisters. We don’t have a choice. Christ has entrusted us to the mission of reconciling. That is our calling. That is our mission. With everything happening in our world, the church (people) can NO LONGER hide in the sand. If there is to be change, it has to start with US!

My heart has been breaking constantly since Sunday evening. There is work to be done. We have been commissioned to bring change.

Time to strap up and get to work.