Who Are You? 

When conversations about racial tensions, injustices, prejudices, or biases come up, it tends to raise the level of sensitivity of everyone involved in the conversation. 

Most of us have some level of personal connection to this topic, and unfortunately, it's easy to become defensive and closed-off to anyone who disagrees with our personal beliefs. 

For the next three days, we want to explore the sensitive topic of racial injustice with the goal of better understanding our own hearts, the hearts of those who don’t look or think just like us, and God’s heart. 

Culture tells us we must strive to understand those who are different from us, and that isn’t a bad thing. That’s actually a necessary thing! However, it’s not the first step in ending racial injustice. 

Step one is not understanding others — it’s understanding yourself. 

Who are you? What experiences have shaped who you are? What voices have shaped what you think and believe? Why do you feel the way you feel? 

These are all great questions to ask yourself because you can’t fix external problems until you address your own internal prejudices. You have to know what’s in your own heart before you can navigate what’s in someone else’s heart. 

When you understand your own humanity — your beliefs, flaws, feelings, and all the factors that makeup who you are and how you think — you can better understand and empathize with the humanity of others.

We have to know ourselves at the most basic level. In Psalm 139:23-24, David asked God to search his heart. He understood that God knew him much better than he knew himself. As you take a closer look at what’s going on inside of you, invite God into the process. Use David’s wisdom and ask God to show you where your thinking doesn’t align with His truth.  

Take time today to read through the scriptures listed above. Ask God to open your eyes to who you are to Him and how much He loves you because knowing who you are to God is critical to know who others are to God.