Beyond ColorblindSample

Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

Jesus wants to sanctify the space of your ethnic identity, show you that you are made in the image of God, and heal you of brokenness so that your ethnicity becomes the vehicle of mission to a broken and chaotic world. 

Regardless of age, gender, ethnic background, or class, it’s essential to recognize that we each have an ethnic identity. Evangelist Dr. James Choung offers us a helpful framework for considering our ethnic journeys in order to better understand the gospel message:

• We are designed for good: We must recognize the beauty inherent in each of our ethnic identities.
• We are damaged by evil: We must recognize the effects of sin, brokenness, idolatry, prejudice, and racism in each of our ethnicities.
• We are restored for better: We must invite Jesus to show us what is beautiful and what he wants to heal in our ethnic identities.
• We are sent together to heal: We must invite others to drink of the living water of Jesus so that many more can hear the good news and share that news in witness, justice, and reconciliation.

We are trapped behind the futility of colorblindness or the helpless impotence of our good intentions unless we choose to recognize that our ethnicities are the sacred vessels in which God wants to bring healing and redemption. We cannot be sent out with the gospel of grace unless we experience that for ourselves.

To those that would try to avoid the topic of ethnic identity, stigmatize it as a liberal agenda, or succumb to despair, the powerful counter-response is that ethnic identity redemption and reconciliation are at the heart of the gospel. God created us for good, but cultural idolatry and racial brokenness tore apart our intended multiethnic community. 

Jesus came to restore us, redeem us, and release us for his kingdom mission, not in spite of our ethnicities, but in our ethnic identities. 

If you know your own story as well as the story of the people you want to reach, and you humbly share a relevant gospel, you are a powerful witness. So, in the name of hope, learn and own your ethnic identity story. Jesus amplifies the beauty and excavates the brokenness in each of our stories and unleashes those redeemed stories to better share the gospel.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,
    I know that full well.

My frame was not hidden from you
    when I was made in the secret place,
    when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.

Adapted from Beyond Colorblind: Redeeming Our Ethnic Journey. Copyright ©2017 by Sarah Shin. Used by permission. For more information, please visit http://www.ivpress.com/beyond-colorblind.