Why The Hell Do You Care?

I am white! Who’d have ever thought that being so is a disadvantage in America? Spending time this week with the kids, I quickly found out that I am not viewed as a friend, an authority figure, or even someone that loves them, but simply another white man.

What we try to do at INTRSCT is teach kids responsibility, respect, and ultimately love. It sounds easy but I don’t think I’ve ever faced a more difficult mission. What happens to children who don’t have loving figures in their lives, especially their homes?

It’s tough to teach someone how to give something they’ve never received.

It’s easy for me to forget the fact that I grew up in a loving home that enable me to succeed. Many of our kids aspire to be “street pharmacist” when they grow up (many start in their early teens). Interesting. When I grew up I wanted to be a professional golfer, a little different than a drug dealer.

So, this brings me back to the question, “why the hell do you care?” That is what I am faced with. “You don’t know me!! You don’t know what it’s like to be me!!” I say to this, “you’re right.” I cannot relate to most, if any, of their family situations. I cannot relate to not having a father around. I cannot relate to taking care of my brothers and sister at the age of 15. So, what am I doing here?


Paul writes this to the Corinthians. “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” Paul said it two thousand years ago. Love Wins!! It’s the greatest thing in this world.

I may go off on a tangent here but please try and follow me.

In college I went through ministry classes and almost finished a ministry major. I don’t discount the tools that I learned in the program, but I do have something to say about what I didn’t learn. I wrote papers and even put together events for students to “experience” God. For some time I thought it was the lights, music, and food that contributed towards people encountering God. Sadly enough, I think I truly believed that. What really, and I mean really, concerns me is that never once can I recall a class or “ministry strategy” that simply involved love.

I challenge you, the church, and most of all myself, to put love first. Is there really a good reason why people are lonely, hurting, homeless, hungry, lost, and suicidal? Well, you can blame it on sin, you can blame it on our schedules, unfortunate situations, and you can even blame it on church obligations, but whatever excuses you find we have a problem on our hands. I don’t know what to do about it; I don’t know whom to talk about it with, and most of all I don’t know what to do with Jesus’ words and life.

I’m sick of my filter. I have been taught, even in my Christian world, to read the Bible in “context.” Obviously that is important considering Jesus said if your eye causes you to sin, gauge it out. Was Jesus serious? I don’t think he was speaking literally or most guys I know, including myself, would be wearing eye patches around. But, when he says, “love your enemies, “ I don’t think he meant we should kill them. Yet, we live in a world where we kill in the name of our God. And we wonder why Iraq and public schools have become war zones that have only worsened.

Could it be that were taking the wrong approach. Maybe, instead of force and death we should try love. That’s scary though. Look at where love put Jesus, on a cross. But if we are truly Christ followers, wouldn’t we then try to imitate our Master?

This is the first time that I have verbally confessed but I have been converted from a Uninformed Republican to a Pacifistic Lover of People. War isn’t the answer. Love is!! Love Wins!! I didn’t mean for this to turn political, but I think it has a lot to do with our mindset as Christians.

I ask the following question out of a sincere honest heart. “How can we be true Christ followers and kill one another?” If I am to be like Christ and, moreover, Christ lives inside me, how can I support death of any kind?

Our freedom as Americans is false. We aren’t free; we kill to keep comfortable in our “blissful“ society. This is bondage. Jesus came to show us how to live and we have formulated our own belief system to support a totalitarianistic society. I am completely at fault and guilty of this mindset.

I challenge you to think about what you believe and what you read, especially when reading the Bible. It will be interesting when we stand before the Lord and realize just how wrong we had things.

So, how do I relate to these African American kids? The only strategy, the only program, the only thing I know to do is try to love them. I can’t relate to their life or circumstances, but I can relate to their human need of love. Love Wins!!! It won in my life, let it win in yours.

Lord, please help!! Help me to have your heart and to love. Help me to love even to the point of death.