The View from My Place – “When Christ is the Focus”

I recall a talk I gave in South Carolina before a gathering of people, none of whom looked like me. Afterwards, a man approached me and surprised me with a strong and affectionate bear hug while passionately whispering in my ear, “You did it! I love you!” I didn’t understand what he meant but in our brief conversation that followed, he disclosed that he had been part of a white supremacist group and the talk I gave had deeply touched him.

My talk was not about race relations; it was my testimony of how I came to know Christ. He had apparently become a Christian recently.

I know in this present climate there are sharp divisions in our politics, even among Christians, and many relationships have been strained and even severed because of those sharp disagreements. But when it comes to Christ, everything changes! When Christ is our focus, barriers are dismantled, defenses are relaxed, love abounds, and a taste of heaven on earth is enjoyed. In that moment, that brother and I sampled what life beyond earth and with the Lord will be like, without the malignancy of “otherness” that plagues our world. It will be a place where Paul’s instruction, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28) will not be just a vision of what can be, or ought to be, but an eternal reality.