OVERCOMING DISCRIMINATION

It happened again, as it so often does. As I woke up from a sleep, God brought me an answer to a problem I’ve tried to solve for years: How to overcome discrimination towards people who are different.

“It’s all about love,” he whispered in my ear. “As simple as that. Love is the answer.” But how can we help people who harbour hatred towards others change that hatred to love?

I have for many years tried to overcome an injustice that has bothered me to no end. If you know me at all you will know what I’m talking about. But I’ve been told by people close to me that everyone is sick of hearing about it so I’ll refrain from giving the specifics here.

In January I’ll be launching a new book online. Justice for All is about a dozen important individuals in history who overcame great injustices. They fought slavery, poverty, women’s rights, antisemitism, racism, and more. All of these represent different form of discrimination.

When I awoke to this message, it all became clear. Discrimination is simply a form of hatred for those different from yourself. It’s an inability for people to accept each other. And how ugly that hatred is! How great the pain it causes!

The answer is to find a way to turn that hatred into love.

Jesus showed us how. He showed us how love can conquer all. If we could only see people who differ from ourselves as the neighbours we have been commanded to love.

Jesus showed how it’s possible to love—even those who seem most repulsive in the eyes of the world. He showed how love could overcome hatred. It’s only through such love that discrimination can be overcome.

God can help us learn to feel such love. It’s through him that we can access it.

Ask God to fill your heart with his incomprehensibly great love. Even if at first you don’t understand what that love is like, just the asking will bring a knowing.

Show that new love you now have inside you to those in your community, and especially to those who are different from yourself. Get to know them. There are bound to be many things you have in common.

Not only that, but in getting to know those who are different from yourself, you may gain a priceless new perspective on the world you would never have found otherwise. It will add richness to your life.

marja