The Heart Doesn't Have A Color
It’s February. This is the month when our part of the world puts a big magnifying glass on two things: love, and Black history. In my mind, these two things are interconnected.
My team asked me some important questions earlier this month, and I wanted to share part of my response with the entire Kings Loot fam.
First of all, I want everyone to know that we strive to be an anti-racist company. Racism is real, it’s insidious, it’s not ok, and it needs to be dismantled.
But I would like to take that discussion a step further, if I may.
Racism is an issue… but it’s not the root of the issue. Racism is the fruit of another problem:
Selfishness.
Our culture is infected with the disease of selfishness and of indifference. We are indifferent to the hurt and suffering of others, and we are focused primarily on what will make us the most comfortable.
In doing so, we are not only maintaining cultural sicknesses like racism… we are overlooking the most valuable things that exist on this planet:
Our hearts and souls.
When we look at the issue of racism, we can acknowledge the damage it has done and we can move to dismantle it. We can, and we must.
But I also have to step back and look a little further. Is the core issue racism?
In my estimation… no.
The core issue isn’t racism. It’s the failure to love.
Jesus issued two primary commandments to his followers, and I hold these commandments up as the gold standard for how to conduct my own life.
The first commandment is to love God with everything we are. The second commandment is to love our neighbors as ourselves.
I know that not everyone believes in God, but even if you dismiss the first commandment entirely, you’re left with this idea that we should love our neighbors as ourselves.
Selfishness and indifference indicate an extreme failure to love our neighbors as ourselves.
When we approach the people around us, in the media, on the road, in the government, at the protests, on Twitter, in line… all of it… when we approach EVERYONE offering the kind of love and care that we would prefer to receive if the roles were reversed…
THAT is when we can see true change.
I get a gut-check on this frequently. Am I handling this or that situation with love? Am I looking at the heart of the person or just reacting to the situation? How uncomfortable am I willing to be for the sake of someone else?
In our me-me-me society, we fail to sit back and consider other people.
But the bible says WE are the most valuable thing to God, and I’ve seen this echoed in other religions I’ve studied. The old testament book of Psalms even says we are the crown of God’s creation.
We so easily, so quickly forget this.
We forget to treat each other as inherently valuable. We forget to treat each other with love.
We forget to see each other as being crowned by God. We forget the divine royalty in every other person on this earth.
We forget… because we approach people from our heads.
When we can make the shift and approach people from our hearts, that’s when real change can occur.
We can’t address the issue of racism with our minds. We have to address it with our hearts.
We can engage our minds in the study of history, in the dedicated efforts to listen and understand, in the push to edify those around us who have been torn down, cast aside, and dismissed for centuries.
But we have to come to these discussions and these actions from a place of love, and of understanding that we are all loved… valuable… crowned.
Kings and Queens, you might say.
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