Yesterday felt like it was a great day in America…for whites. When you looked at the inauguration, it was as if the podium was divided. On one side, you had former President Obama and on the other side, President Trump. For those of color, it seemed as if black power had surrendered its power and for the next four years it would be subject to white power. This seemed to be the sentiment as white America looked on proudly; smugly side-eyeing black America. One could be disheartened if you kept your eyes on skin. Which is why God reminded me of favor. Favor and Expectations
I’m presently doing a study on favor and interestingly enough, the one minister who is world renown on the subject, happens to be a white man, Dr. Jerry Savelle. In his book, ‘The Favor of God’, he made the following statement; ‘...the reason so many of God’s people do not walk at a higher level of favor…is that they can’t get past…their upbringing…culture…and standards of living.’ As a woman of color, you could almost become offended. In that, here’s yet another white person saying the reason we don’t have anything is because we were raised wrong and have low standards. But when I pushed that aside and asked myself if there was any truth to his statement, I came to a painstaking truth. One of the reasons it has been difficult for me to be favor minded is because I’m black. Meaning, there’s always a level of expectation to be mistreated. I expect discrimination. I expect rejection. I expect to be overlooked, overworked, and underpaid. It comes with the color. And then I saw the spirit of what Dr. Savelle was trying to say. He was saying that even though we are ‘God’s people’, those expectations have hurt and crippled us. Because unfortunately, those expectations are cleverly disguised as faith.
Faith in Discrimination
A simple definition for faith is ‘high expectation.’ When Jesus told the disciples, ‘…Have faith in God’, He was letting them know that they could put their confidence in God and as such, they could expect for Him to do what they were believing for. Unfortunately, as a people, we’ve mistakenly placed our faith in racism. Jesus said, ‘…whoever says to this mountain (of inequality, injustice, mistreatment), ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.’ There’s no doubt in our hearts that we will be mistreated. That’s what we expect and unfortunately, we have had what we said. Which means we’ve inadvertently had faith in discrimination. And when it happens, we aren’t surprised. But why? We expected it. We believed for it because we’ve put our faith in it and not in God. An example is when our men enter into the judicial system. They expect punishment and not mercy. And unfortunately, receive harsh sentences as a result. Some would say this is just the reality. True. But this is why Jesus came and instructed us to have faith in God and in His ability to move the mountain of injustice. Instead, we’ve sung songs about going up on the rough side, when in reality, we should have been speaking to the mountain of discrimination and racism and expecting it to get out of our way. The Spiritual Mountain of Discrimination Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. knew there was more to racism than just the color of our skin, Remembering first that he was a man of God, we must allow ourselves to understand that as such, he understood the spiritual connotations behind it. God allowed Dr. King to go up to the mountain. That was for his generation. They did their part and now it’s time for ours to take what they’ve done and do ours. Our part is to have faith in God, recognize and speak to spirit behind the mountain of inequality and expect God’s favor.
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