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Key Bible Verse: Dear children, let's not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions. (1 John13:18). Bonus Reading: John 13:34-35

Whenever Mike heard that Jesse, an older black man, needed an oil change or other service to his car, he'd drive over and work under the hood. Mike, who is white, didn't know that Jesse had fought systematic discrimination for years and struggled with his attitude toward white people.

An African-American friend invited Jesse to our church without telling him that it's  multicultural. On the Sunday of his first visit, one of my associate pastors, a Caucasian man, was preaching. Jesse turned around and walked out. "I have to work with white people," he told a buddy. "The last place I want to be with them is in church."

But over several weeks, Jesse's attitude shifted. The pain of discrimination was slowly healing, he confided to me, because of people like Mike. Now, when angered by the "white system" at work, he reminds himself that not all whites are that way.

Jesse no longer needs the traditional black church to comfort him or fan the flames of his anger. He's become an elder at our church and a proponent of racial reconciliation.

—David A. Anderson in Gracism

My Response: What gesture could I make to someone to ease the pain of discrimination for him?

Thought to Apply: Eleven o'clock Sunday morning is still the most segregated hour of the week, and I don't know that anybody can be self-righteous about church integration. —Andrew Young (politician)

Adapted from Gracism (InterVarsity, 2007) by permission.

Copyright © 2009 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.
Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.

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Prayer for the Week

Lord, give me a fresh appreciation for the diverse richness of the Church you are forming.

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