Do you care more about the injustice ...than about investing time and effort into achieving steps to attempt to continue to make better choices. And are those better choices, our choices ...or what God would haave us choose??

I worked in a Mental Health prison.  We had to do security checks, and room searches every day.  And while doing a room search, I noticed one of the prisoners had a significant number of books.  

I mentioned to the prisoner that I couldn't help but see that he had many religious books, and I would like to ask him a few simple questions after the security checks were complete. He was agreeable to this.

Afterwards, I returned to talk with him ...and he said I could borrow some of the books.  I told him that I neither had time to read the books, but also that I was not allowed to borrow anything.  I said I hoped he understood this ...and that he would be a tremendous help if he just answered a few questions for me.

I didn't tell him this, but I knew that it could be a set-up ...not knowing whether the prisoner was just being polite, because the prisoners often could try to use friendly exchanges as a method of attempting to soften someone to the extent of bending the rules.

Though the prisoner may have thought me to be soft at this moment, he did not realize that I viewed him as a captivate audience to some hard questions I felt he should be considering.

I said, "I see by your literature that you appear to be a Christian."

The prisoner briefly replied,"Yes, I am a Christian."

I asked, "And you have read most of those books?"

The prisoner smiled, as if he thought I was impressed, "Yes, I have."

I asked, "What do you consider salvation ...what I mean is, what makes a person saved?"

The prisoner replied, "Believing in Jesus ...as our Lord, and Savior."

I asked, "But, saved from what?"

The prisoner seemed happy to reply, "Saved from hell ...if you believe in Jesus, you go to heaven."

I asked, "Is that all it takes?  If anybody believes in Jesus, they can go to heaven?"

The prisoner affirms, "That's all it takes."

I asked, "I also see you have these other kind of books."

The prisoner seemed happy to tell me all about that also, "Yes, I'm a White Supremacist." 

It appeared that he felt we had that in common perhaps, seeing as it was that we were both 'white'. But, to me, what we had here was an issue that was clearly black and white.

I said, "Well, you said that all it takes to get to heaven is a belief in Jesus ...and I have many black friends who believe in Jesus, so one day they will be going to heaven.  I really can't accept how a bunch of dumb divisive hateful white folk down here can be considered supreme to those black friends who will be in heaven singing Hallelujah.  How can you claim to love God ...when you hate those whom He has created?"

Our government ...of the people, by the people, and for the people ...

The people had behavior of the nature of injustices towards slaves ...by the people who were slave owners ...all for the means of getting rich off slave labor.

But, this same government, aside from the initial intent and purpose for the catalyst of dividing viewpoints and Statehoods ...resulting in a Civil War, who can deny that many died in the attempt to undo many wrongs.  Yes, the wrongs have not wholly disappeared ...though can we ignore the effort and sacrifice made to attempt to at least begin the change??

Or do we continue to sight only the failures??  Yes, we should mention and attempt to change the failures ...but, we should not find the failures more advantageous, fueling further bitterness and divide.

Do we care about all those who died to maintain our freedoms??

Do we care that Jesus came to die ...by means of a violent and horrific crucifixion, providing the means for our going to heaven??

Do we care that nearly all of the apostles also died horrific deaths, as they committed to spreading the Word of salvation??

Do we care about these things, or do we put ourselves first ...and concern ourselves primarily with what interests us, for the moment??

So much around us goes on ...that we are not aware of.  And we may feel there are no answers to the many things that are making our lives a bit unpleasant.  Yes, that may tend to incline us to not look past our present circumstances in life.  And we may strive less towards any future motivation, and easily miss our meaning and purpose in life.  Our goal may be to only care about what we feel no one else quite cares enough about ...us.

But, Jesus died for us ...to make it possible for us to be with Him, for eternity.  It cannot be realized to the extent that we perhaps want to realize it, at this moment, but God does care. And I think what He did for us on Calvary should be proof enough.

The question is not whether He cares ...but whether we care, and only we can answer whether we do.