I do not need diversity in my life to feel better about myself.

• I need people with dementia in my life, so I can learn to love without any expectation of return tomorrow.
• I need minorities in my life, to open my eyes to the white privilege I unknowingly enjoy.
• I need the poor in my life to teach me to value what is eternal more than what is temporal.
• I need children in my life to help me to laugh, love, and forgive easily.
• I need LGBT people in my life, to help me comprehend the sting of hateful words like “abomination” in an area of personal pain.
• I need chronically homeless people in my life, to help me understand how much work it takes to survive homelessness and unemployment.
• I need Christians from other cultures in my life, to help me distinguish between what is Biblical and what is political.
• I need people with disabilities in my life to help me see the benefits of a little patience, a little accommodation, and a lot of hard work.
• I need undocumented immigrants in my life to help me comprehend how unjust laws have created systematic discrimination and abuse.
• I need Muslims in my life to remind me of the pain of being judged as an individual based on the actions of others.
• I need patients in my life whom I cannot cure to remind me that I am not the Ultimate Healer.

To dismiss and dislike those whom I do not know is tempting. It is much easier to love and fill my life with those who look like me, think like me, believe like me. I need people from diverse backgrounds in my life to recognize what I am not.

You do too.

The beauty of the gospel is that God demonstrated that He loves us, not because of what is in us, but because of what is in Him. Likewise, I need others in my life who are different than me to learn to love, not because of who they are, but because of who Jesus is.

Revelation 7:9-10 “After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice:

‘Salvation belongs to our God,

who sits on the throne,

and to the Lamb.’”

If the picture of Heaven is diversity, I need more in my life in order to for His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Who do you need in your life?

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