Let the Wall Fall Down!
It should have never happened in small-town USA. That is what most of the folks, in Pleasantville thought about their quaint, peaceful, postage stamp small-town that sprawled out across the landscape of the Mississippi Delta farmland community. Pleasantville was a very special place. Everyone from the Pleasantville community knew that black folks and white folks only saw each other at the mall or the grocery stores. It was clearly understood that there were two sides of the track. The whites lived on the southside and the blacks lived on the northside of the small town of Plessy. Plessy was the nickname for Pleasantville.
Plessy stood for “please let everybody stay separated yawl.” To facilitate the separation, there was a major railroad track that helped Pleasantville maintain their status quo which earned the small-town USA city’s name of Plessy. Yet no one from Plessy ever complained about the unwritten code of “please let everybody stay separated yawl.” Although the school became integrated through forced busing, the unwritten code remained branded upon the hearts of the people in Plessy.
Until one day, one very popular white kid who was an outstanding athlete was killed in a head-on car accident. When the Pleasantville’s high school coach called the high school principle and then the high school principle called the chairman of the board something changed in an incredible way. Never before did whites and blacks attend the same funeral. What was it that caused this unusual phenomenon? What was it that literally erased the invisible dividing wall of Plessy?
The small-town of Pleasantville was transformed when a group of black and white athletes took God at His Word, at an after school, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, unity bible study in the old gymnasium in Plessy. Bill Smith, the all-conference black quarterback stood on his feet and read the words of Jesus in Matthew 22:37-39. “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”
On that day, all the student athletes in the city of Pleasantville decided that they would never call their hometown “Plessy” again. True race relationship will never happen until we embrace the heart of Bill and his fellow teammates. Obedience to God’s command to love God and love others, changed the city of Plessy to become the city of Pleasantville, USA.
Are you ready to see a change in your city? As you listen to today’s ATM, Dr. Loggins will remind you of God’s Command for us to love God and love others. We all come from the same seed, the seed of Adam. Did you know that God can use you just like He used Bill, to transform your city, and remove the ungodly race walls that persist in dividing us as His creation? It is time, for a change! Let the walls fall down!
Exodus 20:1-17 and Matthew 22:37-39
“Love God and Love others”
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