Individual

"For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him..."--2 Chronicles 16:9

Are you ready for this?

I don't like the word "diversity".

*gasp*

It leaves a horrible aftertaste in my mouth, like medicine mixed with strong cherry flavor. Soon after you swallow it, the fake cherry wears off and only the bitter dregs remain.

And the dregs say, aren't we all diverse? What is diversity, other than a means by which to group people, label them, and sort them? "Hey, we've got six people on our team, four are orange, and two are green. That won't do. We need a purple person."

So everyone sits around grinning foolishly at the purple person. They think, "Hey, check out how enlightened we are, how sophisticated and open-minded. We found a purple person."

And the purple person stares back and thinks, "Am I here just because I'm purple?"

Dr. Martin Luther King fought a bigger battle than diversity. God chose him to be the right man at the right time, as God always does. MLK Jr. is one of my personal "heroes of the faith". My favorite quote of his is, "I dream of a day when my children will be judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr understood: God judges individually. God tells us that He honors the individual. No matter our color, race, culture, or nationality, we all must give an individual account of our lives when we die. Even when God judges nations, and individuals pay the ultimate price for that judgment, we are all given opportunity to face our God alone.

When you know that, where does "diversity" fit? If you believe that every one of us is made in God's image and deserves love, kindness, and compassion, "celebrating diversity" is redundant--and a bit simplistic.

More and more, I feel our society has become collectivist rather than individualistic. All these years after the Civil Rights Movement, and we still sort by color, race, nationality, income level, region, heritage, birthplace.

Where does the sorting inevitably lead? "These people need this, and these people need that. These people are okay, and these people are not." It's so prevalent that in today's New York Times, a Supreme Court Justice says that she supported Roe vs. Wade because she thought it was a means to control populations that we "didn't want too many of".

Wow. Look in the eyes of the children above, and tell me which one God "didn't want too many of".

Though the comments of that Supreme Court Justice do NOT represent the purpose of the "diversity" movement, lumping individuals into groups results in that kind of rhetoric. It reduces the individuality of every single one of us. It renders us worthy or unworthy not by our own merit, but by associations over which we have no control.

God sees the individual. God honors the individual. His eyes roam the earth, keeping track of nations and cultures, but looking right into every person's heart. He remembers how He knit you together in your mother's womb. He knows the trajectory of your life, from start to finish.

He doesn't love you for your skin color or race, for nationality or culture. He loves YOU. That love, that amazing love, reaches far beyond "diversity".