God Made Me This Way Series

Is God your co-pilot? – Part 3

Several years ago I watched an episode of ESPN’s 30-30, a program that looks at the history of collegiate and professional athletics. This particular episode looked at college football in the 1980s. If you are not a college football fan, then the name Marcus DuPree won’t mean much to you.

In 1982, he was a freshman running back at Oklahoma who shocked the college football world. Even though he didn’t start until the seventh game of the season, he rushed for 1,144 yards and scored 13 touchdowns. He was named Football News “Freshman of the Year,” second team All American and the Big Eight Conference “Newcomer of the Year.” He was, in my opinion, more talented than Bo Jackson and I’m sure “Bo knows” that too.

What made me think about DuPree is something that I hear people say when they see a talented athlete like him – He has God-given talent.”

And over the years, we have also heard people say something similar when they say

? “I am the way I am because God made me this way.”

? Or, “I can’t jump as high as some folks because God made me this way.”

? Or, “I have this body because it’s the body that God gave me.”

? Or, “I’m not as smart as others because that’s just the way God made me.”

Generally, when we look at ourselves and we see shortcomings or things that we don’t like about ourselves, we say “God made me this way.”

Ladies and gentlemen, God is an egalitarian. He treats everyone the same. Those examples are lies we hear again and again because there is a direct connection between what we believe and what the Bible actually says. A direct connection. And if what we believe does not line up with scripture, which is the foundation for all truth, then we will speak things that are not true and we will believe things that are not true.

This message is the third in the series “Is God your co-pilot?” And, this message is going to be a little more personal than the previous messages. Today, we’re going to talk about the belief that God makes us the way we are from the perspective of a person’s skin color.

There was a time in our country when some people believed that a person with darker skin was purposely cursed by God to a life of inferiority or a life of “less than.” There was also a time when some black people with darker skin believed the same thing and didn’t want to have darker skin.

Most didn’t talk about it, but in their hearts they wanted lighter skin because having lighter skin would have provided more personal and economic advantages for them than having darker skin. There has never been a worst kept secret in the black community.

I grew up in a small town in Tennessee, in a predominately black section named College Hill. The blacks who originally populated College Hill were mulattos – families of mixed white and black ancestry. They had light skin and the girls and young women had straight, curly and wavy hair. There were dark skinned families in College Hill too, but not many. Many of the dark skinned blacks lived in Macedonia, a few miles away.

A light skinned black person is referred to as a “Redbone.” This term originated in Louisiana and refers to mixed race blacks, especially women, who were attractive with white features.

My Mom and Dad had light skin. I remember one woman, upon seeing my Dad, smiled broadly and said “He’s a keen looking man.” I still laugh when I think about that and that happened nearly 40 years ago. My Dad was handsome, but my Mom turned some heads too.

Now, if we believe God makes people with dark skin and light skin, then what we are saying is that we believe that God is a respecter of persons.

What we are saying is that we believe God purposefully puts people at a personal and economic disadvantage.

What we are saying is that God made people less than and, dare I say it, inferior to those to whom He gave lighter skin.

In the black community, and this is a sad truth, lighter skin is still preferred to darker skin.

Do you see how devastating such a belief can be? How can you love and trust a God who would purposely make you less than or inferior to another human being? Doesn’t this sound a lot like predestination and the way it’s understood in most churches? There’s a lot of misunderstanding concerning predestination, but that’s a topic for another teaching.

Now here’s the question we must answer today: Does scripture support the belief that God makes some people less than or inferior to others?