America, our beautiful, vibrant home has been nicknamed the land of opportunity, because no matter where you come from, if you put your mind to it you can prosper here. One thing I love about sports is that, like America your background doesn’t matter! Nothing outside of what you can achieve in that moment matters.
This Black History Month, Nike released a commercial on equality sharing a similar message. In athletics, it doesn’t matter what you happen to look like, or what you believe; what matters is if you can produce! So, if there’s equality on a soccer field, tennis court, or in a track race there should be equality in a classroom, a church, or a shopping mall. Better yet, there should be equality everywhere. What matters is who you are as a person and what you do, not what you look like or believe.
There have been problems with equality since Bible times. Jew would hate the Gentiles, beggars and cripples weren’t treated with respect, and leapers were cast out of society. Matthew explains that whatever actions we take against others should be the same actions we would take with ourselves. Treating others fairly means that we must give them a chance regardless of our differences. If we do this, other’s will see the goodness of God in us, and we will have made our Heavenly Father proud.
Let’s make it our goal from now on to treat everyone as we would like to be treated!
