cows and horses

Then Peter began to speak: "I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right. – Dr. Luke

from my front porch I get to see something everyday that not a lot of people see. 


You see, in what would be my front yard there is a pasture complete with cows and horses. I get a kick out of walking down my driveway and talking to the cows as they chew their cud. They are great listeners. On Sundays you can see all the cows lying in the grass together as if they are having cow church. Well it looks like cow church, cause one cow is always standing, that must be the preacher. 


I grew up out here, so spending time with the cows is nothing new to me, but about eight years ago the cow pasture changed forever. The owners of the pasture bought two horses, because their sons began to ride. I don’t have to tell you how beautiful those horses are and when you talk to them they look like they care, cause they stare at you with those big black eyes.

Yet one thing I have noticed is that the cows and the horses don’t socialize at all. If the horses are on one side of the field the cows are on the other. If the horses come over to eat the grass in one spot, then the cows leave, disgusted. I’ve seen this whole ordeal happen a lot, and I am amazed at how much like humans cows are.

We are prejudiced by nature. We want to be around people like ourselves that do the things that we do the way that we do them. We tend to have friends that look like us, talk like us and view life like us. We shy away from people that are different. We shy away from people that aren’t like us. We are no better than the cows.

i am a person of mixed race. 


I grew up here in the south and felt the pain of prejudice in the form of racism all throughout my childhood. I was rejected by blacks because I looked white and I was rejected by whites because I looked black. There was hate inside of me for both races. 


But my internal hate could not compare to the hate that these two groups of people have had for one other for hundreds of years. Not everyone hated me; no, some just didn’t want me around because I didn’t fit into their group. Fathers wouldn’t let me date their daughters because of the color of my skin, a color which must have drugged up old memories and opened old wounds. The racism I encountered had many 

sources, but one outcome. Racism is not the only form of prejudice though.

Prejudice comes in many forms. Prejudice can be how you view a group of people; the poor, the rich, the fat, the skinny.

Prejudice is always found when you view other people as the “them” versus your group of people as the “us”. You find yourself saying “people like that”, or “those types”, or “you can trust anyone that is (fill in the blank)”.

prejudice exists for three reasons

1. people want to belong to groups, humans have a fear of being alone

2. people want to be better than others, even if that means putting other people down

3. people are uneducated about others in their society

Prejudice is never based in fact though. You can not take one aspect of a person and define the whole person by it. You can not have an experience with a person and take the quality that stood out to you most about them and then apply that experience to everyone with that quality.

- If you get mugged by a black guy on the streets downtown, you can’t think that all blacks downtown are out to get you.

- If you see a movie that stars a stupid guy covered in tattoos and piercings that only wants to get high you can’t assume that all people with tattoos and piercings are underachievers

- If you go to a church and the people aren’t welcoming, don’t write off all people in all churches.

In the eyes of God there is no prejudice we are all humans deserving of God’s love and saved by God’s grace. 


We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and we are all God’s children. God’s doesn’t assign us any label except saved and unsaved, because that is the only label that matters. We as believers must see people this way too. 


we must see people through love...


...and reach out to those that haven’t experienced the saving grace of Jesus Christ and lead them to Him.

We need to end the cycle of experiences breeding stereotypes, leading to prejudice. We all come from different walks of life, but in our differences we find unity. Because no one person is the same we are all one group of diverse people. 


You may try to identify yourself with a group and exclude others from it, but you are trying in vain, because you will find you have just as much in common with the people inside your group as you have with those outside your group.

- The races aren’t that different, each race has it’s own class of poor, rich, thief, saint, married and unmarried

- The socio-economic classes aren’t that different, there are rich people that are just as unhappy as poor people, and there are those who don’t have as much that are better off than those that do.

There is just no way to assume anything about anyone. We must get to know people as individuals.

look to the heart...

…through how the person carries himself 
…through what she is wearing
…past where they have been
…deeper than the color of their skin

…See what really matters, see who they are, not what they are.

I don’t know if the cows really do dislike the horses, but I do know that they will be sharing the same pasture for the rest of their lives. 


we are all sharing the same pasture called earth. 


We all drink from the same water, eat the same foods and live under the heat of the same sun. The things that bind us together are so much greater than those that tear us apart.

People will wrong you, but don’t take your revenge against a group of people for the actions of one person, let each one be accountable for his own deeds. 


God sent Jesus for all of us. If God loves all of us enough to send his son to die for anyone of us, then we are all worth loving and we are all equal. 


Put down your hate, put down your pride, put down what your parents taught you, put down what society tells you, once and for all put down your prejudice, take up your cross and follow Jesus.

Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible.... I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. - Paul from Tarsus