Even so, with the English language ‘coming out of my nose’, so they say, and memories of sharing swimming pools and bathtubs with white friends as a child; I only awakened to the depth of black consciousness over the past year with all the racial tension that’s plagued our hurting nation.

I’m often saddened when walking the streets of down town Joburg and seeing inequality spread out like a quilt carefully crafted to depict the aftermath of apartheid and a struggling black nation trying to find itself.

For the longest time I’ve suffered in silence about an awkwardness that I could not explain. I have a good education and I ‘speak well’ (speak well is essentially a bigot term used to identify people who aren’t English, but still speak the language without a heavy accent – usually given as a compliment). I am pursuing my dreams. I have a job. There are opportunities open to me. But I feel … lesser than. I’m good, yes, but just not good enough. I can do a lot of things…but just not in this skin. Looking back, the words of the American singer and songwriter Solange with her new song ‘ Cranes in the Sky’  helped me to at least direct my articulation on what this crippling thing could be. It’s a beautiful song about attempts in conquering private pain.

I tried many straining things to help me get a grip on who I am and what my purpose is. But this metal cloud would hover over me like an eagle marking its target. I eventually tried praying this thing away and applying the band aid of “my identity is in Christ’ without applying myself to what that truly means. It sounds so holy and right. Often I’d repeat, “ it doesn’t matter what my culture is, my Christian culture is all that’s important”.  Be that as it may, this thing is still ever with me and I want to rant and rave it away alongside the young activists making fees and statues fall. This thing is thick with injustice; full with unrighteousness and swollen with anger.

Black anger is legit. Black anger is somewhat righteous. Being physically, emotionally, psychologically and spiritually oppressed by another people for centuries is no small thing. It affects all black South Africans today in one way or another. It affects me, even in all my cosmopolitan-ness and good education-ness. It’s almost in our DNA.

This thing wants justice. My oppressed head, heart and heritage needs redemption. It just might not be the kind most are looking for. No. The justice that will prevail over the land is far greater than anything we can think or imagine.

As a Christian I believe in a Savior who did not come to judge the world but save it. God’s desire in renewing all things is all encompassing, from peoples to social systems. Truth is, when sin entered the world, it did not just affect people but all of creation. The beauty of diversity in all our different cultures that we see glorifying God in Revelation 7 has been tainted by the fall and with it came social systems and injustices that marred the imago dei.  However, the glorious gospel affirms that all will be made right. Justice will prevail.  All will be accounted for. Not necessary by me, but by God himself. I can do my part here and there and my part counts, but ultimately, perfect justice will come from the only Just One.

Any past, present or future injustice will never go unnoticed or unpunished. God cares about it all and not just on a high level but even when we are robbed of change in a taxi or undermined at work for following procedures with all integrity – all these little and big hurts will be accounted for…by Jesus.

The gospel is such a game changer in that it isn’t a religious movement or a political ideal. Christ’s transformative power found in the gospel deals with the heart of a person and the heart of the matter. It deals with the inner being that is shaped and influenced by cultural movements, yes, but it also transcends it.

The gospel has no ties with being Jew or Greek, a slave or freeman, male or female…black or white, although it does not make those distinctions disappear (Gal 3v28). The human soul was made to glory in God; to be in constant awe of Him; to be satisfied in Him and enjoy him forever. This comes with obeying His holy word that instructs the soul – housed by various cultures – to love Him and believe in Him and all He has promised. The gospel is the sweetest answer to all injustice because the sin and guilt of the world was thrust upon Jesus.

We are able to look upon whoever who continues to oppress us knowingly or unknowingly today with love that only God Himself can give. As C.S Lewis puts it ,”It’s loving another self because it is a self (like us) made by God. “And since we all know how much punishment we deserve for our secret racial or non-racial sins, we should be able to resonate with the grace our fellow South Africans need even though some might not know they need it yet.

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Okay okay. Some might wonder what the lordship of Christ would have to do with art yet alone culture, especially when considering that for decades the church has seemed rather apathetic to both. The best way I can tackle this (without turning this post into a book) is by taking a walk through the gospel narrative that runs through the pages of the Scriptures.

The song of creation in the first chapter of Genesis is simply beautiful; God spoke everything into being and all He created was good. The climax of God’s design was the creation of man, whom He made in His own image. What’s more, He described mankind as “very good”. In subsequent chapters, God gave both the male and female a mandate to tend the garden, to keep it and to preserve it. Life was as it was supposed to be: Utopia. Then, the most unfortunate event took place.  The first image-bearers of God, Adam and Eve, were deceived.  Immediately following this deception, they chose to directly disobey God by indulging in fruit he forbade them to eat or to even touch. However, they ate it and thus became separated from God. All of creation was tainted; the first sin cultivated the breeding ground for all forms of distortion, even distorting the way we engage in the world around us and especially distorting the heart within us. 

[eltdf_blockquote text=”The plunge of the whole human race into darkness left us in dire need of redemption. For the Christian, the redemption of the soul begins and ends in Jesus Christ. In fact, the redemption of all things (think culture, relationships, art and even womanhood) is no different than the redeeming of one’s soul; Jesus Christ is the focus.” title_tag=”h2″ width=””] One may ask, “Why have I been redeemed?” We have been redeemed so that we can understand the purpose of God’s design for life. I like how the Westminster Catechism puts it, saying, “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.” (1 Cor 10:31) We can only do this because of what Jesus accomplished on the cross for all who believe. Great! That is the bottom line. Yet all too often, one may sit and gaze at this truth and still wonder if one is doing things right. Take the classic case of the redeemed artist who is plagued with questions about whether or not artwork is a good and godly thing. Consider the accountant who ponders how balancing a ledger pleases God? What does the outworking of faith look and feel like?

We can take comfort in this: Christ always has been and always will be Lord over all. Colossians 1v15-23 helps us understand this. It reads,

“The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. ¹⁷ He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”

One of the greatest advocates of the lordship of Christ over the whole man (as opposed to the view many hold fast to: that Christ has come to only save the soul and equip missionaries and gospel workers, and that God pays no mind to the rest of life) is Dr. Francis Schaeffer who uses art to set the platform for us to enter into good discussion or great debate about Christ’s lordship. He states in his book, Art and the Bible:

“As Evangelical Christians we have tended to relegate art to the very fringe of life… We have misunderstood the very concept of the Lordship of Christ over the whole man and the whole universe and have not taken to us the riches that the Bible gives us for ourselves, for our lives and for our culture. The lordship of Christ over the whole of life means that there is no platonic areas in Christianity, no dichotomy or hierarchy between the body and the soul. God made the body as well as the soul and redemption is for the whole man…God made the whole man…In Christ the whole man is redeemed…Christ is the Lord of the whole man now and the Lord of the whole Christian life and…in the future as Christ comes back, the body will be raised from the dead and the whole man will have a whole redemption. It is within this framework that we are to understand the place of art [and all things*] in the Christian life.” *Interjection mine

The struggle for us women to present all that we are before the Lord is real, especially in an age of multiple choice. Should I be married or stay single to work in the mission field?  Should I study architecture or nursing? Should I home-school or pursue a career as a marketing executive? Whatever the struggle, present it to the Lord who cares not only for you, but about what you do. He is Lord over all. Abraham Kuyper summed this up superbly when he said,

“There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!”

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