A reader to the site recently informed me of the situation she is going through. I am not going to go through and display the full story; instead I just want to paraphrase the situation from what I have been told so you can get an idea of what exactly is going on.
This particular person is an African American school teacher in a predominantly white school district. Despite her best attempts (and successes) of doing her job and educating her students, she still feels as though her superiors are coming down on her with no real basis other than the color of her skin. She has been through verbal harassment and the “N” word has been written in emails from other staff members. She does not seem to have the backing from anyone else among the school’s staff and even the principal does not seem to offer any encouragement to her in the situation.
This person has two main questions they want answered:
1. Why is my faith being tested?
2. Why am I under so much persecution?
I am going to answer each of these questions in separate posts in order to benefit this person and hopefully anyone else who may have a similar question. You can click the links above in order to get to each individual response.
Right now however, I want to address a few things that were mentioned and brought up in the letter.
The submitter writes in their first sentence that they “have endured an attack by the enemy like never before in their workplace.” I want to take a look at what scripture says about the enemy, better known as Satan.
Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. 1 Peter 5:8-9
This scripture makes some very good points on the subject at hand.
- Be self-controlled. If you lose this, non believers will feel as though they have won and will gain the upper hand. If you can’t control yourself, you won’t be able to minister to them effectively in the situation.
- Be alert. Be vigilant and know your enemy. This scripture tells us our enemy is waiting to bring us down. Don’t be caught off guard.
- Know it’s not just you! Clearly, we are not the only one suffering. We need to know and be encouraged by the fact that other Christian brothers and sisters are going through similar woes.
I also want to make it clear that the Bible clearly condones casting judgment on someone due to their appearance. I will also be addressing this in a later post.
I want to finish with a scripture that I believe is very relaxing and will hopefully put any troubled heart at peace in difficult times such as these.
Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. 1 Peter 5:6-7
Do you have any encouraging words or advice on the situation? Please, voice your thoughts and opinions so we may benefit from them.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
same things happening to me the last two years. I’m a white male. I have female bosses that do not like me and they are lying on my reviews. They are making my life miserable. You don’t need to be black for racism to happen.
You are right, plenty of people believe their race is superior to others. This specific example I dealt with however was racism towards African Americans.