Friends, I don’t want to appear tone deaf to what is happening in our country or in the wider world. While this blog focuses primarily on wisdom for faithful living, I am not a spiritual idealist detached from the realities we all live in. Terri will be the first to tell you that I’m a news junkie.
That began early when my sixth-grade teacher, Mrs. Williams, impressed on me the importance of reading the newspaper every day and staying informed about current events. For a season, I even studied journalism and broadcasting in college. Paying attention to the world has always mattered to me.
Scripture reminds us that awareness is not the enemy of faith:
The wise see danger ahead and avoid it, but fools keep going and get into trouble.
Proverbs 22:3 NCV
The death of Renée Goode is sad and tragic. A life was lost, and that should never be minimized under any circumstance. At the same time, I don’t believe her death was the result of willful murder so much as a series of deeply unfortunate decisions. Renée underestimated the situation she entered into, and she and her wife misjudged the seriousness and volatility of the environment they chose to step into. In her article, Minneapolis Isn’t a Movie, Kat Rosenfield, writing for The Free Press, offers a thoughtful and sobering analysis that I found helpful. You can read it here.
Scripture holds space for both compassion and truth. The Apostle Paul reminds us:
Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.
Ephesians 4:15 NIV
My own perspective on immigration is shaped by lived experience. My parents immigrated lawfully to the United States in the 1970s, with me in tow. After fifty years of living here as a permanent resident, I became a naturalized American citizen in 2022. I understand immigration personally and deeply.
I am pro-immigration. I believe it reflects human dignity and the image of God in every person. Scripture affirms this clearly:
The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.
Leviticus 19:34 NIV
At the same time, I believe nations have borders and that there is a legal process for immigrating from one country to another. Order and compassion are not enemies; they are meant to work together.
For God is not a God of disorder but of peace—as in all the congregations of the Lord’s people.
1 Corinthians 14:33 NIV
Spiritual formation does not require us to look away from reality. In fact, faith calls us to engage the world honestly, thoughtfully, and with both mercy and discernment.
A Prayer for Wisdom and Compassion
Dear Sweet Lord,
Give us hearts that are tender without being naive, and wisdom that does not harden us against compassion. Help us to grieve loss honestly, to tell the truth humbly, and to love our neighbors without surrendering discernment.
Teach us how to live faithfully in a complicated world. In Jesus’ name,
Amen.
Until my next post…
Be salty, stay lit.
Rainer Bantau —The Devotional Guy™
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The Devotional Guy™ 
Rainer, well written in thought and compassion.
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Dear Rainer,
Thank you for your balanced and sensitive post on a tragic and difficult subject.
The only clarification I would make is that if someone is fleeing for their life, they can’t necessarily follow legal avenues, and I don’t think it’s wrong to flee for one’s life.
Sadly, here in the UK, it feels like we’re being colonised by Muslims who often claim to be fleeing for their lives and are often just seeking a better quality of life at best, and to turn us into an Islamic State at worst.
As Christians, as you say, we should be hospitable, and see strangers in our midst as an opportunity, not a threat. We have an opportunity to share the Good News with people who couldn’t necessarily hear it in their home countries.
Many Iranians for example are coming to faith in Christ.
God bless, and thanks again for wisely navigating a difficult subject.
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