Forgiving Ignorance

I had a revelation the other night. I went to a free concert in the park in Pasadena. The performer was an Asian, folk singer from Austin, TX. At one point between songs she was talking to entertain the audience and used the word "y'all" in reference to the audience. One of the guys in the audience began to scream "y'all" repeatedly in a teasing and demeaning way. I felt this anger well up inside of me.

I've had this happen to me many times. My initial response it to get really angry at that guy and then my mind wonders to all the Californians that have done that to me and I want to get angry at all Californians. (As progressive and liberal as Californias are I don't understand why saying y'all is such big deal. It's expresses gender equality better than "you guys". ) Then my mind shifted to all the stares I got in Mexico and the anger that created (now that I think about it, maybe they were just wondering who the new neighbor was).

I began to pray and ask God how to have a healthy response to this comment and those stares. There are some common threads that run through these experiences: one is being misunderstood by others and two is ignorance. Then I remembered what the black student that went to Cairo said how we have to forgive, but I realized in that moment that what I'm forgiving is ignorance. Jesus understood forgiving ignorance. Some of his last words on the cross were "Lord, forgive them for they know not what they do." Now that is amazing grace! I'm glad that at least Jesus understands!