10/07/2026
I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior when I was 32 years old.
Today, I am 61.
If you had told the 32-year-old version of me that one day I would regularly tell another grown man, “I love you, brother,” I probably would have thought you were crazy.
But God has changed me.
Last night I went to Cherokee Speedway to watch the sprint cars race. I love good racing, and I have always loved the excitement of a good wreck.
Well…something has changed.
A good wreck may still get the adrenaline pumping, but last night two cars came together and one of them went flipping end over end. I counted at least eight flips after the first three nose-to-tail flips.
That race car was destroyed.
I was there with Charles and Drew, men I consider close friends and brothers. Within 30 seconds, the excitement disappeared. All three of us were listening intently to the scanner, waiting to hear about the driver.
And my mind immediately went somewhere different:
“That is somebody’s son.”
“That might be somebody’s grandson.”
“That could be somebody’s husband.”
“He might be somebody’s dad.”
For what seemed like forever—probably ten minutes—we waited.
Then we heard it:
He was okay.
All three of us cheered.
When the races ended, Drew, Charles, and I said our goodbyes and headed home. As I walked away, I said:
“I love you, brother.”
And I meant it.
Those men and I have shared some deep hurts and some great moments in our lives.
I love those guys.
Today I received a bunch of happy birthday messages on Facebook. A good number of them came from men. I put a heart ❤️ on every one of them.
Why?
Because I love them.
God has softened my heart.
He has changed me in ways I never knew were possible.
I look at every person I encounter as one of a kind.
Science teaches us that human beings have enormous genetic variation. We share our humanity, but each of us is an individual. And from my Christian faith, I believe every human being bears the image of God.
So whether somebody approaches this through faith or through biology, here is something worth considering:
There is only one you.
Why, then, do we spend so much energy separating one another?
Hair color.
Skin color.
Race.
Culture.
Wealth.
Religion.
Northerner.
Southerner.
Yankee.
Good ol’ boy.
Athlete.
Bookworm.
Pentecostal.
Baptist.
And yes…
Republican.
Democrat.
Independent.
The list goes on and on.
Galatians 3:28 reminds us:
“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
I hear people say things like, “You cannot be a follower of Jesus and be a Democrat.”
Others make similar judgments in the opposite direction.
I understand the arguments people make about abortion, sexuality, morality, justice, and countless other issues.
But let’s assume for one moment that everything the person on the OTHER political side believes is wrong.
You know what happens when we assume—it makes a 🫏 out of U and ME!
But stay with me.
Let’s say, just for the sake of the argument, that the other person is wrong about everything.
I have a revelation for you:
Whether you are a Republican, Democrat, Independent, or belong to no political party at all…
YOU HAVE FALLEN SHORT OF PERFECTION TOO.
So have I.
The Greek verb hamartanō (ἁμαρτάνω), translated “to sin,” carries the idea of sinning or falling short.
That puts every one of us in need of grace.
Then Jesus gives us this command in John 13:34–35:
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.”
Notice what He DID NOT say.
“Love one another…unless they are Democrats.”
“Love one another…unless they are Republicans.”
“Love one another…unless they are Asian.”
“Love one another…unless they are Yankees.”
“Love one another…unless they pull for the Dallas Cowboys.” 😂
“Love one another…unless they are Pentecostal.”
“Love one another…unless they are Baptist.”
NO QUALIFIERS.
Jesus says it again in Matthew 22:37–40:
Love God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.
Again…
NO QUALIFIERS.
He didn’t say, “Love your neighbor, except if he or she belongs to the Independent Party.”
He didn’t say, “Love your neighbor, unless they vote Republican.”
He didn’t say, “Love your neighbor, unless they vote Democrat.”
He didn’t say, “Love your neighbor, unless they are gay”
He didn’t say, “Love your neighbor, unless they are on the spectrum of Autism”
He said:
LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR.
There is something else I am incredibly thankful for:
God did not give me the responsibility of deciding who gets on the fast train to hell!
THANK YOU, JESUS!
Look at humanity’s track record. We have convicted people and sentenced them to decades in prison, only to discover years later that they were innocent.
And you want ME deciding somebody’s eternity?
No thank you!
I am a PROfessional at making a mess out of my own life. I certainly don’t need responsibility for yours!
John 3:17 says:
“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
That is God’s department.
My department is loving people and pointing them toward Jesus.
And something else has happened to me.
I cry.
Boy, do I cry.
I cry watching the Choraliers perform in the Clover School District.
It probably doesn’t help that my 14-year-old daughter—the young lady I affectionately call Baby Fia—is standing there singing.
I watch her smile.
I watch her enjoy every note.
I watch her soaking up this season of her life.
And sometimes it hurts.
Not because I am sad about who she is becoming.
I am incredibly proud of her.
It hurts because I realize how quickly these moments disappear.
And if I am completely transparent, I didn’t always recognize those moments with my older children.
Back then, I worked 60–70 hours a week.
I was chasing the next commission check.
The next dollar.
The next level of success.
I didn’t always have the time—or maybe I didn’t MAKE the time—to stop and appreciate the growth taking place right in front of me.
That hurts to write.
But maybe that’s another piece of what God has changed in me.
Today, I stop.
I watch.
I listen.
I cry.
And I thank God.
I have enough issues of my own that there simply aren’t enough hours in the day for me to take your inventory!
I don’t have the time.
More importantly, I don’t WANT the job.
I choose to follow the One I trust to guide my life.
There is one thing I know for certain:
I don’t have the knowledge or ability to write a prescription for everybody else’s problems.
But I CAN love you.
I can walk beside you.
I can encourage you.
I can cry with you.
I can celebrate with you.
I can stick with you through life’s ups and downs.
And I will help however I can, provided doing so doesn’t compromise my covenant with God or place my family, another person, or myself in danger.
That’s what I can do.
LOVE.
Sometimes I get up in the morning, turn on the local news, and hear that more people have been murdered overnight in Charlotte.
My heart breaks.
Because those aren’t just statistics scrolling across a television screen.
That’s somebody’s Papa.
Somebody’s Mema.
Somebody’s cousin.
Somebody’s brother.
Somebody’s husband.
Somebody’s wife.
Somebody is waking up that morning with a hole in their heart because someone they love isn’t coming home.
There was a time when I didn’t feel things this deeply.
But Ezekiel 36:26 says:
“And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.”
I believe He has been doing exactly that in me.
And Philippians 1:6 reminds me:
“And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”
God isn’t finished with me yet.
Pastor Gunn once told the congregation at Lake Wylie Christian Church something about me that I have never forgotten.
He said:
“The reason Pastor Ray cries when he speaks about God is he cannot hold back the emotion when he tries to communicate how much God has changed him.”
He was 100% right then.
And he is still 100% right today.
I have changed because GOD IS DOING A WORK IN ME.
If you see weakness when I get emotional, that’s okay with me.
Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 12:9–10:
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
So I am no longer ashamed of the tears.
Sometimes those tears are evidence of what God has done to a heart that wasn’t always this soft.
And that brings me to this:
I have actually caught myself calling people back to apologize because I ended a conversation by saying:
“I love you.”
I WILL NOT APOLOGIZE FOR THAT ANYMORE.
If somebody takes that statement the wrong way, I hate that for them.
I am very happily married.
My wife is my best good friend, and God willing, she will spend the rest of our lives being my best good friend—and I intend to spend mine being hers.
So when I tell somebody, “I love you,” I’m not looking for another wife! 😂
I’m telling another human being:
YOU MATTER TO ME.
Your life matters.
Your hurts matter.
Your victories matter.
Your family matters.
And I am thankful God allowed our paths to cross.
So from now on, I’m going to tell people I love them.
Because I do.
If you’re reading this:
I LOVE YOU.
There is a passage from Mahatma Gandhi that has always made me think:
“We but mirror the world. All the tendencies present in the outer world are to be found in the world of our body. If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. This is the divine mystery supreme. A wonderful thing it is and the source of our happiness. We need not wait to see what others do.”
Jesus did not wait, why do we wait to change?
John 14:12-14
“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.
I LOVE YOU!
Always willing to serve,
Pastor Ray Scott
