Amazing Grace

One of the best testimonies that I have ever heard, was of God's redemptive power through the life of John Newton, a ruthless slave trader who came to know the mercy and salvation of the Lord. He went on to author the well known hymn, Amazing Grace. Last night Mark and I watched the movie, Amazing Grace, which told the story of Britain's William Wilberforce's tireless fight to see the abolition of slavery in the 1800s. Although the movie didn't chronicle the early years of Wilberforce's friend John Newton's life, his penned words, "I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind, but now I see," clearly reveals a man rescued from chains similar to those that imprisoned the slaves he traded.

I was moved by William Wilberforce's struggle in whether or not to live a life of worship to God or work to better the condition of the very people God had created. His passion and burning mission plagued him, driving him on in the fight in which he crusaded.

There was a great moment in the movie when Wilberforce was introduced to a group of clergy with the same mission in mind. Wilberforce was proposed a question that ultimately seemed to silence his conflict and propel him in his fight, "Humbly I ask, can you not do both."

Don't you find as Christians that we often struggle with a mindset that asks, "Is this thing Christian or not?" We forget that God existed before any cultural code of Christianity existed. In our limited understanding we measure the appropriateness of man-created things and entirely overlook God's vantage point as the creator of the universe.

Are we not like Wilberforce in the fact that we too are fighting to free slaves of every kind. While we get caught up worrying about insignificant matter, God is asking us to listen to what burns inside our bones like Jeremiah. There is a fight in each of us that we are meant to fight. There is a solution that we are meant to bring.

My oldest son recently had the opportunity to share Christ with a fellow model. Although some would say Christians shouldn't be models, who then would tell those slaves about Christ. God needs each of us to be who He designed us to be, so we can bring the abolition of slavery everywhere as our lives gratefully declare, "I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind, but now I see."
Happy Thanksgiving!