Transcript:

Hello, this is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.

Representative John Lewis was a legend in his time and one of the most important civil rights leaders of ours. As a young man, he led the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the group responsible for organizing the numerous student-led sit-ins against racial segregation. At just 23 years-of-age he joined Martin Luther King on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial as one of the youngest organizers and speakers at the 1963 Civil Rights March. Later in 1965 he helped lead the march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. Sadly, this event became known as Bloody Sunday, because John Lewis and his followers were attacked and brutally beaten. Lewis himself suffered a cracked skull.

You do not need to agree with every aspect of John Lewis’s politics to appreciate his towering presence over the past 60 years.

What strikes me most about John Lewis is his optimistic courage and gentle patience, even with those that hated him. Lewis refused to be sucked in by hate; rather he sought to overcome hate with truth and love.

He famously said: “You never ever hate. You must never ever become bitter or hostile. You must be hopeful. You must be optimistic. Never, never give up.”

Now, what would give one such courage and patience? I think that answer is simple. Lewis, like his mentor Dr. King was a Baptist minister. He grew up in a Christian home. From his earliest days his imagination was animated with the optimism of the gospel of Jesus Christ, even preaching that gospel to the chickens on his family farm when he was just five.

Here’s the point: Those whose imaginations have been captivated by a God who loved us when we hated Him, died for us when we were His enemies and yet rose victorious over our sin and guilt, have a resilience that this world cannot easily shake. It does not conform to this world; it overcomes it.

Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.

“Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”
~ 1 Corinthians 15:58 (ESV)