CHRIST IN WINTER: Reflections on Faith & Life for the Years of Winter. Tell Him “Thanks” [R, 1-19-23]
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When our granddaughter was a student at MI State U, she stood in line to get the autograph of John Lewis on his memoir. As he signed, she told him, “My grandfather was on the march into Montgomery.” He looked up and said, “Tell him I said ‘thanks.”
That is one of my most precious memories, and I wasn’t even there!
The truth is, though, that I should have sent her there to tell him that I said “thanks.” For without John Lewis, I would never have gotten the chance to add “the stubborn ounces of my weight” [1] to the struggle for equal justice, that day, March 25, 1965. [I wrote about that in the last column, on MLK JR Day, 1-16-23]
There have been very few times that I have initiated an episode, even a conversation, on inclusion, on black rights or women’s rights or gay rights. My actions have almost always been simple affirmations of the courage that others have displayed. They were the first actors, the ones who made the first move.
Like those college students who sat in at Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, NC. Like John Lewis, leading the Selma march for civil rights. Like Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat on the bus in Montgomery.
Even MLK Jr. was first a respondent, an affirmer, of what Rosa Parks did, or what John Lewis did. He became a leader, but he might not have even had that chance without the courage of an old woman with tired feet, of a young man with courageous feet.
That’s the message of the resurrection. There was somebody else who initiated the reality of eternal life. The rest of us are responders, affirmers. Thanks givers, for the gift of eternal life, eternal love, whatever else there is beyond these physical bodies.
Tell him I said thanks.
John Robert McFarland
1] Bonaro Overstreet
We were sharing the other day on the subject of maturation. Assuming that we were older and wiser than we used to be and therefore able to do good things, independently. At the time I wondered to myself if I had really matured. Got older for sure, but looking back I never was all that mature. I got turned down for missionary work in Africa because I was too immature.. they said. I got turned down from my second year of Clinical Pastoral Education because was too immature...they said. I was never selected to be a DS because I was too young and by the time I was older I was too old. I think it was because I was too immature. I do believe there are people who chose to be significant leaders worthy of our great thanks and admiration, whom we can follow when we are too immature to lead. Getting old is the one thing that requires maturity, because where you are going there is no one you can follow. Maybe that is why Jesus said,
ReplyDelete"Where I am going you cannot follow". He is right. This one is on us, alone.
This is so very perceptive and helpful, Bob. Thank you for posting where everyone can see it.
ReplyDelete