Unshakable
Faith
“Faith
is being so sure of what the spirit has whispered in your heart that belief in
its eventuality is unshakable.”
Rep.
John Lewis
Another
great soul has left us. I fervently pray that all the saints welcomed Rep. John
Lewis home. I can’t think of anyone who deserves a glorious homecoming more
than he. I was a teenager in the 1960’s when Lewis and King and 600 others
joined arms and marched across the Pettis bridge in Selma on their way to
Montgomery. He was beaten nearly to death for that, but when he recovered, he stood
up on his feet and went right back to marching in the streets. And just a few
weeks ago, when George Floyd was murdered, he was there to encourage and uplift
the bereft community. He told the Black Lives Matter protestors, “We cannot
give up now. We cannot give in. We must keep the faith, keep our eyes on the
prize.” And about the continuation of protests over police violence he
said, “It is my hope that we are on our way to greater change.”
That is
my hope too. We have had a hard year so far. 2020 has not been good for the
world. Globally, we have lost more than 600,000 people, and here in the US, 150,000, to Covid-19. In addition to that, we have a president who, on the same
day, cut the budget to our major center for disease control and sent unidentifiable
paramilitary militia to an American city to quell peaceful protests—in flagrant disregard of
requests from both governor and mayor not to do so. Is this the change we want
to see in our democracy? Will we just shrug and say, “whatever.”
John Lewis believed in
the cause of freedom and equality for all people so much that he risked his
life for it every day. He was fearless in calling out the powers that be and
holding them accountable. He told us, with no attempt to soften the impact,
that freedom is not simply an ideal or a mindset. Instead, “freedom
is the continuous action we all must take, and each generation must do its part
to create an even more fair, more just society.” This is not the time to give
up.
Because
of the dedication and deep faith of John Lewis, we are more aware of racism’s
impact on society than we have ever been. He encouraged us to stand our ground,
to get into “good trouble,” and, above all, to embrace and enact the ideals
put forth in our constitution for equality and justice for all. The time has
come for us to live up to that. Rest in peace, John Lewis. Your spirit will continue to walk among us.
In
the Spirit,
Jane
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