Tag: grace

Grace Victorious: The Story of William Wilberforce

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Have you ever wondered how you could accomplish something considering your weaknesses and limitations? If so, then you have something in common with the key figure of this story. 

Let’s go back to 1807 in England. That year, Parliament chose to take a stand against one of the greatest evils of the day. In fact, Parliament voted to make that evil illegal even though some people really wanted to keep it going and giving it up meant losing both power and wealth.

That evil was the trafficking of human beings known then as the slave trade.

Through the radio theater drama Grace Victorious: The Story of William Wilberforce, you can meet William Wilberforce. As a young member of Parliament, he has what many people long for – wealth, popularity and position. He chooses to risk it all when careful study brings him from skepticism to personal faith in Jesus Christ. 

Soon he is confronted with the realities of the slave trade – a trade that greatly benefits his country economically and is considered unchangeable. Others are speaking up, but Wilberforce’s gifts and position make him the obvious choice to lead the cause in Parliament. 

After prayer and seeing God work, Wilberforce becomes convinced that taking on the slave trade is something he must do in spite of the cost…

While William has position and a penchant for public speaking, one thing he does not have is good health. Throughout his life, he is plagued by poor eyesight and what may have been ulcerative colitis. (Note: Information on his exact ailments seems to vary.) But he presses on.

Grace Victorious leaves you with the story unfinished, a reality to which we can all relate. After all, that is how our stories are (for anyone reading this blog) – unfinished. We may be facing challenges, questions, unknowns….Just like William Wilberforce when he began his campaign against the slave trade. 

One of William’s last statements in Grace Victorious is,

“I expect a long and arduous fight. But as I lie here, I wonder how I will fight – how this frail and feeble body will ever rise against a mountain of hatred, cruelty and greed.” [1]

The response?

“The only way such things are ever done, William – by the grace of God.”

If we choose to live like William Wilberforce, we may live to see challenges met, questions answered, unknowns discovered. And we may be used in ways we never expected.

After all, it’s unlikely Wilberforce thought someone would be writing about a radio theater drama featuring his story 210 years after the abolition of the British slave trade, much less that the writing would go on a blog accessible to the world at the push of a button. 

[1] Paul McCusker, Grace Victorious: The Story of William Wilberforce, audio CD disc 2, track 8, 6:28.

Seeing Grace

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They said, “It takes quite a guy to see the things he’s seen and to be the way he is.” 

In a way, that was true. Nobody would pay to see some of the things he’d seen – except for maybe on a movie screen with a happy ending thrown in.

They said he was the kind of guy they were glad to know – “a good guy”,

In a way, that was true. After all, he’d done okay in life if that’s what you call living honest, raising a family, leaving a legacy.

But, when it came down to brass tacks, he knew they were missing the point. It wasn’t about him being “quite a guy” or anything about him being “good”. 

It was about grace. A grace that had sought him and that he had sought. God’s grace.

But they didn’t see it.

How often do we miss the grace in our lives? Maybe we don’t see it because we don’t see it in the rocky places – we miss the cactus blooms among the wilderness. Maybe we either attribute it to something else or choose to be blind to it like the aforementioned observers. 

Instead of being like them, may we be like Lace Harper in Come Rain or Come Shine… 

“And now, all this – the wedding, the farm, everyone being together like family. A lot of times it seems like a dream, but I know what it is. It’s grace. Totally.” [1]

Yes, Lace Harper is a bride-to-be with a bouquet of joy, but that same bride-to-be is the girl who watched her mother die, stayed as far away as she could from her abusive father, struggled with the emotions of being adopted, studied to be an artist yet struggled to find a job because of “the economy”, found out that she would never have her children of her own…. Perhaps if anyone has a reason to miss grace, she does. Yet she sees dreams-come-true as other than the product of wishing on a star. She sees grace. 

Ok. So she’s a fictitious character. I’ve learned a lot from people who live only within the covers of a book, haven’t you? 

O Lord, give us eyes to see the gifts and dreams-come-true in our lives as Your work. May we not be blind. Come Rain or Come Shine, may we see grace.

[1] Come Rain or Come Shine: A Mitford Novel by Jan Karon, narrated by John McDonough (Penguin Audio, 2015) CD 2, track 4, 3:04.

The Touch of Words

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Words. Colors on paper in purposeful patterns. Sounds swirling in the air. While we read them, we hear them, and we understand them, many of us may not think about how we can feel them.

Yet I came to know words as something I could get my hands on – literally. When I was about six years old, I started lessons in Braille, the system of raised dots by which the blind and visually impaired read. You could find me pouring over my stacks of flashcards with Braille dots on one side and words written in English with huge purple-marker letters on the other. Words like “knowledge” were no longer abstract concepts connected to intangible letters. They were a complex code, yes, but they were also something I could feel pressing into my fingertips, sparking my memory. It was then that I think I really came to love letters and words and the wonder of communication.

While I grasped basic Braille quickly, it took me longer to realize that words really are tangible in a whole other sense as well. Have you ever heard the saying “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me”? Does anyone actually believe that? I doubt it because words can hurt. They can even break hearts.

On the other hand, they can also bring healing.

So much of this depends on the feel of the words – how they touch the receiver of them. One word can carry so many different meanings based off of the tone, the intonation, the accent, the volume and, of course, the words surrounding it.

Even more, its touch depends on how it is felt by the recipient. One person writes something that looks bland on paper, but it feels like a sword-slice to the reader. In another case, simple syllables so sweeten the listener’s soul that their life is forever changed for the better.

Some people are very tender. Like un-calloused fingertips running over Braille, their spirits pick up subtle hints in a spoken or written word. Others may be a little tougher and so miss the nuances.

I think neither is truly problematic until they start expecting others to feel the same way as they do about words. It takes a great deal of effort at times to think not only about what the words you’re writing or speaking say but also how they feel. 

May the touch of our words not give bruises like sticks and stones. May the touch of our words build up and give grace.

“Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” ~Ephesians 4:29, ESV