Liberty and Justice for Some?

I can be silent no longer.

There is a well known saying that “Those who are ignorant of history are doomed to repeat it.” That cycle is repeating before our very eyes.

The United States of America has a history. People got on boats and crossed the Atlantic for a reason. There is deep history behind the phrases “Land of the free and home of the brave” in the national anthem and “liberty and justice for all” in the pledge of allegiance. The Europe they fled from was anything but free. It was a land of liberty and justice for some. If you fell outside the definition of what the religiopolitical establishment deemed acceptable you were anything but free and justice did not apply to you.

Our ancestors did not cross the Atlantic looking for baseball and apple pie. They just wanted a place where they could live by the dictates of their conscience without fear of reprimand or worse. The most conservative estimates are that fifty million people were killed by the church run governments of Europe. It was so bad that Pope John Paul 2 apologized for the atrocities of what we now call the Dark Ages. History has shown over and over that when religion is in bed with government nothing good follows.

I grew up immersed in the Scriptures. I grew up with Bible prophecy being studied around me. What many don’t know, even Christians who profess to believe the Bible is that the United States is described in the prophetic book of Revelation. It is accurately depicted as a lamb like power. It was founded on the principles lived and taught by Jesus, most basic of which is “liberty and justice for all.” Jesus was a renegade. He was what today we would call a champion of social justice. Raised in a culture and religion steeped in prejudice and in cities surrounded by walls (sound familiar) Jesus crossed every border, disregarded every wall, and treated every person as equal regardless of gender, religion, or caste. He was the very embodiment of “liberty and justice for all.”

For centuries now America has stood out in the world as fundamentally different. Her very core was built around the premise of freedom for everyone. The statue of Liberty stands in the Atlantic waters facing the land of censure from which they fled. Inscribed on her are these words:

“Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she

With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Encapsulated in this poem by Emma Lazarus is everything you need to know about where Americans came from and why and what this “New Colossus” stands for. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say “stood for”.

The Bible says she started out like Jesus. A place of refuge. A home where all men are created equal. Consider these words from the pen of Thomas Jefferson which now are immortalized in the Declaration of Independence:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

America began as a place of refuge. A place of freedom. A place where all are welcome to start afresh free from the tyranny of those who think it their right to dictate conscience and abuse their powers of leadership. Emblazoned in the declaration of independence is the right of the people to overthrow any government that loses sight of what their role is.

Sadly the Bible commentary on America doesn't end there at the lamb like description. Instead she changes. Laws that once defended freedom are replaced with dragon like laws. The dragon is unmistakable in Bible prophecy. It is satan himself. He is the one who strategizes how to turn men against men and crush our dignity and our freedoms. Simply put the Bible says America will become just like the corrupt abusive powers from which she fled.

You may not understand the Bible. You may not even be sure you believe the Bible. You may be certain at this point in your life that you hate the Bible and religion. Regardless of your personal beliefs (which I believe with every fiber of my being are yours to hold), you do have eyes and ears. You can see what’s happening in America. You can see that liberty and justice for all is quickly becoming liberty and justice for some. You can see that the land which once opened her arms to “the homeless and tempest tossed” now plans to build walls and write laws to keep the most marginalized people in the world at bay. Sure there are reasons but are they good ones? Where will this end? Who are liberty and justice for? You can't protect freedom with censure.

I have devoted my life to studying the Bible, especially the Person of Jesus. Neither it nor He has been wrong yet and they are not wrong now. All that is left now is for the people to decide if they stand with Thomas Jefferson and Emma Lazarus or if they want a new America that would be both unrecognizable and reprehensible to them.

They can write all the laws they want but they can never imprison our minds or bind our hearts. Let freedom reign!

Right Versus Left? Election Postmortem

If you are anything like me your head is swimming after this historic election cycle that set new highs and lows of just about every kind. I’ll be making no statement on who I think should have “won” but I would like to make some observations and applications.

The vote that finally and mercifully came 595 days after the marathon started painted a very distinct picture of America. The cities were nearly all blue and nearly everything else was red. A friend of mine noted the stark contrast and asked the question “Why are rural Americans more conservative than urban ones?” It’s an interesting question. I’m not going to answer it. It is enough for the purpose of my observations to recognize that the divide between conservative America (Republicans) and liberal America (Democrats) is an urban/rural divide.

The media and tradition convinced everyone there were only two options. I applaud the 4 million + voters who knew better and had the courage to vote otherwise.

This reality is significant especially if you are a Christian and I’ll show you why. Jesus was a man. He lived in the real world surrounded by culture and politics. His own culture was deeply divided between the conservatives (Pharisees) and liberals (Sadducees). The Sadducees tended to be more urban and largely controlled the political leadership of Judah. The Pharisees were more rural and starkly conservative. The two groups hated each other. They couldn’t have been more opposed to each other. Social pressures, culture, etc… demanded you identify as one or the other. However there were other smaller groups, those who refused to be one or the other. Whether I agree with those who stand apart from the either/or mainstream I respect their independent spirit and willingness to think for themselves.

Here is the rub. In America most Christians think Jesus is Republican. In reality the conservatives were as zealous if not more zealous to kill Jesus than the liberals were. In the end they conspired together to try and snuff Him out. In the end for all the opposition and hatred between the right and left, they became one to dispose of Jesus.

What has been will be again, there is nothing new under the sun… (Eccl. 1:9)

Today I went to my children’s school for the Remembrance Day service. My son’s grade made a presentation that literally reduced me to tears. While a slide show of images from all over the world played in the background to the song “Let There Be Peace on Earth” each student held up a poster with a phrase on it. Each phrase was their contribution to what they would aspire to do to maintain peace on earth.

I looked at those grand ideals which are really just basic human decency and I thought “How many of those values were modeled in the 595 day election campaign? How many of them will be modeled in the days, weeks, months, and years ahead by the new president elect?

If I have learned anything from both being a child and observing children grow up, it is that we learn from what people do, not what they say. Did you know American men stopped wearing fedoras because JFK didn’t wear one and that Teddy Bears became popular because of Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt?

Yesterday a young woman was exposed to the rants of a young man making fun of all the whining women who didn’t vote for the current president elect. He even suggested that maybe they needed to be grabbed by the “v@&!^a”. Who modeled that? Who gave him permission to behave in such a brash and rude way?

Truth is above politics. It’s above the clash between the right and left. It is higher, better, outside, and beyond the noise. Truth is a lonely place. It is a place where a person loves the right and the left but is usually hated by both. It’s where Jesus walked. I encourage you, implore you, beg you to walk with Him in that sacred space that values all people and seeks healing and understanding over being right and pushing an agenda. I cried because my son stood there with his class with a simple message, a beautiful message, a message that finds no space in the news cycle and is less and less in the hearts of the men and women who are held up as our leaders. What kind of future will they face? What world has my son inherited?

Make no mistake, I will pray for the success and growth of every leader. I will obey in every way I can. I’m just asking you to seek a better mentor. Look up. Jesus is a role model like no other. Follow Him.

***If you weren't able to read all the posters here is what they said left to right:

Be unbiased

Say kind words

Be content

Accept others

Be loving

Have a happy heart

Be understanding

Include people

Be kind

Love

Be happy for others

Try try try again

Be honest

Be supportive

Have a flexible mindset

Safe in our Silos

'They' say it's never good to begin with an apology but I must. A few weeks ago I posted some controversial articles on my Facebook wall. They were posted with the caveat that I would not be commenting on either the articles themselves or any comments made about the articles. What people didn't know is that the articles were essentially bait for a social experiment. To those who found themselves in the "trap" I apologize but there was no other way to do it. You can't test people's raw reactions if you warn them first. I did expect some heated comments but I was not expecting to have people unfriend me and block me when I never even stated if I agreed or disagreed with the articles.

The articles were related to the topic of transsexuality. Definitely a current and very divisive issue. However there was no reason why I chose that topic other than the reasons mentioned. I knew it would spark a reaction and it did.

But I'm not here to talk about that issue or any other specific issue. I'm here to talk about our inability to truly discuss issues. I'm here to expose our increasingly thin skin. Our need to attack first and ask questions later if we ever ask them at all. I remember when I was a child hearing adults say "you never discuss politics or religion". What that really translates to is that we don't discuss anything of a sensitive or potentially divisive nature at all. In an increasingly complex culture where does that leave us? It leaves us in silos.

I am a Seventh-day Adventist pastor which labels me so heavily before I say a word that discussion is pretty much impossible. However I believe we're so entrenched in our own silos that it wouldn't matter what my labels were. We tolerate like minds only and even then we are guarded. There is so much anger. I am learning anger is often rooted in fear or pain. It means a nerve has been touched and since we have no skills to process divisive issues we simply respond with anger.

I used to think anger, attacks, and judging were signs of immaturity that educated people were above. Surely with degrees involving classes in psychology and sociology we can interact with other minds that don't think exactly like ours and come away more informed if not enriched by the experience. However I am not finding that to be the case. Those with multiple degrees and years of experience seem as prone to building silos and reacting with anger as anyone else. In fact in some cases it is even worse. It seems some use education not as a vehicle to broaden the mind but rather to narrow it, reading books and articles and studies that only affirm what they already believed before they did any "research".

One of the articles I posted was from a long tenured chair at John's Hopkins but that didn't matter at all to those who disagreed with his views and research based article. He was called a crackpot and worse. Now don't get me wrong. I am not saying he was right or that the study he referenced was the only or best research on the topic. However for an educated person to counter the work of another educated person it should involve counter points, alternate research, and a level of mutual respect. This is the point. It's not about who is right or wrong. The idea that any of us are 100% right about anything is pretty arrogant if not at least suspect. Can't we at least listen?

I suppose we shouldn't be surprised. When I was in high school our English/History class spent a couple of months with our classroom set up as a model of Parliament. Each student was given a riding where they served as the MP. The conservatives were in power at the time and the Liberals were the official opposition. Each class we began with question period as they do in Ottawa when the house is in session. Sometimes we got a little unruly and were a tad on the immature side. After the two months of class we took a field trip to Ottawa and sat in on a parliamentary session. I was shocked. I expected them to behave with class and decorum but they were more immature and out of line than we were. They acted as though their sole role was to sling mud at each other and discredit and disrespect each other. Perhaps that was an usually bad day on the Hill. Maybe there was a full moon.

Sadly I am not inclined to believe it was an exception. Our last leading party ran attack ads when it wasn't even election time. South of the border we don't have to look or listen very long to see how low our leaders will sink in their endeavour to convince us they are the best.

Is this what we have come to? We think ourselves wise and advanced. We imagine that society is evolving in intellect and culture but the evidence is lacking.

We can't even have conversations. We can't even entertain an idea that falls outside of our silo of "truth". We behave as if all would be well in the world if everyone thought like the guy or gal in our mirror. Here in Alberta almost 90000 people were displaced because of a horrific forest fire and some thought it the perfect launching pad to get on their soap box and beat their favourite political or religious drum. Seriously?

Now before anyone leaves thinking I'm all self righteous let me be the first to say that the church has probably done more to model silo building and intolerance than any body/institution/organization on the planet. It is hardly a new phenomenon. The Bible describes grown men, religious and political leaders, plugging their ears and throwing a tantrum like a child who didn't want to eat his peas or hear his mom ask him to any more. Actually their behaviour was far worse than a child.

I'm not naive. I don't expect this blog to change the world. What I can say is that reflecting on these realities has certainly shifted my own compass a little and I can only hope it will get one or two others to consider leaving their silos or at least peering out with open eyes and listening ears.

"There are none so blind as those who will not see."

John Heywood, 1546

Guilt – Good, Bad, or Ugly?

There are two kinds of guilt. One is imposed by others when they believe you have committed an offense: “You are guilty.” The other is a feeling that occurs within us when we have committed an offense. It is this second kind of guilt we’ll be addressing.

According to a blog on Psychology Today called ‘What Does Guilt Do?’: “If you do something wrong that hurts someone else, you feel guilty.  Guilt is a valuable emotion, because it helps to maintain your ties to the people in your community.  It provides a painful consequence for actions that would weaken the groups that you belong to.

Because guilt is painful, people often find ways to soothe their feelings by making up for their actions in some way.  These repairs are also useful, because they help to re-strengthen people’s ties to the community that they have damaged.”

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/ulterior-motives/201205/what-does-guilt-do

Guilt is healthy or more accurately can be healthy. Like pain sensors in our skin that tell us not to touch a hot stove, guilt is like the pain sensor for our conscience. It lets us know we have done something wrong and it should never be repeated.

The referenced article above goes on to explain with controlled experiments that guilt causes us to try and make amends. Here is where the waters get murky.

If I take something from you I can give it back or pay you back or make it “right” in some fashion. If the offense is small the issue is usually quickly forgotten by both parties and life goes on. When I was a kid I wanted a Nintendo. My parents said I could have one on two conditions. First I had to buy it myself which was no small feat, and secondly I could not have any games that involved violence.  Both conditions were eventually met and I got my game system.

A few months later we came home to find the house had been broken into and my Nintendo was gone. We had never been robbed before. The fact someone came into our home and took our stuff left a far worse feeling than the loss of the actual items. Replacing the things did not negate the feeling of being violated.

Here’s the issue. Some of the actions (or inactions) we do that hurt others and cause us guilt can’t be made right. Murderers can’t ‘unkill’ their victims. Sexual predators can’t ‘unviolate’ their victims. Hurtful, abusive words or actions can’t be unsaid or undone. This poses a very real problem. What can a person do to escape guilt from a situation they can’t correct?

Perhaps you heard or read of Corporal Withers who was recently awarded a medal by the queen of England for his military service yet he is suicidal. He feels guilty for simply being alive after all the buddies he has seen die around him. It is a scenario he can’t fix. Nothing he can do will bring them back, not even his own death.

This is one example of how guilt which is generally healthy can become toxic. What do we do when guilt consumes us? The Bible is full of stories of individuals consumed by guilt over things that can’t be made right. One mother loses her son to an illness and interprets it as punishment from God for things she has done in the past. A group of brothers sell their younger brother as a slave to a foreign country after nearly leaving him for dead in an abandoned well. The guilt consumes them. Every misfortune that happens to them afterwards is seen as divine retribution for their guilt.

I’ve been there. I still have flashbacks. When you do something that violates everything you want to be and hurts people in a way that can’t be corrected the guilt is crushing. You want to rewind the tape. You want to undo the damage but it isn’t possible. In July of 2001 I was driving to pick up my wife from work. I hit a pothole and my cell phone fell from the console to the floor between my feet. I instinctively reached down to pick it up and the next thing I experienced was a violent crash. The truck in front of me stopped. It was a stupid decision to look away from the road to grab the phone. Regret didn’t rewind the crash.

Here’s the bottom line. Trying to right what can’t be righted is insanity or will eventually lead to insanity. What then? If wrongs can’t be righted what can be done?

As a pastor I would say (without any data to back it up other than experience) that unresolved guilt is the leading burden carried by people. Whether it be guilt from poor parenting, or affairs, or divorce, or whatever the case may be, the source of the guilt might be four or more decades in the past but the weight of it is heavier than it was at the beginning. Have you ever tried to hold something heavy for a long amount of time? The weight of the object never changes but it sure gets heavier doesn’t it?

God has a solution. It’s called forgiveness. It doesn’t erase the event(s) but it does erase the burden of guilt caused by the event(s). For the woman thinking God killed her son to pay her back, He restored her son’s life. For the brothers, God brought the sold brother back into their lives and he showed them mercy instead of revenge. For us God sent His Son to die before we even said we were sorry, to demonstrate He values us far more than he values revenge for anything wrong we have done. You can’t love anyone including yourself until you are loved. We can never give what we don’t have. That is why God pours His love into us in the form of grace, mercy, and forgiveness before He ever expects us to be able to forgive ourselves or those who hurt us. If guilt is crushing you, it’s time to go to the cross and lay it down.

Are You Tired?

Are you tired? Not even so much physically as tired in your soul? Tired on a level sleep can't remedy. Tired on a level that no remedy seems to touch?

There might be a reason.

When I run I get tired. Some might get tired faster than I will while most can probably run further. It’s all based on fitness levels but fatigue is inevitable. It does not matter what colour you are on the "black/white" spectrum. It doesn't matter your nationality, gender, religious views, political views, language or any of the other myriad ways we classify humanity. If we run we will get tired. It's a natural law that can't be changed.

There are many natural laws that transcend our apparent differences. Broken bones hurt physically. Broken relationships hurt emotionally. Lack of food causes hunger. Lack of water or other hydrating fluids leads to dehydration. None of these realities are negotiable. They just are.

Many years age I came across this chart. It shows all the major religions of the world and boils their belief systems down to one common denominator - the golden rule. "Do to others as you would want them to do to you." It is a universal ideal but it isn't a natural law. Natural laws can't be broken. Ideals can be. Sometimes you can be as nice as possible and the other person will still treat you badly. That's because there is something wrong in them, rather than something wrong with you.

I went skiing this week and caught an edge. I found myself on the ground. Gravity is also a natural law.

I'm not sure if you have noticed but in the last 20ish years fitness facilities, health plans, diets, food quality, everything associated with what we put in our bodies, and how much we move our bodies have skyrocketed. Why? Because we're getting fatter and more unhealthy. Health is a natural law. The ill effects of poor health choices are unchangeable. If you consistently eat and live in an unhealthy way you will become unhealthy regardless of who you are.

Now consider this: If physical health is a natural law what about mental health? A friend of a friend said recently that mental health is the new frontier. She is right, at least in North America. In the United States mental health issues are on the rise. Fully one half of the population suffers from mental health issues at some point in their lives. That is double the global average. Some say that's because the United States has a better reporting/tracking/health system for measuring mental health. However no one would argue that their system is better than Europe yet they only have half the occurrence of mental health problems. The question is why?

Now we're getting close to the possible answer for why you might be so tired on a level sleep can't fix. If our bodies are designed for good food and proper exercise our mental health is likely only optimum with the proper inputs and maintenance as well. If we live contrary to those natural laws our mental health will suffer. What are those natural laws?

There are many but for this first issue of ‘Perspectives’ I am only going to propose one: meaningful rest.

The Jewish nation had a rest day every week. In addition they had a series of national rest days tied to specific positive celebrations. Three of those celebrations were each 8 days long. In total they had 80 days of meaningful rest every year. 80 days when the entire community rested from their usual work and celebrated together. These celebrations had countless positive benefits for mental health.

What I am proposing is that we need to not only have regular rest but meaningful rest/celebrations of the positive things that make us who we are as individuals and as a community. As a Seventh-day Adventist I have enjoyed 52 meaningful rest days a year beyond both statutory holidays and vacation time. Our church members have been studied by researchers all over the globe. You can read about it here:

 http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/02/the-lovely-hill-where-people-live-longer-and-happier/272798/

The results? We are not only physically healthier with a longer lifespan than the average but we also have better mental health and greater happiness. Personally the last two years have included major mental health hits for me. We have moved over 6000km from what has been our home for the past 15 years and my wife’s home province. My 5 year old nephew was killed in a tragic accident in our back yard last May. My church has been struggling through some deep scandal and pain. My mental health could be compromised but it hasn’t been.

Here are some other stats to support this perspective. In France and the UK employers are required to give their employees 6 weeks of vacation per year. The United States? None.

In fact the two nations in the world who have the least amount of rest time have the highest rates of mental health issues and their suicide rates among first world nations are also high: The United States and Japan.

Why? Because meaningful rest is a natural law. It's not necessary because the Jews said so or because the Bible advocates for it. It's true because it is as unchangeable as gravity. If you don't adhere to this natural law you will suffer and no argument can change it nor can exceptions be made. It is what is. You might be tired because you have lost your joy. Maybe you aren't regularly pausing to celebrate the richness of your life. Perhaps you've lost all sense of meaning. Perhaps you have forgotten your Source. You were designed for meaningful rest. Breaking that law has unavoidable consequences.

The Power of Choice

After a day at work at Montgomery Fair department store, Parks boarded the Cleveland Avenue bus at around 6 p.m., Thursday, December 1, 1955, in downtown Montgomery. She paid her fare and sat in an empty seat in the first row of back seats reserved for blacks in the "colored" section, which was near the middle of the bus and directly behind the ten seats reserved for white passengers. Initially, she had not noticed that the bus driver was the same man, James F. Blake, who had left her in the rain in 1943. As the bus traveled along its regular route, all of the white-only seats in the bus filled up. The bus reached the third stop in front of the Empire Theater, and several white passengers boarded.

The No. 2857 bus on which Parks was riding before she was arrested (a GM "old-look" transit bus, serial number 1132), is now a museum exhibit at the Henry Ford Museum.

In 1900, Montgomery had passed a city ordinance for the purpose of segregating passengers by race. Conductors were given the power to assign seats to accomplish that purpose; however, no passengers would be required to move or give up their seat and stand if the bus was crowded and no other seats were available. Over time and by custom, however, Montgomery bus drivers had adopted the practice of requiring black riders to move whenever there were no white only seats left.

So, following standard practice, bus driver Blake noted that the front of the bus was filled with white passengers and two or three white men were standing. He then moved the "colored" section sign behind Parks and demanded that four black people give up their seats in the middle section so that the white passengers could sit. Years later, in recalling the events of the day, Parks said, "When that white driver stepped back toward us, when he waved his hand and ordered us up and out of our seats, I felt a determination cover my body like a quilt on a winter night."

By Parks' account, Blake said, "Y'all better make it light on yourselves and let me have those seats." Three of them complied. Parks said, "The driver wanted us to stand up, the four of us. We didn't move at the beginning, but he says, 'Let me have these seats.' And the other three people moved, but I didn't." The black man sitting next to her gave up his seat. Parks moved, but toward the window seat; she did not get up to move to the newly re-positioned colored section. Blake then said, "Why don't you stand up?" Parks responded, "I don't think I should have to stand up." Blake called the police to arrest Parks. When recalling the incident for Eyes on the Prize, a 1987 public television series on the Civil Rights Movement, Parks said, "When he saw me still sitting, he asked if I was going to stand up, and I said, 'No, I'm not.' And he said, 'Well, if you don't stand up, I'm going to have to call the police and have you arrested.' I said, 'You may do that.'"

During a 1956 radio interview with Sydney Rogers in West Oakland several months after her arrest, when asked why she had decided not to vacate her bus seat, Parks said, "I would have to know for once and for all what rights I had as a human being and a citizen."

She also detailed her motivation in her autobiography, My Story:

“ People always say that I didn't give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn't true. I was not tired physically, or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day. I was not old, although some people have an image of me as being old then. I was forty-two. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.”

Police report on Parks, December 1, 1955, page 1

When Parks refused to give up her seat, a police officer arrested her. As the officer took her away, she recalled that she asked, "Why do you push us around?" The officer's response as she remembered it was, "I don't know, but the law's the law, and you're under arrest." She later said, "I only knew that, as I was being arrested, that it was the very last time that I would ever ride in humiliation of this kind."

Parks was charged with a violation of Chapter 6, Section 11 segregation law of the Montgomery City code, even though she technically had not taken up a white-only seat—she had been in a colored section. E.D. Nixon and Clifford Durr bailed Parks out of jail the evening of December 2. (quoted from Wikipedia article on Rosa Parks)

Rosa Parks was accused of breaking the law that day. It is not for me to say if she should have or should not have. I can say with assurance and conviction that the law never should have existed! What her story underscores is the power of choice. Rosa Parks had no choice about her colour or the laws of the land or many other things. She did however have a choice that day about what to do on that bus. The effects of that choice still resound today! Choices are a most powerful force. Our lives here and our eternal destinies turn on the choices we make. As I write this many in the world are choosing not to keep God's laws, be they health laws, rest laws, or any of the other natural laws He has given us for our benefit.

Rosa Parks is a powerful reminder to me of the power and influence my choices can have not only on my own life but on the lives of those I impact. Thanks in large part to her buses no longer have sections based on colour. I pray I will always determine to make choices that will honour my King, who also happens to be my Father, even if making those choices may put me at odds with the laws of this world. I pray the same for you.