Sold Out

Last night I watched Amazing Grace, the movie on the life of William Wilburforce. I watched it with Ben, my husband, and this was my second viewing of it. Wilbur, as his friends called him, was consumed. He was overwrought with righteous, purely justified, holy anger at the sin of slavery, at the thought that there were men who believed that they could own other men. He was plagued and tormented and stuggled with God until God showed him what to do. He found the exact channel where God said, 'Here. This is where I'll make perfect synergy, using you, Me, and the world and people I'm orchestrating around you there on earth.' The divine channel was the British Parliament, where year after year he strove with all courage and perseverance, to end the slave trade in that nation. That single ideal, a slave-free world, drove his every thought and deed till he was a man obsessed, nearly overcome by the spirits of the suffering who he knew were all around. His physical body was spent and poured out in the struggle that branded his life, just as the branding iron marked the slaves with their owner's names. But God branded Wilbur- with his cause, with his Name- until he was rendered completely weary by it all, yet full of the peace that comes from knowing you are utterly and completely right. So in that knowledge, God gave him the strength to go on, for His sake.

Then one day, victory. What a reward for the one who gives his whole life for righteousness and is then honored by God with the privilege of seeing people set free from their chains. Actual chains! The Spirit of God is at work in the one who is willing to be taken over entirely. Looking back, we wonder, how could the great weight of this burden of a world-wide stronghold of sin, be so squarely set upon the back of just one man? There were many, and in increasing number, who agreed with him and followed his initiative over time. But without his tireless leadership and obedience to God's call, if Wilburforce had given up, would the slave trade have ended? My first response is, "Don't be silly. Of course it would have ended, maybe a little later, but it's just such an obvious evil, surely another person would have picked up the banner." And yet, it did go on for year upon year for a very long time with almost no opposition. Through one person's obedience, the world was changed.

And I can just hear Jesus, my loving Savior and Redeemer, saying, with a slightly raised voice, "Is it really so much to ask? Is it too much for me to ask you to give your entire life and livelihood for My purposes, plans, causes, Kingdom? I remember George Verwer telling my Taylor University student body that he knew 10 Christian business men personally who could, between them, finance the entire global missions movement at that time. My friend, Patricia Wilkendorf, made it her life's work to translate the New Testament for the Oomande people of Cameroon. The people who come to faith by reading those words in their own language will mention Patricia and her co-translators for generations to come when they recall their spiritual heritage.

I don't want to exalt people. It is God's business to exalt and humble. Nor do I think everyone is built to do the same kind of work, thanks to God's amazing creativity. But I believe he desires for each of his beloved to be sold out, fired up, overcome, for whatever righteous passion he gives. And so we pray. Lord, give me the passion. Show us the channel. Let me see how You will break chains through me.