Musings: Notes From My Daybook

The Reed family spent much of the Christmas holidays rambling through parts of England, France, and Germany. Now that we have been back for almost a month (having caught up on sleep and paying the bills), the memory of the trip (and a previous trip in the fall) continues to linger in surprising ways.

Yesterday I learned about a new movie Amazing Grace that retells the remarkable story of William Wilberforce through the lens of the well-known lyrics of John Newton. Newton, the sea captain who practiced his trade as a slaver and then came to be a minister of the gospel, was an abiding influence in the early and formative years of a sickly, but brilliant orator, Wilberforce. Wilberforce, himself undergoing a remarkable conversion, commits his life to the abolition of slavery and is the leading force to bring the slave trade to an end in England in 1807--two hundred years ago.

Last fall I attended a worship service in the chapel of St. John's College, Cambridge where Wilberforce was a (mediocre) student. A statue of Wilberforce stands in the entry way--not unlike the one you might see in Westminster Abbey--placed there in 1840 to remember the remarkable life of a person whose faith leads them to take on difficult tasks. As I passed by and entered in the chapel that was old even in the days of Wilberforce and William Pitt (later Prime Minister) and sat down, I was overwhelmed with the history of that space. Worship that evening was rich with the mystery and power of God.

Connecting this new movie with my recent visit I am struck by the intersection of history, faith, and God's present call and claim.

This coming Sunday at our church we will host a conference for our congregation and many guests on reaching the thousands of refugees that are making their way into the US through Atlanta. Within three miles of our church campus over 64 language groups of people from nations all over the world are represented. What will be said of those of us in two hundred years?