If you have been part of this blog community for any length of time, you are bound to run across a history lesson. Today is one of those days.
Sixty-five years ago was quite a time in the United States.
On September 12, 1958, the United States Supreme Court ordered the all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, to integrate racially. It was one of many civil rights-related court and legal actions in the 1950s.
In response to the decision, Democrat Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus closed all Little Rock public high schools for one year, rather than allow integration to continue, affecting 3,665 black and white students. It is known in Arkansas as “The Lost Year.”
A week later, on September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry, a 42-year-old black woman, stabbed Martin Luther King, Jr., while he signed copies of his book Stride Toward Freedom at Blumstein’s Department Store in Harlem, New York.
Curry stabbed King with a seven-inch, steel letter opener, driving the blade into the upper left side of his chest. A quick-thinking medical worker didn’t remove the blade, knowing it would likely kill him. King was rushed to Harlem Hospital, where he underwent more than two hours of surgery to repair the wound. Doctors said, “Had Dr. King sneezed or coughed, the weapon would have penetrated the aorta. He was just a sneeze away from death.”
Ms. Curry was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic and unfit to stand trial. She spent the next 56 years in various psychiatric and nursing facilities before she died in 2015, only a few months shy of her 99th birthday.
King was assassinated in Memphis less than ten years later.
We live in an angry world that has been angry for a very long time. Recent political events didn’t create it. Sin did, and it has been present for only a short time less than people have been around.
How should Christian writers address this world? Maybe 2 Corinthians chapter five explains it best:
So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us (2 Corinthians 5:16-20, NIV).
“Ambassador” is an appropriate word to describe Christian writers.
In diplomacy, ambassadors reflect the policies of those they represent. They don’t make policy; they see to it that the policies and plans of those they represent are carried out.
Maybe you have heard a pastor or teacher give an example of how to make Scripture come alive by inserting your name into the text. I think the same works for professions.
God has committed to Christian writers the message of reconciliation. Writers are Christ’s ambassadors as though God were making his appeal through them.
Knowing this lightens the burden for those who think changing lives is up to their words and creativity, rather than the Kingdom they represent and the God they serve.
The world is going mad today,
so many things that I can’t explain,
but in truth that is the way
the devil plays his dull refrain.
Today the anguish comes from this,
yesterday it came from that.
There’s no weltschmerz you can miss
if you try to swing a cat,
so steady on, and live the dream
that the Christ put in your heart.
Try to help, though it may seem
you’ve no idea where to start,
and at the end (yeah, you can earn it!),
‘Well done, My good and faithful servant!’
As the owner of 4 cats, I had to laugh at the “try to swing a cat” line. Our youngest cat, Spot, actually enjoys sitting in the laundry basket and have my husband swing him back and forth. It’s hilarious! But I don’t think he’d appreciate being swung by his tail, which is what I picture in your poem. haha!
I think the anger started when Cain grew so jealous Abel that he killed him. So many days I cry out for Jesus to come and get us RIGHT NOW! But then I remember all those I love who aren’t saved and I say, wait.
Being Christ’s ambassador is just one reason I write for children and do Storytime at a local public library in a town that’s known for violence and racial tensions. I never know who’s gonna show up, so I have to be ready for anything. So far, I haven’t had a problem. And I work hard to love and accept all the kids who attend. I hope and pray I’m making a good difference!
Well said. Thank you Dan.
That is a great message, Dan. In all that we do and say, Christ is to be present. Jesus’s one command is also triune: love God, love others, love self. Our lives are the love story we carry in us and each day is the turn of a page. Thanks for this story.
Dan, thanks for another thoughtful, insightful post. These always seem to come at just the right time, and this one is no exception. Blessings.
Just now I sat a little straighter in my chair. Thank you for the reminder that we are ambassadors for Christ and His Kingdom. We must not be discouraged or tired, but every morning drink from the Living Water so we can reach the perishing.
I needed to be reminded of my role as an ambassador for Christ this morning. Thanks for sharing:)
I always appreciate Andrew’s poetry.
Dan, thank you for the encouragement. Every month I’m at a loss of what to write for the editorial in my newspaper and your takeaway took away a bit of my ongoing dread of blowing it for Jesus. All I can do is seek Him and do my best for His glory.
Wow- very profound!! I love the history lesson and I love the analogy!
Thank you, Dan. What a well-stated comment and needed reminder that we are not writers in order to change people. God does that. We share his message.
That was my husband’s theme verse for many years. He came to Christ in his twenties and experienced a powerful about face! So important to remember that we are not our own as we navigate an angry world. Oh, and the movie you are referencing was SO funny, ha!
Thank you for that reminder.
Well said, Dan. Thank you.
I believe God has his army of authors who are sending his message out through fiction. I think this is why it saddens me when Christian authors produce material that can’t be distinguished from secular authors. We have a unique gift, Truth. A unique ability to turn the gospel into hidden nuggets of gold. Bram Stoker’s Dracula was surprising because the message of Christ was so much stronger than the horror.
Thank you for this note on history. Martin Luther King plays a role in my third book in in my series. Racial discrimination is prevalent between the 1950s and 1970s. I appreciate the reminder as Christian writers we are to be a light to those who are lost in the division of our times. I pray I will be a light to my readers.