A word for all of us from my good friend Rebecca Worl:
An Abolitionist.
Harriet Tubman, and…me?
Fredrick Douglas, and…me?
Abraham Lincoln, and… me?
William Wilberforce…Soujourner Truth… and…
Abolitionsist. I've heard the term. I've marveled at the people. Their bravery, their minority stand against a majority who embrace evil. Bravery, courage, marks of an abolitionist. I applaud them. I clap my hands and say "Bravo!" I nod my head in recognition and slide easily back into my bedded world of ignorance, and I ignore…
Until now.
The whir and hum of the voices are growing. A murmur has turned into a rumbling. A whispering plea for help, has erupted into a volcanic roar. No earplugs can dim the volume. No heavy eye-masks can block the faces. No dose of sleeping pills can keep me comatose any longer. "Awake Oh Sleeper, rise from the dead" (Eph. 5:14). It's time to get up. It's time to wake. Get out of bed. Remove your earplugs and listen. Take off your mask and see. Do some stretches, and get ready to act.
Everyday, hundreds of people - children, women, men - are abuducted. Opressed. Shackled. Sold. Beat. Owned. Like cattle. Worked to death without pay, without break.
An abolitionist is anyone who acts on behalf of slaves, who does something to set the captives free. Tubman, Lincoln, Douglas, Wilberforce, and many more, are indeed great, brave, magnificent figures in Abolitionist history. But we should not place them as decorative golden figurines on our mantel and say, "wow, I could never do that, good for them." We can do that. You can. Even I can! We can and should come alongside them because their fight, their cause, is still alive, their battle is not over, and we need fighters.
Our greatest Abolitionist is Jesus himself. His heart's cry is to set people free. Not just from the oppression of sin, but also in this physical life.
Isaiah 61, a prophecy that Jesus fulfills and quotes as his ministry reads:
"The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,
because the LORD has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners."
Isaiah 58:6, God proclaims:
"Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injusticeand untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?...
and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday."
Will you join God in his work? Will your heart break, for what breaks His?
As my feet hit the pavement each day on my runs, in rhythmic motion with my breathing. In, out…forward, back… Every step I run, is a step toward the end of slavery. I am running as an athlete for Break the Chains. I picked a race, I signed up. It wasn't that complicated….it was something I could do. There is always something we can do. Don't be overwhelmed, don't think you are helpless. What can you do? New abolitionists are being made every day. As people give to Break the Chains, and as people give to International Justice Missions. As people run, raise money, form bake sales, wash cars. As hands are folded and knees are bent. As speakers raise awareness, as stories are told, as videos are made and watched. New Abolitionists are rising up and people are being freed.
It wasn't until last night, as I left a small speaking engagement where I raised awareness for Break the chains, that I realized my part in this. Last night on a video I listened to a young passionate 16 year old, Zach Hunter, talk about being an abolitionist and it was at that moment that I realized, I am an Abolitionist. I'm not "up there" with the great ones like Lincoln, but none the less, I am happy to join the ranks. Are you ready to be an Abolitionist too?
