This is the time when many people make New Year’s resolutions. Very often these focus on intentions to live a more healthy lifestyle based on changes in diet and/or exercise. The problem is that most people will give up on their resolutions. For example new gym memberships spike at this time of year but attendance is back to normal by February. Resolutions are different than being resolved – having the commitment to follow through over the long haul regardless of outward circumstances. Late in 2019 we learned that Rep. John Lewis was diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer. This was national news because of his life long resolve to work for racial justice since the 1960’s. He is one of the most important living leaders of the civil rights movement including participation in lunch counter sit-ins, freedom rides, the Birmingham campaign, and perhaps most famously leading the “Bloody Sunday” march over the Edmund Pettis Bridge in Selma, AL. Throughout those turbulent times, his deep resolve and commitment to faith based non-violence led to being beaten and jailed many times. Yet he continued to follow Jesus’ command to love his enemies even as he remained committed to changing hearts and laws. I had the privilege of meeting John Lewis twice in person. One one of those occasions, I brought a book with pictures from the civil rights movement including one where he is standing with other marchers in front of a row of Alabama state troopers moments before those troopers savagely beat him and the other marchers. I asked him to autograph that picture which he graciously did. Yet he did not just sign his name. Rather he included a phrase above his name – “Get in the Way.” This treasured autograph is a reminder that each of us who believe in Jesus’ way of love and non-violence are called to get in the way of injustice and violence in ways that both challenge and love our enemies. I am sad that John Lewis is battling advanced cancer, and I pray for his healing. But I also pray for the faith and courage to follow his example to “get in the way” during these turbulent times in which racism, poverty, and war continue to oppress people in our country, at our borders, and around the world. In his model prayer, Jesus taught his followers to pray, …thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” John Lewis resolved to live into this reality over the long haul. As followers of Jesus, are we willing to do the same?
