So help me God!
I am thinking of David Lange, Rosa Parks and Rod Donald. It makes me think of Nuclear Free New Zealand, human rights and clean GREEN New Zealand.
One is from my generation, one from the previous and one from the next.
There is special courage in putting your reputation on the line and risking being made a fool of. If the debate had not gone his way David Lange would have looked an international fool instead he looked brilliant on our behalf; making us look quite bright too.
Rod Donald, (has he really gone!) battled through years of protests and gained our respect if not for his beliefs then for his tenacity, his staying power. We use the same hairdresser him and I; he waited once while I was being trimmed he was very pleasant.
Rosa Parks, her day in history, 1 December 1955 becoming “the Mother of the Civil Rights Movement.” How could she do it, to remain seated against everyones expectations? That awful moment immediately before conflict when one knows that in 5 seconds the feelings around will be ugly, yet preferring to make a stand, such courage changed a nations attitudes.
Hebrews 11 is full of such heroes. Noah made a stand when he built a huge boat on dry land though it had never rained, Moses did too when he ‘chose to suffer affliction with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a while, regarding the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt’ ~ where he was called an Egyptian Prince. (V25 & 26)
During the war the Japanese required their prisoners to bow to the rising sun. Imagine morning on the parade ground. In a moment thousands of men will bow to the ground and YOU, the Christian, may decide that you bow your knee to only one God. Others bow you remain standing! You know you will be so obvious, no hiding. Your execution may not be swift but it will be inevitable!
I want the kind of courage that, against all circumstances, chooses to do the right thing.
Not tolerating injustice or hidden pleasure, not trying to be something I am not no matter what the pressure is to conform; not trying to look important or superior.
I want to be the person God planned me to be so help me God!
One is from my generation, one from the previous and one from the next.
There is special courage in putting your reputation on the line and risking being made a fool of. If the debate had not gone his way David Lange would have looked an international fool instead he looked brilliant on our behalf; making us look quite bright too.
Rod Donald, (has he really gone!) battled through years of protests and gained our respect if not for his beliefs then for his tenacity, his staying power. We use the same hairdresser him and I; he waited once while I was being trimmed he was very pleasant.
Rosa Parks, her day in history, 1 December 1955 becoming “the Mother of the Civil Rights Movement.” How could she do it, to remain seated against everyones expectations? That awful moment immediately before conflict when one knows that in 5 seconds the feelings around will be ugly, yet preferring to make a stand, such courage changed a nations attitudes.
Hebrews 11 is full of such heroes. Noah made a stand when he built a huge boat on dry land though it had never rained, Moses did too when he ‘chose to suffer affliction with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a while, regarding the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt’ ~ where he was called an Egyptian Prince. (V25 & 26)
During the war the Japanese required their prisoners to bow to the rising sun. Imagine morning on the parade ground. In a moment thousands of men will bow to the ground and YOU, the Christian, may decide that you bow your knee to only one God. Others bow you remain standing! You know you will be so obvious, no hiding. Your execution may not be swift but it will be inevitable!
I want the kind of courage that, against all circumstances, chooses to do the right thing.
Not tolerating injustice or hidden pleasure, not trying to be something I am not no matter what the pressure is to conform; not trying to look important or superior.
I want to be the person God planned me to be so help me God!
posted by ElizabethB | 9:11 PM
1 Comments:
Amen! (to the blog)
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