Convictions

From Scripture I first learned of the meaning, power, and fulfillment of personal conviction, a conviction that becomes the person gaining and working for it.  That conviction must have appropriate motive to it, and the person faithful to invite others to it, not intimidating.  Convictions of my life become invitations to the feast, not bludgeons to the judgment.  Hitler was a man of convictions born of revenge (for WWI defeat of Germany), of prejudice (for hatred of Semitic people), and of pride (to join in degrading of a man to human deity).  All this is ugly in the extreme, and a distortion of conviction. He was a Judas to his nation.

There is more than inspiration in Lincoln committing himself to the union at any cost, and he paid that cost; more than awareness of conviction in the Bible’s Abraham ready to dispatch his beloved son for God’s will, if that will be so; more than the charge for world peace in Woodrow Wilson seeking a League of Nations to keep the peace of the world; more than life itself in the Apostle Paul who would go to hell for his people if it would make the difference for them; more than the conviction of my mother standing in the courtroom to keep her children and make the sacrifices she pledged to the judge who permitted her the commitment; and, so this page might be filled with human and spiritual commitments that have contributed to the gracious improvement of my life and meaning – and inevitably to the lives of many others.  It is more than offering life to God, or country, or family, or whatever purpose.  It is above the awareness of safety, as noted in Martin Luther King, Jr’s., eminent, Dream Speech – “I may not get there with you [to the mountain top of freedom] only to be shot down a few days later – a prophet fallen by someone with a false convictions.  In righteousness (right) is found the spirit so magnificently demonstrated in Jesus Christ so to identify with mankind and follow our course even to death so to demonstrate his determination to make us worthy of his fellowship and care available for all creation.  It takes commitment to get it.  We call it the redemptive story.  All commitment of virtue has something of redemption in it.  It reflects the convictions of holy God.  I have read about dedication in every turn of years found among Christians, lay and clergy, men and women, of many languages and cultures.  Every child of God owes self-giving to relate to God’s truth.

In the fellowship of a church denomination in which I have been a part for many decades, we would sometimes refer to the early days of the mission of the denomination that there were more graves of missionaries from the commission of the founder President (Albert Benjamin Simpson) than there were living missionaries doing the work.  Those missionaries knew the danger of exotic illnesses, fearful witch doctors, and fanatical bandits before they left their homeland.  There was always a waiting list of those who wanted to go, with commitment and selflessness to carry the gospel to those who had never heard, or hearing did not understand, or hearing and understanding may have turned aside.  This commitment has never changed.  Many of my own classmates followed through and their names are sacred to me for their conviction about the commission of Christ to go into the world and preach the gospel – which they did and that leading to life sacrifice.  Four of the five men who reddened a small river with their blood in South America were well known to me.  The Johnsons in Asia so dear to my wife, and others I could note here represent a magnificent contingent so taken with their faith that they committed their lives without any thought of recourse – so to fulfill themselves that they would give meaning to their lives not only to honor God but to offer hope for better things to persons unsure about meaning and hope for any persons. We admire faithfulness in people.  Particularly ugly in our memories is Judas.  He was a betrayer, a lack of faithfulness.  From a humanistic point of view, he may have been a good man.  He could not have walked with disciples without sufficient virtue to appear to join in the commitments of the others.  All appear to have been granted spiritual gifts that made them useful to Jesus for the evangelistic team.  He was the treasurer for the tours they took, and may have needed to make up for some misappropriated funds. He had seen the miracles of Jesus, and Jesus would make miracle out of the betrayal.  All would be well.  Judas misjudged Jesus in context, and the horror of it fell heavily on him.  Hypocrisy invites life failure.