Monday, March 19, 2012
Truth that Overcomes
"God says we need to love our enemies. That hard to do. But it can start by tellin' the truth."A line by Aibileen from "The Help", which I finally got a chance to take a night off to watch on DVD this past week.
Many might say this is a film about racial discrimination in the early days of the Civil Rights movement in the American deep south. But I would like to say "discrimination" is too light of a term to use. "Injustice" or "oppression" comes closer.
At FT today, we listened to T. Keller's sermon on the last part of Ephesians 6. Towards the end of the sermon, Keller mentioned one thing that struck me hard, and I jotted it down on my iPhone Notes as follows:
"Jesus overcame evil with good, by coming to the world to bear evil and take all the consequences of evil".
Powerful message and a thunderstorm awakening. The question is - HOW exactly are we able to do that, to "overcome evil with good"?
Romans 12:20-21 tell us: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."
What if your enemy is neither hungry nor thirsty. Rather, your enemy is the main perpetrator who deprives your and others' means of food and water, rights for dignity and respect?
"Ain't you tired, Miss Hilly? Ain't you tired?" When Aibileen is at last fired from her job, she looks into the eyes of her perpetrator and leaves her with these final words.
"God says we need to love our enemies. That hard to do. But it can start by tellin' the truth. No one had ever asked what it feel like to be me. Once I told the truth about that, I felt free. And I got to thinkin' about all the people I knew, and the things I seen and done. My boy, Treelore, always said we gonna have a writer in the family one day. I guess it's gonna be me."
For Jesus, he overcame evil by bearing the deadly consequences of evil and dying on the cross to set those who believe in him free.
For us humans - if bearing the consequences of evil isn't what we are able to do, perhaps telling the truth, and encouraging others to do just the same, is somewhere to start?
I am tired, extremely tired. But perhaps the enemy is more tired than me. In the end, there is nothing more tiring and frightening than not being able to face up to one's own soul, own conscience, and the higher being above.
梅ちゃん at 2:10:00 AM
2 Comments
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at 3/19/12, 6:38 PM
EDFward said... every time I read your blog I can experience something "sublime" and "catharsis". I feel lucky that I've been one of your students, and I'm trying not to be a mere stander-by which I feel not easy. thx for being my moral model.
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at 10/31/16, 9:11 AM
ammarbder said...
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