07/18/08

This one should keep us thinking:

    This is a true story of something that happened just a few years ago at USC.

   There was a professor of philosophy there who was a deeply committed atheist.  His primary goal for one required class was to spend the entire semester to prove that God couldn’t exist.  His students were always afraid to argue with him because of his impeccable logic.  Sure, some had argued in class at times, but no one had ever really gone against him because of his reputation.  At the end of every semester on the last day, he would say to his class of 300 students, “If there is anyone here who still believes in Jesus, stand up!”  In Twenty Years, no one had ever stood up.  They knew what he was going to do next.  He would say, “Because anyone who believes in God is a fool, “If God existed, he could stop this piece of chalk from hitting the ground and breaking… such a simple task to prove that He is God, and yet He can’t do it.”  And every year, he would drop the chalk onto the tile floor of the classroom. And it would shatter into a hundred pieces.  All of the students would do nothing but stop and stare.  Most of the students thought that God couldn’t exist.  Certainly, a number of Christians had slipped through, but for 20 years, they had been too afraid to stand up. 

    Well, a few years ago there was a freshman who happened to enroll.  He was a Christian and had heard the stories about his professor.  He was required to take the class for his major, and he was afraid.  But for three months that semester, he prayed every morning that he would have the courage to stand up no matter what the professor said, or what the class thought.  Nothing they said could ever shatter his faith… he hoped.

   Finally the day came.  The professor said, “If anyone still believes in Jesus, stand up!”  The professor and the class of 300 people looked at him, shocked, as he stood up at the back of the classroom.   The professor shouted, “You FOOL!  If God existed, he would keep this piece of chalk from breaking when it hit the ground!”  He proceeded to drop the chalk, but as he did, it slipped out of his fingers, off his shirt cuff, onto the pleat of his pants, down his leg and off his shoe. As it hit the ground, it simply rolled away unbroken.

   The professor’s jaw dropped as he stared at the chalk.  He looked up at the young man, and then ran out of the lecture hall.  The young man, who had stood, proceeded to walk to the front of the room and shared his faith in Jesus for the next half hour.  300 students stayed and listened as he told of God’ love for them and of his power through Jesus. 

You have two choices;

 1. Pretend you never read this

 2. Pass this along to your Christian and non-Christian friends, giving them encouragement we all need every day.

When you choose option 2, you have chosen to STAND UP.

One person who lived this message to its fullest actually chose to sit down.

   Rosa Parks was tired, so tired that she decided to take the bus home. Her feet hurt and her back and shoulders ached. The first  bus that came past had standing room only, so she decided to wait for the next bus in hopes of getting a seat. During her wait, she remembered why she often walked home- riding the bus took a toll on her dignity.

   The segregation laws in force in 1955 Montgomery, Alabama, seem unbelievable today, but they were a reality for thousands of blacks in the south. Take the restrictions on riding the bus, for instance, Even though the majority of bus passengers were people of color, the front four rows of seats were always reserved for white customers. It was common to see people standing in the back of the bus while the first four rows remained empty. Behind the reserved-for-whites section was a middle section where African-Americans could sit if the seats were not needed by white customers. If just one white customer, however, needed a seat in this center section, all those already seated had to move.  

   Even getting on the bus was an elaborate process for black people. They would pay their fare in the front, exit, and then reboard the bus at the back. Rosa died a little each time she found herself face-to-face with this kind of discrimination. In fact, Rosa had once been thrown off a bus for refusing to reboard at the back door.  

   Finally a second bus came, and to Rosa’s joy, there were a few seats available in the middle section- “no-man’s land”. Rosa climbed the stairs, put her dime in the fare box, climbed back down the stairs, hurried to the back door of the bus, climbed up the stairs, and made it through the aisle in time to find there was still a seat available. She sat down in the row just behind the white section. What a relief to relax for a minute!

   The bus picked up more riders and the front section of the bus filled up. When the driver noticed a white man standing in the aisle, he ordered four people, including Rosa, to give up their seats. At first no one moved.

   The bus driver said, “You all better make it light on yourselves and give me those seats.” The other three riders did as they were told, but Rosa knew that to do so would be wrong- and she quietly refused to get up. “I’m gunna call the police,” the bus driver threatened.

   “Go ahead and call them,” said Rosa. She was tired, true-but even more, she was tired of giving in. It wasn’t just the bus. It was the “whites only” restaurants, the drinking fountains and elevators marked “colored,” and the unspoken intimidation that were all a part of daily life in a place that did not treat all its citizens as equals. Rosa remembered, “I was tired of seeing so many men treated as boys and not called by their names or proper titles. I was tired of seeing children and women mistreated and disrespected because of the color of their skin. I was tired of legally enforced racial segregation. I thought of the pain and the years of oppression and mistreatment that my people had suffered… Fear was the last thing I thought of that day. I put my trust  in the Lord for guidance and help to endure whatever I had to face. I knew I was sitting in the right seat.”

   Rosa later wrote, “I felt the presence of God on the bus and heard His quiet voice as I sat there waiting for the police to take me to the station. There were people on the bus that knew me, but no one said a word to help or encourage me. I was lonely, but I was at peace. The voice of God told me that He was at my side.”

 -Mac, Toby, and Michael Tait. Under God. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Bethany House, 2004. 63-64.

REFLECTION

God calls each and every one of us to live confidently in his love. While remaining firm in your belief may not be the easiest or the most popular thing to do, it is definitely the most Christ-like.

To follow in Jesus’ footsteps is to meet opposition with great dignity.

PRAYER

“Lord, give us the ability to hear your ‘quiet voice’, and the strength to obey it."