Friday, August 29, 2008

May The Wilberforce Be With You

"Faith is a subject of such importance that we should not ignore it because of the distractions or the hectic pace of our lives. Life as we know it, with all its ups and downs, will soon be over. We all will give an accounting to God of how we have lived."

"When we do not take our problem seriously, we do not seek the solution God offers with the measure of sincerity and intensity that our true condition requires. If we don't understand how seriously ill we are, we don't pursue the remedy with the required diligence. If we are slightly ill, we take an aspirin. If we are dying, we passionately pursue a cure. The cure is not forced on us; it is offered to us."
- William Wilberforce, Real Christianity

3 comments:

John said...

Very good quote and funny title.

mwh said...

Have you read any N. T. Wright? kt was reading to me the other day out of "Surprised by Hope". Wright feels like the Wilberforce issue of our day is third-world debt--the way first-world countries leverage poor nations to the point of crippling their economies and destroying the local people. Just thoughts....

Unbreakable Joy said...

MWH,

I've been contemplating your question.

Considering the little I know of Wilberforce (which amounts to Piper's biographical message on him, the moving Amazing Grace, and the first few chapters that I have read in Wilberforce's book Real Christianity - which I'm greatly enjoying) it seems to me that Wilberforce's issue of the day is as the title of his book may suggest, "Real Christianity."

In other words, if Christians lived as Christ did then much good would result. The unfortunate thing is that this is in fact quite rare. Following Christ led Wilberforce on a journey of social action for the betterment of many people.

"It is the true duty of every man to promote the happiness of his fellow creatures to the utmost of his power." - Wilberforce

I believe the above quote highlights the issue of our day, and I believe it was the issue in Wilberforce's day as well. This same issue resulted then in the slave trade, and today in an overabundance of ways in which various peoples are exploited in various ways.

Wilberforce was using a few different words to say exactly what Jesus did, "Love each other as I have loved you."

If we were obedient to Jesus here there would be no more slave trade (which still exists in some areas of the world), and no more exploitation of various peoples in various ways.

I've not read Wright. I heard him speak once though and my head is still spinning as a result... The fact that I could not keep up with him in his verbal discourse suggested to me that I would likely not follow him in writing. But I may yet pick up one of his books some day.