“The
good and the great are only separated by the
willingness to sacrifice.” Kareem
Abdul-Jabbar
Remember the commercial, “What have you got in your wallet?” Okay, I’ll confess. The
favorite face I like to have inside my wallet is Benjamin Franklin. Unfortunately,
he’s not there very often and leaves too quickly. When you hand him over at
McDonald’s to be replaced by some of his lesser friends, the clerk will
probably give you a look of disdain as she marks him up to make sure he’s for
real.
President Jackson is probably the most common
face in my wallet. Having been raised in Atlanta, it’s rare for me to go
anywhere without at least one Jackson tucked away. It’s called “mug money.” While
I live in small town America where muggings are as common as traffic jams, old
habits die hard. Add to that, I’m the only male in my family who’s never been
mugged…I’d like to keep it that way.
Too many of us tend to be resistant to
change, especially if we’re conservative and the change smells like “political
correctness” to us. Personally, I’m very pleased with the recent choice of
Harriet Tubman to grace our $20 bills. I’d surmise many who are having such
strong visceral reactions to this change don’t know much about either President
Andrew Jackson or Harriet Tubman, other than he’s white and she’s black.
In
a day of growing political correctness and sensitivity, there could hardly be a
more politically incorrect choice than Harriet Tubman. While she was a former
slave, she could easily be the face for the NRA. She was known as the “Black
Moses” because of the many slaves she rescued prior to the Civil War. Her
rescue missions were very dangerous, so Tubman wisely demanded strict obedience
from her escapees. A slave who returned to his master would likely be forced to
reveal information which would compromise her mission. If a slave wanted to
quit in the midst of a rescue, she’d hold a revolver to his head and ask him to
reconsider. Asked whether she’d actually kill a reluctant escapee, she replied,
“Yes, if he was weak enough to give out, he’d be weak enough to betray us all
and all who had helped us, and do you think I'd let so many die just for one
coward man?”
While she never had to shoot a slave she helped, she did come close with
one: “I told the boys to get their guns ready, and shoot him. They'd have done
it in a minute; but when he heard that, he jumped right up and went on as well
as anybody.”
A
foolish blunder today with our oversaturation of political correctness is the
incessant judgment of yesterday’s choices by today’s standards. For example, do
we think Harriet Tubman was right to threaten someone’s life? Personally, I can’t
make that call. I’m just thankful she never had to make that choice. Yet, let’s
not forget many innocent lives were at stake if her missions was discovered.
The
same is true of Andrew Jackson. One of the arguments made for this change is Jackson
was a slave holder. But so was nearly everyone else. Do I believe he was
correct or it can ever be rationalized? No, but I do believe there are things
culturally accepted that even believers never evaluate in light of God’s Word
because they’re so engrafted into the culture. Let me share just one example. Smoking
today is a cultural taboo, yet not many years ago nearly everyone smoked,
including many pastors like Spurgeon.
As
believers, we need to be biblically wise and cognizant that there are no good people, only a great God. We all have blind spots and chinks in our armor, often
cultural ones. We must be cautious in judging others, particularly those from
history. Yet, we often need to be better at judging ourselves and so thankful
for God’s grace that He loves us in spite of our own spiritual blindness. It’s
all of grace!
Harriet Tubman was a Christian and a heroine.
Raised in slavery in Maryland, she escaped in 1849. When she first reached the
North, she said later, “I looked at my
hands to see if I was de same person now I was free. Dere was such a glory ober
eberything, de sun came like gold through de trees and ober de fields, and I
felt like I was in heaven.” Yet, she was not satisfied with her own freedom
and made 19 return trips to the South, helping to deliver at least 300 fellow
slaves, boasting “I never lost a passenger.”
Her friends and fellow abolitionists claimed the source of her strength came
from her faith in God as deliverer and protector of the weak.
“I
always tole God,” she said, “I'm gwine
to hole stiddy on you, an' you've got to see me through.” Incensed slave
owners offered a $40,000 reward for her capture but she was never apprehended. “I can't die but once” became the motto
of her life. With that philosophy she continued on with her mission of
deliverance. For eight years, as America moved toward Civil War, she made many
dangerous trips back to Maryland, leading slaves north to freedom. On each
rescue mission she relied on God to guide and protect her. She gave all the
credit to Him, explaining, “‘Twant me,
‘twas the Lord. I always told him, ‘I trusts to you. I don’t know where to go
or what to do, but I expect you to lead me,’ and he always did.” No wonder
she was known as Moses. Her faith deeply impressed others. Abolitionist Thomas
Garrett said of her, “I never met with
any person of any color who had more confidence in the voice of God, as spoken
direct to her soul.”
Later,
during the Civil War, she served the Union as a scout, spy, cook, and nurse to
wounded and sick soldiers. She even led an armed assault on Southern
plantations, during which 750 slaves were rescued. In later years, she donated
property to be turned into a home for indigent former slaves.
Harriet
Tubman was someone we all can learn from and emulate. She lived out being salt
and light before a wicked world. Today there is even more evil that needs
resisting. Each time we see her face on our money, may it remind us, as those
who’ve been rescued, we, too, have a mission to rescue slaves…slaves of sin. As we grow weary, let’s remember her unflinching
courage and unfailing faith in God’s guidance—renewing our efforts to be a
“Moses” to the ones God has called us to rescue.
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