Daily Lesson for March 26, 2015

Today's daily lesson comes from Psalm 142 verses 6 and 7, and Romans chapter 11 verses 2 through 4

6 Attend to my cry,
for I am brought very low!
Deliver me from my persecutors,
for they are too strong for me!
7 Bring me out of prison,
that I may give thanks to your name!
The righteous will surround me,
for you will deal bountifully with me.

Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel? 3 “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.” 4 But what is God's reply to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” 

In recent days I have been thinking of two friends, one here in town and another on the West Coast, who have chosen to fight the good fight for justice in their communities. One is a fight for better working conditions and the other is a fight for better environmental protections. Both are uphill battles; and neither of my friends seem to be winning. These women are lone voices in the wilderness and they must at times be tempted to despair.

But what seems to keep them going is the knowledge that change never happens without struggle. This has been true about all the great social movements in our nation's history, whether it be abolition, or suffrage, or civil rights.  And it is true for the causes these friends of mine are working on.  The mountain seems insurmountable and many give up; but one person keeps at it -- keeps struggling.  And because she keeps at it the struggle is kept alive; and someday -- in the mystery of God's timing -- others are found to join in, as if from out of nowhere, and pretty soon that one woman's voice crying in the wilderness is joined by a whole chorus of voices calling for change. And suddenly then now there is what Malcolm Gladwell calls "the tipping point" of a movement. 

Margaret Mead once said, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." I pray for my thoughtful, committed citizen friends, for their struggle, and for them to know that perhaps like Elijah in today's lesson, they may feel totally alone, but God has 7,000 other thoughtful, committed citizens waiting in the wings.