A lesson to learn...

In the movie, Amazing Grace, William Wilberforce is speaking with his friend, William Pitt, about England changing and Wilberforce says, “As it will change…” Pitt replies, “Only if we change it.”

Amazing Grace is the inspiring story of William Wilberforce, a politician in England in the late 17hundreds. After becoming a born again believer he struggled with the decision whether or not he should quit his political work and go into the church. In the movie, Pitt, the youngest man in England to become Prime Minister, asks Wilberforce if he intends to use his talents to praise God or to change the world. As a young Christian, he was unsure of what he should do. God put people into his life who showed him that he could do both the work of God and the work of a political activist through working to abolish the slave trade. Wilberforce said, "God Almighty has set before me two great objects, the suppression of the Slave Trade and the Reformation of Manners." As Pitt had said, the world will change if we change it. God has given each one of us a purpose and we need to find that purpose and fulfill it, no matter what it takes. Wilberforce spent years and years trying to get his bill to abolish the slave trade passed and each year he was disappointed and his bill thrown out. On top of the fight to abolish the slave trade, he was also fighting through an illness that caused him to be in almost constant pain. But through it all he never stopped fighting.  The question of whether we should change the world or serve God isn’t an ultimatum, it isn’t an either or question. Rather, we need to be serving God by changing the world for His glory. Praising Him through our battles against the wrongs in our world.  Wilberforce never stopped fighting while his bill was in the house, even after it was passed he didn’t stop going. Once the bill to end the slave trade had been passed, he focused his attention on slavery itself. He didn’t rest until three days before his death the bill was passed that abolished slavery forever in Great Britain and throughout the British Isles. We too need to accomplish our goals one by one and never stop until God calls us home. And as you fight, never doubt that you are right. Always be passionate about the task God has called you to. Just as Wilberforce faced hatred, ridicule, and slander because of what he stood for, we also will face hatred, ridicule, and slander.  But just as he stood strong through it all, we also must stand strong through it all. Sometimes it may seem that you are the only voice in the crowd, but God will be with you! God has given you a great object, to change the world. What are you waiting for? Be a Wilberforce!