There is a very loud message being sounded in our society through the Jena Six in a flash back to the Civil Rights Movement. Unfortunately this acrostic is still frequently true for American blacks in 2007.

J — Justice
E — Escapes
N — Negro
A — Americans

A few people have been doing a weekly prayer walk in the neighborhood around the Magness Potter Community Center near downtown Nashville, Tennessee most every Friday morning. Recently there were five of us: Steve, Clayton, Jeanie, my wife, and me. We always carry a big red, yellow, and blue flag with us that stands for the blood of Jesus and the fire of the Holy Spirit.

We have seen many amazing things happen in the past year and a half. This walk was no exception.

We were praying in front of a new house being built at the corner of Grace and Second Streets and asking God to bring in a family to live in that house who will have a real heart to reach out in love and service to the community. In the middle of our prayer a construction truck drove up and parked right in front of us. It had a big “Jesus loves you” sign on the back.

Coincidence? Things like that happen so often for us that coincidence becomes statistically impossible.

We walked on to the entrance of River Chase Apartments, low-income housing units that have much violence and drugs and hundreds of innocent young children growing up in the midst. As we were praying a discouraged and beaten down looking woman yelled at us, “Will you pray for me?” and came over to us.

Sharon said that she had just had a light heart attack last week and also had liver problems. As we prayed and asked God to help, encourage, and heal her, she had tears on her cheeks. When Sharon told us her last name, we asked if she knew M., a 13 year old girl with the same last name. A couple of times the week before, M. had asked my wife to pray for her grandmother who had just suffered a heart attack.

Sharon replied: ”Yes, I know M. I am her grandmother.”

Churches have become experts at marketing nowadays. What do churches promote?

Attendance at religious services;
Sunday school;
Their preacher’s name, picture, titles, degrees, sermons, and accomplishments;
Various activities for youth, seniors, singles, and others;
The names, pictures, books, CDs, accomplishments, and hype of special speakers, singers, and other religious celebrities;
Tithing and fund raising activities;
Going to Heaven;
Getting your blessing;
Politics and political candidates;
Their beautiful buildings;
Not rocking the boat.
In all their promoting, however, is there anything churches tend to leave out? What about the Person whose Name is contained in the name of Christianity?

The resurrected, living, ever-present Jesus Christ.

And what about many of Jesus’ teachings like: humility; love for our enemies; non-violence and peacemaking; personal purity; social justice, forgiving others 70 times 7 times; obedience to God; deep sorrow for our sin; striving to live a lifestyle of honesty, integrity, and righteous living; helping the poor; and all-consuming love for God?

If you say that abortion is the killing an innocent human being, people will call you a radical. If you say that sex outside of marriage is immoral, you will be labeled a radical. The people who rode integrated buses through the segregated South were called radicals. Those who spoke out boldly against forcibly holding innocent people and their descendants in life-long bondage and hard labor because of their skin color, were considered to be radicals.

A better name for all those folks, however, would be righticals. A rightical is someone who is committed to striving to do the morally right things in his or her life and to seeking to personally avoid wrongful behaviors. A rightical boldly speaks out, in love and non-violence, against public immorality and social injustice.

William Wilberforce was a great rightical. Against great opposition, he led the efforts in the British Parliament to abolish the slave trade. He was also a founder of The Proclamation Society whose goal was “making goodness fashionable.” There was a great movie released earlier this year about him called Amazing Grace. It is a powerful and inspiring story. There is also a book about Wilberforce by the same name by Eric Metaxas.

Have you ever heard of the Pessimist’s Creed? It says: “When the going gets tough, I’m outta here!”

Pessimism has a negative impact on people. It makes people like concrete — all mixed up and permanently set.

There are bad consequences to long-term pessimism. Someone put it this way: “Time wounds all heels.”

There is something good about pessimism. If you ever have to borrow money, borrow it from a pessimist because he doesn’t think you’re going to pay him back anyway.

Pessimism is seriously very harmful to human life. It produces many mental, emotional, and spiritual maladies. Pessimism is the surrender to hopelessness and the acceptance of despair.

The truth is that none of us knows our future, whether it will be good or bad. As long as we are alive, the potential of great blessing and improvement exists in our life. Pessimism loses sight of the wonderful blessings and tremendous possibilities in our future.

For some reason, the pessimist misses the glorious truth that every day above ground is a good day. Don’t let that happen to you!