What I've learned from William Wilberforce

This evening I subdued my 'stick-in-the-mud' nature and crept out into society for a night of friendship, pizza, and movie with my sister and some friends. As well as a lovely time spent cultivating new and old friendships, I was especially touched by the movie we watched, "Amazing Grace," the story of William Wilberforce and his endeavours to abolish the slave trade in Great Britain. Although I'd seen this movie twice before, the story resonated within me tonight as it had never done before, and I was startled to find myself blinking back tears.

Wilberforce and his supporters changed their world. Slave traders were cruel beyond description in their treatment of the African slaves, but many of the current politicians' hearts were hardened when faced with the plight of these poor people. The financial benefit produced by the slave traders was a greater concern to these men than the welfare of their fellow human beings. Wilberforce, however, was haunted by accounts how African men, women, and children were transported across the oceans in conditions not fit for animals to survive, let alone humans created in the image of God. Having recently become a Christian (One of my favourite quotes from "Amazing Grace": "Have you found God, sir?" Wilberforce, "I think He found me."), Wilberforce first thought he would need to quit politics in order to serve God, but he was urged by friends that by fighting to abolish the slave trade, he was serving God using the gifts he had been given. This encourages me, because it is easy to think we are not able to "change the world" unless we go out and do something extraordinarily spectacular. Not so! Wilberforce was a politician --a brilliant one, to be sure-- and God used him *as a politician* not as a missionary, nor a martyr. Even so, God can use each of us in the workplaces, communities, families, countries, even universities that we find ourselves living in today just as he uses missionaries and martyrs in lands hostile to the Gospel.

The other point that I took out from the movie was how long the battle raged before slavery was abolished. I am awestruck when I consider Wilberforce campaigned for twenty years or so to persuade the British Parliament to pass his bill. *Twenty* years!!!! Yes, he experienced times of discouragement, but he never lost his passion to eradicate the inhumane treatment towards the African people. While it is easy for us in the 21st century to express horror from our armchairs at the thought of what those slaves endured centuries ago, especially when you believe God created all men equal, Wilberforce publically spoke out against his own countrymen and encountered much slander, condemnation, and betrayal along the way. No doubt God strengthened him to endure these hardships and sustained him throughout those seemingly endless years of fruitless labour.

William Wilberforce's testimony has convicted me. In my own life I find I all too frequently adopt the dangerously soporific attitude of indifference. I like to be considered a 'safe' person, a boring stick-in-the-mud who doesn't cause disturbances, but tonight I am ashamed of that. Of course it's easier to say nothing; of course it's safer to keep quiet about what you stand for; of course it's more comfortable to blend in with the crowd; but I will never abolish the "slave traders" of this world if I do.