Hardships Do Not Make It Too Hard To Love

When everything in life seems to fight against family life, where do we find family unity? We uncover amazing examples of unity even through tragedy in the narratives of The Heroes of Black Church History.

Deep and Fond Affection

It has become something of a cliché to imagine that black families today find it difficult to experience stability because of a long history of instability caused by slavery and racism. While not at all minimizing the obstacles that enslaved African American families have faced, history paints a truer and more optimistic picture of their response.

Though everything fought against them, enslaved African Americans battled gallantly to maintain family cohesion—a cohesion that provided a sturdy platform from which to handle life courageously.

Communicating the message of African American family love was so important to the Reverend Thomas Jones that he bore witness to it on the very first page of his narrative.

“I can testify, from my own painful experience, to the deep and fond affection which the slave cherishes in his heart for his home and its dear ones. We have no other tie to link us to the human family, but our fervent love for those who are with us and of us in relations of sympathy and devotedness, in wrongs and wretchedness.”

Satan longs to blind African Americans to their legacy of family love. He wants all of us to believe that hardships make it too hard to love. Jones’ family and millions like them, belie that lie.

Pulling the Rope in Unison

Enslaved African American couples sustained strong marital relationships. Venture Smith was born in Dukandarra, in Guinea, about 1729. Kidnapped at age eight, Robertson Mumford purchased him a year later. After living with Mumford for thirteen years, Venture married Meg at age twenty-two. They remained together for over forty-seven years, through many trials and tribulations, until parted by death.

Venture’s narrative contains an explanation for their marital faithfulness. On the occasion of their marriage, Venture threw a rope over his cabin and asked his wife to go to the opposite side and pull on the rope hanging there while he remained and pulled on his end. After they both had tugged at it awhile in vain, he called her to his side of the cabin and by their united effort they drew the rope to themselves with ease. He then explained the object lesson to his young bride.

“If we pull in life against each other we shall fail, but if we pull together we shall succeed.” 

Premarital couples, newlyweds, and seasoned married spouses would all do well to heed Venture’s guiding wisdom. In fact, singles trying to get along with friends, co-workers trying to build a strong team, and churches trying to remain unified in Christ would all be wise to follow Venture Smith’s powerful example.

Join the Conversation

What hardships can you overcome in Christ to love others like Christ?

In what situations do you need to pull the rope in unison to experience harmony in Christ?

Note: This mini-series for Black History Month is excerpted from Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care. To learn more and to read a sample chapter visit Beyond the Suffering.

RPM Ministries: Equipping You to Change Lives with Christ’s Changeless Truth

The Forty-Day Journey of Promise

Day Eighteen: More Than Just Sunday Meetings

Note: Welcome to The Journey, our forty-day blog series from MLK Day through the end of Black History Month. We’re learning life lessons from the legacy of African American Christianity. The series is based upon material from my book Beyond the Suffering. To learn more about Beyond the Suffering, including downloading a free chapter, click here.

Everybody’s Heart in Tune

How did newly converted African American slaves grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ? How did they connect to one another in the Body of Christ?

A preacher we know only as the “Preacher from a God-fearing Plantation” offers us a glimpse.

“Meetings back there meant more than they do now. Then everybody’s heart was in tune, and when they called on God they made heaven ring. It was more than just Sunday meeting and then no more godliness for a week. They would steal off to the fields and in the thickets and there, with heads together around a kettle to deaden the sound, they called on God out of heavy hearts.”

The Old Ship of Zion

Another African American Christian described it like this.

“We used to steal off to de woods and have church, like de Spirit moved us—sing and pray to our own liking and soul satisfaction—and we sure did have good meetings, honey—baptize in de river, like God said. . . . We were quiet enough so the white folks didn’t know we were there, and what a glorious time we did have in the Lord.”

“The church was a ‘Noah’s Ark’ that shielded one’s life from the rain. It was the ‘old ship of Zion’ fully capable of sailing the seas of life.”

Life Lessons for Today

Because we all too easily abandon meeting together, we have much to learn from the high priority that African American believers placed upon communal worship and fellowship. One Black Church History scholar summarizes it well:

“Their needs for guidance and comfort were immense. The awesome importance of this spiritual and emotional support can be seen by the fact that the time to engage in worship was taken from the already too-brief free times away from field work. Work time already ran from sun-up to sundown. Time for worship was taken from the brief period left for the personal needs of sanitation, sleep, food, and child rearing. This spiritual nurture must have been highly treasured indeed to motivate the sacrifice of such limited and precious free time.”

Join the Conversation (Post a Comment for a Chance to Receive a Copy of Beyond the Suffering)

1. “Meetings back there meant more than they do now. Then everybody’s heart was in tune, and when they called on God they made heaven ring.” In what ways does your worship experience already mirror theirs?

2. What could make this statement truer in your worship experience today?

A Thanksgiving Reminder from a Hero of Black Church History

Absalom Jones was born in slavery on November 6, 1746, in Sussex, Delaware. At age sixteen he moved to Philadelphia, and by age thirty-eight he was able to purchase his freedom. Along with Richard Allen, he became a lay preacher for the African American members of St. George’s Methodist Episcopal Church. By 1794, he was ordained a deacon in the African Episcopal Church, and in 1804 he was ordained a priest.

Everyday Is Thanksgiving Day

The Rev. Jones teaches us that everyday can be Thanksgiving Day.

On January 1, 1808, in Philadelphia’s St. Thomas’s African Episcopal Church, Rev. Jones preached a message entitled “A Thanksgiving Sermon: On Account of the Abolition of the African Slave Trade.” The sermon parallels American slavery, the bondage of the Jews in Egypt, and God’s personal and powerful Exodus rescue of his people.

Rev. Jones begins his message by reading Exodus 3:7-8,

“And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their task-masters; for I know their sorrows; and I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians.”

Commenting on this passage, Rev. Jones first highlights God’s sustaining care for His people. He then relates the historical Exodus narrative to current African American life on the basis of God’s unchanging nature.

“The history of the world shows us, that the deliverance of the children of Israel from their bondage, is not the only instance, in which it has pleased God to appear in behalf of oppressed and distressed nations, as the deliverer of the innocent, and of those who call upon his name. He is as unchangeable in his nature and character, as He is in His wisdom and power. The great and blessed event, which we have this day met to celebrate, is a striking proof, that the God of heaven and earth is the same, yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.”

He Has Seen: Paying Attention to the Earthly Story of Suffering

Rev. Jones next shows that God has been watching every event of their earthly story. “He has seen the affliction of our countrymen, with an eye of pity.”

To emphasize how important it is to pay attention to the earthly story, Rev. Jones presents an outline of African American history: capture, middle passage, auction block sale, enslavement, separation from family, work from sunup to sundown, deprivation of food, clothing, and shelter, torture of the body, and withholding of religion from the soul.

Rev. Jones prefaces each point with the repeated phrase concerning God, “He has seen.” Thirteen times. Can you hear it? Feel it? Imagine it? Place yourself in the congregation.

“He has seen.” “Oh, yeah!” “He has seen.” “Preach it!” “He has seen.” “Come on!” “He has seen.” “Glory!” “He has seen.” “Yes, he has!” “He has seen.” Clapping. “He has seen.” Standing. “He has seen.” Swaying. “He has seen.” Hands raised. “He has seen.” Shouting. “He has seen.” “Amen!” “He has seen.” Tears streaming. “He has seen.” Kneeling.

He Has Heard: Paying Attention to the Heavenly Story

He has not only seen; He has also heard. Rev. Jones preaches:

“Inhuman wretches! though You have been deaf to their cries and shrieks, they have been heard in Heaven. The ears of Jehovah have been constantly open to them. He has heard the prayers that have ascended from the hearts of his people; and he has, as in the case of his ancient and chosen people the Jews, come down to deliver our suffering countrymen from the hands of the oppressors.”

The suffering Israelites and the suffering African Americans are one people of God.

Four times Pastor Jones repeats the phrase, “He came down.” Healing hope. God sustains and he saves. He climbs in the casket and He rolls the stone away leaving an empty tomb. He sees, and He comes down.

Thanksgiving: From Our Lips and In Our Lives

What worship response is appropriate? Celebrate the empty tomb!

“O! let us give thanks unto the Lord: let us call upon his name, and make known his deeds among the people. Let us sing psalms unto him and talk of all his wondrous works.”

What ministry response is appropriate? Work to extend justice and freedom.

“Let us unite, with our thanksgiving, prayer to Almighty God, for the completion of his begun goodness to our brethren in Africa.”

Liberation starts with spiritual freedom from sin through Christ. It continues with personal freedom from slavery. However, it is never finished until there is universal freedom from the slavery of sin and the sin of slavery.

Beyond the Suffering

I excerpted today’s blog post from my book Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction. For a free sample chapter, to learn more about the book, or to order your own copy, please visit here.

The Journey: Forty Days of Hope and Healing

If you find today’s post encouraging, please return to www.rpmministries.org from Martin Luther King Day (January 18, 2010) through the end of Black History Month (February 28). I’ll be posting daily on what all Christians of all races can learn from the remarkable heroes of Black Church history. 

The Rev. Absalom Jones

Join the new Black Pro-Life Movement group on Facebook: http://bit.ly/Se4zv

View the amazing video by by Dr. Alveda King, niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on the horrors of abortion. http://bit.ly/12TZdg

Here’s the introduction to the new group by one of its founder, Kimberly Cash Tate.

Did you know that abortion is the #1 killer in the black community? Fifty-percent of black offspring are aborted each year. That’s more than 1,500 black children each day. Since Roe v. Wade, more than 50 million babies have been killed in the womb. More than 14 million of these were black babies. For too long, New York advertising agencies and the media have sown the lie that “pro-life” is a white issue for “right-wing extremists.” The facts tell the truth. This isn’t an issue for one group of people or one political party. This is a human issue of epic proportion. It is an issue—like slavery in its day—that requires us to stand boldly for life, truth, and justice.

We are taking a stand. We are standing in the gap for the innocent who are being led away to slaughter. We are standing in the gap for the mothers who have been deceived into thinking it’s their body—only to be left with the pain and shame of knowing they’ve killed their own child. We are exposing the lies and plans of those who seek to advance this lucrative business of abortion. We are aligning ourselves with Jesus Christ and the Word of God, not bowing to a political party or political agenda.

This group exists to do the following:

EDUCATE and INFORM about abortion in our nation and in the black community in particular;

IMPART TRUTH from the Word of God, so that we can possess the mind of God on this important issue;

PRAY for a move of God in our land to abolish the evil of abortion; and

SPUR YOU to spread the word so that others will join this movement and learn the truth.

This group is open to all. Join us!

“Deliver those who are being taken away to death, And those who are staggering to slaughter, O hold them back.If you say, ‘See, we did not know this,’Does He not consider it who weighs the hearts?And does He not know it who keeps your soul?And will He not render to man according to his work?”~~ Proverbs 24:11-12 NASB