The Forty-Day Journey of Promise
Day Seventeen: From Hellcat to Heaven Saint!
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.
“How Can You Forgive Me, Charlie?”
African American believers clung to their identity in Christ. They understood that who they were in Christ redefined how they related to those who had sinned against them.
Charlie provides a remarkable example. He had been enslaved by “Mars’ Bill” who kept his back constantly sore from whippings. Charlie then escaped, joined the “Yanks,” and became a Christian. As a freeman, he met Mar’s Bill again thirty years later.
Recognizing each other across a crowded street, Bill hollers to Charlie, “Charlie, do you remember me lacerating your back?”
Charlie replies, “Yes, Mars.”
Bill then asks, “Have you forgiven me?”
By now, a large crowd has gathered, for Charlie and Bill are some distance apart and talking loud. After Charlie shouts that he has indeed forgiven his old, cruel master, Bill is shocked.
“How can you forgive me, Charlie?”
I Serve a God of Love
Charlie’s answer is amazing.
“What is in me, though, is not in you. I used to drive you to church and peep through the door to see you all worship, but you ain’t right yet, Marster. I love you as though you never hit me a lick, for the God I serve is a God of love . . .”
Old Mars’ Bill then moves toward Charlie, hand held out, tears streaming down his face.
“I am sorry for what I did.”
Charlie grants forgiveness.
“That’s all right, Marster. I done left the past behind me.”
The Power of Redeeming Love
Charlie then testifies to Christ’s redemptive power.
“I had felt the power of God and tasted his love, and this had killed all the spirit of hate in my heart years before this happened. Whenever a man has been killed dead and made alive in Christ Jesus, he no longer feels like he did when he was a servant of the devil. Sin kills dead, but the spirit of God makes alive. I didn’t know that such a change could be made, for in my younger days I used to be a hellcat.”
From hellcat to heaven saint. From a hateful spirit to Christlike love. That’s the power of our new identity in Christ.
Join the Conversation (Post a Comment for a Chance to Receive a Copy of Beyond the Suffering)
1. African American converts celebrated their new identity in Christ. How aware are you of your new position in Christ as a saint and your new relationship to Christ as a child of the King? How do you apply your new identity in Christ to your personal life and relationships?
2. If Charlie could forgive his former master for such unspeakable cruelty, what does this say to us today about forgiveness and reconciliation in our lives and relationships?
3. Charlie teaches us that racial reconciliation begins with our reconciliation in Christ. How could this principle impact current attempts at racial reconciliation in our nation?
