What a Difference Reconciliation Makes
There’s a 200th birthday that passed this week virtually unnoticed by most people in America. It was Tuesday, June 3. Yes, I know that June 3 was our own Jim Hollar’s 72nd birthday (or was it his 102nd?), but that’s not what the milestone to which I’m referring.
June 3, 2008, was the 200th birthday of the first and only president of the Confederate States of America, Jefferson Davis. There is something worthy of note in the fact that so few noticed. That something could make a huge difference in each of our lives. Here it is:
The two highest profiled leaders of the southern cause who survived the war were Davis and Robert E. Lee. Today there is no comparison in the stature of the reputation of these two. Davis is little remembered while Lee is virtually elevated to sainthood.
April 9, 1865, found them both as defeated leaders. They responded to the same situation in drastically different ways. It is the difference between bitterness and reconciliation. Robert E. Lee chose the path of reconciliation, while historians agree that Jefferson Davis and his wife spent the next twenty years in self-justification and vitriolic writing about the “Lost Cause.” Davis died a lonely and angry man in New Orleans December 6, 1889, his legacy a documentation of Hebrews 12:15, “(Beware)…lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled.”
The double antidote for bitterness is thanksgiving coupled with forgiveness. Take a big dose today.
Share the Adventure!!!
Pastor Ruffin
Monday, 09-06-08 18:55
Pastor Ruffin,
I feel led to pray for you. I pray that God would use you in a mighty way in your area, city, and congregation. Hold high the cause of Christ, friend.
A fellow traveler...
Tuesday, 17-06-08 21:50
Ruffin, your blog is great. You might want to share the question "Let me talk to that preacher". You might get some great feed-back from folks looking for answers. Just a thought.
Thursday, 26-06-08 01:22
Pastor Ruffin,
I don't know if the people in your congregation realize what a special pastor you are. This message as well as ones you taught when I was in Elementary school and later as an adult touched me. Thank for all you do and have done.
Sunday, 29-06-08 17:41
Excellent column as usual again, Pastor. Thanks for doing this blog. Brenda and I really enjoy reading them. We watched and heard you preach on the church website the 2 messages from June 1st and the 15th. Sure is great to see and hear you regularly. Please write or call sometime. We'd love to hear Melissa's sweet voice!
Sunday, 29-06-08 22:00
Hi! That's really cool a/b Jefferson Davis! (Dad will like to know that!)Also, I didn't know you had a blog. That's interesting. Im sure you write a/b me ALL the time! (:
love ya!
Sunday, 06-07-08 02:54
Wow that was really interesting, Never knew that.
Monday, 14-07-08 03:00
And REL died at 63. I did not realize that Sherman was a man of small stature whereas Lee was 6'1" which was tall in that day and time.
Yes, Lee finished his life as a respected educator
Monday, 11-08-08 19:50
God bless Gen. Lee! :) Gen. Lee was a great man and I think there is much to learned from him about the character of a man. Good blog!
-Andrew
Davis died on my birthday. I never knew that.