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But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
1 Peter 2:9
Reflect
Author Alex Haley, conducting research for his historic book, Roots, embarked on the freighter African Star sailing from Monrovia, Liberia, to Jacksonville, Fla. Each night for four consecutive nights, after dinner Haley would crawl into the cavernous, dark hold of the ship.
Stripped down to his underwear, he would like on his back on broad, thick, rough-hewn timber that was wedged between sections of cargo to prevent its shifting in the seas. This might have seemed odd to other people on the ship, but Haley was trying to more vividly understand the plight of his ancestors who were chained so many years before in the bowels of slave ships. Even for Haley, this wasn’t a pleasant trip. By the third night, he had a miserable cold, and on the fourth night, he abandoned his stay in the hold.
Understandably, Alex Haley quit his experiment, but it’s admirable that he even tried to emulate the suffering that his ancestors endured. As Christians, we serve a Savior who stepped out of the perfection of Heaven and into our world to experience humanity. We can only speculate about Christ’s agony as He made His way into the world of humanity as a baby and then walked the Earth as a child and a man, leading to His death on the cross as our Messiah. Never once did Jesus complain. He never counted the cost as being too high, and He didn’t talk about the way He was being rejected. He never gave up.
Have you ever placed yourself in someone else’s shoes and walked with them for even a short distance to minister to them? Do you understand the difference between thinking about kindness and love and actually sharing oneself?
As Christ shared a common humanity with us, so we should share His godliness in our lives with others. God considers us His priests – willing to identify with others so that we can love them as Jesus loved us.
Reflection copyright © 2025 Doug DeBolt and Charles Fulton.
