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January 24
David Barnhart
January 24, 2025
Mosaic on the altar of the Church of Dominus Flevit, Jerusalem, 2019.
On this day in 1987, around 20,000 protesters held one of the largest civil rights marches in the white supremacist stronghold of Forsyth County, Georgia.
In the Roman Catholic Church, it is the Feast of Our Lady of Peace, a title and traditional depiction of Mary.
Today is the birthday, in 1864, of Marguerite Durand. She was an actress who became a powerful advocate for women’s suffrage after attending a meeting of the International Feminist Conference, founding a feminist newspaper, training journalists, and organizing women politicians.
Since we marked Arthur Guinness yesterday, it seems especially appropriate that today also marks the death, in 1971, of Bill W. (Bill Wilson), co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous. Bill suffered from depression and PTSD, but found relief from his alcoholism soon after he joined a Christian small group, entered rehab, and had a mystical encounter with God. His support group used a model of small group discipleship, but he talked about alcoholism as a disease rather than a sin or moral failing. By helping to destigmatize substance use, Bill W. revolutionized treatment for substance use.
Reflection:
Bill W. wrote:
In God’s economy, nothing is wasted.
and
No matter how unreasonable others may seem, I am responsible for not reacting negatively. Regardless of what is happening around me I will always have the prerogative, and the responsibility, of choosing what happens within me. I am the creator of my own reality. When I [review my day], I know that I must stop judging others. If I judge others, I am probably judging myself. Whoever is upsetting me most is my best teacher. I have much to learn from him or her, and in my heart, I should thank that person.
“Nothing is wasted” has become an important part of my personal theology. Bill W. meant it primarily in the context of life experiences, but I believe it is true in the rest of God’s economy as well: excrement becomes fertilizer, trash becomes salvaged treasure, and even defeat that never makes the history books moves the needle in a long struggles toward justice. Jesus says that not even a sparrow falls to the ground without God’s notice. Somewhere in the Great Accounting, the actions of our lives are being tallied. We may not see the value, but Jesus assures us our lives are worth much more.
I like to imagine that in the Kingdom of God, Bill W. and Arthur Guinness are sharing a drink of an ambrosia that is far more lovely than anything they ever experienced here.
Prayer: God of Salvage and Salve, bring us to a salvation of justice and right relationship, where nothing and no one is wasted, where no talent goes uncultivated and no mind goes uneducated. Amen.