Great Americans (and their lesser-known great wives)

When i was choosing my history modules earlier this year, God impressed upon me to take the American history module under Dr Quek... honestly i'm not such a great fan of American history and there were so many other choices but it just seemed right for me to take this module.. and so i did... and i'm really thankful to God that i did cos i know that in learning about great people in history, God wants me to learn from their examples as well.. He wants me to go through those lectures and be inspired by their lives.. truly it's a divine enterprise...

The first one was Woodrow Wilson. He was that great President whom God raised up to fill the whitehouse during World War I. Truly he was a man born out of his time, almost like a prophet who lived outside of his reality. He was so idealistic and wanted to change the world, even before everyone else were tuned to the idea. His famous '14 points' conceived how the post-war world should look like... He advocated self-determination of nations, where the local nationalities would decide which nation they would belong to. He also advocated the formation of the League of Nations where states could 'talk it out' instead of going into an all out war to settle matters. And at Versailles when they were drafting the war treaty, he did not want to deliver a crippling punishment to Germany but to make it a friend, a strong democractic nation, reasoning that if Germany should be treated in such a manner, it would only sow the seeds for the next war... He was a man who churned out ideas too radical for his time.. these were considered revolutionary... and unfortunately the other nations wouldn't quite buy into it.. yet he proved to be someone with incredible, almost-prophetic foresight...

We all know that France was so sick and tired of being invaded by Germany that it pushed for heavy punishment against them during Versailles- the 'war guilt' clause accepting the whole blame for the war, heavy reparations that would take decades to pay back, etc... France was determined that Germany should never rise again. The principle of self-determination was applied to every European country other than Germany. And Wilson, disappointed with the outcome returned to America and the Congress, frustrated with such a course of European politics, voted not to join the League. Short of saying 'i told you so,' we all know that these contributed to the great excuse that Hitler had for starting the next war...

Wilson faced so much criticism, and still does even until today... (I even think that Dr Quek doesnt like him from the way she talks about him) He was a professor at Princeston... The son of a minister, everyone accused him of being so rigid and self-righteous... always thinking that his policies were really the way to go... people considered him too idealistic for wanting to the change the world and the very nature of what happens in warfare- don't punish the losers heavily... that was something that was so out of the norm, so out of the box that his contemporaries would probably think he's nuts... He's even criticised for the fact that he couldn't even get his own government to approve to join the League of Nations, his brainchild... but guess what, he was right...

Because the United States stayed away from their international role, Germany was not kept in check.. Because France was so vindictive and wanted to punish Germany heavily, she later had to suffer the consequences for her actions... We do have the benefit of hindsight... but Wilson had the advantage of foresight... yet he was dismissed for his 'idealism'... which begs the question- could things have turned out differently if people had listened? Perhaps he wasn't the king of public relations... yet he personally represented the US at Versailles, something that no other American president did before, to leave the white house and stake personal involvement in international matters. For him to have endured opposition to act as a herald of a new order of international relations exemplifies the life of a prophetic forerunner for God... Perhaps God may give us a message, and not everyone's ready to listen... the message perhaps being too radical or revolutionary for its time.. and we might have to endure persecution or criticism. People might even get offended. Things might even get personal. But though we may not even see the fruits of our labour in our generation, what we sow might be reaped by the next... the good things we sow as well as the bad decisions we make.. but for every Hitler, God would raise up a Churchill and a Franklin Roosevelt who wouldn't sit around doing nothing...

But first let's talk about Wilson's wife... In the last few months of Wilson's term in office, he was so sick that he was virtually incapacitated to run the country. His wife took over in making decisions and in attending to the matters in the White House... feminist historians even refer to her as the first woman president (though i think that's taking it a bit too far)... but this was the period before women had equal treatment.. and for her to take up such a role while looking after a dying husband, she truly deserves honour... like her husband, she was a woman born out of her time...

Then let's talk about Franklin Roosevelt, whom God raised up for World War II. He was much more skilled at public relations than Wilson. If we see Wilson as a prophetic forerunner who got everyone's attention through his sheer bluntness (he needed the attention to reflect the message he was forerunning), then Roosevelt was the preparer and the one who put such insights into action. For every revelation that God releases, the people first need to be prepared before they can enter into it... likewise, God raised up Roosevelt to prepare the American public.. he tactfully and diplomatically took gradual steps to call America out of slumber and take a greater role in its international responsibility by gaining the trust of the people.. so that when Pearl Harbor came, they were ready to go to war. Historians have called him the right person for that time... Likewise, for such a time as this, God is raising up people who would take the revelation that the previous generation had further... They would be used by God to prepare His corporate Body for the new thing that He's about to do so that when the right time comes, they'd enter into it.. These people are gonna go from revelation into application.. from FDR's time, America got more and more involved in world politics even with the signing of the Atlantic Charter which ensured that... (And we know that after the War, the ineffective League of Nations was replaced by the more viable United Nations, in which America was and still is a member...) The point is, there are people whom God raises up to get us from here to there... and we must listen to them...

What's more interesting about Roosevelt was the fact that he was a cripple... the American public didn't know it at that time.. and then, people with disability were looked down upon to a certain degree... but in any case, he was a classic example of how God even uses disabled people in such a great manner. His weakness didn't stop him. He was a classic 'builder'... he expanded the role of the central bureaucracy and enacted policies that strengthened the executive arm of the United States, even to such a degree that it couln't go back to size of what it was before the war. He made the executive branch play a greater and more prominent role in running the country. He didn't allow himself to be limited. It is now therefore appropriate to mention his wife Eleanor Roosevelt, a strong and virtuous woman who became his eyes and ears all over the country. She compensated for his lack of mobility and traveled around the country representing her husband. She was willing to get her hands dirty and even mix around with the people. A very public figure, she proved to be a visible stamp of approval upon the FDR administration.

Then very recently, DR Quek showed us a video of Jackie Robinson... He was the first black American baseball player in the major league. As i was watching the video, i felt the presence of the Holy Spirit as he was highlighting to me certain things about the message of his life and story... Baseball wasn't just a game for him.. he carried a huge weight on his shoulders... he felt that he was actually representing his own people and in a time where race was still a very big issue, he was proud of who he was. He endured criticisms, insults and abuse... He had to keep his mouth shut, even despite hearing every racist remark hurled directly at him. He even had to endure death threats from people who want him to stay out of the predominantly white major league baseball. And in all this he kept his mouth shut, the same way our Lord responded when insults were hurled at Him... And one historian said of him that even though Jackie Robinson turned the other cheek, he turned it in such a way that let the other person know that he was going to turn it again...

Perhaps you may wonder how God can use a baseball player.. after all, they don't hold big offices like evangelists, prophets or even presidents... but God used this one to inspire an entire generation of blacks... (if only today's soccer players played with such an outspoken virtue and purpose, they could inspire the younger generation..) he too was a forerunner, breaking frontiers and mindsets... If he succeeded, surely there would be others that would follow.. and that was a heavy responsibility for the social implications of the game.. He broke the common mindset and thinking, challenging social norms... in fact, he offended people just by being there... many people thought that he shouldn't be playing with the "white" league though there was no rule against it.. he broke the unspoken expectation... perhaps one could even say that he was a forerunner and rallying point for the Civil Rights movement even before Martin Luther King...

He also had a strong wife who supported him, one who stood among the crowd, hearing all those insults yelled at him from behind her.. yet in the interview she said that she hoped that with her back against them, she could block off some of the insults from reaching him... she then later commented that never once did she hear her husband say that he was going to give up...

So whether president or baseball player, each of us has a place in history, a reason that we are born for such a time as this... So let's not despise whatever our trade and occupation may be but as we look to God and search for a purpose in our lives, let's search for His purpose... the reason why He made us and fashioned us as we are.. and let's begin to live it out...

I've asked God for an adventure cos i dun wana go through the motion and live a boring life. And Him speaking to me through my lectures are a part of this adventure... cos it's during those times that i'm proud i'm taking history cos i know there's a purpose of why i'm studying it.. it's during those times that i'm taken away from the mundaneity of school life and the normal cycle and taken to a place where the message in the lectures tug at my spirit and birth in me not just a sense of destiny but also awaken me to a sense of eternity.. my place in the unfolding of God's eternal plan.. i may be no baseball player or president but as my walk with Him unfolds i know that i do have a sense of purpose... and i know that me studying history is not in vain... and my hope and prayer for those of you reading this is that when you do take your courses in school, may you find meaning out of it.. may God tug at your hearts and show you that that course is not in vain but it's him adding another drop after drop of vision into your spirit that, when filled to the brim, will overflow into an expression of your destiny and an expression of Himself within your destiny... May you be awakened to your place in eternity... :)

God bless! :D