I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work in you will continue to complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.
Philippians 1:6, NRSVue
In 1821, raiders captured a Yoruba boy named Ajayi and his family in what is now Nigeria. He was about 12 years old. He was sold into slavery and put on a Portuguese ship bound across the Atlantic.
A British navy ship stopped that vessel. Ajayi was taken to Sierra Leone, where he went to school and came to faith. He was baptized in 1825 and took the name Samuel Crowther. He went on to help translate the Bible into Yoruba, and in 1864 he became the first African Anglican bishop.
The story holds one more gift. Years after his capture, while serving in Abeokuta, Crowther learned his mother was still alive. They were reunited. She became one of the early Christians there and took the name Hannah at her baptism.
No one looking at a frightened boy on a slave ship would have predicted any of this. God saw more than the worst day of his life.
Don’t read your life from the middle. You may feel stuck, or behind, or too far gone. Wesley taught that grace keeps working in us, shaping us toward love for as long as we live. The God who began a good work in you has not walked away.
Prayer
Faithful God, thank you for not giving up on me. Continue your good work in my life, even where I can’t see it yet. Amen.
Today’s step
Look back five years and name one thing God has changed in you.
The story: Bishop Before His Time, Christian History Institute
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.