Perspective at 45 MPH

By Jason Autry

A few months back, I was nearly involved in a car accident and it would have been my fault. I’m being serious. I was listening to talk radio on the way to Panera Bread for a cinnamon crunch bagel when the collision almost occurred. The reason for my near miss had to do with the particular topic of discussion sounding from my dashboard. The talk show host and her panel were discussing the virtue of thankfulness and what we, as a nation, have to be grateful for. Then, without fair warning for a defensive driver, they launched into a dialogue about the poet, Maya Angelou’s 2002 appearance on NBC’s Today Show with Ann Curie that was re-aired in a “Giving Thanks” segment that morning. Knowing the persistent themes of this show and its viewpoints, I braced myself for the coming hilarity and boy, I was not disappointed.

Angelou was supposed to be lending her insight and poetic language to some questions about humanity’s various dilemmas, but instead delivered a rambling stream of consciousness about hula dancing, ignorance in a bucket, and the conditions of colonial slave ships. To make matters worse, Curie was shamelessly over emoting and speaking in a soft voice as if she was conversing with the Dalai Lama in Starbucks. Audio clip after audio clip revealed more dribble from Angelou and solemnity from Curie. Inside the radio show's studio and my car, the laughter and incredulity was reaching a fever pitch until it culminated in the Granddaddy of all quotes. When asked by Curie what was the one lesson above all others that she wished to convey, Angelou replied, “Probably the most important lesson is to know that you have been loved. The truth is to exist at all, you have been loved (keep in mind that this is directly from the transcript - I am not making this up). Whether the ancestors came from Eastern Europe trying to escape the little and large murderers, or whether they came from Africa unwillingly lying spoon fashioned in the filthy hatches of slave ships, in each other’s excrement and urine, they have paid for each one of us. If you can just ingest that little piece of truth, not facts, facts can obscure the truth, but the truth. If you can ingest that, suddenly some part of you is liberated. I have been loved. That is one of the great lessons to me.” Huh? Is that it? This is the profound truth that is supposed to liberate the oppressed psyche of humankind and bring freedom to the soul? To ingest, as she says, the vile atrocities committed against individuals in past and present societies, is to know that I have been loved? After I laughed myself into a frenzy over the incoherent nature of these thoughts and the commentary coming from the panel, I regained control of my car and avoided a head-on crash with the coming traffic.

With analysis like this in the public discourse there is no wonder our world is drifting aimlessly in search of meaning. So-called experts and gurus are spoon feeding us these baseless philosophies and empty ideas about how one can gain clarity and redemption in this life and beyond. I can tell you that my mind, when pondering such questions, does not drift off to the horribleness that took place in the grottoes of slave ships nor does it conceive of the genocide carried out in the chambers of Auschwitz. When seeking spiritual purpose, my mind’s eye does not immediately retrieve shocking images from 9/11. I focus rather on something more eternal; more hopeful; like the words of 1 John chapter 4 verses 9-10: “God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through Him. Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His son to be the propitiation for our sins.” This is the most important lesson to grasp. This truth (and fact) must be ingested in order for real liberation to occur. The truth that Jesus, God’s Son, loved me before I was conceived in my mother’s womb and then because of that supernatural love, left the bliss of Heaven to live and die a violent, substitutionary death on the cross so that I can experience freedom in this life and then realize eternity in God’s presence. To reflect on what Martin Luther called "The Great Exchange" described in Matthew 27:45-50 as Christ became sin so that I may be made the righteousness of God in Him and nothing else in the annals of history, is to know I’ve been loved. To receive this measure of grace is the epic recognition. The Apostle Paul said it best in Romans 5:8, “God showed his own love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us!”

If one was to ask me if I am inspired by the travails, tragedies, and sufferings of those who persevered through unimaginable hardship in order to live a free and boundless life, my answer to them would be a resounding yes. I am equally inspired and humbled by those who were not fortunate enough to stand on the other side of their hardship, but left only an encouraging story to cling to. I also get emotional and my spirit is roused by mankind’s heroism, courage, selflessness and unabashed desire. However, none of them hold ultimate authority over the preservation of my eternal soul nor does their blood ensure my salvation. That curse; that duty; that honor of transcendence belongs solely to Jesus Christ and it is by his stripes that I am healed. It is by ingesting the magnitude of His sacrifice for me that I know I am loved. Unfortunately, that message will probably not be featured on the Today Show but it is the good news that a seeking world desperately needs to hear.