January 3, 2025 • 23 mins
New Years is a time of the year we often discuss resolutions and taking on new projects. But what can happen in our lives when we loosen the grip on old ways and thinking? President Jimmy Carter models just that!
In this episode, Melissa and Bishop Wright have a conversation about New Years and how releasing old habits and lifeless ties pave the way for new beginnings and spiritual growth. They discuss the concept of "resolution" and its Latin roots meaning "to loosen." They use Jimmy Carter's story as the backdrop pointing to his global humanitarian effort. Listen in for the full conversation.
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Episode Transcript
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Bishop Wright (00:00):
We saw a man on a hunt, with his life and his
profession and all of his giftsand all of his warts, to know
who God is.
And what we saw in Jimmy Carterwas the overflow of that wisdom
, revelation, eyes of his heart,enlightened as a white
Southerner came to thegovernor's mansion in Georgia
(00:23):
and talked about a South thatwas free from discrimination.
Melissa (00:40):
Welcome to Four People with Bishop Rob Wright.
I'm Melissa Rau and this is aconversation inspired by For
Faith, a weekly devotion sentout every Friday.
You can find a link to thisweek's For Faith and a link to
subscribe in the episode'sdescription.
Happy New Year, bish.
Bishop Wright (01:00):
Happy New Year.
Happy New Year.
Melissa (01:03):
You named this week's devotion Lucin, inspired by the
first chapter in Ephesians, andwe will have rung in 2025 by the
time this episode airs, andyou've got some good insight
into what these passages mightbe inviting us to consider.
Maybe, Well we'll see Ray, Ithink you do, let's see.
Bishop Wright (01:24):
Let's see.
Melissa (01:25):
Can you further unpack your takeaways Like what really
jumped out for you in thispassage?
Bishop Wright (01:31):
Well, I've been having a couple of days off and
I had a Sunday off and I waswatching CBS Sunday Morning,
which is a staple, I mean, eventhough I'm often on the road
Sunday morning, we record it andI love the journalism that
(01:53):
happens there and it's eclectic.
And they were talking about theword resolution and it struck a
chord with me and of course youknow this is the time of year
that we're talking aboutresolutions, we're taking them
up, et cetera.
(02:13):
But they brought us back to theLatin root of the word, you
know, which means to loosen,with intense force, intensive
force to loosen, and so you know, we're taking up practices and
projects and certainly some ofthat is good, laudable,
(02:37):
wonderful, necessary.
But I got really hooked on theidea that perhaps, going forward
, we might need to loosen ourgrip in the new year on old ways
and some dated conclusions andsome lifeless alliances that
(02:58):
have been our default.
You know the line I use, whichI think I hope catches people's
(03:18):
attention, which is maybe not somuch we double down on things
in 2025, but that we pare down.
Melissa (03:31):
So that's where I started.
We just lost a giant of giants,a centenarian and incredibly
important human being, a civilrights activist, former
President Jimmy Carter.
And you know, I really like theidea, the concept of loosening
up or letting go or puttingthings down, kind of like a lot
of people try to take on thingsfor Lent while others will say
you know what I'm going to letthis go rather Right.
Take on things for Lent, whileothers will say you know what,
I'm going to let this go ratherright.
I'm curious about how you mightsee how Jimmy Carter lived his
(03:51):
life in a way that mightencourage people to think about
how they might want to livegoing forward, especially since
it's in the new year.
Whether we call it resolutionor whatnot, what might a life of
Jimmy Carter inspire us toconsider taking up or putting
down?
Bishop Wright (04:10):
Well, first of all, let me just say that Jimmy
Carter makes me proud to be aGeorgian, and Jimmy Carter and
Rosalind Carter make me proud tobe both Georgians and Americans
.
Jimmy Carter makes me proud tobe a Christian.
(04:33):
Jimmy Carter makes me proud tobe a board member of Habitat for
Humanity.
Jimmy Carter makes me proud tobe someone who loves the Word of
God and tries to apply it inthe real world.
And so you know, I guess youknow ap does one have to let go
(05:03):
of to orient one's self.
You know, by scripture toscripture.
You know, and so I think aboutyou know.
And so I was a kid, I suppose,when he was president.
I remember him as I rememberhis fireside chats, I remember
(05:28):
him speaking, I remember thehostage situation, I remember
him being a first-term president, a one-term president rather,
and I remember him and peoplesaying that he was a failure.
I remember President Reagancame in and he went out and
(05:51):
people said that he was a niceman, christian man, but he was a
mediocre leader.
I think what he could havespent his next series of decades
(06:21):
doing is licking his woundsfrom all of that and to decide
that he was going to be theperson that we've come to know
him to be, which is someone who,on a global scale, was for
peace, was for human dignity,was for justice, was for health,
(06:43):
someone who was quietlycourageous, who let his deeds
speak for himself.
I was listening, as many othersare, at sort of the tale of his
life, and I was reallyinterested in this one part of
(07:03):
the conversation.
So where did he decide to bethe Jimmy Carter that we have
come to lift up and celebrate?
It was about two years after thepresidency, after he'd returned
back to Plains, georgia, and hedecided, he said in an instant,
that what he wanted to do wasbe about the business of global
(07:26):
problem solving and that, youknow.
So he had to loosen whatevergrip he had on what other people
said about him.
He had to loosen the grip ofhis own, you know, sort of
(07:47):
comforting his wounds and, insome people's eyes, his failures
.
He had to let that go to somedegree to move into this next
chapter of life, and I wonder ifthat isn't also true for many
of us.
There are things that we've gotto sort of.
You know, relinquish a whiteknuckle grip that we have on
(08:10):
some things, whether they bewounds or whether they be former
glories or whether they be, youknow, shoulda, woulda, couldas,
you know, and get on with itand say how can I bear witness
that's been the word that we'vebeen using here in Atlanta how
can I bear witness to God now?
(08:32):
And I think he has, in awonderful way, with his last
breath, breathed a refreshingbreath over us.
His going is helping us toremember, I think, and maybe to
recenter, what unselfish lovelooks like.
(08:53):
And if you're going to be acelebrity, then be a celebrity
for decency, be a celebrity forjustice, be a celebrity for a
long and abiding marriage with apartner Apparently, rosalind
was quite the advisor to himsomeone who stood up and said
(09:13):
things that needed to be said.
Stood up and said things thatneeded to be said, and though
those things weren't alwayspopular and he paid great
political costs for some ofthose things, I think the
(09:34):
measurement is integrity, and somaybe we ought to loosen up
those things that we have a holdon or that have a hold on us,
that somehow are siphoning offour integrity.
Melissa (10:05):
Gosh, wow, that just took me down a nerd trail.
You know, to me integrity andintegral and integration, they
all come from the same root, andwhen I was reading the passage
of Ephesians that you did yourdevotion on, there was a phrase
that jumped out to me, and it'sthis he destined us for adoption
(10:28):
as his children through JesusChrist, according to the good
pleasure of his will.
Apparently, this is supposedlyPaul right addressing the
Ephesians, and I had theprivilege of being on a
pilgrimage to Ephesus, ancientEphesus, this past fall, and
Paul was Jewish, right, alreadyGod's chosen and he's using us,
(10:56):
so he's addressing the Ephesianswho are not Jewish, hebrew
people, and he is puttinghimself in that us position and
he's making the Ephesians partof right, so he's using us
language.
He didn't say you, because he'salready in right, and I feel
like Jimmy Carter did thatlittle bit of that too.
(11:18):
You know, um the integrated, heput himself into other shoes
and adopted them and went along.
And I only say this because Isaw a social media post by a
priest who was a diplomat,political diplomat, before
becoming a priest, um, and therewas a picture of him with Jimmy
Carter shaking his hand inJerusalem in the early, early,
(11:41):
early turn of the century, inthe early 2000s, and he said
that they didn't buy what he was, what he was preaching, what he
was selling.
And Jimmy Carter was sofrustrated that he didn't even
want to pause and take a picturewith this priest, who wasn't
yet a priest, but he did anywaybecause he realized that he was
(12:07):
a part of us right.
And so now this guy, matt,knows that Jimmy Carter was
right, but I don't know.
There's something to be saidabout, instead of the us versus
them, bishop, and the way thatPaul and, I think, jimmy Carter
lived their lives.
It's kind of inspiring.
Bishop Wright (12:25):
It's a lot of inspiring and just in that
little vignette that you justshared, I think that life with
God I've said this before, aclose walk with Jesus means that
you're going to have to giveaway.
You know clutching tightly to acouple of ideas superiority,
(12:46):
separateness and smallness andyou know it's a funny kind of
thing that you have to give thatstuff away.
You have to loosen your grip onthat, and so in Paul's letter,
he's giving away what was givento him, which is an exclusive
(13:07):
idea that by virtue of hisethnic and religious heritage
he's in the inner tier ofrelationship with God, and he's
acknowledging that he has beengrafted in and therefore he can
loosen his stance and includeother people.
Right, and I think this is oneof the things that we see in a
(13:32):
lot of people that we areinspired by, and that is that
they are bigger than theconventions of their day.
They tread the road, trod theroad that is unpopular.
I can imagine it was verylonely for President Carter for
a number of years that he tooksolace in his wife and his
(14:00):
family and in scripture.
He found himself there andthereby was able to fend off
other notions of himself, and Ithink that's what we all have to
do.
Not all of us will be JimmyCarter, not all of us will be
able to convene world leadersand invite them past legitimate
(14:27):
differences.
I mean it's interesting to methat the peace that he was able
to facilitate through his harddiplomatic work still holds
between Egypt and Israel.
Diplomatic work still holdsbetween Egypt and Israel, and so
the measurement of hiscommitment to peace and the
(14:48):
measurement of his integrity.
There's a number of examples.
He wrote 30 books.
Not all of them were popular.
He found a way to talk aboutthe terrible situation in Gaza
between Israel and Palestine.
He was roundly criticized forit.
So apparently he might have hadto loosen his idea of
(15:12):
popularity and come down on theside of fairness.
He saw suffering by the Jewishpeople, suffering also by the
Palestinian people.
He talked about them both.
He called what was happening inPalestine apartheid.
The Anti-Defamation League, youknow, roundly criticized him,
(15:34):
etc.
And so there is this path thatis set for us.
I think, when we start walkingwith Jesus, that calls us to
sort of hold more loosely theworld's measurements of us in
(15:55):
service to the gospel.
I was reading the book of Jamesthe other day, just a personal
devotion, and it was talkingabout.
You know, to be friends withthe world is to be an enemy of
God.
And we don't talk about howJimmy Carter was a friend of God
, as demonstrated by his carefor the poor around affordable
(16:18):
housing, bringing health to anation.
You know, nations in Africa toobliterate the Guinea worm
devastation happening I mean, hedoesn't have to care about that
, he doesn't have to care aboutthat.
So I think you have to loosenyour idea of nation state
borders too and realize thatsomehow this is a human family
(16:41):
and that if you have a gift ofcelebrity or whatever your gift
is, that you can apply that forthe good of other folks.
And so there are so many thingsto say, I think.
And Jimmy Carter lived a lifethat cannot be easily eulogized
(17:02):
because of its breadth and depth.
Some of us will get about anine-minute eulogy, and some of
us I used to say this when I wasa pastor of a congregation and
then some of us will have toemploy hyperbole to the life of
the deceased just to make itpalatable.
(17:24):
But for Jimmy Carter and othersthere's not enough time to go
down the jot and till about theway in which they lived out
their Christian commitment.
Melissa (17:39):
Well, you wrapped your devotion with an incredible
prayer, which is taken right outof Ephesians.
Bishop Wright (17:45):
Right out of Ephesians, yeah.
Melissa (17:47):
You make it your prayer .
Paul made it a prayer first forthe people over, in his opening
lines of his letter to theEphesians, that the God of our
Lord, Jesus Christ, the Fatherof glory, may give you a spirit
of wisdom and revelation as youcome to know him.
It goes on, but it wraps andsays and that what is the
immeasurable greatness of hispower for us who believe?
(18:09):
Bishop, what is?
Can you articulate theimmeasurable greatness of his
power for us who believe?
Like what is that immeasurablegreatness?
Bishop Wright (18:20):
Yes, Well, in some ways it's connected to what
I just said.
I mean, how does one reallyarticulate, you know,
immeasurable greatness, right?
I mean, I think that, you know,jimmy Carter gives us an
opportunity to ponder a lifelived that is not easily
(18:43):
definable or describable.
A life lived that is not easilydefinable or describable.
And if you notice in Paul'sprayer that the God of our Lord,
jesus Christ, the Father ofglory, may give you a spirit of
wisdom and revelation.
But notice that next couple ofwords as you come to know him,
(19:09):
as you come to know God.
So I think that what we saw foras much as we could as a
society, as much as we couldglean, we saw a man on a hunt,
with his life and his professionand all of his gifts and all of
his warts, to know who God is.
And what we saw in Jimmy Carterwas the overflow of that wisdom
(19:31):
, revelation, eyes of his heartenlightened.
You know Jimmy Carter as awhite Southerner, as a white
rural Southerner who grew up ona farm, you know, came to the
governor's mansion in Georgiaand talked about a South that
was free from discrimination.
(19:53):
As a white Southerner,ambassador Andrew Young, as I've
said before, is a friend, and Itake my measure of President
Carter through AmbassadorYoung's eyes too, someone I know
who speaks very candidly, whosat with the best and the
brightest on the planet, andAmbassador Young has nothing but
(20:13):
praise for this man and whatsome will call simplistic.
You know, in Jimmy Carter,ambassador Young lifts up as
holy.
Now, we're not talking aboutperfect people.
Obviously, all of us arecracked vessels.
But he had a sense, having satvery close with him for a number
(20:38):
of years in very difficultsituations, on good days and bad
days, that this man was on hisway to know more and more and
more about who God was and thathe was duty-bound to sort of
reveal that in ways.
I think perhaps, if we can sayanything, president Carter was a
(20:58):
bit overwhelmed when he sawwhat he was up against when he
went to Washington Some of theworst of the ways that we can be
configured, which is just aboutgrift and the denial of other
people's dignity and injustice,which passes itself off as
(21:24):
status quo.
So I guess what I want to say atthe end of all of this is that
you know, maybe you need to letsomething go for 2025.
Maybe you need to takesomething up.
I'll leave it to you.
I think one of the things Iwant to say is you know what we
read.
(21:44):
You know in 2 Corinthians, sayis what we read in 2 Corinthians
, and that is where the spiritof liberty is right, the spirit
of freedom is there.
Also is God, and so I thinkthat God is a God of freedom.
The writer of Hebrews wants usto keep our eyes on Jesus as we
(22:04):
move through the sin that soeasily entangles us.
So I think we have to do anentanglement audit.
In what ways am I entangledwith lifeless alliances and
dated conclusions and what's gota hold on me?
And so all of that.
But it's a prayer ultimately.
(22:25):
You know this podcast, you knowOur Time Together, promise for
(22:53):
their lives, healing, courage,all of the gifts, and so that's
my prayer for you, melissa, andfor me and for anybody who's
listening, and for all thespheres of influence that we
find ourselves in, that we mightknow the immeasurable greatness
and that power for those of uswho believe.
Melissa (23:15):
Thanks be to God for that, Bishop.
Thank you, and thank you forlistening to For People.
You can follow us on Instagramand Facebook at Bishop Rob
Wright.
Please subscribe, leave areview and we'll be back with
you next week.
We saw a man on a hunt, with his life and his
profession and all of his giftsand all of his warts, to know
who God is.
And what we saw in Jimmy Carterwas the overflow of that wisdom
, revelation, eyes of his heart,enlightened as a white
Southerner came to thegovernor's mansion in Georgia
(00:23):
and talked about a South thatwas free from discrimination.
Melissa (00:40):
Welcome to Four People with Bishop Rob Wright.
I'm Melissa Rau and this is aconversation inspired by For
Faith, a weekly devotion sentout every Friday.
You can find a link to thisweek's For Faith and a link to
subscribe in the episode'sdescription.
Happy New Year, bish.
Bishop Wright (01:00):
Happy New Year.
Happy New Year.
Melissa (01:03):
You named this week's devotion Lucin, inspired by the
first chapter in Ephesians, andwe will have rung in 2025 by the
time this episode airs, andyou've got some good insight
into what these passages mightbe inviting us to consider.
Maybe, Well we'll see Ray, Ithink you do, let's see.
Bishop Wright (01:24):
Let's see.
Melissa (01:25):
Can you further unpack your takeaways Like what really
jumped out for you in thispassage?
Bishop Wright (01:31):
Well, I've been having a couple of days off and
I had a Sunday off and I waswatching CBS Sunday Morning,
which is a staple, I mean, eventhough I'm often on the road
Sunday morning, we record it andI love the journalism that
(01:53):
happens there and it's eclectic.
And they were talking about theword resolution and it struck a
chord with me and of course youknow this is the time of year
that we're talking aboutresolutions, we're taking them
up, et cetera.
(02:13):
But they brought us back to theLatin root of the word, you
know, which means to loosen,with intense force, intensive
force to loosen, and so you know, we're taking up practices and
projects and certainly some ofthat is good, laudable,
(02:37):
wonderful, necessary.
But I got really hooked on theidea that perhaps, going forward
, we might need to loosen ourgrip in the new year on old ways
and some dated conclusions andsome lifeless alliances that
(02:58):
have been our default.
You know the line I use, whichI think I hope catches people's
(03:18):
attention, which is maybe not somuch we double down on things
in 2025, but that we pare down.
Melissa (03:31):
So that's where I started.
We just lost a giant of giants,a centenarian and incredibly
important human being, a civilrights activist, former
President Jimmy Carter.
And you know, I really like theidea, the concept of loosening
up or letting go or puttingthings down, kind of like a lot
of people try to take on thingsfor Lent while others will say
you know what I'm going to letthis go rather Right.
Take on things for Lent, whileothers will say you know what,
I'm going to let this go ratherright.
I'm curious about how you mightsee how Jimmy Carter lived his
(03:51):
life in a way that mightencourage people to think about
how they might want to livegoing forward, especially since
it's in the new year.
Whether we call it resolutionor whatnot, what might a life of
Jimmy Carter inspire us toconsider taking up or putting
down?
Bishop Wright (04:10):
Well, first of all, let me just say that Jimmy
Carter makes me proud to be aGeorgian, and Jimmy Carter and
Rosalind Carter make me proud tobe both Georgians and Americans
.
Jimmy Carter makes me proud tobe a Christian.
(04:33):
Jimmy Carter makes me proud tobe a board member of Habitat for
Humanity.
Jimmy Carter makes me proud tobe someone who loves the Word of
God and tries to apply it inthe real world.
And so you know, I guess youknow ap does one have to let go
(05:03):
of to orient one's self.
You know, by scripture toscripture.
You know, and so I think aboutyou know.
And so I was a kid, I suppose,when he was president.
I remember him as I rememberhis fireside chats, I remember
(05:28):
him speaking, I remember thehostage situation, I remember
him being a first-term president, a one-term president rather,
and I remember him and peoplesaying that he was a failure.
I remember President Reagancame in and he went out and
(05:51):
people said that he was a niceman, christian man, but he was a
mediocre leader.
I think what he could havespent his next series of decades
(06:21):
doing is licking his woundsfrom all of that and to decide
that he was going to be theperson that we've come to know
him to be, which is someone who,on a global scale, was for
peace, was for human dignity,was for justice, was for health,
(06:43):
someone who was quietlycourageous, who let his deeds
speak for himself.
I was listening, as many othersare, at sort of the tale of his
life, and I was reallyinterested in this one part of
(07:03):
the conversation.
So where did he decide to bethe Jimmy Carter that we have
come to lift up and celebrate?
It was about two years after thepresidency, after he'd returned
back to Plains, georgia, and hedecided, he said in an instant,
that what he wanted to do wasbe about the business of global
(07:26):
problem solving and that, youknow.
So he had to loosen whatevergrip he had on what other people
said about him.
He had to loosen the grip ofhis own, you know, sort of
(07:47):
comforting his wounds and, insome people's eyes, his failures
.
He had to let that go to somedegree to move into this next
chapter of life, and I wonder ifthat isn't also true for many
of us.
There are things that we've gotto sort of.
You know, relinquish a whiteknuckle grip that we have on
(08:10):
some things, whether they bewounds or whether they be former
glories or whether they be, youknow, shoulda, woulda, couldas,
you know, and get on with itand say how can I bear witness
that's been the word that we'vebeen using here in Atlanta how
can I bear witness to God now?
(08:32):
And I think he has, in awonderful way, with his last
breath, breathed a refreshingbreath over us.
His going is helping us toremember, I think, and maybe to
recenter, what unselfish lovelooks like.
(08:53):
And if you're going to be acelebrity, then be a celebrity
for decency, be a celebrity forjustice, be a celebrity for a
long and abiding marriage with apartner Apparently, rosalind
was quite the advisor to himsomeone who stood up and said
(09:13):
things that needed to be said.
Stood up and said things thatneeded to be said, and though
those things weren't alwayspopular and he paid great
political costs for some ofthose things, I think the
(09:34):
measurement is integrity, and somaybe we ought to loosen up
those things that we have a holdon or that have a hold on us,
that somehow are siphoning offour integrity.
Melissa (10:05):
Gosh, wow, that just took me down a nerd trail.
You know, to me integrity andintegral and integration, they
all come from the same root, andwhen I was reading the passage
of Ephesians that you did yourdevotion on, there was a phrase
that jumped out to me, and it'sthis he destined us for adoption
(10:28):
as his children through JesusChrist, according to the good
pleasure of his will.
Apparently, this is supposedlyPaul right addressing the
Ephesians, and I had theprivilege of being on a
pilgrimage to Ephesus, ancientEphesus, this past fall, and
Paul was Jewish, right, alreadyGod's chosen and he's using us,
(10:56):
so he's addressing the Ephesianswho are not Jewish, hebrew
people, and he is puttinghimself in that us position and
he's making the Ephesians partof right, so he's using us
language.
He didn't say you, because he'salready in right, and I feel
like Jimmy Carter did thatlittle bit of that too.
(11:18):
You know, um the integrated, heput himself into other shoes
and adopted them and went along.
And I only say this because Isaw a social media post by a
priest who was a diplomat,political diplomat, before
becoming a priest, um, and therewas a picture of him with Jimmy
Carter shaking his hand inJerusalem in the early, early,
(11:41):
early turn of the century, inthe early 2000s, and he said
that they didn't buy what he was, what he was preaching, what he
was selling.
And Jimmy Carter was sofrustrated that he didn't even
want to pause and take a picturewith this priest, who wasn't
yet a priest, but he did anywaybecause he realized that he was
(12:07):
a part of us right.
And so now this guy, matt,knows that Jimmy Carter was
right, but I don't know.
There's something to be saidabout, instead of the us versus
them, bishop, and the way thatPaul and, I think, jimmy Carter
lived their lives.
It's kind of inspiring.
Bishop Wright (12:25):
It's a lot of inspiring and just in that
little vignette that you justshared, I think that life with
God I've said this before, aclose walk with Jesus means that
you're going to have to giveaway.
You know clutching tightly to acouple of ideas superiority,
(12:46):
separateness and smallness andyou know it's a funny kind of
thing that you have to give thatstuff away.
You have to loosen your grip onthat, and so in Paul's letter,
he's giving away what was givento him, which is an exclusive
(13:07):
idea that by virtue of hisethnic and religious heritage
he's in the inner tier ofrelationship with God, and he's
acknowledging that he has beengrafted in and therefore he can
loosen his stance and includeother people.
Right, and I think this is oneof the things that we see in a
(13:32):
lot of people that we areinspired by, and that is that
they are bigger than theconventions of their day.
They tread the road, trod theroad that is unpopular.
I can imagine it was verylonely for President Carter for
a number of years that he tooksolace in his wife and his
(14:00):
family and in scripture.
He found himself there andthereby was able to fend off
other notions of himself, and Ithink that's what we all have to
do.
Not all of us will be JimmyCarter, not all of us will be
able to convene world leadersand invite them past legitimate
(14:27):
differences.
I mean it's interesting to methat the peace that he was able
to facilitate through his harddiplomatic work still holds
between Egypt and Israel.
Diplomatic work still holdsbetween Egypt and Israel, and so
the measurement of hiscommitment to peace and the
(14:48):
measurement of his integrity.
There's a number of examples.
He wrote 30 books.
Not all of them were popular.
He found a way to talk aboutthe terrible situation in Gaza
between Israel and Palestine.
He was roundly criticized forit.
So apparently he might have hadto loosen his idea of
(15:12):
popularity and come down on theside of fairness.
He saw suffering by the Jewishpeople, suffering also by the
Palestinian people.
He talked about them both.
He called what was happening inPalestine apartheid.
The Anti-Defamation League, youknow, roundly criticized him,
(15:34):
etc.
And so there is this path thatis set for us.
I think, when we start walkingwith Jesus, that calls us to
sort of hold more loosely theworld's measurements of us in
(15:55):
service to the gospel.
I was reading the book of Jamesthe other day, just a personal
devotion, and it was talkingabout.
You know, to be friends withthe world is to be an enemy of
God.
And we don't talk about howJimmy Carter was a friend of God
, as demonstrated by his carefor the poor around affordable
(16:18):
housing, bringing health to anation.
You know, nations in Africa toobliterate the Guinea worm
devastation happening I mean, hedoesn't have to care about that
, he doesn't have to care aboutthat.
So I think you have to loosenyour idea of nation state
borders too and realize thatsomehow this is a human family
(16:41):
and that if you have a gift ofcelebrity or whatever your gift
is, that you can apply that forthe good of other folks.
And so there are so many thingsto say, I think.
And Jimmy Carter lived a lifethat cannot be easily eulogized
(17:02):
because of its breadth and depth.
Some of us will get about anine-minute eulogy, and some of
us I used to say this when I wasa pastor of a congregation and
then some of us will have toemploy hyperbole to the life of
the deceased just to make itpalatable.
(17:24):
But for Jimmy Carter and othersthere's not enough time to go
down the jot and till about theway in which they lived out
their Christian commitment.
Melissa (17:39):
Well, you wrapped your devotion with an incredible
prayer, which is taken right outof Ephesians.
Bishop Wright (17:45):
Right out of Ephesians, yeah.
Melissa (17:47):
You make it your prayer .
Paul made it a prayer first forthe people over, in his opening
lines of his letter to theEphesians, that the God of our
Lord, Jesus Christ, the Fatherof glory, may give you a spirit
of wisdom and revelation as youcome to know him.
It goes on, but it wraps andsays and that what is the
immeasurable greatness of hispower for us who believe?
(18:09):
Bishop, what is?
Can you articulate theimmeasurable greatness of his
power for us who believe?
Like what is that immeasurablegreatness?
Bishop Wright (18:20):
Yes, Well, in some ways it's connected to what
I just said.
I mean, how does one reallyarticulate, you know,
immeasurable greatness, right?
I mean, I think that, you know,jimmy Carter gives us an
opportunity to ponder a lifelived that is not easily
(18:43):
definable or describable.
A life lived that is not easilydefinable or describable.
And if you notice in Paul'sprayer that the God of our Lord,
jesus Christ, the Father ofglory, may give you a spirit of
wisdom and revelation.
But notice that next couple ofwords as you come to know him,
(19:09):
as you come to know God.
So I think that what we saw foras much as we could as a
society, as much as we couldglean, we saw a man on a hunt,
with his life and his professionand all of his gifts and all of
his warts, to know who God is.
And what we saw in Jimmy Carterwas the overflow of that wisdom
(19:31):
, revelation, eyes of his heartenlightened.
You know Jimmy Carter as awhite Southerner, as a white
rural Southerner who grew up ona farm, you know, came to the
governor's mansion in Georgiaand talked about a South that
was free from discrimination.
(19:53):
As a white Southerner,ambassador Andrew Young, as I've
said before, is a friend, and Itake my measure of President
Carter through AmbassadorYoung's eyes too, someone I know
who speaks very candidly, whosat with the best and the
brightest on the planet, andAmbassador Young has nothing but
(20:13):
praise for this man and whatsome will call simplistic.
You know, in Jimmy Carter,ambassador Young lifts up as
holy.
Now, we're not talking aboutperfect people.
Obviously, all of us arecracked vessels.
But he had a sense, having satvery close with him for a number
(20:38):
of years in very difficultsituations, on good days and bad
days, that this man was on hisway to know more and more and
more about who God was and thathe was duty-bound to sort of
reveal that in ways.
I think perhaps, if we can sayanything, president Carter was a
(20:58):
bit overwhelmed when he sawwhat he was up against when he
went to Washington Some of theworst of the ways that we can be
configured, which is just aboutgrift and the denial of other
people's dignity and injustice,which passes itself off as
(21:24):
status quo.
So I guess what I want to say atthe end of all of this is that
you know, maybe you need to letsomething go for 2025.
Maybe you need to takesomething up.
I'll leave it to you.
I think one of the things Iwant to say is you know what we
read.
(21:44):
You know in 2 Corinthians, sayis what we read in 2 Corinthians
, and that is where the spiritof liberty is right, the spirit
of freedom is there.
Also is God, and so I thinkthat God is a God of freedom.
The writer of Hebrews wants usto keep our eyes on Jesus as we
(22:04):
move through the sin that soeasily entangles us.
So I think we have to do anentanglement audit.
In what ways am I entangledwith lifeless alliances and
dated conclusions and what's gota hold on me?
And so all of that.
But it's a prayer ultimately.
(22:25):
You know this podcast, you knowOur Time Together, promise for
(22:53):
their lives, healing, courage,all of the gifts, and so that's
my prayer for you, melissa, andfor me and for anybody who's
listening, and for all thespheres of influence that we
find ourselves in, that we mightknow the immeasurable greatness
and that power for those of uswho believe.
Melissa (23:15):
Thanks be to God for that, Bishop.
Thank you, and thank you forlistening to For People.
You can follow us on Instagramand Facebook at Bishop Rob
Wright.
Please subscribe, leave areview and we'll be back with
you next week.
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