I was twelve years old when we lost John F. Kennedy to an assassin in November of 1963. A year earlier he had made a case for a national vision in a speech at Rice University. Emphasizing the freedom enjoyed by Americans to choose their destiny rather than have it chosen for them, he challenged us to do great things. He even proposed that the Americans and the Soviets explore space together.
Why am I remembering Kennedy? I am remembering him because he is another of those who challenged us to better things, who was taken from us far too early. We lose our visionaries too soon, but we are the better for it if we pick up the torch. It takes Vision, it takes daring to Dream, and it takes Faith. “Faith is the Evidence of things Hoped For, the Substance of Things not Seen.”
That is why I pray today. Faith needs a Focus. As the Apostle James says, Faith is not Passive, but is Active. It has changed societies. I am confident that it will change us as individuals, and the place we inhabit today. Like Kennedy, I want to challenge those who would disparage prayer and Faith to join hands with us who live in the Spirit of those like George Müller, who in Faith changed the destiny of thousands of English orphans.
Or William H. Howland, Mayor of Toronto, whose Faith and witness led to a renewal of his city, causing it to be known as “Toronto the Good!” History records these things. I challenge us to learn from them in our own time, working and praying that our own place will be known as GOOD!
