Lisa Bowden

Dear friends,

Throughout my adult life, I’ve been drawn to this quote attributed to John Wesley: “Do all the good you can by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.” 

I wonder if a call truly lets anyone out of its grip before it is tended? Are calls about “convenience”? 

Today we celebrate William Wilberforce (1759-1833), a Member of Parliament since age 21, a radical social reformer, and an abolitionist who died on July 30, 1833. I am learning what a fierce advocate of social justice he was dedicating his life to the abolition of the slave trade, an unpopular position at that time. Driven by moral conviction after a conversion experience, he debated and campaigned in Parliament for 20 years, tirelessly facing fierce majority opposition much of the time. 

Like many, Wilberforce considered his “call” inconvenient, coming at the bud of his political career. While he felt chosen for the work, he was daunted by its enormity. For a time, Wilberforce thought about his call being to ministry outside of public life, but friend and former slave trader, John Newton (who wrote “Amazing Grace”), urged him to stay in Parliament and serve Christ there. Though torn between praising God or changing the world, he realized he was to do the work of God as a political activist. He became a moral leader who voted against his party when principle required it, and persisted for decades in what he felt God called him to, alongside illness, physical threats, slander, and other forms of opposition. 

In 1807 after the slave trade act passed, reshaping Britain, Wilberforce went on to lobby governments of other countries, including the US, to adopt similar reforms, and to assure that the laws were enforced. After stopping the trading of slaves, he devoted himself another 25 years to ending the institution of slavery itself. Three days before his death in 1833, the House of Commons passed a law emancipating all slaves in Britain.

Wilberforce is now among other inspiring individuals in my personal pantheon of saints, those whose commitments push against the grain to ignite vast change, encouraging pursuits of justice and humanity. 

He will be a reminder to ask myself how I can develop and use my gifts for the good. 

In community,


—Lisa