Friday, June 18, 2010

Happy Birthday Dr. John Perkins

Last year Troy and I had the opportunity to meet Dr. John Perkins. He spoke for one hour, pulling from his experience as a pastor, civil rights leader, near martyr, and inspired follower of Christ. We were given a ten minute break to move from that session to the next thing, but I needed time. I wanted to go to a quiet place and grieve, to face what he had said, to process how I would respond. And I wanted to hear more - here is a near octogenarian who has lived through one of the most turbulent, dark episodes in our history, and he has clarity on life, and on our role as a people called to carry out the love of God. This week is Dr. Perkin's 80th birthday - here is a tribute to him written by John Foreman in the Huffington Post, with a link to their new song called THE SOUND, inspired by Dr. Perkins: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jon-foreman/the-living-blues-john-m-p_b_613733.html All of us grow old, but how many of us turn and turn and turn and turn our anger and our questions and our fears and confrontations with injustice, over to God, bent on redemption! This is what Dr. Perkins has done, and at 80 years old, he has good things to say to us. I'm listening!

3 comments:

  1. Thank you for posting this. I had not heard of Dr. Perkins before, but have just ordered his book and look forward to reading it.

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  2. another great Mississippian!

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  3. Dr. Perkins was an amazing man! i actually hadn't heard of him until Jon Foreman wrote the song "The Sound" about him. That's so cool that you got to meet him!

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