By JC
In this short clip, Ronald Reagan reads from “One Solitary Life,” a piece adapted from a 1926 sermon by Baptist preacher James Allan Francis. It’s been passed around for a century in church bulletins, Christmas cards, and radio broadcasts, and it has never needed an update.
The idea is simple. Jesus was born in an obscure village to a working family. He never wrote a book, never held office, never owned a home, never traveled far from where He was born. He was executed as a criminal and buried in a borrowed tomb. And yet every army, every navy, every parliament, and every king put together has not changed life on this earth the way that one life has.
What makes this clip land is who’s reading it. Reagan was, at the time, one of the most powerful men in the world. He had the armies and the navies. He had the parliament, or at least a Congress that occasionally returned his calls. And here he is, telling the world that all of it is no match for a carpenter from Nazareth.
That’s humility, and it’s rare in politics. Most of us can’t admit we’re outmatched by a parallel parking job. Reagan admitted he was outmatched by Jesus, on the record.
It’s also a good word for right now. We spend a lot of energy hoping the right person, party, or policy will finally fix things. Power changes hands every few years. Kingdoms rise and fall. But the life that changed the world didn’t come through force. It came through a manger, a cross, and an empty tomb. If a president could see that, the rest of us can too.
“Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth.” — Philippians 2:9-10
