LOVE LIFTED ME

Some years ago, Bishop Willis J. King, the first African American bishop in America to receive a Ph.D. in Old Testament, told a true story that touched me deeply. Upon his graduation from Wiley College, he went back home to spend a few days with his parents. He showed them his degree. He was so proud of it. Then he announced, "Tomorrow I'm going to go to the downtown bank, and I'm going to borrow $500 to buy my first automobile."

The next morning, as he was about to leave, his father said to him, "Son, don't you want me to go with you and cosign your note?" He answered, "No, Dad, I can take care of this by myself. After all, I've got my degree now." And so he went on downtown to the bank.

The bank manager said to the young man, "So you want to borrow $500. Tell me, what do you have for collateral? If you're going to get $500 from this bank, you've got to have something of equal value." "Oh yes, sir," young King said, "I've got my degree." The bank officer relied, "Son, I'm sorry, but we can't use the degree as collateral for $500. I'm afraid you'll just have to go elsewhere."

King was in a state of embarrassment and failure when he heard a familiar voice. His dad said, "Son, I've come to cosign your note." "But, Dad," King said, "you can't even write. All you can do is make an "X'." And the banker said, "It may be true that your dad can't write and all he can do is make an 'X'. But I want to tell you something. It's that 'X' that got the loan to get you into school. It's that 'X' that got the loan to keep you in school, and it's that 'X' that got the loan that got you out of school. And if you are going to get a loan from this bank to buy a car, it's that same 'X' that's going to get the loan for you!"

King said that as he watched his dad make an "X" on the bank document, he realized that if you turn the "X" just a bit, it made the sign of the cross.

Bishop King summed up that story like this: "In that moment, I realized something more powerfully than ever before -- namely, how inadequate I am, how needy I am, how insufficient I am alone, and how on Calvary's cross, Jesus cosigned my note! I wouldn't be here tonight if he hadn't. Love lifted me, when nothing else could help. Love lifted me." 

-- "Unlearned Lessons: Excerpts from Zan Holmes," New World Outlook, July/August 1993, as quoted by James W. Moore in When You're a Christian, the Whole World Is from Missouri


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