Across That Bridge: Life Lessons and a Vision for Change

by John Lewis

It was not even a beginning; it was one important step on a continuum of change. It

to truly revolutionize our society, we must first revolutionize ourselves.

the same power you activate in the midst of adversity can also be consciously utilized to bring forward the kind of change or transformation you would like to see in your own life?

If faith had meaning, its benefits should accrue not only after death, but it should have the capacity to answer the cries of humanity here and now.

Ironically, rush and more usually mean less.” —MOTHER TERESA

You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world.

And when we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” —MARIANNE WILLIAMSON

Rousseau asserts that in order for government to exist at all, there is an implied agreement between the people and its government. The people agree to give up a part of their free will—the right to do as they please without rules. And under this unspoken contract, people determine that for the sake of order and peace, they will give up a part of their freedom and decide to follow the rules and regulations of government.

The only reason unjust systems exist is that the masses of people silently give their consent and believe these systems are necessary

“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.” —MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.

If we can use light to heal and light to see, why not use light to secure ourselves against darkness? If we take the time, we can understand that the philosophy and strategies of nonviolence were a kind of genius that enabled even the undefended to fight back without the black arts of destruction.

But if we want change, we have to determine to be different. We cannot use the same excuses as before.

There are technologies of peace; there are the research and methodologies of peace. There are the intelligence and industries of peace. They exist; we simply have to decide to explore them.

We already know the way; we just have to exercise the will.

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” —NELSON MANDELA

We began as outcasts reserved for condemnation and scorn, but we were transformed into a shining army of peace moving in the center of God’s love. We were rescued from the outer limits of human existence to become philosophers and priests, leaders and advocates, shepherds and witnesses to the way of truth. And in these new roles, we cut a path to a new America.

And it is not because of protests, but because of this struggle of conscience that the consciousness of this nation has been transformed.

We were soldiers of a nonviolent revolution, a revolution under the rule of law, a revolution of values, a revolution of ideas that changed America forever.

Martin Luther King Jr. said that peace is not the absence of tension, but the presence of justice. It is not the cessation of war that brings peace; it is justice that brings peace, even in the midst of struggle.

If you truly want peace, you cannot be satisfied, apathetic, or compliant with the hypocrisy of the status quo. You must follow where the truth leads, because at the end of that road lies the cessation of struggle—true peace.

Darkness cannot overcome darkness, only light can do that. Violence can never overcome violence, only peace can do that. Hate can never overcome hate, only love can do that.

We saw that our attackers were also victims, victims of a negative indoctrination that taught the false values of superiority and inferiority, the sanction of violence and brutality, and the justification of inhumanity and hate.