This is a week full of interest. Yesterday started a new month and also began Black History Month. Today is Groundhog Day. I am still not sure what Groundhog Phil predicted, though I feel he has misled us in the past and is quite unreliable in forecasting. My favorite day of this week is Friday. My third son, Cooper, turns 17. He was a yummy baby that never cried and slept through the night literally the first night he was born. He also happens to share the same birthday as Rosa Parks.

Cooper did a book report on Rosa Parks several years ago. Her story inspired him, and he talked about her for several days, even after the assignment was over. Many of us know the overview of how she refused to give up her seat to a white person, but that may be all that we know or remember from a history class.

Rosa Parks grew up in Alabama and attended segregated schools her entire life. Her husband was an active member of the NAACP, and once married, she became involved too. In 1955, Rosa worked as a seamstress at a department store and took the public bus to and from work. The buses were divided by color, with the back of the bus being designated for Black passengers.

At this time, it was not uncommon for bus drivers to move the sign separating the two sections to make more seats available to white passengers if the bus became full and white people were standing. On December 1, a bus driver stopped the bus to move the sign, which would result in four Black passengers having to get up to make room for the white people standing.

Three Black passengers got up and moved to the back, but Rosa stayed seated. When she refused to comply, the bus driver asked her why. She simply replied, “I don’t think I should have to stand up.” Rosa later said, “People always say that I didn’t give up my seat because I was tired… the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.”

She was arrested for making this brave choice. Most classroom lessons end there and do not go on to tell that she lost her job after that incident and that she dealt with years of death threats and harassment.

We also don’t learn that her bravery and desire to make a difference didn’t start in that one instance on the bus. She had spent years actively working in her community and her state to make a change before that night. She didn’t sit back and let others do the hard work. She put action to her faith and her convictions. She once said, “My resisting being mistreated on the bus did not begin with that particular arrest. I did a lot of walking in Montgomery.”

I encourage you to do your own reading about the boycott of the city buses in Montgomery following her arrest. It started on December 5, 1955, the day of Rosa’s trial, and lasted until December 20, 1956. Although there were many episodes of violence during this time, this boycott was one of the largest and most successful efforts in history to fight against racial segregation.

As I think about Rosa in that very moment on the bus, refusing to give up her seat, I think about her courage. She must have been scared. Courage isn’t doing something without fear but doing it despite fear.

I once heard Rudy Giuliani, the Mayor of New York City during the attack of 9-11, speak at a conference. He talked about the courage of the New York City firefighters that stormed into the Twin Towers without hesitation. He said, “Don’t you think they were scared? Of course they were. But they went in anyway.”  Thankfully, most of us will never know the level of fear they had that morning. Nor the emotions Rosa Parks had that evening.

I wonder if she had any idea in that moment, or even the years following, that her act of courage and strength of conviction would be inspiring hundreds of thousands of people of all races in future decades. Rightfully so, Rosa received many awards and accommodations in her life. But I feel confident that although she deserved them, they were not her motivation.

She lived life each day with a mission to make an impact for generations to come, and I believe that God used her in a mighty way. She said, “There were times it would have been easy to fall apart or to go in the opposite direction, but somehow I felt that if I took one more step, someone would come along to join me.” She was a modern-day Esther and a leader for all people.

It is my prayer that when we think about Rosa’s life, we consider ways we can honor God with our courage and actions, both in our work lives and our personal lives.

Happy heavenly birthday to Rosa Parks this Friday. (And happy birthday to my Cooper, too.)

Thank you for being a part of the UBW community. You matter to God, and you matter to us.